Araluen Chilli Festival

The Araluen Chilli Festival will be on in Fremantle at the Esplanade next weekend!
•    Saturday 13 March 12noon-8pm
•    Sunday 14 March 10am-5pm

(Note: The festival has moved from Araluen to Fremantle)

This event is a celebration of the unique culinary and cultural aspects of chillies. It features a diverse range of stallholders, entertainment, cooking demonstrations and you will be able to buy everything chilli from fresh foods, plants, pickles, chutneys, olives, cheese, chocolate, wine, beers and much, much more.

Tickets are $15 for adults, $8 for children (5-15 years old) and for a family it’s $40.

Why should you go?

+ Eating chillies help to clear congestion (ever noticed the opening of your nasal passages after eating a hot curry if you have a cold!).

+ Eating chillies can help you burn fat because capsaicin increases your metabolism, which aids in the fat burning process.

+ If you suffer from diabetes, consuming chillies reduces the amount of insulin needed to lower the body’s blood sugar levels after eating a meal.

+ Chillies contain more Vitamin C than oranges and more Vitamin A than carrots!

+ Chillies are a natural anti-oxidant and can help prevent cancer.

+ Eating chillies make you feel good because when you eat chillies it ‘burns’ your tongue and leads to your nervous system releasing endorphins (this is why eating a hot chilli dish can be so satisfying!)

+ Chillies are great for pest control as they act as a stomach poison, anti-feedant and repellent to a number of pests.

How do we sleep while our ‘tongues’ are burning?

What makes chillies hot is the compound called capsaicin which produces a sensation of burning in any tissue with which it comes into contact.

What do people do when they have eaten hot chillies and it’s burning their tongue?

Drink lots of water?!

FAIL

Drinking cold water may immediately quell the burning sensation due to the coolness of the water, but the water will distribute the capsaicin all throughout the mouth and throat, causing more pain once the water is swallowed. This is because capsaicin is an alkaloid oil and not water-soluble (it’s like washing away grease with water!).

Have you ever wondered why Mexican’s give you some sour cream with their meals and Indian dishes give you a dollop of yoghurt?

Capsaicin is soluble in fat, acid or alcohol. This means that consuming any dairy products will help like drinking milk, eating yoghurt or ice cream, and drinking juices containing acids such as tomatoes, lime and lemons will also provide relief…..or get your self a scotch on the rocks!

can't touch this, dun dun dun dun, dun dun, dun dun, can't touch this

If you have ever handled chillies than you would be aware that it burns your hands and it continues to burn even after washing repeatedly with soap and water.

It’s important to get rid of this chilli on your hands because failure to do so can result in painful burning of the eyes or skin or any other part of your body that you may touch (ie: guys be careful when going to the toilet!)

Because soap is alkaline, washing with soap and water may not rinse away all the capsaicin.

Try rubbing some olive oil on your hands before chopping chillies peppers (capsaicin is oil-soluble, so rubbing oil loosens the compound). After chopping, rub lemon or lime juice on your hands (the citric acid in lemon and lime juice counteracts the alkaline in the chillies capsaicin) before washing with soap and water to help get rid of capsaicin from the skin.

You can also rub salt onto your hands, this helps to neutralize the effects of capsaicin.

Or you can just wear rubber gloves and look like a surgeon dissecting chilli matter.

Please note:

The hottest part of the chilli is not the seeds, but the white pith that surrounds them and runs in thick veins through the pod.

As a general rule of thumb, the larger the chilli, the milder it is. Smaller chillies tend to be much hotter because they contain proportionally more seeds and veins than the larger varieties.

Warning:

Eating chillies can kill you.

Report - Chef dies after eating 'super hot' chilli http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/chef-dies-after-eating-super-hot-chilli/2008/09/30/1222651028585.html

Eat at your own risk!

Crème Caramel

A classic French desert, crème caramel comprises of rich custard that has a lovely silken texture with a layer of soft caramel on top.

Crème caramels are also common in Vietnam where it is known as bánh flăng or kem flan (they were brought over by the French!).

 

Makes around 6.
 

Ingredients for caramel

• ½ cup sugar
• ¼ cup water

Ingredients for custard

• 2/3 cup sugar
• 2 cup milk (500ml)
• 1 ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 large eggs
• 4 large egg yolks

Method
To make the caramel – put the sugar and water in a saucepan and bring to boil over medium heat. After a few minutes it will boil furiously and slowly start to change colour from blonde, to light brown and then to a dark caramel brown. Swirl the saucepan around to even out the caramelisation and ensure an even colour. Once the mixture has reached a deep caramel colour, immediately remove the saucepan from heat and pour equal amounts into each mould (I use dariole moulds). Hold the moulds at the top of the rim and swirl to coat the bottom and halfway up the sides (be careful as the moulds become quite hot from the caramel). Let cool for a few minutes and allow the caramel to set.

[Do not stir the mixture when it is cooking or let the caramel go too dark as it will burn and add a burnt taste]

To make the custard – heat the milk and vanilla extract in a saucepan over medium heat until the surface barely breaks a simmer/to scalding point, then remove from heat and  let steep for around 20 minutes to let the vanilla flavour infuse into the milk.
 

Whisk the eggs, egg yolks and sugar together until the mixture is a pale yellow. Continue whisking and slowly drizzle in the hot milk to temper the eggs so that they won’t curdle (ie: so that you don’t cook the eggs). Pour this mixture into the caramel lined moulds.
 

Set the moulds in a baking dish lined with a paper towel (this helps to prevent the moulds from sliding around). Fill the baking dish with boiling water so that it comes to about two thirds up the sides of the moulds. Cover the baking dish with foil (this is to prevent a skin from forming while the custard cooks). Bake at 170C in a preheated oven for 45 minutes until the custard just sets and doesn’t jiggle, and a knife inserted into the center comes out clean. Remove from oven and let the custards remain in the baking dish for an hour, then remove the custards from the baking dish and allow to cool to room temperature before refrigerating. Cover each mould with plastic wrap and chill in the fridge for at least 6 hours or overnight.
 

To serve, fill a bowl with hot water and place a mould in the water for around 20 seconds, then carefully run a knife around the inside of the mould. Place a serving plate on top and quickly upturn the crème caramel and jiggle around/shake up and down to loosen (until you hear a satisfying splodge!). Then slowly remove the mould, allowing the caramel to gently spill down the edges of the crème caramel. 

Vietnamese pan-fried chicken

My mum's very simple recipe for marinating chicken that tastes delicious! 

Ingredients

• 800-900g chicken thigh fillets 
• 3 ½ tablespoons sugar 
• 4 ½ tablespoons fish sauce 
• 6-7 garlic cloves, crushed
• 1 inch piece of ginger, grated
• a little freshly ground salt and pepper 

Method

In a large bowl mix together the sugar, fish sauce, garlic, ginger and a little freshly ground salt and pepper.  Add in chicken thigh fillets and thoroughly mix together.

Note: You can add in whole chicken thigh fillets or cut the thigh into thirds for more of the marinade to penetrate and easier to cook.

Refrigerate the marinated chicken overnight.

Heat a frying pan with some oil, and fry the pieces of chicken until golden brown and slightly charred on the outside. Can also grill the chicken on the barbecue. 

 

 

It’s the fish sauce that makes this dish taste amazing!

Fish sauce is a condiment that is derived from fish that have been allowed to ferment. It’s a staple ingredient in Vietnamese and Thai cooking.

Using a good brand of fish sauce is important – I use Squid brand.

Taste No. 5

Preface: I have not thought about it much before, but since starting this blog and writing about my cooking I find that a lot of the dishes I cook contain umami.

Tastes

It is generally acknowledged that our taste buds can only perceive four basic tastes: sweet, salty, sour and bitter. In addition to these four basic tastes, umami has been identified as the fifth basic taste. Umami is a fundamental taste in Asian cuisines and has a long history in Asian cooking. Even though umami was discovered over a century ago in 1908 by Japanese scientist, Kikunae Ikeda, it has struggled for popular acceptance as a distinct taste by Western scientists. It was only recognized as a basic taste in 2000 when researchers at the University of Miami succeeded in proving that taste receptors for umami exist, enabling this fifth taste to gain general acceptance.

All other tastes come from a combination of these basic (or primary) tastes. Just like all colours are derived from the basic primary colours of red, green and blue.

The essence of great cooking is to create a balance when using ingredients in cooking dishes so that all of these basic tastes are in harmony.

Understanding the basic tastes enables you to taste your cooking and recognise what is needed, and make the necessary adjustments. I rarely ever follow a recipe to the dot, I use it as a guide and continually taste while I am cooking, and add ingredients/seasonings as I go to my desired tastes. When you cook a dish it generally never turns out exactly the same as the last time you cooked it. It’s kind of like seeing your favourite band, you have probably seen them live many times and they play the same songs but every show is different, it’s always a different experience.

The Basic Tastes

Bitterness
Bitterness is the most sensitive of the tastes in that we can recognize it even in small amounts. Bitterness balances sweetness, and can also play a vital role in cutting richness in a dish. Common bitter foods and beverages include coffee, unsweetened cocoa, beer and olives.

Saltiness
Saltiness is a taste produced primarily by the presence of sodium ions. Salt is an important flavouring, it is a taste enhancer and taste modifier. It strengthens the impression of aromas that accompany it, and it suppresses the sensation of bitterness.

Sourness
Sourness is the taste that detects acidity. Examples of foods which exhibit sourness are lemons, vinegar and wines which have a sour tinge to its flavour. Adding sourness to a dish adds sparkle and brightness to a dish (eg: finishing off a dish with a squeeze of lemon). Balancing a dish’s acidity with other tastes is critical to making a dish delicious.

Sweetness
It takes the greatest quantity of a substance that is sweet (vs salty, sour or bitter) to register on our taste buds. Sweetness can add balance and roundness to savoury dishes, and bring out the flavour of other ingredients.

Umami

The term umami is Japanese which literally means ‘delicious’. Umami is described as a savoury or meaty ‘mouth filling’ taste, produced by glutamates which is found in amino acid rich foods such as fermented and aged foods (glutamate concentration increases as an ingredient ripens), in protein-heavy foods such as steak and in the additive monosodium glutamate aka MSG (this explains why foods treated with MSG often taste fuller or better). The discovery of umami lead to the chemical isolation of MSG and its commercial production and marketing as a flavour enhancer.

Umami is typically associated with glutamate but many ingredients chiefly owe their umami flavour to other compounds such as inosinate, guanylate and adenylate. The taste of umami itself is subtle and blends well with other tastes to expand and round out flavours. Umami intensifies sweet and salty, and rounds out sour and bitter.

There are a number of foods that contain umami such as:
• cheeses like parmesan and blue cheese
• soy sauce
• fish sauce
• Worchestershire sauce
• soy beans
• vegemite
• seaweed
• sake
• mushrooms (especially shiitake)
• asparagus
• tomatoes
• human breast milk (!)
• beef
• cured and smoked meats (ham, bacon etc)
• fish and shellfish (particularly anchovies and tuna)
• green tea
• savoury herbs like rosemary and thyme

The glutamate taste sensation is most intense in combination with sodium ion as found in salt. This is one reason why tomatoes exhibit a stronger taste after adding salt.

Now that umami is gaining more popularity and influence in cooking, a company in Britain has somehow bottled it all up and just released a tube of umami paste for sale in supermarkets (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/food/article-1249571/Umami-Tubes-Taste-No-5-set-revolutionise-cooking-fifth-taste.html)!

The tube of umami is named ‘Taste No. 5’.




















With so many umami rich ingredients out there, I think this umami paste is unnecessary. It would be much better to use and experiment with different umami rich ingredients in your cooking rather than use a paste. It might as well have been called ‘I can’t believe it’s not MSG’ considering that its objective is to enhance the flavour of dishes but it was named Taste No. 5 to apparently evoke the added allure of a high-class perfume (?!) Kind of like Chanel No. 5 I suppose.



















The umami paste also has the potential to be overused in cooking like MSG is, with people thinking that the more they add the better their dishes will taste. This is incorrect, cooking is all about balance. Once you have added in the required amount of umami or MSG, adding any more does not make a difference and will instead have a negative effect. In economics, we call this the law of diminishing marginal utility. The law states that as a person increases their consumption of a product, there will be a decline in the marginal utility (satisfaction) that the person derives from consuming each additional unit of that product. For example, think about buffet restaurants. It’s ‘all you can eat’ but we all know that after a certain point, each additional plate of food will provide less utility (satisfaction) than the plate before it.

Umami plays an important role in making food taste delicious but there are also some other reasons why you should use more umami in your cooking -
• Foods that have umami are very delicious and satisfying and, as a result, we tend to eat more food.
• Umami is savoury and creates a sensation that chefs call mouth-feel. We get this mouth-feel sensation from eating fat. So if you use more umami in cooking, you can reduce the amount of fat that you use in your food and still get a great taste.
• Salt heightens flavours in dishes, especially in the presence of umami flavours. If you use a lot of umami in your cooking you don’t have to use as much salt.


Thus, umami = deliciousness + eating more food + reducing fat and salt intake.


On a side note.

While writing this I was googling some information. So what would one expect to find if they input the words ‘human tastes’ into the search box?... well I wanted to read more about and understand the human tastes – how do we taste, what do we taste, what types of tastes do we have etc.

The top searches returned for ‘human tastes’ were articles on What does human flesh taste like?, The Great Taste of Human Flesh…not exactly what I wanted or was expecting, kind of interesting but also kind of disturbing!

I guess now that I may have sparked your curiosity on this subject, you may be wondering ‘what do humans taste like?’ just in case you ever happen to be involved in a plane crash into snowy mountains somewhere in the middle of nowhere with no help in sight, stranded for days and the only way to survive may be to eat your fellow beings…

Articles on what humans taste have obtained information from experts in the area, from some of the most infamous citizens of our time!

Germany’s cannibal Armin Meiwes, in an interview from his prison cell, says - "The flesh tastes like pork, a little bit more bitter, stronger. It tastes quite good."

Karl Denke was a cannibal (also from Germany) who killed people, pickled their flesh and sold it on the black market as pork.

This certainly gives new meaning to all those ads on TV right now encouraging people to eat more pork. In the ad there is a chick catching up with all her girlfriends and telling them that she had ‘porked’ her boyfriend last night, meaning that she had cooked him pork (not eaten him of course!)

You can watch the ad here if you haven’t seen it yet

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cwi834EIa38


Get some pork on your fork!

A Citrus Attack!

I find the acidic taste of lemons refreshing.

Having any type dessert/baked good with lemon in it is always a delight – lemon tart, lemon slice, lemon cheesecake, lemon custard, lemon sorbet…the list could go on.

I wanted to make some lemon cupcakes.

When I want to cook something that I haven’t made before, I will do a search for several recipes online. Then I collate all the information together to find out what the main elements of the dish are, and then adapt/create my own recipe for it.

If a dish has lemon in it – I believe that it should pack a punch!

So after my research on lemon cupcakes recipes I set my mind to create this –

Lemon yoghurt cupcakes + lemon syrup + lemon cream cheese frosting + candied orange peels + a sprinkle of lemon zest on top = A Citrus Attack!

The result.
















To make the cupcakes

These cupcakes require 3 eggs, separated into yolks and whites.

Preheat the oven to 180 degree celcius.

Sift 1 ¼ cup of flour, 1 teaspoon of baking powder and ½ of baking soda into a bowl.

Beat 225g of softened butter and 1 cup of caster sugar together in a bowl until smooth and fluffy.

Add in the egg yolks one at a time and beat the egg into the mixture after each addition.

Then beat in 1 ½ tablespoon of finely grated lemon zest and 2 tablespoons of freshly squeezed lemon juice.

Using a spatula, fold in the flour mixture into the butter/sugar/egg yolk mixture, alternating with some yoghurt (around 1 Cup).

Whisk the egg whites in a separate bowl until it forms soft peaks. Then fold the egg whites into the mixture.

Fill cupcake pans 2/3 full and bake for 15-20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Side note: You cannot buy any decent yoghurt from any of the big supermarkets! There is a lack of variety and 90% of the stock is fat free or 97% fat free. I live in Highgate with a Fresh Provisions nearby in Mount Lawley and they have a fantastic range of yoghurt – full cream, organic, goats, cow, sheep’s yoghurt - the lot.

To make the lemon syrup

Put 1/3 cup of lemon syrup and 1/3 cup of freshly squeezed lemon juice in a small saucepan. Cook over low-med heat stirring occasionally until the sugar has dissolved and the syrup is clear. Remove from heat and set aside.

To make the lemon cream cheese frosting

Beat around 125g of cream cheese in a bowl until smooth and creamy. Slowly add in some icing sugar and lemon juice until you have a thick frosting to your desired taste (I used around 1/3 cup of lemon juice and 2/3 to 1 cup of icing sugar).


To make the candied orange peels

In a small saucepan, heat ½ cup of water and ¼ cup of water over medium heat until the sugar completely dissolves. Then add in 1/3 cup of orange peels. Once the syrup gets thicker and boils with big bubbles, time it and cook for another minutes. Then take it off the heat. Using a spoon, continue stirring it, it will slowly crystallise and the syrup will become white as it goes back to sugar crystals. Keep stirring and don’t let it solidify into one big candy. Allow to cool for a few minutes and then pick out the sugared peels.

To create the cupcakes

Once the cupcakes come out of the oven, use a toothpick to poke a few holes in the middle of each cupcake. Then carefully spoon a teaspoon of lemon syrup onto the middle of each cupcake allowing it to seep into the cupcake (the heat from the cupcakes draw in the syrup so that the insides are saturated with lemony flavour, therefore you need to add the lemon syrup while the cupcakes are still warm).

Let the cupcakes cool and then spread the lemon cream cheese frosting over the cupcakes. Add a few pieces of candied orange peels on top and sprinkle a little lemon zest.




























VERDICT: The cupcakes tasted amazing! The cupcakes were wonderfully moist due to the use of yoghurt. All the citrus elements were not overwhelming. I decided to add only little lemon syrup to the middle of the cupcake so that the first bite you take gives you a taste of the lovely lemon yoghurt cake and then with the second bite into the middle of the cupcake you are hit with some zing from the lemon syrup!

Third Party Approval - I made these cupcakes to take to my work morning tea and my colleagues loved them. I thought that for some people it might have been a citrus overload but the feedback that I got was that the balance was good and they tasted great!

Dried Scallops and Tofu

Dried scallop (conpoy) is the dried abductor muscle of scallops. It has a really rich flavour, with a pungent seafood taste and is rich in umami.
















Dried scallops are considered a delicacy and are expensive to buy, but you only need to use a little for cooking because it has a very strong and complex flavour which enhance the taste of many dishes. Dried scallops are a great addition to soups, stir fries and used in rice congee. Luckily for me, I get my dried scallops from my parents who buy them overseas from Hong Kong whenever they go traveling.

Here is lovely tofu dish which uses dried scallops.

Ingredients

Box of fresh tofu
3-4 shiitake mushrooms, soaked and thinly sliced
3 dried scallops, soaked and separated into strands
2-3 cloves crushed garlic
salt
pepper
fish sauce
oyster sauce
spring onion
coriander































Method

Heat up a wok, add in some oil and fry the garlic for a few seconds.
Add in the dried scallops and fry till fragrant, then add in shiitake mushrooms and fry till golden brown.

Then add in a little salt, pepper, (1-2 tablespoons) fish sauce and (2-3 tablespoons) oyster sauce.

Note: you need to over-season and be quite heavy handed when adding in the fish sauce and oyster sauce as the tofu is bland and when the dish is steamed the flavours will infiltrate the tofu.

Fry until dry, then add in ~ 2 tablespoons of water (use the water that was used to soak the dried scallops) and fry for a bit.

Arrange tofu on a plate for steaming, scatter fried mixture on top.
















Steam on low heat for ~ 10 minutes, at 8 minutes put some spring onion and coriander on top of the tofu and steam for the remaining 2 minutes.
















This is one of my favourite tofu dishes!

As the tofu is steamed on a low heat it maintains a very soft and silken texture, and the strong flavours provided by the fried dried scallop/shiitake mushroom complement the blandness of the tofu making it a very delicious tasting dish.

Pandan aka Green Cake

A chiffon cake is a very light and moist cake that contains vegetable oil instead of butter. Its fluffy texture is achieved by beating egg whites until stiff peaks form and folding them into the cake batter before baking.

I would describe the texture of a chiffon cake to eating a slice of very fresh white bread.

I made a pandan flavoured chiffon cake. The pandanus leaf has been described as the vanilla bean of Asia. Pandanus is used to perfume desserts and rice, its flavour released only on heating is resinous and nutty.

Ingredients

10 egg whites
8 egg yolks
1 teaspoon cream of tartar
140g + 60g caster sugar
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
150 coconut cream
1 ½ pandan paste
2 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
150g flour

Method

• Preheat oven to 175 degree celcius
• Sift the flour and baking powder together three times (this brings air into the flour and helps to create the fluffy cake texture)
• In a bowl, using a whisk, cream egg yolks and 140g of sugar until it is creamy and thick.
• Add in the sifted flour and baking powder, vanilla extract, coconut cream, vegetable oil and pandan paste into the egg yolk/sugar mixture and whisk everything well together to combine.
• In another bowl, use an electric mixer to beat egg whites on high speed. When egg whites are whisked till soft peaks form, sift in the cream of tartar and add in the salt and 60g of sugar. Continue to whisk until stiff peaks form (Note: add in the sugar one tablespoon at a time and beat thoroughly after each addition until stiff peaks are achieved).
• Fold in the egg whites into the flour/egg yolk mixture using a spatula in three batches until just combined, taking care to fold gently/lightly in order to keep volume.
• Pour mixture into an ungreased chiffon cake pan and bake for approximately 35 minutes until the cake is brown on top and an inserted skewer comes out clean.
• Remove cake from oven and invert it, leave to cool for 1-2 hours before turning out, using a knife to loosen the edges of the cake.