Well, after a long hiatus, I am back.
I have made the decision that instead of infrequent updates that try too hard to be too important ( well it felt that way to me) I am now just going to update as I am thinking about something.
There have been a lot of things occupying my mind in regards to food at the moment and I hope to post on some of them at least.
Posts on spices will continue (well, at least extend beyond the one I already have), I am starting to become curious about entomophagy (eating insects), I will start writing about the native produce in my local area, I am rethinking my beliefs on table salt not being useful beyond its NaCl content and I might even add my (probably not so large) voice to the debate on GM foods. I would also like to talk about the socio-economic responsibilities (as I see them) of Chefs and other producers of food.
There have also been some (not so directly) food related things that I would like to bring up, like how we deal with disability (or even just the different) in the professional kitchen environment and the reaction to the "plaigiarism" of menu items.
Anyway, that is enough for now.
Thanks for reading, I will try to keep the rambling tangents to a minimum (no promises).
Sunday, August 25, 2013
Saturday, May 19, 2012
Home-made Nigari-ish
Well, since I last posted I turned 32. In our group of friends everyone gets together (virtually since we live in multiple states and countries) and pools some money so that people can get something nice for their birthday, a tradition that I inhereted inadvertantly through my wife. Well, I'm a difficult person to get things for, I get obsessive about certain things and activities which can change without warning. So for my birthday I got a moderately large chunk of money which I spent on Spices for my wonderful spice rack, a book on making Miso by Aoyagi/Shurtleff, a tofu press, a book on foraging for native australian foods, and Andrea Nguyen's book Asian Tofu.
You might notice a theme and guess that my current obsession is the soy bean, I love soy, I love pretty much every thing about it, It is one of the most versatile of ingredients that you can cook with, from use as a thickening agent in custards to tofu and miso it really is an amazing food.
While waiting for Andrea Nguyen's book to arrive I decided to get my hand back in at tofu making something I had done previously with varying degrees of success (I remember a much earlier time where I deliberately discarded my freshly made soymilk down the drain in the mistaken idea that the soybean solids (or okara) was what gave the tofu its firm texture.
I have used both Nigari, and epsom salts before as coagulants and found the nigari to be much better at the job, giving the tofu both a sweeter taste and smoother (less crumbly) texture.
Now when I lived in sydney, I stumbled upon a small bottle of nigari in an independant grocer which though I didn't know it at the time was an incredibly lucky find as I can not find it for supply in retail quantities online in australia at all.
So, not being a very patient man, I decided to make my own.......
Using a 15 liter water bottle we went to a semi-isolated beach in hervey bay where I didn't see any boat traffic (not wanting to ingest diesel) and filled my bottle with slightly yellow seawater with lots of sediment.
I was just going to boil down the seawater as is but VeganChickie was a little worried about the color and sediment so she (thankfully) convinced me to filter the water through an old "Brita" filter first which got rid of all the sediment and yellow color.
I then put all the water into a large pot and cooked out the water (in stages) until i could hear the steam erupting from the last of the water (by the way it is very cool to watch salt form crystals from the saline as it oversaturates) at which point I pulled the pot off the heat and put the slightly damp "natural sea salt" on a piece of muslin cloth hung over a bowl.
Now, natural sea salt is made up of quite a lot of chemicals and not just the sodium-chloride (table salt part) and according to Aoyagi/Shurtleff in their Book of Tofu is made up of;
- 77.8% Sodium Chloride
- 9.5% Magnesium Chloride
- 6.6% Magnesium Sulfate (Epsom salts)
- 3.4% Calcium Sulfate (Gypsum)
- 2.1% Potassium Chloride
- 0.2% Magnesium Bromide
When you hang the natural sea salt over a container in a very humid environment what happens is the moisture from the air condenses on the salt crystals and drips (very slowly) through the salt to the bowl below resulting in both refined salt and nigari (you can use this salt plus any wasted okara in making your own shoyu by the way).
The final chemical makeup of natural nigari is (Aoyagi/Shurtleff);
- 31% Magnesium Chloride
- 2% Magnesium Sulfate
- 2% Potassium Chloride
- 1% Sodium Chloride
Well....... I think I mentioned before, I am an impatient man..... I got to thinking that perhaps it wasn't humid enough and that the process wouldn't happen (note; the process of refining the nigari out of sea salt takes weeks-months),
so I just used the natural sea salt to make my tofu.
The result, the curds was smooth like nigari tofu, but the flavor was quite a lot saltier (for obvoius reasons), however I think I could have gotten away with half the amount of natural salt as I used.
You could make a version of nigari from mixing your own salts and there are people who have done so, although I'm not sure about using non food-grade chemicals, but if you don't have access to fresh/clean seawater then this would definately be a good option, although if this was the case you could go the chinese tofu method and just use Calcium Sulfate and I really want to stress you should probably only use food grade chemicals in cooking (and not just do a trip to whatever chemical companies that come to mind).
You might notice a theme and guess that my current obsession is the soy bean, I love soy, I love pretty much every thing about it, It is one of the most versatile of ingredients that you can cook with, from use as a thickening agent in custards to tofu and miso it really is an amazing food.
While waiting for Andrea Nguyen's book to arrive I decided to get my hand back in at tofu making something I had done previously with varying degrees of success (I remember a much earlier time where I deliberately discarded my freshly made soymilk down the drain in the mistaken idea that the soybean solids (or okara) was what gave the tofu its firm texture.
I have used both Nigari, and epsom salts before as coagulants and found the nigari to be much better at the job, giving the tofu both a sweeter taste and smoother (less crumbly) texture.
Now when I lived in sydney, I stumbled upon a small bottle of nigari in an independant grocer which though I didn't know it at the time was an incredibly lucky find as I can not find it for supply in retail quantities online in australia at all.
So, not being a very patient man, I decided to make my own.......
Using a 15 liter water bottle we went to a semi-isolated beach in hervey bay where I didn't see any boat traffic (not wanting to ingest diesel) and filled my bottle with slightly yellow seawater with lots of sediment.
I was just going to boil down the seawater as is but VeganChickie was a little worried about the color and sediment so she (thankfully) convinced me to filter the water through an old "Brita" filter first which got rid of all the sediment and yellow color.
I then put all the water into a large pot and cooked out the water (in stages) until i could hear the steam erupting from the last of the water (by the way it is very cool to watch salt form crystals from the saline as it oversaturates) at which point I pulled the pot off the heat and put the slightly damp "natural sea salt" on a piece of muslin cloth hung over a bowl.
Now, natural sea salt is made up of quite a lot of chemicals and not just the sodium-chloride (table salt part) and according to Aoyagi/Shurtleff in their Book of Tofu is made up of;
- 77.8% Sodium Chloride
- 9.5% Magnesium Chloride
- 6.6% Magnesium Sulfate (Epsom salts)
- 3.4% Calcium Sulfate (Gypsum)
- 2.1% Potassium Chloride
- 0.2% Magnesium Bromide
When you hang the natural sea salt over a container in a very humid environment what happens is the moisture from the air condenses on the salt crystals and drips (very slowly) through the salt to the bowl below resulting in both refined salt and nigari (you can use this salt plus any wasted okara in making your own shoyu by the way).
The final chemical makeup of natural nigari is (Aoyagi/Shurtleff);
- 31% Magnesium Chloride
- 2% Magnesium Sulfate
- 2% Potassium Chloride
- 1% Sodium Chloride
Well....... I think I mentioned before, I am an impatient man..... I got to thinking that perhaps it wasn't humid enough and that the process wouldn't happen (note; the process of refining the nigari out of sea salt takes weeks-months),
so I just used the natural sea salt to make my tofu.
The result, the curds was smooth like nigari tofu, but the flavor was quite a lot saltier (for obvoius reasons), however I think I could have gotten away with half the amount of natural salt as I used.
You could make a version of nigari from mixing your own salts and there are people who have done so, although I'm not sure about using non food-grade chemicals, but if you don't have access to fresh/clean seawater then this would definately be a good option, although if this was the case you could go the chinese tofu method and just use Calcium Sulfate and I really want to stress you should probably only use food grade chemicals in cooking (and not just do a trip to whatever chemical companies that come to mind).
Sunday, April 22, 2012
Brinjal Pickle
I love pickles. Sour, salty and full of umami goodness they just fill out a meal.
I got a surprise present of eggplants from a work collegue so I decided to make an eggplant pickle.
For those who don't know me I'm a little bit obsessive, not about anything consistantly, but I go through these phases where all I think about are certain things.
My current thing is fermentation, In the near future I will be investigating home-made miso, shoyu and a whole variety of tsukemono (Japanese pickles), so if the obsession lasts long enough you can look forward to some interesting posts.
Anyway, while not actually a fermentation, this pickle (actually an oil pickle) has a nice and salty, tangy umami-ness to it that makes it a great accompaniament to rice dishes.
Sour-eggplant pickle
Ingredients:
- oil
- cumin seeds
- fenugreek
- eggplant (cut into 1 cm slices)
- cashmere chilli
- mustard powder
- tumeric
- asafoetida
- white vinegar
- lime juice
Method:
1) heat (moderate heat) enough oil in pot to cover eggplant, and cook off cumin ang fenugreek until seeds pop.
2) add eggplant and cook until it starts to break apart.
3) add chilli, mustard, and tumeric and cook until fragrant (and the eggplant has broken down more.
4) add acids and asafoetida and cook for a further 5 minutes.
5) season to taste, and store in the fridge.
This recipe would work well with brown sugar also.
if you want a video example of this recipe look at ;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hV_aSGtoMSY
Be warned, the presenters are speaking hindi it is more of a visual aid.
I got a surprise present of eggplants from a work collegue so I decided to make an eggplant pickle.
For those who don't know me I'm a little bit obsessive, not about anything consistantly, but I go through these phases where all I think about are certain things.
My current thing is fermentation, In the near future I will be investigating home-made miso, shoyu and a whole variety of tsukemono (Japanese pickles), so if the obsession lasts long enough you can look forward to some interesting posts.
Anyway, while not actually a fermentation, this pickle (actually an oil pickle) has a nice and salty, tangy umami-ness to it that makes it a great accompaniament to rice dishes.
Sour-eggplant pickle
Ingredients:
- oil
- cumin seeds
- fenugreek
- eggplant (cut into 1 cm slices)
- cashmere chilli
- mustard powder
- tumeric
- asafoetida
- white vinegar
- lime juice
Method:
1) heat (moderate heat) enough oil in pot to cover eggplant, and cook off cumin ang fenugreek until seeds pop.
2) add eggplant and cook until it starts to break apart.
3) add chilli, mustard, and tumeric and cook until fragrant (and the eggplant has broken down more.
4) add acids and asafoetida and cook for a further 5 minutes.
5) season to taste, and store in the fridge.
 |
| The finished pickle. |
if you want a video example of this recipe look at ;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hV_aSGtoMSY
Be warned, the presenters are speaking hindi it is more of a visual aid.
Friday, August 12, 2011
Tomorrow
I'm performing tomorrow.
Cooking for the local seafood festival on a stage.
I get to introduce people to the wonders of agar-agar.
I wonder how everyone would feel if they knew i was veganish?
Cooking for the local seafood festival on a stage.
I get to introduce people to the wonders of agar-agar.
I wonder how everyone would feel if they knew i was veganish?
Tuesday, August 9, 2011
Fine Dining for Vegans
I spend a lot of my time reading and thinking about food. Like every long-term chef I also have a pretty good idea about what I do and do not like on a plate.
Since eliminating animal products from my diet I have been researching vegan fine dining pretty much constantly, and i've come to a few conclusions.
#1) There is no reason that vegan dishes should be of less quality than equivalent omni dishes.
#2) Unless you are a health resort or a specifically healthy eating establishment we need toThe ditch the flavorless low salt, low GI, not fat crap.(Gluten free i'm all for however, allergies should be taken seriously)
#3) We need to stop veganising omnivorous dishes, the vegan versions are poor imitations, and don't really convince anyone. Vegetables have their own beautiful language and should be allowed to speak for themselves.
#4) There are a whole bunch of new ingredients and techniques that are only just now being explored, things like sous-vide, vacuum evaporation and various vegetable gums are opening a whole new range of textures and flavors not previously attainable. These areas have some massive possibilities for vegan food.
#5) The tide is turning, plant based cuising is becoming more and more acceptable.
The #1 restaurant in the world for the last 2 years is a restaurant called Noma in Copenhagen and, while being a far cry from even vegetarian, is very plant centered. They choose to showcase their local plant life and animal parts tend to only play a secondary roll. ( http://www.noma.dk/ )
I can seriously foresee a time in our gustatory future when some of the top restaurants in the world are vegan.
Honestly, I can't wait.
Since eliminating animal products from my diet I have been researching vegan fine dining pretty much constantly, and i've come to a few conclusions.
#1) There is no reason that vegan dishes should be of less quality than equivalent omni dishes.
#2) Unless you are a health resort or a specifically healthy eating establishment we need toThe ditch the flavorless low salt, low GI, not fat crap.(Gluten free i'm all for however, allergies should be taken seriously)
#3) We need to stop veganising omnivorous dishes, the vegan versions are poor imitations, and don't really convince anyone. Vegetables have their own beautiful language and should be allowed to speak for themselves.
#4) There are a whole bunch of new ingredients and techniques that are only just now being explored, things like sous-vide, vacuum evaporation and various vegetable gums are opening a whole new range of textures and flavors not previously attainable. These areas have some massive possibilities for vegan food.
#5) The tide is turning, plant based cuising is becoming more and more acceptable.
The #1 restaurant in the world for the last 2 years is a restaurant called Noma in Copenhagen and, while being a far cry from even vegetarian, is very plant centered. They choose to showcase their local plant life and animal parts tend to only play a secondary roll. ( http://www.noma.dk/ )
I can seriously foresee a time in our gustatory future when some of the top restaurants in the world are vegan.
Honestly, I can't wait.
Sunday, August 7, 2011
Back to Aus
Well........ A lot has gone on since last post.
- Our first baby was born in a beautiful homebirth.
- I got usurped as head chef of the steakhouse (my bosses belated response to a payrise request)
- We moved back to Australia (to be closer to family)
- I spent quite awhile looking for work, or at least it felt like it, looking for work in our country town and now the Head Chef of an as yet to be opened Modern Australian restaurant with a strong SEAFOOD focus.
I mean really, it feel like I just keep stepping away from vegetables. I can work some into the menu, but their place is always going to be limited.
As an aside however, I am going to be the long term caretaker for Modernist Cuisine, a spectacular compendium of everything to do with food and cooking techniques.
- Our first baby was born in a beautiful homebirth.
- I got usurped as head chef of the steakhouse (my bosses belated response to a payrise request)
- We moved back to Australia (to be closer to family)
- I spent quite awhile looking for work, or at least it felt like it, looking for work in our country town and now the Head Chef of an as yet to be opened Modern Australian restaurant with a strong SEAFOOD focus.
I mean really, it feel like I just keep stepping away from vegetables. I can work some into the menu, but their place is always going to be limited.
As an aside however, I am going to be the long term caretaker for Modernist Cuisine, a spectacular compendium of everything to do with food and cooking techniques.
Friday, January 21, 2011
Starr Anise
To me star anise is the Ringo Starr of the spice world, it’s distinctive flavor is much better suited to a supporting role amidst other strong spices and flavors than being center stage (I’m sorry Ringo if you ever read this, you were a fantastic drummer, but in lead vocals I really think you are an acquired taste).
The powerful taste of star anise is due largely to the compound Anethone, a chemical also found in european anise (no botanical relative), tarragon, and liquorice. Anethone has a sweet flavor (of its own accord) and a strong scent. Believe it or not (no really, you should take this one on faith) the shiny seeds actually have far less flavor than the shell (or fruit) surrounding, which I found out much to my disgust when I decided to test this information (p.s. eating parsley helps to remove the flavor which was un-dissapated by anything else I tried).
At work (yes that same freaking steakhouse) I use star anise in combination with other herbs and spices to bring out Umami flavors in dishes (mostly meat based) that also have a high fat content, this is because (especially when combined with onions) the subtle application of anise has the effect of heightening this savory flavor. When used in Vegan cookery the effect can be the same, used with mushrooms, star anise emphasizes their mushroom-iness, and my favorite method of use is to combine white beans (for fat and body) kombu (for umami), and star anise. Any Vegan dish that has a high fat content and strong protein presence can benefit from a small amount of star anise.
I could go into the applications of star anise in sweet cooking but I really cannot stand the taste of liquorice.
If designing a new dish using star anise you should keep in mind its traditional accompaniments, in India it is used in conjunction with cardamom, cloves, pepper and cinnamon to make chai (combine with sugar and oat milk and simmer for 20-30 minutes, then steep black tea leaf, try it, it’s good.) or in China with the addition of szechuan pepper (prickly ash).
But seriously, do NOT chew the spice raw, it will be a mistake you will regret for most of the day.
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