Tag: sugar
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Rock Candy
Making rock candy at home is a lot of fun and even provides you with an opportunity to teach your little helpers a bit of science in the kitchen.
Basically we are dissolving more sugar into boiling water than would dissolve at room temperature. When the sugar water cools the sugar slowly solidifies back out of the solution in crystalised form. The process is called precipitation.
This technique for making rock candy is obviously not mine and there are variations of it all over the internet. The different recipes tend to vary only in the sugar to water ratio and the boiling temperature required.
Boiling the sugar solution
Here I have used a 3:1 raw sugar to water ratio (1 cup of the latter) and I merely boiled the water, slowly at first, until the sugar had dissolved fully. I didn’t try to bring it to a certain temperature and after a few minutes of a rolling boil I took it off the heat. I added food colouring and peppermint oil then simply let the mixture cool.
Crystal time
I then took a bamboo skewer and rolled it in raw sugar, the same tyoe of sugar I dissolved into the water. As the sugar crystals form over the next days and weeks, they will attach to these seed crystals.
I poored the cooled solution into a sterilised jam jar and used a bread clip to keep the skewer in place. It is important that the skewer is kept off the bottom and sides of the jar. We want the crystals to form on the skewer not on the glass. 🙂
I then put the jar in a dry, dark place until the crystals are big enough.
Note: If the crystals don’t start forming in the next few days, you can reboil the solution and add another cup of sugar. Reseed the skewer and it should then work.
The finished candy sticks
They are so amazing to look at. Almost too good to eat!
Store them in a dry place and they will last for ages. Sugar is a natural preservative after all.
I broke up the crystals in my mortar and pestle so I could use them in a Mukhwa. Mukhwa is an Indian mix of fennel and other spices, served after dinner as a breath freshener and digestive.
Enjoy,
PK
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Raw Sugar
Raw sugar is one of the least refined types of sugar and probably the most popular alongside white (table) sugar. It is my go to sugar and the only one I use in all my recipes :).
The juice from sugar canes or beets is cleaned, concentrated and then crystallised . A by-product of this process is the removal of molasses from the juice. The more “processed” a sugar product is, the more it has had the molasses removed and other products added to it.
Raw sugar is considered less “processed” as it retains some molasses, unlike white sugar that has had all the molasses removed and is also bleached.
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Sugar
So what is sugar?
What we commonly call “sugar” is refined sucrose, a carbohydrate of two simple sugars (glucose and fructose) found naturally in plants. Glucose and fructose get a lot of attention in the media because of their central role (for good and bad) in food production and consumption.
Today, refined sugar comes from two plants, the sugar beet (a cultivar of the common beetroot) and sugar cane. There are many types of refined sugar available with the differences being the amount of refinement and added ingredients.
There are also less refined traditional sugar products that have been used to sweeten food for centuries. Our ancestors also used sugar’s antibacterial qualities to keep preserved foods such as jams and the like bacteria free without refrigeration.
Types
Click the links below for more information on different sugars.
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Welchy’s Wonton Noodle Soup
And so I’m back
From out of space
I just walked in to find you here with that sad look upon your face …the sad face I am referring to is that of my older brother’s. I have been a bit busy and whilst I have been taking lots of photos – I then never got around to writing the actual blog. So here goes…
My boyfriend loves Wonton Noodle Soup and will only eat it from one place (International Food Court in Morley if you ever get a chance). It’s divine – with slivers of pork, crunchy bok choy for texture, a gorgeous broth and then these silky full of flavour wontons… it’s basically Heaven in a bowl. And to top it all off they scatter crumbled pork crackling over the top.
I finally convinced him to let me have a go at cooking my own and suffice to say the results were amazing. Like most men (my younger and ‘opinionated about food even though he never cooks’ brother is one) if he goes for a second helping then you know you are onto a winner. It’s a little fiddly so unless you make it on a weekend, try and make the wontons ahead of time as they can sit in the fridge until you are ready 🙂
Ingredients:
For the Soup- 2½ cup chicken stock
- 2½ cup water
- 1 tsp. soy sauce
- 3 garlic cloves, smashed
- 3 to 4⅛-inch thin fresh ginger root slices (approximately 1 oz.)
- 2 green onions, cut in halves
- salt and pepper to taste
For the Wonton Filling- 4 oz. ground pork
- 1 tsp. soy sauce
- 1 tsp. Shaoxing wine (Chinese cooking wine, you can substitute with dry sherry)
- 1 tsp. cornstarch
- ¼ tsp. sugar
- ¼ tsp. sesame oil
- ¼ tsp. ground fresh ginger root
- 1 small garlic clove
- 1 green onion, finely chopped
- small pinch of black or white pepper
- 20 square wonton wrappers
For the Garnish- chopped green onion
- Cilantro leaves
Method
1. In a medium/large pot, add all ingredients for the soup. Cover, bring it to boil, reduce heat to low and simmer for 10 to 15 minutes. Turn off heat and let all the flavor come together. Meanwhile, let’s make wontons!
2. In a mixing bowl, combine all ingredients for the wonton filling and mix well with a spoon until cornstarch incorporated with other wet ingredients.
3. Take a wonton wrapper on your left hand(if you are right handed) and paint edges of square lightly with cold water using your finger tip. Put ½ teaspoon of filling in centre of wrapper. Fold in half, triangle shape and seal it tightly by pinching edges together with your fingers. Paint one of lower side corners of triangle with water and bring right and left corner together (water painted side down) and press well to make traditional curved wonton shape. Place wontons 1 to ½-inch apart on a parchment paper lined baking sheet. Repeat until you finish with wonton filling and wrappers.
4. When your wontons are ready, discard solid ingredients from soup base and bring it to boil.
5. Carefully add wontons and cook for 10 to 15 minutes. wontons will be fully cooked in 3 minutes, but cook it longer so all flavour from wontons will melt in to soup. Taste and add salt and pepper to your taste at this point.
6. Transfer to a serving bowl, garnish with green onion, cilantro and pepper to your taste.
And then…being super sneaky…I fried a couple of the wontons while the wontons were cooking in the soup. So totally worth it! Would be amazing on a cold night, but no matter the weather I’d eat this haha.
Katie
Related Links:
- see more Welchy posts here
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Giuseppe’s Flourless Chocolate Cake
Gus isn’t claiming this is his own recipe but he baked this awesome flourless cake and I asked him if I could share the recipe with you. You should have seen my toddler’s eyes when he tasted it.
Gus said it was really easy to make (I think he is too modest) but he has a hot tip for the candied orange peel. Never leave candied orange on the burner and get distracted. It doesn’t end well for the pan nor the hob :).
Steps
- Baking the cake.
- Making the candied orange topping.
Ingredients
- 180g dark chocolate
- 160g unsalted butter
- 200g almond meal
- 150g caster sugar
- 5 eggs
- 1 large orange
- 1/2 cup water
- 1/2 cup raw sugar
Equipment
- 1 bowl to melt the butter and chocolate (or a saucepan)
- 1 bowl for the egg whites
- 1 bowl for the egg yolks
- 2 whisks
- 1 springform cake tin (about 25 -28 cm)
- 1 chopping board
- a peeler or citrus zester
- a long sharp knife
- a small saucepan for the orange peel
Steps:
Baking the cake
- Heat your oven to 160°C.
- Melt the dark chocolate and butter and mix together, set aside.
- Separate the eggs and in one bowl beat whites until firm peaks form.
- Beat yolks & caster sugar until pale & creamy in another bowl.
- Add slightly cooled chocolate mixture to the egg yolk mixture, fold in gently.
- Add almond meal to this mix, fold in.
- Fold in beaten egg whites, in 2 or 3 lots folding in gently. Tip: always add beaten egg whites in small batches, these add air and support the mix as there is no yeast to leaven the mix. You will find the last lot of egg whites will fold in easily and not have all the air swished out.
- Line the base of a springform cake tin with baking paper, grease base and sides with butter.
- Pour mix in and bake for about 40 min. It should be moist inside with a thin crust that will form cracks.
Making the candied orange topping 🍊
- Wash the orange well.
- Using a vegetable peeler, peel orange, try not to take the white pith. Just get the peel.
- On a board cut the peel strips as thin as possible (this is the time consuming part) but they can be as large as you like.
- In a small saucepan mix equal parts of water and sugar, I usually do half cup of each.
- Heat to dissolve sugar and then add the sliced orange peel.
- Allow to boil and then turn heat down to a simmer.
- Allow to simmer gently for about 30-40 min, liquid will evaporate. I usually add a little more water2 or 3 times while simmering.
- When you are happy it’s “candied” enough take off the heat, allow to cool slightly, it will be very hot and I have learned this the hard way from trying to taste the syrup :).
- Place candied peel on cake. You can also pour the remaining syrup over the cake, it will have a nice orange flavour
Enjoy,
😊
Gus
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PK Makes Ching He Huang’s Beef in Oyster Sauce
My hat off to the BBC chef Ching He Huang and her simple but flavoursome Beef in Oyster Sauce recipe.
This dish caught my eye because it calls for tenderising, with a mallet or rolling pin, beef eye fillet (tenderlion) steaks. I can see you shaking your head but trust me it is a transformational part of the recipe. The meat literally melts in your mouth!
Ching’s “… approach is to demystify the notion that Chinese cooking is complicated and time consuming by demonstrating traditional recipes that can be easily adapted for the home cook…”.
Mission accomplished!
You will be
- Bashing and flash seasoning the beef.
- Stir frying the vegetables
- Stir frying the beef
- Serving
You will need
- Ingredients (as the only main it served 2 adults and a hungry toddler very well):
- 350g beef eye fillet steaks
- 1 tsp light soy sauce
- 1.5 Tbsp oyster sauce
- a pinch of raw sugar
- ground rock salt and ground black peppercorns
- 2 slugs of peanut oil
- 3 cloves garlic, finely diced
- 300g baby spinach leaves
- 1 carrot, chopped into matchsticks
- a handful of snow peas, sliced or whole
- 1 Tbsp dry Sherry
- 1 cup of your favourite rice (mine is basmati)
- Equipment
- a chopping board
- a long sharp knife
- several sheets of baking paper
- a bowl for marinading the meat
- a tenderising mallet or a rolling pin
- a wok or deep fry pan
- a serving dish
Steps:
Bashing and flash seasoning the beef
- Place the eye fillet steaks in between two sheets of baking paper and bash the stuffing out of it with a rolling pin or tenderising mallet. I know right :).
- Thinly slice the bashed beef and place into a bowl.
- Season with the:
- 1 tsp light soy sauce
- 1.5 Tbsp oyster sauce
- a pinch of raw sugar
- ground rock salt and black peppercorns to taste.
Stir frying your vegetables
- Chop and slice all of the vegetables.
- Add a slug of peanut oil to the frypan and get it nice and hot.
- Add the 3 cloves garlic (finely diced) and chopped chili to taste if you like it hot.
- Add the 1 carrot (sliced into sticks).
- Add the handful of snow peas.
- Keep everything moving all the time and then when you think it is time chuck in the 300g baby spinach leaves.
- As soon as the spinach leaves wilt and become warm put the whole lot into a serving dish. I sometimes cover them to keep everything piping hot.
Stir frying the beef
- Add another slug of peanut oil to the frypan and get it nice and hot again.
- Add the now seasoned beef slices and stir fry for a few minutes at most, remember that they will continue to cook after you take them out of the pan. We don’t want them to be chewy.
- Pour the 1 Tbsp dry Sherry over the meat and quickly toss everything.
- Add the now cooked beef to the cooked vegetables waiting in the serving dish.
Serving
Serve from a central dish and let everyone take what they need. Make sure there is plenty of rice and good conversation. 🙂
Thanks again to Ching,
PK
Here are some more Chinese and asian fusion posts:
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PK Makes Beef in Oyster Sauce
This was simply the best stir fry I have ever cooked. I literally sighed when I first tasted it and you couldn’t wipe the smile of my face.
I knew it was good because everyone came back for seconds, even my toddler :).
This dish caught my eye because it calls for tenderising, with a mallet or rolling pin, beef eye fillet (tenderlion) steaks. I can see you shaking your head but trust me it is a transformational part of the recipe. The meat literally melts in your mouth!
My hat off to the BBC chef Ching He Huang and her simple but flavoursome recipe. I modified it slightly by leaving out the chili (at my family’s request), adding a lot more vegetable variety and served it with basmati rice rather than sautéed mushrooms.
Ching’s “… approach is to demystify the notion that Chinese cooking is complicated and time consuming by demonstrating traditional recipes that can be easily adapted for the home cook…”.
Mission accomplished mate!
As per my normal practice, I marinaded the beef first thing in the day. In this case I did it to make it easier, having everything ready to go, when I cooked the meal in the evening. That said, this dish will blow you away even if you just flash marinade the meat for a few minutes.
You will be:
- Bashing and flash seasoning the beef.
- Prepping, quickly stir frying the vegetables and putting them aside.
- Quickly stir frying the beef and combing everything as you serve.
You will need:
- Ingredients (as the only main it served 2 adults and a hungry toddler very well):
- 350g beef eye fillet steaks
- 1 tsp light soy sauce
- 1.5 Tbsp oyster sauce
- a pinch of raw sugar
- ground rock salt and ground black peppercorns to taste
- 2 slugs of peanut oil
- 3 cloves garlic, finely diced
- 300g baby spinach leaves
- 1 carrot, chopped into matchsticks
- a handful of snow peas, sliced or whole
- 1 Tbsp dry Sherry
- 1 cup of your favourite rice (mine is basmati)
- Equipment
- a chopping board
- a long sharp knife
- several sheets of baking paper
- a bowl for marinading the meat
- a tenderising mallet or a rolling pin
- a wok or deep fry pan
- a serving dish
Steps:
Prepare the beef
- Place the eye fillet steaks in between two sheets of baking paper and bash the stuffing out of it with a rolling pin or tenderising mallet. I know right :).
- Very thinly slice the bashed beef and place into a bowl.
- Season with the:
- 1 tsp light soy sauce
- 1.5 Tbsp oyster sauce
- a pinch of raw sugar
- ground rock salt and black peppercorns to taste.
Prep and stir fry your vegetables
- Add a slug of peanut oil to the frypan and get it nice and hot.
- Chop and slice all of the vegetables.
- Add the 3 cloves garlic (finely diced) and chopped chili to taste if you like it hot.
- Add the 1 carrot (sliced into sticks).
- Add the handful of snow peas.
- Keep everything moving all the time and then when you think it is time chuck in the 300g baby spinach leaves.
- As soon as the spinach leaves wilt and become warm put the whole lot into a serving dish. I sometimes cover them to keep everything piping hot.
Stir fry the beef:
- Add another slug of peanut oil to the frypan and get it nice and hot again.
- Add the now seasoned beef slices and stir fry for a few minutes at most, remember that they will continue to cook after you take them out of the pan. We don’t want them to be chewy.
- Pour the 1 Tbsp dry Sherry over the meat and quickly toss everything.
- Add the now cooked beef to the cooked vegetables waiting in the serving dish.
Serving:
Serve immediately :).
Thanks again to Ching,
PK
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Ben’s Windfall Lime Pickle
This windfall lime pickle is a prime example of preserving your harvests. I encourage you to eat fresh produce during their particular growing season and then their (hopefully made by you) preserved cousins off season. The mass produced commercial versions just don’t compare.
It’s important to use very ripe limes. I use the ones that have fallen from the tree, or are about to, that have a yellowing skin and lots of juice :).
These are the sweetest, using under ripe limes will give you a pickle that is very tart. I wash the limes in a weak vinegar:water solution prior to using, to make sure they are clean and not going to contaminate the pickle (because they have come from the floor and I have dogs).
To sterilise the jars, I put them through the dishwasher and then boil them in a pot of water. If the pickle isn’t ready when the jars are, pop them in the oven (no plastic lids) on very low to keep them hot. You should put hot pickle into hot jars for two reasons. One, because you won’t thermally shock and crack the jars and two because as the jar and mixture cool they will form a vacuum, meaning the pickle lasts longer.
The recipe:
You will need
- 30 limes, washed and diced into ~1cm blocks (skin on)
- 10-20 small chilis, sliced (add to taste)
- 2 tsp turmeric
- 2 tbsp salt (sea salt preferred always)
- 4 tbsp oil (olive or sunflower work best)
- 2 tsp fenugreek
- 2 tsp aniseed or fennel (I use fennel seed)
- 2 tsp garlic seed
- 2 tsp chilli flakes
- ~10 cm ginger grated
- 4 tbsp raw brown sugar
- 2 tbsp vinegar (i use apple cider or brown malt, but also you can use white wine)
Method
- Combine limes, chilli, salt, turmeric into a glass or ceramic bowl, mix and leave at room temperature overnight.
- Heat oil in large pot, add fenugreek, fennel seed, chilli flakes, ginger, garlic powder and cook off to release flavour (2-3 minutes).
- Add lime and chilli mixture, mix well and let it simmer and then turn the heat down for about 20 minutes, or until the lime softens and the mixture thickens.
- Add in the vinegar and sugar, mix well and cook for about 5 minutes. The vinegar acts as a preservative.
- Let the mixture cool slightly, then add to hot, sterilised jars. Seal jars, and place into a cool, dark spot for ~1 month to let the flavour develop.
Cleaning the limes:
Leave the mix overnight:
The finished product (we cracked into it early):
Hope you have more patience than me,
Ben 🙂
Here are some additional preserving food ideas and more from Ben:
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PK’s Adults Only Hard Cider
There is a long tradition of making hard cider in European culture. Farms would have a few apple trees of varietals just right for making cider. Go back far enough and you hear stories of agricultural workers either being paid in cider or being allowed to take windfall apples for free to make their own. In England it was more often consumed than wine and aged cider with its vinegary goodness would have packed quite a punch.
I love knowing that what I am drinking is preservative free, gave older or fallen apples a second chance, supported Aussie farmers and reduced food processing and transport costs. However I just learnt that cider isn’t just for drinking.
One of my favourite chefs, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, writes “Cider is fabulous in stews – I adore rabbit cooked with cider and cream, pork in cider is a classic, and lamb works well, too. Once mellowed by long cooking, that fruity flavour mingles beautifully with the richness of the meat – a glassful added to the dish in which you roast a leg of lamb or a chicken will help produce a gorgeous gravy. It’s also fabulous as part of the brining liquid for a home-cured ham.”
I use Granny Smith apples in this recipe (the colour of the fresh juice will blow you away) and although not a popular choice there are commercial breweries that use them. I don’t use any added sugar during the primary fermentation cycle. I also don’t bottle my cider (secondary fermentation cycle) and hence it is non-carbonated when I drink it.
After the yeast has consumed all of the apple sugars they will die and gas will cease to escape the airlock. They will however leave a blanket of carbon dioxide, over the cider, that doesn’t have enough pressure to escape. This gas blanket (plus the alcohol) will stop the cider spoiling while you wait for the flavours to mature. I have heard of people waiting months but the longest I have resisted the temptation to get stuck in is about 4 weeks :).
When I do start drinking it I put the demijohn in the fridge to make sure fermentation has stopped, give it a nice chill and keep it fresh. The airlock and bung get replaced with some plastic wrap.
Note: Please only follow this recipe if you are of a legal age to drink in your country.
You will need:
- Ingredients:
- ~8-10kg Granny Smith apples
- ~6 raisins (to add some wild yeasts to the mix)
- 1 teabag (to add some extra tannins to the mix)
- a sachet of yeast (I use whatever is available, in this case bakers yeast)
- raw sugar to taste (optional and I don’t use any)
- boiling water (to sanitise everything)
- Equipment
- a small bowl
- a fork
- a chopping board
- a long sharp knife
- a teacup
- a juicer (I borrowed a Kuvings cold press juicer from a friend)
- a demijohn (a 4.5 litre glass brewing vessel) with a matching airlock and bung
- a funnel
Steps:
- Pour boiling water into the demijohn and let it stand. Pay particular attention to hygiene here. Make sure everything is clean and including the demijohn’s mouth and outside surfaces.
- Run boiling water through the airlock and soak the bung in boiling water too.
- Add the contents of one sachet of yeast to a small amount of warm water and give it a quick stir. We do this first so that it has time to start multiplying. A few bubbles here and there let you know it is working and it only took the juicing time to be alive and kicking :).
- Make a cup of very weak tea and let it cool while you bust out your juicer.
- Juice the apples and pour the liquid into the demijohn in batches.
- When the demijohn is about two thirds full pour in the yeast mix and add the 6 raisins.
- Swirl the demijohn gently to mix everything.
- Add more apple juice until you are happy with the level.
- Pop on the bung and the airlock.
- Fill the airlock with recently boiled water that you have let cool.
That is it. It should only take a few hours for the airlock to start making a slow but steady bubbling noise. One of my favourite sounds :).
I leave it inside for its first night and then it goes out to the shed. During winter I put it inside an old fleecy jumper to protect against the cold Perth winter nights. I find this is enough to keep the yeast warm and happy.
Hope you enjoy the process and result as much as I do,
PK
Yeast and tea ready:
Juice your apples:
Add the raisins and the cold tea, add the bung and airlock and then add some clean water to the airlock:
Out to the shed:
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Ben’s Brining Tips
Ben is over-talented at growing plants and raising animals for meat so he had to become an expert in cooking and preserving too :).
Here he writes about brining meat:
The brine I make can be used on all meats, I regularly use it for seafood (particularly fish I intend to smoke), poultry (chicken, turkey) and pork. It’s important that the meat is not over brined, or it will become overly salty.
Also, you might notice that meat (especially chicken) goes darker than normal when cooking. Don’t panic if it looks a bit strange but do check the internal temperature of the meat.
It’s very important to remember that whatever ingredients you use, the meat will be soaking in it and taking it up. So avoid ingredients that have additives or preservatives. In particular, you must use non-iodised salt that does not have an anti-caking agent in it. For best results, i use natural sea salt and raw sugar.
The brine helps the meat to preserve moisture and flavour in the cooking process. You’ll notice for fish that at the end of brining there will be a lot of slime in the water. When cooked, the meat will be more flavoursome, more moist and fall apart easier. The brine does this by affecting the proteins of the meat (I don’t know how). PK said something about tightening them and that breaks them apart.
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Making the brine:
- Put enough water to cover the meat into a bowl. Dissolve salt in the water until a raw potato floats, and then add the same amount of sugar. At this point the brine is done. If you did nothing else you’ve brined your meat! This is where i will stop for seafood, but for other meats, read on.
- Add flavour. There is no end to what you can/can’t add, and no specific quantities. A general guide for poultry is mustard powder (2 tsp), star anise (generally 1 or 2 will suffice), smoked paprika (1 tsp), cayenne (1/2 tsp) and maybe some juniper berries (4-5).
- Put the meat into a bowl or ziplock bag (I prefer the bag), cover with the brine mixture. If you’ve made too much brine, ensure the flavours are transferred (i.e. star anise and juniper berries). Make sure all the cavities are also filled with brine, and there are no air pockets
- Leave in the fridge over night (8-12 hours)
- Take it out of the brine, rinse off and pat dry (make sure you clean the sink down well after).
- Leave in the fridge so the skin dries and goes crispy
- Cook your meat however you like.
Enjoy the brine revolution,
Ben
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