Cooking international, Desserts and baking

Sticky date pudding

  1. Dates 200g
  2. Hot water to soak 300g
  3. Baking soda/ soda bicarb- 5 g

After 30 mins blend to a thick paste with a stick blender.

Don’t put too much bicarb otherwise will taste horrible.

  • Whisk 3 eggs with
  • Sugar 200 g
  • Vanilla essence

When thick add

  • Melted butter 50 g
  • Oil -40 g

Add date paste and fold in carefully

Flour 225 g+ baking powder 5 g

Steam or bake for 20 mins – 175 C.

Steaming makes a softer and lighter product.

Can scale this to go up to a batch multiplied by 10. We make this at work for 300 people .

Great with a salted caramel butterscotch sauce .

 

 

 

Cooking Asian, Cooking international

Kukula Kari

S as anpice mix

  • Cardamom 2 g/ 1/2 t
  • Cinnamon stick -1 small one /1 g
  • Cloves – 2g
  • Peppercorns 1 t/ 3 g can double it if you can handle the heat.
  • Dry coconut – 50 g
  • Bayleaf-1-2
  • Coriander seeds -1T.
  • Fennel seeds – 5 g/ 1 t
  • Dry red chilli – 1-2/ 5 g

Toast coconut in the microwave .when lightly browned add rest of the spices and toast yet again for upto 1.5 mins .

Cool down and grind. It should be a darkish coloured powder.

  • Chicken thighs boneless or bone in skin off – 1 kg
  • Goraka extract / tamarind/ lemone juice – 10 ml
  • Turmeric -1 t/ 5 g
  • Chilli powder -10 g/ 2 t
  • Salt
  • Oil-25 g
  • Chopped onions – 250 g
  • Crushed tomatoes – 150 g
  • Crushed garlic-25 g
  • Crushed ginger – 20 g
  • Coconut cream – 200 ml
  1. Heat oil, saute the onion till light browned.
  2. Add the chicken and the spice mix.
  3. Add the crushed tomatoes coconut cream ginger and garlic and simmer on low for 30-3 min.
  4. Best eaten the next day with some hoppers/ appam or porotta.
Desserts and baking

The formulae for successful bread

In commercial baking they talk about bakers formula and that makes life so much easier rather than trying to remember a recipe with exact details.

I will give you an example of a simple bread formula using bakers percentage. In this the flour is Always taken as a100%.and everything else is taken in proportion to the flour .

  • Flour 100%
  • Water or liquid -65%
  • Active dry yeast -2%
  •  Sugar 2%
  • Salt2%
  • Oil/fat-5%

So I were to put a weight on this I could say

  • Flour 1000g
  • Water 650g
  • Yeast 20g
  • Salt 20g
  • Oil/butter -50g

The method stays the same . Mix flour with water sugar and yeast then add in the water .add salt and oil in the end .

Proof once, then scale, shape  and proof again.

Bake usually at 190-200c for 12-15mins

Cooking indian

Aais chicken masala..

  • oil -10 ml

  • butter15 gm

  • cumin -¼t

  • cardamom green-2

  • cinnamon- 1 small pc

    • cloves 2-3

  • Heat oil, add butter and whole spices
    then add 500 gms chopped onions and saute on low heat till light brown.
    Add ¼ tsp coriander pdr, 1/8tsp cumin powder, pinch turmeric powder.
    Add in about 20 gms of ginger and garlic paste. continue to saute.
    Add in 400 gm tin of chopped tomatoes , and slow cook till the oil starts to separate out.
    Then can add about 1 kg of chicken on the bone which should ideally be marinated with ginger and garlic paste about 20 gms and about 100 gms of plain / greek yoghurt.
    at this stage you can also add in chilli powder to your taste or 2-3 green chillies.
    let is simmer on low heat with a lid for about 30 minutes.
    Season with salt and some garam masala powder. Also a small pinch of nutmeg. Add some fresh coriander and mint for the oomph factor.
    We would get a chicken curry or masala like this maybe once every few months when we were growing up. Even chicken was a treat not for daily eating. Aai would take us to the butcher I still remember the name Prakash where they would take a fresh chicken and cut it up and wrap in newspaper to take home .
Random bits and bobs ..

Knife sharpening part DEUX or how to save your knives from landfill

To get your knives sharpened and in tip top condition here are some handy tips .

  • Keep away from the dishwasher and handwash only ..the corrosive chemical and high temp ruins the metal to a point where they just cannot be rescued anymore.
  • Buy a decent brand of a knife ,does not have to be a ken onion shun or a hand made thing but a victorinox is a good starting point or a similar by FDick .
  • Learn how to sharpen the blades . Remember also that the knife is meant to cut vegetables and tomatoes and so on not shave your arm – that’s just vanity/ sharpening snobbiness.+ You need sharpening stones which are 6000 grit or similar..and they are not cheap. There is a blog post here which tells you how to do this.
  • You also need a good stone not one of the pull through gadgets which they sell everywhere .They really ruin your blade not as much as the dishwasher but still  not good practice. Get a 400/1000 stone . That’s enough for a normal person. I’ve got a dozen or more between 120- 12000 grits and several diamond ones too
  • The angle between the stone and the blade is important and some companies sell decent angle guides,which could be a worthwhile investment after the bomb you will send on the stone/s .  I use only water or a little soap water to do the stones .the other blog post has videos on this.
  • Or if you are in Sydney you can contact me on gordoyash@gmail.com to make a time for this .

May you live in interesting times with your knife journey. Be safe and don’t drop the knife on your foot, that can hurt. If it’s falling let ita , better than cut yourself and slowly bleed to death.

 

stories of foods from the world over, laced with a hint of sarcasm and some black humour, its not for everyone, but then never was meant to be..