The Budding Planet » Cooking

Getting kids to appreciate more complex flavors

jasmin — Sun, 01 Aug 2010 01:31:16 +0000

I added just a bit of dehydrated raw wheat grass powder in my plain water today. My almost 5 (so he says) year old rugrat took a sip and said, “Hmmm, this is good tea Mummy”. This is excellent because it means his taste buds are starting to appreciate more complex flavors.

ften times, we don’t know what they like. So it’s always good to keep introducing new food to them every once in a while.

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Korean Kimchi Ramen

jasmin — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 10:52:13 +0000

I think the Korean Kimchi Ramen is Korea’s biggest, most popular food export. It’s not the healthiest thing around, but it’s darn tasty. Add a half boiled egg topped with a handful of raw enoki mushrooms and 2 large spoonful of raw kimchi, and you’ll have a pretty nutritious dish full of protein (egg), enzymes and vitamins from the veges.There’s really good probiotics from the kimchi as well that’s as good as what you’ll get from a small pot of yogurt and probably even better than the probiotics pill you’ll find at the pharmacy.

Now, there are lots of other things you can add to make this dish healthier. Maybe some raw green onions, raw seaweed strips, shredded carrots and cucumber. You can be creative.

By the way, most mushrooms sold at the store can be eaten raw. enoki, button, brown mushrooms, Chinese (Shiitake) mushrooms, straw, portobello, bunashimeiji and oyster mushrooms. There’s probably lots other mushrooms not listed. You can check them out online.

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Miang Kam – An Almost Raw Appetizer

jasmin — Sun, 20 Jun 2010 16:53:35 +0000

Miang Kam

I love Miang Kam, which is a Thai partly raw snack slash appetizer. The picture here shows the appetizer without the sticky dark syrup.

Miang kam consists of fresh cha plu (ช้าพลู) leaves that are filled with some roasted coconut shavings and few small pieces of the following ingredients:

onion
Fresh small Thai red chilli
Ginger
Garlic
Unpeeled lime
roasted peanuts
Dry small shrimp

After filling the leaf, a little coconut palm syrup containing Thai fish sauce (nam pla) is poured on top. Then the leaf is folded and eaten whole. The origin of the name is in “eating many things in one bite”; from “miang” (เมี่ยง), meaning “food wrapped in leaves”, and “kham” (คำ), “a bite”.

The cha plu leaves or the Daun Kadok leaves (as we call it in Malaysia)

Apparently, this leaf is good for relieving toothaches, heal malaria fever, getting rid of worm infection, strengthen weak bodies and eliminating coughs.

If this single leaf can do so much, imagine what the Miang Kam can do. It’s power packed with nuts (protein), ginger (good for getting rid of mucus and it’s a cancer fighting leaf) chili (to warm the body up and get rid of intestinal parasites), coconut (good oil and roughage), onion (treatment of poor appetite, strengthen bones and to prevent atherosclerosis), lime (weight loss, skin care, good digestion, relief from constipation, eye care, and treatment of scurvy, piles, peptic ulcer) and dried shrimp (protein, excellent source of selenium, a very good source of vitamin D and vitamin B12.)

Here’s the recipe but it’s really time consuming to make these lil things cause you can only eat a few at a time so it’s best to buy it from a Thai restaurant or a Thai stall.

Directions

Dry roast the coconut in a wok on medium high, stirring constantly to avoid burning. Cook until the coconut is medium brown, about 5 minutes. Set aside the amount used for the sauce, and put the rest into a serving bowl.
Cut up all the ingredients which are not to be put into the sauce into small 1/4″ pieces. Arrange in small bowls, or in piles on a plate.
Now, for the sauce… In a stone mortar & pestle, pound together the shallots and galangal until fine. Set aside.
In a small sauce pan, add the water, fish sauce, palm sugar & shallot/galangal mixture.
Boil over medium heat to reduce the sauce to the thickness shown in the picture below. You’re going to boil off about 1/2 the liquid. Make sure to keep stirring every now and then.
Add the roasted coconut, remove from heat, and put into a small bowl.
To eat… Take a leaf and fold the bottom to make a pouch (see large pic above). Put a large pinch of roasted coconut in first, then follow with a piece or two of everything else from the serving bowls: shallots, lime, ginger, peanuts, shrimp and a chili if desired. There is no ‘proper’ order to put them in. Then, add a bit of sauce on top, roll the leaf to make a packet, and eat in one bite. Eating Mieng Kam is like a taste explosion.

Honestly, it’s a lot of work right? Anyways, there’s a lady who sells it really cheap the the SS2 night market every Monday if you are interested in trying it. Her stall is right across the Salvation bookstore, near McDonalds. They sell other types of Thai snacks too like the mango salad, sticky rice with mango and the fruit salad (rojak).

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Guava As Medicine

jasmin — Sat, 05 Jun 2010 06:59:52 +0000

An Indian study published in the Journal of Human Hypertension confirmed that the guava fruit help reduce high blood pressure and high blood fat reading.

Half the participants (73 people) ate 1 pound – 2 pounds of guava daily for 4 weeks. The other group had a different diet. Blood pressure decreased an average of 5%. Fat reading decreased an average of 5-8%.

~ Guava As Medicine by Ingfried Hobert MD & Harald W. Tietze ~

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The goodness of Maltose

jasmin — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 15:45:45 +0000

There’s all types of sweeteners. Right now, white sugar, honey and raw agave are popular. There’s also raw cane sugar and maltose. The (liquid) maltose is very popular with the Chinese. It’s made by first grinding long grain rice into powder. It’s then cooked with malt and fermented. The final product has a golden light honey color and it’s less runny than honey.

Maltose benefits the Qi, moistens the Lungs and relieves coughs due to dry lungs.

You’ll be able to find Maltose in most Chinese grocery stores in major cities around the world, and thankfully, most have the English word “Maltose” on it’s label. If not, ask for Màiyátáng or 麦芽糖

Click on this link to see how it looks like. http://yeqiang.com/v-web/gallery/albums/jiayao/maiyatang.jpg

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Yeasty homemade ginger ale

jasmin — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 01:06:03 +0000

I want to share Alton Brown’s recipe for a home made ginger ale. I love Alton and his somewhat unusual cooking show called Good Eats. Part science, part crazy cooking show, it’s all in good fun. Big boys love it because he really gets down to the scientific reasons for why things done in a certain way tastes so much better.

Anyways, I don’t really drink frizzy drinks because it’s usually loaded with sugar and all sorts of chemicals and artificial coloring I can’t pronounce. And really, I tell you, if I can’t pronounce it, it usually can’t be good AT ALL! So when Alton came up with a home made frizzy ginger ale drink, whoa! it’s really something to try at home.

Home made ginger ale is not something new. People have been cranking up frizzy drinks in their back yards for years … (can I saw centuries??) now. Some have tried making sparkling apple juice and all sorts of other fruity drinks. If you’ve never had a home made frizzy drink, then this is a good recipe to start with.

Times:

Prep 15 min
Inactive Prep 49 hr 0 min
Cook 3 min
Total: 49 hr 18 min

by Alton Brown

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/ginger-ale-recipe/index.html

Ingredients

1 1/2 ounces finely grated fresh ginger
6 ounces sugar
7 1/2 cups filtered water
1/8 teaspoon active dry yeast
2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice

Directions

Place the ginger, sugar, and 1/2 cup of the water into a 2-quart saucepan and set over medium-high heat. Stir until the sugar has dissolved. Remove from the heat, cover and allow to steep for 1 hour.

Pour the syrup through a fine mesh strainer set over a bowl, pressing down to get all of the juice out of the mixture. Chill quickly by placing over and ice bath and stirring or set in the refrigerator, uncovered, until at least room temperature, 68 to 72 degrees F.

Using a funnel, pour the syrup into a clean 2-liter plastic bottle and add the yeast, lemon juice and remaining 7 cups of water. Place the cap on the bottle, gently shake to combine and leave the bottle at room temperature for 48 hours. Open and check for desired amount of carbonation. It is important that once you achieve your desired amount of carbonation that you refrigerate the ginger ale. Store in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks, opening the bottle at least once a day to let out excess carbonation.

The young ginger gives a milder flavor than old or mature ginger.

Again though, the most important thing is to use FRESH yeast, and to expect the bubbles to be a lot softer than what you are used to with the commercial stuff.