A Smorgasbord of Dancers...

Apologies to the readers who want more recipes - there WILL be more in future, don't worry - but here's some more of the rich fare that has lately lured my eye away from the kitchen.

I consider it 'food for the soul'...!





















My long-time friends Dr Richard James Allen and Dr Karen Pearlman of the Physical TV Company invited me to witness the next stage of their creative process, a documentary film about Dance called: Doesn't Fit into a Box, inviting me to take stills photographs during the filming.

Over the last few years, Karen has been doing some Post-Doctoral Research in the Dance-Film area through a Fellowship with an organisation called Critical Path, based in Rushcutters Bay in Sydney. Through that research she says she didn't so much come up with answers, but rather - as is often the way when delving deeper into things - discovered still more questions.

So in this stage of the documentary-making, Karen was posing her questions to a diverse range of professional dancers and choreographers, asking:

"Where does Dance come from?"

"Where does Dance go when it leaves you?"

- and the ultimate existential question - "What is Dance for?"

It was fascinating to listen to the varied responses of the professional dancers and choreographers who were being interviewed. Their expertise ranged from classically trained ballet, to flamenco, to indigenous performance, to Japanese Butoh, to yoga and martial-arts, to contemporary experimental cross-media arts that weave movement and text and light and voice together into dance.

Sitting very still for 20 minutes at a time - not a pin may drop during filming! - over a twelve-hour day and focusing intently on the responses of these professional artists was an intense meditation that made me reflect on my own creative practice.

And I found myself coming up with my own responses to Karen's Questions:

"Creativity comes from the air;
through the crackling impulse of the thoughts and experiences we share with each other;
though the moments of inspiration that we scatter like seeds from our flowering;
through the enlightenment that the burning of our flame sheds around us...

When it passes through us, creativity continues -
in the lives we have touched, in the minds we have changed - it goes back into the air.

And 'what is creativity for?'

- well, you might as well ask:

'what is breathing for?'..."

Here is the view out the window of the dance studio as dusk fell. It had rained heavily throughout the day, but as you can see, all clouds have a silver - or in this case golden - lining.













Yum-oh!

Out & About...

I've been a bit slack in the Food Photography department lately... not because I haven't been eating - there's still been plenty of yum-oh in the tum-oh - just no time to photograph it!

For the last few weekends my camera's gaze has lifted from the dinner table and my mind has been occupied elsewhere, captivated by learning a host of new technical skills, as well as embracing new photographic opportunities outside the kitchen.

Shooting in RAW has been one of the technical things I've been exploring, bringing an appreciable difference (I think?!) to the quality of my finished images.

Another has been getting hold of a new lens - the Zuiko 12-60mm wide-angle zoom, which has opened a whole new window on my photographic world.

I've also been shooting in a whole variety of fascinating and (gasp!) 'non-food' areas, such as: weekend travel, stills for a contemporary dance documentary, a Buddhist garden centre, a Catholic christening and promo shots for a pregnant yoga-teacher colleague... (you can see I'm a pluralist at heart!)

For now, here's a collage of some pics from a wintry day-trip to Shell Harbour, down near Wollongong on the South Coast of NSW, about an hour-and-a-half from Sydney.






















And a cup of hot soy-milk with chocolate stripes on top - just to show I haven't entirely abandoned Food Photography!

Yum-oh!

Learning New Presentation Skills

Today I learned some new presentation skills! So If you'll bear with me, here's a collage of some of the photos from Marienne's Zesty Citron Cake shoot...

This was done using the free software on Picassa from Google. Picassa is a great picture-organising tool, I don't know how I'd keep track of my pics without it - it's super-fast for browsing images and has some really good picture-editing tools. For some of the simple fixes - cropping / straightening / lightening / darkening / sharpening / saturation / etc - it is almost as good as PhotoShop and nowhere NEAR the mucking about.

Who said there's no such thing as a Free Lunch??! lol.

Gluten-Free Spaghetti Pesce

A quick Tuna-Pasta for a week-night dinner...

Since discovering that living in a wheat-free world suited my system a lot better, I’ve spent a bit of time experimenting with the variety of alternatives that are available. In the early days of wheat-free products there was, shall we say, a LOT of room for improvement. The breads typically tasted like cardboard and the pastas often failed to hold their shape, turning into a watery glug.

But behold the advancements of the 21st Century! Wheat-free breads and pastas are now being produced which rival and even surpass their wheaten counterparts.

San-Remo make a beaut range of Spaghetti, Tagliatelle, Penne, etc, that hold up under all the usual pasta tests: they remain aldente when cooked, they hold the sauce well on the plate, and they taste great.
















Here’s one of my week-night stand-bys - a quick and easy tuna-pasta with fresh herbs. It was so un-seasonally warm yesterday that a light pasta seemed just the thing – spring is definitely returning!
























I grew these Rocket and Chicory herbs myself, in pots by the back door, using organic compost.




















The recipe?

Spaghetti Pesce with Fresh Herbs

Ingredients:

1 packet of gluten-free spaghetti pasta,
1 can of dolphin-safe tuna in oil
1 large dollop of Organic soya mayonnaise
1 small red Spanish onion, finely sliced
a handful of fresh green herbs, shredded
(I used Rocket and Chicory, but basil, coriander, spinach, dandelion greens, etc, are also great)

Bring a large pot of water to the boil and cook the spaghetti until aldente - cooked, but with a slight firmness to the bite.

Drain most of the oil off the tuna and scatter it into a mixing bowl. Slice the Spanish onion finely and shred the green herbs and add them to the tuna. Add a dollop of mayonnaise to the tuna and herbs and mix through lightly.

On the weekend, you could make your own mayo from scratch, but for 'quick-and-easy', shop-bought organic does just fine.

When the pasta is cooked, drain it and place in a serving bowl. Top with the tuna mix and fold it though with a couple of large forks. Serve immediately with a sprinkle of freshly ground pepper.

Yum-oh!

Beth’s Four-Flours Gluten-Free Bread

Last Sunday morning, Beth cooked up a fabulous breakfast to celebrate Audrey handing in the final copy of her thesis - remember Audrey? She has been writing about the Sarawak cloth-weavers and she made us that delicious Laksa and the Mohinga Fish Soup.

The piece-de-resistance of Sunday’s breakfast was, in my opinion, the Four-Flours Bread that Beth made from scratch, with her own special combination of gluten-free flours. It was absolutely yum-oh: it toasted well and harmonised perfectly with poached eggs, fried mushrooms and spinach & fennel.

















Here’s Beth’s Secret Recipe:
Four-Flour Bread Ingredients for a 1 kg loaf.

Wet ingredients:
water 400 ml
olive oil 3 tbs
sea-salt 2 tsp
maple syrup or carob molasses 2 tbs
soy milk 2 tbs

Dry ingredients:

Mix these four following flours together:
- Besan (chickpea) flour 1 cup
- Buckwheat flour 1 cup
- Brown rice flour 1 cup
- Potato starch 1 cup

With:
- 2 tbs xanthan gum
- 2 tsp batatis rhizome powder (Shan Yao - Wild Mountain Yam)
- 2 tsp Tandaco yeast

Seeds/Grains to be added later:
- 2 tbs linseeds
- 2 tbs kibbled oats


Directions for Bread-maker:
Beth uses a Breville Baker's Oven: Electronic Bread Maker (model BB280) that she bought from the Breville Factory Outlet in Ultimo, near the Sydney Fish Markets. She says it was a cheap one that she bought just to see if she was really 'into' bread-making. And now that she knows she really IS into bread-making (!) she says she will probably upgrade sometime to a model with a retractable blade, as the BB280 blade leaves a hole in the bottom of the loaf.

Add ingredients in the given order above, wet ingredients followed by dry, making sure that the yeast is the last one in. Set to Basic Bake (2 hours), with preferred crust setting.

The machine will take off and start mixing all the ingredients, letting them 'rest' for the appropriate times for the yeast to rise etc. You can watch if you want through a little window in the top - great for entertaining the kids on a rainy day (or is that only pre-Nintendo kids?) - when the blade starts kneading, the dough comes together in a ball and it is like watching a fat hamster scurrying around the barrel.

After the second rising (about 20 minutes) the bread maker will beep and you add the grains, mixing them into the dough for a more even spread. Fancier model bread-makers have an auto function for adding seeds at this stage - you put them in a little chamber and they are released at the appropriate time.

Then it's a matter of putting your feet up and waiting for the house to be filled with that oh-so-delightful smell of fresh baking bread.

In a later post, we will investigate the traditional 'made by hand' bread method. My friend Stevie in Newcastle is a dab hand at bread, having made fresh, crusty loaves for his family of six for years. He knows his way around both the hand-kneading processes, as well as several bread-making-machines. Look out Steve - the bloggstudio is coming!!

Beth was saying yesterday that she is keen to try making a gluten-free Pizza base that the Breville instruction book says can be made in the bread-maker.

Mmmmmm - Yum-oh!

Mohinga – Burmese Fish & Noodle Soup.

I was Googling 'breakfast' the other day, to do a little compare-and-contrast of what the rest of the world is tucking into as the sun rises. And the strange proclivity that many modern westerners have for either cold cereal or a greasy fry-up is, it seems, mostly a marketing invention of one Harvey Kellogg, who at the turn of the last century wanted to find a way to sell corn and sugar in a more appealing way; and a hang-over from the English farmers' breakfast where a solid meat meal would keep a man hard to the plough all morning.

My own personal taste in breakfasts leans much more towards the East in general, and Asian soups, congees and dumplings in particular. It is nice to know I am not alone in this desire - 80% of the worlds population dream of this kind of thing for breakfast. So you can imagine my delight when I discovered Mohinga - Myanmar's classic breakfast meal - which could be considered the national dish of Burma. Frequently served up by mobile street-hawkers as the early rays of sun break into the day, the soup-base is cooked the previous night and is served piping hot, poured over noodles and topped with garnishing ingredients that are all carried in two baskets hanging from a bamboo pole balanced across the Mohingar’s shoulders.

Since this food photography project first began, I have been rounding up my friends to act as Food Stylists - and when I mentioned this Mohinga concept to Audrey and Howard, they were keen on collaboration. As it happens, this was one of our first shoots, but it's taken me until now to get around to posting it. As you can see, I didn't know much about my new camera then, so the depth of field is a bit 'atmospheric', but I think you can get the idea - the finished dish was delish!























A little note of editorial authenticity:
I ran into Enid, a Burmese woman I met through my friend Beck and told her we had been cooking Mohinga. She agreed the recipe was authentic (no coconut milk, please, we're Burmese!) but she corrected our use of bean-sprouts that you will see in the photo, because these aren't traditionally used in garnishing Mohinga. I guess we had been borrowing that Idea from Laksa...


Mohinga Ingredients:

1 cup yellow-split-peas
2 cups water - boil 12 minutes

500 grams dewfish (or other white fish)
cut into bite-size pieces & tossed with:
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon turmeric powder

½ cup long grained rice, dry fried for 5 min in a heavy based pan, stirring continuously until a golden colour and nutty aroma arise. Grind to a powder in a mortar and pestle.

¼ cup peanut oil or rice-bran oil
1 stalk of lemongrass, with the bulb
2 large onions, grated
6 cloves garlic, chopped
2-inch piece of ginger, peeled & grated
1 small lotus root, peeled and sliced
1 tablespoon paprika
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
¼ cup fish sauce (nam pla / ngoc mam)
4 cups water

1 packet of dried rice noodles
Boiling salted water to cook noodles - 5 min

Garnishes:
3 hard boiled eggs, quartered
a bunch of coriander leaves
1 cup sliced bamboo shoots
3 shallots/spring onions, sliced finely diagonally
2 limes, quartered
1 teaspoon cayenne powder

Cha Ca - Fried Fish:
1 fillet of Ling, cut into bite sized pieces.
1 teaspoon turmeric
¼ teaspoon salt
oil for shallow-frying


Method:
Heat the oil in a large pot and add the onions and fry over low heat until they turn golden, about 5 minutes. Pound the lemongrass stalk lightly to release flavours. Add the marinated fish, garlic, lemongrass, ginger, lotus root, paprika, black pepper and fish sauce to the onions and cook, uncovered, over medium heat for five minutes.

Add the boiled split-peas, the extra water and rice powder and stir well. Bring to a boil, lower the heat, cover and simmer for 12 minutes.

Prepare the garnishes, setting them out on platters for diners to choose from. Boil the rice noodles for 5 minutes and drain. In a separate frying pan, fry the Cha-Ca turmeric-fish pieces until crisp and golden outside and tender and juicy inside.

To Serve:
Place the fish soup stock in a serving pot in the centre of the table, along with the platters of garnishes, Cha-Ca fried fish and the cooked rice noodles. Diners should fill their soup bowls first with noodles, then with the fish curry and whatever garnishes they wish to add before tucking in.

Yum-oh!

Zesty Citron Cake - gluten-free

At the risk of looking like I've developed an obsession with lemons, here's a delicious, zesty, gluten-free cake cooked by my friend Marienne, who is off to the south of France in two days time. Bless her, she thought I was just coming over for a cuppa and a chat and maybe take a few snaps of the finished cake she was planning on making, before we boxed it up to take to Regina and David's the next day... *chuckle*

Words to the wise: beware of inviting a blogger over for an afternoon of cake-making, he he he.... In the end, Marienne coped admirably with me turning her lounge-room into a photographic studio - lights, camera, action! Her hands over-came their camera shyness and she was very patient while I practiced my 'document the steps' process... I can tell you now, those people who make step-by-step photographs for magazines and cook-books are legends!! Juggling the attention to detail on the 'set', while keeping the actual cooking process on schedule is quite a task.

So here's my first attempt at step-by-step documentation:












zest and juice the lemons...












cream the butter and rapidura sugar...













beat in the zest and eggs...













whisk in the milk and fold in the flour...













stir in the lemon juice and pour into a lined cake tin...
bake at 180 degrees C for 30 - 45 minutes...












when baked, remove from oven and cool on a wire rack. Prick all over with a fork and pour the citron-syrup evenly over the cake, allowing it to soak in.


And the recipe?

Marienne's Zesty Citron Cake: (gluten-free)

Ingredients:
150g unsalted butter
175g rapidura (dried sugar-cane juice)
2 eggs
grated zest of 1 lemon
1/2 cup almond meal
125ml soy or cow milk
60g sticky-rice flour
115g rice flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
juice of 1/2 lemon

Lemon Syrup:
100g icing sugar
100ml lemon juice (1/1/2 lemons)


Method:
Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add lemon zest and eggs and whisk in. Add milk and almond meal and whisk through. Sift flours and the baking powder together and gently fold in to the cake mix. Do not beat much at this stage, as you don't want to 'toughen' the mix or lose its airiness. Fold through the lemon juice and pour immediately into a greased and lined cake tin. A spring-form tin is easiest for removal after baking.

Bake 30-45 minutes at 180 degrees C.

While the cake is baking, prepare the citrus syrup - place icing sugar and lemon juice in a saucepan and cook over a gentle heat, dissolving the icing sugar, but do not boil.

When the cake is golden on top and a skewer comes out clean when tested, remove from oven and cool in the tin on a wire rack.

Prick the cake all over with a fork and pour the citrus syrup evenly over the cake, allowing it to soak in.

Remove from tin and serve immediately, or store in a sealed container over night.

Yum-oh!

Laksa - Malaysian Baba-Nonya Style

Mmmmm, tasty Laska noodle soup warms you from the inside out, creamy, nourishing and satisfying. Laksa’s origins are in the Peranakan culture of Malaysia where it is made by Babas & Nonyas - the men & women descendants of Chinese settlers.

This recipe here is an ancestral recipe of my friend Audrey’s family. Audrey taught me how to cook this while she was taking a breather from writing her PhD thesis on the Pua Kumbu cloth-weavers of Sarawak. Her thesis uses the cloth as a lens to explore people's relationship with the environment and how women in the remote rainforests of Borneo engage with the global art market. Everything from logging the rainforests, to Climate Change is affecting and threatening the culture and hence the stories that are woven into the traditional designs.

This Laksa recipe uses whole prawns, shell and all, though you’d never know, as the shells are ground down with spices into a delicious and – yes – healthy paste. Glucosamine, which can be bought as an expensive nutritional supplement is actually made from prawn-shells – so this delicious dish will satisfy your elbows, knees, hips and shoulders, as well as your tastebuds!

Laksa Spice Paste
12 fresh green prawn-heads & shells
(reserve prawn meat with tails on for serving)
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
4-5 shallots, chopped
6-7 cloves garlic, chopped
thumb-sized piece of ginger, peeled & chopped

1 teaspoon lemon-grass paste
1 fresh red chilli
1 tablespoon dried shrimp paste
a little water

Broth
4 tbsp vegetable oil
laksa paste (above)
1 litre of water
1 can coconut cream
1 packet of fish balls
1 packet of fried tofu puffs
1 lime, juiced

12 green prawns - shelled meat with tails on
1 teaspoon palm-sugar - mix with prawns & set aside

Assembly & Garnishes
rice vermicelli noodles
bean sprouts
red chilli, sliced
coriander leaves
deep-fried shallots
fresh lime wedges


Method:
Rinse the prawn heads & shells in water to remove grit. Heat oil in a large pot and fry prawn-heads until they turn red and crispy. Place in a food-processor, grinding the heads and shells into a fine paste. Add the remaining paste ingredients and process until smooth. Return the paste to the laksa stock-pot and continue to fry until fragrant. Remove 1/4 cup of paste, setting aside to serve as a condiment.

Add 1 litre of water to remaining paste. Bring to the boil. Add coconut cream and simmer for a few minutes. Add fish balls, fried tofu puffs and the shelled prawn-meat, poaching them in the laksa broth. Add lime juice just before serving.

Meanwhile, blanch rice-noodles in boiling water until softened. Transfer noodles to serving bowls, topping with a teaspoon of the reserved fried paste. Pour the broth over the noodles, topping with the poached fish balls, tofu & prawns. Garnish with the bean sprouts, chilli, coriander and fried shallots. Serve with a wedge of lime.

Yum-oh!

Sanguina - Non-Alcoholic Mulled Wine

This is a post to share a very special recipe for a personal creation of mine: Sanguina - a celebratory drink that can be used for parties and special occasions all throughout winter.






















Sanguina is a non-alcoholic mulled wine that arose from my studies and practice of Traditional Chinese Medicine.
The original idea of brewing a mead of Chinese herbs in dark grape-juice was given to me by a southern Taoist practitioner, Rusel Last. Rusel has a Chinese Medicine practice in Kiama on the south coast of NSW - Integral Healing Centre - and we met around 12 years ago when we were both studying Traditional Chinese Herbal medicine in Sydney. Building on Rusel's inspiration, I researched and formulated the ingredients to create this particular recipe.

When people first hear about Sanguina, they say:
“Oh, Chinese herbs, I don’t know…”

But when they try it, everyone always says:
“Delicious - Yum-oh!”

SANGUINA!
The name Sanguina is the Yin form of the word ‘Sanguine’ which means: “Cheerful, Optimistic, Confident & Rich, Rich Red!”
In Chinese, the three syllables translate as: San Gui Na or “The Three Returning Forces”.

The herbs used to create this lovely drink have been carefully chosen for their tonifying actions, favoured by Sages in Ancient times for increasing health and longevity. It is designed for use at gatherings, parties & other auspicious occasions to nourish the Spirit and Energy of your treasured Guests.

The quantities of herbs used for this party drink are much less than the dosages used therapeutically, so the effect of drinking Sanguina is a mild, gentle, warming and uplifting feeling.

NOTE:
The herbs used in making Sanguina herbs are very safe and are used commonly in cooking. But as with any medicinal substance, Pregnant women or persons with high blood-pressure or any other serious medical condition, should consult their Traditional Medicine Practitioner before consuming Sanguina.

Sanguina Ingredients:
(These can be purchased from any Traditional Chinese Herbalist - contact me if you can't source any near where you live)

Dang Shen - Poor Man’s Ginseng - 1 piece
Huang Qi - Milk Vetch Root - 2 pieces
Shan Yao - Wild Mountain Yam - 3 pieces
Gou Qi Zi - Goji 'Wolf' Berries - 2 tablespoonsful
Yi Zhi Ren - Cardamom Pods - 5 pods
Rou Gui - Cinnamon bark - 3 quills
Ding Xiang - Clove Buds - 1 teaspoonful
Da Zao - Chinese Black Dates - 5 pieces
Sheng Jiang - Ginger Root - 5 slices, each 2 mm thick
Ji Xue Teng - Chicken Blood Vine - 3 pieces
Zhi Gan Cao - Honey Fried Liquorice Root - 5 pieces


Water - 500 ml
Dark Grape Juice - 2 litres

Simmer the herbs in the water for 15 minutes. Then add the grape juice, warming it through, but not boiling, as the flavour is better when it hasn't 'stewed'. Plus the goodness of the vitamins in the grape-juice are better preserved by not boiling.

Serve in heat-resistant cups, floating a couple of the Goji berries on the top of each cup - they are a nice 'treat' to chew while sipping the the sweet and warming Sanguina.

Yum-oh!

Ginger Tea & a Happy Solstice to Everyone!!

We made it! Today is officially the shortest day of the Southern Hemisphere's winter – so for us, it only gets better from here: bit-by-bit, longer days and more light. Of course, it will stay cold for a few months yet, so continuing with winter-warming dishes in the kitchen is the go.

In honour of the Solstice, my dear friend Kait and I got together for an afternoon of creative collaboration to make some photos of some yum-oh drinks that warm you from the inside out. Kait is also a photographer and her eye for detail in the styling of the photographs is a delight to behold.

Ginger Tea with Black-Sesame Balls.
The perfect treat to keep you going through a winter-solstice game of Mahjong!























Ginger Tea for the Four-Winds:
2 cm piece of fresh green ginger, grated
4 cups of boiling water
4 teaspoons honey.

Steep all ingredients in a warmed ceramic tea-pot for five minutes.
Serve hot in small tea-cups.

























Black Sesame Balls:
Ok, so we didn’t make the Sesame Balls - sorry, no recipe for those - some things are best left to the experts! And the lovely Vietnamese grocers on the corner had this crispy, chewy, sweet snack for sale, freshly made for only 40c each. I’d just popped down to Illawarra Rd in Marrickville to pick up some fresh green ginger for the tea and the sesame balls looked so good - so round and golden - they cried out to be photographed!

Yum-oh!

The Oily Edition - ‘Oils Ain’t Oils, Sol…’

Everyone knows the Usual Suspects when it comes to oils: Olive, Canola & 'Vegetable'. But there are a few perhaps lesser known oils that make for delightful variety in cooking and dressing dishes, as well as having added health benefits. So here's some Words-to-the-Wise about The Good Oil:

The three oils reviewed here are all sourced from mainstream supermarkets, so next time you are strolling down the cooking-oil aisle on grocery-night, have a closer look in the cooking oil section - nestled amongst the 101 varieties of Olive Oil, you should be able to find these three treasures:

Rice Bran Oil
Grape-Seed oil
Green Tea Oil

THINGS TO KNOW ABOUT OILS:

The Italian Mob may well have based their social structure on the properties of cooking oil: there are Good oils and Bad oils - and sometimes, good oils can ‘turn bad’ – but basically, this is it:

Good oils = cold-pressed, poly-unsaturated
Bad oils = saturated oils & Trans-fats.

Trans-fats are particularly nasty, as these are they guys that raise cholesterol, clog your arteries and generally make life miserable, if they don’t kill you first. Trans-fats are produced by partially hydrogenating oils to make them more saturated. There's nothing much good about trans fats in our bodies - production has mainly been driven by commercial pressures, as partial hydrogenation increases shelf-life and turns liquid oils solid - eg turning vegetable oil into margarine - making them more usable in commercial baking, frying, snack-food and fast-food manufacture.

Another means of "turning a good oil bad" - is prolonged over-heating, such as happens in a chip-shop fryer where the oil is only changed once a month; or when cooking oils or fatty meats at too high a temperature, eg, on a barbecue, which has been shown to produce carcinogens - cancer-causing substances.

So to avoid the 'Bad Guys', eat your oil as fresh as you can - cold-pressed and unsaturated and full of natural vitamins and goodness.

FEATURES TO LOOK FOR IN A GOOD OIL:

1. Smoke-Point & Flash-Point:
Smoke point is the temperature that an oil can be heated up to before it begins smoking and hence changing its molecular structure, producing both bad flavour and unhealthy chemical products.

Beyond Smoke-Point is Flash-point at which an oil actually bursts in to flame or combusts.

Wikkipedia gives a table of oil smoke-points listing some of the highest smoke-point edible oils as:

271°C - Avocado Oil
266°C - Safflower Oil
254°C - Rice bran Oil
252°C - Green Tea Seed Oil
216°C - Grape seed Oil
216°C - Olive Oil

Other common commercially-used cooking oils including: corn, peanut, soybean, walnut and hemp seed come in considerably lower at 160°C, with some oils such as: safflower, sunflower and flax seed as low as 107°C.

2. Cold-Pressing Versus Heat Extraction:
Obviously since heating negatively alters the structure of edible oils, the less heat used in extraction the better. Cold-pressing produces a better and more pure flavoured oil and retains the natural plant nutrients that are vital for our health.

Presumably it goes without saying that chemical extraction is not something we humans should expose our oils or our bodies to?!

3. Virgin & Extra Virgin
Virgin oils are made using mechanical means only - no chemicals, solvents or heat - and care is taken to leave the oil as unaltered from the pure state as it is squeezed from the fruit, seed or nut that it comes from.

Extra Virgin refers to an oil which is produced with the same care as Virgin oil but which also has a naturally low acidity of less than 0.8%. It is considered the most pure of oils.

RICE BRAN OIL:


















I love this oil! I use it for almost all my cooking purposes, as it fries so cleanly. Rice Bran Oil has a mild, subtle flavour and good thermal stability, with a high smoke-point of around 254°C. It doesn’t convert to harmful trans-fats when heated as some other oils do. These features, combined with a low adhesion to food make it one of the cleanest-frying oils.

Rice-Bran oil also has high levels of natural antioxidants such as gamma-oryzanol, tocotrienols & tocopherols. The latter two are naturally occurring forms of Vitamin E. These natural antioxidants helps in controlling free radical formation in the human body and helps prevent various coronary diseases. Research studies have indicated that Rice Bran Oil has a significant hypocholesterolemic (cholesterol-lowering) effects, because it has the dual actions of both increasing HDL (good) cholesterol while lowering LDL (bad) cholesterol in the body.

Rice Bran Oil also contains squalene which, along with its Vitamin E content, makes it a great oil to use for massage, as it protects and rejuvenates the skin.

GRAPE-SEED OIL:




















A by-product of the Wine industry, Grape Seed oil is pressed from the seeds of grapes. It has a high smoke-point of around 216°C, with no smoking, splatter or burnt taste, and doesn’t convert when heated to harmful trans-fats as some other oils do. The high flash point makes Grape Seed oil an excellent choice for fondues.

Grape Seed oil also has no fatty after-taste, allowing the pure flavor of fresh foods to come through. Grape seed oil contains Vitamin E, Vitamin C and Beta-Carotene

GREEN-TEA OIL:

This delicate gourmet oil is pressed from tea seeds harvested from the green tea plant (Camilla Sinensis). The seeds are cold-pressed to produce a lovely pale amber-green oil that has a sweet flavour and pleasant herbal aroma. Green Tea oil is high in Vitamin E and other antioxidants. It contains no trans-fats and is even lower in saturated fat than olive oil.

Green Tea oil has a high smoke point and can withstand high temperatures during cooking without burning. It is frequently used in preparing Asian foods and can be added to cooked vegetables, pasta, and stir-fry recipes. It can be used as a base for dips, dressings, marinades, and sauces. It is an excellent element in salad dressings, where it combines well with other flavours, such as: lemon, lime and leafy green herbs such as coriander, parsley and mint.

Enjoy, Bon Appetit.

Yum-oh!

Winter Stir-fry: Tofu, Leeks & Brussels Sprouts

It's getting close to the Winter Solstice - yes folks, the southern hemisphere's Longest Night of 2008 is coming up, this Saturday night, the 21st June. And so simple, warm, nourishing dishes are in order. Paul Pitchford, of Healing with Wholefoods recommends eating 'round' foods and uncomplicated flavours during the two weeks either side of the solstice, to stabilise and 'earth' us in the deepest heart of winter.

So here's my 'after work' dinner last night - a quick and easy stir-fry of round winter veggies. Not sure about the 'styling' in the finished dish, but it tasted good!




























Ingredients of Winter Stir-fry:
Tofu, Leeks, Beans & Brussels Sprouts.
Brussels Sprouts
Leeks
Tofu
Snake-Beans
1-2 tablespoons Rice-bran oil
3 tablespoons Chinese Rice Wine
1 dessert spoon Sesame oil
A splash or two of mild Green Tabasco sauce
zest of 1/2 a lime
juice of 1/2 a lime

Prepare the Brussels Sprouts by removing the tough outer leaves and slicing them in half. Add a little rice-bran oil to a hot frying pan and start frying the Brussels Sprouts, cut-surfaces down and with the lid on the pan to steam them in their own moisture. Let the Brussels Sprouts cook the longest as they are denser than the other vegies. After about 5 minutes, add the sliced leeks and tofu pieces and continue to stir-fry until the tofu is golden, the leeks silky and the Brussels Sprouts bright green and tender. Add the sliced beans about 2 minutes before serving, to keep them fresh and green. When almost done, add the sesame oil and rice wine, frying off the alcohol. Then finish with a few splashes of Green Tabasco sauce, lime zest and lime juice, stirring through before serving.

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Secret Ingredient #2 - Preserved lemons

The secret to Moroccan & African cuisine, making Preserved Lemons is a delightful winter afternoon’s pastime that will ensure a constant supply of zesty flavour for months to come. And this is what all the cloak-and-dagger secrecy has been about when I went to the Orange Grove Organic Markets on the Long-Weekend: I was on the hunt for seasonal organic bush-lemons, with good, thick rinds.
























I arrived at Tim & Barbara’s house on Sunday, laden with lemons and my portable studio (lights, camera, action!) and we proceeded to compare our research - both web-based and from our favourite dog-eared old cook-books - about Zen the Art of Preserving Lemons.

There are quite a few different methods, it seems: some cooks recommend slicing the lemons into thin circles; others say wedges are best; while still others keep their lemons almost whole, slicing a deep six-pointed star through the tip of the fruit. Some methods advise squashing the lemons into jars and covering with juice; while other recipes recommend draining off the juice and packing the rinds in oil. A few recipes add whole spices, such as cinnamon and cloves; others go with just the pure freshness of citrus.

What they all agree on, however, is salt: Lots of salt…

So we decided that we should be a bit scientific about it and try all the methods, to see which one we prefer when the whole process has run its course. We can let you know in about six weeks time...!























PRESERVING LEMONS:

Choosing Your Lemons:
The rind is the desired end-product, so choose lemons with good, thick, unblemished skin. You will need a minimum of 10 lemons - for this project, we bought about 30, with the intention of giving some preserves away and we used Organic lemons to ensure no pesticides on the skins. Wash the lemons well anyway, to remove dust.

Salt:
About 25g of coarse sea-salt per lemon.
Use plain sea-salt, not iodised (rumour has it that the iodine does weird things to the colour of the final preserve?)

Preserving Jars:
Use clean glass jars, preferably with a bit of a neck as this helps keep the lemons compressed. Use non-metal, coated, or stainless-steel lids, as the acid from the lemon-juice will tend to rust bare metal.

Spices: (optional)
Cinnamon stick
Clove buds
Peppercorns
Cardamom pods
Coriander seeds
Bay leaf
Lemon Myrtle leaf


















Methods for Preserving Lemons:

Wash lemons well.

Prepare and fill jars using one of the methods below and then leave in a sunny place for 3 days, turning upside down twice daily to keep the juices and/or oil moving and surrounding the lemon pieces. Make sure wedges remain covered to prevent mould – you may need to top-up with more juice and/or oil.

Leave in a cool dark place for 40 days and nights.

When ready to use, wash most of the salt off a piece of rind and slice the peel into chunks or slivers for use in cooking.

Preserved Lemons will keep refrigerated for six months.


Method #1: Whole Salted Lemons
Slice three cuts across the point of the lemons, so the lemon splits into six segments, but don’t cut all the way through – the segments should stay attached to the base.

Pack the centre of the lemons with salt, making sure the salt covers all surfaces of the cuts. Press the whole lemons into a jar, squashing them together so the juice runs and surrounds the lemons. Cover with extra juice.

Method #2: Wedges with Salt
Slice the lemons into wedges. Spread salt on a plate and coat wedges in salt, both sides. Pack salted wedges tightly into jars, squashing them down to release the juice.

Method #3: Wedges with Spices
Salt the lemon wedges as for Method 2 and press into a jar, interspersing with aromatic spices such as: Cinnamon stick, Clove buds, Peppercorns, Cardamom pods, Coriander seeds, Bay leaf, Lemon Myrtle leaf.

Method #4: Circles with Oil
Slice lemons into rounds and squeeze most of the juice from the slices. Reserve the juice for later use in some another dish - lemon juice can be frozen - "waste-not-want-not", my mum always says...

Sprinkle both sides of the remaining lemon-rind slices with salt and rest them on a slanted platter in the sun for three hours, allowing any remaining juices to drain off. Pack the salted slices in a jar, sprinkling with more salt during the packing process. Cover with grape-seed oil and seal the jar, allowing to cure for 4 to 5 weeks.


























To Use Preserved Lemons:
Remove a wedge from the brine and scrape the flesh from the skin, discarding the flesh and the white pith. Slice the remaining lemon skin into thin strips or finely chop.

Remember Preserved Lemons are very salty, so it is not usually necessary to add further salt to a dish when using preserved lemons. Rinsing under cold water before slicing can help reduce the saltiness.

Preserved lemons go well with:
chicken
lamb
couscous
casseroles
tagines
blanched green vegies
salads

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Market Day #2 - Orange-Grove Organic Growers

A sunny Saturday morning is a blessing to out-door marketeers. Stall-holders in the Sydney region must have breathed a collective sigh if relief when the week-long clouds lifted just long enough on the Saturday of the recent Long Weekend holiday for them to be able to get their Produce to the People.

My mission in visiting the Orange Grove Organic Produce Markets in Rozelle was to purchase the ingredients of the next Secret Ingredient Post - which will all be revealed in time - there’d be no point in it being Secret if I just blabbed it right away… Plus this particular ingredient needs a little bit of curing, so watch this space!

For now, here are a few more favourite seasonal things, fresh from local Organic farmers in the Sydney basin:














































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