CHEF TALK, CHINESE NEW YEAR!

CHEF TALK

CHINESE NEW YEAR

 On the 31^st of January, our Chinese friends celebrate the most auspicious festival of their calendar year. The Lunar year, as the Chinese New year is called, follows the cycle of the moon and the New Year date changes therefore every year. Every Chinese New Year is named after an animal from their Zodiac signs. This year they celebrate the year of the horse, bringing extra excitement for those born in the years, 1918, 30, 42, 54, 66, 78, 90, 2002 and 2014, the previous years of the horse.

Besides the Chinese, not many people celebrate Chinese New Year, I remember from my youth days seeing some Chinese lighting fire crackers just out of the blue, making me question why they were doing that, only to find out later that it was Chinese New Year.

I want to highlight this festival because the Chinese have a very interesting food culture. I admire their approach to life when it comes to food. The Chinese, as far as I know them, are very particular about their food, fresh is their key word. Chinese can be spotted in supermarkets or in any other fresh market, selecting vegetables like beans, piece by piece, the same goes for meats and seafood. If prawns are not fully intact and do not have a firm head, they will not buy. Any irregular spot on a squash and the fellow is rejected. It makes me wonder if anybody around the table will complain if one bean is longer than the other or if one prawn is bigger than the other but it is their way of approaching food.

Offering food in a small prayer house in front of their premises is a daily routine. Food signifies wealth, good luck, prosperity and fortune in Chinese belief. I must say that Chinese believe in practically everything, but food tops the lot.

An orange symbolizes the sun and the sun symbolizes gold, pointing to wealth. Cantonese Chinese compare many beliefs to the sound of certain words in their dialect. Wong means money in Cantonese, lai means come, so wong lai means, money comes. A pineapple is called ong lai, sounds like wong lai right?. You will then also see pineapples being offered, especially during Chinese New Year.        

Chinese New Year lasts for 15 days. It ends with Chap Go Mai. Most businesses will close on the first three days of the New Year. It is considered to be bad luck when you open your business back up on an odd numbered day. The first day of Chinese New Year is traditionally a vegetarian day. On the seventh day a meal with seven different vegetables is prepared, each one of the seven signifies a meaning of luck and wealth. A sweet dessert with three colored round glutinous rice balls soaked in syrup represents togetherness in a family.    

There are two ‘must have’ delights the Chinese cannot do without during Chinese New Year. First is ‘Bak Kwa’, finely minced pork meat is marinated, spread thinly on bamboo mats and smoked for 2 hours over charcoal. It is then sliced into squares, Bak Kwa is grilled over charcoal again, mainly on the roadside before consumption, turning whole neighborhoods into one big smoking BBQ. It tasted somewhat sweet like five spice but is loved by all. Bak Kwa is traditionally made from pork but there are also chicken, duck and beef varieties. A small round version is considered golden coins and every time one eats a piece it means money in the pocket.

Secondly is Yee Sang, a raw fish salad with a wide selection of pickled and colored vegetables and sesame seeds to top it off. Yee Sang is served as the starter dish when the Chinese have their, must have, family reunion dinner on their New Year eve. All ingredients are tossed together with chopsticks by everybody in the family, at the table. The higher it is tossed the more luck and longevity for the coming year. Yee Sang is a great symbol of togetherness and harmony.

Have you ever noticed, by the way, that Chinese are generally very slim. I find it hard to find an overweight Chinese. Being overweight and obesity was only introduced in China when fast food was introduced. I have not mastered the Mandarin language but doubt if there is a character to describe obesity.

So if fresh is the key word to the Chinese approach to food or better their eating habits, then fresh must have some effect on our body weight. Chinese are known to work hard, from young age to old and have quite a bit of exercise doing so. They eat four times a day, not always the healthiest stuff also, lots of soya sauce, oyster sauce, flavoring salt and sugar in the dishes but it does not seem to hurt a lot when it comes to their body weight.

They eat a lot of soupy dishes. Noodle soups are popular in their diet but they also eat a fair bit of rice, protein and vegetables. What is the key for them not being overweight by the masses? Portioning, yes, the portions are moderate, eat when you are hungry, maybe. Fresh, yes.   

The Chinese approach to food is very similar to my definition of healthy eating. Steamed fish, stir fried crunchy vegetables, cooked at high heat, no overcooked stuff, quick and simple seasoned meats and poultry, tofu to complement some extra protein. Many of these dishes are very easy to prepare and lovely to eat. Great thing of this style of cooking is that you can apply it to Western cooking as well so you do not have to eat Chinese food every day.

When you use the pre prepared and vacuum sealing method to keep your vegetables and meats in optimum condition you are ready to go.

Try this simple recipe that can be used for both the Chinese and Western style of cooking.

Stir fried beef with mixed vegetables.

Ingredients:

500 Gr Lean beef (thinly sliced)

12 Pcs Spring onion (sliced 1 inch long)

12 Slices Young ginger

1 Tbsp Chinese rice wine

Oil for deep frying, Cilantro for garnish

Marinade:

2 Tbsp Soya sauce

1 Tbsp Chinese rice wine

½ Tsp Baking powder

1 Tsp Sugar

5 Tbsp Water

1 Dessert spoon Corn starch

Seasoning:

2 Tbsp Oyster sauce

½ Tbsp Soya sauce

1 Tsp Sugar

Black pepper

Method:

Marinate the beef slices with the marinade ingredients. Set aside for one hour. Or vacuum seal and keep until needed. 

Heat oil and deep fry the beef slices for 20 seconds. Remove from the oil

Drain off all but 2 tablespoons of the oil and reheat.

Add spring onions and the ginger slices, stir fry 2 minutes.

Add beef slices and the rest of the seasoning ingredients.

If you like it with a bit more sauce, add a bit of water and thicken with cornstarch mixed with water.

Dish up and garnish with Cilantro sprigs.

Vegetables: 

½ Nos Medium onion (sliced)

2 Cloves Garlic (chopped)    

1 Bunch Broccoli (cut into small florets)

½ Nos Carrot (cut into wedges)

5 Nos Shi-Take Mushrooms (quartered)

1 Tbsp Oyster sauce

Black pepper

Method:

Steam the carrot wedges for 3 minutes and the broccoli florets for 2 minutes.  

Heat  2 to 3 tablespoons oil in a frying pan. Add the onion and garlic, fry for a minute.

Add the broccoli, carrots and mushrooms. Fry for another minute, add the oyster sauce and black pepper. Mix well.

Dish out and serve with the stir fried beef and rice. 

If you like this recipe Western style, simply omit the marinade and seasoning ingredients and cut the beef into steak size. Grill the steaks and treat the vegetables the same way but season with salt and pepper.

Great healthy dinner two ways, full use of vacuum sealing opportunities and last but not least, very tasty and you can use other meats as well.

http://vacupack.com/vacuum-sealers-home-style/vacupack-vacuum-sealer/vacupack-elite-vacuum-sealer-home-unit.html

Written for PMG by:

Professional Chef
Marinus Hoogendoorn
Culinary expert in recipe development   


www.vacupack.com
1-800-227-3769

         

CHEF TALK - PIZZA TIME

CHEF TALK, PIZZA TIME 2014

The holidays are over. I hope that you can look back on your holidays with a smile but now it is back to business. It is time to look at things a bit more seriously.

I trust that your New Year resolution list is pasted on your refrigerator, with an additional copy on your computer screen.

 Times are still difficult worldwide and many of us will have to tighten the belt a bit more and there is already very little room left. If you are one of those who really feel the pinch, every bit of help on how to spend your money more effectively and still being able to put a healthy and tasty meal on the table is more than welcome.

One wise move is to invest in quality. It definitely saves money on the long run. Quality food and also quality kitchen aids. A quality knife last a lifetime, a set of cheap knives is a wasteful purchase. Same goes for food and storage of food items. A cheaply bought vacuum sealer that gives you a leaking seal after a few weeks has no purpose of even buying it in the first place.

Second is to buy good quality food products from a vendor you can trust, who can give you some decent information about the product and also how to handle it. Good quality food last longer and when you vacuum seal it, it will last even longer as it stays in much better condition. No freezer burn or dried out meats in your freezer for which you paid good hard earned dollars. Throwing food away is easy. Getting the most out of your dollars is not so easy.

Prepared ready meals loaded with preservatives and all sorts of other not so healthy stuff are relatively expensive and of seriously less quality than meals you make yourself. You cannot see or control the contents of these ready meals. You only know what you eat when you cook yourself.

Lovely sounding taglines are of no value to a consumer, I mean, it does not mean anything when it reads on a packet ‘New formula, made with the freshest real beef’. A line like that means zero. Correct me if I am wrong. First of all you do not expect a product with beef contents to be made with half rotten beef and secondly it raises the question: does that mean that the older formula did not have real beef? 

The real valuable information on the packaging, cut of meat, fat contents, added flavoring and preservatives depend completely on what health authorities require by law or food act. Any information that has not been stipulated will not appear, believe me. This means that even when you know the countries food act by heart, you still do not know what you eat.   

This is reason enough for me to stay away from those kinds of products.

Make a well balanced diet a priority. Use fresh produce and cook your own food. You know what your family likes so choosing those items should not be too difficult.

When you do not have too much time left in a week due to a heavy work load and other family obligations, consider dedicating an hour per week and do some bulk cooking. If dedicating your time to a specific task at a specific hour does not work very well consider this idea. 

On Sunday I cook from 11 am till noon. You might have something else planned, so that may not work for you. Try this method at a different time. It works much better for me. When you have the prepackaged products in the refrigerator, you do not want to waste them, you paid for them, you vacuum packed them so you are more likely to use them. 

When the kiddos complain, make pizza and ask them to help, they will love it. Freeze the pizzas, vacuum seal and keep frozen. Homemade pizza ready to go, it does not get much better than that.  

Buy bone in chicken pieces, for example, firstly they are cheaper and secondly they have more flavors and stay juicier after cooking.

Place all chicken parts on a baking tray, season with salt, pepper and any other seasoning you have (paprika powder, garlic, chilly flakes) or any other seasoning of your liking.

Preheat your oven to 325 F and roast for 40 to 45 minutes. Leave to cool, portion the cooked pieces and vacuum seal. When you eat chicken a few times per week, keep it chilled. If not, freeze it. Anyway you choose, you have ready protein to use.

Do the same with your vegetables, only choose a different vegetable for different days. You can precook vegetables (blanch), fry vegetables or braise, this way you have a good variety at any given time. Your meals are almost ready in a very short period of time.

Carbohydrates can also be prepared, cooked rice, boiled or roasted and even mashed potatoes vacuum seal very well. Cooked pastas vacuum seal perfectly also.   

Once you are on the right track and the response from the family is positive, you will enjoy cooking more and more.

Did I tempt you with homemade pizza? Here is a recipe for the dough and sauce, the topping is your choice, great way to use some leftovers as well.  

  

HOMEMADE PIZZA

Ingredients:

2 Tsp Dry yeast

1 Cup Warm water

2 Tbsp Olive oil

3 Cups High protein flour (bread flour)

1 ½ Tsp Salt

Pinch Sugar

METHOD:

Dissolve the yeast in a few tablespoons of water with the sugar. Mix until it looks frothy. Leave for ten to fifteen minutes..

Place the flour in a big bowl and slowly add the yeast water and the rest of the water. The water may be too much or too little for the amount of flour. This depends on type of the flour and your individual environment. Do not worry. If it is not enough add a bit more, if your dough is too soft, add a bit more flour.

Add the salt and the oil.

Knead all into soft dough. Good guide is that the dough should not stick to your hands anymore.

Cover the dough and leave to rise in a warm place for an hour or so, depending on the temperature in your kitchen. You should have about 1/3 more dough after the rise.

Divide the dough in portions, the quantity of dough is enough for 2 pieces, ½ “thick, 14” round pizzas.

If you want smaller sized pizzas, just divide to your liking.

Form the right size and thickness, and leave the formed pizzas to rest for another ½ hour.

If you freeze the pizzas, you can do this with or without topping.

Pre-heat your oven to 450 F

Bake the pizza for 10 to 12 minutes if you want to freeze it later. Bake a few minutes longer if you plan to eat straight from the oven.

Freeze the pizza after it has cooled down, vacuum and keep frozen. They stay perfect for up to 3 months.

THE SAUCE:

A good Italian pizza sauce is made with tomatoes, onions and garlic. No tomato paste or puree.

Ingredients:

½ Nos Big onion (finely chopped)

3 Cloves Chopped garlic  

5 Nos Ripe tomatoes (chopped)

Oil for frying

Method:

Fry the onions till translucent in 3 tablespoons of oil, add the garlic and fry for another minute.

Add the chopped tomatoes and simmer for ten minutes.

Season the sauce with salt and pepper and leave to cool.

You can use any type of topping you like, use some of the leftover vacuumed meat you have.

Enjoy 

  

Written for pMG by:

(Professional Chef) Marinus Hoogendoorn

Culinary expert in recipe development  

www.vacupack.com

1-800-227-3769

  

CHEF TALK, Part 2

CHEF TALK

FROM ME TO YOU

My aim in CHEF TALK is to share some of my cooking experiences with you and to provide insight and ideas as to how and what to do when choosing products you may not be too familiar with and also how to work recipes.

With that in mind I will also explain how to make best use of a vacuum sealer.

Many home cooks often see a recipe that looks fantastic, appetizing, delicious, and has a pretty picture and decide to cook that to surprise the family.

I also try to surprise the family when I cook. Then the most exciting part of cooking is to see happy faces around the dinner table. Besides getting the results you desire of course.

Finding a recipe is easy, finding a good recipe is another story. The same goes for reading recipes which require a decent knowledge of cooking.

Some people only need the idea, which a nice picture often provides, but most of us will still need the ‘how much of this and how much of that’ part.

It can be quite tough however to see or read from a recipe (if you are on the right track, replacing parts of the recipe or omitting ingredients). Stacks of recipes from the internet are not workable, many are good, no denial, but which is which.

What do you do with leftovers if the quantities given are too large?  

Best is to start with an example and work through that recipe.

I love crackling pork. Millions of people love crackling pork, the sound alone makes your mouth water.

Crackling pork is a must have meat dish to have on a regular basis especially for Australian and British meat lovers. 

FIRST AND MOST IMPORTANT, CHOOSE THE RIGHT CUT OF MEAT:

There are basically two types of crackling pork, one made from bone-in cuts, like pork loins with ribs and whole pork shoulders, the other one made from bone-less cuts of meat, like pork belly or pork loins without ribs.

Choose the cut of meat that suits your family best but make sure that your cut of meat has the skin intact.

In order to get that lovely ‘crackling’ effect, you need to score the skin of the meat, preferably vertically in one direction and about the size of a finger apart from each other.

This type of scoring makes it easy to slice the meat after cooking, because you can follow the score lines and is essential to get the crackling right.

Pork skin is pretty tough and you will need a really sharp knife to achieve good scoring, make sure that only the skin is cut, the scoring should not go all the way through and reach the lean meat.

A Stanley knife works well. Another good tool is your butcher, he will be pleased to help you out. It is a good idea also to tell your butcher how you want your cut of meat.  

Now you have the right cut of meat and you are almost there.

You only need to cook it. Sounds simple and it is, because you started on the right foot.

The recipe for crackling pork is maybe the simplest you have ever seen.

It is comprised of the scored cut of meat and crushed rock salt. That’s all.

Next pressure points to look at are your oven temperature and the cooking time.

Rub crushed rock salt on the skin side of the meat. Make sure the salt penetrates the score lines. 

When you do this, the salt extracts moisture from the fat under the skin and the fat will start bubbling around the whole piece of meat.

You can rub the salt a day before cooking, but that is an option not a necessity.

TIMING:

Your cooking time should be: 35 minutes per pound of bone-in meat.

25 minutes per pound of bone-less meat.

NOW THE CRUCIAL PART:

Pre-heat your oven to 400 F or 240-250 Celsius. You need this heat to get the crackling going.

Place the meat on an oven tray and position the tray in the center of your oven, allow roasting for about 30 to 35 minutes.

You should now see that the skin is getting blisters. When that is the case, lower the heat to 325 to 350 F or 180 to 200 Celsius and continue roasting as per the given time.

Likely your piece of meat will be about 1 ½ to 2 kilos, if your meat is boneless you need 1 hour to an hour and a half of total cooking time.

Check with a meat thermometer to be sure that the roast is cooked. The thermometer should point at 170 F or 74 Celsius. 

Remove from the oven and let rest for 15 to 20 minutes.

Slice and serve.

To accompany the roast, choose roast potatoes, garden vegetables and apple sauce.

What you have achieved is a great dish, because you had: 

The right recipe

The right preparation

The right cooking method

NOW THE VACUUM PACKING PART:

http://vacupack.com/vacuum-sealers-home-style/vacupack-vacuum-sealer/vacupack-elite-vacuum-sealer-home-unit.html






From a good butcher you will get the best cut of meat you are looking for but you may not use the meat the same day you purchase it.

If so, vacuum seal the meat and it will stay in perfect condition, up to 4–5 days chilled.  If you need to keep it longer, vacuum seal and freeze  it and it will stay in perfect condition for at least 3-4 months.

I mentioned earlier that your piece of meat will likely be 1 ½ to 2 kilos so it may well be that you have some balance.

If so, let the roasted meat cool through completely, best overnight, slice it (without the skin) as thin as you possibly can.

Portion the slices and vacuum seal in smaller vacuum bags, the roasted meat becomes an extraordinary sandwich filling. You can store the sliced roasted meat chilled and keep up to two weeks.

Use your vacuum sealer for raw/fresh produce but also for cooked produce. 

Ensure that you work clean. Good hygiene lengthens storage time and product freshness significantly.

Enjoy the ‘Crackling Pork’ !! 

Written for PMG

By (Professional Chef) Marinus Hoogendoorn 

Culinary expert in recipe development.  

www.vacupack.com

1-800-227-3769

  

          

         

   

CHEF TALK, FAST FOOD AT HOME

CHEF TALK  

FAST FOOD AT HOME

Many among us love fast food, just pass by at the drive – through and pick up your favorite burger, pizza slice or hot dog, a regular practice for many of us.

 There are bad fast foods, very bad fast foods but also not so bad fast foods available in the market, but I think that you can make something better than that.

I do not have any intention to tell you here not to eat fast food or lecture you about health issues related to eating fast food, many chefs, a hundred times more famous than me, are touching that subject in and out, so I leave that to them.

Fast food companies do not cook, even though they make it look they cook like a celebrity chef, they purchase products from a food processing company and basically just re-heat the products they serve. 

I have worked for such a food processing company as product development chef for several years and dare to say that I pretty well know how the fast food industry works behind the counter and in their ‘kitchen’.

To give you a peak, we made, among others, burgers for a famous burger giant, good burgers, well produced, HACCP proof, super fast frozen, tip top product. They, these burger guys, have in every outlet around the world a special, only available to them, designed oven where staff places the burger on the base of the oven and your perfect burger drops, at the other side of the machine, on your bun after four minutes and twenty five seconds.  

 Sounds like magic? It is not, you can do the same at home, quality patties and even better quality fries and buns      

With increasingly worrying stories about the health aspect of fast food, heart diseases, obesity and what not, making fast food at home becomes more and more popular.   

The best thing about making fast food at home is that YOU choose the products to use.

Meat from a trusted butcher, buns from your favorite bakery shop and maybe you like to make your own sauce and fries.

Now here is the problem. I know. I hear them too often.

“I have to start making everything from scratch every time and I hate that”.

Here is your solution, make batches at a time, vacuum pack what you make and freeze it. If you have a family of four, pack four burgers per bag, no waste. 

Buy fast food ingredients on offer, you may save money as well, minced meat, chicken wings, sausages, vacuum pack and freeze.

When you freeze potatoes they will turn sweet after a while but you can freeze homemade French fries.  Cut potatoes in French fries shape, fry at 170 degrees Celsius or 338 F. for three to four minutes until cooked, drain, cool, vacuum and freeze. When you use them, just fry golden and crispy at 180 degrees Celsius or 356 F and you have the perfect fries.   

Vacuum packing and freezing prolongs the shelf life significantly and your products retain its freshness. 

The burger patties I spoke about earlier have NO seasoning whatsoever, if that works for them it works for you, just form the patties, vacuum and freeze.

Below a very easy, but tasty, recipe for fried chicken wings that you can use for the vacuum/ freeze method. Season the wings, vacuum and freeze is all you need to do to have a great fast food snack in your freezer. Give it a try. 

FRIED CHICKEN WINGS

1 Kg Chicken wings (cut in half, drummet and wing)

1 Nos Large onion (cut into rings)

1 Tbsp Turmeric powder

Salt and crushed black pepper

Oil for frying

Method:

Season the chicken wings with the turmeric powder, salt and pepper.

Heat the oil to 180 degrees Celsius or 356 F and fry 4 to 5 minutes.

Check for doneness

Drain the fried wings on kitchen paper.

Fry the onion rings in the same oil for two minutes 

Top the chicken wings with the onion rings and serve hot with a sauce of your liking, ketchup, mayonnaise, tomato sauce or hot sauce.

Note: You can use other small cut chicken parts as well, like I did in the picture.

Oh, if you still decide to go to the drive- through, don’t forget to ask them to include these wings in their menu.    

Written for PMG 

By Chef Marinus Hoogendoorn

Culinary expert in recipe development and proof reading.

Find top quality vacuum sealers in the USA www.vacupack.com

International distribution in Canada  www.vacupack.ca