shiokadelicious!

Aromatic Convenience

The only reason I’m writing about this is because it has suddenly come to my attention that the sole, solitary post in the “Kitchen Tips” category is starting to feel just a lil’ bit lonely. So, I’ve taken it upon myself to give it a companion.

No. I’m kidding. I just think perhaps some of you may find this useful - - simple and basic though it may be.

Garlic oil and shallot oil are great things to have on perpetual stand-by in the fridge. These are simply either finely chopped garlic or red shallots sautéed in some vegetable oil (I like canola, but any neutral-tasting oil will do - - or, it doesn’t even have to be that ; if you like extra virgin olive oil, feel free to use that too).

The garlic or shallots are sautéed for a few minutes, until they are soft and aromatic, without being browned. Basically, it is just infusing the oil with the flavors and fragrance of the garlic or shallots. The oil, together with the sautéed aromatics, can then be stored in small jars (with air-tight lids, unless you want the rest of the foods in the fridge reeking of garlic or onions) in the refrigerator for weeks, maybe even months (although I’ve never tried that myself ; the batches we make generally gets used up pretty quickly).

The oil, with or without the garlic and shallots, can be used for various things, and are a super-quick, supremely easy way to add instant flavor and aroma to food.

A lot of the time, the family likes to use the oils when cooking instant noodles (or cup noodles, as they are known in some parts of the world). We hardly ever use the packaged oil that comes with the instant noodles, preferring instead to just drop in a tiny amount of these home-prepared aromatic oils. Whether cooked dry or in soup, instant noodles are instantly given an fragrant fillip and are lifted up a notch with just a small teaspoonful of the sautéed garlic or shallots and a little bit of the fragrant oil.

The oils are great too for preparing kon lo (dry tossed) noodles. Or, if you like, use them as a base for a salad dressing. They can also be used to toss wok-wilted or blanched vegetables.

Garlic or shallot aromatic oil. It’s a good thing.

Copyright © 2004 Renee Kho. All Rights Reserved.
Please contact me for permission to copy, publish, distribute or display any of the images or text contained in this article.

One Mug, One Fork and One Happy Cook

Spotted this nifty little kitchen tip in The Sunday Times yesterday.

I’m sure we have all experienced this, especially those of us who, like me, have a habit of snipping recipes from magazines and newspapers, or of jotting recipes down on odd pieces of paper here and there… when we are trying to cook with these recipes, the sheets of paper are flying everywhere, or getting flour, crumbs and sauce drippings all over them. This is a neat trick for keeping recipes in one spot, clean and easily readable.

Place a fork, with tines up, in a mug or glass, and wedge the recipe between the tines. Ta-da!

All it takes is one fork and one mug to produce one happy cook!

Copyright © 2004 Renee Kho. All Rights Reserved.
Please contact me for permission to copy, publish, distribute or display any of the images or text contained in this article.

This Is Interesting...

I learnt something interesting today… I’ve always known that there are slight differences between UK measurements and US measurements, where cooking and baking are concerned, but I didn’t realize by how much. I had always assumed that the differences were marginal at best, and would not affect the cooking and baking process. So, I was a little surprised to discover the following…

1 teaspoon (US) = 4.93ml (and 1 tsp is usually taken as 5ml)
1 teaspoon (UK) = 4.62ml

Okay, the difference in teaspoon measurement is negligible and insignificant. But take a look at this…

1 tablespoon (US) = 14.78 ml (and is usually taken at a rounded up 15 ml) = 3 (US) teaspoons

1 tablespoon (UK) = 18.5 ml = 4 (UK) teaspoons = 1.25 (US) tablespoons

Now, this could result in important differences when baking (where exact measurements are usually very important to the end result). If I was using a UK recipe that called for 8 tablespoons of butter for example, but I used a US measuring tablespoon to measure out the 8 tablespoons, I would be shortchanging myself of 2 tablespoons of butter. (8 UK tablespoons is equivalent to 10 US tablespoons). Wow! That’s 20% less butter than is required by the recipe. I’m sure that would have an effect on the final baked product. I hadn’t realized the size of the differences could be so significant.

I will have to remember these conversions the next time I bake or cook from a UK recipe.

Here are some more interesting conversions:

1 fl oz (US) = 29.57 ml = 2 (US) tbsps
1 fl oz (UK) = 28.41 ml

1 cup (US) = 236.52 ml (usually taken at the rounded 240ml) = 16 (US) tbsps = 8 fl oz (US) = 8.32 fl oz (UK)
1 cup (UK) = 250 ml

1 pint (US) = 473 ml
1 pint (UK) = 568 ml

So, 1 US quart is 2 US pints but only 1.66 UK pints.

And for those of us living outside the US… we often see US recipes calling for ½ stick of butter or 1 stick of butter and so on. The US stick of butter is actually very different from the sticks of butter we get here (in Asia).

1 US stick of butter is equivalent to 8 (US) tablespoons or approximately 120g or 4 oz. And 1 tablespoon of butter is equivalent to 14.18g or 0.5oz.

The sticks of butter sold in Asian supermarkets are usually 250g or approximately 17 tablespoons of butter. And so a US recipe calling for ½ stick of butter is really just under a quarter of a stick for us!

Ah! The differences that make our world so interesting!

Copyright © 2003 Renee Kho. All rights reserved.
Please contact me for permission to copy, distribute or display any of the images and text contained in this article.