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Help is always at hand with a store of canned food.
LET us start off by saying this: We are not great fans of canned food. Our pantries are not stocked with it and we don’t use it every day.
We know that canned food may be convenient, but they’re not good for the environment or health and we prefer fresh produce. But there is a time and place – and dish – for canned food, and that is when you cannot do without them. Such as the ones we’ve used here. Making corned beef from scratch is a massive job and the RM12 or so you pay for a can is worth it; fish comes with bones and frying it at home requires a skill to get the kind of crispness you find with fried dace and salted black beans in a can; and canned peas cannot be substituted with fresh or frozen because of their unique taste and texture.
This month, we invited a few Malaysian food bloggers to tell us about their favourite canned food. The winner seems to be sardines, a sign of how popular this product is. It’s the easy fallback for whenever the need arises and can be found in the kitchen cupboards of many Malaysians – whether in the country or abroad.
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Preserving food intensifies and deepens its flavours.
PEOPLE started preserving food for the most pragmatic reasons; to prolong its lifespan so there would enough food stored for the lean times. When the harvest is bountiful, food is preserved by salting, drying, freezing, canning and with sugar.
But we bet the threat of starvation is not why we continue to preserve our food. We do so because preserved food tastes real good, never mind the naysayers warning of cancer risks and whatnot. We wouldn’t give up salted fish or preserved plums, or sugared ginger, or mango chutney, or waxed duck. Then, there is all that jam, essentially fruit cooked in their natural sugar (and then some added ones).
When food is preserved, its flavours become so much more intense and there is so much more depth. We suspect it’s the copious amounts of salt and sugar used, but that’s a good thing – it’s a delicious remedy to food shortage and world hunger. Let’s hear the next beauty contestant say that.
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Forget about the bag of chips, make your own snacks.
The World Cup is coming. What that means is hours spent in front of the TV. What that really means is it’s time to stock up on snacks to munch on in front of the TV. Here are some ideas for World-Cup worthy goodies (well, we think so) to keep you company while you are cheering on the footballers in action on the pitch.
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Here are several ways to use this common source of protein.
THE saying goes that you can’t make an omelette without breaking eggs to indicate the difficulty in achieving something important without causing any unpleasant effects.
Well, when it comes to actual eggs, there’s nothing unpleasant about breaking or cooking them. Some people eat them every day, others have only a couple a week. Eggs can be boiled, fried, poached, scrambled... and of course, baked into cakes and cookies.
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Plenty of fillings and no utensils required – get your hands on some sandwiches.
WHAT could be easier to eat and prepare than a sandwich? It’s easy to put together using ingredients available in the larder or fridge.
Sandwiches can be light snacks, but they can also be nutritious and filling. In their most basic form, they don’t require any cooking – just layer ingredients between two slices of bread and there you have it. Then there are the more elaborate ones, like some of those featured here, that make a complete meal on their own.
When choosing a sandwich filling, some care should be given to the contents. A balance must be struck between the dry and wet fillings. There may be a tendency to overfill, so consider the bread as well.
Now start stacking!
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There’s a real art to making local kuih.
IF there was one thing we all discovered preparing for this month’s column, it was that we can’t always rely on local recipe books. This month’s focus was on local kuih and though it wasn’t supposed to be a “challenge” it turned out to be probably the most challenging thing we’ve done for Don’t Call Me Chef since it kicked off more than a year ago. It took all of us at least two attempts (and plenty of running across town finding ingredients at the last minute) to get our respective kuih down pat – despite having recipes to refer to.
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Here are all the ingredients for a balanced meal.
IS there anyone who does not know Chinese food? It’s probably the most ubiquitous food in this part of the world, and it’s easily found in the West too. That’s partly because it’s easy to take to Chinese cuisine’s clean and balanced flavours (even if some of us are disdainful of the liberal use of MSG).
Many people also find it easy to take to the wok. (And it’s fun to watch expert cooks tossing the pan’s contents with a flick of the wrist, yielding the spatula with a flourish, flames shooting out every which way from the stove – it’s all very impressive!) Chinese cuisine is characterised as much by its cooking methods as it is by the ingredients used. Stir-frying, steaming, double-boiling and braising are some of the most common Chinese methods used, and they are not hard to learn. Most people probably know how to cook a simple stir-fried vegetable with garlic, or fry rice.
With Chinese New Year approaching, we decided to serve up our favourite Chinese dishes.
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New year, new experiments.
WITH every new year comes new challenges, new endeavours ... and for foodies like us, new types of food. This month, in keeping with the spirit of new beginnings, the four of us decided to bravely go where we never have before – culinary-wise, that is.
For some of us, this meant attempting a technique that was slightly intimidating. For others, it involved making a dish they had somehow always avoided.
But whatever it was, we simply proved to ourselves the old adage: you never know till you try.
So here’s to a year filled with many new experiments, escapades and adventures in the kitchen.
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