Category Archives: Culinary

Crêpe

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Crêpe

A thin pancake cannot get a fancier name than ‘crêpe’.

  • Crêpes are a flour-based food item comparable to pancakes, although notably thinner, and once made, they are often filled with a mixture.
  • The term ‘crêpe’ or ‘crepe’ can refer to a filled one as a dessert, or part of a main meal, and the more specific term ‘crêpes de froment’ refers to those made of wheat flour, while ‘galettes’ refers to those made of buckwheat flour.
  • The term ‘crêpe’ is a French word, that comes from the Old French term ‘crespe’, that originates from the Latin words ‘crispa’ or ‘crispus’, meaning ‘curled’.
  • Flour, eggs, milk and butter are typically the primary ingredients used to make a crêpe, and they are cooked on a hot plate, frying pan or special appliance.
  • Cooking temperature and batter thickness are major factors in crêpe quality, and they can result in bumps and unpleasant texture if cooked poorly or have the incorrect batter viscosit.

Crepe, Food, Trivia, Ten Random Facts, Culinary, French, Rolled, Cooked, Homemade, Flat

  • Crêpes as a dish can be made sweet or savoury, depending on the ingredients of the batter and/or fillings or accompaniments, and these can include sugar, lemon juice, egg, fruit, custard, cream, fruit, jam, ham and other meats, syrup, or cheese.
  • Crêpes were originally made of buckwheat flour and eaten as bread, in France’s Brittany in Europe, sometime after buckwheat flour’s introduction to the area in the 1100s.
  • The colour of crêpes ranges from mottled oranges, browns, creams, and yellow shades; and they are generally thin and flexible in nature, which enables the cooked batter to be easily rolled or folded.
  • Numerous crêpe variants and fillings have been seen throughout different communities, particularly in Japan, many European countries and more recently, Western societies.
  • It was only when wheat flour became a widespread, affordable flour type in the 1900s, that it became a popular flour used in crêpes; and the food is now available in restaurants, supermarkets (sometimes frozen), food outlets that specialise in them, or they can be made at home.
Bibliography:
Crêpe, 2008, Epicurean, http://www.epicurean.com/articles/crepes.html
Crêpe, 2015, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cr%C3%AApe
History of Crêpes, 2014, Monique’s Crêpes, http://www.moniquescrepes.com/a-brief-history-of-crepes/

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Fairy Bread

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Fairy Bread

No Aussie party is complete without a bit of fairy bread.

  • Fairy bread is a food, generally considered a sweet snack, that is typically bread decorated with a sprinkled topping.
  • Fairy bread is usually made of white buttered bread, topped with hundreds and thousands or other types of sprinkles that stick to the butter or margarine.
  • Most commonly, fairy bread is triangular in shape, and is generally a full bread slice chopped in halves or quarters, however other shapes can be made using a knife or cookie cutters.
  • Parties for children in Australia and New Zealand often have fairy bread as a type of party food, as it is usually popular with children and quick easy to make; while one of the only cafes known to serve fairy bread in 2015, was in Sydney, Australia, and its name was the Parliament on King.
  • Fairy bread is relatively unknown outside of Australia (and New Zealand), where it was invented, and one of the first mentions of sprinkling buttered bread with 100’s and 1000’s was in 1921, as part of an advertisement for Perth’s Plaistowe and Co’s nonpareils, and by the late 1920s and early 1930s the snack was used as a party food.
Fairy Bread, Trivia, Ten Random Facts, Sprinkles, Dessert.Party, Australia
  • A poem written by Robert Louis Stevenson, published in 1885, referred to ‘fairy bread’ as a term, and it is believed to be the food’s inspiration, however at least one other author of that era also used the term in their works.
  • In the 1920’s in Australia, ‘fairy bread’ was the name of plain wafer-thin bread that had been dried in an oven; and it was not until the early to mid 1930s that this term was used in reference to the now common buttered bread version.
  • It is thought by some that fairy bread is a variant of the Dutch hagelslag, which is simply a slice of buttered bread with chocolate sprinkles (various flavours now exist) on the top, however, chocolate hagelslag was not invented until 1936.
  • Unlike many bread spreads, stacking pieces of fairy bread on top of each other without pieces sticking together is possible, due to the sprinkles themselves.
  • Fairy bread comes in a variety of colours, stereotypically rainbow, although the bread can be decorated in bright blues, greens, pinks and other colours.
Bibliography:
Fairy Bread, 2015, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairy_bread
Hurst P, Australia, We Need To Talk About Fairy Bread, 2015, Munchies, http://munchies.vice.com/articles/australia-we-need-to-talk-about-fairy-bread
What is Fairy Bread?, 2015, WiseGEEK, http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-fairy-bread.htm

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Capsicum

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Capsicum

Capsicums may not by spicy but they certainly help spice up a meal.

  • A capsicum is a species of fruit that is popularly eaten as a vegetable, and is native to tropical areas of North and South America.
  • ‘Capsicums’ are also known  as ‘peppers’, ‘sweet peppers’, and ‘bell peppers’.
  • The scientific name of a common capsicum is Capsicum annum and it is from the family Solanaceae, the family of nightshades.
  • The colour of capsicums ranges greatly, though they are more commonly red, green or yellow in colour, but purple, brown, white and orange varieties are also available.
  • China was the largest producer of capsicums in 2007, with a total production of 14,033,000 tonnes (15,468,700 tons) out of the world total of 26,056,900 tonnes (28,722,800 tons).
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Image courtesy of Live4Soccer/Flickr
  • Red capsicums, compared to green, orange and yellow ones, are the sweetest, especially if they are not picked until ripe, while the green coloured fruit are the least sweet and are often just unripened red fruit.
  • It is thought that capsicums where first cultivated around 5000 BC, and the first European to discover the fruit was Christopher Columbus, when he visited the West Indies.
  • Capsicums, or sweet peppers, are unusual in that they do not contain capsaicin, which gives others in the genus of the same name, including chili peppers, a hot spicy flavour.
  • Capsicums are extremely high in vitamin C and high in vitamin A, and depending on the variety, they may also contain significant quantities of vitamins B6 and K, and folate, and they also contain many other vitamins and minerals.
  • Capsicums are eaten both raw and cooked, often as a side vegetable, especially due to the vegetable’s crispiness.
Bibliography:
Bell Pepper, 2015, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bell_pepper
Capsicum, 2011, Fresh For Kids, http://www.freshforkids.com.au/veg_pages/capsicum/capsicum.html
Capsicum, 2015, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capsicum

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Fennel

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Fennel

Funnelling your throat with fennel is probably not the safest idea.

  • Fennel is an edible perennial plant, which is used as a vegetable, herb and spice.
  • Fennel is believed to be native to the coastal areas of the Mediterranean region, and it has spread across much of Europe, and in some countries around the world, some varieties are considered a weed.
  • The scientific name of the fennel plant is Foeniculum vulgare, and it is from the family Apiaceae, the family of carrots, celery and parsley, and the bulbous variety of the plant is known as ‘Florence fennel’, ‘bulb fennel’, and ‘finocchio’, and has the scientific name Foeniculum vulgare azoricum.
  • The flowers, leaves, seeds, and bulbs of fennel can be eaten, and they are used mostly as a flavouring or spice, while the bulbous ends can be used raw, grilled, steamed, or cooked in other ways.
  • The bulbs of fennel are generally white in colour with a green stalk, while the flowers are coloured yellow, the leaves green, and the seeds brown to green.

Fennel, Food, Vegetable, Vegetation, Ten Random Facts, Trivia, Green, White, Bulbs, Shelf,

  • Fennel seeds can be used to spice up meat, especially fish, as well as egg, while the bulbs are popular in salads or as vegetable sides.
  • The bulb of fennel generally grows to be 8 to 12 centimetres (3 to 5 inches) in diameter, while the seeds reach 0.4 to 1 centimetre (0.15 to 0.4 inches) in length.
  • The smell and taste of fennel is notably similar to that of anise, and the bulb has a crisp texture and the leaves are feathery.
  • The Ancient Greeks considered fennel as a godly food, and it was believed that the vegetable distributed godly knowledge through charcoal in the vegetable’s stalks.
  • Fennel bulbs are very high in vitamin C, and are high in potassium, fibre and manganese, and contain many other vitamins and minerals.

 

Bibliography:
Fennel, 2011, Fresh For Kids, http://www.freshforkids.com.au/veg_pages/fennel/fennel.html
Fennel, 2015, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fennel
Fennel, 2015, The World’s Healthiest Foods, http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=23

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Artichoke

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Artichoke

Artichokes are somewhat a misnomer, though they will certainly choke you if they are swallowed whole!

  • Artichokes are the edible flower buds of a perennial thistle plant, native to the Mediterranean region in Europe, and they are generally considered a vegetable, and eaten as such.
  • The artichoke plant, also known as ‘globe artichoke’, has the scientific name Cynara scolymus and it is from the family Asteraceae, the family of daisies and asters.
  • The rough spherical shape of artichokes is constructed with scales that somewhat resemble diamond shapes, each of which are generally armed with a thorn on the tip.
  • The diameter of artichokes varies between 6 to 14 centimetres (2.4 to 5.5 inches), while the vegetable grows on plants that can reach 1.4 to 2 metres (4.6 to 6.6 feet) in height.
  • The colour of artichokes ranges from green to purple to a mix of both, depending on the variety, and they need to be picked before they flower, because they will become inedible.

Artichoke, Green, Vegetable, Trivia, Ten Random Facts, Food, Stalks

  • Egypt was the largest producer of artichokes in 2012, with 387,704 tonnes (427,370 tons) of the world total of 1,634,219 tonnes (1.8 million tons), while Italy was not far behind with 364,871 tonnes (402,201 tons).
  • Artichokes are cooked generally by boiling or steaming, although they can also be baked, grilled and microwaved, and they are popularly eaten with other vegetables or meat, while the scales are often dipped in a sauce or butter.
  • The term ‘artichoke’ comes from the Northern Italian word ‘articiocco’, and originally from the Arabic ‘al-karšūfa’; and the vegetable has been cultivated for thousands of years.
  • Generally artichokes are prepared by snipping off the thorns, and after cooking, the flesh from the scales can be pulled off with one’s teeth, the internal ‘choke’ removed and discarded, and the stalk and internal heart can be readily eaten and are said to be the tastiest sections.
  • Artichokes are very high in fibre, antioxidants, folate and vitamin K, and they contain many other vitamins and minerals.
Bibliography:
Artichoke, 2015, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artichoke
Artichoke Nutrition Facts, 2015, Nutrition-and-You, http://www.nutrition-and-you.com/artichoke.html
Steele M, How To Use Artichoke, 2015, Jamie Oliver, http://www.jamieoliver.com/news-and-features/features/how-to-use-artichoke/#L3MgDid5A9S9Yb3t.97

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Persimmon

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Persimmon

Persimmons are a sugar sweet fruit.

  • Persimmons are a fruit native to China and they are popularly eaten in other Asian countries such as South Korea and Japan, where they have been grown for hundreds of years.
  • The trees persimmons are grown on are from the Diospyros genus from the family Ebenaceae, a family of flowering trees and shrubs including ebony used in the wood trade.
  • While there are a number of different species of the fruit tree, the most commonly grown is Diospyros kaki, or ‘Japanese’, ‘Asian’, or ‘kaki’ persimmon, as it is commonly known.
  • Persimmons generally grow to be 1.5 to 10 centimetres (0.6 to 4 inches) in diameter, depending on the species or variety, while they are most commonly between 6 and 8.5 centimetres (2.4 to 3.3 inches) wide and can be shaped like acorns, hearts, spheres, apples and pumpkins.
  • Sometimes persimmons need to be peeled before eating, though they can be eaten raw, dried, or cooked, and they are often used in variety of desserts and baked goods.

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  • The word ‘persimmon’ comes from the native eastern United States language named Powhatan, from the term ‘pasimenan‘, meaning ‘dry or dried fruit’.
  • The colour of persimmons ranges between different shades of red, yellow, and orange, and less commonly – purple, brown and black.
  • Persimmons have a sweet flavour and are either ‘astringent’ and only edible when fully ripe and soft with a somewhat jelly-like flesh, or ‘non-astringent’ and able to be eaten when crisp and firm, as well as soft.
  • The tannin chemical in unripe persimmons causes the astringent fruit to taste bitter, and it can react with weak acids in the human stomach to create hard phytobezoar compounds that are potentially dangerous.
  • Persimmons are very high in vitamin A, manganese, fibre and vitamin C, and they have been used for medicinal purposes to treat a variety of ailments.
Bibliography:
Diospyros kaki – Thumb., 2012, Plants For A Future, http://www.pfaf.org/user/plant.aspx?LatinName=Diospyros+kaki
Morton J, Japanese Persimmon, 1987, Purdue Agriculture, https://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/morton/japanese_persimmon.html
Persimmon, 1996, California Rare Fruit Growers, http://www.crfg.org/pubs/ff/persimmon.html
Persimmon, 2015, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persimmon

 

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