Category Archives: Culinary

Polenta

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Polenta

Polenta was a peasant’s meal.

  • Polenta is a porridge-like food made by boiling ground maize or other grain, and the dish is said to have originated Italy, where it was commonly eaten and eventually became a staple food among the poor and commoners in both Europe and North America.
  • The term ‘polenta’ originates from the Latin word meaning ‘peeled barley’, and is linked to the Latin word ‘pollen’ meaning ‘fine flour’ or ‘mill dust’.
  • Typically the grain used for making modern polenta is ground maize, known as ‘maize flour’ or ‘cornmeal’, and this ingredient is gluten free, making polenta a good alternative for those who can not have gluten.
  • Before the availability of maize in Europe, polenta was eaten by Ancient Romans and was generally made of chickpeas, millet, spelt, chestnut flour, farro, or buckwheat, and today, the dish is sometimes made with a combination of these products.
  • Polenta is most commonly yellow in colour, and can range anywhere between yellow and white, and the colour varies according to the grain used.

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  • Polenta is traditionally made by gradually adding cornmeal to a pot of boiling water, stock or other liquid, and simmering for up to 45 minutes, with occasional or continuous stirring over the period.
  • The finer the grain used to make the polenta, the creamier the final product will be, and sometimes lengthier cooking times and more stirring can also improve the texture.
  • Once boiled, polenta will set if allowed to cool, and is commonly placed in a pan and refrigerated, and later cut into various shaped pieces for frying, grilling or baking, and eaten in various meals, and can be used as an alternative to bread or as a side.
  • Polenta is  high in vitamins C and A, and the food also contains protein, carbohydrates and fibre.
  • Quick cooking polenta is available and is useful for cutting down the boiling time, and pre-made polenta can also be found packaged in supermarkets, and is ready to cut and bake or fry.
Bibliography:
A Brief History of Polenta, 2012, Food in Italy, http://www.foodinitaly.org/blog/2011/04/23/a-brief-history-of-polenta/
Demetri J, Polenta, 2012, Life in Italy, http://www.lifeinitaly.com/food/polenta.asp
Polenta, 2015, Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polenta

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Lasagne

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Lasagne

Is the lasagne making your mouth water?

  • Lasagne is a type of pasta-based dish typically made using a mixture of layered pasta and sauces, and is generally served hot as the primary component of a main meal.
  • ‘Lasagne’ is technically the plural term for ‘lasagna’, although both terms are not always used grammatically correctly.
  • The ingredients of lasagne commonly include meat, cheese, vegetables, and pasta, and the dish typically includes a tomato based sauce.
  • Lasagne possibly has its origins in Ancient Greece and Rome, as a flat bread, although the Italians in Naples are believed to have first produced the modern style dish in the medieval period.
  • Classic Italian versions of lasagne generally consist of the traditional sauces, béchamel – a white sauce, and ragù – a meat and vegetable sauce, along with Parmesan cheese (Parmigiano-Reggiano).
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Lasagna
Image courtesy of Elin B/Flickr
  • Large sheets of rectangular shaped pasta, that are generally flat or sometimes corrugated, are most commonly used in the making of lasagne.
  • The term ‘lasagne’ is thought to have originated from either the Latin or Greek languages, most likely from the words ‘lasanum’ or ‘laganon’, the former meaning ‘pot’ in Latin, while the latter meaning ‘cut strips of pasta’ in Greek.
  • Lasagne is typically made by layering sheets of pasta between layers of cooked sauce; topped with grated cheese; and then baked in an oven.
  • The first recipe book to feature a modern lasagna recipe, believed to have been written by an Italian and named the Liber de Coquina, ‘the book of cookery’, was published in the 1300s.
  • The meat sauce used in lasagne often contains minced beef or other ground meat, although vegetarian versions are not uncommon, with layers of vegetables used as a meat sauce substitute.
Bibliography:
A Brief History of Lasagna, n.d, Pagliacci, http://www.pagliacci.com/blog/news/post/a-brief-history-of-lasagna
History of Lasagna, n.d, Jamie Oliver Blogs, http://www.jamieoliver.com/bloggers/viewtopic.php?id=79027#lEs8WDkwD4Uz1Mb2.97
Lasagne, 2015, Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lasagne

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Chicken Nugget

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Chicken Nugget

Chicken nuggets are a favourite, but are they really made of chicken?

  • Chicken nuggets are a poultry-based food, that are generally small pieces of crumbed covered meat, and are eaten as a snack or part of a main meal.
  • Chicken nuggets are typically pieces of processed or ground chicken, or chicken breast meat, and the crumbed batter is often made of breadcrumbs or crushed cornflakes or similar, or a wheat flour mixture.
  • The inventor of the chicken nugget was Robert C Baker, a professor of Cornell University, qualified in food science, who published the recipe in an academic paper in the early 1960s.
  • The cooking process of chicken nuggets generally involves deep frying, pan frying, or baking in an oven, while deep frying is more common in fast-food settings.
  • Chicken nuggets have been highly popularised in takeaway restaurants, especially the symbolic Chicken McNuggets of McDonalds, and the first nuggets to be sold by McDonalds was in 1980.

Chicken Nugget, Food, Homemade, Crispy, Delicious, Hot, Ten Random Facts, Pile, Savour, Food, Culinary

Chicken Nuggets
Image courtesy of Andrea Parrish – Geyer/Flickr
  • To cater for vegetarians, some chicken nuggets are made without meat but instead use bean or vegetable substitutes.
  • Empire Kosher Poultry, a chicken producer in the United States, set the world record in 2013 for making and cooking the largest chicken nugget, which was almost a metre (3.3 feet) in length and weighed 23.2 kilograms (51.1 pounds).
  • Chicken nuggets are commonly bite sized or slightly larger, and are generally coloured yellow to brown on the exterior, and they are sometimes served with a sauce, of which a variety of flavours are used.
  • Traditionally, chicken nuggets are crude cylindrical shapes of meat, although they can be made into specific shapes, and they often have a slightly bumpy appearance.
  • Originally, the meat of many commercial chicken nuggets was said to be ‘mechanically separated meat’, a processed paste that uses scraps from chicken carcasses, although many companies now make their nuggets from chicken breast meat, or other ‘white’ chicken meat.
Bibliography:
Chicken Nugget, 2015, Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicken_nugget
McKenna M, The Father of the Chicken Nugget, 2012, Slate, http://www.slate.com/articles/life/food/2012/12/robert_c_baker_the_man_who_invented_chicken_nuggets.html
What’s Really in that Chicken Nugget?, 2012, National Chicken Council, http://www.nationalchickencouncil.org/whats-in-those-chicken-nuggets/

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Chocolate Truffle

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Chocolate Truffle

Is your mouth watering from the thought of a chocolate truffle?

  • Chocolate truffles are confectionery sweets made primarily of a mixture of cream and chocolate, known as ‘ganache’.
  • The term ‘chocolate truffle’ is derived from the edible tuber fungus known as a ‘truffle’, which shares a similar appearance to the confectionery.
  • The internal part of a chocolate truffle is usually a soft ganache, that is generally coated or rolled in a covering of nuts, chocolate, icing sugar, coconut or cocoa powder.
  • While its history is uncertain, one tale of the chocolate truffle invention points towards the inventor as master chef Auguste Escoffier, from France, or one of his young workers, who in the 1920s, accidentally placed heated cream in a bowl of chocolate.
  • While traditionally chocolate truffles contain ganache, a heated and cooled chocolate and cream mixture, they sometimes consist of another filling, such as caramel, fudge, fruit, nuts or chocolate.
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An Assortment of Chocolate Truffles
Image courtesy of David Leggett/Flickr
  • In some areas, the 2nd of May is recognised by some people as National Truffle Day, and it is celebrated by eating chocolate truffles.
  • To make chocolate truffles, hot cream is poured over chocolate pieces; gently stirred; allowed to cool; and shaped into balls that are then coated; although ingredients and methods differ in various countries.
  • Despite its dubious origins, chocolate truffles are said to have originated in France, possibly existing as early as 1895, and created by Louis Dufour, while Antoine Dufour is believed to have popularised the confectionery through his shop in London, England.
  • Chocolate truffles are traditionally roughly spherical in shape, due to the ganache being hand rolled into balls, although they can be purchased as cubes, cones, and in other forms.
  • Chocolate truffles are generally considered a luxurious confectionery item, and they are commonly coloured either brown or white, depending on the chocolate used.
Bibliography:
Chocolate Truffle, 2015, Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chocolate_truffle
The History of Chocolate Truffles, 2015, The Nibble, http://www.thenibble.com/reviews/main/chocolate/chocolate-truffle-history.asp
History of a Truffle, 2013, Asher’s, http://www.ashers.com/blog/2013/05/history-of-a-truffle/

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Plum

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Plum

How tiresome, the picking of plums must be.

  • Plums are edible, fleshy fruit with a smooth skin, and contain a single pit or seed in the centre.
  • Plums grow on trees that have the scientific genus name ‘Prunus’, that is from the family Rosaceae, the family of roses, and most commercially available fruit comes from the Japanese ‘Prunus salicina’ and the European ‘Prunus domestica’ species.
  • The typical diameter of a plum reaches 3.5 to 7.6 centimetres (1 to 3 inches) and they are roughly spherical in shape.
  • Plums are generally quite juicy, with flavours that vary from sweet to tart depending on the species and variety.
  • Plums are commonly eaten raw, although they can be dried, juiced, pickled and cooked, the latter often in desserts; and the dried versions are known as ‘prunes’.

Plum, Food, Fruit, Ten Random Facts, Culinary, Half, Purple

  • The skin of plums can be coloured pink, yellow, red, purple, green or almost black, while the flesh can be white, yellow, red or green.
  • The growing of plums for domestic purposes has been evident across Europe and Asia for approximately 2000 years.
  • China produced approximately 6.1 million tonnes (6.7 million tons) in 2013, the most in the world, compared to the worldwide production of 11.5 million tonnes (12.6 million tons).
  • Plums are high in vitamin C, and are good sources of vitamins A and K, as well as fibre.
  • There are more than 2000 varieties of plums in the world, and they are usually individually picked at the best possible time, by hand.
Bibliography:
Plum, 2015, Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plum
Plums, 2011, Fresh for Kids, http://www.freshforkids.com.au/fruit_pages/plum/plum.html
Plums & Prunes, 2015, World’s Healthiest Foods, http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=35

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Canola Oil

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Canola Oil

Light in colour, light in taste…. canola oil.

  • Canola oil is a version of oil used in cooking, that is extracted from the seeds of specifically bred plants of the Brassica genus – Brassica juncea (leaf mustard or mustard greens), Brassica napus (rapeseed), and Brassica rapa (turnip rape or field mustard).
  • ‘Canola oil’ is also known as ‘canola’ and was named by the Western Canadian Oilseed Crushers Association, originating from the words ‘Canada’ and ‘oil’.
  • Canola oil originated in Canada, in the 1970s, and the plants were developed by Canada’s University of Manitoba and the government department, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada.
  • In 2014, the European Union produced the most metric tons of canola or rapeseed oilseed in the world, with a quantity of more than 21 million tons, while Canada produced almost 18 million, out of a total worldwide production of more than 71 million tons.
  • Canola oil is extracted by pressing and heating the oilseeds, after which the meal of the seeds is separated from the oil; and the meal is frequently used to feed animals like pigs, cattle, fish and poultry and can also be used as a fertiliser.

Canola Oil, Invention, Yellow, Homebrand, Ten Random Facts, Culinary, Oil, Bottle, Australia

  • Canola oil is commonly used in cooking dues to its high heat tolerance and low level of saturated fat, and it is often used in baking; applied to the surface of pans to prevent food sticking; and used for frying food.
  • Canola oilseeds contain approximately 44% oil, with 23 kilograms (51 pounds) of seed, creating approximately 10 litres (2.6 gallons) of oil.
  • Canola can only be classified as such if it has erucic acid quantities of less than 2% present in the oil, while the glucosinolates that exist in the dry meal must be less than 30 micromoles for each gram.
  • Canola oil is commonly used as the main ingredient in shortening, margarine and salad dressings, and is also found in plastics, machinery lubrication, cosmetics and ink for the printing industry, among others.
  • Despite theories that canola oil is not healthy, the product is typically high in vitamin E and vitamin K, and it is believed to be one of the healthier cooking oil options.
Bibliography:
Canola, 2015, Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canola
What is Canola Oil?, 2015, Canola Info, http://www.canolainfo.org/canola/
What is Canola?, 2014, Canola Council, http://www.canolacouncil.org/oil-and-meal/what-is-canola/

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