I‘m a fan of bread. I love home made bread. I love sourdough bread, traditional loaves, Pumpernickel, Baguette, speciality breads, bread with cheese, seeds, onions, spices – this blog is small to list them all. In short, there are enough types of bread around to keep anyone happy any day of the year. In short the word bread doesn’t do the varieties that exist no justice.
Wikipedia claims that there are “About 600 main types of breads” in Germany alone. Which is (as a German living in the UK) I can’t wrap my head around why a large part of the English bread market is “stuff in bags”. And more importantly, I wanted to know what is in the stuff. Let’s have a look.
Wholemeal Breads
There are a few things to look out for in food labelling. There are tell-tale so dodgy product around. Food labelling is a minefield, and the laws of food labelling are in my opinion not doing the consumer justice, because often the consumer doesn’t know what an ingredient really means. There’s a website dedicated to sources of MSG here: http://www.truthinlabeling.org/hiddensources.html
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by wolfgang haak on Mai 27, 2011
in my foods
I was so impressed when I saw Heston Bulmenthal demonstrate sous vide cooking that I knew on the spot that I had to try it myself.
The idea is simple, and I’m not going to re-iterate what it’s all about – more importantly there’s a bit of fiddling involved. Most people will agree that a hand-controlled waterbath is a tough tricky, so you can’t easily get around investing some cash. Unless you’re good with electronics and have some time to burn, it’s far easier to go and make a few purchases.
Here are the things you need:
- a water bath
- a vacuum sealer
The water bath:
You got in principle two options, a all-in-one device, i.e. a purpose built sous vide bath or split heating and controlling into two. The former option is easier, unpack and plug-in, the second option a bit more customisable. Most people who search on the internet will have found the SousVide Supreme bath, but it’s probably worth while that another company also known in sous vide circles makes a water bath: Lava. Famously known for their vacuum machines.
I opted for the latter option convinced by two arguments. Firstly an independent controller is small and doesn’t limit me to one water bath. I can take it around to friends houses and cook there, plus the thing is tiny and doesn’t take up space. I say that, then again the water batch I chose a Burco commercial rice cooker isn’t exactly a s space saver. Secondly, When adding it all up it worked out about 1/4 -1/3 cheaper to buy separate components than the all-in one.
Vaccum Sealer:
Here things were a bit easier to decide. A vacuum sealer is more than just a sous-vide appliance, it’s very useful to have around the house. As soon as it arrived, I started to crunch down all manner of things into small, space saving parcels. (It’s great for storing rarely used cables, preserving wool clothes during the summer months from moth attacks and filing old documents in tidy, small parcels. Think about all seven years of financial records that you have to keep!)
Rather than buying a cheap machine now in a bid to save money, I decided to do things properly and got myself a LAVA V1.00 Premium. It works a treat.
Now that’s it’s all set up, I’m very excited to get cooking!
I keep you posted!
by wolfgang haak on November 3, 2009
in my foods
The barbecue season may be over for this year, but veggie burgers are a treat for vegetarians (if you eat eggs and cheese) and omnivores alike.
The good news is they are not only a great on the barbie, but make a yummy dish if pan fried, too. I cook them every now and again, as they allow all sorts of add-on to be thrown in!
For the basic “dough”:
- rolled oats (broken), or porridge flakes,
- eggs
- cheese that melts (Gouda, Cheddar, Emmental …)
- olive oil,
- salt, pepper
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by wolfgang haak on Juni 19, 2009
in my foods
Wednesday, after a stressful and unpleasant day (which we shall not mention again) it was time for some hearty comfort food.
Cottage Pie.
For two hungry adults and a bit of packed lunch the next day get from your grocer of trust:
- 3-4 large potatoes
- 2-3 sweet potatoes (as a variation use parsnips)
- 1 1/2 tbsp horseradish (as a variation use garlic)
- 500 gr lean beef mince (for cottage pie use lamb mince)
- 2 medium onions
- 4-5 medium carrots
- 3-4 ripe vine tomatoes
- 125-200ml of milk
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by wolfgang haak on Juni 2, 2009
in my foods
01/06/2009
I was feeling the need for something healthy today, thought a salad would be a good idea. But just a bit of green leaves doesn’t make a salad in my book, and more importantly, you’re hungry again an hour later and tuck into some crisps. Salads have to have a bit tasty chunks in them, preferably some animal protein.
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