How are you today? I hope you’ve enjoyed your week since I last wrote here.
I’ve been busy with work and trying to cope with all the pollen in the air. Everywhere I look, I see yellow wattle flowers. I’ve been sneezing and coughing, and my throat has felt irritated.
I’ve also been listening to audiobooks in my spare time, especially when out walking. I’ve been listening to some J. K. Rowling and Lee Child books. I read the hard copy Harry Potter books soon after they were released. Listening to them read by Stephen Fry has been enjoyable. Lee Child’s series about Jack Reacher has provided some escapist relief.
The other week I watched the movie adaptation of The Guns of Navarone, written by Alistair MacLean. I downloaded the audiobook and listened to it to understand how the movie adaptation varied from the book. The book and movie are very different. I prefer the book.
Tonight, I’m cooking an Irish stew. I’m not sure if there is an authentic approach to an Irish stew. As far as I know, it needs root vegetables and lamb or mutton. It’s an excellent way to avoid wasting some vegetables in the refrigerator.
Caramelise the lamb in a hot skillet and set aside while cutting the vegetables.
Cut the potato, carrot, onion, celery, daikon, fennel, and Wombok into chunks. Tear apart the parsley and spring onions.
Pour the vegetable stock, red wine, and Worcestershire sauce into the pressure cooker.
Add the vegetables and then the lamb.
Cook under pressure for 45 minutes.
Strain the solids with a colander and pour the eluted cooking liquor into a jug.
Make a roux with the flour and butter. Slowly add the cooking liquor and make gravy.
Season the gravy with salt and pepper to your liking.
Plating up
Spoon into a large bowl some of the meat and vegetables.
Ladle over the meat and vegetables the gravy.
Thanks to the Lord for the food, wages to buy food, and the skills to cook the food.
Eat with a fork and spoon.
Thoughts on the meal
I wasn’t quite sure what to cook today. When I got to the supermarket and saw the lamb forequarter chops, the idea of a stew started to form in my mind.
At one stage, I considered using a stick blender, processing the vegetables, and making soup. Having some chunky appealed more to me tonight.
This is a functional meal; it was filling and tasted good.
Final thoughts
Do you like Irish stew?
What books have you recently read/listened to?
If a movie is made from a book, do you usually prefer the movie or the book?
Photographs
This is a gallery of pictures.
Irish stewIrish stewIrish stewIrish stew
This photo is my lunch. I mixed some celery, spring onions, tomato, and red onion with cheese and had it with corn chips.
Corn chips with melted cheese and vegetables
References
1. Murphy, K.J., Worcestershire sauce and the kidney. Med J Aust, 1971. 1(21): p. 1119-21.
2. Murphy, K.J., Bilateral renal calculi and aminoaciduria after excessive intake of Worcestershire sauce.Lancet, 1967. 2(7512): p. 401-3.
3. Holmes, G., Worcestershire sauce and the kidneys. Br Med J, 1971. 3(5768): p. 252.
I’ve modified a recipe from Sally of Bewitching Kitchen for what she describes as Korean barbecue chicken. Thanks to Eha for sharing the recipe with me.
Gochujang chicken with lettuce, celery, tomato and mayonnaise.
Add the chicken and coat each piece with the marinade
Seal the marinaded wings in a vacuum bag.
Refrigerate from 2 hours to overnight.
Cook in a water bath at 64 °C for 2 hours.
Remove the chicken from the bag and place it under a grill (toaster oven) for a few minutes to evaporate the excess liquid and caramelisation.
Serve with whatever you like. I drizzled some mayonnaise and enjoyed the wings with some avocado one night and with a salad the next night.
Thoughts on the meal
This is the first time I’ve tried Gochujang paste with anything. It was good. I think these wings would be good to enjoy while watching the footy on a Friday night.
I bought ten chicken wing nibbles and divided them into two batches of five. I cooked both batches simultaneously and kept one for an extra night. I put the leftover batch into a moderate oven for 15 minutes and enjoyed them with some lettuce and tomatoes plus the mayonnaise.
Photographs
GochujangChicken, Gochujang, Honey, Sesame oil, Soy sauceChicken, Gochujang, Honey, Sesame oil, Soy sauce vacuum sealedGochujang chicken with avocado and mayonnaise.Gochujang chicken with lettuce, celery, tomato and mayonnaise.Gochujang chicken with lettuce, celery, tomato and mayonnaise.
References
Ramalingam, S., et al. (2022). “Physicochemical, Microbial, and Volatile Compound Characteristics of Gochujang, Fermented Red Pepper Paste, Produced by Traditional Cottage Industries.” Foods 11(3).
Gochujang, fermented red pepper paste, is a grain-based traditional Korean food. The quality of gochujang produced by cottage industries is not well-documented. Thus, the present study aimed to analyze the quality of gochujang from 35 traditional cottage industries for physicochemical and microbial characteristics, along with volatile compound contents. In addition to microbial characteristics, salinity, pH, free amino nitrogen, and alcohol content were evaluated. Ethanol was detected as the predominant alcohol and 57% of tested gochujang products harboured>1% of total alcohol content, which was above the recommended level for halal products. Gochujang products contained hexadecanoic and linoleic acids predominantly and several volatile compounds belonging to the classes of alcohols, aldehydes, alkanes, nitrogen-containing compounds, and terpenes. A wide range of aerobic mesophilic bacteria (2.79-8.73 log CFU/g) and yeast counts (1.56-7.15 log CFU/g) was observed. Five distinct yeast species were identified, including Zygosaccharomyces rouxii. Eight gochujang products were contaminated with Bacillus cereus (>4 log CFU/g). This study suggests a need to limit B. cereus contamination in cottage industry products and reduce the alcohol content to comply with halal food guidelines.
Seal a chicken thigh with the skin attached and seasoned with salt in a plastic bag.
Heat a water bath to 76 °C and then cook the chicken in the water for 2 hours.
Refrigerate the chicken after it has cooked.
Pull the meat from the bones and break up the muscle bundles. Place the pulled chicken thigh aside in a bowl and gnaw the bones to avoid wasting meat.
Place the cooking liquor into a small saucepan.
Mushrooms
Remove the mushrooms from the packaging and place them into a bowl.
Add a cup of water to the small saucepan with the cooking liquor from the chicken.
Boil the contents of the saucepan and then turn off the heat.
Pour the liquid over the mushrooms and let the mushrooms steep for about half an hour.
Remove the mushrooms and set them aside.
Noodles
Remove the noodles from the packaging and place them into a bowl.
Boil the saucepan with the mushroom and chicken juices and pour over the noodles.
With wooden tongs or chopsticks, break up the noodles and drain them when they feel soft.
Keep the cooking liquor aside.
Soup
Finely chop a shallot and red onion.
Mince some ginger.
Slice a chilli.
Slice the fennel.
Julienne the carrot.
Slice the spring onion.
Shake the tin of coconut cream and open it.
Heat the wok and then add some oil.
Sauté the onions, shallot, and ginger.
Add a tablespoon of laksa paste (more or less depending on how you like it).
Add the mushrooms and slowly add the cooking liquor used for the noodles, mushrooms, and chicken.
Allow the liquid to reduce a little to concentrate the flavours.
Toss in the chicken meat and stir it around.
Pour in the coconut cream and turn down the heat.
Bring the cream to a gentle simmer, and then add in the carrot and some of the firmer slices of spring onion.
Add the noodles and mix everything with a pair of chopsticks or wooden tongs.
Turn the heat off and mix through chilli and more spring onions.
Transfer everything to a bowl and garnish with the remaining spring onions.
Give thanks to the Lord.
Eat with chopsticks and a spoon.
Thoughts on the meal
This meal was enough for two people, so I refrigerated half of it, and the next day I heated the remaining soup in a saucepan and served it the same way I had the night before.
I didn’t want to label this meal anything other than chicken and Hokkien noodles. You could make this with any sort of Asian style flavouring you have around. I know many people would add garlic. I didn’t have any, and I’m not fussed about garlic in my food. If I have garlic, I’ll use it, but it’s not a big deal to omit it.
I know that I use some techniques not readily available to everyone. You can substitute different approaches.
For example, you could cook the chicken any way you like so long as you achieve the correct temperature and duration[4]. Not everyone will get sick with inadequately cooked food. However, I commonly see reports of incapacitated people because of poor attention to food safety. You could use a supermarket rotisserie chicken if time is short and your budget permits. Break down the chicken, store it safely, and use it how you want.
I like the idea of using dried foods like mushrooms. I can use a few from a packet in this soup and the rest in other meals. The steeping liquor is also suitable for flavouring other aspects of the cooking process.
Feel free to make modifications and share them.
On food safety, I now have the pleasure of working with someone on a committee I have admired for decades. When I was in my final year of speciality training, this colleague wrote a magnificent review article on the pathogenic forms of Escherichia coli. I read it and memorised it; it was so good. One of my final exam questions was to compare and contrast the pathogenic forms of Escherichia coli. This colleague is now retired but working in an emeritus capacity.
Final thoughts
How has your week been?
Do you like using dried foods?
Photographs
Chicken and Hokkien noodlesChicken and Hokkien noodlesLeftover chicken and Hokkien noodlesLeftover chicken and Hokkien noodles
References
1. Kim, S.H., et al., Ecofriendly shiitake authentication using bulk and amino acid-specific stable isotope models. Food Chem, 2022. 397: p. 133819.
2. Berger, R.G., et al., Mycelium vs. Fruiting Bodies of Edible Fungi-A Comparison of Metabolites.Microorganisms, 2022. 10(7).
3. Peng, Z.F., et al., Antioxidant flavonoids from leaves of Polygonum hydropiper L.Phytochemistry, 2003. 62(2): p. 219-28.
4. Yang, R., et al., Thermal death kinetics of Salmonella Enteritidis PT30 in peanut butter as influenced by water activity. Food Res Int, 2022. 157: p. 111288.
Chocolate custard Cannoli for lunch at The Ekka Strawberry Sundae at The Ekka | One reason why The Ekka is the best show in AustraliaThe Loaded Nugget from the Nugg Shack at The Ekka. Battered chicken nuggets with hot chips, cheese, bacon, and spring onions.An extra long Dagwood dog from The EkkaFood from The Ekka
Wake up wondering what to cook on a wet winter day in Canberra. Do you wake up and immediately think of food? Sometimes I do. This morning I did not. I slept poorly, and when my eyes opened, my first thought was craving more sleep.
Go grocery shopping to plan what to cook while in the meat section.
Choose a couple of beef short ribs to be the meal’s centrepiece.
Heat the oven to about 200 °C.
Cut a couple of potatoes into large chunks.
Cut the white part of a large leek from the green part and then separate the leaves under running water to wash out the dirt.
Peel a few garlic cloves.
Spread the ribs, potato, leek, and garlic onto a baking sheet and put it into the oven.
Keep an eye on the tray and remove the tray when the food starts to change colour and caramelise.
Put the chillies, garlic, leek, and potato into the pressure cooker.
Add the bouquet garni and the ribs on top.
Pour in some vegetable stock.
Seal the lid to the pressure cooker and set the timer to one hour.
Cook the contents.
Remove the lid when the pressure has equalised.
Lift out the ribs, the meat, and the bouquet garni.
Put the meat into a bowl, and with forks, pull the meat.
Process the soup with a stick blender.
Place some of the meat into the centre of a soup bowl.
Ladle the soup around the meat.
Garnish the soup with parsley.
Give thanks to the Lord.
Eat with a spoon.
Thoughts on the meal
I could have made this soup more decadent with cream and perhaps some butter. However, cream and butter were unnecessary for flavour. There’s also enough fat in the beef.
I have enough soup leftover for a few more meals. I’ve aliquoted the soup into vacuum bags, and the bags are in the freezer.
Photographs
Pulled beef short rib meatPotato and leek soup with beef short ribPotato and leek soup with beef short ribPotato and leek soup with beef short ribPotato and leek soup with beef short rib
Would you add cream and butter to potato and leek soup?
References
1. Cook, R.K., et al., Use of a Pressure Cooker to Achieve Sterilization for an Expeditionary Environment. J Spec Oper Med, 2021. 21(1): p. 37-39.
2. Biernacka, B., D. Dziki, and U. Gawlik-Dziki, Pasta Enriched with Dried and Powdered Leek: Physicochemical Properties and Changes during Cooking.Molecules, 2022. 27(14).
3. Stopforth, J.D., et al., Microbiological status of fresh beef cuts. J Food Prot, 2006. 69(6): p. 1456-9.
4. Jeremiah, L.E., et al., Assessment of palatability attributes of the major beef muscles. Meat Sci, 2003. 65(3): p. 949-58.
Insert a duck breast and a couple of tablespoons of both sauces into a plastic bag.
Vacuum seal the bag and refrigerate for a few hours.
Heat the water bath to 55 °C (131 °F).
Put the bag containing the duck breast and sauces into the water bath and cook for about 90 minutes.
While the duck is cooking, shred the cabbage and julienne the carrot and daikon.
Finely slice the fennel.
Slice the Bird’s eye chillies.
Mince the ginger and finely chop the shallots.
Slice the white portion of spring onions across the fibres.
Slice the green portion of the spring onions longitudinally with the fibres.
Place the spring onion slices into some ice water to keep them fresh.
When the duck is cooked, remove the bag from the water bath and open it. Remove the duck breast and drain the liquor into a small bowl.
Put the duck breast into the refrigerator to firm a little.
When the duck breast meat is firm, slice the duck with a sharp knife. Set aside the breast meat in a small bowl.
Put the chillies, cabbage, carrot, daikon, and fennel into a large bowl.
Boil a kettle of water.
Pour boiling water over the chillies, cabbage, carrot, daikon, and fennel.
Allow the vegetables to steep in the water until slightly softened.
Drain the water from the vegetables.
Heat the wok and then add some rice bran oil.
Sauté the spring onion whites, shallots and ginger until they become fragrant.
Add the drained vegetables and the cooking liquor from the duck and stir fry.
Add in some sesame oil and soy sauce.
Add in the slices of duck and stir fry, ensuring everything is thoroughly mixed through.
Transfer the food from the wok to a bowl.
Give thanks to the Lord.
Eat the food with chopsticks and a spoon.
Photographs
Final thoughts
Duck breast is a very nice cut of meat. I think one weekend soon I’m going to try roasting a whole duck.
References
Chew, T. (1983). “Sodium values of Chinese condiments and their use in sodium-restricted diets.” J Am Diet Assoc 82(4): 397-401.
Counseling a Chinese patient on a low-sodium diet can be an arduous task for the dietitian. Special consideration of cultural beliefs, food preferences, and food practices must be incorporated into the individualized instruction. Equally important is the need for familiarity with the sodium values of frequently consumed foods and condiments indigenous to the Chinese population. To date, published sodium determinations for such items are quite limited. Representative samples of commonly used Chinese seasonings and sauces were collected. Analysis was performed by Atomic Absorption Spectroscopy. Many of the condiments often forbidden in the sodium-restricted diet contained less than 200 mg. sodium per teaspoon in all the samples tested. These included: sweet bean sauce, rinsed and unrinsed fermented black beans, hoisin sauce, satay sauce, fermented bean cake, and rinsed and unrinsed dried shrimp. These data can give the dietitian the option of calculating these often “forbidden” items into the sodium-restricted diet. Factors to be considered are the patient’s typical meal pattern, situational needs, comprehension level, degree of compliance, and other available information.
Nekitsing, C., et al. (2019). “Taste Exposure Increases Intake and Nutrition Education Increases Willingness to Try an Unfamiliar Vegetable in Preschool Children: A Cluster Randomized Trial.” J Acad Nutr Diet 119(12): 2004-2013.
BACKGROUND: Intake of vegetables in children remains low. OBJECTIVE: To compare taste exposure (TE), nutrition education (NE) and TE+NE together on intake of an unfamiliar vegetable (mooli/daikon radish) in preschool-aged children. DESIGN: Children attending 11 preschools in England were randomly assigned by clusters to four intervention conditions using a 2×2 factorial design: TE, NE, TE+NE, and no intervention (control). PARTICIPANTS: Two hundred nineteen children aged 2 to 5 years participated from September 2016 to June 2017. INTERVENTION: The intervention period was 10 weeks preceded and followed by measurements of raw mooli intake as a snack. Preschools were randomized to receive weekly TE at snack time (n=62 children); NE (n=68) using the PhunkyFoods program; TE+NE (n=55) received both weekly taste exposures at snack and lessons from the PhunkyFoods program; and the control condition (n=34), received NE after the final follow-up measurement. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Individual measured intakes of mooli at Week 1 (baseline), Week 12 (postintervention), and Week 24 and Week 36 (follow-ups). STATISTICAL ANALYSIS: Differences in intakes were analyzed by cluster. Logistic regressions were conducted to examine odds ratios for intake patterns. RESULTS: Data from 140 children with complete mooli intake assessments were analyzed. TE increased intake from 4.7+/-1.4 g to 17.0+/-2.0 g and this was maintained at both follow-ups. Children assigned to the NE conditions were more likely to eat some of the mooli than children who were not in the NE conditions (odds ratio 6.43, 95% CI 1.5 to 27.8). Combining TE and NE produced no additional benefit to intake beyond TE alone. CONCLUSIONS: Taste exposures encouraged children to eat more of the unfamiliar vegetable, whereas nutrition education encouraged children who were noneaters to try the vegetable. Both approaches were effective and can be used to produce different outcomes.
Sun, J., et al. (2020). “Study on Human Urinary Metabolic Profiles after Consumption of Kale and Daikon Radish using a High-resolution Mass Spectrometry-Based Non-targeted and Targeted Metabolomic Approach.” J Agric Food Chem.
In the present study, urine samples were collected from healthy human volunteers to determine the metabolic fates of phenolic compounds and glucosinolates after a single meal of kale and daikon radish. The major glucosinolates and phenolic compounds in kale and daikon radish were measured. The urinary metabolome after feeding at different time periods was investigated. A targeted metabolite analysis method was developed based on the known metabolic pathways for glucosinolates and phenolic compounds. Using a targeted approach, a total of 18 metabolites were found in urine: 4 from phenolic compounds and 14 from glucosinolates. Among these metabolites, 4-methylsulfinyl-3-butenyl isothiocyanate, 4-methylsulfinyl-3-butenyl isothiocyanate-cysteine, and 4-methylsulfinyl-3-butenylglucosinolate-N-acetyl cysteine were reported for the first time in human urine. The combination of non-targeted and targeted metabolomic approaches can gain a full metabolite profile for human dietary intervention studies.
Zhang, X., et al. (2022). “Effects of different breeds/strains on fatty acid composition and lipid metabolism-related genes expression in breast muscle of ducks.” Poult Sci 101(5): 101813.
Fatty acid composition contributes greatly to the nutritional value of meat, and breeds/strains are important factors affecting the composition of fatty acid. Recently, few studies have focused on the fatty acid composition in breast muscle of different duck breeds. Therefore, the objective of the present study was to compare the fatty acid composition and lipid metabolism-related genes expression in breast muscle of Jianchang duck (J), Cherry Verry duck (CV) and 3 crossbred strains (BH1, BH2 and MCmale symbol x (BGF2male symbol x GF2female symbol)female symbol (MBG)). Our results showed that the breast muscle of J had the highest contents of C22:1(n-9) but the lowest ratios of -omega 6 (n-6)/-omega 3 (n-3), -mono-unsaturated fatty acid (MUFA)/-saturated fatty acid (SFA) and -polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA)/SFA. The PUFA/SFA ratio was higher in breast muscle of MBG than in that of BH2 and CV, and the contents of C22:1(n-9), MUFA and PUFA were higher in BH1 than in BH2 and CV. Furthermore, the mRNA levels of SCD1, FADS2, ELOVL2, and ELOVL5 were significantly higher in MBG (P < 0.05), while those of FASD1 and ACACA were significantly higher in BH1 than in BH2 and CV (P < 0.05). Principal component analysis showed that fatty acids variation exhibited extensive positive loading on principal components (PCs). Correlation analysis showed that PC1 and PC3 of BH1, as well as PC1 of MBG were correlated with the mRNA levels of ACACA and FABP3, respectively. Thus, it could be concluded that the breast muscles of MBG and BH1 have better fatty acid composition, which was closely related to the increased expression levels of SCD1, FADS2, ELOVL2, and ELOVL5 genes in MBG but FADS1 and ACACA in BH1. Moreover, these results also showed that crossbreeding could optimize the composition of fatty acid in breast muscle of ducks.
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