Fab Foodie

[Noodley]

"Umami".

That will be my "word of the week"

I shall try to work it into a meeting sometime.

 

[Abitrary]

Ah, umami... the lost taste

 

[Pete]

Ha, well since Fab Foodie is currently talking fab foodie stuff, here's another re chillies.

We often make a hot chilli sauce as a condiment with other dishes (the wife doesn't like the main course eyewateringly hot without the option, you see). Basically onion fried up, tomato, chilli, garlic, sometimes coriander and a dash of vinegar. For chillies we usually use ordinary small green or red finger chillies, sometimes scotch bonnets if we have them in.

Question, is it better to fry the chillies with the onions or to add them later with the tomatoes? I usually fry them up front but this may lose a bit of 'flavour'.

 

[Fab Foodie]

Fair enough, sounds reasonable.

Anyway, on the soups subject - what's your favourite everyone? And has anyone ever made Borscht as I have a recipe for it but am too afraid to make it in case it tastes horrible...

BORSCHT IS GREAT!! Really! Maybe Beetroot is not everybodies thing, but I think it's quite wonderful.

Pea and ham (especially the trad. Swedish "artsoppa") and Parsnip would be my faves in addition to Borscht.

 

[longers]

I made a curried beetroot soup, it tasted a lot better than it sounds .

 

[Fab Foodie]

Ha, well since Fab Foodie is currently talking fab foodie stuff, here's another re chillies.

We often make a hot chilli sauce as a condiment with other dishes (the wife doesn't like the main course eyewateringly hot without the option, you see). Basically onion fried up, tomato, chilli, garlic, sometimes coriander and a dash of vinegar. For chillies we usually use ordinary small green or red finger chillies, sometimes scotch bonnets if we have them in.

Question, is it better to fry the chillies with the onions or to add them later with the tomatoes? I usually fry them up front but this may lose a bit of 'flavour'.

This is getting tricky and Chef-fy!
I would instinctively fry them up gently. In most spicy cooking, frying the spices is usually one of the first steps and generally "rounds" the flavours and provides greater "complexity" (due to interactions). Some ultimate heat may be lost, but I think the flavour will be better. Frying with the onions will also mean that the temperature will not burn the chilli and will allow interactions between the chilli compounds and the many volatile and reactive compounds from the onion, many of which will dissolve in the oil. Chilli and Onion volatiles also break-down oil very quickly too. Reactive stuff!

 

[longers]

Are you a good cook FF? Or more of a theoretical person? Just being nosy that's all.

 

[Fab Foodie]

Are you a good cook FF? Or more of a theoretical person? Just being nosy that's all.

No worries...
I think I'm a pretty reasonable cook, but main dishes mostly, never baked a cake, or made pastry...so maybe reasonable and limited! Mrs FF (also a Food Scientist) is a real kitchen whizz so she does most cooking. My food industry work has been mostly involved in either processing technologies or ingredients. I have nearly always been in product/process development and I'd much rather be in the lab/kitchen or better still the factory floor doing practical stuff than theory...I leave that to the real boffs while I do the bucket chemistry!

 

[Abitrary]

FF, what do you think about most ready meals in the supermarkets these days claiming to have no artificial preservatives, flavourings etc?

Do you think there's been any progress here?

 

[Fab Foodie]

FF, what do you think about most ready meals in the supermarkets these days claiming to have no artificial preservatives, flavourings etc?

Do you think there's been any progress here?

I think so certainly, it's what the consumer wants, and if the retailers and fast-food companies see enough of a market it will and does happen, but it's not without it's challenges.

Take flavours for example, if we now have to use natural extracts, we're going to need a greater source of those compounds... there's not enough strawberries for all the strawberry flavoured products out there. Costs are also much higher. However, NI or Nature Identical flavours are exactly the same molecules made in a chemical plant to higher levels of purity than the natural extract...exactly the same molecule but now frowned upon.

The move with the retailers is to use ingredients that are easily recognised...that you would find in a kitchen, whilst these are often fine for home cooking they might not necessarily stand-up to the rigours of mass production, distribution and long-term chill/frozen storage, creating further challenges in preventing separation,loss of structure etc.

However ingredients technology has enabled the consumer to enjoy the most amazing diversity of products...gelatin-free jelly, Quorn, low fat products that taste rich and luxurious, sweet products with almost no calories or sugar-free drinks, low salt products that are palatable, energy gel-bars, no-melt cheese...Cholesterol lowering spreads and cereals, high antioxidant products, Omega-3 fish-oil fruit drinks that don't smell of fish and many more!

The good thing is that the Industry is able to respond to pressure and provide pretty much what the consumer wants. Keeps me happy because I like staying employed!

 

[Abitrary]

The good thing is that the Industry is able to respond to pressure and provide pretty much what the consumer wants.

I guess the demand will keep costs down, and good answer BTW.

But... and I know it's a very general one, but how worse would the average 'extra special' ready meal from a supermarket be than something someone would knock up theirself?

 

[Fab Foodie]

I guess the demand will keep costs down, and good answer BTW.

But... and I know it's a very general one, but how worse would the average 'extra special' ready meal from a supermarket be than something someone would knock up theirself?

Interestingly I saw a lecture from an Independant consultant who went around and analysed Value, Regular and Premium retailer meals and compared them to home-made versions...he did the same with Trifles, apple pies too. The reality is that there is little difference between them and no trends to say that value meals are always high in x, y or z, often the home made varieties were scarier than the supermarket meals. Also, analyse top-chefs meals...they're not always the paragon of health either...look at the amount of salt they whack-in for example.
The Big mac meal is often slated on all fronts...but compare it to say a roast dinner, or home-made cottage pie and peas and it's probably the saint amongst sinners!
There's not much magic in the modern ready meal, take a lasagne, the reality is that the factory that makes it is really a giant kitchen, all the ingredients and process are easily identifiable as larger scale versions of what you do at home. There is just much more control and consistency in the factory than in the home.

There are really no bad foods...bad diets are two a penny however...

 

[Abitrary]

The Big mac meal is often slated on all fronts...but compare it to say a roast dinner, or home-made cottage pie and peas and it's probably the saint amongst sinners!

I remember hearing something on the radio once, where they did a comparison of fast high street food, and a doner kebab had 11 times the amount of saturated / trans fats or something than a big mac / burger king meal

 

[Dave5N]

So it isn't the freezing, it's the reheating?

If I reheated two theoretically identical dinners, one had been in the freezer two months and one a week; they had had identical non-frozen storage, cooking, cooling, etc...

WOuld they be equally hot?

 

[Fab Foodie]

I remember hearing something on the radio once, where they did a comparison of fast high street food, and a doner kebab had 11 times the amount of saturated / trans fats or something than a big mac / burger king meal

That doesn't surprise me at all.
I think that the despatches prog hosted by that lovely Jane Moore. on C4 tried to highlight some myths associated with food. Much I agreed with, but there was little chance for balance. In particular that nice Gill Fine lady was talking about the Govts. 'Traffic Light' labelling system and Jane was effectively lambasting the supermarkets for adopting their own systems. Well the reason the supermarkets did that was because the Govt. was to flippin' slow to do something whilst the consumer screamed and also because (and I have been fortunate enough to discuss the traffic light system with Gill Fine) it's not really very good...this was not debated though.