cuisine

Malva Pudding

Posted on August 21, 2023 by pauldelancey

South African Dessert

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MALVA PUDDING

(Malvapoeding)

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INGREDIENTS – CAKE
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2 tablespoons butter, melted
⅔ cup white sugar
3½ tablespoons apricot jam
2 eggs
1 teaspoon baking powder
¾ cup whole milk
¼ teaspoon salt
1¼ cups flour
no-stick spray
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INGREDIENTS – SAUCE
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1 cup evaporated milk or heavy whipping cream
½ cup brown sugar
5 tablespoons butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
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SPECIAL UTENSILS
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electric beater
8″ * 8″ baking or casserole dish
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Serves 8. Takes 1 hour.
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PREPARATION – CAKE
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Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Add 2 tablespoons melted butter and sugar to large mixing bowl. Mix with electric beater set on medium until butter and sugar become creamy. Add apricot jam, baking powder, eggs, milk, and salt. Mix with beater set on medium until mixture becomes fluffy. Gradually add flour, mixing all the while until well blended. Spray baking dish with no-stick spray. Pour batter into baking dish. Bake for 35 minutes at 350 degrees or until toothpick inserted into middle comes out clean. Poke holes in cake with fork.
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PREPARATION – SAUCE
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About 10 minutes before cake is done, add all sauce ingredients to large pan. Cook at medium heat for 5 minutes or until sugar and butter melt, the mixture becomes smooth, and bubbles start to form. Remove from heat and cover. Ladle warm sauce evenly over cake. Let cake sit for 20 minutes to give the cake time to absorb the sauce. Cut cake into 12 pieces. Goes well with vanilla ice cream.
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TIDBITS
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1) Malva puddings are square. Keyboard keys are square. Keyboard keys were inspired by malva puddings. Because everyone loves malva puddings.
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2) Most malva pudding is to be found in South Africa. But there can’t be many South Africa keyboard users and professional typists in comparison to the rest of the world.
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3) That’s true now, but in the first year in the existence of the square keys, 98% of the square-key enthusiasts were South African.
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4) Indeed, these squarekeyers so loved their malva pudding that they made their keys from fresh malva. As one could imagine, typing with fresh malva was quite squishy. Globs of malva pudding got into everything, particularly the keyboard. Typing became impossible.
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5) Everyone knows the surrender ceremony ending the war with Japan was signed on the Battleship Missouri. This document was supposed to have been composed on a square-key typewriter. But the fresh malva keys gummed up the typewriter. No more malva typewriters, no Japanese surrender. No surrender would have meant more atomic bombs, perhaps a bloody invasion of Japan.
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6) Which was bad.
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7) Fortunately, Corporal Lucy Dubai, reserve typist second class, had her personal round-key with her. Her roundkeyer was made of metal with glass caps.
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8) Sure, these keys didn’t give off the same pleasing scent of the square malva keys, but they worked. General MacArthur had Corporal type up the surrender document. The relevant dignitaries signed the surrender terms that very day.
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9) Grateful soldiers and marines, scheduled for the invasion of Japan. Lucy Dubai became a wildly popular pinup girl in barracks all over the Pacific Ocean. Her roundkeyer replaced the malvakeyer as the number-one typewriter pinup. Round keys would dominate the world for decades.
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10) Culinary anthropologists general credit Lucy* of Olduvai Gorge with inventing the first roundkeyer. So, you’d think that round keys would dominate the world to the very moment that you’re reading this tidbit.
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11) However, much of humanity left Africa after Lucy’s invention. Those who went to Europe would favor square keys. This bias can be found in their DNA. However, the tribes who stayed in Africa and those who trekked to Asia preferred round keys. Waves of squarekeyers and roundkeyers would eventually wash up on the shores of North America causing tension and conflict in the United States that haunts us to this very day.
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12) Then how did squares conquer the modern keyboard world? It has something to do with a bar bet at the Blue Armadillo in 1993. There, now you know.
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13) * = Corporal Lucy Dubai could trace direct descent from Lucy of Olduvai Gorge.
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– Paul De Lancey, The Comic Chef, Ph.D.

My cookbook, Following Good Food Around the World, with its 180 wonderful recipes, my newest novel, Do Lutheran Hunks Eat Mushrooms, a hilarious apocalyptic thriller, and all my other books, are available on amazon.com.

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My Kitchen Gizmos – For Ravioli

Posted on August 17, 2023 by pauldelancey

Good heavens, ravioli sure taste yummy. Homemade ravioli are even tastier. But gosh, making the pasta for the ravioli completely by hand is so time time consuming and leads to pasta with uneven thickness. That’s why I like my ravioli gizmos.

Look at the picture below. The hand-crank pasta machine is second to the left. Feed pasta in at the top. Turning the crank will turn out a pasta sheet on uniform thickness. The extra attachment on the far left helps make spaghetti.

The ravioli mold is on the right. It yields 21 small and even ravioli. It also makes assembly much easier.

And remember, spending money of gizmos isn’t frivolous when the gadgets are for the kitchen.

Ravioli gizmos

 

– Paul De Lancey, The Comic Chef, Ph.D.

My cookbook, Following Good Food Around the World, with its 180 wonderful recipes, my newest novel, Do Lutheran Hunks Eat Mushrooms, a hilarious apocalyptic thriller, and all my other books, are available on amazon.com.

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Strawberry Balsamic Chicken

Posted on August 15, 2023 by pauldelancey

American Entree

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STRAWBERRY BALSAMIC CHICKEN

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INGREDIENTS­
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⅔ pound (about 2 cups) strawberries
4 chicken breasts
½ teaspoon pepper
½ teaspoon salt
½ cup balsamic vinegar (½ cup more later)
½ cup balsamic vinegar
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
½ tablespoon minced garlic
1 teaspoon cornstarch
1 tablespoon fresh basil
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SPECIAL UTENSIL
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8″ * 12″ casserole dish.
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Serves 4.  Takes 1 hour 45 minutes.
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PREPARATION
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Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Remove stems from strawberries. Cut each strawberry into 4 pieces. Rub pepper and salt over chicken breasts. Add chicken breasts and ½ cup balsamic vinegar to mixing bowl. Turn chicken breasts until they are completely coated. Let marinate in refrigerator for 1 hour. Add chicken to casserole dish. Bake at 375 degrees for 30 minutes or until chicken is no longer pink inside.
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Add strawberry bits. Simmer at low heat for 4 minutes or until strawberry bits start to lose their shape. Add a chicken breast to each plate. Ladle strawberry glaze over chicken breasts. Goes well with rice or spinach.
Add strawberry bits. Simmer at low heat for 4 minutes or until strawberry bits start to lose their shape. Add a chicken breast to each plate. Dice basil. Ladle strawberry glaze over chicken breasts. Garnish with basil. Goes well with rice or spinach.
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TIDBITS
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1) At the first Iowa Caucus, the Iowa Strawberry Growers Association (ISGA) made a mad attempt to showcase their strawberries to the nation. In return the “strawberry candidates” wore strawberries on their lapels. Political analysts counted strawberries distributed to determine the ISGA’s strength. This was the first strawberry poll. Strawberry poll got shortened to straw poll to save newspaper ink. Now you know.
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– Paul De Lancey, The Comic Chef, Ph.D.

My cookbook, Following Good Food Around the World, with its 180 wonderful recipes, my newest novel, Do Lutheran Hunks Eat Mushrooms, a hilarious apocalyptic thriller, and all my other books, are available on amazon.com.

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I Made a Birthday Cake

Posted on August 10, 2023 by pauldelancey

I’ve recovered enough from yesterday to make a birthday cake. Alas, it’s not my best effort, but still the cake was homemade. The strawberry frosting was also frosting. This cake was my first attempt to use fondant.

I also made strawberry glycerin soap, using real strawberries.

All this activity kept me off the streets, where I would only have fomented revolution.

– Paul De Lancey, The Comic Chef, Ph.D.

My cookbook, Following Good Food Around the World, with its 180 wonderful recipes, my newest novel, Do Lutheran Hunks Eat Mushrooms, a hilarious apocalyptic thriller, and all my other books, are available on amazon.com.

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Saoto

Posted on August 4, 2023 by pauldelancey

Surinamese Soup

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SAOTO

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INGREDIENTS – BROTH­
1 pound chicken breast, boneless
1 small onion
3 garlic cloves
1 lemongrass stalk
1″ galangal root
4 cups chicken broth
4 cups water
3 berries allspice
1 Indonesian bay or bay leaf
2 teaspoons soy sauce
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INGREDIENTS – REST
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1 stalk celery
½ pound rice vermicelli
6 hard boiled eggs
½ pound bean sprouts
2 cups shredded cabbage
2 teaspoons sambal kecap, sambal oelek, or sriracha
½ cup shoestring potatoes
½ cup crispy fried onions
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SPECIAL UTENSIL
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spice grinder
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Serves 6. Takes 1 hour 45 minutes.
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PREPARATION – BROTH
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Cut chicken into 2″ cubes. Dice onion. Mince garlic cloves. Mince inner green part of lemongrass. Use spice grinder to grind galangal into little bits. Add chicken broth and water to large pot. Bring to boil using high heat. Add chicken cubes, galangal, onion, garlic, lemongrass, allspice, bay leaf, and soy sauce to large pot. Reduce heat to low and simmer for 1 hour. Remove chicken cubes with slotted spoon. Shred chicken using two forks.
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PREPARATION – REST
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Which broth simmers, dice celery. Break rice vermicelli into manageable lengths. Slice eggs in two. Add 2 egg halves to each soup bowl and an equal amount of bean sprouts, celery, cabbage, rice vermicelli, sambal, and chicken to each bowl. Ladle an equal amount of broth into bowls. Garnish with shoestring potatoes, and  crispy fried onion
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TIDBITS
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1) Once upon a time lived three squirrels called Berry, Onion, and Galangal.
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2) They all lived in their own tidbits in the far-off land of Surinam.
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3) They loved to eat Saoto.
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4) But the soup, Saoto, required chicken broth.
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5) But this was long ago. (See tidbit 1.) There were no supermarkets. So they couldn’t go down Aisle 7 and fill up their cart with chicken broth. What to do? What to do?
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6) “Why not encourage that roving herd of feral chickens to take baths in our little tide pool?” said Berry.
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7) “Yes, yes.” Onion flapped her little wings in excitement and actually flew 239 feet. This would be a record that would stand for millennia.
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8) Onion flapped her way back. Berry and Galangal spent the time looking for worms.
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9) “Well,” said Onion. “If the chickens spend enough time in the tide pool, we can use the water as chicken broth.
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10) It was at this time, Berry and Galangal pointed out to Onion, that he was, indeed, a squirrel and couldn’t have taken to the sky flapping chicken wings.
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11) “Well,” squeaked Onion, “you’re not chickens either. You’re squirrels. You shouldn’t be eating worms. Shame on you.”
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12) Stronger words were soon squeaked. Fur flew so freely that it blotted out the sky.” This was the first solar fur eclipse.
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13) There have been exactly sixteen such eclipses since then.
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14) The author is taking advantage of the squirrel fight to find out if squirrels are vegetarian.
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15) No they are not. Although they primarily nuts and such stuff, they will chow down on meat if the opportunity arises.
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16) However, I suppose a squirrel could remain a vegetarian for life. It could even be vegan. I mean how, on Earth, are squirrels going to milk a cow?
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17) Anyway, Berry, Onion, and Galangal having established themselves as omnivores, secure once more in their squirrelness, and realizing that their time in Tidbit Land was nearing the bottom of the page, made themselves some yummy Saoto soup.
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18) And they all lived happily ever after.
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– Paul De Lancey, The Comic Chef, Ph.D.

My cookbook, Following Good Food Around the World, with its 180 wonderful recipes, my newest novel, Do Lutheran Hunks Eat Mushrooms, a hilarious apocalyptic thriller, and all my other books, are available on amazon.com.

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Short Post Today, I made cookies

Posted on August 3, 2023 by pauldelancey

A big batch. I also couldn’t use my office for a long time.

 

– Paul De Lancey, The Comic Chef, Ph.D.

My cookbook, Following Good Food Around the World, with its 180 wonderful recipes, my newest novel, Do Lutheran Hunks Eat Mushrooms, a hilarious apocalyptic thriller, and all my other books, are available on amazon.com.

Categories: cuisine | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Shrimp Pineapple Curry

Posted on July 27, 2023 by pauldelancey

Sri Lankan Entree

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SHRIMP PINEAPPLE CURRY

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INGREDIENTS – CURRY PASTE­
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2 green chiles
½ teaspoon black mustard or brown mustard seeds
1 medium onion
2 tablespoons sesame, coconut, or vegetable oil
1½ tablespoons fresh curry, kaffir lime, or basil leaves
3 garlic cloves
1½ tablespoons fresh* pandanus** or cilantro
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INGREDIENTS – SHRIMP PINEAPPLE
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1 cup coconut milk
¾ teaspoon fish sauce or soy sauce
1½ tablespoons sugar
1½ cup chopped or crushed pineapple
1 pound shrimp
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* = 1 tablespoon fresh herbs = 1 teaspoon dried herbs
** = Pandanus and some of the other ingredients can be hard to find. This is why I list substitutes.
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SPECIAL UTENSILS
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spice grinder
blender or food processor
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Serves 4. Takes 45 minutes.
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PREPARATION – CURRY PASTE
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Seed chiles. Grind mustard seeds in spice grinder. Mince onion. Add oil and onion to pan. Sauté at medium-high heat for 5 minutes or until onion softens. Stir frequently. Add ground mustard seeds, sautéed onion, and the remaining curry paste ingredients to blender. Blend until you get a curry paste.
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PREPARATION – SHRIMP PINEAPPLE
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Add curry paste, coconut milk, fish sauce, and sugar to large pan. Bring to boil using high heat. Stir frequently. Reduce heat to medium and simmer for 5 minutes. Stir occasionally. Add pineapple and shrimp. Simmer at medium heat for 4 minutes or until shrimp turns pink. Stir occasionally. Goes well with rice.
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TIDBITS
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1) Nearly everyone who isn’t a little child finds shrimp to be ever so tasty.
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2) Tots, however, greatly prefer ice cream.  This is why thousands upon thousands of ice cream trucks roams patrol the streets of our towns of cities.
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3) But what about the adults? Why can’t we can’t have shrimp trucks driving around, playing the notes to “Blow the Man Down” or ever better, “Shrimp Boats are  Sailing” Instead of various dairy desserts, these plucky vendors could sell: shrimp cocktails, shrimp scampi, or Shrimp Pineapple Curry?
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4) How did Shrimp Pineapple Curry come about?  Remarkably, while billions of words have been written, over hundreds of years, over what people like to eat and how to make their dishes, nearly nothing has been written about what shrimp like to dine on.
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5) Oh sure, we know they will devour all manner of algae organisms. And itty, bitty bits of deal corral, roots, and other rotting ocean-floor delicacies. But such fare doesn’t sound very appetizing, does it?  No, and the shrimp don’t think so either.
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6) So, it was quite a momentous event for the shrimp nation when the Portuguese navigator Bartolomeo Diaz sailed into the Indian Ocean in 1488.
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7) Bartolomeo had a shrimp, Vasco, for a pet when he was little. Everyday, little Barty watched his plucky shrimp perform high-impact acrobatics. “Wait and see,” said Barty to his pet, “I’m going to achieve great things on the open sea. Just like you.”
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8) But he had to endure endless name calling, such as “Batty Barty,” before he grew up enough to command a crown-sponsored naval expedition. Batty had wanted  trade coconuts to the shrimps of the Indian Ocean in exchange for algae, but a crabby King John II insisted on bringing back valuable spices.
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9) In disgust, Barty threw his cargo of coconuts overboard. The shrimp loved coconuts, once they decomposed. The cleverest shrimps discovered a way to grow ocean-floor coconuts.  A few years later an Arab trading vessel carrying pineapples and curry leaves sank. Brainy shrimps found a way to harvest these ingredients beneath the waves.
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10) Naturally, the shrimps who had been hating their bland diet since tidbit 5) created Pineapple Curry. Brilliant, industrious shrimps created colossal aquatic coconut, curry, and pineapple farms.
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11) Indian Ocean shrimps led a blissful culinary existence until submariners during World War II noticed thousands of square miles aquatic acreage. “I’ll bet Coconut Curry would make a great dish would make a scrumptious entree if one only added shrimp to it,” said Chef Bertie of HMS Entre.
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16) And he did. Now the world eats tons of shrimp every day and their vast aquatic farms lie untended and forgotten. And if you try to tell someone at cocktail party about this, they’ll make a squeaky sound and scurry to the other side of the room.
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– Paul De Lancey, The Comic Chef, Ph.D.

My cookbook, Following Good Food Around the World, with its 180 wonderful recipes, my newest novel, Do Lutheran Hunks Eat Mushrooms, a hilarious apocalyptic thriller, and all my other books, are available on amazon.com.

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Suya From Nigeria

Posted on July 14, 2023 by pauldelancey

Nigerian Entree

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SUYA

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INGREDIENTS
1¼ pounds steak or chicken breasts
3 garlic cloves
1 inch ginger root
3 tablespoons roasted peanuts
8 Uda pods*
1 bouillon cube (It should be the same flavor as the meat used. MaggiTM is, by far, the most popular brand in Africa.)
1 tablespoon cayenne
2 teaspoons paprika
no-stick spray
1½ tablespoons peanut oil or vegetable oil
1 onion
1 tomato
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* = These pods impart a distinctive, authentic taste. They are also known as Selim peppers and Senegal peppers. They are also hard to find, especially offline. Substitute with Szechuan peppercorns. If neither are available, add ¼ teaspoon pepper. If guests notice you didn’t use Uda pods, zap them with your sonic obliterator. You don’t need that kind of negativity.
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SPECIAL UTENSILS
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food processor or spice grinder
kitchen mallet, mortar and pestle, or even squeaky clean long-nose pliers!
4 metallic skewers (If you use wooden ones, soak them in water 30 minutes before grilling.)
indoor grill
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Makes 4 skewers. Takes 2 hours 45 minutes.
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PREPARATION
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Cut steak into 1″ cubes. Mince garlic cloves and ginger root. Grind roasted peanuts into paste with food processor. Smash open Uda pods and remove seeds. Add Uda pods to bowl and crush with kitchen mallet. Crumble bouillon cube. Add garlic, ginger, peanut paste, Uda, bouillon bits, cayenne, and paprika to mixing bowl. Mix with whisk or fork. Add steak cubes to bowl. Mix with hands until cubes are well coated. Cover and marinate in refrigerator for 2 hours. (Soak skewers for 30 minutes if using wooden ones.) While beef marinates, cut onion and tomato into thin slices.
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Thread coated steak cubes to skewers. Brush cubes with peanut oil. Spray grill with no-stick spray. Add skewers to griddle. Cook at medium heat or 300 degrees for 5 minutes or beef cubes are done and golden brown. Garnish with onion and tomato slices.
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TIDBITS
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1) In 356 BC*, or BCE**, Alexander the Little was born.
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2) He was called The Little as he was little at birth.
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3) I too was little at birth, as were billions of people.
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4) * = It’s really quite extraordinary to think how people nearly 2,400 years ago knew that Christ would be born 356 years later.
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5) ** = Or even 356 years before the Common Era. How could they possibly know that era would occur? Or even if they did, how could they ever have guessed it would have been called the Common Era? What if instead, they could have foreseen that the first pita bread would have been baked at Year One? In that case, 356 BCE would be 356 BBFPB (Before Baking First Pita Bread.)
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6) Anyway, Alexander the Little ascended to the Macedonian crown in 336 BBFPB.
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7) His enemies still called him the Little. After Alexander executed these people, these taunts stopped. Alex let everyone know, that they were to refer to him as Alexander the Man.
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8) Alexander, a 20-year-old King, naturally wanted to conquer someone. But which countries?  Was the time right for conquest?
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9) Of course, the thing that all men of Ancient Greece did when wanting to know the future was to consult the Oracle of Delphi.
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10) But that oracle was booked. Apparently, there was a convention of stock brokers in nearby Athens and they all wanted to predict stock prices.
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11) So, The Man headed to the oracle at Suya, in what is now Nigeria.
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12) Little Alex–Oops, he doesn’t want to be called that anymore–made his way across the great Sahara Dessert.
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13) Alexander had a “Serving 56″ ticket and the seers of the oracle were only on 23. So, he looked out the waiting room’s door. He saw to his astonishment Suyan soldiers march by, carrying 16′ spears. The spears held impaled bits of steak and chicken breasts for sustenance on long marches.
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14) 16-foot spears could easily overmatch the daggers and hurling tomatoes favored by the Macedonians and all other Mediterranean empires.
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15) Anyway, the Suyan Oracle told him to conquer the Persian Empire.
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16) Alexander did so with his entree-laden spears. His called this entree “Suya” in honor of the oracle that foresaw his rise to greatness.
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17) And oh, this conquest also earned him the right to call himself Alexander the Great.
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– Paul De Lancey, The Comic Chef, Ph.D.

My cookbook, Following Good Food Around the World, with its 180 wonderful recipes, my newest novel, Do Lutheran Hunks Eat Mushrooms, a hilarious apocalyptic thriller, and all my other books, are available on amazon.com.

Categories: cuisine, history, international | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Jackfruit Curry (Polos Curry)

Posted on July 8, 2023 by pauldelancey

Sri Lankan Entree

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JACKFRUIT CURRY

(Polos Curry)

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INGREDIENTS
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1 pound canned jackfruit*, drained
3 green chiles
3 garlic cloves
1 onion
2 tablespoons coconut oil or vegetable oil
½ teaspoon cumin seeds
½ teaspoon fennel seeds
½ teaspoon fenugreek seeds
½ teaspoon mustard seeds
1 tablespoon chili powder
½ tablespoon diced ginger
½ teaspoon pepper
1½ tablespoons roast curry powder* or curry powder
½ teaspoon turmeric
2″ cinnamon stick
3 collard green leaves or 2 pandan* leaves
6 curry leaves
1⅓ cups coconut milk
1 tablespoon tamarind juice or goraka*
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* = Can be found in Asian supermarkets or online.
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Serves 2. Takes 1 hour 30 minutes.
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PREPARATION
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Cut jackfruit into strips 2″ long. Seed green chiles. Mince garlic and green chiles. Dice onion. Add coconut oil. Heat coconut oil using medium heat until a cumin seed starts to dance in the oil. Add cumin seeds, fennel seeds, fenugreek seeds, and mustard seeds. Sauté for 30 seconds or until seeds start to pop. Stir constantly.
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Add garlic, green chile, onion, chili powder, ginger, pepper, roast curry powder, turmeric, cinnamon stick, collard leaves, and curry leaves. Sauté for at medium heat for 4 minutes or until onion softens. Stir frequently.
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Add coconut milk, tamarind juice, and jackfruit pieces. Bring to boil using high heat. Stir frequently. Cover. Reduce heat to low and simmer for 1 hour or until jackfruit pieces turn brown and soften. Stir enough to prevent burning. Remove cinnamon stick. Goes well with rice.
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TIDBITS
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1) This entree, Jackfruit Curry, is a curry that uses jackfruit.
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2) We are indeed starting this tidbit series on solid ground.
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3) It is less well known that this dish also goes by the name of Polos Curry.
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4) Culinary historians tell us that this curry was named after Marco Polo. Hence, Polo’s Curry.
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5) How do we not know this? Unfortunately for foodies everywhere, Polo’s travelog, The Travels of Marco Polo, blew his recipe book out of the water.
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6) I mean, Venetians, Pisans, Genoese, other Italians, and Europeans, from well, all over Europe kept saying, “Ooh, ooh, I want to know about far-off Asia.” So, Polo’s travel tale sold thousands and thousands of copies.
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7) So, the European book readers generally blew their literature budget on The Travels of Marco Polo.
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7b) Just now, I made a small typo and added an “i” before the “o” in “polo” to get “polio.” That kinda changed the meaning of the previous tidbit a bit. Fortunately, I edited out the offending letter, so you would never know my mistake.
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8) Anyway, Polo’s great culinary masterpiece Ottimi Pasti del Gran Khan, or Great Meals of the Great Khan, gathered dust in the most hidden parts of just a few European bookstores.
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9) Marco dictated Ottimi Pasti del Gran Khan to Fabio Manzo who languished in the same Genoese jail.
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10) How did Manzo’s effort get relegated to the dustbin of history, while everyone knows of Marco Polo and only a dedicated group of introverts talk freely–that is if they could talk freely to people–of the not great, but still pretty good, Signore Manzo.
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11) Sure, Marco Polo dictated his travels to his other cell mate, Rustichello da Pisa. Okay, da Pisa rates a mention. But Fabio Manzo never rates a mention.
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12) Why is this so?
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13) Literary agents.
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14) Signores Polo and da Pisa hired literary agents. Polo has been famous for nearly a millennium. Da Pisa merits a footnote every now and then. However, penny-pinching, Manzo hired no one. He is literature’s most forgotten man.*
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15) * = See Time Magazine’s(tm) issue, The 100 Most Forgotten Names in Literature.
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16) However, while Manzo and Great Meals of the Great Khan remain largely forgotten, this cookbook can always be found on the shelves of all great chefs. Something to think about.
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– Paul De Lancey, The Comic Chef, Ph.D.

­My cookbook, Following Good Food Around the World, with its 180 wonderful recipes, my newest novel, Do Lutheran Hunks Eat Mushrooms, a hilarious apocalyptic thriller, and all my other books, are available on amazon.com.

 

Categories: cuisine, history, international | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Pearl Sugar

Posted on July 3, 2023 by pauldelancey

Belgian Dessert*

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PEARL SUGAR

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INGREDIENTS
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3 cups sugar
3½ tablespoons water
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Takes 40 minutes. Make 3½ cups.
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* = Belgian pearl sugar is larger than the Swedish variety and resembles pearly white pebbles. It’s sugar, if you can find it, has large granules made from sugarbeets. The Belgian variety is best for Liege, or Belgian, waffles. Swedish pearl sugar, pärlsocker, has smaller sugar granules. Use Swedish pearl sugar to top pastries, cakes, and breads.
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PREPARATION
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Add both ingredients to 2 large pans. Mix with wooden spoon or spatula. Use low heat. Stir constantly until clumps start to form. (If too much loose sugar remains, add 1 more teaspoon sugar and stir again.) Try for larger clumps if you want Belgian pearl sugar and smaller clumps if you’re going for Swedish pearl sugar.
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When happy with clump sizes, dry them out over low heat for 20 minutes. Stir occasionally. Remove from heat and let cool until clumps harden.
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TIDBITS
1) Swedish pearl sugar granules are small. Belgian pearl sugar granules are big. But are they the world’s biggest?  No. Sugarologists say Tahitian granules are 23-to-25 percent than those from Belgium.
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2) Culinary historians says the largest pearl sugar granule came from Greenland during the Viking Age. Please Bengt Erickson’s The Sugar Cane Fields of Greenland’s East Settlement, (Sockerrörsfälten i Grnlands Östra Bosättning.)
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3) Erickson raised cane from 1012 to 1025. His success encouraged hundreds of other Swedish Vikings to voyage over and do the same. Unfortunately, so many came to harvest sugar that they completely chopped down all the trees in Greenland’s vast forest just to build their log cabins.
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4) What, you you’ve never heard of the Great Greenlandic Forest? You say that aren’t any trees there? Sure, now.
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– Paul De Lancey, The Comic Chef, Ph.D.

My cookbook, Following Good Food Around the World, with its 180 wonderful recipes, my newest novel, Do Lutheran Hunks Eat Mushrooms, a hilarious apocalyptic thriller, and all my other books, are available on amazon.com.

Categories: cuisine, history, international | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

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