‘Chill’, man!

Karina’s Safety Cooking Tip:

IMG_6975

When it comes to keeping food in the safe zone, you should prevent foods that are high-risk from becoming a health risk. What I mean by high-risk foods, are foods that can quickly develop bacteria if treated irresponsibly. High-risk foods include, but are not limited to: Eggs, Milk, Raw Meat, Cooked Meat, along with many other foods, which have a reasonable or some degree of moisture content. This moisture content is not specifically defined. Low-risk foods, include foods that are sold on shelves, including, but not limited to: dried uncooked rice, dried uncooked pasta, Dried crackers, etc.

Low-risk foods do not need to undergo temperature control, however, high-risk foods do. For example, if I were to cook a chicken, I would either need to eat this straight away, or, keep this within the safe zone for temperature control. You can find guidelines on this topic, regarding the safe zone of food, along with many other useful information, at the following website: http://dofoodsafely.health.vic.gov.au

Stay safe and have fun in the kitchen!

Karina x

Advertisement

Fast Ed!

Today, I was reacquainted with one of my favourite Australian TV Chefs! He’s is Aussie! He is great! His food tastes AMAZING! He is such a nice person, who makes time to talk to everyone! He even let me prep some corn for him! The last time I saw Fast Ed, was back in October 2010: four and a half years later, today, I saw him again!

I was fortunate enough to have a conversation with him today! I asked him: “How old were you when you started cooking?” He replied: “I was fourteen and worked in a cafe.” I told him how I was five when I first started cooking, however, there was a massive hole in the middle of the pizza! We both then joked, saying it was a ‘holy dough’ or a ‘dough with a hole in it.’ There was even a Dad’s joke coming from an old man today, to which Fast Ed appreciated.

Today, I took my Mum with me, as we both love cooking. Her and I both had an absolute blast and loved every second of today! I had my very first ‘Fast Ed’ Cook Book signed by him today, I was fortunate enough to help him out in the kitchen, I had lunch cooked for me, as did everyone else, then I was fortunate enough to ask Fast Ed some questions! Could my day get any better? No way!

Fast Ed and I, back on the 16th of October 2010:

IMG_0035

Fast Ed and I, today, the 11th of April, 2015:

IMG_3604

Fast Ed and I today, the 11th of April, 2015. I prepped corn:

IMG_3613

Fast Ed’s food is AMAZING! The way the rump steak was cooked, was soo succulent, I am still thinking about how good it was, six hours later! All of his food tasted absolutely AMAZING! I want more of his food right now! All of his food was cooked on a BBQ; including the scones!

Fast Ed’s Delicious BBQ Pork Crackling and Succulent BBQ Corn:

IMG_3614

Fast Ed’s Juicy, Tender, Succulent and AMAZING BBQ Rump Steak:

IMG_3618

Fast Ed’s Delicious Chili con carne:

IMG_3620

Fast Ed’s Amazing Dahl:

IMG_3621 2

Fast Ed’s very flavourful BBQ Lamb (the one next to the Corn):

IMG_3616

Fast Ed’s Lovely BBQ Cheese, Dill and Olive Scones:

IMG_3624

Furthermore, Fast Ed has a wealth of knowledge and passed down some very handy cooking tips:

– When you’re sharpening your kitchen knives, never use a sharpening pole, as this doesn’t even sharpen your knife. Use a sharpening stone, that is designed for sharpening kitchen knives, so your knives will stay sharp. The sharpening stone will last a lifetime, so will make the best present for someone you know who loves to cook.

– When BBQ’ing or grilling, never occupy more than half to two-thirds of your grill plate, in order to ensure there are hot sections left on the grill for you to turn your meat over and cook at a high temperature.

– When cooking meat, you want to cook for the shortest amount of time possible, on the highest heat (depending on your cut of meat), in order to ensure your meat stays moist and doesn’t dry out.

– Grab some foil, then some waxed kitchen paper, then place over the chicken, or other meat. Then grab some weights, like a couple of bricks, then place over the chicken. This increases the surface area of the meat over the heat, then ensures the heat goes directly throughout the chicken or other meat. This technique reduces the cooking time of the meat by one-third of the cooking time, creating the most moist, succulent chicken or other meat, you will find.

– Use semolina flour in your scones mixture, for extra crunch.

– When you’re making your scone mixture, you should aim to put 2% of salt to your flour ratio. This means, if you put 1 kilo of flour in the mixture, you’ll need to put 20 grams of salt. If you’re making cheesy-scones, you won’t need to add much salt, since there is salt in the cheese.

– Lemon juice can positively react with the ingredients in the scone mixture, creating an even greater lift to your scones, which makes them even more effective at rising.

– If you don’t have an industrial-sized mixing bowl and you need to cook for a tribe, grab a large plastic container for $3!

– Use a small paring knife to remove the bone from your roast lamb, instead of paying a massive amount for filleted lamb.

– You should always score your meat prior to cooking and seasoning, for two reasons. 1: The scoring helps to ensure uniform cooking, due to more surface area of the meat being exposed. 2: To tenderise and flavour: scoring allows the flavours to absorb deeper into the flesh, for added flavour.

– There is no need to buy fancy salts, since it is better for you to use regular salt.

N.B. I’m sure there were many other tips he mentioned today, however, these were the main ones I remembered!

Have Fun in the kitchen!

Enjoy!

Karina x

All Fired Up!

Karina’s ‘Hot’ Safety Tip!

IMG_6786

One can become all ‘fired’ up, when the kitchen is on fire. Worse still, someone can get seriously injured, or even die. This is a serious issue and needs to remain a ‘hot’ topic in kitchen and house safety.

According to www.nfpa.org/education:

– The leading cause of fires in the kitchen, is due to unattended cooking

– Most cooking fires in the home, involve the stovetop

The list of kitchen safety tips are endless, however, the following are some of the most common tips you may discover:

– Do not operate a kitchen cooktop, stove, oven or other heatable kitchen appliance, when you are fatigued or have consumed alcohol

– NEVER leave your kitchen unattended, when you are cooking on any heatable mechanism, machine, equipment, appliance, oven, stove etc.

– Stay in the kitchen when you are cooking, so you can monitor the environment in your kitchen in order to prevent fires from occurring

– If a fire does occur, get yourself out of there immediately and call Emergency ASAP!

– Use a timer and/or alarm to remind yourself that you have food cooking

– Keep anything combustible away from your cooking, stovetop, oven, appliance, etc. Examples of combustible material include, but are not limited to, the following: wooden spoons, plastic cutlery, oven mitts, dishcloths, curtains, food packaging, paper towels, tissues, deodorants, insect repellants, etc.

– Do not allow children anywhere near any heated appliance, stove, cooktop, etc.

N.B. Some of the above information was depicted from www.nfpa.org/education.

The above list is not exhaustive. There are many other things you can do in the kitchen to remain safe in all areas, including, but not limited to, fire kitchen safety.

Avoid getting all ‘fired’ up or becoming another ‘hot’ statistic, by implementing the above safety tips!

Stay safe!

Karina x