Is this the end?

We’re Running Out Of Chocolate - Are we?

At the rate we’re going, chocolate is going to be a rare – and extremely pricey – commodity within the next 20 years. Somebody needs to light a fire under those Oompa-Loompas, stat.

The problem’s easy to explain, and much harder to fix. According to the Cocoa Research Association, we’re consuming more chocolate than we’re producing cocoa. Which means, eventually, we’re going to run out.

Cocoa’s notoriously difficult to harvest, meaning more and more small-scale West African growers – who make an average of 80 cents per day – have little incentive not to turn to more lucrative crops, likrubber, or give up farming altogether in favour of more stable opportunities in cities.

What will the shortage mean? $10 Snickers bars, sooner than you think. Pretzels given out for Halloween. Or more lollies made from carob, a poor substitute for the sweet and sticky real deal. And a tectonic shift in how we view our mochas, according the Nature Conservation Research Council’s John Mason:

“In 20 years chocolate will be like caviar. It will become so rare and so expensive that the average Joe just won’t be able to afford it.”

But don’t lose hope! Both Hershey and Mars Inc have sequenced the cacao genome, meaning more resilient trees could be in our future. And 20 years seems like enough time to figure out how to incentivise farmers appropriately.

Still, though, just in case, my Cadbury Cream Egg stockpiling starts now

From gizmodo

DIY Health Check

Here are 5 simple health checks that you can do it at home and could actually alert to more serious things:


You will need:
 - A PAIR OF TWEEZERS - increased facial hair could mean one of the symptoms of PCOS  (Polycystic ovary syndrome). Apart from increased body hair, specifically around the chin, stomach and nipples, other symptoms could be disordered periods, weight gain and acne. 
 - NAIL CLIPPERS The way your nails look sometimes can reflect health issues. If your nails are pale, it may indicate an iron deficiency. Flanky and brittle nails can sometimes indicate that your thyroid is imbalanced and yellowfish nails can mean either a fungal infection or poor circulation. 
 - A MIRROR  Stick your tongue out and say: AAAHHHH. a healthy tongue should look pink, smooth and fairly moist. However, the tongue could become swollen, discouloured, white, painful...those are symptoms of stress, too much alcohol. vitamin deficiencies or even more serious illness.
 - A HAIRBRUSH - Hair loss in women is quite common, particularly during pregnancy or stress. however, hair loss can also indicate thyroid problems, iron deficiency and diabetes, and also, vitamin D deficiency. 
 - DENTAL FLOSS - A recent study has shown links between serious gum disease and risk of cardiovascular disease, so if you have bleeding gums, or mouth ulcers...see your doctor. 










(From Coles Beauty & Health magazine)

Best packaged food out there for you

I got that from a magazine (women's health) but I thought was worth it sharing cause not always we can make everything from scratch right?
So what are the best packaged food that we can buy?


here are some ideas for dinner:
Pasta
Pasta sauce
Leggo’s Sugo di Pomodoro Premium Cooking Sauce – Italian Herbs with Basil 






















Dried pasta
Vetta High Fibre

Added oat fibre doubles the fibre content.

Gluten-free pasta 
San Remo Gluten Free Penne

This holds together well – unlike others... 

Side dish
Sun Rice Roasted Vegetable Brown Rice

Low in saturated fat and has some fibre. 

Rice
Sun Rice Brown Whole Grain Rice

The whole grain makes it highest fibre. 

Noodles 
Chang’s Whole Wheat Noodles

Add thick or thin noodles to your stir-fry.

Couscous
Ainsley Harriott Plain Couscous

Low in fat, sodium and kilojoules. Sold. 

Stir-fry sauce 
Kan Tong Sweet & Sour Lite

No MSG, 99 per cent fat free, lowest sodium. 

Fish 
Birds Eye Steamed Fish Fillets, Lemon and Parsley

These fillets have no artificial colours, preservatives or flavours. Plus they’re ready in a flash. 

Chicken 
Ingham Lite Breast Appetizers

Lowest fat and kilojoule crumbed chicken product available. 
















Frozen dinner 

Healthy Choice Stir-Fry Chicken with Hokkien Noodles

With one serving of vegies, this quick meal keeps that saturated fat low.

Frozen pizza
McCain Pizza Perfection Thin Crust Tandoori Chicken

Oven-frozen pizza that’s the lowest in kJs, saturated fat and sodium.


















Frozen potatoes
Healthy Choice Country Style Wedges

These suckers are low in fat. 

Frozen burger
I&J Lean Beefers Lean Beef Patties

Lower kilojoule option with 60 per cent less fat than the regular patties.




















Vegie burger 
Sanitarium Vegie Delights, Not Burgers

Great for vegos. High in protein and low sodium. High in zinc too. 

Stir-fry mix
McCain Stirfry Supreme Vegetables

A healthy variety of vegies.




















Frozen vegies
Heinz Steamfresh Carrot, Corn & Broccoli

Single serve packs for vegies in a flash. 

Canned vegies
Edgell Mixed Vegetables

Lower in sodium than other tinned types. 

Aluminium Foil - So which side is the correct side?

Aluminium foil is made shiny on one side and dull on the other by heavy rollers used to roll out the foil in the manufacturing process. The side that comes in contact with the rollers becomes shiny and the side that does not is dull.

As for the difference it makes when we use foil in cooking, testing has discovered that there is a very minimal difference. Although one would expect the shiny side to reflect heat more than the dull side, there really is very little difference. When freezing, baking or storing food, the effect on the food is the same, no matter whether you use the foil with the shiny side facing in or out.

One thing to watch out for however, is the use of foil in the storage of acidic foods. A chemical reaction takes place when foil comes into contact with foods with an acidic element in them. This reaction leaves holes in the foil and black specks on the food. It is mostly harmless, but should be avoided if possible.

So no more concerning about the correct side! 

Source: ninemsn

Puff Pastry and Shortcrust Pastry. what's the difference?

We see all this options of pastry available in the supermarket. So what is what? what to use for what?

Image source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/pastry

At its most basic, pastry is a mixture of flour and fat bound with water to form a paste. Historically it was used as a case for baking other items, but people eventually realised the pastry was worth eating too. The wide range of pastries made today vary in texture and taste according to the proportion of fats used, the way in which it is incorporated with the flour, and the method used to shape the dough


Puff pastry can generally be described as flaky, light and buttery, good for pies and pastries; while shortcrust pastry has a more crumbly, biscuit-like texture which is good for tart or quiche cases. Sweet puff pastry is literally puff pastry with sugar added to it, while sweet shortcrust pastry is not commercially available. When making a pie, many cooks use shortcrust on the bottom and puff pastry for the lid.

Puff pastry Puff pastry is best for pastries, sausage rolls, sweet or savoury pies, turnovers and palmiers. Puff pastry is usually made with canola or a vegetable oil. Butter puff pastry is puff pastry made with butter instead of the vegetable oil and no sugar. Whether you use normal puff pastry or butter puff pastry is entirely a matter of personal preference. Sweet puff pastry is puff pastry made using sugar. In Australia, it is not available ready-made. It is used in sweet recipes that require a flaky, buttery pastry such as a sweet pie.

Shortcrust pastry Shortcrust has a slightly biscuity, crumbly texture that is resistant to soaking up fluids so is perfect for quiches, tarts, samosas and other savoury delights with wet fillings or those that are not being served immediately. It is surprisingly sturdy when removed from its tin. Plain shortcrust is usually used for savoury fillings but can be a good counterpoint to very sweet fillings too so it is an all-purpose option. Pate sablee is a sweetened shortcrust pastry, though more like a biscuit dough, in that butter and sugar are beaten together before the flour and liquid are added. The word sablee means sandy or grainy and this effect is sometimes enhanced by the addition of ground almonds.

Fillo Fillo is wafer thin and crunchy and brown when cooked. Use fillo when a light, crunchy pastry is required, like a spinach pie, or where it will receive a good soaking in a syrupy liquid such as when making baklava.

Choux Choux has very specific uses such as for making eclairs, croquembouche and choux buns. When baked, it transforms into light-as-air puffs with hollow pockets perfect for filling with cream or chocolate.

Source: ninemsn and BBC

I don't have this ingredient in my pantry.....

Ok,
several times we decide to cook a recipe, and don't quite check properly if we have all the ingredients (Well, I DONT, as you might imagine).
So what to do?

SUBSTITUTIONS. A lot of the times, the ingredients can be substituted. So here is a basic substitution table.

Arrowroot - substitute with cornstarch, potato starch or rice starch OR even all purpose flour, altought you will need to double the amount 1 measure of arrowroot - 2 measures of flour

Dry breadcrumbs  - substitute with crushed cracker crumbs, matzo meal, crushed cornflakes


Cream of Tartar - substitute with white vinegar or lemon juice 


Sour cream - substitute with plain yogurth, 


Bread Flour - for every 160g of bread flour, use 140g of all purpose flour




I will come back with more substitutions...soon!
Love,


Vic

Baking soda, bicarbonate of soda, baking powder. So what's the story?

Since I bought my Bread machine I've been researching recipes and some of them ask for baking soda, other bicarbonate. So what's the story here? 

Baking soda and bicarbonate of soda are no more that different names for the same thing; in Australia, we mostly refer to it as bicarbonate of soda, but overseas, especially in America, it is referred to as baking soda. They aren’t interchangeable, but bicarbonate of soda and baking powder are both leavening agents. When included in a batter, the leavening agent causes air bubbles (produced by stirring, whipping or beating) to expand when cooked – causing it to ‘rise’.

Bicarbonate of soda is a pure leavening agent. It needs to be mixed with moisture and an acidic ingredient for the necessary chemical reaction to take place to make food rise. Because it needs an acid to create the rising quality, it is often used in recipes where there is already an acidic ingredient present, such as lemon juice, chocolate, buttermilk or honey.

Baking powder, which contains bicarbonate of soda, comes pre-mixed with the acidic ingredient for you – so all you need to add is the moisture. The acidic ingredient most often used in baking powder is cream of tartar. You can make your own baking powder: simply mix two parts cream of tartar with one part bicarbonate of soda. Baking powder has a neutral taste and is often used in recipes that have other neutral-tasting ingredients, such as milk.

In Australia, we usually just cook with self-raising flour when a leavening agent is required, unless the specific qualities of bicarbonate of soda are required. Bicarbonate of soda imparts a slightly different quality to that of baking powder when used in cooking. It can have a slightly “tangy” taste and it makes a lovely golden colour. It also makes a very specific texture not achievable with baking powder. It is very important to sift bicarbonate of soda well as it gets lumpy and to use very exact measures as the “tangy” taste can quite easily become bitter or soapy if too much is used.

Source: Ninemsn

Dulce de leche - a south american passion

So, what is Dulce de Leche?

I was born in South America, so for me it's so clear, but so hard to explain what it is.

But I found this sweet explanation from Baking Bites Blog.

Here it goes:

Dulce de leche is a thick, milk-based caramel sauce. It is probably most popular in South American Spanish and Portuguese-speaking countries, but variations exist in other countries and cultures as well. The most simple caramel sauce starts with sugar, and depending on the variation you have in mind, ingredients like cream and butter are added to the hot sugar to form caramel. With dulce de leche, milk and sugar are cooked together to make a caramel, a process that takes quite a long time but results in an incredibly rich-tasting sauce with a strong milky flavor behind its sweetness. It is similar to sweetened condensed milk (and can be made from it, too), although dulce de leche is thicker and much more caramelized (darker in color and flavor) than sweetened condensed milk alone.

Try out a few different brands if you are ordering, since dulce de leche, like other types of caramel, can taste different from brand to brand.