How To Cook

What Goes Well With Bok Choy

Sep 29, 2019 · Leave a Comment

Since you’ve asked what goes well with bok choy, we thought we’d give you just that.

Use this list below whenever you need to know what flavors and ingredients taste good with bok choy.

Commonly found in Asian stir-fries, bok choy is known for its crisp texture. Consider pairing it with softer ingredients for a contrast in texture. Mushrooms, seafood, tender strips of pork, chicken or beef, all have a soft texture.

Stir fries often have garlic, ginger, sesame oil, and some kind of protein. All of these and more are listed below.

We’ve carefully selected only the ingredients that have the strongest matches and are readily available.

Foods starring bok choy:

Herb & spice matches:

Oil, vinegar and sauce matches:

Vegetable matches:

Fruit matches:

lime juice

Meat protein matches:

Dairy matches:

coconut milk

Beans & other legume matches:

Nut & seed matches:

Grains:

Recipe example:
Easy Bok Choy Recipe

Hey, while you’re here, leave a comment below.
We’d love to hear how our flavor matching guides have helped you.
Or better still, let us know what flavors you are having trouble trying to match.
We’d love to add it for you.

Happy cooking!
Anton

Tablespoons, Salt and Sauerkraut – The Measuring Problem

Aug 13, 2017 · 1 Comment

Tablespoons, Salt, and Sauerkraut – The Measuring Problem

Most Sauerkraut recipes call for 3 tablespoons of salt for every five pounds (2.3kg) of cabbage.

The problem with measuring salt with a tablespoon boils down to one thing:

Inaccuracy.

For example. Sauerkraut recipes do not tell you:

that various salt types measure differently in a tablespoon
if a level or heaping tablespoon is needed
the exact brand or type of salt to use much of the time

All Tablespoons of Salt are not Created Equal when making Sauerkraut

You see, some salt is coarse, some fine and some in between. One tablespoon of any of these is actually a different amount of salt. So, one tablespoon of fine grain salt will generally weigh more than coarse salt. That’s because more of the finer granules can fit into one tablespoon. The granules are closer together and packed more tightly. Think of it like this. Marbles fit more tightly in a box than beach balls. There’s larger air pockets between each beach ball and air weighs pretty much nothing.

As a consequence, you may be adding extra salt (or not enough) to your Sauerkraut without knowing it. This essentially changes the outcome of your sauerkraut. Often for the worse.

Strangely, from my own measurements, I’ve discovered smaller granules of salt do not always weigh more than larger granules. I found it can also depend on the brand, type, and density of the actual grains of salt. This definitely makes things more confusing. To simplify the matter, weigh your salt. No questions asked. Problem solved.

Let’s take a look at how the weight of different types of salt differs. Keep in mind each one of these three below is exactly one level tablespoon.

For this example we’ll take a look at three different salts:

Himalayan Pink Salt
Coarse Kosher Salt
Fine Sea Salt

Surprising isn’t it?

So, obviously, measuring salt by the tablespoon is not going to give you the correct amount of salt for your sauerkraut. There are just too many variables.

Salt for Sauerkraut – Up Close and Personal

Let’s get a closer look at different types of salt in the photo below.

Notice how the sizes of the salt crystals are noticeably different from one another? The smaller the salt grain, the more weight you can fit into a single tablespoon. (usually)

There’s quite a difference between them, isn’t there?

This table will illustrate how much of a difference that can make when a sauerkraut recipe calls for three tablespoons of salt.

Salt Type	3 Tablespoons (in grams)
Pink Himalayan Salt	54g
Great Value Coarse salt	60g
Regular table salt	51g
Windsor Coarse Kosher salt	48g
Windsor coarse pickling salt	48g

As a result, you may be adding up to 12g too much or 12g too little salt to your sauerkraut.

Level or Heaping Tablespoon of Salt

Most sauerkraut recipes don’t tell you if you should be using a level tablespoon, a heaping tablespoon, or something in between. A leveled tablespoon is where you slide a butter knife across the top of the spoon. It leaves the salt exactly level with the height of the tablespoon. On the other hand, a heaping tablespoon of salt resembles a mini “mountain” of salt that sits above the height of the spoon. Most sauerkraut recipes don’t tell you which one of the two to measure. Level or heaping? It’s your guess.

Can you spot the difference between these two salt measurements?

Tablespoons of Salt from Different Countries

What makes matters worse is that the size of a tablespoon made in one country is sometimes different than another country. For instance, Australia uses a 20ml tablespoon. In contrast, most of the rest of the world uses a 15ml tablespoon. Further to that, North America does not have a legal standard on what size a tablespoon should be made. It’s not an official measurement. So it’s really up to the manufacturer to decide exactly how big your tablespoon will actually be.

In conclusion, promise me you’ll never, never, ever measure salt by a tablespoon again when you make sauerkraut. It may seem easy to do, but your sauerkraut will suffer. Instead use a cabbage to salt ratio. Weigh both the salt and cabbage on a kitchen scale. It makes great sauerkraut every time!

Extra bonus resources for you:

Cook’s Info has more info about tablespoons from different countries.
Serious Eats discusses the innaccuracy of measuring salt with a tablespoon.

And while you’re here…please do leave a comment. Ask a question. Let us know your experience or opinion. I’d love to hear it!

Happy Cooking!
Anton

How Much Salt do I use for Sauerkraut?

Aug 13, 2017 · 4 Comments

Sauerkraut – Using The Correct Amount of Salt

Making sauerkraut for the first time can be intimidating. I promise you it doesn’t have to be. There are just a few things you need to get right for a tasty, full flavored kraut.
The first (and most important) question I always ask myself is how much salt do I use for sauerkraut?

Expert sauerkraut makers agree on one thing. The amount of salt is critical to the quality and safety of your sauerkraut. The correct amount of salt for any recipe is 2% percent of the weight of your cabbage. This assumes your cabbage is fermenting in an 18C to 21C environment. As you keep reading, you’ll learn how to quickly calculate this for yourself.

In a nutshell, the method goes like this:

Weigh your cabbage
Do some math
Weigh your salt

Seems fairly straight forward doesn’t it?

Step by Step Salt and Cabbage Measurements

Step 1 – Weigh your cabbage

First, weigh your cabbage using a digital kitchen scale.

By the way, I’m intentionally using the metric measurement of grams for this. It’s just easier to work with than the imperial system.

TIP:
Don’t weigh your cabbage in the condition you’ve purchased it from the market.
Instead, weigh it after you’ve torn off the outer leaves and removed the tough inner core.
The trick is to weigh the exact amount of cabbage that will end up in your sauerkraut.

For our example let’s say you’ve set your cabbage on a kitchen scale and it weighs exactly 2000g. (about two heads of cabbage)

Great, step one is done!

Step 2 – Do Some Easy Math

So from step one, you discovered your cabbage weighs 2000g right? For step two, take that number (2000g) and multiply by .02. Notice how the number “2” is in .02? That’s how you end up with 2% salt.

Wait, before we continue, a lot of our readers don’t like math! So why not try our sauerkraut calculator directly below?

Sauerkraut Calculator

Type the number of grams of cabbage you have below:

For ??? of cabbage, you will need ??? of salt.

Note: This will give you a 2% salt to cabbage ratio. Which is exactly what you want!

After you multiply, you’ll end up with the number 40. That means 40g of salt is needed for 2000g of raw cabbage.

Let’s look at that again:
2000g of cabbage multiplied by .02 equals “the number of grams of salt you need”

2000g x .02 = salt
2000g x .02 = 40g of salt

This also works for any amount of cabbage!

Let’s change the amount of cabbage and see what happens.

If you have 200g of cabbage, it would look like this…
200g x .02 = 4g salt

What about 654g of cabbage?
Let’s do it.

654g x .02 = 13.08g salt (we’ll just say 13g even)

And just to make it sink in, let’s have a little fun.
What about 40,000g of cabbage!
No problem.

40,000g x .02 = 800g salt

Fantastic, step two is done.

Step 3 – Weigh your salt

Now, simply weigh your salt with a kitchen scale to match the answer you got above. That’s how much salt you should use. There are no tablespoons to measure here.

Next, find out why tablespoons are inaccurate when measuring salt for sauerkraut.

Fermenting Sauerkraut bonus resources:

The University of Wisconsin-Madison has great information in PDF document format about fermenting vegetables, including sauerkraut:
You can find these at the links below. When you click on these links, a PDF will either open or download.

Recommendations for Safe Production of Fermented Vegetables

Fermented Vegetables

Fermented and Acidified Vegetables

And while you’re here…please do leave a comment. Ask a question. Let us know your experience or opinion. I’d love to hear it!

Happy Cooking!
Anton

How do You Choose Between Tamarind Pulp Paste or Concentrate

Jul 13, 2017 · 4 Comments

Choosing Between Tamarind Pulp Paste or Concentrate.

Tamarind, in addition to it’s pure form with the shell still on, comes in three main forms. They are, pulp, paste (often labelled as concentrate), and a thick, black concentrate. You might find you want to substitute one for another in a recipe because it’s either more convenient, or it’s all you have on hand.

However, knowing the difference between the different types of tamarind products will help you decide which to use.

Making Tamarind Paste from a Block

Tamarind pulp is often sold in a plastic covered block. It is the tamarind pulp with the shell and seeds removed. The fiber of the tamarind is still present.

For use, it requires being soaked in hot water for a time. The pulp is then strained through a sieve, leaving the fiber behind.

The result is a smooth tamarind paste.

Ready made Regular Tamarind Paste (labelled concentrate)

To save time, you can purchase tamarind paste in a jar or a tube. This is comparable to buying herbs in a tube such as cilantro paste. You can use it in roughly equal parts to the paste you would create from a tamarind block as described above. One tablespoon of this stuff is about equal to 1.5 tablespoons of the homemade soaked and strained tamarind paste.

This type is commonly comes from Thailand in a jar. You may find it labelled as Nuöc Me Chua if it is not in English.

It is important to note, this is the “regular” paste, but is sometimes labelled as concentrate.

Tamarind Concentrate – the thick black stuff

Tamarind concentrate is super thick and really dark. It’s sometimes described as almost black in color. It is almost like a gel. This concentrate is usually comes from India. The most common brand in US and Canada is Tamicon.

The rule for the thick, black tamarind concentrate is to dilute one part concentrate with two parts water.

What about flavor?

Generally speaking, the homemade paste made from soaking and straining a tamarind block of pulp gives the best flavor. It just tastes fresher and less processed. In, fact I use the tamarind block in a Mint Peanut Chutney recipe for this exact reason. That’s not to say you can’t still have great results from tamarind in a jar.

A good comparison would be using freshly squeezed lemon juice instead of the bottled and pasteurized lemon juice. The latter may be more convenient, but freshly squeezed will give you better results, including flavor.

Hey, Leave a comment!

What type of tamarind do you prefer to use? How did it work for you? I’d love to know. Leave a comment below and share your experience.

How To Cut a Bell Pepper

May 26, 2017 · Leave a Comment

Hi there. Today you will learn how to cut a bell pepper.

Step one. Hand properly holding a chef's knife with thumb on side of blade. — 1. Hold your thumb on this side of the chef’s knife.

Step 2. Hand holding chef's knife with pointer finger wrapped around other side of blade. — 2. Wrap your finger around the other side of the chef’s knife.

Step 3. Fingers curled back holding bell pepper. Safety First. — 3. Curl your fingers back like a claw to keep them safe from the knife’s sharp blade.

Step 4. Holding bell pepper on side with fingers curled back while knuckle guides the chef's knife. — 4. Use your knuckle as a guide for the chef’s knife. It should slightly contact the knife.

Step 5. Slicing off the top of a bell pepper. — 5. Slice through the bell pepper’s top.

Step 6. Preparing to slice off the bottom of a bell pepper. Guide hand fingers curled back and knuckle guides the chef's knife. — 6. For the bottom of the pepper, use your knuckle as a guide for the chef’s knife again.

Slicing though the bottom of a bell pepper. — 7. Cut through the bottom of the bell pepper.

Step 8. Two Arrows point to where the pepper's white inner ribs meet the dark green outside of the pepper. — 8. This is where the inner ribs meet the outside of the bell pepper.

Step 9. Slicing straight down inbetween any two of the pepper ribs. — 9. Cut straight down in between any two of the ribs.

Step 10. Bell Pepper on its side. Pepper is rolled while chef's knife cuts the white ribs away from the pepper. — 10. Roll the pepper while cutting in between the ribs and pepper’s outside.

Step 11. Continue rolling pepper. Arrow points to keeping your guide hand high away from the knife blade. — 11. Keep your hand high on the inner structure away from the chef’s knife blade.

Step 12. A close up shot of the now removed inner white ribs of the pepper. — 12. This is the inner rib structure you just removed.

Step 13. Bell Pepper layed out as a long flat sheet. Arrow points to white ribs left on the pepper. — 13. Lay the pepper flat. Notice the white pith that was left behind.

Step 14. Sawing motion of chef's knife shaves off remaining white ribs off the long pepper sheet. — 14. Using a sawing motion, shave the white pith off the bell pepper.

Step 15. Cutting three smaller sheets from the long sheet of pepper. — 15. Cut smaller sheets out of the long sheet of pepper.

Step 16. Slicing julienne from the short sheet of pepper. — 16. Slice julienne out of the smaller sheets. Julienne are about 1/8 inch or 3mm wide.

Step 17. Side view cutting bell pepper julienne in circular motions with a chef's knife. — 17. Cut in circular motions. Keep a safe grip on your chef’s knife. Keep your guide fingers curled back for safety.

Step 18.Hands Lining up bell pepper julienne to prepare for cutting brunoise. — 18. Neatly line up your julienne.

Step 19. Guide hand with fingers curled back over top of bell pepper julienne. Chef's knife being held with safe grip. — 19. Before cutting small cubes called brunoise, get a safe grip on your chef’s knife. Curl your fingers back on your guide hand.

Step 20. Cutting bell pepper brunoise using circular motion of chef's knife. — 20. Cut in a circular motion, cutting the julienne into brunoise. Brunoise are about 1/8 inches or 3mm on all sides.

Step 21. Finished brunoise successfully cut from a bell pepper. The brunoise is 1/8 inches by 18 inches or 3mm by 3mm square. — 21. You have just learned how to cut a bell pepper. We couldn’t be more proud of you!

What goes well with Avocados?

Dec 23, 2015 · Leave a Comment

What goes well with Avocados?

Often, avocados appear in mexican cuisine. A great example is guacamole. But that’s not all. It’s great in salads and sandwiches. It also makes a great addition to vegetarian sushi. And, if you haven’t already, try them on toast.

Avocados are best served raw. Cooking them will make them bitter. A little trick is to add them to hot food just before serving.

You can’t beat an avocado’s healthy qualities. They have a high amount of mono-unsaturated fat. If you’re vegetarian, it’s often used instead of meat in sandwiches because avocados have lots of that healthy fat.

It works great in smoothies too. Avocados taste good with just about any citrus fruit. Just imagine the smoothie possibilities. Avocado, pineapple and mint smoothie anyone?

Speaking of citrus fruit, did you know if you add lemon juice to avocado, it stops them from turning brown. (this works on apples too). The acid in the lemon juice stops the air from turning things brown.

So what goes well with Avocados anyhow?

In the lists below you’ll find out what goes well with avocados. These are the foods we feel are some of the best flavor matches…