Channeling Julia

This is a very quick and easy salad NO FAT dressing that can be made quickly and will last up to a week in the refrigerator. I haven't seen it for sale in a bottle in the Asian market - because every family has their own variation, so feel free to experiment. It can be also used as a dipping sauce for fried foods.

Ingredients

2 oz simple syrup (less if you feel it is too sweet)

1 oz rice vinegar

1 oz lemon juice

2 oz fish sauce (choose a brand lower in salt)

2 oz water

1 clove crushed garlic

1 tsp siracha chili sauce or 2 crushed Thai chilis ( more if you want it spicier)

If you want a vegetarian alternative, substitute light soy sauce for the fish sauce. For an even lower calorie dressing reduce amount of sugar.

Measure the ingredients into a 8 oz jar. Put on the lid and shake. Keep in refrigerator until ready for use.

This is a basic Thai sauce adapted for the American palate. As with many Thai dishes, this can be made much hotter (Thai Hot) by using more garlic and chilis.

Ingredients (makes 1 pint)

2 cups sugar

1 cup water

1 cup vinegar

1 oz crushed garlic or garlic powder.

1 TBS siracha chili sauce or 4 crushed Thai chilis

Options: If you prefer a clear sauce, use white sugar, white vinegar and chopped Thai chili. A dark red sauce is made with brown sugar, red wine vinegar and siracha.

In a 1 to 2 qt saucepan, combine sugar and garlic. If using garlic powder mix throughly. Add water and vinegar. Bring to a boil. Take off heat then add chili. Pour into bottle, cap and refrigerate.

I learned to make simple syrup at the fountain in my father's drugstore.

The recipe is very simple and the result falls somewhere between a light and heavy sugar syrup.

Bring 3 quarts of water to a boil. Pour a 5 lb bag of sugar in a 1 gallon jar. Pour the boiling water over the sugar to fill the jar. Screw on the lid, then shake until sugar has completely dissolved. (it's really hot - use gloves).

Best used with a pump action dispensing jar to keep dust & bacteria from entering. If you have ants, keep the nozzle covered.

Use instead of granular sugar in cold drinks to minimize stirring and sugar residue. Good on strawberries instead of sprinkling sugar. A replacement for corn syrup in cooking. Add flavoring & food color to make Italian soda syrups.

Egg laying creatures have been around for millions of years. Today's chicken is descended from the dinosaurs.

Clockwise from top: red, green, white, brown chicken egg

A cooked egg contains almost twice as much edible protein as a raw egg. The color of the eggshell has no effect on the quality of the contents. Color varies by breed and diet. Yolk color is diet dependent. Sizes of eggs are important in recipes, as a medium egg is 3 tablespoons, whereas a extra large egg is 4 tablespoons, so a recipe calling for 4 medium eggs would only need 3 extra large eggs. Most recipes are based on large eggs (3-1/4 tablespoons).

In the US, eggs are also graded by condition of eggshell, viscosity and quality of white and yolk. Grade A is most commonly sold in the grocery store. The shell thickness must be sufficient to protect the egg on the way to the kitchen. This emerged as an issue several years ago when feed mixtures were changed in an attempt to make thinner shells that were thought to be more consumer friendly, so always open the carton and check for broken eggs before purchasing.

An egg marked as fertile indicates that a rooster was present in the flock.

Handling precautions: it's a good idea to wash off the shell before cracking, and is especially important when the eggs are gathered by hand in a traditional hen house, as fecal matter may be present. This is the primary means of salmonella transmission. Raw egg consumption is not as high a risk when the shells have been properly sanitized.

Eggs should be promptly refrigerated and used within two weeks. Work surfaces and utensils used with raw eggs should be kept away from the final product to minimize cross contamination, especially if a considerable period of time has elapsed (time to breed bacteria).

Caution: egg allergy is one of the most common of food allergies

Salt is so necessary to human and animal life that it has been used as money in certain parts of the world. Most of us encounter table salt in the salt shaker and use it to flavor our food. The shakers are probably filled with iodized salt, which adds trace amounts of iodine as a public health measure.

Sea Salt - notice the lacy appearance

As cooks in a modern society, we walk a fine line with salt. Overconsumption of salt can lead to high blood pressure. Underconsumption can cause muscle cramps, dizziness and possibly electrolyte issues. The public has developed a taste for salt via snack foods that probably leads to overconsumption. Salty & greasy sells snacks such as potato chips & corn chips. Resist the urge to salt to taste - better to slightly under use salt in cooking and let the diner supply more on the table as they desire. I've found that many recipes include salt with little justification, or over specify the amounts.

Salt is commonly produced by evaporation of sea water. Many coastal areas have brine ponds which are filled with sea water and use the sun to evaporate the water over a period of time. Here in the San Francisco bay, the wind blows over the ponds and occasionally creates sea foam. From the air, brine ponds of differing salinity have differing colors due to the brine shrimp and other organisms that thrive at certain concentrations of salt in the water. Most sea salt is recrystallized (refined) to remove high levels of magnesium & calcium compounds

Salt is also mined. High concentrations of salt found in the mountains of central Austria have been mined for millinea near the river Salzach and Salzburg. Black salt is mined in India and contains sulfer.

Individuality - the various methods of production result in differing textures, colors, trace ingredients and tastes. Differing forms of salt are produced as a result of locally occurring trace elements. Pink salt contains iron oxide. It is possible to taste the differences in the origin of handmade sea salt.

Kosher salt is a coarse grained salt used for koshering meat (extracts the blood). Some cooks like to use it as it has few impurities and has not been iodized. It is not suitable for baking as it does not dissolve readily and grains may remain. The weight of kosher salt is the same as regular salt, but the volume will differ.

Salt has been used for meat preservation for centuries. Meat cured this way is usually soaked in water to reduce the salty taste before further preparation.

Rock salt is a very coarse grained salt used in water treatment to produce "soft" water for washing, in winter to clear ice from sidewalks and in the manufacture of homemade ice cream.