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How to make Edible Fried Water

Yes. It is water. That is fried. And not to mention edible, completely edible.

Firstly no one is allowed to say that this is cheating cuz its not.

So the process is fairly easy, and I bet finding the ingredients will be harder than the actual process. You can make these blobs using sodium alginate and calcium lactate. And of course water.

Yes, we are making those water blobs things. Here is the process and ingredients.

We are first going to make the blobs and then we will …fry them.

Ingredients:

  • A lot of water. (5 cups to be precise)
  • 1 gram of sodium alginate
  • 5 grams of calcium lactate

Equipment:

  • 2 large bowls
  • A slotted spoon
  • Another spoon with a round bottom such as a measuring table spoon.
  • A hand mixer or a whisk

The main ingredient here is the sodium alginate, which is is derived from algae. This gels up when in contact with calcium, encasing the water within it. It is also a common alternative to gelatin in foods.

The size of the round bottomed spoon will determine the size of your blobs. Use a bigger spoon to make bigger blobs.

Okay. Add the sodium alginate to 1 cup of water in the smaller bowl and whisk it up. Let it sit for 10-20 minutes to remove any air bubbles. You should be okay when the mixture turns clear. Next add the calcium lactate to the remaining 4 cups of water to the bigger bowl and mix well.

Gently scoop the blobs of the sodium alginate mixture with the spoon and plop them in the calcium lactate solution. Let them sit for approximately 3-4 minutes. then, using the slotted spoon, take them out and put them in water to avoid any other further reactions. The longer you leave them in, the thicker the membrane will and the firmer the water blob you will have. To be able to fry the water blobs and eat them, you want the casing to be thin enough to not be super noticeable among the other ingredients for coating the blobs but also not too thin that it will pop in the oil.

Next, depending on how much blobs you made, prepare your coating station;

Flour, Egg and Panko or breadcrumbs.

Carefully roll the blobs in flour, then dip them in the beaten egg, then put them back in the flour, then back in the egg, then in the breadcrumbs or panko, then in the oil, and fry them at a fairly high temperature for just a few seconds since you only want the breadcrumbs to brown, you don’t want to actually cook the water, or I predict the water will evaporate away, leaving only a slimy membrane coated in eggy breadcrumbs.

Once you have fried the blobs, put them on top of a wire rack, making sure they won’t fall through the wires, or a flat sieve thing, if you have it, and dab it with tissue paper continuously, until it cools down or you are positively positive there is no oil left. Since this is deep fried water, you have to dab the oil away since the oily taste of the oil will be very prominent because there is no other flavor to be there and overpower the oil. If that makes sense.

And there you have it…

…deep fried water.

Enjoy! 🙂

Categories
Cooking

Fancy Cooking Terms I am Trying to Learn {Part 6}

Poach: To cook something by simmering in a small amount of water.

Puree: aa smooth cream of liquidized or crushed fruit or vegetables.

Pickle: An edible product, such as a cucumber, that has been preserved and flavored in a solution of brine or vinegar.

Reduce: To cook a liquid until it is lesser in amount.

Render: toto melt and clarify hard animal fat for cooking purposes.

Roast: to cook by exposing to dry heat

Roux: A thick paste of flour and melted butter used to thicken sauces.

Reconstitute: restore (dried food or drink) to its original state by adding water. 

Saute:  Briefly fried in hot oil.

Scald: Scald means to heat a liquid until just below the boiling point 

Steep: to put food in a liquid and leave it there, so that it becomes soft or has the same taste as the liquid

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Cooking

Fancy Cooking Terms I am Trying to Learn {Part 5}

Macerate:soften or become softened by soaking in a liquid.

Marinate:  To soak in a seasoned liquid or paste to flavour.

Mince:  To cut or chop something very finely especially used for meat.

Mise en Place: To organize the kitchen before starting service {used in usually professional kitchens}

Nappe: To coat a food with liquid.

Needling:  The process of poking holes in meat to tenderize it before cooking.

Parcooking: To partially cook a food so that it can be finished later on.

Paupiette: a long, thin slice of fish or meat, rolled and stuffed with a filling.

Panade: A soup boiled in water from bread, butter, sometimes also egg yolk and milk.

Parboil: To partially cook a food by boiling it.

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Cooking

Fancy Cooking Terms I am Trying to Learn {Part 4}

Gratin:  A dish with a lightly browned crust of breadcrumbs or melted cheese.

Grease: The process of coating a dish or pan with some sort of fat before cooking or baking to prevent food from sticking.

Grind: To crush an ingredient to make it of a smaller particle size.

Hull:The outer pod or shell covering a seed or fruit. A hull is also called a husk.

Infuse:   To soak something in a liquid to extract flavours.

Jus Lie:  Meat juice that has been lightly thickened with arrowroot or cornstarch.

Knead: To work into a dough .

Larding:  To cover or coat with lard or other similar fat.

Liaison:  A binding or thickening agent in sauces usually based on egg yolks.

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Cooking

Fancy Cooking term I am Trying to Learn {Part 3}

Dredging: To coat a wet or moist food with something dry prior to cooking.

Deep Fry:  A cooking method in which a food is completely submerged in hot fat, usually oil.

Deglaze:  A technique for removing browned food residue after making a gravy or soup.

Dust:  The process of lightly sprinkling a fine layer of a powdered or granulated ingredient.

Effiler:  The process of preparing green beans before cooking them.

Fines Herbes: A mixture of fresh herbs used to flavor foods.

Flambé:  The process of adding alcohol to a food in a pan and briefly igniting it.

Fillet:  A boneless cut of meat.

Flake: A thin slice of something cut off from a larger piece.

Flute: The process of adding a decorative top to a pie before baking.

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Cooking

Fancy Cooking Terms I am Trying to Learn {Part 2}

Cartouche: A parchment paper lid to help in water only partially evaporating.

Clarify:  Removing solids from a mixture to get a clear liquid.

Coddle: to poach something in water that is just below the boiling point.

Consommé: A rich, clear soup or broth

Coring:  The process of taking the core out of a fruit.

Confit:  A dish in which a meat is cooked with its own fat

Cure:  To preserve something by salting, drying or smoking.

Curdle:  When a liquid separates into curds.

Cut-in:  To work two elements together using knives, forks or a pastry blender.

Dice:  To cut or chop into cubes of desired size.

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Cooking

Fancy Cooking Terms I am Trying to Learn {Part 1}

Al Dente: Pasta or rice that is cooked to a firm bite.

Au Gratin:  Sprinkled with grated cheese and breadcrumbs and them browned.

Au Jus: A meat dish prepared or served with a sauce or broth made from the fluids of that meat.

Au Sec: Cooking a liquid until it is nearly dry

Barding: Wrapping meat in a layer of fat to keep it from overcooking.

Baste: Pouring juices over meat to keep it moist.

Blanch:  A cooking process in which something is boiled for a brief time and then put into ice water to stop the cooking process.

Broil:  Cooking under direct heat.

Braise: The process of first searing, and then finish cooking off in a liquid.

Brine:  Soaking a piece of meat in salt water as a marinade.

Bone: To remove bones from poultry.

Bouquet Garni: A bunch of herbs encased in a muslin bag to flavor stew or soup.

Butterfly: A term used to describe a piece of fish or cut of meat that has been cut open with the sides spread apart resembling butterfly wings, such as butterfly pork chops.

Caramelize:  The process of browning of sugar.

Categories
Cooking

Chocolate and Caramel Tart

Ingredient:

  • 1 1/2 cups of finely crushed Oreos.
  • 1/3 cup of melted butter
  • 200g of semi-sweet chocolate
  • 50g cream
  • 1 cup of sugar
  • 1/2 of milk
  • a tablespoon of butter

Method:

  1. Finely crush the Oreos without removing the cream.
  2. Once finely crushed, add in the melted butter and stir in.
  3. Line a tart tin with cling film so it is easier to remove.
  4. Add the Oreo mix to your tart tin and line around the sides
  5. Now move on the the caramel, ad the sugar to the pan over high heat until it melts. Then add in the milk, butter and salt and stir until well incorporated. Let chill completely.
  6. Now heat up the cream and pour it over the chocolate. Let it sir for 5 minutes. Mix until completely smooth.
  7. Once the caramel has cooled, pour it in our lined tin. Let it chill in the fridge. Once slightly set, pour in the chocolate ganache and let set once again the fridge for an hour.
  8. Carefully remove the tart from the tin sing the cling film and garnish if you want to with berries or any topping of choice.

NOTES:

You can swap out the semi-sweet chocolate with dark, milk or white chocolate.

If you think it will be too sweet you can swap out the Oreos for cookie of your choice.

Categories
Cooking

Gulab Jamun

Image credit: thestatesman.com

Gulab jamun are imo the best desi dessert. Ever. They are basically powdered milk balls fried and soaked in sugar syrup. 🤤

Ingredients:

  • 3/4 a cup of powdered milk.
  • 1/2 cup of semolina
  • 1/2 tsp baking powder
  • 2 tbsp. ghee or clarified butter*
  • milk as required for kneading the dough approx. 3-4 tbsp.

For the sugar syrup:

  • 1 cup of sugar
  • 1 cup of water
  • lemon juice 1 tsp

Optional add-in for the syrup:

  • a few strands of saffron
  • rose water 1 tbsp.
  • cardamom

Method:

  1. Add all the dry ingredients to a bowl and stir.
  2. Now add in the ghee and sort of crumble it up so its like moist sand.
  3. Now slowly add in the milk until it forms a firm dough.
  4. Now add the ingredients for the sugar syrup to a pan and cook until it boils.
  5. Now start making small ball of the dough and try to make them as uniform as possible.
  6. Fry the balls at a low flame until brown.
  7. Immediately add it to the sugar syrup which you should have poured out into a bowl.
  8. Let them sit for about half an hour so they soak up the syrup.

yay

your done.

Categories
Cooking

Butterscotch Dessert

So I just found out the difference between butterscotch and caramel. Butterscotch is made with brown sugar while caramel is made with granulated sugar. You can make this with either but obviously I recommend butterscotch- but your choice.

Ingredients:

For the base:

  • Custard powder 1/4 cup
  • Milk 4 cups
  • Caramel sauce
  • Graham crackers or any other cookie for the base*
  • Caramel sauce
  • Half a cup of sugar
  • 3 tbsp. of butter
  • peanuts or nut of choice**

Method:-

  1. Line your dish with the cookies or graham crackers. If you wish you could take it up the sides of the dish too instead of just the bottom, but I wouldn’t recommend that since it would be hard to cut through it.
  2. For this recipe you need 1 and a half batch of my caramel sauce recipe so prepare that before moving on to the custard since it needs to cool. I’ll link the recipe below.
  3. Next prepare your custard. I used vanilla custard powder; you can use any but this one probably works the best. Save a bit of the milk and add the rest to a pan.
  4. Dissolve the custard powder in the reserved milk and add it to the boiling milk
  5. Stir vigorously and add 1 batch of the caramel sauce. If you want your custard sweeter, add more sugar or decrease the amount of caramel.
  6. Cover the custard with cling film touching the surface and let it chill.
  7. Grease a silicon or a metal tin or plates lightly.
  8. Now melt the rest of the sugar. Once its melted, add the butter. Now stir in nuts of choice and immediately pour onto your greased surface.
  9. Once it has cooled crush the praline into pieces in sizes of your choice.
  10. Now we can start assembling.
  11. Spread the remaining half batch of caramel onto the cookies.
  12. Pour in your chilled custard and evenly spread.
  13. Finally garnish with the crushed praline.
  14. Serve chilled.

*You can sub the graham cracker with any cookie of your choice.

**You can also sub the peanuts with nuts of your choice. Also add as many nuts as you want there is no fixed measurement for this.

Notes:

Instead of using custard you can use whipped cream. Also you can stir in some of praline into the cream/custard. If you are using whipped cream, you can stir in a bit of the caramel sauce; not a whole batch. Also, add vanilla.

Image credit: Cook with Lubna.

https://myquests.home.blog/2020/11/06/caramel-sauce/

LINK TO CARAMEL SAUCE METIONED ABOVE: