Now in Surround Sound!

Photo by grfx_guru

I'm so excited to announce this new project that we've been working on in the Insatiable Munchies kitchen!!!! I present to you the Insatiable Munchies podcast, where every week we - Giles and I - talk about our food adventures and musings.

It will be available to subscribe to on iTunes soon, but in the meantime, feel free to click on the link below to have a listen! If you'd like to jump to parts, I've also got handy links that will allow you to listen to select sections within the podcast.

This week we search for liquid gold, eat with our hands and are all tied up! We talk about the perfect soft boiled eggs, the best ribs in town, and the japanese art of furoshiki.

I'd love to hear from you, so feel free to drop me an email/comment with any feedback you might have! =)

Download the audio file here (6.6MB, 13:15).



From the Frypan - Liquid Gold (1:12)

From the Frypan is where we talk about what we've got up to in the kitchen. This week it's all about that eggy perfection - how do you like your eggs?

Waka Waka - From Adam to Eve (6:28)

If you are a purely eating foodie, then Waka Waka is the section for you. Inspired by that ever so cute noise that Pac-man makes, this section is all about the sheer ecstasy of gluttony. This week we talk all about ribs and that on the bone experience.

From the Ice Box - All Tied Up! (9:09)

We like all things nerdy and cool here at Insatiable Munchies, and From the Ice Box is where we discuss our cute gadgets, funky fresh events and just generally all things fun! This week we're all tied up with the Japanese art of Furoshiki. Our packed lunches never looked so good.

Eggsperiments!!

As we all know, I have a thing for soft boiled eggs (oh Mappen how I love you!). But rather than making a trip into the city every time I want a soft boiled egg fix, I decided to conduct my own experiments regarding how to get that perfectly soft boiled egg at home. 

Everything I've read about soft boiled eggs had processes that were very involved. There were very specific steps that you had to take — the eggs at to be at room temperature (which room are we talking about exactly?) and when you left the eggs n hot water to cook n the residual heat (but how hot did the water have to be exactly?), there were differing times. Surely you could do all of this without gadgetry and extended steps. How do mothers do it in the morning to feed their children? I know that my morning routine simply cannot accommodate a fussy egg cooking process, but I don't feel like nicely cooked eggs should only be part of a leisurely weekend breakfast.

Out of all the instructions I've found online, Heston Blumenthal's seemed immediately doable. It was simple, and when Heston says that it works every time, then I'm happy to trust him. He said to cover a room temperature egg with just enough cold water and bring it to a boil fast, over high heat. After that, turn the heat off and leave the egg to cook n the residual heat for 6 minutes. Slightly involved, but it sounded doable.

The other method that I tried was one that has been working for me every time. Bring a pot of water to the boil, then take an egg out of the fridge (which is where most of us keep them for convenience sake) and put it in the boiling water and reduce the heat to low so the water is simmering, for 6 minutes.



The results? Heston's method seemed to produce a really nice hard boiled egg, but hard boiled nonetheless. My method produced a hard boiled white, but with a runny yolk.



I'm not too sure why exactly, but I think the going theory at the moment is that the eggs were too small — I used medium sized eggs, the smiley faces on them got to me! — and maybe too big a pot, because that meant that the water took longer to get to a rolling boil. My method got a consistently runny yolk, but I've been experimenting with decreasing the boiling time and increasing the resting time to get to a soft, just-cooked white as well.

I'll keep you updated on the eggy eggsperiments, but I'm absolutely open to suggestions! What are your secrets to a perfectly set soft boiled egg?

Furoshiki Picnic

I like to think that I am a fairly moderate person. So I don't know why my little and seemingly harmless projects always seem to balloon into large undertakings where I feel like I've bitten off slightly more than I can chew. Of course, as a foodie thats not always such a bad thing, but you get the drift.

Recently I've been into the Japanese art of Furoshiki. Furoshiki is basically the art of taking a square piece of cloth —I've made a couple of Furoshiki cloths of my own — and making a few knots, such that it can become a variety of bags, complete with handles!! The above picture shows just two of the ties, and you can pretty much get as creative with it as you want to. You can wrap gifts in scarves, knot it into a grocery bag, make it into a lunch bag...

So I thought, "if you can wrap your lunch in it, why not bring more food? I know, we'll have a picnic!!"

And so we did. I had a nice juicy watermelon in the fridge, so I decided to try a recipe for watermelon salsa.



I kept some watermelon aside just for eating (Tetris anyone?) and put the rest in a bowl with some salt, finely diced red chilli and Spanish onion, balsamic vinegar, and parsley. 

The flavours were left in the fridge to meld for about an hour, and then packed, ready to go for our picnic!!



In the end, I had a larger Furoshiki bag and a little one, and this was what we managed to fit in them.



Between the two of us, we had five mortadella and pickle sandwiches, orange wedges, kiwi halves, Camembert, tomato and cucumber salad, a container each of the watermelon and the watermelon salsa, shaved ham, and a bottle of homemade lemonade.

Needless to say, we couldn't finish all the food, but it was worth the whole day of preparing food for an afternoon in the park.

Gotta love the little projects. :)

The Art of Patisse, Masterchef Live 2012

When I got an email inviting me to a decorating workshop from Queen Fine Foods, I somehow didn't make that mental connection in my head with the omni-present down-every-baking-isle "Queen". So imagine my surprise and delight when I got there and found all these decorating products at my disposal!!

Decorating basics was really the agenda for the day, and we were taught the basic techniques that can help you get to the point of expressing your inner artist.



The people teaching the class were from Temptation Bites, and gave really good pointers on how to control the point and flow of the gel pens and icing. We were given Marie biscuits and gingerbread men to decorate.



The one big takeaway for me was having a steady grip on your gel/piping bag, and making sure that there are no air bubbles in it. Also, if you want your buttercream icing to have a good consistency, you have to make sure that you don't over-soften the butter before you start whipping.




But the most important thing of all is to have fun with it! Practice really makes perfect, so just take your time with it and let your imagination run wild.

That's how I end up with a gingerbread woman with overly botoxed lips. Or maybe its' a drag queen. I don't know yet.

Anyway.

Besides the awesome cake decorating workshop, there was much free yummy food to be consumed!!

There were steaks sizzling over Himalayan salt bricks..




Cured meats aplenty...



And the most amazing Kingfish ceviche from Three Blue Ducks.



In all, it was a very fulfilling, productive day. I did have some camera issues at the beginning, but what can't be fixed by good food and CUPCAKES!!!!

Just sayin'.

You can find more information about Queen Fine Foods - they just make decorating so accessible - here, or find them on Facebook here!