Wattle seed Damper

To day I had my first attempt at making damper. A traditional bush food. It was not exactly my favourite meal but it didn’t taste too bad. Wether or not you like it mainly depends on if you like wattle seeds. This was also my first time cooking with them. If you have not tried it damper is a very heavy bread, with a high concentrate of gluten. It is worth giving it a try if you haven tasted it before. It is simple and cheap to make and most of the ingredients you would already have in your pantry except for the wattle seeds. It you would like to have a go at making it your self I will put the recipe in the recipes tab soon.

Salt or not Salt?

Salt has been use on food for thousands of years but the question asked by many home cooks alike is whether we should add salt to our food. We all know someone who just adds way too much slat to their dinner. Most products bought in supermarkets already have considerably large amounts of salt added to them.  But if you like to use fresh produce then it probably has a very small if any salt content. Of course the right amount of salt can just add that extra element to the dish and give a balance of flavours. To decide if you are going to use salt here are some things to consider:

• How much salt is in your diet
  
• Will it make much of difference to the taste of the dish
  
• How much salt do the products you are adding to the dish contain
  Salt can either make you dish a hero or an aging frail arch nemesis.

Whether or not you choose to add salt make sure you dish turns out to be the prized perfection and have a fun time doing it.

Store bought sauce

Most Aussie’s like me smothering their sausages, stake or favourite dish in sauce. This got me thinking, what is the best sauce of all time, does putting the store bought variety sauces like sweet chilli or mayonnaise actually make your food taste better and do you strangle your food in sauce just to hide your bad cooking?  
If you go to the corner store do you pick up the barbeque are you a tomato sauce fan? I once heard that barbeque sauce is known as the ‘fancier sauce’ of the two, weather that’s true or not I don’t have a clue but one thing I’m certain of is  that tomato sauce would be my choice when it comes to this battle but barbeque is still a worthy competitor in my mind.


Now to the taste factor, in some cases yes, it does make your food more appetising but on the most part no. Some of those sauces defiantly taste, to put it lightly … foul especially with some brand of tomato sauces. You do get some good tasting sauces. A bit of advice never get the barbeque sauce for you nuggets at McDonalds. In all honesty you are better off taking the time to make your own sauce instead of relying of the dodgy brands.
The hot fiery barbe or better known as barbeque is the place for everything to be overcooked and eventually burnt. Even the humble home cook has been now to cover the undercooked potato bake with a bit too much sauce, or the chicken sandwich that has been in the fridge for two weeks.  I have done it myself and believe me when you are rushing to make dinner you don’t care how much sauce you put on it.
Personally if you don’t have the time to start the dish again because you’re in a rush it’s not too bad to add the tomato sauce.

Cool Tips for Chocolate

My Best tips for chocolate:

• Add salt to chocolate when you melt it because it makes it taste more chocolaty.
  
• When you are melting chocolate and it starts to become lumpy or starts to tighten and a little bit of solid vegetable shortening but make sure you don't add butter, margarine, milk or oil.
  
• For chocolate curls – warm the chocolate until it is just about to melt, then use a vegetable peeler to ‘peel’ the chocolate into beautiful curls. Finally put it in the fridge to set.

Honey on toast

As I walked into the kitchen this morning I got my toaster out of the box, and put a slice of multigrain bread in the toaster. As the toaster when pop,I when to looks for a spread to put on my toast.  As I opened the cupboard I saw the new honey I bought of the side of the road it was labelled creamy honey. Curious I looked at the ingredients list as saw all that my creamy honey contained was honey. This got me thinking could this really be creamy honey or just honey done up a bit? I did look different, whiter but was it just whipped more than usual?  As it dipped the end of the teaspoon in the jar to taste it, I got a hit of sugar. Then the taste of the honey started to come through I closed my eyes to feel the creaminess in my mouth, it was delectable.  

Chocolate Mud Cake

 

I am a huge fan of chocolate so be expecting to read some delicious chocolaty posts. This is my attempt and Dona Hay’s Mud Cake; luckily it wasn’t a disaster! I love spending time in the kitchen and I hope you like the look of this cake, even though it didn’t have enough brown sugar … oops, I think that the final result didn’t turn out too bad.  

Stu’s Cooking

Hi, I’m Stu as you probably figured. I am going to be posting my cooking creations, failures and recipe secrets on this very food blog. In the near future I plan to start my own cooking video series called Stuart in the Kitchen which will be posted on YouTube and on my blog, it will demonstrate how to cook some cool recipes whilst having a bit of fun along the way.