Now, despite our best efforts, us home/hobby photographers working with just the camera in our hands and no other equipment often have to struggle with less than ideal lighting situations - it might be too bright and sunny, or alternatively, it might be too dark. Both situations give rather unsatisfactory results and can wash out or mute colours, but depending on your software, there are a number of tools at our disposal that we can use to combat this:
If you’re using a basic, bare-bones editor such as Google Picasa then you’ll be working with just three sliders (fill light, highlights and shadows) which you can manually edit or ask the software to automatically edit it for you. From what I’ve seen, the auto editor doesn’t appear to be too bad so long as the photo is of decent quality to begin with, but you might want to make the $100 investment into something like Ulead PhotoImpact, Paint Shop Pro or Adobe Photoshop Elements. Or, if you want something that works for free and has the capability to make all these changes and don’t mind the extra headache of working it out for yourself, you can always try having a play with GIMP!
I know that having 5 options just to control the light seems a bit excessive, but I’ll take you through them one by one to explain just what they do, and how to use them and hopefully you’ll see that used wisely, they can be a great asset to you!
Happy new year, folks! I hope everyone had awesome NYE celebrations, and if you had half as much fun as I did, then you’re doing well 
Sorry this is a brief post but I’ve got some personal shite going on at the moment and am feeling a bit tired from it all, so its just the recipe today I’m afraid. However, I am quite happy to inform that this is a fantastically tasty recipe and it is vegan, but I guarantee that herbivores and carnivores alike will enjoy the tastiness of these Asian mushroom spring rolls!
I’ll try and have a more substantial post for you before the end of the week, but for now - onto the recipe
Mushroom Spring Rolls
(Adapted from The Cook’s Book)
Ingredients (makes about 10-15)
100g oyster mushrooms, cleaned and sliced
100g enoki mushrooms, roots cut off and broken apart
5 shiitake mushrooms, cleaned and roughly diced
150g fresh firm tofu, drained and diced
100g bean shoots, rinsed
4 spring onions, cleaned and finely sliced
2 tbsp snipped chives
2 tbsp chopped coriander leaves
4 cloves garlic, crushed
3 tbsp light soy sauce
1 tbsp toasted sesame seeds
1 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1 tsp corn starch
1 pk medium sized spring roll wrappers
1 egg white, lightly beaten
1. Heat a little vegetable oil in a wok over high heat till nice and hot, then toss in all the mushrooms and garlic and fry for 5 minutes over or till softened. Add the tofu, bean shoots, spring onion, chives and coriander and fry whilst stirring for 1 minutes to combine. Add the corn starch, fry for another minute (keep that wrist loose!) then remove from the heat.
2. Season the mushroom mixture with the soy sauce, sesame seeds and pepper, then leave to cool completely.
3. Open packet of frozen spring roll wrappers and cover with a clean damp kitchen cloth. Pull off one sheet, then place it on your table (or wherever you’ll be rolling these) and place a line of stuffing at one end, leaving enough spring roll skin so it can be pulled around it from the top and folded over on each side to meet in the middle. Lightly dip a pastry brush in the egg white then run it around the edge of the pastry, then roll it up nice and tight. Set onto a plate/tray lightly dusted with corn starch, then repeat with the remaining mixture till you run out.
4. Deep fry rolls for 3-4 minutes, or till crispy and golden brown in colour. Drain well, then serve with some super crisp lettuce leaves and your dipping sauce of choice
Technorati Tags: spring rolls, The Cook’s Book, Christine Manfield, mushrooms, vegetarian, vegan, Asian, food, recipes
Would you believe that once upon a time, I was absolutely terrified of baking muffins?1 Yes, I kid you not - in the early days of this blog, I publicly outed myself as having absolutely no skill in the muffin department, as the recipes I’d tried till then had always given disappointing results.
Well, folks, as it turns out, I was just using less than stellar recipes! I’ve since then accumulated much better cookbooks which hold the most glorious recipes for muffins, and my family and I (as well as friends who are often recipients courtesy of various family members) have been enjoying these handfuls of fluffy fluffy goodness.
Despite my new years resolution for 2007 that I would not add any new cookbooks to my collection till I had tried at least 20% of the recipes in each, I have somehow ended up with a much heavier bookcase over the course of the year - thankfully, most have been gifted to me so I’ve not been burdened with too much guilt at the new acquisitions, however there is a mild amount of panic that has accompanied each addition as I wonder when on earth I’ll have the time to try all these new recipes! I plan on lowering the limit for 2008 (I’ve decided that 20% is far too much, considering the sheer size of some of my kitchen tomes) down to just 10% of each cookbook, but that still leaves me with a few hundred recipes that dearly need trying the the coming 365 days.
Whilst I am grateful for the bountiful fruit of the summer season, such as all the glorious mango around, there are two thing that summer brings which I can most definitely do without - that is the stinking humidity and sweltering heat. Both are fine when lounging by the pool or sea, soaking up the rays and cooling off in a large body of water, but when I want to bake in my kitchen which is unfortunately not one of those lovely climate controlled kitchens, it often means I have to leave my baking shenanigans till late at night, when the rest of the family has gone to bed and the house has cooled down enough so that my turning on the oven for an hour or two (or more, depending on how much baking needs to happen) doesn’t turn the house into a sauna.
This was, unfortunately, the case a few weeks ago when I was struck with an intense longing for some muffiny goodness. Of course, we have a few decent little mom & pop bakeries around and I could have easily gone and bought a few…but if you hadn’t guessed by now, I’m not one for buying baked goods (or anything premade, for that matter), especially if I’m more than capable of making it myself. As the rest of the family was out, I apologized to Mr Woofy for the coming swelter-session and began to prep my ingredients to try two recipes that I had been eyeing off in my ‘Marie Claire - Comfort‘ cookbook for awhile - one for mixed berry muffins, and the other for carrot and coconut muffins. The pictures for both in the books were absolutely adorable (much better than my humble attempts here) and combining that with my lust for muffin-love meant I couldn’t wait, and I had to have them now.
Alas, as I began to sift my flours, my mother arrived back from her game of golf and eyed my baking supplies sprawled all over the kitchen counter. Giving me her attempt at an evil eye, she asked what exactly I thought I was doing. When I told her that I was about to embark on a muffin-baking session, she immediately ushered me out of the kitchen, telling me that it was far too hot to be doing any sort of baking, and that if I felt the same way after midnight, I could make them then.
Hoboy.
The rest of the day was spent longing for muffins and watching each hour crawl by slower than a sleepy tortoise, till finally, at one minute past midnight, I sprung from the couch with cookbook in hand and a look of grim determination on my face.
Ah-hah! Muffins, you would be mine!
Though I didn’t actually finish baking and cleaning up till almost 3am, I have to say that sitting down at the kitchen table with a fresh muffin, still warm from the oven, in hand, it made all the waiting and tiredness worthwhile! Unfortunately, I only got to have that one as the rest were taken away by various family friends, but by all reports they were extremely glad I’d had a midnight muffin session too
Mixed Berry Muffins
(Adapted from ‘Marie Claire - Comfort‘)
Ingredients
250g plain natural yoghurt
100mL natural applesauce *
2 medium-sized eggs
2 tsp natural vanilla extract
280g all-purpose flour
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
100g brown sugar
250g frozen mixed berries
Demerara sugar
* - The recipe originally called for vegetable oil to be used here, but I decided to try replacing the oil with applesauce to see how well it worked. I must say that the results are MOST pleasing, and I’ll be looking to use applesauce as a replacement for oil in my baking more often!
If, like me, you’re not the kind of person who stocks applesauce, then you can easily make some by taking some SWEET apples (I always have some fuji apples in my fridge), peel and core them and put them in a large pot with about 1-2 inches of water in the bottom (depending on how much you’re making). Put the lid on and cook them till they’re soft all the way through, then allow them to cool, drain the water and put the apples through a food mill. Ta-da, its that easy!
1. Grease 12 holes in a standard muffin tin or prepare 12 muffin papers and preheat the oven to 180 degrees C.
2. Whisk together the plain yoghurt, applesauce, eggs and vanilla extract till well combined.
3. Sift together the all-purpose flour with the baking powder, then stir in the brown sugar and mixed berries till evenly mixed together. Add the yoghurt mixture to the flour mixture and lightly fold together, taking care not to overmix.
4. Spoon into the prepared muffin containers and sprinkle the top of each muffin with a tsp of demerara sugar and place in the oven to bake for 30-40 minutes, or till a wooden skewer inserted into the middle comes out cleanly.
Carrot & Coconut Muffins
(Adapted from ‘Marie Claire - Comfort‘)
Ingredients
280g all-purpose flour
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
150g caster sugar
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
200g finely grated carrot
100g desiccated coconut
2 medium-sized eggs
Zest & juice of 1 small lemon
1 tbsp honey
200mL natural applesauce *
1. Prepare 12 muffin holes (or 12 muffin papers) and preheat the oven to 180 degrees C.
2. Sift the all-purpose flour with the baking powder, then stir in the caster sugar and cinnamon till evenly mixed together. Add the grated carrot and coconut and toss till combined, then make a well in the centre.
3. In a smaller bowl, beat together the eggs, lemon zest and lemon juice, honey and applesauce. Pour the wet mixture into the well of the dry and lightly mix together till just combined.
4. Bake the muffins for 30-40 minutes, or till the muffins are golden brown and a wooden skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean.
People who have tried this recipe:
- Thanh from I Eat Therefore I Am
Technorati Tags: muffins, berries, coconut, carrot, recipes, baking
NOTE: You may have noticed that my instructions call for a wooden skewer to be used. The reason for this is that the natural grain of a wooden skewer allows you more accurately to tell when the inside of your cake is done - slightly moist crumbs will slide right off a metal one, and with something like these very moist muffins, the skewer could be the difference between an underbaked and a perfectly baked muffin.
1 - The fear of muffins was actually a fear of small cakes - which included cupcakes as the other miniature which struck fear into my heart. Whilst I’ve conquered my fear of muffins and replaced it with pure love, I’m afraid the same just cannot be said about cupcakes. Yet another resolution for the new year, I suppose.
Folks, I need advice! My mother’s old garlic press (read - older than me) had gotten awfully rusty and icky so I tossed the bastard and bought a replacement…but it snapped in half the first time I used it. I just bought another and I cannot, for the love of me, get the garlic to go through at all! Its ridiculous!
This means I need to buy a THIRD garlic press, but I need advice since I no longer trust the folks at the local kitchen utensil stores (all three of ‘em) - what brand garlic press do you use and trust? My mother has weak wrists so it’ll have to be one that does the job without using superhuman effort.
PLEASE, I am desperate - a Korean household uses a LOT of garlic, especially since we’re due to make another 30kg batch of kimchi this week so I need to replace it ASAP!
EDIT - Thanks for the feedback, folks! I’ve decided to try the Zyliss Susi (so long as I can go to the store tomorrow and find it) as it sounds the best in terms of price and quality! Will let you know how I go!
While the majority of you, my readers, are based in the northern hemisphere and have been enjoying your turkeys and goose and things like being snowed in and spending nights in front of crackling fireplaces, we in the southern hemisphere have, for most of the past week, had to endure torrential rain that has led to scenes like garbage bins floating down the middle of roads as impromptu driving hazards.
Not that the rain isn’t needed, mind you. Particularly in my home state, the drought situation has been getting so bad that the price of EVERYTHING has continuously increased this year, and even the half week of torrential rain has put a sniff of a dent in the dropping dams. However, despite our need of rain, people all over the state were holding their breaths and waiting to see whether the weather forecasters had got it right, and whether Christmas Day would indeed be bright and sunny.
Well, warm it was not, but it was definitely sunny and clear, and meant that we could proceed with our traditional bbq Christmas meal. You see, by this time of year, its usually so stinking hot that nobody in their right mind is particularly enthused about having the oven on for hours at a time, so while roasts are still popular, they are usually a part of a bigger barbeque feast, which is the way that we usually spend the day.
Whilst my culinarily-incompetent father usually has trouble making anything more complicated than a pot of instant noodles, on barbeque days he proudly wields his giant tongs and lords over his dominion, either barefoot or with slipper-shod feet and either a stubby (beer can) or a cigarette in hand. Unfortunately, as he *is* somewhat mystified by the art of cooking, this usually means that my brother (being slightly more competent due to being fairly well trained by my mother and I) is usually firmly by his side, ‘helping’ him to not burn the various meats to completely charred crisps.
Alas, my brother could not save the kilo of chicken wings which left the kitchen first, of which only half could be salvaged as the other half were burnt beyond recognition. Seeing how those turned out, I sternly took the tray of prawns that I had laboured over the night before and told the lads that I’d be doing these myself.
DID YOU KNOW:
Did you know that while the words ’shrimp’ and ‘prawn’ are used interchangeably, they are actually different creatures?
Physically they look very similar but there is one sure way to tell them apart. In shrimps or carideans the side plate of the second segment of the abdomen overlaps the segments in front and behind. Prawns, most of which belong to the family Penaeidae of the group Dendrobranchiata, have all the abdominal side plates overlapping tile-like from the front. A more fundamental difference but one impossible to appreciate in a single specimen is that female prawns do not brood eggs but shed them into the currents where they develop independently.
It would therefore make sense to call all member s of the Penaeidae “prawns” and members of the Caridean “shrimps” and this is what most Australians do. King prawns and banana prawns are names understood in this continent for penaeids sold frozen at the markets. The tiny shrimps bought in cans or froz en are imported carideans. Confusion arises when we hear Americans refer to prawns as “shrimp”.
As part of the Christmas meal, there’s always some prawns but unfortunately, my parents usually massacre them by overboiling them and serving them with a ketchup/mayo mix in some bastardized prawn cocktail. Seeing the gorgeous specimens they’d picked up at the markets for this year’s feast, I told my mother that this year we’d be trying something different, and that their prawn cocktail would not be featured at this year’s feast.
My mother baulked at the idea of doing without this constant, and in turn asked me what I had planned. To be honest, I hadn’t a clue, but I knew it had to be simple and work with Asian flavours otherwise my family may refuse to eat them, which would be a disaster (2kg of prawns is a LOT not to be eaten!). I decided to think about it as I sat in front of the telly, removing the shells and veins by myself, but by the end of the undertaking I still had not a clue. In the hopes that one of my fellow food bloggers might be on MSN and be able to offer some ideas, I hopped online (after washing my prawny fingers, of course!). Thankfully, I found Linda, a fellow Asian Melbourne-based food blogger (Butter Sugar Flour - I suggest you check it out) floating about and discussed my dilemma with her:
Linda - if your hands smell like prawns, aren’t you stinking up your keyboard too? (lol, just joking)
Ellie - LOL! Probably, but I can’t notice anything beyond my fingers at this point so I’ll worry about it later
I’ve peeled them so I can marinate them, but I’m at a loss for what the marinade should be…garlic, chilli, that’s as far as I’ve gotten
Linda - garlic chilli lemon juice is always a winner, but you got no citrus girl!
Ellie - I got limes, but if its a citrus marinade then I’d have to do it tomorrow else it’d start cooking the prawns
Linda - got any parsely around? Throw that in
Ellie - nah, no parsley, might just go ginger and sugar and call it a day! Alright, I’m off to have a smoke and tackle the freakin prawns~
I took off outside and pondered my dilemma some more as I enjoyed my one and only cancer stick of the day. Ginger and sugar was indeed a good combo, but I didn’t think it would do a good job marinating without some liquid to carry the flavours. Fish sauce? Nah, I’m working with prawns, and the overwhelming flavour would probably mess with the flavour of the prawns. I knew I had a few limes bouncing around the chiller box in the fridge, and used those as a basis for my experiment, tasting the final product with some nervousness before pouring the lot over the prawns and bidding them goodnight in my fridge.
The next day, I worridly waited till the moment that I could finally cook the little beasties, and as soon as the first was done, I plucked off the head and took a bite. And smiled. And offered it to my mother.
Will these ever replace my parents fondness for prawn cocktails? I doubt it, but my family agrees that these prawns have earned their place at the feast for next year’s Christmas, so I guess that’s a success!
Sweet Chilli Lime Prawns
Ingredients
1kg large prawns (we had tiger prawns)
Juice and zest of 2 limes
1 - 1.5 cups brown sugar
2 tbsp freshly grated ginger
3-4 cloves garlic, finely diced
1-2 tbsp dried chilli flakes
1 tsp dried coriander powder
1. Soak some bamboo skewers overnight, making sure you have one for each prawn.
2. Remove the shells from the prawns, leaving the heads and tails intact. Remove the tract from the back by cutting a small slit with a knife and fishing it out with a toothpick and then give the prawns a quick rinse and shake dry.
3. Mix together all the other ingredients in a bowl and alter to taste. Pack the prawns into a large casserole dish and carefully pour the marinade over the top. Leave for about 2-3 hours, giving the prawns a toss every hour to make sure they’re all getting the chance to be marinated.
4. Just before cooking, thread each prawn onto a skewer by holding it firmly in hand, inserting the skewer from between the tail fins and up the body up into the head.
5. Fire up the barbeque (or grill) and just before cooking, give them a light brush with some melted butter to stop them sticking. Grill them for no more than 2-3 minutes each side, removing them to a plate once they lose their opaque colour and are nice and fragrant.
6. Serve with some steamed rice and a simple citrussy salad and enjoy!
