For a food blog being run by a Korean-Australian, the number of Korean recipes that have appeared on this website is utterly abysmal. Therefore, I’ve decided to make a conscious effort to document a lot more from here on, covering everything from the simplest banchan (Korean side dishes) to more elaborate dishes such as yook gae jjang (spicy beef & bracken fern soup).
Though I’ve already covered these three banchan as part of the previous bibim bap post, I thought I’d give them their own entry to make them easier to track down for those who are just after these individual recipes…particularly as that post is such a dastardly long one to work through!
You can see some of the recipes that will be appearing on the site in the near future on the recipes index of the site, recipe names in pink are ones that just need to be photographed before appearing. If you have a Korean dish that you’ve tasted and would like the recipe for, check whether its on the list, and if not, feel free to drop me a line and I’ll get to it as soon as I can! 
Pyogo Bohsot
(Stir-fried shiitake mushrooms)
Ingredients
9-10 dried shiitake mushrooms
2 tbsp soy sauce
1-2 tsp sesame seed oil
1. Bring a pot of water to the boil, then add the dried shiitake mushrooms and boil till well softened.
2. Rinse in cold water then drain well, squeezing out any excess liquid, and remove the fibrous stems and cut into strips about 3-4mm thick.
3. Preheat a frying pan, then add the mushrooms, soy sauce and sesame oil and stir fry over high heat till the mushrooms have heated through and absorbed all the soy sauce and oil.
4. Set aside till needed.
Sukju Namul Muchim
(Seasoned Mung Bean Sprouts)
Ingredients
500g fresh mung bean sprouts
2x cloves garlic, minced
Salt
3-4 spring onions
Sesame seed oil
Toasted sesame seeds
1. Bring a pot of water to the boil, then blanch the mung bean sprouts by adding them to the water and leaving them for a minute or two, till they begin to soften. Immediately drain them but DO NOT RINSE1! Instead, leave them to cool in the colander, occasionally giving them a toss.
2. While they’re cooling, rinse the spring onion and slice them on the bias into pieces about 2-3mm thick. Add these to the blanched bean shoots, along with the garlic, salt, sesame seeds and sesame oil, then lightly toss through with your hand till they are evenly coated.
3. Once completely cooled, store in an airtight container.
1 - The reason that you do not refresh the bean shoots in cold water after blanching is that this causes them to retain more moisture, weighing down the shoots and making them soggy.
Shigemchi Muchim
(Sauteed Spinach)
Ingredients
1x bunch spinach
Salt
Sesame seed oil
Toasted sesame seeds
1. Remove the roots from the spinach, then give them a thorough rinse to get rid of as much dirt as possible.
2. Bring a large pot of water to the boil, then add the spinach and make sure it is submerged for a few minutes (or till wilted but not completely cooked).
3. Drain spinach and rinse thoroughly in a few changes of cold water, till the colour is a vibrant green and there is no more green in the rinsing water.
4. Drain well, then take small handfuls and squeeze out as much water as you can, whilst being careful not to mush the spinach entirely.
5. Roughly chop into easy-to-eat lengths, then put into a bowl, along with enough salt to season and the sesame seeds and sesame oil.
6. Toss through evenly, then store in an airtight container once cooled.
Technorati Tags: Korean, Asian, recipes, vegetables, banchan, side dishes
Sorry to any readers who’ve had the website go a bit berkers on them recently - as part of updating Wordpress, I also was fiddling around with some plug-ins and trying to tidy things up! However, all my mucking about is done for now, and hopefully you’ll enjoy some of the changes I’ve made, including the updated recipes page (which I think is far more user-friendly) and the ability to edit your comments just in case you make any boo-boos whilst typing (something I’m far too prone to, I’m afraid!)
Also, as the photography tips series is over for now (unless anyone has a request for another particular topic to be covered), the photo editing series was meant to begin, but I’m at the end of my semester and snowed under with work so I have to put it on hold for a month or so. However, I am considering offering my photo retouching skills as a means of helping me keep this site running (as I’m due to renew my webspace soon), probably at about $10 per photo (and this is for any photos, not just food). What do people think?
When you talk to people about Korean food, there are some dishes that you would expect them to know about, such as kimchi, bulgogi and galbi. However, with the increasing interest in Korean cuisine and number of Korean eateries and grocery stores popping up all over the place, other dishes are beginning to increase in popularity…from nakji bokkeum (spicy stir-fried octopus) to the dish being featured in today’s post, bibim bap.
This is a dish with no hard-and-fast recipe, almost like pizza in this regard - so long as you have your chan gi rhem (sesame seed oil), gochujjang (Korean chilli paste), white medium-grain rice and some veggies (preferably an array of banchan), you can’t really go wrong. It can be made to suit any variety of tastes, and is a dish that vegans, vegetarians and omnivores alike can all enjoy!
Versatility, thy name is bibim bap!
This dish has been a part of my life for as long as I can remember. You can make a beautifully presented dish like this at home, or go out to a restaurant and enjoy dolsot bibim bap - almost the same idea as this dish, except that it is presented in a stone bowl that has been heated up quite hot, then had a little sesame oil poured into the bottom before the rice and banchan are added. This ‘fries’ the bottom layer of rice in contact with the bowl to a crunchy, toasted rice layer called ‘nooroong-ji‘, which many Koreans enjoy almost as others would a regular rice cracker!
I received an email request a few days ago from a lass who told me that she had had this dish at a Korean restaurant but was having difficulty finding a recipe. Of course, I was more than happy to acquiesce, except for one problem. I didn’t really have a recipe. Y’see, this dish actually originated as a way for people to enjoy the leftover rice and banchan in the kitchen before making up some fresh batches, and that was the way that I usually had it! When there was just a few ladles of rice left in the rice cooker, I’d pull out the metal bowl, dump whatever banchan were in the fridge on top, add a spoon or so of Korean chilli paste and a dollop of sesame seed oil and mix it all together and eat it as is!
It may sound horrendous, but anyone who has grown up in a Korean household will be veeery familiar with this practice!
Anyway, since that wasn’t much of a recipe, I had to turn to my mother for a hand in creating this post, arguing with her over translations and trying (in vain!) to get her to use measuring spoons and scales so I could work out measurements!
Now, one final note before I continue through to the recipe - this is a very involved, time-consuming dish to make if you’re not from a Korean family (which in turn means you’ll have half these ingredients in the fridge as banchan). However, there is a flip side to this - the recipe will give you roughly enough banchan for about 4 people, and the leftovers can be stored in little airtight containers and used to make more bibim bap later, a process which will then take you no more than about 5-15 minutes tops! How’s that for a payoff?
This photo shows you all the sections that are commonly presented with this dish - all the sections with Korean names are also eaten as banchan and therefore in learning to make this dish, you’ll actually be learning 5 Korean recipes in the 1!
Bi Bim Bap
(Makes approx 4-5 serves)
Ingredients
2x medium zucchini
2x medium onions
2x small-medium carrots
300g minced beef
500g fresh mung bean sprouts
3-4 spring onions
9-10 dried shiitake mushrooms
1 bunch spinach
2x cloves garlic
Sesame seed oil
Olive oil
Salt
Sugar
Toasted sesame seeds
Fish sauce
Soy sauce
Gochujjang (Korean chilli paste)
4x eggs, fried
2-3 cups cooked white medium-grain rice
Preparation of banchan ingredients
| Ho-bak Bokkeum (Sauteed Zucchini) |
Sukju Namul Muchim (Seasoned Mung Bean Sprouts) |
Shigemchi Muchim (Sauteed Spinach) |
Pyogo Bohsot (Shiitake Mushrooms) |
| 2x medium zucchini 2 tbsp fish sauce 1 garlic clove, minced Salt Olive oil1. Wash the zucchini, then top and tail them and cut them into pieces about 5-6cm long.2. Take one piece (it should be a short cylinder), and place one of the cut round ends face-down on the chopping board. Proceed to slice into ’sheets’ about 5mm thick.3. Cut out any seeds, then julienne the zucchini ’sheets’ into short strips about 5-6cm long and 3-4mm thick. 4. Put the zucchini strips into a non-reactive bowl, pour over the fish sauce and lightly toss through with your fingers till they are evenly coated. Set them aside till they have wilted - about 10-20 minutes. 5. Strain the zucchini, then squeeze out all excess moisture and set aside. 6. Preheat a frying pan or wok with a little olive oil till hot, then add the zucchini, garlic and salt and sautée till they’ve softened a bit more and absorbed the flavour of the salt and garlic. 7. Remove from heat, and once cooled, store in an airtight container. |
500g fresh mung bean sprouts 2x cloves garlic, minced Salt 3-4 spring onions Sesame seed oil Toasted sesame seeds1. Bring a pot of water to the boil, then blanch the mung bean sprouts by adding them to the water and leaving them for a minute or two, till they begin to soften. Immediately drain them but DO NOT RINSE1! Instead, leave them to cool in the colander, occasionally giving them a toss.2. While they’re cooling, rinse the spring onion and slice them on the bias into pieces about 2-3mm thick. Add these to the blanched bean shoots, along with the garlic, salt, sesame seeds and sesame oil, then lightly toss through with your hand till they are evenly coated. 3. Once completely cooled, store in an airtight container. 1 - The reason that you do not refresh the bean shoots in cold water after blanching is that this causes them to retain more moisture, weighing down the shoots and making them soggy. |
1x bunch spinach Salt Sesame seed oil Toasted sesame seeds1. Remove the roots from the spinach, then give them a thorough rinse to get rid of as much dirt as possible.2. Bring a large pot of water to the boil, then add the spinach and make sure it is submerged for a few minutes (or till wilted but not completely cooked). 3. Drain spinach and rinse thoroughly in a few changes of cold water, till the colour is a vibrant green and there is no more green in the rinsing water. 4. Drain well, then take small handfuls and squeeze out as much water as you can, whilst being careful not to mush the spinach entirely. 5. Roughly chop into easy-to-eat lengths, then put into a bowl, along with enough salt to season and the sesame seeds and sesame oil. 6. Toss through evenly, then store in an airtight container once cooled. |
9-10 dried shiitake mushrooms 2 tbsp soy sauce 1-2 tsp sesame seed oil1. Bring a pot of water to the boil, then add the dried shiitake mushrooms and boil till well softened.2. Rinse in cold water then drain well, squeezing out any excess liquid, and remove the fibrous stems and cut into strips about 3-4mm thick. 3. Preheat a frying pan, then add the mushrooms, soy sauce and sesame oil and stir fry over high heat till the mushrooms have heated through and absorbed all the soy sauce and oil. 4. Set aside till needed. |
Preparation of non-banchan ingredients
| Marinated Beef Mince | Carrots | Onions |
| 300g beef mince 2 tbsp soy sauce 1 tbsp sesame seed oil 1/2 - 1 tsp sugar Freshly cracked black pepper, to taste Oil1. Mix together the beef mince, soy sauce, sesame oil and pepper, then leave to sit for about 10 minutes.2. Heat up a frying pan with a little oil, then add the mince and fry, making sure to break up any clumps into little pieces. Once browned and cooked through, remove from the pan and set aside till needed. |
2x medium carrots Salt Oil1. Peel carrots, then cut them into pieces about 5-6cm long. Slice these into sheets, then julienne to the same size as the zucchini.2. Heat a frying pan with a little oil, then sautée the carrots till they are softened (but not completely soft - they must retain some bite). Season with a little salt and set aside. |
2x medium carrots Salt Oil1. Peel onions, cut them in half then slice them lengthwise (so you get strips and not half-circles).2. Heat a frying pan with a little oil, then sautée onion till softened and they become pearly and translucent. Season with a little salt, then set aside. |
When making this dish at home, it is usually presented in a MYO manner - each person takes a dish then adds as much rice and banchan as they desire. This means they can have a dish they will enjoy, as well as controlling the heat in the dish from the gochujjang. The banchan are added first, then the gochujjang and sesame oil and egg before the entire thing is mixed into a delicious mess!
To Make Bibim Bap:
1. Add some cooked rice to a bowl (about half as much rice as you would usually have), then add small amounts of each of the banchan that you would like on top.
2. Add as much gochujjang as you wish (start with about 1 tsp as you can add more later), then about 1 tsp sesame seed oil and a fried egg on top. Use your spoon and proceed to thoroughly mix up all the ingredients of the dish till it is evenly and well combined. Taste, and add any more gochujjang or banchan that you need, then settle down and enjoy your bowl o’ goodness!
Now, I know that you’ve just read through this page and baulked at the amount of work involved, but just bear this in mind - any leftover prepared ingredients can be stored in airtight containers in the fridge for up to a week, which means you can keep them to make a bowl of bibim bap later when you don’t really feel like cooking!
VEGETARIAN/VEGAN OPTIONS
This is one of the few Korean recipes which is extremely easy to make vegetarian/vegan friendly. The following substitutions can be made according to what you’re after:
- Mince: Equivalent weight of firm tofu, crumbled into small pieces and marinated and fried in the same way, beware not to overcook as it can disintegrate.
- Fish Sauce: A little konbu or mushroom dashi powder (Japanese soup stock powder) dissolved in hot water
- Egg: Pffth. Just omit if you wish!
Technorati Tags: Korean cuisine, bibim bap, rice, banchan, recipes
Okay, this week’s installment for the p&s photography series is on how to focus.
Now, I’m the first to admit that I am a pure amateur photographer. While using my old Olympus p&s, I’d never thought about trying anything other than the auto functions, and it was only after I replaced it in March 07 (after accidentally dropping it on NYE and smashing the LCD screen) that I began to think more about the equipment.
It was a few months after that before I started to seriously try and learn about the different aspects of taking a photograph, as well as the abilities and limitations of the equipment I held in my hands.
However, this is one thing that has always irked me, particularly when I see photos from other folks. Sure, while there can be some art in in the unfocused image, it is not something that works too well when there is meant to be a focus/focal point. Part of the irritation I feel when seeing these unclear/unfocused photos is due to the fact that focus, particularly with digital cameras, is a pretty easy thing to do!
The image above is meant to be somewhat indicative of a digital camera’s LCD screen - almost all the ones I’ve seen have a little rectangle/square/circle in the middle, and if you haven’t found out by now, this is meant to be the focal point, or where the sharpest part of the image will be. Most, if not all, digital cameras come with a function called AF LOCK these days (in fact I’d be surprised to see any digicam sold in the past few years that didn’t have this function!), and it is this function that takes the pain out of producing sharp, clear photos!
Digital point-and-shoot cameras usually come with two shooting modes - normal (the default setting), and macro (usually indicated by a little flower on one of the camera buttons which is to be pressed to turn it on), and each of these modes has a limited range of focus. This information can usually be found in your user manual, and being aware of their ranges will help you decide which to use for different situations.
E.g. On my previous camera (Olympus Mju 600), the focal ranges were as follows:
- Normal mode: 19.7″ - infinity (50cm - infinity) - used for photos of large subjects or group photos of friends
- Macro mode: 7.9″ - infinity (20cm - infinity) - good for close-up portraits, nature shots etc.
- Super Macro Mode: 2.8″ - 19.7″ (7cm - 50cm) - used for any shot where I wanted to get up close and personal to expose fine detail
So, depending on the distance between you and the subject, you pick a focus mode, set yourself up in front of your subject, decide on an angle and…lightly press down on the capture button till its down about halfway or till you meet some resistance, and try not to move as you hear the camera lens whir as it attempts to focus.
That is the AF LOCK (Auto Focus Lock).
See? That wasn’t so hard, was it?
So, lets summarize what I’ve discussed so far…with pictures!
 |
I’ve set my scene, gotten into position and taken the shot without utilizing the AF lock.
From the way its turned out, it looks as though the bit of the scene furthest from the camera was almost in focus. This is obviously a bit too close to the camera to use the normal setting… |
 |
Alright, so now I’ve backed up quite a bit till I’m within the focal range of the ‘normal’ focus setting, used the AF lock to focus on the photo and taken the shot…
Well, its in focus.Too bad it also looks like a congregation of black ants.For something as small as these black sesame seeds, its going to have to be a much closer shot. |
 |
So now I’ve switched to the ‘macro’ setting on my camera, gotten in close so I’m sitting comfortably in the focal range for this particular setting, and used AF lock to focus the photo before pressing the button the rest of the way down to take the shot.
Quite different from the first attempt, wouldn’t you agree? |
This is all well and good…but what happens when you’re shooting a scene where there are many elements, sitting at different distances from the camera lens? You think that it would be really great for the image to be focused in one particular part of the scene…but its off centre, and you like the perspective you’ve got in a particular angle?
Well, we can use AF Lock to do exactly this.
 |
This is the starting image. Imagine that the red circle in the center is the camera’s Auto Focus mark.
Well, it’s focused…but I think it would work much better if I could blur the sesame seeds that are further away, and focus on the ones closest to the ‘front’. |
 |
In order to change your focal point, what you need to do is to change your position so that the AF Mark is over where you want the focus of the image to be, then activate AF Lock by half-pressing the button.
After you’ve used the AF Lock, you carefully move your position back to the previous angle (being VERY careful to maintain the same distance from the subject or you will lose your sharp focus!) before pressing the button the rest of the way to take the shot! |
This is not to say that this is necessarily an easy thing to do, in fact, it may take some practice, as its extremely difficult to do with a tripod, and so you will need to get used to visually maintaining your distance and angle from the subject, as if you change your distance from what you’re shooting while you’re repositioning, the focal depth that the camera has been ‘locked’ into will no longer contain a target at the correct distance, which means it’ll be all blurry again! Not what we want!
Luckily, most digital p&s cameras tend to come with three different focus modes these days, which means that if your camera has these functions, you won’t need to worry about with mucking about with the AF Lock 
The three modes you’ll most likely be working with are:
- AiAF - when looking at a cameras specifications, you’ll see that your camera has a certain amount of ‘auto focus zones’. With this focus mode selected, when you try to use the AF Lock, the camera will scan each of these zones and automatically focus on the one that is either closest to the centre or has the most contrast (which is, incidentally, how cameras auto focus…and why it is so difficult to take sharp photos of things such as a pile of cream on a white plate). If you know anything about using a camera, I’d suggest steering clear of this setting. That is, unless you just don’t care about where the camera is focusing.
- Center focus - The name pretty much explains this, ’nuff said.
- Flexifocus/Area focus - SCORE! You guess it - this function allows you to move the AF Mark on your camera screen around so that you can do that instead of having to tiptoe carefully about so you can try not to upset dear ol’ AF Lock!
Now, some of you reading this lesson will be able to stop right there. I’d guess that only about 1/4 - 1/3 of digital point-and-shoot cameras on the market at the moment allow for any manual fiddling with the aperture, so if your camera doesn’t give you the ability to adjust this setting, don’t worry about the stuff under this point. However, if your camera does allow you to muck about with aperture (hint - if your camera allows you to shoot in Av mode…then that’s a yes. Av is ‘Aperture Priority‘ mode), and you’ve never used it or don’t know how it works, continue to read on…
* * * * * * * * * * * *
Alrighty, so you’re one of those point-and-shoot users who have control over aperture, but you’re yet to figure out what this means or how it works, huh? Well, its really quite simple once you do away with all the jargon and wankiness.
Aperture refers to the opening in your camera’s lens that controls the amount of light being allowed through to the camera’s image sensor the moment that you take a picture. This is actually quite a simplified definition, but its about all you really need to know in terms of what it means. Aperture is expressed in f-stops (e.g. f4.0), and if you have control of your aperture then you will find what aperture range your camera has inside your user manual, for example my current point-and-shoot has a range from f2.8 - f8.0.
So, what do these numbers mean?
Lets go back to the first image I used in this post for a second.
Using my camera as an example, those two circles display the range of f-stops that my camera has, with f2.8 being the larger dashed circle and f8.0 being the smaller red circle. I know, you want to know why the smaller f-value indicates the larger sensor and vice versa, huh? To be honest, I haven’t bothered looking into that as its not critical to your use of this function.
There are just two things you need to bear in mind when using aperture control - the first is Depth of Field - often expressed as DoF, this refers to the range of sharpness in an image. The smaller your f-value, the shallower your DoF will be. Look at the following table for an illustrated example of how this works: (meaning that the area of sharpness will be quite small, with a small range within which objects gradually become more unfocused, and beyond this point you achieve an effect known as ‘
 |
Aperture value: f5.6
Taken in macro mode, this image has a field of focus which is about half the image size, then the amount of blur in the background increases the further out that you go, before you hit the wall and all detail in the seeds is lost and they are just little blobs of colour. |
 |
Aperture value: f4.0
Both the main field of focus and the field within which image blur is increased has gotten smaller, with a larger area in which our subject has lost detail/shape. |
 |
Aperture value:f2.8
By far the smallest field of focus from the three examples, this is a great setting to use when you’re shooting a very small subject and want to use the gradient blur to give the photo a sense of ‘depth’ and dimension. |
 |
Here is a side by side comparison of these three f-values at work, and you can clearly see how the area of focus and blur has been affected according to what aperture has been used. |
The second aspect of aperture is the light, and this is where things get a bit tricky. When you are shooting in auto mode, the camera will adjust the size of your aperture depending on the amount of light available - in low light conditions, it will open up the aperture as much as necessary so that enough light can reach the image sensor. On the other side, when you’re shooting in bright conditions, the camera will make the aperture much smaller so that too much light does not reach the image sensor, protecting you from overexposing your photo.
When you are shooting in Av and exerting manual control over your aperture, you will also need to adjust the exposure compensation in order to make sure that the correct amount of light is being allowed through the lens. From the image on the left, you can see the effect of the aperture on the light being allowed through.
Because focus and light go hand in hand when adjusted by aperture, you will need to pay attention to both and alter the settings accordingly, depending on the environment/situation/subject that you’re shooting! Having managed to make your way through this marathon post, hopefully you’ll now understand enough to be able to do so without too much headache
* * * * * * * * * * * *
I think that’s pretty much it as far as the equipment side of point-and-shoot cameras goes, but if you think I’ve missed something or there’s a topic you’d like more info about, leave a comment to let me know!However, if there’s no suggestions in as what other elements of point-and-shoot cameras you’d like to know, then next week will be a brief summary as well as a guide for choosing your next p&s camera! The week after that, I’ll start the guides on basic photo editing to bring your photos to life! I hope you’ve enjoyed the series thus far, and please bear in mind that feedback is always appreciated
Technorati Tags: point and shoot cameras, guides, beginner photography, aperture, tips, focus, light, f-stops
So, these are the culprits. The cheeky sods, the naughty little devils that are entirely to blame.
“Blame for what?”, I hear you ask.
Well, to blame for my having become a handless idiot1 for the past two weeks! You see, I’d been contemplating trying Bill Granger’s recipe for coriander crumbed lamb cutlets for awhile, and when I saw the beautifully plump little specimens at the butcher on Saturday, I knew I just had to buy them! Now, lamb cutlets were a cut that I’d not bought before so I was a little wary about giving them a try…but I thought to myself “well honestly, how difficult could frying up a few2 lamb cutlets be?”
Hrmph. I guess that proves just how much I know3.
At any rate, there I was, happily standing at the kitchen bench as I chopped and mixed and prepared all the necessary elements to bring this together, going a bit batty with the chopping of the coriander and parsley till my person was surrounded by what appeared to be a hazy green halo and my fingers began to take on a green-ish tinge. I couldn’t believe how quickly it was all coming together - I set up my assembly line of cutlets, flour, egg and seasoned breadcrumbs then began to methodically work through it, taking the occasional break to scrape off the ever-thickening layer of sticky goo that kept forming on my fingers4 to the point where they resembled crumbed fat little cocktail frankfurts.
Mm, yummy.
Once the cutlets were crumbed and ready to roll, I poured a little oil into my frying pan, heated it up and placed some chops inside, grinning as I listened to their cheerful sizzling of the cutlets, and a few minutes later my grin turned into a frown as I flipped the chops and observed that the littler f*ckers weren’t cooking evenly.
And then I noticed that the metal grill above the gas burner was crooked…
And we all know what happened after that!
As for the actual recipe? I have to admit that I think it’s one of Bill’s finer efforts - the herbed crumb coating definitely brought this dish alive while the herbed yoghurt was the perfect accompaniment with its tangy coolness (though I think my brain exploded from trying to count the calories in this dish!).
So, quick recap of the recipe - easy, relatively quick, v. tasty (though not too healthy) and quite easy on the eye.
Will I be making this again? Yup, but probably not anytime soon…while the fingers have healed, the mental trauma lingers on 
1 Of course, I take full responsibility for being the actual idiot…I just blame the chops for the period of handlessness. C’mon, I can’t be expected to take all the blame, can I? 
2 A few is probably not the best way to describe the quantity. 2 or 3 would be a few. I bought 12 - 2 for each member of the family. And, of course, frying up 12 lamb cutlets is exactly how I want to spend my time on a late & lazy Sunday morning…
3 In all honesty, it wasn’t that difficult. Quite a nice easy meal to prepare for lunch, so long as you don’t grab any hot metal with your hand.
4 This is something that is really best done one stage at a time - first flour all pieces, then egg ‘em, then breadcrumb ‘em. This is the only way to prevent the layers of sticky gunk forming on your fingers. If you prefer to pass each cutlet through the assembly line one at a time, just make sure you’ve got something akin to a cement scraper on hand to scrape goo off your fingers else you may find that they have glued themselves together. And for the love of god, do NOT leave this crap on your hands to dry, unless you know of a construction crew with a pneumatic drill you can borrow…
Coriander-Crumbed Lamb Cutlets
(adapted from Bill Granger’s “Everyday“)
Ingredients
125g plain/all-purpose flour
3 tbsp milk
2 eggs
160g panko breadcrumbs
1 + 1/2 tbsp finely chopped Italian/flat-leaf parsley
2 tbsp finely chopped coriander/cilantro
1 tsp finely grated lemon zest
1 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp cayenne powder
12 lamb cutlets (French-trimmed if you can. I couldn’t)
Salt and pepper
Oil, for frying
1. Put the flour in a wide, flattish bowl and set aside. Lightly beat the eggs and milk in another bowl and also set aside. Mix together the breadcrumbs, parsley, coriander, lemon zest, cumin and cayenne in a third bowl, then season with salt and pepper and mix through.
2. Dip lamb cutlets in flour, shake off the excess, then dip in the beaten egg then breadcrumbs.
3. Heat oil in a large frying pan over medium heat and then fry the cutlets in batches till they are golden brown on each side and just cooked through (don’t overcook unless you happen to enjoy the sensation of chewing on leather!), then set aside to rest for a minute or two before serving.
4. Serve with herbed yoghurt and a bitter green salad.
Herbed Yoghurt
(from Bill Granger’s “Everyday“)
125mL thick Greek yoghurt (a low-fat variety so you don’t feel quite so guilty)
1 tbsp finely grated lemon zest
1 tbsp finely chopped Italian/flat-leaf parsley
2 tbsp finely chopped coriander/cilantro
Mix altogether and serve with lamb cutlets.
Technorati Tags: Bill Granger, recipes, food, savoury, lamb, coriander
Welcome to the third post in the ‘Basic Tips for P&S users’ guide. This week, we cover the ominous topic of…flash photography.
Using on-camera flash is something that appears to have just as many supporters as those who frown upon it, and its easy to see why. It is super-bright (or not bright enough, depending on your distance to the subject), harsh and is capable of completely washing out and flattening your image to a point where it looks absolutely horrid. To add insult to injury, some ‘genius’ (and I *do* mean that in a pejorative sense) somewhere along the line decided that it would be alright for the flash to appear to the SIDE of the lens.
(Not all cameras have this problem…mine does, however, and the only way around the lens shadow that is cast is to zoom into the image like so)
Look at the image on the left - see how some parts of the image are so overexposed (have been subjected to too much light during the taking of the shot) that they have lost all detail? Without getting into the technical jargon and details, I would think that anyone viewing this photo would think it quite unattractive…and that’s not just because I took it right now and couldn’t be arsed with setting up a pretty shot
DSLR camera users are quite lucky - they have a range of different flash options available to them. They can use the on-camera flash, use an attached flash (usually mounted with something like a ‘hotshoe‘) or an off-camera flash connected to the camera with a wire. As for us point-and-shoot users? Well, the on-camera flash is pretty much it…and though more and more p&s cameras these days are being sold with ‘hotshoe’ mounts, are we really looking to invest over US$200 for a fancy flash setup that will probably be bigger and weigh more than the camera itself?
Well, let me put it this way…if you’re serious enough to want to invest in a seperate flash unit, you should put the money towards the purchase of a dSLR and start buying the expensive attachments after you’ve got the equipment to make it worthwhile.
So, our on-camera flash. Depending on how much control the manufacturer has decided to give you, you can control any number of things about it - it is either just a function you can turn on/off, or you can control the strength of the flash, or you can fiddle with things such as flash (exposure) compensation and 1st/2nd curtain. Since I’m using the manual of my old Olympus mju 600 as a standard guide for available functions (my current camera is a high-end p&s that gives me a lot more manual control than your standard camera), I’m going to assume that most people just do the turn on/turn off thing.
Alright, now I know this guide is meant to be working with what you have, but in order to really make the most of your on-camera flash, you’ll need to spend a few dollars - about $10 - $15 should do it. And what do you spend it on? Look at the image to the left…
Miniature tripod - approx 15cm long with flex legs, cost AU$9.00
One sheet of white tissue paper - AU$0.25
One small sheet of white cardboard - about A5 size, cost AU$0.50
It costs more to go see a movie.
The tripod is the black octopus-like thing in the forefront, and the tissue square and cone were made out of the tissue paper and cardboard. The problem with flash is that the direct light is ALL forced forward, and this is what flattens the image, making it lose its details and shadows and basically making it unattractive. The tissue paper acts as a diffuser and softens as well as spreads out the light to provide far more palatable results.
Now, diffusers can be bought and generally aren’t too expensive…but when you can do almost as good a job with an itty bit of tissue paper, there’s really not much need for the extra equipment! Besides, tissue paper is cheap, easy to transport and, best of all, easy to replace!
The square is a piece of tissue paper folded a few times so its about4 layers thick, then cut to fit into the coin section of my wallet with the edges taped to keep the sheets together. The cone is just a rolled piece of white cardboard the same length as my camera lens (any longer and it will cast a shadow when the flash is used), with the large end covered in a few pieces of tissue paper and taped together. As for the results…?
 |
Yay, mood lighting! Taken in my lounge room with all curtains drawn and dimmed lights, and all settings on auto with flash forced off. Mmm, tasty… |
 |
ISO: 200 White Balance: Manual EV: +1 Flash: Forced off I’ve set the white balance and exposure compensation…this would actually be a passable shot with a little fiddling in Photoshop afterwards, but since we want to explore flash, lets continue on! |
 |
ISO: 200 White Balance: Manual EV: +1 Flash: On Eww. Just…ewww. There are no words. |
 |
ISO: 200 White Balance: Manual EV: +1 Flash: On Diffuser: Tissue paper square, flat against camera’s flash unit Already, we can see how this works - light is far less intense, the colours far more realistic with very little ‘washing out’, and more shadows retained that give the sense of dimension and depth. Isn’t it amazing what a few pieces of tissue paper can do? You can also see the effects of the flash unit being to the side of the lens, the left of the photo is far more illuminated than the right. Ugh. |
 |
ISO: 200 White Balance: Manual EV: +1 Flash: On Diffuser: Tissue paper square, angled about 45 degrees away from the flash towards the lens Okay, so the paper has been angled slightly too much here as the light is now slightly hitting the right side of the plate instead of centre (which is where I was aiming for). However, I still prefer this shot to the one before as the spread of light across the plate is more even…just from holding the tissue paper square at an angle! |
 |
ISO: 200 White Balance: Manual EV: +1 Flash: On Diffuser: Tissue paper cone, with the small uncovered opening held directly against the flash Using the cone has bounced more light into the picture and thus is more effective than the plain square of tissue paper. The reason for this is that the white cone traps more of the light and directs it down the cone towards whatever the covered end of the cone is pointed at, whereas when holding tissue paper just against the flash, you completely diffuse the light and its free to go in all directions as it doesn’t have any guidance! |
 |
ISO: 200 White Balance: Manual EV: +1 Flash: On Diffuser: Tissue paper cone, with the small uncovered opening against the flash at approx. 40 degree angle to camera Ta-da! Even spread of light, still a bit of flash glare on that front bit of carrot, but I can live with that! We’ve got colour, depth, dimension and most of all - it actually resembles food! |
Now, I have to admit that I am one of those people who dislikes using flash, but then again, I have the time and opportunity to take shots when I don’t need it. If you are, for example, a working parent or someone who mostly takes photos of restaurant food (so, basically someone who is shooting in dim dark rooms or at night), then flash may be a necessity. However, now that I’ve shown you what a few dollars, a little time, tissue paper and tape can do, hopefully you’ll be encouraged to make the most of that on-camera flash!
Before I finish this week’s post, I’d like to drop a quick thank you to Kara Zuaro from Chow who featured this series in a DIY food porn post! I’d send her an email directly except that I’ve misplaced her email address, so thanks Kara for thinking these posts worth the mention, and I hope those of you who have been directed here from Kara’s post on Chow have found these posts worthwhile
Next week I’ll be covering focus…its going to be quite a long lesson, so make sure you come back with a cuppa in hand!
Technorati Tags: food porn, photography, beginner, cameras, point and shoot, guides, flash photography, using flash
