Kitchen Hacks!

I am using the Burken IKEA jar as fermentation jars as they let out any build up of carbon dioxide safely. No fear of Kaboom. Also I can leave the ale fermenting for a few days without worrying too much.

Modernist Cuisine I am totally in love with this book. If you’re a geek and a food enthusiast, you’ll love the great details and visualizations on anything and everything geeky about modern food. There is scientific descriptions of food, and various cooking techniques. There are tips and tricks on preserving, storing food. And of course many awesome recipes. It’s 5 humongous volumes though. So not for the faint of heart, but if you want to feed your inner-geek with “real food”, this is the book for you.

## Tomato Vegetable Ragú ## This is my favorite Pasta sauce. It's easy to make. It can be bottled and kept for weeks (reheating and using it on those days when you don't have the time to cook). It's healthy with a good dose of vegetables. ### Ingredients ### 1. 1 Large Onion 2. 3 cloves of Garlic 3. 1 cup each of various vegetables (Carrots, Capsicum, Mushroom, Zucchini) 4. 1 tsp each of Oregano and Basil (or your favorite herbs) 5. I Bay leaf 6. 1 tsp of crushed Red Chili (or sliced fresh Red Chili if available) 7. 2 tbsp Red Wine (if available) 8. 500g canned (or fresh, but make sure you skin them) chopped Tomatoes. 9. Salt and Pepper to taste 10. 3 tbsp Olive Oil ### Recipe ### 1. Finely chop Onion and Garlic and sauté them in the Olive Oil with the Bay leaf till slightly colored. 2. Add the in vegetables and roast everything till the vegetables show slight signs of charring. You might have to keep moving the vegetables to ensure a more even roasting. 3. Add the herbs, chili and salt and pepper and roast for another minute or so. 4. Add in the tomatoes, wine and mix everything well 5. Stew for 5 mins or until the pot comes to a boil. 6. Eat it with freshly cooked pasta or let it cool and bottle it.

Home Made Ginger Ale v0.2. ##Recipe## 1. 1.5l boiled and cooled Water 2. 3/4 cup Sugar (1/2 cup normal white sugar + 1/4 cup gula merah) 3. 2 Tbsp grated Ginger 4. Juice of 1/2 Lemon 5. 1/4 Tsp bakers yeast (I accidentally added 4-times that) [Based on this recipe](http://biology.clc.uc.edu/fankhauser/cheese/ginger_ale_ag0.htm). Left it in a dark place for 4 days. Released the gas build-up every two days. Loved the full-bodied taste. A little too yeasty (thanks to the way too much yeasts I added).

Homemade Pineapple Cider “Pcider” v0.1 Day #3

Homemade Pineapple Cider “Pcider” v0.1 Day #2 The Juce finished sedimenting at the bottom of the jar. There wasn't much activity. I resisted the urge to release the gaseous build up. Since I've so much space at the top, it'll withstand for longer.

Homemade Pineapple Cider "Pcider" v0.1 Day #1 Ingredients. 1. Fresh Pineapple Juice 500ml 2. 1 Tbsp of Brown Sugar (local Gula Merah) 3. 1 Tsp of Bakers Yeast. Trying out with Bakers Yeast with stuff available at home before graduating to something more serious.

I've been following this series by the Security Guru [Steve Gibson](http://grc.com/health) on Low Carb Diet. Here is [Episode 1](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_vfK5U9qKaI) and [Episode 2](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_KKT7XFxQWg) of the series. Maybe it's an engineer thing, but Steve has a great ability to explain the systems behind how/why these things work. Of course like all things, this too should be taken with a pinch of salt (or a bouillon cube), but I find it the easiest to digest. I still don't think I personally can reach the level of discipline needed to go below 50g of carbs per day. But still I think taking a low carb approach to meals is a great way to improve your health.

##Grilled Aubergine, Zucchini and Capsicum Dip## This was inspired by a random bottle of sauce I found at [Carrefour](carrefour.com.sg) a while ago. It has a very mediterranean feel to it. While I call it a dip, it can be easily made into a sauce for pasta or a spread for bread by adjusting the consistency. ###Ingredients### - 1 Aubergine (Eggplant/Brinjal) - 1 Zucchini - 1 Capsicum (preferably Red) - 1 Large Onion - 1 Large Tomato - Small bunch of fresh Basil (1 tsp dried Basil) - 1 tsp of crushed red pepper - Pinch of Sugar - 2 tbsp of Olive Oil (preferably Extra Virgin) - Salt and Pepper ###Recipe### 1. Grill the Aubergine, Capsicum, Zucchini, Onion and Tomato in an oven (or on a grill if you have access to it) until they're cooked and have some burn marks on them. This will give the dip a slight smokey flavor. 2. Mix the grilled vegetables and the other ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Easy peasy! And super tasty. You can always tweak the sharpness of dip by adjusting the amount of red pepper. I have even tried adding some local fresh red chili (chili-padi) for extra kick.

Hello World! This is a blog archiving the adventures of a couple of geeks, who like to spend a little too much time in the kitchen. Sticking to the [hacker spirit](http://nushackers.org/name-change/), we hope to try out some crazy ideas involving stuff that you'd probably not see in the kitchen and some usual kitchen stuff like recipes and nutrition.