Let’s Cook: The Tasty Road of Tapioca | News, Sports, Jobs

Let’s Cook: The Tasty Road of Tapioca | News, Sports, Jobs


Working in assisted living centers in the activity department has given me some fine insight and great hints for cooking, baking and entertaining. Think about it. We have many people who retired to these centers with a vast amount of range time. They have seen it all! From cooking on wood stoves to hauling every drop of water needed, managing kitchen duties in limited space plus having access to farm eggs, cream and more! They have also strolled the road of dishwashers, harvest gold and avocado appliances, many kitchen gadgets that were supposed to save time, and the rage of microwave cooking that could have possibly retired the range!

When these seasoned cooks and bakers come to an activity that focuses on food, they are not tepid in expressing lessons that they have learned while stirring, slicing and creating in the kitchen. Granted, cooking shows reveal many tips about preparing food. However, being in the company of souls who have stood in the front line with spatulas, strainers, pressure cookers and worked often without several kitchen convivences is a true insight to family style cooking — plus, it is altogether entertaining and educational. I can not begin to tell what a joy it is to be steeped in their vast knowledge.

Tapioca has long been a favorite dessert in our home. Upon preparing it for these veterans of the stove, it was back to the future as they dug out their tapioca recipes and knowledge. These wise mothers who understood the whims of their children’s appetites and how to intrigue them with dishes that are appealing, yet nourishing and healthful. They didn’t need to google the fact that growing children need plenty of carbohydrates to furnish sufficient energy for the active little bodies. The realized that carbohydrates in Minute Tapioca is an easily digested form. How ideal!

While in conversation with these crown jewels of the kitchen canisters, they expressed that since Minute Tapioca is partially cooked and ground before packaging, it requires no soaking (like pearl tapioca) and needs only brief cooking over hot water or other liquid to be ready for a number of uses. As you find in these recipes, tapioca combines well with milk and egg–plus, it is a time saver. As one of the ladies stated “Minute Tapioca was a time saver allowing me to do other household duties yet have attractive meals.”

Thank you to the Sunny Seniors who have delighted me and others with many great cooking tips and tricks. I have learned a great deal from you and I know that there is more to come. By the way, talk on tapioca is to be continued as I have much more to say and share about this cupboard delight.

Fluffy Tapioca Cream

This is an easy, delicious and attractive dessert that will tempt you to go adventuring and invent other creative toppings such as minted orange, fancy fig and even a top hat of chocolate! Oh, the possibilities!

As Lydia stated as she finished this featured dessert, “Dad, this is always so good!”

2 eggs, separated

6 tablespoons sugar, divided

¼ teaspoon cream of tartar

3 tablespoons Minute Tapioca

2 cups milk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Beat egg whites in a medium bowl with mixer on high speed until foamy. Add cream of tartar and gradually beat in 3 tablespoons of sugar until soft peaks form. Set aside.

Mix tapioca, milk, egg yolks that have been slightly beaten, and remaining sugar in medium saucepan. Let stand 5 min. before heating.

Bring to a full boil (a boil that doesn’t stop bubbling when stirred) on a medium heat, stirring constantly. Remove from heat. Add egg white mixture, fold until blended but not totally smooth. Add vanilla.

Transfer to attractive dessert dishes. Serve warm or chilled. Keep refrigerated. Makes 6-8 servings.

Rosy Raspberries

2 cups of fresh raspberries

¼ cup fresh or prepared orange juice

¼ powered sugar

Teaspoon of grated orange rind

Blend together carefully and let set 30 minutes before serving.

Egg Salad Sandwich Filling

I received this recipe from Cecilia Howe after a presentation on tapioca dessert at an assisted living center. The beauty of this recipe is the fact that it uses less mayonnaise and the taste is delicious. It also sets up very nicely for open face sandwiches. If used for open face sandwiches, sprinkle with dill weed before serving.

3 tablespoons Minute Tapioca

½ teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon pepper

1 cup milk

4 hard-boiled eggs, finely chopped

4 tablespoons celery, finely chopped

2 tablespoons sweet pickles, chopped

2 tablespoons liquid from pickles

1 tablespoon mayonnaise

1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce

A dash of tabasco



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Let’s Talk Food: The best recipes

Let’s Talk Food: The best recipes

Let’s Eat: ‘Chef Ken’ shares Malaysian culture at Kerol’s Kitchen | Food & Drink

Let’s Eat: ‘Chef Ken’ shares Malaysian culture at Kerol’s Kitchen | Food & Drink

Khirularziman Mahmud, recognized around Madison as “Chef Ken,” is now scheduling the menu for his brick and mortar cafe, even however it is possible quite a few months from becoming a actuality. 

Mahmud is the proprietor of Kerol’s Kitchen, a food items cart and catering small business. On a latest weekday, he leaned back again in his white chef’s coat soon after serving a scrumptious catered lunch based on a standard Malaysian marriage feast. 

At his restaurant, “you have to have nasi lemak,” he mentioned, “That will be the signature dish.” 

The unofficial countrywide foods of Malaysia, nasi lemak virtually interprets to “rich” or “creamy” rice, and with superior motive. The centerpiece of the plate is rice cooked in coconut milk. This is traditionally served with peanuts, sliced cucumbers, a really hard boiled egg and some kind of protein in a rich curry sauce. 







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Kerol’s Kitchen will make nasi hujan panas, saffron seasoned rice with tricky boiled eggs. 




“And pink milk,” Mahmud stated. “You would like this. It’s milk blended with a rose syrup. It’s pretty refreshing. And Malaysian espresso, with a thick foam at the major that’s sweetened with honey. You just can’t have a Malaysian cafe with no that.” 

Sometime, Mahmud would like to serve his food stuff in each important college or university city in the region.

Culinary ‘elder’

Although he queries the city for a good locale with fair lease, Mahmud stays a culinary nomad. For the earlier two many years, Mahmud has mostly cooked and shipped dishes from his homeland to eager diners who come across out about his Malaysian cuisine by phrase of mouth. 

“I am very well regarded on campus,” he claimed. “I do not have so many orders now in September, but wait around just one month. By then, all the Malaysian learners at the university will have run out of the food they introduced with them. They will start out to get homesick and they will seem all around for the kind of cooking they are employed to. The other pupils will ship them to me.” 







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Khirularziman Mahmud, far better acknowledged as “chef Ken,” is the chef and proprietor of Kerol’s Kitchen area, which would make Malaysian cuisine at a food cart and for catering functions. 




In an regular week through the college year Mahmud provides dozens of just take-out meals to eager and hungry learners waiting around in front of the Memorial Union. He delivers them spicy curries layered with ginger, onion, purple chilies and garlic, and aromatic rice infused with saffron, cardamom, cloves, star anise and pandan leaves. Pandan is a tropical plant with a grassy taste some say evokes vanilla and coconut.







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The evening meal Khirularziman Mahmud prepared for my family highlighted nasi hujan panas (saffron seasoned rice with challenging boiled eggs), daging masak hitam (black beef), shrimp curry with tomatoes and green beans, ayam masak merah (chicken with red chilies) and timun acar (cucumber salad with clean tomatoes, pineapple, carrots and jalapenos). 


“I’m like an elder in the neighborhood,” Mahmud laughs. “They know me. They all get in touch with me ‘uncle’ and my wife ‘auntie.’”

After reserving a handful of small festivals, weddings, numerous catering work and cooking courses in personal residences, Mahmud has begun to department out above the last calendar year. Earlier this month, he was a to start with-time food items seller at the Flavor of Madison. 

At Kerol’s Kitchen area, he served 1,600 plates of beef rendang or hen curry and 1,500 Malaysian spring rolls, a dish he developed with his wife. The spring rolls garnered him a very first put Style of Flavor award for Asian food stuff. 

“It was wonderful,” he stated. “I don’t have a typical staff members, so some of the Malaysian students I prepare dinner for arrived to assist me serve buyers about the weekend.”

Mahmud vends at the Boneyard Pet dog Park and Biergarten on Wednesday nights on Madison’s east aspect, together with numerous other food items carts. There he will make rice stir fries and sauteed noodle dishes to order, together with his award-successful spring rolls. 

“I make everything contemporary,” he claimed. “Nothing frozen. I push to Milwaukee after a 7 days so I can get fresh herbs that I just can’t invest in here.”

Malaysian foods will take patience

When going for walks me by the dishes he shipped for my luncheon feast, Mahmud explained the origins of Malaysian cooking and the philosophy guiding it. As a region full of immigrants from the bordering location, Malaysian foodstuff has been motivated by the foodways of Java, China, India, Indonesia and Thailand. 

For the reason that every spot uses its nearby kinds of elements, the flavor of the remaining goods can differ broadly. “The palm sugar which is grown and processed in each location is distinct,” Mahmud explained. “The teas are diverse Malaysian tea leaves are a lot much more fragrant. We use spices in different means.

“Also, Malaysian food stuff can take persistence,” he additional. “I discovered that from my father, when I watched him prepare dinner as a little one. He taught me, you have to saute gradually, enable the ingredients brown correctly prior to you put the upcoming issue in the pan. The consequence is deep, wealthy taste.” 







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Timun acar is a Malaysian cucumber salad with contemporary tomatoes, pineapple, carrots and jalapenos. 




Mahmud credits his moms and dads for training him the basic tenets of his native culture’s cuisine. Whilst not formally qualified as a chef, he labored in experienced kitchens in Malaysia’s capitol of Kuala Lumpur for several years, accomplishing anything from washing dishes to preparing banquets for foreign dignitaries — like the late Queen Elizabeth II. 

Mahmud accompanied his wife to Madison in the early 1990s, when she commenced work on her PhD in environmental sciences at UW and he centered on raising their three sons. Before long he began cooking for friends, then close friends of mates, and his popularity grew. 

“It has not constantly been quick,” he reported, shaking his head, “but I have been really blessed. Now issues are fantastic.”

A well balanced introduction

The dinner Mahmud prepared for my household built for a superb introduction to Malaysian foods. It showcased nasi hujan panas (saffron seasoned rice with hard boiled eggs), daging masak hitam (black beef), shrimp curry with tomatoes and inexperienced beans, ayam masak merah (hen with red chilies) and timun acar (cucumber salad with refreshing tomatoes, pineapple, carrots and jalapenos). 

As instructed, we piled a bit of just about every item on our plates and ate them all together, letting the flavors blend and engage in off every other. A delightful blend of salty and sweet, the dishes have been intricate fusions of ginger, cinnamon, lemongrass, turmeric and herbs that Mahmud grinds by hand. The food stuff was fantastically balanced the spicy chilies have been assertive but in no way overpowering. 

“When I do cooking classes, it’s ordinarily for a team of females good friends in a person of their homes,” Mahmud mentioned. “Sometimes they communicate and gossip and don’t learn a lot. 

“But I tell them pay consideration. This way your spouse is gonna love you. This is cooking from the heart.”