Secrets on the Grill

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Monday, August 25, 2008

Tip for Cleaning Your Grilling Tools and Accessories

As an outdoor chef, there’s always the tendency to forget my tools like tongs and scraper outside. Accessories would include the ring plates and the chimney extension filter. And when left to the mercy of the elements, these tools and accessories will start to rust away especially when we don’t use them for quite a while. So here’s what you can do to retard the rusting:

  • Use a light-grade sandpaper to lightly sand away rust, soot, and dirt that could’ve stuck to the tool.
  • Rub on grease and spread it around thinly. (Note: This only applies to those tools that do NOT touch food.)
By doing those two, your tools and accessories will last much much longer.

Tuesday, August 19, 2008

3 Reasons to Put the Outdoor Cooker Under the Mango Tree

In a previous entry, I gave some height factors to consider when finding a place for the Superkalan Outdoor Stove. Well, I’m all the more convinced that after those considerations, putting it under a fruit-bearing tree would be the best location.


Here are 3 reasons why:

Thursday, August 14, 2008

What are Pandan Leaves?

In a previous entry, I wrote an entry on how to cook pandan flavored rice. So, what are pandan leaves? From Wikipedia:

"Pandanus Amaryllifolius is a tropical plant in the screwpine genus which is known commonly as pandan and used widely in Southeast Asian cooking. It is an erect green plant with fan-shaped sprays of long, narrow, bladelike leaves and woody aerial roots. The plant is sterile, flowers only very rarely, and is propagated by cuttings."


Wikipedia continues:

"The plant is rare in the wild but cultivated widely for use as a flavoring in cooking. The leaves are used fresh or wilted, and are commercially available in frozen form in Asian grocery stores in nations where the plant does not grow. They have a nutty, botanical fragrance which enhances the flavor of Indonesian, Filipino, Malaysian, Thai, Vietnamese and Burmese foods, especially rice dishes and cakes. The leaves are sometimes steeped in coconut milk, which is then added to the dish. They may be tied in a bunch and cooked with the food. They also may be woven into a basket which is used as a pot for cooking rice. Pandan chicken, or gai ob bai toey, is a Thai dish with chicken wrapped in pandan leaves and fried. The leaves are also used as a flavoring for desserts such as pandan cake and sweet beverages."

Hey, did you know pandan leaves are effective in repelling insects like cockroaches? Here’s a Wikipedia entry that says:

"Cockroaches tend to dislike the smell of pandan leaves. In Asia, a car infested with cockroaches can generally be rid of the cockroaches by leaving a handful of fresh pandan leaves overnight in the vehicle."
Cool!

Monday, August 11, 2008

Is the Superkalan Really Smokeless?

In a previous entry, I mentioned the Superkalan was also sold inside the mall coz it was smokeless. But is it really?

Well, the answer is “yes” AND “no”. Yes, because once the fuel is dry and burning very hot, there is no water content to turn into steam that comprises the smoke. No, because when you are just starting the fire, there will always be smoke coming from firestarters like paper and dried leaves. And until the main wood fuel is very hot, expect the water content to turn into steam and smoke.

Thursday, August 7, 2008

A Convenient Firestarter

Everytime I need to fire up the stove, I’d always need some pieces of scrap paper to light the tinder. Most of the time, I’d scrounge for old newspapers in the garage or scrap paper elsewhere. And most of the time also, I’d still have leftover scraps of newspaper after cooking which I conveniently misplace. So I said, “Why not a convenient source to get your scrap paper for firestarting?” And then I thought of junk mail like booklets of old company financial statements, stockhoder reports or what have you. Rather than just throw them, I now used them to be my neat convenient source as shown below.

Monday, August 4, 2008

Delicious Pandan Flavored Rice

You might have heard of it - boiled rice with the faint delicious aroma of Pandan. And for many, when rice smells good, eating is a pleasure. How hard can it get?


Well it’s easy as 1-2-3: