some cooking notes

Weight & Sizes

• for accuracy, it's better to weigh ingredients rather than use cup measurements.
• fruits and vegetables are medium-sized unless specified in some recipes.

Chocolate

• Cocoa solids give chocolate its flavour. Dark chocolate has a higher percentage of cocoa solids than milk chocolates. Choose from 65% to 85% depending on how bitter you like it.
• Avoid chocolate with added butter oil, as it's not suitable for cooking. 

Cream

There are three types of cream in the market:

• Pouring cream has (35% butter fat)
• Thickened cream has (35% butter fat) contains gelatine and is most suitable for whipping.
• Double cream has (48% butter fat) and is usually for serving as it is. 

Eggs

• I recommend using eggs that are approved by a certified body, or local authorities such as the health department. 
• Always use eggs at room temperature. 
• In most egg recipes, all the eggs used are 59gm (extra large)

Onions

• There are six types of onions in the market:
• Onions: refer to the brown varieties.
• Red Onions
• Spring Onions: are the long, thing green variety.
• Bulb Spring Onions: are the long thin green variety with white bulb.
• Eschalots: are the small, sweet variety with golden-coloured skin.
• Asian Red Eschalots: are the small, sweet variety with pinky red skin available from asian groceries. 

Segmenting Citrus

• Using a sharp knife, cut off the top and bottom of the citrus and place upright on your chopping board.
• Slice the skin away from the flesh using even downward strokes, following the curve of the fruit. 
• Cut away any remaining pith, then slice between the membranes and flesh to release the segments.

Skewers

• Before you thread food on skewers for the barbecue or grill, soak them in hot water for 20 minutes to ensure they don't ignite. 
• You can also use metal skewers, available from kitchen shops. These become very hot, which assists in cooking.

Vanilla

There are three forms of vanilla:

• Vanilla essence: is usually artificially derived in an alcoholic base. A few Australian companies produce natural vanilla essence.
• Vanilla extract: is an extract from vanilla beans in an alcoholic base.
• Vanilla bean paste: is derived from vanilla beans. 1tsp vanilla bean paste is the flavour equivalent of the scraped seeds of 1 vanilla bean.
• Vanilla bean: is vanilla in its purest form. To extract vanilla, split the bean lengthwise and scrape seeds.