Culinary Inspiration by Otao Kitchen

Our salads have come a long way from a sad bowl of a few leaves of lettuce, onion and unripe tomatoes. These days a salad can be an entire meal with interesting ingredients, textures and flavours! They are a great way to use up excess produce lurching in the depths of your crisper and are an ideal for bulking up your fruit and veg intake too. A delicious salad can transform ordinary ingredients into something exciting and colourful. The use of nuts, meats, pulses and even seafood are great additions. Combining a mixture of raw and cooked fruits and vegetables provides contrast in visual appeal and taste. For every salad you create, there is a perfect dressing!

Thai food is popular all over the world, and the vast assortment of Thai curries are some of the most beloved. Usually served with steamed jasmine rice, yellow, green and red Thai curries can be cooked with all kinds of vegetables, meat or seafood. They’re so versatile that these pastes, made from fresh herbs, spices and aromatics can also be used to marinate, add to soups or give a flavour kick to noodles or rice dishes. The difference between each of these colourful curries may be confusing at first, but we’ll be running through their different core ingredients and flavour profiles to help you find your favourite!

Typically speaking, Thai food uses many of the same core ingredients as other South East Asian countries (chilli, garlic, ginger, lemongrass, fish sauce, palm sugar and lime juice). However, it manages to retain an entirely unique flavour of its own. The essence of Thai cuisine is all about balance. The perfect harmony between sweet, sour, hot and salty is the foundation of any Thai dish. Flavourful aromatics, such as galangal and lemongrass, tone down overpowering spices, while salty sauces are mellowed with sugars and offset by acids, such as tamarind and lime. 

Having a good stock or broth is important in producing the best soups, stews, sauces and other dishes. It’s the foundation, or base layer, where you can begin to build flavour and umami. Obviously making your own is time consuming, but a quality homemade stock far surpasses a store bought one.

Fresh and dried aromatics, spices and herbs are vital components when cooking authentic Vietnamese food. They are what give the nations cuisine it’s iconic flavour and freshness. Vietnamese dishes use common ingredients such as salt, sugar, pepper, onion and garlic, but use herbs more liberally than any other cuisine. Herbs are used not only as garnishes in Vietnamese cooking, but as the vegetables themselves as bases for soups, stir fries, salads and stews. Here is a list of common aromatics, herbs and spices you might find in Vietnamese recipes.

Vietnamese cuisine is one of the most diverse and vibrant in the world. It uses an enchanting mix of food from colonial visitors, native ingredients and traditional cooking techniques. Many aspects of climate, trade, history and immigration has influenced the food of Vietnam we know today.

You have plenty of options when it comes to choosing which type of oil to pan fry, stir fry or drizzle with. Which oil is right for you? That depends largely on the type of cooking you’re doing. An oil’s smoke point, which is the point when oil starts burning and smoking, is one of the most important things to consider. If you heat an oil past its smoke point, it not only harms the flavour, but many of the nutrients in the oil degrade and the oil will release harmful compounds called free radicals. We have selected some of the most used oils in our kitchen below.

Woks

If I had to choose one all-inclusive cooking tool, I would choose a wok. A wok is a traditional Asian pan used for cooking quickly at high temperatures. Typically, it gets used for stir-frying, boiling, braising, deep-frying and steaming. You can also do most of this with a regular pan or skillet, however a wok is thin and large, making it very heat efficient and easier to use when cooking Asian foods.

Each year millions of people get sick from foodborne illnesses which can cause you to feel like you have the flu. They can also cause serious health problems and affect the immune-compromised the most. Good personal hygiene can help prevent food poisoning. Bacteria that cause food poisoning can be on everyone, even healthy people. You can spread bacteria from yourself to the food if you touch your nose, mouth, hair or your clothes, and then onto food.

Follow these four steps to help keep you and your family safe.