Over the years I have become a proficient cook of various cuisines. I will never become what I think of as a chef because I'm too lazy to put that much study into the process. But there is always something new to learn or in my case something that one knew and then forgot and then relearn the hard way. Last night I was cooking from a new recipe found in one of the few Vietnamese cuisine books we've managed to find. Anyway I assembled the main ingredients -- which were basic -- and even created a fair substitute for lemon grass on the fly when I discovered that this particular recipe calls for the caramelization of a tablespoon of sugar to one teaspoon of water; the browned results being added to the wok in the form of a thick syrup. FIne, no problem . . . except that it had been a couple of years since I last worked a recipe requiring this and so I forgot a key issue with the stuff . . . you only create it when you are actually instantly ready to pour the results into the greater mix of hot food. If instead you prepare it ahead of time and then set it aside you will form a type of rock hard translucent brown glass that sticks like superglue to whatever its residing in. Sigh! So, when the time came to add the little spot of carmelized sugar into the mix inside my wok the sugar mix was rock hard and stuck -- and I do mean stuck -- to the bottom of a little glass mixing bowl and it was going nowhere . . . not even with the direct application of boiling water. So don't do that sort of thing! As for myself I simply lowered the heat beneath the wok to the nearest I could get to a 'keep this stuff warm setting' on my stove and then caramelized another tablespoon of sugar and teaspoon of water, and then just before the liquefied sugar began turning brown, turned up the heat beneath the wok and then brought the sugar concoction into contact with the wok's hot contents and then thoroughly mixed the two together. The end result? A surprisingly tasty Vietnamese style meal and the firm admonition to myself to 'never make that particular mistake with sugar again!'
Brown sugar! How come you taste so good?... High levels of acrylamide in brown sugar exposed Tue, Sep 01, 2015 - RISKS? Taiwan has not set a maximum permissible level for acrylamide as the debate continues about whether it causes cancer in humans, a food safety official said
