Do You Even Cook, Bro?

[UNM1136]

Been working on my ethnic/local(ish) breakfast game.

migas and chilequiles

I know it is a mortal sin to use tortilla chips instead of fresh(ish) corn totillas, but screw you, it is easy and fast and I am time pressed.

Migas, yum. Little bit of oil into a heating pan. Mash the chips a little with a spoon until they begin to get browner. Add eggs, scramble, top with salsa (or sauce, there is a difference) and cheese of choice.

Chilequiles, or soggy breakfast nachos...



The key seems to be a little oil in a hot, hot pan. Dump in the salsa, so some of the sugars can carmelize. There should be some bubbling and boiling and sputtering. Stir in the corn chips, and remove from the heat. Top with cheese and over easy eggs so the yolks mix in. YUM.

The Mrs is sniffling and complaining that she is about to die. I used Sadie's Hot Salsa. I explained that she is not about to die, she just wants to die. She doesn't see the difference but cleaned her plate. (She actually licked it, which she gets on me about...) Don't tell her I told you. She knows where I sleep and where the suppressors are...

Just fixed a pan of green chile chicken enchiladas. I just realised my current process is lighter and has less sodium than all my co-workers. They use cream of chicken and cream of mushroom soup. I toss green chile, salt, and garlic into the blender with buttermilk. Layer corn tortillas, chicken (used Costco hand pulled rotisserie chicken breast today), sauce and cheese till full. Into the oven at 375 on a foil lined sheet pan until it is bubbly and browned to your liking. I like my cheese crispy...

pat

Re reading this old post, if you follow my instructions your enchilada sauce will be too thin, and the enchiladas will be soupy. A few Tbs of starch type thickener of choice into the blender resolves this. Wheat flour works, I am currently playing with potato starch. I usually blend the salt, starch, garlic and 1/3 to 1/2 of the chile in the blender and let it go. Then add the remaining chile and blend to just mix, without chopping the chile much more.

pat

[Tabasco]

When I lived in San Francisco, my favorite restaurant was Izzy's Steak and Chops. They had a hanger/skirt steak that was amazing, my wife ordered it every time. Fast forward to 2022, I have a co-worker who used to wait tables at Fog City Diner, another SF restaurant that's been around forever. He mentioned a hanger/skirt steak recipe they did there that marinated the beef in soy sauce and maple syrup. That sounded amazingly similar to what I had at Izzy's (they wouldn't tell us the recipe). Sho nuff, it's basically the same flavor profile. Mostly soy sauce with just enough maple syrup to add some sweetness. Amazing. Marinate it overnight, drain the marinade and grill on hot charcoal. Super easy and deadly good. Want more sweet, add more syrup. Add any other spices that suit you fancy, I added garlic powder, ginger powder and graham masala to my latest batch. Taste the marinade before you put the meat in, if it's too salty add some sake.

[UNM1136]

I have ranted on my liking of the Sous vide...gimme a couple of days. It will likely cut my workload down for the upcoming Holiday. Since I was planning on my daughter having us over, as she said, and now I am making The Dinner...as I just found out.

I am also using the sous vide weekly. Every few weeks I buy a 5# ground turkey pack from Sam's Club. Add 5# of canned chick peas, pushed through the grinder. I am still playing with grind separately and cook, vs. grind together and cook.. . With 1-2 TBS Taco Potion 19 per 1/2 pound protien. I cook it up and freeze it in one pound portions. On Thursdays (in my house it has always been Taco Thursdays, not Tuesdays) before I go get the kiddo at school I drop a 1# vacuum sealed bag of pre-made Taco meat, frozen, into the Sous vide, set at 165 for 2 hours. Open, fill Taco shells, and eat.

pat

[SCCY Marshal]

I smoked this year's turkey, again, at the request of our eldest. Wife and I also continue our duelling stuffing and cranberry. She likes paste-like slop made from hotdog buns and smooth cranberry sauce. I like a custardy stuffing from stale crusty bread with some aromatic veg and maybe sausage. For cranberry sauce, a chunk of fresh ginger and several cardamom pods simmered a bit in the sugar, honey, freshly squeezed orange juice, water, and orange zest before whole cranberries went in until popping. Fished out the spices and finished with a couple tablespoons of orange liqueur.

Giblet gravy, sourcream mashed potatoes, hot mulled cider (star anise, cardamom pods, whole allspice, whole cloves, half a cinnamon stick, honey, splash of orange liqueur), and other sides from guests.

Wife also made one apple pie and one cranberry custard pie.

[JAD]

one cranberry custard pie.

I request elaboration.

[45dotACP]

I have ranted on my liking of the Sous vide...gimme a couple of days. It will likely cut my workload down for the upcoming Holiday. Since I was planning on my daughter having us over, as she said, and now I am making The Dinner...as I just found out.

I am also using the sous vide weekly. Every few weeks I buy a 5# ground turkey pack from Sam's Club. Add 5# of canned chick peas, pushed through the grinder. I am still playing with grind separately and cook, vs. grind together and cook.. . With 1-2 TBS Taco Potion 19 per 1/2 pound protien. I cook it up and freeze it in one pound portions. On Thursdays (in my house it has always been Taco Thursdays, not Tuesdays) before I go get the kiddo at school I drop a 1# vacuum sealed bag of pre-made Taco meat, frozen, into the Sous vide, set at 165 for 2 hours. Open, fill Taco shells, and eat.

pat

Damn...that sounds like I'm gonna be trying it soon.

Sent from my SM-A326U using Tapatalk

[SCCY Marshal]

I request elaboration.

She does not remember the orignal source, likey a flyer, but here you go:

3 cups jelly cranberry sauce (cook 1 bag cranberries, 1 cup water and 1 cup sugar for 10 minutes on boil. Then blend and sive. [sic])
1 can condensed milk
1 egg
Blend ingredients
Put in unbaked pie shell
Then drizzle about 1/2 cup of suace [sic] on pie.
Cook at 350 for about an hour.

Direct from her text without editing or formatting just to annoy her. Turns out that I could have checked our hand-compiled recipe binder for my own shame.

Oh, keep an eye on the top and have an aluminum foil tent on standby. Particularly in a more cramped oven or near an element, it can want to blacken a hair by the time the custard sets. It varies enough by oven that you should probably start checking a bit early until you get it down for your own equipment, at which point the emergency foil tent won't be needed. And definitely use homemade cranberry sauce. Not as good with the tin can stuff.

I've yet to make a pie crust a fraction as good as hers so use whatever recipe or store-bought works for you. She mostly eyeballs her crusts for variance in flour batch and humidity so no real recipe to quote there.

[JAD]

I've yet to make a pie crust a fraction as good as hers so use whatever recipe or store-bought works for you. She mostly eyeballs her crusts for variance in flour batch and humidity so no real recipe to quote there.

we are pie snobs and make our crusts with lard.

[UNM1136]

From the I Hate Turkey Thread...

Ok..OK... I have been brining and spatchccking for a long, long time. And it helps, but I like the skin crispy...A lot.

I started turkey hunting a few years ago and one of my favorite chefs who specializes in game insists that you butcher the wild bird and cook the parts separately. Also, Cook's Illustrated has been touting the dry brine over a wet brine for years. The nice thing about the wet brine was I could make the brine, Ice it, and keep the bird in a cooler on the porch. No refrigerator space taken.

But I saw this video.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=oh7oPAZH4yY

It all made sense! Perfect sense! My only mods: I butchered the bird in the kitchen sink. I hang the bird as I dismember it (pick it up by the leg, cut tissue, pop socket. Repeat. Pick it up by the wing, carve around and disjoint, repeat). It worked until I had to cut the breasts off, and then it was a little dicey. I vacuum sealed the salted bird parts and kept them in the fridge 24 hours. I roased the carcas, neck, and organs till browned and roasty-toasty, then made the stock. I pulled the assorted parts out of the fridge and let them air dry almost 8 hours at room temp. I pan seared the bits and roasted them on a rack on a baking sheet. A 16 pound bird took 2 baking sheets. And cooked WAY faster than even spatchcocked.

This was one of the best birds I have cooked! Perfectly seasoned, moist, crispy skin. Slicing the breast was simple, the legs no more difficult than any other way. The stock and resulting gravy were great! I even accidently overcooked it, the brand new leave in probe thermometer was WAY off. Calibrate your probes, people! My beasts overshot the 150 degree target by about 20 degrees (when checked on a Thermopen) and were still moist and tasty.

Next time, and there will be next times until I find a better process, I will vacuum seal the wings and freeze. A turkey for Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year's, Easter, and two more will give a dozen wings. Vacuum sealed wings in the freezer will easily last years, so even 1-2 turkeys a year will work, if you are patient and plan long term. Some butcher shops will also sell you the wings streaight. Disassemble the wings, use the tips for stock, and prep the others like your favorite hot wings. I sous vide 10 hours, air dry, air fry till the skin is crisp. Then sauce and serve. Show up with a dozen Buffalo Turkey Wings (maybe call them Pterodactyl Wings?) to a potluck or Superbowl party and you will be a legend...

pat

ETA I forgot the software doesn't deal well with mobile links, so it didn't embed. But the link is working for me.

[UNM1136]

On my sous vide thoughts...

One day I made a big batch of Taco meat. And Brat the Third was supposed to put food away and load the dishwasher. I did not check when I got home, and went to bed. I woke up later, and found the Taco meat had set out more than 20 hours. There was visible mold, attracted, I believe to the binder in the spice mix. Trashed it. Next time he forgot, I checked when I got home, the meat had set out about 12 hours. No visible mold. I am sure it was there, but in smaller numbers. I took a risk. I packaged, vacuum sealed, and put the meat in the sous vide at 165* for 2 hours. Effectively pasteurizing the stuff, after depriving the wee beasties of oxygen, preventing reproduction.... I have done this with chicken, soups, and sauces... with chicken breasts I do 150 for 4 hours.

Another thing my sous vide does well is make yogurt. I was afraid of using a zip top bag, so I bought a sorta square-ish cylinder storage container from Wally World. I put a gallon of whole milk in it, with a couple of quarts worth of nonfat dried milk, put it in the sous vide set at 180 for 3 hours, since the container is plastic, an insulator... Allow to cool until the milk reaches 110. Toss in a couple of TBS of my favorite Greek or Bulgarian yogurt with live cultures, or leftovers from my last batch of yogurt, I was surprised to learn that the Bulgarian yogurt listed four strains of bacteria to my favorite Greek yougurt's two strains. (More on that another time). Set the sous vide to 110 for 12 hours and let it run overnight. I stirred in all sorts of stuff to the yogurt and it is great. My favorite flavor is middle eastern themed, lactose fermented lemons (more on that later) and cumin.

pat