Cooking Techniques/Recipes/Food/Vendors

J

Joann

Deceased
This thread is a continuation of other cooking techniques, recipes, products, and vendors carried over from the Coconut thread.

Laura (aka LMonty911):
Joann. what cool idea to add celery salt! I will definitely try that next time, I have celery seed and just throw that in the spice grinder (I have a little 10 buck coffee bean grinder from WW I use just for flax seed and spices its great!) with some sea salt and make my own, its fresher that way and buying the celery seed is pretty affordable and so useful I add it to lots of things but never thought of that! Guess I am going to have to make Chicken Paprika soon My new improved Joann version We do make it the same, I do the bag thing too whenever i need to flour or coat anything. Dredging is way to messy, I'm lazy. But I have a question- you mentioned you rinse and dry the chicken-I always rinse too, but make sure I drop in the flour wet. How does the flour stick if the chix is dry? If I'm coating anything unless its moist like maybe beef cubes for stew I always wet it first, even eggplant or or other veggies (one of my favs I rarely make cause DH doesnt enjoy it). Does it work better that way? It sure would be less messy! I just never thought about it before.
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So you have bean grinder from WorldWar I ? Ha ha, just kidding. You’re right about wetness for chicken, I rinse the chicken first place pieces on paper towel and prepare tha bag w/flour and seasoning, then place all chic pieces in bag while semi-wet, shake shake shake, then prepare pan with clarified butter. Now your question bout the CB:

Yes, Ghee is the same as CB, however, Ghee is usually purchased commercially in cans/bottles and CB is easily made at home, I used to see it available in stores many decades ago not so much any more, but they are the same thing pure butter with the solids whey/salts removed, which allows high temps when cooking because nothing left like solids to burn.

Here is a video from a chef I follow Eric Gower, Breakaway Chef, on making CB:
http://www.breakawaycook.com/blog/2010/06/24/fat-is-flavor-within-reason-how-to-make-ghee/

Here is a video on “finishing salts” grinding sea salt /spices (he’s right about the Matcha/seasalt combo, I have ground both and it is especially good on eggs, finding Matcha can be a pain though, expensive and elusive, I finally found some at Whole Foods during a visit to Scottsdale last month.

http://www.breakawaycook.com/blog/2010/02/16/video-series-2-creative-use-of-salts/

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And more of his videos on other techniques and products (just make sure you scroll down for other videos.
http://www.breakawaycook.com/blog/category/videos/?q=3

I really like how he cooks in his tiny old fashion kitchen. Also his spice cabinet in the background is to die for, all modest real down to earth ... very engaging. Bought and read his book Breakaway Cook and love it, he has a way of guiding the reader to have confidence in developing their own sense of flavor profiles and cooking to their own taste, instead of dictating by recipe, by recipe is necessary at first then it is paramount to strike out on your own in developing a personal technique that suits one’s own taste.

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A wonderful source for online shopping of spices is My Spice Sage. All of their spices are fresh, meaning the dry spices haven’t been sitting for years in a warehouse or store shelf. Prices and quality are much better than grocery store, in addition, you can buy most all of their products in 1 oz size for around $2.00 to see if you like it, and sizes go up from there 4 oz, 1 lb, bulk.

The saving increases when buying at min. 4 oz level. Also, on each order they give you a 1 oz sampler of your choice, and each month they give an extra 4 oz bag free spice of the month with each order, i.e. OCT.= Pumpkin spices bag. Free shipping on orders $40., and flat fee of $4. on anything under $40., turnaround is about five days.

I buy their Ground Cumin 4 oz size a lot and use it on rubs for meat, sauces, chilie, soups, chicken, etc. They must have over 400 spices and the site can get confusing, so this is the way I shop there: Top bar titled Shop Spices By, click Name A-Z and go down the list in alphabetical order on left side box:
http://www.myspicesage.com/

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I have some other contribution that will be added later ... me fingers starting to hurt ;)

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L

LMonty911

Deceased
neve rheard of matcha before, Joann. Interesting, I googled it and came up with this in case others havent heard of it either. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matcha

as a tea drinker, it sounds quite fascinating. have no idea where I'd find it out here, we dont exactly have any gourmet groceries nearby :)

thanks for clarification on the chicken thing. I wondered if maybe there was neat technique I was missing out on.

I'll check out Gower, he sounds interesting. I'm more a seat of my pants play around with stuff kinda cook. I have a congentital inability to follow a recipe, well, at least past the first time. this occasionally makes the numerous dogs and other animals around here very happy, lol, but sometimes it works out pretty well. others not so much.

spice place sounds interesting, I will check it out. Penzeys has been my go to place when I can get extra money to order. definitely fresh stuff and some of their blends are awesome. love their sausage spice blends. I have their pepper grinder and the tellicherry peppercorns are wonderful.


one thing Mom didnt teach me I learned online somewhere is any time I do a breading to add my spices to the flour itself. Even if you then eggwash, and batter or crumb, I think its a much better way flavor wise. I bet you know that trick, but its such a simple one I didnt know for YEARS and years I thought Id share it here since we're talking about tips and tricks.

little things like that are huge to the result, Ive found, and I love stuff like that.

another interest I would love to explore is knowing more the science of how and why things work. one you learn those priniciples I think it frees you and gives you the basics to create with. thats fun, cause I like success too, lol. even if the dogs or pigs still appreciate my failures.

basic ratios are great to have down pat too. I know a few, that work for me- like baking. ie, how much liquid to use for how much flour, then how much yeast for volume, how much salt to add per loaf, or cup of flour/solids does your palate need. I think then you can play with the what the content is and get creative with better chance of success.

I would love to hear from others what they do for ratios on different recipes or basics. any "science" tips they can share, on how/what works why.

I guess I use the term ghee interchangibly with CB. Comes from prepping- canned ghee myself a few times, keeps much better than butter for the same reason it cooks better-no solids. I keep a couple of pounds in the freezer, but for long term, I'd definitely start canning it again. In half pint jars, aesthetically, I really dont care if it seperates- IME warmed and stirred it does fine, then chilled enough to resolidify its hard to tell from fresh for cooking at least. and I just like butter complete as a spread, so thats the way I prefer to put it up. the way the prices have jumped, I may have to do some in the coming weeks just to put off the inflationary ouch of it. i wont buy butter substitues. i'd rather do without than eat plastic. sounds snobby when I say it, dont mean to be-i just think the "engineered" fats are scary healthwise, especially on a regular basis...I have enough really bad habits!

I really wish I had a cream seperator, I'd try goats milk butter. thats sustainable. if the economy goes in the crapper which is looking more likely everyday, it might be worth it if i can swing it. but its a big capital investment for something I might not use much otherwise.

if you can get fresh goats milk, it makes the best darn bicuits you ever had. I'm guessing its the fat content, I raise Nubians and they tend to run about 5% milkfat, which is higher than whole cows milk. Either that or its the type of fat? It just really works.
 
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