Whatchya cookin?

Yup. I've worked for my boss 14 years come July 7th. I'm also Major Domo, and supervise the operation of his three households- staffing, maintenance and repair, etc. I've also been known to provide discreet personal protection for them on occasion.

I kinda forgot to take any pictures of that soup once it was pureed and finished for service. I also did some littleneck clams on the halfshell wrapped in creamed spinach, baked, and topped with crumbled dry-rub bacon. But I only took pics of the prep and not the final product...
 
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Chorizo,eggs,potatoes and tortillas.I can eat a lot of this:D
 
I did chocolate dipped strawberries yesterday, there better be some left when I get home!


-X
 
Nice!

Texas Style Chicken Fried Steak

Cut some cube or round steak into big chunks and pound until very thin, maybe 1/4" thick - pre-pounded is good too - marinate overnight in buttermilk

Get one handful of saltines and one handful of flour per steak, break up the saltines into small pieces, or put in bag and crush.. mix this with way too much lemon pepper, a lot of seasoned salt and something spicy...remember, way too much lemon pepper!

Pull steaks from marinade, remove most of the buttermilk by dragging on edge of bowl, massage in flour mixture

Cook! - get your pan hot with lots of butter or oil... deep frying works too... cook! they don;t take long and you want them cooked all the way through


Gravy - a couple tablespoons of flour to a couple of butter... cook very slowly on low until tan colored and you just made Roux
Add a splash of half and half or cream, stir in very well, add a couple cups of milk and stir well, you should have no lumps if you add a little then stir it in first, add a spoonful of chicken base or a cube of bullion... stock if you have it. pinch of black pepper or two... Stir and bring to a light boil then turn down and simmer while you cook the steak

It's pretty easy to get right and tastes great! Enjoy!

 
Nice, Daniel!

I've chicken-fried big squares of leftover lasagna- is there anything you *can't* chicken fry? :D
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Marinate 1" cubes of 'fu in some soy, a little oyster sauce, and two drops of dark sesame oil.

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Whip up 3 large egg whites into stiff meringue:

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Then, use Wheat Starch Powder. NOT flour!!!

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Gently fold in enough to make your 'fu a nice, thick, gloppy coating. The complete opposite of anything the French would approve of. You're going to be cooking this to death and back, till the coating is rock hard. That way when it's drenched in shiny, corn starch-y "Chinese" sauce, it'll remain somewhat crunchy.

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Then, take a small handful, and gently drop them around the interior of your c.350F cooking oil:

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Like so:
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Crank your Wok so you can stay as close to 350F as possible. Mine is a 48K BTU equivalent Induction unit from CookTek that can boil a cup of water in 8 seconds. Cook 'em till they look like this, then remove to some paper towel and promptly introduce whatever sauce you like. Today I did "General Tso", which is just apple juice, some sugar, some vinegar, some ketchup, and red pepper flakes all thickened up with the usual corn starch/water slurry.

The 'Fu:

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Zai Jin, Bak Gwai! :D






* Later, White Devils!
 
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That sounds awesome.

I like the thermometer and induction system, cool stuff! I had to look up the induction system, very nice.

We used to cook lots of shrimp like that... great way to do it, crunchy!
 
Mornin' Boss! I wanted to aks you- should I even mess with 01? I found a piece of precision-ground 3/16" X 1 7/8 X 18 (if I recall) for 17 bucks. Should I go for it? 3 Frikkies' worth, barring any catastrophic bludgeoning on my part.

Is it enough to drill slooooooooooooowly with tons of oil?

Oh- and I only use the thermometer since my boss' wife cheaped out and got me the Wok with numbers instead of actual temp control. For the shore house post-Sandy rebuild, I've got one that's dropped in to the marble counter, with actual digital temp controls.
 
Good morning! I'm trying that recipe you posted by the way, sounds awesome.

At the place I worked at in St.Thomas we baked tofu marinated in soy with a brewers yeast crust, kinda wacky but addictive.



Cheapskates! :D lmao on the wok

O1 is great steel. I'd consider buying a piece that is the same height as your design to minimize sawing... depends if you have access to a bandsaw or what. A decent hacksaw setup will be good too. Precision ground is the way to go and the price sounds good.

Drill O1 - no problem once you are used to drilling steel. Drill as slow as possible, use good cobalt bits. Norseman is a good brand, USAKM has them. Beware the Helicopter of Death! Clamp your steel and use lots of feed pressure (press hard). You want to see big streamers of metal coming off.

I don't use oil to drill, probably not a bad idea though... too smokey for me. A little cup of water will keep your bit cool, keep the steel cool too. I just dunk it between holes.

Air hardening and most other drilling problems are from - not enough feed pressure, too much flex in the setup, too much speed, crappy bits, etc. Get a few bits, at first you may go through them.

I hope that helps...
 
HELICOPTER OF DEATH!!!

I actually laughed out loud at that! I plan on drilling while it's still in bar form, in a vise. Same height as blade- I've no specific dimensions in mind as it's all going to be fitted to the blade and hardware. I know I want to do Giganto Oversize is all! I'm going to trace my patterns onto kydex like I saw Filip De Leeuw do. Bang out all three sets and drill them together, and do the three pivots and stops all to the same dimensions. This is going to be fun once I find a place to do the work...
 
Bacon Wrapped Jalapenos

I cleaned up some Jalapenos by de-veining them and washing out the seeds while the bacon pre-cooked. After that I coarsely chopped some cilantro and added it to some warmed up cream cheese.





I stuffed the jalapenos with the cream cheese mix, wrapped them in bacon with toothpicks; covered the ends with panko crumbs and sprinkled more crumbs on my pan.





I'm going to finish cooking them in a bit, they are in the fridge. I'll throw them in the oven at 350F until they look nice!
 
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Nice! Ditch the cilantro and use three peppers in the cream cheese. Red, black and cayenne. Smoke 'em for a couple hours and really enjoy!


-Xander
 
fast14riot said:
Nice! Ditch the cilantro and use three peppers in the cream cheese. Red, black and cayenne. Smoke 'em for a couple hours and really enjoy!


-Xander
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That sounds killer! I do them a bit different every time, the cilantro might be a bit much for some people but I love it.

Cheddar and home made bacon bits with no wrap is good too. We used to batter them and fry them too.
 
Bako said:
Lookin' good. I wonder if I can get away with those at work...
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We made some with grilled shrimp, a sliver of pepper, apple wood smoked bacon and maybe gouda... I forget if they had cheese. They went over well at some of the more formal places I have worked at.
 
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