DiabloFans

Nektu, have you ever tried making jerky using a smoker? I just got one over the weekend and I want to use it over the summer and I know all the stuff about wood chips, marinating, and the importance of what meat you use, but I don't know exactly how long I should keep it in there.

Like, I read that you should keep the chips going for about 3 hours since you don't want to overpower the taste with too much smokiness, but then that same site said that you should put them in the oven to finish "drying," but my mom wants nothing to do with jerky in the kitchen cause it'll just make the house hot and smell like jerky. So can I just take the chips off and leave the meat in the smoker with heat running through the element (I have an electric smoker)?

So, basically you have a direct heat smoker? Some of the best ways to make jerky are in an indirect smoker. Basically the heat source is off to the side and you place your wood in there. The longer you cook for the better the flavor. Then again, I've known of people using direct heat smokers to cook spare ribs with drying them out to the point of jerky.

You will only need enough wood chips to achieve the taste you are going for. The rest is a "drying out" process of the jerky.

A good 12 hour round in your smoker should be fine, and since it is an electric smoker you'll be able to adjust the heat to the desired temp you need. Some electric smokers can also be programed to shut off after the cooking process is done.

i made noodles and tomato sauce today. it was a great accomplishment, u can address me as iron chef now.

Quote from cas89_6080271

another type of meat you can use in chili is ground lamb, gives a slightly different taste...

I've thought about using lamb, but because lamb is such a nice piece of meat I just don't. There is so much more you can do with lamb on it's own.

I always get lamb at the Indian restaurant I frequent. It's a delectable meat!

Quote from Airandius

Hey Nektu, I need some help with a new dish I'm making. Basically it's a dish without vegetables because in my country people always use vegetables like OH MAN VEGTABLES. Basically I want to make a nice meal without that stuff to be more unique.

At the moment it's prepared like this:

Take a schnitzel and cut it in small pieces of 1 by 1 cm. Put them in a bowl and add olive oil. Use your hands to spread the oil (massage the meat).
Add some beef spices and salt and proceed with the massage until the spices and oil are spread somewhat equally among the meat.
Next take some pommes parisiennes (tiny potatoes) and add some bbq spices.

Bake both the pieces of meat and the pommes parisiennes.

(....)

That's it. Currently the plate is about 2/3th filled. Something is missing (obviously some kind of vegetable), what can I do to fill this hole?
At the same time I need some decoration tips, what kind of things can I do to decorate the dish? For example using tomatoes or lemon?

EDIT: Also I'm planning to display them separate (left goes meat, right goes potatoes). How about mixing the meat and potatoes? Possible? More awesome? Or does it mix the taste and ruin the dish.

I know you were asking Nektu, but I can't help it.

I think some sauted mushrooms could go great with the dish you're looking for. You could try and cook them with the beef, in which case they would take the flavor of the meet, or you could simply sautee them seperate, which, IMO, would fit your surviving idea surving them in three strips.

If you are going to mix them all together, some diced cooked tomatos would fit visually. Alternatly, you could try some sort of mixed veg medley, preferably with diced carrots and peas.


That said, a general question:

Does anyone have any good chinese or indian dishes? I'm trying to expand my skillbook.

Quote from Airandius

Oh wow, somebody reacted to a year and two month old post of mine. D:
Might be a smart idea to check the dates next time.

Anyway for a Chinese dish I guess you could go for fried rice.
I usually cook some rice until the water is gone. Let it cool a bit, stir-fry some eggs, add some random vegetables finely chopped (leeks for example), also add finely chopped ham and add some garlic.
I stir fry that entire mix for a bit and then I throw in the rice and mix it all together. Sometimes I add a bit of soy-sause.

I based it on something Chinese I ate once.

I did check the dates, just not the right one. The one I looked at said I was about 8 days past the post.

I believe I have now mastered the omelette.

No one in my family can cook, so I don't really have any fond memories regarding food. I don't really "enjoy" food as there's very little I actually like, my palate is pretty weird I guess.

Il guess il contribute with something too

Althou its not a Norwegian thing (il might contribute with some norwegian stuff later)

its really simple and my favorite dessert

Fried bananas with honey and butter:

You need
Bananas wich is brown colored, or you could say old?
Honey
Butter
Lime(optional)

Put a lot of butter in the pan, then slice the bananas in 2 on the long side, let them warm up for like 30 sec, then put a lot of honey on them, let them fry/boil in the honey and butter for like 1-2 min on each side, and then put a litte bit of lime on them
Serve them atonce, if its too hot, pour some milk on them or some vanilla sause.

And sorry for the bad English

Where is Nektu, anyway? I need his advice on a good truffle oil and salt.

Here's one from the poison helix kitchen, and I swear, it's not poison.

Chicken Tacos Barbacoa Style with avocado relish and ridiculous cream sauce.

Time you need: Prep is about 35 minutes for everything, cooks slow, 3-4 hours. Make it on a sunday, reheats well.

Stuff you need:

For the chicken:

4 Boneless/skinless Chicken breasts
4 Cloves of garlic
1 large spanish/yellow sweet onion
2 bottles of Mexigermanic Lager or bock, I use shiner bock, it's delicious.
3-4 Cups Chicken Stock
Canned Chipotles in adobo sauce
Cilantro, buy a bunch, you'll use a good bit in a combination of the sauce, relish, and chicken.
2 limes
Salt
Pepper
Ground Cumin
EV Olive oil

For the Relish

2 Haas avocados (Firm)
Salt
Cilantro
1/2 Medium Red onion
2 limes
2 Serrano peppers
1 Clove Garlic

For the Sauce

1 Pint Sour Cream
1/2 Can Media Crema, It's condensed milk you can find at most chain grocery stores in the mexican/latino aisle
1/4 cup of cilantro
2 tablespoons cumin seed

For the tacos.... Tortillas (I use soft corn tortillas), and random fixins... lettuce, shredded cheese, etc.


Lets move on to prep.

I'll try to keep this orderly and explain how i get it all done at roughly the same time. My Kung Fu is strong, so you may want to take care of prep first, but this dish really is not very difficult to prepare.

In a medium Dutch Oven, Heat 3 tbsp of EV Olive oil over medium heat right up to the smoke point.

While that's heating, Generously salt and pepper your breasts on both sides, and sprinkle LIGHTLY with ground cumin. I use maybe a teaspoon for all 4 breasts.

Once your oil is ready, Sear the chicken until lightly browned on both sides. Searing isn't as hard as your Foodie dbag friend says it is. when you drop cool chicken into oil at the smoke point, it should stick to the cooking surface. When it freely comes off the surface easily, without pulling, it's good to go.

While that's rolling, Chop the Sweet onion, peel, crush, and mince the garlic.

Alright, when your chicken is done, remove it from the oil and set it aside, use a plate.

Take your beer, pop the top, and drink it.

Take another beer, deglaze the dutch oven with it and reduce by half. Add the Onion and garlic, cover, and let sweat for about 5-10 minutes.

While that's working, de-stem and finely chop about 1 cup of cilantro and juice your two limes. You can use a food processor if you want.

Pop your can of chipotles.

Alright, it's decision making time. You can do this one of three ways, for mild, just take 2 tablespoons of the adobo sauce out of the can, it'll carry some of the flavor of the chipotles without a whole lot of spice. For medium, take 1 whole chipotle and 2 tablespoons of sauce, for hot, take 2-3 whole chipotles and 2 tablespoons of sauce. Up to you. The relish and sour cream sauce have a cooling effect when combined with the chicken, so the spice won't be overbearing, but some people just can't take hot.

OK, the onions and garlic have sweat down, you've decided you want to set your mouth on fire (or not), and you're ready to go. Add the cilantro, 1 tablespoon of salt, the lime juice, the adobo sauce, 1 cup of chicken stock, and your personal, private number of chipotles to the mix and stir well. Take the chicken and nestle it into the mixture. Pour chicken stock over the chicken until it almost covers, turn the heat up and bring the whole shabang to a light boil, reduce heat, cover, and simmer for about 3 hours.


Congratulations, you've just defeated the diablo 3 cooking beta.

The sauce:

In a small sautee pan, toast about 2 tablespoons of cumin seed. it'll turn from a light yellowish brown, to a burnt ochre.... you know, that one crayon in the box that noone ever used? yeah, that color. If it turns black, you've gone too far, turn around and go back.

Process your cilantro (destem/chop) and whisk your crema and sour cream together into a mixing bowl. I use a citrus zester for this to get the cilantro extremely fine. Slowly add the cilantro and toasted seed, whisk until smooth, cover, and chill.

The relish:

This stuff is retarded good. I normally chew through half a bag of tortilla chips while i making a batch of this stuff.... it's amazing.

ok, pit and dice your avocados into 1/2 inch cubes. dump em into a large mixing bowl.

Juice your limes into a food processor.

Destem about a handful of cilantro. Throw it into the processor.

Crush and coarsely chop the carlic clove. Throw it into the processor.

take your serrano peppers, cut them in half lengthwise, de-vein and de-seed them. Easy to do with a spoon. Throw them into the processor.

Coarsely chop your half red onion. Throw it in the processor.

add about a teaspoon of salt and crank that bad boy up.

You don't want to liquefy this stuff, pulse until it still has peices, but they're reasonably small.

Mix this concoction with the avocado cubes and try it. add salt to taste. I usually add about a tablespoon before it's over and done with, but you may like less, or more. Who am i to tell you about arterial health?

Get this stuff into the refrigerator and start cleaning.

Phase 2 is complete.

Go back and turn your chicken over every now and then in the braising liquid. I normally go in about every 30-45 minutes. At about 3 hours, remove the lid and carefully remove the chipotles. Then using tongs, or a fork, shred the chicken while still in the pot. it should come right apart with no effort. Leave the heat on low and let the chicken absorb the rest of the liquid keep a pretty good eye on it as this may take 10 minutes, it may take 5. you don't wanna let this stuff dry out, but you don't want it all liquidy either. find your happy medium.

I'm not gonna tell you how to assemble tacos.... google it if you don't know.

and enjoy.

You probably copied and pasted that whole thing. And everyone knows the best Mexican food requires no recipe.

Then go back to your Taco Bell. I hear they have a new taco there made with Doritos. Probably right up your alley.

At any rate, now you know.

Quote from Siaynoq

Where is Nektu, anyway? I need his advice on a good truffle oil and salt.

I've been working some rediculous hours at work. What do you want/need to know?

First tip I'll give you is that too much truffle oil can overpower anything. I'll utilize it in Tomato Bisque, and a good Velvet Spinach soup. You can even add a little to a mushroom soup as well.

Salt? I prefer Kosher salt to anything. Sea salt is alright, but I find I need more of it when cooking. Table salt is alright, but mot prefered when cooking.

As for the type of Truffle oil, I'll have to see what I use. It's not overly expensive, but it isn't cheap. Some of your better oils can get very pricey.

There is a truffle salt that İ want also though. Can you recommend any particular brand? I love how just a lıttle bıt of truffle salt on some eggs or ın some soup can add thıs earthy buttery flavor.

I've never used truffle salt personally. But I may know of a few people who have. Hell, I've never even heard of it before. Hmmm......

I got a question, maybe someone can answer -

I'm trying to get into eating various kinds of greens (collard, mustard, kale, etc). I have a pretty good recipe for collards, but I'm looking for more recipes. Preferably ones that aren't loaded down with high fat sauces (not that I have anything against it, just it defeats the purpose, imo).

Ideas?