What's your specialty?

[kccougar]

Please post if you don't mind sharing. I'd love a good waffle recipe. I'd really love a good malted waffle recipe.

My waffles:


1 1/2 cup flour
pinch of salt
3 t baking powder
2 T sugar

2 eggs - separated

1 1/4 cup milk
1/2 stick butter - melted
1 t Vanilla

Sift the flour, salt, baking powder, and sugar together. Make a well and drop in the egg yolks. Stir gradually while adding in the milk and melted butter until you get a thin batter. Add the vanilla.

Whisk the egg whites until stiff and fold into the batter.

[YOhio]

kccougar, were you the guy on CB who dry ages his own steaks?

[FMCoug]

My crepes would make your crepes beg for mercy they're so good ... I am the crepe fete master in my household. You can't make crepes from a recipe -- that's why your first ones turn out gross ... 4 eggs -- ha! butter -- ha! salt -- ha!

This has to be the most disturbing stand-in for male organ sized I have yet seen.

[CJF]

kccougar, were you the guy on CB who dry ages his own steaks?

I think that is Statman.

[kccougar]

kccougar, were you the guy on CB who dry ages his own steaks?

No. I love steak and ribs as much (or probably more) than the next guy, but I don't have the patience to cook them well myself. And since I know I don't cook them well, I don't even try at home.

[TripletDaddy]

I think that is Statman.

Someone should go over to cougarguard and ask statman how he dry-ages his steaks.

[landpoke]

Someone should go over to cougarguard and ask statman how he dry-ages his steaks.

No need:

First, go to Costco and buy a whole ribeye. Not Sam's. Not Albertson's. Not Whole Foods. Costco. It'll cost you about $100, and will yield 8 - 10 steaks.

Second COMPLETELY wrap the ribeye in a cotton dish towel - you don't want any meat peeking out. Place it on a cooling rack on top of a cookie sheet in your fridge - so any liquid not absorbed by the towels will drip off. The fridge MUST be between 32 degrees and 35 degrees - the meat cannot freeze, but must be kept just barely above freezing or it could spoil.

During the first day, change the towel 2 or 3 times, flipping the meat (top-to-bottom) each time you change it. After that, change the towel every day.

Repeat until it's been in there for 12 - 15 days (it's best to experiment, and see how long you like it aged. I had to throw a ribeye out once because I aged it almost three weeks, and the flavor got to be too much for me. It was not 'spoiled' - it was over aged.

Again, you MUST change the towel's daily, and you MUST keep the fridge very cold, but not freezing - if you don't, you could very well be out $100 worth of ribeye.

At the end, you need to trim about 1/4 inch off the entire cut of beef - it is dried out and inedible. A small price to pay...

the final color of the meat is the first thing you'll notice when you cut the steaks. It is no longer red. It is more plum-colored - a change brough about by the aging process. This tells you you did it right.

The idea of dry aging is this - by keeping it dry and continually draying water out of the meat, you allow the natural flavors in the meat to get more and more concentrated - by removing excess water, you're essentially 'distilling' the flavor of the meat. In addition, there are enzymes in the meat that, over time, will naturally tenderize and add flavor to the meat as it ages. Dry aging lets both of these things happen.

Dry aged beef has MUCH stronger beef flavor than your average normal steak. It is the type of beef served at all the high-end steakhouses in the country - Morton's, Ruths-Chris, S&W, Del Frisco's, etc. Its got amazing beef flavor and is naturally tender. It's head and shoulders above anything you can get anywhere else.

Also - frozen dry-aged beef isn't worth the bother. The flavor is there, but freezing the beef loses much of the tenderness. That kind of limits how/when you'd bother doing hte dry-aging process. I only do it for parties, or when large numbers of family is going to be in town - and I need to think about it a couple weeks in advance.

One final note - DO NOT do this with just any old cut of meat. Go to Costco - do NOT go to Sam's - it's not the same. Idelaly, you'd use "Prime" beef, which is VERY expensive. Prime-grade ribeye will run you $15-$20 a pound at a real butcher. BUT, Costco has EXCEPTIONALLY good "Choice" grade beef. From what I've been told, it is essentially as good as Prime. Costco is the biggest purchaser of beef in the country that actually cares about quality. After the best Prime stuff is sold to high-end meat distributers, Costco's meat buyers buy the best of what's left. Most of their meat is virtually indistinguishable from Prime beef. So if you're not buying Prime at the local butcher, ONLY buy "Choice" at Costco. You will IMMEDIATELY notice the difference. And "no" not all "Choice" is created equally. Costco's "Choice" is better than everyone else's - because, like I said, they're the biggest buyer that cares about quality...

also of interest:

http://www.primesteakhouses.com/how-usda- grades-beef.html

[Guest]

No need:

Thanks for taking the time to write up those instructions, LP. I'm going to give it a try.

As you described the aging process it reminded me of a pano photo I saw a few weeks ago...

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2...ooms-pano.html

[landpoke]

Thanks for taking the time to write up those instructions, LP. I'm going to give it a try.

As you described the aging process it reminded me of a pano photo I saw a few weeks ago...

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2...ooms-pano.html

You're welcome, but I can't take credit. Those are statman's directions from a previous post on CB which I copied and saved. I've been meaning to try it for some time but have never gotten around to it.

[HuskyFreeNorthwest]

Thanks for taking the time to write up those instructions, LP. I'm going to give it a try.

As you described the aging process it reminded me of a pano photo I saw a few weeks ago...

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2...ooms-pano.html

That picture was really cool, I imgaine that stitching the photos together so that they look good is not super easy to do.

[TripletDaddy]

You're welcome, but I can't take credit. Those are statman's directions from a previous post on CB which I copied and saved

I knew there was something annoying about those directions...

[Fiyero]

Alfredo:

1/2 stick butter
1 t flour
Small carton of heavy cream or whipping cream (I'm not sure the size. It's smaller than the size of milk we'd get in elementary school, though)
5 oz shredded parmesan (NOT grated parmesan... get a 5 oz. wedge and shred it yourself or get a 5 oz "cup" of pre-shredded)

Make a simple roux by melting the butter in a pan over Medium-High heat and letting it simmer for a moment, then adding the flour and stirring it in until it's dissolved. Let the roux simmer until it's a light brown (30-45 seconds). Add the cream and mix it in. Let it simmer for about 90 seconds or so, only stirring every 30 seconds or so. You don't want to burn it, but you want it to thicken. So stay in control.

When it's thickened a tad, throw in the cheese, leaving maybe 10% of it to be sprinkled on at serving time. Stir in the cheese and let it melt in for about 30 seconds. Serve over pasta with chicken, broccoli, asparagus, anything you want, really. Sprinkle the remaining cheese on top.

That's it. Really simple. No challenge, but so tasty. REALLY cheesy and buttery. No need to salt it, btw, because the parmesan is salty enough. Some variations would be to use pecorino or asiago instead of parmiggiano.

Tim

This was perfect. Tim comes through again.

[Flystripper]

specialty? It varies but I have been making this every weekend since Mother's day.

Grilled chipotle shrimp tacos with avocado chili lime salsa


salsa

dice 1 large hass avocado diced
dice 1/2 maui onion diced
dice 4-5 medium sized tomatillos
Dice 2 yellow chili peppers
Dice 2 or more serrano peppers or (you can sub jalapenos if you prefer or leave them out if you don't like the spice)
1 clove of crushed/chopped garlic
chopped cilantro ( however much you like ...I like a lot)
Juice of one lime


Shrimp
Skewer large white P&D shrimp
Brush skewers with olive oil
Sprinkle crushed chipotle pepper over both sides of shrimp
sprinkle cayenne pepper over both sides of shrimp
grill (watch them close and do not over cook)

We do not put any other taco fixings on these babies other than the salsa and a fresh squirt of lime.

Remember to grill the tortillas as well as the shrimp. Freshly grilled tortillas make that soft taco twice as good.


The recipe is simple but delicious.

[Katy Lied]

Can I change my specialty? My previous offering was hasty and ill-conceived.

I vote for Hollandaise. A competant chef making fresh hollandaise is a sight to behold. James Beard says that making hollandaise is not complicated, but it must be done slowly and with great care and patience and the ingredients must be at the right temperature, otherwise the yolks will curdle and the sauce will break or separate, at which point you must start over with a fresh egg yolk.

[happyone]

I make three things that my kids ask for

Gyoza, fried and potato ham soup.