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Tips, cheats, shortcuts and advice

O.k. Thought I'd never start this one but here goes.

This is THE thread for all your hints, tips, cheats, shortcuts, Grandma's advice, heard it from blah blah. There may be some industry related 'cheats' in here but it's all good. Just hope the the Chefs in Black are not knocking at my door.
  • Roast chicken. Preheat the oven or BBQ to 160 C. Push the neck bone back into the cavity and secure with a skewer. Fold the the skin over the hole and secure the same way. Rough dice an onion, quarter a lemon and finely dice half a clove of garlic and fill the cavity. Then fill the remaining cavity space with quality chicken stock and then drain that liquid into a saucepan but not the solids. Bring the stock to a boil. Place the chicken neck down cavity up. You may need some skewers, and then then re-fill the cavity with the stock. Cook for 2 hours. Drain stock, strain and reduce. Add half Tbs butter and mix well. That's the gravy. Rest is up to you. Dry rub or not. Flavours...mix and match. Technique stands.
  • Beurre noisette and sage butter with egg. Gently heat 2 Tbs butter until it turns light brown. Add 1 tsp fresh sage. Cook until sage is light brown. Add 1/2 tsp garlic and remove from heat and continue to stir until cool. Float all your eggs in a large bowl of water. Keep the ones that sink for this meal. Crack the eggs one by one and strain through a large hole strainer. Bring a pot of water to the boil and then reduce to a very gentle simmer and then add one egg at a time with the strainer. Cook until just the white is set. Remove and serve on toast cut with a round cuter with the beurre noisette on top.
  • To slow roast anything, cook low and slow and wrap in foil as air tight as you can make it. 140 C for 3 hours with no added liquids fat side up will do the trick.
  • Add all your aromatics off the boil. That is, if it smells good add it when the food is at its lowest temperatue to retain all those oils and aromatics. Note: If you can smell it cooking it's not in your food anymore.
I've got more but it's your turn now. Cooking is all about sharing. Who wants to cook the the world's best meal and eat it by themselves?

Eat and and be happy :D
 
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The vacio and flap meat here at our supermarkets and latin butchers is NOT flank steak.
It's closer to skirt.
Vacio in Miami is fattier than our flank steak and therefore tastier
Our meat cases will have all 3 available.
Either way. Back to the tips.
 
EWWW!!!!!!!!!!!!!

FD

what the hell man

you make your chimichurri with freakin parsley?!

Darwin would murder you

as would I, if you ever made me some churri with parsley instead of cilantro
 
wheebz said:
EWWW!!!!!!!!!!!!!

FD

what the hell man

you make your chimichurri with freakin parsley?!

Darwin would murder you

as would I, if you ever made me some churri with parsley instead of cilantro
Click to expand...

That's how you make it bro. Flat-leaf parsley.
 
Any good chimi sauce I have ever had has more of a flavor of cilantro than parsley, if the parsley is even present at all

i dont use any parsley at all in mine, all cilantro, and thats how we make it here at the restaurant too
 
My mom always heated rice in with the water, which usually resulted in some overflow of starchy liquid down the side of the pan. Admittedly, I followed suite for a while. Then I found you can bring the water to a boil, then dump the rice in, immediately turn it down to low, and let it simmer for 25 minutes. No overflow. And also none sticks to the bottom of the pan (if you're not using a no-stick pan.) Takes a little bit longer to cook this way, but cleanup is so much nicer.

I am sure I picked this up from someone a long time ago, but apparently I somehow failed to pass it on to my son until just a short while ago - he thought I was a freakin' genius, but I couldn't take credit. When you're boiling something in water, like noodles, and it starts to foam up, just blow on the surface a tad to get the bubbles to go back down and help prevent spillover. If you really have the heat up too high, of course, turn it down a tad. But sometimes I find it's just the foam that gets a tad out of control, and after you get it to go down, you find the heat level is fine.
 
wheebz said:
EWWW!!!!!!!!!!!!!
FD
what the hell man
you make your chimichurri with freakin parsley?!
Click to expand...

Haha! That's just the way I was taught.
After years of experimentation with parsley, vinegar, salt, and GOOD olive oil ratios, we have it down.
I swear nobody could scoff at it once they taste it.
I only hope I get the chance to make it for you someday soon!

Two notes...

If Darwin has a different way, is he willing to share?
Why TF isn't he on thp, teaching us fine people his masterful ways?!
(and everything I've seen from darwins looks top f**king notch, no joke!)

Second, we have experimented with cilantro, and I like it that way too.
In fact one of the most recent variations of chimichurri mrs FD whooped up was half cilantro, half Italian flat leaf.
With toasted pine nuts.
Awesome. Like a Latin steak pesto.

The real gimmick of my tip is the 7 minute rock salt.
I hope someone tries it and reports back.
 
this looks like a worthwhile hack ... it's nice when the thickness of the mushrooms is consistent ...

IMG_0967.jpg
 
wheebz said:
Any good chimi sauce I have ever had has more of a flavor of cilantro than parsley, if the parsley is even present at all

i dont use any parsley at all in mine, all cilantro, and thats how we make it here at the restaurant too
Click to expand...

You've been eating in the wrong place bro. You'd be shot in Argentina.

Cilantro is an aromatic and should be used in moderation. I can't even imagine an "all cilantro" chimichurri. Wow. Overpowering to say the least.
 
The Hot Pepper said:
I can't even imagine an "all cilantro" chimichurri. Wow. Overpowering to say the least.
Click to expand...

Give it a shot. I've had it that way.
Yea, it's powerful, but the olive oil and vinegar seems to tone the cilantro down a little. Good stuff if done right.

But I usually do it with mostly (or all) parsley. I think the guy who taught me was a non-racist Argentine.

He drank a lot of Malbec. (so did I, if Busch Light counts as Malbec)
 
grantmichaels, LOVE the egg separating trick! I usually do just fine with the 2 egg shells, but I love that trick! No translation necessary.
 
so, joyner, what's YOUR chimichurri ingredient?
 
I don't fry often. Maybe a handful of times in my life total.
Anyone got tips on making a good thick breading batter for deep fried things like Shrimp, Onion rings, wings (yes I like them breaded... deal with it) and poppers. I wanna be doing up a bunch o things breaded and fried, but breadings that I have tried in the past tend to not stick to the food itself very well and have trouble getting a consistent breading like that of which you would get in a
restaurant.
 
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