To Die For Recipes

Best practices for deep-frying food

Shyft — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 09:56:42 +0000

Perhaps not the healthiest thing you can make, but here at To Die For Recipes we have no reservations on our culinary journey. Many people I have met are reluctant to deep-fry at home for safety reasons and/or difficulty. There are some tricks and a couple of safe practices to follow to get the best fried-foods made right at home. So what to deep-fry? Some of my favourites deep-fried recipes are breaded pork cuts, potato, shrimp and chicken.

I’ll start with the pork, but this technique applies to almost all fried foods.

Safety first! If you have a fire extinguisher keep it close, if not baking soda. Keep any water far away from your fry area. I use an electrical burner under glass and have dropped oil on it before with no issues. I am led to believe a closed burner under glass is much safer. No matter what kind of element please be careful. Lastly if fire does happen DO NOT POUR WATER ON IT. This will create something similar to napalm and is EXTREMELY DANGEROUS. Fire extinguisher, baking soda or a lid.

On to the fun stuff! What you’ll need, a large deep pot/pan or wok and enough oil in it to cover what you are cooking while leaving about 3 inches from the top of the pan/pot to the oil. Personally I use a wok because it tapers at the bottom has high edges and let me use less oil also I have a cover for my wok in case of fire.

The kind of oil you use and at what temperature has to be the two most important elements of getting this right. Many oils smoke at low temperatures like olive oil and sesame oil. Vegetable oil/safflower/canola is pretty good all around choice and cheap, it can still smoke if heated too high as any oil can but, its done me well so far.

The temperature is the second element important to this process. Too low and your food will come out greasy, too high your oil smokes. If using a deep-fryer you have nothing to worry about the settings are very precise, but that’s no fun! You want your oil about 350F give or take. Add your oil to the cold pan/pot and heat it never to a hot pan/pot.

You can use any cut of pork, I like either a nice fatty cut or pork loin no matter what you do to pork loin is seems to be succulent even with the absence of fat. Fatty cuts will keep your meat moist.

Prepare the meat first! Grab 3 large bowls/dishes and add an egg or two to one, flour and bread crumbs (Panko a type of Japanese bread crumb is really nice. Very low sodium and no spices added so it leaves you space to add to your taste.). Season flour and bread crumbs with salt and pepper and favourite spices.

1. Dredge your room temperature 3/4 inch ~ 1 inch thick slice of pork in flour. This will dry out any moisture on the pork and adds something for the egg to stick to.

2. Roll in egg to coat.

3. Roll in bread crumbs thoroughly.

4. Place very carefully in 350f preheated oil with dry metal or wood tongs as not to splash. Never over crowd your oil with food this lowers the temperature of the oil and will result in greasy food. Cooking times will always vary, electrical elements are notorious for not keeping consistent temperature. Outer bread crumbs should look golden to dark golden-brown for pork to be done. I serve mine over rice or on a small wire rack precut into strips this allows you to see how well its done and at worst care if some are not 100% white-ish inside you can add those strips to the oil again to finish. You can always test your first one out to see and cook the others in the same fashion if you don’t like them cut.

5. Place finished pork on paper towels or wire rack to dry and wait for others to be done.

This same technique applies to many types of deep-fried foods with a couple small exceptions. Smaller cut food and sea food require less time and may not require egg and bread crumbs. All food after being removed from heat continue to cook after having been cooked, for sea food this is extremely important as it gets very tough if left too long. Try first cooking smaller cuts of sea-food, meat or vegetables just in a light flour salt pepper and seasoning to get the hang of it.

SO… you have a vat of hot oil now with lots of floaters in it. Let it cool and use a fine wire sieve/paper-towel to strain and save it for another time or toss it in a used milk carton and dispose of it. As long as your oil didn’t smoke you can keep it in the fridge for a good while.

Happy Frying!

Real Japanese Ramen Explained

Shyft — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 12:05:16 +0000

Although possibly adopted from China’s “la-mien” Japan’s ramen has taken on its own culture and flavours. We in North America know a very little of actual ramen, passing it off as a cheap food. This is really a perversion of what ramen is. Before going to Japan for a year and a half I was an avid ramen eater and knew what we had was not the real thing, I was shocked by my first taste of shimmering broth and fresh made noodles. This had to be one of the best things I had ever tasted! So started my ramen journey in the land of the rising sun.

I will be covering a wide range of topics on ramen directly learned from the Japanese and my experiences eating at the top ramen shops of Tokyo. I have direct information for one of the better shops through a friend who worked there. I cannot however mention the shop’s name or the persons name. Recipes are secret!

First off, what is ramen? The basic ramen is a soup broth made from either pork, chicken or seafood then a flavouring for that broth, noodles hand-pulled or cut, and some toppings. Each with many different variations but with certain guidelines to achieve what would be considered “proper ramen”. Let’s tackle the different types of soup bases and flavourings. Keeping in mind there are set styles and trends behind making ramen but within those styles the variation are endless, out of the over 100 ramen shops (20 out of the top 30!) in Tokyo that I have eaten at not to mention the instant stuff from the kombini (corner stores in Japan), no two were truly the same. One thing is for sure there is always a ramen with your name on it!

Shoyuu ramen: “Shoyuu” is the name for soy-sauce in Japanese and one of the most popular flavourings to the broth. Broths for shoyuu ramen can vary from a mixture of chicken/pork/dashi. As per secret information passed to me by my ramen sources working in shops. The real trick to shoyuu ramen is finding the right mixes of soy sauces. One restaurant uses three distinct brands each with an individual strength to cover the weakness of the other the end result being a balanced soy sauce flavour.

Tonkatsu ramen: Pork milk bone ramen hailing from the Hataka area. Leg bones and trotters are boiled for about 12~20 hours to achieve the thick milky white to yellowish hue broth that has an oh so dilicious collengen that sticks to your lips!

One of the hardest and time consuming to make, also my favourite. Typically the broth is mixed with some “goma” paste, toasted white sesame seed paste similar to natural peanut butter in consistency, salt and fresh pressed garlic and depending on the thickness of the broth cut with a thinner brother. One of my favourite shops not far from Kiba Station in Tokyo added Shichimi tōgarashi (Japanese 7 spice) to add a slightly tangy spiciness into the mix, Yum!

Shioo ramen: Salt flavoured ramen. This may sound like this would be the saltiest of the bunch, while its actually the lightest broth of them all. Salt is added to a chicken/pork/dashi broth, leaning on the chicken broth side.

Miso ramen: Hailing from the Hokkaido area (A large island landmass in northern Japan), this rich and salty ramen is perfect for the colder climate. Miso is a traditional Japanese seasoning produced by fermenting soybeans, rice and/or barley, with salt and the fungus “Aspergillus oryzae” kōjikin (麹菌), the most typical miso being made with soy. The most common toppings for miso ramen are finely chopped pork, bean sprouts, sweetcorn, butter, and garlic.

Topping explanations to come! Thank you for reading!

Canadian Food

Shyft — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 11:14:28 +0000

What is Canadian food? A question I found myself asking lately. After much searching and speaking with long time Montreal locals I have compiled a short list of very delicious Canadian dishes/foods. Some may be modified dishes from our ancestors in Europe other completely new entities that sprang forth from locally accessible ingredients. The style is certainly Canadian eh! Here is a couple to check out.

Canadian Bacon:

Ah Canadian bacon, Roll-Royce of the bacon world. I have tried bacon from many countries including the United-States, Japan, Italy. I have to say nothing compares to this one of our local specialties. There are a few reasons why Canadian bacon is top notch. One being we have very good quality pig farms here in Canada. One of the most popular type of pork in Japan was Canadian pork, to the extent that in grocery stores they have huge signs advertising just that. A lot of our bacon is also maple cured and smoked which adds a very Canadian touch that is hard to match.

Maple Syrup:

Learned from the first nations in what we now know as Canada, tapping trees for its sweet sap and boiling it down to a thick, sweet syrop. Canada is the largest exporter and producer in the world. The leaf of the maple tree is also on our flag eh?

Poutine:

A Quebec native dish and possible one of the most unhealthy things you can eat. In fact you would be hard pressed to find this outside of Quebec. Made from french-fries, gravy and unripened cheese curd. This dish made popular by the large amount of “greasy spoon” style eateries in Quebec is a local favourite.

Sheppard’s Pie:

Although not originally Canadian this dish was adopted in Quebec from Europe and changed into its like named but different Canadian counter-part. Although we do call it “Sheppard’s pie” there is no lamb or mutton in this dish. In french it is called “Pâté chinois” and translated as “Chinese Pie”. Essentially mashed potatoes, corn and ground beef layered in that order from top to bottom. Variations exist using cream corn, ground pork and different flavoured mashed potatoes.

Blade roast

Shyft — Thu, 24 Mar 2011 17:38:56 +0000

Recipe: Blade roast

Summary: Fork tender blade roast.

Ingredients

2~2 1/2 pounds Beef shoulder (blade roast)
8 cloves Garlic
2 medium Onion
4 medium Potatoes
3 Carrots 1 cup Red wine
2 cups Beef broth
4 Tbsp Flour
2 Tbsp Cooking oil
Salt and pepper

Instructions

Slice onions, peel carrots and potatoes, chop garlic. Set aside. Then cut up the potatoes and carrots in a fashion you like.
Mix flour and some pepper and pat down roast with it.
In a large pan with the oil heated on high, seer the roast quickly on all sides. About 1 minute per side.
In either a dutch oven or slow-cooker add your seered roast and vegetables so that it all as flat as possible. Cover the mixture with the wine and broth, there should be enough liquid to submerse the meat and vegetables about 75%. Add or subtract liquid to achieve this amount roughly. You want the top of the roast to be exposed a little.
If using a dutch oven. Pre-heat your oven to 375°F then cook covered for 30 mins at this temperature. Turn the oven down to about 250°F and continue to cook for at least another 2 hours. If using a slow-cooker set it to low for about 6 hours.
Serve in bowls and enjoy!

Quick Notes

Slow-cookers and dutch ovens vary in size. Fit as many vegetable as you want without overfilling. Allowing 25% of the top of the roast to be exposed.

This recipe is about 30mins for prep and depending on the method you use to cook it much longer. So, If using a slow cooker try timing it for dinner by preparing it in the morning. This way you can set it and forget it and already have dinner ready for the day.

The dutch oven method works great also but requires a little more attention. As long as you have a tight fitting lid for your dutch oven you shouldn’t loose too much liquid during the cooking process.

Cooking time (duration): 30mins (Cook time: 2hr30mins~6hours)

Number of servings (yield): 6

Meal type: dinner

Culinary tradition: North American (General)

Microformatting by hRecipe.

French onion soup

Shyft — Thu, 24 Mar 2011 14:28:50 +0000

Recipe: French onion soup

Summary: Classic french onion soup.

Ingredients

1 1/2 pounds Onions
3 Tbsp. Butter
3 Tbsp. Olive oil
2 cloves Garlic (chopped)
8 slices French bread toasted
1/2~1 cup Gruyère, Swiss or Emmental cheese, shredded
4 cups Beef stock 1/2 cup White wine salt and pepper to taste.

Instructions

Slice the onions thinly.
Add the butter, oil and onions to a pan heated on medium-low to low. Cook onions for about an hour, stirring occasionally. At first the onions will be quite large in volume but will reduce substantially and should fit in your pan. In the last 15 minutes of cooking add the chopped garlic. Cooking the onions this long caramelizes them.
In a saucepan add the broth and caramelized onions and simmer for about 20 minutes. In oven safe bowls add the hot broth, top with the toasted french bread and then with the shredded cheese, enough so the bread is covered.
Set the oven to broil and put your bowls in the oven until the cheese is a little golden brown-ish.

Quick Notes

Make sure to taste the broth before adding salt as some prepackaged broths are already salty enough. If you have a large deep pan you can do the soup in that. This way you can just add the broth to your caramelized onions and simmer it.

This soup is also a great way to use up old stale breads as they are dryer and soak up even more broth.

Variations

Instead of french bread you can also use croutons.

Cooking time (duration): 80

Number of servings (yield): 4

Meal type: dinner

Culinary tradition: French

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Parsley mushroom salad

Shyft — Thu, 24 Mar 2011 11:47:04 +0000

Recipe: Parsley Mushroom Salad

Summary: An easy and delicious parsley mushroom salad.

Ingredients

One large bunch of Italian parsley
1/2~1 pound Button mushrooms (Any mushrooms you like will do!)
1/4 cup Extra virgin olive oil
3 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce
7 cloves Garlic 1 Large Tomato
1 Tbsp Butter
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
Salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

Preparing your ingredients. Give the mushrooms and parsley a rinse under cold water. Cut the large stems of the parsley bunch. (If you don’t have a food processor finely chop the parsley until desired consistency is attained.) Cut the mushrooms so that they will be easy to fry. Dice the tomato and set aside. Grate your Parmesan.
Add the butter to a frying pan heated at medium-low. When the butter melts add the mushrooms and fry mushrooms for about 15 mins.
This step will vary depending on if you have a food processor or not. If you have one. Add all the ingredients to the food processor minus the salt and pepper( You may need to do batches depending on the size of your food processor’s bowl.) If you don’t. Mince your fried mushrooms, garlic and parsley and add them to a large bowl. Add the rest of your ingredients minus salt and pepper to the bowl and mix thoroughly.
Add salt and pepper to taste.

Quick Notes

This recipe is really flexible the amounts shown really don’t need to be finite. Experiment with it!

Variations

Any kind of fried mushrooms you like will do.

Cooking time (duration): 15~25

Diet type: Vegetarian

Diet (other): Low calorie, Reduced carbohydrate

Number of servings (yield): 6

Meal type: snack

Culinary tradition: Italian

Microformatting by hRecipe.