Archive for February, 2011
It has certainly been a strange winter. I cannot remember one with such strange weather patterns in all of my years on this wonderful planet of ours. With the recent freezings and thawings, and warm sunny days upon us, it is time to start thinking about tapping those Sugar Maples. (You may also tap your Red and Black Maples for “sweet water”, a term the Native Americans used for the sap that was collected for it’s high sugar content.) February and March are the perfect time to start collecting.
You may want to If you have done this before, but are not a major syrup producer, just doing it for fun at home, a thought to keep in mind is using your turkey fryer for cooking down your sap to make syrup. A turkey fryer is an ideal cooking apparatus for syrup making. The amount of sap that you need to cook down to make a small amount of syrup, is way too much to start on your stove top. A large stock pot with an outdoor propane cooker, possibly cooking equipment that you already own, is easier to use than having to purchase or manufacture a fancy evaporator.
If you have never taken on this interesting process, this may be a fun and fascinating project to do with your Boy Scout den or Girl Scout troop (with adult supervision of course). This is a tradition that has been done for centuries. History, involved with a project that ends in sweet goodness. You can finish the project with a pancake breakfast, served with your own Maple syrup.
For a little more information on this subject, you may want to revisit our previous post: Another Use For Your Bayou Classic Turkey Fryer: Maple Syrup.
As life goes on I still seem to learn new things all the time. I had no idea that there was such a thing as a Maryland pork shoulder dinner. I’ve heard of Maryland crab cakes before, but never specifically a Maryland pork shoulder dinner. I mean, being of Irish decent I have heard of New England boiled dinners, (corned beef and cabbage usually). I’ve had 2 different regional forms of clam chowder. I’ve been to New England clam bakes. I’ve had Pennsylvania Dutch shoo fly pie. Through traveling I have now had Low Country Boil and Great Lakes Boils. I’ve had salmon smoked on cedar planks. I’ve had jambalaya, gumbo, gator, and Cajun style deep fried turkey. But I have never partaken in any Maryland fare besides crab cakes.
So apparently you start with a smoked pork shoulder , about 1 1\2 to 2 lbs.
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
Ingredients:
2 Tbsp. butter
4 medium potatoes, peeled and cubed
1/2 tsp. black pepper
1\4 tsp. salt
1 1\2 c milk
1 Tbsp. flour
1 smoked pork shoulder butt
Grease a 10″-14″ cast iron Dutch oven (or a 9″ X 13″ glass dish) with 1 tsp. of the butter.
Place your cubed potatoes in the Dutch oven. In a separate bowl whisk the flour, salt and pepper
into the milk. Pour this mixture over your potatoes. Dot the top with the remaining butter.
Cut the pork into 1\4″ slices and place a single layer of meat over the potatoes.
Cover with Dutch oven lid (or foil if using glass),
and bake for 1\2 an hour.
Remove lid, and bake for an additional 45 mins. or until potatoes are tender.
I would love to hear of any other regional specific recipes, if anyone would like to share.
I love to cook new things and love doing regional and heritage specific recipes.
Please feel free to send some along!!!
Anthony Bourdain recently put forth a challenge to what people thought that it meant to cook “well”.
Here is my take on the matter.
To cook well, means that you CAN cook, that you LOVE the ones you’re cooking for, or…you burnt it.
Cooking “well” has multiple meanings to me.
First, I think that to cook “well” means that you’ve mastered the art & skill of cooking. The food that you’ve cooked is palatable & edible. Just because you can boil water and not burn it, it does not mean that you can cook well. Someone is actually going to eat the food that you cooked & not pass it to the dog under the table, or nonchalantly spit it into a napkin when the cook is not looking.
Secondly, cooking “well”, to me, means love. It shows that you love food & the people that you are cooking for. You will pick out the freshest ingredients, take care in preparing and serving them. It means that you are putting a piece of yourself, your soul, into whatever you’re cooking, and sharing that part of yourself with the ones you love. My grandma used to make a mean apple pie. After she passed away, my mother and grandfather tried to capture her recipe and replicate it. It never came out the same. I always said that they missed her added ingredient. It was the love that she put into every pie.
Thirdly, I’d say that to cook “well” just means…”It’s overdone. You burnt it. Forget it and start over!” This can happen to anyone. I once had a brisket in the BBQ smoker. I ran out of wood for smoking. I brought the brisket in to finish in the oven. I must have leaned on the knob and turned the oven up too high. Needless to say, the brisket was a brick. Definitely WELL done. It was a waste of much time. I was quite saddened by the matter, but I’ve made up for that mistake since.
On behalf of The Deep Fryer Depot, we would like to congratulate both the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Green Bay Packers for a great season and especially to the Packers for a great Superbowl win. It is quite an honor to make it all the way to the Superbowl. To win is a very great honor.
With football season over, many tailgaters start cleaning up their gear, to be stored away until next tailgating season. For those on the motor sport circuit, the tailgating season is just beginning. Right after Superbowl, every year, the race engines roar into life with renewed vigor. A new racing season is upon us. Time for the NASCAR and NHRA fans to dust off their tailgate gear and freshen up supplies.
Time to check over your tailgate grills, outdoor propane deep fryers, propane tanks, regulators and hoses.
Check your cast iron cookware. If stored properly it should not need a re-seasoning session. If you see some oxidation though, maybe it is time.
Check over the spices in your tailgate bin. If things are expired, you may want to get some fresh.
Open your canopies, chairs, tents, etc. You never know what critters may have gotten at your gear.
For all the football fans out there, cheer up! The season will be around again sooner than you think.
For race fans, it’s time to strap in and tighten those belts for another great season of racing.
Congrats again to the Packers!
It is finally Superbowl Sunday. The big day has arrived. Many folks will be watching, eating, drinking, participating in our American passtime. Tailgating, barbecuing, smoking ribs, making chili and deep frying Buffalo wings in their counter top deep fryers. Drinking beer, eating, and watching football with family and friends. People that don’t watch football usually even participate in one form or another. Even if it is just to watch the half time show or just for the commercials. We all still have to eat anyway so why not eat game day food.
Whatever you are doing today…remember to have a designated driver, eat, drink, be merry. Enjoy this American passtime. And, don’t forget., now that football season is over, that just means that racing season is about to begin and March Madness is right around the corner. That also means crocuses, car shows and concerts! Enjoy!
It is common to find that only about 20 percent of the United States population deep fries food on a normal basis. This does not include the commercial end, nor the occasional french fries while having dinner out, or fried dough or funnel cakes at the fair. I’m talking about people that own a counter top deep fryer, or cast iron stove top deep fryer that deep fry foods on a normal basis. Even half the people that own turkey fryers only use their turkey fryer at Thanksgiving or other holidays. I would have to say that of that 20 percent, at least 15 percent are located in the more southern regions of our country. I tend to think that the northern folks boil, steam, and stew their foods more often than frying. I don’t know if that is because of colder climates and ancestral histories and traditions, but that is my take on the matter.
The other 80 percent of America, I’m thinking are more health conscious. The fear of high cholesterol has put a damper on the deep frying world. But here again, if you deep fry the foods properly, there should not be a lot of oil absorption. If your temperatures are right, you bring your temperatures back up between batches of food, and don’t over crowd the food, a proper moisture barrier will be made, keeping food moisture in and the oil out. Anything in moderation is ok as well. If you eat deep fried foods every day you probably aren’t worrying about your cholesterol anyway.
Having a deep fryer of your own can be fun and add to your menu options though. You don’t need a large outdoor propane deep fryer, but having one of those to tailgate with or just to add to your outdoor cooking equipment is a nice option. An outdoor turkey fryer will not only deep fry, you can steam, boil, stew and simmer with them too. They are a great addition to any tailgater’s gear or for the back yard entertainer. Make chili outdoors for your big Superbowl party. Have a Low Country Boil at the end of the summer. Have the gang over for steamed lobster, corn, and clams on the 4th of July. If you have a turkey fryer, utilize it!
The point is, for those of us that choose to deep fry, we love it, and do it to add flavor and excitement to our lives. I don’t deep fry every day, but I like having the option of changing up my menu once in a while. I love to cook, and love to feed people. It makes me happy, and the people I feed usually go away happy too.
I hate to keep harping the the same subject over and over, but emergency preparedness is an important topic. Survival of your family should be a number one priority no matter who you are. With the weather in the northeastern region of the US this year, you should always be aware that a severe storm could wreak havoc in your neighborhood at any time.
The point is to be prepared. With the threat of another storm, this one promising ice, you need to make sure you have some basics. Ice storms can lead to power outages that can last for days, even weeks. Make sure that you have fuel for some sort of outdoor cooking appliance, be it charcoal or wood for a grill or BBQ smoker, or just always making sure that you have an extra tank of propane on hand at all times. If you are in a place that does not allow for outdoor cooking, make sure that you have canned or jarred food in your house, and a hand crank can opener.
Have candles and matches or a battery operated flashlight and a fresh supply of batteries. These are normal things to have in an emergency preparedness bin in your house. You can change out the batteries when you change the batteries in your smoke detector once or twice a year.
Odds are that if the power goes out, it will only be for a few minutes, or a few hours tops. But it never hurts to be prepared, to keep your family safe. If you don’t have an emergency bin or bag, it’s time to get one. If you don’t have an emergency plan, it’s time to make one. The key word here is emergency. You never know when a storm could strike, a flood could come, a fire could break out, or a tornado could happen. Being prepared is just common sense. You love your family. Time to help keep them safe.