Topper's Grilling Advice!

[Chef Boi RD]

When I ain't throwin down the booze on a Tuesday Wednesday I make up for the lost sugar intake by slaying a massive bowl of cereal. Lately it's been cinnamon toast crunch. Just chillaxin on the couch watching my shows with my massive bowl of sugary cereal. Totally awesome

[BurningBeard]

When I ain't throwin down the booze on a Tuesday Wednesday I make up for the lost sugar intake by slaying a massive bowl of cereal. Lately it's been cinnamon toast crunch. Just chillaxin on the couch watching my shows with my massive bowl of sugary cereal. Totally awesome

[2Fingers]

I would cook it like a regular salmon fillet and then spread a bit of maple syrup on after I turn the fillet.

Pull the fillets from the fridge and get them to room temp and wrap it in a linen or paper towel to get soak up excess moisture. This will keep your fish from sticking when it hits the pan.
Get your pan hot, add oil, get it hot.
Salt, white pepper on the fillet and then top side down into the pan.
When you turn the salmon, drizzle or brush on a thin film of maple syrup.

Something else you may try is to heat, very low, maple syrup in a small pot with ginger threads. Poach the threads in the maple syrup. If it begins to reduce just add a small amount of water. You could brush that on the fish. Alternative to ginger may be star anise.

Another method would be to season the fish, brush with maple syrup and wrap in foil with a little sesame oil and soy sauce and bake it. I do this with ginger threads, and slivered green onions.

The trick with any fish cookery is not to over cook it. Rose (rare-medium rare) is how you want it.

How about maple ginger salmon on star anise rice and sesame oil zucchini?

going to make this tomorrow, not sure what version we will try.

This is going to be a stupid question but tell me again why do you pat a chicken dry before cooking it?

I made a chicken a few months ago, a whole baked chicken done in the oven, haven't done this in years and found a recipe.

Salt
Thyme
butter
pepper
rosemary (I think)

Patted the outside of the chicken with butter and herbs and salt and pepper
Did the same inside the cavity

Then made new potatoes with garlic and butter

My daughter who is 11 ate 2 platefuls, it was the best chicken I ever made.

[Topper]

I dry the meat to get rid of excess moisture, on a piece that will be grilled/pan roasted/fried, it will keep it from sticking, it also keeps things from steaming.

Next time you roast a chicken, a near weekly event in our house, loosen the skin and put the herbs under the skin on the breast and thigh.

[Cornuck]

When cooking a turkey, herbs and melted butter always go under the skin. Haven't tried it with chicken, but I rarely cook whole chickens.

My one tip for turkeys is to cook them breast down for most of the time, then flip for the half hour or so to brown the top. I use string looped around the bird to perform the flip (after much trial and error- mostly error).

[Topper]

the rice was abso-fucking-lutely delectable.

Mrs. Topper made rice the other night with chopped cilantro. Quite possibly the best rice I have ever had.

Worth a try Reef. Good luck with it and let us know how you make out.

[KeyserSoze]

Mrs. Topper made rice the other night with chopped cilantro. Quite possibly the best rice I have ever had.

I was out for dinner last week and a cilantro pesto basmati rice was served with my entrée...it was really, really good. I will be trying to replicate this at home as well.

[Topper]

Mrs. Topper made rice the other night with chopped cilantro. Quite possibly the best rice I have ever had.

I was out for dinner last week and a cilantro pesto basmati rice was served with my entrée...it was really, really good. I will be trying to replicate this at home as well.

Wonders where Mrs Topper got the idea.........loads shotgun......

[5thhorseman]

Wondering why there weren't many posts I located either the Active Topics or New Posts link and stumbled upon this thread. Up to now I've never ventured past Canucks Corner or GDT. Amazing! Some of you tossers actually have a life!

Some interesting tidbits here ... I'll have to scan the entire thread. In the meantime, anyone know how to roast a turkey evenly? I find that by the time mine is done (usually a 20+ lber, till juices are clear), the legs are almost falling off.

[Cornuck]

Hey 5th - try using the 'search new posts' feature - it will open your world.

search.php?search_id=newposts

[Topper]

Donny, classic with short ribs is paparadelle (wide flat pasta).

sweat onions and garlic, 1/2 some cherry tomatoes and add. Mix in some reduced braising liquid and chopped basil. Toss with your pasta and serve in bowls with the ribs.

[Chef Boi RD]

How about deep fried mars bars, you got any tips for that Topper?

[Arachnid]

How about deep fried mars bars, you got any tips for that Topper?

Eeeeeeeeeewwwww that sound really gay there Spandex Ballet. Bean hang'n with the North Shore benders to get away from the women folk in yer clan?

[Topper]

How about maple ginger salmon on star anise rice and sesame oil zucchini?

Drool.

Big ass Spring sitting in the freezer flash frozen after being caught.

That meal ^^^^ is happening this weekend.

Any (further to the above) guidance would be appreciated Topper....

Don't you have hired help for this?

Gently thaw the fish and fillet it, don't butcher it. Remember to remove the pin bones with fish tweezers or a small set of needle nose pliers.

When you cut your portions, cut on a bias to the fish and the table, that is, don't cut perpendicular to the backbone across the fillet, and don't cut straight down perpendicular to the table.

Wrap the fish in linen or paper towel to absorb excess moisture to keep from sticking, season with salt and white pepper.

I'd poach the ginger threads in maple syrup and a bit of water and keep checking for flavour and consistency. One other concern is how much bite do you want to the ginger threads. You could cook them to very soft, personally, I'd do them al dente and if you really wanted to go overboard, candy them in maple syrup and add at the end.

I mentioned above in my reply to reefer, to start top side down. This is because I can not figure out how to do them with skin on. To crisp the skin, you start with a hot pan, hot oil and put skin side down but that would mean finishing with the maple glaze down and I fear the sugars would burn. If you finish with the skin side down, I doubt the pan would be hot enough (heat has been transferred to the fish) to crisp the skin. You could try two pans, start top down in one pan while heating a second pan, when you turn the fish to the skin side down, do so into the second pan and then brush on the glaze. Something else you could try is to brule the glaze with a torch while the skin side cooks. I'm not sure I'd be brave enough to try the broiler in the oven as things could go very wrong in a hurry.

Rice, I use a rice cooker, 1C white basmatti (I can't stand the texture of brown rice), rinsed 3-4 times in cold water, 1.25C water, a knob of unsalted butter (YES BUTTER, even more nutty flavour to the basmatti), salt and 3 or 4 star anise. Plug it in an press start. Remove the star anise when it's cooked.

Cut the ends off the zucchini and cut in 1/2 length wise. Use a spoon to take out the centre core with the seeds. Cut each half of the zucchini again lengthwise into 3 or for pieces per half (6 or 8 total) and then cut into 3/4 inch lengths. Get a fry pan large enough to hold all the zucchini loosely hot and then add oil, get the oil hot, add the zucchini and give a quick toss to coat the veg, season with salt and pepper. NOW DON'T FUCK WITH IT. The pieces will stick, leave them and let them release on their own. They should be just golden brown, maybe a bit more. Turn and cook another side. Just before they are down, toss in a little sesame oil. Be careful because sesame oil can become cloyingly icky overpowering if you use too much.

I'd serve with an unoaked Sav Blanc, look to NZ, Oregon, Loire Valley. A Sauternes would also be a good choice. If you must go red, probably a Pinot Noir.

Nailed it last night.

I was set to try the 2 pan method but reflex motor skills had me lay the fillets in the pan skin down. so I grabbed my torch and bruled them just before plating.

Gawds be damned. You have to be fast with the torch but I ended up with a thin candied maple syrup crunch on the flesh side of the fish that was amazing. Cooked the ginger threads in maple syrup with a bit of water to al dente. Unknown to me, we had run out of sesame oil so I grabbed ponzu and flashed that with the zucchini.

Quick and easy. get the rice going in the steamer and while that is cooking prep the fish and zucchini. When the rice cooker clicks to standby, Heat your pans and cook the fish and zucchini, just before they are done, plate the rice and then plate the fish and veg, drizzle excess maple glaze. 45 minutes tops.

Had a bottle of Black Hills Alibi to wash it down.

[Chef Boi RD]

Ha, we are doing Pappardelle today Topper, I dropped a pretty penny yesterday at Bosa Foods

I don't get all scientific fancy pants in the kitchen like you, Toppa

A slow cooked beef ragu in crock pot for 6 hours on top of papparedelle, was considering polenta, but went with a wide noodle

1 large onion
4 garlic cloves
2 tbsp rosemary
2 lb beef chuck roast
2 cups beef broth
1/4 cup chianti
1 can of tomato paste
14 oz can diced tomatoes
Salt and pepper

On top of pappardelle top with freshly grated parm

Simple, done 5 minutes prep, now I can fuck around all day