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Re: Topper's Grilling Advice!
Posted: Fri Oct 11, 2019 2:28 pm
by Cousin Strawberry
Topper wrote: ↑Fri Oct 11, 2019 1:45 pm
Nice, q is always last minute decision so I'm still cooking with gas, put a pan with chips on the burner for smoke.
If I were to got to coals, I'd probably get a egg style. The thermal control from +800F to -200F is the appeal.
Try minced fresh garlic and evo on the prawns. Should be less than 2 minutes a side.
I actually was buying a Big Green Egg when I got this one. They are obviously a fantastic unit but they're also well over a grand and I have the same level of temperature control as the BGE. Weber has the Summit to compete.
It takes a bit to get used to but i can hold around 225-250 using the snake method with the coals. For high heat I use hardwood lump and the Weber baskets that come with the bbq to blast it at 600-700 within 15 minutes.
I use newspaper and a charcoal chimney to start the briqs...they're roaring within 10-15 then pour them into the baskets and the kettles at max by 20 minutes. Not bad
Re: Around the league (signings, RFAs injuries)
Posted: Thu Nov 07, 2019 3:48 am
by Per
Strangelove wrote: ↑Tue Nov 05, 2019 5:32 pm
Gotta agree with the Chef on this one, Italian food is THE BEST!
I love Italian food, and yeah, when it's done right, preferrably by Italians, it is THE BEST.
If you're ever in London...
https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Restauran ... gland.html
Truly recommend this place. Authentic. Friendly staff. Amazing food.
But let's just put it this way; when I eat at an Italian restaurant, I never ever order the meatballs.
Re: Around the league (signings, RFAs injuries)
Posted: Thu Nov 07, 2019 5:04 am
by Topper
Italian fine dining I trained at only served meatballs once when I was in the kitchen. Part of a seven course dinner hosted by a winery., Duck meatballs, but because duck is so lean, we blended the meat with pigs feet to up the fat content to hold them together. Spag and meatballs is an American dish, not Italian.
Re: Around the league (signings, RFAs injuries)
Posted: Thu Nov 07, 2019 5:50 am
by Per
Topper wrote: ↑Thu Nov 07, 2019 5:04 am
Italian fine dining I trained at only served meatballs once when I was in the kitchen. Part of a seven course dinner hosted by a winery., Duck meatballs, but because duck is so lean, we blended the meat with pigs feet to up the fat content to hold them together.
Spag and meatballs is an American dish, not Italian.
Rather cartoonish, imho
Re: Around the league (signings, RFAs injuries)
Posted: Thu Nov 07, 2019 5:59 am
by Per
That place in Camden I recommended doesn't have a long menu, but the stuff they serve is fantastic...
Here's the entire Meat and Fish section of the menu:
Meat
Taglliata
8oz controfiletto, rocket, asparagus, truffle, wild mushrooms & parmesan
17.00
Agnello
Lamb cutlets, artichoke, peas & mint caponata, balsamic reduction
16.00
Porchetta
Stuffed pork belly rolled, rainbow carrots & sauce
18.00
Fish
Branzino
Whole seabass "al cartoccio" peppers, fennel, black olives & star anice
15.00
Salmon Fillet
New potatoes, french beans, caviar, lemon oil & parsley
16.00
Tuna Steak
Fennel, orange segments, pomegranate, sesame & salmoriglio
18.00
I can feel my mouth water already!
Re: Around the league (signings, RFAs injuries)
Posted: Thu Nov 07, 2019 6:45 am
by Chef Boi RD
Italian meatballs are very American.
Re: Around the league (signings, RFAs injuries)
Posted: Thu Nov 07, 2019 7:11 am
by 5thhorseman
Topper wrote: ↑Thu Nov 07, 2019 5:04 am
Italian fine dining I trained at only served meatballs once when I was in the kitchen. Part of a seven course dinner hosted by a winery., Duck meatballs, but because duck is so lean, we blended the meat with pigs feet to up the fat content to hold them together. Spag and meatballs is an American dish, not Italian.
I know this is the wrong thread, but why specifically did you use pigs' feet instead of just some backfat? Was it just what was available or is there something else about the feet?
Re: Around the league (signings, RFAs injuries)
Posted: Thu Nov 07, 2019 7:38 am
by Per
5thhorseman wrote: ↑Thu Nov 07, 2019 7:11 am
Topper wrote: ↑Thu Nov 07, 2019 5:04 am
Italian fine dining I trained at only served meatballs once when I was in the kitchen. Part of a seven course dinner hosted by a winery., Duck meatballs, but because duck is so lean, we blended the meat with pigs feet to up the fat content to hold them together. Spag and meatballs is an American dish, not Italian.
I know this is the wrong thread, but why specifically did you use pigs' feet instead of just some backfat? Was it just what was available or is there something else about the feet?
A fetish?
Re: Around the league (signings, RFAs injuries)
Posted: Thu Nov 07, 2019 7:44 am
by Cousin Strawberry
And some folks loves ham hocks and some folks loves pork chops
And some folks loves vegetable soup
Re: Topper's Grilling Advice!
Posted: Thu Nov 07, 2019 8:19 am
by Topper
5thhorseman wrote: ↑Thu Nov 07, 2019 7:11 am
Topper wrote: ↑Thu Nov 07, 2019 5:04 am
Italian fine dining I trained at only served meatballs once when I was in the kitchen. Part of a seven course dinner hosted by a winery., Duck meatballs, but because duck is so lean, we blended the meat with pigs feet to up the fat content to hold them together. Spag and meatballs is an American dish, not Italian.
I know this is the wrong thread, but why specifically did you use pigs' feet instead of just some backfat? Was it just what was available or is there something else about the feet?
It is almost all connective tissue that forms gelatin. Saying fat was probably misleading.
Twice we cooked pigs feet in that kitchen, once for the duck, second time was for the chef's 8yr old son's birthday. Kid wanted his favourite food.
Re: Topper's Grilling Advice!
Posted: Thu Nov 07, 2019 8:30 am
by Per
I moved this here too, not grilling, really, but still:
My favourite meat balls:
400 g ground moose
1 small red onion (finely chopped)
2 egg yolks
200 ml fresh cream
1 tsp (5 ml) salt
2 ml freshly ground black pepper
4 juniper berries (finely ground)
½ tsp thyme
2 tbsp butter
Mix the moose meat with th eonion. Add the yolks, one at a time, add the cream, a little at a time, add salt and spices. Form the ground meat into tiny balls. Fry them in a pan with the butter till they have a nice dark colour.
Serve with almond potatoes*, lingonberry and a sauce made from winter chanterelles*, fresh cream and brandy.
A sallad from rocket, cherry tomatoes, chevre and pommegranate seeds on the side.
Beer, perhaps an IPA, to wash this down is nice, but if you prefer you could go with a heavy red wine. I'd say perhaps a rioja or primitivo.
(and yes, I know the former is a district and the latter a grape variety, so shoot me, eh? 
)
*
http://www.professionalsecrets.com/en/p ... /potatoes/
https://monicawilde.com/winter-chanterelle-mushrooms/
Re: Topper's Grilling Advice!
Posted: Thu Nov 07, 2019 8:38 am
by Topper
eggs and cream add fat to bind the lean game meat, add rosemary
Re: Around the league (signings, RFAs injuries)
Posted: Thu Nov 07, 2019 9:45 am
by UWSaint
Per wrote: ↑Thu Nov 07, 2019 3:48 am
Strangelove wrote: ↑Tue Nov 05, 2019 5:32 pm
Gotta agree with the Chef on this one, Italian food is THE BEST!
I love Italian food, and yeah, when it's done right, preferrably by Italians, it is THE BEST.
Per: "I don't want Mexicans preparing food in my Italian Restaurant." That might even make Trump blush.
Aside from the cheap shot, the cult of authenticity with regard to food origin is absurd. How dare old world cuisine incorporate new world crops like tomatoes and potatoes!
Food tastes and trends change (or get tweaked) with every generation (at least in the US and Canada). Many wonderful food trends come from merging national cuisines or using locally available or available produce and meats as a substitute in recipes for what was available where the dish as initially created.
I get a kick out of "that's not how they do it in" country of origin claims that presuppose the best way to do it is within the country of origin. Last I checked, the United States and Canada are comprised of lots and lots of people with ancestors who came here precisely because that they believed that presumption was false -- or at least quite tenable. (claim here is not the food must be better, but you get the point -- sometimes what you have is not the best there is). More than that, people create new things all the time, including food. That some (likely) sicilian restauranter decided to take spaghetti and take meatballs and then put them on the same plate with a tomato sauce, doesn't give it a lesser value than the first Napolese dude who made up pasta e fagioli....
Last, I know that my maternal family, who came from sicily to New York, ate their fair share of spaghetti and meatballs when the native-born sicilians were still kicking it. Its pasta -- common as a first course -- combined with meatballs -- common as a main course -- combined. It was a staple for Italian-American working class immigrants. It filled you up, tasted good, and was cheap. That those same sicilian-born immigrants would have not had that dish in Italy means nothing normatively.
Re: Topper's Grilling Advice!
Posted: Thu Nov 07, 2019 10:23 am
by Topper
UWSaint wrote: ↑Thu Nov 07, 2019 9:45 am
Per wrote: ↑Thu Nov 07, 2019 3:48 am
Strangelove wrote: ↑Tue Nov 05, 2019 5:32 pm
Gotta agree with the Chef on this one, Italian food is THE BEST!
I love Italian food, and yeah, when it's done right, preferrably by Italians, it is THE BEST.
Per: "I don't want Mexicans preparing food in my Italian Restaurant." That might even make Trump blush.
Aside from the cheap shot, the cult of authenticity with regard to food origin is absurd. How dare old world cuisine incorporate new world crops like tomatoes and potatoes!
Food tastes and trends change (or get tweaked) with every generation (at least in the US and Canada). Many wonderful food trends come from merging national cuisines or using locally available or available produce and meats as a substitute in recipes for what was available where the dish as initially created.
I get a kick out of "that's not how they do it in" country of origin claims that presuppose the best way to do it is within the country of origin. Last I checked, the United States and Canada are comprised of lots and lots of people with ancestors who came here precisely because that they believed that presumption was false -- or at least quite tenable. (claim here is not the food must be better, but you get the point -- sometimes what you have is not the best there is). More than that, people create new things all the time, including food. That some (likely) sicilian restauranter decided to take spaghetti and take meatballs and then put them on the same plate with a tomato sauce, doesn't give it a lesser value than the first Napolese dude who made up pasta e fagioli....
Last, I know that my maternal family, who came from sicily to New York, ate their fair share of spaghetti and meatballs when the native-born sicilians were still kicking it. Its pasta -- common as a first course -- combined with meatballs -- common as a main course -- combined. It was a staple for Italian-American working class immigrants. It filled you up, tasted good, and was cheap. That those same sicilian-born immigrants would have not had that dish in Italy means nothing normatively.
Add corn and turkey to the new world ingredients. I read a book on the history of Italian cuisine and it discussed the introduction of potatoes into the kitchen and it said there were pamphlets suggesting they be cooked and substituted for chestnuts. They also discussed Mussolini's attempt to purge the language of foreign words and in a very piognent sentence it was stated the Italians hadn't had a chance to learn Mussolini's preferred term before they had to learn the US English terms for their emergency rations. It is difficult to discuss Italian cuisine without mention of the the Medici family and the Church. The Church influence on salt fish for Fridays, the Medici, especially Catherine for the ties to France and the Papacy.
All in all, it is almost better to think of a Mediterranean Mezzo cuisine that evolved out of Persia.
The North African influence in Sicilian food probably make it my favourite though the restaurant I trained in specialized in Piedmont region.
When it comes to the kitchen, I am very much a traditionalist. There are reason's why some things work and others do not. Mixing and matching has to be within those bounds and most fusions are more confusion.
Tomato sauce is a completely wrong sauce for the shape of spaghetti. It is for a short stout pasta. Pasta shapes are designed around matching sauces.
I mentioned to a friend that the ultimate Canadian cuisine could be cabbage rolls with kimchi.
Where would Mexican food be without the French influence? Mayan cuisine may be the only vegetarian based cuisine to evolve.
Re: Around the league (signings, RFAs injuries)
Posted: Thu Nov 07, 2019 1:20 pm
by Per
UWSaint wrote: ↑Thu Nov 07, 2019 9:45 am
Per wrote: ↑Thu Nov 07, 2019 3:48 am
Strangelove wrote: ↑Tue Nov 05, 2019 5:32 pm
Gotta agree with the Chef on this one, Italian food is THE BEST!
I love Italian food, and yeah, when it's done right, preferrably by Italians, it is THE BEST.
Per: "I don't want Mexicans preparing food in my Italian Restaurant." That might even make Trump blush.
No, that would be a total waste, because if there is one thing this town could need, it’s a good Mexican restaurant!
There is some tex mex place, but they’re basically just serving the same pre-made stuff you can buy in the stores and prepare at home. I might get lucky though. There is a place opening soon with the name ”The Frozen Mexican”, and I’m keeping my fingers crossed it could be the real deal...
Seriously though, my qualifier was more that there are loads of ”Italian” restaurants that serve overcooked pasta with bland ragu, and you get a feeling the chef must never have tasted real Italian food. The best Italian food I have had has always been at restaurants run by actual Italians. Like the one I recommend in Camden.