I bought a slab of belly pork yesterday, after watching a fool-proof way to cook it and get the perfect cracking. Well, the method may be fool-proof but it’s not me-proof! I followed the method religiously and after the specified cooking time the skin was not even nearly crisp. I kept it cooking for as long as I dared, and the skin still didn’t crisp up. The only thing I think could be the problem, was that I used the fan-assisted setting on my cooker. Maybe I should have cooked it without the fan assist.
Simple meal today. Baked salmon steaks with sautéed white mushrooms as a side. Marinated the salmon steaks in a sauce of honey, oyster sauce, soy sauce, diced garlic, ground ginger, and a Chinese white cooking wine for an hour. Baked on the pan covered for ten, redistributed the sauce, and then for another eight minutes. Came out soft, yet cooked through, and the sauce permeated nicely into the steaks. Mushrooms were sliced in fours, marinated very quickly in soy sauce, then pan fried in oil and butter. After their initial reduction I introduce white cooking wine (the same one), garlic, and thyme. When the white wine boiled off, I stirred in salt and garnished with parsley. Simple, but nicely flavored meal. Quick too, as the marinades take little time and all the actually cooking and prep time minus waiting is around only twenty-five minutes.
There's a new yakiniku restaurant that just opened, so Mrs. A and I will be testing its fare to see if it's worthy of being added to the rotation.
Yakitori is chicken on skewers cooked by a chef. Yakiniku is bite-sized pieces of beef (primarily, although there are chicken and pork options), often marinated, that you cook on a grill in the middle of your table.
Remind me to regale you with my adventures trying to order yakatori vs yakinuku skewer stands from various Japanese/American companies. Been 6 weeks and I can't get a straight answer from anybody.
Something I won't be cooking tonight is a recipe I saw online for Brussels Sprouts and Grapes au Gratin
Everything but the grapes sounds delicious... I'd try it at least. Sprouts are great with some sweetness. Maple syrup is more common than grapes, though. Actually, anything is more common than grapes.
Tried to prepare escargot recently. Texture was terrible—too firm and chewy. I’ll leave it to the experts.
Shells will probably isolated heat better. The way we do it in restaurants is to reuse decorative shells and stuff them nightly with fresh snails. And by "fresh" I mean canned, vacced, and imported. Classic Bourgeone is just garlic, herbs, and butter. Been a while since I've served them, but I want to say the pickup time is maybe 12 minutes in a hot oven convection. Or maybe it's in a low sally oven. Can't remember... my restaurant hard drive filled up a long time ago.
Breaded chicken patty and mayo and lettuce on a lightly toasted Everything bagel, and crinkle-cut fries.
Another frozen beef & bean burrito (hair of the dog that bit me a few days ago, but only one this time). Covered with shredded Mexican cheese blend and red salsa, and I wish I had some shredded lettuce, diced tomato, sour cream and a can of sliced black olives to make it deluxe. But I don't. However, there's cookie dough ice cream for after.
Thank you. I may try to make them again at some point and I'll keep this in mind. Will definitely get shells, too.
