Last night I pulled out the new deep fryer to make a batch of french fries and took the opportunity to do a few more tests. The fries were made using the standard double fry method. First, the potatoes were cut in to ~3/8" sticks, rinsed several times in cold water and then allowed to sit in acidulated water (lemon juice) for 24 hours. Before frying the fries were rinsed a few more times, drained and dried off with paper towels.
The first step is to blanch the fries at a low temperature to get the interior cooked. I added 4 quarts of oil to the fryer and set the temperature to 300 degrees. It took the oil 11 minutes to heat from room temp (70 degrees) to the time my probe thermometer read 300 degrees. The fryers ready light didn't turn green until the probe was reading 307 degrees but I did notice that the heating element had started cycling at around 298 degrees. The fries were dropped in and cooked for 5 minutes. After about 1 minutes the oil temperature had dropped to a minimum of 273 degrees and then started inching up. One interesting thing at this point was that the fryer's green ready light lit up when the probe was reading only 280 degrees. This makes me wonder just how big the spread is on the fryer's thermostat.
Once the fries were blanched they were drained and laid out on paper towels to cool. Meanwhile I tested the other temperature presets to see where they actually landed. It took 4 minutes for the oil to increase to 325 degrees with the ready light coming on at 327 degrees. From 325 to 350 only took about 2 minutes, but that was probably due to the heating element already being on when the set point was changed. Actual temperature when the ready light turned on was 355 degrees. The final trip to 375 degrees took 3 minutes with a final temperature of 386 degrees when the ready light finally turned on.
The final fry at 375 degrees takes only two or three minutes, less when the fries are still hot from the blanching and more if you are cooking fries that were blanched and frozen. These had been refrigerated while I was playing with the temperature settings. Dropping the potatoes in the hot oil caused the temperature to drop down to around 357 degrees in a minute before it started to rebound. By the time the fries were done the temperature had gone up to around 365 degrees.
I shook the basket to try and get off as much oil as possible, then moved the fries to a stainless steel bowl for seasoning. A few grinds of sea salt, some truffle oil and some Mrs. Dash and the fries were tossed in the bowl to distribute the seasoning. Nice, crisp exterior with a fluffy interior. No ketchup needed!
Tuesday, November 6, 2012
Friday, November 2, 2012
Review of Presto 05462 Digital ProFry Immersion-Element 9-Cup Deep Fryer
When I purchased the parts for my last computer several of them came with mail-in rebates. Most of the rebates came in the form of American Express of Visa gift cards, and because I didn't have a lot of extra room in my wallet I just left them sitting in a stack on the top shelf of my computer desk. Recently while cleaning up the desk I went through the cards and noticed that $30 in visa rebate cards had already expired, so I thought it was about time that I used the rest. The question was what to spend them on?
Recently I've had a hankering to make some good fried chicken, but my deep fryer gave up the ghost a while ago and because I'm really the only one in the house who really likes fried food I never replaced it. With the rebate cards in hand I figured it was time, so I started doing some research. My goal was to find something that wasn't too big (since there are only three of us in the house), not too expensive and had received good ratings. The one I finally settled on is the Presto 05462 digital deep fryer. It has a 9 cup food capacity (which is probably more than I'll ever need), an 1800 watt heating element for fast heating of the oil and quick recovery time, a price on Amazon of $60 (I had $55 in rebate cards that were still good) and digital controls.
Purchasing the fryer had to be done in a round-about way, Amazon doesn't allow the use of multiple Amex rebate cards on a single order. They do allow multiple Amazon gift cards to be used though, so I just used the Amex rebate cards to purchase Amazon gift cards and had them send to me via email. Each arrived within a few seconds of checking out and were then used to purchase the fryer. All said and done I had to kick in just $5 for the fryer after selecting free SuperSaver shipping and had the box in my hands 4 days later.
he first things I dd were to make french fries (turned out pretty good even though the potatoes were pretty old and I didn't let them soak overnight like I prefer to do) and hush puppies from a pre-made mix I bought at Weisenberger Mill in Midway Kentucky last time I was down visiting my parents. Those turned out GREAT. Now it was time to make some fried chicken and I thought it would be fun to do some tests on the fryer at the same time.
The first thing was to figure out what type of chicken I was going to make. I stopped by Dominick's to see what was on sale and ended up with a package of chicken tenders, some buttermilk and 5 quarts of oil (the fryer needs 4 quarts minimum). I made a butter milk marinade with salt, Sriracha, garlic powder, Old Bay Seasoning, Mrs. Dash and ancho chili powder. No real recipe, just grabbed things from the cupboard that seemed to go together in my mind. The chicken was put in a zip-top bag with the marinade and put in the fridge for what was supposed to be only a few hours but things came up and as a result the pieces soaked for over 24 hours instead. Longer than I wanted to go, but OK. Now it was time to fry.
The first thing was to set up the fryer and get it heating. I put it on a sheet pan just in case there was any overflow and put it on the stove under the exhaust fan, this is pretty effective in keeping the odors down in the house. 4 quarts of oil were added. The fryer can only be set to four temperatures, 300, 325, 350 and 375. I set it to 375 and put in a temperature probe to see how accurate the on-board sensor is. Once the oil had reached temp I let everything sit for a few minutes and checked my thermometer, which indicated that the temperature sitting around 385. Running a little hotter than the setting was something I had read in a few other reviews, but it wasn't enough to be a deal breaker.
While the oil was heating I prepared a dredge with Wondra flour, AP flour and some of the same seasonings I had put in the marinade (Old Bay, Mrs. Dash, salt, pepper etc...) and placed a few of the marinaded chicken tenders in the dredge at a time. Once those pieces were coated they were put on a foil lined baking sheet wile the rest of the chicken tenders were coated. I let them sit for a few minutes and dredged each piece again. I put around 300 grams of chicken tenders (slightly above refrigerator temperature) in the oil for the first batch. The oil temperature dropped to around 353 before starting to inch back up. I set the timer for 3 minutes but the pieces looked done after a little more than 2 1/2. The oil quickly returned to temperature and the rest of the pieces were cooked in the second batch.
The end result was chicken strips that were nice and juicy, but had a little bit of a rubbery texture which I blame on the long soak in buttermilk. So far I've been pretty satisfied with this fryer, with the exception of the oil going about 10 degrees over the set point. But as long as I know that this is going to happen I can make adjustments to compensate. Next time I set it up I'm going to check the temperature at all four set points. There are several things I want to try next, I think it would be cool to try making some falafel at home along with some pita, tahini sauce and toum (garlic sauce). I saw a recipe for Korean style chicken wings done by the people at Modernist cuisine that I'd like to try and I also have the recipe for the Sriracha wings that Goose Island serves at their brewpubs so I'd like to see if I can make them as good at home. Gonna be a lot of unhealthy eating at the Balhg household over the next few months!
Recently I've had a hankering to make some good fried chicken, but my deep fryer gave up the ghost a while ago and because I'm really the only one in the house who really likes fried food I never replaced it. With the rebate cards in hand I figured it was time, so I started doing some research. My goal was to find something that wasn't too big (since there are only three of us in the house), not too expensive and had received good ratings. The one I finally settled on is the Presto 05462 digital deep fryer. It has a 9 cup food capacity (which is probably more than I'll ever need), an 1800 watt heating element for fast heating of the oil and quick recovery time, a price on Amazon of $60 (I had $55 in rebate cards that were still good) and digital controls.
Purchasing the fryer had to be done in a round-about way, Amazon doesn't allow the use of multiple Amex rebate cards on a single order. They do allow multiple Amazon gift cards to be used though, so I just used the Amex rebate cards to purchase Amazon gift cards and had them send to me via email. Each arrived within a few seconds of checking out and were then used to purchase the fryer. All said and done I had to kick in just $5 for the fryer after selecting free SuperSaver shipping and had the box in my hands 4 days later.
he first things I dd were to make french fries (turned out pretty good even though the potatoes were pretty old and I didn't let them soak overnight like I prefer to do) and hush puppies from a pre-made mix I bought at Weisenberger Mill in Midway Kentucky last time I was down visiting my parents. Those turned out GREAT. Now it was time to make some fried chicken and I thought it would be fun to do some tests on the fryer at the same time.
The first thing was to set up the fryer and get it heating. I put it on a sheet pan just in case there was any overflow and put it on the stove under the exhaust fan, this is pretty effective in keeping the odors down in the house. 4 quarts of oil were added. The fryer can only be set to four temperatures, 300, 325, 350 and 375. I set it to 375 and put in a temperature probe to see how accurate the on-board sensor is. Once the oil had reached temp I let everything sit for a few minutes and checked my thermometer, which indicated that the temperature sitting around 385. Running a little hotter than the setting was something I had read in a few other reviews, but it wasn't enough to be a deal breaker.
While the oil was heating I prepared a dredge with Wondra flour, AP flour and some of the same seasonings I had put in the marinade (Old Bay, Mrs. Dash, salt, pepper etc...) and placed a few of the marinaded chicken tenders in the dredge at a time. Once those pieces were coated they were put on a foil lined baking sheet wile the rest of the chicken tenders were coated. I let them sit for a few minutes and dredged each piece again. I put around 300 grams of chicken tenders (slightly above refrigerator temperature) in the oil for the first batch. The oil temperature dropped to around 353 before starting to inch back up. I set the timer for 3 minutes but the pieces looked done after a little more than 2 1/2. The oil quickly returned to temperature and the rest of the pieces were cooked in the second batch.
Monday, July 23, 2012
Mamaw Durkin's Banana Bread
This is the first of what I hope will be a series of posts about my cooking of recipes left to me by my grandmother, Ola Durkin (a.k.a. Mamaw). The first recipe is for her famous banana bread. The recipe is as follows:
1 stick butter
1 cup sugar
3-4 ripe bananas
1 tsp baking soda
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups AP flour
1/2 - 3/4 tsp baking powder
pinch salt
Preheat the oven to 325.
Cream together the butter and sugar.
Mash the bananas with the baking soda, add to the butter/sugar mixture and mix in.
Add the eggs one at a time along with the vanilla, incorporating completely between additions.
Add the flour mixture half at a time, mixing in completely after each addition.
Pour the batter in to a greased loaf pan, smooth out the top with a spoon or off-set spatula and bake at 325 degrees for about an hour or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
Allow the loaf to cool in the pan for about 10 minutes, then loosen the sides with a knife and turn out to cool on a wire rack.
Mamaw usually gave us a thick slice of the banana bread with a little margarine spread on one side. This is VERY good toasted!
Cedar Plank Salmon
For our July 4th dinner I decided to make cedar plank salmon instead of the usual burgers of steaks. The process is pretty easy. First, we picked up some cedar planks at Dominick's since Costo had sold out. The planks were soaked for about an hour during which time I trimmed the salmon to fit and pulled together the ingredients I would use. Once the plank was well soaked I removed it from the water and patted dry. A generious coating of extra virgin olive oil was applied, the a sprinkling of Mrs. Dash, a few grinds of salt and some sprigs of fresh dill. The salmon fillet was placed on top of the dill, then more Mrs. Dash, more salt, more sprigs of fresh dill, some very thin slices of lemon shingled on top and finally a squeeze of lemon. The Weber kettle grill had been prepared with a full chimney of lit coals dumped on one side and spread out so they formed a uniform bed covering 1/2 of the bottom. There were no coals on the other half. The plank of salmon was first placed directly over the hot coals until I saw a bit of char on the sides of the plank, then it was moved over to the cool side. The corn and other vegetables were grilled on the hot side until done, then a handful of soaked cherry wood chips were placed on the fire and the grill lid placed on so the salmon would finish cooking over indirect heat with a little smoke. It took about 5-8 minutes for the salmon to just get to the point were the flesh was starting to flake. The results were excellent, very moist salmon with loads of flavor. It's important to keep a close eye on the fish and remove it just as the flesh will flake when a paring knife is inserted, leave it on too long and you get dry salmon.
Monday, July 16, 2012
A neglected blog
Ok, so it looks like I took an entire year off! Life has been hectic and I just haven't had the motivation to keep my blogs up-to-date. This is something I intend to change, later this week I'm going to post about the cedar plank salmon I made for July 4th, I just need to put together the recipe and find the picture I took of the finished product. After that I hope to get back to a more regular schedule of posting. Since my last post I lost my last grandparent, Mamaw. She left me her boxes of recipes so I'm going to try and make something from that collection of hand-written recipes on a regular basis and post the results here. This is mostly old-school Kentucky recipes and I'm sure I'm going to be surprised at what I find in there.
The other thing I've been watching lately is a Kickstarter project for a slick immersion circulator. The Nomiku has already gone over 200% of their funding goal with a couple of days left to go. I got in early at the $299 level, so if everything goes as planned I should get a Nomiku delivered sometime in December. The Fisher Scientific circulator I am using now is nice, but I have to set it up using a beer cooler filled with water and I can't use it in the kitchen since it keeps tripping the GFCI on those outlets. The Nomiku just clips on to a pot and should be much easier to use (though its heater is 25% less powerful). Since their funding has gone so well, they've decided to open up the sous vide parties in San Francisco, New York and Chicago that were originally only open to those who donated at the $499 level. For every additional $25,000 over the $400,000 funding level they are going to open up parties in an additional location as voted by the funders. I'm looking forward to getting the circulator and attending the Chicago party!
The other thing I've been watching lately is a Kickstarter project for a slick immersion circulator. The Nomiku has already gone over 200% of their funding goal with a couple of days left to go. I got in early at the $299 level, so if everything goes as planned I should get a Nomiku delivered sometime in December. The Fisher Scientific circulator I am using now is nice, but I have to set it up using a beer cooler filled with water and I can't use it in the kitchen since it keeps tripping the GFCI on those outlets. The Nomiku just clips on to a pot and should be much easier to use (though its heater is 25% less powerful). Since their funding has gone so well, they've decided to open up the sous vide parties in San Francisco, New York and Chicago that were originally only open to those who donated at the $499 level. For every additional $25,000 over the $400,000 funding level they are going to open up parties in an additional location as voted by the funders. I'm looking forward to getting the circulator and attending the Chicago party!
Tuesday, July 5, 2011
Lemon Basil Creme Brulee
I have an Aerogarden, it was given to me as a gift several years ago. For the most part it has worked out pretty well, although I've had to replace the pump twice and the rear arm once (the metal tabs that send power to the pump corroded away). Even with the occasional replacement parts needed the garden has been worth it, I usually have more herbs than I can use. Such is the case with the latest herb kit I ordered, the "Gourmet Herb Seed Kit". One of the herbs included in the kit, lemon basil, is one that I haven't had much experience with and is growing like gangbusters. So fast that it will shade out the rest of the herbs if I don't keep it trimmed down. That means I have a LOT of lemon basil to find a use for. I had considered using it in several savory applications, but for the Fourth of July menu I was in need of a dessert. The thing I eventually came up with was a lemon basil creme brulee.
The custard in a creme brulee is your basic creme anglaise, a stirred custard that is often used as a pourable sauce or as the base of french style ice creams. The recipe I used is...
16 oz heavy cream
1 cup lemon basil
1 tsp fresh lemon zest
pinch salt
1/4 tsp vanilla
5 egg yolks
1/3 cup sugar
Our Fourth of July dinner consisted of porterhouse steaks cooking in my favorite sous-vide method (135 degrees for 2 hours straight from the freezer then cooled, unbagged and seared over a screaming hot charcoal fire on the grill), grilled corn on the cob and roasted beets. This was my first use of my Mangrate which I heard about on The Morning Stream podcast, ordered and received a few weeks ago It seemed to work pretty well.
This dessert turned out fantastic, the light green custard had a wonderful lemon flavor with just just a hint of vanilla. The flavors melded beautifully with the caramelized sugar and blueberries on top. Definitely one I'll remember and make again.
Homemade pepperoni, homemade italian sausage pizza.
The pepperoni Italian sausage I made were good on their own, but they were made for a pizza! On Friday I started the process by making my pizza dough. It consists of...
100 ml beer (I had Sam Adams Boston Lager on hand, so that's what I used)
250 ml cold water (Beer + water come to about 70% hydration in this formula)
2 - 3 grams instant dry yeast (IDY) (about 0.4% to 0.6% flour weight)
500 - 550 grams bread flour (I used Weisenberger Mills high gluten bread flour)
10 grams salt (2% flour weight)
10 grams extra virgin olive oil (again, 2% flour weight)
The beer and water are added to a mixing bowl and the IDY sprinkled over. Then the flour goes in followed by the salt. This is allowed to sit until you see cracks forming in the flour, which means the yeast has started producing carbon dioxide. The dough is mixed for 2 minutes, then the mixer stopped and the oil added. Next the half-mixed dough is allowed to sit for 15 - 20 minutes, this is called the autolyse phase. During this step the flour absorbs all the water and the proteins that will form gluten hydrate, the end result is a shorter mix time and better flavor wheaty in the final crust. After the autolyse the dough is mixed until it forms a smooth, elastic mass. The dough is then balled, coated with oil, covered in plastic wrap and allowed to slowly ferment in the refrigerator for at least 24 hours to develop the desired flavor and texture.
The next day I removed a portion of the dough for one crust and allowed it to come to room temperature. The oven (with pizza stone inside) was heated to 550 degrees for one hour prior to baking. Once the dough was warmed up I started stretching out the skin until it was about 12 inches in diameter with the nice lip you only get from hand stretching and tossing. The skin was placed on a piece of parchment and dressed with a simple pizza sauce (canned tomatoes, tomato paste, red wine, olive oil, oregano, salt and pepper) followed by some store bought cheese (four cheese blend by Lucrene), the Italian sausage (cooked) and pepperoni. The pizza, still on the parchment paper, was slid on the the stone and allowed to cook for about 6-7 minutes until the crust was set. Then the parchment was removed and the pizza allowed to complete cooking directly on the stone. Once removed from the oven, a little extra virgin olive oil was drizzled on the pie, since the homemade pepperoni and sausage were pretty low in their own fat. This is the result...
I was very pleased with both the pizza and the toppings. The pepperoni, which was fairly dry and firm when eaten by itself, seemed to soften when cooked on the pizza. This is also my go-to formula for crust, it has a nice yeasty flavor and good texture with lots of large holes inside the lip. Great for dipping in garlic butter or ranch dressing. Making the pepperoni and sausage at home may have taken a little extra time, but it was worth it in the end!
100 ml beer (I had Sam Adams Boston Lager on hand, so that's what I used)
250 ml cold water (Beer + water come to about 70% hydration in this formula)
2 - 3 grams instant dry yeast (IDY) (about 0.4% to 0.6% flour weight)
500 - 550 grams bread flour (I used Weisenberger Mills high gluten bread flour)
10 grams salt (2% flour weight)
10 grams extra virgin olive oil (again, 2% flour weight)
The beer and water are added to a mixing bowl and the IDY sprinkled over. Then the flour goes in followed by the salt. This is allowed to sit until you see cracks forming in the flour, which means the yeast has started producing carbon dioxide. The dough is mixed for 2 minutes, then the mixer stopped and the oil added. Next the half-mixed dough is allowed to sit for 15 - 20 minutes, this is called the autolyse phase. During this step the flour absorbs all the water and the proteins that will form gluten hydrate, the end result is a shorter mix time and better flavor wheaty in the final crust. After the autolyse the dough is mixed until it forms a smooth, elastic mass. The dough is then balled, coated with oil, covered in plastic wrap and allowed to slowly ferment in the refrigerator for at least 24 hours to develop the desired flavor and texture.
The next day I removed a portion of the dough for one crust and allowed it to come to room temperature. The oven (with pizza stone inside) was heated to 550 degrees for one hour prior to baking. Once the dough was warmed up I started stretching out the skin until it was about 12 inches in diameter with the nice lip you only get from hand stretching and tossing. The skin was placed on a piece of parchment and dressed with a simple pizza sauce (canned tomatoes, tomato paste, red wine, olive oil, oregano, salt and pepper) followed by some store bought cheese (four cheese blend by Lucrene), the Italian sausage (cooked) and pepperoni. The pizza, still on the parchment paper, was slid on the the stone and allowed to cook for about 6-7 minutes until the crust was set. Then the parchment was removed and the pizza allowed to complete cooking directly on the stone. Once removed from the oven, a little extra virgin olive oil was drizzled on the pie, since the homemade pepperoni and sausage were pretty low in their own fat. This is the result...
I was very pleased with both the pizza and the toppings. The pepperoni, which was fairly dry and firm when eaten by itself, seemed to soften when cooked on the pizza. This is also my go-to formula for crust, it has a nice yeasty flavor and good texture with lots of large holes inside the lip. Great for dipping in garlic butter or ranch dressing. Making the pepperoni and sausage at home may have taken a little extra time, but it was worth it in the end!
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