Happy Mutants food and drink topic (Part 1)

Tropical Depression 19 is parked over the island today and it is very rainy. Made chicken curry with naan, cucumber-yogurt and achar pickles. Yup, @Doctor_Faustus , rainy day fare on menu here as well.

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For tomorrow I’m planning pork vindaloo. We’re clearly thinking along similar lines when it comes to rain food.

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Chicken, chorizo (the dry kind) and egg pies. Filling made up as I went, with onion, garlic, smoked paprika and cumin. Pastry from the freezer.

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Lazy Sunday night. Spring has started and we’re eating for the weather we want. DIY rice paper rolls, suitable for the half vegetarian/half omnivore/one quarter diabetic family.

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Not to reignite the squash vs. zucchini battle royale…but I found both perfectly tasty in a veggie lasagna.
I cut them into slabs (the squash thicker than the zukes):


brushed w/o.o. and salted & peppered then grilled by sort for about 5 - 7 minutes per side:

Layered them with lasagna noodles, ricotta/spinach/basil blend, tomato sauce from the garden and caramelized onion (and melty cheese):

Anded ended up with a gustatory delight!


I only wish I’d taken a photo of the cross-section before we ate it all up. It was pretty.

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I always thought that Panko was just a brand/style of breadcrumb. I didn’t know that they were baked by electricity. (Even more than Triscuit electricity biscuits.)

(But does it taste as good as the original baked-by-tank-battery panko?)

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That was fascinating and now I really want to make tonkatsu. I’ve had excellent results with the Hairy Bikers’ recipe before.

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I had some left over al pastor from tacos this past weekend. So I grabbed some basics to turn out some burritos quick after work. Mostly to play with this thing:

I’m not good at wrapping these things, and I realized once they were done I did the foil like you do for gyros. Think I may have toasted the tortillas too long. They were flexible and held together but they weren’t stretchy.

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Those look so yummy!
Is that a restaurant-style griddle in your kitchen?

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It’s a commercial restaurant stove, 6 high output burners, 2 ovens and a black top with a high heat broiler below it. The griddle hasn’t been used in about 25 years cause no one could keep it seasoned. The kitchen was recently redone and I got the go ahead to fix up the griddle. Been playing with it since it started getting cooler, and friend requested pics of whatever I cook on it cause he’s jealous.

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Oh, that brings back memories of my summer job in college, cooking at a summer camp, 45 and more years ago. We had a big black stove with a griddle like that—it was old even then. The first time I had to do pancakes for breakfast, I didn’t know not to wear short-shorts, and although I wore a long apron the fronts of my thighs became seriously reddened (as I recall, a horizontal area beneath the griddle was open to the front, and you could look in from the front to see the gas flame).

We cleaned it with salt and oil, using circular motions with some kind of flat stone, like pumice or something? called a griddle stone I think. Whether that was the right or best way to clean it, I never knew, but that’s what the head cook had us do. I seem to recall using a flat block of wood wrapped in a paper towel, too. Maybe it was the stone first, then finish with salt and oil?? I remember going through a lot of paper towels cleaning that thing!

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Usually pumice. My first cooking job when I was 14 involved the very same stove I use now. This is what the issue was with the griddle, the salesman recommended caring for it the way restaurants do. Which involves scraping it down to bare metal at the end of every shift and starting over in the morning.

You scrape down while still hot with salt and either pumice or a grill screen (basically 220 grit drywall sanding screens). Then wipe up the gross with a damp kitchen towel.

Works great if the griddle is running 8+ hours a day. At home where it’s irregularly used it’ll just end up rusting and won’t get slick enough to cook nice. My last boss in the restaurant business was one of the few cooks I’ve met who believe in fully seasoning a carbon steel griddle and leaving it that way. So I had some idea of how to do it properly.

It’s tricky because carbon steel doesn’t hold a season the way cast iron does, it’s too smooth. So any kind of aggressive scrubbing will remove some of the season. And these things don’t heat evenly enough to get a perfect base coat going. Takes a long time and a lot of use to build a durable, even season.

We’ve been cleaning it with a Lodge cast iron cleaning brush and water. Then a damp cloth under a grill weight. Working real good and doesn’t scrape off any season so it can build up and set a little faster. At this point it’s a matter of finding excuses to cook on it regularly to keep things going.

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Is the Raid used in the seasoning, or is that a different sort of seasoning? :face_with_monocle:

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I was more worried about the Raid in close conjunction with the burny-torchy thing (why yes, my technical knowledge is high).

What kind of bugs require a flamethrower as backup?

I’m now picturing some kind of The Mist- style moth attacks or possibly something out of the Michael Caine classic The Swarm.

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That’s for huffing out of a bag.

I used it to light the griddle, which doesn’t have a pilot light. It’s the kitchen torch, usually used with one these:

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Putting the “mutants” into the “happy mutants food topic” :joy:

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Rosh Hashanah is here, so it’s brisket and challah and apple walnut cakes.

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Trust me, you don’t wanna know.

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Palmetto bugs!
:anguished:

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[googles]

Hmm, so we’d have large, toxin spraying cockroaches, annoyed by being sprayed with Raid - and now on fire…

This does not sound like a healthy situation.

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