Blue Gartr Meal Time: Bacon optional? Bacon required.

[Kalmado]

Not really a beer guy but they are ok. The daily tours are nice though. Definitely worth checking out if you find yourself in the North bay area. Russian River Brewing Company is a town over too and they are pretty good beer too and food. People lined up in the morning for them to open so either they pretty good or I live in a town of drunks

I'm a huge fan of Lagunitas Imperial Stout. Their other stuff is mostly some semblance of an IPA which isn't really for my palette but they are good.

About the empanadas, my wife has made variations of meat filled ones as well as dessert. Always a great meal or treat.

[Tokitoki]

I spy a Lagunitas bottle. Not bad.

Lagunitas is my daily beer. A 12 pack of the IPA or Sumpin Sumpin is $15 up the block.

How do.

I want fried things.

These ones were baked, but you can fry them.

2 1/4 cup flour
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 stick butter cut into 1/2in cubes
1 large egg
1/3 cup cold water
1 tbsp white vinegar

Filling is:
1 lb lean ground beef
1/2 sweet onion
1/2 red pepper
2 cloves garlic
1 tbsp cumin
1 tbsp paprika
salt & pepper to taste

Mix flour, salt, and butter by hand or in a processor until it's mealy with the butter broken down to roughly pea size. Beat egg, water, and vinegar and mix in to flour until it forms a loose dough. Knead a couple times on a floured surface, roll flat, then chill for 1 hr or more.

Cook up meat filling with the veggies as you would any other ground meat mixture.

When dough is chilled, roll to 1/8-1/4in. Cut into 4in-6in rounds depending on the size of empanada you want. Fill with meat and slices of hard boiled egg. fold over, pinch and fold closed, crimp with a fork to seal. Brush with an egg wash and bake at 400 for about 25mins.

Most cultures have some form of fried pastry wrapping meats and veg, Empanada are just the greatest. Although the cheese looks like Mozarella instead of a good queso fresco?

These were "Argentine" style so they use meat and egg, no cheese. I believe Dominicans use cheese as there was an old Dominican lady that I used to buy empanadas from when I was working on site at one of my previous jobs. Other cultures may use cheese as well. What you see is the slices of hard boiled egg.

EDIT: I was trying to type this up before a meeting and missed some stuff. It's updated/corrected now. This is the recipe I used for the chimichurri. I probably used less than 2 cups of parsley, as I only had one bunch. I'd estimate maybe 1 1/2 cups maybe? It's tasty, but also fairly garlicy; kind of similar to a pesto as far as garlic level. If you aren't as big a fan of garlic you could definitely leave some out. The real draw is the fresh herb taste from the parsley and oregano with a hint of spice.

[Zetanio]

As long as there are no olives in it, I'm good.

What oils do people use for searing in cast iron? I've been using canola but I want to swap to grapeseed or safflower with a way higher smoke point.

[Boyiee]

As long as there are no olives in it, I'm good.

What oils do people use for searing in cast iron? I've been using canola but I want to swap to grapeseed or safflower with a way higher smoke point.

I used saff for a while, mom still does.

Never tried peanut or anything else.

[dasva]

Kind of depends on what you are cooking but general purpose high temp stuff pan stuff I like using avocado. Works well and mild taste and cheap at Costco. Peanut is pretty good for frying too though oddly I have a hard time finding here except at the Asian marts. Clarified butter works good too on things that butter tastes good with.

Also doesn't refined canola have basically the same smoke point as grapeseed?



In other food news there are a lot of wineries near me so as you might expect a lot of them branch off into other things like specialty olive oils and balsamics. Finally decided to try some flavored balsamics (last night was pomegranate) and can definitely see the appeal over plain.

[Coren]

I use peanut oil for frying. Bought a giant jug of it (like the restaurants have). It's got a smokepoint of around 450.

http://www.seriouseats.com/2014/05/c...it-matter.html
To save some clicks:
Peanut is 450, canola/rapeseed is 400, avocado is 375 to 400, grapeseed is 390. Sesame has a very high smokepoint, but introduces a lot of flavor that you usually don't want.

I do a bit of cooking in a wok, and a high smoke point is critical.

[Tokitoki]

For straight frying I use peanut as well. For normal shit I generally use olive oil. Every Christmas I get at least 1-2 baskets from subcontractors/vendors/suppliers/etc. and so we have a stock of olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Seriously, I've got at least 5-6 bottles of balsamic vinegar in a closet in the spare bedroom. Olive oil I use more often, so I'm down to the last bottle now.

[Zetanio]

Looks like I need to get refined safflower oil or avocado oil. Highest smoke points, almost no flavor.

[dasva]

Probably goes without saying but should also note that most oils will have highly differing smoke points based on level of refinement and if they have added stabilizers. So if you are reading greatly different values on the "same" oil from different sources that's probably why. And most fats can achieve fairly healthy smoke points with enough refinement even butter gets pretty good if you clarify it. But at the same time you might not want more refined for flavour reasons.


Has anyone tried beef tallow? Guess people used to fry stuff in it (like I think McD's fries were) before the campaign against sat fats but always wondered how it tasted/what it worked good with and just how inconvenient it will be since most likely will have to render it myself.

[Tokitoki]

I have never tried beef tallow, but you can buy it on Amazon if you wanted to try it.

[Zetanio]

I have access to tallow, never really use it.

[Zetanio]

Sous Vide Pork Chops



Post 2 hours at 58c. Cooked with whole mustard and a dry brine base (Essentially salt, pepper, some other aromatics). The liquid released by the pork creates a brine, it permeates everything. Actually a happy accident.



Seared on cast iron. Drizzled with maple syrup.



Cheating.

[Boyiee]

I've been telling everyone that as soon as I get my anova I'm making steaks obviously. But the second thing I'm making is pork chops. I grew up NOT eating the pork chops my mom made even though everyone else loved them and she's a fantastic cook. I never had one I liked. We're gonna see if this changes that.

Third thing is prob fish then maybe something crazy like brisket, round, ribs etc.

[Melena]

Pork chops when done right are fucking delicious. Same with fish. Thank god I married Astylla otherwise my meals still would consist of just beef and potatoes.

[Zetanio]

Pork chops when done right are fucking delicious. Same with fish. Thank god I married Astylla otherwise my meals still would consist of just beef and potatoes.

These are pork chops done correctly. Just had one for lunch, still juicy and tender. This dry brine in the bag thing may be my best dumb decision yet.

[Kalmado]

I missed your rant yesterday on chat Chef Boy R Z, but I told my wife when we get a real kitchen again we're getting this sous vide. She thinks it's silly, but all she does with meat is dice it and saute. I'm the steak, pork, baked chicken guy so I'm going with it.

[Zetanio]

I didn't rant, just linked to this post.

[Zetanio]

All about the eye round roast life.



Brine? Bitch, we brine while we cook.



See ya after work!

[dasva]

So no pics because well it wasn't much to look at but last night wasn't feeling like cooking and needed a little snack that was mostly protein to fill out my day.

Decided to grab some Greek yogurt and put a scoop of vanilla protein powder in it then try some of that raspberry balsamic with it for flavor and get the consistency back to yogurt. Pretty good like on par with super sugary dessert yogurts but with that tang of the vinegar and not having all that much sugar so was almost pure protein. Add some fruit or something could probably just be a normal snack want to eat that has a bonus of being healthy

[Zetanio]

This is a giant ass London Broil

Marinated for over a day



129 for 4 hours



Kicked it in the fridge for a day to settle, seared off cold to hold the cook.

Deeeelicious