William Penn Life, 2008 (43. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
2008-02-01 / 2. szám
fhe Kitchen Dinner for 4 Székely Gulyás 2 pounds pork, cubed 1 Vi pounds sauerkraut Zi pint sour cream 2 tablespoons lard I small onion, minced I teaspoon paprika Salt & pepper to taste Brown the onions in the shortening then add the paprika and the meat. Add a few tablespoons of water to keep the meat and onions from burning. Cook over low heat until the meat is done. Add the sauerkraut which has been drained. Cook until the kraut is brown. Add the sour cream and heat thoroughly. Serve hot with a crusty rye bread and dill pickles. whole raw potato in the soup which would draw out a large portion of saltiness, leaving you with a saved product. The bland potato would actually draw out the salt from the soup while putting bland potato flavor into the soup, making it once again palatable. Marinades work in the same way, but instead of pulling out flavor, they actually put flavor into foods as it draws out the bland taste. Chicken would taste very bland by itself, but when marinated you can put flavor into the chicken while drawing out juices from the chicken which are not so tasty. Keeping this in mind, just think of what you can do with food. You can create flavor profiles of your own or use recipes that already have been tested to get the results you want. Tenderizing meat can occur in one of three ways. The most common is Practical Pointer Any time you serve a roast during the winter months, save your trimmings and leftover scraps in the freezer. They will add much flavor when making a soup stock or gravy. Just add the scraps to your base liquid and reduce, then strain out all the trim and prepare as you normally would following the recipe. hanging and aging meat in a refrigerated warehouse or packing plant. Some steakhouses actually have windows where you can see the sides of beef aging. The second way, mechanical tenderizing, uses hammers or meat mallets to break down the fibers by pounding away at the flesh until it becomes tender. Finally, chemical meat tenderizing happens when you use a meat tenderizer sprinkled on the meat. The composition of a commercial meat tenderizer is usually salt, sugar and a noncaking agent. It could also be a slow cooking process which breaks down the fibers or by using a marinade which contains some form of acid. Most chefs and cooks use the mechanical and chemical means to tenderize because they are the most practical for restaurants and home kitchens. Now you know a little bit more about tenderizing food. Here are some helpful tips you can use when putting together marinades. First, you can use commercial salad dressings, either creamy or oiland-vinegar based, because they already have flavor and more ingredients than you would find in a regular marinade recipe. If you have certain salad dressings already to your liking, you would be wise to start marinating with them before you create your own marinades. Read the contents of any dressing bottle and you'll have a good starting point to get the flavor you want. Dry soup mixes, as well as dry salad dressing packets available in your grocery store, make for excellent dry rubs. A brisket rubbed with onion soup mix and left overnight to marinate will cook up with lots of flavor and be tender. If you want Italian-style chicken, just use a dry Italian dressing in a packet and rub over your whole chicken, then follow the cooking directions. Timing the marinade process is also crucial because you can over marinate and break down the meat to a point where it will become too mushy when cooked. Very large pieces of meat-like brisket, prime ribs, and legs of lamb or turkeys-should marinate 12 to 24 hours in refrigeration. Large or medium pieces of meatlike tenderloins, steaks, chops or chicken breasts—should marinate anywhere from 3 to 8 hours. Vegetables should marinate from 1 to 3 hours and any seafood from 15 minutes to an hour, depending upon the size. The larger the seafood, the more time it will need. If you're looking for the simplest marinade, try kosher salt or a flavored salt. Don't use any iodized salt as it will leave an aftertaste to your food. Salt has the ability to draw out the tasteless liquids yet put flavor back into any meat or vegetable. Congratulations on passing Marinating Food 101. Next month we will continue with marinating and mixing foods together for perfect entrees. Have a wonderful month using the ftgza/Uos "The Hungarian Kitchen" is a trademark of William S. Vasvary. William Penn Life, February 2008 9
