Slot Car Cooking

[waaytoomuchintothis]

[waaytoomuchintothis]

Sliced it tonight, and the bread is great. For some reason, it just sucked in on the sides. Oh well, it tastes good!

[Retro Racer 44]

That bread looks delicious. I can almost smell it from here.

I spent 12 years teaching in the high Arctic, and the only way to get bread was to make bread. I know how, but I defer to my wife who is a master at it. Even though we now live close to a store with a bakery in it, she still makes bread at least once a week, usually when our kids and grand-kids are coming over for a meal.

Cheers,

Keith

[waaytoomuchintothis]

Keith! Ask you wife what I did wrong to cause the loaf to suck in on the sides like that. I can only guess that it wasn't quite done inside and finished while the cooling process was going on. That would reduce the pressure in the center as it finished, and maybe suck the sides in. It did cook all the way through, at least by the time I sliced it 40 minutes later.

And John, I remember those incredible bakeries and pastisseries. There was one that was my favorite, and it had ovens that were in the basement made into the wall. One of them was wood-fired, two were gas. There were warming drawers upstairs where customers could see, but the good stuff to see was in that centuries old basement. I asked if the ovens were old and they said they were not, they were put in when his grandfather was young... * "you know- Europe, where all the history comes from"- Eddie Izzard

Its hard for Americans to grasp what Europeans and Middle Easterners mean when they say "old". A friend of mine in England grew up in a house (ordinary house, not a castle), that was 500 years old- thatch roof, white painted stone walls, etc. It was once a mill, a pub, and a grain warehouse over the years. His family had owned it and lived in it for over a century, and 3 or 4 generations lived there the entire time, one after another. We did that here until after WWII, when the GI Bill encouraged returning soldiers to seek their own houses. We lost a lot by not living with our elders, but no one guessed that would happen at the time.

[HomeRacingWorld]

Pork Steak you ask?

Recipe #1

Grab the big 2 gallon ziploc bags.

1 bottle of Ott's or any low price FRENCH dressing. The redder the better. The lower cost dressing has more vinegar which is perfect.

Trim excess fat from edges of steaks. Sprinkle with a mix of garlic powder, onion powder, standard seasoning salt, and black pepper to your taste.

Insert 4 or 5 steaks in big bag. Pour bottle of dressing inside. Mix and coat well.

Wait 24 hours.

PULL out steaks from fridge 2 to 3 hours before hitting the grill. Let them warm to room temp in others words.

Get grill nice and hot and lay them down and hear the sizzle. Flip after 3 minutes and repeat until cooked all the way through.

You need NO other sauce or rub while cooking. You can add some if you like, but try them just like that :)

[waaytoomuchintothis]

At Last!!!! I have wondered about that for years. It wasn't until Rick told me what pork steaks really are that I wanted it for myself. Thanks, Harry.

About the French Dressing... The Catalina French is very red (full of honey). Is that a good thing?

Also, I use 160F to 165F for pork. I assume that's good for this, right?

[HomeRacingWorld]

No. Regular. The Catalina is ok for a low and slow/indirect, but will caramelize and burn too fast for my taste on a hotter grill.

[waaytoomuchintothis]

Gotcha!

[bookie]

One of the ways I do Pork Steaks... I grill em, high heat for about 3-4 minutes on one side and about 2 on the other. I just want to cook them about 50% and get a char on them. I just use sea salt and pepper.
Then I place them in a large pot, cast iron is good, and smother with my baked beans, place over low,low heat on the grill and let simmer until done. Serve with a baked tater, succotash & sweet tea.

[waaytoomuchintothis]

I am going to make a chicken molè and I need somebody to tell me a good recipe for the molè. There seems to be as many versions as there are BBQ sauce, so I'm lost. I don't know what some of these ingredients are! Any of you southwesterners out there? Maybe a Texican version from the Valley or Big Bend?

[waaytoomuchintothis]

Yes, it looks like a 2 or 3 day operation. I like poblano, but I have tasted ancho, which is ripened and dried poblano. I haven't decided about the chocolate. It happens I have some Mexican chocolate that is appropriate, left over from our time in Texas.

[waaytoomuchintothis]

[ccobra]

Here's one from the Central Valley. Tri-Tip. I do it a little different than most, I take the Tri-Tip and place it in a large zip-lock bag and cover it with about a 1/2 bottle of Korean Barbeque sauce. Close the bag and place back into the refrigerator for three days to marinate. The I'll pull it out of the bag and wrap in aluminum foil with all of the juice. Throw it on a hot grille for about 45 minutes (350 deg F if you have a fancy one with a thermometer), flip it out of the foil onto a plate and slice. Makes for a very tasty meal. By the way, the Korean Barbeque sauce cools off after it has been cooked for those little pepper seeds are quite hot prior to cooking.

[waaytoomuchintothis]

For those among us who never heard of a Tri-tip, it is the pyramidal shape that's left of the sirloin of beef after you have sliced off all the steaks. In the Kentucky, Indiana, Ohio, Southern Illinois region, they are called Sirloin Triangles, and most really fine butcher shops have them pre-marinated and ready to go. There's a lot of competition regarding the marinade. There's a Maw&Paw butcher shop in the St. Matthews area of Louisville, right across from the big Catholic parochial school on Lexington Road. They are Vahallah for Sirloin Triangles, and very nice about getting you a big whole shoulder of pork in excess of 20 pounds that has not been injected with a nitrate salt solution. I guess the old man and old woman may be dead now, but its worth looking them up. They had heirs.

Starting a bit north of you, ccobra, they use a Portugese marinade (all those Portogese fishermen's grandchildren), and they cook and sell them by the side of the road. Look for them from Half Moon Bay down past Monterrey and here and there all the way to Morro Bay and below. The same little grills by the side of the road sell smoked halibut, shark, swordfish, and other great fish. Most people know to drive on the left lane of Hwy 1, because the cars in the right lane are always stopping to buy food through the passenger's window. Its still one of my top 5 favorite drives in North America, between the views and the food.

In some parts of the US, Costco sells an inferior version refrigerated or frozen. If you can't get them anywhere else, its worth the work to carve it in such a way as to avoid serving huge globs of beef fat that shouldn't even have been in the package (they sell it by weight- surprize!).

Thanks for posting this!

[ccobra]