Deep frying is not something I do a lot of anymore. Besides the general health questions around deep frying, it requires a bit of time and work. You have to maintain the oil in the fryer, and keep the unit clean. Having that much oil sitting around in an appliance in the kitchen can also be a bit of a hazard. If that oil catches on fire, it will burn for quite a while.

However, there are times you just want to cook up some fish and chips, or some old time fried chicken and that is when you really need one. I have always had one of those round electric fryers in a cupboard for that once or twice a year I fried something. Lately, we have been frying more things so it was time to upgrade.

After reading many reviews I decided to go with the Presto Dual Profry Deep Fryer. Once I received it from Amazon, I set it right up to cook. The heating element sits right in the oil which is a real plus. This makes the heating much more responsive and as you probably know, proper temperature is the key to good frying.

The tub that contains the oil slides right out of the unit and is dishwasher safe. In combination with the removable element, it makes it very easy – (More…)

One of my favorite vegetables is zucchini. I have a lot of different ways to prepare it, but the most flavorful way is by deep frying. They come out golden brown and crispy and the real trick is in the batter.

For anyone with even 10 minutes of deep frying experience knows that the batter is everything. Batter usually consists mostly of flour, spices and a liquid. The strongest “spice” in batter is the flour. It is challenging to add spice to batter because the taste of flour is so strong. This is why you must use more spice than you would think.

1 cup all purpose white flour.
1/2 cup all purpose white flour.
1/4 cup smoked paprika, regular will work too.
1/8 cup garlic salt. (or 1/16 garlic powder and 1/16 kosher salt).
2 tablespoons of black pepper.
Vegetable oil for frying.
Up to 1 can (12 oz) of beer.
Zucchini.

Heat deep fryer to 350 degrees.

Mix together the 1 cup of flour, paprika, garlic salt, and pepper. Whisk in the beer a little at a time until the mixture has the consistency of pancake batter. Drink the remaining beer. 🙂

Lay out the 1/2 cup of flour on a separate dish.

Slice the zucchini thin, about 1/4 inch per slice. Dredge the chips in the flour and then add to the batter.

Working in batches, add them to the deep fryer and cook for about 4 minutes, turning half way through. – (More…)

The first thing I should say about this pan is that I have cooked many things in it, but never an omelet. We have cooked eggs in it, and that is one of the few ingredients I would not recommend for this pan. Eggs stick harshly to this model. This is more of a meat and vegetable pan.

The best feature of this item is how even the heating is. Unlike many other pans, the pan heats up quickly and the heat is dispersed the same all over the pan.

The handle always stays cool unless of course you put the pan in the oven. I cook up my Southern Comfort chicken thighs in this all the time. At 10 inches, it is perfect for a family of four or below. 12 inches probably would be better for more than that.

The pan is also dishwasher safe, but I always hit it with the brush before I put it into the washer. This is NOT a non-stick pan, but with all of the horror health stories revolving around Teflon cookware, I will take the stainless steel over it any time!

One of the drawbacks on this model though is that there are three little rivets on the inside of the pan where the handle attaches. – (More…)

For those who really enjoy cooking, there is a trap we can all fall into. It is natural to have pride in your creations but sometimes too much of a good thing is not good. The home cook who tries to make a culinary wonder every day is going to find it becoming tiring work. Many of the greatest dishes require a lot of preparation and contain quite a few steps. Finding an extra hour or two in a single day can be challenging enough, but 7 days a week is extremely demanding.

There is also the question of cost. Many of the great recipes out there call for ingredients that are more expensive than your average meal. It may be enjoyable to prepare prime rib, but is it economically justifiable? There are many times when the cost of one great meal could have paid for three or four standard dishes.

Some get the feeling that if they just slap up a meatloaf, people will question their culinary prowess. Now I am not saying you should serve meatloaf at your friends twenty five year anniversary party, but when your home with the family after a long dreary Wednesday, don’t worry if you only have enough energy to bread up some pork chops, prepare instant potatoes, open a can of corn, and make a dinner in about fifteen minutes.

Remember, although cooking is an art form, – (More…)

This myth angers me more than any other. I talk to some people who have a feeling of hopelessness in the kitchen because they feel they need to spend thousands of dollars at a culinary institute in order to be considered a great cook. Unless you plan on working in a world class kitchen in Paris or New York City, this couldn’t be farther from the truth.

Much of what they teach you in these schools has nothing to do with cooking, but more about working in a restaurant which is a completely different thing. For those who just want to be a great cook do not need to know all the details about the proper way to maintain stable temperature in commercial refrigerators, or how to organize line cooks.

Now there is nothing wrong with taking courses in cooking and it can be very fulfilling. A four year degree however is not necessary if you want to make great unique dishes for your family, friends, or even your own establishment. There are many famous restaurants in this world that were started by those who only had the love of cooking as their guide.

Instead of worrying about credentials, think about all of your actual cooking experience. Learning new recipes teaches you more than you realize. How many times have you prepared a dish you have never tried before and found similarities with other recipes you – (More…)

From time to time I will splurge a little and pick up a few racks of raw baby back ribs. Probably my favorite cut of pork rib available, there are many ways they can be prepared.

We generally use a simple quick barbecue sauce on the baby back ribs, and they come out tasting great. If you have time to slow cook them all day, then great, but many times you are on a tight schedule.

Using this basic recipe, I have gotten used to the flavor, but when I started cooking them in a cast iron skillet in the oven, they tasted entirely different. The flavors were dark and rich.

2 racks of baby back ribs (about 3 pounds).
1 bottle of beer.
Water.
1 yellow onion, diced.
4 cloves of garlic, crushed and chopped fine.
1/4 cup vinegar, preferably cider vinegar.
1 cup of ketchup.
1 tablespoon of molasses.
1 tablespoon lemon or grapefruit juice.
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce.
1 tablespoon Tabasco sauce.
Pepper.
Olive oil.

Preheat oven to 325.

Cut the racks into individual ribs and place in a large saucepan. Pour the beer over the top of the ribs and then add water until the ribs are covered. Bring to a boil and boil for 5 minutes. Strain.

In a 12” cast iron skillet, add enough olive oil to lightly coat the bottom of the skillet. Cook garlic and onions on medium/medium low until onions are clear. Add the remaining ingredients. – (More…)

On March 18th, the Food Network premiered their latest series called Chefography. Each episode looks in depth at one of their many celebrity chefs.

On the debut of Chefography, the Food Network showed three episodes. The first was Emeril Lagasse, then Rachael Ray, followed by Bobby Flay. Each was an hour long biography of the celebrities, from their humble beginnings to their current stardom.

I Tivo’d the episodes and found them intruiging. Emeril and Rachaels bio’s were right out of a story book. They were very inspirational and showed how one can go from working in a deli to making millions with their own shows, restaurants, and product lines.

I could personally relate with much of what Rachael had to say in her interviews. She doesn’t feel like she is on the same planet as the other chefs on the show and will not call herself a chef. She is a cook, and is great at what she does and enjoys having fun with it.

I found Emerils story very interesting. You really get a sense of the scope of his popularity when you watch his chefography. I never realized how diverse his empire is. He seems to be just about everywhere and yet you really get the impression he hasn’t changed all that much.

Bobby Flay’s chefography came off a bit strange to me. At times I felt it a bit disjointed – (More…)

OK, it is finally Monday, two days after our St. Patty’s Day party 2007 at Roses Tavern in Modena N.Y.! I would have wrote this up yesterday, but let us just say that the party went so well, I was a bit immobilized the next day. 🙂

I began the preparation on Thurday by cooking up two cheesecakes, my Irish Baileys Strawberry Cheesecake to be precise. It is good to let this cake sit for 24-48 hours so it was the first thing I made. Here is a pic of one of them, and as you can tell, I rushed the icing, but I had a million things going on at that moment so you will have to forgive me. I also added dark chocolate shavings across the top. Mind you, I am no photographer, and this is the real pic, not one I pulled from a professional site:

On the day of the party, at about 1 a.m. I put together my traditional corned beef and cabbage in two crockpots. Each pot had 1 1/2 flat cut briskets. These went together easy enough which is a big reason why I like that recipe. 🙂

At 8 a.m. I started my Beer and Irish Whiskey braised corned beef. This is a little more involved but I managed to cook 2 1/2 briskets in the roasting pan. – (More…)

When I was a child we used to have a Spaghetti dinner about once a week. My mother used to make up a basic sauce and add some ground beef or sausage, boil up some spaghetti and we were all set.

Of course, it was almost impossible to make too little of this dish. There were always leftovers but who wanted to eat Spaghetti two nights in a row, especially when the second batch was from the night before? Granted, the sauce usually tastes better the next day but 24/48 hours was just not a long enough turn around time.

My mother had a way around this that we could eat this dish in a completely different way so that is seemed like a whole other meal.

Now this “recipe” requires a large skillet and you could use non-stick skillet but ideally you would want to use either a stainless steel or cast iron skillet. The reason for this is that you will be scraping the bottom of the pan with a spatula frequently while cooking. The spatula head needs to be thin and most of your plastic versions are not. A metal spatula is recommended.

The idea of fried spaghetti is not to deep fry or even use much oil. The word fry simply refers to cooking it in a frying pan. 🙂

You will need some leftover spaghetti and sauce mixed together from a previous – (More…)

Now that we have our main courses all set to go for St. Patty’s day, we needed a dessert. After searching through many recipes I didn’t find anything as far as authentic Irish desserts that I wanted for our party. I needed something familiar to the crowd but with an Irish twist. So I started looking up cheesecakes.

Now I have never been a big cheesecake eater or cooker so I had to make up some test batches with quite a few recipes and really I wasn’t satisfied with any of them. Finally I took a bit from this recipe and that recipe and just added my own ideas into it and came out with some of the best cheesecake I ever had.

I always noticed that cheesecake many times can be dry, or heavy or both. This recipe makes a light, smooth textured cake that any cheese lover will devour.

Crust:

1 cup of graham cracker crumbs (just crush some graham crackers finely).
3 tablespoons of unsalted butter, melted.
3 tablespoons of sugar.

Cake:

32 ounces of warm (softened) cream cheese (4 8 ounce packages).
1 cup of sugar.
3 tablespoons flour.
2 teaspoons vanilla extract.
1/4 cup Baileys Irish Cream Liqueur.
4 eggs.
3/4 cup sour cream.
4 tablespoons strawberry preserves.

Topping:

1/4 cup of semi sweet chocolate chips.
1/8 cup Baileys Irish Cream Liqueur.
2 tablespoons sugar

Preheat oven to 325.

Stir together the crust ingredients and press down on a greased spring-form pan. Make sure the crust is even – (More…)