Cooking With Legs Forum - Recent Topics

Feeding a family of 4 off, as economically as possible without sacrificing flavor.

Tony Vernace — Thu, 25 Feb 2021 00:32:54 +0000

We do this from time to time, especially around gift giving occasions. It helps us streamline our food expense and put more money towards towards gifts.

we used a large pork roast this time, which is what we will use most often. What can I say, Tony Bourdain was right: “the pig is a magical animal.” We wil do similar at times thought using a chicken, ham or other proteins; but, I love using the pork roast.

on day 1, I put the slab of porky goodness in the crockpot pot and cooked it down for 8 hours, then shredded it.
on day 2, I removed about a 1/4 of the left over and pan seared it in the cast iron to layer it over nachos.
mom day 3 I will be adding in beans and chili seasonings to the final product to make a large batch of chili.

this 13 dollar pork roast will feed a family of 4, through 3 large dinners.
- bear in mind one of us eats as much as 2 football players.

how do you dine on a dime at home?

Mongolian chicken

Tony Vernace — Sun, 21 Feb 2021 01:16:45 +0000

Mongolian chicken

Sauce:

Yellow or red bell pepper

Jalapeño

Tai chili pepper

I bushel of green onion

Soy sauce(2-3 tblspoon)

Hoisen (2-3 tblspoon)

Sesame seed oil (1tspoon)

Rice vinegar (1tspoon)

4 toes Garlic

About a tablespoon worth of fresh grated ginger

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup chicken stock

mix together liquid except the chicken stock with brown sugar and stir until sugar dissolves

Make a cornstarch slurry

Make big dices of the pepper and sauté

Add the ginger and garlic

Then add the liquid and stock - cook down for a few minutes until it starts to thicken

Then add cornstarch slurry

Chicken

Cut chicken across the bias into 1 inch slices and season with salt, pepper and garlic powders. Marinate for at least a half an hour in soy sauce and corn starch

Stir fry the chicken until done in canola or vegetable oil, remove from pan, drain the oil and then add in the sauce on top. Scrape the bottom to remove the flavor bits and serve over rice or udon nobles.

#mongolianchicken

#stirfryeasy

#differentchicken

https://youtu.be/xedgKKp5FZU

Quick video on some of the cookware I use

Tony Vernace — Sat, 20 Feb 2021 01:15:47 +0000

This video shows some of the cookware I use. The video answers most questions I get asked by new chefs and a lot of less experienced home chefs looking for kitchen hardware.
if you have any questions don’t hesitate to ask. If I don’t have the answer, I’ll do my best to find an answer for you.

https://youtu.be/LtZ0ihKgGt8

What is your favorite style of cuisine to prepare?

Tony Vernace — Sat, 13 Feb 2021 22:47:46 +0000

My favorite is Cajun. Albeit I’m partial to it, from from living in New Orleans for most of my life. After living in the southwest and northeast, I can safely say there is not other cuisine like it in America. Cajun food really is the first truly fusion cuisine. It blends together, French, African and Caribbean cuisines, all to make a true representation of the melting pot that is south Louisiana. Those attributes also make it a great cuisine to use as a teaching instrument for newer cooks. You have to understand many techniques and flavor profiles used in other cuisines.

Aside from Cajun I also enjoy playing with Mexican and Mediterranean food. I’ve done quite a bit with Mexican; but, I’m still in the process of learning Mediterranean and Greak. I love the clean and crisp flavors in Mediterranean cuisine as well as the health benefits it offers over the rich and robust flavors in Cajun food.

what about you? What do you enjoy?

Cookbook

Tony Vernace — Wed, 10 Feb 2021 00:32:27 +0000

Back in 2010 I was in a serious accident and while in the hospital my sister and I wrote a cookbook.

attached you will find a copy of it. There are several recipes and I hope you enjoy cooking and sharing them.

CookingWithLegs.docx

Miyabi cutlery

Tony Vernace — Tue, 09 Feb 2021 16:58:57 +0000

I used to use henkels and wustohf cutlery. As a matter of fact my henkels knife has been a workhorse for over 20 years.

last year I finally decided to get a knew chef knife and went with miyabi. The blades are sharpened to 9 degrees versus the 14 degrees of the henkels. It’s also a much harder steel. The henkels is a 58 on the Rockwell scale; while, miyabi is 63. The harder steel makes the edge last longer between sharpening sessions. The downside of that is that harder steel can make a blade more prone to chipping.
I am happy to say that after a year and half of regular use, the blade has had zero chips. Miyabi are handmade from sg2 carbon steel wrapped in a hammered Damascus finish, in semi Japan. They say to take 6 months to make a single knife. How true that is, I question, considering they are owned by henkels. In any case, I couldn’t be happier with this knife. It came out of the box razor sharp, and ive been careful to make sure it stays that way.