Toyomafia Cookbook

Kentucky Mule - Alcoholic's version.

1 English pint glass - ie. 20 fl oz as a sissy 16 fl oz glass is too small for a man's drink.

2 fingers of nothing special Bourbon/malt whisky, Screwball is the only one I try to avoid as the peanut overpowers everything else. As a working man with sausage fingers that translates to 2" in the bottom of the glass, hence my role as family barman being curtailed by the missus and sister-in-law.

1 finger of liqueur - Pecan (Rivulet) or Cointreau are favored, there is an interesting ginger and cinnamon liqueur (Tolerance) that works quite well too.

3 cubes of ice - can be omitted if everything has come out of the fridge.

1 can of Reed's Extra ginger beer.

Orange juice

I know some people like to pour their alcohol over the ice but I'm not particularly anal enough to use measuring glasses so I judge alcohol amount first and then chuck in the ice. Add can of ginger beer, top off with orange juice. The more refined among you can use a swizzle stick, spoon, finger or whatever to stir it up but I usually quick pour to save with all that faffing.
Drink and repeat until you run out of mixers then resort to emptying the bourbon, God forbid all that lovely alcohol evaporates once the seal is broken.

 

This thread got a little dormant, so I thought I'd wake it up.
https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/283658/baked-chicken-thighs-in-hatch-chile-cream-sauce/

 

Asked Mom what she wanted for Mom's Day, she said 'cook for me'.
Parents are getting up in their 80s so there is not much 'cooking' going on over there.
So Thursday I'm going to cook a couple of dishes and take them over Friday.

She used to make Cabbage Rolls when we were kids, so I'm going to give that a shot.
Best Stuffed Cabbage Recipe - How to Make Stuffed Cabbage (thepioneerwoman.com)

I need to figure out a second dish as well..

 

My mom was first generation American of Polish decent. We had them a lot. I gotta give them a try.

 

Venison Stew:

I got a doe in December. Some drinking/fishing buds and I like to hit an airbnb by a lake every quarter or so, which we did this past weekend; and I decided to cube up a roast and make a stew. It turned out great. One of the guys swore he hated venison, but he got seconds. It's stew, so there's no magic listed below, but it sure hit the spot.

2.5 lbs venison, cleaned and cubed to about 1/2"
~2Tbsp flour
S&P
milk
I dry brined the cubed venison with just salt overnight. I split it into two ziplocks and soaked it in milk for about 3 hours. I dried the cubes and dusted them with flour and S&P, and browned them in a hot carbon steel pan with a little bacon grease and butter. Not fully cooked, just browned.

1 large sweet onion
1.5 cups of diced carrots
1.5 cups of diced celery
3 Tbsp minced garlic
I sweated all of these in bacon grease

~1lb of diced potatoes
1 cup of wine (don't cook with wine you wouldn't drink)
2 cups of beef broth
couple of dashes of washyoursister sauce
cajun rub to taste (I'll post my recipe next)
salt to taste

Everything in a crock pot on high for 4 - 5 hours.
pour it over some cornbread (I'll post my recipe to that next, too).

 

Cornbread

1 box of your favorite cornbread off the shelf
double the eggs in the recipe
double the oil in the recipe; but don't use oil, use melted butter
replace the milk in the recipe with heavy cream, and add a smidge more than the recipe calls for
add 4 or 5 tablespoons of sour cream
add one well drained can of mexicorn (or add diced pickled red and green peppers and a can of sweet corn)
add 1/2 cup of diced pickled jalapenos
add 1/2 to 1 cup of grated sharp cheddar

This doubles or more the volume and weight, so depending on your pans, cooking time will vary.
When it's mostly done, you can turn the oven off to allow it to remain cooking that last bit. As you're doing that, take a stick of room temp butter and gingerly coat the top of the cornbread. You could use melted butter and a mop, but that's more clumsy/sloppy for me. Just be careful not to tear the top of the cornbread too much. Let it finish cooking in the warm oven.

 

Cajun Seasoning:

5 parts paprika
4 parts garlic powder (not garlic salt)
2 parts salt
2 parts celery seed
2 parts ground dried thyme
2 parts cayenne pepper
2 parts ground black pepper
2 parts onion powder (not onion salt)
2 parts ground basil
2 parts ground dried oregano

 

Rum Cake (GF if you like)

Cake:

• 1 package yellow cake mix - GF works fine
• 4 large eggs
• ½ cup dark rum
• ½ cup water
• ½ cup melted butter
• 1 small package instant vanilla pudding mix
• 1 cup chopped pecans

Preheat the oven to 325°F. Coat a 10-inch Bundt or tube pan with butter (or Pam if you're a heathen); sprinkle pecans (or sliced almonds, or walnuts) over the bottom of the pan.
In a separate bowl, mix the wet ingredients together (temper in the butter as the last wet ingredient), then mix in the cake mix and pudding mix. Pour it over the pecans. Bake until a toothpick comes out clean, about 1 hour.

Syrup:

• 1/3 cup butter
• 1/3 cup white sugar
• 1/4 cup water
• 1/3 cup rum

Melt the butter in a saucepan, careful not to brown it. Stir in sugar and water and bring it to a boil. Stir constantly. Once boiling, cook 5 minutes longer. Remove it from heat and wait until it stops boiling, then stir in the rum.

While the cake is still warm, and before you pull it out of the pan, poke some holes in it with a skewer (something bigger than a toothpick), and slowly pour the syrup over the cake. Pour a little, let it soak; pour a little, let it soak; etc. Let it sit and soak as it cools (don't refrigerate it yet). If you like, keep some of the syrup back, mix in powdered sugar (about 1.5 parts sugar to 1 part syrup) and use that as a glaze after you turn the cake over.

Once it's cool, turn it over onto a plate (probably good to use wax paper to assist). There's a good chance it'll be a mess, so use caution. Glaze if you made some.

 

One of my all time favorite meals to cook for camping trips is Korean beef tacos. This meal works great at home as well and is especially useful for big gatherings because you can easily adjust the amount of protein and feed everyone easily. Best served with sake and Japanese lagers for bevs. Add a simple cucumber salad as a side dish. But tacos also don't need side dishes either, so they work great on their own if you want to keep it simple. The recipe below roughly feeds 6ppl 4/5 tacos each.

Korean Beef Tacos
3 lbs beef tri tip
White corn tortillas
Green relish
1 Bag of Taylor farms sweet kale salad mix. (I'm only using the salad from the mix for this meal. I save the dressing, nuts and berries for something else I eat that week. Buy whatever salad mix your local grocer carries, but I like a mix of cabbage, bitter greens, broccoli, brussel sprouts and carrots in it.)

Green Relish
3 bunches of green onions
1 bunch of cilantro
1 oz EVOO
.25 oz Sesame oil
2 oz seasoned Rice wine vinegar
1 Tablespoon gojujang
1 tablespoon Honey
1 lightly chopped seeded serano pepper
1 oz Sambal
1 oz coconut aminos

Place all ingredients into a high powered blender or food processor and blend until finely purified.
Store in canning jar in the fridge.
Shelf life is about 3 or so days. This relish is so good on eggs and so many other things. It never goes to waste in my household.

Tri-tip Prep
VERY LIGHTLY rub the tri-tip in sesame oil. Then rub with my Korean dry rub mix. I add 1 heaping tablespoon of rub per 1lb of protein. Let the rub sit overnight after it has been applied.

Korean Dry Rub
1/4cup Gochukaru
1/4 cup smoked paprika
1/8 cup salt (I prefer pink Himalayan)
1/8 cup cumin
1/8 cup packed brown sugar
1/8 Garlic powder
1 tablespoons ground black pepper
1 tablespoons cayenne
1 tablespoons Mustard powder
1/2 tablespoon ground ginger

You can use this rub on chicken, pork and beef. It's really good on ribs and chicken in the smoker as well. Reduce amounts accordingly if you don't eat a lot of Asian flavored meals. I store it in a glass canning jar and use it often on pan fried veggies as well. Makes a little over a cup total volume.

Meal Night
Take the beef out of the fridge and let it sit on the counter for at least 20 minutes before cooking. Cook the tri-tip on a hot grill by searing each side for 3 or so minutes each, then lowering the temp of the grill and moving to a higher rack if necessary to finish it. Pull the meat from the grill when the thickest part of it reaches an internal temp of 130-135 depending on your preference of med rare.

Let rest while warming corn tortillas on a lightly oiled flattop griddle. (I use an evoo spray can)

After the meat has rested a minimum of 6 minutes cut thin slices against the grain and then into smaller cubed bites

Build each taco with desired amount of beef, salad mix and green relish.

 

I know what I’m making soon

 

Honestly my favorite part is the rub and the relish. You'll find so many other things to cook with those 2 mixes.

Since I'm also just now stumbling into this thread I was happy to learn that I'm not the only person here who doesn't own a microwave.

 

Jicama Slaw

1 large Jimaca
3 carrots
1 Small head of red cabbage
1 yellow pepper
1 medium Red onion
1 oz evoo
3 oz seasoned rice wine vinegar
1/2 tbsp brown sugar -loose filled, not packed
1/2 tspn green chili flakes
1/2 tspn gochukaru
1/2 tspn garlic powder
1/8 tspn pink salt
Fresh ground black pepper to taste

Thinly slice the red pepper in strips, 1/2 of the red onion and about 1/2 of the cabbage. Run the carrots through a cheese shredder or just buy the carrots already shredded. Use a mandolin for the Jimaca after you thinly slice the peel off of it. Throw all the veggies together in a mixing bowl then make the marinade in a seperate glass and stir it together with a fork. Pour the marinade over the slaw and toss it up 20-30 minutes before being served. This is my favorite smoked anything side dish, and absolutely love it on top of a pulled pork sandwich.

This company out of boulder changed me. I haven't used basic red pepper flakes ever since I was gifted a jar of this over 5 years ago. https://www.flatironpepper.com/prod...TFxG83ia10xc5X5FEKrwmF-14pfmHOtcaAsgnEALw_wcB

 

The Birdseye
3/4 oz Buffalo Trace Bourbon
3/4 oz Sazerac Rye
3/4 oz Los Vecinos Mezcal
3/4 oz strawberry simple syrup
2 dashes fee brothers cardamom bitters
Orange twist

For the simple syrup it's a 1:1 ratio of granulated sugar and water. Heat 1 cup of sugar and 1 cup of water over stovetop with about 8 whole strawberries. Stirring while heating, turn heat off once the sugar has completely dissolved and before it begins to boil. Cover with a lid and let it cool to room temp. Once cooled, muddle the strawberries into the pot, then strain the syrup through a fine mesh strainer. Set to the side. Store simple in the fridge for up to 4/5 days. Once it smells the slightest hint of vinegar it's turned.


In a cocktail tin full of ice add all the ingredients and stir. Don't shake it. Using a vegetable peeler make a big orange peel and rub the inside edge of the orange peel along the entire rim of the glass as shown below. Then twist it into shape and lay it across the top of 1 large ice cube that is placed in the glass. Strain the cocktail from the tin in and enjoy. Sip slowly they can go away quickly sometimes. Especially around a camp fire.

 

Since I see you have a potato peeler there, something I used to use until I asked my local bartender what contraption she was using for my Old Fashioned's, I wanted to share what I've moved on to, and works wonderfully for citrus peels.

$12 Boska Stainless Steel Cheese Slicer - Copenhagen For All Types of Cheese - Multi-Functional Cheese Slicer - Handheld Slicer - Silver Non-Stick - Dishwasher Safe - For Kitchen Cooking

https://www.amazon.com/Boska-Holland-357600-Copenhagen-Stainless/dp/B074PY3X5V?th=1

Works wonders!

 

A vegetable peeler is a vegetable peeler. I have used something like the one you linked but it is no where near as comfortable ergonomically, nor it is as efficient. The one in the photo is actually my preferred. It's the most comfortable overall and has a wider opening for making bigger peels. The ones with a swivel that you hold where it peels from the side are the worst imho.

Ask me how I know.

 

For me, it's about depth (giggity)

I find when I use a knife or veg peeler, I get too much pith lending to a bitter taste in my cocktails.

As always, YMMV

 

Citrus zest shouldn't be bitter. A citrus peel is used for the essence and oils. Could be the amount of bitters you're using. Or the brand. Or your technique leading to too much pith? Maybe once you make like 10 million of these things you just know how to use a peeler efficiently.


Ya, definitely never use a knife for a citrus peel.

 

Agreed on the zest shouldn't be bitter. But have you ever made Lemoncello? You avoid the pith at all costs, as it causes bitterness. And agreed on the oils and whatnot. I twist to express, and even light them during expression. Not all of my cocktails are bitter, I've worked on that over the years. Found that pith directly correlated however for me. On the bitters front, I understand what you're saying. I've tried all sorts and brands as well working on that perfect OF. It's definitely not coming from that, though different number of dashes or brands absolutely affects the end product.

Either way, twas just a suggestion not so much for you, but for all in general. Like almost any tool, once you master it, your end results tend to be better. For me, I've found I much prefer that Boska to any other peeler I've used thus far.

 

House made lemoncello, perfect old fashioneds, lot's of brown liquor cocktail recipes and homemade Italian food, we got you. https://sauceontheblue.com/drink/cocktail-list/
If you're ever around stop by. We can talk all things bourbon and cocktails.

 

You had me at Bourbon, some 65 bottles in the collection. Unfortunately I'm a wee bit far from Colorado

 

Let's just say I love every aspect of my job. Except inventory.

 

You a rye guy, or a bourbon guy? And who's your current favorite distillery?

For me, currently it's Michter's and likely die to their low BEP and heat cycles rickhouses.

 

I go back and forth on mash bills and profiles. Can't disagree with your Michters choice either. For an everyday rye bottle you'd be hard pressed to find better value over their single barrel rye in anything else. This winter I finally got my hands on a high west midwinters dram. I went dry in the end of November though so it's just sitting in a cabinet. Traditionally I've always been a fan of old forester stuff. When I drink I like high proof.

 

Our kids are on spring break that week. We are heading to the Utah desert to get the raft wet then I'm working the weekend of the event. I'm actually pretty bummed about not being able to make it.

 

Michter's 10 year rye might be my favorite, but goes toe to toe with WLW, though a bottle of that is damn near impossible without going secondary. MWD, I've got a scene 6, act 6. Hated it at first and almost anything 'wine' barrel finished. The last few pours however have been a bit better since it's been open. And funny you mention BP and OF, my local place emailed me about one of their store pick single barrel, barrel proof . While I used to be a proof hound, these days my sweet spot is double digit age and sub 115 proof. So I asked a buddy if he wanted the OF since the email list was a bit exclusive (and subsequently sold out.

If I make it to CO, I'll drop you a line and buy the first round.

 

Next time in there I'm in!

 

Went over to the coast yesterday and got a limit of razor clams.
Did this tonight It’s really good! I added some corn as a side dish that went well.

 

Emeril's New New Orleans pasta. We used to make it a lot for camping, the prep is a bit of a pain, but's it's easy enough to prep ahead and pack into containers. Then all you have to do is cook.

 

Via @Blue Thunder