Keltin's Random Cooking

Keltin · Feb 6, 2011

Well, it’s coming along. DW remarked the other night that when we met nearly 11 years ago, I didn’t even have a microwave in my bachelor pad (I DID have a toaster oven though). :yum:

Now, gadgets galore! I’m also expecting a new meat slicer to arrive later this week. I ordered it a few days ago from Amazon, and it has shipped.

So, it seems I no longer have to buy bread, butter, or ground meat since I can make them myself. Pasta is also possible with the new grinder if I can ever get over my animosity and war–like tendencies towards working with flour! :lol:

Oh, the grinder also has a sauasage attachment, so I'll be experimenting with making sausages and maybe even hotdogs in the future....I wonder wher you get the cases for sausage and hotdogs? More investigation is needed.

Once the slicer is here, I’ll begin slicing my own deli style lunch meat. I’m thinking a roast beef will be the first test. Should make some good sandwiches with the fresh bread.

I LOVE kitchen gadgets! :yum:

mhend · Feb 6, 2011

I may have to purchase one of those grinders. I've thought about it before, but didn't know how difficult it would be to clean. When I worked in the kitchen at a nursing home, one of my jobs was to clean the industrial sized grinder after they ground the meat for the week. It was a big as a large sized bathtub. Cleaning that thing every week sort of turned me off of grinding things myself. But that meat that you have there looks so much better than what's in the supermarket, so I'm thinking I may just have to reconsider.

Keltin · Feb 6, 2011

mhend said:
I may have to purchase one of those grinders. I've thought about it before, but didn't know how difficult it would be to clean. When I worked in the kitchen at a nursing home, one of my jobs was to clean the industrial sized grinder after they ground the meat for the week. It was a big as a large sized bathtub. Cleaning that thing every week sort of turned me off of grinding things myself. But that meat that you have there looks so much better than what's in the supermarket, so I'm thinking I may just have to reconsider.

It's here, but the price just went up by 2 bucks (I only paid 29.99)! They must have seen my posts here and decided to charge more! :yum:

<[ame="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0002I5QHW/ref=oss_product"]Click me to see[/ame]>

It is really easy to clean. The top grinder bit slides off the base. Then, everything in the grinder bit unscrews and comes apart for easy cleaning. I'm rather impressed with it.

mhend · Feb 6, 2011

Keltin said:
It's here, but the price just went up by 2 bucks (I only paid 29.99)! They must have seen my posts here and decided to charge more!

<Click me to see>

It is really easy to clean. The top grinder bit slides off the base. Then, everything in the grinder bit unscrews and comes apart for easy cleaning. I'm rather impressed with it.

Cool. Thanks!

Keltin · Feb 7, 2011

Ok, last night I used the freshly ground beef & pork mixture to make Swedish Meatballs. I used Alton Brown’s recipe.

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/swedish-meatballs-recipe/index.html

I also added some fresh chives to the sauce at the end since I had some extra that needed to be used, and I really like chives in just about everything! :biggrin:

mhend · Feb 7, 2011

My God those look delicious!! They are perfectly round too!

Keltin · Feb 7, 2011

The new slicer came in today. Wow! This thing is hardcore! It’s all coated aluminum, and only the “food pusher” is plastic. The blade is wicked sharp and scared me when I washed it for the first slicing. :lol:

It’s truly a machine that could be used daily in a deli. I’m impressed.

So on to the first slicing. Tonight I’ll be doing a precooked ham and a top round roast beef. The roast beef is cooking, but the ham is one of those pre-cooked jobs, so lets get to it.

The machine performed perfectly. Easy to use and made uniform slices effortlessly. Ended up with a pack of deli ham for sammies that I stored in the meat section of the fridge, and froze two packs for later.

The roast beef will come soon.

To be continued.

lilbopeep · Feb 7, 2011

CAT IN THE BOX!!

lilbopeep · Feb 7, 2011

Beautiful meatballs! Was the ground pork loin? Your Pork loin is the ingredient showcase this week.

I have a slicing machine packed away somewhere. I used it like crazy years ago, then we had the girls and I was scared to leave it out. I packed it away and have lost track of it. LOL I slice pretty thin by hand with my nice sharp knife.

Keltin · Feb 7, 2011

lilbopeep said:
Beautiful meatballs! Was the ground pork loin? Your Pork loin is the ingredient showcase this week.

I have a slicing machine packed away somewhere. I used it like crazy years ago, then we had the girls and I was scared to leave it out. I packed it away and have lost track of it. LOL I slice pretty thin by hand with my nice sharp knife.

It was a pork butt. Check the pics and description above. Loin, in my opinion, is too lean for ground, but a butt or shoulder has more than enough fat to carry it. Also, loin is more expensive and better suited to more elegant cooking methodologies.

I can slice wafer thin with my sharp knives as well........just not uniformly perfect for 100 slices in a row like this beast can, nor with the speed it can, nor without the tiring aggravation this beast defeats! :yum:

MexicoKaren · Feb 7, 2011

Keltin! You have been busy - and having lots of fun, too! Your meatballs are just beautiful - nice sauce, and the meal looks delicious. I would love to have one of those slicers. Did you order that from Amazon as well? Looks like it does a perfect job. Would really be worth it if you eat alot of sandwiches. We eat cold cuts in the summer, so should be a pretty good investment for us.

Keltin · Feb 7, 2011

Obtained a hunk of Hoop Cheese from a local purveyor, and sliced it. Worked great, although the blade tends to snag the cheese at the end of the pass and wants to push it off the tray. To get around this, I used pulse mode so that I pulsed for the slicing pass, then ceased the blade for the return. Worked well.

I don’t have much call to slice cheese like this, and usually will just grate it or slice the needed slice by hand with knife, but it was nice to see how the machine handles it, and it did well. Not as smoothly as slicing meat since it did tug and snag (face of the cheese rubbing on the face/surface of the blade) at the end of a slice, but all in all, not a show stopper, and still worthy.

I also sliced the last bit of homemade bread I had into uniform 1/2 slices, and it did very well on that. But again, I prefer to slice my bread by hand as needed and leave the loaf whole till time for use.

We’ll be slicing some potatoes later for “fried potatoes” and I may even go thin on a few of the slices for potato chips. How fun! :lol:

So far, while this machine can slice a plethora of objects, I see it primarily as the tool for which I bought it, a Deli Meat making machine. Not to say it can’t do more, which it has already proved it can, but I’ve really only desire to have a deli meat maker. :biggrin:

Point being, I won’t be dragging this out for slicing tomatoes, potatoes, squash, or cheese on a nightly basis. Nope. But, I will be dragging it out at least 3-4 times per month to make Deli meat for sandwiches. And while it is out, I’ll probably go ahead and indulge in sliced cheese, making potato chips, fried green tomatoes, or fried squash that night as well.

Keltin · Feb 7, 2011

MexicoKaren said:
Keltin! You have been busy - and having lots of fun, too! Your meatballs are just beautiful - nice sauce, and the meal looks delicious. I would love to have one of those slicers. Did you order that from Amazon as well? Looks like it does a perfect job. Would really be worth it if you eat alot of sandwiches. We eat cold cuts in the summer, so should be a pretty good investment for us.

Thanks Karen! Yeah, I’ve been indulging in the toys of late. Having a blast, and stocking the freezer at the same time.

I did get this slicer from Amazon.

<[ame="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0002AKCOC/ref=oss_product"]click me to see it[/ame]>

It was 89.99 with free shipping. Not the cheapest slicer in its class (less than 100), but it had the best reviews, and now that I have it, it is VERY well built. The whole thing is powder coated metal. Very rugged and durable. The only plastic on it is the food pusher. I’m very impressed. I’d say you’d probably be hard pressed to find a better unit for under 100.

And yep, we eat a LOT of sammies around here. Especially me! It's what I take most often for lunch, or have in the afternoons on weekends. This slicer is going to totally change my lunches! :lol:

Keltin · Feb 7, 2011

The roast beef is done. Roasted it simply with salt and pepper at 400 degrees till an internal temp of 140-145. Brought it out, covered, and stuck it in the fridge till completely cooled. Once cool, I ran it through the slicer.

Got to admit, this beats store bought roast beef by a long shot! If you’ve ever had deli style roast beef and thought it a bit “wang” (like I have), try making your own, it is so much better. I’ll never trust the store to do roast beef for me again! :biggrin:

MexicoKaren · Feb 7, 2011

Oh that looks SO good. Now I know I gotta have one.

buckytom · Feb 8, 2011

me too!!!

the roast beast looks great.

hey k, how about taking the meat, putting it on toasted garlic bread, add some thinly sliced raw onion, top with the cheese and pop it under the broiler to melt. one of my favourite sammies called a balboa.

or, put the beef and onions on a hot griddle with some ghee, fry for a minute, add some gravy and top with cheese, cover with a ss bowl to let it steam in the gravy and melt the cheese, then slide it all onto a toasted italian hero. another fave called a giacomo.

man, you got me hungry...

Sass Muffin · Feb 8, 2011

I'll take a slice of that thar cheese and some of the beef please, on some of the buttered bread.
Thanks! lol

-- the svedish meatballs are gawjus dahlink..

Keltin · Feb 8, 2011

Thanks for the inspiration BT! Never heard of a Balboa (is that a ref to Rocky???).

But I caught this post in time to meet our oddly late schedule! :lol:

We were planning on Swiss and mushroom sammies, but your description made me change course for my own. DW is not a fan of onions, so she got the regular Swiss and mushroom treatment for her roast beef.

I went with the Hoop cheese, onions, and just a few mushrooms.

Both were done on toasted garlic bread. The bread is a fresh loaf (Basic White) I made tonight in the new bread machine.

Also, I heated the roast beef up in a cup of hot beef stock that had garlic and onion added to it. This heated the meat without over cooking it before it went on the bread (and under the broiler) and also added a little more flavor and "juiciness".

Got to say, those onions MADE the sandwich. LOVED it! I’ll be making this again! Thank you BT!!

buckytom · Feb 8, 2011

OMG that looks good!! both of them!

glad you liked it, k. yes, i think the term balboa is a reference to rocky who's from phildelphia, and really, the balboa is a version of a philly cheesesteak.

because of the way you heated the meat in flavoured stock (great idea, btw), you had a hybrid balboa/giacomo.

a balcomo.

a giaboa?

lol.

lilbopeep · Feb 8, 2011

I've never heard of hoop cheese :blush:

belaine · Feb 8, 2011

just ordered slicer - could not resist after seeing your roast beef all sliced.

Guts · Feb 8, 2011

belaine said:
just ordered slicer - could not resist after seeing your roast beef all sliced.

I don't use my slicer that much but when I do, I'm really glad I have. :biggrin:

mhend · Feb 8, 2011

I ordered one this morning too. LOL!

It's gonna save so much money in the long run!

Guts · Feb 8, 2011

mhend said:
I ordered one this morning too. LOL!

It's gonna save so much money in the long run!

my brother and I go to restaurant depot by roast beef, turkey, ham,and pastrami slice it up then divided up with the scale and split the bill in half. A great way to save money on lunch meats

Keltin · Feb 8, 2011

belaine said:
just ordered slicer - could not resist after seeing your roast beef all sliced.

mhend said:
I ordered one this morning too. LOL!

It's gonna save so much money in the long run!

Awesome!!

You'll love it! I had a roast beef sammie today for lunch, and it was wonderful. I'm very pleased.

Uh.....I think Amazon owes me a kickback or something!! :yum:

SilverSage · Feb 8, 2011

I've always wanted one of those. A slicer and a crockpot are about the only 2 kitchen gadgets I don't have. (Oh - and a sous vide thing!)

Now I REALLY need to get one!

Keltin · Feb 8, 2011

SilverSage said:
I've always wanted one of those. A slicer and a crockpot are about the only 2 kitchen gadgets I don't have. (Oh - and a sous vide thing!)

Now I REALLY need to get one!

With that gorgeous and full copper set you have, I don't know how you'd have time to use other gadgets. That copper is amazing!!!! :w00t:

SilverSage · Feb 8, 2011

Keltin said:
With that gorgeous and full copper set you have, I don't know how you'd have time to use other gadgets. That copper is amazing!!!!

Yeah, but it doesn't slice meat!!!!!

Sass Muffin · Feb 8, 2011

Keltin said:
You'll love it! I had a roast beef sammie today for lunch, and it was wonderful. I'm very pleased.

You can't say sammie around here now.
It's a sandwich! :yum:

Or a sannie or a butty or a something slapped between 2 pieces of bread, yo!?

Keltin · Feb 8, 2011

SilverSage said:
Yeah, but it doesn't slice meat!!!!!

So pretty though!

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