Joined: 22 Mar 2008 Posts: 117 Location: Kansas City, MO
Posted: Fri Apr 25, 2008 9:30 am Post subject: PAW cooking tips: the pan fry
Hi everyone! Today, we will begin what will hopefully be a series of cooking tips that can help you and yours stay fed in the paw with some tasty meals. Today's subject is:
PAW-Friendly cooking methods!
While it may seem overly basic, the mastery of certain cooking methods can help you tons when resources are low. We are looking for certain criteria to be met by these methods. They must be:
1) easy
2) fast
3) efficient with fuel
4) efficient with cooking medium
For my money, the best cooking method that conforms to our needs is the pan fry. Why? Because it's easy to learn, cooks quickly, and requires very little in the way of fuel or fat. In fact, this method was often used by slaves in the american south because they were very tight on these precious resources.
Pan frying is very simple. You put a dense pan (good materials include cast iron and heavy stainless steel) over medium-high heat with just a bit of oil in the bottom. Butter gives a ton of flavor and browning, but it has a very low smoke point, so you may want to augment it with a high smoke point oil like canola or peanut. You could also use clarified butter AKA ghee, but it's way easier to just mix butter and oil. Wait until the oil ripples, and then add the food and toss it around so that it gets nice and browned on all sides. A good tool for this is tongs, a spatula, or chopsticks. Want to try it out? Let's get into some recipies, then!
Potato Pancakes/Ghetto Latkas
3 russet (or other mealy variety) potatoes
Half an onion and a bell pepper if you want a boarding house thing going on
Salt
Spices you like (pepper, onion/garlic powder, red pepper flake, whatever)
Oil to coat pan
Cut the eyes out of the potatoes if you need them to replant your crop. Shred potatoes in a box grater (and the onion and peppers too if you like) to get wee strips. Mix these with 2 or 3 big pinches of salt and the spices and then heat the pan. It's important that the mixture has at least a couple minutes for the moisture to leech out so you get a good crunchy crust. When the oil is up to temperature, take a medium handful (depending on how big your hands are and how big you like potato pancakes) and put it on the pan/griddle in a mound. Then smoosh the pile down with a spatula or your hand into a pancake shape. Let it fry until it's nice and crispy and then flip over until the other side is golden brown and delicious too. If you can, flip your pancakes over onto a fresh piece of pan so that there's a good dose of heat waiting for it. Serve and eat. Depending on how big your potatoes are, you should get a a hearty breakfast for two or three.
Pan frying can also lend its browning capabilities to out of hand snacks for a nice lunch. Take for example:
Pan-Fried Dumplings
2 sweet potatoes
Whole wheat flour, maybe 1 cup (white flower works too, but you lose nutrition and flavor)
Salt
Spices (I find that subtle heat pairs well with the sweetness. Chipotle sauce and red pepper flake are super-yummy in this dish)
Roast the potatoes in a 350*F 180*C oven for an hour, or by a fire over indirect heat until tender and carmelized on the outside, or steam them. Mash them up in a bowl (keep the skins, peeling is for royalty) with all the other ingredients but the flour. Then add flour until you get a paste about the thickness of mortar. Heat the pan. When it's ready, use a spoon to lay down dumplings that are about the size of a quarter. They don't have to be perfect spheres at all, you're not giotto for goodness sake. Flip when they're browned and smoosh down if they're more than a pancake tall. Remove when the other side is browned and drain on a paper plate if you really care about retaining a good crunchyness (I usually only care if I'm cooking this for company). These are great for eating out of hand or with chopsticks. Forks will ruin your crust, but do it if you must. They should be crunchy on the outside and light and fluffy (like the inside of a french fry) on the inside, and all the raw cereal taste should be cooked out. A lot of beginners make their dumplings too big, so the middles are raw.
A pan fry can also do tons for adding flavor to a stew by using it to brown the meat, but stews are another editon.
Hope this was informative, feel free to pose questions or comment.
For efficiency, take a look at the Chinese "skillet" - the wok. With the proper preps, you could cook a meal for 4 over a couple sheets of newspaper. After all, that's what it was originally designed for - a crowded country with few resources available to the masses. You don't have to actually cook Chinese food, just learn to use the wok. Of course, Chinese-style cooking can stretch your food resources quite a ways, and is economical....
Stay safe,
Chuck Brick. _________________ Gun Control is not about guns; it’s about control.
Free Men should not have to ask permission to bear arms.
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