Dish Gracepoint Berkeley

more turkey tips

2011-11-17T13:35:00.000-08:00

I go with my standard turkey formula:

0.6tsp salt (I use morton kosher)
0.6tsp sugar
0.2tsp black pepper
0.2tsp dried herb
1 tablespoon milk
per pound of turkey. I dissolve the sugar and salt in milk and inject into various areas of the turkey. I then pat it down with the herb and pepper and let it sit for a day. I'm not particular about roasting temperature. I go as low as time affords. Measure the temp at various locations until 165.

One trick I learned last year was to roast the turkey until it hits 165. I then take it out, pour the juice into a pot, and cover turkey with foil. I gently bring the juices to a boil and then remove the foil cover to the turkey. I inject boiling juice into the thighs alongside the bone. With my thermometer I saw it around 145F and jump to 175F as soon as the hot juice went in. I'm always nervous about bloody meat near the bones so injecting hot juice will ensure those areas are done. Localized "spot cooking" if you will.

emergency thawing

2011-11-16T21:53:00.000-08:00

bought your turkey too late?
5 hrs/lb is a minimum for thawing a turkey in the fridge. If you are cooking for this Sunday, Thursday would probably be the absolute latest for thawing.

30mins / lb is a minimum for thawing by submerging in cold water. Replace the water every 30 mins. It'll take about 8hours on average with this method

I thawed a turkey in a large cooler overnight and it was ready to go in the morning. Just break off the ice that forms around the turkey every now and then. I like to thaw overnight once I get the turkey in a large cooler, then finish thawing the turkey in the fridge for a couple more days to get fully thawed out.

past turkey tips

2011-11-16T21:33:00.000-08:00

turkey tips
http://www.dishgracepoint.com/2008/11/turkey.html

how much turkey?
http://www.dishgracepoint.com/2009/11/turkey-qa.html

fresh vs frozen
http://www.dishgracepoint.com/2009/11/turkey-qa-freshfrozen.html

turkey tips

2011-11-16T21:13:00.000-08:00

The following tips are from Tim So:

Brining: If juiciness is your goal and you don't mind being on the saltier side, I've got maximum juiciness using the following ratio (use more if needed):

3 quarts water,
1 cup diamond crystal kosher salt,
1 cup super fine granulated sugar,
1 cup rice wine.

Mix it together with your hands, making sure to dissolves the sugar and salt crystals with your fingers. Overnight brine is usually good enough, but even longer has yielded "right at the cusp of saltiness" kind of seasoning. I think a lot of gourmet brine recipes are assuming you're also going to use finishing salt such as fleur de sel or sel gris, which no one in our church does. If you want the turkey to smell like something, dry toast it in a skillet, then add it to the brine right now (sage, thyme, oregano are popular choices. Use 1 tablespoon dried herb per 3 quarts water ).

***I'd warn against using acids and peppercorns in the brine, contrary to conventional brining wisdom, since it generally gives a "spammy" tinge to the meat. If you want pepper, crack it fresh over the carved meat or add it to the gravy. If you want that citrus taste, again, spritz right before serving: much more cost effective too.

Once you've got your brined bird, cook it however you want. High heat roasting seems to be the zeitgeist, but I think it's generally more hazardous and also puts your bird at higher risk of overcooking. I'd do 325 or 350 until the breast hits 155F at the coldest point (use an oven thermo to get in range, and an instant read to verify). Dark meat actually tastes better at something like 170-180 when the fat gets melty, which is the perennial problem of whole bird roasting, so you can deal with that however you like (icing the breast, chopping off the legs and roasting them more, etc.) Once the breast hits temperature, check the "problem areas" of the dark meat, which are typically the joint between the thigh and drumstick and the joint between the thigh and the rest of the bird to make sure they are also at least 155 at time of removal, but if you used one of the aforementioned tricks or my trick below, hopefully it's at 165 or greater when the breast is 155.
The one thing from the old post I still recommend is how to take advantage of the natural temperature gradient in the oven to ensure a properly cooked bird (meaning, a bird with differential white and dark meat temperature). The goal is to put the dark meat close to the back wall and higher up where it's hotter while you put the breast towards the door and low where it's colder. This generally means roasting breast side down. You may not get as crispy of skin, but would you rather have a thin layer of nice skin and 10 pounds of nasty meat? Plus, you can always crisp the skin using a blowtorch after the fact, or roast breast side up for the last 30 minutes. If you do a high heat roasting method it actually accentuates the temperature gradient, which is the only thing I really like about high heat nowadays.
***Note on trussing. The reason you truss is to turn the weirdly shaped bird into more of an oval, which will cook more evenly. To that end, the goal is to put the thigh/drumstick joint closely touching (i.e. thermally conducting) with the narrower end of the breast so that this part doesn't get overcooked. Otherwise, it doesn't really do anything: so if you find yourself trussing and that joint didn't end up on the breast since your turkey is absurdly fat or something, then you've probably messed up. Oh well.
I know I previously said that stuffing is evil. But, I think one thing I've found is that if you do it right, you can use it to thermally insulate the breast so that you can get the dark meat cooked faster, especially cooking breast side down. I'll leave that up to you to figure out, though.
Tea-smoked Turkey (樟茶火雞)
I did this in my house's stove-top and it smelled like a sausage factory for 1 week. Other than that wonderful experience, it also yielded a smoky turkey that tasted good. If you can do this with a portable burner or grill in your backyard, that would probably be better

*You will need a roaster with rack and lid big enough for your turkey (by the way, this technique will probably ruin cheaper roasters for anything else, but since you do this once a year, why not?)
2 cups tea, pref. jasmine
2 cups flour
2 cups rice, preferably jasmine
2 cup sugar
Plus more as needed*
Double line your roaster with heavy gauge foil. Mix up the smoking ingredients and layer them in the roaster. Put your rack in there now, then put your bird on there breast side up. Put the roaster on your heating element, whether stove top or gas grill or whatever, and heat up the roaster until you see smoke appearing. Then turn the heat down until you get "some smoke" but not too much (or until the temperature is around 250F if you have a means to measure your roaster temp). Put the lid on and use the foil to make a tight seal. Remove when internal breast temperature is 155F, taking care to check temps as stated above in the roasting instructions. One of the great things about this method is that, since the heat source is on the bottom, the dark meat will naturally cook faster than the breast. Also, if you want to crisp the breast at the end, it's pretty straight forward to just transfer the whole rack to your oven and roast it uncovered for the last 30 minutes to get a nice, pretty looking skin while having your dark meat at the right temperature, all without having to flip the turkey around, which is a huge pain. And it tastes like jasminetastic smoke too.
***Note: you may want to check on this thing after a couple of hours: if all of the smoking ingredients have turned into carbon dust, you may need to add more.

New page!

2011-10-11T15:10:00.000-07:00

Smart Food Prep has been added to the tabs. It's another resource for food prep the next time you have an event.

Tri-tip

2011-06-25T15:21:00.000-07:00

Here's the first video post showing how to prep tri-tip. Unrehearsed and unedited, keeping it real simple. I used this exact method for the post G-Live celebration dinner and for the summer mission trip fundraiser. Just take a tri tip, some salt, pepper, sugar, and milk and put it all together. In case you didn't catch it:

1lb meat
1tsp (Kosher) salt
1tsp sugar
1/3tsp black pepper
2TB milk

or

3lb tri-tip
1TB (Kosher) salt
1TB sugar
1tsp black pepper
1/3cup milk

Google Recipe View

2011-02-24T18:17:00.000-08:00

Here's a convenient way to look up recipes: http://www.google.com/landing/recipes/
You can narrow your search to ingredients, cook time, and even calories! I expect this to be very useful as the search engine matures over time.

mo's brisket recipe video

2010-12-31T10:20:00.000-08:00

Here's a video from Maurice from Gracepoint Austin showing us his brisket recipe. Enjoy!
http://www.vimeo.com/18183022

BTW, one idea I've been debating over the past year is posting videos. It's hard enough to find time to sit and write new posts. I'm thinking it would be useful to have video demonstrations of recipes; however, due to the amount of work involved in video editing I'm considering just doing one take and doing a straight upload, mistakes/jumbled up words and all.

Chicken Tortilla Soup

2010-07-08T21:37:00.000-07:00

Quick Look_______________

This recipe comes from George Hu. If you have a recipe you'd like to share, let me know and I'll post it. click here for the recipe

Prep time:
Cook time: ~1 hrs
Difficulty: Easy
Labor Intensity: 2-3 people
30 servings, adjust by 1.5x if your group tends to eat multiple servings.

Ingredients_______________

2 large cans condensed cream of chicken soup
2 rotisserie chickens
5-6 large carrots
5 medium potatoes
1 bag frozen corn
1 small can hominy (Mexican white corn, available at Safeway in Hispanic foods aisle)
small can chopped green chili (available same place as hominy, make sure to get green CHILI PEPPERS, NOT pickled jalapenos). The chili peppers come in mild or spicy—just use whatever you prefer.
2 large onions
1 bunch celery
1 large can whole tomatoes from Costco (this is the LARGE can, like the kind that Que Bueno nacho cheese comes in. If it’s affordable, it’s better to used canned stewed tomatoes instead of the whole tomatoes, but whole tomatoes are much cheaper and taste good too).
2 small cans whole black beans (available same grocery aisle as hominy and chili peppers)
2 cubes chicken bouillon (you can also use 2 cans chicken broth, but bouillon is cheaper)
1 bag unflavored tortilla chips
3-4 ripe avocados
1/2 bunch chopped cilantro
Optional Ingredients:
1 small container sour cream

Directions_______________

-Ask a helper to put on gloves and tear the meat away from the bones of both chickens. Discard the skin (too much saturated fat and your soup will be too oily).
-Chop the carrots, onions, potatoes and celery into soup-size pieces and place in a large stock pot.
-Empty the can of chili pepper and the bag of corn into the pot.
-Open the can of hominy and the cans of black beans. Drain both, then empty them into the pot.
-If the meat is off the chicken, put the meat into the pot too. Discard the bones (you can save the bones for chicken soup later, but you don’t want to put them in your pot right now unless you want to pick all of them out before you eat—too annoying)
-If you are using canned chicken broth, put it in now. Otherwise, fill the pot with water until it just covers all the stuff you have in the pot.
-Turn the heat on HIGH and cover.
-Open the can of tomatoes, but leave part of the lid attached. Drain the liquid from the can INTO your pot (the extra tomato flavor is nice).
-Cut the tomatoes into soup-size chunks and put them in the pot.
-The liquid in the pot should be hot now. Take a small amount of the liquid into a bowl and dissolve the bouillon into the liquid, one cube at a time. Then put it into the pot.
-Stir in the cans of condensed soup.
-Bring the soup to a boil, then reduce heat to simmer until you are ready to eat (I recommend boiling for at least 45 minutes)

Serve the soup with the following as garnish:
-Tortilla chips (each person crumbles a few on top of their bowl of soup)
-Sour cream
-Chopped avodcados
-chopped cilantro

Weekly Specials

2010-07-05T18:37:00.000-07:00

Weekly specials now have a tab on top so it doesn't get buried underneath all the posts. You can bookmark it if you want: http://www.dishgracepoint.com/p/weekly-special.html

New! Gracepoint.food entries

2010-07-01T21:33:00.000-07:00

Susanna Lee from Gracepoint Davis started organizing recipes for small/medium/large groups. It's purpose is very similar to Dishgracepoint and so we decided to add everything to this blog and make it accessible. Hope you enjoy all the new posts!

Click the tab on top for all the links!

Dessert Banana Bread

2010-06-30T21:32:00.001-07:00

click here

Packing List Modular Bible Study Snacks

2010-06-30T21:31:00.001-07:00

click here

Packing List Comprehensive Bible Study Snacks

2010-06-30T21:30:00.003-07:00

click here

Packing List Comprehensive Picnic

2010-06-30T21:30:00.001-07:00

click here

Packing List Modular SWS meal Rented Facility

2010-06-30T21:25:00.001-07:00

click here

Packing List Comprehensive SWS meal Rented Facility

2010-06-30T21:24:00.001-07:00

click here

Packing List Camping Hiking BBQ Trip

2010-06-30T21:23:00.001-07:00

click here

Recipe Salad Dressing Peanut Butter 30 ppl

2010-06-30T21:22:00.001-07:00

click here

Recipe Salad Dressing Oriental Chicken Salad 30 Servings

2010-06-30T21:21:00.001-07:00

click here

Recipe Salad Dressing Mayo Based (Asian Salad Dressing) 30 Servings

2010-06-30T21:20:00.001-07:00

click here

200+ servings easy meal hamburgers hot dogs bbq

2010-06-30T21:19:00.001-07:00

click here

Simple Menu Pork Chops 10 and 30 servings

2010-06-30T21:18:00.001-07:00

click here

Simple Menu Fresh Bibimbap 10 and 30 servings

2010-06-30T21:17:00.001-07:00

click here

Simple Menu Japanese Curry 10 and 30 servings

2010-06-30T21:16:00.001-07:00

click here

Simple Menu Make Your Own Burrito 10 and 30 servings

2010-06-30T21:15:00.001-07:00

click here

Simple Menu Mapo Tofu 10 and 30 servings

2010-06-30T21:14:00.001-07:00

click here

Simple Menu Meat Roast 10 and 30 servings

2010-06-30T21:13:00.001-07:00

click here

Simple Menu Pulled Pork Coleslaw 10 and 30 servings

2010-06-30T21:12:00.001-07:00

click here

Simple Menu Radish Soup

2010-06-30T21:11:00.001-07:00

click here

SimpleMenu_SalmonBibimbap 10 and 30 servings

2010-06-30T21:09:00.003-07:00

click here

Simple Menu Spring Rolls 10 and 30 servings

2010-06-30T21:09:00.001-07:00

click here

Simple Menu Tyson Teriyaki Thighs 10 and 30 servings

2010-06-30T21:08:00.000-07:00

click here

getaway food template

2010-06-30T18:24:00.001-07:00

click here

SimpleMenu_KimcheeChige 10 and 30 servings

2010-06-30T18:23:00.001-07:00

click here

yosemite trip food planning guide

2010-06-30T18:22:00.001-07:00

click here

sierra_lodge_food_planning_guide_final

2010-06-30T18:20:00.001-07:00

click here

Exhaustive Check List of Questions for Food Management

2010-06-30T18:18:00.001-07:00

click here

200+ servings easy meal hamburgers hot dogs bbq

2010-06-27T21:43:00.001-07:00

350 servings

$828
$2.36/person

+Eval
+Shopping list
+Timeline
+Packing list
+BBQ Equip.

click here

200+ servings easy meal bulgogi

2010-06-27T21:40:00.001-07:00

200 servings
$300
$1.50/person

+Shopping list
+Timeline
+PB dressing
+Packing list
+Inventory

click here

200+ servings easy meal bagel sandwiches

2010-06-27T21:37:00.001-07:00

100 servings
$175
$1.75/person

+To Do list
+Packing list

click here

200+ servings easy meal make your own burrito

2010-06-27T21:32:00.001-07:00

175 servings

$200
$1.14/person

+Shopping List
+To Do list
+Packing list
+inventory list
+table setting

click here

200+ servings easy meal lasagna

2010-06-27T21:29:00.001-07:00

200 servings
$400
$2.00/person

+Instuctions
+Packing list
+inventory list
+prep logistics
+table setting

click here

200+ servings easy meal rotisserie chicken

2010-06-27T21:20:00.001-07:00

200 servings
$400
$2.00/person

+Shopping list
+Packing list
+inventory
+cooking logistics

click here

200+ servings easy meal tyson teriyaki chicken

2010-06-27T21:18:00.001-07:00

200 servings

$350
$1.46/person

+Shopping list
+Packing list
+Timeline
+inventory
+cooking logistics

click here

200+ servings easy meal asian meatballs

2010-06-27T21:15:00.001-07:00

200 servings
$200
$1.00/person

+Shopping list
+Packing list
+Timeline

click here

poundcake vegtray 100+ servings - post bible study snack

2010-06-27T21:12:00.000-07:00

100 servings
$50
$0.50/person

+Shopping list
+Packing list
+Timeline

click here

Crackers Salami Cheese Veg tray - post bible study snack

2010-06-27T20:52:00.000-07:00

140 servings

$70
$0.50/person

+Shopping list
+Time line

click here

Chips and salsa - post bible study snack

2010-06-27T20:40:00.000-07:00

150 servings
$75
$0.50/person

+Shopping list
+Packing list

click here

Japanese Curry

2010-06-24T21:25:00.000-07:00

This recipe is for 30 servings.

Ingredients

Safeway

Stew meat (5 lbs)
Potato (10 count)
Carrots (10 count)
Onions (8 count)

Korean Market

Curry blocks (30 servings or 4 packages)
Kimchee (1 bottle)
Yellow Daicon (pickled) (1 pack)

Instructions

Boil water.
Cut the meat into bite size pieces and add to the boiling water.
Cut the vegetables and add them to the water.
Add the curry blocks and stir until it's completely dissolved and add only as many as you like the consistency.

Meat Roast (10 and 30 servings)

2010-06-24T21:14:00.000-07:00

SHOPPING LIST

Items	Store	1 order has	1 order feeds	# of Orders for 30 people	# of Orders for 10 people	Notes
ANY roast meat (Tri Tip, London Broil, Pork Loin roast, Chuck).	Costco, Safeway or any market with meat on sale	12-15 lbs	15-18 people depending on appetite	2	1	Tenderness and taste varies with the cut of the meat. More expensive meat is usually tender.
Whole clove garlic, peeled	Costco	1 bottle		1	1/2
Rice vinegar	Safeway	1 bottle	n/a	1	1/3
Sweet Soy Sauce, Yoshida Sauce or Teriyaki Sauce	Costco or Safeway	1 bottle			1/3	Can be any kind of sweetened soy sauce based sauce
Pepper	Safeway
Kosher salt	Safeway					Can use regular salt, but use less than Kosher salt
Olive oil	Costco, Safeway
Brown sugar	Safeway
Chili garlic sauce	Asian Market or Safeway			1 bottle	1/3 bottle	Sambal Oelek brand is good
Red onion	Safeway			1	1
Cilantro	Safeway			1 bunch	1 bunch

Recipe for Roast

Ingredients

ANY roast meat (Tri Tip, London Broil, Pork Loin roast, Chuck) will work, with some adjustment to cooking time depending on the cut of meat. Of course tenderness and taste varies with the cut of the meat, too.
5-10 cloves of garlic, sliced into 1/8” thickness
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp Montreal steak seasoning
1 tsp Kosher salt
½ tsp fresh ground pepper

COOKING INSTRUCTIONS

Wash then pat dry the meat with paper towel.
Slit several places in the meat with knife and stick slices of whole clove garlic in the slits.
Slather the whole meat generously with olive oil. Put Kosher salt, fresh ground black pepper and Montreal steak seasoning (not too much, as it tends to overpower the meat - just maybe 1 tablespoon.)
Heat the oven to 400 degrees and put the meat in when hot. After cooking it in the oven for 30 minutes, lower the heat to 325 and cook the meat. (Try not to open the oven door. If you want to check, I’d suggest putting a meat thermometer in to make sure it’s cooking inside)
Estimate about 12 minutes per lb of meat, but check constantly.
Take out the meat 10 minutes before serving and cover loosely with foil tent. (to bring the juice back to the meat)
Slice and serve with dipping sauce.

RECIPE for Dipping Sauce (for 10 people)

1 cup Yoshida or some type of sweet soy-based sauce
¼ cup rice vinegar
¼ cup brown sugar
2 tbsp chili garlic sauce
1 tsp fresh chopped garlic
½ chopped red onion
½ cup fresh chopped cilantro

COOKING INSTRUCTIONS

Put all the dipping sauce ingredients into a pot, minus the chopped red onion and cilantro.
Bring to boil.
Turn off heat after about 3 minutes.
Add red onion and cilantro, then serve the sauce while it is still warm.

SPECIAL INSTRUCTIONS

The meat goes well with any kind of salad and steamed veggies.
Cook less time if you want the meat to be medium to medium rare. (only for beef)
Cooking pork is a little more delicate as you don’t want to overcook it since it gets really dry, but it also has to be thoroughly cooked. When in doubt, just cut into the meat and see if juice comes out bloody or clear.
If you are pressed for time, prepare the meat the night before and keep it in the fridge. Pop it in the oven the next day.

Radish Soup

2010-06-24T21:10:00.000-07:00

This recipe is for 30 people.

Ingredients

Korean Market

Deung Shim (sliced meat) (7 lbs)
Radish (2 count)
Crushed garlic (6 cloves)
Green Onions (1 bunch)
Sesame Oil
Onions (3 count)

Instructions

Prep work

Cut meat into chunks.
Cut the radish in small flat pieces.
Cut the onions in long strips.
Cut green onions.

Cooking

Slice the meat into thin strips and let it sit in water for 10 min to drain the blood.
Drain the meat of water.
Heat up sesame oil.
Once the sesame oil is hot, add garlic and stir fry.
Once the water comes to a boil, add the radish and onions.
Bring the soup to boil, then add salt and pepper to taste.
Add green onions before serving.

Make Your Own (MYO) Burritos with Chips and Salsa

2010-06-24T21:08:00.000-07:00

This recipe feeds about 30 people.

Ingredients

Costco

Shredded Pork (2 (40 oz) packages) IMPORTANT: remember to put it in the refrigerator and not the freezer
Pico de Gallo (1 (48 oz) container)
Tortilla (1 package of 30 big burrito tortillas)
Salsa (1 (64 oz) container)
Chips (1 large bag)
Guacamole (1 pack of 4 packages)
Sour Cream (1 (3 lbs) tub)
Chicken Broth (for rice) (1 pack of 3 (49.5 oz) cans)
Lettuce (1 pack of 3 heads of lettuce) NOTE:You can also buy 2 heads of lettuce from Safeway)

Safeway

Long Grain Rice (NOT JASMINE) (need 30 cups)
Shredded Cheese (a total of 1 pound)

Walmart

Tomato Chicken Bullion (a cube of bullion per cup of rice) (comes in a box of 8 cubes for $.69)

Instructions (These instructions assume that you are doing the prep the night before.)

Prepare the pork:

Slit meat pouches and heat 2 pouches in microwave for 2.5 mins.Take meat out of pouches and place in small trays (2 meat pouches per 1 small tray.)
Loosely break apart meat, it does not have to be perfectly shredded.) Repeat steps 1 & 2 for all meat pouches. (If preparing night before, can cover with foil and store in refrigerator).
Heat the pork in the oven at 400 degrees for about 45 mins.
Put in 4 half trays covered with foil.
After pork is heated up, store into cooler.

Cook rice:

Use 1 spoonful (not heaping and not the big spoons) of bullion per cup of rice. Dissolve in hot water first before adding to the rice pot.
Add chicken broth instead of water in same ratio to the rice - use finger technique.
Add a bit more chicken broth compared to amount of water you would use since long grain tends to get dry.

Prepare lettuce:

Cut each head of lettuce into 1/4 pieces. Wash outside (Don't peel off each leaf).
Cut thin slice with knife, or keep in chunks and use Japanese slicer.Put it in the small aluminum half trays and into cooler.

Put the salsa, guacamole, sour cream, cheese into the coolers. Put the tortilla packs and the meat in rice coolers to keep warm.

200+ Servings Easy Meal Bulgogi + Fancy Spring Mix w/Tomatoes + Peanut Butter Dressing

2010-06-24T21:03:00.002-07:00

Ingredients:

Bulgogi-

75 orders* of Bulgogi (Koreanna)
Soy sauce/Sugar/Water (Ratio 1:1:1)
4 orders** of Kiwi (Safeway)

*1 order has 0.38 lbs/person
**1 order has half kiwi for 20 lbs of meat

Fancy Spring Mix-

2 orders* of Yellow onions (Costco)
fresh, peeled garlic (Costco)
8 orders** of Green onions (Koreanna)
10 orders*** of Fancy spring mix (Costco)
3 orders**** of Tomatoes (Costco)
Crispy chowmein noodle (Safeway)

*1 order has 1 large onion for 5 lbs
**1 order has 1 bundle for 10 lbs
***1 order has 1 box=1 lb and feeds 20 people
****1 order has 1 box

Peanut Butter Dressing-

SMOOTH peanut butter (Costco)-3 tablespoons
Vegetable oil-1.5 cups
Vinegar-2 cups
Sesame Oil-3 tablespoons
Sesame seed-3 tablespoons
Salt-2 teaspoons
Black Pepper-1 1/4 tablespoons
Sugar- 1.5 cups

* For 30 people, so make 4 batches total for 120 servings

Instructions for Peanut Butter Dressing:
1. Use blender to mix the ingredients together.

SimpleMenu_PulledPork_Coleslaw 10 and 30 servings

2010-06-24T21:03:00.001-07:00

SIMPLE MENU FOR 10 and 30 PEOPLE

“Pulled Pork Sandwich & Vinaigrette Coleslaw”

Main Dish

Salad

Side

Soup

Sauce

Menu

(Estimate for 10 and 30 people)

Pulled Pork Sandwich

Vinaigrette Coleslaw

Hawaiian Sweet Onion Potato Chips

N/A

SHOPPING LIST

Items	Store	1 order has	1 order feeds	# of Orders (Quantity for 30 people)	(Quantity for 10 people)	Notes
Pork Shoulders (bulk in vacuum seal pack - it’s also sometimes called Pork Butt) - estimate about ⅓ lb per person	Costco	12-16 lbs	35-40 people	1	5 lbs( buy at Safeway)	Cheapest at Costco unless on sale at other places
Cattlemen’s BBQ Sauce (or Sweet Baby Ray BBQ Sauce)	Costco	1 pack (2 bottles)	40 people	1	1 bottle
yellow onion	Safeway	1	n/a	2	1
Worcestershire Sauce	Safeway	1 bottle	n/a	1		Don’t have to use it don’t have it
Red wine vinegar	Safeway	1 bottle	n/a	1	1/3 bottle
Paprika	Safeway	1 bottle			1/3 bottle	Don’t have to use if don’t have it
pepper	Safeway
Kosher salt	Safeway					Can use regular salt, but use less than Kosher salt
Hoagie or hotdog buns	Costco	12 or 24	12 or 24	3 or 2 (depending on the kind of bread	1 pack
Cabbage	Safeway	1	15 people	2	1	Can use 1 green and 1 red if you want more color
Red onion	Safeway	1			1
jalapeno	Safeway	2			1
Curly parsley	Safeway	1			1
Olive oil	Costco, Safeway
Sugar	Safeway

RECIPE for Pulled Pork Sandwich(for 30 people)

INGREDIENTS

Pork Shoulder

BBQ Sauce

yellow onion (slice thin one onion, while chop the other onion)

½ cup Worcestershire Sauce

½ cup red wine vinegar

paprika

pepper

kosher salt

hotdog, hoagie or kaiser buns

COOKING INSTRUCTIONS

1. Heat the oven to 400 degrees.

2. Wash and cut the meat into palm size chunks.

3. Mix in a large bowl with salt, Worcestershire Sauce, pepper, red wine vinegar and paprika. If you don’t have the Worcestershire Sauce, red wine vinegar and paprika, just use any kind of vinegar, salt and pepper.

4. Lay the meat in a large pan or aluminum tray. Make sure that the meat isn’t crowded and in one layer on the pan. Sprinkle sliced onion over it.

5. Put in the oven for 40 minutes until browned. Lower the heat to 325 degrees and keep in the oven for about 2 hours, or until the meat pulls easily with fork.

6. Cool the meat until somewhat easier to handle and pull the meat using two forks.

7. Mix well with BBQ sauce (as much as you’d like in consistency – I think about 1.5 bottle works well for this amount of meat) and add chopped onion.

8. Put the meat back in the oven while making the coleslaw to heat up the BBQ sauce. (around 30 minutes)

9. Serve the meat with buns on the side for people to assemble on their own.

RECIPE for Coleslaw(for 30 people)

INGREDIENTS

2 cabbage, shredded

1 red onion, sliced thin

1-2 jalapeno, sliced thin (depending on desired spiciness do one or two)

1 bunch curly parsley, chopped coarse

1 cup olive oil

1 cup red vinegar

1 tbsp kosher salt

1 tsp fresh ground pepper

2 tbsp sugar

COOKING INSTRUCTIONS

1. Soak the red onion in the red wine vinegar until it becomes pickled. Mix olive oil, the red vinegar from the pickled onion, sugar, salt and pepper in a bowl using a wire whisk.

2. Add the dressing to the cabbage, and then mix in red onion and jalapeno. When the flavor sinks in, then mix with parsley right before serving.

SPECIAL INSTRUCTIONS

§ Serve the pulled pork on warmed bun with coleslaw, potato chips (Hawaiian sweet onion is the best with this) and slices of watermelon for a complete picnic meal.

§ If pressed for time, make the pork the night before (make sure you shred the meat while it’s warm as it becomes more difficult when it gets cold). Smother it in the BBQ sauce and reheat it in the oven the next day for about 30 minutes.

§ If you are serving the pulled pork as a part of a picnic, just keep it in a foil-lined cooler. Serve with the buns on the side for people to fill the meat.

§ Estimate 1 hotdog bun for sisters and 1.5 to 2 hotdog buns for brothers.

Salmon Bibimbap (10 servings and 30 servings)

2010-06-24T20:41:00.000-07:00

Shopping List:

Items	Store	1 order has	Quantity for 30 people	Quantity for 10 people	Notes
Carrots(already sheredded)	Smart and Final	5 lbs	½ bag or 2.5 lbs	1/6 bag
Red Leaf Lettuce	Korean Market		3 heads	1 head
Cucumbers(English)	Korean Market		4 count	1 count
Salmon	Costco	8 lbs	8 lbs	2 lbs
Green Onions	Korean Market		2 bunches	½ bunches
Diacon Sprouts	Korean Market		5 packs	1.5 packs
Gochujang(red bean paste)	Korean Market
Roasted seaweed	Korean Market	5 sheets

RECIPE for Salmon Bibimbap

Carrots(Shredded)
Red Leaf Lettuce
Cucumber
Salmon
Diacon Sprouts
Roasted Seaweed

Cooking Instructions

Cook the Salmon in oven, lightly salted and peppered.
Cut the Red Leaf lettuce into long strips.
Julian Slice the Cucumbers.(Use the medium size blade for Japanese slicers)
Make two kinds of sauce (see the recipe below)
Arrange all the vegetables and salmon on top of the rice and place the seaweed in the middle, then serve with the sauce.

Recipe for Spicy sauce

Ingredients

1 cup Gochujang

2 tablespoons Sugar
1 tablespoon Sesame Seeds
1/3 cup water

Cooking Instructions

Mix the ingredients together until sugar is dissolved.

Recipe for Soy Sauce based sauce

Ingredients

1 cup soy sauce
1 tablespoon sesame oil
1 tablespoon sesame seeds
½ tablespoon green onions(finely chopped)
Cooking Instructions
Mix the ingredients together.

SimpleMenu_KimcheeChige 10 and 30 servings

2010-06-24T20:36:00.001-07:00

SIMPLE MENU FOR 10 and 30 PEOPLE

“Kimchee Jige ”

Main Dish

Salad

Side

Soup

Sauce

Menu

(Estimate for 10 and 30 people)

Kimchee Jige

N/A

SHOPPING LIST

Items	Store	Quantity for 30 people	Quantity for 10 people	# of Orders	Notes
Kimchee(fermented)	Korean Market	1 ½ bottles	½ bottle
Spam	Costco	4 packs	1 pack
Tofu	Korean Market	6 packs	2 packs
Onions	Korean Market	3 count	1 count

RECIPE for Kimchee Jige

INGREDIENTS

§ Kimchee

§ Spam

§ Tofu

§ Onions

§ Water – 4 cups (for 30 servings)

§ 1 cup (for 10 servings)

COOKING INSTRUCTIONS

1. Make sure the Kimchee is fermented (usually sitting in room temperature about one day will be enough)

2. Pour the kimchee into a pot and add water.

3. Add sliced onions and spam (cut to small pieces).

4. Bring to boil and add salt to taste.

5. Let it boil for about 10 min.

6. Add tofu at the end and then serve when it comes to boil.

Submitted by Michelle Sun

Page 1 of 1

200+ Servings Easy Meal Lasagna

2010-06-24T20:24:00.000-07:00

Ingredients:

Meat Lasagna (13 orders of 1/2 aluminum tray from Costco)
Veggie Lasagna (12 orders of 1/2 aluminum tray from Smart & Final)
Iceberg Salad Mix (nine 3lb bags from Costco)
Salad Dressing - Ranch (2 bottles)
Salad Dressing - Vinegrette (2 bottles)
Dinner Rolls (6 bags, each bag contains 36 rolls)

Instructions:

Distribute lasagna trays, coolers and rolls to bake by homes (4 lasagnas per oven)
Prepare trays and start baking by homes - ** Follow instruction on Box/Tray ** Meat lasagna & Veggie lasagna both take about 2 hours

* Line oven shelves with foil - lasagna sauce will drip while baking

* Check lasagna while baking so that they don't burn or are undercooked

* Line coolers with towels or paper towels as lasagna drippings can stain the coolers

* DO NOT CUT LASAGNA UNTIL BEFORE SERVING

* we found that when we cut it beforehand cheese melts over it anyway and lasagna breaks easier when stacking on top of each other when packing.

* Cover trays with new foil sheets or the foil sheets used to line the oven shelves

* After taking lasagna out of oven, let it sit on countertop for 10 minutes to let it firm up.

* Separate each lasagna with a cardboard sheet to help it from smooshing on top of each other. If baking veggie lasagna, can use box.

* Store in cooler with bag(s) of rolls to heat rolls- do this when get to church

200+ Servings Easy Meal Rotisserie Chicken

2010-06-24T20:10:00.001-07:00

Ingredients:

35 orders* of Rotisserie chicken
10 bags** of Iceberg lettuce mix
2 orders of Balsamic Vinegar***
Soysauce
Newman Balsamic Vinegarette Salad dressing (Costco)
Ranch Salad dressing (Costco)
peeled, whole Garlic
Black pepper

*1 order has 4 lbs
**1 bag has 3 lbs
***1 order has 33.8 fl oz

Instructions:
1. Cut up chicken to serve.
2. Mix ingredients for salad.

Instructions for Dipping Sauce for Chicken:
1. Mix 1.5 Costco-size bottle (~50 fl oz) of balsamic vinegar, 600 ml soy sauce, 30 tblspoons pan fried garlic in oil, pepper

Make Your Own (MYO) Burritos with Chips and Salsa

2010-06-24T20:10:00.000-07:00

This recipe feeds about 30 people.

Ingredients

Costco

Shredded Pork (2 (40 oz) packages) IMPORTANT: remember to put it in the refrigerator and not the freezer
Pico de Gallo (1 (48 oz) container)
Tortilla (1 package of 30 big burrito tortillas)
Salsa (1 (64 oz) container)
Chips (1 large bag)
Guacamole (1 pack of 4 packages)
Sour Cream (1 (3 lbs) tub)
Chicken Broth (for rice) (1 pack of 3 (49.5 oz) cans)
Lettuce (1 pack of 3 heads of lettuce) NOTE:You can also buy 2 heads of lettuce from Safeway)

Safeway

Long Grain Rice (NOT JASMINE) (need 30 cups)
Shredded Cheese (a total of 1 pound)

Walmart

Tomato Chicken Bullion (a cube of bullion per cup of rice) (comes in a box of 8 cubes for $.69)

Instructions (These instructions assume that you are doing the prep the night before.)

Prepare the pork:

Slit meat pouches and heat 2 pouches in microwave for 2.5 mins.Take meat out of pouches and place in small trays (2 meat pouches per 1 small tray.)
Loosely break apart meat, it does not have to be perfectly shredded.) Repeat steps 1 & 2 for all meat pouches. (If preparing night before, can cover with foil and store in refrigerator).
Heat the pork in the oven at 400 degrees for about 45 mins.
Put in 4 half trays covered with foil.
After pork is heated up, store into cooler.

Cook rice:

Use 1 spoonful (not heaping and not the big spoons) of bullion per cup of rice. Dissolve in hot water first before adding to the rice pot.
Add chicken broth instead of water in same ratio to the rice - use finger technique.
Add a bit more chicken broth compared to amount of water you would use since long grain tends to get dry.

Prepare lettuce:

Cut each head of lettuce into 1/4 pieces. Wash outside (Don't peel off each leaf).
Cut thin slice with knife, or keep in chunks and use Japanese slicer.Put it in the small aluminum half trays and into cooler.

Put the salsa, guacamole, sour cream, cheese into the coolers. Put the tortilla packs and the meat in rice coolers to keep warm.

Snacks - Crackers, Salami, Cheese, VegTray (100+ Servings)

2010-06-24T20:09:00.000-07:00

Ingredients:

English cucumbers (2 packs from Costco)
Baby carrots (one 5lb bag from Costco)
Cheese (2 packs of Cheese from Costco, 120 slices per package)
Salami (4 packages, 200 slices per package)
Ritz crackers (1 box of 400 crackers)
Ranch Dressing (32 oz bottle from Safeway)

Instructions/ Prep Work

Cut Cucumbers
Arrange Veg Platter
Arrange Salami, Cheese, Cracker Platter

200+ Servings Easy Meal Asian Meatballs, Salad

2010-06-17T21:37:00.000-07:00

Ingredients:

From Costco:

Beef Meatballs (10 bags - each bag is 6lbs and contains 140 meatballs - serves ~20 ppl) Kirkland brand - estimated 7 meatballs per person
10 bottles of Panda Express Orange Chicken Glaze
10 bags of Iceberg Salad Mix (each bag is 3lbs)
Eunice Shim dressing (200 oz's)

From Safeway:

10 bags of Dry Chow Mein Noodles

Directions:

Place Meatballs in Oven (???F for ??? minutes)

Roast & Cilantro-Red Onion- Sweet Soy Dipping Sauce

2010-06-17T21:20:00.000-07:00

Ingredients:

2 orders* of any roast meat (Safeway)
1 bottle of whole clove garlic (Costco)
1 bottle of rice vinegar (Safeway)
1 bottle of sweet soy sauce (yoshida sauce or teriyaki sauce can work)
Pepper (Safeway)
Kosher salt (Safeway)
2 tbsp of olive oil (Costco or Safeway)
1 bottle of chili garlic sauce (Asian Market or Safeway)
1 bunch of cilantro (Safeway)
1 tbsp Montreal steak seasoning
1 tsp Kosher salt

*1 order has 12-15 lbs

Instructions for Roast:
1. Wash, then pat dry the meat with paper towel.
2. Slit several places in the meat with knife and stick slices of whole clove garlic in the slits.
3. Slather the whole meat generously with olive oil. Put Kosher salt, fresh ground black pepper and Montreal steak seasoning (not too much, as it tends to overpower the meat - just maybe 1 tablespoon.)
4. Heat the oven to 400 degrees and put the meat in when hot. After cooking it in the oven for 30 minutes, lower the heat to 325 and cook the meat. (Try not to open the oven door. If you want to check, I’d suggest putting a meat thermometer in to make sure it’s cooking inside)
5. Estimate about 12 minutes per lb of meat, but check constantly.
6. Take out the meat 10 minutes before serving and cover loosely with foil tent. (to bring the juice back to the meat)
7. Slice and serve with dipping sauce.

Instructions for Dipping Sauce:
1. Put all the dipping sauce ingredients into a pot, minus the chopped red onion and cilantro.
2. Bring to boil.
3. Turn off heat after about 3 minutes.
4. Add red onion and cilantro, then serve the sauce while it is still warm.

Easy Meal Hamburgers and Hot Dogs for BBQ

2010-06-17T21:10:00.000-07:00

Estimated Number of people = 350 (200 plus servings) for a large BBQ

Ingredients:

Veggie burgers-Costco; 1 order has 18 patties (want at least 2 orders); $10.99 per order (Total cost $21.98).
Hamburger patties-Costco; 1 box=2 packs=40 patties (want at least 9 orders); $20.99 per order ($188.91 total cost).
Sliced cheese (individually wrapped)-Costco; 1 package = 96 slices, want 2 orders; $10 per order
Tomatoes- Costco;1 order feeds approx. 60 people, want 6 orders;$6.99 per order (total cost=$41.94).
Lettuce (iceberg)- Costco; 1 bag = 3 heads; 1 order feeds ~90 people (want 4 orders); $1.99 per order; [4 bags = 12 HEADS]
Mayo (SQUEEZE bottles)-Costco, 1 pkg = 3 small bottles (want 2 pkgs); $8.99 per order.
Hamburger buns-Costco, 1 pkg = 2 bags = 24 ct (want 13 orders); $2.59 per package
Casper dogs-Costco;1 pkg = 15ct; 1 order feeds 15 people (want 12 orders); $7.99 per order.
Hot links- Costco; 1 pkg = 12ct; 1 order feeds 12 people; want 15 orders; $12.99 per order.
Hot Dog Buns-Costco; 1 pkg = 2 bags = 24 ct (want 13 orders); $ 2.59 per order.
Onions (for hot dogs)-Safeway, approx. 6 large onions (1 onion~ 50 people).
Relish (SQUEEZE bottles)-Costco; picnic pack combo (Ketchup,Mustard,Relish); want 2 pkgs, $7.99 per bottle/pkg
Potato salad- Costco;1 tub; 1 tub feeds 25 people (want 14 tubs);$ 5.89 per order
Chips (small bags, variety)-Costco;1 box = 50 bags, want 7 pkgs; $9 per pkg
Ice-Olive Dr; 1 bag (want 10 bags); $.99 per bag (4 for food, 2 for sport)
Sodas (2-liter)-Safeway; 1 bottle (2 liter); want 30 pkgs; Select brand or on sale
Water-Safeway; 2.5 gal; want 4 containers (2.5gal with dispenser)
Water-Safeway, 5 gal; want 15 gallons
Charcoal (24-lbs bag);want 4 bags
Lighter fluid (large bottle)-Safeway;2 bottles

Mapa Tofu

2010-06-17T21:03:00.000-07:00

Ingredients - Mapa Tofu for 30 people

1.5 pounds Lean ground pork (Asian market)
1/2 small bottle Ginger powder (Safeway)
3 cans chicken broth large cans (Costco)
3/4 box corn starch (Asian market)
8.5 boxes pulmulone brand "chigae yong" tofu or other brand firm tofu (Asian market)
1.5 bottles oyster flavored sauce (Asian market)
1 bottle Sambal Oelek brand Ground Fresh Chili Paste 18-19 oz. jar or Lee Keum Kee's Chili Garlic Sauce 13 oz. (Asian market)
1.5 bundles green onions (Asian market)
10.5 cloves Fresh garlic, already peeled ones (Asian market)

Instructions

1. Mince garlic (10.5 cloves)
2. Finely dice green onions (1.5 bundles)
3. Cut tofu into bite size cubes (size of sugar cubes) and drain water
4. Stir fry the pork with 6 cloves of minced garlic, salt, pepper, & ginger powder.
5. Season to taste.
6. Drain the fat (if the meat is lean, there is not much to drain)
7. *Start the first batch with 2.5 boxes of tofu to get a feel of this dish.
8. Use non-stick wok or non-stick pot; put on high heat
9. Pour 1 can of chicken broth (49.5 oz) and heat until it boils
10. Add 2 tablespoons of fresh chili paste
11. Add 2 cloves of minced garlic
12. Add 1/4 of the cooked pork into the chicken broth
13. Add 4 oz. of oyster flavored sauce (1/2 cup)
14. Add 1 teaspoon of sugar
15. Stir as it comes to boil
16. TASTE: based on its taste add more oyster flavored sauce or sugar or chili paste
17. Add corn starch mixed with water: start with 2 tablespoons of starch mixed with 4 oz. of water
18. Keep on stirring: this is very important that it doesn't get lumpy.
19. If it doesn't thicken enough, add another mixture of corn starch and water.
20. When it comes to a boil, taste again. Cooking is all about tasting with your eyes and your mouth.
21. When the sauce thickens and boils, add the drained tofu
22. Fold the tofu into the sauce in big strokes (meaning do not rapidly stir or the tofu will fall apart)
23. Cook on medium heat until it is boiling and the tofu tastes piping hot. As you are cooking, keep on folding so that it doesn't stick but don't break the tofu!)
24. Serve the tofu with minced green onions sprinkled on the top as garnish. *When reheating, you can microwave on the serving dish and then sprinkle the green onions right before serving.

Ingredients - Green beans

5 bags of French green beans (Trader Joe's or Costco)
12 cloves fresh garlic (Asian market)
2 bottles Oyster flavored sauce (Asian market)
1 bottle Clear Chinese rice cooking wine (Asian market)

Instructions

*Cook 2 Trader Joe bags or 1 Costco bag at a time
1. Turn on stove and add 2 tablespoon of oil to frying pan
2. Add 2 tablespoons of minced garlic and 2 tablespoon of Chinese rice cooking wine
3. When the garlic is cooked, add 2 bags of Trader Joe's frozen green beans (or 1 bag Costco fresh green beans)
4. Add 4 tablespoons of oyster sauce and sprinkle some pepper
5. Continue to stir until looks fully heated; taste.
6. If it is not seasoned enough, add more oyster sauce
7. It is ready to serve when it tastes piping hot

Kimchee Jige

2010-06-17T21:01:00.000-07:00

Ingredients for 30 people:

1.5 bottles fermented kimchee (Korean Market)
4 packs of spam (Costco)
6 packs of tofu (Korean Market)
3 onions (Korean Market)
4 cups of water

Instructions:
1. Make sure the Kimchee is fermented (usually sitting in room temperature about one day will be enough)
2. Pour the kimchee into a pot and add water.
3. Add sliced onions and spam (cut to small pieces).
4. Bring to boil and add salt to taste.
5. Let it boil for about 10 min.
6. Add tofu at the end and then serve when it comes to boil.

Pasta Salad with Peanut Butter Dressing

2010-06-17T20:30:00.000-07:00

Pasta Salad with Peanut Butter Dressing (30 people)

Ingredients:

PRE-CUT romaine lettuce mix 1 large bag (Need to double check: 1 bag = heads?)
Costco Cucumbers 2 cucumbers [Cut into thin slices for salad (half-moon shape)]
Tomatoes 4 tomatoes [Cut into slices or wedges for salad (if using Roma tomatoes use 6)]
Rotelle pasta 30 servings (Follow instruction on the bag)

Instructions
*** The proportion below is approximately for 30 people. ***

(Use blender to mix all the ingredients together)

Vinegar 2 cups
Vegetable Oil 1 1/2 cups
Sugar 1 1/2 cups
Salt 2 teaspoons
Black pepper 1 1/4 tablespoons
Sesame seed 3 tablespoons
Sesame oil 3 tablespoons
Peanut butter 3 tablespoons

200+ Servings Easy Meal Tyson Teriyaki Chicken, Salad

2010-06-17T20:25:00.000-07:00

Ingredients (All from Costco)

Tyson Teriyaki Chicken Thighs (28 orders - each order is 3.5lbs and feeds 7-8 ppl) **only available at Cal Expo Costco**
Iceberg lettuce mix (8 orders - each order is 3 lbs and feeds 25 ppl)
2 bottles of Newman's Italian/Balsamic Salad Dressing
5 bottles of Ranch Salad Dressing

Baking Instructions: Remember to turn on overhead vent as it can get smoky from the chicken baking in the oven --- Split and Bake the chicken in multiple people's home oven.

Line two oven racks w/ heavy duty aluminum foil; form walls w/aluminum so juice doesn't leak
pre-heat oven to 400 degrees
lay out 2.5 bags of chicken (per rack, for a total of 5 bags in one oven) flat and even distributed- do not need to wait for oven to fully warm
bake for 45 minutes or until meat thoroughly warmed
Completely line stacker cooler with foil
Take out and place chicken in stacker cooler. Place another foil sheet on top to keep warm
Secure cooler with masking tape, label cooler "Chicken"

Fun drinks

2010-05-26T15:06:00.000-07:00

Summer is finally here and hot days are soon to follow. These drinks add a nice touch to a small group dinner or just nice to serve while hanging out. I'm not using the standard layout because they don't have any complicated steps.

Sherbet Cooler
It's 1 scoop of sherbet for every cup of lemon lime soda. You can start with a 1/2 gallon carton of sherbet and add (2) 2-liter bottles of lemon lime soda and stir. Adjust as needed. You can use any flavor of sherbet and substitute 1/2 seltzer water to make it less sweet.

Orange cream soda:This one is really easy too and tastes just like the orange cream popsicles we had when we were kids. Just blend vanilla ice cream and orange soda. Some people say it tastes like an Orange Julius.

Strawberry Lemonade Take some frozen strawberries and blend with some Sunkist Lemonade to make a puree. Add to lemonade until desired ratio. Serve.

Sparkling Juice:
http://www.dishgracepoint.com/2009/11/diy-martinellis.html

Smoothies:
http://www.dishgracepoint.com/2008/08/smoothies.html

Just for fun: Terro

2010-05-17T22:49:00.000-07:00

Dish Gracepoint Berkeley Miscellaneous: Terro ant killer

Every now and then I want to post stuff somewhat related to food that might be useful.

We get occasional ant problems in our kitchen and after trying different products we stumbled upon terro. The person at Home Depot recommended it and said most of the other brand name products don't work very well. I thought it'd be worth a try and from what I could tell it really works and I haven't seen any ants since. I looked it up on Amazon and they get very high reviews for all of their products. It's a 5% solution of borax in sugar syrup. It takes a lot for a person to get sick (since we weigh so much more than ants) so it's relatively safe. The ants take it back to the colony and within days it kills the whole colony and queen.

We don't have any more ants at our house since we used it and it seems very effective. Of course the best defense is to promptly clean all dishes, trays, and counters to leave nothing available. But when they come, this is an effective, safe, and cheap way of controlling ants. Just another way to keep a clean kitchen pest free!

Blanching

2010-05-08T12:32:00.000-07:00

Blanching is a technique of cooking vegetables in boiling water for a short time to preserve structure. Most people make the mistake of overcooking vegetables, causing it to turn soggy and brown.

So how do you blanch?
1. Boil a pot of water.
2. Put vegetables in water.
3. Wait until it turns bright green and wait 30 more seconds. (about 1.5 minutes is good)
4. Remove from water and rinse under cold water.
5. (I like to sprinkle salt to add flavor before serving)

What are good vegetables to blanch?
asparagus, green beans, spinach, broccoli and cauliflower

What shouldn't you blanch?
corn, potatoes...anything that should be soft. Rule of thumb is blanching is ideal for green veggies.

Lid covered or open?
don't close the lid. It should be able to vent out the acids and other compounds into the air to keep it green. By preventing the acids from escaping, it builds up in the water and attack the chlorophyll.

What happens when you boil vegetables longer?
the cell structure breaks down too much and goes from firm and tender to mushy. Next the Mg in the center of the chlorophyll escapes and is replaced by H+, causing it to turn from green to brown. During the minute and half of boiling, the chloroplasts near the surface burst and release the green pigment across the tissue, making it bright green. The chlorophyll begin initial breakdown and the alkaline substances dissolve out, removing the bitter and grassy taste. All it takes is a minute and half of boiling to drastically change the taste of broccoli.

Why rinse it in cold water?
there is still lots of residual heat which continue to cook and break down the vegetables. Sometimes it looks great off the pan, but by the time you serve it, the color changes to brown.

Hybrid/Speed Roasting

2010-04-24T10:19:00.000-07:00

This is a really simple idea on the surface. I just wrote up my thought process to explain why it should work well.

There are compromises for everything in life -- you can't have it all. I love the speed of microwave, but don't like the results. I love the juiciness & tenderness from slow roasting, but want something faster.

.....what if we could get the benefits from both methods?

We start with meat from the fridge at around 40F and I like to finish at 130-145F (rare to medium/medium-rare). We have roughly a 100F difference from start to finish. Physiological temperature is around 100-102F for most livestock. We know that it naturally exists at that temperature and so anything at that temperature or below will not exhibit any "cooked" qualities. In fact, we know that collagen in meat doesn't break down into gelatin until 120F. So both methods, in theory, should produce similar quality until 120F. From 120F on, the meat cooked in the oven is far superior.

You can heat meat in the microwave and get it to 100F using a rough formula of 1-2 min/lb on high power. You may have to experiment with your microwave to see what setting/cooking time works best for you and depending on the cut of meat/surface area. Transfer the meat to an oven and finish it off. Depending on the thickness and shape of the meat and type of microwave, there could be a lot of variation so try it out and see what works for you.

Afterwards, insert a meat thermometer and measure the temp. Keep microwaving until it gets to about 100F in the core. The outer edge could turn a bit brown and that's ok. I really like using the kind below. They go for about $13 at Walmart and you can place the probe in the meat while in the oven and monitor the display on the outside as it roasts in the oven.

I am planning on posting a tri tip recipe soon using this method to illustrate it's use. It works best for cuts like tri tip because it's flat. Thick, round cuts are harder to heat in the center. I found that I cut my cooking time in half with just a few minutes of work.

Beef Barley Soup pt.2

2010-03-27T17:44:00.000-07:00

Quick Look_______________

Here's my version of vegetable beef barley soup. We served 15 gallons at the a2f snow trip last year. This recipe is a quick and easy and mimics a long slow boiled soup by using gelatin.

Prep time: 10-15 minutes
Cook time: 1-1.5 hrs
Difficulty: Easy
Labor Intensity: You can do on your own very easily!
30 servings, adjust by 1.5x if your group tends to eat multiple servings.

Ingredients_______________

11lbs sirloin tip, sirloin, or tri tip (could use chuck or brisket -- add 45 minutes to boil time)
1/2 cup soy sauce
5 onions
16 cubes beef bouillon cube(enough for 1 gallon broth) -- add more to taste if necessary
1/2 gallon chicken broth (or equivalent bullion cube mixture)
2.5lbs frozen mixed vegetables
1 bunch celery
1/2 cup gelatin
1.5 lbs dried barley
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
Salt as needed.
4 (28) ounces cans chopped stewed tomatoes

Directions_______________

Start boiling water, reduce to low heat once it starts boiling.
Cut meat into 1/2 inch cubes (if necessary) and add to water
Fry onions until translucent and add to water.
Add bullion cubes, celery, pepper, chopped stewed tomatoes, soy sauce, mixed vegetables, barley and bay leaves (everything but gelatin) to water
Boil until the meat is very tender (usually 1 hour on high).
Dissolve gelatin in some cold water and wait a few minutes and add to soup.
Season with salt and pepper to taste.
(Pearl barley will absorb the liquid and expand a lot, so don’t add more than you need.)

Tom's Tips and Tricks_______________

This is as simple as it gets. Just toss everything into a stockpot, get it boiling (this takes the longest), reduce heat to a simmer --watch out so it doesn't flow over and burn, and let it simmer.

You could substitute beef broth, but bullion tends to be cheaper.

What's different about this recipe?

I changed the beef broth to a beef/chicken broth mixture. It lightens the flavor and compliments it very well. There's added depth to the soup in this ratio.
I used gelatin for the rich mouth feel (see prior entry). It really adds a nice richness to the soup- add more if desired.
I added soy sauce for a more savory soup.
I pan fried the onions to carmelize them instead of just throwing it into the water.
I used a more tender cut (which is more expensive, but saves an hour of time). You can use a cheaper cut on sale if you like and just boil it on it's own a little longer until tender.

[Possible side dish] Serve with french bread slices

Gelatin

2010-03-13T21:20:00.000-08:00

One secret to good soup is gelatin. As the tough connective tissue in meat (collagen) denatures, it forms gelatin and becomes tender. This gelatin leaks out into the surrounding liquid and enhances it -- It contributes a mouthfeel of richness and is often used as a healthy fat substitute (gelatin is just denatured glycine-rich, triple-helix protein strands -- I know I'm nerding out).

A soup that has been slow cooked for a long time will have tender meat as well as a gelatin rich base. When you open a can of good soup, it may appear thick and gelatinous (like jello) but becomes thin once you heat it. Another example is the jelly found in the bottom of Spam. What if we want to mimic the quality of a good soup but not spend all day cooking? Why not just add unflavored gelatin to soup, gook, or jigae? -- Do NOT add flavored JELLO!

So what does it taste like? It doesn't really change the flavor, but makes it feel less water-y and more substantial. A gelatin rich soup sits well in your stomach and gives you that warm comfortable feeling. I debuted a recipe at the A2F snow trip last year and after playing in the snow, this beef barley soup was really popular (I made 15 gallons!)

You can purchase packets at Safeway or you can buy a 16oz can for about $10 at smart and final. I'll post recipes using gelatin in the future -- keep an eye out for them!

Knife Honing

2010-03-02T19:19:00.000-08:00

Knife honing does 2 things: it keeps the blade flat and straight. A knife should be sharpened as needed (about every 6 months or so). Ideally, a knife should be honed before every use. Over time the blade dulls and becomes misaligned. Honing a knife is not the same as sharpening, which applies a new edge. Honing just maintains that edge. It appears sharper because a straight edge cuts better.

Some people say diamond dust coated and ceramic steels sharpen knives. My opinion on this -- yes and no. You use a coarse sandpaper to remove paint. Fine sandpaper will not take off much paint but rather smooth it out. Ceramic and diamond steels are so fine that they really just polish off the blade rather than take off enough steel to sharpen. It does sharpen technically, though very little. I personally think a rougher ceramic, like a coffee cup, will sharpen much more effectively.

Unfortunately a honing steel isn't always available. Another option is to use the spine of another knife as a steel. Basically, use the thick and blunt end of another knife and run your blade over it as a steel.

Knife Sharpener

2010-02-11T22:12:00.001-08:00

One of the most frustrating things is cutting with a dull knife. I wouldn't write with a very dull pencil so why do I cook with a dull knife. I think most people are too intimidated by knife sharpening but it's really easy. Here's a quick way to sharpen knives using the unglazed, rough bottom of a common coffee mug:

The reason this works is because ceramic is harder than steel. Diamond is 100 on the hardness scale and cheap steel is about 50-60. Good, expensive steel is about 60-70. Ceramic (like the kind on your coffee cup) is about 85. This means that ceramic will actually scrape steel off your knife. It's like sharpening a pencil by shaving off a new edge. The gray material that forms on the cup is actually fine particles of steel being shaved off.

Like sharpening a pencil...

My take on this -- It actually works. I've done the knives at NL and they really are sharper. Good knives will maintain sharpness for a long time while cheaper knifes will require it more often. It's not as precise as using a whetstone with different grits. For an expensive/quality knife, I would take it to a skilled professional to make sure it's done right. For an average dull knife about 10 swipes each side will do nicely every once in a while. Just keep it parallel to the table and keep the blunt end lifted at about 20-30 degree angle and swipe it across the bottom of the cup. If gray marks appear, you're doing it right. It can't replace professional sharpening -- true sharpening has more steps and creates a smooth, sharp, and polished edge.

In what circumstance would I do this? On the fly cooking at someone's house and I don't have access to proper tools and want a sharp knife. When visiting family and they have DULL knives and I want to do something nice for them. I do this to my steak knives instead of taking out the full sharpening tool set. It actually works wonders on scissors. Spread the blades open and take each blade and swipe against the angle (sharpen only the existing sharp edge). My kitchen shears and the scissors at my work desk are very sharp now.

The next post will discuss honing a knife using a steel.

Beef Barley Soup pt.1

2010-02-10T18:04:00.000-08:00

Quick Look_______________

Vegetable beef barley soup is easy to make and great for a filling, hearty snack/meal. It's perfect for a post bible study snack or a camping/snow trip. We served this at the a2f snow trip last year. Here's an easy, classic recipe. This soup cooks for about 2-3 hours; the next post will feature a recipe that takes 1 hour with similar results.

Prep time: 10-15 minutes
Cook time: 2-3 hrs
Difficulty: Easy.
Labor Intensity: You can do on your own very easily!
30 servings, adjust by 1.5x if your group tends to eat multiple servings.

Ingredients_______________

8 pounds beef (brisket, chuck, cross rib)
2 cup barley
4 bay leaves
12 carrots, chopped
12 stalks celery, chopped
4 large onion, chopped
4 (16 ounce) package frozen mixed vegetables
2 gallons water
16 cubes beef bouillon cube(enough for 1 gallon broth) -- add more to taste if necessary
1/4 cup white sugar
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
4 (28) ounces cans chopped stewed tomatoes

Directions_______________

Cut meat into 1/2 cubes (if necessary)
Add water, beef bullion cubes, sugar, pepper, chopped stewed tomatoes and bay leaves
Boil the meat until very tender (usually 2.5 hours on high).
- - - -
Add barley, carrots, celery, onion, and frozen mixed vegetables during the last hour of cooking.
Discard bay leaves.
Season with salt and pepper to taste.
(Pearl barley will absorb the liquid and expand a lot, so don’t add more than you need.)

Tom's Tips and Tricks_______________

This is as simple as it gets. Just toss everything into a stockpot, get it boiling (this takes the longest), reduce heat to a simmer --watch out so it doesn't flow over and burn, and let it simmer for about 1.5 hours. Toss in the rest of the ingredients.

You could substitute beef broth, but bullion tends to be cheaper.

[Possible side dish] Serve with french bread slices

Teriyaki Tri-tip Wraps

2010-02-03T19:48:00.000-08:00

Quick Look_______________

This recipe comes from Matt Chan, a Junior in acts 2 fellowship (one of our Berkeley college groups at Gracepoint Fellowship). He made this for some sophomore and junior guys one night and emailed me this. If you have a recipe you liked from hotspot or home group, email me. (It may take a while for me to respond and test it out depending on how busy we get).

Prep time: 30 minutes
Cook time: ~30 mins
Difficulty: Easy.
Labor Intensity: Easy enough to do on your own
30 servings, adjust by 1.5x if your group tends to eat multiple servings.

Ingredients_______________

12 Pounds Tri-tip (~$3/lb)
2 bags of the 30 small corn tortillas
1 bag frozen corn
2 can diced tomatoes
2 onion
1.5 cups teriyaki sauce
1/2 cup honey bbq sauce
3 TB lemon juice
2 TB salt
2 tsp black pepper
2 tsp cayenne pepper or paprika
1/4 cup hot sauce (Any kind, I personally used some louisiana hot sauce)

Directions_______________

Take Tri-tip and place on cutting board lean side up. Take a knife and cut 1/8" thin slices into the meat, making sure to stop right before the fatty side. By the time you are done, the tri tip should look layered, but still held together by the fatty side.
Mix the teriyaki, honey bbq, salt, pepper, black pepper, lemon juice and hot sauce together and spread over the tri-tip, making sure to get into the crevices that you just made.
Put glazed tri-tip into fridge for 1-2 hrs.
--
Pre-heat oven to 425 degrees.
Take out glazed tri-tip and put into oven FAT side up! The layered side should be facing down.
Broil for a few minutes until golden brown, watch out so that it doesn't burn! (you can broil at the beginning or the end of roasting)
Let the tri-tip cook for ~30 minutes
As it cooks, dice the onion and boil the corn.
Heat the corn tortillas. (pan fry with a little oil if you can)
Take out the tri-tip, cover with foil wrap and let sit for at least 10minutes.
After 10 minutes, remove foil, flip the tri-tip over, slice and serve

New Template

2010-01-05T17:34:00.001-08:00

I thought it was time to update the template and I liked the look of this one. Enjoy!

Happy New Year!

2010-01-01T10:37:00.000-08:00

Happy 2010 from Dishgracepoint!

In the works....

2009-12-27T23:07:00.000-08:00

There's always lots to do here at Gracepoint Berkeley and I tend to juggle different ideas/topics in my head about future posts, but I never really get the time to really develop them. I thought it might be nice to post what I'm currently thinking about and you can submit feedback through comments.

1. Formula or chart for roasting. The #1 question I get through text msg, emails, and phone calls goes something like this: "how long should I cook a 10lb roast and at what temp?" A lot of times it's a guess or I draw back to a time when I done something similar and I realize how useful posting information like this could be. It's kinda tricky and there are so many things to account for. I've been wrapping my brain on this one for a couple of months.

2. Turkey write up. I've been wanting to post turkey stuff and what I learned this past thanksgiving. Still need to get around to this.

3. Turkey/chicken suspension system. I'm thinking of a novel approach to roasting turkey. I'm taking a few existing products and incorporating some theories to produce some juicy birds. Preview: I'm thinking of doing a reverse rotisserie.

4. Injections and seasonings. A new experiment I want to try is the efficacy of milk injections into beef to maintain juciness in medium to well done roasts

5. New recipes. I have some stuff backlogged but it's been lower priority lately. I'm looking into some tri-tip recipes, smoke infused meat, gelatin injected meat, salads, dressings, roasts.

Merry Christmas

2009-12-25T14:52:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas from Dishgracepoint! Whether you're in Berkeley or back home, we hope you are enjoying this time with friends and family.

DIY Martinelli's

2009-11-24T13:34:00.000-08:00

Here's a quick and easy recipe:

Whenever we get together for the holidays it's nice to have a bottle of Martinelli's. The only problem is that it's not too practical for a large gathering. It's kinda pricey and there's only 3 cups in each bottle. Why not make your own?

Go to the freezer section and get a can of frozen apple juice concentrate - the kind you add 3 cans of cold water to. It's about $1-2 on sale. Buy enough seltzer water, sparkling water, or club soda. It should be about $1 for a 2liter. Thaw the frozen concentrate until it's a thick syrup and chill the carbonated water. Mix together and serve immediately.

The nice thing about this is that you're not limited to apple. You can try cranberry or a mixture like cranberry and apple, apple peach, cranberry pomegranate...etc by mixing syrups. I would not recommend carbonated orange juice -- I doubt it'll be good.

If you want the authentic Martinelli's experience, you can add cider mix to make sparking cider.

Turkey - Dry Brining

2009-11-19T13:20:00.000-08:00

At Dish Gracepoint, we're all about streamlining and saving time/work. Brining is great, but it adds extra steps (and it's a bit messy). Jim Kwak sent me this article on dry brining and in theory it's an excellent technique: http://www.latimes.com/theguide/holiday-guide/food/la-fo-calcook18-2009nov18,0,6560622,full.story. You could do this in about 5 minutes.

Application:

Unwrap the frozen turkey (at least 3 days before use), you probably want to do this as soon as you get it.
Measure 3/5 tsp salt per lb turkey. (a 15lb turkey would be 3 tablespoons).
Measure about 1/4 tsp dry herb/seasoning per lb (15lb turkey = 1.5 tablespoon).
Mix salt & herbs in a bowl and rub onto the turkey. It'd be nice to get the herbs under the skin, but you can just rub it on the outside of the skin to save time.
Double bag 2 large trash bags and place the turkey in the bags.
Try to seal the bag as best as you can (to prevent juice from leaking into fridge)
Thaw in fridge for 3 days or so. Rotate the turkey once or twice during this time.
When the turkey is fully thawed, it will be seasoned/brined from center to skin.

I personally like an herb mix called Poultry Seasoning. You can pick it up at Safeway. It's a mix of Thyme, Sage, Marjoram, Rosemary, Black Pepper and Nutmeg.

Turkey - how to carve

2009-11-18T19:43:00.000-08:00

It's pretty simple, but for someone who's never done it before it may seem intimidating. Here's the first result I found on google. It gives a quick visual on how to do it.

Turkey - brining

2009-11-18T18:09:00.000-08:00

Brining is a good way to make a juicy turkey. I personally like to inject saturated salt-milk solutions into the meat, but brining is a classic/proven method of adding flavor and juciness. Here are some tips on brining your bird:

1 turkey, about 12 pounds

The brine:

1 cup sugar
1 1/2 to 1 3/4 cups kosher salt
2 1/2 gallons cold water

(the ingredients below are optional, but add a nice touch)

2 bay leaves, torn into pieces
1 bunch fresh thyme
1 head of garlic, cloves separated and peeled
5 whole allspice berries, crushed

To prepare the brine:

Remove giblet bag from turkey, along with any extra internal fat and pin feathers.
Rinse well under cold tap water.
Combine sugar, salt and 3-4 quarts of the cold water in a large bowl. Stir until sugar and salt dissolve. Add remaining brine ingredients except for the remaining 1 1/2 gallons water.
Use a special brining bag or double-bag two heavy-duty, unscented trash bags and put them in an ice chest that is large enough to hold the turkey.
*you can also use a large stockpot if it fits - just keep this in the fridge
Place turkey in bags, pour in brine and remaining 1 1/2 gallons water - there should be enough liquid to completely cover the bird.
Press out air in bags; tightly close each bag separately.
Keep turkey cold with bags of ice, which will also help keep it submerged in the brine.
Brine for 12-24 hours.

Thanksgiving recipes

2009-11-18T15:16:00.000-08:00

Every so often I hear about so and so's "famous ____."If you have a good thanksgiving (or just any) recipe you'd like to share, email me at tomkim@gpmail.org and I'll post it.

BTW -- it doesn't need to be an original recipe. If you use a recipe from allrecipes.com or something that's fine too. Just as long as you been using it successfully and can vouch that it's good.

Braised Turkey

2009-11-18T14:31:00.000-08:00

Quick Look_______________

This post comes from Jim Kwak. Braised Turkey based on Mark Bittman's NY Times recipe published: November 12, 2008. In order to soak the turkey, it's cut into pieces. Braising is a good way to cook evenly and get juicy meat.

Prep time: 30 minutes
Cook time: 3 hrs
Difficulty: Easy
Labor Intensity: Could do by yourself
10 servings, adjust by 1.5x if your group tends to eat multiple servings.

Ingredients_______________

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 pound Italian sausage, cut into 2-inch pieces
1/4 pound bacon, cut into 1/2-inch dice [optional]
4 turkey thighs
Salt and black pepper
1 turkey breast, boned to yield 2 halves
1 ounce (more or less) dried mushrooms [porcini or shiitake work best]
1/2 pound carrots, peeled and diced
1/2 pound celery, trimmed and diced
1 large onion, sliced
Several sage leaves and/or rosemary
Stock or water as needed [2 cans of stock recommended]

reference:http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/12/dining/12mini.html?_r=1&ref=dining
video:http://video.nytimes.com/video/2008/11/12/dining/1194832745140/braised-turkey.html?scp=3&sq=turkey&st=cse

Directions_______________

Rub salt and pepper into turkey.
In a large skillet over medium heat, heat olive oil.
Add sausage, bacon and as many thighs as will fit comfortably, skin side down
Brown all well, removing bacon first(it will brown first), then sausage; set aside.
Turn thighs when they are well browned and cook a minute on skinless side. Remove them, too, and repeat with remaining thighs if necessary. Add breast to pan and brown it well, skin side down, then flip and cook for just a minute and remove. Set pan aside.
Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Soak mushroom in hot water and cover.
In pan used for turkey, cook carrots, celery, onions, sage and rosemary in leftover fat.
When all vegetables are tender and beginningto brown, add drained mushroom, reserving liquid. Return bacon and sausage to pan. Cook another minute and turn off heat.
In a large roasting pan, place turkey, browned side up
Fill space between turkey with vegetables. Add mushroom soaking liquid, leaving any sand and grit behind.
Add stock or water as needed to come about 3/4 the way up sides of thighs and breasts, or just under the browned skin.
Put in oven and roast, uncovered, for 3 hours, checking occasionally to make sure liquid level remains sufficiently high and stirring vegetables if they threaten to brown too much.
To serve, put vegetables on a platter; slice turkey and lay them on top.

Turkey Q/A - fresh/frozen

2009-11-17T16:11:00.000-08:00

Is there a difference between fresh and frozen turkey?

I don't have a definitive answer on this one, but our house made fresh and frozen turkeys in the past and we think the fresh turkey is juicier and more tender. However, when done right, it's hard to tell the difference between the two. It's more important to not mess up the turkey rather than the type you get. Since frozen tends to be much cheaper, I get frozen.

Tip: Make sure you give enough time to fully defrost or you might have to resort to this: http://www.disgracepointonline.org/2008/11/dishgracepoint-recipe.html

5 hrs/lb is a minimum for thawing a turkey in the fridge. If you are cooking for this Sunday, Thursday would probably be the absolute latest for thawing.

30mins / lb is a minimum for thawing by submerging in cold water. Replace the water every 30 mins. It'll take about 8hours on average with this method.

Turkey Q/A - how many people

2009-11-17T15:59:00.001-08:00

I've been getting this question often in the past few days:

Q:"How many people can a turkey feed?"

A:For a co-ed college group: I'd do 1-1.5lbs/person (depending on how much you eat)

For praxis/post-grads: I'd do 1lb/person

Does this sound like a lot? A turkey has lots of bone/skin/fat and other non-meat portions to it. In my experience with cooking whole chicken, I usually do 1.5lbs per person.

For a second opinion, check out the bottom right corner of http://www.butterball.com/en/index.jsp -- they suggest 1lb/person and 1.5lb/person for big eaters. I would err on the side of too much cause it's nice to have leftovers instead of running out.

Also keep in mind how much side dishes you are making when you estimate the food. My experience is there are bags and bags of leftovers taken home in gallon ziplocks

---Again, this is true if the turkey is good. A dry, bland turkey might be closer to 0.5lb-0.75/lb (child size portions)---

Turkey!

2009-11-17T15:12:00.000-08:00

Here's the post that Tim So wrote a year ago.

http://www.dishgracepoint.com/2008/11/turkey.html

Peaches and Cream Pie

2009-11-12T19:19:00.000-08:00

Quick Look_______________

The following recipe comes from David Dip. The holiday season is quickly approaching and with family gatherings and other special dinners it's nice to have good desserts. This recipe was used for many potlucks and has been a hit evertime. It doesn't seem too difficult from the look of it.

Prep time: 20 minutes
Cook time: 30 minutes
Difficulty: Easy
Labor Intensity: Could do by yourself.
1 pie = 8 servings?

Ingredients_______________

3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 (3 ounce) package non-instant vanilla pudding mix
3 tablespoons butter, softened
1 egg
1/2 cup milk
1 (29 ounce) can sliced peaches in heavy syrup, drained and syrup reserved (you can buy peaches in lite syrup too, but don’t buy the peaches in syrups flavored from other fruits)
1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese or Neufchatel cheese, softened
1/2 cup white sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Total: fairly cheap, you should have mostr ingredients already.

Directions_______________

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease sides and bottom of a 10 inch deep-dish pie pan.
In a large mixing bowl (bowl #1), whisk room temperature butter until it’s has a smooth consistency. Then mix in flour, baking powder, and pudding mix. Mix together to get a semi-homogeneous mixture.
In another mixing bowl (bowl #2), use a hand mixer or a whisk to beat cream cheese or Neufchatel until ‘fluffy’ (to a smooth consistency is fine). Then beat in sugar and 3 tablespoons of the peach syrup. The syrup makes the mixture more liquid-y and easier to mix. Then mix in 1 tsp of ground cinnamon.
Mix together ½ cup of milk and 1 egg and pour into bowl #1. Mix together by folding the dry ingredients over the wet ingredients. Don’t over-mix; lumps are okay.
Pour contents of bowl #1 into pie pan and place peach slices on top of this in any arrangement you want. Then pour contents of bowl #2 into the pie pan making a concentric inner circle with a radius of 1 inch smaller than the pie pan. (so the outer crust can rise and brown)
Top it off with a sprinkle of ground cinnamon.
Bake in preheated oven for 30 to 35 minutes, or until golden brown. Let cool before serving

Tips and Tricks_______________

I usually make double this portion at one time, so I like to have a mixture of cream cheese and Neufchatel.
The original recipe had ½ tsp of salt, but I don’t think it adds to the flavor. It might even turn out too salty if you don’t take into account types of salt. So I just don’t add it all.
I like to microwave my cheese for 10-15 seconds in the microwave to soften it up before beating.
Instead of using a whole 29 ounce can of peaches for one pie, I usually split the can amongst 2 pies or use a 16 ounce can per pie instead.

Dish Gracepoint Recipe Requests

2009-09-06T21:46:00.000-07:00

I run into the problem of having to put up new content on a regular basis and sometimes I feel tapped out. I'm not sure whatelse I could post about.... so if there is a recipe you want to see posted then leave a comment and let me know. I'll look up different recipes and put in some modifications or improvements when possible and then post it. I'm currently thinking about different types of salads and dressings as my next project.

Easy prep pulled pork

2009-08-06T00:02:00.000-07:00

Quick Look_______________

This post is special to me because it's my signature dish. This recipe is an update of another recipe. It follows the same principles behind my 8-hour bbq sauce and the process has been streamlined to require very little work. You can use the same cooking time and temperature for 4lbs or 40lbs! Recently, it's been used for various home worship groups this summer at Gracepoint Fellowship Church and as far as I know it produced good results with ease everytime.

Prep time: 20 minutes
Cook time: 8 hrs
Difficulty: Easy
Labor Intensity: Could do by yourself, would help to have some people to help shred meat.
30 servings, adjust by 1.5x if your group tends to eat multiple servings.

Ingredients_______________

15-18 lb Pork shoulder/country style ribs/pork butt (all the same cut with different names) [$1-$1.49/lb on sale at safeway, Costco is a good source]
3 cups brown sugar
8 cups BBQ sauce [I STRONGLY RECOMMEND "Cattlemen smoky", $10 for a 2-pack at costco]
1/4 cup tabasco or other hot sauce (add to taste, optional) (I personally use 3 tablespoons Korean red pepper paste)
48 Buns [12 pack for $2 at smart and final or costco, I think costco quality is a bit higher] or you can use 60 slices of white bread (4-5 loaves of bread)
Total: about $45.00

Directions_______________

If meat is a large pork shoulder roast, cut into 4-8 pieces. Each piece should be no taller than 4 inches. I would make softball size cuts.
Put meat in aluminum tray and pour sauce over meat. Rather than a large roast, it should be many smaller pieces 1/2 submerged in sauce.
*I would double stack the tray - they tend to bend and spill
Turn the oven to 275F and place in oven at midnight.
Take out of oven around 8 am.
Transfer meat to another tray and pour liquid into a large stockpot.
Add brown sugar (and hot sauce) to the stock pot and heat on med-high.
With 2 forks tear meat to large, coarse pieces (should be about 1/2-1 inch thick like picture above)
*don't over shred meat, it will shred even more when mixing with sauce and you get fine shreds that feel like mush.
*you can slice the meat into 1/8 inch slices instead for better texture.
Turn off stove when sauce is sufficiently thick (I usually cook for about 30-45 mins, stop when it is original thickness of the sauce). Stir occasionally to prevent burning on the bottom. Add more sugar to taste. (up to 1-2 cups more)
Skim off oil from the top of the sauce and discard. It's easier to do it at the end when the sauce is thicker.
Mix meat and sauce and serve. You can cover with foil and place in 170F oven for a few hours until ready to serve.

Tom's Tips and Tricks_______________

It's important that the meat is surrounded by liquid (it's the medium through which heat transfers - dry heat vs moist heat). During the cooking process about 25-30% of the water leaves the meat (average cooking loss). This means about 4-5lbs or about 8-10 cups of water ( broth, collagen/gelatin) which end up in the sauce. By boiling it off, you regain the original thickness with the pork flavor conserved in the sauce.

DO NOT USE BULLS EYE OR SUGAR BASED SAUCE. This recipe is centered around a vinegar based sauce. Cattlemen is one of the few vinegar based sauces that works with this technique. I may soon post another entry on how to use sugar based sauces (Kansas City style BBQ sauces)

DO NOT ADD SUGAR TO SAUCE BEFORE GOING IN THE OVEN. The sugar raises the solute concentration and the resulting osmotic pressure forces more water out of the meat, making it dry. That's why sugar is added after the meat is taken out.

Don't over shred meat, when you mix around the sauce it tends to fall apart more. Keep it coarse and do more shredding just prior to serving if necessary. I actually recommend slicing the meat instead.

If the meat is not tender after 8 hours, raise the oven to 400F and cook for up to 1 hour or so (should not be necessary).

You can use bone in or boneless pork shoulder. They both work equally well for this dish

If you have the stovetop space, I usually pour the liquid to 2-3 pots and have them both on med-high to high. This way you utilize the heat from 2 burners and it should drastically reduce the time to reduce the liquid.

Be careful when taking out the tray! I have splattered sauce on myself too many times to count. Hold the tray by the bottom or ladle the liquid into the stockpot

[Possible side dish] chicken salad, corn bread, potato wedges