On TVP Gyros, Sausages, and Burgers...
As below, I have been working on replicating foodstuffs. As Ashley is now mostly vegetarian and I still do most of the cooking, so I've had to adapt our meals. With that in mind, I've been working with meat analogs. I've tried seitan -and seitan is not "meaty" enough. The texture just isn't there. It's more spongy than meaty. So that one's off of the table [unless one of you have a good plan for making sietan not suck, please tell me...].
TVP
This brings us to TVP, or Textured Vegetable Protein. TVP is a registerd trademark of ADM [Archer Daniels Midland]. ADM is a giant agribusiness corporation that has been accused of price fixing lysine and citric acid in the early 90s [and subsequently fined $100 million, with a few corporate executives sent to prison for a few days -literally, a few days, like 10 days...]. Throw in violations of the Federal Clean Air Act, lobbying for the unfriendly [at least for real "family" farms] farm subsidies, lobbying for ethanol subsidies, among other things, and you have one of those evil megacorporations that you only hear about in movies. Google "ADM" and "clean air act", or "ethnanol", or "rainforest", or "slavery" and have a blast.
So TVP, a by-product of the soybean oil production process, made by high pressure extrusion, produced by an evil megacorp...And the greenies and veggies eat this stuff up [Morningstar burgers anyone?]...
*sigh*
I am against supporting this company...but, I like TVP...
So, moving on. TVP feels like meat in your mouth [...oh you!]. Therefore, for psuedo-vegetarians, like me who want, nay, NEED the meat, TVP is a godsend. At this stage I don't have any specific or exact recipes, but I can offer some guidelines for the effective use of TVP.
First of all, a lot of websites, internutters, bloggers, and vegetarians say to mix TVP with an equal, 1:1 ratio of water/stock to TVP.
Well, if you do that, you end up with a pile of not meaty, but warm mushy baby poop. So don't do that. Unless you have a baby poop fetish, in case have at it...
However, do mix TVP and water/stock at a ratio of 1:1/2 or 1:2/3 [for example 1 cup TVP to .5 cup of water]. This will give you some "bite" or "toothiness" to the TVP particles. I also add a few teaspoons of soy sauce to the liquid before mixing in the TVP. Soy sauce is sort of a "meat" flavor [Bragg's Amino Acid crap is essentially expensive unfermented soy sauce, but you could use that instead if that's your thing].
Another thing the internet meat substitute recipes seem to miss is fat. Seriously, some of these vegetarian recipes make no sense.
"Oh yeah, takes just like the real thing, just like a hamburger!".
Yet the product is made of black beans, carrots, mushrooms, and tofu. Now, don't get me wrong a bean burger can be good -as a bean burger, not a hamburger. However, the big thing that's missing is juicyness.
Juicyness
And where does juicyness come from in a hamburger or sausage patty? Fat, of course! And again a lot of these recipes have no or very little added fat. So, you want juicy fake meat, you gotta add fat. And don't be stingy with the fat. I add at least 2 tablespoons of oil per 1 cup dry TVP to my fake meat mixes. You can use whatever oil you want corn, soy, canola, "vegetable", sunflower, safflower, or whatever. The least amount of flavor in the oil, the better the results you'll get with your faux meat mixtures. Save the extra virgin olive oil for your salad dressings. Sure the calorie count goes up, but we are talking faux meat, not lo-cal entrees. So add the fat!
Meat Flavors
I am still working on this one, but I've got some good starts;
Add onion to all fake meat mixes. I often used dried flakes and/or powders.
Add soy sauce to the mixture.
Add oil to the mixture.
Use egg white(s) as a binding agent.
Hamburger: A little ground cremini/baby portabello mushrooms.
Sausage: Salt, crushed red pepper and sage. Sage is what makes sausage, "sausagey". More oil than ground beef.
Gyros Style Meat: Oregano, onion, garlic, and salt. Oregano seems to be the key flavor component of most gyros I've had. No curry powder.
by ill13/davids: 13-jan-2009
Lipton/Knorr Noodle Sides -Clone
So I've been kind of on a "replicate prepackaged/fast food" kick. One type of product that I've liked over the years is the noodle and/or rice side offered by Lipton, Knorr, and others. The convenience of dumping water and milk into a pot with a package of flavored noodle/rice is unbeatable. However, the excessive packaging [per serving size] and driving to the store to buy these things only when on sale, sucks.
So I've discovered a way to make them at home -and my version only adds maybe a minute or two to the prep time. The whole secret to the these products is simply *cornstarch*. For example, i'll do a "Garlic and Herb" version;
Ill's Noodle with Sauce Base
1.5 cups water
0.5 cups milk
1.0 cup egg nooodles [or 4 ounces, by weight]
1.0 tablespoon butter/margarine/oil [butter preferred for flavor, however the fat is really just for texture]
2.0 teaspoons of cornstarch
0.5 teaspoon salt [or to taste]
1] Combine all of the above in a pot on stove.
2] *Add your preferred flavorings.*[see below]
3] Cook on medium heat for 8-10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
4] Sauce will thicken on standing.
The above will make a saucy noodle base very similar to the Lipton/Knorr products.
To make this "Garlic and Herb" noodlyicious, at the "Add your preferred flavorings" step add;
0.5 teaspoon of garlic powder
0.5 teaspoon of dried parsley
-.- pinch of onion powder
-.- pinch of MSG/Accent [if you aren't afraid of it]
The "herb" in these recipes is generally just some dried green fluff. Like plain old dried parsley.
I've successfully made the Butter and Herb, Broccoli & Cheddar, Bacon & Cheddar, and Chicken flavors with this base recipe. One of the key things to remember is that only TINY amounts of "real" food are necessary to achieve the look and texture of the original product(s). For example, when making the broccoli version, finely mince only one floret. The bacon? Use one slice. For these kinds of projects, I highly recommend you buy the pre-cooked bacon for "non gourmet" uses, like quiches, beans and rice, sauces, etc. The time and clean up savings is fricken immense!
by ill13/davids: 17-dec-2008
Red Lobster
Went to Red Lobster in North Haven. I had been clamoring to go to a RL for my birthday for some years now, but the nearest one was in Bridgeport. However, on 08-dec-2008, a RL opened up in North Haven and a week later, we were there.
The service was great. As a new corporate store, the staff that wanted to be there were falling over each other to go a great job [or at least not get fired]. However, as it was busy, we were stuck sitting in the "last-resort tables" in the bar section. These tables also seem to be the "chew out/train the employee" section. A male waiter towards the latter end of 25-35 was being chewed out for some offense he caused, not but two tables over. After working a chain restaurant's grand opening [Hello, Domino's. Pickup or delivery?] when I was fifteen, I can recognize the type of manager required to police the new staff. Not a position I envy.
The food? Well, it's a chain and they are owned by the Darden Group -who also own Olive Garden and a few other chains. The food is...passable. The prices though? Not good at all -we ended up spending $55+tip on a meal that I could [and did] replicate in less time than driving there and getting service -and for less than $10 [well, add $6 for 2 glasses of wine]! On top of that, for that price we could have eaten at almost any restuarant in New Haven. But I *wanted* to go, and so we went!
by ill13/davids: 12-dec-2008
Some Pictures
Like the caption says...
Bunch o' pics. Will label later...umm...maybe
Again all images taken with my phone. Technology has come a long way. Now I have one little box that gives me GPS, the internet, a camera, an alarm clock, a DIVX player, an MP3 player, a c64/SNES/Genesis/Gameboy emulator, and a phone that fits in my pocket
it's fricken cool!
by ill13/davids: 22-oct-2008
Some B&W Pictures
All taken with my phone -an HTC Tytan II, otherwise known as the AT&T Tilt. Minus the rocky one [titled "The Baths" from BVI], that one was taken by my girlfriend's mom.
All images are from around downtown New Haven, CT [excluding the aformentioned rocky one]. The house one was taken from our Achilles in the New Haven Harbor. You can see the backside of this house/building from the Tomlinson Bridge on Water St. The SNET/SBC building was in the background, so I removed it.
The decrepit building is only accessible from the water. Unless you wanna climb some fences. Might have to go back for some more shots. Especially of the scary shiny purply-blue leaky substance leaching into the waters of the Quinnipiac River.
by ill13/davids: 22-oct-2008
Scott and Kate's Wedding/Trip to Maine
Some pictures of Scott and Kate, plus the wedding party.
It was a beautiful wedding. It was held in Thomaston, ME, at Scott's parents house. I got to catch up with a lot of people that I had not seen for years -and met some new friends too! We crashed in a nearby cabin, I believe the cabins were owned by friends of the family and loaned to the wedding party guests. It was a grand time with great people!
Dint take crap for pictures of Maine itself.
The last two shots are of the passenger rear tire of my Expo, one with a quarter for scale. After leaving Boothbay, ME. and going about 80 miles down 295, we hit a rolled up plug of metal that tore the crap outta my tire. So after some serious finagaling of a rusted 19mm bolt holding the doughtnut/spare underneath the car we got the spare off and mounted.
The time was about 4:30, the day was a Sunday, the spare was 15 years old and very low on air. We limp to the next exit, then meet some nice people in uhh...somewhere in Maine, named Freddy, Juliet, and Kathy who direct us first to the nearest gas station, for air in the spare, then to the the nearest Sears Auto Center for a replacement tire. Thanks, guys!
However...
It's now 5:06.
Sears Auto Center tire section has closed at five o'clock. We are told that they will open at 6:30am
Every other store that is tire related is also closed.
So we limp down Route 1 for another 150 miles [at less then 35 miles an hour], then check into a scary motel, just outside of Worcester, MA at about midnight [we have been on the road since 1:00am], then get up at 5:30am, and limp back to New Haven via a combination of Rte. 1, Rte. 169, Rte. 44, and Rte. 15, with us finally arriving in New Haven around 8:30am. Although we did consider just taking Rte. 1 all the way back, my 8125/HTC Wizard/MDA PDA phone with TomTom and GPS kept us from what would have surely been an arduous and untimely, yet pretty ride home.
So we are home...
Ashley gets ready for work.
However, she has a flat tire on her car.
We decide to go back to sleep.
by ill13/davids: 24-jul-2007
Ashley's Dinner
Like the caption says...
Was gonna make gravlax, but wasn't sure if the salmon was fresh enough [to cure? yeah, i don't know either].
by ill13/davids: 18-jul-2007
Mercedes for Sale 1986 190e $1200
Sigh...I gotta sell her.
So pretty!
Link to Craigslist listing
More photos on my website
by ill13/davids: Tuesday, July 17, 2007
No pics, but a freebie CMS added
Testing, testing, testing...
mic 1, mic 2, mic 1, mic 2...
can you bring the level up on mic 1?
Thanks!
by ill13/davids
Under the Bridge in New Haven, CT
These are a few of shots from under and around the Quinnipiac Bridge [now known as the Pearl Harbor Memorial Bridge]. The light was failing and all i had on hand was my cell phone, so forgive the poor quality of the shots.
According to some local patrons, it seems safe to launch small boats from this area, so i will try to do that later this week. I would love to explore up the Quinnipiac river, to glimpse the industrial grime and detritus that has built itself, layer upon layer upon her banks for the last 360 years.
Mebbe I should register my boat or something.
Nah...
by ill13/davids
The car, the boat, and the girl!
The boat is our little practice row boat, built in 2006.
The car is a 1992 Mitsubishi Expo SP AWD and she's a bit busted, but she does go forward and backward - her brakes seem to work too! However the right front strut is busted and the AC does not work [sight glass is empty].
The girl...Well...All i can say is that she's perfect.
Oh yeah, we took the little boat out with my Tanaka 3hp motor. I've decided the boat needs a keel, she is very "flighty" [or extremely maneuverable, depending on who you ask ;)]
by ill13/davids
1986 Mercedes 190e -Cracked Exhaust Manifold
The silver gunk is some crap I got off of the internet to repair cast iron cracks. It sort of works, in that tends to last around 4-5 days before blowing it self out. Probably because I didn't quite follow the instructions about grinding the edges of the crack. Well, hole really -about 3/4" high by 1/8" at its widest point.
Anyway, the interior of the car was cleaned a few days ago. Soon it will be sold on craigslist. Oh yeah, it's hard to read [well, impossible, actually] but the mileage is 213,135.
by ill13/davids
Tiny sailing punt
This is a small sailing punt that i saw in some place in CT. It's used for training kids to sail. I like the size and shape of this punt as it's short, but beamy. And, i can build one out of 2 or 3 sheets of plywood. After all this wedding/trip stuff is over, hopefully I'll have enough money to throw one together before the chilly bite of autumn gets me.
by ill13/davids
Mmmmmm...Food pics!
My homefries and eggplant parmigiana. One day I might even post some recipes. But really, right now I am just populating this page and testing CSS styling
by ill13/davids
Things in The Rain
Some things in the rain. Testing for triple inline images. Seems usable, however there are some spacing issues. Oh well.
by ill13/davids
Martini Flyer and Flowers
Some images that are not 320x240. The martini was for a flyer I was doing for BAR, dunno why it wasn't approved. I bought martini glasses and spray painted them with glass paint, built a light box and shot probably 75 pictures to get the shots i used.
The flowers were taken in LA a few years back when I first got my Canon GL-1 [which I still have and use weekly] I love dat thing.
Now why the heck are my image locations hosed? Oh well. Hey the email address no longer functions!
Meh! i'll fix it later.
by ill13/davids
Ho hum
how much luck is in your rainbow?
I like cheese and crackers -also reislings