Cooking up 5-star tasting food at minimal cost in money, energy, time

I have made important strides forwards in the art of cooking in the past few weeks.

I have figured out how to produce five-star restaurant or five-star hotel type taste, while at the same time minimizing the amount of money expended (using inexpensive ingredients), minimizing the amount of time and energy expended (simplification), and not bothering with referring to any recipes.

My first success was:

Meat ingredient: boneless steak from Whole Foods, on sale at $6 per pound.

Marinade ingredients: curry leaves, crushed red pepper, tamarind brick, clarified milk made from buffalo milk;all mixed up in a blender.

I chopped up the meat into approx 3/4 inch by 3/4 inch cubes. I mixed up the meat in a bowl with the marinade. I let the meat sit in the marinade for 1-48 hours. I put the marinated pieces of meat shish-kabob style on a skewer (long stick-like sharp pointed thing). I turned on the gas flame on the oven and cooked the meat directly over the gas flame for about 5 minutes per piece of meat. I then mixed the cooked meat with a little clarified butter made from Buffalo milk and ate it, sprinkling some sea salt on it.

My second success was:

Meat ingredient: boneless london broil steak, on sale from Hannaford for $1.89 per pound.

Marinade ingredients: fresh coriander leaves, small very hot-flavored green peppers from the Indian store, crushed red pepper, cayenne powder, Jamaican all-spice berry powder, pitted dates, sea salt, tamarind brick, clarified butter made from Buffaloe's milk, 'liquid smoke'.

The process of cooking this second time was the same as described above, only this time I found that sprinkling some fresh lime juice using a piece cut from a lime on to the finished product is also tasty.

The main difference this second time was the pitted dates in the marinade which I felt was a good addition.

This second time I felt that the use of the powdered Jamaican all-spice in the marinade, was a mistake. Seems dried powdered spices work well for grilling seafood (I saw a cook at Whole Foods do this), and for curries in which the dried powdered spices are intensely cooked for a long time. Dried powdered spices in a marinade however, penetrate into the meat and never get cooked as much as they should if a proper taste is to be produced.

However after the all-spice had been mixed with the marinade for at least 24 hours, seemed the allspice blended in real good and began to seem to be an honorable part of the marinade.

This second time I discovered that each skewer of meat can be cooked for as little as 3 minutes.

First time I tried this recipe, marinating the London Broil for just 1 hour seemed enough. Third time, 4 hours of marinade seemed insufficient, the meat being too hard to chew. Seems what happened, is that my teeth and gums got tired out the first time after the meat had been marinated for an hour; thus the third time, the meat being marinated for 4 hours seemed insufficient because my teeth and my gums had been worn out by chewing the meat (London Broil is relatively tough). I estimate as of now, that London Broil that is used with this marinade should be marinated for at least 24 hours. Then again you might be the type whose teeth and gums do no not get worn out by chewing meat that is relatively speaking slightly tough. Or mayb e the problem was that the most recent time, with the meat marinated for 4 hours, I was beginning to run out of marinade so had less to use per pound of meat.

To some extent I have second thoughts re the use of the clarified butter in the marinade; however, the fact remains that it is difficult to turn meats like boneless fatless meats into something that tastes like a five star restaurant produced food, yet I succeeded in the trick (without spending lots of time or energy or referring to cumbersome recipes) by employing the buffalo-milk clarified butter in the marinade.

I am indebted to Sasanka Chandra for discovering the clarified butter made from buffalo milk at the Apna Bazar (http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&safe=off&rlz=1T4GGLL_enUS300&num=100&um=1&ie=UTF-8&q=%22apna+bazar%22+waltham&fb=1&split=1&gl=us&view=text&latlng=16854212408803434689).

Apparently, despite the fact that reports indicate that the clarified butter made from buffalo milk is nutritionally and also taste-wise superior to clarified butter made from cow-milk: clarified butter made from buffalo milk is very difficult to find in America; and, people are so backwards in their attempts to be forwards, that in America the clarified butter made from buffalo milk is labeled as 'Desi' (translation: country, hicksville) clarified butter, with the fact that it is made from buffalo milk hidden from the public.

Sasanka and his father Pramod Chandra were able to discern that the 'Desi" clarified butter was actually clarified butter made from buffalo milk.

They were able to do this even though the clerk working at the store, did not know if the clarified butter was made out of cow milk or buffalo milk. Thus you have a real problem trying to tell the difference between clarified butter made from cow milk and clarified butter made from buffalo milk. Clarified butter made from buffalo milk tends to be yellower in color, smells different, and definitely tastes different. I guess what you might need is some South Asian type who can tell the difference between the two.

Strange, I always request tourists to bring clarified butter made from buffalo milk back to America for me when they return from their trips to India, and here we have those who produce clarified butter made from buffalo milk and sell it in the US, too embarrassed to admit that the clarified butter is made from buffalo milk not cow's milk.

There is some farm in the Boston area in Vermont or something that makes yogurt and milk made from Buffalo milk but they do not make clarified butter made from buffalo milk.



The remaining challenge is to somehow combine the marinade with grilled vegetables, so as to produce grilled vegetables and plenty of liquid sauce that are flavored similarly to the meat, and which can then be combined with rice for a tremendous dish. Problem is this marinade on the first try never lost its pasty texture, even when cooked in a pan.



Third Success story:

A desert people were very impressed by:

Grind up lots of pistachios. Mix pistachios, organic half and half, cane sugar, the flesh of one mango, and French vanilla ice cream. Serve, enjoy. Simple.

@2009 David Virgil Hobbs