The DON

As a bit of a 'leftover' from things gone past we still have over a hundred or so bottles of sherry that we cook with. And not that salted down cooking sherry, noooo, the good stuff. The stuff from Jerez Spain where Sherry comes from!

History of Sherry (by Wikipedia, edited even further by me)

Sherry is a fortified wine, made in and around the town of Jerez, Spain, and hence in Spanish it is called "Vino de Jerez". According to Spanish law, [1] Sherry must come from the triangular area of the province of Cádiz between Jerez, Sanlúcar de Barrameda, and El Puerto de Santa María.

Sherry differs from other wines because of how it is treated after fermentation. After fermentation is complete, it is fortified with brandy. Because the fortification takes place after fermentation, all natural sherries are dry; any sweetness is applied later. In contrast, port wine is fortified halfway through fermentation, stopping fermentation so not all the sugars are allowed to turn into alcohol and so leaving a sweet wine.

So I guess it would appear that we have 'the good stuff' as good as THAT can be at room temperature!



AND as stated in Beer Batter and Fish & Chips it makes a pretty darned good substitute for the beer in beer batter!

Beer Batter and Fish & Chips

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We like to think we know how to do Fish & Chips right...and I think we do! (we do it for 400+ in one meal) We have gotten many compliments from the UK crowd (and surrounding area experts) that it was great, and the mushy peas weren't to shabby either. We did, however, run out early this last time...apologies everyone.

You would probably be surprised to know that we use a fairly easy Beer Batter recipe which I will gladly disclose to you ~ Beer Batter ~ Credit to Allrecipes.com. This recipe basically has 5 ingredients that most people have in their home at the basic level.

Possible exceptions you can make to the recipe that we have tried with great success, and some are kind of 'Duh!' moments...

Add hot sauce, cayenne, and/or other spices

We actually successfully replaced the beer with Don 1 Sherry when we were hard pressed and running out of time to acquire beer...worked wonderfully! The hard sherry taste cooked out and left us with beautifully battered and tasty fried fish (no one knew the difference)

Add a splash or two of white vinegar to the batter, can't really explain it to you but it adds kind of a clean, clear, crisp taste to the finished product (best way I can describe it)

Use quality ingredients for batter & beer or beer substitute (and of course if at all possible, *TASTE to make sure!)

Don't forget to do some onion rings for yourself!

Some people have even been beer battering fries/chips for a while now, thats right, beer battered potato fries/chips!!!

Thin the batter down (or not) to do a mock tempura fried vegetables or meats

Beer batter actually does taste nasty before using it to batter and fry something (most of the time) - just in case you were wondering...after it fries properly its wonderful

It was made for frying, please DO NOT TRY to be healthy and bake some items that you beer battered, that is disrespectful!

And most importantly, have fun! (watch the slideshow in case you have trouble doing that)

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* No actual beer was consumed during the preparation of the beer batter. (some people would say unfortunately)

Remember Maggi?

Maggi Brand was started in Switzerland in 1863 and later bought by Nestle of the good ole U.S.A. Most people outside of the United States know more about the international bouillons and sauces of Maggi.

At another time and place I was using a general Maggi sauce (maybe it's the soy or stir fry seasoning one? Which didn’t actually have any soy sauce in it according to the company). We were going thru 5-gallon jugs of it! That was the way it came commercially to us.

If you miss that Maggi sauce taste and just can’t seem to acquire it in your hometown no matter where in the world you may be…I developed a recipe for it when we ran out and we needed a replacement. It goes as follows:

Maggi Sauce Replacement -
50% Soy Sauce
25% Worcestershire Sauce
25% Water

That's it. Of course,

the taste may vary for you if the brands of these items go from good to bad but if you can’t obtain the actual Maggi sauce these items are usually readily available worldwide.

Jennifer

This is Jennifer. She is 13 and came in for an operation on her upper thigh. She has this amazing smile that makes my heart melt every time.

This week I have had her on the days that her bandage needed to be changed. We gathered all our supplies and went to the ICU. We would go there so we could have more privacy, not for her bandage change, but for her concert that was about to start. As I would start to peel off the layers that are stuck to her thigh, she would choose the first song and belt it out. The first time she sang a myriad of Liberian gospel songs but yesterday she decided that it was Christmas Carol Day. So we sang Jingle Bells, We wish you a Merry Christmas, and many others all while I was changing her quite painful dressing.

Jennifer went home right before lunch and when she left she asked me "When I come back to get my plaster (bandage) changed, you come to sing with me?". I said I would try, and she gave me a huge smile and was on her way.

Soup Extract

It really depends on the taste of the soup extract but I have found the following good uses for this ‘almost never used or seen’ product which still comes in a variety of bottles and brands:

1. add equal amounts of water to soup extract and it can be used for soy sauce (or at least this brand taste really similar to soy sauce when we water it down)


2. excellent taste & color enhancer for Cajun style Dirty Rice


3. use for vegetarian French Onion Soup (use in place of flavoring from beef broth) it will be up to you to determine how much to use, this helps with the flavor and color but adds a lot of salt, so experiment for the right balance for you


4. great in gravies and sauces

What exactly is soup extract? My bottle says ‘water, vegetable extracts, salt’ in that order AND from the Internet, we find that most vegetable or soup extracts are used in a medical context for benefits physically.

Extracts from fruits and vegetables that contain fiber, vitamins, minerals, and other natural substances with antioxidant, lipid-lowering, and antiproliferative properties. Used in chemoprevention therapy, these extracts may prevent the development or recurrence of cancer ~ National Cancer Institute

…Just one of the many I have found, but there doesn’t really seem to be much info on soup extract in cooking terms.