Hello all! It’s Monday, let’s get into this week’s questions:
Jennifer asks
Can I cook the seasoned pork loin roast in the Crockpot?
Absolutely! There is nothing like setting your Crockpot on in the morning to come home with the mouthwatering aroma of a fully cooked meal. The only thing to worry about is the amount of fat in your roast. When you are buying the seasoned roast, it’s usually flavored by a marinade. Unfortunately, there is no extra marinade that you can add to the crock to ensure the meat stays moist.
The way to get around this is to add a bit of good fat to the crock with your vegetables and liquid. While your roast is cooking the fat in the pot will self-baste the meat and ensure that it remains tender. If you’ve ever eaten a stringy pot roast, you have suffered from a roast that is way too lean.
Which fats to add? If you are using a pork roast that is marinaded in a sweet marinade, then add a touch of coconut oil, butter, or chicken fat. If the marinade is a bit stronger, (such as an Asian style,) then you can add either olive oil, pork fat, or even sesame oil.
Darren asks:
Do I have to cut the lemons re: preserved lemons k I’ll take a look cause I’ve seen two different way, some say cut lemon into 1/4 wedges and some say cut them but leave attached etc..
I have a recipe for preserved lemons here. It’s really up to you how you want your lemons cut. I have seen the lemons peeled first, then chopped up, brined, then covered with vinegar.
I have always just cut them into quarters, but not all the way through. The reasoning for this – you can put the salt in the inside, and the salt in the outside will all melt together with the weight of the lemons as the vessel fills up. If the lemons are fully cut, then it is harder to get the liquid out of the lemons because there isn’t any weight pressing them down.
If speed is an issue, you can even use a Food Saver to suck out the air in the bag, which will speed up the pickling time.
Dawn asks:
how do they get the gelato so smooth? is it because of the lack of cream or the lack of milk? or is it in the amount of air in the mixture?
This is a tricky question – bear with me while I geek out for a second.
There are a few things that makes ice cream, sorbets, and gelati have a nice, smooth consistency. (Also known as mouth feel.) They are: crystals, fat, overrun, and stabilizers.
The quicker the ice cream freezes, the larger the ice crystals are in the final product. The factories slow the process by freezing the gelati on a large conveyor belt over a long period of time. While this is happening, it is being churned, which introduces air into the mixture. This is known as overrun.
The more fat there is in the base, the better the mouth feel. The thing is, gelati tend to have less fat than the American ice cream base. To get around this, traditionally the Gelaterie let the mixture cure for a while (usually overnight,) to allow the flavors to develop, and the sugars to bind to what little fats there are. Barring that, a stabilizer is usually added. (I am not sure what is in them, just that they are marketed as sorbet or ice cream stabilizer. Usually it’s agar agar, or something else made from a seaweed product.)
The problem with home made gelati is that the mixture is frozen quickly, without very much overrun. (Remember… air incorporated.) The flavors are be more intense, but as there isn’t as much air, it’s not as smooth. That’s also why your cost is more to make it at home than in the factory – you have less air!
How do we fix that? Make your mixture, allow it to “cure” overnight, and perhaps use a stabilizer to make it smoother. You will have to eat your creation within a few days so it won’t gather big ice crystals. I’m imagining that won’t be a problem though.
Do you have a question for me? You can contact me through the Ask the Chef! page, my Facebook Fan Page, myGoogle+ account, my YouTube Channel, or my Twitter account.