cookaburra

Thanks Ken That's a great suggestion. I'll definitely do that. BTW a bloke finally came and picked up our used oil the other day at no cost to us. Always value your advice Ken and love your website and services ou provide. Keep up the good work.

I cover the fryers at night with the cover that it came with which fits almost snug over the top. I wouldn't say they are airtight though. And also turn the temp down to about 140 degrees celsius(normally running at 180).I might try dropping it to about 90 degrees to extend the life a bit more. I run the cleaner fryer when not busy as the older one would deteriorate much faster I guess if it was running all day unnecessarily. I strain the oil when cold the next morning using "CHUX" cleaning wipes clipped to a chinois.

Wow that really makes sense now. Good points. I''ll have to dig out my old college notes to give myself a refresher course on all those sorts of formulae. That gives me a good way to work it out more precisely. Thank you. I'll have to monitor my oil usage over the coming months to give me a more precise figure of how much oil I go through. Obviously the more breaded items sold the sooner the change of oil. So I will also have a look at the distribution of sales to see if I notice any patterns.

I'm still yet to get it picked up. I didn't think to factor that into the cost. Good point

How much do you allow for when costing a recipe that uses the deep fryer to cook something. I am using Cottonseed oil at about AUS $39 for 20 Litre. As we are a new restaurant I have not had time to do think about monitoring my oil usage and wastage. I should start from now though. I have been putting in my Standard recipe Card about 30 cents per serve when calculating the cost of a dish that uses the deepfryer. As we are open all day ( though it is not that busy at the moment ) I have to have at least one fryer on from about 10.30am. But when it gets busier for Breakfasts that time will be a bit earlier. And when we get busier in the nights we will use much more oil too. Also does anyone know of any interesting forums or links that talk about the use and tips for maintaining your deepfryer and it's oil?

If the end bits become dried out a bit, I could chop them up for my thai beef salad I guess. There will always be a use for that. I don't have sous vide equipment unfortunately, so the combi will have to do. I guess it would be impossible to serve a blue steak though if somebody orders it.

another thing to consider is that the sunlight often helps whiten the jacket after a good wash in whatever you chose

The restaurant I work in, being situated on a public golf course, is quite large in capacity and unfortunately with the way kitchens are designed these days, chefs are hardly ever consolted, so the chargrill is very small. But I have the advantage of having a rational combi oven which should be good for low temperature roasting. I was thinking of pre sealing an estimated number of steaks each day and then finishing them to order in the oven if necessary. But another option I would like to know more about is this idea of very slow roasting a whole joint of meat rare, 50 degrees Celsius I guess. Then cooling it, cutting portions somewhere between 200 and 450 grams to store in the fridge. When the order comes in I then flash it on the chargrill to quickly colour the steak and warm it through to the temperature required. I was thinking cuts like the rib and the sirloin of beef would lend itself well to this way of cooking. Does anyone have any other suggestions for which cut of meet I should ask my butcher for. Anyone done this process before successfully? What tips can you provide please?

only five bucks . Bargin

an exerpt from my documented trip to Japan........ Part of the tour price included a bento lunch which we could eat at our leisure after the bus had stopped at the local rest point to pick it up. The bento was from Utsunomiya. I just love bento and ekiben as they consist of lots of different taste sensations. Often with some local specialties. Sometimes the taste can be mazui but most of the time I like it. This one had 2 onigiri-flavoured with sesame and umeshiso. It also had some chicken katsu and a kind of mince meat loaf. Not part of the cost of the tour was the option of purchasing a Sendai bento box for the afternoon/evening journey back to Tachikawa. At only ¥1000 for a mystery box of tastes I jumped at the opportunity. The box contained a few items that were new and exiting for me; Sasa-kamaboko, zunda, which was wrapped in bamboo leaf and the miso grilled onigiri. Some ika sembei(squid rice crackers) added interest to the long bus ride home.

Whilst on my trip to Japan, my wife and I frequently made use of the local Inargya supermarket. For breakfast we often bought pastries or buns both sweet and savoury . They were similar to a typical Asian bread/pastry shop. Soft buns, melon pan, yakisoba pan,coroke(croquette)pan to name a few. Other items we chose included healthy salads(Japanese style), tempura, sushi(especially inari ), yakitori and onigiri . Sometimes an entire meal was bought from the convenience section of the supermarket. Other times we just bought some items to supplement what we already had, as a Japanese meal is often made up of many different items(okazu). It was a particularly useful option to buy some meals from the supermarket especially as it was inexpensive and we could eat in the comfort of our room . Most places supply disposable chopsticks too.

great photos raji.Thanks for taking the effort to share them with us.The video on the porta loo on your blog was very funny.

Yesterday my wife made ohagi.One type was anko and the other was kinako. Sorry I forgot to take a photo.

Hiroyuki,thanks for the info on tuna. I think you would be right in your comments too, regarding the tai and nano hana dishes.

Thanks very much for your complimentary comments. According to my knowledge, maguro is the Japanese word for tuna. So as far as I know it was a variety of tuna, of which I could not say. Unfortunately I didn't get the details on the variety of white fish sashimi. However the taste, texture and quality was superb. Can't help much more on the brocoli like vege either, sorry. I guess it was simply blanched , relying on the quality of the produce and the exacting of the cooking techniques. It was then garnished with a sprinkle of something yellow(I can't recall what that was),quite possibly either egg yolk or yuzu zest. I can highly recommend this restaurant. There are a few different courses to chose from and possibly serve a la carte too. We chose the middle range priced kaiseki course.