For heaven's sake

Made a pilgrimage up to Edgewater, NJ, to visit Mitsuwa Marketplace yesterday, after a sake recommendation from our server at Sakagura restaurant in NYC that wife took me to for my birthday last month. The place had over 200 bottles of sake, and I was in heaven. It was actually more a japanese tapas bar than a sushi place. They only serve sushi for lunches, but the dinners consist of ordering a bunch of little dishes. It was fantastic, and our waitress was a certified sake sommelier and paired each dish with some great sake. She recommended the market, which is almost 2 hours from home, hence the big purchase.

The bottles on the top left are Himezen sake, which was dry and sweet, almost like a dessert wine. The genie-like bottles I had at the Sapporo restaurant in New Brunswick, NJ, were good and only $7 each for 300ml. The twisty bottle looked too cool to pass up, and the other two just sounded good.

Mitsuwa was horrendously packed, impossible to park, but had a sake isle as long as a grocery store's dairy isle. I almost cried. Might have been the pre-New Year's rush, but I didn't want to have to go back any time soon, so I bought what I knew I'd like plus a few other things to try. I'd like to go back in the off hours sometime though, because they had a noodle bar inside with a line that went outside, so it must be good. And, almost everyone shopping inside was Japanese, or at least with someone who was; can't go wrong with that kind of customer base.

To find a place that specializes in sake, even two hours away, makes life that much better. Kampai!

Success!

The turkey fry sans rub came out beautifully. The brown sugar in the brine added plenty of flavor to the skin, and the color was gorgeous. Usually the rub would make the bird come out pretty dark, looking burnt, although it never actually was.

After a 30 minute rest, it was still really hot. The mark of a good fry is that the thighs just twist right off the bird.

 

Meaty glory. Unfortunately the carcass did us no good, because we're leaving for Miami on Wednesday and there's still soup leftover from a roast chicken we did earlier this week. I think someone actually took it home for their own use. Just as well.

 

Unfortunately though, there was quite a bit of splatter from the oil on my patio - I'm hoping that it won't stain, but I know bluestone is quite porous. As it is, I can't see how bad it is, nor have I cleaned up the fryer, because everything is coated in half an inch of ice and slush. Although, we have a 3-pound chicken frozen since summer, as well as leftover brine and oil... There just might be one more fry to be done before vacation.

Wanna take a bath?

It's turkey-fry time! I'm trying out a recipe from Alton Brown where the brine is made from kosher salt and brown sugar, plus some ice to keep it cool. No rub or seasoning is put on the bird afterwards, which is a first for me. But honestly, most times I've fried a turkey, it's hard to tell if any of the rub even stays on, or if it boils right off.

Either way, his recipe calls for starting the fry temp low and increasing it once the bird goes in. I'm going to stick with the 3-minutes-per-pound-plus-5 rule instead. Since the weather is going to be barely above freezing tomorrow, I'm going to try air-drying it for an hour or so before the putting it in the oil as I heard that helps the skin dry out for a good crisp when roasting, and I'm going to separate the skin from one breast side, to see how that affects the crisping as well. Have to experiment...

Once nice thing about it hitting only 20* tonight is that our porch steps make a perfect temporary fridge and freezer.

We're expecting 15-16 people tomorrow for our holiday party, also called Chrismukkah. Yes, we're religious mutts in this house.

Off to start cleaning the house. After almost two straight weeks of Chinese food, it's nice to get my fry on.