the takeaway secret

Bartelmy

I bought the book on kindle a week ago, after reading through the first few pages of this thread. I don't have a kindle, but being able to read it on my phone and on the laptop, and to search through pages is so handy.:)

So far I've made the milkshakes. I simplified it a little. I bought a tub of cheap tesco neopolitan, and mix about 1/3 of any given flavour with half the same amount of milk. I also found some tumblers in Wilko which give it just the right touch.;) They look exactly like McDonalds cups, complete with straws, but made of shiny reusable plastic.

I've also been trying to perfect the KFC all week. Since I can't deep fry, I've been shallow-frying to seal the coating, then baking. I can't seem to get enough of a taste in the coating; not sure if it's coming out a bit thin.:( I'm thinking of doubling the spices compared to the flour on the next batch, just to see how it comes out.

I've not made the breakfast muffins yet, but I used to make a veggie version with my ex (based on genki kitty's sausage patty recipe; I can't link - try google!). We found it a LOT easier to do the egg in the microwave, in a mug. I never get them with egg, so I'm not sure how much difference it made to the taste. I used to work in a McDonalds, and we used to drizzle melted butter onto the muffins before adding the fillings. At home, we'd spread them with margarine, then toast under the grill. Yummy!

Kevie192

Hi all,

For those of you that shallow fry then oven cook the southern fried chicken, how long do you cook for? I'm making it tonight with thighs and drumsticks!

Kevin

jammy_dodger

id cook for about 35 mins in a hot oven after you have sealed them in frying pan , i add some chinese 5 spice to kennys recipe , for mw gives that bit of something missing you cant quite put your finger on what it is ...
goes down very well in our house hth

sb44

Not sure if anyone has posted this as I have not looked at this thread for a while, but I have just taken a look at the Sainsburys ebook site.

They have both ebooks below for 65p each at Sainsburys ebook store or 59p at Amazon.

The American Takeaway Secret

The Indian Takeaway Secret

http://www.sainsburysebooks.co.uk/book/The-Indian-Takeaway-Secret-Kenny-McGovern/5936677

http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Indian-Takeaway-Secret-Favourite-ebook/dp/B0064LHPOI/ref=pd_sim_b_1

http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-American-Takeaway-Secret-Favourite-ebook/dp/B0064LCV5Q/ref=pd_sim_kinc_1

djdandew

Excellent book i am 37 year old male bought this as i wanted to learn how to cook a curry from scratch, i had limited cooking experience, but so far i have made the curry, pizza, chicken balls in sweet and sour source and fried rice, the Hamburger (cheese burger) and have also bought his second book and made the chocolate fudge cake.

And all i can say is wow both myself the wife and two kids think these recopies are excellent.

Would i recommend this book? YES 100%

mojod

At the risk and knowledge of getting shot down in flames here, I 100% guarantee that the "missing something" in the KFC recipes (and many other ones too) is MSG.

It gets really bad press, but firstly there's never been any conclusive proof that MSG causes any harm health wise - in particular the headaches associated with chinese food have been pretty much disproved in blind tasting trials etc. Not just that, but MSG sneaks it's way into your food anyway, even if it says "no added msg" on the pack. Stock cubes, soy sauce, ketchups even some natural fruits and vegetables contain MSG or chemical equivalents of.

I use it whenever a food is "missing something". You can't quite put your finger on it - possibly salt, but that will make it too salty. Depending on portion size of what your making a good half teaspoon or more of MSG really does fix it.

Only place to really buy it easily is a Chinese supermarket. I pay 99p for a 100g bag, but you can buy bigger bags far more economically. Looks like and sprinkles like salt/sugar.

When I looked into this properly a few years ago - the one quote that made me smile was someone saying "it stands for Makes Stuff Good"!

sonastin

Are they really "kfc" recipes though? My local chippy when I was growing up did "southern fried chicken" which was yummy and it most definitely wasn't like kfc (because, as I said it was yummy and to my tastebuds kfc isn't!). I haven't tried the southern fried chicken recipe yet but if the author's local chippy is the same as mine was, the recipe my not be missing anything!

mojod

sonastin wrote: »

Are they really "kfc" recipes though?

Yes, there are loads of fried chicken recipes floating around - some good, some bad, some not KFC-like but still good (that sounds like the chippy type ones you mention).

A realistic KFC recipe seems to be a bit of an internet holy grail, with tonnes of variations. I've tried a few and used ideas from different ones and combined them.

A few things the good ones have in common, seem to be ...

Brining your chicken for a few hours in cold salty water before doing anything else. Seems to tenderise it a bit, but also definitely stops it from drying out while cooking.

Loads use paprika.

Most use some kind of flavour enhancer (especially American ones), ranging from MSG (Accent appears in a lot of recipes - that's just an American brand name MSG), Maggi seasoning, chicken stock cubes. All have much the same effect and use the same core ingredients.

Plenty of salt and quite a bit of coarse ground black pepper.

Various cooking methods as well. The one I've found gives closest results is to deep fry until coating is right colour (ie, not burnt!) then putting in a low to medium oven for a while to finish off cooking the inside of the cooker, but not so hot that it browns the coating too much more. I suppose this is similar to cooking then leaving to stand in a heated display for a while in KFC or other chicken shop.

Most good fried chicken takeaways fry in a pressure cooker. Not tried that as I've not got one, but tbh honest, the thought of all that hot oil in a pressure cookers scares me a bit anyway!

Good luck!

EycplUK

non brewed condiment on fish and chips How Gross ):
Why would you put a petroleum based rubbish that NBC is on a lovely portion of fresh Fish & Chips ????

Honeythief

EycplUK wrote: »

non brewed condiment on fish and chips How Gross ):
Why would you put a petroleum based rubbish that NBC is on a lovely portion of fresh Fish & Chips ????

I must have missed something. What is NBC and why are people putting it on food?