Day 10... 1/3rd of the way done.

I didn't get as much cooking time as I wanted today.  It's hard to play when customers keep wanting food. That is a fantastic problem to have and there is no way I'm complaining about customers, but I can't wait for my weekend so I can cook for a few days.

Our Sysco Foods rep dropped off a sweet little treat today (Thanks G).  A big ol' bag of TVP was waiting for me when I got to work today.  This particular product was produced by Custom Blending. They are located just a bit north of Fossil Ridge HS.  They produce the Harmony Valley line of goodies.  You can get more dirt on their website.

http://www.harmonyvalleyfoods.com/

Anyhow, the restaurant product they make is a plain TVP.  I took that TVP and cooked it just like we cook our ground beef in the restaurant.  I flat out love our ground beef.  Ground beef taco meat isn't very sexy, but a hard shell taco changes my day every single time I grub one down.  I guess my expectations were a little bit too high.  The big lesson of the day is simple.  A meat substitute needs far more flavor than regular meat.  While cooking, I kept tasting and adding our dry rub until I was happy with the flavor.  I was never really happy with the texture, but that just leads to the next lesson of the day.

I gave a sample of the meat to a pair of our favorite customers (who vegetarian knowledge is amazing). They suggested I use a sauce rather than a dry rub to season the TVP.  That will be on the list for tomorrow.  I feel rather stupid on that one.... I should have been thinking that road the entire time.  Rather than use oil to cook texture onto the TVP, I should have been trying to use a sauce that I could caramelize onto the TVP.  Texture is still the missing link and I have been hesitant to use too much oil.  Actually, I'm an idiot for not trying to caramelize a sauce.... texture and flavor.  Two birds, one stone and no fat.  I should kick my own butt.  

Proof that I really needed to totally jump into this.  If I would have just tried a few things here and there I probably wouldn't have given anything enough thought to do it right.  I would have never had the customer/friend feedback along the way if I didn't go all in.

I sure am glad I decided to make this little adventure public so I could learn from everyone else who already knew what they were doing.

Just for kicks, I pressed a handful of the TVP into a little patty and dropped it into the deep fat fryer.  Bingo!

Everything is better when it is fried. 

I didn't get a chance to try the sausage TVP this morning and I can't wait until tomorrow so I can build a beautiful breakfast burrito. 

Man, I miss our chorizo.  My hat is off to Polidori Sausage of Denver.  They make the best sausage on the planet. 


More to come tomorrow.