Gas Station Food - July 9, 2024 - Challenge Submission Thread

Steak Fingers, Fried Sweet Peppers, Fried Pickles, Crinkle Cut Fries, and Onion Rings

In the late 1990s and early 2000s. I worked with a dedicated manufacturing company in Barbourville, KY. My favorite work day dinner place was the Corbin Burger Barn, attached to a Texaco gas station across I-75 from the Holiday Inn where I stayed while there. They knew me well because I stayed there two or three nights, every other week for almost three years. If it was fried, the Corban Brger Barn sold it, plus they had cold beer. My favorite meal was some combination of steak fingers, fried breaded sweet peppers, french fries, onion rings, and beer. For this post, I added fried pickles, because I wanted some.

These are a close match to what they cooked at the Corbin Burger Barn.

Need:

For Steak Fingers:

12 ounces lean ground beef



2 cups AP Flour
salt
Black pepper



1 Egg
1 cup Milk seasoned with salt and black pepper



3 cups oil for frying



For the other fried things:

2 sweet cubanelle or banana peppers. They were pickled in gallon jars in Kentucky but not available that way here.



1/4 cup hamburger sliced dill pickles



2 cups crinkle cut potatoes



Ketchup with a few drops of Liquid Smoke

Canned Miller Light Beer



Directions:

Flatten Hamburger meat into a 1/2 inch thick sheet. Place into freezer until it begins to freeze and then slice into long 1/2 inch square pieces. Return to freezer and freeze until solid





Mix egg with milk and make seasoned flour



Dip frozen meat sticks in seasoned egg/milk mixture and then roll in seasoned flour, The frozen sticks are rolled back and forth, pressing the flour tight with fingers. Roll until well coated. Return to egg/milk, wet and then back to flour. If you press into flour and roll back and forth and double dip/roll, a nice firm coating of the breading will develop.



Coat all of the meat pieces, then return them to the freezer for 30 minutes.



Wash peppers and slice into two pieces down the length of the pepper.



Drain dill pickles and soak in egg/milk mixture



I fried my crinkle cut french fries first, until golden brown, then onto paper towels, and salted as they drained. I held them, and everything else in a 175 degree oven until all items were cooked, to keep then warm and crisp.



Next I fried the steak fingers until golden brown. I placed them on paper towels and salted, then into the oven to hold at temperature.





Next I did the breaded the dill pickles and peppers. Dipped in seasoned egg/milk, coated with flour, then back into the milk and back into the flour to get a good coating.







I fried them together until golden brown. Then onto paper towels, salted and into oven.







After I finished cooking my stuff,I decided to make the onion rings. Here is what I did



Slice two onions into 1/8 inch thick slices on the mandolin,



then separate into rings and soak for a few minutes in buttermilk and egg mixture, seasoned with salt and black pepper.



Toss in a shaker container with AP flour, seasoned with salt and black pepper.



Shake until well coated.



Allow to sit for 10 minutes, then drop all of them at one time into 350 degree oil and fry until golden brown.



Drain on plaper towels seasoned with salt

And serve









Served with smoky ketchup and a cold canned beer.

Happiness = way up there
Calorie count = Unmeasurable

Thanks for looking

Felt like something you'd find in a Vietnamese owned gas station. Asian Inspired Hotdogs.



The "dogs" are made from traditional dumpling filling - pork, ginger, garlic, carrot, soy, sesame oil, rice vinegar, green onions



Roll and freeze so they stay shaped.





Srirachi Mayo



Cucumber ribbons, bell pepper relish, sesame seeds, cilantro, and chili crunch make up the other toppings.









Stole some trays from Circle K for plating





Had it again yesterday for lunch, and got some better photos because it wasn't dark outside.

The dumpling filling as hotdog wieners was something I’ve seen online before, but they were in bao buns which I was nervous to try.

The first participant who posts thick breaded chicken livers and cream cheese stuffed fried jalapeños gets my vote.

Hemp Seed Falafel

Hemp seed hearts is a new ingredient to me and I’ve been trying different things with it. In falafel, it’s a great low carb substitute for bulgur wheat and it is surprisingly good.

As someone who would be thrilled to find a tasty low carb hot food item at a gas station, here is my submission.




Parsley, cilantro, 1/2 an onion, hemp seed hearts, cumin, garlic powder, salt, flaxseed meal, and a little water.











Out of the frying pan…






Serve em up.




Tzatziki and tabouli to go with. Homemade. I have pics of the tzatziki making, but not the tabouli, which also uses hemp seed hearts in place of the bulgur.

Here is what is in the tzatziki.

What do you weigh?

Thwings

In full disclosure, I didn't make this recently but it seemed to fit the theme.

I call them Thwings because it's a thigh shaped like a wing and fried. If I remade the dish for the challenge, I would have skewered it with a stick.

Debone a chicken thigh, the bigger the better for this.

Where the bone was, there will be an indentation. Slice through that. And then slice the remaining 2/3rds in half. Try to keep as much skin on as possible.

Like this... that's two whole thighs.



Fry using your favorite method. I seasoned, gave a quick soak in buttermilk and then a dredge in seasoned flour/corn starch mix.

Poke a stick in it and put under the heat lamp!

quote:

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What do you weigh?

---

182, but I am happily married.

Lambda’s Gas & Go’s Crafish Cracklins
With crawfish season in the rear view mirror, I thought I’d get a taste with my crawfish craclins. This is a long and tedious process that takes a couple of days. It starts by pureeing the tails with some dry boil seasoning. Once that’s liquified, I mixed it with starch to form a dough. The dough is then steamed for an hour and put in the freezer over night. Once frozen I cut the pieces with a mandolin, dehydrated for 6 hours and here we are ready to fry.

They fry very fast!

Someone was scoping out the plate of finished goods!

Bagged and ready for sale at Lambda’s Gas & Go.