On The BBQ Brethren Forum each week we have a Throwdown. Each member who wants to participates uses the “theme” for that week to cook something. Their entry is then posted and the membership votes. It seems each week the Throwdowns are getting more and more outrageous. This weeks theme is bacon and some of the entries are just plain crazy. Great stuff, but crazy. I decided the best course of action was to take it “down” a notice with a simple Bacon, Avocado, Lettuce and Tomato Sandwich. Nothing spectacular, just simple comfort food.
I stopped at The Fatted Calf yesterday on my way through Napa to pick up a little bacon. The Fatted Calf produces some of the most amazing cured meat products in Northern California. Their slab bacon is simply…amazing.
Continue reading A Little Bacon, Avocado, Lettuce & Tomato Sandwich
Each month three or four of my favorite internet BBQ friends will use the same four or five ingredients to cook a meal. The only real rule is that the “protein” must be cooked outdoors. It should be interesting to see what each of these experienced outdoor chefs have up their sleeves each month. At the end of this post you will find a brief description of their blogs and links to the great creations they’ve come up with.
This month’s challenge was to come up with a meal that contained the following ingredients:
- Fish
- Couscous
- Figs
- Eggplant
When the first ingredients were announced I knew I wanted to do a whole fish. The main reason was that I have very little experience with grilling whole fish and I knew this would be a good time to give it a try.
One of my favorite markets to shop at when I want the nicest produce and fish is our local Nugget Market. I know that I can always find something different to cook there. When I walked into the meat department my eyes were drawn quickly to the bright colors of the (farmed) Golden Trout.
Continue reading Maple Planked Grilled Golden Trout With Fig Compound Butter
Ingredients: 1 15 oz can low sodium vegetable broth 1 teaspoon vegetable oil 2 Green Onions 4 Matchstick size pieces of fresh Ginger 1 Clove Garlic, smashed and peeled 1 tablespoon Fish Sauce 1 tablespoon Lemon or Lime juice Directions:
Cut white off the green onions making 2 1 1/2 inch pieces. Cut the
Continue reading … Grilled Ahi Tuna In Ginger Broth With Udon Noodles
I like to trim my spare ribs down to what is called a St. Louis Style Rib. By cutting pork spare ribs down to St. Louis style you get a more uniform rack of ribs. St. Louis style ribs make cooking and serving them much easier. More St. Louis style ribs fit on the smoker and they are easier to tell when done.
St. Louis style ribs are prepared by removing the cartilage from the “top” of each rib rack. If you go to a BBQ restaurant and order “rib tips” this is where they’ve come from. Some meat processors sell these “rib tips” by the case. It can be an economical way to serve ribs to large groups.
When you trim lots of racks of ribs you end up with quite a few freezer bags full of trimmings. One of the most common questions asked on BBQ forums is “what do you do with your rib trimmings? There’s a lot of different techniques/recipes for rib trimmings. Here’s one of the ways we utilize rib trimmings at are house. (Click each picture to enlarge.)
Place all your rib trimmings in the crockpot.
Add a can of green enchilada sauce and cook until tender
Shred the pork. Make sure you discard all fat and cartilage
Continue reading Rib Trimmings = Awesome Taco Salads
I made a trip to Seattle recently which included a stop at Pikes Public Market. There are so many amazing foods to try Pikes. This trip I picked up some Pappardelles Chipotle Fettucine. Pappardelles one of the premier makers of artisanal pastas. They make over 100 different handcrafted dried pastas and raviolis. One of the great aspects of Pappardelles pasta is they take great pride in their product and only distribute through certified farmer’s markets and mail order from their own site (www.pappardellespasta.com).
When I purchased the pasta I had no idea what I was going to make with it. But I knew when I saw and tasted this pasta that I had to come up with something. In addition to the protein I wasn’t quite sure what sauce to serve with it. After some thought I decided to go towards a more Mexican style dish. I picked up a couple of Tomatillos and a bunch of cilantro. What I came up with is a Tomatillo Chipotle Cream Sauce served with a grass-fed chicken I purchased at local farmer’s market.
Continue reading Dirty Chicken with Tomatillo Cilantro Cream Sauce on Chipotle Pasta
A couple times a month on The BBQ Brethren Forum hosts a “Throwdown”. Each of the throwdowns have a particular theme. The theme for the current Throwdown is “A Surprise Inside.” I don’t enter very many of them but because this theme was picked by Rob over at In To The Flames, I had to give it a try.
I wanted to take the traditional Pigs In A Blanket and ramp it up a couple notches.
Here’s my entry:
Zhu Bei Zi Zai (Pigs In A Blanket)
I started with a nice hunk of pork belly. I love pork belly and thought it would make the perfect “pig” to stuff in the blanked. The pork belly was rubbed with a mixture of kosher salt, pepper and Chinese Five Spice Powder. I smoked the pork belly for 6 hours on the Traeger.
Continue reading Pigs In A Blanket, BBQ Grail Asian Style
Mrs Grail doesn’t always appreciate “smoke” as much as I do. So last night when it came time to prepare the chicken she requested she requested it be grilled. I didn’t want to just do the normal grilled chicken with just a seasoning one it so I decided to brine it.
We don’t shop on Sunday so I was limited to what I had in the pantry for the brine. Thankfully, we always have plenty of Kosher salt and brown sugar. But what was I going to add to the brine to give it a little POP? This is what I came up with:
Start with a 1lb chub of Jimmy Dean Pork Sausage and some Dinosaur Bar-B-Que Cajun Foreplay rub.
Continue reading Fatty & Eggs For Breakfast
