Recipe | The BBQ Grail

Stuffed Poblano Peppers (Take 1)

This past week I was asked by a friend to develope three recipes using his rubs. The recipes would be used on new website and possibly in a self-published cookbook in 2011. Because I promised a degree of confidentiality on this project the name of the rub has been left out of the recipe below. Creating a recipe is not an easy task and often takes quite a few tries before it’s ready for release. I thought I would take you through my process over the next month or so.

When I was growing up one of the meals my mom used to make was a stuffed bell pepper. Made with ground beef, rice and tomato of some type it was a favorite of hers. As a kid I was never very fond of eating the bell pepper but my adult pallette is much more agreeable with peppers now. I decided to use a nice poblano better instead of a bell pepper.

I think this was a good start to what, I hope, will be a great recipe for my friend. The flavor was a little mild and the BBQ sauce I used for the glaze didn’t compliment the rub I used for the seasoning. I smoked the whole chub of hamburger so I got plenty of nice smokey flavor along with a sort of “bark” on the meat. I’ll use this technique again.

Continue reading Stuffed Poblano Peppers (Take 1)

Green Pork Chili: Take 1

Disclaimer: This recipe is based on a Green Chili recipe from the blog Playing With Fire and Smoke. The recipe here is my first take on Thirdeye’s recipe. Although my version was good you should probably following the original right now. I’m going to do this again with some changes. Stay tuned.

Green Pork Chili

Continue reading Green Pork Chili: Take 1

Grilled Honey Garlic Eggplant

Ingredients:

2 baby eggplants
1 tablespoon honey
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 cloves garlic, mashed
1/4 teaspoon Sriracha sauce
2 teaspoons balsamic vinegar
Salt and Pepper to taste

Directions:

Pre-heat your grill to high.

With a potato peel remove strips of skin off the eggplant. Slice the eggplant, long ways, into 1/2 inch slices. Arrange the eggplant slices on sheets of paper towels.

Season the the eggplant slices with a generous amount of salt on both sides. This will cause the eggplant to release most of the liquid they contain, removing the bitterness of the eggplant while causing it to be less watery during grilling. Let the salted eggplant set for about 15 minutes, then pat dry with additional paper towels.

In a bowl mix honey, olive oil, garlic Sriracha, balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper. Dip both sides of each eggplant slice into mixture. Oil grilled. Place eggplant slices on the grill, cover. Grill for about 3 minutes, rotate 90 degrees and grill for an additional 3 minutes. Brush remaining sauce on the slices, flip and repeat process. Adjust heat through the grilling to insure eggplant is not burning.

Serve immediately.

Maple Planked Grilled Golden Trout With Fig Compound Butter

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

Rib Trimmings = Awesome Taco Salads

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

BBQ Grail Salsa Beans

Ingredients

1 pound dried pinto beans
1 12 oz jar of salsa (brand and heat level of your choice)
1 tablespoon salt
2 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon ground pepper
1 tablespoon “Johnny’s Au Jus Sauce”
2 tablespoons bacon drippings
1 medium onion, chopped
1/2 pound smoked sausage, diced

Directions

Sort and rinse the beans thoroughly. Place beans in a bowl. Puree the salsa in a food processor or blender and add it to the beans. Add water to the bowls so the beans are just covered. Let the beans soak overnight. For the first couple of hours watch the beans and add just enough water to the bowl to keep the beans covered with liquid. The idea is to let the beans soak up as much of the salsa flavoring as possible.

The next morning put the beans in a dutch oven and add all the seasonings. Saute the onions in the bacon drippings and add them to the bean mixture. Toss in the sausage and cook the beans on low to medium heat until tender.

NOTE: Depending on the exact heat and flavor you want you can use “hot” salsa or include your chile of choice, finely chopped.

Dirty Chicken with Tomatillo Cilantro Cream Sauce on Chipotle Pasta

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

Stuffed Poblano Peppers (Take 1)

Green Pork Chili: Take 1

Green Pork Chili

Grilled Honey Garlic Eggplant

Ingredients:

Directions:

Maple Planked Grilled Golden Trout With Fig Compound Butter

Rib Trimmings = Awesome Taco Salads

BBQ Grail Salsa Beans

Ingredients

Directions

Dirty Chicken with Tomatillo Cilantro Cream Sauce on Chipotle Pasta

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