A couple months ago the local Winco grocery store had whole beef tenderloins on sale for $3.99 a pound. I was a little skeptical of beef tenderloin at that price, but the meat looked pretty decent so I bought one of the cryopaks. I took it home and immediately cut one up and grilled some tenderloin to test the quality. It was good enough that I went back to the store and bought four more. So the freezer has plenty of nice tender beef in it.
Grilled beef tenderloin tacos was on the menu tonight. I picked up some great tortillas at the local Bel Air grocery store. These great tortillas from La Tortilla Factory in Santa Rosa have a fantastic flavor. The green chili tortillas, which oddly enough aren’t listed on the companies website, have just enough green chili flavor to enhance the meat without overpowering everything else. The combination of corn and wheat gluten gave the tortillas a nice texture. They grilled/heated up great on the grill grates of my Weber kettle. Unlike most commercially produced tortillas these are “hand made style” and are thick enough that you don’t need two tortillas to hold your taco fillings.
Continue reading Tenderloin tacos and a brew!
I recently watched an episode of “The Best Thing I Ever Ate” on the Food Network and was truly inspired by the “Leg of the Beast” dinner served at Incanto by Chef Chris Consentino. This dinner looked simply amazing and I knew that I had to try and adapt it to the smoker like I attempted with Chef Novelli’s Pork Belly recipe.
When I attended the Winter Fancy Food Show I got a chance to visit with the people from Johnny’s Fine Foods. I’ve used their French Dip Au Jus Sauce concentrate for years for a variety of different cooking uses.
I was able to come away from the show with a bottle of their new French Onion flavored Au Jus Sauce. The main purpose of this product is to make French Onion Soup but I knew immediately when I saw it that it was going to end up as a brisket injection.
The thought of having a different type of injection flavor for my brisket was something I’ve wanted to try for quite some time. But it wasn’t brisket that ended up getting the French Onion injection. It was beef shank. And as you’ll see this may have been the highlight of this meal.
Continue reading Beef Shanks…No Thanks
One of the techniques commonly used to turn out tender brisket is to inject it and then when you are done smoking it you wrap it in foil and toss it in a cooler wrapped in towels or blankets. After “coolering” the brisket for a couple hours you should have a good amount of liquid in the foil.
Usually I keep the brisket liquid and inject the next brisket with it. This time out I decided to give making risotto with the brisket liquid. The brisket juice is very concentrated so you need to add a water to it. Just add enough water to the brisket juice to give you enough broth for whatever risotto recipe you use.
After you saute the onions and mushrooms you need to brown the rice a little. Once the rice has been browned you add a ladle or two to the rice and start stirring.
Continue reading Smoked Brisket Risotto — BRISOTTO
Foodie Feeds is the latest website in the BBQ Grail family of food related sites. Foodie Feeds is a place where you can easily see the latest posts on Food Blog sites. The sites with the newest posts are shown first, and you can click the link to open a new window that will display that food blog post. It’s quite easy to use — just view the page, and click on the link you want. Since a new window (or tab) is opened for each site, you can easily return back to FoodieFeeds to click on more food blog sites.
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The following interview with Top Chef contestant Kevin Gillespie was originally published in Smoke Signals magazine, the new online publication of The BBQ Brethren. It is republished here with the permission of Smoke Signals magazine. The original interview was conducted prior to the winner of Top Chef – Las Vegas being announced.
Imagine, if you will, a young high school senior from a small school in Henry County, Georgia receiving the letter almost any parent would be happy to have their child receive, a letter of acceptance, with a full-ride scholarship to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Flash forward about 8 years and that student is about to, possibly win one the biggest prizes in his field…Bravo TV’s Top Chef competition.
Kevin Gillespie, one of this year’s final three contestants turned down the full-ride MIT scholarship to go culinary school instead. With a smile on his face and simple, yet elegant meals, Kevin has become one of the fan favorites to win this competition.
As the Executive Chef and part owner of the Wood Fire Grill in Atlanta, Georgia, Kevin has combined his love of southern culture with casual dining to create a menu that doesn’t quite fit the mold of most restaurants in the area. “I believe food should be simple and approachable but still packed with surprises,” he said in explaining his philosophy for cooking. “We change the menu every day. We don’t write a menu and then place an order for ingredients. It’s the other way around. Every day we tell the suppliers to bring us whatever is best and then we write the menu from there. It’s like a jigsaw puzzle,” continued.
Continue reading Talking BBQ with Chef Kevin Gillespie
Grilled beef tenderloin tacos was on the menu tonight. I picked up some great tortillas at the local Bel Air grocery store. These great tortillas from La Tortilla Factory in Santa Rosa have a fantastic flavor. The green chili tortillas, which oddly enough aren’t listed on the companies website, have just enough green chili flavor to enhance the meat without overpowering everything else. The combination of corn and wheat gluten gave the tortillas a nice texture. They grilled/heated up great on the grill grates of my Weber kettle. Unlike most commercially produced tortillas these are “hand made style” and are thick enough that you don’t need two tortillas to hold your taco fillings.
