A Simple Pasta

The weather has gotten a tad warm, and I have over done the meat the past few days, it was time for something a little more straightforward and light. There were some nice artichokes at the market, that had to be the 'go to' for today. Pasta seemed like a good choice to go along with it all.

First, to make some pasta, Basically, I found that I did not have everything I needed to make any form of regular pasta, I had enough to make half a recipe of something, or enough to wing it. I chose to wing it. Here is the recipe.

Wing-it Pasta recipe
1 cup "00" flour
1 cup Semolina flour
1 large egg
1/4 cup warm hot tap water
1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt

Basically, whisked the flours and salt together, then tossed in the egg and water that had been whisked together. Kneaded for 5 minutes, rested in plastic wrap and a flour cloth for 20 minutes. Kneaded for another 5 minutes, and rested for another 20 wrapped in plastic wrap. From there, pretty muck rolled it out in 1/4 pound batches into a fettuccine shape. I needed to go one level thinner on the roll, but, next time.

 

Dough ball, nice and smooth

For the 'sauce', if you will, an artichoke was boiled up in 4 cups of water, once the artichoke was nearly done, I cooled it and reserved the water, which I used to boil the pasta as well. Naturally, it took a lot more water, but, I figured there was flavor in that water. I sliced the artichoke heart, minced up some garlic and sauteed it all up in 1 tablespoon of butter and a little grapeseed oil.
 

 

Really, wanted it simple

Once the saute was going, drop the pasta for 1 minute, then toss it, along with whatever water came with it into the saute pan. Toss, toss...a little olive oil the minutes it came off the burner. Several grinds of black pepper, some parsley and some grated Asiago cheese to finish.

 

Pasta with Artichoke and Black Pepper

Quite satisfying actually. I can quite understand why a dish such as this would be popular in a Mediterranean climate, despite being a plate of pasta, it sits light.

Weird little mini-brisket

On Saturday, I hit my normal meat counter, and lo and behold, what looked like a brisket point was right there. For me, I love the point far more than the flat of the brisket and here was a small grass-fed brisket from my favorite Humboldt County producer. Purchased! Woke up Sunday morning, fired the pit and took a look at my little brisket point, and was surprised to see, it as a full 4 pound packer, well, a weird, tiny, 4 pound packer with the smallest, thinnest excuse for a flat I have ever seen. By the time I got done trimming off the membrane and such, it was probably around 3 pounds. No matter, I seasoned it up with Ted & Barneys Meat Rub, a product that comes from just over the river from where this apparently tiny steer once sort of fed.

 

Tiny Packer

From here, I decided to roll it, that paper thin flat would never hold up in the cook. So, a little butcher twine and I had a brisket roast. The meat was so soft, it barely held in the butcher tie I used. Onto the smoker which had locked into 250F by then.

 

Brisket Roast, I'll be famous

It sat at the 250F temperature for 2 hours, then I wrapped it in some butcher paper and forgot about it for another 2 hours. The temperature somewhere along the line approached 375F, and the paper got a little crisp. But, after a mere 6 hours, it felt about right, so I probed and it was tender. Pulled, wrapped in new paper and rested for about an hour. I had no idea what to expect.

 

Tiny little slices

Well, I ended up with tiny little slices of brisket, but, where they tender, they sure looked good. A tiny little smoke ring, almost no visible fat, let's check if it bends.

 

Yep, bendy, downright floppy

So, the slices flopped right over, I didn't bother with the slicing knife, just a regular scalloped utility knife, but, cut like a champ, no crumbling and very soft. Yep, I can cook a brisket still, darn fine one actually. Time to build a sandwich.

 

A tiny sandwich, with tiny dill pickle slices

A little horseradish mayo, some dill pickles and a soft white roll, lightly toasted. Who needs a plate, I got a cutting board.

 

Optional Ale shown

While the whole thing was smaller than expected, the flavor was all brisket. First off, the Ted & Barney's Meat Rub was excellent. I am surprised every time I use it, it mostly look like salt and pepper, but, it gets the job done. While the brisket was weirdly shaped and tiny, it cooked up just like a full size packer, and rendered out beautifully. A tender, flavorful brisket in every way.

Cook Detail:
UDS cooker
temps: 250F (2 hours), 250F to 375F (2 hours), 325F (2 hours)
wrapped after 2 hours (butcher paper)
unwrapped after 4 hours
rested 1 hour or so (wrapped in clean butcher paper)

Bao bun

For some time, I have been fussing around with bread dough, trying to come up with a suitable bun for pulled pork and other BBQ-type sandwiches. I have made many good bread rolls, but, I am wanting the soft white bun quality that a good BBQ pork sandwich has, but, not having to buy it from the store.

As I was munching on some Pork Belly Bao, it struck me that this might be something to try making, this time starting with a few recipes from other cooks, whose Asian cooking chops are well known, primarily, I would rely on Andrea Nguyen and her book Asian Dumplings, then riff wildly off of that. I ended up making some chicken and mushroom bao, which tasted great. Which, along with some leftover slaw, gave me a test bed idea. This idea.

 

Yes, a Bao-wich

I had a leftover chicken mushroom bao, which was mostly a steamed bread dough, around some slow braised after roasting chicken and shiitake mushrooms, along with ginger, onion, garlic and carrots. The bao was given a toast to warm up, then split and piled with some Asian inspired slaw. The bao bun was terrific. Soft, pillowy and had a great texture. I have a new plan. This was an excellent bao dough as well, even though I over-steamed a couple, these did not shrink or tighten, they kept their smooth shape. A winner so far.

Bao Dough:
1/8 cup agave syrup
1/2 cup milk
3/8 cup water
1 tablespoon yeast


1. Combine and heat water and milk to 110F.
2. Add syrup and mix. Add yeast and allow to sit for 20 minutes to proof.

1/2 tablespoon baking powder
3 cups flour
1 tablespoon fat (I used palm shortening, you could also use lard, bacon grease etc...FAT)

3. Combine dry ingredients, work fat into the flour completely.
4. Combine liquids with dry ingredients in a large bowl.
5. Knead in bowl for 5 minutes, dough may appear a little rough still.
6. Oil bowl, cover with plastic wrap, rest for 2 hours.
7. Remove from bowl, knead for 2 minutes, dough will become smooth and stiff.
8. For bao, or other bread shape, I plan on doing buns next time.

This dough comes out feeling quite stiff, but, it remains very workable. It steams beautifully, and my plan, is to steam them for 12 minutes, then toast them in a 350F oven for color and texture.

You basic ribs cook

Sunday found me at my friend Rob's house, firing up his 26" kettle to get some ribs on. We manage to get together like this from time to time, just to dial back the intensity and keep our hand in the smoking world. In this case, we would end up smoking 9 racks of St. Louis-style racks, and a random Wagyu Tri-tip that found it's way into our shopping basket, when we were supposed to be buying some Swiss Chard. I decided to throw down with a few things that I have not discussed with anyone before, a maple sugar rub, a smoked paprika rub and a gastrique-based BBQ sauce. Some of the basics...

Maple Sugar Rub:
60ml medium grind black pepper
40 ml kosher salt
40 ml maple sugar
20 ml harissa powder
7 ml fresh ground nutmeg
5ml powdered mustard

Combine all ingredients into a shaker. It is best to make this rub just before use. Any time storing it and the maple flavor takes over.

Smoke Paprika Rub:
80 ml medum grind black pepper
60 ml kosher salt
20 ml dry palm sugar
20 ml dried brown sugar
25 ml harissa powder
30 ml bourbon smoked sweet Spanish paprika
5ml each fresh ground nutmeg, ground allspice

Combine all ingredients into a shaker. The smoked paprika is nice, but, what is important is that it is fresh Spanish Sweet Paprika.

Bourbon Peach 'Gastrique' Sauce:
12 ounces peach nectar or juice
12 ounces cider vinegar
2 tablespoons rub (a simple run is fine, it could be salt and pepper)
2-3 ounces (weight) of smoked, barky, meat (I use brisket trimmings)
3 tablespoons of olive oil, rendered bacon lard or other oil
3 tablespoons chopped onion
8-12 ounces pan dripping from kettle
1 teaspoon Red Boat fish sauce
bourbon until it tastes right

1. Make the gastrique. Combine the vinegar, peach nectar, 1T of the rub and the barky meat in a sauce pan and simmer to reduce to 6 ounces total volume.

2. Add chopped onions, oil and pan drippings, simmer to reduce to 12 to 15 ounces.
3. Strain and return to sauce pan, add fish sauce and heat until smell of fish sauce is dissipated.
4. Add bourbon while sauce is simmering, keep adding and reducing through simmer until taste if correct.
5. Makes about 12 ounces of sauce. Note that this sauce is on the thin side, it is not meant to be a covering sauce.

The ribs were cut and trimmed to be St. Louis-style racks. The trimmings and such were also cooked and snacked on. The kettle was settled in at 285F or so. Cooking fuel was lump and natural briquettes, wood was red oak and apple.

 

Half of the racks

 

foreground-Paprika rubbed, background-Maple rubbed

 

Not the proper way to load a kettle

There was some crowding on the 26" kettle, it required some extra moving of ribs through the cook, handling partially cooked ribs without gloves, yay, not. Incidentally, for those who love to fuss, Rob and I took off for lunch, and left the kettle to run unattended except for one check by phone. We asked Rob's wife to give us a report after about 40 minutes. After we returned, I shuffled ribs, then our friend Michael arrived, so we took off to go shopping, so the kettle was left unattended. Upon our return, a Wagyu tri-tip had been procured. It was so nice looking, so it was added to the kettle.

 

Wagyu Tri-tip, marbled

Since the kettle was going I decided to just throw this baby on top of the coal stack. Yes, I just went for it. And it was fine. I did find out that Wagyu tri-tip behaves differently than my usual Choice and Angus tri-tips, it came up very slowly to 110F, then seemed to just jump to 130F in seconds. Next time, I will know. This learning curve did not cost us at the table though, as the next images will show.

 

Hmm, looks okay

 

Yep, that will work

And back to the ribs, which we cooked using our technique of benign neglect, this is what we ended up with.

 

Too much meat? Noooo...

I think nine racks and a tri-tip are just fine for 6 adults. These looked pretty fine sitting there. And for those that care, no foil, no wrapping, no spritzing, heck, I spend at least 3 hours of the cook more than 5 miles away from the pit.

 

I really like the top rack in this shot, perfect in every way

This was also a meet and great as there was a BBQ Brethren in town, Jeff Jenkins was in from Ohio, so we had him swing by for some ale and BBQ. The beer of the table was from Almanac Brewing, a seasonal fennel ale that was the right thing for the ribs and tri-tip.

 

The Tableau

This meal did not suck, several other Belgians died that afternoon, so we were all happy campers by the end of the meal. The beans were a riff on the beans made by Paul Height from No Excuses BBQ, cooked under the ribs. There was a great salad as well, a nothing fancy meal of BBQ and ale.

Pizza on the Kettle

I have been pondering my lack of a wood stove or dedicated pizza cooker for some time, and have been playing around with different configurations for making pizza. I have tried fires on the bottom of the kettle, offset, in the middle, and decided I would try building the fire on the back side of the cooking grill, to see if that worked. It did not work well enough, the pizza stone, in this case a cast iron version, never got hot enough to cook the crust as I would like. But the overall pizzas were still pretty good.

The Dough:
To start off with, I had planned to do this cook on Saturday, then Sunday, but, plans kept evolving, so I ended up with cooking on Monday. The Biga, basically a packet of Red Star dry yeast, 1.5 cups warm water, 2 tablespoons olive oil and 1 cup of flour was started on Thrusday afternoon, and was refreshed with water and flour on Saturday and Sunday. By Monday afternoon, it looked like this.

 

Biga at room temperature

By Monday, the Biga was bubbled up nicely and upon turning out, I could see that the overall texture was that of, well, batter. But, this was encouraging, as the gluten had clearly matured during the long rest, witnessed by the bubbles and gasses entrained throughout the battery Biga.

 

Batter Biga Baby

To this, I added another 1-1/4 cups of Antimo Caputo 00 flour and worked the dough lightly to incorporate the flour. Although cooking by feel, I was still shooting for a ratio of water to flour of 70% to 80% water versus total amount of flour. Once the dough was well incorporated, I gave it a few minutes of kneading to 'wake up' the gluten. I was hoping for a very soft dough. I think this was the most successful part of the cook.

 

Dough Balls

As you can see, the dough balls were quite soft, spreading just a bit when just formed. I did a quick proof under a kitchen towel, the dough actually went through a soft rise to about, gaining about 50% more volume. These four dough balls would eventually be enough for four 9"-10" pizzas. In terms of toppings, the basic list.

Toppings Available:
Ricotta Cream, fresh ricotta whipped with whey liquid
Fresh Bufalo Mozzarella, shredded by hand
Wild Arugula, tossed with a little olive oil
Curly Kale, salt wilted and well rinsed
Sliced Mushrooms
Melted Onion
Pancetta
Sliced scallions
Tuscan Olive Oil
Pomi Tomato Sauce

Basically, all things were tossed onto the pizza crusts before shoving into the kettle. The higher fire, as you will see, got some of the toppings and crusts done nicely, but, the bottoms were too soft. The cool stone complicated and lengthened cooking times. Here are the pies.

 

Arugula and Pancetta

 

Arugula, Melted Onion, Scallion 

 

Kale, Pancetta, Melted Onion

 

Pancetta, Melted Onion, Mushroom

All of these were delicious, although I found the Arugula was a little too bitter for my taste. I have to say, the idea of some Meyer lemon juice or a Meyer lemon preserve drizzle might have helped. I would have eaten all of these, but, by the time I was done, I really just wanted a bit of each.

 

Piece of the Arugula

 

Piece of the Kale

The sliced pictures show the crust texture, which was amazing. A crisp crackle on the top side, a springy, tender interior, a thin but resistant bottom (which, if the stone had gotten hot would have been even better). I did brush the crusts with a high quality extra virgin Tuscan olive oil and a random sprinkling of kosher salt, which made the crusts the best part of these pies.

As for the kettle experiment, it continues...

Tri-tip Sliders and I can cook again

Well, the move of my cookers is complete and the two test runs has resulted in the smoke not drifting into my neighbors house. I hope this continues, as obviously I do not want to be a nuisance to the older gent living next door. I did have to do a couple of burn-outs to get the kettle and UDS smelling sweet, letting smokers sit can leave a sour aroma that will taint food. Since they are now good to go, time to cook.

The Tri-Tip:
I decided a nice short cook was in order and tri-tip is always the right answer. Two nice Harris Ranch tri-tips (no-roll, which is to say un-graded, as is the norm for Harris Ranch) were trimmed up and washed. I tend to wash my meat, what can I say, old habits...

 

Nice Tri-tips ready to go

From here, the rub was prepared, it is somewhat similar to a Santa Maria style of rub, you can see it is pepper and salt heavy, with additions of fine ground herb mix, chile powder, powdered lime, and granulated onion/garlic, all mixed up. I ended up adding just a little fine grind Turbinado sugar, about 1/16 of a teaspoon. This is on a dessert plate, and most of this was used.

 

Aye, there's the Rub

I applied the rub twice, a heavy coating which was then wrapped in butcher paper and placed in the refrigerator for one hour. This allows the rub to melt into the meat. During this process, the sugar and salt aids in the drawing of proteins to the surface of the meat. You can see why in this next photo.

 

Tied and Ready

You can see a couple of things in the above photo, one is that I tied the tail of the tri-tip back, this aids in not burning the long tail of the tri-tip. You can also see the color and sheen, that is the formation of a pellicle, I seek to get this on all of my cooks, I believe it aids in moisture and surface texture. From here, there was a little extra rub applied. Here they are on the cooker.

 

Yeah, yeah, white balance, blah, blah

The Slaw:
I wanted to have a nice vegetable component to the slider, I know, not traditional, if you have been following my cooks, you don't even expect that anymore. The slaw was a simple affair, hand cut cabbage, red bell pepper, carrots and green onions. These were salted for 15 minutes and then thoroughly washed and spun dry. The salting removes excess moisture and makes for a better texture. This step will prevent the slaw from getting watery when stored, a very traditional Japanese technique for a quick pickle. I dressed this with a vinaigrette. Simple affair, the vinaigrette was a very high quality olive oil, cider vinegar, prepared mustard, agave syrup and hot sauce (I used Lucky Dog, Red Label, which I consider to be the best hot sauce out there). Essentially, 2 tablespoons of the olive oil, cider vinegar and agave syrup, a squirt of mustard and a dash of the hot sauce (it isn't there for heat, it is there for easy complexity).

 

All about the slaw color

The Sliced Meat:
I splurged this month and bought a new slicing knife for myself, this has been a gap in my knife collection for some time now, a good large slicer for roasts and brisket. I addressed this with a Wusthof Custom that is exclusive to the Mid-Atlantic Barbeque Association. Love this knife. Here you can see that the sliced tri-tip was cooked perfectly to a medium rare. I have no idea what internal temperature was, as I cooked it pretty much by feel.

 

Look at those clean slice and thin!

The thicker slices were needed to test the slicer for brisket, I ended up testing those slices, melting tender texture. The thinner slices were hand cut, without a carving fork, just a quick push and pull, the slices came so nice and even. I will end up messing with this knife edge, adding a little more polish to the edge, but, the feel, heft, balance, and cut, perfect knife. On to the sandwiches then...

 

Plate of sliders

As you can see, the buns were actually King's Hawaiian Rolls, nice, soft and a little sweet. These make a nice complement to the smoke and slight pepper bite that the rub brought to the sandwich. 

 

Yum, din-din

You can see a hint of the horseradish mayo I ended up drizzling over the sandwich to finish them. It was simply 2 teaspoons of mayonnaise and horseradish, a teaspoon of cider vinegar and some black pepper and dry mustard whisked together to taste. These were really quite good, a strong showing out of my old neglected (no more) kettle.

Oh, one last thing...

 

Gratuitous Photo of tri-tip

Well. I had the photo and wanted to use it. Some details, the kettle was brought up to 350F to complete the burn-out. Once it smelled sweet, I shut the vents down, top and bottom to bring the temperature down to 255F, from here, the meat was added. I cook indirect, at this temperature for 45 minutes. When I feel it, I am feeling for easy give, the meat should feel soft, like pressing into a Jello cup. I spread the coals and let the meat color up a bit. Total cook time is around 1 hour, and the heat is never higher than 255F or so. 

What, you say, that isn't Santa Maria? Well, not if you learned to cook Santa Maria in the last 30 years, no it isn't. This technique is designed to mimic the old ways on a kettle. If you haven't tried it, you do not know just how good a tri-tip or for that matter, a rib roast can be.

Kale and Pork

Today was the day to use up a couple of things in the refrigerator, namely some leftover smoked pork loin and some kale salad. I also had some red fingerling potatoes that needed to be used. I also found some chicken wings that had been smoked. These would make a great base for the stock I wanted to incorporate.

 

Aromatics and chicken wings

So, into a pot went some onions, celery, garlic, mandarin peels and the chicken wings. Covered with water and seasoned with a couple of pinches of sea salt, a piece of konbu, a star anise, 6 peppercorns and 4 whole cloves. These were covered with water and simmered for 2 hours. Then the broth the was strained of the solids, then filtered to clear the broth. I use coffee filters for this. The stock was then reduced from roughly 1.5 cups of stock, a splash of white port and black currant Balsamic vinegar, which was reduced to 1/2 cup. This would be the glaze.

The potatoes were roasted with onions, celery and garlic until tender. The potatoes were cooled and sliced, then tossed into a hot pan to sear. Then the kale was tossed on top to wilt. A little kosher salt and fresh ground pepper, to season. It is important to remove some of the larger stalks of the kale, as they remain a little tough when you are just wilting the kale.

 

Plated and Drizzled

The pork was left over from earlier, on the weekend. It was smoked at Phat Matts. It originally had bacon in it, but, that was not going to work. So, I removed the bacon, seared the outside in the hot pan with a little oil from the potatoes. Then I sliced it, and seared the slices. From there, everything was tossed onto the plate and the meat was drizzled with the reduction.

 

Meat Texture

And the texture of the meat held up well to reheating, it remained tender. The reduction nicely complemented the smoked pork as well as the kale. It was lightly sweet with a bitter counter-point from the mandarin peels.