Bob's Brew and 'Que

A Very Rare Op-Ed on SOPA

2012-01-18T11:54:00.001-08:00

I have thought long and hard about writing this, as most who know me are aware, I generally keep my politics out of the spotlight. I prefer to talk of food, of supporting family farmers, and keeping people who wish to work their land on it. But, it greatly bothers me that the forum that I use to discuss that, is itself threatened with censorship. Has it really come to the point where government and industry have so much to fear from us, as individuals, disseminating information, that we now see attempts to institute controls on how we might choose to interact?

We all gain a great deal by the free flow of information, whether we believe or want to hear what others are saying, the exchange of ideas and knowledge is how a society strengthens itself. If we allow government or business to control that information, we allow the erosion of the core of our rights as humans, not just Americans, but as individuals who have an inherent right to self-expression and self-determination. The suspension of any free sourced media will be the creation of censorship at the highest levels, wherein truly free thought is forced underground. It does not matter whether you are conservative or liberal, the erosion of a means of communication that is not controlled by the government or business, should represent the most dire of warnings that these rights are about to be taken away from us. There is no free press, all of our normal news sources are controlled wholly by corporations, our sources of media are constantly being consolidated, there are few independent voices that all of us can hear. Regardless of how we might choose to believe the best society can be achieved, it most certainly does not occur under the control of corporations and government entities.

As a person whose entire career had been to create intellectual property and to see it made real, I am still terribly bothered by the act of creating a legal process whereby a privileged class of entity can pursue the control of an open media source in a manner to protect their profitable gain. I find that despite what these laws might purport, as a small business man and a lifelong creator of intellectual property, when my right to compensation for the use of said property was violated, I did what any true individual entity in this country had to do, I sued the person stealing my property. Why is this no longer acceptable for the people seeking to censor the World Wide Web. The idea that government or business will be able to control how and what information I can create, distribute and trade in, this is the most disturbing thing. Although I primarily create content that is designed for development of landscape and planning, I do not want to think that at some level a precedence has been codified that could lead to my not being able to create in the image that I would choose.

Since it appears that we have come to a time when the individual has become so powerful, that we as consumers and users of the World Wide Web have become so effective as a group, that the largest of corporations must now seek to use our government against us, as a means to control how we act and behave. Perhaps it is time we turned to the powers that be and let them know, that we are tired of the politics of hate and fear, that it is time for us to return to making this country a country of the people and not a country that protects the largest corporations in the world and the largest government in the world from the very people they are meant to serve. Censorship and control of media is the sign of a failing society, where hate and fear, greed and power rule all. In the end, intellectual property and the arts falter. If you wonder how this related to design, or creation of good food, or keeping small farmers on their land, then you truly don’t get it. It is truly too late.

Meatballs and Perciatelli

2012-01-17T21:10:00.000-08:00

BBQ Spaghetti is often a dish that is an amalgam of fusion, an attempt to make a dish from the parts of one cook and the part of another, at it's best, it can be a wonderful dish. Most often, it is a assortment of meats, in a sauce that is often more BBQ than pasta sauce and some fairly straightforward spaghetti. It can be good, I often order it when it is on special at my favorite BBQ place, Phat Matt's in Oakland, California. It has always struck me, though, that I might take this dish in a little different direction, more pasta dish than BBQ dish.

Here was my take. Spaghetti and Meatballs elevated.

In case you forgot what meatballs look like

Meatballs:
Recipe:
1/2 pound fresh ground chuck (I used Eel River Organic Beef, 85%/15%)
1 pound of hickory smoked pulled pork, ground with medium plate
1 cheap white hamburger burn, torn to shreds, ground with medium plate
1 large egg, beaten with 1/4 cup water
1.5 tablespoons or so, dried Italian Herb mix

I ground the pulled pork while it was still cold, ground the bread through the same plate, then mixed with the ground beef and fed it back through the medium plate a second time. Then the egg mixture was whisked with the herb mix, this assists in a more evenly distributed herb mix. The entire mix was then allowed to cure for 15 minutes. This allowed the bread to abosrb some of the moisture and bind the mixture even more.

I handle a mixture like this as little as possible, as I want to retain the texture as loose and light as possible. Milk could have been used instead of water, but, that would mean I would need milk, which I did not have.

Pasta:
I went with Perciatelli, I love this pasta shape, from the outside, it looks like a double thick spaghetti, but, from the end, there is a hole in the middle. I find this pasta is as tender as it's smaller spaghetti cousin, but, the larger outside diameter holds the sauce better. I also prefer pasta that is extruded through brass dies for the rough texture.

I cooked the pasta, basically following the box except I use 1/8 cup salt to 1 gallon of water for 1/2 package. It is cooked to al dente, maybe a minute short of that even. I then take the pasta pan, after draining the pasta and saving 1/2 cup of the pasta water and add a cup of sauce and a little olive oil which I "fry" the sauce, then add 1/4 cup white wine and some grated Grana Pandano and the pasta, which is then tossed over low heat to finish the cooking in the sauce. This further dresses the sauce and improves both texture and flavor.

Plating is as simple as dumping the pasta into a pasta bowl, or onto a plate and topping with meatballs.

Can you see how casual the plating was?

Gah! the sauce, about the sauce. I wanted to do something other than the heavily BBQ influenced sauces so often used on BBQ spaghetti, some places just use ladles of the house sauce. I find this both heavy handed with a sauce that is meant to be a condiment, and rather too strong for a pasta dish. For me, pasta, even more than BBQ is meant to shine with a balance between a beautiful sauce and simple pasta. What I did was take 1 medium dry onion, chopped fine and 3 heads of garlic, sliced, this was all browned. Then I took a large can of canned tomatoes, dumped the liquid into the pan, chopped the tomatoes and put them in, added 4 tablespoons of olive oil, 1 tablespoon of chile powder and 3 tablespoons dried Italian herbs and "fried" it all. Into this was added 1/4 cup of BBQ sauce (I used Big Butz Original), 1/2 cup white wine and the whole thing was heated through. The meatballs ended up being cooked in the sauce for 10 minutes.

The final dish spoke of a pasta dish with a little taste of BBQ, the sauce and pasta was balanced, each playing a part and the meatballs spoke of both herbs and smoked pulled pork.

Pulled Pork-The Standard

2012-01-13T13:50:00.000-08:00

I was running an experimental cook last night and decided that burning a load of charcoal just to cook a 2 pound experiment made no sense, so I got 2 9 pound pork butts and went to town. Nothing fancy here folks, this is good old BBQ, slow smoked over hickory for 15 hours until the bone pulls and the butt pulls. The UDS was set up for a long burn with a mix of Royal Oak briquettes and Pretty Good Charcoal lump and 3 pieces of apple wood. The overall smoke took from 5:30 p.m. to 8:30 a.m. with temperatures running from 200F to 250F, I still need to learn the UDS.

The subjects, ready for seasoning

I wash any meat, but, I give special care to pork from cryovac as it can have a bit of a funk, I like to wash in cold water, then dry it and let it sit on counter for 10 minutes. Then the nose will tell me if it is good to go. Seasoning was to be pretty straight forward.

Rubbed up Butts, oh baby!

The butts were rubbed the night before with a medium dusting of Dizzy Dust Salt-free BBQ rub and allowed to rest in the fridge. The butts were then rubbed with a combination of 45% Simply Marvelous Sweet and Spicy and 45% Simply Marvelous Spicy Apple and 10% Phu Quoc medium grind white pepper. This was rubbed on and allowed to sit for one hour and reapplied just before hitting the pit. I do this to get a good built up bark.

3 hours into the cook

It went onto the pit and from about 3 hours to when I checked at 6 hours, it held this gorgeous red color. I considered foiling them to hold the color, but, alas, no large foil. So it was to be cooked au naturel. I had hoped for a short cook, but that was not to be, these stubborn butts took all of 15 hours to get to where the bone would pull.

See, clean bone!

Another shot of the hole left when the bone pulls clean and easy. I did end up panning the last 3 hours, to see if I could get some additional liquid. This worked out great, as I could add it back into the pulled meat. It was a nice dark unctuous gelatin once I got it cooled to remove the fat.

Nice clean pull, good dark coloring

From here it is all about letting the meat pull into the shreds and chunks it want to be in. I don't like mechanical shredders or trying to get everything just so. I like a variety of textures and sizes. I do reserve the bark and give it a good chop, as I like to have small bits throughout the mix. Here is an example of how the textures can vary.

Shreads, chunks and strips

And a mess o' pork which was drizzled with the reserved liquid from the cooking and a little BBQ sauce from Big Butz Sauces for a punch of moisture. You can see a wide variety of textures and colors, to me, this really represents what I like in pulled pork.

Mess O' Pork

This will later find it's way onto some cheap hamburger buns. Where is the beer?

New Years meats

2012-01-03T14:57:00.000-08:00

I am feeling less than motivated to blog, largely due to some weird finger injury that makes typing both a little painful and incredibly difficult to do correctly, so here are some pictures of meat I cooked.

Teriyaki Chicken

Duroc Pork Fatty

Smoked Crispy Pork Belly

Grilled Tai (Sea Bream)

Smoked Pork Butt

Braised Smoked Pork Belly

There will be follow up posts to follow on these items, I assume there will be at least.

Christmas Prime Rib

2011-12-27T22:28:00.000-08:00

Yes, another prime rib post, yes, I went to Portland for a week and took zero photos, yes, I am a bad foodie. But, here is some information on a standing rib roast I cooked for Christmas. It started off as your standard Humbold Grass-fed rib roast, large end, untrimmed, or as untrimmed as I can get. I really hate when they overtrim, or relief cut the bone off of the roast and then tie it back on. No matter what else I am told, nor by whom, if you cut the bone from the roast, cut the deckle from the roast, tying it back on does not make it the same. How hard really, is it to cut slices from one of these roasts. Anyway, the star, unadorned...

The standing rib roast

A few supporting elements, a basic spice rub, kosher salt, medium grind multi-pepper blend, some dry mustard, paprika, ground clove and fresh ground nutmeg and a solid whack of garlic, actually only half of that went into the paste. Here are the spices...

Fresh garlic and some spices

And then some herbs, in this case, fresh parsley, oregano and sage, were finely chopped, added to the garlic, which was grated, and all was muddled with some olive oil to create a slurry.

Fresh parsley, sage and oregano

Slurry, a beautiful culinary word, no?

I will apply the dry rub, allow the roast to sit for 30 minutes, then apply the slurry. The idea, I hope is to get the rub to form into a pellicle of sorts, then apply the slurry over it. I often wonder if this matters as it all seems to blend together in the end. I could be making things more complex for no reason at all.

Rubbed and slurried (Sp?)

This whole mess was shoved into a kettle, with wildly fluctuating temperatures, in the rain, it ran somewhere between 400F and 200F for 5 hours. I also did not have a Maverick, which, due the the wildly flcutuations temperatures, meant I had to go out into the rain often to manually check the temperature. A note about grass fed and finished beef, it is quite lean, and does not take to overcooking at all well. My target temperature was 130F and I really felt anything over 135F to pull was going to be bad. Oddly, I hit 134F at 5 hours and pulled it. What a bothe, still, the steer died, all I did was get wet. Here it is, done and on the board after a 20 minute rest.

Rested and Ready

Next, there was slicing, always the moment of trurth, to see if the color looks right. If you will notice, there is a small yellow nub of what look like fat near the top of the roast, that is actually a tendon and needs to be removed. I like to take a thin bladed knife, run it along the top of the rib bone, then cut slices. The bones form a nice stable base for cutting.

Nice color

You will notice, this is lean meat, and we like the flavor, which is a little stronger than most beef you buy. It is largely unaged, maybe a few days in cryovac is all. This lean quality means you must not cook it past medium rare or it gets a little tougher. I think this shot really shows it taken right to where it wants to be.

Nice shot

I really like the color of these slices. The following shot was a mistake, for some reason, the red tablecloth made the color in this image horrible. Still, some nice slices on the table.

Horrible shot

Yum, purple meat! Geez, you just never know.

brisket chili-sort of

2011-12-04T18:00:00.000-08:00

Well, what to do with the less perfect parts of a less perfect cook of brisket and pork butt. Well, the traditional fallback for me is chili. Or, in this case, since I added some remnants of pulled pork, a chili-like substance suitable for use like chili. I have to say, there must be something other than cooking on my mind, I sort of blew this cook as well, as I ended up with a super smoking hot bowl of red, I ended up abandoning Texas Red to moderate the heat.

I started by preparing some aromatics, in this case, 2 yellow onions, 5 cloves of garlic, 1 Poblano chile and 2 red bells. I added the Poblano after fire roasting the skin off, which should give the chili a nice subtle fresh roasted chile background, the red bells recieved similar treatment, but, were added for sweetness. I used a neat trick to peel the garlic, which entails putting the unpeeled cloves into a metal container with a lid and shanking iy vigorously for a few minutes, peeled garlic is easy.

Aromatics

I also prepared some chile powder using fresh ground chile, I can easily access this since I live in a city with several nice Mexican groceries. I use Cayenne, California, de Arbol, Pasilla and sweet Paprika powders to make a blend, then use this along with my usual Phu Quoc black pepper and sea salt to season.

Home made Chile powder

I added the aromatics and 1 tablespoon of the chile powder to get the ball rolling, a little salt to help with wilting. Then into the pot went the brisket, some more chile powder and more heat. Finally, the pulled pork, which there was a lot of fat, I was not happy with the amount of fat in these butts. Then another tablespoon or so of chile powder and still more sauteeing. Once a fond formed, I added enough water to cover the mess, along with another tablespoon or so of chile powder and a healthy whack of salt.

Brisket added

Pulled Pork added

Cover on and cook for an hour at low heat simmer. Further testing indicated a little more flavor would be nice, so in went 1/2 cup of Red Boat Fish sauce. I will let this rest over night, and then continue to cook tomorrow. I like to let it rest partway through, since the meat is cooked and tender, it does not need hours to simmer and render. The rest allows for the flavors to combine and mellow.

Finished bowl of red chile...Spicy!

So, initial testing indicated that I was a little heavy handed with the home made untested chile powder and that some moderation was in order. I opted for the horrific idea of adding some tomato sauce and beans, along with more Red Boat and some palm syrup. This smooted things out, but, is not really my idea of what chili really is. Still, something had to be done.

Chili-like substance

Since I am a huge fan of rice, I think it has something to do with my Japanese heritage, at least in my case, I went with some leftover rice, with the chili-like substance spooned over. I had bought some other things, like cheese and onions to serve on top, but, the aroma and me recent workout argued for eating right away.

Bowl of chile-like stuff over rice, Tasty!

Oh, that brown stuff in the plastic bag? Mesquite flour, I am not sure what is going to happen to it, but, there it was.

Good Old Smoking Ribs

2011-11-29T19:47:00.000-08:00

I decided to take the UDS that I received from the NorCal BBQ Brethren for a spin today, and loaded a few items of meat into smoke. I decided I was going to want some dinner and since I was running smoke, I went with some baby back ribs. This is a pretty unusual smoke for me, as there are no exotic ingredients, no unusual preparations or techniues, just unwrap meat, trim membranes and fat and rub.

Beautiful color and shine

Nothing fancy, I used some Simply Marvelous Cherry and Simply Marvelous Sweet and Spicy, let it sit while the UDS came to temperature. Onto the smoke at 3:30pm, off the smoke at 7:00pm. I used a mix of lump, Kingsfrod and Royal Oak briquettes, along with some apple and hickory for flavor.

Great color and texture

It all ran along at 235F per the lid thermo, I figure closer to 275F based upon cooking time. I went to bend them, the larger rack bent perfectly, the smaller rack split, woops, time to pull and eat.

I think I could compete with these

As can be seen, color was great, I went with some leftover Bart's Blazin' Q sauce from my friend Dave Bart, he is making a great sauce and it worked fantastic on the ribs. I loved the spicy and balanced flavor. This really reminded me of why I learned to cook over a live fire, there is no substitute for pulling these off the cooker and eating from the kitchen counter.

More About Pies

2011-11-26T13:30:00.000-08:00

So the last post got a little long winded (what? No, you long winded? Never!) So, here is what went into the crusts. In keeping with my tendency to not follow any instructions what so ever (yes, there were detailed instructions in the last post, I left off the detours for, um, the sake of brevity) I made these roughly based upon the written recipes on the black cover sheet of my copy of Joy of Cooking.

For the pumpkin pies, 4 organic free-range Sugar pie pumpkins were split, seeded, roasted in 1/2" of water, scooped out and mashed. I chose to do this by hand, a potato masher works too. For two pies the following was combined:

5 cups roased mashed pumpkin
2.5 cups evaporated milk
1 cups whole cream
1/4 cup XO cognac (it's all I had okay?)
1/2 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup unbleached organic fine turbinado sugar
1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon each nutmeg and mace
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
5 eggs, slightly whipped

I vigouroulsy whip all of the ingredients to thoroughly blend. I use a stiff ballon whisk and a large bowl, really give it a beating. I then filter the custard through I medium fine sieve to remove any egg or solids that did not go smoothly into the custard batter. This is then refigerated while crusts are rolled. Chilled custard into a chilled crust set into a room temperature pie pan, do not put chilled glass into the oven.

For the apple pies, who knows how many pounds of fresh apples were processed for the two pies. I went and bought Granny Smiths, Fujis, Braeburns and one other variety which the name escapes me, there were 1 plastic bag of each, except for the Fujis, where there were two bags. All were peeled and cored, kept in acidulated water and then spiced as follows:

1 very large bowl of chopped apples
1/4 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup organic fine grind unbleached sugar
1/2 cup bourbon (single barrel small batch bourbon, it's all I had)
1 tablespoon Meyer lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
1/2 teaspoon each nutmeg, allspice and mace
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

All was mixed together and allowed to sit overnight. This was just to give me more time on Thanksgiving to get the pies rolled and baked.

All pies were baked initially at 425F for 10 minutes, then oven was lowered to 325F and remaining time ranged from 35 to 45 minutes until pies were done. For apple pies, I go by color, for pumpkin, I go by a clean knife test.

These pies were quite good, I really like spiking the pie fillings, it just adds one more layer of flavor to the filling.

Pies

2011-11-26T12:45:00.000-08:00

For Thanksgiving, I was invited to my sister's in-laws for dinner, so no smoking turkey for me. I did decided to make some pies, in this case, two pumpkin and two apple pies for the dessert. I use an old recipe, I learned from my Uncle Roy, whose dad learned to make the crust while in a WW2 Concentration Camp for Japanese citizens and residents. The chef, according to family lore, had been a pastry chef at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel just before the war but had been repurposed in life as the head cook for the camp. He had no more idea to cook for hundreds of folks, than my uncle's father had to make pie, but, my uncles father had run a cafeteria in Fresno prior to the war, so agreements were made. And I can make a great pie crust.

Grandpa Sahara's pie crust:
12 cups AP flour
6 cups shortening (I use 3 cups each butter and shortening)
1/2 tablespoon fine salt (I use sea salt)
8 tablespoons sugar (I use fine organic unbleached sugar)
2 cups iced water (this measurement is wrong, by the way)

1. Cut shortening into small pieces, I actually like to use my hands and pinch it into flakes.

2. Place shortening in freezer to cool for 30 minutes to an hour.

3. Blend dry ingredients, I use a ballon whisk to make sure it blends thoroughly.

4, Pinch in the shortening into the flour. I use two spatulas to cut it in initially, then pinch the granular mix to create the final mixture. It needs to remain cold. Chilling everything, including tools, helps a lot. I am going for an appearance of fine gravel with some coarse sand texture.

5. Start adding small amount of water, folding or stirring with a silicon or wetted wood spoon. Eventually, there will be some gluten that develops, fear not, get it all moistened until it will form a crumbly ball. It should not hold to a ball shape.

Note: It often takes more than two cups, sometimes more than three cups. It matters how old your flour is, how dry it is, how much moisture is in the air etc... I chill three cups of water, add one cup to begin with drizzled over the entire mixture then add 1/4 cup at a time until I get the gravel appearance I want. Oh, I don't always do this in a bowl. If you have a large stone or concrete counter, it is a better surface.

I know divide the dough into 6 to 8 pieces, form them into disks using a sheet of plastic wrap for each piece, a flattened disk works best. If the dough seems dry, a spritz of water is not a bad idea. Wrap tightly, I double wrap. Then into the refrigerator for at least 2 hours. I then use a technique called 'frisage' to create large flakes of dough, which I then laminate back into a single dough disk, by combining, compressing back into disk form and back into parchment paper and into the fridge for several more hours, This creates streaks or layers of fat and flour, leading to a more flaky crust.

Frisage Flakes

Pre-compression

Wrapped for long rest

I did overnight this time, really great, as the dough moisture evens our, the flour hydrates, the glutens relax and you end up with silky, elastic dough to work with. Done right, this dough is a dream to work with, rarely sticks to the pin and never tears.

I prefer rolling dough out on a floured rolling cloth, I had to use baking parchment this year, as I ruined my cloth by using it to strain hash browns and it never got clean again. A little sprinkle of flour onto the cloth, onto the dough disk and onto the rolling pin. Roll, rotate, roll, rotate, you get a round circle for the pan.

Rolled and ready

Here is the reason I like the underlayment of a cloth of parchment paper, I can slide the pin under the underlayment and pick the dough up easily, it then drapes over the pie plate or filled pie shell easily. Actually, when I really get it right with this dough, I can handle it like pizza dough almost. I doubt you can see it in this photo, but, there are actual flakes of shortening visible in the rolled dough. In the following photo, you can see the drape and elasticity of the dough much better.

Dough in place

This post had gotten a tad long, but, this really makes a great forgiving dough, a flaky and tender crust and that is, for me, what pies are all about.

UDS and Pork

2011-11-08T21:02:00.000-08:00

As mentioned in another post, this past weekend, I was cooking at a gathering called a Brethren Bash. As it happens, these fools actually trusted me to organize the Bash last year and this. Amazingly, it happened again and I think it worked out great. One of the great plusses and a real surprise was the gift to me of a custom UDS (ugly drum smoker) with beautiful wood handles from AML Woodart. Marty at AML Woodart makes some beautiful handles for various Weber and BGE products, has is also a master wood worker who I will eventually hire to make me a custom cutting board base. But, for now, here is my new UDS.

It actually has my name carved into the top handle and the phrase Itadakimasu in the handles. Many younger Japanese and non-Japanese who have been taught stateside think this phrase means let's eat. It actually mean 'I humbly receive'. And I can tell you, I am humbled that they gave me one of these, I consider these UDS cookers to be amazing for smoking meats, especially briskets. And the UDS was already seasoned, so I was good to go. I was planning on cooking three racks of baby backs and 2 pounds of pork steaks, so, I had meat and a cooker. Let's take her for a run. I loaded about 3 pounds of charcoal into the basket, fired up the coals with a weedburner and let it settle. Every UDS is a little different, the first fews cooks can be problematic, this one locked in at 235F and ran there for 5 hours.

I was trying a new rub out, with a goal of ultimately leveraging this rub into a completely different dish. The rub mix is based upon the spicing of Islamic Chinese traditions, except I used pork, which means this is more Turkish Chinese ribs. I used a variety of spices, including:

allspice berries

whole black peppercorns
whole white peppercorns
5-Spice (yes, I am lazy)
fennel seeds
cumin seeds
coriander seeds
cinnamon stick
cloves
Harissa mix
Kosher salt

Toast and grind to a powder. Coat the ribs, wrap tightly and allow to sit for an hour. Then recoat with Santa Maria rub and a second coat of the Spice rub.

These went onto the top rack for 3 hours, then the pork steaks went on and another two hours passed. I decided to go with Simpy Marvelous Sweet and Spicy rub for the pork steaks. This is one of my favorite rubs for making good BBQ with pork. It is truly my go to product. The meats came off at the same time, looking like this.

There were, oddly, no cut rib shots. But, the rubs is really what I was looking for. Ultimately, the rub will be used on lamb ribs for a brasied and smoked dish. For proof of concept though, these ribs had a great balance, complex spicing and a real kick on the finish from the Harissa and white pepper. Both meats did not disappoint for the first run on my new smoker.

Parking Lot Bread

2011-11-08T20:38:00.000-08:00

Last weekend found me attending an event called The NorCal Brethren Bash, wherein a bunch of us who have met on a BBQ forum called The BBQ Brethren gather, meet each other face to face and cook and eat ridiculous amounts of food. One of the interesting things that happen at these events is that folks who might otherwise stick to regular meats and preparations start to experiment, learn new techniques or just get new insights to what other folks are doing. It also happens, that we end up cooking in a parking lot. I decided to make bread, sausage bread (the test run was posted here).

I started a week ahead of time, by making a simple poolish of commercial yeast, 1/2 cup honey pale ale, 1 cup warm water and 1/2 cup AP flour. This was allowed to sit on the counter for a week, lightly covered with plastic wrap to prevent flies and dust. I feed 2 tablespoons of flour to the poolsih every day, along with 1/4 cup chlorine free water. Something about cooking at remote sites when you are not organized or thorough, you forget things. Like yeast, measuring cups, spoons, scales and a pizza stone. No matter, who needs to measure?

So, I arrive and start to prepare the dough, realize I have only 2 cups of one week old poolish and loads of flour, a large bowl and some bottle water and kosher salt. I do have a recipe, but, of course, since I do not have a scale or cups, what does that matter. I start with what I think is 2 cups Bread flour, 1 cup AP flour, 1 bottle of water and the poolish. Mix until stiff, add a little water, little flour, more water, more flour, soon I have been mixing and kneading in the bowl (apparently the only piece of equipment I felt I needed, that and an oven pan). Eventually I end up with what looks like bread dough. Proof for 15 minutes. I retuen to see it is rising, time to really knead. I use a method that requires kneading for 5 minutes, resting for 2, repeat 4 times. Yes, 20 minutes of kneading, in a parking lot, on a folding table. I then let it rise, in a cool spot, covered in an oiled bowl for 4 hours.

Meanwhile, I started the smoking of 1 pound of Italian sausage. I also diced up a couple green and red bell peppers, a medium yellow onions and many cloves of garlic. These all went into the oven pan and got smoked for an hour. Low and slow veggies get so sweet and aromatic. I crumbled the smoked sausage and mixed with the vegetables.

After four hours of the second rise/proof, the bread dough was spread out, a healthy layer of stuffing and cheese were added and the dough was rolled onto a loaf. A stupidly large loaf that was nearly 3 feet long. It was beautiful, excpept it would not fit onto the cooker. Dang! I had to hack my perfect loaf in two.

It was cooked on a Big Green Egg Large, at 350Fish, since I am not really a baker, who cares about perfect temperature, it was somewhere around there for most of the cook. It did take a while, almost an hour until I got a couple of these off the cooker.

It sure looks like bread, it sure smelled like bread. I wonder...the biggest issues I have seen with stuffed breads is that the stuffings add a lot of moisture inside the loaf, which can affect the texture, often giving bread a sense of being undercooked. Not desirable. The particular process, even horribly mangled like I did this time, results in a very elastic texture, a crisp skin and a moist interior that seems to not be affected by the stuffing. I actually love this type of bread, it reminds me of the best San Francisco breads of my youth.

This bread was really a successful cook for me, despite rampant lack of organization, the bread was perfect in texture and had a wonderful flavor.

Bread Test Run

2011-10-31T20:49:00.000-07:00

This weekend, I will be attending a gathering of fellow BBQ enthusiasts from around the Northern California and surrounding states. I offered to provide bread dough, which, means I had to get a biga started. I did that today, it will sit out for a few days, hopefully improving during that time. I started this one with commercial yeast, active powder type, two packages, along with one cup of honey pale ale and 1/2 cup warm water. I like to not use chlorinated water, but, I didn't plan well. Here is the active Biga after 3 hours.

I decided to take this and run a test, so I added 1 cup of it to 3 cups of flour, 2 cups of bread flour and one cup of AP flour. I also added 1 teaspoon of active dry yeast, since the Biga is very young. This was combined and mixed until tight. I then kneaded it in the bowl for 5 minutes, until it pulled from the sides cleanly.

Onto the granite, some light flouring, since I use a highly hydrated dough, I can use up to 1/2 cup flour during kneading. I need this. (get it? :-p) Anyways, I then decided to get lazy, stuffed it into the bowl of the Kitchenaid and put the dough hook on. Three 5 minutes bursts for kneading with 2 minute rests and the dough was ready for a final few minutes by hand. There is no substitute for this. The last 4 to 5 minutes must be by hand, as you can feel the dough become softer and silkier. This is how to tell when it is time to rest the dough. I was going to make 4 small rolls, which changed after I got home and saw the rise. Here are the little balls.

So, this decision resulted in my having rather poorly formed loaves. Oh well, a bad decision. I tried to recombine the balls into two loaves, which I spread with some garlic sauteed in olive oil, some fresh cracked Phu Quoc black pepper and some kosher salt. I get the black pepper from Rob at Red Boat Fish Sauce. It is a great spice. The loaves were cooked at 450F in the oven for 35 minutes, sort of. I checked it and pulled it when it hit 200F internal temperature. Here is what came out.

As you can see, not pretty loaves at all. But, lookie inside.

Since I make the dough without salt, which I believe gives a better texture, as salt is toxic to yeast. I add the kosher salt to the dough before I shape it, it gives a more capriocious saltiness, as the kosher salt doesn't dissolve that much during cooking. Each bite will be a bit different, the bread evolves with each bite. The idea of a salt-less dough may seem odd, but, it is not so unusual when you look at traditional beads, such as those made in Tuscany. At one time, salt was very expensice and bread was for the masses.

This bread had a fine crumb, a soft elastic tooth and a crisp crust. You could hear it cracking as it cooled. There was the expected richness of the garlic and olive oil, the punch of the black pepper and kosher salt varying with each bite. A very good loaf.

My Other Life

2011-10-17T14:58:00.000-07:00

This past weekend, I got to visit an old project I worked on years ago in Benicia, California. Back in 1993, the firm I worked for got hired to administer and be the on-site representative for a project that would eventually become the Benicia Community Park. While the design landscape architect was another firm, I was on site daily to insure that the City's interests were protected. To that degree, I had the influence on several occasions to affect design of some site elements. One of the elements that required some 'site engineering' were these cooking grills. I made some 'tweeks' to make sure these units would last, were more functional and easily maintained. It was good to see that after 18 years of use, they function as well now as they did when new.

There are four of these units, each with the capacity to cook very large meals. The grates easily adjust up and down and will hold their adjustments perfectly. The actual mechanisms were designed and manufactured by a now defunct local company, what a great product that guy was making. I posted this at the BBQ Brethren forum and someone made a comment about all of the good food and good times shared around these. I am sure there have been many. But, this put in my mind, at this partucluar intesection of my two passions, cooking and landscape architecture, why I am still, after 30 years, passionate about what I do for a living. I have designed and worked on multi-million dollar residential estates, fabulous corporate campuses and some very interesting one-off buildings. But, my passion has always been park, school and playground design.

As cool as these grills are, and as cool as all the food I have cooked, and as much as I love when folks tell me that they love my food, it all pales to when I walk onto a park I worked on or designed and I see a dozen kids playing and laughing.

In fact, far beyond the food from these pits and all of the families that might have enjoyed them. I am a landscape architect whose passion has been designing parks, playgrounds and ballfields for public use. I have hated nearly every fabulous corporate campus or high end residential as a necessary evil to satisfy my need for earning a living. But, when I work on a park project, I know that for the next 20 to 30 years, and maybe even more, thousands of children will pass through each of them, laughing and playing, maybe making their first team, scoring their first goal or maybe just getting away from a real world that holds nothing but sadness for them.

I was recently asked why I have no passion for the 'art' of landscape architecture and I gave a useless answer. But, in truth, I have little use for the high end of design just for the sake of art, I am happy to leave that to other people. I have done probably close to 250 parks, schools and playgrounds over the last 30 years, multiply that by even just a 1000 kids per park (and that is probably a very low number) and I have fed the soul and joy of over a 300,000 children and they have fed my soul back everytime I go to any park and think about it all.

Yeah, I like these grills and they are terrific to cook on, but, they are all about fun for me. They are just a small part of a larger whole that has meant far more to me. When I took these photos, my nephew was with me, he wasn't even born when I did this work. He was quite taken and my nephew thought the whole park, especially the baseball fields, were amazing. My work never fails to enrich me in ways money has never done.

My name is Bob, I am a landscape architect and I make places were children laugh and play.

Four Ingredient Challenge

2011-09-26T07:48:00.000-07:00

It's that time of the month again, The Four Ingredient Challenge, wherein, I cook a meal using ingredients that I would never use together to make a meal. This month the ingredients are:

Tofu
Melon
Peas
Potatoes

I was not really sure where I was going to take all of this, but, I recently had gone out on a fabulous night to a restaurant named Millenium, in San Francisco, which featured smoked tofu that had a texture and flavor I have not been personally able to recreate, thinking it might be the tofu itself, I decided to buy a Vegan tofu product that was presmoked, one that is common to the type of folks that might eat at a luxurious Vegan restuarant.

Since we are talking ingredients, here are the main players, I found a terrific smelling cantaloupe, which I hope means ripe and sweet, some Organic Yukon Gold potatoes, organic onion and garlic, the aforementioned smoked tofu, frozen peas and a few supporting players, as usual, the Red Boat fish sauce will be along for the ride.

I made two spice blends, both based on a blend of Madras curry powder and a version of Japanese curry powder. In light of the melon and peas, I think a the Japanese curry powder will support the sweet flavors a little more. There is lime powder, dry mustard and chile powder in both, with the potato spice also receiving some dried thyme, which goes great with potatoes. I will also add some of the curry spice mix to the peas.

As to the peas, they were dresses with 1/8 cup of Arbequina olive oil, a splash of cider vinegar and a drizzle of palm syrup. Then one clove of garlic split, kosher salt and some water was added. These were then allowed to sit as the peas thawed. Then a little puree and strain action, and pea sauce is achieved.

Potatoes were sliced, coated with olive oil and spice blend, salted with kosher salt and given a drizzle of fish sauce. Sliced onion and a little bit of fresh garlic was added to bridge some of the flavors. This was all done in a hobo pack to get some cooking and caramelization on the kettle.

I think one of the things I liked about the Millenium dish was the texure of the tofu in small dice, it almost took on a feel of ham chunks. A sort of hobo ragout was my solution. A mixture of carrots, fresh cranberry beans, zuchinni, shiitake, onions, garlic and a drizzle of the olive oil, a splash or two of Red Boat fish sauce and some Phu Quoc black pepper along with the curry seasoning. Since there was to be something of a potato galette to serve over, there didn't seem to be a need for any starch in the 'ragout'.

On to the melon, I could just serve this as melon, or grill it and call it done, but, I really like the idea for these challenges to be integrating the elements in some manner that makes them truly interesting. And I could have gone the savory Asian melon route, but, too easy for me to do that. So, integrating a sweet fragrant melon into a smoked and curried dish it shall be. I decided on a brandied melon 'relish'; essentially heating up 1/2 cup of brandy, adding in some finely diced onion and then cooling it. I added the diced melon and gave it a vigorous stir to combine and then chilled while the hobo packs cook.

I really need to stop plating stuff and just dump it on the plate, I swear it would look better if I just did that. It looked a lot better before I messed around with the pea oil sauce. The brandied melons really worked great with the slightly herbal pea sauce and the smoked tofu ragout was just the right texture and flavor. Here is the better shot...note the lack of plate...

In this shot, you can see the olive oil and pea oil sauce a little more clearly, I really like the cold melon in contrast with the ragout. There are some crunchy beautifully caramlized potatoes in there as well. This is defintely going to be done again.

Larry Gaian of The BBQ Grail - Entry Here
The BBQ Grail website was created in 2007, initially to document the author’s quest to find the perfect backyard BBQ experience. Since that time The BBQ Grail has become one of the more popular BBQ blogs on the internet and is listed on Alltop.com as one of the top BBQ blogs.

Paul Haight of No Excuses BBQ – Entry Here
The No Excuses BBQ website was started in January of 2009 as a way to record the author’s goal of cooking outdoors at least once a week throughout the year and showing the results to the world. Somewhere along the way things got out of control…

Chris Grove of Nibble Me This - Entry Here
Nibble Me This is Chris Grove’s blog about his misadventures in live fire cooking. ”I have no culinary training….I’m just entertaining myself with fire and food”.

Marc Van Der Wouw of Grill Adventures - Entry Here
Grilladventures by broadcastmarc is started on march of 2010.I started the BBQ thing when I was 30,before that we eat a lot outside.have fun,but when the kids came in our life We start serious cooking.Most of it is realy healthy I think;-)The grill has a special place in my heart,We love to do things outside..Everything I make is an adventure,and sometimes we use the books.We try to grill as much as we can year round.

Jerry Russel of Cooking by the Seat of my Pants - Entry Here
Cooking by the seat of my Pants began life as a way to document our culinary misadventures. Since then it has become our way to encourage people to cook without boundaries or recipes. To just get in the kitchen and cook something from the heart.

Better Recipes “The Daily Dish” - Entry Here
Kristina has been writing “The Daily Dish” for www.BetterRecipes.com for the past two years. The blog covers a wide variety of recipes, but firing up the grill truly lights up her passion for food! She was named “America’s Next Pork Personality” by Guy Fieri for one of her grilled pork dishes, won the outdoor grilling division of the National Beef Cook-Off, and her winning grilled lamb-burger took her all the way to the land Down Under with Meat and Livestock Australia. The “4-Ingredient Challenge” is a fun and exciting way to get creative on the grill!

Curt McAdams of Livefire - Entry Here

Livefire cooking is about taking ordinary cooking and adding the flavor of fire to it, whether in high heat grilling, low heat smoking or indirect heat for baking. It’s about taking the primitive element of fire and harnessing it to make great food.

Pulled Pork Overnighter

2011-09-23T10:18:00.000-07:00

Well, due to a lack of planning and foresight on my part (I know, can you believe it?) I am now just getting started putting a fire to the kettle and settling the temperature to cook some butts. How did this start you ask, well, it started with Martinis and Manhattans and a certain woman named Blanca and has ended up with me volunteering to do some pork butts for a Friday evening event. Of course, tomorrow would be the one Friday in a month that I am busy all day, so I need to cook them tonight. Here are three mediocre prok butts from the local supermarket.

This kills me primarily because I have two beautiful 10 pound bone-in prok butts in the freezer that I could have used, if I had remembered that I volunteered to cook before tonight at 5pm. I seasoned them up with a mix of my own pork rub and Simply Marvelous Cherry rub, I sure hope this works right. The rub sure looked right.

And then onto the kettle. I am going to run them at 250F for most of the late night and into the wee hours, after that, all bets are off. I should set up the Maverick, which I normally do not use, but, for an overnight, I better get the insurance going in case of pit temperature drop. Pulled them after 9 hours, running at 235F up to 250F, these cooked pretty fast as they were not large and seemed to render quite quickly.

When I pulled one of them, it actually tore into pieces, still, initial testing determined that the butt was cooked perfectly and there was still loads of moisture.

Flat Bread

2011-08-23T19:16:00.000-07:00

Tonight, I wanted something simple, so I made some flat bread. A very simple process, using a biga, 65% hydration bread dough with a mix of AP flour and Bread flour to get a nice soft crumb. The dough was made last night and allowed to slow rise overnight. It was lightly kneaded this morning and panned.

The dough was topped with sliced grape tomatoes, chopped celery and garlic, some Todd's Dirt BBQ rub (very herbal), kosher salt and some fresh ground Phu Quoc black pepper. Then it was drizzled with Red Boat fish sauce and local olive oil, Arbequina Olives I believe. Into a 520F oven (yes, no kettle today) and baked for 14 minutes. Ta daaaa!

Randomly chunked up, this bread had a very nice crumb, with a very crisp exterior, thin crust that you could hear crackling as it cooled. The interior crumb was tender with just the right elasticity and pull. The toppings were just right for this type of bread, which was not quite foccacia and not quite ciabatta.

I plated with a dribble of black currant infused balsamic vinegar and some of the olive oil. This bread, with it's herbal and savory components was very nicely offset with the sweet, almost port-like character of the vinegar and the smootness of the olive oil. I could not be happier with the crumb.

Masumoto Farm Peach Pie

2011-08-10T13:52:00.000-07:00

Poobah Rib Sandwich

2011-08-06T19:07:00.000-07:00

The McRib, modern cultures ridiculous take on the idea of a rib sandwich. Why would anyone think a bunch of formed pork trimmings could stand in for real ribs in any guise. But, what to do with the craving for a rib sandwich? How would one go about making a rib sandwich. Well, presented with this question, Phil Rizzardi, founder and owner of The BBQ Brethren, one of the most popular BBQ and outdoor cooking forums on the 'net decided it was easiest to just slap a rack into a loaf of bread. While this is clearly a good idea, here is my riff, in honor of Phil.

I purchased a rack of baby back ribs, I prefer quality pork so these were selected at my local butcher shop, I was greatly encouraged as when he picked up the rack, it bent in half forming a upside down U. How much easier is it to make tender ribs when starting with tender ribs?

These were given a little prep work, essentially just removing the membrane and washing them off. Then a rub was applied, I went with Simply Marvelous Cherry Rub spread on twice, one an hour before the other, the second application happening just before going onto the kettle. I did grind on some additional Phu Quoc black pepper as well, it just adds a nice punch to everything.

From here, onto the kettle with chunks of peach wood, cooking at 220F initially and ramping up to 250F over about two hours or so. It was then removed and plopped onto some foil. Yep, I foiled my ribs, competition style, which is not something I normally do. But, since this was for Phil, and he loves his competition BBQ, foil it would be.

On the other hand, I am eating them, so I added some coconut palm syrup, some more rub and freshly ground pepper and some Red Boat Fish Sauce and Lucky Dog hot sauce to the foil. The ribs went meat down onto the foil, was wrapped and put back on the cooker for about 45 minutes. Here is came off the kettle after another 45 minutes un-foiled. These looked and smelled great. Initial samples verified that the meat was very tender, the surface was very balanced between sugar, salt, savory and smoke.

Beautiful pink color in that sliced meat, with excellent texture and a pull from the bone texture. I really think anyone would be happy with these ribs, just enough pull to come clean with a slight tug, melt in your mouth texture. Here is the section of the rib slab I selected for dinner, I truly think I could compete with these, but, boned and placed on bread, this was going to be a good dinner.

I added some hand sliced apple cabbage slaw to top off the sandwich and clean up the diet by claiming I had veggies with dinner. The slaw was left pretty crunchy and basically seasoned with Phu Quoc black pepper.

I give you the Grand Poobah Ban Me sandwich. (sorry, had to taunt the mods a little here)

This sandwich really did have a great flavor with a nice smooth smoke and very balanced flavor and texture.

Brisket Experiment

2011-07-29T00:27:00.000-07:00

Well, it had to happen, I decided to try injecting a brisket. And since I was going there, I went with a 15 pound choice grade packer brisket that was trimmed of most of the fat and injected with a test injection. Now, most folks will use a beef broth or commercial injection formula that either is designed to make a brisket taste more beefy (not sure why this is necessary) or to literally change the nature of the brisket. This second option I totally understand. If I was going to compete, I would use something like Butcher's Injection for it's proven flavor and texture improvements. But, I am going for an augmentation of flavor here, so I made my own.

In doing this, I was really trying to augment the savory profiles of the beef without really changing the flavor of the meat. I went with some proven elements for my taste palette. Onions, carrots, garlic, shiitake mushrooms, Bragg's Amino Acids and Red Boat fish sauce. I am hoping to get a blend of the aromatics and umami elements with the addition of some sodium as well.

Bob's Test Injection
1 small onion
4 small carrots
2 cloves garlic
3 shiitake mushrooms, dried
1/4 cup Bragg's Aminos
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons Red Boat Fish Sauce
6 cups water

I brought the water to a boil, reduced to a simmer and added everything but 2 tablespoons of fish sauce. After 10 minutes and back to a simmer, I cut the heat and let it steep until cool. This was bottled and allowed to sit for 2 days. Upon opening, gave it the sniff and taste test. It smelled great, no fish smell, no funkiness, just a nice aromatic blend, I would liken to a vegetable version of demi-glace. It was a little intense and salty in terms of taste. But, no matter, I used two cups to inject the brisket until it started rejecting the liquid. Into the fridge for now. Upon removal from the fridge, there was a notable fish sauce aroma, that got stronger as the meat came to room temperature, not to worry, this always goes away over time.

Well, it took me an extra day to get the whole thing together and onto the kettle. I setup the kettle for a longer burn with a little adaptation to create sort of a heat sink under the brisket. Not sure how this setup will work, but, hey, let's mess with all the parameters at once. I did apply a dry rub to the meat, one portion an experimental rub called Cow Pow by the makers of Big Butz BBQ sauce, and the other a mix of leftovers from Simply Marvelous BBQ (their Cherry and Sweet and Spicy) mixed with some of my mother rub. Why would I do this, well, I needed to test the Cow Pow and did not have enough to do the whole brisket, but, it needed to be tested. The Simply Marvelous would have been fine alone, but, I wanted more heat from the Phu Quoc peppers that I am now using, so I added that to it.

I set up the kettle a little different to see what I could do with a few extra pieces to add some thermal mass and a little shielding of heat. he setup also allowed me to put a couple more pounds of charcoal to the overall load, meaning a few more hours of burn time. I believe I could get 6 to 8 hours with this rig.

Onto the kettle at 200F intially, and letting it run up to 300F over 4 hours, I will hold it there for a couple of hours more and let it then rest until ready to be sliced and tested. Now here is where things get even a little more odd, I had to shut down the cook about 4 hours in, to go take care of some family affairs, so the brisket was wrapped in foil and rested in a heated and then turned off oven.

Here it sat for three hours. Upon my return, it was returned to the now marginally running kettle for another 2-1/2 hours and then into the oven again to rest, as I had a dinner to attend to. I got home 4 hours later to a cold brisket. If you have ever had cold brisket, you know it can be hard and a little dry, this stuff rocked. It was tender, almost flaky with just a little pull and you could see it was still moist.

The taste was right there. The CowPow rub was a great spicy complement to the beef, a true brisket rub. Here are the sliced pics, I wish you could smell and taste this brisket. The injection really upped the meaty profile without adding a lot of salt or strange meat texture, a perfect balance.

Sorry about the pics, this was shot at midnight, after a few cocktails and a full tasting menu with pairings, so there may be some focus issues. For those not familiar with BBQ, that may look burned, but, that bark is a lot of flavor.

Four Ingredient Challenge

2011-07-18T07:55:00.000-07:00

It's that time of the month again, The Four Ingredient Challenge, wherein, I cook a meal using ingredients that I would never use together to make a meal. This month the ingredients are:

Hot Dogs (which I am interpreting as wieners)
Blueberries
Baked Beans
Dill Pickles

Now, I could go the hot dog with dill pickles route, some beans on the side and a blueberry smoothie, but, where is the fun in that? I do these cooks to see how I can fit a square peg into a round hole of culinary excess. I have a long history of this, as a child, I was given a toy where you test your child's innate intelligence by seeing if they can put the round peg in the round hole and the square peg in the square hole. Really? So intellect is doing what is obvious and simple? Nay! I say gimme a bigger hammer Mom!

So, what to do? Have a beer! A honey pale ale, which actually was for dinner. Anyway, well, I went with a classic, beans and franks, with a few twists. And for the sides, cornbread and mustard. For these challenges, I really try to come up with a complete plate that works at all levels. For the hot dogs, I went with my childhood favorite of Saag's frankfurters, growing up, we would get these at their butcher shop in Oakland, it was across the street from the Oakland Flower Market. They are still excellent sausages.

As you see my set up above, I smoked them on a rack over the bean pan with an apple wood fire for 1/2 hour. Then into the bean pot. These were finished cover on after 1-1/2 hours at 300F. The beans were a small can of Bush's Vegetarian Beans and a can of Navy Beans to cut the sweetness and excess sauce. I also added 1 tablespoon of grainy mustard, 1 tablespoon of my basic BBQ rub, 1 tablespoon of Red Boat fish sauce, 1/4 cup bourbon ketchup and 1/2 cup of honey pale ale.

The cornbread ended up being Honey Pale Ale Blueberry Cornbread, which was primarily Jiffy Cornbread mix with the milk reduced 1/2 and ale added. I also added 1/2 cup of dried blueberries and some chopped canned green peppers. I like the Hatch brand as they have a little heat.

I like to make cornbread in a cast iron pan, whether over the fire or in the oven. I preheat the pan and fat to make sure the thermal mass if already hot, it makes a nice crust as well. This actually works great for many quick breads and cobbler like breads as well. A little bacon grease would have been perfect for this, but, I used the far more convenient butter. Of course, my cast iron is very well seasoned and release is not an issue.

Hmmm, something looks like it is missing. Oh, finally, dill pickles, what to do with those, well, mustard is really good with beans, with frankfurters and with cornbread, so, dill goes with mustard and this is all I decided to do. Chopped up some dill pickle, add 1/2 teaspoon of dill liquid to 1 tablespoon of prepared rough grind mustard and mix it all up. The spicy and sour profile really cuts through the sweet and fatty components of this meal perfectly. The mustard sauce may have been even better on the beans than it was with the frankfurters.

This is really a meal that worked great. Not all of these Four Ingredient Challenges have worked perfectly, but, it is easy to see why this kind of meal has become a standard of the American table. I highly encourage you to take a look at all of the other participants in this little challenge, their links are below. There is a wild cross section of interesting minds at work.

Larry Gaian of The BBQ Grail - Entry Here
The BBQ Grail website was created in 2007, initially to document the author’s quest to find the perfect backyard BBQ experience. Since that time The BBQ Grail has become one of the more popular BBQ blogs on the internet and is listed on Alltop.com as one of the top BBQ blogs.

Paul Haight of No Excuses BBQ – Entry Here

The No Excuses BBQ website was started in January of 2009 as a way to record the author’s goal of cooking outdoors at least once a week throughout the year and showing the results to the world. Somewhere along the way things got out of control…

Chris Grove of Nibble Me This - Entry Here
Nibble Me This is Chris Grove’s blog about his misadventures in live fire cooking. ”I have no culinary training….I’m just entertaining myself with fire and food”.

Hanneke Eerden of The Dutchess Cooks – Entry Here
The Dutchess Cooks was started in 2010. After years of cooking, grilling, baking and reading other people’s blogs, I thought “why not start my own blog??” And I did, in 2010, but already after a short period of time, a blog wasn’t enough, and I started my own website. It’s not my goal to publish or come up with fancy and difficult recipes: just good and delicious food with an international twist! Straight from my plate to yours!

Marc Van Der Wouw of Grill Adventures - Entry Here
Grilladventures by broadcastmarc is started on march of 2010.I started the BBQ thing when I was 30,before that we eat a lot outside.have fun,but when the kids came in our life We start serious cooking.Most of it is realy healthy I think;-)The grill has a special place in my heart,We love to do things outside..Everything I make is an adventure,and sometimes we use the books.We try to grill as much as we can year round.

Jerry Russel of Cooking by the Seat of my Pants - Entry Here
Cooking by the seat of my Pants began life as a way to document our culinary misadventures. Since then it has become our way to encourage people to cook without boundaries or recipes. To just get in the kitchen and cook something from the heart.

Jason Adams of Jason's BBQ Adventures - Entry Here
Started Jason's BBQ Adventures in 2007 and originally fell in love with real BBQ the first time I tried to smoke a pork shoulder and soon after started smoking ribs, brisket and chicken. After a while I started to experiment with grilling and smoking just about anything and ultimately fell in love with the entire cooking process.

Wilfred Reinke of Oshawa Ogre's Views News & BBQ's - Entry Here
Wilfred is somewhat of a newcomer to the BBQ scene having only done standard grilling for most of his 50 years, He found and became passionate about Low & Slow about 2 years ago. and that passion also morphed into a second hobby which is writing. Oshawa Ogre's Views News & BBQ's has been a project that has taken on a life of it's own and blessed him with many many new friends in the BBQ community on Twitter, facebook and through the blog.

Mmm, Honey Pale Ale

2011-07-17T20:48:00.000-07:00

Tonight's quaff of choice...Home Brewed Honey Pale Ale

One of the things I learned about home brewing over the past few years, you gotta let some brews sit. This one is one of those, totally disjointed 3 months ago, delicious tonight.

Spam Pineapple fried rice

2011-07-15T12:16:00.000-07:00

I can't decide where to put this, so it will probably be a dual blog post. It is the ultimate fusion, and of course, it is inspired by that great melting pot of Hawaii. I first saw a version of this made by Chef Sam Choy and have adopted it for myself.

First there is the smoked Spam, the essential ingredient and cultural icon of Hawaii gets a BBQ spin with a hour and a half in the kettle, over apple wood and citrus wood charcoal, some briquettes thrown on for fun. I rubbed the Spam with a salt free Dizzy Dust rub, I mean, there is no need to add more salt to Spam. Here it is, and I might add, Spam looks more delicious smoked

This was allowed to rest overnight, let the smoke settle in while I ate other stuff. Note the bacon? Yes, applewood bacon. Next are the aromatics and spices, chopped onions, celery, lemon zest, Red Boat black pepper, garlic chives and some chile powder.

The onions and celery were sauteed in the wok until translucent. Then the meat, comprised of a little bit of smoked Spam and some crumbled bacon were added and heated through. The rice, a jasmine rice from Thailand was cooked then cooled on a bamboo mat, as drier cool rice makes for a better friend rice. I slightly undercooked the rice to get the right texture and to prevent it breaking down in the wok. The cooling on a bamboo mat or strainer allows for air circulation and prevents mushiness, this also works great for noodle to be fried.

The rice was tossed into the wok and tossed a few times to heat through. Then I added the spices (shown above) to season it all up. I then added a flavoring blend of 1 teaspoon each of Red Boat Fish Sauce, Liquid Amino Acids and Japanese Worcestershire sauce. Anyone who has followed my cooking knows it is all about layers of flavors and playing the idea for raw or crispy off of cooked and tender, so the final additions were some chopped kimchi and come fresh pineapple chunks.

The whole mixture was tossed in the wok for a minute then loaded into a bowl, obviously there was far more than one serving. Some was tossed in a bowl and topped with a fried egg.

Take a look at that egg and the mixture underneath. Yes, a fried egg, sunny side up, no I am not worried about getting food poisoning. Another beauty shot.

The egg I got from my sister's chickens, the rich yellow yolk and see how it stands up, you know that is a good egg. I like to add the egg to the top and then let the yolk flow down and flavor the rice. As a child, I hated raw yolk, but, now, I love the warmed yolk on hot rice, there is something about the richness of the yolk and how it sits on rice that is just perfect.

Smoked Spam

2011-07-14T21:09:00.000-07:00

Yes, I gave in to my most base urges and I smoked a Spam. It is now resting in my refrigerator. I have plans for it. Tomorrow. Tonight, it rests and the smoke infuses into the porky goodness that is Spam.

Chicken Ka-Babs of an Asian Persuasion

2011-07-07T21:04:00.000-07:00

Tonight was chicken night, it was also low carbohydrate night and it was Bob needs to eat more veggies night as well. My sister has been sending me photos of kabobs she has been cooking, so I decided to make them, cause they were in my head. Well, here goes.

The Aromatics:
1/4 cup each onion, celery and carrots, diced
3 large cloves garlic, minced
7 or so slices of ginger

Mash the aromatics lightly and set side.

Liquids:
1/4 cup Red Boat Fish Sauce
1/4 cup Braggs Amino Acid
1/8 cup water
4 little packs of Truvia
2 tablespoon coconut infused white balsamic vinegar (I got mine from Victorino Olive Oil in Livermore)

Blend all ingredients along with aromatics. This forms the marinade for the chicken. I added one skinless, boneless breast of chicken cut into chunks. This was covered and allowed to marinate for 6 hours. The salt in the fish sauce will be enough to add some moisture and pull the marinade into the chicken over this period of time.

Chicken added and ready for chilling.

Later that day, some veggies were prepared for the kabobs, I chose to go with onion, baby shittake mushrooms, red bell pepper and Thai sweet basil, which I put against the chicken to get one final layer of flavor added.

To the skewers, I choose to use two skewers to avoid twisting, I find the two skewers work well for keeping the meat in place and avoiding loss of meat on the grill. I made sure to layer things to create as much interplay of the flavors, making sure the basil was next to the chicken.

I did a little something different with the kettle tonight, since I was looking for a little heat, but, not wanting to mess with the kettle setup too much, I left the smoker baffle in place and loaded the entire side of the kettle with charcoal and got it going nice and hot. The effect was a more vertical fire that was throwing heat across the grate. I added the skewers so the heat ran across them, A few changes of position and they were done. I did try a baste, using more fish sauce, cider vinegar, coconut white balsamic vinegar and Truvia. I ended up with these.

The baste worked pretty well in giving the meat a shiny finish and added just one more layer of flavor and aroma to the final product. Here is a close-up for those who need a little more detail.

I only ate one and a half of these, not all three. It was a good dinner and although some Jasmine rice would have been nice, it certainly wasn't missed. Plus, I ate too much at lunch anyways.

Hawker Fare in Oakland

2011-07-07T17:45:00.000-07:00

Went to a new restaurant in Oakland, Hawker Fare, which I had high hopes for. The experience proved two axioms, one is that who you dine with matters more than what you eat, the other is to be wary of the high expectations driven by anticipation. First, to my dining companions.

One of the perks of blogging and being connected (however vaguely) to the food business is that you get to meet other people that share your passion. Often, these are very interesting people that can make any dining experience more enjoyable. One of the folks I ate with today was my friend Rob, he of Red Boat slinging fame. The other was Mai Troung, whose blog Flavor Boulevard is a very passionate and intelligently written journal of her dining experience. If you have a taste for good food in general, and Asian food in specific, I recommend you click on the link. As for Mai and Rob, they made for excellent dining companions, I would gladly share a table with them in the diviest of dives.

Onto the food, from the time I saw the menu of this new place in downtown Oakland, my old work-hood, I wanted to eat there, I had visions of food that spoke of the street, that combination of flavors, individuality and independence that colors street food, at it's best, as singular, gritty, notably of the street. This was not to be. What I was thinking was BBQ sold off the side of a smoker, carnitas and giardinare tacos off the back of a pickup or odd pieces of chicken on rice with kitchen gravy, the kind of food I love. What I got was good food, food that if I worked anywhere in downtown, I would certainly walk over for.

Main had 24 hour Pork Belly, which looked very good. Reports were that it was good. It sure looks good.

All of the dishes came with a nice dipping sauce and interesting vegetable or herbs to accompany the meat. Rob had Lemongrass chicken which he also felt was good. It is very attractively plated.

And I ordered the Beef Short Rib, which was also quite tasty and had the added interest of a fried egg, an option that I will always take if offerend. The dish was very well flavored and certainly good.

It all ended with soft-serve ice cream, one a sundae and the other ice cream with a side shot of espresso. This is Strauss Creamery soft serve, there is clearly no lack of passion by the owner to present high quality food, in a nice setting with great flavors. This is something they do well, if you are looking for this, then this is a good place to go.

For me, as I said, if I still had my office in downtown Oakland, this place would make the rotation. But, as I said, to some degree, I had allowed my mind to gear up for something that I had no reason to expect, to that degree, this was a pleasant food experience with very interesting people filled with talk of food and cooks who are pushing the limits of what a restaurant can do, what I had hoped I had found here.

Making a BBQ Sauce

2011-07-04T19:12:00.000-07:00

I decided to have a pulled pork sandwich for dinner tonight. I cooked the pork butt yesterday, pulled it and gave it a little extra seasoning. But, what is really going to make the sandwich work is going to be the sauce. Now, I have a plethora of commercial sauces for testing and others that I have come to consider 'house' sauces, but, since I want this sandwich to be something special, I decided to make my own sauce. First up, I need ketchup that is low in sodium and without standard sugars common to commercial ketchup. I made this.

Ketchup Recipe
2 cups cider vinegar (in my case, organic Spectrum Cider Vinegar)
1 tablespoon oil (can be olive oil, I used canola oil)
1/2 teaspoon coarse ground Phu Quoc Black Pepper
8 whole cloves
2 small bay leaves
1/4 teaspoon celery seed
1/2 teaspoon cayenne or chile powder
1 teaspoon ground mace
2 large cloves garlic, coarsely chunked
1/2 medium yellow onion, coarsely chopped
1/8 cup Bragg's Amino Acids
1/8 cup Red Boat Fish Sauce
32 oz. can crushed San Marzano tomatoes
8 little packs of Truvia Sweetener ( I really need to find the spoonable stuff)

Bloom spices in oil over medium heat until aromatic, I add the powdered ingredients at the last moment. Then add the garlic and onions and sweat until translucent. Add vinegar and bring to simmer for 15 minutes. Once slightly reduced, remove bay leaves and cloves, then blend until desired texture is achieved. I like a little bit of texture left. Return to pot (unless you used a stick blender) and add fish sauce, Amino acids and San Marzano tomatoes. Cook over low for 10 minutes. Add Truvia to taste. Allow to cool.

Here is the sauce made, after the addition of 1/8 cup of Black Currant infused balsamic vinegar, 1 more packet of Truvia and 1/8 cup more cider vinegar and a teaspoon of Lucky Dog hot sauce. This remained uncooked.

The above ketchup recipe creates a spicy flavor with distinct tomato and savory flavors and a nice sweet heat on the finish. I really want a rich tomato flavor to ring through on the initial taste. This is not at all as thick, sweet or salty as commercial ketchup, it is more of a ketchup sauce. The additions for the BBQ sauce punches up a few of the flavors and adds a fruity character as well. Here is a close-up to show the thickness and texture of this sauce.

This sauce is closer to the pork sauces you see in the south, thin with a distinct tang and a little heat. It is a sauce designed for pork. And this was it's final destination.

A pulled pork sandwich, soft white bread, sweet pulled pork, spicy red sauce and some cole slaw and green tomato relish to round it all out. This is what a nice pork cooks ends up being all about.

Pulled Pork, oh the tradition

2011-07-03T18:17:00.000-07:00

I made pulled pork today, not some fancy plated braised in stout pulled pork or raised by loving hands of Russian maidens and allowed to eat only Italian acorns pulled pork. Just plain old traditional pulled pork, from an unnamed pig, slow cooked over charcoal and wood. I chose to use a mix of "Cherry Rub" and "Sweet and Spicy Rub" made by Steph Franklin from Simply Marvelous BBQ, Steph is making some of the best rubs out there and it is my go to rub. I mixed these two half/half mostly because I wanted to rub heavily and I didn't order soon enough to have a full bottle of either.

I had the kettle set up for off-set heat, settled in at 275F and waiting for the pork. I had purchased a 3.5lb partial butt, since my usual folks that I dump my leftover sack-O-pork on are traveling. It was a mediocre piece of butchering, but, an excellent piece of pork. Here it is with the first coating of rub.

As you can see, the butt is a little loose, it was partially separated in the fat vein and at the bone, I had to practice a little butcher twine work to get it to a more or less uniform shape (depending on your feeling in uniform). In this next image, the pork has been tied and sat for 40 minutes with a fan running, this sets a skin (pellicle) to adhere the second coating of rub to. The combination of sugar, salt and the proteins drawn from the meat forming the pellicle allows for adhering the rub without using any other ingredients. Next image is with the second rub.

Basically, once this was done and the rub was set a little more, I placed the now well coated hunk of meat into the kettle at 275F for the next 6 hours, this created a very nice bark, a deep rich color and a very tender pork butt. Here is it just prior to resting.

I wrapped into the foil, then inside of a warmed towel to rest and continue to cook slowly and cruise down to pulling temperature. This process takes an hour, believe it or not, an hour is really minimal for this part of the cook. Then I pulled the meat into chunks for cooling and storing, as I intend to eat tomorrow.

Initial taste testing and snacking indicates that this is some terrific pulled pork, I actually added in some more of the original rub mix and will allow to cool. Tomorrow, I will reheat for sandwiches, I can't say how many at this point. Here is a close-up showing the texture, which I hope you can see, is not the least mushy.

A funny aside, I forgot that I had tied the butt, so when I went to pull it, the meat would not pull. My first thought was 'oh no, I pulled a rookie mistake! How could I do that?'. But, no, it was then I noticed the string, cut it and the whole thing came right apart. Whew!

I eat veggies, well, asparagus

2011-07-03T17:52:00.000-07:00

I ate something other than meat, actually, dinner consisted completely of grilled asparagus. I found some very good looking asparagus with large diameter spears, which work best on a grill. I cleaned, trimmed, washed them, then coated with olive oil, kosher salt and Phu Quoc black and white pepper mix. Here is the raw stuff.

These were grilled direct over the hot coals of the kettle as the pork butt was cooking. They cooked up very nicely on the lower heat of the kettle that I normally use for smoking. Here is the end result.

I basically ate this plate for lunch, a little mayo was added for some of the asparagus. although it didn't really need it. I really like what the incredibly aromatic Phu Quoc black/white pepper mix does for grilled foods.

I am back! Chicken Beta testing

2011-07-03T17:46:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Tom from Big Butz BBQ Sauce, I actually got back on the kettle today. Due to recent health issues, I haven't been cooking out there (the backyard, oh Lordy!). After hacking the kettle loose from what Spring hath wrought during my rehab, I got it fired up to cooking around 275F, this was mostly because I was going to cook a pork butt for tomorrow. Tom had sent me some BBQ rubs to test, they are in late beta testing and I think he has a winner.

I chose to go with chicken thighs, easy to cook, easy to eat. I skewered them, as I intended to cook them vertically in my kettle, which allows for some more effective rendering at lower heats. I rubbed with Tom's new rub, cleverly code named 'Chicken Dust' (they'll never guess what this is for Mooohaahaha) . Then into the kettle along with the pork butt (which had been in there for a few hours already.

The chicken pieces were half sauced and half dry, this was to get a taste for the rub alone and the rub with the sauce. I consider this very important, as the way the rub and the sauce work together is the real way that we taste sauced BBQ. I happen to prefer sauced chicken off the grill. The texture of the new rub was excellent, a medium grain, not a dust really, handled easily, coated and adhered well, evenly distributed when dusted a' la chef sprinkling.

The chicken cooked for 45 minutes until almost done, when I applied some Big Butz Hot-style BBQ Sauce to two of the thighs. 15 minutes later, it was removed. I allow chicken to rest for 15 minutes lightly tented. Here is what we end up with. First, chicken with no sauce and then chicken with sauce.

I hope Tom brings this rub to market, it has an exceptional flavor and has a good balance. It also worked very well with the sauce, really complementing the overall flavor. Tom's stated goal was to get a rub that really says 'chicken' which I think he has gotten very close to hitting that nail squarely.

Hot Dog, Simplicity

2011-07-03T12:13:00.000-07:00

Well, I had a hot dog, I know, not a cooking technique extravaganza. But, there is a story, for I did not plan on a hot dog today.

I had gotten a offer to test out some Beta versions of a rub that a friend in developing, these rubs were offered for free, so when he said he was sending a shipment to my local BBQ shop, could I pick it up there to save shipping. Of course, I am getting free product after all.

Free rubs that ended up costing me over $70 because once I got to the store, I ended up buying a bunch of stuff including an interesting relish made from garden vegetables including green tomatoes. Now, along with my odd love, as a California born, bred and never left boy, of traidtional BBQ and no sauce ribs, I love chow-chow, a relish made from green tomatoes. This looked similar so I had to have it. (along with two bottle of Victorine infused balsamic vinegar). So, if you have relish, you need hot dogs to test it out on.

It was a hot day and Spare the Air was all the talk, so I did not fire up the kettle, or my gas grill. Instead, I grilled it indoors on my cast iron grill pan. A Caggiano Italian Sausage, fresh tomatoes and onionsn, a soft roll and the aforementioned relish. It wasn't a huge dinner, but, I am still trying to get less huge. It isn't quite Chow-chow, but, it was very tasty and had a nice sweet/sour profile to it.

Aunt Mary's Cafe

2011-06-30T21:48:00.000-07:00

A delayed post. Still, I went and ate, and now I post. Does the fact that you ate it a while back change that you ate it all at all?

A couple of friends and I wandered into Aunt Mary's Cafe on Sunday morning, we had planned on arriving a little early for a Sunday, as most place in the Temescal, like many of the 'chosen' food spots will fill on a weekend morning. I expected good coffee and interesting spins on food. This place did not disappoint, I ordered the Huevos Benedictos. I was greeted with poached eggs, nicely prepared, delicious. What makes poached eggs seem luxurious? Anyways, there were masa cakes, I ordered the dish for the masa cakes, no matter what culture they are from, I love masa cakes. The accompanying chorizo was dark, rich and spicy, a perfect foil for the eggs and masa cakes with cheddar.

I ate it all, I have no remorse.

Pork and Tomatoes

2011-06-30T09:50:00.000-07:00

Today (I meant to post this yesterday) was my mom's birthday, I had planned a different cook, but, decided I would cook one of my mom's favorite dishes. My mom was a very good cook and an adventurous eatr. Pork and Tomatoes was one of her dishes. This dish, as prepared by my mom represents a true fusion, one that was very common amongst the food we ate as I grew up. Wherein different foods and techniques found their way into our daily diet. The original recipe has changed a bit since we were kids, in particular to reduce the salt and sugar in the original.

Here are the ingredients, all nice and prepared. Mis en place baby!

The Ingrdients:
1/2 large or one small/medium onion, chopped
1 large stalk celery, thinly sliced
3 large cloves garlic, minced
1/2 pound thinly sliced pork sirloin
3 medium tomatoes, peeled and sectioned

The Reduction:
1/8 cup each Red Boat Fish Sauce and Bragg's Amino Acids
1 teaspoon sesame oil
1/2 teaspoon Lucky Dog hot sauce
3 teaspoons Stevia/Erythriol blended sweetener

Stir fry onions and celery until translucent. Add the reduction sauce ingredients and the garlic, saute and reduce in pan until celery in melted, onions are cooked down and sauce is reduced by 50%.

The onions and celery will release moisture so this will take a little while. Once reduction is complete, remove vegetables with a slotted spoon or mesh ladle. Reserve reduction and add a small amount of oil, add in pork and stir fry until half cooked, note that the pork will also release fluids, which need to be reduced a it as well.

Return vegetables and reduction to pan and continue to reduce until liquid is nearly gone, add in peeled tomatoes and this forms the sauce for the entire dish. I prefer to use fresh tomatoes for this dish, although the color is better with canned tomatoes. I find the fresh tomatoes add more flavor. If I was making a large batch, I would add both canned and fresh. This is served over steamed rice.

The interesting part of this dish is that when I was a child, tomatoes were a particularly unusual element of cooking for the Japanese-American families, when we ate them, they were either fresh and raw, or cooked in American or Italian preparations. Very few dishes existed that used Asian flavors with tomatoes. The incfuence of the Italian and Portuguese families that populated the town near our home certainly influenced both the tomatoes and the 'sweet and sour' nature of this dish. Naturally, as time progressed, changes occurred.

As a part of my need to address some metabolic issues, I have started to abandon sugar as a sweetener, this dish had much more sugar and salt (in the form of shoyu) in the original dish. I have started to use fish sauce instead of making bonito broth and no longer use the fattier pork shoulder cuts my mom favored, as this allows for a shorter cooking time, mom would braise the pork for 3 hours. I miss the highly caramelized dish of my youth, but, this is my version of one of my mom's special dinners and it is very evocative of her flavors.

The BBQ Grail and the truths of BBQ

2011-06-28T20:28:00.000-07:00

My friend and BBQ colleague Larry Gaian is running a search for the 25 Truths of BBQ at his blog, The BBQ Grail, Larry has been running The BBQ Grail blog for a few years now and is one of the most influential BBQ and food bloggers out there. He had not only been a great friend but an invaluable helper in my starting this blog. I encourage you to go on over and see what some folks consider the truth of BBQ.

Soba cakes

2011-06-20T07:51:00.000-07:00

Well, I am back to cooking finally, everything seems to be back in place just in time for the June On Our Grill Challenge, complete with new badge for the blog. My hope is to come roaring back with a dish that really shows a little flash. This month, the ingredients are doozies, they are:

Turkey
Soba Noodles
Almonds
A vegetable that is not green

First off, I made a turkey sausage, with the following ingredients.

Turkey Sausage
1/2 pound Turkey, give it a medium grind (required ingredient)
1/8 pound thick cut hardwood smoked bacon
1/8 cup fish sauce, as usual, I went with the vastly superior Red Boat 40N Fish Sauce.
1/4 teaspoon each of mustard powder, chile powder, lime powder
1/2 teaspoon plus a little more Todd's Dirt herbal BBQ rub
1/2 teaspoon katsuoboshi furikake (yes, specifically for the bonito flakes and nori)
1 teaspoon apple wood smoked salt (yes, I smoke my own)
1/8 teaspoon Truvia stevia based sweetener
1/2 cup hot water

I bloom the spices in the hot water, everything but the meat. After icing down, I add the meat, which has to be cold to work correctly. The water aids in evenly distributing the spices throughout the cold ground meat without an additional grinding phase. Since I intend to smoke this sausage without a casing, the added moisture will also create a little more steam, adding to the texture I want for the final plating. I decided to add some chopped onion and parsley to the sausage and gave it a good rub of Simply Marvelous Sweet and Spicy rub. I think this added just a little more flavor to the turkey.

Carrot Curry Sauce with Almond Milk
1 cup chicken stock
1/3 cup almond milk (required almond ingredient)
1 cup water
3 medium carrots (required not green vegetable)
1 small or half of medium onion
3 cloves garlic
Spices...I am gonna use black pepper, white pepper, cloves, nutmeg and curry spice.
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon Truvia

In small saucepan, dry roast the whole spices to warm the aromatic oils, after the aroma becomes readily apparent, but, before smoking, add the curry powder and shut down the heat. Allow to cool slowly. Then add cooled spices to a grinder and reduce to powder, I use a coffee burr grinder for this. Take carrots and onions and saute until softened, add garlic and heat to sweat garlic. Add 1/2 of spice mix, saute for a minute and add liquids, bring to simmer, add final 1/2 of spice mix and using a blender or immersion blender, process until smooth. Add Almond milk at end and adjust sweetness with Truvia if needed.

Aloo Gobi a la Kettle
1 cup cauliflower florets (required non-green ingredient)
1 cup chopped sweet potato and russet potato
1/2 cup green onion and parsley, chopped

Cauliflower florets were lightly steamed then grilled, potatoes were roasted over coals. Potatoes were chunked, mixed with florets. I decided to lightly saute with herbs then plate with curry sauce (above) draped over the veggies.

Soba Cake
1/2 cup cooked soba, cooked until done.
1/4 teaspoon of cornstarch for binding and texture

Toss soba with a light coating of the cornstarch, set into ring mold and allow to cool and bind into a cake form. Then fry cake in wok or small skillet carefully turning to achieve a crisped surface to the soba cake. The cornstarch should add a little crisp to the cake.

A final garnish of chopped parsley and green onion to add a little color and crunch texture was just right. The sausage was very flavorful and had a hint of Southeast Asian flair, I attribute this to the fish sauce, green onions and parsley, along with the slight added fish flavor of the katsuoboshi furikake. The potatoes and cauliflower ended up with more curry sauce than I intended, but, the sauce has an incredible depth of flavor so this was fine. The soba cake was crispy and added a much needed textural counterpoint as well.

Larry Gaian of The BBQ Grail - Entry Here

The BBQ Grail website was created in 2007, initially to document the author’s quest to find the perfect backyard BBQ experience. Since that time The BBQ Grail has become one of the more popular BBQ blogs on the internet and is listed on Alltop.com as one of the top BBQ blogs.

Paul Haight of No Excuses BBQ – Entry Here

The No Excuses BBQ website was started in January of 2009 as a way to record the author’s goal of cooking outdoors at least once a week throughout the year and showing the results to the world. Somewhere along the way things got out of control…

Jerry Russel of Cooking by the Seat of my Pants - Entry Here
Cooking by the seat of my Pants began life as a way to document our culinary misadventures. Since then it has become our way to encourage people to cook without boundaries or recipes. To just get in the kitchen and cook something from the heart.

Jason Adams of Jason's BBQ Adventures - Entry Here
Started Jason's BBQ Adventures in 2007 and originally fell in love with real BBQ the first time I tried to smoke a pork shoulder and soon after started smoking ribs, brisket and chicken. After a while I started to experiment with grilling and smoking just about anything and ultimately fell in love with the entire cooking process.

Bourbon and almonds...perfect!

2011-06-19T19:21:00.000-07:00

Well, since I have decided I need to be more healthy, and because I had to make something from almonds for a recent cook (see tomorrow's post) I had some almond milk left around the place. What to do, what to do...hey! there is a nearly empty bottle of medicinal bourbon (it isn't for drinking, it is medicinal after all).

I also wanted to use something that would be cooling with a dinner that was going to have a bit of a kick, yogurt sounded like the perfect thing, so a Bourbon Almond Yogurt frappé it was to be. This was a splendid cooler with a little complexity to boot.

Bourbon Almond Frappé
1-1/2 ounces Bourbon
1/4 cup crushed ice
3 ounces Almond Milk
1/8 teaspoon Vanilla flavor
4 tablespoons Yogurt

Blend until smooth and thickened. Grate a little nutmeg on top. If I was going to enjoy this on it's own, I think I would add about 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon of ultra fine sugar or Truvia. A little honey would also be terrific.

Epic (steak) Birthday

2011-06-11T20:30:00.000-07:00

Well, as was documented last post, yesterday was my 50th birthday. My actual plans for celebrating my birthday fell through spectacularly, so my plans included hanging around at home and messing around with stuff. A couple of friends found out about me clever planning and decided this was not acceptable. They managed to get a table on short notice at Epic Steakhouse. All I had to do was bring some wine and the menu was all mine.

Now, not being familiar with Epic Steak, I did a little internet searching and found this place absolutely gets raked by the internet food cognoscenti, especially the ones who seem to be oh so clever. I have to say, that once again, I find myself stunned that anyone could rate this place poorly, at the very least, the food was excellent. I felt we were well served to be here on this night. The food...

Salt, glorious salt, Himalayan Pink, Sal Gris and Black Salt, the Black Salt is rather mild, but, the other two are great table condiments, I love Sal Gris.

Then there was the house-made charcueterie plate (pate, bresaola, salami, duck prosciutto and coppa), and the appetizer/entree we ordered, a plate of boudin blanc and boudin noir over some truffled mashed potatoes and pumpernickel croutons. Gotta love that whole seed mustard too.

Then there was the steak, I went with the New York Strip, bone on, as it should be. This was cooked perfectly for medium rare and was rather consistent from edge to bone. This was clearly a nice corn-finished beef, as it turns out Angus, dry aged and with a wonderful chew, which beef should have.

The items not shown, a lovely stone fruit salad with a great olive oil drizzle, a pear and arugula salad, I loved them together, with the bitter edge and pepper profile offsetting the incredible fruit. We also had steak fries and spinach for the table, a nice amuse bouche sandwich and then dessert and a cheese plate. Then these showed up...

Which were then filled with vintage port, which was compliments of the house, it is sometimes good to turn 50. A 2007 Crofts, a 2003 Taylor Fladgate and a 2000 Fonseca, these were very interesting with the younger wines showing a little heat still. The 2000 was just hitting it's stride and was a very pretty lighter style, lots or aromatics, but missing the caramel/toffee notes that I really enjoy. The Taylor Fladgate was more my style, but, needs time. Oh, the wines I brought, The Baron de Rothschild Carruades de Lafite was still a little closed despite decanting, allowed to sit, it opened slowly and by the time the steak was half done, it was really showing some wonderful aromas and complexity, I really need to leave the last bottle alone for a while longer. The Chateau Figeac on the other hand showed beautifully, a full blown Bordeaux aroma jumping from the glass and great layers of flavor. This was an excellent wine. Even more happily, the sommelier and host knew how to handle aged wines, carefully moving the wines to a decanting station, not turning the bottle, there was almost no sediment in the glasses.

(I have to apologize, I don't have a camera that works in these instances, so I had to use my phone. Still, I think the food shows through.)

On Wine and Optimism

2011-06-10T16:17:00.000-07:00

There is an inherent faith exhibited when one chooses to fall in love with anything, not the all encompassing love that we share for family and friends, but, still, the kind of lesser love that is a lifelong passion for something that makes our lives just a little bit better. For me, one of these things has been wine. Especially aged wines, wines that have had time to mellow and grow in complexity. I am an unabashed fan of my home turf, I am an absolute supporter of California wines and all they can be, but, I have always always held Bordeaux in special esteem.

For me, a fine Bordeaux only begins to reach it's potential after 10 years of aging, something that speaks to the inherent optimism, faith if you will, that this wine will spend 10 years maturing, and not turning to vinegar or gathering some form of taint making it undrinkable. Through my many adventures through the health system, cancer scares, surgeries et al...there were those bottles just laying there, waiting. You have to wonder what would possess a person, in the midst of dealing with multiple health issues to buy wine that could take 10, 20 or even 40 years to mature. Yes, I own a bottle that will probably take another 25 years to reach it's potential. Optimism and Faith.

Tonight, I will open at least one of these, perhaps two, and share them for dinner with some friends. These are not my usuals, not daily drinkers in any manner. I have waited 11 years for these to come to a point where I hope they are the expressions of their pedigree and their terroir. A 2000 Baron de Rothschild Carruades de Lafite and a 2000 Chateau Figeac stand ready to celebrate our mutual maturity.

Hopefully this will correct the one misstep of last nights dinner, a horrible sochu mint cocktail that spoke to chewing on mint stems. I know, horrible snobbery, what can I say, I may enjoy spending all night smoking a brisket and eating cherries laced with bourbon, but, I really enjoy a good plate of charceuterie and a little wine.

The Litte Indulgences

2011-06-10T11:23:00.000-07:00

If you can't indulge a little bit, or a lot, on your birthday weekend, when are you gonna do it. I am trading services for a couple of wood working projects in exchange for a completely over the top Santa Maria BBQ pit design for a friend. Here is Marty's version of a Weber handle, soon to be on my kettle.

AML Woodart, worth seeking out. I am working on the plans Marty, this BBQ will bankrupt you. He he.

50

2011-06-10T00:03:00.000-07:00

Yep, today I turned fifty years old. In reality, this isn't as momentous as it has historically been, most of us remain vital, productive and healthy folks at this age. It measures us, against our own expectations, I suspect as much as anything, to see how we have done so far in life. We revel, some to celebrate a life well lived, others, perhaps, to hide the now undeniable loss of our youth, with drink, food, cake and excess, others seek family and the joy of drawing our lives about us.

Over the years, my parents, like so many parents, moved to the side and made the day all about me, truly, as I look back, I realize the greatest gift was their daily selflessness shown symbolically by this once a year act. For truly, it is their day to celebrate, to see their child grow and mature, to discover, learn and grow wiser. She was heroic, not in some exaggerated comic book style, but, in the subtle every day nurturing and the knowledge that every day there was someone that loved me as only a mother can.

I am certain that my mom had her moments of doubt that I would ever grow wiser. It has been 13 years since I could share this day with her, the cruelest fate of our birthday, that eventually we will soldier on, celebrating our birth, missing so keenly that most cherished person, who made this very day posible. And yet, I carry her lessons, wisdom and love forward, never being very far from her indeed.

It has been just three years since my dad and I shared this day. Our day. For, my entire life, I shared my birthday with my dad. He would have been 87 today. I am not sure how to explain how 'cool' I thought having our day every June 10 was, to share this most intimate day of the year with my dad. when I was young, I thought he was a hero, stronger, smarter and tougher than anyone else's dad. Then time and hormones took it's eventual tax, he became mortal, a good man, but time takes a little boy's innocence.

As my mom's life was ebbing, and I was caught in the need to earn a living, build a company, live a little, I was despairing that her needs for care was overwhelming me. And he came back, not the mortal man, my dad the hero. It was late winter, a very difficult time for the elderly, especially the heart weak. He showed up at my office, having ridden the bus down. He gave up a lifetime of smoking and beer, he gave up being free to fish, he gave up his freedom. He came back and spent the next 4 years never more than a few feet from my mom.

There is a bittersweet flavor to this day, I guess that is what our lives become, a lovely complexity of life lost to time, of promise yet fulfilled and that small joy of this moment.

Happy Birthday Mom and Dad, thank you for the most wonderful and glorious gift of life.

Dang Skippy

2011-05-19T12:39:00.000-07:00

Well, I am back online after a couple of weeks being off. Stupid bad health! And I even have yet more restrictions, now I am diabetic. This should complicate things just a little bit. I have not gotten the prescription yet, but, I will soon be the proud new owner of a blood sugar testing machine. How will this affect my cooking? Don't really have a plan yet.

I can tell you this, I ain't eating rabbit food! Well, unless it is tasty rabbit food, then sure, why not. Stay tuned.

"New" Chinese Interpretations

2011-05-02T13:56:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, I had the chance to dine with some friends in San Francisco, and we took the opportunity to try out a new place and to revisit a more familiar location. Both of these restaurants reflect a changing chef's 'view' of what Chinese food can be. They are stretching out the definitions, in some cases stretching out to a breaking point with the category.

We visited Mission Chinese Foods and Heaven's Dog, two of the more recent openings in San Francisco, both splitting from the more traditional Chinese food palette that Americans tend to associate with Chinese cuisine. This is not to say that the paradigm of how most Americans regard Chinese food is terrible, although it is a far cry from traditions in China. It is to reflect on the idea that many people from other countries might think American food is best represented by McDonald's Hamburgers as that is what they know.

I consider Mission Chinese Food to be an approach that would best be described as taking inspiration from a cultural view, playing with the names and perceptions while pushing flavors and the mixed heritage of the owner's, creating something not so much fusion, as a genuinely unique approach to food. I have shown this image before, but, this pork belly represent a real melding of Chinese and American techniques to create a wholly new dish. There are flavors here from Chinese tradition, fun noodles, sesame seeds, soy cured eggs, yet there is the American smoked technique that changes it all. So much of what I read of Mission Chinese Food was critical that it was not 'real' or 'genuine', these folks missed it by a mile, it is unique and it is dining in the Mission District at it's finest.

Heaven's Dog, a newer venture by Charles Phan, of Slanted Door fame, also located in one of the sketchier areas of the City, if that is what you would call the Tenderloin District, represents a different take on Chinese food. Heaven's Dog represents more of a fine dining approach to the same cuisine. Many of the dishes we had came nicely presented and had depth of flavor equal to Mission Chinese Foods, but with a finer more detailed approach. The flavors still ringing through on each bite. The Ma Po Tofu was one standout, taking a standard comfort food and elevating the sauce, adding complexity and moderating the heat to balance with the sweetness.

Then there were these little guys. Deep fried white bait, actually, these were local smelt given a very traditional deep fry. I did not happen to taste these, as fish (especially whole fish) is not something I eat. But, how often have you seen Salt and Pepper Local Smelt deep fried. The aroma of this dish almost got me to pick up something that I have never enjoyed eating.

I also can heartily recommend, as we happened to graze nearly the entire small plate menu, this establishment for cocktails and dumplings etc... The cocktail I sampled was very nicely mixed and well considered, the flavor of fresh ginger coming through beautifully before getting a little muting with the sweetness. Then there was the crispy scallion pancake, crunchy and salty, that would be great with a beer. I love the idea that today's chefs are really testing new ground with an old favorite cuisine.

Chicken Banh Mi-style Sandwich

2011-04-24T20:26:00.000-07:00

This started out with the purpose of being entered into a burger cooking competition, it morphed as the process got on. Initially, I started out with the rough concept of making a large chicken sausage fattie, which would then be smoked and added to a sandwich. I also decided to go with some home made bread, largely because I didn't happen to buy some bread.

Step one was to marinate some chicken. This started with some aromatics, consisting of green garlic, ginger, green onions, lemon grass, kaffir lime leaf, bay leaf and cilantro. This was added and slightly muddled with 1/8 cup of my usual Red Boat fish sauce, 1/8 cup soy sauce and 1 tablespoon of sesame seed oil. This was allowed to marinate for 8 hours, then chopped and lightly processed in a food processor to create a chunky mix for making into a sausage.

Step two was to julienne up some carrots, daikon and salt them down. Then a thorough rinse and a dunk in a pickling solution of 1/4 cup rice wine vinegar, 3 tablespoons Red Boat fish sauce and 1 tablespoon each of Bragg's Amino and Tamari. Then I added 1 teaspoon of smoked salt and one of sugar. This is essentially a quick sugar pickle. A Persian cucumber was also sliced into 6 spears, then dunked into a similar pickle, minus the fish sauce and adding another 1/2 teaspoon sugar sauce and 1/8 cup cider vinegar. Here is a shot of the finished pickles in place.

And the rolls, specifically, a mix of bread dough and whole wheat dough, given around a 60% hydration and two rises under warm conditions, then formed and one final bench rise. Into the oven along with some water to create a little steam and a spritz onto the dough to encourage a crackling thin crust.

I ended up cooking the chicken and some pork sausage in a slow poach, instead of the grill. The aroma when processing convinced me that a more delicate and neutral cooking method was called for. Hence, wrapping the meat into heat resistant plastic wrap, then aluminum foil and into a poaching bath at 170F for two hours. I ended up with pale but incredibly aromatic loaves of chicken and prok, resembling terrine in texture. Tender and extremely moist with a lovely perfume and delicate flavors that develop throughout the palate.

The final assembly involved a citrus and wasabi mayonnaise and a light olive oil toasting to refresh the breads crunch. One layer of the chicken and one layer of the pork and some vegetables slopped on top, this made for an incredible sandwich. One of those simple pleasures with both delicate texture and great depth of flavor. Even the flavors of the pickled vegetables really played nicely with each contributing to the balance of the sandwich.

As you can see, the texture was somewhat coarse, what I was hoping for was a rougher texture while still getting a loaf out of the meat. The poaching, I believe was the correct method to tease out the maximum flavor from the aromatics. This was quite successful.

Chicken Marinade
2 stalks green garlic, chopped
1" length of ginger, roughly 1.5 tablespoons
3 stalks green onions. chopped
1 lemon grass, just the tender center stalk
kaffir lime leaf, 2 or 3
bay leaf, 2 or 3
roughly 1/8 cup cilantro
1/8 cup Red Boat fish sauce
1/8 cup soy sauce
1 tablespoon of sesame seed oil

I like to muddle the ingredients for the marinade lightly just to get everything bruised. Then add the marinade to what amounted to 1.5 lbs of chicken.

The Ugly Mandarin

2011-04-23T20:58:00.000-07:00

After some 30 years in the design field, looking for the perfect response to every site, seeking balance, form and beauty with rocks and plants, soil and water, earth and sky, one can become easily guided by things based purely on an aesthetic appeal. I am fascinated with the simple and clean design of modern site and building design, I love the interplay of clean simple strong geometries and yet, I am often reminded that there is always more to behold than the visual. Such is with fruit, we are taught to be select the most benign and familiar of fruit, bananas that look like bananas and oranges that are bright orange and smooth, unblemished. Yet, I selected a lumpy, oblate mandarin and was quite well rewarded.

Called a Golden Nugget Mandarin, it is a recent introduction from a long breeding process at UC Riverside. Related to the easy peel mandarins, yet the size of a small orange. The fruit peels easily and the flavor is sweet, slightly honeyed and richer than the smaller mandarins.

The most interesting thing about it all is the peel, whole easily peeled, the rind was quite oily and expressed an exceptional amount of oil. The aroma was not only pungent, but, spicy and citrusy. I think this rind may be the most interesting aspect of this fruit.

Random Eating

2011-04-21T21:34:00.000-07:00

Today, one of my usual dining companions and I decided this was a good day to grab a late lunch and maybe blow off a few rounds at some harmless paper dots that did nothing to warrant the violence, well, except for being paper dots. Which maybe is enough, I can't judge that. I can, however form opinions about falafel! And as we set out to dine at a Filipino restaurant that came highly recommended, we met and discovered that it was closed, as was the second Filipino place we went to, we were to be denied crispy skin pork. So we parked and determined we would walk until something was found. Barely 100 feet and we discovered the Mid-East Halal Meat and Restaurant.

To call this place a restaurant was to grant it some leeway, as there were just a few tables, in the middle of a meat market, with goats and lambs and such being carried by. But, we ordered lamb and beef shwarma plates and we got this...

That is a plate piled with lamb and beef, pickles, hummus, rice and tabouleh along with a falafel and some harissa. Then there was a couple slices of Jerusalem bread and a plate of Ful that was offered for free since we asked for a taste. This was an ample serving and while eating it, it kept occurring to me that each item alone would be terrific. This was some very good food we discovered by just walking and looking for something. I love discoveries like this.

One of the things I liked about this was that while prepared inside on restaurant equipment, it was street food and had the distinct feel of something that is meant as everyman's food, something for the masses meant for a grab and go. And yet, the guy serving it to us served it with a great deal of pride, he knew he was serving good food.

Ribeye and rutabaga

2011-04-18T07:58:00.000-07:00

Yep, it must be that time again, time for the On Our Grills Four Ingredient Challenge and this time, the ingredients are rib-eye steak, polenta, rutabaga and frozen strawberries. A rib steak seems quite simple and the challenge is going to be in getting that rutabaga and polenta to sing together well. So a little research resulted in two things, one, rutabaga can be quite similar to potato in terms of texture and flavor. But, the other thing I found out is that rutabagas are high in potassium, which is something I am not supposed to be eating. So are potatoes for that fact, it was clear there were going to have to be some changes to the menu.

Still, there was the challenge, I decided on making a grilled rib-eye steak, with grilled sugar snap peas and a Napolean of rutabaga, potato and polenta. First was to make some polenta, which took a little dry polenta, some water, butter and a few seasonings. This was simmered until softened, this took 45 minutes at low temperature. Then it was put into a pan to cool for cutting.

Then the rutabagas and potatoes were sliced, coated in olive oil, in this case some locally pressed extra virgin stuff, a little smoked kosher salt and some medium ground black pepper, my new standard is the Phu Quoc black pepper I have recently been able to source. A little goes a long ways. Rutabagas on top, potatoes on the bottom, ready for the kettle. The plan is not to smoke them, just get them cooked in a neutral heat, could be done in the oven just as well.

Finally, a Naturewell rib-eye steak, this one was a medium sized steak and really could serve as a meal for two. Actually, I ended up eating only half of it tonight. Naturewell beef is not the usual grass-finished beef I often buy, in this case the usual beef was unavailable in the grass-finished beef I prefer. The steak was decently marbled and tasted great though. I treated it with just some kosher salt and ground black pepper. Then onto a hot grill for a few minutes each side. I head for medium rare with this cut always, and judge using the finger poke method. I poke with the index finger, if it gives with a gentle push, then it is done.

Plating was a simple matter of placing the steak and some grilled sugar snap peas that got the same treatment as the potatoes and rutabagas. The polenta was cut into rounds, then seared in some spare duck fat I had laying around. The polenta was placed, then the rutabaga and finally the potato rounds. Finally, I used the frozen strawberries to make a gastrique for saucing the Napoleons.

In the end, I realized I wanted to layer a little more flavor into the dish, so I added some Shiitake mushrooms and caramelized onions to the dish, a classic accompaniment to steak and a perfect rich foil for the gastrique. In the end, I had to remove the rutabaga, as it appears to no be allowed. The juices from the steak, which poured out when the meat was cut, melded with the strawberry gastrique beautifully.

Strawberry Gastrique:
A gastrique is traditionally a mixture of an acid, usually vinegar, but sometimes citrus juice, with a sugar base. The desired effect is a sweet and sour flavor profile. I used this to highlight the mild sweetness I expected from the rutabaga, potato and polenta.
Recipe:
1 cup vinegar
6 large frozen strawberries
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 pinch white pepper
Use 3/4 cup vinegar and combine with strawberries, salt and pepper. Heat to reduce by 2/3rds or until thick and add in 1/4 cup vinegar to return to sauce thickness. Test for desired sweet and sour profile. I add the last bit of vinegar to return brightness to the reduction.

Polenta:
I am not averse to the use of ready made polenta from a tube, it is certainly convenient and fast. My decision to make my own if based upon the fact that you cannot get the texture in polenta from the ready made stuff. I like to use a load of dairy to add smoothness and richness to the polenta.
Recipe:

1 cup water (or 1/2 cup each water and milk)
1/4 cup dry polenta
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/2 teaspoon Todd's Dirt or similar herb mix, finely ground

1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon white pepper
Combine all ingredients and simmer for 45 minutes over very low heat. Stir occasionally. Do not let simmer dry, add water or milk as necessary to keep moist.

Larry Gaian of The BBQ Grail - Entry Here
The BBQ Grail website was created in 2007, initially to document the author’s quest to find the perfect backyard BBQ experience. Since that time The BBQ Grail has become one of the more popular BBQ blogs on the internet and is listed on Alltop.com as one of the top BBQ blogs.

Paul Haight of No Excuses BBQ – Entry Here

The Dutchess Cooks was started in 2010. After years of cooking, grilling, baking and reading other people’s blogs, I thought “why not start my own blog??” And I did, in 2010, but already after a short period of time, a blog wasn’t enough, and I started my own website. It’s not my goal to publish or come up with fancy and difficult recipes: just good and delicious food with an international twist! Straight from my plate to yours!

Fresh Pasta and Bread

2011-04-05T10:56:00.000-07:00

Well, it started out as a sourdough starter for waffles, then it became pizza dough, and finally, it became bread. Tasty, tasty bread, with a nice sour touch and excellent texture. I also made some pasta, hand-cut spaghetti, with a combination of semolina and AP flour.

Pasta Dough:
1/2 cup each stone ground semolina flour and King Arthure AP flour
1 T white pepper (I used the very aromatic Phu Quoc Pepper form Vietnam)
1 large egg
1 T warm water
1T extra virgin olive oil
I use the standard method of creating a pile of flour with a well in the middle. I blend the egg, water and olive oil into a slurry, which I then dump into the well and use a fork to combine the liquid and flour. This makes a soft dough that need to be wrapped and chilled for 1 hour. The dough puck comes out like this.

From here, I hand rolled to half as thick as the puck, folded and rolled again. Repeated this process 4 times, each time getting thinner until I was about 1/10 of an inch thick. It is best to let the dough rest halfway through the process, makes working it a lot easier. Then I cut the pasta into strips. They are a little uneven, I call it rustic.

I hang and dry the pasta for 30 minutes to let the pasta cure a bit. This improves the texture of the pasta. From here, into boiling water for 5 minutes, then into a simple marinara of canned San Marzano tomatoes, fresh celery, garlic and onions. Lots of olive oil to 'fry' the sauce and then the pasta to thicken.

The bread dough was left over from the pizza making process of Sunday. I used my Dutch oven to create a moist environment. The oven and Dutch Oven were preheated to 350F for 30 minutes, the Dutch Oven is well-seasoned, but, I decided to brush a little more oil into the DO. The dough was then just dumped from the bowl.

This was baked for 40 minutes covered in the DO, then 10 minutes uncovered, pulled and rested for 1 hour. Here is the finished loaf sliced up. The texture was absolutely nailed, tender crumb, crisp delicate crust, a light airy loaf with just a touch of souring.

The final product, pasta and bread, with a little olive oil drizzled on the bread. This was a lovely fresh dinner.

Flat Bread

2011-04-03T14:04:00.000-07:00

I am making flat bread, it won't be pizza, but hopefully it will be delicious. So far, I have been hydrating the following:

8 oz. King Arthur Guinevere Pastry Flour
8 oz. King Arthur Bread flour
12 oz. warm water
1/2 teaspoon sea salt

All measurements are by weight. The autolyse process was allowed to sit at room temperature for 40 minutes. Autolyse, it ain't pretty.

I then added:

1/4 cup sourdough starter
This was allowed to sit for 1 hour. Then it was kneaded with some bench flour to develop the gluten. Another rest, this time, the big sleep, into the refrigerator overnight. The dough was pulled on Sunday morning, allowed to rest for two hours at 67F, because that is what the kitchen was. I went to coffee for two hours. Made up some dough balls, with a light final kneading. Here is the final proof balls.

As you can see, the dough is quite soft, this is mostly due to the 75% to 80% dough hydration. This was on purpose to achieve the texture I wanted for these. I tend to be a dough puller, as opposed to rolling, pushing or tossing. There were pulled and topped with a couple of variations. The oven, by the way, was ripping along at 500F to heat the stone. I set the stone on the lowest rack, and switch to a high broil just before popping on the pizzas/flat breads. I did not have time, due to work demands to fire up the kettle. Here is Pizza One, with Arbequina Extra Virgin olive oil, grated parmigiana, paper thin garlic slices, sesame seeds and kosher salt.

Pizza Two was prepared with shredded potatoes, parmigiana cheese, Phu Quoc black pepper and Arbequiba extra virgin olive oil. As you can see, there was a little more creativity with the shaping of the pizza. It got even more creative becauce I spilled the olive oil onto the peel, this is never a good thing.

Odd shaped be darned, this pizza tasted great. It looks a little overdressed, but, it was actually just right. The potatoes, which were left over from yesterdays breakfast, crisped up nicely. For me, pizza is all about the bread and the bread on these pizzas was thin enough to have a bit of crack and still enough to taste very good.

Mission Chinese Food

2011-03-31T17:27:00.000-07:00

One of the great things about food, there are always new ideas coming out of incredibly creative minds. The owners of Mission Chinese Food are one such pair of new chefs bringing an impressive take on Chinese food. They are taking the traditions of Chinese food, mixing it with a healthy dose of fresh and local and just a little BBQ to create an entirely new cuisine.

I have the chance to visit the restaurant with my friends Rob and Brian, Rob is on a quest to find the best and most interesting foods redefining the culinary scene in the Bay Area, including his work for Red Boat Fish Sauce. Brian is one of those guys with a great job, pushing the shutter button on food in some of the most interesting restaurants in the Bay Area. I am lucky just to draft along for the grub. Today, this meant some amazing food.

One of the amazing things of each dish that we had, was that each one had a distinct profile of tastes, textures and aromas. This is not food to be wolfed down with gobs of rice, or drowned is soy sauce. The addition of smoking, and you have an amazing blend of new and old. My old standby of ma po tofu gets gets a whole new riff, loaded with chiles, chile oil and soft tofu, this dish seemed to be crazy coming to the table, the aroma and looks telling of pure fire, except, each flavor from the sweet tofu to the fiery chiles are distinct and roll thorough the palate. This would be the theme throughout the meal, each plate distinct, each flavor clearly defined and balanced. The Ma Po Tofu has gotten it's share of press, but, this is not the only story.

We had a plate with smoked crispy pork belly, fun noodle and a soy cured egg. The egg was perfectly cook with a custardy center and filled with the flavor of egg. The pork belly was crispy and amazingly rich and tasty. The fun noodle was perfectly cooked and a great foil for all the intensity of the pork belly.

The other incredible dish, amongst a table of incredible dishes, was a smoked corned beef, redolent of smoke and jalapeno, yet a playful take on corned beef, as the slices of potatoes really play off the flavors of cured beef and the peppers. This was an example of how the owner's are taking bits of their own experience and adding it into their own culinary experience.

Then finally, the one dish that I look for everytime a place tells me they are doing Sichuan, lamb. Yes, lamb, the first time I had this was nearly 30 years ago, when I learned that lamb is a very common and prized dish. This was an excellent version of cumin scented lamb, with a crispy edge and lots of aromatics. The adjacent table ordered it just as I arrived and you could smell the room aroma change as it came nearer.

Seasoning a Cutting Board

2011-03-29T10:57:00.000-07:00

Cooking is really about enhancing the natural flavors of whatever ingredients we are cooking as well as creating layers of flavors in a dish that complement each other. An interesting technique that I have come to use when preparing sliced meats is to season the cutting board. By this, I do not mean adding finish to the board, but, adding a seasoning element prior to cutting the meat.

As I am sure we all have experienced, when slicing a nicely done roast, the juices and outside seasonings of the meat end up on the board. , this is just another tool to add that layer of finishing flavor back into the meat or vegetables we are using. Above, the example shown is a board seasoned for a roasted cap of sirloin (Picanha Roast). The elements, in this case, are olive oil, celery, onion and shallots with a splash of rice wine vinegar. These elements actually mimic the giardinere commonly used on Chicago Beef sandwiches.

As you can see in this image, the meats have seeped into the seasoning blend on the board, leaving a mixture of meat juices, board seasoning and spices from the outside of the roast. The trick here is to slide the meat through the board seasoning to create a 'jus' for the finishing layer on the meat.

In the last shot, I sliced the meat a little thinner and mixed the board seasoning into the meat prior to adding the sauce. This really added to the sandwich. I also use a little dip of the bread into the board seasoning prior to toasting on the flat top to enhance the bread as well. A little bit of Big Butz Hot BBQ sauce and this sandwich was done and gone!

A footnote: The Picanha, or Sirloin Cap, it the cut of meat most famously associated with Argentinian and Brazilian BBQ, it is the meat often seen in images folded and impaled on swords and cooked over an open fire. This cut of meat in incredibly tender, as tender as any cut of meat off of a steer. The flavor is equal to, or better than tri-tip, and it takes cooking even to medium with no ill effects to tenderness. I highly recommend seeking out this cut. Just look at the color of this raw hunk, which was cryo-aged, trimmed and readied for being a little overcooked.

Challenging Catfish

2011-03-28T07:52:00.000-07:00

This month's Four Ingredient Challenge requires that I use freshwater fish filet, apples, broccoli and sourdough bread. Now, this set of ingredients is a challenge. I don't like the idea of sourdough with fish, it isn't a combination I would normally use. Yes, yes, I know, everyone loves a grilled sourdough crab sandwich with cheese, that is an abomination created for tourists in San Francisco. But, this is what I decided might work.

I give you Kettle Fried Panko-crusted Catfish with Pecan Sourdough Waffles, Apple-Broccoli slaw and Spicy Mayo Sauce.

The things to do, well, I started four days in advance with a sourdough starter, for a sourdough waffle. For those who have followed along for any length of time, you know about my last foray into sourdough starters, poolish and exploding jars. You will notice, this container is not a screw on lid container. I figured the waffle along with the panko crusted catfish would give me a great play on the variety of flavors I needed to work with. From there, it was a simple thing to toss together a waffle batter and some pecan maple syrup. Here is the starter and a shot of the batter.

Then there was the preparation of the slaw and salad component for this dish. I really wanted to offset the heavy nature of the waffle and the fish, this was to be where the apple and broccoli worked into the plan. I finely shredded the apple and left it in acidulated ice water. The broccoli stems were peeled, finely shredded and then put into boiling water for 3 minutes, then dumped into the ice water with the apples. Finally, I added some finely shredded daikon, to add a counter point to the vegetal and fruity flavors. The vegetables were then tossed with the Nuoc Mam Salad Dressing. This was set aside.

Since I only needed a small portion of the dressing, I then made a simple vinaigrette with the dressing and some fresh extra virgin California Arbequina olive oil. This was dressed onto some baby arugula. I have to say, a Classic vinaigrette made with the Nuoc Mam Salad Dressing on waffles absolutely rocks.

The fish was to get something a little unusual for me, a lard rub. Consisting of duck and pig lard, mixed with olive oil and spices, then painted onto the fish, this was to add some richness, flavor and an added crisping agent to the panko mix. Here is what that looked like.

The fish was painted with this lard rub, then coated with a mix of panko, corn flour, pastry flour and some salt and pepper. This was then sprayed with a little of the lard rub to aid in crisping the coating. This was too much, as the fish as a little thin in the filet and there was just too much flavor. Yes, I do not like fish, but, I do not like over-flavored fish even more. This would have been good on a thicker cut, or perhaps some cod chunks. Here is what a skinny little catfish filet looks like.

Here the fish is shown with the breading cured on. This is important to get the breading to stick to the filet while on the grill. This would work when frying as well.

Overall, despite the overpowering breading on the fish, the overall flavors worked exceptionally well and it turns out that sourdough waffles work great with fish. And even better with arugula salad and Nuoc Mam Slaw, the sweetness and crispness contrasting beautifully with the earthy and spicy flavor of the arugula and the variety of flavors presented by the slaw vegetables and fruit. I think this done with a medallion of ling cod without the panko would make a terrific appetizer or first course for a dinner.

Some notable recipes:

Spicy Mayo Dip
1/2 cup mayonnaise
2 tablespoons Lucky Dog hot sauce (or other thick flavorful spicy condiment)
1 tablespoon finely diced shallot
Fresh ground white pepper (I use Phu Quoc white pepper)

Combine ingredients and allow to sit in refrigerator for at least one hour to mellow and blend.

Lard Rub
3 tablespoons duck/pig lard
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
2 cloves garlic, crushed into oil, discard solids
1/2 teaspoon no-salt chile powder
kosher salt and black pepper to taste

Combine ingredients over low heat just to liquify lard and whisk to combine. Allow to cool to room temperature, overall texture to me just liquid enough to cling to fish.

Nuoc Mam Salad Dressing
3 tablespoon Red Boat Fish Sauce (I used the 40°N since it is not cooked)
3 tablespoons freshly squeezed lime juice
2 tablespoons water
2 tablespoons sugar
1 large clove garlic minced
1/2 teaspoon fresh herbs

In a small jar with a lid, combine all the ingredients. Cover and shake well to dissolve the sugar. Taste for seasoning.

Note: Just a note about brands and my references to them, I am not compensated for the use of these items, I have no commercial connection to these items either. I use them for their quality or singular nature. The Lucky Dog sauce is unique to what I can find on the market locally, neither a hot sauce or a salsa, it is a wonderful condiment with a serious bite. The Red Boat sauce has no sugar, preservatives or additives, such that I can control the sweetness and balance for myself, other brands will vary as Red Boat is, to my knowledge, the only product like this on the market.

Paul Haight of No Excuses BBQ – Entry Here

The No Excuses BBQ website was started in January of 2009 as a way to record the author’s goal of cooking outdoors at least once a week throughout the year and showing the results to the world. Somewhere along the way things got out of control…
Marc Van Der Wouw of Grill Adventures - Entry Here
Grilladventures by broadcastmarc is started on march of 2010.I started the BBQ thing when I was 30,before that we eat a lot outside.have fun,but when the kids came in our life We start serious cooking.Most of it is realy healthy I think;-)The grill has a special place in my heart,We love to do things outside..Everything I make is an adventure,and sometimes we use the books.We try to grill as much as we can year round.

Hanneke Eerden of The Dutchess Cooks – Entry Here

Coffee Cupping

2011-03-27T17:00:00.000-07:00

Today, I had the opportunity to attend a coffee cupping, including a new coffee bean from Bali that my local coffee shop, Zocalo Coffee House has just brought in. One of the things that coffee roasters face is how to roast a new bean. Every season the harvest brings in new beans, which must have new roast profiles and blends developed. Here is what it is all about, a glass of coffee, ready for tasting.

Cupping is an interesting process with specific timing and processes designed to optimize the tasting of each bean or roast. In the photo above, you can see the variety of colors that form on the crust, these are the oils that carry the aromas of the coffee. This is a key part of the process, with the crust formed and the coffee grounds steeping, you can get a really good sense of the nose of the coffee. This happens to be the El Salvador we cupped today.

Here are the beans, cupping spoons and grinds in the cupping glasses. Cupping is often performed either in glasses or wide cups, the idea being you can see the depth of color and concentration of the coffee without being thrown off by colors. I prefer glass, as it is easier to me, to see with a little light shining in. Colors can range from a translucent reddish mahogany all the way to the dark brown and opaque color of darker roasts.

This is a shot of the cupping form we used today, there are a variety of elements of taste, texture and finish that can be noted on each sheet. This is a good way to keep reviews organized and in the long run, many people like to keep these for a record to check against. I don't really use them, as I have a mediocre palate for taste, I prefer to use a scale...Gak!, Meh!, Okay, Good, Great, OMFG I need this!. It works for me.

And when it is all done, nothing but the mess for someone else to deal with.

Linky: Zocalo

For the record:
Bali - Medium roast, Nose is very interesting with chocolate, fruit and meaty notes, no burnt or smoky notes on nose. Flashy and bright, strong flavors of chocolate and red berries with undertones of loam when hot, as it cooled, flavors moved towards blueberry with hints of floral tones. Texture was very nice with a good presence on the tongue. Very abrupt finish, especially notable upon cooling.

El Salvador - Light roast, low extraction, nose in nice/uninteresting. Initial taste is mild and simple without a lot of complexity. Upon cooling, flavors of loam, dried fruit and spice comes forward, this tastes really good at 60F. Texture was light and thin when hot, improving greatly when cool, showing some grip on the tongue.

Ethiopian - Medium roast, Nose is complex showing earth, spice and light floral tones, light sense of smoke is present. Taste was excellent showing a typical African continent profile of cocoa, fruit and nuts, something I like. Interestingly, this coffee cups better when swallowed, it lacks when spit. Finish was excellent and persisted even as it cooled.

CoBra - Blended Columbian Brazilian. The nose was very strong with a pronounced smoky/charcoal aroma. And this is from someone who smells like BBQ all the time. Flavor is intense and highly extracted with strong tones of caramel and smoke. The finish is strong with a gripping acidity and strong drying feeling.

Butadofu

2011-03-24T20:02:00.000-07:00

Tonight was another Japanese food night. It is funny how, as I have gotten older, these foods have become more of a part of my diet and how much more comforting they have become. I do not consider myself Japanese, I have very little connection to the land of my ancestors, yet the flavors and aromas still feel good to me. This was a standard of my family life when I was a kid, my mom and dad loved this dish. Butadofu literally means 'pork tofu'. And like many dishes, it really does look more like a home dish than something you would get at a restaurant. Here it is, donburi-style, as it should be.

I started off with the main ingredients, shiro miso, ground pork, tofu (in this case firm tofu) and green onions. Now, my mom made this with both shiromiso (white or light fermented bean paste) and akamiso (red or dark fermented bean paste) for more depth of flavor, as it happens, I did not have any akamiso. So be it.

The green onions were prepared by separating the white and green parts and chopping for use. The tofu, again, firm this time, was crumbled. I chose firm as I was able to get some fresh firm tofu. My preference would have been silken tofu, but, the stuff at the store was not visible in the package. I don't like to buy tofu I can't see first. Anyways, here are the aromatics, some garlic finely chopped and some ginger finely minced, the cup holds 2 tablespoons each of Red Boat fish sauce and tamari along with 1 teaspoon cider vinegar and 1 tablespoon of Lucky Dog hot sauce.

The pork was sauteed in a little bit of oil, then the aromatics were added and heated until the mixture was translucent and aromatic, then the sauce was added and cooked until color showed. Then I added 1/2 cup of the miso along with 1/2 cup of water to create a sauce. The green onion was added at the last minute to layer even more flavor. This was served as soon as the green onions wilted and darkened.

I continue to be amazed how much my palate and sense really enjoys this kind of cooking, the aromas and flavors of our childhood can have such an impact on us, we revisit these tastes and aromas and find a connection to who we are, even as we think we have moved too far down the road to remember. I get a lot of kidding about the tofu from my BBQ friends, but, I continue to understand the role that food plays, and for me, tofu on the plate, it is like the smell of roses and wet concrete, it reminds me of home, a home long gone but, as close as a bite and sniff.

Picanha

2011-03-23T13:55:00.000-07:00

I learned something new today, I went to Phat Matt's and met my buddy Rob from Red Boat there to talk about offal and black pepper. We had a new cut of meat that was being featured there, called Picanha. Apparently this is a cut most popular and well known in Argentina and Brazil. In fact, it is easily identifiable as the steak that is often pictured on the churrasco swords so closely linked to Argentinian BBQ.

This particular version was smoked over a low fire with a little hickory smoke as Matt does with all of his meats. It was incredible, lean, beefy, tender and flavorful. The closest cut I can relate it to in the U.S. is the Eye of Rib primal in terms of taste and appearance, yet more tender. This made a spectacular sandwich with a little horseradish. Just goes to show, you can learn a little something at any moment, even if you think you have had every part of the steer.

Corned Beef

2011-03-17T07:43:00.000-07:00

For my special On Our Grills Four Ingredient Challenge for St Patrick's Day, I decided to get hammered on some Smithwick's and post a load of jibberish. Well, actually here is what I did in the interest of liver preservation...

Instead, I bought this lovely tri-tip and decided to marinate it for a few days. Why this and not corned beef? Well, I have been trying for some time to get corned beef dialed in with a lower sodium profile and I just cannot get there. So, why not make my own marinated beef with a lower salt content. Corned tri-tip here we go.

I also did away with the curing salts, as I believe once I smoke this up, there will be enough color in the meat. I did make up a brine that consisted of a variety of spices to help in the curing of the meat. The marinade is as follows:

Test Marinade One:
2 tablespoons Simply Marvelous Sweet and Spicy BBQ Rub
1 tablespoon Simply Marvelous Cherry BBQ Rub
1 teaspoon powdered mustard
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon turbinado sugar
1 bay leaf cracked
1 star anise
1.5 cups water
8 medium ice cubes
1 cup water

Combine all spices and add to simmering water until all spices are dissolved. Remove from heat and cool with ice cubes. Add remaining water to bring marinade to the proper concentration. This produces a salty liquid, although it is not quite a brine. It does look a little murky.

From here, the marinade is loaded into the syringe and then injected into the tri-tip, this was to increase the penetration of the marinade into the meat and to aid in curing speed. There was a lot of injecting. The meat was placed in a large plastic bag which was sealed and placed in the refrigerator for 48 hours.

And that is what a tri-tip looks like when brined for 48 hours. From here, it was on to the kettle, cooking along at 250F with a little more smoke than I had hoped. I ran out of charcoal, had maybe 10 briquettes and had to do a wood burning smoke, which is a little tougher in the kettle. Plus side, the smoke flavor was outstanding. Here is the tri-tip finished with Phase 1, smoked to fork tender.

And chopped into coarse chunks...at this point, it was all I could do to not just start eating. It had the texture and flavor of a very mild corned beef, nowhere near the salt of a commercial corned beef. There was also no pink, as no curing salts were used.

These chunks were returned to a foil packet and a mixture of prepared mustard, cider vinegar, fish sauce, apple juice and honey was added. This was sealed up and put back on the kettle for 2 hours to braise. This made the meat so tender, it was hard to cut, but, shredded perfectly for the next step.

This would involve some Trash Bag Taters made famous by No Excuses BBQ, these were red potatoes though, with a coating of olive oil and some Todd's Dirt Herbal rub added to the mix, These were smoked on the kettle for 1 hour and then added to a pan with some aromatics, slowly browned.

Then the tri-tip was added and allowed to cook into the hash for a few minutes, topped with chopped green onions and then a fried egg. I decided some grilled brussels sprouts with some olive oil and salt was a good addition to the plate. Here it is without the egg being cracked.

This cook worked out just as I had hoped, with a good strong resemblance to corned beef, minus the salt content, a great texture and a lovely balance of flavors in all elements of the plate. The egg was gratuitous I suppose.

Here are the links to the other 4-Ingredient Challenge bloggers for this special seasonal challenge.

Paul Haight of No Excuses BBQ – Entry Here

Pig Honey Chicken

2011-03-16T11:58:00.000-07:00

An interesting thing happened on the way to making Pig Honey BBQ Sauce a reality, the formula was tasted and found to have an incredible balance of flavors and aromas, well beyond just being a way to make ribs shiny. I immediately thought of street vendor style chicken, grilled or roasted, to really set off the flavors even more. So I marinated the chicken with every intention of later grinding or chunking them and making them into yakitori over the kettle. But, deadlines and such being what they are, I ended up simply grilling them.

As you can see, this worked out great. Anyone who has followed my cooking understands that for me, fusion in terms of food really means taking from one cuisine and adding to another, not just in terms of moving one ethnic flavor to another, but, in the freedom to use a variety of technqiues, such as haute cuisine applied to BBQ. In this case, it was street food made indoors on a pan.

The chicken was marinated in Pig Honey Sauce, which, if you remember was to be a ribs specific sauce, for 48 hours. It was then boned and grilled on a very hot grill plate on the stove. This was to take just a few minutes on each side on a searing hot hunk of metal. The results above speak for themselves. In the image below, you can see whole thighs and skinless breasts. The breasts ended up as torikatsu.

Once grilled, these were served with steamed Japanese rice as a simple plate. The beauty of using the grill pan was not only the nice marks, but, the chicken fat was allowed to drain away. I have found that a reversible skillet is an invaluable tool in the kitchen, it not only allows for chicken like this, but, when flipped to it's smooth size, I can use it as a low heat option for heating and warming sauces, toasting bread and distributing heat, essentially giving me three burners where my stove has only two. Back to the chicken, plated and whole, just another grilled thigh.

But, once plated and sliced, you can see that there was an amazing amount of moisture and the texture of the chicken was perfect. The flavor was intense and very complex.

I have no doubt that when I do get it made into yakitori, it will be a very tender, juicy stick of meat. In truth, there was no sauce needed once the cooking started, as the marination process insured a lot of moisture in the meat. One recipe of the Pig Honey was plenty for this, I would have even had enough for a spray bottle to mist the chicken on the grill. Here is that recipe again.

Pig Honey Sauce
1 cup apple juice
1/4 cup Red Boat Fish Sauce
1/4 cup Braggs Amino Acids
1/8 cup Honey
1 Tablespoon turbinado sugar

Combine all ingredients and bring to just short of a boil, maintain heat until sugar is dissolved.

Here is the sauce in the dribble bottle, a spray bottle would have been better, but, I don't own one of those yet.

Torikatsu...chicken cutlets

2011-03-13T21:23:00.000-07:00

As in my previous post, this weekend felt like a rice and Japanese taste weekend. I was going to be off of red meat anyway, it had to happen. So, I made this...

Pan-fried chicken cutlets with Tonkatsu sauce, broccoli and rice. This is my idea of comfort food, with Tonkatsu sauce being one of my favorite condiments, lending a fruity/salty flavor profile which is a more savory combination than say ketchup or gravy. But, this chicken was a little different, as I chose to use my new experimental Pig Honey, which was covered in a previous post here. I marinated the chicken breast in the Pig Honey to help with moisture and to add another layer of flavor.

The thighs and one of the breasts are destined for another cook. One of these breasts was removed from the marinade after 3 hours, sliced into cutlets and then worked over with a serrated face meat mallet into paillards. These were floured and allowed to cure for 20 minutes. This allows the flour to form a dry layer on the wet chicken surface.

You can see the cured chicken paillards, along with the panko (Japanese bread crumbs) which I mix with a little flour also. This aids in creating a coating that sticks to the chicken. Once the curing period is done, I dip the chicken into a loose egg wash, equal parts egg and water (or milk). Then into the panko mix and onto the rack to cure for another 15 minutes. These are then ready to fry.

From there, it is simple to shallow fry the chicken in about 1/2" of oil. It is difficult to measure the heat of the oil in that shallow of a depth, what I do is dip the end of a bamboo hashi (chopstick) into the oil and if it bubbles actively, but, not vigorously, then I know the oil is ready. Add three pieces to the pan, do not crowd or over-fill the pan as the oil must remain hot. These are thin and need to cook only 3 to 4 minutes per side and until light golden brown. Like these...

I felt like rice

2011-03-13T21:09:00.000-07:00

and since I was going to have rice, I thought I would have some torikatsu, chicken cutlet for those who are wondering. This would be a break from the ridiculous amount of red meat I ate last week. I do a mean katsu. I really learned a lot about preparing tonkatsu (pork cutlet) while working at Kobe Restaurant in El Cerrito, where Mieko Pollard showed me a few tricks. Along the way, I picked up a few more and this is what comes out.

First off, the rice, as the rice is the most crucial thing, a note about what I consider to be the perfect rice. I prefer my heritage rice, the short grained glutinous rice common throughout the modern Japanese table, I like it to be a little on the moist side with a clean translucent surface. This is my process for excellent sushi rice. And I can see no reason, if I can make rice good enough for sushi preparation that I should not do it right. First off, I like the use the best rice I can afford. It makes a difference. The newer hybrids like koshihikari are really great.

I wash the rice thoroughly and through several washes. Below, you can see the difference between the first wash and the fifth wash in terms of the water clarity. This is important as a lot of this is starch, either added to insure the rice stays separate and dry, or worn from the grain. Leave this stuff in, and you cannot avoid gummy steamed rice.

As is clear here, the difference between washed and unwashed is clear. In truth, it is not just washing, when the water is placed in a bowl with water, it is agitated pretty thoroughly and with purpose. It is not just swished about, you are trying to use the water and friction between the grains to polish the rice and complete the bran removal process. You hands should be soft and silky after doing the rice. Here the rice is, draining in the colander after the last rinse, if I had thought of it, I would have backlit the shot to show how translucent the rice is at this stage.

From here, the rice is soaked in clean water for 1 hour if it is new rice, and up to 6 hours if it is old rice. I do not suggest old rice, it just does not taste as good. How to get good rice...well, I find that shopping at stores carry a lot of rice and have a regular clientele will have the best rice, and I buy small packages, to insure turnover at home. Here is the rice ready in the pot.

(On Edit) Doh! I left off how much water to cook the rice in. The way I do it is to put the rice into the pot I am going to cook it in (Doh! I left that off too, more on the pot in a minute) anyways, I put the rice in the cooking pot, level it out and add water until it is covered by one inch of water for 2 measuring cups of rice. Another way to do this is to use the rule of equal parts water to rice, plus 1/2 part water for the pot. I simply always make two to two and a half cups of uncooked rice and add water until it touches the line on my index finger first joint.

In terms of the pot, as you might be able to tell, I prefer a non-stick pan, heavy aluminum sides and a clad bottom. My pan of choice is Analon with a glass lid, so I can peek without opening the lid. I prefer a sauce pan with vertical sides, 8 to 9 inch diameter and 6 to 7 inches deep.

The pot is placed on high heat to bring to a boil, I prefer to start with warm water for the soak, to keep the process of bringing to a boil as short as possible. Once the water comes to a moderate boil, let it boil uncovered for 4 minutes, then reduce heat to low and cover. It needs to cook for 15 to 17 minutes, then turn off the heat. Do not uncover, it must sit covered for at least 20 minutes. This will result in excellent rice suitable for serving plain, or for preparing for sushi or onigiri. It sure was good with the chicken, next post please.

Pastrami

2011-03-10T18:59:00.000-08:00

Well, since I was stuck working today, I decided to run another cook, today it was a corned beef hitting the smoker. This was a test run and worked out pretty nice. A Harris Ranch Mild-cure corned beef, soaked for 2 days to remove some salt. Then rubbed liberally with my Phu Quoc Pepper rub and smoked over apple at 225F for 5 hours. Here is what that looked like when done.

Next, the hunk of meat was wrapped in foil, then a 1/2 cup of water was added. One of the keys to pastrami, in my mind, is the steaming process. I never knew this until I saw a show on New York delis, where they showed that all of them steam the pastrami for an hour prior to serving. I have been doing this and the texture is perfect. Here is an awful picture of the sliced meat. Not sure what happened to my focus.

And finally, a sandwich, with lettuce, sliced red onion and some mustard. The mustard was made from the dregs of a honey mustard with a little extra kick provided by Lucky Dog Hot Sauce and some Colman's Dry Mustard added in. Dill relish was also involved. It was good, even if there was no rye in sight.

This was an excellent effort with the pastrami coming out with a much better overall flavor. I need some rye bread and maybe some sauerkraut.

Pork Cheeks Carnitas

2011-03-10T17:34:00.000-08:00

While I was eating lunch a few weeks ago, my friend Matt, of Phat Matt's BBQ in Oakland, CA told me he had seen some pork cheeks at his supplier. I asked him to get me a few, if he bought a case. Last Tuesday, he handed me a second bag, with the cheeks already marinating in his rub. Matt uses a salt-free rub on most of his meats, so having them already in the rub is not a concern for moisture. I made these...

I give you...Smoked Pork Cheek Carnitas! First I smoked them for 2 hours at 225F, this just seemed like a great way to start the process of building and layering flavors. Here they were on the grill (lower left corner) with yesterday's ribs and a sausage fattie.

These were then cut in half and placed in a pot with some olive oil, sliced onions, Lucky Dog Hot Sauce and at the last minute, some sliced garlic. As you can see, the meat had a nice smoke ring and texture before ever hitting the oil.

I am not really sure what to do with them just yet. I let them cool and they are in the fridge now. I did test them and they were terrific. I will probably freeze them for later consumption.

Rib Spray-Pig Honey 2

2011-03-09T19:02:00.000-08:00

I felt this part of the post about my experiment with 'Pig Honey' deserved a separate post, as I am extremely happy with the results. One of the things that occurred to me in my quest to create a liquid that would allow me to enhance the natural flavor of pork, was that I did not want a sauce or glaze. I wanted a liquid that would not only enhance the appearance and bite flavor, but, would mimic and intensify the flavor of the natural pork liquid (''Pig honey') that comes from ribs. If you have ever cooked ribs in a smoker or on a grill, you have seen this liquid, it looks like a pale yellow foamy emulsion that coats the pork about 30 to 60 minutes prior to the ribs being done. Test one, how does the texture and bark develop, does it burn or hold it's color. I think this color is perfect. And there were on the fire just a little too long, the color is still excellent.

I really have to stop shooting with a direct flash from 2 feet away, this rib has a beautiful pink color and a smoke ring and some color that clearly showed that the liquid sauce and smoke worked very well together. This is definitely going to become a regular part of my rib cooking process.

I developed this recipe in the vacuum of now really knowing how I would use it. I wanted to create a great deal of complexity, while maintaining balance of the sweet, salty and savory flavors, all with an eye towards enhancing the natural sweetness of 'pig honey'. I consulted with a friend, Rob Bergstrom, who is a highly educated scientist and a food enthusiast also. We discussed the relationship of proteins, sugars, salts and other elements that might contribute to 'pig honey' Here is the recipe I developed ( which is the same as on the rib post) based upon the knowledge I could glean from him.

Pig Honey Sauce
1 cup apple juice
1/4 cup Red Boat Fish Sauce
1/4 cup Braggs Amino Acids
1/8 cup Honey
1 Tablespoon turbinado sugar

Combine all ingredients and bring to just short of a boil, maintain heat until sugar is dissolved.

Here is the sauce in the dribble bottle, a spray bottle would have been better, but, I don't own one of those yet.

Now, the why...

Red Boat Fish Sauce: a very high quality fish sauce, unique in that it is not only extremely complex in flavor, but, very high in protein and without added sweeteners or preservatives. Red Boat is one of the only brands that can make this claim, with a unique blending process resulting in an artisanal product of singular quality. This gives me control of the sweetness while allowing me to build protein flavor profiles into the sauce. I wanted animal protein to be a part of this sauce, it was necessary to have the profile I wanted. Unfortunately, fish sauce, all fish sauce, is high in sodium, so I could not use this solely to provide the amino acids that I wanted.

Bragg's Amino Acids is a food flavoring that is unknown to most cooks. One of the great things about this stuff is it is very low sodium and adds a real punch of complexity to any food. This was my solution to adding more amino acids to the flavor profile while limiting additional salt. This worked incredibly well in conjunction with the fish sauce and has been a go to item in my kitchen when I needed the effect of shoyu or tamari minus the wheat or sodium.

The apple juice, sugar and honey all provide additional sweetness with a variety of sugars and taste profiles. This, too, adds complexity even as it adds sweetness to the mix. I used just enough to balance the flavors. The actual finished taste of the liquid is quite balanced without a pronounced sweetness.

Now, I ended up using this as a spray on liquid during the cooking process with four applications over the last 2 hours of the rib cook. My hope being that I would not only infuse some of the flavors into the pork, but, also to catch the all important stage where I could get the real 'pig honey' to blend with my new elixir. I don't normally spray or mop, but, this was one of those exceptions.

Pig Honey Ribs

2011-03-09T18:55:00.000-08:00

On the BBQ forum I frequent, The BBQ Brethren, there is a current thread where one of the members is going through the extraordinary process of testing out all sorts of recipe for sauces. I submitted one that is unique to me that uses a lot of reduction to create sweetness, texture and complexity. This spurred in me a new idea, the idea being that ribs can be so good when you get a good rack that gives off what we call pig honey. It is the mixture of proteins, sugars and rendered tissue that rises to the surface of the meat. A sauce will not achieve this, but, what if I could find a moisture that would enhance the moisture and appearance of this material. Just posting this to keep you looking...

I decided a start would be to develop a mix of sugars, proteins and lquid that would create a sweet/salty/proteiny blend (how you like that word?). This would be thin, but, with enough sugar to create a surface glaze. This would be sprinkled on the meat just as the real 'pig honey' starts to weep from the ribs. Next, the rack was prepped and the kettle fired up. The kettle is loaded with the standard Kingsford briquettes and a few lumps of apple wood.

Yes, that is a large cast iron skillet in the bottom, half full of water to add both moisture, catch drippings and act as a thermal mass on the fire rack. The kettle was stabilized at 235F and had a nice sweet blue apple smoke. The ribs were Beeler's Heluka breed pork, prepared St Louis style and trimmed up free of loose fat. I really like this brand of pork, it is always fresh, the fat is clean and white and the meat is very similar to older heritage breeds in that it tastes porky and is well marbled. Yeah, fat, I get it, just don't eat the whole rack. Here is the raw rack...

The ribs were treated with a no-salt black and white pepper rub (courtesy of a friend just back from Vietnam, Phu Quoc Pepper is the real deal) and then some Simply Marvelous Cherry rub when going onto the grill. The rack was allowed to sit for two hours with a no-salt rub and then 1/2 hour with the Cherry Rub. Here it is, ready for the grill.

And here is the meat on the kettle, along with a fatty with Salt-free Dizzy Dust (this stuff is great sliced and on an egg sandwich) and some pork cheeks with Phat Matt's Signature Rub, also a salt-free rub. This will end up becoming something more once they get smoked up for a couple of hours. Pork cheek carnitas anyone?

I digress, so I took the sauce and out it into a bottle with holes popped into the top which would allow me to sprinkle the pork. The sauce ended up being a thin and very complex liquid that I felt would be best applied during the cooking process. I then let the ribs cook at 235F for 5 hours and got these out of the cooker.

These were quite good, in fact, the sauce worked just as I had hoped. The flavor and texture of the bark was exceptional with the possible issue of a little too much black pepper. These ribs ended up just a little too long on the kettle, the problem with cooking while working, you get on the phone at the worst time. Ended up the ribs were a little too easily pulled from the bones, which, I am sure many would love.

Bob's Black Pepper Rub
3 parts medium grind white pepper
2 part medium grind black pepper
1/4 part powdered mustard
1/4 part chile powder
1/4 part lime powder or citrus peel
1/8 part fresh ground nutmeg

Combine all ingredients and use immediately. This rub relies heavily on the black pepper and loses pungency rapidly. I used black and white pepper from Phu Quoc Island, as this is my new standard for the best black pepper available.

Pig Honey Sauce
1 cup apple juice
1/4 cup Red Boat Fish Sauce
1/4 cup Braggs Amino Acids
1/8 cup Honey
1 Tablespoon turbinado sugar

Combine all ingredients and bring to just short of a boil, maintain heat until sugar is dissolved. See above for use. I believe it is important not to boil this mixture as I believe the boil process will cause the proteins to denature and not function in the manner I want it to work. I have also become aware of the loss of character that fish sauce can suffer when excessively boiled. I am starting to think it needs to be added late in the cooking process, although I have not discussed this with any scientists.

Kishu Mandarins

2011-03-08T15:33:00.000-08:00

I decided to hit one of my favorite places to find groceries, this would be Berkley Bowl, it was perfect timing for me, as I was meeting a friend for lunch (Phat Matts and a brilliant brisket today). I picked up a baggie of marinated pork cheeks from Matt's over run as well as a baggie of Phu Quoc Island white pepper. This already started out as a promising run for gathering interesting foods. Then I saw these at Berkeley Bowl West, a lovely display of kishu mandarins.

Now, you may be thinking these look just like those Cuties easy peel Mandarins that are in every store, but, these are far from those in a few key ways. They have a different flavor that is heavily influenced by a strong aromatic component and a flavor profile that is a sweet/sour/bitter balance that creates a much more complex flavor. In a market space that seems to lean ever more to super sweet, these run contrary to the trend. I think they are a connoisseurs' citrus. They are also...tiny!

See that quarter, that is no perspective trick, these little guys are no more than a golf ball in size, and have been cultivated to be easy to peel, seedless and really rather cute. A perfect snack for a child, or an adult who is willing to pop a half dozen out of their soft peels. They have a nice tender flesh with a strong aromatic hit even as you are popping one after another into oblivion.

One of the joys of shopping at a location that carries a little more variety, even if sometimes the cost is a few pennies more per pound, is that you find super seasonal and not altogether common treats that are what fruit can be at it's best for those of us who do not live with an orchard in back. I always find interesting fruit and veggies at these types of stores, this is what being food centric is really all about.

Pork Cheeks and Chops

2011-03-07T21:54:00.000-08:00

Well, it is hard to decide, whether this was a miss or a hit. This is the cook part of the previous post where I had brined some pork chops and pork cheeks. By now, I had hoped to be back on the kettle, but, the nagging ankle injury remains both nagging and injured. These little morsels would have been so much better with some smoke and more time.

Here is the finished shot, they do look good.

And the flavor is where I had wanted it to be. Of course, this was not going to be the hard part, what with brining, then letting them sit in rub for 24 hours and slow roasting them. The chops got a liberal coating of Simply Marvelous Cherry Rub and the cheeks got a similar treatment but with Simpy Marvelous Sweet and Spicy rub. Then wrapped in plastic and stored for 24 hours. Here is what the meat looked like minutes before cooking.

Notice how the cheeks look sort of like little, smooth, pink brains...no? Perhaps it was just me. Anyway, as you can see, the rub as dissolved, and I hope gotten into the meat a little. Good old osmosis, eh? Into a 265F oven for 3 hours hopefully to mimic the low and slow cooking, if not the actual smoke. These really miss the effect of smoking over a fire, and I think that is where the disappointment lay for me on this one. Here are the morsels upon removal.

Not really a failure, just a slight miss. I think another hour and the use of the kettle would have really helped a whole lot with the texture and an even better flavor.

Pork Experiment

2011-03-05T18:55:00.000-08:00

I came into the possession of some exceptional pork chops and pork cheeks, the pork chops are a kurobuta chop I get from the local Japanese grocery store, the pork cheeks came to me via Matt from Phat Matt's BBQ, they were a few chunks that escaped being used for his weekly special. One of the things I look for whenever buying pork is a bright white fat. Yellow or cream colored fat means the pork has gotten a little shelf aged. Here is a shot of some exceptional pork.

The pork was to be combined with a cure, but, I could not find my Tenderquik, so I went with a simple brine of 1 tablespoon Turbinado sugar, 2 tablespoon of sea salt, 1 teaspoon of black pepper and 1 teaspoon of Simply Marvelous Sweet and Spicy BBQ rub. This was heated until things dissolved, then cooled with ice.

The brine looks a little dark here, more ice was added to get it cold, it is important to get it cold for safety from bacterial growth. After enough ice was added to cool it, which brought the total water content to 2.5 cups, the whole thing was combined in a vacuum marinade container. I put a plastic sheet over it to aid in keeping the pork submerged.

The top was put on and a vacuum was established to aid in getting the brine into the meat. Once the meat has sits for at least 12 hours, I will take it out and soak it in clean water for at least 8 hours to get some salt out. This process was started on Friday, so I expect that by Sunday, this meat will be ready for the smoker. My hope is that I can use cold rainy weather to smoke this in a very moist environment at 200F to 225F and have a few pieces of smoked meat similar to Canadian bacon. We shall see.

Burger Time!

2011-03-05T18:35:00.000-08:00

Some days you just want a burger. A simple all-American burger is what is needed. The one problem I have right now, is that I am still nursing yet another ankle injury and cannot get to the kettle for another day. Still, I needed a burger, cast iron grill pan to the rescue. One of the most useful implements one can have in the kitchen, in fact, is an array of cast iron skillets and Dutch ovens. Nothing cooks quite as well as these things.

Here is the burger, a simple 1/3 pound of ground beef, rubbed with my own basis rub, very similar to a Santa Maria rub, with a little added sugar this time. The patty of beef was 'grilled' in the cast iron on the stove and dressed lightly with some Big Butz Hot BBQ sauce. Then it went onto a potato bun, with some bib lettuce, tomato and red onion. Delicious, salad, carb and protein all in one.

This makes Bob happy, Bob was also happy with the Hornsby Cider he enjoyed with it.

My fish sauce connection is back...

2011-03-03T16:15:00.000-08:00

from his trip to Vietnam with Red Boat Fish sauce, with news that the website is now live with a online store. I wanted to touch bases with Rob, who, besides being the Director of Sales for Red Boat, is also a high end chemist. I am trying to create a new sauce that would mimic 'pig honey', that wonderful mixture of fats, proteins, sugars and rub that forms on the top of ribs.

My plan is to create the ultimate complement to ribs, not a competition or bottle sauce, but, something that brings out the flavors inherent to pork, something that brings the savory flavors to the fore on ribs and butts. One of the things I need to figure out is the amount of protein in a solution, how to balance the amino acids with the other elements. This is where a mad chemist, some fish sauce and smoke are gonna need to intersect. More coming soon.

Four Ingredient Challenge Lamb Chop

2011-02-21T07:53:00.000-08:00

First off, we have a new member in out little club, welcome Rich from Grilling with Rich to the Four Ingredient Challenge. I hope you find this as challenging and interesting as I have. Our February Four Ingredient Off our Grills Challenge involves lamb chops, blood oranges, elbow macaroni and nappa cabbage. As usual, when ever I approach a set of ingredients, my first thought is to what will be available to me, where am I going to get these things and what makes sense in terms of flavor profiles.

My initial thought was to go Chinese/BBQ hybrid, in keeping with my familiarity and comfort with heritage and comfort flavors. However, the elbow macaroni just does not work for me in that context, so I started considering what I could put together featuring lamb, blood orange and macaroni. European flavors work better in my mind for this combination, adding in the nappa, which I can work flavor profiles off of, the apparent choice is going to be a fusing of French, American BBQ and a little Japanese touch. Thus...

Lamb Chops with a Blood Orange Marinade, Puy Lentils and Macaroni and a Sweet Nappa and Citrus Salad.

The salad was made with nappa cabbage, carrots and supremes of blood orange. I decided to do a sugar cure of the nappa cabbage and the carrots, which meant first slicing them up, curing them separately as I do not want the flavors to blend. The veggies are layers with a mixture of sea salt and turbinado sugar mix. Then they are weighted to make sure as the liquid is pulled out, the vegetables stay in the liquid.

These were allowed to sit for 12 hours until the vegetables were cured. They remain crunchy and get a slight salty/sweet flavor profile. These quick pickles will not hold due to the sugar used. This is a very traditional method for the start of making Tsukemono, all I would need is a week or two of fermenting in a cool dark spot. But, I am in a hurry. After washing the veggies, I tossed them and added some supremes of blood orange. The end result tasted great, with an excellent balance of salty and sweet flavors and the freshness of the orange adding to the unique crunchy texture and vegetable flavor. And it looked great.

Moving on, the lamb chops, which mysteriously avoided the camera intially, was marinaded in a blend of rosemary, blood orange zest, olive oil, blood orange juice and some Todd's Dirt, which is a herb based BBQ rub mix which I have found makes an excellent season-all for many meat and soup dishes. Here are the ingredients for the marinade.

The side dish for this challenge had to include elbow macaroni, the problematic ingredient. There is always a problematic ingredient isn't there. Well, elbow macaroni with lamb, hmmm... The lentils, Puy Lentils in fact, were boiled with bay leaves and a whack of Todd's Dirt, then they were drained and combined with the cooked macaroni. Just prior to serving, a pretty standard mirepoix of carrots, onion and celery were sauteed along with some garlic. The lentil/pasta mix was added along with some mustard and some Lucky Dog hot sauce. Here are the veggies...

The lamb chops came out of the marinade after 5 hours, out of the pool and into the fire, Muaaahahaaaa...anyways, as you can see, the chops get a little bit of a funny color from the blood orange juice in the marinade. Let's hope that is not an issue.

On the cooker, smoking at 225F over charcoal and apple wood, for about 30 minutes. Then bumped up to an unknown temperature due to my back aching. The chops were removed from the kettle at just the right time, based purely upon my guessing. There were right at 135F, odd how that works. Just pink throughout the chop. As for the color, not a problem, they came out great.

Here is the final plating, I added some fresh roasted cashews and a cognac chutney made from dates, raisins and candied ginger. If you look closely, you can see the strips of fresh mint I snipped over the final product. I decided the intensity of the chutney would be a good counterpoint to the earthy lamb and the starchy lentil/elbow macaroni mix.

I have to say, the lentil and macaroni dish has some promise, as odd as it sounds, the basic flavors actually complemented each other quite nicely. The lamb, chutney and cashews worked very well together.

Grilling with Rich - Entry Here

I am a young person breaking into the great world of barbecue. I enjoy everything about barbecue from the culture to the food. I am just a regular guy trying to have fun and enjoy the food and the process of cooking the food on the grill. At Grilling with Rich.com we go beyond just the normal cooking adventures and dig deeper into the large world of BBQ’ing, both professionally and for amateurs. Grilling with Rich focuses on the adventures of a regular guy and his quest to understand and learn as much as possible about the BBQ world.

Paul Haight of No Excuses BBQ – Entry Here

Marc Van Der Wouw of Grill Adventures - Entry Here
Grilladventures by broadcastmarc is started on march of 2010.I started the BBQ thing when I was 30,before that we eat a lot outside.have fun,but when the kids came in our life We start serious cooking.Most of it is realy healthy I think;-)The grill has a special place in my heart,We love to do things outside..Everything I make is an adventure,and sometimes we use the books.We try to grill as much as we can year round.

Chris Grove of Nibble Me This - Entry Here

Nibble Me This is Chris Grove’s blog about his misadventures in live fire cooking. ”I have no culinary training….I’m just entertaining myself with fire and food”.

Red Boat and Ingredient Driven Food

2011-02-19T15:10:00.000-08:00

One of the important elements for me, when it comes to food, is the quality of the ingredients I use when cooking. This has brought me into contact with a wide variety of food producers who focus on ingredients and quality of flavors. One of these producers is the guys behind Red Boat Fish Sauce which is a product I have mentioned previously as a new flavor in my cooking. These guys are now back in Vietnam and working out some new products and flavors that they intend to bring to the U.S. market. (Update: Red Boat Fish Sauce is now on the market at Amazon. )

Now, as for the area, they are on Phu Quoc Island, a small island which is located in the Sea of Siam, my friend Rob sent a few shots of this paradise, I think he is bragging that he is getting paid to lounge on a beach and eat Vietnamese food. Here is one of the shots...

The Phu Quoc harbour and it's fleet. A mix of the fishing and merchant fleet. This is the kind of fleet that goes out and seeks the squid, octopus and fish that dominate the cuisine of any island in the Sea of Siam. This is also the source for the Black Anchovy that forms the base of the fish sauce the island is famous for. The food is what it is all about for me, here is a 'simple' breakfast typical of the area. Well, maybe not exactly typical...

Well, back to the fish sauce, one of the processes that is key to a fish sauce product is the blending of the barrels to create a flavorful product. While the base sauces are fermented in barrels with just salt and anchovies, the large tanks is where these base sauces are blended to create a flavorful product. This is an important step, since there are no added flavors or ingredients to moderate or simplify the flavors, no gluten products, no MSG and no sugar added. These tanks are a work of art...

As old and traditional as the tanks and process may seem, the desire to create a consistent and artisanal product inevitably has an aspect of science to it. The tasting occurs within a slightly more controlled environment. Here is what the base sauces look like during tasting. Anyone familiar with the process of blending wine will find this shot to be very familiar...

As cool as all of this is, and I do find this process and ingredient very cool, I am even more enthused about the new venture these guys are looking at. Phu Quoc Island has had a long thriving pepper market with a very fine black pepper coming out of their hand work intensive process. Ever wonder what a pepper orchard looks like? It looks a lot like this in Viet Nam.

As a BBQ guy, why do these exotic flavors matter? Can't I just buy black pepper from the market and be happy. Well, yes, and no, these peppercorns are something special. Black Pepper is a huge component of the traditional BBQ flavor profile now. Brisket and ribs, pulled pork and chicken, all rely upon the intense power of ground black pepper. The first sample of Phu Quoc Black pepper was the most intense and complex flavor of black pepper I have ever tried. Here is a shot showing the fresh harvest, you don't see this kind of thing if you don't go to the source like the Red Boat guys are doing.

See those berries? Do you see all the different colors, each of these represents a varied level of ripening and a different flavor profile and intensity. These are hand picked and the berries are hand sorted, this insures that that the product can reflect each stage of the peppers flavor. One of the great things that will come out of this is that a true white pepper corn will soon be available from these guys, not the bleached versions most common to the U.S. market, but the fruitier and more moderate white pepper that can be developed through thorough ripening and hand cleaning. Here are some peppers out for drying, these are hand raked to encourage sun drying without damage to the drupes.

Here are a couple more shots of how this fish sauce and pepper corns end up in food. I really think Rob sends me these because he knows I hate the idea of flying and that I love the idea of street food and cooking over buckets.

Here is another shot, the standard cute girl with banh xeo. In this case, a stuffed Vietnamese crepe. Okay, maybe the web sites you go to don't feature this kind of shot, I happen to see this kind of shot a lot, since I spend most of my online time looking for food ideas.

Morimoto Napa

2011-02-15T11:09:00.000-08:00

One of the things I always wonder about is just how good are those chefs you see on television. One of the shows that has really pushed chefs to the fore has been Iron Chef. One of the chefs, Masaharu Morimoto has had quite a lot of success in the United States with most of his success coming in New York. Recently, he opened an outpost in Napa, California and my opportunity to try is food was finally afoot.

Now, the reality of these globe trotting chefs is that you are not paying for the food prepared by the hands of Morimoto, what you are paying for is his inspiration, knowledge and guidance in the creation of the menu and the training of the staff. At it's best, you will have the best of that input, at it's worst, the chef has simply sold his name to a venture. I was hoping for the best.

Upon entering the restaurant, you are greeted by a nice lobby and waiting area. As you walk to the end of the lounge, you see some cases, presumably for takeaway foods, although none were apparent. What was apparent was that you could look down the entire cold prep area of the kitchen. As you walk to the dining area, you walk past the hot line and into the sushi area. Incredible for a restaurant, the kitchen is quite transparent to the clientele.

I think it is quite confidence inspiring that the restaurant feel it can show off it's kitchen and staff to all of the customers. Naturally, the sushi area is a show place, with fresh fish on display and incredibly focused staff working away on sushi, sashimi and fish preparation. When asked, the entire staff was engaging and helpful in explaining what they were doing. The sushi was very well done. Here is the sample that came with the lunch set.

You can't quite see the shine that as on the fish. As any of you who really enjoy sushi and sashimi would know, a truly fresh and well cut piece of fish will have a rainbow glisten to the flesh, this was apparent on each piece of fish presented. Yes, the wasabi is fresh ground, the ginger appears house made. Truly impressive technique and attention to quality was apparent.

Although and entire menu of sushi, sashimi and individual cooked dishes were available, I wanted a sampler of what they were doing. This meant a lunch set. A common term amongst Japanese restaurants is to refer to combination lunches as 'sets'. I chose the crispy tofu set, m dining companions chose the grilled black cod set and the beef teriyaki set. Here they are.

Each set was nicely plated and was accompanied by a few pieces of sushi, either a soup or salad and some tempura vegetables. The soup was amonst the best misoshiro I have ever had, it am certain it had been fortified by tonkotsu, or the most incredible miso I have ever tasted. The salad has an intense flavor and was delicious. The beef was tender and the black cod very nearly perfect in preparation with the fish just past translucent. Take a look at this little hunk of fish...

The curry was interesting, very typical of Japanese style curry, it was mild with sweet undertones, the difference was that there were slices of jalapeno that must have been added late in the cooking process, so each bite offered differing levels of spice. A nice touch to allow for different flavors to shine through. I also had a plate of gyoza, which is one of those bellwether dishes for me. Does a restaurant care enough to serve something simple, yet fussy enough, to require some care. Well, this was the only odd step for me. The presentation was different and the elements were quite good. A bacon foam, a typically sweet tomato puree (Japanese preferences are for sweet pink tomatoes) and a tuille of potato starch atop the gyoza were all excellent. The tuille of potato starch was like the most delicate potato chip you have ever had. The gyoza skin was nice, with a good tooth and flavor, but, the filling seemed a little plain and almost seemed like just ground up pork. A miss for me there. Here is the plating though.

Then there was the dessert, ice cream sandwiches and Japanese donuts with a variety of dipping condiments. The ice cream sandwiches were quite good, with clean and distinct flavors. The donuts were beautifully friend, with lavender honey, Japanese molasses and a variety of sugars such as green tea sugar, kinako sugar and a few I can't remember. All were delicious.

One of the things I note in any food prepared or inspired by world class chefs is a purity of flavors. This food was no different, each dish represented a particular combination of ingredients and flavors that rang true through each bite. I love food that presents a variety of flavors such that each bite changes subtly thus assuring the palate is always changing. I found that this was the case with the curry as well as the tempura side, which featured a somewhat typical selection of vegetables, but, in a unique tempura coating with a wasabi infused aioli sauce. Ingredient driven food with beautiful technique presented in a wonderful environment. The wait staff was perfect for the setting, casual enough, yet somehow showing up just when needed. This kind of food does not come cheap, and is a once in a great while experience for someone like me. But, if you have a passion for food, a highly recommend a nosh or two from a world class chef inspired restaurant. Ah, one final plating, as we left, this was placed out for service...

All photos courtesy of John McGee.

Greek Coffee

2011-02-14T12:59:00.000-08:00

I had too much coffee today. But, after I had finished my triple Americano, one of the coffee shop regulars at Zocalo Coffeehouse in San Leandro showed up with his portable coffee gear. This is a style of coffee that he makes at his home in Greece and it is quite interesting. As you can see, his portable gear consists of a 35 year old MSR camp stove, a Greek coffee maker and a bottle of fuel. We used both a Greek brand of coffee, Bravo, and with Zocalo's house blend.

As you can see, like any camp stove, it takes a bit to get the flame stabilized and the element heated up. For those that don't know, that tin cup is not the coffee maker, that is the old cup that holds the stove. Ancient stuff here. The Bravo coffee is not a gourmet item, unless you allow for the fact that it is completely labeled in Greek and came from Greece. Apparently in Greece, this is a very common household item. It was ground extremely fine, beyond espresso grind. It's texture was almost like cinnamon in texture. The coffee was ladled into the cold water in the coffee maker, 2 to 2.5 teaspoons for about 4 demitasse of water. Sugar is also added, 2 to 3 teaspoons is apparently the norm. This is heated over the stove until just shy of boiling. Naturally, the coffee should not be boiled.

The great thing about this method, is that the coffee will tell you when it is ready. As the coffee approaches the boil, it starts to give off a 'crema' of sorts that floats at the top of the pot. This even looks like the 'crema' on an espresso. The foam color you are looking for is the classic light tan, with some tiger striping of lighter and darker tans. If the 'crema' turns dark, it is burned. Here is a shot of the Zocalo House blend 'crema' which was darker than the Bravo.

The interesting thing was the range of flavors, the ligther roasted Bravo brand gave a simpler flavor, but, with a clear nut and fruit profile. It was quite sweet since the sugar was added. The sweetness is not quite like a 'Cuban' Espresso with it caramelized flavors, it is more a simple sweetness. We tried two types of sugar and you could taste the difference between the unwashed Turbinado and the regular granulated cane sugar. The Zocalo House blend, which is not my favorite coffee bean, was totally different with a richer overall texture and flavor showing the spice, wine and roast qualities typical of this blend. It is much better this way. We also cut the sugar back on this brew which is much more to my liking. As you can see, there is a float of oil on the top of the coffee which is what I would expect in any good coffee extraction.

This represents essentially double shot of espresso, which means, if you allow for a triple Americano, and three double Greek coffees, I had 9 shots of coffee. WHEEEEE!

My stomach hurts.

Stuffed Smoked Jalapeno Peppers

2011-02-07T10:25:00.000-08:00

Otherwise known as ABT's or the long version, Atomic Buffalo Turds. Yep, that is not a lovely name, but, this is beer food and 'spending all day watching a smoker run' food. Jalapeno peppers stuffed with some form of cream cheese spread and wrapped in bacon then smoked. Or you could cook them in the oven if you are so inclined.

First step is to gather up the basics, some jalapeno peppers, cored and seeded, some cream cheese and other stuff. In this case, I went with some water chestnuts and browned pork sausage. Because you can never have too much salty fatty pork apparently. Here are the raw materials...

Then the peppers are cored and stuffed, in this case with a mix of cream cheese, browned sausage and finely minced water chestnuts.

Then the peppers are wrapped in a strip of bacon, I like to use uncured fancy pants bacon, from heritage pork, mostly because I am a bacon snob. Although I prefer to use uncured bacon of late, it just seems to cook up the way I like. I also prefer to use thin sliced bacon for this use as it crisps up better.

Next, I rubbed them up with some BBQ rub, in this case, my usual go to prepared rub was used, Simply Marvelous Sweet and Spicy finds itself on more stuff I cook than just about any other rub. I really like this product and the fact that I know the owner and he is California based helps.

These were then cooked at 225F, until the bacon is done, I very cleverly moved the peppers into direct heat, and then forgot about them for a bit, so these are extra crunchy. Not burned though, these were terrific despite the dark color. I found these to be very tasty with an excellent texture.

I do have to note that eating all of these was a bad decision, in addition to all the salt and fat, a few of them were rather exceptionally hot and got the stomach going in the wrong direction. I do love these things though, great combination of flavors and textures.

Bao from a tube

2011-01-31T13:12:00.000-08:00

The cooking details from yesterday's chicken bao cooking. Here is a reminder of what the cook was really about, which is the 5-spice chicken cooked over some pecan wood and hardwood lump charcoal.

The whole shebang got a little complicated. First I had to make a rub and marinade to get some additional flavor into the chicken. I almost always buy Mary's Air-cooled Chickens as I feel they are actually more flavorful and cook better than the more industrial chickens at the Supermarkets. Starting off with better tasting meat always helps. The wet elements of the marinade were lime juice, garlic, fish sauce, sugar and rice vinegar. The dry elements were lime zest, sea salt, vietnamese black pepper, ground ginger, chile powder and fresh Five Spice powder. The spices were combined in two batches, one for the marinade and one for the dry rub. A couple photos of the base flavors.

The chicken was marinaded for 8 hours in this blend. I also purchased two chunks of firm tofu, fresh from the tub, which I intended to also smoke and add to the bao. The tofu was marinaded at the same time, separate bag obviously, as the chicken. Once these were cooked, it was onto the kettle running along at 350F with a couple large chunks of pecan wood for smoke. Here is the final chicken product, the tofu will be seen later. Oh, about those skewers, I wanted the chicken to have a more uniform profile and shape and to be on the plump side, so I skewered them, then tied them.

The top photo shows the chicken trussed up on the skewers, nest are the more uniform chickens with a little more 5-Spice Rub on the chickens, finally after about an hour and a half, the finished chickens. These were so aromatic, the entire kitchen smelled of 5-Spice and pecan smoke. This is a great thing. Below are the additional elements, including the smoked tofu (which puffed up like that, very odd) including chopped scallions, baby bok choy and shiitake mushrooms, which were precooked in a braising liquid if water, shoyu, hoisin sauce and sugar, which was reduced once the mushrooms were removed.

For the other stuyle of bao, I prepared some carrots and cucumber into a simple sugar and salt pickle, I wanted these to have some crunch, so they were soaked in the lime juice, vinegar and sugar mix for just 3 hours. This makes for a colorful and crunchy complement to the salty and smoky chicken.

The filling for the chicken stuffed bao was tossed in the wok with the chopped veggies, chicken and tofu along with a sauce made from the liquid the mushrooms were cooked in. This was allowed to combine and cool. The dough from a tube was then prepared. Here is the dough in it's 'natural' state.

The steamer was prepared and ready to go. Here is where I made my biggest mistake, the same mistake I always make of over stretching the dough and making it too thin. I did that again. I take the dough, overstretch it and cup it in my hand, add the filling then overstretch the dough even further by pulling the edges up, pinching them together. I give it a twist and then push it up into the bao.

These were placed onto a sheet of cooking parchment in the steamer and steamed for 15 minutes, I think 10 minutes might have been enough. They came out fine, if a little thin on the top due to the dough being over stretched. I also used the biscuit dough to make the simple folded bao, also over-rolled. These were stuffed with slices of the chicken along with the sugar-cured carrots and cucumbers. Good stuff.

Dough in a tube experiment

2011-01-30T20:39:00.000-08:00

So, the BBQ Brethren, a forum that I am a member at has a little informal weekly competition to see who can make the most people drool for a photo of their food. I won one of these, finally, and had the chance to choose the subject of the next Throw Down. I chose a Four Ingredient Challenge with a Twist. The twist was that the fourth ingredient had options. The first three ingredients were Chicken, Limes and Dough in a tube. The fourth ingredient could be anything, as long as it was either tofu, eggplant or peanuts.

I chose tofu. The results are shown below. A plain steamed bao with chicken and sugar cured carrots and cucumbers along with a chicken bao with tofu.

Normally this is where I would go into a long drawn out description of what I did and how, but, the photos and description are not ready, stay tuned. For they will be here in a day or two.

Spice Kit and Tea Garden Restaurants SOMA

2011-01-26T16:19:00.000-08:00

I took the opportunity today, between dire deadline demands to wander over to San Francisco and taste some 'street food'. Yes, I overate, I am a pig, a straight haired Mangalitsa sized pig. I met a friend of mine, Rob Bergstrom, for lunch and a chat about food, after all, what do you talk about over lunch but food. Rod has recently started off a new venture on fish sauce, which has triggered an old passion for street food. Because of the nature of our health department regulations, real street food is hard to find. But, it has become popular now to serve street food from restaurant settings, with high quality ingredients and preparations allowing me to partake of foods that I had to give up due to some health issues.

Spice Kit is an Asian Fusion/Street food place of the best type, offering quality meats and preparations in forms familiar to anyone that has eaten off of a food cart or hole-in-the-wall place. I ordered the pork belly steamed pork bun and a 5-Spice chicken Banh Mi. The flavors were bright, pure and clean with well prepared meats. The 5-Spice, often not fresh, clearly had the pungent, aromatic qualities that only fresh ground 5-spice can really have. The chicken was intensely flavorful with fresh sugar pickled veggies and a home made pork pate, that is often sorely missed in Banh Mi I have had elsewhere. The bread was a little disappointing to me, as it was not what I have come to expect and the size of the sandwich was on the large size. I can see why people would like the larger bread and sandwich size, but, the flavors become tired by the time you are done. The steamed bun with pork belly was just terrific, the soft white bun with the savory pork belly was perfect with the flavor and texture of the pork being spot on. Again, the flavors were clean, precise and showcased the meat very nicely. Oh, and order the Taro Chips.

Then we wandered over to a place that Rob highly recommended, called Tea Garden, it features take-away dumplings, buns and other items with a Taiwanese flavor. This was hole-in-the-wall at it's finest. The counter and kitchen are built into what was probably once an parking garage office. Small with limited space, the steamed pork bun with pork belly here was earthy, braised with the skin on, and served on a white bun with braised pickled mustard greens and some other herbs and spices. The flavor was complex with a definite feel of something cooked by a family. It lacks the precision of the classically trained chefs at Spice Kit, but, just as good in it's own way.

Spice Kit
405 Howard St
(between Fremont St & 1st St)
San Francisco, CA 94105

Tea Garden
515 Mission St
(between 1st St & Ecker Pl)
San Francisco, CA 94105

Roastin' Ronnie's Serengeti Blend coffee

2011-01-18T13:00:00.000-08:00

A fellow BBQ aficionado has expanded his hobby of roasting his own coffee, as well as his passion for coffee, into a small fledgling business. He has started selling his coffee on the BBQ Brethren forums under the name Roastin' Ronnies Coffee. I decided to buy a pound of his Serengeti Blend beans to just see what a home roaster can do. I normally get my beans from a place called Zocalo Coffee in San Leandro, who have a philosophy that each bean has an optimal roast and that it is never going to be burned to a crisp. So I was curious to see how Ron interpreted his ideals of roasting beans to a level that the bean is optimized. Upon opening the bag, I was hit with a very aromatic nose and no aroma of being in the bag. These were not sitting in the bag for very long. Here is Ron's bag as mailed.

Guess who misjudged the levels of light in his kitchen, yes, me! That image lighting is far more dramatic than a bag of coffee probably needs. As you can see, the Serengeti Blend is a blend of Tanzania, Mexico and Indonesian beans, there were some that were peaberry sized and others more along the line of your typical Arabica sized bean. The overall roast is a little darker than in the photos, again, the lighting levels were not as good as I thought. Here are the beans on a white plate, to show size and color at least somewhat close to the real color.

Hopefully you can see the sheen and variety of bean sizes. The beans were clean and did not have chaff or ash, there were very few cracked beans and the color and aroma was clean with no bitter, acrid or off smells. There was zero baggy aromas at all. I mention this as Tanzania beans can often suffer from quality control and show baggy tones in the nose. I am more of a fan of Indonesian coffees and have not been a fan of Kenyan coffees, as they are very clean and mild. I do not believe I have ever had a light roasted Mexican coffee as a single source roast, so I have no ability to tease out what they contributed. I decided to do a pour over test for my first taste. I would extract light to get the most bright flavors, I was hoping to bring up the similarities that the Tanzanian coffee might have to Kenyan coffees. Here is the cup...

This is with water heated to 195F and pour over timing of 2.5 minutes with a standard pour over coffee process. The coffee was tasted at 120F initially and later at 90F. I do not like to taste hot coffee. As you can see, there is a little red to the brew, the color deepened into the cup, the bottom of the cup was not visible. The aroma was a little fruity with a good earthy note. I am not great at teasing out flavor descriptors, but, the cup was very clean, mild with light acidity, I got no floral and limited tree fruit flavors, no wine or berry flavors at all. I did get a distinct sense that this was a very clean version of a North African/Indonesian coffee. Which means I liked it a lot. Not at all the Kenyan I was expecting. I think this might actually make an interesting espresso, which is my plan for tomorrow.

Phat Matt's...what makes a BBQ joint worth visiting

2011-01-12T10:48:00.000-08:00

I can cook, I can BBQ, and I think I can do it pretty well. I don't have loads of trophy's, but I can smoke a pretty nice meal up. So, why do I have a 'go to' BBQ joint? What makes a BBQ restaurant worth going to when I can cook and enjoy cooking. Well, it comes down to more than just convenience. It comes down to a place that not only makes great meat, but, that listens to what customers say and changes up the offerings once in a while. Phat Matt's is one such place.

I am not in the habit of reviewing restaurants, I think my choices and tastes are too limited to do that kind of thing accurately. Further, I am too easily swayed by personality to be a good reviewer. However, I really do enjoy Phat Matt's BBQ, not only because they make a very good brisket and ribs; but also because I appreciate that in the recent couple of weeks of the new year, they have put a couple of items on as specials that I and several other had asked for. This week, it is brisket pot pie. And it was excellent.

Pot pie is not an easy menu item for a BBQ place to simply run as a special. It shows Matt's desire to offer varied menu items and to draw in people that might want something beyond the simple beauty of smoked meats. The restaurants that specialize in making loads of pot pies (Bakesale Betty anyone, amazing pot pie) have pastry experts and things such as dough rollers to make the process easier. Matt was making the dough by hand and with a rolling pin. These were excellent renditions, peas or not. Here is a sliced version...

Last week, it was a southern U.S. standby, Brunswick Stew. this week it was pot pies and next week, burnt ends stuffed potatoes. I really appreciate the fact that Matt and Charlotte are working to create items that are not just the same menu. I know Matt has more stuff in the pipeline as well. It is what makes it worth visiting his shop once or twice a week. I can't wait for pulled chicken pot pie (HINT HINT) or perhaps some smoked salmon?

Pourover Coffee test

2011-01-09T10:14:00.000-08:00

Well, it's Sunday and I was a slow starter today, I will end up spending most of the day working at the computer, so hurrying to that is certainly no bonus. But, I slow started to the point where going to my favorite coffee shop was not going to happen. So, I decided to test out the idea of making some pour-over coffee. This is a technique that is similar, on the surface, to using one of those Melitta cones, but, with a great deal more detail involved.

I don't have the budget to just to and get all 'spendy' on coffee equipment that I might not like, so I decided to go with a funnel, coffee carafe from my now dead coffee maker and a measuring cup. Sooo technical. Fresh ground some beans from Zocalo Coffee in San Leandro, these folks actually roast their beans on site, several times a week I can go in and actually talk with the roaster as she is working. Some water was heated and the whole process began.

This is some good coffee, brewed at 195F and very delicious. I need to graduate from a aluminum funnel and a old drip carafe.

Beef Chuck Ribs...fancy style

2011-01-07T19:38:00.000-08:00

A forum I often post at (The BBQ Brethre) has a weekly challenge cook in which a theme is chosen and then everyone gets to try cooking the theme. This weeks was Nouvelle Quisine (sic) in which 'Que and the tenets of Nouvelle Cuisine were to be combined. This was my entry.

Smoked Beef Chuck Rib braised in a wine and cherry reduction, Fresh sugar snap peas sauteed poached in Sweet Barnea cold pressed extra virgin olive oil with kosher salt, baby shiitake mushrooms sauteed in poaching oil of sugar snap peas, potato galette with eggnog custard and sauteed sweet onions and baby shiitake mushrooms with sweet butter, wine and cherry reduction sauce with herb tea and Sweet Barnea oil drizzle.

Yes, the title is a little over the top. Here is the plated shot...

The meats, ox tails and chuck rib, which I prefer to get un-sectioned if at all possible. The chuck would be smoked over pecan, for two hours at least to absorb smoke once the color was set, it was to be braised. The ox-tails were smoked for 1 hour at 350 for both color and smoke flavor. This was all I needed for the stock as what I really wanted was a smoke infused strong herbal tea.

Here are the vegetables and herbs, most you will recognize, rosemary, sage, thyme and marjoram were the players. These were also roasted on the kettle with some pecan smoke along for the ride.

Oh, that little piece of paper, about that, it is a technique for making stocks and melting vegetables as well, it essentially allows for some moisture to escape while also preventing roiling of the stock. It really works great for melting onions for pizza. Anyways...

I also made a wine reduction, it took 3/4 of a bottle of wine to make this...

I know, what will I do with it all. This is great stuff though, intensely flavored, viscous and pungent. Literally, I have half of it left, as the whole dish needed just a tiny amount. It does have beautiful color. It would have been a whole bottle, more on that later.

Here is the chuck rib going into the braise and getting ready to hit the uhven. As you can see, there is a little more wine, some onions, garlic and the herb tea. Oh, back to that, I used the tea method to add some herbal flavor and additional collagen and smoked meat flavor to the braising liqiud, this allowed me a little more control over the amount in the braise.

After two hours at 270F, I added cherries (not local, but, I had to) to the braise for the final hour. This added both color and flavor and would punch up the wine infusion even more.

As a side item, I prepared scalloped potatoes but, used a filling of sauteed onions and baby shiitake for a filling to add some flavor. These were sauteed then layered into the potatoes. This was then cooked with eggnog added halfway to add some flavor and binder. All I have is this one shot.

Finally, I blended the braise with the wine reduction, mounted a small amount of sweet butter and poured it onto the plate and meat. The sugar snap peas were slowly cooked in olive oil, then cooled and finished with kosher salt. The mushrooms were then sauteed in the oil from the peas. Here is the end result...

Ah, and I burned all sorts of things along the way, I even managed to burn the stock, the wine reduction, some aromatics, a hamburger bun for lunch and the air was acrid for a while. Man, I was a bad multi-tasker today.

Teriyaki Chicken

2011-01-05T16:57:00.000-08:00

A classic of the Japanese restaurant scene nowadays, this type of chicken is borne of the grill and is at it's best over a live fire. The type most commonly seen in American restaurants is more of a glaze or sauce applied during and after cooking. My families recipe uses marination of the chicken in the 'tare' or sweetened shoyu liquid. I use a two step process now, the marinade and the glaze, with the glaze providing not only a little more flavor immedieately to the tongue, but, some nice color and shine. That ain't no photoshop shine...

The ingredients, other than the chicken, consist of shoyu, mirin, sake or sherry, grated ginger, grated garlic, black pepper and sugar. In our family kitchen, the shoyu (soy sauce) of choice is Yamasa brand, we like the taste and salt level of this brand. There are more expensive brands, and I have made the same recipe with tamari, but this is our classic. Mirin is a sweet sake that is often used for sweetening Japanese foods in lieu of, or in addition to, sugar. it provides a complexity to the sweetness. I would have used sake, but, I forgot to buy some, so it was what I could find, which was the marsala. I find that the alcohol is important in this recipe as I do not heat the sauce and the alcohol helps to 'marry' the flavors. Without the sherry or sake, I go with mild heating and a little acidity from vinegar or citrus juice.

I typically make a double recipe, what is pictured above is one recipe. I make the double recipe to make sure I have enough for both marinade and glaze. Once the first batch is made, I take the chicken, wash and dry it then place in a container to marinade. I used Mary's Air-cooled Chicken for this, as I most often do for all chicken I cook. I normally use a doubled zip closing bag for marinading, as it keeps the marinade on the chicken. If any of the people I am cooking for are sensitive to plastic, a glass container works fine, but, the meat needs turning. Here is the marinaded raw chicken showing the color and texture (I hope) when the chicken is pulled out.

The 'tare' marinade actually functions like a brine and has the tendency to darken the meat and draw some moisture out. For this reason, I marinade overnight to make sure it has a chance to complete the osmosis process and allow for transfer of liquid back into the meat pulling some salt and flavor back into the meat. Then it is grill time. Although, more specifically, it is roasting time. These were cooked over a neutral fire, 350F, 40 minutes. I am not a fan of lots of wood smoke on this recipe.

Now for that second batch of marinade, it is gonna become a glaze and sauce. I make the same recipe and add honey to create a little more sweetness and to get the character of glazing that honey possesses in cooking. I will use this glaze raw during the last half of the cooking process. I quickly glaze the chicken every 8 to 9 minutes. It is more like slopping it on. My goal is to end up with this at the end.

I cook it on a pan, as the marinade and glaze make a terrible mess of the grates. If you want sauce, then use the remaining glaze, heat is up slightly until it starts to simmer. I will add some slurry made with Kuzu to thicken it slightly. I have found this chicken needs no sauce at all. But, it is tasty sauce for dipping other meats and a little rice as well.

I used to cook for our church, and they used a different process, in which the chicken was layered with rock salt which served to pull off moisture from the meat. The boxes of chicken and rock salt would be place in flower shipping boxes and stored in the coolers on one of the flower nurseries over night. Then they were cooked over an open pit, it was 4ft wide and 25ft long behind the church building. The chicken would be dipped into large vats of the sauce/marinade along the way. That was also some good chicken.

Teriyaki Chicken:
1 Cup shoyu
1/4 Cup each sake, mirin
1 Tablespoon grated ginger
1 Tablespoon grated garlic
1 scant Tablespoon ground black pepper
1/2 cup to 2/3 cup sugar

For glaze:
add 1/4 to 1/3 cup honey to above recipe

Combine all ingredients and allow to sit for 1 hour. Place in a watertight container and shake to make sure all ingredients are combined.

New Years BBQ Brisket and Chuck

2011-01-04T20:30:00.000-08:00

One of the new traditions that has begun to become part of just about everyone of our gatherings has been the addition of grilled or smoked meats. This is largely due to my influence; although it also reflects the changing traditions that have become a part of my family's journey in the United States. While I do not believe that we will ever completely give up our Japanese heritage or the connections to those traditions, I believe we will continue to incorporate and celebrate our growing heritage here. A slow smoked brisket and pulled chuck roast is a part of the American tradition we have adopted.

I found an excellent Painted Hills chuck roast that had excellent marbling of both fat and connective tissue. This is key, for in a long smoke, both fat and collagen rendered from connective tissue add to a moist end product. Finding the right piece of meat is quite important for making great BBQ. The brisket appeared to be more problematic, as it was from Humboldt Grass-fed Beef, it was pretty lean in terms of internal fat and connective tissue was hard to determine, although it is hard to miss on connective tissue in a brisket. I coated both with a medium coating of Simply Marvelous Sweet and Spicy and then Bob's Top Rub. This was allowed to sit for one hour.

The BIL's kettle was fired up to 275F with Lazzari Hardwood Briquettes and a little oak. The meat was put on and the kettle was brought back to 250F for the first hour and a half, then up to 280F to 300F for the balance of the cook.

The meat ran for 6 hours, at which time, fortunately for me, both meats were ready for pulling and resting. I used a method for testing the meat that involves poking a skewer into the meat, when there is almost no resistance to the probe, I shut down the kettle and let it coast down for 30 minutes to an hour, once the temperature drops to 140F or the meat drops to 170F, I remove the meat and tent in foil. In this case, this meant resting under the foil for 15 to 20 minutes. I then pulled the chuck, which had a medium bark and dark color. This is not burned, it is just a dark bark and has no bitterness.

I pulled the chuck into rough shreds and then mixed a little thin sauce into the meat to add a little moisture and punch up the flavor. I really like a little acidity with BBQ beef and pork, this is one of those cases. Here is a look at the in-process shredded chuck.

The brisket was then sliced, sadly there are no pictures of the beautiful flat and point slices that came off this brisket. The meat glistened when cut, and the meat held onto the moisture as it hit the plate. The point was chopped into chunks and served to the little guys as it was so tender. There was a little left after dinner...

All of this was served with a sauce I threw together from the stuff hanging around the kitchen. I found a 1/4 cup of locally commercial sauce, to which I added 1/4 cup Worcestershire Sauce, 1/4 cup, Viet Phu fish sauce, a little dashi (yep, hitting the umami hard) and 3/4 cup rice wine vinegar. This was then tastes and corrected with a little black pepper, Tabasco and aloe syrup to create a little sweetness and heat. Brought to just hot, no bubbles, then strained and served alongside the meats after a 1/4 cup was mixed into the pulled beef. Good stuff, on the thin side with a good kick of sour and sweet and a umami hit. It went great with all the beef.

Dashi-the building block

2011-01-04T11:27:00.000-08:00

One of the basic ingredients we use quite a bit of for New Year's Osechi-ryori is dashi. We use dashi to impart a key taste to many of the dishes we prepare for many different types of meals. The basic stock we make is based on katsuoboshi shaved into what essentially looks like wood shavings (at least to me, back to this later). We also add a little piece of kombu, a type of dried sea algae, often called kelp in the U.S. There are many forms and types of kombu, but, we use the sheets of the kombu leaves. This broth finds it's way into all of the soups, stews and some of the seasoned vegetables we prepare throughout the year.

Here is our pot or dashi being simmered.

Some believe it should be boiled, others feel it should be steeped. We believe it is best and strongest when brought to a low simmer, then allowed to steep for 15 to 20 minutes. It takes on a stronger flavor when boiled, and lighter flavor when steeped. It is largely a personal preference based on taste, and often on the region your family originates from. That is about 8 quarts of dashi there.

From here, the katsuoboshi is removed, drained and discarded. The broth is allowed to cool and settle, which avoids filtering. The broth at this point is a building block of umami flavors. The kombu and katsuoboshi adding amino acids, salt, protein and complexity. We will end up adding this to eggs for tamagoyaki and sushi, sushi vegetables for makisushi, BBQ sauce (my own swing, he he), oden and soup. In fact, if you touch it up with some fish sauce and herbs, you have a great Pan-Asian soup base, I use it for a base in fried rice and noodle sauces, soba broth and dipping sauces.

I have experimented with it for adding a MSG effect to BBQ sauces that would otherwise not be there, since I choose not to add MSG to my home cooking. This is the element of flavor many people do not recognize in Japanese cooking. Oh, and that wood shaving thing...when I was a kid, maybe 10 or 11, I was learning to help cook with my mom and grandmother and decided to help by shaving the bonito stick in the new katsuoboshi shaver. I took what I thought was the bonito stick, but was actually my grandmothers surikogi, an old one at that, and proceeded to shave it. It smelled oddly of pepper and wood, not the expected fish. Hmmm...there was lots of yelling, something about 'bakatare'. You try to help...

Prime Rib for Christmas

2011-01-03T15:04:00.000-08:00

As I mentioned, my family does a lot of 'fusion' if you will. One of these is Christmas dinner and how we approach it. While my family came to this country with the religious backgrounds of Buddhism and Shinto, a pagan religion indigenous to Japan, we changed once my generation was born with some of us being raised as Christians. This was to become part of the culture of our new home. Celebrating Christmas became a part of our holiday celebration, and prime rib became a part of our dining. Who would not want to eat this?

But, I am jumping the gun here. For starters, you need meat. I got up north and found that we still needed to go find the meat, cool, I like meat shopping. And I have not been doing as much of that since I was told to stop eating so much meat. We found Painted Hills Beef, Humboldt Grass-fed Beef and some store brand stuff which was all select. The Humboldt grass-fed is quite lean and while I like it, it is too lean to make a good prime rib. So, Painted Hills it was, and it was outstanding choice beef, some of the best choice I have seen. I felt the roasts were a little over-trimmed from what I asked for, and the butcher asked me over and over if I didn't mean to trim and retie the ribs, until I finally told him that I really really meant, leave them fully attached. But, these roasts were terrific quality.

Roast One - 7 lbs

Roast Two - 5 lbs.

Then a slurry was prepared, Roast One got a mixture including Simply Marvelous Sweet and Spicy Rub. Roast Two got Dizzy Pig Salt Free Dizzy Dust. The other ingredients of the slurry rubs included olive oil, fish sauce, grated garlic and Bob's Top Rub mix.

Here they are ready to go. This is after having the wet rub applied and sitting for around 90 minutes to finish coming to temperature.

These little guys headed out onto the kettle, in this case my brother's OTG kettle. The kettle was was going along at 275F, the temperature outside ran from 55F down to 47F during the cook, it was pouring rain (yes, I think this matters). The meat was placed in a pan with onions, celery, scallions, garlic and 1 cup of water and 1 cup of Pacific beef broth. The rack in the above photo was for air circulation around the roast.

These were cooked for 5 hours to an internal of 130F, the meat was then removed, tented with aluminum foil and allowed to rest for 45 minutes. Bones were removed, meat was carved, and one platter disappeared from the adult table while I was carving the portions for the kids. Fortunately, I allowed 1.3 lbs per person, so there was no lack of meat for me. Both of the wet rubs were outstanding, I would use either one without hesitation, which is why I use them, I suppose. We ate the Simply Marvelous on Christmas Day and everyone raved about the flavor. I have to say that it has become my go to rub for most cooking I do in a more traditional smoking or live fire roasting.

Tamagoyaki

2011-01-03T11:45:00.000-08:00

One of the great things about Osechi-ryori is all of the little 'finger' foods that are prepared and consumed throughout the day on New Years. One of these, and a favorite of mine, is tamagoyaki. It is a rolled omelet of seasoned eggs fried in a special pan which allows a specific level of done-ness. Here is the special pan, which has a particular shape and depth, to create the layers of the omelet.

The eggs mixture consists of four eggs per roll, you could do more if you want a special large roll, but, this really gets a little unwieldy unless you are trying to create some impression of over generosity. We like to keep things at one or two bites at most. So, four eggs, in this case from my sister's personal stash of chickens. Wyandotte chicken eggs are particularly good, especially from the coop.

These were seasoned with a 3 to 4 tablespoons of katsuo dashi stock, or whatever stock you might have chosen to make. We make our dashi from katsuoboshi (shaved bonito) and a little konbu (algae/seaweed). We make a relatively strong stock, so 3T is more likely what we go with. We also add a little sugar, the traditional amount is 2 to 3 tablespoons per four eggs. We cut this amount by half now, as our taste has moved to a slightly more mild and less sweet profile. In the past, we also added a small amount of shoyu (soy sauce). No more than a tablespoon. Since we have cut back on salt, and the dashi is quite strong this is often omitted or added in very small amounts. The mixture is cooked in layers in the pan to create a concentric pattern of the brown edges and yellow centers. The layers are thin and the roll is not removed until the whole omelet is competed. Here it is in progress.

As you can see, each layer is connected to the previous layer by a small overlap during the cooking of the next layer. It is worth noting that each layer is cooked until almost done. The omelet is rolled while the top of each layer us still a little moist, the ensures a tender and cohesive roll. This shot represents the 4th of 5 layers I believe. I could be wrong as I was busy fiddling with other stuff while the cooking was being done by my sister. Once the omelet is completed, it has a particular shape that is not really round, and the desired shape is round. So we wrap the roll in parchment lined sushi makisu mats and then tie (or rubber band) the rolls into a round shape and then cool the rolls. Sadly I was busy eating and did not get a finished shot. Trust me on this, they were round.

Now, a similar recipe will result in the omelet used for making the tamago nigiri-style sushi often served to the fish-phobic at sushi bars. I am one of the fish-phobic, which does not bother me as I particularly like this type or preparation. If you wanted to use this for tamago sushi, you could use a rectangular mold or form the maki-su into a squarer shape to achieve the more familiar rectangle seen in nigiri-style sushi.

Fish Sauce

2011-01-02T21:26:00.000-08:00

Well, howdy! I am back from my Christmas and New Year's vacation, during which, much food was made, cooked, assembled and consumed. This is, in fact, a period when I and my siblings families have a chance to revisit some of our families cherished food traditions as well as special foods that not only hold symbolic meanings, but, very personal meaning to our family.

However, one of the things that has happened to our traditional dishes is an evolution of these dishes. As my own journey in food has changed, along with the very different journeys of my sister and brother, as has our food, cooking styles and approaches. This year was no different, as you will all see over the next few posts.

One of the big changes was the presence of fish sauce at this years preparation counter. As many of you may have noticed, my personal choice of food is often BBQ heavy, with smoke and red meat making notable appearances. My sister is much less focused on meat, while my brother uses simpler easier t prepare food that focus on the need to get food on the table. One of the ingredients my sister has taken from her more exotic veggie oriented approach is fish sauce. 'Coup de chance!' A friend and fellow good centric blogger has recently come into a position that allows him access to some of the finest fish sauce in the world.

These two sauces made the trip with me. They are both from Phu Quoc Island in Vietnam, the Umami is a brand that is not available in the U.S. the Viet Phu Brand, on the left, is the sauce my friend Rob is now involved in bringing to the market locally. This found it's way into many of the dishes I cooked on this trip. It adds an invaluable sense of Umami to many dishes, including BBQ sauce, BBQ slurries, salad dressings, dipping sauces and soups. While unbelievably aromatic, in a fishy sort of way, when alone, or leaking in the fridge, it adds a wonderful complex touch to the aroma of foods as well.

Four Ingredient Challenge Flank Steak

2010-12-20T07:44:00.000-08:00

And this month's challengers, flank steak, beets, gnocchi and kumquats. Who chooses this combination of ingredients? Oh well, the interesting thing about the challenge this month is how to conceptualize a menu when ingredients are limited in curious ways. I think this is even more interesting when you take a look at my fellow Blog writing compatriots this month. Each of us brings a unique and varied experience to these ingredients and how we approach using them. I am just going to throw an image in here, because I think it is pretty cool.

Those are the kumquats and the beet greens. When I first got the list of ingredients, I knew that beets come with a bonus edible portion, as long as your grocer has fresh beets. In my case, they had fresh baby beets, with nice looking greens, which I knew would work well with the gnocchi. The kumqauts, not a familiar fruit for many, is a small (inconveniently tiny) citrus with almost no flesh to really speak of. The rind however is a very tasty element that combines some strong citrus qualities with a subtle sweet and then bitter element. It is often made into a marmalade or syrup.

And then there is the actual beet root and the potatoes, as you can see, the beet roots I was able to get where small, hence very tender and sweet. The greens were well hydrated and crisp, I knew that I would be able to use both of these elements. The potatoes were because I felt that potato gnocchi were going to be easier for me to handle, I am bad, BAAAD, with the more tender ricotta gnocchi. I was able to get some local northern California potatoes as well, these were thin skinned, with some russeting, and quite heavy for their size. By now, I am thinking the beet root is going to be a standalone element, their being so fresh and of good quality, I wanted to highlight them a bit more. The greens, with a slight bitter and herbaceous taste would contract beautifully with the blander gnocchi and maybe some garlic. Fresh produce wants little to make it really work. Pantry elements would be limited to garlic, sweet barnea olive oil, AP flour and some shallots.

Beet roots and potatoes were roasted over an open flame of charcoal and oak chunks, I was hoping to impart some flavor, but, I can't say I got the flavor of smoke that I had hoped for. I did get some very nicely roasted roots, with a nice texture and some sweetness that I had hoped for. These were allowed to rest over night, peeled and prepared. The beets only needed some heating and a little salt. The potatoes were peeled and then grated through a medium textured microplane grater. Gnocchi were made using a relatively simple recipe of egg, flour, potato, salt and a little nutmeg.

I know, impressive photo, la blanc mange! I digress... To the kumquats, what to do with them, well, they had a terrific aroma and testing one, I decided there was a definite bitter flavor on the finish, I could exploit this. The beets would be sweet, the meat savory, the gnocchi savory and herbal, the bitterness could be used in a couple of elements, along with some sweetness, to add depth to the flavors on the plates. Also, the rinds would add texture. The flank steak came to mind as well, as I was going to go very simple with a good piece of meat, just some of my usual Top Rub mixture, then onto a very hot fire. Cook a few minutes each side and done. I was going to rely on the meaty, savory flavor of grilled meat to carry the main plate.

By now, I realize that I have a good main portion for my salad and meat dishes, along with a side that I know will work great. This is the decision point of how to pick up the main flavors for each plate. For the salad, with roasted beets, being primarily sweet (there should have been smoke I tells ya'!) I needed something more punchy, arugula is punchy, baby arugula looks good and is on sale. Done. Now, I have decided to use the kumquats as an element for bitterness and sweetness, what I really want is something salty to balance it. Feta is salty, and goes with arugula and with beets...There we go...

Warm Roasted Beet Salad with Arugula, Shaved Shallots, Feta Cheese and Kumquat Preserve, with a Chervil and Tarragon Vinaigrette.

Then onto the main plate, what to do about the flank steak, I was confident that I could pull off the grilled flank steak to a nice medium rare. I knew I had the side dish worked out. How to pop the flavors on the steak. My initial thought was to go with chimichurri, but, that ignored the ingredients and materials I had already prepared. And there were those kumquats. Well, the meat will have a savory profile, some heat from the black pepper and I had some sweet and bitter I could add from the kumquats. The idea of borrowing some of the flavors from the salad to carry to the main plate makes a lot of sense to me. Hence, I worked with what I had already. And thus...

Flank Steak with a Kumquat Preserve, Feta cheese and Shaved Shallots with a Chervil and Tarragon Vinaigrette along with Pan Seared Gnocchi with Beet Greens and Garlic. This was an excellent dinner. I have to thank the Four Ingredient Challenge creators for inviting me into their fold, I think the two meals I have cooked so far have been the best meals I have cooked on my kettle thus far. I look forward to the next year of cooking with these folks.

I wish everyone a Merry Christmas and encourage you all to look at my fellow Four Ingredient bloggers.

Larry Gaian of The BBQ Grail - Entry Here
The BBQ Grail website was created in 2007, initially to document the author’s quest to find the perfect backyard BBQ experience. Since that time The BBQ Grail has become one of the more popular BBQ blogs on the internet and is listed on Alltop.com as one of the top BBQ blogs.
Paul Haight of No Excuses BBQ – Entry Here

Rob Bergstrom of In To The Flames- Entry Here
Rob launched Into The Flames in the summer of 2010 as a way to share his passion for cooking, eating, and exploring food.
Marc Van Der Wouw of Grill Adventures - Entry Here
Grilladventures by broadcastmarc is started on march of 2010.I started the BBQ thing when I was 30,before that we eat a lot outside.have fun,but when the kids came in our life We start serious cooking.Most of it is realy healthy I think;-)The grill has a special place in my heart,We love to do things outside..Everything I make is an adventure,and sometimes we use the books.We try to grill as much as we can year round.
Chris Grove of Nibble Me This- Entry Here
Nibble Me This is Chris Grove’s blog about his misadventures in live fire cooking. ”I have no culinary training….I’m just entertaining myself with fire and food”.