Saturday, March 22, 2014
FINALLY
Smoker is finally fired up for 2014! 15 pounds of chicken wings, lightly seasoned with some BBQ rub are on. They will come off in about 4 hours.
Welcome Spring!
Welcome Spring!
Sunday, March 16, 2014
More Worlds Colliding
Baby back ribs were on sale for .99 a pound at Meijer a few weeks ago. If I had the storage space and the money, I'd have bought every damn rack they had. Mmmmm... ribs....
I wanted to try something different, so I dressed the ribs up as if I was doing a lamb roast. The rub for the ribs was kosher salt, garlic, rosemary and a bit of olive oil. The salt, garlic and rosemary got smashed together with a pestle and mortar. After the garlic and rosemary were ground up with the salt, a bit of olive oil was added. It was mixed into a paste-like consistency. This was then generously applied to the ribs, that were slow cooked in the oven for about 3 1/2 hours at about 275.
I'm looking forward to doing this in the smoker as soon as the weather permits. Soon....
I did four racks, which was way too much for us to eat for dinner, so I brought some leftovers in for some co-workers.
And, with the last bits, I took the meat off the bone, chopped it up, mixed it with some mashed potatoes and then made spring rolls for a late night snack.
I wanted to try something different, so I dressed the ribs up as if I was doing a lamb roast. The rub for the ribs was kosher salt, garlic, rosemary and a bit of olive oil. The salt, garlic and rosemary got smashed together with a pestle and mortar. After the garlic and rosemary were ground up with the salt, a bit of olive oil was added. It was mixed into a paste-like consistency. This was then generously applied to the ribs, that were slow cooked in the oven for about 3 1/2 hours at about 275.
I'm looking forward to doing this in the smoker as soon as the weather permits. Soon....
I did four racks, which was way too much for us to eat for dinner, so I brought some leftovers in for some co-workers.
And, with the last bits, I took the meat off the bone, chopped it up, mixed it with some mashed potatoes and then made spring rolls for a late night snack.
Saturday, February 22, 2014
BBQ Withdrawal
The amount of cold and snow we've had this winter in Michigan means it has been a while since I've fired up the smoker. It's getting a little crazy. I have over 50 pounds of meat cooking right now and none of it is in the smoker because of the wind and snow we had last night. Sigh....
Wednesday, January 29, 2014
Getting Creative in a Pinch
I had leftovers for lunch earlier this week. MMmmm... pork shoulder.... I was getting my lunch out when I realized I left my barbecue sauce at home. So I made an impromptu sauce out of 2 packets of soy sauce and one packet of taco bell fire sauce. It was ok. Not great, not terrible, but it was fine. Certainly no worse than some of the bottled sauces I've had.
So don't be afraid to experiment. Worst case, especially with sauce, is you taste it, and it's crap, and you throw it out. No harm done.
So don't be afraid to experiment. Worst case, especially with sauce, is you taste it, and it's crap, and you throw it out. No harm done.
Thursday, January 2, 2014
Smokey Asian
As most people that know me know, one of the things I like best is leftovers. This is one of the reasons I love BBQ. It's hard to do small amounts of it. This leads to leftovers. This leads to several meals spawned from a single session of cooking.
One of my very favorite things to do with leftovers is to use it in Asian dishes. Fried rice, dumplings, egg rolls, stir fries, and so on all benefit enormously, in my opinion, when made with smokey BBQ goodness. Pulled pork fried rice, or a brisket stir fry are great ways to mix eastern and western cooking. Here is one of my favorite ways to use leftover pulled pork and cole slaw.
Carolina Egg Rolls
Ingredients:
Chop up the pork and cole slaw finely and mix together. I like about 40% pork, 60% slaw. By volume.
Get an egg roll wrapper and put it in front of you like a diamond. Place a good sized scoop of the mixture in the middle. Spread it out so it goes across the middle from the left to right corner, kind of like a delicious diagonal. Then roll the bottom up over the filling, fold in the left and right corners so they cover the filling.
Get a brush and dip it in the egg wash and spread it over the top corner. Continue rolling until you have a cylinder. The egg wash will help seal the egg roll. Do this until you either run out of filling or wrappers.
When the egg rolls are done, get out a skillet, add about 1/4 inch of vegetable oil and set over medium high heat. After heating the oil for a few minutes, add egg rolls to the pan. Only add as many as will fit easily. Don't crowd the pan. Fry until golden brown, then turn over until the other side is golden brown. This will take about 3 minutes per side.
When finished remove the egg rolls from the pan and let them drain. Serve with your favorite sauce (bbq, soy, duck, spicy mustard or whatever you desire). Egg rolls will be piping hot when first removed, so give them a few minutes to cool before eating!
One of my very favorite things to do with leftovers is to use it in Asian dishes. Fried rice, dumplings, egg rolls, stir fries, and so on all benefit enormously, in my opinion, when made with smokey BBQ goodness. Pulled pork fried rice, or a brisket stir fry are great ways to mix eastern and western cooking. Here is one of my favorite ways to use leftover pulled pork and cole slaw.
Carolina Egg Rolls
Ingredients:
- Egg roll wrappers
- leftover cole slaw
- leftover pulled pork
- one egg
Chop up the pork and cole slaw finely and mix together. I like about 40% pork, 60% slaw. By volume.
Get an egg roll wrapper and put it in front of you like a diamond. Place a good sized scoop of the mixture in the middle. Spread it out so it goes across the middle from the left to right corner, kind of like a delicious diagonal. Then roll the bottom up over the filling, fold in the left and right corners so they cover the filling.
Get a brush and dip it in the egg wash and spread it over the top corner. Continue rolling until you have a cylinder. The egg wash will help seal the egg roll. Do this until you either run out of filling or wrappers.
When the egg rolls are done, get out a skillet, add about 1/4 inch of vegetable oil and set over medium high heat. After heating the oil for a few minutes, add egg rolls to the pan. Only add as many as will fit easily. Don't crowd the pan. Fry until golden brown, then turn over until the other side is golden brown. This will take about 3 minutes per side.
When finished remove the egg rolls from the pan and let them drain. Serve with your favorite sauce (bbq, soy, duck, spicy mustard or whatever you desire). Egg rolls will be piping hot when first removed, so give them a few minutes to cool before eating!
Tuesday, December 10, 2013
Brisket
In what was a very long overdue event, I have finally done briskets in the smoker. There are a wide variety of recipes out there, which are all some variation of:
I did brisket two times inside of two weeks, the first for some friends that have a new baby in the house (their third, they are now outnumbered, pray for them) and the second for a slightly less than traditional Hanukkah feast.
The first one got taken off the smoker a bit early because the weather was really, really crappy. So it had about 3 - 3 1/2 hours in the smoker and then spent about 5 hours tightly wrapped in foil in our counter top roaster. This was literally so tender you could cut it with a fork. Other than being a bit heavy handed with the salt on the rub, this was fantastic.
The second was done for about 8 hours on the smoker, loosely wrapped in foil for the entire time. I went lighter on the salt with the rub and this had a much smokier, heartier, beefier flavor. The texture was a little different, mostly, I think, because it got a lot more smoke and was not braising in its own juices. The foil was a lot looser so a lot of the liquid ran out or evaporated. This also was delicious, but actually required a knife.
Given my professed love of smokey barbecue, it almost pains me to admit to liking brisket one slightly more than brisket two. The flavor of the second was superior, but the tenderness and juiciness of the first was like nothing I had ever pulled off the smoker before. It was absolutely wonderful.
According to some things I've read and seen, some of the better known brisket joints do their brisket in a two step process, where the first step of the cooking is the naked rubbed meat in the smoker for several hours. The second step is the brisket tightly wrapped in foil and then back in the smoker, sometimes with a touch of sauce or liquid of some sort, for several more hours. I had thought this might be overkill until doing it myself. You will still get a great brisket if you just toss the meat in the smoker, but step two takes it to a whole new level.
When you smoke some brisket, try to do enough for leftovers. Brisket in scrambled eggs is a great way to start the day. And if you like beef stroganoff, replacing the usual beef with cubed hunks of leftover brisket takes this classic dish to new heights.
- Coat liberally with the rub of your choice for 24-48 hours before smoking
- Smoke for roughly 45 minutes per pound
I did brisket two times inside of two weeks, the first for some friends that have a new baby in the house (their third, they are now outnumbered, pray for them) and the second for a slightly less than traditional Hanukkah feast.
The first one got taken off the smoker a bit early because the weather was really, really crappy. So it had about 3 - 3 1/2 hours in the smoker and then spent about 5 hours tightly wrapped in foil in our counter top roaster. This was literally so tender you could cut it with a fork. Other than being a bit heavy handed with the salt on the rub, this was fantastic.
The second was done for about 8 hours on the smoker, loosely wrapped in foil for the entire time. I went lighter on the salt with the rub and this had a much smokier, heartier, beefier flavor. The texture was a little different, mostly, I think, because it got a lot more smoke and was not braising in its own juices. The foil was a lot looser so a lot of the liquid ran out or evaporated. This also was delicious, but actually required a knife.
Given my professed love of smokey barbecue, it almost pains me to admit to liking brisket one slightly more than brisket two. The flavor of the second was superior, but the tenderness and juiciness of the first was like nothing I had ever pulled off the smoker before. It was absolutely wonderful.
According to some things I've read and seen, some of the better known brisket joints do their brisket in a two step process, where the first step of the cooking is the naked rubbed meat in the smoker for several hours. The second step is the brisket tightly wrapped in foil and then back in the smoker, sometimes with a touch of sauce or liquid of some sort, for several more hours. I had thought this might be overkill until doing it myself. You will still get a great brisket if you just toss the meat in the smoker, but step two takes it to a whole new level.
When you smoke some brisket, try to do enough for leftovers. Brisket in scrambled eggs is a great way to start the day. And if you like beef stroganoff, replacing the usual beef with cubed hunks of leftover brisket takes this classic dish to new heights.
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