Hello again, everyone! Fear not, I am not talking about tobacco use, but rather smoking as a means of cooking. Many of you know (as we never stop talking about it) that we have taken up camping at Kenisee Grand River Campground, the most wonderful campground ever, and a couple weeks back we bought a nice big charcoal grill with offset smoker from Wal-Mart. It was the best $168 I have ever spent and I am gaining a bit of a reputation at the campground for my cooking!
The first week after I setup the smoker I bought a 13 lb. brisket from the same chain of Walton family stores where I purchased the grill/smoker. That Saturday I happened to wake up at 4 a.m. and it dawned on me that I needed to get the brisket going because you need to smoke it roughly an hour to 90 minutes per pound, and we planned to eat around dinner time. What we wound up with in spite of the flaws in my preparation was the best brisket I have ever eaten. I do not think I ever need to order it at a restaurant ever again. Here is how it all played out. Friday night I applied a dry rub to the meat and wrapped it tightly in foil. The dry rub consisted of brown sugar, cayenne pepper, salt, black pepper, ground mustard, onion salt, and garlic salt. I had intended to use Chili powder, but I simply forgot it. I pressed the rub into the meat and covered the entire surface of the brisket. Incidentally, some people suggest trimming the fat on the brisket. Well our knives out at camp are very sub par and I tried briefly to trim it then gave up. So the meat was coated and wrapped before bed. When I woke up, I very quietly, so as not to wake the people next to us, loaded up the firebox with lump charcoal and made a ring inside the firebox. I have a charcoal chimney for fast lighting and I filled it as well to light the charcoal without using lighter fluid (it makes a difference I promise). Once the charcoal in the chimney was nice and white I dumped them into the middle of the ring of unlit charcoal. This allows the charcoal to burn from the inside out, slowly.
At this point I realized I had not soaked my apple wood chunks. Oops. So I threw some chunks into a bowl of water and allowed them to sit as the grill came up to temp. Once it was where I wanted it, I threw a handful of wood chunks in the firebox and put the meat on the grill and went back to bed.
That was my next mistake. When I woke up two hours later and came out, the grill was still at a good temp, but there was no smoke. My wood chunks had burned off completely. When smoking the first few hours are the most important because it is only in the first 4 hours that smoke flavor will really permeate the meat.
I quickly added some of the soaked wood chunks and then worried all day about whether I had ruined it. Well we also chose to use a bottled mopping sauce (Guy Fieri's Carolina #9 Mopping sauce) since we have not made our own yet. At about 1:00pm on Saturday I began mopping the brisket once an hour and tending the fire. Once the charcoal had been burned I began adding wood to the firebox instead of charcoal as well. Wood is cheaper.
At 6:00 pm the brisket came off the smoker and was sliced (thinly against the grain) and it was absolutely amazing.
Thursday, May 30, 2013
Wednesday, March 13, 2013
Hey Mashed Potatoes, lighten up!
Hello hello hello! It has been a while since I have posted anything, as I have been somewhat busy and somewhat distracted by...well everything, but I finally feel as though I have something noteworthy to talk about. In my absence from writing on here there have been several triumphs and some downright delicious soups which maybe I will share, but for now we are going to mash some things up!.
I am sure that some of you out there are either on a diet, have been on a diet, or just think about trying to eat better, yet never seem to get around to it. Well after doing some research on something I saw on one of the food programs we watch, I decided to try to make mashed potatoes a bit better.
You see, I am a meat and potatoes man. I do not care for vegetables much, generally i do not like most of them, and normally view them as a waste of space on a plate. In this recipe I will recreate for you, I use cauliflower, which under any other circumstance I will not eat. I absolutely hate it. I will admit that the first time I saw a potato/cauliflower mash, I immediately decided it would be disgusting. It turns out that it is absolutely delicious, I loved it. That is no small feat for me, because there is no other way in which I will ever eat cauliflower.
Here is how it works:
I bought a 5 lb bag of Yukon gold potatoes, peeled and cleaned about half of the bag(a 3lb bag would have worked) and cut the potatoes into cubes. I purchased a nice sized head of cauliflower (fresh...from the produce section, not frozen). I broke the head down to small florets, and placed them into the pot with the potatoes. While I was at the store I also purchased two boxes of organic chicken stock. One full box goes in the pot, with enough water to cover all of the potatoes and cauliflower, add salt to your liking, then I placed on the stove, heated to boiling, and then boiled about 15 to 20 minutes, or until the potatoes and cauliflower are fork tender. I then drained the mixture, saving the stock for a very low fat gravy. Once drained, place the potatoes and cauliflower back into the pot and return to the heat to dry them off. This will keep your mash from becoming too watery. Once dry transfer to whatever you are comfortable mashing or whipping the potatoes in. In our house we do not mash in the pot because we use non stick pots and do not want to damage the surface of the pots. Add just a very little bit of butter to the mash, for my recipe it was 2 tablespoons and mix. If your mash is too thick for your liking, add a splash of low fat or fat free skim milk and continue to blend.
In my case, my mash was a bit too thin, because I did not dry the potato and cauliflower and I assumed that I needed to add milk, so I did so before taking the mixer to it. If this happens to you, here is how I handled it. Dinner included Chicken breasts stuffed with spinach and reduced fat cheese, and I had some of the reduced fat shredded cheese left over, so I added it to the mash to tighten it up. It also added a nice flavor to the mash.
Remember that stock that was left over? Well it was fat free organic chicken stock, I took what was left from cooking my mash, and the second container and heated it to boiling. In a mixing bowl I mixed 1 cup of water with approximately 1/2 cup of corn starch and whisked til smooth, then added to the hot stock to make a fat free gravy for the mash and the stuffed chicken. The end result, I loved it, the spousal unit raved about it, as did the older kids, and the youngest one that will not eat any vegetables? We waited until he had devoured all of his to tell him he had just eaten cauliflower.
I am sure that some of you out there are either on a diet, have been on a diet, or just think about trying to eat better, yet never seem to get around to it. Well after doing some research on something I saw on one of the food programs we watch, I decided to try to make mashed potatoes a bit better.
You see, I am a meat and potatoes man. I do not care for vegetables much, generally i do not like most of them, and normally view them as a waste of space on a plate. In this recipe I will recreate for you, I use cauliflower, which under any other circumstance I will not eat. I absolutely hate it. I will admit that the first time I saw a potato/cauliflower mash, I immediately decided it would be disgusting. It turns out that it is absolutely delicious, I loved it. That is no small feat for me, because there is no other way in which I will ever eat cauliflower.
Here is how it works:
I bought a 5 lb bag of Yukon gold potatoes, peeled and cleaned about half of the bag(a 3lb bag would have worked) and cut the potatoes into cubes. I purchased a nice sized head of cauliflower (fresh...from the produce section, not frozen). I broke the head down to small florets, and placed them into the pot with the potatoes. While I was at the store I also purchased two boxes of organic chicken stock. One full box goes in the pot, with enough water to cover all of the potatoes and cauliflower, add salt to your liking, then I placed on the stove, heated to boiling, and then boiled about 15 to 20 minutes, or until the potatoes and cauliflower are fork tender. I then drained the mixture, saving the stock for a very low fat gravy. Once drained, place the potatoes and cauliflower back into the pot and return to the heat to dry them off. This will keep your mash from becoming too watery. Once dry transfer to whatever you are comfortable mashing or whipping the potatoes in. In our house we do not mash in the pot because we use non stick pots and do not want to damage the surface of the pots. Add just a very little bit of butter to the mash, for my recipe it was 2 tablespoons and mix. If your mash is too thick for your liking, add a splash of low fat or fat free skim milk and continue to blend.
In my case, my mash was a bit too thin, because I did not dry the potato and cauliflower and I assumed that I needed to add milk, so I did so before taking the mixer to it. If this happens to you, here is how I handled it. Dinner included Chicken breasts stuffed with spinach and reduced fat cheese, and I had some of the reduced fat shredded cheese left over, so I added it to the mash to tighten it up. It also added a nice flavor to the mash.
Remember that stock that was left over? Well it was fat free organic chicken stock, I took what was left from cooking my mash, and the second container and heated it to boiling. In a mixing bowl I mixed 1 cup of water with approximately 1/2 cup of corn starch and whisked til smooth, then added to the hot stock to make a fat free gravy for the mash and the stuffed chicken. The end result, I loved it, the spousal unit raved about it, as did the older kids, and the youngest one that will not eat any vegetables? We waited until he had devoured all of his to tell him he had just eaten cauliflower.
Wednesday, October 3, 2012
Restaurant Impossible!
By now you have probably heard that the television show Restaurant Impossible was in our area some time ago, at a small place out in Corry called Michelles. Being the fans of the show and of chef Robert Irvine, the wife and I were excited to visit this quaint little restaurant out on Route 6. The week before the show aired, we made the drive out there to give the place a try. Unfortunately we will not be making the drive again.
Michelle's new decor is pretty nice, but not really among the best makeovers I have seen on the show. It is cozy enough I guess, and seemed clean, but the colors were not really my taste.
Given the recent visit of one of the bigger Food Network starts, I had expected that on a Friday night the place would be packed. I was wrong about that. When we walked in, there were only two tables taken. This should have been a sign. We were seated quickly enough, and the girl that was waiting on us was polite and courteous, and took our drink orders quickly. While waiting for the drinks to arrived we looked over the menu and decided on what we wanted to try. As anyone that watches the show would expect, Michelle's now has a fairly streamlined menu, so for appetizers I decided to order the Shrimp Corn Dogs, and the wife got the stuffed mushrooms. In Fairness and to let you know that the entire night was not a bad experience, the appetizers were delicious. The soup of the day that day was a beef barley soup, and since I had never had beef barley soup, I felt compelled to give it a try. I am very happy that I did, as it was fantastic. Additionally, the basket of bread that was served with the appetizers was very good.
For dinner, we both ordered the prime rib. I ordered an end cut as that is my favorite part, but first the waitress had to check if they could do that (never had that happen before). When she said they could I placed my order for the end cut cooked medium-rare, as did the wife. We both love prime rib and always order it medium-rare, which means a warm, red center. That was not what we got. The prime rib we were served was cooked to a light pink almost brown center, and it was dry. The wife actually sent hers back. The next piece that came out to replace it was the same. Another problem aside from being overcooked was that there was a serious lack of seasoning. Some places like the Outback have a tendency to over season their prime rib, but this literally had little to no flavor. I did not know it was even possible to make a bland prime rib, but this was.
Oddly, the best part of the dinner portion was the baked potato. They actually season those, and they had an unusual, but very nice flavor that I have never experienced in a potato.
After finishing dinner we spoke for a while with the owner, Michelle, and she told us that the prime rib was cooked the way chef Irvine taught them (or maybe she was just referring to the au jus), and I had a hard time believing that. Additionally she did let slip that she was doing the cooking. If you did manage to catch the show, one of the changes that was made was they hired a chef for the restaurant. Well, apparently, that chef is no longer there. Michelle also said on the show that she was not a very good cook. Judging by the prime rib she served us, I would have to say that has not changed.
When considering all of these things, our overall experience at Michelle's in Corry was a disappointment. So many restaurants left to try though.
Michelle's new decor is pretty nice, but not really among the best makeovers I have seen on the show. It is cozy enough I guess, and seemed clean, but the colors were not really my taste.
Given the recent visit of one of the bigger Food Network starts, I had expected that on a Friday night the place would be packed. I was wrong about that. When we walked in, there were only two tables taken. This should have been a sign. We were seated quickly enough, and the girl that was waiting on us was polite and courteous, and took our drink orders quickly. While waiting for the drinks to arrived we looked over the menu and decided on what we wanted to try. As anyone that watches the show would expect, Michelle's now has a fairly streamlined menu, so for appetizers I decided to order the Shrimp Corn Dogs, and the wife got the stuffed mushrooms. In Fairness and to let you know that the entire night was not a bad experience, the appetizers were delicious. The soup of the day that day was a beef barley soup, and since I had never had beef barley soup, I felt compelled to give it a try. I am very happy that I did, as it was fantastic. Additionally, the basket of bread that was served with the appetizers was very good.
For dinner, we both ordered the prime rib. I ordered an end cut as that is my favorite part, but first the waitress had to check if they could do that (never had that happen before). When she said they could I placed my order for the end cut cooked medium-rare, as did the wife. We both love prime rib and always order it medium-rare, which means a warm, red center. That was not what we got. The prime rib we were served was cooked to a light pink almost brown center, and it was dry. The wife actually sent hers back. The next piece that came out to replace it was the same. Another problem aside from being overcooked was that there was a serious lack of seasoning. Some places like the Outback have a tendency to over season their prime rib, but this literally had little to no flavor. I did not know it was even possible to make a bland prime rib, but this was.
Oddly, the best part of the dinner portion was the baked potato. They actually season those, and they had an unusual, but very nice flavor that I have never experienced in a potato.
After finishing dinner we spoke for a while with the owner, Michelle, and she told us that the prime rib was cooked the way chef Irvine taught them (or maybe she was just referring to the au jus), and I had a hard time believing that. Additionally she did let slip that she was doing the cooking. If you did manage to catch the show, one of the changes that was made was they hired a chef for the restaurant. Well, apparently, that chef is no longer there. Michelle also said on the show that she was not a very good cook. Judging by the prime rib she served us, I would have to say that has not changed.
When considering all of these things, our overall experience at Michelle's in Corry was a disappointment. So many restaurants left to try though.
Sunday, September 9, 2012
Take the time to brine
My apologies to you my readers for not posting these past few weeks. Time and money have both been short so we have been relatively frugal with our meals, and I have just not had much time to sit and write. But we are over that bump in the road so, back to some interesting cooking tips.
One day last week we had planned grilled chicken, and while I have never had a problem grilling chicken, I have seen on several cooking shows people brining their chicken. Essentially, what i have gathered, is this; a brine is made up of water, salt, an acid of some sort, and whatever spices you want to impart into your chicken. Now, I am not a chemist or biologist, but from what I gather, soakign the chicken is a salty or acidic liquid causes the flavors you are trying to impart into your meat to actually diffuse into the meat because the outside liquid is more acidic or salty that the liquid inside. So I took a large pot, cleaned my chicken and placed it inside the pot and covered it with water. The next ingredient is sea salt, and quite a bit of it. I probably used 1/2 cup both times I have done this now. On my first attempt with this technique I used white vinegar in the brine for my acid, and I also added some garlic and onion salt. I allowed the chicken (a 10 lb bag of leg quarters) to sit in this bath for about 5 hours before cooking. I grilled the chicken as I always grill chicken, and I can assure you what we wound up with was the most juicy, best tasting chicken I have ever made. IT really was delicious, at least the parts that were edible. I am not very good at getting theleg quarters done all the way through, and some were still pink. Otherwise, brining was a success.
The next time I did it, we had boneless skinless breasts. The brine in this case had some lemon juice for the acid and I also included a healthy dose of italian seasoning as the chicken was meant to pair with some pasta Alfredo. This time the chicken sat in the brine for a good 6 hours. The results were very similar, The meat was tender and juicy and the flavor throughout the chicken was just delightful. There were no leftovers.
So whatever the science, brining is an excellent way to get more flavor into your meat and prevent it from drying out.
One day last week we had planned grilled chicken, and while I have never had a problem grilling chicken, I have seen on several cooking shows people brining their chicken. Essentially, what i have gathered, is this; a brine is made up of water, salt, an acid of some sort, and whatever spices you want to impart into your chicken. Now, I am not a chemist or biologist, but from what I gather, soakign the chicken is a salty or acidic liquid causes the flavors you are trying to impart into your meat to actually diffuse into the meat because the outside liquid is more acidic or salty that the liquid inside. So I took a large pot, cleaned my chicken and placed it inside the pot and covered it with water. The next ingredient is sea salt, and quite a bit of it. I probably used 1/2 cup both times I have done this now. On my first attempt with this technique I used white vinegar in the brine for my acid, and I also added some garlic and onion salt. I allowed the chicken (a 10 lb bag of leg quarters) to sit in this bath for about 5 hours before cooking. I grilled the chicken as I always grill chicken, and I can assure you what we wound up with was the most juicy, best tasting chicken I have ever made. IT really was delicious, at least the parts that were edible. I am not very good at getting theleg quarters done all the way through, and some were still pink. Otherwise, brining was a success.
The next time I did it, we had boneless skinless breasts. The brine in this case had some lemon juice for the acid and I also included a healthy dose of italian seasoning as the chicken was meant to pair with some pasta Alfredo. This time the chicken sat in the brine for a good 6 hours. The results were very similar, The meat was tender and juicy and the flavor throughout the chicken was just delightful. There were no leftovers.
So whatever the science, brining is an excellent way to get more flavor into your meat and prevent it from drying out.
Sunday, August 5, 2012
Poor Punkin!
Today is the wife's last day off of work, she goes back tomorrow. In honor of that momentous occasion that she is looking forward to so much, it was her turn for a chopped basket, and after the basket I got on Friday, it was definitely payback time. Originally I had planned on hitting her with Fillo dough, but i chose to forego that because there is a certain amount of preparation involved there that just is not workable with our current game format. So she got Pillsbury pizza crust (thin crust), southern style hash brown potatoes, leeks, and 72% cacao dark chocolate. To put it mildly, it was not her day in the kitchen, or anywhere else for that matter. We went to the store to gather her ingredients. While there a lovely gentleman put on a display of these solid stainless surgical steel knives with a lifetime warranty. We bought a set. The guy used one of the knives to cut the head of a hammer, and then cut a tomato. I was sold right there.So we leave the store with all of these goodies, and the new set of knives. As we are loading the car she realizes she forgot fresh parsley...or cilantro. Back in we go, pick those up and back home.
Once home, I helped her get the kitchen all ready to go for her and we go watch an episode of "Triple D". At right about 4, she say she is ready to go and time starts. From there, things kind of went a little awry. About 10 minutes in she found out just how sharp the new knives were, when she reached for something and hit the knife on a mixing bowl. The knife bounced back and cut her finger. The added fun in that is she had been working with hot peppers and had the juice all over her hands. After about 20 minutes, the bleeding stopped and she returned to the kitchen. After several other setbacks, some extra time, and a complete revision of her plan in the middle, we wound up with a very good dinner, the preparation of which I will leave for her to describe. Sadly, she could not even eat it with us at dinner time. Poor Punkin.
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| Steak Fajita hash with mole sauce and cheese sticks. |
Irish Cousins kitchen returns!
I am a little bit behind the times with this post, but here is the news: A few months back Irish Cousins got some new owners, and the new owners decided to bring the kitchen back. The wife and I spend a fair amount of our Saturday nights there singing karaoke (usually pretty well, I might add) with DJ Josh Walters and whatever friends or family happen to show up there. In addition to that, the new owners are in the process of renovating the old corner bar.
Enough about that, let's talk food. Two weeks ago was the first chance I had to sample their food, when we were enjoying some barley sodas and singing our hearts out. The wife decided she was hungry and ordered an antipasto. Holy salad, Batman! It was perhaps the largest bowl of salad I have ever seen. Easily large enough to share. All of the ingredients were crisp and fresh. The red wine vinagrette was a wonderful complement to the meats, cheese and other standard Antipasto components. So 1 good experience. The next time we were there, I ordered their three meat Calzone, I believe the price for that was $10.79. This item is definitely too large for any one person to eat (please do not think I mean that as a bad thing), so if you order this plan to share. It had a wonderful golden crust that was perfectly cooked. The wife thought the sauce was sweet, but I liked it. So there is number 2. Last night, after having eaten early at the graduation party, I realized I was hungry, so I looked over the menu again, and settled on their Guiness Brat. Beer brats are easily towards the top of my list of favorite foods, and Cousins serves their's with a combination of Red cabbage and sauerkraut. It arrived at the table in a basket with a nice sized portion of french fries. The fries were a lovely golden brown color, and while not quite crispy, they had a very nice texture inside and great potato flavor. The Brat on the other hand was nothing short of perfection. the red cabbage - saurkraut mixture was to die for. I am not sure how they prepare the red cabbage, but it was much like sauerkraut, only sweet. When combined with the tanginess of the saurkraut, well that just heightened the senses even more. The Brat itself which is apparently cooked in Guiness with onions, peppers, and cayenne had a nice dark outside, was cooked perfectly through and had a bit of a back end heat to it. It was served on one of the best buns I have had this side of Philadelphia. So if you find yourself in the Lawrence Park area late on a saturday night, or need lunch after a late saturday night of singing and drinking, or any other time, give Irish Cousins a try, They are a three time winner in my book!
On a footnote here, Josh shared a piece of his greek dog pizza with me, and I wish I had ordered that. In the future I will be putting one of those in my face. Pizza crust with greek sauce sliced Smith's hot dogs, and cheddar cheese over top. It was so good it made me mad. WTG Cousins!
Enough about that, let's talk food. Two weeks ago was the first chance I had to sample their food, when we were enjoying some barley sodas and singing our hearts out. The wife decided she was hungry and ordered an antipasto. Holy salad, Batman! It was perhaps the largest bowl of salad I have ever seen. Easily large enough to share. All of the ingredients were crisp and fresh. The red wine vinagrette was a wonderful complement to the meats, cheese and other standard Antipasto components. So 1 good experience. The next time we were there, I ordered their three meat Calzone, I believe the price for that was $10.79. This item is definitely too large for any one person to eat (please do not think I mean that as a bad thing), so if you order this plan to share. It had a wonderful golden crust that was perfectly cooked. The wife thought the sauce was sweet, but I liked it. So there is number 2. Last night, after having eaten early at the graduation party, I realized I was hungry, so I looked over the menu again, and settled on their Guiness Brat. Beer brats are easily towards the top of my list of favorite foods, and Cousins serves their's with a combination of Red cabbage and sauerkraut. It arrived at the table in a basket with a nice sized portion of french fries. The fries were a lovely golden brown color, and while not quite crispy, they had a very nice texture inside and great potato flavor. The Brat on the other hand was nothing short of perfection. the red cabbage - saurkraut mixture was to die for. I am not sure how they prepare the red cabbage, but it was much like sauerkraut, only sweet. When combined with the tanginess of the saurkraut, well that just heightened the senses even more. The Brat itself which is apparently cooked in Guiness with onions, peppers, and cayenne had a nice dark outside, was cooked perfectly through and had a bit of a back end heat to it. It was served on one of the best buns I have had this side of Philadelphia. So if you find yourself in the Lawrence Park area late on a saturday night, or need lunch after a late saturday night of singing and drinking, or any other time, give Irish Cousins a try, They are a three time winner in my book!
On a footnote here, Josh shared a piece of his greek dog pizza with me, and I wish I had ordered that. In the future I will be putting one of those in my face. Pizza crust with greek sauce sliced Smith's hot dogs, and cheddar cheese over top. It was so good it made me mad. WTG Cousins!
Saturday, August 4, 2012
Congrats to the graduate!
First things first...Congratulations! You are now a graduate and I am sure the future holds wonderful things for you! I am not using your name here, because there are on occasion some weirdos out here on the internet, but you know who you are.
Second, Thank you to those that commented on this little hobby of mine today. I was actually somewhat surprised that anyone was actually reading this. I appreciate the encouragement and since I know you are out there I will definitely try to be more diligent about updating.
Additionally please feel free to share your own adventures and comments, and if you can figure out how to follow this blog, that would be awesome!
Second, Thank you to those that commented on this little hobby of mine today. I was actually somewhat surprised that anyone was actually reading this. I appreciate the encouragement and since I know you are out there I will definitely try to be more diligent about updating.
Additionally please feel free to share your own adventures and comments, and if you can figure out how to follow this blog, that would be awesome!
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