OMG!! Alton brown has a Youtube channel!

Linkity!

H/T to Weerd Beard

Alton Brown is a hero to me.  Good Eats is what awakened my inner science geek and got me into cooking BIG time.  My lovely bride introduced me to gourmet home cooking, and the Food Network- Alton made it cool.

In celebration of this, I promise to get up reviews of my home Sous Vide setup and Infrared grill in the next few days.

Promise.

Pinkie Swear.

With that said.... I need a saber:

Jalapeno Lime Vodka

On father's day, my family got me (among other things) a VodkaZinger.

A what?

A neat little infuser that allows you to make custom flavored alcohol in small batches in a short period of time.  A few weeks ago, a coworker received one as a gift, and the idea migrated to the wife that I really needed another way to enjoy alcohol.

It works by having a little opposing blade rough grinder at the bottom that you load with whatever flavor you want.  When you screw it on, the blades clop and crush the flavorant, and keep it in the bottom with a fine mesh strainer.  Then you fill with the beverage of your choice, shake and steep in the fridge.

Of course, it was a Sunday, and in Texas we still have these asinine Blue Laws that say that hard liquor can only be sold at liquor stores... and that the stores must be closed on Sundays.

...and we were out of vodka.

So I did a test run with some strawberries and lime with water, and made a nice refreshing agua fresca.

Today, I was able to sneak out to the liquor store and score a bottle of vodka.  We had some jalapenos left over, and were fresh out of limes... so I improvised for a test run and used some key lime juice I had lying about.

That's some targeted marketing, rite thar'

With a rough chop of the seeded peppers (we already knew this batch was rocket hot), I loaded up the bottom of the 'Zinger' and started the process.

Into the fridge it goes!

Meanwhile, it was time to put That Kid to bed.  I let it steep for an hour or so (meanwhile I reminded myself why you should not touch your eyes after processing hot peppers) and decided to try a taste.

It was REALLY good.  It really brought across the flavor of the jalapenos.  I immediately regretted not  getting tequila and doing this to make some awesome Jalapeno Margaritas.

Clean up was a snap.  The peppers came out of the bottom easy and the carafe cleaned right up quick with no lingering odor of either the peppers or the vodka.

Now, I'm sure someone is asking 'what does this give you over just cutting up the stuff and steeping it in a mason jar?'  Really just one thing- speed.  A few months ago, I did a Meyer Lemon infused vodka, and to get this level of flavor transfer, it took about 3-4 days of steeping.

Can you tell I like to drink local?

All in all, this was a nice gift, and something I think I'll get some good use out of.  It is fairly inexpensive, and I think worth the price.   I am going to try different flavors with different liquors and see if I can come up with something really good.

Of course, I could just be mean and make someone a 'special' drink...

Culinary and Automotive geeks collide: Gordon Ramsay vs James May

Salt Dome Red Snapper

A few days ago, I was at home, and That Wife texts me:

"Bought a whole red snapper.  Start researching how to cook it"

He does not look happy about this

I have never cooked a whole fish before, but I've watched enough Food Network to be dangerous.

So, after Googling it a while, and That Wife saying 'no' to the en papillote idea, I decided to go nuts and try a technique I had seen and never tried- Salt Dome. 

So, after looking up a bunch of recipes and burning an offering to Alton Brown, I went for it.

Preheated the oven to 450

Mixed 2 pounds of Kosher salt with 1/4 cup of water and made a dry paste.

Grabbed a disposable aluminum baking pan (In case we screwed it up, we could just throw the whole thing out and order chinese), and put down a thin layer of the salt paste

Put slices of lemon inside the body cavity of the fish, and cut off the dorsal, pectoral, and anal fins with kitchen shears

Covered the fish with the rest of the salt paste.

 Threw it in the oven and cooked it for about 40 minutes. Of course, with the fish completely encased, when it came out, it was a leap of faith that it was "done" since I could not use the instant read Thermometer

So, we cracked open the dome.

Looks... like a fish!

It turned out delicious.  Soft, moist, and with a great flavor.  Not salty at all (except a small part where the salt got inside the body cavity- be careful with that.), and not fishy.  the salt dome hardens into a rock, and traps in the steam, and just steams the fish to completion. 

Try this if you get a chance.  The disposable pan made clean up a breeze- just throw the whole thing out. 

Sorry for the sparse posting

It's been a crazy time at work, and this whole insanity with the Great Panic of 2012/13 going on... well, time is thin.

Here is an example of the gun stuff that's been happening in my little world:
So far, this week, I have sourced ammo for 3 coworkers, set up one co-worker to buy an AR off of a buddy, helped my Aunt buy a .357 Mag (via text... and the dumbass at Academy sold her a box of 357SIG ammo with it), had one co-worker call me at home at 9:30PM to guide through an AR purchase, and just helped my boss and a coworker through the difference between a Colt 6920 and a Colt 6940 and decide which one to buy. 

 Plus, I have a 4 year old that has gone insane with loving Star Wars, with never seeing a movie.  So that is bringing out my inner geek as I deal with all the fun stuff, while not giving away too much of the movies.

Anyway, to bide the time, here are some random food and gun pics I had floating on the phone

Bought it for the name, and it wasn't half bad

Prime freaking rib. Damn straight it was tasty

bought this off dvor.com while IN the hunting blind, cursing the fact that I had no holster

Darth Vader in a row boat.  Your argument is invalid.

BBQ Brisket

You might have noticed a couple of pictures of a brisket over the last couple of days.  This was a last minute decision to have brisket on the 4th, so I did not have much time to plan.

I got a 9.5 lb brisket from Costco, rubbed it with kosher salt, onion and garlic powders, fresh cracked black pepper, and some smoked paprika.  I put it into the Bradley Smoker and gave it 4 hours of Mesquite smoke at about 200 degrees. 

While smoking, I would open the door every once in a while and spritz it with a  50/50 mix of Worcestershire and apple juice. 


After 4 hours, I moved it to a foil pan, added a small bit of the spritz mix to the pan.  I covered it with foil and stuck it in the oven at 195 degrees, and went to bed. 

The next morning, I pulled the foil off and drained off the extra liquid in the pan (and reserved it).  Then I upped the temp on the oven to 220 degrees and gave it 2-3 more hours of heat to 'set' the bark on the outside. 

While the brisket was finishing up, I put the liquid that I had reserved into a sauce pan and set it to boil, after skimming off the fat.  When it reduced by half, I added some black pepper, the remains of a bottle of commercial BBQ sauce, a little garlic and some apple cider vinegar.  This cooked together and became one of the best sauce I have ever had. 


When the meat was falling apart tender, I wrapped it in foil then in a towel, and put it in a cooler for transport.  This "FTC" step seems to be critical for a brisket according to several online sources.  I don't know if it is- but it worked for keeping it warm for the 2 hours until dinner. 

I think I have cracked the brisket code.  I need to replicate this 2-3 more times and make sure I have it down pat.  What's the next occasion?  This week is "National Farrier's Week."  Is brisket traditional for that?

Done!

Almost there!

Smokin!

Pressure Cooker Carnitas

I love Carnitas.  For those that have never been exposed to this wonderful dish, it is sort of the Mexican equivilent to pulled pork, except not smoked.  Pork shoulder ('butt') that is braised until it is falling apart, then fried or roasted to get a little bit of crispy added into the fall apart tender texture.  Properly done carnitas are just plain wonderful.

But the problem is how long it takes to do it right.  Braising a pork butt until it falls apart can take up to ten HOURS, depending on which recipe you believe.  Being a hardware nerd, I started the search to find a way to make it faster with technology.

Enter the Digital Pressure Cooker

Pressure.... pushing down on me...

This little box of magic can get awesome carnitas on the table in under 2 hours.  If I add the extra flavor step of smoking the pork fist, it's 3 hours from raw ingredients to awesome food.

If you do a search for carnitas recipes online, you will find a bunch that use pressure cookers to make it.  I found several of those, and blended them to make a recipe that works for me.  Most of the recipes also say to buy a pork butt and cube it.  Living this close to Mexico, the local markets have pork shoulder trimmed and packaged to make carnitas, and labeled as such.



3 pounds boneless pork shoulder or pork butt, cut into 2-inch cubes
1/2 cup orange juice
1/4 cup lime juice (from about 2 to 3 limes)
4 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon Kosher salt, plus more to taste

Optional step: Before I cubed up the pork, I put it in the smoker and gave it 1 hour of low temp Apple wood smoke just to add some smoke to the final product. That worked really well, and I suggest it, but it is not necessary.

That reflection of me is probably the best picture I have of myself.

 Cube the pork.
Throw all the ingredients into the pressure cooker (mine is an electric version), bring up to a boil.

Lock on the lid, and cook at high pressure (15 psi) for 1 hr.
Release pressure, remove lid. The pork should be very tender, tasty, and just falling apart. (If you taste it at this point, it will seem bland.  DON'T ADD SALT YET!  Let it reduce down)

Bring the heat back up to a boil, and reduce the liquid down to just the pork fat, and basically fry the pork in it's fat to crisp up the edges. Be careful that you don't completely shred the meat.
(Now you can adjust salt to taste.  If you do it earlier, the final product will be VERY salty. )

Serve on a Tortilla with a squeeze of lime.

Serve with Beer.  Garnish with cilantro and or fresh salsa.

Not even on a dare

Smoked Tomato Soup

I got the wild hair today to fire up the smoker.  But I went a totally different direction from the normal dry rubbed, low and slow pork that usually graces the Bradley.

This time it was a whole pile of tomatoes.

While the 'maters were getting an hour of smoke at about 180 degrees, I started the base of the soup

onion, garlic, olive oil and a photoshop 5 degree radial blur

Add the tomatoes into the pot with some chicken stock, salt, pepper, and a small dash of cayenne pepper.

Cook it down for a while, add a couple of shots of milk, and hit it with the stick blender.

After dressing with some oaxaca cheese, and society garlic fronds we had- Dinner!

Very tasty.  Smoke is one of my favorite seasonings, and this is a great showcase of it.  Tart, smoky, creamy and just really good.

Smoked pizza and extraordinary wine

I swear, I'll get some gun content on here sometime soon. It's getting so that everything is food related.

Yesterday was a special occasion, so we took full advantage of the gorgeous weather and cooked
some incredible pizza. We fired up the wood fired pizza oven

So... we meet again.

We cooked up some more of That Wife's favorite- Pizza de Parma, made a couple of standards, and That Kid actually displayed some killer pizzamaking skills.  He is three years old, and already can lay down sauce, put on pepperoni, and sprinkle cheese better than most of the people I worked with a Little Ceasar's when I was 16 years old.

The Father in Law had me make up an Italian sausage, black olive, and mozzarella pie.  At this point, we had loaded a smoker box into the oven.  Smoking pizza is something we have experimented with a little.  This one did not get much smoke, just a light perfume.  We corked a wine that we had been cellaring for a while, and it is amazing how well a 2007 Cab pairs with home made pizza.

...urp...

I made up the next pizza with tomato sauce, a few left over slices of the Italian sausage, a full layer of prosciutto, black olives, and a whole bunch of fresh mozzarella.  By now, the smoke was really rolling in the oven.

in the back by the convection fan is the smoke box.

You can see how much smoke the cheese took in.

Wow.  this was amazing.  The mozzarella took in a huge amount of smoke, but the salty prosciutto cut right through and make it just wonderful.   The remainder of the wine went so beautifully with this it was hard to describe.  

Smoke is one of my favorite seasonings, and this was a perfect showcase for it.  I just wish I had some for lunch.

Of course it's venison

UPDATE:  My brother and I won first prize with our chili.  Details in comments

Tactical Crock Pot (getting ready for a chili cook-off)

I'm about to head to a small charity Chili Cook-Off at a local church.  My brother and I needed the wife's crock pot for holding the chili after it comes out of the pressure cooker.

But the handle on the crock-pot lid was broken.  What to do... what to do...

Put a picatinny rail on it and a scope.  Of course!

Just some tactical operators cooking in tactical environments... or some such stuff.

I was laughing so hard while doing this.

UPDATE: We won first prize!

Like you had to tell me

Sign of a great restaurant

Experiments in Asian food

A few days ago, I went "tourist" at the local Asian market .  I had a guide- a co-worker that is Asian, and from Vancouver, which from what I understand is a mecca for awesome Asian food in North America.  I love going to the market and finding new foods and ingredients that I have never seen or even heard of before.

So, while I was wandering about, I saw something that caught my eye.
"Rice Cake Sticks?  What are these?"

If you can't read the package, it's authentic!

"Those are great.  One of my favorite Korean foods.  Cooked in soup or fried.  Good stuff."

Well, that's all the endorsement I needed.  I picked up a package and a few other ingredients that I hope will be featured in a future post.

So, I did some research, and found some cool recipes .  I decided to go with the fried version, and I'll do the boiled/ soup version sometime later.  Before I started cooking, I tried one raw.  Don't do this.  It is hard, bland and plastic-y.  Made me worry that this was going to taste like... well, cooked bland plastic.

So, I got some oil hot in the pan, washed the starch off the sticks and threw them in the pan.

mmmmm... packing peanuts

While these were working, I did a fridge dump of a bunch of ingredients.

...and started whipping up sauces.

Spicy red sauce.  I took no measurements, just eyeball it.

I shall call this sauce... 'brown.'

By now the rice cakes were developing some color.

Which is a good thing.  It was starting to look like a Michael Bolton concert.

I tried one straight from the pan, and was VERY suprised.  Besides it being really freaking hot, they were suprisingly good!  Crispy on the outside, and fluffy and creamy on the inside.  It was time to plate and few of these up.

If you get a chance to play with these, do it.  They are worth it.  Much like Asian Gnocchi- they take the flavor of what you put on them.  Very filling as well.

Now it was time to enjoy a beverage...

Back to the experiments.

A while ago, my same co-worker told me how "Special Fried Rice" was made using a chinese dried sausage that would be diced and boiled with the rice as it was being prepared.  So I took that idea and twisted it a bit.

'Sweet' rice and dried venison sausage.

Diced the sausage, and then added to the rice as I prepared it according to the package instructions.

Now... what to do?

Did someone say 'Sticky Rice Fried Venison Balls?'  No?

They were really tasty, but a cast iron bitch to make.  The rice stuck to everything even after frying.  I doubt I will do these again... maybe with a different rice.  Maybe just as an actual fried rice.

Conclusion?  Step out of the comfort zone.  Play with some new ingredients.  Have fun.