Archive for the ‘BBQ’ Category
I smoked some almonds recently, using a recipe from the America’s Test Kitchen – the original recipe is available on the WGBH website
I made a batch in my oven several months ago, and they were great, so I wanted to try adding a smoky flavor, so I fired up the Big Green Egg, and added some hickory chips.
But, something went wrong. Although they were okay, they weren’t great, and the smoke flavor was missing, even though I smoked for almost an hour at 300 degrees F.
More experiments are needed. The crunchy and spicy crust is good, but there’s no smoky flavor – – I will try lowering the heat to 200 degrees and smoke them longer next time.
I love a good pastrami sandwich. The salty, peppery, thinly-sliced meat on a toasted bun with a little mustard kind of pastrami sandwich, like they serve at a place in West Los Angeles (Culver City) called Johnnie’s Pastrami. Amazingly, my dad used to go there when he was a single dude in the 1950s. . . . and he brought us kids there. I still remember the bowl of pickles and the giant box of French fries – and of course, the pastrami sandwich. On the Johnnie’s Pastrami “About” page, it says, “Johnnie’s Pastrami was established in 1952 and has become a Southern California landmark. The juke boxes on the counters and booths are all original. So are some of the waitresses.”
So when I saw the Turkey Pastrami on the first season of Primal Grill (on DVD), I had to give it a try. It was several summers ago, and I looked at several supermarkets for a turkey breast, but couldn’t find any. So I made it with chicken breasts instead. And it tasted great!
Earlier today, I made turkey breast pastrami – and it is equally good, although a little on the too salty side for me. I think this is because I marinated the turkey breasts too long (almost 2 days) instead of 24 hours. I will try it again to see if I can get a better result.
Here’s how we did today. . . . .. .
Dry rub marinade for turkey pastrami
On the Big Green Egg – 250 degrees F, with some hickory chips.
Slicing the turkey pastrami – so juicy it squirts!
A plate of turkey pastrami slices
I had a whole sack of leftover dinner rolls from Thankgiving. Rather than make something boring like croutons, I decided to make some bread pudding. Oddly, bread pudding is not one of my favorites, but I decided to customize a basic recipe by adding some more sweet stuff.
I roughly based my version on a recipe from Williams-Sonoma and added a quarter cup of chocolate chips and one very ripe banana.
Now – this is so much better.
No, this did not go into the Big Green Egg, but maybe I will try that next time – maybe a savory bread pudding can be made, like this idea from Cooking Light. . .
Here are some pictures:
KH6WZ Bread Pudding with Bananas, Raisins and Chocolate Chips – ready for the oven
KH6WZ Bread Pudding with Bananas, Raisins and Chocolate Chips – fresh from the oven
KH6WZ Bread Pudding with Bananas, Raisins and Chocolate Chips – I wish I had some ice cream to go with this puddin’
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The gasket on my Big Green Egg finally wore out. After three years, the gasket hardened and had a few “bald” spots.
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Rather than working upside down, I removed the lid portion of the BGE from the hinge assembly.
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The old gasket was scraped off to bare ceramic. Acetone was used to de-grease and clean the surfaces.
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New gasket in place. Easily done in a few minutes.
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3M super strength adhesive (a spray-on contact cement) was used to fasten the gasket to the bottom and top rim. Butcher paper was used to help limit over-spray going into the interior of the BGE.
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My secret for a juicy and tasty turkey: Brining. I use the Orange Brine recipe from Primal Grill, Season 3. (Orange-Brined Turkey Breast)
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The 20-lb hen swimming in the orange brine. I started late, it is best to soak the turkey for at least 24 hours – I brined for only 12 hours – but it was still moist and tasty!
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The BGE is set up for indirect grilling, and a drip pan is placed underneath. Unfortunately, this set up usually burns the drippings – will try using a traditional roasting pan to catch the juices next time. Not this bird has one of those pop-up doneness indicators – I usually ignore those and test for actual internal temperature.
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Pop-up indicator says this is done, however, it is not. Total roasting time at 325 degrees F was 3.5 hours.
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After the turkey was finished, there was plenty of heat and lump charcoal, so I decided to cook the stuffing in the BGE, too.
For the last several weeks I have seen a pile of colorful winter squash at the local grocery store, and wanted to roast some in my Big Green Egg. So I finally tried this, using a recipe from food.com. It is simple to make and very tasty when smoke-roasted on the BGE.
The original recipe can be found here.
Here are some pictures of how I did my Sunday dinner. . .
Two types of winter squash
Squash cut length-wise, seeds removed and placed in a Pyrex baking dish with some boiling water. Bake/roast for about 35 minutes at 350 to 375 degrees F.
Remove the squash and stuff with (cooked) sausage, onion and bread crumb mixture. . .
Back on the grill and continue baking for another 20 minutes – or until done. Poke the squash with a skewer or fork to verify doneness.
Stuffed squash 1 – done.
Stuffed squash 2 done.
The smoke flavor, the tender squash and the pork sausage go very well together – Give this simple recipe a try, it’s mighty tasty!
Early last week, a co-worker bought a falafel plate for lunch. That made me want some all week long. Since do not like to fry foods in my kitchen (too messy) I wanted to try making some on my Big Green Egg.
I searched for a recipe and found this one on a great site called The Shiksa in the Kitchen. It is a traditional recipe, and shows some great pictures of the process, including frying them. I thought this might just work. . . . >>> Click here to see the Shiksa in the Kitchen recipe for traditional falafel.
But it did not turn out as well as I thought. I ate them anyway, but there just was not enough spice. I wanted the cumin and pepper to stand out a lot more. And it was too mushy on the inside – even after almost an hour of baking. I used my recipe for tzaziki sauce. >>> Click here for an interesting beef recipe and the yogurt-dill-cucumber sauce called tzaziki on the BGE forum.
Here are some pictures of this edible but failed attempt. . .
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Traditional falafel mixture.
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Falafel on the Big Green Egg Oven!
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Falafel balls – about 2 tablespoons placed on a non-stick pizza pan.
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Big Green Egg with Platesetter, “legs down,” and Big Green Egg Pizza Stone.
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About 50 minutes at 350 degrees F. Nice and brown, but still mushy on the inside – too moist.
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Falafel balls in pita bread, with tzaziki sauce.
Just a few seconds ago, I found this oven baked version for falafel on a site called Cookie and Kate: I might try this falafel recipe next time I fire up the BGE.
The disaster Preparedness Expo at the Huntington Beach Central Library on September 21 coincided with the Pacific Islander Festival Orange County. It was the 6th annual event…. I stopped to take some pictures and bought a t-shirt, but didn’t stay to watch the programs. There was plenty of exotic foods and displays.
The Huntington Beach events website said, “This fantastic event is meant to be spent among “friends”. The hospitality of the California’s island people originating from Polynesia, Guam, Hawaii, Samoa, Tonga, Tahiti, Aotearoa, Northern Marianas, Belau, Marshall Islands, Micronesia, and Fiji, is undeniably alluring and enchanting, as you’ll see when you come to the free Polynesian fest. . . . ”
Looks like I should visit this event next year. Aloha.
Getting the Big Green Egg up to temperature (250 degrees F). Hickory chips were added.
A recap of my first few cooks with a Big Green Egg ceramic cooker. Click the link >>>> A Barbecue Summer
Hellfire strip steak with grilled corn on the cob
I had several strip and rib eye steaks taking up room in my freezer, and decided this would be a great time to stoke the Big Green Egg and cook ’em. Because anyone can direct grill steaks with the proper seasonings, I decided to do something different, and prepared the steaks using Steven Raichlen’s “Hellfire Steaks” recipe . The original recipe can be found here – and in Raichlen’s book, “How to Grill.”
http://www.primalgrill.org/recipe_details.asp?RecipeID=143&EpisodeID=19
I thought this crust – made of salt, pepper, powdered mustard and Tabasco sauce – would be very spicy, but I found out that this is not the case, and will add more Tabasco if I make this again. Here are some pictures of the steaks and some corn on the cob.
I wanted to try making baked potatoes on the BGE for over a year, and I finally tried it. This is based on the directions by The Naked Whiz, a ceramic cooker expert.
You can go here to see the original recipe. http://www.nakedwhiz.com/bakedpotato.htm
I cut the salt down to one-half cup and scrubbed the potatoes to make sure all traces of dirt were removed from the skin. I used my own “universal rub” for meats instead of the Dizzy Pig rub.
And this made me think about creating a rub for baked potatoes. Something like onion and pepper and garlic – sounds almost like the rub I use for Santa Maria Style tri-tip.
I cooked an entire 5 pound sack of russet potatoes for this trial.
The original procedure said to turn the spuds half-way through the cooking time. I just let them bake on their own and did not turn them.
Naked Whiz says to bake the potatoes for one hour – My potatoes took one hour plus 10 minutes. If you try this, test for doneness using a skewer – it should easily push into the potato.
These were excellent – the texture is very good. The skin has a smoky flavor, which could be another area to play with – add hickory chips next time? More baked potato experiments are in order.
Here are some pictures. . .
wayneyoshidakh6wz 