Shicken Guumbo

Yesterday morning i stumbled across one of my at time favorite cooking vids - Good ol' Justin Wilson makin' that chicken gumbo'. Not the best recipe, but a great video. Half the fun is trying to figure out what the hell he's saying. In any case, i was inspired. I scoured my kitchen for the vessel, gave my girlfriend a scare asking "have you seen the dutch oven?", and the fun began.

As always, first - you make a roux. I've found it's not really that hard as people say, it just takes damn forever to make a good one. Mix about a 1 to 1 ratio of oil & flour stir it up in your pot under very low heat and keep stiring til it's the color of a penny or darker (this really depends on your patience). After about 45 mintes...success!



From here on out, it's simple. Add the finely diced onions, green pepper, & celery. Saute until good.


Add your minced garlic, diced tomatoes, browned andouille & cubed chicken thighs, water & white wine. Stir well then spice it up with some bay, thyme, Worcesterchire, cayenne, and S+P. Boil to a simmer, and let cook for about 45 minutes. At the very end add a tsp of file powder to thicken things up.


Eat.

Summertime

I've been sweating a lot lately which is usually a good indicator that summer has arrived. To greet its arrival, we put together an offering fit for the memphis gods themselves. The documenting didn't really happen this time (we were pretty hungry and/or knocked out) so my apologies for the lack of pics & details. This is Jim. Hi Jim.


To sum up: we bbq-ed 2 slabs of hickory-mesquite (about 75-25) smoked baby-back ribs, which had a new mexico chili based rub. These babies were accompanied by homestyle baked beans, zesty collard & mustard greens & an acadian rendition of potato salad (which was killer). Seriously, the food was good. Really good. Have a look.

Maryland Crab Soup

It was shitty out today -- cold & rainy -- a perfect day for some soup. In maryland, we like crabs. If you've ever had fresh steamed crabs spiced with Old Bay, you understand why we're nuts about em.

I went down to the wharf, haggled with the vietnamese dude i always buy crabs from and got me about half a dozen. I paid my ten dolla, went home and got to cookin. MD crab soup is really easy & really good. The key is making your own stock. To sum it up:


Stock: Pick the crabs, saving both the meat & the shells. Put the meat in the fridge for later. Discard the mustard, lungs, etc. Combine all the picked shells, 3 cups of dry white wine, a sliced lemon, 6 cloves of garlic, 2 chopped medium onions, 4 chopped celery stalks, 10 peppercorns, some bay leaves, some dried thyme & about a gallon of water. Boil-to-a-simmer routine....simmer for about 90 minutes or so, or until it reduces by half. Make sure and skim the scum also.


Soup: Saute 1 medium onion, 1 green bell pepper, 3 celery stalks, 1 large russet potato (all diced) . After about 10 minutes, throw in a can of diced tomatoes, some cooked white beans, & a cup of corn. Then laddle in about 5 cups of stock, add your crab meat, about two tbsp of old bay and then simmer for 1o minutes. Done.

Dude Food

So I'm straying off the path a bit and doing something that has nothing to do with meat & fire. I'd say this blog is centered around man things and well this next topic, although not cooked with smoke nor fire, is very dude. Today's treat: Red Beans & Rice.

The backbone of rb&r, contrary to popular belief, is not andouille sausage. Lots of people (especially us yanks, myself included) think of rb&r being an andouille flavored smokey dish. Everything I read about nola cooking says otherwise. Think of the rb&r/andouille relationship like that of a gin&tonic/slice of lime. The REAL backbone of rb&r comes from the awesomeness of pickled pork. Yep, you heard right. Pickled.

To pickle, basically you combine water, vinegar, salt & whatever you're pickling and let it sit for days (at least 4). I used water, cider vinegar, salt, sugar, bay leaves, crushed garlic, mustard & celery seeds, peppercorns, chilies, & cayenne. Think of pickling as extended brining. Now onto the fun.

You'll need the following: onion, bell pepper, celery, can of diced tomatoes, red kidney beans (or any other variety, i used pintos b/c my red beans were old) bay leaves, dried thyme, cayenne, S+P, garlic louisiana hot sauce (crystal, frank's...etc) pickled pork, rice, andouille & green onions.


First, you make (not a roux!) the trinity...ratios vary but for the most part it's one medium onion, 2 green bell peppers, and 4 stalks of celery, all chopped. Saute everything till it's good, then toss in some minced garlic and the diced tomatoes and saute a little longer. Then add everything else, the pork, beans, bay leaves, spices & about two cups of water. Also, it's extremely important that your cooking vessel be a dutch oven. Yes, it really does make a difference. Just do it. Shoot for one that's 4 quarts or larger.


Do the whole boil-to-a-simmer routine and cook covered for about 90 minutes. Make sure you stir the pot every 20 minutes or so to mix everything up, and also to make yourself super hungry. After the 90 minutes, take off the lid and cook uncovered for 45 minutes, reducing to your desired consistency.


When it looks done (make sure the beans are cooked, not hard) serve over a bed of hot basmati or jasmine rice. Top everything off with some fried slices of andouille and some chopped green onions for some color. Maybe some hot sauce too.

I Found Nemo

And Nemo was tasty.

Not too long ago, I ate at Black's, which is a sister restaurant to BlackSalt, one of Georgetown's good finds. Both are known for their delicious, super fresh seafood. After staring down the menu, I decided to go with the wood grilled seabass. When our food arrived, I was sold. The skin was slightly charred crispy & crunchy with a hint of smoke, the fish itself was cooked flawlessly. The seabass was lightly seasoned with S+P and served with the classic lemon & butter combo. As a grill nut I was impressed. Today I had a craving and decided to give my own version a try.

I took a stroll down to the fish market on Maine and picked me out a good sized stripped bass, which for those who don't know is the Maryland state fish (it's gotta be fresher, right?).

I got home and fired up my grill immediately. I stuffed the fish with onions, fresh rosemary and a mystery seasoning blend that I discovered in the way back of my cupboard. I also seasoned the skin of the bass with my mystery spiceblend.


I grilled the fish for about 10 minutes per side over a medium fire. I was aiming for a medium-hot fire, but my plan was foiled when it started sleeting, doh. Also, instead of using just charcoal for the fire, I used a blend of charcoal & hickory (50-50). After about 20 minutes of cooking time, the fish was done. My end results were phenomenal. Like the seabass at Black's, the skin was crispunchy & delish. However, everything seemed to be overpowered by the massive amount of rosemary I stuffed the fish with. I dunno, I really enjoy rosemary and I guess I got carried away.


Even with the bush of rosemary I stuffed the fish with (see below), the fish was really good with some melted butter and lemon. The broiled potatoes/onion/peppers were good too. Thanks Nemo.

Man Night

So, it's winter. Cold & windy make bbq near impossible, as it's much harder to maintain a temp (especially with high winds). Instead of bbq-ing, in the colder months I prefer to grill. Today's blog celebrates another staple of Man-dude-ness. This classic combo is so good that I believe even a famous rapper named one of his albums after it. Today's treat, Chicken & Beer. Let's begin.

Step one: Round up a team of hungry dudes. Contrary to traditional belief, this meal is quite complete and healthy.

Step two: Buy lots of chicken & beer. No breast allowed. Drums, thighs, & wings only.

Step three: Rinse and season chicken.

Give each piece of chicken a rinse with hot water then pat dry. Season with your favorite spice blend or whatever you want. Experiment with flavors, you really can't go wrong with chicken. Evenly coat each side of the chicken with seasoning. Let the spices dry and adhear to the meat, give it about 30 minutes to do so. Great time to fire up your charcoal.


Step four: Set up your grill and cook.

Shoot for a medium to medium-high fire. The trick to grilling chicken is to turn it before it burns. Ever wonder why rotisserie chicken is so damn good? Cause it's always turning!! So keep an eye out...the hotter your fire the more flipping you'll want to do. Grill your chicken for about 30-45 minutes, until it's done.


Step five: To sauce or not to sauce

Before you dredge your chicken in sauce, give it a quick dry try. If you've grilled it correctly, the skin should be golden, crispy, and tasty beyond belief. Be a real dude and serve the sauce on the side.

If you're set on making messy, sloppy, papertowel consuming chicken (as my sister would) then sauce up your babies and grill them for another 2-3 minutes, till the sauce is slightly charred.

Step six: Feeding Time

Release the pack of hungry dudes to the feeding area... and the rest should happen on its own.

Man vs Pork Butt

First off, it’s actually the shoulder of a pig, not the butt. Secondly, if you’re gonna try this, make sure you have a whole day to commit – It’s quite a long battle against the butt, but it’s worth every minute.

Battle Plan:

1. Grill Prep
2. Meat Prep
3. Cook…and cook, and cook, and…
4. VICTORY

Grill Prep:

Fill up & fire up your chimney. As usual, set up your cooker for indirect cooking. I use a weber kettle – setting it up for indirect cooking is a snap. Simply put your hot coals on opposite sides of the cooker. Next place a drip pan in between your coals, underneath where your meat will lie.

Meat Prep:

Take your roast and give it a good rinse. Trim off any excess chunks of fat that you don’t want, but don’t trim off all the fat. The majority of it will actually melt away and baste the roast during the long cooking process, so you want some fat on there. After a good rinse and dry, now it’s time to make some rub. As a rub base for pork butt I tend to use: black pepper, sweet paprika, brown sugar, seasoning salt, cumin, & cayenne pepper.

In a bowl, combine the above. I leave measurements out, because everybody’s taste buds are different. Just keep adding to the bowl until you’re satisfied with your rub. Now, it’s slathering time.

Slathering is a pre-rub process that is done for most bbq…ribs, pork roasts, brisket. Slather is simply a non-sugar based goopy liquid mixture that acts as glue for your rub. Slathering is not required, but I feel there’s more good with it than without it. Typically, slather is a mixture of mustard and vinegar. However it’s not limited to just those two – you can add hot sauce, use pickle juice or beer instead of vinegar…etc. Really, it’s whatever you have in your fridge, just be sure not to use anything that is high in sugar.

This time I used yellow mustard, sriracha hot sauce, and some spiced vinegar. Add a little of all, till you get the right consistency – think goopy.

Brush one side at a time, with a good but not generous amount of your glue. Then sprinkle your rub on top of the glue. Wait about 10 minutes allowing for the rub and slather to soak in together. Once the two have mixed well (when your rub looks wet), repeat the process for all the other sides.

While you’re waiting for your rub & slather to mix – it’s a great time to finish setting up the grill. If you lit your coals before you started the meat prep, they should be nice and hot by now. Last, fill the drip pan about a third up with very hot water.

Cooking:

Like most bbq, your ideal cooking temperature for pork butt is about 225-250 degrees. It is very important to keep your cooker within that range at all times. A temp spike here and there is fine, but long periods of high cooking temps will kill your roast. I’m old fashion and use a simple oven thermometer that goes right on the cooking grate. To monitor your temperature all you have to do is lift the cooker lid a tad and have a peek at the thermometer. Voila!

When your cooker has reached the correct temp, toss in the roast and make a note of your starting time. Cooking a pork shoulder takes a loooooong time. Cooking time depends on a number of things but usually it’s around 1.5 hours per pound, more or less. From here on out, the hard part is maintaining your cooker’s temperature.

You should have an idea of how much charcoal you need to maintain a temp within your cooking range. About every hour check up on your cooker’s temperature. If you’re running hot, you can either adjust the air flow vents, take some charcoal out, or open the cooker for a bit and let things cool down. If you’re running cool, open the vents or simply add more already fired coal.

About halfway through the cooking process, baste your roast about every 90 minutes or so. Pretty much any time you open up the lid to add more charcoal, baste away.

When you’re nearing the end of your calculated cooking time, stick a meat thermometer into the roast. When you’re at 180, you’re done. Take the butt out, and let it rest for 10 minutes or so.

And now, your moment of zen. Remove the bone (which should just slide out), grab two forks, and pull the shit out of it.

When you serve the pulled pork, make sure you distribute the bark (the parts with rub exposed) evenly. Have a drink, eat some pork, and take a well deserved nap.

VICTORY.