Simple and satisfying tonight. Started out by pan-roasting some really nice Kennebec potatoes from 3SG . . .


Pan-Roasted Potatoes
Homegrown garlic, evoo, salt, pepper.

Also had a nice pair of hangers from Zier's . . .


Grilling
Charcoal-grilled hanger steaks.


Plated Up
With some instant-potted corn from 3SG and a blob of the weekly slaw, which was with made with cabbage that was also from 3SG. It's just that time of year and it makes me really happy. Between Tracey/3SG, Zier's and our home garden, we managed to pretty much cover the whole meal.

=R=

Left to my own devices today, I finally tried a ramen hack (all over the internet) that I've been wanting to try for a long time . . .


Mise En Place & Moritaka AS Gyuto, 210mm
Ramen packs, avocado oil, garlic chives, leftover charcoal-grilled kielbasa, carrot, red jalapeno, chives, leftover corn, scallion greens, yellow onion and eggs. The gist here is pretty simple. Take the packets that come in the ramen (wet and/or dry) and sizzle them into a 'chile oil' by pouring hot oil over them. While that's happening, boil the noodles in plain (or salted) water. Once they're done, drain them, toss them in the oil and top them with whatever else you might want to add . . .


Plated Up
I topped mine with some leftover/reheated sausage and a couple of sunny side-up eggs. Also was happy to use up some other leftovers and hangers on, including the corn, the onion, the carrot and the red jalapeno. This one is definitely more than the sum of its parts -- a great use for a couple packs of instant ramen and whatever leftovers one might have laying around.

=R=

A quick Monday night stir-fry . . .


Mise En Place & Moritaka AS Gyuto, 210mm
Salt, cremini mushrooms, hot banana pepper, chopped garlic, hanger steak, dark soy sauce, soy sauce, Shaoxing wine, oyster sauce, granulated sugar, red onion, ginger root, fermented black beans, green bell pepper, corn starch and avocado oil.

Briefly marinated the beef (~30 minutes) in soy, dark soy, oyster, Shaoxing, sugar, corn starch and a splash of oil. While that was going, I cooked the veg in stages until they reached their desired respective donenesses, starting with the mushrooms, then the rest, and held them all in a large bowl as they finished cooking. Once done, I sizzled the ginger root in a splash of oil, then added sprinkles of sugar and salt. Once the ginger became aromatic, I added the beef and let it brown a bit. When it reached its halfway point, I added the garlic and the black beans. From there, added back the veg, stirred everything together, tweaked the seasoning and got it out of the wok . . .


Hanger Steak & Veg Stir-Fry
On the platter. I don't typically use hanger in stir-fry (it's overkill) but I had a small piece that seemed too spindly for grilling, so I decided to use it here. The bonus is that it's very tender and needed no velveting. At the last minute, I picked a few mini tomatoes from the garden and decided to toss them in there.


Plated Up
Served it with some jasmine rice.

Happy Monday!

=R=

Tonight, back to one . . .


Charcoal-Grilled Chicken Thighs
My BBQ rub + my SPG variant. I've been enjoying this combo lately.


Plated Up
With homegrown tomato-basil salad and buttered/instantpot corn from 3SG. I'm nearing burn-out on the corn but I know it'll end soon enough, so I'm still hitting it hard until the end. I'll never get sick of homegrown tomatoes, though. I'm going to be very sad when they finally stop coming.

=R=

Had so much fun with this one last month, I had to try it again with some better shrimp. So, I took another stab at Garlic Ketchup Shrimp, this time with some 26-30 shrimp that hadn't been sitting in my freezer collecting frost for a few months (even though they were, no doubt, previously frozen) . . .


Mise En Place & Takeda Stainless Clad Sasanoha, 190mm
5-year-aged black vinegar, chopped garlic, minced shallot, red bell pepper, soy sauce, dark soy sauce, 26/30 shrimp, jalapeno pepper, scallion greens, avocado oil, ketchup, corn starch, scallion whites and granulated sugar.


Garlic Ketchup Shrimp
On the platter. The shrimp were definitely better than last time but I got impatient and overcrowded the wok while getting them crisped up, so user error ultimately resulted in me not moving the needle very much on the overall result.


Plated Up
With some leftover/reheated jasmine rice. Still tasty -- this is indeed a solid recipe/method -- but I do hope to execute it better next time.

=R=

tried this tonight, with our roof tomatoes. it skewed a little salty, but we liked it. https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/102 ... aper-sauce

Glutton for punishment that I (occasionally) am, and it being a beautiful sunny day in the low 80'sF, I decided to fire up the woodburning offset today and smoke some spare ribs. I'd done several low & slow cooks in a row on my newish pellet grill and I thought it would be useful to stay in practice on the big rig. That very well may have been the case but I ain't gonna lie. It's a ton more work for an outcome that is only marginally better (Is it even better? More on that below). These were labeled as St. Louis but when you buy at Costco, you never really know how they'll be butchered, and in this case, they definitely still had some tips attached, which was fine . . .


Spare Rib Mise En Place & Kanehide Bessaku Semi Stainless Honesuki, 150mm/lefty
Spare ribs, 16-mesh black pepper, Morton Kosher salt, my SPG rub, Plochman's yellow mustard and my BBQ rub. Racks trimmed and membranes removed, I undercoated these with a bit of the yellow mustard, then hit each of them with a different combination of the seasonings and rubs. I wouldn't call this a scientific comparison but I figured I'd try 3 different combos. So, just s& p on one, BBQ rub on another and the SPG on the third one.


Wood Pile & Hults Bruk 20" Aneby Hunting Axe
My wood pile is a combination of apple, oak and hickory. In order to keep my fire burning within the desired range (and not add any discernible creosote notes), I figured this was roughly the size of split I needed to add to it every ~15-20 minutes. Compact for quick combustion, large enough to maintain temperature and yet, not so small that I had to add wood any more frequently.


Firebox
This was my initial fire, started with four quarter logs, burned way down. A few minutes later, it was time to put the rubbed rib racks in the cooker . . .


Starting The Ribs
At this point, the cooking chamber was fluctuating nicely between 275-300F. About every 15-20 minutes after this, I dropped what I was doing, went out to the cooker, added another of those splits of wood to the fire and spritzed the ribs with a mix of apple juice and apple cider vinegar. Adding the splits in this manner did help keep the temperature at right around the same level for a couple of hours, and their size definitely mitigated any off notes. Spritzing helped keep the ribs from drying out.

With the ribs on their way, it was time for some side-dishery . . .


Bean Mise & Place & Takeda Stainless Clad Sasanoha, 190mm
Salt, garlic, Rancho Gordo Buckeye Beans, evoo, black pepper, slitted jalapenos and buena mulatas, yellow onion and bay leaves. Decided to do these on a whim, so a rare, no-soak cook. As fresh as they were, they took quite a bit longer than soaked beans usually take (~5 hours over the usual 2-3). That was okay, though. I had plenty of time.

Meanwhile . . .


Horizon Offset Cooker
After about 2.5 hours the ribs had reached ~150F internal, and I decided it was time to wrap them in butcher paper for the duration of the cook. Before that, I opened the cooker up and grabbed a shot.


Pre-wrapped Ribs
~2.5 hours into the cook. Looking pretty good, with nice color and bark. Time to wrap. That's my spritz bottle sneaking into the shot on the left!

Once the ribs reached ~200F internal, took them off the cooker, let them rest a bit, unwrapped them and threw them back on the cooker for a few minutes to tack them up. After that, time to eat . . .


Plated Up
With some of the season's final corn from 3SG and a blob of the weekly slaw. It ended up being a bit ambitious to think I could eat two of each of the three kinds of ribs. I did manage to snarf down 4/6, though.

Now, were these really better than ribs I cooked a few weeks ago on my pellet grill? In my mind, they were not. The two cooks were on par with each other but for me there was no discernible qualitative difference between the ribs via these two cooking methods. Could that come down to factors beyond the rig? Absolutely. While I've cooked ribs dozens of times over the past three decades, that still pretty much makes me a n00b. In more skilled/experienced hands, would there have been a more profound difference between the two cooking methods? Perhaps but the more I cook on my pellet grill and the more I read and learn about others' experiences with these cookers, I'm beginning to believe that the gap -- if there is one -- is pretty small. Meanwhile, I can't say that spending the bulk of my day tending to a fire was the best use of my time.

=R=

Those Buckeye beans are amazing. Addictively creamy!

deesher wrote:Those Buckeye beans are amazing. Addictively creamy!

I agree. That was a nice inclusion in the most recent Bean Club shipment. As you said, great texture, and I could not believe how flavorful the pot liquor was. Really, an exceptional variety.

=R=

Using up what is probably the end (or nearly the end) of our homegrown tomatoes for this season . . .


Tomato-Cheese Tart
With sprinklings of parmigiano reggiano and cheddar, along with a few miniature fresh mozzarella balls. Put some homegrown basil on top after it came out of the oven.


Slice
Definitely going to miss the homegrowns.

Nonetheless, Happy Monday!

=R=

Tonight's dinner prep was all over the place. I kind of had a plan but I went to the kitchen late and when I opened the fridge, I saw the uncooked/leftover scraps from Sunday's ribs and realized they required some action. So, I decided to do a small braise . . .


Mise En Place & Hatsukokoro AS Migaki Bunka, 180mm
White wine, black pepper, salt, white onion, spare rib scraps, carrot, chopped garlic & slitted jalapeno, tomato paste, celery and evoo.

Got this going in my dutch oven and then realized it was way too late for it to be ready in time for tonight's dinner. So, I just let it go. And right now it's still cooking. I expect it still needs a couple more hours. Here would have been a good time for the instant pot but by the time I thought of it, it was too late. Maybe we'll have this tomorrow. Who knows.

Still needing something for tonight's dinner, I yanked a piece of uncooked kielbasa out of the fridge, cut it in half and split it lengthwise down the middle. With the aid of a Chef's Press, I griddled it until it was nicely browned and crispy on both sides. From there, browned a sub roll, and then some onions in the renderings. Next, built a sandwich with some cheeses and put it under the broiler for a couple of minutes . . .


Pan-Seared Kielbasa Sandwich
With a couple of home-fermented items: sambal and a garlic-dill pickle, along with half a piece of leftover/microwaved corn. All in all, not a bad Plan B.

=R=

ronnie_suburban wrote:Using up what is probably the end (or nearly the end) of our homegrown tomatoes for this season . . .

Tomato-Cheese Tart
With sprinklings of parmigiano reggiano and cheddar, along with a few miniature fresh mozzarella balls. Put some homegrown basil on top after it came out of the oven.



Definitely going to miss the homegrowns.
=R=

I'm jealous - this looks so good

- zorkmead

zorkmead wrote:I'm jealous - this looks so good.

Thanks. We still have a few mini homegrowns trickling in. Had some tonight, in fact.

Today, a whole lotta' cooking going on, especially for a Monday. But when the mood hits (and time allows), I've learned not to question it. Started out with a bunch of mushrooms, including chicken of the woods and hen of the woods from my forager. Those, along with with some creminis, some dried/reconstituted shiitakes and a half-gallon of homemade chicken stock all combined (with some other business) into a creamy mushroom soup . . .


Mise En Place & Hatsukokoro AS Migaki Bunka, 180mm
Dried/reconstituting shiitakes, heavy cream, shallots, mushrooms, unsalted butter, smashed garlic, homemade chicken stock, black pepper and salt.

Meanwhile, I hit the fridge for an item I put up a few days ago. That's when I cooked up a small batch of tomato sauce with some Amish pastes from 3SG, along with herbs and garlic from our home garden . . .


Mise En Place & Moritaka AS Gyuto, 210mm
Evoo, dried oregano, fresh/homegrown basil & parsley, homegrown garlic, Amish paste tomatoes, onion, salt, red pepper flakes and red wine.

Cross-slitted the tomatoes, then blanched them for ~1 minute in boiling water and peeled back their skins. From there, cored them and squeezed them by hand into a dutch oven where the garlic and the onion were already simmering gently in evoo. From there, added the spices and the wine and let it reduce for a while. This was only ~4 pounds of tomatoes, so it wasn't exactly a stock-up quantity but it's always nice to have a little sauce, especially when you know the tomatoes are excellent.

Tonight, with some more recently acquired 'Barbarella' eggplants, also from 3SG, I decided to make eggplant parmesan . . .


Mise En Place
Evoo, aforementioned tomato sauce, salt, pepper, dried oregano, freshly grated parmigiano reggiano, 'Barbarella' eggplant, eggs, (soon-to-be-grated) whole milk mozzarella, panko, and ap flour.

The eggplants were beautiful and massive. That plate on which the slices sit is 8 inches long, which gives you an idea of their size. Went with a dry-wet-dry prep on them before frying in a bit of evoo. The fried slabs turned out nicely . . .


Breaded & Fried Eggplant
Flour, then egg wash, then panko . . . all seasoned before I started.

No need for a casserole here. Instead, I ladled some sauce over them, hit them with some cheeses and put them under the broiler for ~4 minutes . . .


Plated Up
Eggplant Parmesan, mushroom soup and arugula salad with homegrown tomatoes. Didn't intend to go meatless but hey, sometimes it happens.

Happy Monday!

=R=

ronnie_suburban wrote:Breaded & Fried Eggplant
Flour, then egg wash, then panko . . . all seasoned before I started.

No need for a casserole here. Instead, I ladled some sauce over them, hit them with some cheeses and put them under the broiler for ~4 minutes . . .

=R=

That's the way to do it. What's the point of frying eggplant to crispy if you're going to soak it in sauce? I've even gone one step further, and just broiled the cheese on the eggplant, and then serve it over some ladled sauce hot from the pot.

Was at Costco stocking up on some non-food items and decided to grab some Prime strip steaks. They're certainly better than what I can get any local grocery store(s) but compared to what I typically get at Zier's, they're a bit lacking . . .


Grilling
Not butchered very well but these were fine.


Plated Up
With a loaded up baked potato, the last corn of the season from 3SG and a blob of the weekly slaw.

=R=

i guess the season is turning: tonight was creamy polenta topped with seared wild mushrooms (shallot, garlic, soy, butter, chablis). side of burrata and little gem radish salad.

Pork loin chops (from Fresh Farms, butterflied), marinated and basted with a NYT al pastor marinade, grilled. Pineapple salsa (pineapple and onion grilled and chopped, cilantro, jalapeno, lime, salt). Roasted brussel sprouts and corn with esquites dressing. Focaccia that Sue made the other day.

Great meal.

Tonight I made Chicken au Poivre. It was a NYT recipe. Rarely do I come across a new recipe that I actually have all the ingredients in house. Came out quite good.

After picking up some Plochman's Cubano Mustard at the National Mustard Museum (it's got a little spice including cumin) it was time for cuban sandwiches. Ham and bolillos from Tony's, Swiss cheese from Carr Valley Cheese, sliced pickles, leftover pork loin from the freezer. Griddle and weight. Mmmm.

first carbonara of the season!
with a salad of our bucktown-roof tomatoes. practically every night this week i've thought, this is the last of our homegrown tomato salads! but each night i've been wrong. happily so.

Digging around for something else (that I never found), in the deep, dark recesses of my garage freezer, I came across a trove of Iberico pork cheeks that, as best I can remember, I bought sometime during the height of the pandemic. Well-vacuumed four cheeks to a pack, they looked to be in good condition. Deep red color, no visible frost or freezer burn. I thawed them and because I'd never cooked with them before, as a trial, I seasoned one up and seared it in some butter. Pleasant enough chew but very iron-y. Cooked to med-rare, it tasted almost like liver or overcooked duck. Not awful but not desirable, either. Not large nor fatty enough to braise and too thin to grill, I decided instead to cure and smoke them. Because the larger pieces were enrobed in silver skin, the first step was to remove it . . .


Mise En Place & MAC Professional Fillet Knife 7"
Brown sugar, salt, trimmed Iberico pork cheeks, granulated sugar and curing salt.

Just used my standard cure here and because the cheeks were so small, I only cured them for about 24 hours. After that, rinsed them, patted them dry, seasoned them up a bit with some coarse black pepper and then onto the pellet grill . . .


Cured/Dried/Peppered Iberico Pork Cheeks
Sprinkled with 16-mesh black pepper. Set the smoked to 165F (lowest available setting) and Supersmoke mode. Was looking for a target temperature of 155F internal and trying to get there as slowly as possible. They look kind of like skirt steaks. One really nice thing about the pellet grill is that while the cheeks were smoking, I could walk away from them and prep dinner . . .


Mise En Place & Myojin Riki Seisakusho SG2 Gyuto, 180mm
Corn starch, dark soy sauce, soy sauce, white onion, tomato paste, homegrown tomatoes (the last of our full-sizers ), fish sauce, conehead cabbage, Leysa sweet red pepper, chicken thigh meat, white pepper, granulated sugar, avocado oil, minced ginger and minced garlic.

This one was inspired by a Thai dish -- eggs, tomato and fish sauce -- that I really like. I wanted to emulate those flavors here and bring a bit more to dish. In this case, chicken, not egg, as well as a few other items, many of which are from 3SG. Marinated the chicken in soy/dark soy/fish/white pepper/sugar/corn starch for about 30 minutes. After that, cooked it off (then set it aside) and just kind of winged it the rest of the way. At the end, added back the chicken, mixed it all together and served . . .


Chicken, Cabbage & Tomato Stir-Fry
On the platter.


Plated Up
With some jasmine rice. Really happy with the way this one came out. Saucy, funky and just the right amount of crunch left in the veggies.

After dinner, it was time to get the pork cheeks off the smoker . . .


Cured, Smoked & Peppered Iberico Pork Cheeks
Somewhere between bacon and jerky, I guess this most resembles tasso. It tastes great and should make a nice base for soup, stew, beans, jambalaya, etc. Mainly, I was happy that the cheeks came out tasty and lost that iron-y note. I guess you could say I cured them of that!

Happy Monday!

=R=

tonight is Tim Walz's award-winning hot dish, for debate viewing. https://www.washingtonpost.com/recipes/ ... t-hotdish/

Chicken Francese:
Sautéed egg/Parm battered scallopini and mushroom vin blanc on spaghetti.

Took another swing at Stacey's Garlic Ketchup Shrimp . . .


Mise En Place & Michael Rader 52100 Gyuto, 240mm
Avocado oil, ketchup, sliced ginger root, minced shallots, minced garlic, sweet red Leysa pepper, 26-30 shrimp, granulated sugar, rice wine, dark soy sauce, soy sauce, scallion bottoms, minced jalapeno, scallion greens, salt, corn starch and 5-year black vinegar.

This one is really nice, and some quick comfort. The third time's the charm, too. I feel like I got it all lined up this time around -- started with better shrimp and didn't overcrowd the pan, so they were crispy, etc. The result was absolutely worth the minimal amount of work it took.


Garlic Ketchup Shrimp
On the platter.


Plated Up
Atop some jasmine rice.

=R=

Felt the need to braise a brisket. I'd actually had some earlier in the week (at a relative's house) but it didn't really check the box. In fact, as I posted earlier, I'd say that if you're ever offered a steak knife with your brisket, something went horribly wrong. Needed to right that today . . .


Brisket
This is after 2.5 hours, about halfway through the cook. Initially seasoned with salt, granulated garlic and Hungarian sweet paprika, it's braised at 275F in some beer on a bed of carrots and onions. At this point, a bit of ketchup and brown sugar are applied sparingly. After that, it goes back into the oven for another couple of hours. Fwiw, this is a Choice, packer-cut brisket from Costco that came in at ~14 pounds. After I trimmed it and partially separated the point from the flat, it netted out at just over 10 pounds.

And what better accompaniment for the brisket than a potato kugel . . . ?


Potato Kugel
Shredded and drained russet potatoes and white onions, along with eggs, salt, black pepper and olive oil. Baked hard and hot.

Once the brisket was tender, I removed it, let it cool, separated/reduced the juices, then stick-blended some of the braised carrots and onions into it to make a sauce. From there, slice and serve . . .


Plated Up (some point, some flat)
Braised Brisket A La Josh (my friend's recipe, no coke, no soup mix), with potato kugel and steamed broccoli (butter).

=R=

good looking kugel!

we had a plan to roast chickens for friends and have root vegetables but the weather didn't seem roast-y; marinated thighs for grill in dijon-garlic-lemon-wine and went ahead with roasting the root vegetables aplenty from this morning's farmers market: purple beets, golden beets, fennel, onion, carrots, and delicata. spooned tableside with a coconut milk-fish sauce ginger lime zest vinaigrette (variation on an nyt recipe). market bibb lettuce and breakfast radish salad, with still more of our own roof tomatoes, rounded things out. apple crisp with apples we picked in michigan. sunday hot autumn.

I had 2.5 Lb Turkey legs. I added potatoes, rutabaga, carrots, and onions to the bottom of the roaster. Added fresh rosemary, thyme, sage, and parsley in a tied bundle. Seasoned those and the turkey legs which were placed on top of the root veggies. Put a good size pat of butter on each leg and added some white wine to the roots. Baked for 3.5 hours. Rich but oh so good. My guests were very happy.

ronnie_suburban wrote:Felt the need to braise a brisket. I'd actually had some earlier in the week (at a relative's house) but it didn't really check the box. In fact, as I posted earlier, I'd say that if you're ever offered a steak knife with your brisket, something went horribly wrong. Needed to right that today . . .


Brisket
This is after 2.5 hours, about halfway through the cook. Initially seasoned with salt, granulated garlic and Hungarian sweet paprika, it's braised at 275F in some beer on a bed of carrots and onions. At this point, a bit of ketchup and brown sugar are applied sparingly. After that, it goes back into the oven for another couple of hours. Fwiw, this is a Choice, packer-cut brisket from Costco that came in at ~14 pounds. After I trimmed it and partially separated the point from the flat, it netted out at just over 10 pounds.

And what better accompaniment for the brisket than a potato kugel . . . ?


Potato Kugel
Shredded and drained russet potatoes and white onions, along with eggs, salt, black pepper and olive oil. Baked hard and hot.

Once the brisket was tender, I removed it, let it cool, separated/reduced the juices, then stick-blended some of the braised carrots and onions into it to make a sauce. From there, slice and serve . . .


Plated Up (some point, some flat)
Braised Brisket A La Josh (my friend's recipe, no coke, no soup mix), with potato kugel and steamed broccoli (butter).

=R=

Ron,
That is one tasty looking brisket! Just got new reading glasses and I’m drooling.
Only one snide remark: XVOO for kugel?

ronnie_suburban wrote:Felt the need to braise a brisket. I'd actually had some earlier in the week (at a relative's house) but it didn't really check the box. In fact, as I posted earlier, I'd say that if you're ever offered a steak knife with your brisket, something went horribly wrong. Needed to right that today . . .


Brisket
This is after 2.5 hours, about halfway through the cook. Initially seasoned with salt, granulated garlic and Hungarian sweet paprika, it's braised at 275F in some beer on a bed of carrots and onions. At this point, a bit of ketchup and brown sugar are applied sparingly. After that, it goes back into the oven for another couple of hours. Fwiw, this is a Choice, packer-cut brisket from Costco that came in at ~14 pounds. After I trimmed it and partially separated the point from the flat, it netted out at just over 10 pounds.

And what better accompaniment for the brisket than a potato kugel . . . ?


Potato Kugel
Shredded and drained russet potatoes and white onions, along with eggs, salt, black pepper and olive oil. Baked hard and hot.

Once the brisket was tender, I removed it, let it cool, separated/reduced the juices, then stick-blended some of the braised carrots and onions into it to make a sauce. From there, slice and serve . . .


Plated Up (some point, some flat)
Braised Brisket A La Josh (my friend's recipe, no coke, no soup mix), with potato kugel and steamed broccoli (butter).

=R=

Ron,
That is one tasty looking brisket! Just got new reading glasses and I’m drooling.
Only one snide remark: XVOO for kugel?

Evil Ronnie wrote:Ron,
That is one tasty looking brisket! Just got new reading glasses and I’m drooling.
Only one snide remark: XVOO for kugel?

LOL- I know, right? I'm sure my bubbe didn't make it that way but her recipe/method died with her. I used to do this with schmaltz but that just got too overwhelming. Guessing any neutral oil would be fine.

=R=