Archive for September, 2005
1st Annual Texas BBQ Festival
Hot on the hills of the HotSauce festival last month, Austin Chronicle and friends are gearing up for a new gig – the Texas Barbecue Festival. The event will be held in Austin on Sunday October 9th.
The Texas Barbecue Festival is a free event, but I’ve heard you’ll need to buy food tickets or something to really get any sampling done. Apparently they’ll pick a new theme for each year as they’ve declared 2005 the year of the sausage. I’m sure half of Elgin will be there.
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Recipe: Chicken Sates with Peanut Sauce
You’ll find Chicken sate to be a featured appetizer in many Thai restaurant, but in my opinion they make a good meal on their own when served over rice. Once again I ate them all before taking a picture. Mine look a little different those pictured here. I like mine with a little char on them, and I don’t sprinkle them with sesame seeds.
This recipe includes several parts actually; a marinade and a peanut dipping sauce. If you wish, you can usually find Thai style peanut sauce for sale in many markets, saving you the hassle.
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“Lobster claw” grilling mitts
These things make you look like a lobster, but the new generation of hi-tech silicone oven mitts are great for working on the barbecue. They are heat proof, easy to clean, and ridiculous looking.
These mitts feature gripping surfaces that make it easy to flip a rack of ribs or move a brisket off of the smoker. Tongs and such are nice, but there’s just no easier way to handle big cuts of meat then with your hands. Less dropping on the ground that way.
Unlike welding gloves, these things don’t get all gooped up with grease and sauce. Just wash them off, or wipe them on your jeans, or whatever you fancy. Since they don’t have fingers, they aren’t good for detail work like plucking a shrimp off the grill, but they can be invaluable for barbecue.
Amazon sells these (see the related link), as do most of the fancier cooking stores these days. You can choose from other colors, like black or even clear.
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Amateur ladies best BBQ All Stars
Ok, you’ve had enough Tivo lag to have watched the final episode of OLN’s All Star BBQ Showdown, so I’m going to talk about it now.
The top prize went to one of the amateur teams, the female three-some “Squeal of Approval”, who beat out pro Mike Davis and a couple of Alabama backyards calling themselves team “En Fuego”.
Surprisingly both of the amateur teams that made it into the semi-finals progressed on to the final round, knocking out a number of top BBQ pros in the process. Semi-finals were ribs (spare or baby back, chef’s choice).
En Fuego had top score in ribs, while Squeal of Approval barely beat out Eddie Maurin in a tie breaker to progress to the finals, which was pork butte.
In the end I guess, it was Squeal of Approval’s beautiful buttes really wowed the judges.
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Recipe: Dr. Pepper Mop Sauce
Here’s a sweet mop sauce good for basting ribs or brisket.
The Dr. Pepper adds a touch of sweetness and that mystic something that only Dr. Pepper has that you just can’t put your finger on. The oil adds some stick-um power. Don’t worry, the taste isn’t so obvious that anyone will guess your secret.
Ingredients
- 3 cups of Dr. Pepper
- 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
Mix well with a whisk, heat and baste while warm.
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Feeding a crowd? Go whole hog
Got a crowd of hungry folks to feed? Weighing in anywhere from 80 to 120 pounds, barbecuing a whole hog is a sure way to feed a hungry crowd.
This article provides some interesting background on this Southern tradition. While a pig roast is always cause for a celebration, for everyone except the pig I guess, in tends to remain a Southern phenomenon:
“You find it more in rural areas because that’s where the whole hogs are,” he said. “When barbecue leaves the rural precincts as whole hog, it becomes ribs and shoulders in the urban setting. It’s like the blues: When it left the South and arrived in Chicago, it became electrified.”
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Recipe: Huli Huli Chicken
Huli Huli is Hawaiian for barbecued chicken, and it sounds delicious. Pineapple, rice wine vinegar, and ginger give this dish an Asian flavor. This recipe is especially well suited to rotisserie cooking.
By the way, one of the ingredients may not ring a bell to you. “Shoyu” is a type of Japanese soy sauce. Understanding that your neighborhood 7-11 just doesn’t stock this kinda of thing, feel free to substitute whatever type of soy sauce you can get a hold of.
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Pulled BBQ chicken sandwhiches
When most people think of barbecue sandwiches, two things come to mind. Chopped beef and pulled pork, depending on your particular neck of the woods.
But have you ever considered a chopped chicken barbecue sandwich? Slow smoked, pulled and chopped, a delicious dish. The secret however, is in the sauce.
As with pulled pork, you’ll want a sauce that compliments the meat without overpowering it. The article with this story gives you an excellent step-by-step through the whole process, including a recipe for a sweet sauce featuring bourbon, maple syrup, and molasses.
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DIY grilling, Japanese style
Yakiniku, literally Japanese for “grilling meat”, is a trendy new dining fad catching on with west coast diners. Each table in a Yakiniku restaurant features a personal grill where diners cook various cuts of meats to their liking.
No complaints about how your food is cooked will fly here. You can order up anything from chicken to the famous premium Kobe beef for your grilling pleasure. Even vegetables and seafood are available.
Read this review of one of the most popular new chains, Gyu-Kaku. With three already going strong in West L.A., Beverly Hills and Torrance, Gyu-Kaku has unveiled its first San Fernando Valley restaurant in Sherman Oaks.
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Kabob heaven
If you like cooking kabob’s on the grill, you’ll find this link interesting.
Here you’ll find more kabob recipes than you can, well, shake a stick at. Everything from Coconut Cumin Chicken Shish Kabobs to Spicy Salmon Kabobs and a little of everything in between.
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Recipe: Simple grilled plums
Grilled some plums tonight. Nothing fancy, but they sure were good. Heat the grill to medium or medium high heat, and prepare the plums.
I first slice them down the center, and remove the pit. Then brush lightly on both sides with a little molasses. Place cut side down on the grill till the fruit begins to get a little char, then flip them over. Shut the lid and give them a few minutes until they reach the desired softness.
Goes great with pork, and makes an easy dessert when paired with ice cream.
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Mystery smoker part
Anyone have a clue as to what this part is for? I just got a new barbecue pit, specifically a New Braunfels Hondo Deluxe, and this part was “extra”. It’s not mentioned in the instructions anywhere, and it has no obvious purpose. It’s about 7 inches long. I welcome any identification yall can offer.
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Grill-top pizza stone
Turn your outdoor grill into a backyard pizza oven with this stone specially designed for the task. It uses the high heat of the grill to produce brick oven–style pizza with a crisp crust and bubbly-hot toppings. Made specifically for gas grills, the porous clay stone sits within a raised stainless-steel frame. A backsplash keeps toppings contained; the attached thermometer allows you to precisely track grill temperatures.
The description sounds good, but Williams-Sonoma wants $99 for this piece of hardware. I’m not sure it’s worth it. Seems to me a normal cooking stone would be just fine, and a whole lot cheaper. Heck, plenty of us get buy placing the pizza directly on the grill. And do you really need a dedicated thermometer for your pizza cooking?
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New thermometer features voice alerting
Williams-Sonoma has introduced a new remote probe style grilling and roasting thermometer featuring a voice alert feature which tells you when you’re food is ready. If the voice creeps you out, you can switch to a simple beep.
Perhaps more importantly, the thermometer has a countdown feature that will estimate your remaining cooking time. Throughout the cooking process the thermometer monitors the rate of temperature increases, using it to predict the amount of time left.
The voice and beep alert can be set to fire anywhere from 30 minutes to one minute before the cooking is complete. I don’t know what the voice alert says exactly. I’m sure something proper and boring like “Cooking complete”. I think a good ole’ “COME AND GET IT” would be better. Don’t you?
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Roast that piggy in record time
How many times as this happened to you? You’re laying around the house one Saturday when out of the blue 100 of your closest friends drop buy for a pig roast! No time to dig a pit, what will you do! You need the La Caja China Roasting Box.
This roasting box can roast a pig in 3 hours and 40 minutes flat. Just add 16 pounds of charcoal. It will take up to a 100 pound pig, which should feed all but the hungriest crowd. It also works with ribs and chickens.
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