86 replies to this topic

[fifi]

Suzanne F tagged me so here goes. The subtitle refers to the fact that I love to cook but I don't eat much. I like to eat, just not much quantity. (So why am I so fluffy?) Therefore, this thread may include what I am THINKING about eating as much as what I actually put in my mouth.

I am starting this now because I am expecting everyone to notice the time. This is a lesson in dedication to BBQ. Gotta go start the fire and crank up the magic bullet. More on that later. This should get interesting. We are in the middle of tropical storm Grace. Think the rain planet in Star Wars.

Coffee, Melitta brand Columbian, brewed strong, evaporated milk and sweetener added. A Keebler Club cracker... because it was there.

Edited by fifi, 31 August 2003 - 04:55 AM.

[Jinmyo]

What are you going to barbecue?

[fifi]

BBQ program for the day...

I snagged a 10 lb. USDA Choice brisket. (Sure wish I could find a Prime.) It is about 9 lbs. after trimming. Yesterday, I trimmed it and cut it in half giving me the flat and the point. (This will be easier to position in the bullet.) A standard rub was applied... salt, paprika, ancho chile powder, pepper, cumin, garlic, cayenne. I mentioned on the smoking meat thread that I discovered this magic technique of putting the meat in a 2 gallon ziploc and poured in the rub and massaged it in from outside the bag. This made for even coverage of the rub and no stained fingernails. The brisket will go on the bottom rack for now.

For the top rack, I have a small, 4 lb., pork loin roast that had a really nice fat cap. I brined it for 24 hours in a standard brine with some soy sauce and bitter orange juice. The Virtual Weber Bullet site went nuts over pork with orange so I had to try it. Last night I took it out of the brine, inserted some garlic slivers into the fat cap and applied a Central American style rub that I got out of Gourmet magazine a few years ago. The rub is toasted black pepper corns, coriander and cumin seed, ground and mixed with salt and sugar. I will use more of the orange to mop it and finish with a parsley chimmichurri (sp?). This is a recipe development experiment that will get extended to a bigger piece of pork in the future if it is any good. Any porky juices and mop will drop down on the brisket. This does not sound like a bad thing but should be interesting.

The plan is that the brisket will finish up late this evening. It is supposed to travel to a friend's house tomorrow. That travel may either not happen at all or happen only by boat. The weather man says we have had 6 inches of rain so far. No wind though.

Second cup of coffee about half gone. The bottle of dark rum has caught my eye. I like rum in coffee. Well... It is a little early for that.

[elyse]

Second cup of coffee about half gone. The bottle of dark rum has caught my eye. I like rum in coffee. Well... It is a little early for that.

And on Sunday. For shame!

[fifi]

I have no shame. Besides, I have Grace as an excuse.

[elyse]

You're excused.

[Nick]

Fifi, that sound's dynamite! Especially the pork loin. But, what's "bitter orange juice"? For years, decades actually, I've been trying to figure out how "Cuban pork" is done and maybe that's part of the secret. It is a secret recipe that no one seems to part with. This is Key West Cuban pork.

[fifi]

"Bitter Orange" is probably a misnomer but that is what is on the label. It is actually a sour orange. You can get it bottled here, Goya brand. As I understand it, the uber fruit is an orange that is sour. (DUH!) Sometimes you can get the actual oranges at our Fiesta markets but I haven't seen them lately so I went with the bottled.

Your Cuban Pork sounds interesting. If you can expound on the recipe, maybe I can help interpret. The sour orange component sounds like a likely suspect.

edit to add: Sour orange is a common component of Caribbean cookery. That extends to the Yucatan in Mexico and the east coast of Central America. That probably made its way to Key West with the Cuban factor.

Edited by fifi, 31 August 2003 - 07:39 AM.

[Nick]

The Cuban pork is something I came across after my folks moved to near Key West back in the seventies. You get it in a "Cuban sandwich", usually at little Cuban places in strip malls or keyholes in town. It's really delicious pork but, as I said, no one will part with the recipe.

Citrus plays an element in the marinade and I was led to believe that that it was a combination of lime and orange, but that didn't do it. So maybe this bitter orange will. If Goya makes it maybe I can find some.

Now it's time to get ready for the great kielbasa/ sausage cook-off, accompanied by beer, music, and good people. Guess I'll take my Telecaster - one of them - the one with the newest strings. Last year I didn't and ended up playing a really funky axe someone thrust into my hands. Albert Collins would have been proud of me.

[fifi]

10:00... The bullet is lined out at about 250 vent temperature. This thing is a marvel.

Still no wind. Light rain. Heavy coming. The tide is high. I look out over a big harbor so I can see what the tide is doing.

Fourth cup of coffee consumed. I am THINKING ABOUT making a batch of cream biscuits. I am not really an accomplished baker but I have mastered that Cooks Illustrated recipe for cream biscuits. I favor the form of patting out a big round and cutting into eighths with a sharp knife. I put them on my heavy aluminum baking sheet with the Silpat. My favorite use of my toys. My cream biscuits are a thing of beauty. Lovely little triangles of meltingly tender dough that split in half with great precision due to that last fold of the dough. I am not shy of acknowledging those few things that I do well. I took my last little foil packet of pulled pork out of the freezer. I am seeing pulled pork in a cream biscuit. I have to start thinking about something vegetal.

Note that I am still THINKING about food. I haven't really eaten anything yet. I am not hungry.

[Suzanne F]

Isn't that Goya Naranja Agria stuff terrific? That's what I'm using in the pernil marinade. I look forward to having another posting duel with you about pork marinated with orange!

And thanks for picking up the blog. Now I can go back to my normal diet of foie gras, caviar, and potato chips.

[guajolote]

I think it's time for some rum now.

[Jinmyo]

Note that I am still THINKING about food. I haven't really eaten anything yet. I am not hungry.

I find thinking about food (before and after cooking it), prepping and cooking, and in general just percolating about food very satisfying. Eating is great but one can only do so much of it.

Three or four dumplings and a bowl of soup or some greens and I'm done in.

[Suzanne F]

Oh yes, yes, Jinmyo! I love those "surveys" which tell you that you have a serious problem if you think about food all the time. What, you mean I should think about the world situation ALL THE TIME?!?!? Then I'd NEVER eat, and wither away to nothing. (Well, maybe that wouldn't be such a bad idea . . . to almost nothing, anyway.) Thinking about food so much keeps me sane, or what passes for sane around here.

[fifi]

Noon.

I actually made the biscuits. I had one with the leftover pulled pork. It needed some zip so I squirted on some sriracha. A second biscuit was consumed with some butter and a marmalade made by my sister. She found this citrus tree on a high tension electrical line easement. It produces these orange fruits about the size of Key Limes but orange. And they taste orange. She revisits this tree on an annual basis. It is currently loaded so I am expecting another batch of marmalade and some infused vodka. (My sister is our family forager. She puts chickweed in salads. My kids wonder what is in the salad that a cat pissed on.)

The bullet is cranking along. I am adding water to the pan a little at a time using a neat piece of glassware. It is a graduated cylinder made by Houston Glass Fabricating Co. that holds 100 ml. The graduations are actually etched into the glass. I don't remember which laboratory I stole it from. I love lab ware. This will have to do until I get a more practical water-adding device. I put the pork roast on just now.

No wind from Grace. More rain to come. Flash flood warnings are in effect. Some streets and Interstate service roads are flooded. The travels of the brisket tomorrow are still in question.

[tanabutler]

You're cracking me up, Fifi.

I'll trade you some Meyer lemons for some of those oranges. Our tree's loaded and they're slowly getting ripe. I've never seen so many lemons on this tree since we moved in seven years ago.

[fifi]

The pork roast is off. After letting it rest a bit, I sliced into it. It is juicy in the extreme. The orange comes through in a subtle but delicious way. I keep slicing and munching. To be civilised, I really should get one of my biscuits. NAH... I just keep slicing and eating, slicing and eating, slicing and eating.

[beans]

We are in the middle of tropical storm Grace. Think the rain planet in Star Wars.

Oh, I think I've been there!

While hunting down some fresh sugar cane for my cocktails class I kept eyeing that Goya Bitter Orange stuff. Think I'm gonna buy a bottle of it the next time I'm at the store and see what I can do with it. Yum.

[suzilightning]

Note that I am still THINKING about food. I haven't really eaten anything yet. I am not hungry.

good luck with td grace, fifi. at least she is downgraded and it seems you need the rain down there.

the staff at the gym i workout in think i'm hilarious. inevitably one or two days a week i show up at the main desk and ask for scrap paper(you would think i would know enough to bring a pad with me), grab a pencil and start writing. i love to bounce ideas off some of them who do have some idea of food and nutrition. i find lifting(weights that is), a nice, steady, repetitive action, frees my mind to be creative. i find if i do a lot of cooking, working with food, and not necessarily tasting it(usually have others i trust to do this especially with the things i don't eat like pate, mousses,quiche) , the thought of putting it in my mouth is almost abhorrent. i have to be away from the prep angle for at least two hours before my desire to eat comes back.

hmmmmmm, i wonder if just the smell triggers the brain into thinking it has been consumed?

[fifi]

hmmmmmm, i wonder if just the smell triggers the brain into thinking it has been consumed?

Now that is a very interesting thought. I have talked to other "cook" friends that say that after they have cooked it they really aren't interested in eating it.

[elyse]

Same happens to me.

[Dave the Cook]

Me too. Maybe one of those occasions where it's the journey, not the destination?

[torakris]

. A second biscuit was consumed with some butter and a marmalade made by my sister. She found this citrus tree on a high tension electrical line easement. It produces these orange fruits about the size of Key Limes but orange. And they taste orange. She revisits this tree on an annual basis.

could these be kumquats?

can't wait to hear more!

[fifi]

6:00... I made some bean salsa stuff. That way I can say that I ate something vegetable today. Also, my friends demand that I bring this stuff so I will when I bring the brisket to the party tomorrow. I have to pass along a tip. When I make the bean stuff, I use white onion. After you dice the onion, you rinse it in cold water. This removes all of the strong onion stuff that happens when you break the cell walls

Ate about 1/2 cup of the bean and veggie salsa. So far today does not look good from a nutritional standpoint. I think I will go swallow some vitamins and have a glass of merlot.

[fifi]

. A second biscuit was consumed with some butter and a marmalade made by my sister. She found this citrus tree on a high tension electrical line easement. It produces these orange fruits about the size of Key Limes but orange. And they taste orange. She revisits this tree on an annual basis.

could these be kumquats?

can't wait to hear more!

No, we know they are not kumquats. I did see a show on Food Network in Hawaii where they had some things they called "limes" that looked like this. Not sure if that was the same thing. These are little sour orange tasting things.

[fifi]

Retrospect on the pork roast. In the future I would be more aggressive in the use of the bitter orange. It was there but not strong enough to make me go WOW. What was there was enough to make me want more. The Central American seasoning was good but I think it is too subtle to come through smoking. I have used it in the oven to great effect but I think it is lost in the smoker. I am headed in the direction of a lot of orange for a pork product. Orange, pork, and smoke seem to be made for each other.

Haven't eaten anything since munching on the pork. I'll have another glass of merlot.

[Jinmyo]

fifi, the Goya bitter orange seems to be what I'm looking for. Thanks for mentioning it.

[richw]

Fifi, that sound's dynamite! Especially the pork loin. But, what's "bitter orange juice"?

It's also known as Seville Orange (click here). They sell it at the latin markets and the mainstream supermarkets all over South Florida. Cuban Pork Roast is available prepared everywhere and traditionally it's eaten on Christmas. Here's a google search that should help you with the recipe - click

Also, Pork Shoulder is always used untrimmed with the entire fat cap intact.

Good Luck.

Rich

[suzilightning]

6:00... I made some bean salsa stuff. That way I can say that I ate something vegetable today. Also, my friends demand that I bring this stuff so I will when I bring the brisket to the party tomorrow. I have to pass along a tip. When I make the bean stuff, I use white onion. After you dice the onion, you rinse it in cold water. This removes all of the strong onion stuff that happens when you break the cell walls

Ate about 1/2 cup of the bean and veggie salsa. So far today does not look good from a nutritional standpoint. I think I will go swallow some vitamins and have a glass of merlot.

fifi

why are you adulterating your salsa

it is suposed to be a strong taste. if you don't like the taste use a sweet onion or shallot..

[suzilightning]

Me too. Maybe one of those occasions where it's the journey, not the destination?

dave, perhaps another type of experiment of conuming vs smelling should be set up for just you



sorry.... i couldn't help it


i'll go to my corner now