col klink

Now I've never stayed at a hotel in the area because my fiancee has family in Naramata. However, Naramata does have a very good hotel and it's probably one of the nicest in the area: http://www.naramatainn.com/ They're supposed to have a nice spa. At the end of the month I will no longer have a fiancee and we'll up there as man and wife. We're not staying at the Naramata Inn, but staying at a cheaper place and spending the extra dough on a spa treatment at the Inn. I have dined in the wine bar and it's quite serviceable. You can see for yourself the level of luxury from their website. Just a little FYI, Naramata is not on 97, but is on the Eastern side of Lake Okanagan and is about 20 minutes North of Penticton. However, that side of the lake is closer to more wineries than God's Mountain. My favorite winery is Red Rooster, their whites are quite interesting with a broad range. Look for the Pinot Gris and the Chardonnay. They also have a blend of white grapes call Bantam that sells for $9/bottle CDN -- last year we left with a case. A favorite of my fiancee's is Elephant Island who specialize in fruit wines. These are not your standard fruit flavored wines, these are dry and tart (depeding on the variety of course) and made completely of the juice of their fruit. Their apple wine tastes like a good dry British cider with a hint of effervescence. The pear wine is quite tasty but my favorate is the Black Currant wine; it's just not like anything else out there. My favorite place to eat is Hillside Estates, just north of Pinticton. We just ate there two weeks ago and it was easily the best I've had in the area. We started out with a delightful beef carpaccio topped with a nice French mustard, capers, parmesan and drizzled with olive oil. I had the cioppino which had large, tasty scallops, mussels, large and small shrimp and salmon, very tasty and very fresh. My better half had the pasta special of oven roasted scallops, wild mushrooms in a tarragon cream sauce and she was quite happy with it. As for their wines, we took home the smokey Cab Franc, one of the VERY FEW good reds in the area, and the Muscat which surprisingly tasted like fresh basil. They also had a white that tasted exactly like biting into a green pepper. South of Skaha Lake I recommend Hawthorne Mountain for their views and on the other side of the valley, Wild Goose and Stag's Hollow, all of which can easily be googled. For more in Naramata, try Poplar Grove (they also make their own cheese!) which is close to Hillside Estate, Lang and Lake Breeze, all of which have nice whites. When we're out there our day plan is pretty simple. Wake up to a simple breakfast then hit three or four wineries buying what we like. Head back for a lunch and hit the public beach in Naramata (the best in the area) with our toes in the sand and Coronas and lime in our hands. It also just happens that the fantastic beach is easily within walking distance of the Naramata Inn. Baste in the sun until dinner. Rinse and repeat. If you do stay in Naramata, there's a very cool drive going to Kelowna over logging roads. Stop at Chute Lake at the top. It's a small lake and as such warmer than Okanagan. At the lake you can stop for a burger and fries (burger was greasy but decent and the fries are fresh spuds but not double fried so pretty soggy) but I'd just get a beer and check out the "museum" out back. There's all sorts of mountain nick-nacks but the '52 Chrysler Imperial is a sight to behold. From Chute Lake you can take the KVR down to Kelowna and the wineries down there. It's probably just a hair longer than going back through Pinticton but the views are spectactular. Be aware that the wine country is really turning into a tourist destination and most of these wineries are really small operations which means that some of these wines (especially the Black Currant from Elephant Island) go very quickly.

I'm with hollywood. Now that's you've climbed up to shoulder base camp, are you going to take the north brisket ridge, the west poultry face or shoot right to the top of rib peak?

Yesterday morning I had bacon and eggs on a wood fired stove! It was totally sweet. It took about ten minutes for the fire to get going but once it did, heat control was pretty easy. Let me just say, I love to cook on a wood fired stove. Everyone should try it at least once. It makes me want to go out and buy a cabin in the woods just so I can cook on a wood fired stove. We toasted the bagels right on top of the surface as well as percolating some coffee:

There's no shame in what you've done, if you and everyone else was really happy with the result who's to say otherwise? That's the beauty of pork, there are many way to eat it. You were throwing a party and as a good host it's very important to with your guests. The more I think about it, with your equipment, you've done about as well as you could. Gas grills are great for grilling but they're horrible for indirect cooking. It can be done, but you go through A LOT of gas. So nice job on the prep. The only thing I'd add is brining beforehand but you were cooking on the fly.

You can use whatever flavors suit your fancy. However, a dry rub on a butt (~7 lbs) is not going to have the same affect as a rub on ribs because the former is up to 6 inches thick and the latter is less than an inch. After a number of hours on the smoker, basically all that remains of a rub is the heat -- all of those delicate flavors in the rub will be washed away, especially when you start mopping. Have a happy 4th and post pics if you can! For inspiration, here was my last bbq:

Actually I was looking for a derivation for the name "Funeral Potatoes" but a description of the dish is important too!

We recently had the pleasure of dining with Rochelle and her partner Erin. She had asked about sushi on her recent trip to Seattle so she didn't have a choice, we were going to Mashiko's. We ordered four of the expert level omakase and one of the regular for Erin who wasn’t feeling quite as adventurous that day. I have to apologize for the pictures, I started out pretty well, but it was tough keeping everybody off of the dishes so I could take a decent picture! You’ll notice by the end I finally gave up and used the flash. Here are our courses in order 1) Skipjack and albacore sashimi on a bed of cucumber salad, garlic/ginger sauce and ponzu sauce topped with marinated onions, watercress sprouts, sesame seeds and a small dash of bonito flakes. It’s not often that albacore gets overshadowed by another fish but that skipjack was to die for, which also means that the whole dish was to die for. It’s hard to describe skipjack tuna’s taste but the texture is easy -- it’s more tender than maguro, almost as soft as albacore, yet still has a plumpness to it. 2) Kawahagi sashimi on a bed of chukka salad with portions of monkfish liver pate (not ankima) with dried plum, pickled daikon and ponzu. The kawahagi was one of the specials, the muscle fibers split easily but the individual fibers were quite plump. It's a wonderfully suuculent fish. 3) Oysters! I’m not sure exactly was with the oysters but there were definitely green onions, pickled daikon and watercress sprouts. I didn’t recognize the sauce but the combination was fantastic. The oysters were presented on a bed of cucumber salad and salty red daikon. 4) Nigiri platter consisting of (from front to back) salmon, onagu (Hawaiian snapper), Oregon Troll caught salmon and the mystery fish (could’ve been the kawahagi). All were good but the Oregon salmon with the lime and the onagu with some shiso underneath really stood out. There’s just no comparison when you have wild salmon! 5) Deep fried red sole with a Japanese sweet and sour sauce on bed of marinated onions and red pepper with a garnish of a lime wedge and watercress sprouts. I regret to say that this dish from the kitchen noticeably lagged behind the others which is quite rare at Mashiko. The only reason being that the fish was chock full of bones so that you couldn’t just bite into the fish. I’m not sure if it’s just because we were too inexperienced or not. I don’t think we were supposed to eat the bones because this wasn’t like a case with smelt or other small fish where you can basically ignore the bones. No, each piece actually had a section of spine and a number of pin bones. I had better luck with my second piece when I figured out that I could bend the fish and basically pluck the spine and the pin bones out. Other than the unexpected bones, it was quite nice. 6) Roll platter consisting of unagi, tempura asparagus and shrimp wrapped in nori for the first roll and for the second there was okra, sweet potato, tobiko and garlic and then the whole roll was finished tempura style. Both rolls were on the sweet side, the unagi more so than the sweet potato and okra one. I think finishing a roll in a fryer is fantastic and there are not enough sushi joints that do it. It’s such a nice contrast to most sushi that is served cold or at room temperature, not only that, you have a great contrast in texture as well when first bite into a crunchy exterior through to a nice center. 7) Tako and ankima topped with black sesame seeds and garlic sauce on a bed of chukka salad. If anybody doesn’t know, ankima is the foie gras of the sea and it’s literally a slice of heaven. Ankima is always great but the surprise here was the octopus, I’ve never had such succulent and tender adult octopus in all of my days. Usually the tough texture of the octopus would completely take over the ankima which just melts on the tongue but not so! 8) Steamed clams with sautéed onions, green onions in a basil and bacon gravy garnished with parsley. As promised in the menu, with the expert omakase meal comes a course from the kitchen. I’m not sure what the “gravy” or the sauce that the clams were in (it may not have had bacon it it) but damn was it tasty. The clams were not overcooked so they were very juicy and not at all chewy. I recall not leaving any of the sauce left. 9) Albacore nigiri, spicy scallop roll and toro roll. I had to make sure that Rochelle tried the albacore nigiri and of course it was as great as ever. This last plate was some extra requests. When asked for something with scallops and something with toro. The spicy scallop roll came with cucumber and watercress sprouts and wrapped with nori. The white roll is the toro roll with tempura sweet potatoes and wrapped with soy paper. Both were quite nice. Toro is a gift from the sea, and that roll was the best of the night. As a nice thank you for all of the terrific meals at Mashiko, I gave Hajime a give of my smoked corned beef. I hope he liked it!

You will soon know the joy of NSM. Theakston, the most important thing you can do for your ribs is to brine them. If you'd like to dry rub them, brine 'em first for 4 to 6 hours, dry 'em off and throw in the fridge for another 4 to 6 hours or even better, overnight. It's very important that the temp doesn't get too high on baby back ribs, no higher than 250. These ribs are very delicate and sensitive to heat spikes -- if it gets too hot, it leaches all of the pork juices out and you're left with dry stringy ribs. After the first hour or so, start moping with just a basic sauce, something that won't affect the flavor too much and basically just keeps the meat moist without interfering with smoke absorption. If you need a sauce, wait for the last 15 to 30 minutes to apply. Baby back ribs will take approximately 3 to 5 hours to smoke at 225 depending on how stable the temp is.

Guajolote, If you're not throwing the sausage on solo, but after a pork butt has been on for number of hours, 2 hours will be too long. I'd throw 'em on with 90 minutes to an hour left. Don't be afraid to take the meat off in stages, though your guests might get a little ornery, tell them the meat comes first. In the long run, it's better to eat the meat properly prepared than on time, that way they'll come back again and again.

Use a thermometer or go by feeling. It should be responsive. Make sure to bring the temp up slowly or the fat will render out too quickly. Start out at around 150 F for the first hour then turn the heat up to 225 for the last half hour or so to make sure it's cooked. Of course, that's for all meat sausages, not sure how the taters would affect it. Sounds like a fun experiment!

Damn! I won't be out there in time. I do love my brats, bursting with porky juice and fat. They're great grilled but they're even better when they're smoked!

I see now, must have been hepped up on goof balls!

I've never heard of it being referred to as silverskin but it is a decent analogy. It's chewy and detracts from the potential texture. Not only that, if you're smoking, it cuts your surface area in half since the smoke can't penetrate the membrane.

That's so incredibly beautiful. (wiping tears from my eyes)

If you took off the membrane, they're not country style ribs, they're either spare ribs or back ribs. Country style ribs aren't actually ribs at all, it's a pork shoulder cut into 1" square strips and look like ribs. Often times they're better. Good luck!

That's a good lookin' chicken you have there melkor, but why did you split it down the breast? When I split a bird to flatten it out, I go down the back so that the breast bone is still between the breasts. Bones heat up more slowly than meat which means in this case that the breast will take longer to cook and the legs are more likely to be fully cooked when the breast is done. As for your beef, what temperature was the chuck roll when you pulled it off? Unlike brisket, chuck roll doesn't have the collagen and the fat that a brisket does. It's more for roating which means it's better if it's pulled at something like 130 to 140, aka medium rare.

Are those a specific variety or the name of the recipe? Either way I need to explanation! edit: Welcome hannahcooks!

1) You can. If you do it properly it's called corned beef brisket and it smokes up quite nicely. When I'm smoking regular beef brisket, 24 hours before I start smoking I throw on a dry rub. If you have access to decently priced bulk spices, I suggest that you make your own blend. Most commercial dry rubs are way overpriced. If you'd like an idea for you own, check the eGRA. 2) Depends. Are you smoking a whole brisket from a cryovac? If so, smoking the whole thing (without trimming, don't trim!!!) will take 12 to 14 hours at around 200 to 225. If you have the time and inclination to do so, by all means go ahead. Personally I like to cut the brisket into thirds so you have the flat (trimest), the middle (nice streaks of fat) and the heel (very fatty, the best part). When you smok the brisket in thirds, it only needs 6 hours. If you only have the trimed flat, then no more than four hours and mop the heck out of it. A trimmed flat has hardly any fat (i.e. basting power) and dries out very quickly. 3) I let mine rest about 15 to 20 minutes. It's not like a roast that's been in high heat where the meat has been shocked and you want the juices to be absorbed. As far as temperature control goes, if it falls below 200 that's fine, just as long as it doesn't go below 120. And don't worry about quickly getting the temp back up, let it take it's natural course so you don't overcorrect. If the temp gets too high, just open the top of the smoking chamber and close off the air intake to the side firebox until the fire dies down. Good luck and enjoy a tasty beverage.

Yup. Brining brings sugar and salt inside the meat, seasoning it before it's even cooked. Sugar in the mop is just on the surface and will just burn, adding flavors that conflict with the smokiness. Maybe I should merge this thread with the one in cooking . . .

I like spicey mustards (about a tbsp or two) with 1/2 cup of red wine vinegar, half of a minced shallot, salt and pepper to taste, minced garlic, 1/4 of favorite hot sauce and olive oil to taste. You can also add any citrus juice you'd like or any herb like cilantro, basil or parsley. With this recipe the mustard just acts as a emulsifier, for more of the mustard flavor use about a cup of mustard. This is one of those things that you can let your inspiration go wild. Looking for a pan-Asian theme? Add soy, wasabi powder, lime leaves, lemongrass, etc. Or you could go with curries as well, a tbsp of any of the Mae Ploy Thai curries packs quite a delicious punch. Of course Indian curries also work.

MatthewB, LOL! Hollywood, those pork rib roasts are very easy to overcook and end up with dry, chalky pork. The most important thing you can do in brine, brine and oh yeah, brine. The standard brine of a cup of brown sugar and a cup of Kosher salt to a gallon of water is just fine. Overnight it if you can. The Next important thing to do is to not trim off any of the fat, fat is your friend! If you can, bard it with bacon. If you do, don't flip the roast, just rotate. These days pigs are so damn lean they've taken most of the flavor out so the marketing folks can say it's as lean as chicken so you have to go the extra mile. Oh yeah, pull it off medium rare, there's not much worse than overcooked pork loin. The key is to smoke it really low and watch the internal temp like a hawk. In times like these having the ribs on protects the loin from the heat of the fire and retards the heating process, allowing it to be in the smoke for a longer period of time and thus, get more flavor. Good luck! Just to let you know, it probably won't end up as smokey as you'd hope. If the roast is cut into thick chops and there's plenty of fat, then you can get 'em really smokey. The loin roast with ribs has far less exposure to the smoke and hence less smokiness in the end. Not that I'm not suggesting you smoke up the loin roast, I'm just giving you an idea of what to expect.

Neither, rotate them every half hour to an hour. Mop after the first hour with a sauce without sugar and too much flavor, you don't want obscure the smokiness. I'm a big fan of mustard based vinaigrettes. I've found that tomato based sauces dramatically reduce the amount of smoke flavor present in the meat and this of course means that your ribs (or other meat for that matter) won't taste as good as they should.

Please, do tell! Though I think duck is a little too high brow for this event, I'm stil interested. Jaymes, there have been so many great ideas, I can't decide! I really hade no idea that this thread would explode into so many great recipes.

I tried the lamb burger today and was deeply dissapointed. It was only a few moments ago that I realized why I didn't like it. I ordered it medium rare and the outside wasn't grilled/charbroiled at a high enough temperature so the result was warmed lamb on the outside and red lamb on the inside. A burger needs to be browned and crispy on the outside, not what I had. Blech. The frites on the other hand were fantasic as was the pan-seared fish that Batgrrrl ordered. It was cod and served with a white wine reduction and cream sauce with the house bacon and parsley. A wonderful combination. Her "onion fries" with preserved lemons was also an unexpected and tasty gift.

D'oh! I forgot to log out and log back in after my better half had used the computer.