Willie

First of all I would like to thank Franci for starting the post about the spiralizer, this has given us a lot more options for utilizing our zucchini and other veggies. I would also like to thank everyone on eGullet for inspiring me and educating me about our wonderful world of food. Today I made elk meatballs that I smoked on the Barbie and place them on a bed of sautéed zucchini noodles with a simple chicken-based veloute sauce and topped with grated parmesan. I made the elk meatballs with 30% homegrown pork fat, grated Parmesan cheese, oregano and fresh parsley. milk, egg, pepper, granulated onion and garlic.

Made blue marlin fish cakes last night. Blue marlin is a white mild and firm fish. Poached the fish then pulsed it in the food processor, added egg, pulsed sourdough day old bread, dried milk, panko, old bay, pepper, onion, garlic, chives and a little hoisin sauce.

Cauliflower takes on a rich nutty flavor when roasted or fried. I pan seared the cauliflower in garlic olive oil, then made a hollandaise sauce adding crema mexicana and some old bay seasoning, topped with chives and chive flowers.

Scubadoo, sure would like to know how your system works. Dcarch, that smoker looks like you borrowed parts from the space station for that build, have no idea how yours works either but looks way cool! Might be more then this country bone head can understand. LOL!! no really!

This is my tin can cold smoker I have been using for about two years. I pulled it out of the smoker box to take pictures. It runs on pellets and you could hold on to the pipe all day if you wanted to, does not get hot. I light it with a hand held propane torch. Materials needed, 1' X 3/4" black pipe, 8" X 1/4" copper pipe and two cans and a large fish tank or small pond pump, also one tin can lid and a small nut and bolt. Tools needed, drill, bits and hack saw for the copper. About time to replace the bottom can. The top can not only holds the smoke in it acts like a bellow when the smouldering pellets sometimes slows down. Just lift it up and down fast a few times and it takes off again. About time to replace the bottom can. When I replace the bottom can I will take it all apart and photograph all the parts and post.

I buy a rotisserie kit from some place like sears and fabricate the rest.

Just built one of two portable rotisserie units for hunting camp, had to try one. This unit sets on top of free standing fire bricks. Made my first fire roasted chicken with it and it came out moist and tasty. Rubbed a homemade garam masala on it. Next one will be built with form stakes.

Today I made empanadas, chicken and pork and had a couple for lunch. The chicken empanada is made with rotisserie chicken roasted tomatillos, roasted poblano's, roasted onions and then I put in roasted pumpkin seeds, cream cheese and smoked jack cheese and cilantro. I make the pork with homemade ancho chili sauce with cumin, a little cinnamon, nutmeg and a couple of chipotle peppers. Chicken stock and some smoked jack cheese.

My wife loves hummus, so I make her garlic lime and for camp I make a few others like chipotle lime and spinach. And I agree with Rotuts lots of olive oil on top. Crappy photo,sorry.

One of my sweeties favorites, Egg Foo Yung consisting of: fresh ranch eggs, bean sprouts, thin sliced asparagus, oyster sauce, soy sauce, a little sesame oil, some chicken broth. Quick and easy.

gfweb I agree. I use pellets now and never cared for the flavor of soaked chips. The burn with the pellets is consistent all the time, and I can set my timer and count on it 95% of the time. I can get a big selection of pellets at the local cash and carry. They cost about ten bucks for twenty five pounds. With the BBQ I use hard or fruit tree wood off the property and smoke large cuts of meat with that.

Scubadoo, you may be right about the white vs blue smoke ( I have heard this before). I have not up to this point been unhappy with or noticed any off or bitter taste. During the winter months I smoke a lot of cheese for friends and family and ever one seems loves the stuff. I have to apologize for saying I use a aquarium pump, it is actually a small pond pump with a control dial for the air out put. It gives you a lot more control over the speed of burn and smoke amount.

Here is the kiwi build. For some reason it did not post on my last post.

Scubadoo,I use a small butane torch it get it lit. Then the vortex from the pump and pipes keeps the fire slow burning. Here are the youtube links I used to do the build. I don,t smoke unless it's below 60F, but the box temp is always stays the same as the ambient outside temp. That is salt in the pan. Love smoked salt on my eggs, beans, etc. www.youtube.com/watch?v=SpNYaDGkMPw

Chris, I use a homemade cold smoke gene that I built out of two cans, two pieces of pipe and a fish tank pump. I use cherry or apple pellets and it works great. Found the design on youtube a few years back from a fella in N.Z. Does not warm the box up at all. Nice job on the box!

Had elk ribs with an Asian influenced barbecue sauce.

This is a great thread! I recently made about 10 pounds of bear sausage for a client. Basically it's an Italian style sausage with fennel, coriander, fresh garlic, granulated onion, pepper, salt, dad's daily red wine, and fresh parsley. This was a young bear who had been gorging on huckleberries for the last month prior to harvesting. I'm amazed how much talent is out there in the charcuterie arts on this site.

That grouse was about a pound and a half. The morels were picked back in June in the McCall Idaho area and then dried. There's also the blue grouse which is not as common as the forest grouse and they can get up around 2 1/2 pounds. We would usually see four to eight grouse in the morning and roughly the same in the evening. As you can see they have a lot of breast meat.

I just returned from the Selay, Bitterroot wilderness and there was a bumper crop of huckleberries. The forest grouse have been gorging on the berries for the last five or six weeks. These birds were everywhere. I marinated this one in huckleberries juice overnight and rubbed homemade pesto on it before putting it in the Dutch oven with potatoes onions and morels. These are some of the fattest birds I've ever seen up there before. There was no chance of getting a finished photo after two hungry hunters had hiked 8 miles that day, sorry.

Chicken thighs stuffed with ricotta cheese rehydrated morel mushrooms toasted sunflower seeds and fresh parsley and basil then roasted in the barbecue. I then placed the thighs in a pan of sautéed garden tomatoes,peppers and onions and canned artichoke hearts. I added a homemade marinara sauce, graded with Parmesan and mozzarella cheese. I then put the lid on and slow simmered for about 10 minutes.

An't my winery, just a good friend's. Really it is our winery, rotuts you can go there and enjoy the place the same way I do. Sally will give you a warm welcome and ask you to stay a while and enjoy yourself. Take a picnic and hang out for the day. Anyone from this community would be welcome there. Early fall is the best time to visit. I have had a hell of a time trying to get citrus to grow here. Just a little to cold in the winter and to hot in the summer.

Thanks Shelby and rotuts: OK Shelby will do, rotuts you have a good point and that is the standard for cooking ab. I have cooked it so many time in my life span I was just throwing it out there to this great group of creative and talented people, more done the lines of "what would you do" I guess in a way your saying don't mess with it, k.i.s.s. it so you can taste it. rotuts if your ever come back to norcal and get a chance stop by a little winery right on the water, that is my diving hole. It took me eight years to get back in the water there after losing a diving friend to a great white about 200 hundred yards south of there. (I was not there when it happened) www.pacificstarwinery.com

I have been diving for this snail almost all my life (think I was 12 the first time) and have cooked it every way I can think of (fried of course, grilled, BBQ whole, ground and made in to chowder. stir fried and baked and I could probably think of many more ways. I have friends coming over and that's what they asked for. I was thinking about meat balls with a lemon white sauce over pasta or stir fry it up. Just bored with the old ways. This is a red ab, old and some of it's vent holes are scared . What do ya think. The lower photos are of a abalone mount. This is a rare find, all most always the shells are scared from worms and other critters. Shell collectors would give their right .... for a shell like this. And now you know why the are called red abalone. over

Wow that's a lot of dough for a little dough, but diffidently cool. I will stick to my $15. press. Have you ever seen the little Latino lady's that make tortillas by hand so fast it looks like a blur and makes you dizzy when you watch? I do not know how many they can make an hour but it looks like about two or three hundred an hour.

See Liuzhou I did it again (Latter) . So is this forum about food or a spelling contests? 'cuz if it is spelling then I need all the help I can get so should I send my replies to you to proof read before posting? Back to the topic ten bucks for the avocado oil and nine for the RGEVOO at costco.