eG Foodblog: Chris Hennes - Pork and chocolate, together at last!

[Chris Hennes]

Welcome to now! It's now! The plan for the weekend is this:

Saturday:

1) Grocery store for BBQ ingredients and last-minute sausage requirements

2) Start sausage prep so pork has time to chill down

3) Coat PB & Js

4) Grind the meat for the Hot-smoked andouille

5) Stuff the andouille

6) Smoke the andouille

7) Grind the meat for the Hungarian Paprika sausage

8) Stuff the paprika sausage

Sunday

1) Smoke the shoulder and bacon

2) Make the cole slaw

3) Make the hors d'oeuvres

4) Make the potato salad

5) Party starts at 3!! Keep cooking!

[Chris Hennes]

You have this "I-can't-wait-to-get-a-bite" look. Adorable!

←

Actually, that's the "Oh, god, she's got the camera again..." look... That picture made me laugh... I had to include it!

[jsmeeker]

what cut of meat did you use for the tacos? looks like a strip steak.

You say that use the CI recipe for the tacos. I've used that before many times. It looks like you used pre-made taco shells. Next time, you should really try frying up your own. They can really make a big difference in the taco.

[Pierogi]

Finished martini:

Yummmmmmmmmmmmm. Dry martinis.

LOVE those olive picks. Those are *WAY* cool.

[mizducky]

Re: peanut butter gone savory--the idea may take some getting used to for us Americans who think of peanut butter as sweet, but just consider savory peanut sauces from Southeast Asia, such as Indonesian gado-gado or Vietnamese nuoc leo, and then the idea will be much easier to swallow. So to speak.

←

Can't even imagine these sauces. Sounds like it's time for a visit to one of my local Vietnamese restaurants. What dishes would I find nuoc leo in?

Nuoc leo is the traditional dipping sauce for Vietnamese salad rolls (i.e. the ones wrapped in rice paper but not thereafter deep-fried). Here is a typical recipe -- note that the author stresses starting with peanuts, not prepared peanut butter. Re the Indonesian gado-gado--it turns out that the sauce is called sambal kacang. This is new info to me, as the cookbooks I first learned this dish from called the sauce by the name of the dish.

Unfortunately, as partner and roommate both have blood pressure issues, fish sauce is an absolute no-no in my repertoire.  Given what I've seen of the sodium content of most Asian sauces, I'm beginning to wonder whether anyone on a sodium-restricted diet can eat most East or Southeast Asian cooking.  (I don't recall this subject coming up in our tag-team foodblog, mizducky.)

←

Alas, it is true that a lot of yummy Asian condiments may be too sodium-loaded for someone with a medical condition who has to be really strict with sodium. On the other hand, my personal far-from-scientific impression is that, for people without such health restrictions, they'd find most Asian dishes cooked with typical amounts of these sauces to be less of a sodium hit than, say, your typical Campbell's soup.

Well, to calm my frustration, I am currently enjoying a 5:1 gin martini: Tanqueray, Noilly Prat, 8 drops of Fee Bros. orange bitters, and two olives from the olive bar at Wegmans (I don't recall the variety). It is helping...

←

It is a sad commentary on what passes for mixed drinks in too many bars these days that you have to actually specify a "gin martini." It's the martini made with gin that's the standard--all those sugar-laden confabulations that happen to be served in a martini glass are the imposters, dang it all!

Despite the name, I almost never get sushi there. Stay away from the sushi this far from a body of water... instead, I get the lunch combo, which comes with soup ... Katsudon, and four banchan (that is the term, right?):

←

I've seen it variously transliterated as "banchan" or "panchan." Either seems to work just fine. I tend to stick with "banchan" because ... well, just force of habit, I guess.

[KatieLoeb]

Chris, you done us proud. That martini is a thing of great beauty. Picture perfect in the most literal sense. Gorgeous.

The truffles look pretty good too! High class Rice Crispie treats?

[Chris Hennes]

what cut of meat did you use for the tacos? looks like a strip steak.

You say that use the CI recipe for the tacos. I've used that before many times.    It looks like you used pre-made taco shells. Next time, you should really try frying up your own. They can really make a big difference in the taco.

←

It's a chuck roast---what you see there is about 3 lbs of beef. I had actually planned on making my own tortillas from scratch, but I hadn't done so in a few months, and my masa smelled a bit off, so plan "b" was, unfortunately, the store-bought variety. I love the CI suggestion of frying store-bought corn tortillas, it works beautifully, but I don't have any on hand right now.

So, good morning! After a cup of coffee I am off to the Wegmans to pick up sausage and BBQ supplies. Then, a full day of pork extravaganza! (With some chocolate adventures on the side ).

[MarketStEl]

what cut of meat did you use for the tacos? looks like a strip steak.

←

I will assume that when you encounter this cut in a restaurant in Dallas -- or in OKC, for that matter -- they call it by its proper name: Kansas City strip.

My one-man campaign to educate the unwashed masses of the Northeast is making very little headway, assistance from Ted Turner (via Ted's Montana Grill) notwithstanding. (Had a buffalo KC strip there Friday before last, courtesy my closest friend in the PGMC. Just as tasty and rich as beef, but much leaner.)

Of course, the bigger tragedy is that you can get better Kansas City strip steaks in steakhouses in the city for which it is misnamed than in the city whose name it properly bears.

[MarketStEl]

BTW, Chris: Fantastic pictures, and did I tell you you look cute with that "oh-my-God-she's-got-the-camera-again" expression? It's almost as good as that lookie-at-what-I-got! expression in your avatar.

Not only are you a meat and chocolate god, you are obviously a Photoshop god as well.

It really is a shame you won't be joining us Philly phood phans.

[Chris Hennes]

Not only are you a meat and chocolate god, you are obviously a Photoshop god as well.

←

Hey now! No Photoshoppery involved! When you take thousands of photos, one of them is bound to turn out OK... (As an aside, I do typically tweak the white balance and contrast, and sometimes play with the saturation. White balance and contrast seem to be the real keys to decent-looking food photography.)

ETA: Yes, we would have had a great time---and it sounds like I would have picked up a lot of food trivia along the way! Philly remains one of my favorite cities, so I'm sure I will be around occasionally . And I will try to keep my KC Strip Steak terminology straight! Care to share the origins of the term?

Edited April 12, 2008 by Chris Hennes (log)

[hummingbirdkiss]

chiming in late but I have been reading like crazy ...just wanted to say I am so enjoying your blog Chris! thank you for taking the time to share your life with us.

I have to google Wegmans it must be a regional market?

[Chris Hennes]

chiming in late but I have been reading like crazy ...just wanted to say I am so enjoying your blog Chris! thank you for taking the time to share your life with us. 

I have to google Wegmans it must be a regional market?

←

Yeah, Wegman's is a Northeastern U.S. chain: they are nice. This picture doesn't do it justice, but I didn't want to take the camera inside:

(Aside: man, it's a perfect day out! I should have the BBQ today, tomorrow is going to be crappy!)

[patris]

What a fantastic blog this is! After reading yours, and Lior's, and Lindacakes's (?) - and others, but yours are the ones that stick out in my mind recently - I'm really struck by the beauty of documenting the simple things we do every day - eating, cooking, all the little choices we make about what and where to eat or what to do with our time. You all have taught me much about savoring the gorgeousness that usually goes ignored.

I can't wait to see how the PB&Js turn out!

[JTravel]

From the home of Wegmans, Rochester, NY, and as a mother of a Penn State graduate (ChE) I just want to say thanks for a wonderful blog. Great photos and wonderful organization.

I am always telling our foreign grad students that not everyone in the U.S. has a store as nice as Wegmans. They are certainly responsible for bringing us many products we could not get before. But the students consider Wegmans (as do I sometimes) high end and shop in the local ethnic markets. Nothing wrong with that either. I think this being home territory for Wegman's we will never get Whole Foods or Costco here.

[Chris Hennes]

I can't wait to see how the PB&Js turn out!

←

So far so good: here's a preview of what they look like before coating (each rectangle is 1" x 1/2" and there are 156 of them):

[rooy1960]

I can't wait to see how the PB&Js turn out!

←

So far so good: here's a preview of what they look like before coating (each rectangle is 1" x 1/2" and there are 156 of them):

←

oh, dude, those are positively BEAUTIFUL, even naked; can't wait to see them dressed! your blog is so awesome. thank you so much for taking the time to share with all of us!

cheers-

leslie

[Kerry Beal]

You have got a shitload of dipping in your future Chris. Have fun!

[Domestic Goddess]

You have got a shitload of dipping in your future Chris.  Have fun!

←

Sssssh! You might scare him Kerry. Then we won't get to see them covered.

Oh Chris, can I PM my addy to you? You can send a batch over as soon as you're done dipping them. They are absolutely gorgeous nekkid or otherwise.

[Abra]

White balance, contrast, and FOCUS. The focus on that BLT is breathtaking!

[Chris Hennes]

You have got a shitload of dipping in your future Chris.  Have fun!

←

lol, I know! It is kinda intimidating, but it gives me something besides work to do this evening. While I am waiting for the skin to form on the jelly to make them easier to dip, I'm making sausages. First up is a Hungarian Paprika sausage... here is a teaser (seasoning sample before stuffing, which I am doing when I finish this post):

[Chris Hennes]

OK, just finished stuffing the andouille:

These need to rest for a couple hours to develop a pellicle, but they will get hot-smoked this evening. The Hungarian Paprika are resting in the fridge overnight, to get cold-smoked tomorrow. Once I have finished the hot-smoking tonight I'll post the whole assembly series, as usual. And while those are smoking, I will be dipping PB&Js like mad!

[rooy1960]

OK, just finished stuffing the andouille:

These need to rest for a couple hours to develop a pellicle, but they will get hot-smoked this evening. The Hungarian Paprika are resting in the fridge overnight, to get cold-smoked tomorrow. Once I have finished the hot-smoking tonight I'll post the whole assembly series, as usual. And while those are smoking, I will be dipping PB&Js like mad!

←

chris-

that andouille looks deelish. could you explain briefly the hot/cold smoking thing?

thanks,

leslie

Edited April 12, 2008 by rooy1960 (log)

[jsmeeker]

nice work on the PB&Js and the sausage. I'm loving seeing how many people are viewing this at any given time.

[Chris Hennes]

that andouille looks deelish.  could you explain briefly the hot/cold smoking thing?

←

Sure: with hot smoking you are actually cooking the product, like in a low oven, but with smoke added. My smoker runs about 250 degrees F (~120 C), so I put the andouille sausages in the smoker and they will take about two hours to get to 150 degrees F, which is the target temp. With cold smoking, you use a burner to generate smoke, but then then you pipe that smoke over to another unheated chamber, keeping it around 50 degrees F, in my case (I use ice in the chamber to keep the temperature down). With cold smoking you are not cooking the product, just adding smoke flavor to it.

This is the smoker setup I am using:

So the red cylinder is the hot smoker, and I pipe the smoker over to the rubbermaid chamber, which is the cold smoker. Make sense?

[Chris Hennes]

Oh, yeah: and I just ate lunch (yes, at about 4pm: I've been busy today!). I had the Black and Blue bacon cheeseburger at Backyard Burgers. Sorry, no pictures, I was out running errands and didn't have my camera... I generally like BYB, although I think they overseason the burger to the point where you can't really taste the beef. But anything with bacon and blue cheese on it has to be good!