Dinner! 2012

[ScottyBoy]

Nice! Did you get the smoke ring this time?

Great ring this time. I lower temp and longer smoke while refilling every hour or so.

[SobaAddict70]

Yeah, I'd say this 2nd attempt at a loaf was successful.

Scampi al forno, homemade bread

[Ashen]

shane -great looking pizza.. hope chris is doing ok.

ScottyBoy- Do you bring your meat/protein up to room temp before putting on the smoker? If you do , that might be reducing your smoke ring. Cold meat will develop a better smoke ring, if you are going for that look. Here is a good link that explains the whys and wherefor's . Most competition BBQ teams use this to their advantage although it does add time to the cook to bring up to final temperature.

http://www.genuineideas.com/ArticlesIndex/smokeParticles.html

[ScottyBoy]

It's thrown in after letting the rub sit on it overnight so, cold...

[kayb]

Good Lord. Away from the site for a couple of weeks, I have just sat and viewed four pages of the most gorgeous food on the planet and have been by turns enchanted, intimidated, driven to find recipes online, and grabbing my paper towel to mop up the drool.

I'm cooking burgers tonight. Too stinking hot to cook anything inside. 100F all week.

[robirdstx]

Way too hot to cook indoors here as well (108F on the patio this afternoon) so dinner was a grilled steak and a salad of romaine dressed with a bottled Caesar dressing.

[mgaretz]

Trial run of the new smoker.

Here's the smoker:

Tried to do pulled pork with a piece of pork shoulder. Smoked at 225F for about 7 hours to an internal temperature of 185F. It was only about 2.25 lbs and took much longer than I thought. Wanted to go to 190F but the family was hungry.

Here's the meat just out of the smoker:

It was tasty and not dry, but it also wasn't very tender and really didn't pull apart, so I had to cut it instead:

[jrshaul]

Bone in pork loin roast with a sweet ancho chili and butter glaze smoked to 140F internally over six hours. Next time, I'm going to cut it into chops and finagle a higher temperature - my smoker is crap.

[ChrisTaylor]

Heh. Did pulled pork last night, too. Used the 'Memphis Dust' from the Amazing Ribs site (nice page, that). No other marinades, etc. Placed it in the smoker for 3 hours at ~100C. Then wrapped it in foil with a little bit of 50:50 apple juice:cider vinegar and roasted it in the oven at ~100C for 7 hours. Pulled apart nicely. Was especially good when paired with the 'grown-up' mustard sauce from the same page.

[mgaretz]

Heh. Did pulled pork last night, too. Used the 'Memphis Dust' from the Amazing Ribs site (nice page, that). No other marinades, etc. Placed it in the smoker for 3 hours at ~100C. Then wrapped it in foil with a little bit of 50:50 apple juice:cider vinegar and roasted it in the oven at ~100C for 7 hours. Pulled apart nicely. Was especially good when paired with the 'grown-up' mustard sauce from the same page.

Mine was done with just Memphis Dust too.

[Ashen]

I was doing a initial burn in for the new bbq this afternoon then we had a mixed grill ( shrimp and veg skewers,sweet potato slices,italian sausage, tri-tip steak[didn't get a pic of this or the potato salad and rhubarb custard pie for dessert

new Q

mild italian sausage

veg and shrimp skewer

And I nicked shanes sweet potato slice idea.

pie..

[Franci]

Good Lord. Away from the site for a couple of weeks, I have just sat and viewed four pages of the most gorgeous food on the planet and have been by turns enchanted, intimidated, driven to find recipes online, and grabbing my paper towel to mop up the drool.

Hi everybody. I've also negletted the dinner thread lately but I've been coming once in a while to see what you have been cooking.

I'm totally with Kay! I LOVE all your food. I wouldn't know where to start but I would happily eat at your houses

Lately I've been an Ottolenghi kick.

Some of my last dinners

Eggplant kuku

Barley tabouleh

Marinated peppers with parmigiano

And yesterday night with a huge steak we had this wonderful fava salad and green tahini sauce

Edited June 25, 2012 by Franci (log)

[rotuts]

Wonderful equipment! thanks for sharing. Have to get a smoker of some type soon. thanks for the ref. to the memphis dust!

[gdenby]

Tried to do pulled pork with a piece of pork shoulder. Smoked at 225F for about 7 hours to an internal temperature of 185F. It was only about 2.25 lbs and took much longer than I thought. Wanted to go to 190F but the family was hungry.

...

It was tasty and not dry, but it also wasn't very tender and really didn't pull apart, so I had to cut it instead:

After making a few too many not very tender pieces of pork butt, my family has come to accept that that when I reply "Not ready yet," its worth the wait.

Once above 180, if I need to serve, I increase the temperature to 275 or 300. I wait for 195, and 200 is better.

[heidih]

Lately I've been an Ottolenghi kick.

Great looking dishes Franci. I have been eyeing Plenty. Are you cooking from one of the books or just web recipes?

[mgaretz]

Tried to do pulled pork with a piece of pork shoulder. Smoked at 225F for about 7 hours to an internal temperature of 185F. It was only about 2.25 lbs and took much longer than I thought. Wanted to go to 190F but the family was hungry.

...

It was tasty and not dry, but it also wasn't very tender and really didn't pull apart, so I had to cut it instead:

After making a few too many not very tender pieces of pork butt, my family has come to accept that that when I reply "Not ready yet," its worth the wait.

Once above 180, if I need to serve, I increase the temperature to 275 or 300. I wait for 195, and 200 is better.

I did exactly the same, except I stopped at 185. I fully expected the internal temperature to rise to 190 while it rested, but it didn't happen. In fact it immediately started to drop.

[MikeHartnett]

Lately I've been an Ottolenghi kick.

Great looking dishes Franci. I have been eyeing Plenty. Are you cooking from one of the books or just web recipes?

Many of the recipes are online, but if you are fond of cookbooks, buy it. One of the best I own.

[dcarch]

Franci – you have such mastery of using vegetables. I can enjoy the Eggplant kuku everyday.

Ashen – wonderful pizza.

Mgretz – I envy your smoker.

robirdstx – Nothing wrong with a nicely grilled steak.

SobaAddict70 - Scampi al forno looks delicious and beautifully plated, so is the potato salad.

patrickamory – I have made frijoles borrachos a few times, they didn’t come out as nice as yours.

Scottyboy – those smoked ribs, WOW! You are a good cook! :-) Chicken ballotine, Wow! You are a great chef!

Kim – Thanks. The dressing on my watermelon salad was French dressing with a little wasabi added. Those amazing looking curly bacon!

C. sapidus – lovely drumsticks.

percyn – perfect steak on fried rice.

rotuts – Thanks. The clam dish; the clams were sous vide cooked.

mkayahara – Thanks. The cauliflower was very easy pan sauted.

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Went to the farmer’s market, got some wonderful squashes and purple scallions, some extraordinary scallops and heritage pork belly.

Went to the supermarket, and got some Lamb neck bones. Lamb is expensive, but the neck bone was $1.65 a lb. A lot of meat on the bones. The flavor and texture of the neck bone meat is, IMHO, better than other lamb cuts of meat. Kind of like ox tails. I hope no one discover that. :-)

dcarch

Sous Vide Pork Belly with a Medley of squashes

Stewed Lamb Neck Bone

Scallops, patty pan squash.

Edited June 26, 2012 by dcarch (log)

[mgaretz]

There wasn't enough left over smoked pork for the "main course" for three, so I chopped it further and added it to fried potatoes, onions and eggs. I'm calling it a North Carolina Scramble!

The picture doesn't really do it justice! (My wife had fourths!)

[SobaAddict70]

dcarch -- lamb neck bones. similar to lamb shanks? looks great (and I won't tell your secret )

Fava bean, arugula and pea salad, with cow's milk ricotta cheese, lemon zest and mint

Spaghetti with heirloom tomatoes, bottarga and garlic.

There really isn't a recipe for this. I had some leftover cooking liquid from Saturday evening's dinner that had a LARGE amount of chopped garlic, some shrimp juices and olive oil. I fried the garlic in the residual olive oil, added some bottarga, chopped heirloom tomatoes and a little fresh oregano, added cooked drained spaghetti and let the pasta absorb some of the sauce. Served with a very tiny amount of grated pecorino romano cheese.

There is a tradition in Italian cuisine where you make a pasta sauce using meat drippings from say, a piece of roast beef or lamb. This is more or less the same concept.

[rotuts]

Stunning SV pork belly: would you pass on the details ... time/temp ... and that finish!

thanks

[Paul Bacino]

dCarch,

Just curious how many people are you cooking for, usually!!

Wonderfull stuff

[gdenby]

I did exactly the same, except I stopped at 185. I fully expected the internal temperature to rise to 190 while it rested, but it didn't happen. In fact it immediately started to drop.

The pork probably wasn't quite out of the "stall/plateau." While its been shown in the last year that the plateau is not the result of collagen absorbing heat while turning to gel, but just evaporative cooling, it still seems that the meat will not be shreddable until the temperature is rising reletively rapidly again.

If you don't have a probe with a graphing function, so as to see when the temperature begins rising sharply at the end of the plateau, just give the meat a poke. It will wobble almost like gelatine.

[C. sapidus]

dcarch – another amazing meal! I will keep an eye out for neck.

Georgian grilled chicken – Russian Georgia, that is. A mystery spice packet from Russian friends, mixed into a marinade with olive oil and fish sauce (probably not traditional) and grilled over charcoal. Y’all may be getting sick of my grilled meals, but da boyz can’t get enough.

Sauteed carrots and mushrooms – with sherry vinegar, garlic, chiles, oregano, and a little sugar. Eternal cucumbers, unpictured. Boys ate all the bread in the house, so we were short on carbs.

Neighbor switched to a gas grill, so he gave me a perfectly serviceable Weber charcoal grill (nicer than mine, actually), a chimney starter, and a bag of charcoal. Sweet!

[heidih]

Pork neck is a favorite of mine as well. I mentioned it in my eG blog here. Lots of bone and sweet bits to be picked out. I like that.