Bourbon, Sriracha Sauce and Barley Malt, What do These Things Have in Common?

So the new toy for the grill showed up at my door (the rotisserie attachment for those of you too lazy to check out my previous post) from Amazon a few days ago and the first decision to be made was what to cook? Yes, yes, we must figure out what to cook first.

For some reason my brain got on a pork roast track and wouldn't let go.  My fingers even typed out Rotisserie Pork Roast Recipes on my keyboard while on the internet before I realized what I was doing.  My grand plan was to cook barbecue chicken first, after all I got this need to have little sis tell me I finally matched Grandma Williams barbecue chicken, but like I said my brain kept saying PORK ROAST, PORK ROAST, PORK ROAST!!!!  OK, OK I get it, let's see what Google brought me on my search.  Well, well, the second search link Bourbon Rotisserie Pork Roast sounds interesting and simple ingredients.  

• 1 5-6 pound boneless pork shoulder
• 1 tablespoon kosher salt
• Rub:
• 2 tablespoons light brown sugar
• 2 teaspoons whole black peppercorns
• 2 teaspoons mustard seed
• 1 teaspoon paprika
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 teaspoon onion powder
• Mop:
• 1 cup bourbon
• 1/2 cup light brown sugar
• 1 small onion, pureed
• 1/4 cup ketchup
• 1/4 cup corn syrup (preferably dark)
• 2 tablespoons brown mustard

Also, see that first ingredient listed under the mop recipe?  Bourbon?  That one got stuck in my brain too.  Now I got two things rattling around in my head, pork roast and bourbon, that's an awful lot for me to process at one time.  I decide to kill two birds with one stone and make this recipe I found, the barbecue chicken will have to wait for another day.

I'll admit, I didn't use the recipe above but I made one up along the same lines:

• 1 5-6 pound boneless pork shoulder
• 1 tablespoon kosher salt
• Rub:
• 2 tablespoons light brown sugar
• 2 teaspoons whole black pepper
• 1 teaspoon paprika
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 teaspoon onion powder
• 1 teaspoon ancho chili powder
• Mop:
• 1 cup bourbon
• 1/2 cup light brown sugar
• 1/4 cup sriracha chili sauce
• 1/4 cup barley malt
• 2 tablespoons dijon mustard

I don't know why I like cooking with bourbon because I can't stand the taste.  I guess it's just like wine, again, I don't like the taste of it, no matter how expensive, but I like cooking with it.  Also, lately I've had sriracha sauce in the frig and I've substituted it for ketchup in different sauces and marinades.  I like the flavor and little bit of heat it brings.  The barley malt is from a pizza dough recipe (more on that in a later post) I've been making so I have been substituting that for sugar or honey in some recipes.  I roasted the pork roast for around 1-1/2 hours over my grill that started at 450 degrees and settled on 350 degrees after a 1/2 hour or so.  The mop was applied every 15 minutes after the initial 45 minutes of roasting.

Ahhh, the sweet, succulent taste of pork.  It's hard to beat a good pork roast and even harder to beat when spun on a rotisserie.  I think I'll keep this new toy and look for more rotisserie recipes. So to answer the question Bourbon, Sriracha Sauce and Barley Malt, what do these things have in common?  Why, obviously, pork roast and rotisseries.

Spinning Food with a Purpose

It's been awhile since I last visited here but I think I'm back to post more pics, recipes and whatever else I feel like, after all, this is my blog and I can do what I want.  A couple of years ago the whole family moved to Facebook and that killed the blog writing for everyone.  Why spend all the time writing and editing photos for a blog post when all that needs to be done is to take a pic with the new fangled phone cameras, post to Facebook and write a clever sentence or two?  It all seems so easy when compared to writing and maintaining a blog.

I thought about it a few weeks ago and decided I wanted to get back into the blog business, back to my roots, where it all started years(?) ago.  I'll still post a pic or two on Facebook, after all how else will I ever get anyone to visit my blog, but the blog will tell my story with words, recipes and of course photos.  Will I be able to post photos of nightly dinner 5 minutes after I finish eating and before I even start to digest my meal?  Hell no, that is the big advantage of Facebook but with the blog I can share more photos and share recipes.  The blog will also give me a history of my food exploits and that is something hard to do with Facebook, even with the new timeline.  Now, on to the blog.

If you have been here before but it's been a while you will notice the new look.  It's called a " dynamic" blog where photos, somehow or other, are suppose to load faster.  Also, it's suppose to be easier to navigate when a visitor comes calling.  We'll see, if I don't like it I may change it back.

Enough BS let's get to the reason I'm here..........FOOD!!!

Weber Rotisserie Attachment

Rotisserie Magic About to Happen

For the last couple of years I've thought about (maybe I should say procrastinated) buying a rotisserie for my grill.  Ever since I cooked some barbecue chicken for my little sister and made the mistake asking her if it was as good as Grandma Williams barbecue chicken and she gave me the ole head shake no I knew eventually I would have to break down and buy one.  Now, I have to admit, I think I make a pretty mean barbecue chicken on the grill but apparently it's not up to Grandma's standards.  I had everything she used, grill and charcoal, but I didn't have a rotisserie.  Like I said earlier, after two years thinking about it (okay procrastinating) I finally broke down and bought one.  

Grandma's Barbecue Chicken?

Rotisserie cooking, as I have found out, brings a whole new level to cooking.  I don't know what took me so long to get in the game but I'm sure glad I did.  Stay tuned over the next few days because I got a couple of backlogged food items, obviously from the rotisserie, to post.

Orange Honey Glazed Chicken

I have  been waiting and waiting for big sis to post this recipe for about a year now but I guess she is too busy posting graduations, planning weddings, traveling to New York City and who knows where else to post food blogs.  Not that those things aren't important but come on, we are talking about food here, the basic ingredient to life.

She introduced me to this recipe a year ago after bragging about how it was her favorite chicken recipe for

 months prior.  I got to admit it's pretty darn good and well worth a post on this blog.

There are a couple of differences from the recipe posted below.  The first being I used thighs instead of breast (a change big sis made and I continued with it) and the second is I used orange juice instead of tangerine juice because I can't find tangerine juice. 

Let's take a look at this weeks cast of characters........

First things first and we must make the glaze.  It's an easy glaze to make just combine the thyme and orange juice in a sauce pan and cook down.  Remember to leave enough time to reduce the orange juice because it took me 45 minutes or so to get the orange juice reduced to what the recipe calls for. 

Now that the hard part is done it is time to FIRE UP THE GRILL!!!!!!

It really is pretty simple from here, start by cooking the thighs, brush on some glaze and take off the thighs before they are over cooked.  If you do that and follow the directions below here is what you end up with.

A delicious chicken recipe that is so simple to make it can be cooked for a weekday dinner.  My for rating for this recipe is 4.25 forks out of 5.  The only reason it is 4.25 is I think the recipe has too much cumin (personnel preference).  The next time I will cut the cumin in half and the rating will be higher, I have no doubt about that.

So in the end it looks like big sis really did have a good chicken recipe, even if she didn't get around to sharing it with everyone, and one well worth keeping around in the recipe box.

Bobby Flay’s Winner of a Chicken Dinner

Chicken With Tangerine-Honey Glaze

(Printable Recipe)

3 cups tangerine juice or tangerine-orange juice (not from concentrate)

5 fresh thyme sprigs

1/4 cup clover honey

Kosher salt and black pepper

3 Tbsp Spanish paprika

1 Tbsp ground cumin

1 Tbsp dry mustard powder

2 tsp ground fennel seeds

2 Tbsp canola oil

4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (about 8 oz. each)

2 green onions, thinly sliced, for garnish

1. Combine the juice and thyme in a medium saucepan and bring to a boil over high heat. Cook, stirring occasionally, until thickened and reduced to about 1/2 cup; remove the thyme stems and discard. Whisk in the honey until incorporated and season with 1/2 teaspoon of salt and 1/4 teaspoon of pepper. Transfer to a bowl and let cool to room temperature.

2. Heat grill to medium-high.

3. Stir together the paprika, cumin, mustard powder, fennel, and 1 teaspoon each of the kosher salt and black pepper in a small bowl. Brush both sides of the chicken with the oil, and season with salt and pepper. Rub the top of each breast with some of the spice rub and place on the grill rub-side-down. Cook, without touching, until they’re lightly golden brown and a crust has formed, 3 to 4 minutes. Turn the breasts over, brush the tops liberally with some of the glaze, flip them, and continue cooking until an instant-read thermometer inserted into the center registers 155°F. Remove from the grill, brush the spice-rub side with more of the glaze, tent loosely with foil, and let rest 5 minutes before serving.

Serves 4. Per serving: 460 calories, 39g carbs, 48g protein, 12g fat, and 125mg cholesterol.

http://www.parade.com/export/sites/default/food/recipes/parade/090719-bobby-flay-chicken-dinner.html

Grilled Salad

"Grilled salad?"  That's is the reaction of most people when I tell them I grill salad.  I used to grill salad as a side dish but it is so good we decided to use grilled salad as a main weeknight meal.  And why not, it so easy to make and quick too, perfect for a weeknight meal when both spouses work.

There really isn't recipe for grilled salad it is whatever you like on your salad.  As you can see the cast of characters in the photo below what I prefer on my salad.

This is pretty typical what I normally like on my salad expect this time I wanted to try the radicchio lettuce (that's the purple and white thing on the right for those of you not familiar with radicchio).  Usually I use romaine lettuce but somewhere, I think it was Bobby Flay, I watched a show about grilling salad and this is what they used.  I never used it before because it can be hard to find in the store.

I start out by cutting up the onions and peppers and tossing them into a bowl with the tomatoes.  I add extra virgin olive oil, salt and pepper, toss and skewer on wooden bamboo skewers.  I skewer the tomatoes by themselves because they don't take as long to grill as the onions and peppers.

You may be asking yourself "But what exactly does he grill?"  The answer is everything and yes, even the lettuce.  The heat from the grill totally transforms the lettuce into something completely different.  Any bitterness that was present in the lettuce will be gone after it hits the grill.  The heat brings the sugar out of the lettuce, or so that is the way I understand it.

I always grill a few extra onions and peppers.  They are excellent by themselves after they have been on the fire.  They are also good the next day cold, out of the frig.

Our choice of salad dressing was vidalia onion and peppercorn, salad dressing my son, John, picked out the last time he was visiting.  Overall I rate this salad 4.5 out of 5 forks for taste and 5 out of 5 crayons for color (I added the green onion because it lacked green color).  The radicchio lettuce isn't as good as the romaine, in my opinion and the wife's opinion too, but it sure does make up for it in color.

The next time you are trying to figure what to make for that weeknight meal don't forget about that grilled salad.  The recipe is simple, whatever you like, the salad dressing is simple too, again whatever you like.  This is a regular on our summer platters.

Fire Up the Grill!!!!

FIRE UP THE GRILL!!!!!!!  It feels good to be able to say that again.  I haven't been able to do that for over a year now ever since I left Wisconsin.  The wife and I have been living in an a condo, well really a two story apartment, where grilling wasn't allowed.  We decided to live there for a year so we could scout the neighborhoods here in Rockville and decide where we wanted to live.  Needless to say, the scouting is done, we're moved and thanks to my mother my grille is here in Rockville with us.  But this post isn't about my trusty Weber grill, this post is about my new Weber Smoky Mountain smoker. 

A couple of years ago Weber redesigned their smoker and decided to build it in a 22-1/2" model, the same as their every popular charcoal grill. Since I first saw the smoker online I knew someday I would have one.

This wasn't the maiden voyage for the smoker today, last week I tried a new way (at least for me) to cook a steak, which I will share in the near future, and I cooked a cranberry glazed turkey breast, which really needs to be a post for another day too.  You can see from the photo above this baby has the ability to hold a lot of charcoal for those really long smoking days.  As soon as I can find a delicious looking beef brisket recipe and a good beef brisket I am going to find out how long the charcoal will last in this baby.

But today's meal isn't about beef brisket or turkey breast, no sir, today we are talking about the number one food group, baby back ribs.  As most of you know, that take the time to actually read this blog, on my bucket list is to enter a barbecue contest and to win it.  The ribs have been a work in progress for the past 5 years with two steps forward and one back, or so it seems at times. 

Trying to hide behind the ribs are some baked beans.  The wife and I got the idea for these beans from reading the ingredient list on the back of baked beans we use to buy at a meat market in Wisconsin.  Cooking them on the smoker is from a bbq show I once watched on The Food Network.  Once everything is on the grate it is time to sit back and watch the smoke do its job........

......and watch the temperature so it stays between 225 and 250 degrees.  The extra temperature probe you see today is being used to watch the temperature on the lower rack to see how different it is from the upper thermometer.  By the way just as a note do not trust the upper thermometer as I found out when I checked the upper thermometer against my digital it was about 15 degrees off.

Two hours later it's time to pull the lid and see what we got.  Oh boy, it sure does smell good and starting to look pretty darn good too.  While the lid is off this would be a good time to mop a little sauce on the ribs. 

45 minutes later I repeat the process all over.

Oh we are so, so close now but you can't hurry perfection.  Another 45 minute wait, that's 3-1/2 hours for anyone trying to keep score, and we can finally open the lid on the smoker for the last time.  Let's get a close look this time, beans........

.....and baby back ribs.

I should note the ribs are finished off over hot coals and some of my "secret" barbecue sauce. 

On the traditional fork scale these ribs rate a 4.75 out of 5 forks.  I can't give them a 5 because they were a little saltier than I like.  I used a commercial seasoning mix, which I really like, but it contains 75% salt.  The good news is I found the recipe online and now I can start adjusting it more to my liking.  I believe this is the last item to complete for baby back rib perfection and entry into a bbq contest.  That will be one more item off my bucket list.

Throwdown Time!!

Christmas is almost here and that means it's time for another throwdown.  This years throwdown ingredient, rice.  The rules, according to niece Shae: Must use rice in the recipe.  I like it, short, sweet and keeps big sis from finding ways to cheat. 

I did my final trial run last weekend for Sunday Dinner and thought I would give everyone a sneak peak.

I'll have to reread the rules but I fairly certain I followed all the rules of the throwdown. Let me see, must include rice, check, I did that.  I think I'm good to go.

Watch out I'm ready and playing for keeps this time.

And just in case you're not sure what I am making here is the recipe

Ingredients:
Rice

Directions:
Cook

Good luck to all.

Ice Cream with Cranberry Syrup

We all have vices and bad habits we would like to break and I am no exception.  Years ago I thought I drank to much soda with caffeine so I swore off caffeine for a few months and 18 years later and I still haven't had a sip of caffeine.  12 years ago I went a step further and swore off all kinds of soda and haven't had a sip since.  But there is one food item I can't quit and never will, ice cream.  I'll admit my weakness, I love the stuff, if I am ever on death row you can bet it will be part of my last meal if not the entire meal. 

I like just about any type, cookies and cream, cookie dough, moose tracks, I could go on and on, but my favorite overall is probably plain old vanilla ice cream.  You can do so many different things with vanilla ice cream, eat it plain or cover it with toppings.  Everyone has their favorite toppings, chocolate, carmel, nuts, and fruit  but I think my favorite all time topping is maple syrup.  Yep just maple syrup, simple. 

If you remember a few days ago I posted cranberry pancakes with cranberry maple syrup that I made.  Now here is an idea, how would that syrup go on some of that good Alden's Ice Cream we have?  Well I didn't really know but I knew I was going to find out.  It doesn't get much easier to make, start with some vanilla ice cream and top with the cranberry maple syrup and enjoy.

Turns out to be some pretty good stuff.  A while back the wife made some cranberry jam and now I know what I can use it on, along with some maple syrup of course.  That's one habit I will never break.