Showing posts with label Adventure. Show all posts

I tried my hand at a new dish, and though I made some major changes to the original recipe, it turned out really good. And yes, I know I am a king at plate presentations.

6 chicken drumsticks
1 large onion
2 potatoes
3 carrots
(1 red and 1 green bell pepper, but only if you have room in your pot, which I did not)
1 and 1/2 cups basmati or long grain rice
3 cups water
14 oz can diced or chopped or whatever Tomatoes
3 Tbsp Canola oil (or really any type of cooking oil is fine)
chopped Cilantro
1 jar Patak's Biryani curry paste. (the most difficult but most essential ingredient)


You will want to use the largest pot you have a top for, or cut the portions down. I started by chopping up all the veggies into similar size pieces. I put the oil in the pot and tossed in all the veggies and the chicken drumsticks setting the burner on high. I let these cook for a bit while stirring it down. I also added some salt to help it cook down. After about 10 mins, I added the can of tomatoes, rice, water and the whole jar or Biryani paste. I mixed that up and turned the heat down to medium. I put the top on and and let it do it's thing. I still opened it and stirred it every once and a while, once every 5-10 minutes so the rice on the bottom didn't burn. Once it all got real hot and bubbly, I turned down the heat. Essentially it is like making a jambalaya. It seems pretty wet at first but the rice ends up absorbing it all and it thickens up. This all cooked for about 30-45 more minutes. Now at this point it was probably done, but I had to go do some other stuff. To keep it hot and just to make sure the chicken was cooked all the way through, I turned on the oven, let it heat up, then turned it off and put the pot, with the top on into the oven. I left it here for about an hour and a half. When I took it out it was really hot still. Actually after it sat out for another hour, the rice was still steaming when I dug through it with the spoon. Who'da thunk rice with all it's starch held onto heat all that well. The final step is to add some chopped cilantro to the top.

So I don't really know if the last 2 hours of being in the warm oven did much, but it turned out really good. The rice was nice and sticky, the veggies were all soft, and the chicken was tender and moist. I would probably do things different next time however. I would decrease the portion size, by a lot. I might increase the veggie ratio to get more of that flavor, specifically on the onion. And finally, the chicken, while having perfect texture didn't really have a lot of flavor. I might try grilling it up first, or maybe marinating it in plain yogurt and tandoori paste.

So this is my first meal I made after moving to Portland. It is fairly simple because we didn't have many supplies to use and pretty much all of the utensils were still packed up.

Tzatziki Sauce
Small container of Greek Plain Yogurt
4 garlic cloves, chopped
3-5 inch chunk of cucumber, chopped
Dill weed
olive oil
tsp. vinegar
salt pepper

I would have used a medium/fine grater on the cucumber but couldn't because I didn't have one. So I chopped the cuc up until it was really fine. I then squeezed as much liquid out as I could using a paper towel. Everything else I just mixed up in the yogurt until it tasted good

Salad
Lettuce
Spinach
Green Beans
Caesar dressing

We went to the Farmers Market to pick up some produce. I found a small head of unspecified lettuce, a bunch of spinach, and green beans. There was a bunch of other stuff as well but I'll save that for other Vittles And Mangia posts. I briefly boiled the Green Beans and chopped the rest.

The steak was seasoned by Tarrin using various spices we found in my roommate Michelle's spice rack.

I didn't have any spatulas or tongs and only one fork in the whole house, so that is what I used to flip the steaks and pull the green beans out of the water. While eating, Tarrin and I had to pass the fork back and forth to eat our salads and steaks. Good times.

I got the Escovitch Fish and Festival which is pictured above. Before going in I knew this is what I wanted to get to compare it to Jeremy's Island party fish escovitch. The fish was talapia and the festival in the name referred to the sweet bread stick sitting on the cabbage and carrots. Right above that in the picture you can see a small bowl that contained the escovitch sauce. This was quite a few degrees hotter than Jeremy's sauce. It didn't have bell peppers, only onions, habenero and whole all spice berries. I actually preferred Jeremy's escovitch over this one, which isn't to say this one was bad. The talapia was just a lot thinner so you didn't get that good full bite feeling from it, and the fish itself wasn't as full bodied as the red snapper. In Jeremy's, he had enough veggies to eat with the fish, while this, the onions on top only added a slight seasoning to each bite of fish. But enough about the comparisons. Now we talk about the other good stuff here.

My dad and I both got a mango mint lemonade that was really tasty. There were quite a few chunks of mint and mango pulp but the flavor was awesome.

My mom got the Jerk Chicken off the Grill. It was maybe my favorite thing I tasted. The chicken had a mango chutney stuffed into the crevices of the breast and on top that was killer. My dad got the Jerk Shrimp off the Grill that I didn't get to try because he ate it fairly quickly. I did try his corn on the cob that came with it. It tasted like are really nice fresh grilled corn but had another layer that tasted like it had been marinating in coconut milk before being cooked up.

My sister and Tarrin both got the Brown Stew Chicken which was pretty good. The serving size on this dish was much larger. It was filled out with basmati rice and red beans which I finished off both of their plates when they couldn't eat any more. It was seriously good, especially when it mixed into the Brown chicken sauce. The chicken was really soft and fell apart, and the stew sauce was dark and tasted like a beef stew that had been cooked down to a much richer gravy. Super good.

So yeah we didn't get any desserts but on the way home we stopped at the Churro Station and got like 6 churros filled with a variety of sweet stuff and since they were closing for the night, they tossed in like 4 extra regular churros for free. So I guess this is also a Churro Station review.

...A momentous occasion, to be sure.

When: Saturday, the 26th of July
Where: Jeremy and Ambers house
What: A group of meat enthusiasts stressing out over every minor detail concerning a slow-smoking, fatty, delicious, 6.71 lb slab of pork butt.



This is how it all went down:

We bought the shoulder, choosing a butt over a picnic. Our cut was heavily marbled, and had a thick layer of fat. We prepped it by coating it entirely in plain yellow mustard, and then Stew and I threw together a very basic dry rub consisting of brown sugar, onion powder, garlic powder, and black pepper. Our measurements weren't precise, so if you attempt it your self, just keep adding to your mix dash by dash until it smells good to you. We applied the dry rub to the mustard by patting it (slapping, really) into the meat. We are pork slappers. There, I said it.
We used a regular propane grill, with two burners and separate burner controls. Stew had prepped some perforated foil packets containing pre-soaked mesquite chips. I was concerned about using mesquite, as I'd read that with a large cut of meat, which requires a long time to cook, the smoke flavor of the mesquite can overpower. It didn't this time, but next time we plan on experimenting with a different wood. We prepped the grill by firing up only one of the burners, and placing a couple of our wood packets on that same side.
Now, it is important to get the woodsmoking before you put your meat in. Also, you should test the temperature of your grill, and see if you can't manage to maintain around 200-235 degrees farenheit. If your wood is smoking and your temp is right, you're ready to shove the baby in. Poor choice of words perhaps, but Stew did point out when we were smothering the butt with mustard, that our cut was roughly the same weight and size of a newborn infant.
Yes, it did make the whole thing a little disturbing.

We placed our shoulder on the off burner side, or the indirect heat, placing a disposable aluminum pan underneath the meat to catch the drippings. We closed the lid, and left it alone for 45 minutes to 1 hour. That is when we applied the first "mop", or baste.
As far as sauces go, we were working with a couple:

- Eastern North Carolina BBQ Sauce -

1 cup white vinegar
1 cup cider vinegar
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1 tablespoon cayenne pepper
1 tablespoon hot pepper sauce (e.g. Tabasco™), or to taste
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground black pepper

Combine the white vinegar, cider vinegar, brown sugar, cayenne pepper, hot pepper sauce, salt and pepper in a jar or bottle with a tight-fitting lid. Refrigerate for 1 to 2 days before using so that the flavors will blend. Shake occasionally, and store for up to 2 months in the refrigerator.
This one is pretty good, but be warned, it is hot. If you like hot, you won't think it's that bad, but if you don't like ze spicy it'll probably be too much.

- Kansas City Style BBQ Sauce -

1-1/2 cups of water
1/2 cup of your favorite ketchup
1/3 cup white vinegar
1/4 cup tomato paste
1/4 cup molasses
2 tablespoons of white sugar
1 teaspoon of Liquid Smoke flavoring
1/2 teaspoon of onion powder
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1/2 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1/8 teaspoon of garlic powder.

Add all of the ingredients to a saucepan, and over medium-high heat stir until the mixture comes to a boil. Lower the heat to medium. Continue boiling uncovered, stirring often, until the barbecue sauce thickens.

We opted not to add the liquid smoke flavor to the Kansas City, which may have been a mistake. In general, we think liquid smoke is pretty nasty. Stew and I thought the flavor of this one was great, but the consensus from everyone else seemed to be that it was a really great pasta sauce, but not bbq.
For our mop, we actually combined equal parts of both sauces. Basically, on the hour, you open the grill back up, checking on your smoke, replacing wood packets with new ones if your smoke is dying out, and you use a brush to slop your baste on. Close it back up and wait another hour.

General rule of thumb amongst bbq competitors seems to be to smoke for roughly 1 - 1.5 hours per pound of meat, or until the internal temp of the meat is around 185-195 degrees. We got started at a little after 2pm, and we pulled the pork out at just before 9pm. The internal temp was smack dab at 185. I wanted to go a little longer but at that point we had a house full of hungry people and it was time to just do the damn thing. We let it sit for about 20 minutes.

The actual pulling part of pulled pork, is harder than you might imagine. I've seen it done on tv where it looks as if the butcher is just ever so lightly scraping the meat with a fork and it's falling completely off the bone. Ours did not do this. At first, I was actually worried that we had screwed something up because it took quite a bit of muscle to fork in and rip it apart. Our meat was really tender though, so ultimately I think it was just a matter of technique.

We served it on potato buns, with the two different sauces available, corn on the cob, watermelon, and potato salad.

Everything was pretty gosh darn delicious. We learned a lot, and next time will be even better. For one thing, we plan on building a proper smoker with a large enough chamber to do some ribs, and maybe some chicken along with another pork butt. Our sauces were pretty good, but could use some tweaking. Everyone agreed that they were a little too thin. We aren't looking for molasses consistency, but ours were very loose. Over all, it was a surprisingly successful first super event. RING THE BELL!