Ribs Redux

Hi!

Well I'll be damned! Another smokey discovery recently made!

If you've ever done any research into smoking meat, you may have noticed that there are as many different ways to smoke food as there are kinds of wood. It can get a little frustrating when you're investing a lot of time and money and effort to find out how to do something the best way possible only to discover there are 50 other ways to do it that may or may not be better.

In my original post on smoking ribs, I presented the 3-2-1 method of smoking, which involves rubbing the meat and refrigerating it overnight, smoking them for 2.5 to 3 hours uncovered, wrapping them in foil (aka "tenting") and splashing them with some sort of flavourful liquid (apple juice, cider, etc.), smoking for another 2 hours, unwrapping and finishing for an hour. Now, this always produced super-tasty ribs, but they never were quite the right tenderness for my exacting tastes.

So, with that in mind, I went back into Internet Search mode and found a different technique, one which involves a bit more work and attention, but the results were fantastic. I give credit to The Smoker King for this method, which I didn't follow to the letter, so I'll break it down for you in my own words and personal tweaks.

OK, so first of all, nothing has changed with the basics. We're looking for back ribs, membrane removed, rubbed in whatever goodness you have since invented or found online (or, if you're still using one of the rubs I've posted, awesome! Thanks for the compliment!) and left in the fridge overnight.

It's the next day that things get interesting.

Once your meat has been sitting out for about an hour to get to room temperature and your fire is going, it's time to apply the new secret technique! Oooooo...

What is said technique? A ridiculously simple mop sauce.

Mop Sauce for Ribs

- 1 1/3 cups apple cider vinegar
- 2/3 cup olive oil
- pinch of rib rub (if you don't have any, just a pinch of brown sugar and a tiny pinch of cayenne will suffice) NOTE: This pinch of rub is optional. Sugar burns/caramelizes during the smoking process, and the rub contains sugar. Some of us, like me, like this crispy, burnt-y, bitter flavour. Many do not. If you don't, omit the rub/sugar and just add a pinch of cayenne and some salt.

- Whisk together in a ceramic/glass bowl with a whisk or fork

Apply a generous amount of mob sauce to both sides of the rack(s) of ribs.

Place ribs on the smoker (bone side down) and smoke uncovered for 5 and a half hours. Apply a layer of the mop sauce to the top side of the ribs every 45 minutes, no need to mop the underbelly. Also, if you can find it, try out pecan wood with your ribs, its flavour is just wonderful. If your smoker is like mine, you may need to move the ribs around a bit to ensure even cooking. Don't flip them over though.

At the 4 hour, 30 minute mark, wrap ribs in foil with the rest of the mop sauce. Smoke for another hour.

Remove, unwrap, and let stand about 5 minutes before cutting into sections.

Admittedly, this results with this method aren't as pretty as the mahogany coloured ribs you get from the first method I've used. These ribs are going to be "wetter", even before you add BBQ sauce. But the texture and tenderness is PERFECT. Well, at least the closest I've ever come.

So, the rib experimentation will continue until TRUE pork perfection is achieved!

Till then, may you smell of wood smoke and meat vapour! And may every bite be as tasty as the last!

Cheers!

Adventures in Pulled Pork

Hi everybody!

Posting today on one of my more recent forays into the world of smoking that most noble animal, the Pig!

So, after months of hemming and hawing over trying pulled pork on the smoker, I finally tried my hand at it for a Canada Day BBQ. It didn't quite go as planned (maybe I should have followed the recipe more accurately), but the end result was quite tasty.

Now, as you all know, smoking is my new favourite. But most of the cuts of meat I've done have been fairly small and easy. How would a 6 pound pork shoulder turn out? I was justifiably nervous, especially as I was making it for a party! Eep!

So, let's start from the beginning. Well, there are numerous pulled pork recipes that abound on the 'Net, so I want looking and found enough info to cobble a basic recipe in my mind and I think I had the techniques well organized. And all it took to ruin that was to watch one episode of Road Grill on Food Network... For those who don't know, Road Grill is a travelling BBQ show hosted by former CFL QB Matt Dunigan (and also features Whalesbone executive chef Charlotte Langley!). As much as Mr. Dunigan's super-jock attitude might grate on my nerves, it's actually a pretty good show.

Now, in what I thought was a moment of TV serendipity, that particular episode covered off pulled pork. Awesome! And the way Mr. Dunigan made everything look was perfectly simple. Rub pork, let sit, mop (baste) with "mop sauce" once, leave on smoker for 5-6 hours and that's that! Unfortunately, I forgot to look at the actual goddamn recipe online! If I had, I would have noticed the "mop every 30 minutes" part. DAMMIT!! As a result, the pork was well-cooked, but a little dry. The fork-tender, "pullable" quality wasn't there as I took it off the smoker. I was a bit discouraged, but I had this giant slab of pork that was tasty, albeit a bit tougher than expected, and I'd be damned if I was going let it be ruined.

That being said, it looked mostly like smoked pork shoulder should, which is this:

So jealous of the forker who got it right in this picture!

Anyhoo, with resolve and knife in hand, I began the process of carving up pieces of the cooked pork shoulder and chopping it into small pieces, giving it that pulled pork look and feel. But how to make it more tender? Well, here's where I went "out of mandate", at least out of BBQ purist mandate. See, from what I've read of "Real BBQ", it has a strong presence/following/origin in North Carolina, where the slow smoked pork is indeed fork tender and is almost always served "dry" with some sort of dipping sauce on the side. Not at all like the sauce-laden messy goodness we usually find in this end of the continent.

Well, I went with the saucy method. I turned the oven to 300 F, placed all the meat and excess fat in a roasting dish, and slathered it with the Blueberry BBQ Sauce that seems to be my new signature and popped the whole mess into the oven for about 15 minutes. The heat helped render some of the fat, which in turn moistened the meat. When I took it out of the oven, I had nearly perfect pulled pork by Canadian standards.

So, disaster averted! All our guests enjoyed the pork, and Kari got to use it to make her grand experiment of the Pulled Pork Cupcake a reality (more on that in a future post, although the recipe may have to remain a closely guarded secret). But, that being said, I learned an important lesson: don't believe everything you see on TV!

OK, now that the dramatic account of "what went wrong" has been covered, maybe I should actually show y'all how it's done, and the proper directions will be provided!

Smoker Pulled Pork

First, you'll need your meat. I suggest going with a 2.5 kg pork shoulder (aka picnic roast or Boston butt), preferably bone-in, with fat cap still attached. The great thing about pork shoulder is that you don't need to prep the meat in any way as you would with ribs or tenderloin.

Once you get your meat home, rub it with a spice rub 12-24 hours before putting it on the smoker.
The following rub is my own adaptation of the rub used on Road Grill. It was really spicy and tasty.

Rub

- 1 cup brown sugar
- 4 tbsp cayenne pepper
- 4 tbsp smoked paprika
- 1 tsp onion powder
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp black pepper
- 1 tsp coriander
- 1 tsp yellow mustard powder
- 4 green cardamom pods, ground

Mix all ingredients together until well blended and coat meat with rub. You can apply a thin layer of olive oil or prepared yellow mustard to help the rub stick to the meat. Don't worry about the mustard changing the flavour of the meat, it's dissipated by the smoke.

Wrap rubbed meat in plastic and put in fridge.

The next day, remove meat from fridge about an hour before you put it onto the smoker so it warms up to room temperature.

While the meat is warming up, start your fire. You REALLY want to stick with lump charcoal when building a fire for smoking. I find briquettes, no matter how natural they say they are, smell (and, therefore, taste) like chemicals. And you don't want that flavouring your meat! What you do want flavouring your meat on top of the natural lump charcoal (usually maple in my neck of the world) is some sort of lovely wood chips. I used mesquite with my pulled pork to impart a strong flavour that can compliment the strong flavours in the rub and the mop (more on the mop in a moment). Soak 2/3 of your wood chips in water for at least 30 minutes. Reserve 1/3 of wood chips and keep dry.

OK, now it's time to apply your mop. A good mop is a thinner version of a basic BBQ sauce that helps keep the meat moist as it smokes.

I basically used the exact same formula as on Road Grill:

BBQ Mop


1 2/3 cups ketchup
1 cup apple cider vinegar
1/2 cup fresh apple cider (I used beer instead as I had no juice)
1/2 cup lightly packed brown sugar
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
4 teaspoons paprika
4 teaspoons dry mustard powder
1 teaspoon cayenne
1 teaspoon salt

Whisk all ingredients together in a glass or ceramic bowl.

Using a "mop brush" (see your local hardware store or BBQ dealer, if you're lucky enough to have such things where you live!) or simple basting brush, apply a generous amount of mop sauce to the pork shoulder before putting it on the smoker.

Once on the smoker, keep adding wood chips (2 handfuls wet chips to one dry) every 30-45 minutes to keep producing smoke. You want to smoke the pork at 250-260 degrees Farenheit for about 5 to 6 hours, and apply the mop sauce every half hour or so. You may need to add charcoal to the fire as you go to keep the heat up.

As the pork is smoking, you can make your BBQ sauce as you like it. I love my Blueberry BBQ Sauce so much, I'm linking it twice in the same post and it works wonders with pork.

Once the pork has finished smoking, you should be able to pull it apart with tongs and a fork in a large roasting pan. At this point, you may want to stir in your sauce to serve it "wet" or leave as is to serve "dry".

Serve on fresh buns topped with a bit of coleslaw for crunch with BBQ sauce for dipping on the side.

NOM ON THAT B*TCHES!! YEAH!

A simple meal for Summer and my favourite condiment!

Hello fledgling and full-fledged culinary aficionados,

Alright, it's time to bring it back to the easy. After gourmet steaks, polenta tortes, smoked pork and gold-leaf encrusted foie gras emulsion of rubies (OK, I made that last one up), it's time to rein it in a little and get back to the quick and easy. It's Summer, there's way too much outside to enjoy to be stuck in the kitchen for 3 hours.

Now, with all cooking, there are basics that everyone should have in the pantry/kitchen. A couple of bulbs of garlic, an onion or two, a couple of tomatoes, a stick of butter, a dozen eggs and a bottle of olive oil. With just that, you could eat pretty damn well! But, most of us crave a little variety in our diet. This can easily be achieved with a few pre-made storebought items that allow you to perk up the most basic meals into something quite tasty. Best thing is, chances are a lot of these are items you have sitting around in your fridge or pantry and might fly under the radar when you're thinking of what to make for dinner.

So, with that in mind, let's look at one quick and easy meal item that can be made with very few ingredients and almost no time: Salmon Patties. I got this one from Kari's mom, confirmed it online, and tweaked it a little. Still, easy as all git-out!

Salmon Patties - Makes 4 patties - Serves 2

Ingredients

- 1 can Sockeye salmon

- 1 egg

- 1/2 cup breadcrumbs (I used panko)

- 4 tbsp onion, minced

- 1 clove garlic, minced

- Black pepper to taste

- Additional seasonings to taste (I used a pinch each of chili powder and basil)

- 4 tbsp cooking oil for frying (olive, canola, etc.)

- Drain salmon and put in mixing bowl.

- Crack egg and add to salmon.

- Add remaining ingredients (except oil) and mix with hands.

- Form into patties, ensuring air is squeezed out and patties hold their shape.

- In a large frying pan (preferably cast iron), heat oil on medium-high heat.

- Using tongs, gently set patties in oil and cook for 5 minutes on one side until golden brown, flip and cook other side.

- Serve on buns for salmon burgers or on their own with a generous dollop of Sriracha Mayo (see below) and a nice salad.

So, that's dinner! Now, let's talk about Sriracha!

In case you don't know what Sriracha is, it's this super-tasty, fairly spicy hot sauce from Thailand (or is it Vietnam?), easily recognized by the squeeze bottle with a rooster logo on it (hence, why it's often called "cock sauce").

Move over ketchup! This is the new staple 'red sauce'

 

(image from: http://theittybittybloghorn.files.wordpress.com/2013/10/blogsriracha.jpg)

I happen to love the stuff, so much so that I bought the cookbook! Lots of fun recipes in it, even one for making Sriracha Salt!

Srircha Mayo

In a bowl, stir together about 1 tsp of Sriracha sauce with a half cup of mayo and the juice of a quarter lime.

That's it!

Enjoy!

Simple Salad for Lunch

Good day all!

It's stupid hot again in Ottawa, and salads seem to be the way to go this week. So, I came up with this quick and easy salad just today and I think it's a great way to use up some stale bread, ripe tomato and possibly other items sitting in the fridge or pantry that you might want to great rid of.

I call this one the "Italian Sandwich Salad" because the ingredients are basically identical to those in traditional Italian sandwiches, which I discussed in an entry I posted last August.

It started with a Bean Salad that was in the fridge. I was going to eat that, but then I got the fiercest craving for some kind of soft, warm crouton on the side of it. Then I noticed some Genoa salami in the fridge as well, and the Bean Salad was quickly forgotten (sorry Bean Salad, I'm sure you're tasty). Instantly the idea for a salad with Italian flavours found in the big ol' "two-day" sandwiches from Bottega hit me. First, I would fry up the bread with olive oil into a kind of warm crouton, then mix it up with marinated eggplants, tomato, onion, garlic and roasted red pepper and some kind of light dressing. Now, this recipe features raw onion and garlic, so be aware of your own gastro-intestinal system and proceed accordingly.

The methodology changed a bit as I went into the following:

Italian Sandwich Salad - 4 servings

Ingredients

- 4 slices bread (or 1 foccacia), slightly stale
- 2 small, very ripe tomatoes, sliced
- 1/2 very thinly sliced sweet onion
- 4 cloves garlic, very finely minced
- 1/2 cup marinated eggplant (mild or hot is up to you)
- 1 roasted red pepper, diced (unfortunately, the jar of peppers I had today was moldy, so I omitted it - sadface)
- 12 slices Genoa salami, sliced into thin strips (or any other type of meat you enjoy - I bet prosciutto would rock!)
- Olive oil to taste
- Balsamic vinegar to taste
- Sea salt to taste
- Freshly ground black pepper to taste
- Dried or fresh oregano to taste

Optional

- 1/2 cup hot pepper rings
- 1/4 cup Kalamata olives

Directions

- Toast bread slices until crispy, then slice into "fingers" or cubes.
- Place the toasted bread in a mixing bowl and toss with olive oil, balsamic vinegar, salt, pepper and oregano until well coated.
- Fry toasted bread on high heat for about 3 minutes.
- Pile bread onto plates (that's right, the "croutons" go on the bottom).
- Next, pile on the marinated eggplant. Don't drain it too much, the oil it's packed in provides a lot of flavour.
- Pile on the rest of veggies and top with additional olive and balsamic vinegar if desired.
- Top with meat and serve. Garnish with flat-leaf parsley if you want.

So, that's about it! Minimal cooking involved and lots of flavour.

Bon appetit!

Feeding the Fringe

Happy Summer!


One thing that Ottawa is good for in the summertime (and most cities, I guess) is the bevvy of festivals that come into being. Along with those festivals comes a lot of pre-parties. As a result, this past Wednesday (June 15), marked an interesting milestone in my cooking adventures: it was that first time I made a lot of food for a bunch of strangers in a party-catering type setting.

First, let's set the scene. My good friend Bryony (@ladylovewell on twitter) is the Associate Producer for Ottawa's Fringe Festival, which runs from the 16th to the 26th of June. The Fringe Festival is a cornucopia of diverse, unusual, ribald, silly, bizarre and *insert multitude of appropriate adjectives here* theatre in the form of plays at various venues, mostly centered around downtown Ottawa's Arts Court. But, there's many forums describing the Fringe that do it far better justice than I can, such as:

http://www.ottawafringe.com/ (official site)

http://www.fullyfringed.ca/ (play reviews and more!)

#ottfringe (twitter hashtag - and man do those Fringers like to tweet!)

I've only seen two shows so far (as of Saturday, June 18), but I found both well worth the time. Looking forward to more!

Anyway, Kari (@kira_generika on twitter) and I have signed on as volunteers for a few days here and there. Wednesday night was the opening party/gala/shindig and we were both signed up for a shift to basically help serve food and keep the party area clean and tidy. Now, Bryony being the High Queen of multitasking, had taken it upon herself to make the food for this shindig and needed a few helping hands. Being the sucker for a pretty face (and shiny soul) that I am, I offered my help (not sure if I included Kari in that without asking... oops if I did!). I also offered to make something on the smoker mostly for the challenge, exposure and experience, on top of doing it because I'm super-nice!

So, that afternoon, after putting together an order of Smoked Pork Tenderloin with Blueberry BBQ Sauce, I zipped over to Bryony and Graham's (her fella; @boogiehowser on twitter) to help with the rest of the hors d'oeuvre prep. What I discovered is that you can feed a lot of people with very, very simple recipe ideas. In a flurry of cutting, chopping, stirring, sizzling, etc., we put together a spread for dozens in about 3 hours. And it was a DAMN good spread!

Here's the menu (so far as I can remember):

- Bacon-Wrapped Dates
- Prosciutto-Wrapped Pecorino and Peaches
- Veggies and Dip
- Bruschetta with Pita Crisps
- Cherry Tomatoes Stuffed with Goat Cheese and Basil
- Smoked Pork Tenderloin w/Blueberry BBQ Sauce on Crostini

And, as expected, the hors d'oeuvres were gobbled up with the kind of efficiency only witnessed when artists have access to free food! Well, there were a lot of raw zucchini sticks left. I guess there are limits to

On top of that, there were a lot of cookies and cupcakes brought in by a couple of different local bakeries. I know B-Goods made the cookies (damn good cookies at that!), but I can't remember the name of the bakery that supplied the cupcakes. I really to take notes on these things...

So, if you're ever in the market to cater a big party for you and your friends, well, it's your lucky day, because I'm going to give you the recipes for pretty much everything we made. I didn't get a chance to take any pictures (see my last post for the sad story on my camera's passing), so I'm going to take what I can from the Internet.

Alright, let's get to it!


1 - Bacon-Wrapped Dates 

- 50 pitted dates (Medjool dates are fairly common to find in the supermarket, but make sure they're pre-pitted and partially dried)
- 25 pieces of bacon, cut in half.
- 50 round toothpicks

- Fry the bacon pieces until cooked, but not crispy.
- Drain bacon on paper towels.
- Wrap bacon half around date and secure with toothpick.
- Lay all pieces on serving tray.

Not exactly rocket surgery, eh? Time permitting, you can also give it an extra bit of awesomeness by stuffing the dates with some kind of cheese before wrapping them.

Here's what the final product basically looked like:

2 - Prosciutto-Wrapped Pecorino and Peaches

- 6-8 large peaches, slightly under-ripe, pitted and cut into 8 pieces (for a total of 48-64 pieces)

- 12-16 slices of prosciutto, cut into four equal pieces (or you can try speck, a smoked Italian ham that's very similar to prosciutto, but with smoke undertones)

- 500 g pecorino cheese, cut into 50 pieces (the pieces are going to be rather small, but the cheese has a very strong flavour)

- 48-64 round toothpicks

- Preheat broiler.

- Lay out peach pieces on a foil-lined cookie sheet.

- Place under broiler for a minute or two, just long enough to soften the peaches (but not turn them into mush).

- Remove peaches from broiler and cool until you can handle them.

- Wrap a piece of prosciutto around a piece of peach and of cheese, fasten using a toothpick.

- Lay all pieces on serving tray.

This one is a little more delicate than the Bacon-Wrapped Dates, so it's important to be careful when handling.

No accurate pics were available on the 'Net, but I'm sure you can figure out what the final result might look like.

3 - Veggies and Dip

Alright, I'm not going to go into this whole rigmarole over Veggies and Dip, the preparation is nearly self-explanatory: cut your favourite veggies into stick-like shapes or wedges, arrange pretty-like on a tray, serve with some sort of awesome dip.

Ironically, Bryony made the dip in this case and it tasted very much like my Mom's Curry Dip, the recipe for which was featured in a post from back in August of last year. Although, in an interesting change of flavour profiles, she used balsamic vinegar instead of tarragon vinegar. I'm undecided as to which is better!

4 - Bruschetta with Pita Crisps

Well, here with the Bruschetta we have another example of an appetizer I've already featured on this blog, specifically in the same post as the Veggies and Dip. So, I'm not re-inventing that wheel either.

That being said, I've never covered the "how-to" of making pita chips. It's awfully easy!

- Preheat oven to 350 degrees Farenheit.
- Take a regular sized pita bread and cut it into 8 even pieces, then split each piece in two by tearing at the outer edge. This should leave you with 24 pieces. You can also leave the pieces whole, making 12 "double-layered" chip.
- Brush all pieces lightly with olive oil, season with salt, pepper (and anything else you like) and arrange on a cookie sheet.
- Bake in oven for about 5 minutes, until pita pieces are a light golden brown. It doesn't take long for these to burn, so pay close attention!
- Remove from heat and store in a large bag or plastic container.

 

5 - Cherry Tomatoes with Goat Cheese and Basil

Alright, these little bundles of awesome were about the simplest appetizer/hors d'oeuvre/tapas I've ever seen, but they're DAMN tasty. And only 3 ingredients (not counting salt and pepper)!

- 50 larger cherry tomatoes (about 3 pints), halved and "guts" spooned out. Essentially, you want to make a kind of tomato "cup" for the filling. The "guts" are excellent for anything calling for tomato liquid, e.g. gazpacho.
- 1 large log of goat cheese (300 g), softened
- 1 bunch fresh basil, cleaned and finely chopped
- Salt and pepper to taste
- Additional seasonings as desired (dry basil, oregano, chili powder, paprika, etc.)

- In a bowl, mix together basil, goat cheese and seasonings and stir until well-mixed.
- Spoon enough mix into each tomato half to fill.
- Serve on large tray (you should cover this tray with plastic wrap before transporting to avoid flying tomatoes!).




So, it's really not too tough to string together a lot of tasty goodness on a budget and in one afternoon!

The final item was a little more on the complicated side, but you know me and how much I love to smoke porcine vittle! So, with visions of catering contracts burgeoning on all sides, I took Wednesday morning to put together this collection of tastiness:

6 - Smoked Pork Tenderloin w/Blueberry BBQ Sauce on Crostini

Well, first off, I'm going to repeat myself here when it comes to the pork. I went through the process in my exposé on smoking food back in January. But there were some tweaks this time.

The first step in smoking any pork is to make sure the membrane is removed. Anything that peels off or looks hard to chew should be removed or cut away. Be careful not to overdo it a mangle your meat. For this project I used 3 tenderloins.

Next, the rub. I wanted to keep it fairly simple and not too spicy. So, in honour of the occasion, here's the rub I used:

Fringe Rub

- 2 tbsp smoked paprika
- 3 green cardamom pods, ground
- 2 cloves, ground
- 1/2 tsp Chinese five-spice powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp ground white pepper
- 1 tsp ground black pepper
- pinch cayenne pepper
- 1 cup brown sugar

- Mix this all together and rub into the pork tenderloins.
- Wrap tenderloins in plastic wrap and leave in the fridge for at least 8 hours (overnight).

(this next part is copy-pasted from January's post)

The next morning, remove meat from fridge and let warm up a little.

Prep fire in the smokebox and soak wood chips. The great thing about pork is that it tastes good with almost any kind of smoke flavouring it. In the case of a tenderloin, I would avoid using just hickory or mesquite, the smoke flavour would be too strong. Now, I use maple lump charcoal for everything on my BBQ and just on its own imbues a tasty smoke flavour, but it's a bit one-dimensional. For pork tenderloin, I've used either a mix of hickory and cherry (the first time, which nicely complimented the spicy rub), or apple (for the 'festive' meal). (Note: for the Fringe party, I used cherry wood).

Once your fire is going and you reach a cooking temperature of around 225-250 degrees Fahrenheit, place the tenderloin(s) inside the the grill and smoke for 1.5 to 2 hours. Wrap the tenderloin in foil, spray with a bit of apple juice (or pineapple juice), and return to smoker for another hour. Unwrap and smoke for another 30 minutes to finish. You will need to put it in the oven for 10 minutes at 350 F to "solidify" the meat. I find it too mushy right off the smoker. The thing about tenderloin is that it stays a little more pink than other cuts of pork even when it's overcooked. So, don't think that it isn't done just it's a bit pink. If the meat is no longer translucent and juices run clear when you cut it, it's done. Basically that's the rule for all pork and chicken.

This is what a smoked tenderloin looks like! Pretty, eh?

In the final hour of smoking the meat, I made the Blueberry BBQ Sauce.

Blueberry BBQ Sauce

- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 inch piece of ginger, minced
- 1 small onion, minced
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 1 cup frozen wild blueberries
- 4-5 drops liquid smoke
- 1/2 cup dark beer
- 1 tsp cocoa powder
- 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
- 1/2 cup HIGH QUALITY ketchup (that means homemade or organic. NOT Heinz garbage)
- 2 tbsp brown sugar
- 1 tbsp molasses
- 2 tbsp honey
- salt and pepper to taste
- 1 tsp favourite hot sauce (optional)

- In a medium saucepan, sauté garlic, ginger and onion in olive oil on medium-high heat.
- Stir in blueberries, liquid smoke, beer, cocoa, cayenne, ketchup and brown sugar.
- Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to medium-low (3-4).
- After 10 minutes, stir in molasses. Allow sauce to reduce for another 20 minutes or so.
- Stir in honey and taste to determine if you need salt, pepper and hot sauce. Add these as desired and continue to reduce for another 10 minutes.
- Remove from heat and store in glass jar. Sauce will keep for about 2 weeks in the fridge.

Following that, it was time to make the crostini. I was aiming for 50 pieces so two baguettes were sufficient.

Crostini (50 pieces)

- 2 baguette, sliced into 50 pieces
- olive oil

- Preheat oven to 400 F
- Brush olive on one side of each piece of bread.
- Bake in oven for about 10 minutes.
- Switch oven to broil and broil pieces until they turn a light golden colour.
- Cool and store in a large bag or plastic container.

Now to put everything together!

First off, I sliced the meat, albeit too thick this time, about 4-6 mm thick. If possible, slice the meat almost paper thin.

Next, take the crostini and dab a tiny bit of sauce on each piece. This will hold the meat in place on the crostini.

Place a slice or two of tenderloin on each crostini (depending on thickness of meat).

Spoon on about a 1/4-1/2 tsp of sauce on each piece.

Garnish each piece with a sprig of fresh cilantro.

Aaaaand that's it! I really wish I had pictures, it was an awfully pretty-looking hors d'oeuvre!


Well, there you go, Nick's first foray into amateur catering. And, while I haven't got anyone knocking down my door to cater their golf tournament or gallery opening (YET!), the fact that the Tenderloin was the first thing to run out (or maybe the Bacon-wrapped Dates, but that's ok, it's BACON!) made me darn proud of the work I'd done. Working with three of my favourite people to feed dozens made me even prouder!

And, as an added bonus, my efforts earned me an extra pass to a Fringe play, which is payment enough!

Let's hope this is the first expedition of many into cooking for a crowd. I'm just glad it was much less challenging than expected!

So, dear Ottawa readers, my parting words to you on this day is to GET YOUR BUTT TO THE FRINGE AND SEE SOME PLAYS! Or at least have a pint or two in the beer garden...

Enjoy!

Just an average night at Casa Unicorn...

Hi there!

OK, before we get into today's post, I'd just like to take my hat off in solemn remembrance of my point-and-shoot camera that finally died about a week ago. What you're about to see represents one of its last efforts in catching images of edible beauty. Lesson learned: don't keep a digital camera in your shorts pocket while you're digging out the sand on a playground. Sand and electronics don't mix!

So, as those of you who are "Dude, Cook!" regulars already know, I recently moved in to a rather lovely apartment with my girlfriend Kari. One of the selling points of the place was its huge open-concept kitchen.

Kari and I are both pretty hardcore foodophiles (maybe even foodies), and we both love to cook. We also have both been blessed (or cursed) with a certain talent for taking a simple meal and kicking it up multiple notches. This has led to a lot of rather extravagent meals, some of them being competition for a gourmet restaurant meal. But I think none of them can top what we made about 3 weeks ago.

I guess it all started with fiddleheads. In case you may have forgotten my write-up on fiddleheads from last year, they're a kind of fern that grows in April and May (although the inordinately wet April meant a later start to the season). Anyhoo, we'd bought a whole bunch of them, and had to eat some of those bad boys!

Naturally, the thought process went to "Well, what do we have with it?" Steak, of course! So off we went to Aubrey's Meats in the Byward Market (our "local" butcher) and bought a couple of gorgeous New York strip steaks. Now, I'd rarely eaten blue cheese before meeting Kari, but I've since become a fan. So when she suggested picking up a nice blue to put on top of the steak, who was I to deny a lady? We had the rest of the ingredients at home waiting, so back we went to figure out how to create some culinary awesome.

Now, another area of fun we'd been having was in the area of dried mushrooms. Kari had bought this massive container from Price Club and I already had some dried porcini. So, in the interest of using up some of our dried goods (and space-occupying food in general), Kari decided she'd reconstitute (i.e. rehydrate) a bunch of them to make some sort of risotto (everyone has their speciality in the kitchen. Me, I'm all meat, sauces and stuff in a pot. Kari's ALL about starch. Risotto, polenta, bread, etc. The girl makes a meeeeeean side dish!). Meanwhile, I remembered hearing about or seeing someone using dried porcini powder as a rub for meat. So, I figured I should do the same!

With that in mind, here's the recipe for the Steak:

Porcini-Rubbed Steak à deux w.Blue Cheese

- 2x 12 oz. New York striploin steaks
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1 tsp dried porcini mushrooms, ground into powder
- salt and pepper to taste
- 50 g blue cheese (medium flavoured; not sure what kind we got to go with dinner, I think it was Danish?), sliced thin (4 small slices total, enough to almost cover the surface of the steak)

- Mix porcini powder, pepper and salt in a bowl.
- Brush olive oil on steaks
- Coat with porcini powder mix. Use clean hands to run seasoning into meat.
- Let meat sit for about 20 mins., until it reaches room temp.
- Heat grill to about 350 F

- Place steak on grill. Grill for about 5 minutes per side for medium doneness.  

- Serve topped with 2 slices of blue cheese per steak.

NOTE: To make lovely grill marks on steak, place it at a 45 degree angle to the grill 'lines' as seen to left. After about 2 minutes, lift and rotate 180 degrees. Repeat this process when you flip the steak.

This should be the end result:

Pretty, ain't it?

On the side, we had the Mushroom Risotto (I'll post the recipe some other time, once Kari gives it to me!) and an Avocado Salad (basically ripe avocado and tomato coarsely cut and mixed together with chopped Kalamta olives, capers, lemon juice and olive oil). As for the fiddleheads, I steamed them for about 10 minutes to get them tender, then sautéed with butter and garlic, finished with a bit of ground black pepper.

And here we are with the final result! Not too shabby, eh?

Even better with a lovely glass of vino and awesome company! (also note how awesome dinner can be even when you've barely unpacked your living space) 

And let's not forget dessert!

So yeah, all this to say, the difference a really nice kitchen can make in the preparation of amazing food is pretty remarkable. Not that you can't do the same in a small kitchen, it's just so much easier this way!

Alright, so enjoy it folks!  

P.S. It's called "Casa Unicorn" because when Kari and I first saw the place, we were sure it had unicorn parking out the back. Turns out it's the parking lot for an Anglican cathedral, but it was an awfully nice place nonetheless!

Beautiful Screw-ups

Note: Title is not to be confused with Beautiful Losers (I'm not much of a Leonard Cohen fan anyway). I already worry about breaking copyright when I reproduce someone else's recipe!

The thing that I might love most about cooking is its experimental nature, which I talked about a few posts back. What's even better about that aspect is this: even when you try something new or experimental, there's a darn good chance that when it doesn't go as planned, it can sometimes be for the better! Of course, there's just as good a chance, if not better, that when you do screw it up, it turns into an inedible mess of charred crud. It's on those occasions, if you're someone like me who can't stand wasted food, that you learn to pretend that "burnt" and "caramelized" are fairly similar... Really! But, I doubt I represent the norm in that respect.

But once in a while, things go wrong in the best way possible. Sometimes it's the simplest thing (like a few drops more booze than originally called for) and sometimes it changes the whole complexion of the dish.

So, with that in mind, I'm going to walk you through a couple of recent culinary escapades that involved "whoopsies" that ended up being better than what was intended.

1 - Praline Salad

In our first example from a couple of weeks ago, me and my "common-law missus" Kari (at least, according to the census) were engaging in our usual culinary pursuit of excellence. She was putting together a lovely veggie and polenta torte, which I always enjoy trying, while we were also putting together a simple tomato salad with a few tweaks. Before I get into that, I need to go on a tangent for you under-rock-dwellers.

What the frak is polenta? Basically, it's a mush made of yellow cornmeal that can be used to make a crust, can be fried to make a kind of cornmeal cake, or can be served as a kind of gruel, similar to grits in the Southern U.S. As the picture depicts, there's some culinary wonderment to be discovered through polenta!

Ok, that's polenta, back to the subject at hand.

What happened with the salad is where the whole idea of beautiful screw-ups came in. It started simply enough: a tomato-based salad, with some peripheral greens and herbs, boccaccini balls (boccaccini is a kind of fresh mozarella that has little flavour on its own, but absorbs flavours from dressings and oils magnificently, great in salads) and fresh blueberries. Now, at this point I thought of riffing on classic spinach salad, which usually has toasted walnuts or pecans in it. I thought it might be a good idea to lightly sugar some pecans for this salad.

Here's where the screw-up happened: Whipping up a combination of brown sugar, butter and maple syrup in a saucepan, I created clusters of, essentially, praline candy rather than lightly sugared pecans. Ooops. But, as I looked at those gorgeous chunks of sweetness, it totally hit me that we should stick 'em in the fridge to solidify, break up the clusters and throw it on the salad anyway!

Well, as it turns out, we inadvertently created (possibly) the first ever Praline Salad! Oh wait, Google says I didn't. Damn. Buuuuut, our version has probably never been done before! Now, let me say this right now, other than the praline part, this is Kari's recipe. She gets the credit.

Tomato-Praline Salad

- 12 yellow cherry tomatoes, halved

- handful spinach leaves, stemmed, washed and patted dry

- 1/2 cup small boccaccini balls
- 1/3 cup fresh blueberries
- 2 tbsp (handful) fresh Thai basil (or regular basil), roughly torn

- Toss ingredients together with Dressing, top with Praline (see below)











Dressing

- 2-3 tbsp high quality extra-virgin olive oil
- 1-2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
- 1/2 tsp maple syrup
- a couple of dashes of the best, most interesting hot sauce you have in your fridge (that sweet's gonna need some heat!). Failing that, a pinch of cayenne pepper. But as you can see, hot sauce is much more interesting!

- Whisk together or shake like crazy in a tightly covered jar. I find the shaking method works best and is quite therapeutic! Imagine it's a bully from grade school!

And there you go, well-shaken and tasty!












Praline

- 1/2 cup roughly crushed pecans
- 1 tbsp butter
- 2 tbsp brown sugar
- 1 tsp maple syrup

- In a small saucepan, melt together butter, sugar and maple syrup, until mixture is liquid and bubbling.
- Remove from heat, toss in pecans and coat well with mixture.

- Place a sheet of wax paper on a plate and set melted praline on that.

- Put in the fridge for 30 mins to solidify. Remove and break into small pieces.
- Sprinkle praline pieces over salad, toss and serve!

Above is the finished praline. Below is the salad, ready to go!

Looks good eh? Wait, what's that you say? "Give us the recipe for the Veggie Polenta Torte, you bastard!"? OK, fair enough, but as it stands, this post is getting awfully long and it's a pretty complex recipe. Tell you what, I'll give you the "Coles Notes" version...

First off, I asked Kari for her polenta recipe and she shrugged her shoulders and said there really isn't a foolproof method with polenta. It involves a lot of stirring and avoidance of getting scalded by molten cornmeal. So, here's a basic recipe filched from About.com:

Ingredients:


- 1 pound or slightly more (500 g) coarsely ground corn meal (you want corn meal the consistency of fine to medium-grained sand, not flour)
- 2 quarts (2 liters) boiling water (have more handy)
- A heaping teaspoon of salt

Preparation:

Set the water on the fire in a wide bottomed pot and add the salt. When it comes to a boil, add the corn meal in a very slow stream (you don't want the pot to stop boiling), stirring constantly with a wooden spoon to keep lumps from forming. Continue stirring, in the same direction, as the mush thickens, for about a half-hour (the longer you stir the better the polenta will be; the finished polenta should have the consistency of firm mashed potatoes), adding boiling water as necessary. The polenta is done when it peels easily off the sides of the pot.

Easy, right? Now, the torte!

Basically, you take your polenta, pour it into a spring-form pan (the kind used to make cheesecake), top it with whatever veggies tickle your fancy (peppers, tomatoes, onions, eggplant, zucchini, broccoli, etc.), and then top that with grated cheese of your choice and some breadcrumbs (or panko if you have it). Fire that in the oven at 350 F for about 30 minutes (until the cheese is golden and bubbly), remove from the oven, remove from spring-form pan, slice and serve!

So, in the end, we were presented with the following plate full of tasty (apologies for the blurred shot):

2 - Chocolate-Whiskey Pâté

It all started with the 'munchies'. Who am I kidding, it ALWAYS starts with the munchies (yes, I mean THOSE munchies).

It was a couple of hours after another awesome dinner of Striploin Steak dusted with Porcini and topped with Blue Cheese, a Mushroom Risotto, an Avocado Salad and Sautéed Fiddleheads (more on that epic meal coming in a future post) at the new place (forget what I've said about cooking in a tiny kitchen, big kitchens rule!) when Kari busted out yet ANOTHER brilliant food idea.

The day before we'd bought these really high end potato chips from a stand at Ottawa's Tulip Festival (I'll be damned if I can remember the name) and not quite finished the whole bag. So Kari's above-head light bulb went off: "Let's spread out the chips and cover them in melted chocolate, sort of like a bark!"

Ummmm, OK! Twist my rubber arm!

So, using a simple water bath method (take a small saucepan, boil water in it, place a metal bowl over the saucepan, melt chocolate in bowl - this allows a much smoother melting process and reduces the risk of burning the chocolate), she melted some chocolate. Right before she was going to pour it over the chips, I thought "Hey, why not add some whiskey?"

Well, here's where it gets interesting and a lesson was learned about mixing booze and chocolate. Somehow, the reaction between the whiskey and the chocolate caused the mix to solidify into what Kari described as a "fondant" (she meant to say pâté). It reminded me of my mother's Chocolate Mousse, but not quite light enough. There was a density to it that is hard to describe, but it was REALLY tasty. So, not being wastrels, we decided we'd go ahead and eat it. And, of course, melt more chocolate for the chip bark.

Cut to Kari's finger flying up in the "hey wait" position. "You go sit down, I have an idea." she says (I hear that a lot). So, I leave her to it.

Next thing I know, I'm presented with this spoonful of loveliness:

Below is a less flash-laden version:

She topped the "pâté" with cream, raspberry jam and cream cheese. And it was DEEEEEEELISH!

So, here's a more formal recipe:

Chocolate-Whiskey Pâté

Ingredients
 
- 1/2 cup bittersweet chocolate chips
- 1/2 oz. Irish whiskey
- 1 tbsp raspberry jam
- 1 tbsp heavy cream
- 1 tsp plain cream cheese
 
Directions
 
- Using water bath method, melt chocolate chips
- Stir in whiskey until chocolate solidifies into "fondant"
- Spoon some of mixture into an Asian-style soup spoon
- Top with cream, jam and cream cheese
- Serve! (you could also garnish with chocolate shavings)

And, as a bonus (without the benefit of flash photography):

Chocolate and Potato Chip Bark

Ingredients 

- 50g or so very high quality potato chips, roughly crushed
- 100g or so (1/3 package) semi-sweet chocolate chips

Directions

- Spread potato chips out over cookie sheet lined with wax paper
- Melt chocolate using water bath method
- Pour chocolate over potato chips, ensuring all are covered
- Put bark in fridge for about 30 minutes
- Break bark into bite-size pieces and EAT!
 

So, hopefully today's post removes another barrier to your sense of experimentation in the kitchen. Cooking is as much art as science, and neither is ever exact. But sometimes, as shown here, the unintended and unexpected is the best result any artist, scientist or cook can ask for.
 
Enjoy!