BBQ Time

Today's post will be all bbq. Nothing says summer like firing up the barbeque and spending a day drinking, cooking, and eating. Preferably with the addition of colorful explosives (I'm a fan of the 4th of July, could you tell?). So, to kick off summer, here are a few things to remember when you break out the ribs, chickens, and steaks.

Make Your Own BBQ Sauce - Everyone has their favorite brand of barbeque sauce, whether it's A1, Jack Daniels, or Sweet Baby Rays. My personal favorite barebeque sauce is my father's, and I would love to share it with you all, but he won't tell anyone the recipe. So here's a few ingredients for you, but no measurements. Everyone likes their sauce differently, and these items together make the perfect launching pad for your perfect sauce.

Carrot (Remember to saute vegetable matter before adding other ingredients)
Onion
Celery
Ketchup
Cola (I prefer Coke)
Brown Sugar
Cayenne Pepper
Black Pepper
Chili Powder
Paprika
Oregano

And, if you're feeling adventurous, maple syrup can make some amazing sauces. It should be noted that you can use tomato products like crushed tomatoes, tomato puree or paste, or whole tomatoes, instead of ketchup. I just prefer it because of the salt content and the consistency.

Make Your Own BBQ Rubs - We've all seen the jars of assorted spices sitting on the shelves, or the shaker bottles that make you wonder if they intend for you to shake it on top just before eating, or put it on the meat before cooking, or the 2 pounds bottles that last 7 years. Here's a thought - make your own rub! It's very simple, all it takes is ground spices, salt, and sugar. Here's my boss's rub recipe. He said the quantity of spices and herbs can be adjusted so the rub can go on anything.

Raw Sugar
Kosher Salt
Sel Gris (fancy salt)
Thyme
Oregano
Red Chili Flake
Paprika
Dried Ground California Chiles

The important thing here is to have exactly equal portions of salt and sugar. 1/2 cup sugar, 1/4 cup kosher, 1/4 cup sel. Or whatever your batch size might be.

Take Your Time - Don't rush it. Don't rush it at all. If you're doing 2 chickens, don't rush em. If you're doing 1 steak, don't rush it. If you're doing 1400 burgers, don't rush em. But you should probably get a bigger barbeque.

Thats it for now! More of cooking in the great outdoors tomorrow! (Backyards count, right?)

The Cure

It's getting to be summer time here, and it's about now when everyone starts to break out their bbq's, grills, and smokers. So, over the next few days, we'll get down on some bbq rubs, some cures, and some smoked foods. 

First things first, smoking, and we're starting from square one. Don't let anybody tell you that your kitchen keeps you from doing smoked foods. You can build a stove top smoker for hot smoking, and with some crafty maneuvers, you can do cold smoking as well.

To build a stove top smoker, you can go cheap or expensive. The cheap way consists of aluminum foil covering the bottom of your biggest pot, with a wire rack over the top of the pot, sealed by more aluminum foil. Put your wood chips in the bottom (apple is a great smoking wood), crank the heat, build some smoke, and hang anything you want from the rack. The "expensive" way is going to a local restaurant supply store and spending roughly $20 on 2 hotel pans, a grate insert for said pans. Put one on the stove top, put down your wood chips, put the grate over the top and the 2nd hotel pan on top upside down as a lid. Build up smoke and place your food items on the grate. For those interested in cold smoking, you will need to purchase some ductwork from Home Depot, Lowes, or any store of that nature. To cold smoke, you simply need the smoke to travel far enough so it cools down by the time it reaches your food. These setups can be difficult to jury rig in a home environment.

Now that you've got your smoker ready, let's chat for a minute about all the things the can be smoked. Just about anything. From cheeses to meats to fish to fruit, almost anything can be smoked. Today, I'm just going to give you one recipe (dinner service is starting and I'm supposed to be at my station in like 4 minutes).

Smoked Salmon!

1 Salmon Filet

1/4 cup Salt

1/4 cup Brown Sugar

1 Tablespoon Paprika

1 Tablespoon Thyme

2 Tablespoons Black Pepper

Mix everything together (except the salmon), and rub it on the salmon. Let it rest in the fridge for a few hours, then rinse it off gently. After rinsing, sprinkle all the black pepper over the flesh and let it sit for another 20 minutes in the fridge. You're doing this because after it's been salted/sugared, the black pepper will help a pellicle (a tacky skin) form on the outside of the fish. After that's done, throw it into your smoker for about 30 minutes with good smoke, and from there, enjoy! It goes great with a very simple chevre "mousse", recipe below.

1 cup Chevre

1 Teaspoon Shallot (minced)

1 Teaspoon Chives (cut very small)

1 Teaspoon Black Pepper

1 Teaspoon Lemon Zest

1/8 cup Water

Throw everything into the food processor and blend it smooth. The water is purely for texture, so feel free to add as you see fit.

Til next time!