Indian hot dogs

Not really, but sort of.  Being that summer is fast approaching, it’s sometimes nice to try a few different recipes for the grill.  With that said, great variety can be found under the guise of the satay or kabob.  Wanting to mix it up a bit last night, I threw together some Indian-inspired hotdogs (reshmi kabobs & naan), slaw (patta gobhi), and fries (grilled okra).  The reshmi kabobs are reminiscent of a meatloaf, so the trick to grilling is an extremely clean and well-oiled grill, else your “kabob” will be kaput and will fall betwixt the grill grate.

Reshmi kabob:  1 # ground chicken, 1 T minced garlic, 1 T minced ginger, 1 T smoked paprika, 1/4 cup almonds, 2 T heavy cream, 1 egg white, 1 T ground cardamom, 1/2 tsp allspice, salt & pepper, 1/2 diced onion.

Mix chicken with 1st 3 ingredients and set aside.  Meanwhile blanch almonds in hot water until slightly soft ~ 10 minutes.  Saute onion until translucent and set aside.  Drain almonds and process with cream, egg white, cardamom, and allspice until smooth.  Mix everything into the chicken mixture (including onion) and form into “logs” around some metal skewers.  Refrigerate until you are ready to grill (helps keep the kabobs together).  When ready to cook, grill for ~ 3 minutes per side.

For the “slaw”:  saute other 1/2 of the onion either minced or sliced, when beginning to caramelize, add a palmful of mustard seeds and a generous pinch of chili flakes and saute until the seeds start to pop.  Add a bag of shredded “cole-slaw style” cabbage with a pinch of salt and cook until wilted.  Take off heat, and mix in a palmful of tumeric.  Serve hot or at room temperature.

Summer’s basically here…more kabobs to come.

shrimp gumbo 5/12

I don’t think there are any pictures, sorry about that. Looking back, I don’t think we’ve ever put a shrimp gumbo recipe on BDE, so here you go.

Roux:
1 cup of all-purpose flour
1 stick of butter

Heat it up until it melts and spreads over the bottom of your pan (my pan of choice is enameled cast iron). It should be slightly bubbling. Stir with a flat wooden spoon until it’s a deep brownish red. If you cook it too hot, you’ll burn it. If you burn it, you have to start over. It takes about 45 minutes +/-.

Shrimp stock:
As many shrimp shells as you can get your hands on
basic mire poix (one onion, one celery stalk, 1-2 carrots, finely diced)
1-2 bay leaves

You can make your shrimp stock while the roux is going. You need about 45 minutes to an hour of simmer for the stock.

Gumbo ingredients
2 onions: 1 1/2 diced, thinly slice the other half
2-4 roma tomatoes if available. If not, small (14 oz can) of diced or whole tomatoes
2 celery stalks diced
1 green bell (or yellow, orange or red) pepper diced
2 more bay leaves
10 okra pods, stem end cut off and sliced into 1/2″ rounds
2 lbs of andouille sausage, sliced and well-browned
2 lbs of shrimp, reserving the peels for the stock
1/4 cup of dry sherry
2 tbsp of file’ powder
cayenne powder to taste. You want just a little bite, but not so spicy that folks won’t add hot sauce.
salt to taste

Lagniappe:
sautee’ the okra, sliced onion, and tomatoes on high heat to brown well.

Putting it together:

1. When the roux reaches the color you want, add the diced onions, celery, and pepper. Drop your temperature to low and cook until softened. Remember that you can still burn the roux at this point. Don’t do that.
2. Add the stock and bring to boil, reduce to simmer.
3. Add the bay leaves, sherry, and cayenne.
4. Add the browned veggies from the Lagniappe section above as well as the file’ powder.
5. Just before service, add the sausage and shrimp.
6. Serve over white rice, liberally add hot sauce (my favorite brand is Crystal).

Notes:

1. Browning the lagniappe veggies adds a little extra umami. Just one more flavor layer that will set it apart.
2. If you make it spicy make sure to add some form of acid to it either a vinegar or lemon/lime juice. It’ll make a big difference.
3. If you add the meats too soon, they overcook, especially the shrimp.
4. If it sits overnight, it gets better.
5. When you boil the roux/stock, it’s going to foam. If you want to skim some of this, now’s the time to do it.

underwater steak: how anyone can cook “sous vide”

I was looking for a quick, grillable dinner meat the other night, and the grocery store had some vacuum packed flat-iron steak. [insert image of lightbulb turning on]

One of the reasons folks may hesitate about experimenting with sous vide/water bath cookery is that they don’t want to put down the cash for the vacuum sealers or the immersion circulators. OK, I get that, but what if the meat distributor already did half the job for you? For the beef, I set the water bath at 126F and let it go for an 45 minutes or so.

The good news, even if you don’t have an immersion circulator, you can fill a cooler with the hottest tap water that will come out of your faucet. That’s because most houses have the max hot water temperature set at or close to 2126 degrees F. Drop the steak in the vacuum packaging and cover the cooler. Same effect.
While you’re doing the rest of your prep work and getting your grill ready, the hot water is doing the hard part: making sure the meat is cooked through at the temperature you want. When it comes out, it looks a little unfamiliar. Don’t worry.

Think of it as cooked meat that just needs a little browning. At this point, you can pat it down with paper towels, brush a thin coat of oil and season with salt and pepper. Grill on the highest heat you can get until the center is around 130, and let it rest.

What you’ll wind up with is steak that is as tender as any filet I’ve ever eaten, and the center is perfectly the same temperature. The outside is browned and crusty with a lot of flavor, and there’s little to no gradient between the brown done part and the center juicy part.

Of course you want to slice it against the grain and on an angle to shorten the muscle fibers as much as possible. Skip this is if you want it more toothsome/chewy.
Compare the above picture to this one.

Notice the gradient of temperature from surface to center. This is steak that I cooked in one stage on the grill; overcooked in my opinion. The center is your ideal temperature, but I’ve almost lost half the steak getting it to that point. The pink, juicy center part is what we’re craving when we think about steak, but we also want the flavor that comes from the crust, too. There’s no reason (given enough forethought) that you couldn’t cook all of your steaks this way: ribeye, sirloin, hanger, filet, etc. Alternatively, you could also put the steak in your oven at 170F (the lowest my oven will go) and cook until you reach the pre-grill temperature you want. And if it doesn’t come vacuum packed, regular ziplocks will work, just try to get as much air out as you can and weigh it down with a brick if you have to so it stays underwater.

Alabama White BBQ

Ever heard of Alabama White BBQ sauce?  I have, but have never been to Decatur, Alabama to sample.  This “phenomena” seems to have originated at Big Bob Gibson’s BBQ and is basically hickory smoked chicken that is “baptized” in a vat of mayo.  Before, you hurl, heave, or whatever…you do like aioli?  So you’ll probably enjoy this variant which isn’t that far from traditional NC vinegar-based sauces.

My version for to sauce 1 chicken:

Whisk together 1/2 cup mayo; 1/4 cup cider vinegar; 1 T brown sugar; squirt of sriracha; large scoop of prepared horseradish; salt and pepper to taste.

Cook chicken on BGE or grill with hickory chips.  When done, brush with sauce.  Let rest for 10 minutes, brush again.  That’s it!  If you don’t grill a lot, this is probably not for you, but if like me, and you probably cook a chicken a week, you’ll appreciate the variety.

OH I WISH

Here’s what passed me the other day while on a bike ride: the Oscar Mayer Wienermobile.

The license plate read “OH I WISH”. And I somehow managed to snag a shot of it without killing myself.
And I guess here’s why I managed to see it.

Say CHEESE with Oh I Wish and get funky with the live music at the Rivers and Spires Festival in Clarksville, TN tonight.

— Wienermobile (@Wienermobile) April 20, 2012

Empire State South

Had a great weekend with the wife.  Drove to Atlanta Saturday morning and went to Les Miserables at the Fox for a matinee.  Would have been even better if it weren’t for that woman crying hysterically on the floor above me (Sarah Marshall fans will know what I’m talking about).  But I digress…

That night, went to the Hugh-ni-brow’s restaurant in midtown, Empire State South.  Fortunately and unfortunately, they had a tasting menu, which I can’t resist if I think I won’t be back soon…the unfortunate part is spending twice what you intended.  I cannot tell you how much I enjoy these type restaurants, Empire State South would have fit perfectly with the terrific Southern bastions from Turner South’s defunct show, “Off the Menu”.  That show, in my opinion was the best ever cooking show on television.  It featured Commander’s Palace in NOLA, Wally Joe’s in Memphis, Highlands in Birmingham, and Charleston Grille.  These restaurants feature high-brow Southern food…the Hugh-ni-brow take this to a new level by adding redneck twists.

For example; the tasting menu: amuse bouche – strawberry gazpacho (tasted of strawberry jam with sriracha); farm egg – a crispy rice dish with a housemade sausage that the waitress described as “home-made slim jim” (best dish of the night); St Simons shrimp and fresh anchovy over lima beans and a broth that reminds of a bouillabaisse; trout atop local veggies including ramps served in a ? chicken consomme (just delicious, I think I get the whole broth concept after this dish); Crisp pork belly with creamed kimchi grits & pickled daikon; Smoked duck breast served over field peas with kimchi and soubise (the combo of the smoked duck and soubise is heaven); Desert-a semi-sweet fallen chocolate cake with mint/anise ice cream and frozen mousse.  As usual, the true beginning of the dish was the end of me…a big fat Pimm’s cup.  What’s great about the tasting menu is that it really gives you an idea of what the restaurant is all about.  If I’m lucky enough to go back…I feel comfortable ordering from the menu.  I mean how can you pass us something simply called “jars” (Mason jars filled with a variety of deviled ham, trout mousse, pickles, pimento cheese, bacon marmalade, and boiled peanut hummus)?  They also serve beer in cans with Empire State South koozies.

My take on the farm egg (serves 3 to 4)

1 cup rice, boiled and rinsed; 1 onion diced; 6 oz shitake mushrooms sliced; 1/4-1/2 cup diced Slim Jim (about 4 small snack stick size) ; crumbled pork rinds; 1/2 cup English peas; eggs; butter.

Lightly salt during each step.  Sweat onion in some EVOO then add slim jims cooking until fat rendered and Slim Jim’s crisp slightly.  Remove to a small bowl, then saute mushrooms again in EVOO until well-browned.  Sprinkle in a bit of thyme if you’d like.  Add to onion bowl.  Melt 2 T butter and when sizzling add the well-drained rice and cook stirring periodically until the rice takes on a golden color and becomes slightly crispy (you’re looking for a fried rice texture or the cripsy bits at the bottom of paella or jambalaya).  Turn heat to low and set aside.  Stir veg back into the rice and add the frozen peas.  Poach the eggs (lightly, you want it runny) in shimmering water, drain and trim on paper towels.

To finish; stir in a good handful of crumbled pork rinds and portion into serving bowls.  Top with a dusting more of pork rinds then the poached egg.  When eating, break the egg yolk and stir about.  You’ll be smacking your lips over the crispy, porky goodness of the sauteed Slim Jim.

kebobs

Far from a definitive treatise on the subject, there are a lot of issues to consider when trying to cook meat on a stick. These are just a few:

1. What kind of stick?
2. How many sticks?
3. What kind of meat?
4. They’re great but the veggies are burned and the meat’s raw. What did I do wrong?

What kind of stick?
The person that plans ahead can use bamboo skewers that have been soaked in water. Whoever you might be, hat’s off to you, because I never remember to do that until I’m ready to cook. We have a set of metal skewers with a ring on the end. They do great, but the problem is that they’re a cruel illusion because it looks like you can just pick them up off the grill with your hands. Don’t do that. You can use slivers of sugar cane, bamboo, or rosemary branches.
Of course you could just use the Brazilian charruscaria version. “Chicken hearts? With barbecue sauce?“

How many sticks?
The temptation is just to use one, but your better skewering in pairs. Why? Because the meat spins on a single skewer, and that doesn’t happen with two.

What kind of meat?
This isn’t slow and low, think about meats that you can cook quickly.
Beef: tenderloin, ribeye, skirt, hanger, tri tip, flat iron, sirloin, etc.
Pork: tenderloin, loin roast, chops. You could use shoulder but it’s going to need to braise and I think that defeats the purpose. Speaking of which, I saw a great show that featured St. Louis style pork steaks. Sounds like a future post…
Chicken: boneless skinless in strips or chunks. You need uniformity of thickness to minimize your variation in doneness.
Fish: shrimp, scallops, tuna, amberjack, swordfish, cobia, etc. Why not?

They’re great but the veggies are burned and the meat’s raw. What did I do wrong?
Don’t make it difficult. If you find you’re having this problem, there are a couple of solutions. First, the meat cuts are probably too big, so try making them smaller. Second option is to cook the veggies and meat separately, I’d prefer cooking the veggies first, then the meats.

Tri-tip kebobs
Tri-tip is a pretty lean cut of been from the bottom sirloin. You can slow roast it if you want, but if you don’t mind a cut of meat that’s a little toothsome but big on flavor, this is a good one to try. Cut into cubes and flavored with salt, pepper, garlic, and herbs, they made really great little kebobs. Kebabs? Kababs? Or like the restaurant in Nashville that opened last year, Kay-Bob’s?