Winter Shiitake Mexican Squash Soup

Ingredients:
4 Mexican Squash
3-4-5 Small potatoes (depending on the size, mine were small and i used 5)
3 med Carrots
3-5 Stalks Celery
1 med white onion
3-5 garlic cloves
1 stick butter salted
1 tbsp salt (I'd say half this, it was a little too much, do to taste)
1 tsp red pepper flake
Black pepper to taste
1 14 Oz can chicken broth
1 14 Oz can beef broth
tbs grape or olive oil
3 tbs dried parsley flake (just cause its sitting around and I am trying to use it up, but i do think it enhanced the flavor)
1/2 Cup Dried Shiitake Ya Shiitake slices from Costco.

In a large to semi large pan, I always like a little room to wiggle, sauté up veggies working from the hardest to the softest. I also like to start with working from the most savory to least. i started with some oil in the pan then added the butter, for lower fat use more oil and less butter. Basically onions, potatoes, garlic, carrots, cellery and lastly the squash. I just slice everything up. Let it sauté in the pan about 20 minutes or untill everything is pretty broken down. Add the broths give it a stir let simmer for a few minutes. With a vertical blender turn it to liquid sludge adding water only if necessary. Let simmer another 10 Minutes and enjoy.

Lastly just cause I had them sitting around. I added some reconstituted dried Shiitake Mushrooms (about 1/2 cup dried let soak in boiled water about 20 minutes or longer) too which added another layer of warmth to the flavor but i don't think is necessary and the next time I'm going to try sans the mushrooms. This soup, like most was so amazing the following day that I had to pump out this post and snap a pic of the final bowl before I sink it to the bottom of my tum!

Here is a fun one I learned in a pinch from Meathead over at amazingribs.com. After my latest and final Indian Candy Salmon Smoke out I decided my old Brinkman water smoker was as rusty as the side quarter panel of 84 Dodge K car that’d seen too many Iowa winters. I don’t know if smoking out of a rusted up smoker is bad for you or not but it seemed pretty gross to me so out to the dumpster it went. Having some leftover ribs and hankering for a smoke I found the post from Meathead about how to turn your gas grill into a smoker. It works!

Here’s what I did:

First off got a large aluminum steam pan from the Smart and Final, see photo, for the water tray. Got a bread loaf sized aluminum tray for the wood chips. Found an old top shelf to a broiler pan to use as the rack for the ribs to sit on. For bigger smokes down the road I can use the rack from my oven, but since this one was small the broil pan piece worked just fine. Boiled up my water which I’ve seen some folks on various how to smoke not do and I think that’s pretty wasteful when the whole idea of the smoker is to have lots of steam circulating.

I kept the fire pretty low but ran all 3 burners in my grill. Definitely had some major heat leaks as the lid to my grill didn’t shut quite properly due to the extra equipment inside. It took a little while to get to full heat and for the chips to start to smoke. However once things got going there was plenty of smoke, almost too much as the wood chips eventually cooked into embers and perhaps could have combusted into a fire. I put some water on the chips and it killed the glowing embers. Additionally not seeing the smoke early on I took some of the chips and put them in foil that I wrapped up and poked some air holes into. This packet was definitely the first to smoke, eventually I had to had to seal up the foil in an attempt to damper down the smoldering chips.

All total the ribs took about 3 hours and only got as high on the temp as 212 Fahrenheit, one hour less than I would leave them on the old charcoal smoker, they charred up nicely with a good ‘bark’ and had a great tender consistency, I think that traditional smoker did render a more ‘smoky’ flavor but this was certainly cleaner and easier than setting up the old smoker and dealing with the all the charcoal. Living in Los Angeles I do think about all the smoke I’m putting into the air and the implications of burning a bunch of charcoal. Which leads me to debate what is the next smoker I’m going to purchase. Converting the grill was fast and easy but there is something to be said for the process and traditional feel of using charcoal, I mean nothing kills a Satruday in the fall better than smoking meat and watching college football on the TV in the backyard, much to my girlfriend’s chagrin. 

Kick ass Salmon & Meat smoking dry rub

Ok here is a recipe passed down through the generations only to wind up in the hands of the Ruminant Grubber. This rub is traditionally meant for smoking salmon but works great for ribs and who knows what else.. If I was going to go all Hannibal Lector then I'd soak the victim's corpse in this rub for few days before polishing them on with some lava beans and a chianti. It's that good.

You're going to make a lot that you may not use so have a dry airtight storage container standing by. This amount will make about 5-6 pounds of salmon.

What you'll need:
2 lbs brown sugar dark
1/2 cup sea salt
Handful of chopped bay leaves
2-3 tbsp of garlic powder
2-3 tbsp lemon pepper

Mix it all together thoroughly

To make salmon:

Cut the salmon into 2" pieces across the grain
Pack the pieces into a deep baking pan layering with a generous amount of the rub. Cover with Saran wrap or an airtight lid and let it sit for at least 24-36 hours or longer (baby back ribs I let sit for several days in the rub)

Get ready for a surprise when you check in on your meat. The rub will have turned into a gelatinous brine.

Smoke from from 4-6 hours depending on the meat thickness and air temp outside. Usually for both ribs and salmon 4 hours on the nose it all it takes. If you are doing ribs be sure to wrap the ribs in foil after the first hour or two in the smoker. This will really help keep in the moisture. Also let the meat rest for about 5 minutes after removing it from the heat.

Always remember: more is more



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Mi Casa

Brazilian Baby Back Ribs

This is a real simple set up I picked up from a friend who picked up it up from her friend so on and so forth. It's a simple prep, it involves beer in the recipe (so your old lady thinks that six pack you brought home from the store is for cookin') and gets you out to the grill fast.

Here's what you need:
1 full baby back rack
3 cans of shitty bear
Rock salt
Limes
Finely grated parmesan cheese

Prep:
Cut the rack into 3rds
Arrange in a Pyrex 3qrt oblong baking dish
Sprinkle with rock salt
Let sit for 10 minutes
Once meat has opened up
Squeeze limes over ribs and drowned in beer
Let sit for about 1 hour

Cook:
Get your BBQ grill heated to high
Place slabs of meat on the hottest part of the grill
I recommend using a stopwatch
Time 2 minutes rib side down
Then 4 minutes meat side down
As you rotate between sides poor over the meat more beer and lime juice
Continue till you get to about 30 minutes and the meat is looking just right (I know real scientific) times may vary due to the thickness of the cut.
When you pull your racks of ribs from the grill sprinkle with parmesan and wrap foil around the meat and plate that the rack is on. Let that rest for 5 minutes.
Cut and eat

Always remember: more is more


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Mi Casa