by bookmarcus

Crepinettes with smoke.

I’ve done Crepinetts on my Weber Q and the EGG a few times now… On the Q, I preheated to at least 400°F, turned off the middle burner and cooked 8 minutes per side over the (off) middle burner. On the EGG, cook at about 400°F, 8 minutes per side. The Caul Fat holds the moisture in and they turn out perfect every time.

That EGG is smokin’

Today, I tried my EGG with smoke for the first time. I took two hands-full of Jack Daniel’s wood chips and soaked in the little blue bucket for about 90 minutes.Made a direct fire in the EGG and brought to 400°F… drained the wood chips and threw them on the charcoal fire. Much smoke immediately. Put on the grate, and added the oiled Crepinettes and closed the EGG adjusting to hold the temps at 400.
At 8 minutes, I turned the crepinettes and put on yellow beans that had been steamed for 10 minutes.

“Smoke gets in your eyes…”

At 16 minutes I shut down the grill…

served and ate that fine smoked food. What we have here is a whole new flavor treat. YUM.
Sadly, I’ve run out of crepinettes. Fatted Calf promises to start shipping soon. If I can’t wait, I’ll just have to make a San Francisco trip. Let’s see, what other foodie goodies do I need?

07.23.13

by bookmarcus

BEER BUTT CHICKEN

You’ve all heard of Beer Can Chicken — probably cooked it. Insert a half-full beer can up a chicken’s keister, put that assembly on the grill and wait for the yummy, moist chicken dinner.

Well, if you happen to own a Big Green Egg — or even if you don’t — BGE is happy to sell you a ceramic conical device called Sittin’ Chicken in which to place six ounces of beer and shove up the aforementioned keister. In this case, you call it Beer Butt Chicken.

Here’s how it goes…

First of all, buy an organic, free-range chicken. I got mine at the Farmers Market, and I’ve visited the farm where it was raised, so I know its a swell bird. Mine was a tad over five pounds.

My chicken listed a bit to the right, but did not fall over.

Chicken is on the EGG. The white thing is a “Ceramic Platesetter” and makes the EGG a roaster or smoker.

The chicken is roasted at 375°F and sprayed from time to time with a beer and cider and oil and vinegar mixture. Helps it brown and flavors up the skin.

Here’s my chicken after 40 minutes.

: Here’s my chicken after 70 minutes. I took its thigh temperature and called it done.

Here we are, rested and ready to carve.

We invited son Brian and Natasza over for Sunday Dinner and to watch the British Open Golf Championship from Muirfield Scotland that I had taped. It is live at 5am PDT, not a good time for Sunday Dinner. Phil Mickelson — long one of my favorites — came from five strokes back to win. We were all very happy about that, and I won a couple of coin, as well.

Carved. Carcass in the background.

Brian made Vichyssoise for a first course. Its chilled creaminess welcome as it has been very hot in Reno.

And here is our table.

Later in the evening, golf over, guests gone and a cooling breeze on the front porch, Carol and I watched the moonrise.

07.19.13

by bookmarcus

ORANGE SUMMER

So many orange things are around in the summer. I’ve been eating some orange and yellow things for my breakfast and lunch. You’ll see:

Orange and Yellow Lunch
Melon
Canned pineapple chunks
A very fine cheese on crackers:

Fat Bottomed Girl, Bleeting Heart CA
Pasteurized Sheep’s Milk
Peter, at Wedge: A Cheese Shop got this cheese in for the first time recently when I was in the shop. He gave me a taste and I was hooked. Has a cool name, too.

Orange Breakfast
Hard cooked egg
Melon
Peach
I don’t know how you do your peaches, but I peel mine with a vegetable peeler, then cut it off the pit in wedge sections. Be sure and do all this peeling and cutting over your plate so you capture all the juices.

Another Orange Breakfast of melon and peach layered over thin sliced baked ham.
We get both our melons and peaches at the same farm stand at the Saturday Farmer’s Market on California Avenue near Keystone. I don’t remember the name of the stand, but I’ll look when I’m there tomorrow. Minton Family Farm, Yuba City CA

Here’s melon and a hard cooked egg accompanied by home made pimento cheese spread on crackers.

And finally, for now:
Ambrosia melon, “yellow” watermelon, and peach for breakfast…
More cut up peach soaking in rum for dessert tonight.
My peaches went beyond ripe, so I had to peel two at once. Turns out that’s not such a bad thing. Sadly, the “yellow” watermelon had almost no flavor (the rum-soaked peaches had lots of flavor).

07.16.13

by bookmarcus

EGGstatic

I’m so excited,
I just can’t hide it,
Got ourselves a BIG GREEN EGG
And I think I like it…

Big Green Egg

It all started seriously when we visited Carol’s brother Mark in September 2012. They’ve had a Big Green Egg (EGG) for years and always cooked on it when we made our annual visit. The first time we ate from their EGG was the summer of 2010 where Jannie cooked salmon, zucchini, tomatoes and corn all at once. That planted the EGG seed in my brain. By September ’12 we had already moved from San Francisco to Reno, so we were about ready to rock n roll.

And why had we wanted to move from the beautiful San Francisco after 20 years?
Reason No. 1, the hills and steps.

Count the steps.

Reason No. 2, we liked the idea of walking out the back door and throwing something on the grill without the hassle of walking through the entire house and out onto the tiny back deck.

Our back “deck” off the second bedroom

Oh yes, before we left Ohio, Mark and I happened to make a small wager…

Mark’s Cincinnati Reds and my Giants are both in NL playoffs. Mark wants to bet.
I said, “I’ll bet the Reds don’t win the NL championship.”
He said he’d take that for $10.
I said, “If you lose, you have to give me my ten dollar bill in Reno.”
He said, “Only if you cook in Reno on a Green Egg.”
We shook on it. Jannie and Carol hooted.

We were outta there for the airport at noon. Continue reading →

07.06.13

by bookmarcus

caramelized onions

Hebrew National hot dogs over onions, grill roasted potatoes

These are caramelized onions hiding beneath grilled hot dogs. If I cooked the onions on the stove, I would go low-and-slow for 30 minutes to an hour, watching and stirring to get them just right. I did these on my Salt ROX in about six minutes — could have gone eight — and I didn’t have to worry about them burning because the ROX maintains an even temperature and holds the moisture that comes out of the onions.

I wouldn’t caramelize onions this way for something serious like a tart or onion dip or onion soup; but to languor under a hot dog… perfectomente.

You remember my swell Salt ROX, don’t you? Since I first got it and used it, I’ve been trying all manner of stuff. There’s the regular grillables — stuff like burgers, Crepinettes. And the grillable fishes; sockeye salmon and swordfish steak.

grilled “dover” sole

Holy smokes… I even grilled “dover” sole (not the real Dover sole, found in Europe, but what the supermarket calls any sole caught in the north Pacific). Anyway, its a very thin fillet one could never put on an actual grill.

Then there was the quail and the spinach that I already wrote about.

Shrimp and artichokes

Shrimp and artichokes are good, too.

The first of June, I moved my Q grill from the front porch, where it was sheltered to the back yard. And I “perminately” installed the salt ROX on the side so I can grill on the grill surface and the ROX at the same time.