Everyday Misc Cooking Photos w/ details

[MacKenzie]

Spent yesterday and today cleaning up my garden after two nights of killer frost, My coverings weren't enough to keep these killer frosts from doing what it always does. Now we have the tail end of Hurricane Teddy to deal with for the next two days.

[Tyrus]

When it rains it pours Mac, don't fear soon the Grizzly will come round and visit your estate to bring joy and companionship around the Holidays.

[HokieBen]

Your pics put mine to shame Mac! They always look so perfect. 

[HokieBen]

Threw a few chicken breasts on the KK tonight and made a nice Caesar salad, one of my fav meals to make during a busy week. 

[MacKenzie]

Hokie Ben, that's a pretty perfect looking plated dinner. 

[Bruce Pearson]

You take great pictures Tony and cook wonderful tasty looking meals yum yum yum!!!

[AJR]

On 9/21/2020 at 6:17 AM, Tyrus said:

Steak it is and those grates are soo clean...you embarrass me.  

I soaked them in PBW last week. You should see the main grate that I cooked the brisket on, Oy it’s a mess.

[tony b]

PBW to the rescue again!

[Troble]

Tomorrow is my birthday. My plan is to go golfing on Torrey Pines South and eat a brisket. I’ve pulled it off before. The trick is to cook it before you go, wrap it, go play your round and come back and serve. So maybe 5-6 hours after wrapping you eat it. I made my mashed potatoes tonight and put them in a foil tray....but I’m going for the gold with the brisket 

as some of you may or may not remember when I got my KK I said my dream was to be a to do adobada/al pastor on a spit (which I am happy to say I have accomplished) and I want to cook a Lomo Saltado brisket. 
 

My wife is Peruvian and I’ve fallen in love with Peruvian cuisine. Lomo saltado is my favorite dish. I posted pics a few months back of me making it but essentially you light pisco and soy sauce on fire and cook meat in a wok with a bunch of cumin, garlic, red onions and aji peppers (from Peru). If it’s done well the juice or “jugito” is so delicious that you will likely lick every last drop off the plate. It’s amazing 

I’ve tried on a few occasions to make a Lomo saltado or aji amariillo brisket using cumin, aji powder, soy sauce, garlic powder etc as a rub in the past and while it was good the flavor never penetrated the skin and it didn’t pack a huge flavor punch like I hoped for

I think it was @Wingman505who was posting about injecting brisket that got me thinking....I’ve never injected a brisket before. So I took a pan and made my Lomo saltado sauce, lit the stuff on fire and let it simmer 5 hours. I also took a boatload of aji amarillo paste (which is spicy as hell) and rubbed it on my brisket. I rubbed soy sauce on there and sprinkled cumin, salt and pepper. I then took my 5 hour simmering Lomo saltado sauce and injected it into my brisket 

side note - the wife and I are doing a two day staycation for my birthday so my mother in law is coming to watch the kids. I made her favorite Peruvian dish (my wife’s as well) Aji de Gallina, so she has good food and does not have to cook all weekend. That leaves me completely open to go all Mad Max with my brisket. If it sucks there is a back up plan already waiting....

I say this because for some reason I got a hair up my butt about not having enough flavor so I decide to cut up to Peruvian aji peppers and put them on top of my brisket. These peppers are super hot. So I did that and then let it marinate for 48 hours 

just fired up my KK tonight and took out the Brisket. Removed most of the large chunks of aji pepper that were on top of the meat and then threw it on the KK at 235 with some mesquite wood. I sampled the juice in my pan and it was spot on so I’m hopeful that this may be a crazy ass experiment that works....or it might end up so spicy it’s unedible....we shall see. I’ll pull it in the AM around 10am PST and will eat it at 6pm PST. I plan to wrap it in foil in the morning. Normally I tend to leave my briskets unwrapped for the full duration of the cook, especially  with the KK as it keeps things so moist. However since I love this sauce so much and I sautéed it 5 hours then injected it and since it’s gonna rest for 6 hours I want as much juice as I can in the final wrap. So contrary to my usual style I’ll pull it wrap it in foil and put it back on for 90-120 minutes to finish in the AM. We’ll have to see the temp when I wake up. Here’s progress to date 

Edited September 25, 2020 by Troble

[tekobo]

That looks and sounds great @Troble.  Looking forward to the result!

[Troble]

Pulled and wrapped in foil at 8am pst. Will take it off at 10am to put in cooler 

[tony b]

Happy Birthday, Troble!!  

Sounds like a wonderful plan and I can't wait to hear how this turns out. Injecting is the way to go on larger hunks of meat like briskets and butts. I even inject whole chickens. 

I've been growing yellow aji peppers for a number of years now. This year's crop has been disappointing so far. I've only got one ripe one on the plant right now and just a couple more in the ripening process. So, not enough to make a batch of my hot sauce this year! 😢

[Troble]

@tony b you grow aji peppers? That awesome. I’m going to grow a ton next spring but my vegetable boxes and roof work got done too late to grow peppers or siding vegetables this year. I inject my pork butt but have never tried a brisket. I just pulled it off the KK internal temp was 204. Put in the cooler now it’s off to the golf course to drink a few plinys!

one thing I’m curious about tony, have you ever left chunks on top of your brisket? I took off the big chunks of aji but I left the smaller ones on there thinking it could deliver a impactful punch in the crust 

[MacKenzie]

Sounds like a great birthday and I don't understand why we all didn't get an invite.   

 

Happy Birthday and many more.  

[tony b]

21 hours ago, Troble said:

now it’s off to the golf course to drink a few plinys!

one thing I’m curious about tony, have you ever left chunks on top of your brisket? I took off the big chunks of aji but I left the smaller ones on there thinking it could deliver a impactful punch in the crust 

Nice way to spend your birthday - golf & Plinys! Unfortunately, I didn't get up to Russian River on my recent visit to Napa - the smoke was just too bad that day and I was concerned that they'd close down before we got there for lunch. But, I did score some Pliny at a bottle shop in San Jose!

Never done "chunks" before. Will be interested to hear if it works out for you. My inclination would have been to puree them in the processor with the other rub ingredients to make a paste. 

[Troble]

57 minutes ago, tony b said:

Nice way to spend your birthday - golf & Plinys! Unfortunately, I didn't get up to Russian River on my recent visit to Napa - the smoke was just too bad that day and I was concerned that they'd close down before we got there for lunch. But, I did score some Pliny at a bottle shop in San Jose!

Never done "chunks" before. Will be interested to hear if it works out for you. My inclination would have been to puree them in the processor with the other rub ingredients to make a paste. 

@tony balas there were no Plinys at the market so we settled on Ale smith .394 pale ale. Beautifully sunny day on the cliffs of La Jolla can’t beat it 

 

I think what you said about doing a purée is the right call but when you a couple IPAs deep and it’s 11pm at night sometime you make snap decisions without thinking them through 

The brisket turned out good. The heat was there it needed more salt on the rib but everyone said it had a spice kick but it wasn’t too spicy. It ended up being in the cooler 8 hours which was a bit long. I think leaving small chunks of peppers on top was good cause every now and then I’d get a bit of one of those and it was spicy but since I removed all the big pieces it wasn’t too much. I’ll do it again for sure

conclusion is it’s a step in the right direction but I’ve still got work to do to “nail it”

[Basher]

Baking time.

tried a new bread with sourdough starter, a dash of natural yogurt and soaked seeds. 1/4 rye

very pleased with the result.

[Tyrus]

Well Basher you gotta stuff that PO Boy  with meat. Have to admit it looks pretty sweet just the way it is.

[Syzygies]

I seized a rare lull in our California "spare the air" days, before the onset tomorrow of a new heat wave brings new fires. Pork belly strips, salt, pepper, pimenton over apple smoke from a smoke pot.

I'll parse out the meat for either Hunan Harvest Pork or Sichuan Twice-cooked Pork. I'll make some lard from the fat in my Vermicular Musui-Kamado, to have smoke goodness in other stir fries.

Yamada Hammered Iron Round Bottom Wok (1.6mm Thickness)

I've lost track of how many woks I've owned over my life. These Japanese woks (round or flat bottom) are by far the best woks I've ever seen. Thickness matters. I made a wooden handle to go in the arm. I own a 33cm flat bottom, which I now realize is a bit small. Our new range will be round-bottom ready, with more BTUs, so I have a 36cm round wok on order.

[Basher]

6 hours ago, Tyrus said:

Well Basher you gotta stuff that PO Boy  with meat. Have to admit it looks pretty sweet just the way it is.

Ok Tyrus, I was going to settle for fresh bread and vegemite and some Mersey valley cheese. But you are right. So here’s an eye fillet with extra hot pepper spices( cos the wife and kids have gone to Noosa and I will take leftovers for lunches)

I had a drama when my Meater probe fell out as I was flipping the fillet near the end of the cook. Couldn’t see it buried beneath the coals, then the Meater alarm went off. I had to pull the meat, the  grills( 2 including the split grill in place) the lift the fire basket and spotted the probe lying in the ashes.

hopefully it’s not damaged.

the fillet was perfect- moist, spicy, with a 2mm crunchy crust.