February 2007 Archives

(All photos: John in Chicago. The top one needed a little sharpening in Photoshop, perhaps John, who's a tremendously good photographer, got into the port a little early... ;©))

John in Chicago has been cooking again, and I can smell (and practically taste) it from here:

take leg o' lamb & slather survival spice allllll over the inside with fresh marjoram , tie up , sear the piss outa it on the grill pan , take off grill pan , slather the outside with survival spice and slow roast at 275-300 till the probe says 150degreez ............................... dust again w/ survival spice , rest for 10 minutes or 1 beer (samuel smith nut brown ale) then cut away the string and attack flanked by goat cheese basil garlic mashers, oh and a sauce from the pan drippings w/ the addition of a bit of Setubal. (TPC note: Setubal is a Portuguese fortified wine, and I'll bet it was incredible in the sauce.)

Great technique, John! So many people grab for the rosemary by default any time they're prepping lamb, and although it's a wonderful combination of flavors, frankly, it's been done and overdone, in my book. I know from experience that our Survival Spice™ barbecue rub complements lamb wonderfully. (End shameless plug.)

Awesome. Here's a few more pics:

From the comments on Friday:

I made a gumbo! Well, okay it was more of a roux stew. The only pictures of it I have are on MH where I'm making a roux and browning some sausage.

Hooboy it was great.

Biggles

Check it out here, and if you don't read Meathenge regularly, you should be ashamed of yourself.

Didja save me some, Guy? I didn't think so, crap.

I like kebabs, kabobs, however you like to spell it, (both are correct, actually) don't get me wrong. They're really party friendly, easy prep you can do well in advance, and the simplicity of plunking down a kebab or two on a plate and not have to have a lot of side dishes is great. The problem with mixed kebabs, however, is that generally you get a bunch of burned and raw stuff on the same skewer, because each individual item takes different times to cook.

There are two ways to solve this: either make your kebabs seperately, entire skewers made up of the same ingredient, which I prefer; or par cook items to the same state of doneness, then make up mixed skewers. This was how I made these- I cut an onion in half and zapped it on the microwave for about 2 minutes, then cut it into wedges. The beef and the red bell pepper needed no pre-cooking, I knew they'd both be done in about 15 minutes.

I lucked into an amazing marinade for this, that I can't wait to try on flank steak. I combined our Tibvrtini Extra Virgine di Oliva, organic Tibvrtini Aceto di Vino Blanco, and some Survival Spice™, and was blown away by how good it was. It might even make a quick Italian-type salad dressing- I'll be playing with that soon.

These got about 15 minutes over a medium charcoal fire, and I served them on some brown rice. I'm going to be making these again, soon, and a flank steak is definitely on my shopping list.

Do any cooking this weekend? I got some great pictures in over the weekend that I'll be posting soon.

(Y'know, me, just chillin' out at the cabin...)

Happy Friday, everyone!!! As you can see, I'm heading out hunting over the weekend, so this Friday Funny from Janella was just the ticket.

Okay, I'm not hunting, but I'll be cooking over the weekend, and I hope you are too! Email me some pictures, and I'll see you next week.

Thanks for reading, and for your support of Desert Island Foods®.com.

This is not what you would call a traditional Caesar salad. Traditionally, a Caesar salad would have whole leaves of romaine lettuce, and the dressing would include a few coddled eggs. The nouvelle Caesar dressing I learned in culinary school only contains one egg yolk per cup of oil, and the egg is 'cooked' with a combination of lemon juice and vinegar, so the dressing tends to be more like a loose aoili.

To make this, I grilled off a chicken breast with Survival Spice™, and sliced it. I like a simple crouton with my Caesar, so they're just lightly oiled, along with some kosher salt and black pepper, then toasted.

I went high end with the ingredients in the dressing- an organic egg yolk, a few liquified cloves of garlic, TIbvrtini Aceto di Vino Blanco, our organic white wine vinegar, and a blend of canola oil and TIbvrtini Olio Extra Virgene. I also used lemon juice, parmagiano reggiano cheese, a bit of Worcestershire sauce, and some dry Colman's mustard.

It's not the lightest salad in the world, but it's one of my favorites.

(Photo: Paul "Chile" Brown, of a pork butt rubbed with Survival Spice™)

Paul sent along this picture, along with this:

Guess what is going into my Smoker tomorrow. I do not know if there will be any follow through pictures. Ms. Goofy is taking the camera to our nephews first birthday. (Man, I am glad I am not going). We will probably have 200 pictures of the baby wearing a funny hat and drooling cake. I personally think a Pork Roast would make a better shot.

Geez, how about a compromise- a shot of your nephew eating the finished pork?!?

Thanks, Paul. I'll bet it was really, really good.

(The Pragmatic Groom, waitin' at the altar...)

Happy Friday, folks!! A long, hard week, especially for everyone still shoveling out from all the snow, is finally done.

I'll probably get in trouble for posting this email from Will, but it is pretty funny. I'd just like to go on record as saying that I really do like cats, and kicking them doesn't sound like my idea of a good time...

Have a great weekend, everyone. Whether it's been snowing or not where you are, fire up the grills, get out the Survival Spice™, and cook something good, willya? Email me any time you've got a picture, a tip or a food link to share.

Thanks for reading!

Happy Valentine's Day, everyone!!! Busy day around here, but here's another version of the Scariyaki sauce on some really nice salmon filets, pan fried in a cast iron skillet. A simple veggie fried rice, using some left over brown rice, an organic egg, fresh garlic, onion, some broccoli, and a bit of the sauce finished it off nicely. Search the archives for 'scariyaki' to see some other versions.

Treat yourselves to something good tonight!

I say, play all you want! Just because I haven't had time for much serious cooking these days doesn't mean I can't goof around with stuff, does it? I didn't think so. Now that I look at it again, some red onion eyebrows would've been cool.

Cook anything good this weekend? Email me some pictures and words, so we can check it out!

(Photo: Mary, of TPC's King Crab Legs with Survival Butter)

Happy Friday, everyone! I hope you've got something good on the menu this weekend. Okay, the Friday Funny this week is kind of gross, but worthy of sharing, I think. Thanks to Casey for the email.

Thanks for reading, and thanks for your support of Desert Island Foods®.com. We've been getting a lot of interest in Survival Spice™ lately from people looking for a gluten-free BBQ rub, but hey, it tastes great, too!!!

(Photo: Julie)

Julie sent in this dish, a basic but really good looking veggie and tofu saute. She mentioned that she added Survival Spice™ after she snapped this picture:

It was: snow peas, zucchini, tofu, red pepper, red onions and tons of garlic and stir fry sauce. It was pretty good.

Pretty impressive cooking, considering that she didn't cook at all until she started reading this blog!!

Thanks, Julie, keep on cooking!

(Photo: Paul "Chile" Brown, of his Beer Can Chicken)

I see Chile's been playing with fire again, and from the looks of this bird he roasted this sucker in his clay oven.

The skin's a bit fried, but I'll bet it was really tasty. No word if he used Survival Spice™, but I think he usually does.

Man, my mouth's watering. When's lunch?

Happy Friday, and Happy Groundhog Day!! In honor of the belated release of Windows Vista, I thought I'd share a Friday Funny sent in by Mark.

Sorry for the lean posting as of late, work has been absolutely insane around here, but it's good insane, all in all. Thanks for checking in, and have a great weekend!

Just because I'm not cooking much doesn't mean that you shouldn't! Email me some pictures, and a food story any time! I still have a few to post, soon. I promise.