the pragmatic chef™

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January 29, 2009

Veggie Barley Soup with Smoked Turkey Stock

It doesn't take a foot of snow to get me in the mood for soup. To do it right, a great soup starts with a great stock, and I was lucky enough to have the carcass to the smoked turkey we had for Thanksgiving. Because it had so much flavor I was able to get a stock with a ton of flavor in 4 hours. The only seasoning I used was Survival Spice®, aside from a bit of Sriricha hot sauce at the table.

The rest was pretty straight ahead, and I used a few bolillo rolls to make some quick garlic bread, drizzled with Tibvrtini Olio Extra Virgene di Oliva.

I got a gallon's worth of stock for my work, and used half of it for this soup. I guess I can make 2 batches of brocolli cheddar soup with the rest!

Posted by The Pragmatic Chef at 7:34 PM | Comments (0)

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January 1, 2009

Survival Schnitzel- Pork and Panko

I don't know where the custom of eating pork and sauerkraut on New Year's Day came from, but I'm down with it.

This is pretty standard stuff, except I used some Survival Spice® combined with the flour in the first stage of breading, and used panko crumbs instead of the traditional bread crumbs. Gee, I guess it wasn't all that standard after all, but it sure was good.

The sauerkraut just got a bit of sauteed onion and some diced apple. Hopefully we've got a year of good luck ahead now. Hope you do, too!

Posted by The Pragmatic Chef at 7:42 PM | Comments (1)

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December 10, 2008

Irish Posole

I suppose my "Irish Posole" was much closer to a stew than posole, with a tip of the hat to the Southwest. A nice hunk of beef, seasoned with Survival Spice®, then slow cooked in the oven on top of some carrots and onions. After about 90 minutes I added a bit of stock and braised it for another hour or so. I added some hominy and let it go for another hour.

During this time, I roasted some butternut squash, a head of garlic and a few jalapenos. Once the garlic and jalapenos were done, they were chopped and added to the rest of the ingredients, which were removed and chopped as they were tender. The squash was chopped and added to each bowl for service.

This was one of those smashed up techniques that very often result in something that's either really great, really bad, or a really good lesson. This was a pleasant surprise on the up side. I guess having a can of hominy on hand was the impetus for this in the first place- use what you have on hand, and develop the cooking chops to bring it to the table.

Have fun with cooking, and eat your mistakes!!!

Posted by The Pragmatic Chef at 6:35 PM | Comments (0)

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December 2, 2008

Butterflied Smoked Turkey

It's tough to come up with variations for a Thanksgiving, but this year was a good one. As I mentioned before, I tried to get away from the usual starchy sides- stuffing, mashed potatoes and breads. I love 'em, I mean I really love 'em. You'd have to, if you made stuffing sandwiches like I do, you'd know what I mean.

This turkey, which was about 11 pounds basically got cooked the way I grill a lot of chickens, over indirect heat. this accomplishes a few things- eliminating flare-ups and also keeping the breasts protected from drying out. To do this, just cut out the backbone and season as you see fit. I marinated this bird in orange juice, chicken stock, onions, garlic and lots of Survival Spice®. A few pictures of the turkey in progress are below the fold.

Continue reading "Butterflied Smoked Turkey"

Posted by The Pragmatic Chef at 7:34 PM

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November 19, 2008

Survival Tikka Masala

This is an easy version of the Indian classic Chicken Tikka Masala, using a sauce I picked up at Fresh and Easy. I made it in a totally unconventional way- first roasting chicken parts with Survival Spice® barbecue rub until it was nearly done, then cubing it and baking it in the sauce for 15 minutes or so.

Simple, and really good. I also made some aloo gobi and picked up some garlic naan, and I'll post that later.

Any Indian food fans out there? I'm going to dive into it more, but it's fairly pantry intensive, so the jarred sauce is an easy way to get started.

Posted by The Pragmatic Chef at 6:50 PM | Comments (1)

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November 12, 2008

Pork Roast stuffed with Hot Italian Sausage

("Y'know, pork roasts? Ya gotta kinda cook them just right or they get kinda leathery on ya.")

We've all dried out a few pork roasts in our day, and it's no fun to suffer through a jerky-like pork experience. To avoid that, I've been doing this larding technique for quite a few years now, but after searching through the archives I was surprised I'd never blogged about it before. Rather than go into it again, read this post about larding vs. barding from aways back in '05 to get my take on the difference.

Bottom line is adding fat to moisten a potentially dry pork roast is a fine idea, not that it's impossible to create a juicy, succulent roast by other means, far from it. But taking the opportunity to add some additional flavor as well is really a bonus.

I've done this with pork tenders and homemade chorizo, served with a pasilla cream sauce, with excellent results, especially with a professional casing filler at my disposal. Run a chef's steel through a pork tender, widen the opening a touch, then fill with the casing machine. Easy. But at home, what I decided to do is follow the side seam of a sirloin roast, butterflying it, then I added some hot Italian sausage and sealed it with a bamboo skewer along the seam, with a few bits cut off to seal the ends. Rubbed it well with Survival Spice®, or as I humbly (ahem) like to think of it, "the ultimate pork rub", and it was ready for the grill.

While I was working outside I cooked this directly, then indirectly with a combination of charcoal and dry hickory chips- not for smoke, just for flavor. I left it on the grill a bit longer than I would have liked, but it was terrific.

I was going to cook other stuff to go with this, but I blew it off. Can you blame me?

Posted by The Pragmatic Chef at 6:10 PM | Comments (6)

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November 6, 2008

Oven BBQ Turkey Breast

In a never ending quest for variety at dinner time, this is a quick meal idea that worked out great.

I cubed a turkey breast, then seasoned well with Survival Spice®, which is great with any poultry I've experimented with. Placed in a cast iron skillet, I cooked it at a fairly low heat (275º) until it was most of the way finished, then I added some barbecue sauce to the skillet and let it simmer until it was done.

I cranked up the broiler to crisp it up, and we had it with baked potatoes and a salad.

Try it with beef, chicken, or pork shoulder.

Posted by The Pragmatic Chef at 8:06 PM | Comments (5)

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July 28, 2008

Pork Chops and Applesauce

I love the combination of pork and apples, and the addition of our Survival Spice® barbecue rub is a really great variation.

This is a classic dinner, just some pan fried chops with some rustic red potatoes, skins on. Steamed brocolli and some organic applesauce to top it all off.

Just a few seconds extra plating this up makes it seem more special, it sure was good!

Posted by The Pragmatic Chef at 2:18 PM | Comments (2)

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July 23, 2008

Potatoes O'Brien

I'm a sucker for potatoes in just about any form, but Potatoes O'Brien is right up there for me. Take your time with them, and if you're in a hurry you can microwave the potatoes a bit before you add them to your skillet. I like to use our Tibvrtini Olio Extra Virgene di Oliva, with a mixture of baby yellow and red bell peppers and red onion. I seasoned them up with a bit of Survival Spice® and let them get nice and tender.

Great with just about anything, from eggs to steak! I could eat a bowl by themselves.

Posted by The Pragmatic Chef at 11:43 AM | Comments (0)

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July 10, 2008

Broiled Basa- great for fish tacos!

Although you might translate basa as "bass", it's actually a type of catfish. A firm white fish with reddish coloring, it's ideal for breading. These filets were done the simplest way possible, in a one quart Ziploc bag with a 3:1 mixtture of flour and Survival Spice®, then broiled.

I served this with flour tortillas warmed on my griddle, thinly sliced red onions, black beans, lime juice, and some guacamole that I'll post later. Crazy good.

Posted by The Pragmatic Chef at 9:02 AM | Comments (3)

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May 26, 2008

Happy Memorial Day!!!

Please take a few minutes to remember what this day is about.

P.S. Rubbed with just Survival Spice®, smoked/grilled over pecan wood. And yes, so good I got a little weepy.

Posted by The Pragmatic Chef at 5:47 PM | Comments (0)

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April 14, 2008

John in Chicago's Slow Baked Survival Ribs

Apparently it's still too cold in Chicago for John to fire up his grill, but it didn't stop him from coming up with a great rib idea:

Its been a while since I've posted anything so here's 3 slabs I cooked off yesterday. I took the slabs and rubbed then w/ Survival Spice and wrapped them in Film and refriged for 24 hrs. I heated the oven to 280 and then dusted them again covered them with foil and popped them in with a pan of water (seperate of course)in the oven to add moisture. One and half hours covered then uncover , redust and pop back in checking every 20 minutes and marinate w/orange juice , pureed garlic (lots) , honey , and get this ............ a glop of Safeway's mango-curry sauce /// its 2.79 a bottle and really can add accent to a variety of dishes , no shit try it .............................. great w/ home made frittes ................... which I made along with a Thai Jicama salad.

I've been on a diet so this was a
treat , urp.......................I cooked them for 4 hours..... dusting them every hour w/ survival spice so
that it was embedded into the glaze.

Sounds like some serious flavor going down there! I like the idea of layering the Survival Spice®, too.

Posted by The Pragmatic Chef at 9:26 AM | Comments (0)

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April 7, 2008

Survival Grilled Tofu

In an ongoing effort to "take care of ourselves", whatever that means, we've been eating more vegetarian dishes lately. To most people who have tried tofu, most think of it as a large pencil eraser in terms of a flavor profile, but it certainly doesn't have to be that way.

My technique for our weekly tofu night is still evolving, but lately a few days before we're going to eat it I've been slicing a package of extra firm tofu in half, then gently pressing as much moisture as I can. I rub all sides generously with our Survival Spice® barbecue rub, then put it in the fridge for a day or so.

The morning I'm going to grill it I slap together a simple of marinade of soy sauce, worcestershire sauce, which to me gives a more 'meaty' flavor, and Tibvrtini Olio Extra Virgine di Oliva; turning the tofu slices a few times to marinate them evenly.

Though it will never top some of the meat dishes I've featured here over the years I have to say, it tastes great!

Posted by The Pragmatic Chef at 9:59 AM | Comments (4)

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February 18, 2008

"Three S" chicken

Whoo boy, this was good.

I took a few minutes yesterday afternoon to marinate some chicken breasts in soy sauce, sesame oil, and Survival Spice® for about 3 hours, then grilled them off on our gas grill with a little pecan wood.

Not sure the picture does it justice, but they had a beautiful color, and they were incredibly moist. I made some basic fried rice and grilled some asparagus to go with it.

Fortunately, there are leftovers. Life is good.

Posted by The Pragmatic Chef at 10:47 AM | Comments (4)

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January 25, 2008

Can you make a sauce from this?

Today's food experiment included a desperate search through the pantry for something fast. I've never used canned soup in a sauce, so I figured I'd give it a shot.

I rubbed two chicken breasts with our Survival Spice® barbecue rub, which of course works like a champ, then roasted them along with some sliced onion and peppers, until they had some good color, then dumped in the cans, seasoned them with more Survival Spice®, then let it all simmer along until it was done. Made some smashed parsley buttered potatoes, and plated it all together.

How was it?

Answer:

Good. I knew it might be salty, so I took it easy on the salt when I seasoned the potatoes and it worked out fine. I might use less stock if I did it again, which is certainly possible.

Been cooking? Email me pics! I'll admit I've been getting to them slowly, but they're still around here somewhere...

Posted by The Pragmatic Chef at 6:52 AM | Comments (1)

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January 17, 2008

Sauteed Cod with Red Pepper Beurre Blanc

This is a quick and simple dish, relatively speaking, with minimal prep required, which these days is about at the top of the priority list. A beurre blanc sauce, literally 'white butter', is done with whole butter, white wine, lemon juice, parsley and shallots at its most basic form, but is really easy to embellish with things like red bell pepper, capers and whatever else you feel like throwing in there. My ratio of butter to lemon juice wasn't high enough to make this a 'textbook' beurre blanc, but this slightly lighter version was still amazing.

The main trick to a beurre blanc is to not heat the butter to the point of splitting. I dimly remember that being around 137º from my culinary school days, but the basic technique to this pan sauce is to give your skillet a quick wipe after you've removed whatever meat you've cooked, then adding the shallots, and sweating them a minute or two. Deglaze with a shot of white wine, reduce this to 'au sec', or nearly dry, then add your whole butter. Alternate between on and off the heat, swirling your pan almost continuously, until the mixture emulsifies. Thin with lots of lemon juice, toss in some chopped parsley if you like, or cilantro, then plate 'er up.

The acidity of the white wine and lemon juice makes this sauce much lighter than you'd expect. As far as the fish goes, all I did was season it with a bit of Survival Spice® and sauteed it in our Tibvrtini Olio Extra Virgene di Oliva, then kept it warm on a sizzle plate.

If you want to keep playing with butter sauces after you've tried this, a beurre noisette, or browned butter sauce is absolutely amazing, but that's another day.

Posted by The Pragmatic Chef at 8:00 AM | Comments (2)

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December 27, 2007

Christmas Survival Glazed Ham

I took a different approach to the glaze I used on our Christmas ham this year. In previous versions I made it more orange flavored, using frozen orange juice, but for this year I took a different approach, and I'm happier with it.

I used maybe a cup of brown sugar, a goodly amount of dry Colman's mustard- at least a tablespoon or two, about an ounce or so of our Survival Spice® barbecue rub, then just enough fresh orange juice to create a paste. I slathered it on in two layers about 15 minutes apart during the last half hour, keeping a close eye on it because of all the brown sugar, and it came out beautifully.

How was your Christmas? Did Santa bring you anything good?

Posted by The Pragmatic Chef at 7:31 AM | Comments (2)

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December 22, 2007

Easy Oven Roasted Chicken w/Rosemary potatoes and Asparagus

Unfortunately these days, it would seem, on the rare evening that I get to cook anything at home, my focus is more on words like 'simple', 'easy', and 'quick' than my old goals of 'astounding' and 'unforgettable', but the news isn't all bad. Indeed, as I do everything I can to minimize prep time and shopping hassles I'm rediscovering how good simple meals can be.

For this no-hassle oven fried chicken I replaced a traditional breading station like the one at the link with a zip-loc bag. The basic steps were the same, but simpler- for a change I started with some organic chicken breasts and some Tabasco sauce in the bag, coated them, hit it with some more Tabasco, then added a mixture of flour and Survival Spice®, tossing it well to coat it fairly evenly. I didn't use bread crumbs because, well, I didn't have any on hand and easy was the point here, remember?

I prepped some red potatoes, tossing them with kosher salt, Tibvrtini Olio Extra Virgene di Oliva, cracked black pepper and some dried rosemary and put it all in to roast. While the chicken and potatoes were roasted, I trimmed up some asparagus, coating it with some more of the amazing olive oil, and with about 10 minutes to go I popped them in the same cast iron skillet with the potatoes and gave everything, including the chicken, a good squeeze of lemon juice, which really makes all the flavors pop.

Two cast iron skillets, one EZ-Hook®, and a one quart Ziploc® bag. Simple. And really, really good.

Posted by The Pragmatic Chef at 6:21 AM | Comments (1)

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December 12, 2007

Stuffed Spaghetti Squash

Well, I was hoping this would be a longer post, but with the holiday crunch being what it is, I'll just have to hope that I'll have the time to add to this later. (UPDATE: I added some extra images and fleshed it out a bit more, for your dining pleasure.)

This is a spaghetti squash, halved, roasted along with some garlic, a small onion and a red pepper, then the good stuff flaked out with a fork and roughly chopped. I took the empty skins, which are quite robust, and ladled in some marinara sauce and some parm reggiano.

The veggies were tossed with some Survival Spice®, pine nuts, dry herbs, and more parm then stuffed into the skins. These roasted until it was hot, then I topped it with some home made bread cubes and a blend of mozz, asiago, provolone and more parm, then broiled it until it was brown and bubbly.

Served with a small steak on the side, it was great. I'd like to try this again soon with some crumbled sausage of some sort.

I will add to this, I took lots of pictures in the process. Really...

By the way, the seeds were terrific, roasted with some Survival Spice® and some of our Tibvrtini Olio Extra Virgine di Oliva.

Posted by The Pragmatic Chef at 4:19 PM | Comments (2)

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December 4, 2007

Barley soup with rosemary focaccia

I made some smoked turkey stock from our Thanksgiving turkey last week, and put together a veggie barley soup with some of the stock. We had eaten at Monti's Saturday night, and ate an absurd amount of their rosemary focaccia, so I decided to make some to have with the soup.

Good and good for ya.

The Gordon Biersch Marzen is a decent beer, especially on sale, but it would probably pair up better with a burger.

Posted by The Pragmatic Chef at 8:09 AM | Comments (1)

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October 23, 2007

Apple Stuffed Turkey Breast w/Polenta & Brussel Sprouts

Well, it's finally starting to cool down here in Phoenix, and I've found myself cooking more meals inside that outside lately. Not that there's a foot of snow on the grill or anything, but it's usually dark when I get home, so cooking inside just feels right.

This dish was a piece of cake- I guess I could have made a pan sauce, but after stuffing a turkey breast seasoned with Survival Spice® with apples, it stayed nice and moist. I added some polenta wedges to the cast iron skillet during the last 20 minutes, and some steamed brussel sprouts finishied it off really well.

Been cooking? Let's hear about it!

Posted by The Pragmatic Chef at 7:53 AM | Comments (1)

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October 1, 2007

Polenta Cakes with Sauteed Vegetables

I picked up a package of polenta the other day, similar to the one I have linked here. I'd never worked with pre-made stuff, and Julie had never had polenta, so a side dish experiment was in order.

I had a sneaky feeling that Survival Spice® would pair up well, so I heated up a skillet, sprinkled some slices of the polenta, and fried them up while I sauteed a mix of red peppers, Chimayo chiles, yellow squash and white onion.

Man, it worked like a champ. Apparently you can puree this with liquid to make a smooth polenta, which is more what I'm used to. I'll have to try it, but having a few of these in the fridge sure makes life easy. Easy is good these days...

Posted by The Pragmatic Chef at 11:57 AM | Comments (1)

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September 19, 2007

John's Torturing the Neighbors Again

(Photo: JB, of his "Neighbor Killer" Lamb Kabobs)

John in Chicago is killing his neighbors:

"time enough to live, time enough to cook"

I took a costco boneless leg o lamb and cut it up into grande cubes for brochette. I marinated 1/2 for 24 hrs in : olive oil , zest of 4 oranges , 6 lg garlic cloves smushed into a paste, fresh mint and rosemary minced, 1 nice pinch of saffron mixed w/ 3 parts survival spice - 1 part madras curry - and 1 part smoky paprika (el ray de la vera - delevera.com) I grilled these babies off, and as you can see I had more smoke than my faux fan could handle.

(Photo: JB)

Man, you're looking at a textbook sear right thar, folks.

I opened the winders and the big doors leading out of the loft and the smoke wafted out and up the stairwell 4 floors and within 10 minutes people were gathering outside the door like pod people , muttering "Carmelization"! I almost had to sic the dogs on em ! well here's a few pics just before they hit the plates and disappeared before I could take a pic, served w/ a mideastern rice dish and triple chocolate dove bars. I took the other 1/2 of the leg and ground it w/ pork shoulder and pancetta to make sausage and pot stickers to freeze.

I really like the way that John used Survival Spice® as a base, then Currified it up by adding saffron, curry powder, and some smoked paprika. That's really what Survival Spice® is all about. I developed it as a stand alone seasoning, but left plenty of room in the recipe for using it as a starting point for customization. I'm always flattered when I get an email from someone apologizing for adding other flavors, but really, it's totally cool, and it's gratifying as hell.

Fricking awesome, John. And triple chocolate Dove bars? Yer killing me.

Been cooking? Email me some pictures!

Posted by The Pragmatic Chef at 7:57 AM | Comments (5)

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September 12, 2007

Chilebrown's making... well, Chile.

(Photo: Paul Brown, of his Grilled Tri Tip)

The aptly named Paul "Chile" Brown has entered a chile cookoff:

Well I am waiting for my trial batch to finish. I made over a gallon of chili. I am going to use Survival Spice... I will spike it with a little salt. I hope you do not mind.

I don't mind at all! I spent a lot of time developing Survival Spice™ to be great all by itself, or as a base for whatever fresh flavors you'd like to add- lemon/orange zest, toasted cumin seeds, etc. I put as little kosher salt in the blend as I could, and people on reduced sodium diets have thanked me for that. Also, I think it's a ripoff that most blends have so much salt in them, I'd much prefer that you added extra salt 'to taste' as Paul does.

Sorry to hear about your partner flaking out, Chile. I'd have been proud to be your sous chef.

Posted by The Pragmatic Chef at 6:53 AM | Comments (2)

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September 10, 2007

Steeler Wings- Victory!

Well, the football season got off to a good start- my Pittsburgh Steelers beat up on the Cleveland Browns until they couldn't take it any more. And no, I'm not a fair weather fan; during the 60s I was a fan when they were far and away the worst team in football.

What's football without hot wings? Nothin'.

I like to grill my wings, but I was getting over some kind of bug, so I had to content myself with seasoning them well with Survival Spice™, then roasting them on a parchment lined sheet pan until they were crispy:

As they were in the oven, I mixed some hot sauce, butter, more Survival Spice®, and a bit of chipotle BBQ sauce in a sauce pan, got it all melted and bubbly, poured the sauce into a work bowl, then tossed the crispy wings with the sauce. Taking a fine suggestion from Julie, I plated them on a Steelers platter.

Mmmmm... spicy, crispy and full of flavor. They tasted great with a few cold beers.

Posted by The Pragmatic Chef at 9:15 AM | Comments (10)

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September 4, 2007

Chilebrown's in A World of Dumplings

(Photo: Paul "Chile" Brown)

Paul "Chile" Brown is excited about a new dish:

Man I am alive!!!!!!!!!!!!! Zukerman potatoes and Three Twisted Sister's Bacon from Chandler. Going to fire up the smoker with some beef ribs and beef loin. I got some applewood chunks off of E-bay. The kroppkakor is a Swedish Potato and Bacon Dumpling. I have a new book called "A World of Dumplings "

The book looks interesting, making dumplings is something I've had decent success with, but I've never really taken the time to really make the effort to perfect my technique.

Here's Paul's finished dish, sadly he didn't invite me over... I got a lot of good emails, y'all have been cooking up a storm!!!

Posted by The Pragmatic Chef at 8:49 AM | Comments (7)

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August 24, 2007

Lokkii here- Chilebrown's making Ribs

Looks like Paul's found himself a new BBQ toy to play with:

I saw it and said what the heck. I am always interested in new Barbeque products. The website http://lokkii.com/ says it is organic.(Whoopdiedoo). I think Mesquite charcoal is the same. I ordered a six pack. The shipping ended up the same as the product.

I had a Corned Beef Brisket and some Beef Ribs. I rubbed them with Survival Spice™ and started cooking it with one brick. I wanted to cook low and slow. When you first light these suckers it smells like pine. Maybe that is there secret ingredient. Once it is lit the smell goes away. I had to light a second log after an hour. They claim it will cook for two hours. I had it in a Weber Kettle.

What do I think?. Can you trust a product from China? Do you want to pay shipping? I give it a thumbs down.!! I would only recommend it you were backpacking because of the convience. It had a Pine smell when you lit it. I do not trust that this was an organic lighting system. There was some chemicals. The only plus I found was convience.

Now to the Highlights of the Dinner. Corned Beef and Beef Ribs rubbed with Survival Spice. Creamed Corn with Bacon (A&B Market,Bend Or,) Tomatoe with Pt.Reyes Blue Cheese, and a whole lot of Lovvin!!!!! Peace, Paul.

I wonder if that smell was resins they probably add as a binder, to keep it from falling apart during shippping. Interesting idea, if wonder if they're selling a lot of them? It is a great idea for campers, and people using public grills that don't want to haul around a bag of charcoal. Chile said that they're about 4 1/2" across.

Man, those ribs look good enough to eat!!! Ribs + Survival Spice® = good times.

Posted by The Pragmatic Chef at 8:03 AM | Comments (2)

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August 16, 2007

Grilled Survival Garlic Chicken, Sweet Potatoes & Brocolli

In another of a long-running series of "What Did You Have for Dinner Last Night", here's a quick rundown of a quick dinner.

I threw a bunch of minced garlic in Ziplock bag, along with the ever present Survival Spice™ and a few all natural chicken breasts to marinate, while I fired up our gas grill. I took a nice sweet potato and cut it into 4 wedges and threw it in the microwave for about 2 minutes, so it could cook through while I got a steamer basket ready for some organic brocolli crowns.

Once the sweet potatoes were tender, I drizzled on a bit of our organic TIbvrtini Extra Virgin Olive Oil and seasoned them with some kosher salt and pepper.

Okay, brocolli's in the steamer and the chicken and sweet potatoes are ready to go on the grill. I grilled the taters on medium high, to get some grill marks and carmelize the sugars, then turned them down to finish cooking while the chicken was cooking. A few pecan wood chips made it all nice and smoky.

Sorry, nothing fancy about this, but it was wonderful.

Been cooking, especially with Desert Island Foods®.com products? Email me!

Posted by The Pragmatic Chef at 8:25 AM | Comments (3)

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July 18, 2007

Grilled Survival Carnitas

(TPC's Grilled Carnitas)

As promised, here's a closer look at the carnitas I made over the weekend.

I like to double cook pork when it's a big piece like a shoulder or butt- a slow cook, to render fat and add a base flavor, then cooking it again on a higher heat to crisp it up. I've used this technique before- on the Masitas en Puerco I made for Cuban Night, and I do it for spare ribs occasionally.

I simmered a pork shoulder in orange juice and limes, along with some water and a sliced head of garlic, salt and pepper for a few hours until it was cooked through, then let it sit in the broth as I was prepping the rest of the meal. There's a picture of it just getting going below the fold, because some people are a bit squeamish about looking at raw meat.

After an hour or so, I took it out of the broth and sliced into pieces a little more than an inch thick, rubbing each slice with Survival Spice™. I grilled these pieces over some pecan smoke while I roasted a head of garlic and some jalapenos.

Wow. Just. Wow. It was a really great combination- pork simmered in a very Latin way, but with a great grilled flavor to boot.

Try this. I'm begging you.

Continue reading "Grilled Survival Carnitas"

Posted by The Pragmatic Chef at 8:05 AM | Comments (4)

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July 6, 2007

Grilled Summer Salad with Shrimp and Eggplant

I hope you all had a great Fourth of July!

My menu planning for yesterday was dictated by the 116º scorcher we had. You know me- I love to take a day to smoke a big ol' hunk of meat, but after a day outside sunnin' and funnin', the last thing I wanted to do was spend a lot of time over a hot grill.

So... with operating parameters set, what to make? On hand- shrimp, leftover brown rice, tomatoes, a red onion, cilantro and a globe eggplant. Easily obtained at the market- red bell peppers, anaheim chiles, lemons, and jalapenos. Aha! I have a plan...

I cut the eggplant in wedges, removing about half the skin and salting them fairly liberally, then cut the peppers into wedges, too. Into a one gallon ziploc bag they went with the red onion, with an obscene amount of crushed garlic, some Tibvrtini Olio Extra Virgene di Oliva, a spash of Tibvrtini Aceto di Vino Blanco, and some kosher salt and black pepper. I left them at room temperature to marinate while I tossed the shrimp into another bag with some more garlic (okay, a lot more) and plenty of Survival Spice™, which absolutely rocks on grilled shrimp.

All that was left to prep was to concasse some roma tomatoes, and clean some cilantro. Into a work bowl they went.

I built a hot fire with pecan wood, and let it settle down a bit. Once everything was marinated, I emptied the bag of veggies onto the hot grill, then went about getting some serious color on the veggies. The eggplant got special attention, blackening the skins and filling the eggplant wedges with tons of pecan flavor.

Once the veggies had great color, but were still between al dente and fully cooked, I took them off the grill, chopping them coarsely and adding them to the cilantro, brown rice and tomatoes already in the work bowl. I added a glug of Tibrtini Novello, about half a lemon's worth of juice, and seasoned to taste.

While that sat, I grilled off the shrimp at high heat just long enough to change the color, and squeezed some lemon juice on them before I took them off the grill.

Plated it up, and man did it hit the spot. Light, but huge flavors, and just the right temperature on a scorching day.

Try this technique with whatever you have on hand. It's the perfect summer meal.

Posted by The Pragmatic Chef at 9:01 AM | Comments (3)

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March 28, 2007

Sprouts Market Pork Tenderloin w/Survival Spice®

Nothing fancy here, but it was darned good.

This is an all-natural pork tenderloin I picked up at Sprouts Market the other day. I've been shopping there a lot recently. They have a nice blend of healthy stuff at a reasonable price point, which I find very pragmatic, indeed.

I oiled it lightly with our Tibvrtini Olio Extra Virgene di Oliva, then rubbed it with Survival Spice™.

While I preheated my oven to bake at 350º (convection), I got a cast iron skillet hot and seared the tenderloin, making sure I browned it all the way 'round. Once that was done, I popped it into the oven until it felt like it was starting to firm up, but not all the way there. Sadly (pathetically), a lot of people won't eat pork until it's the consistency of a baseball bat, and it's a shame. This was still just a tiny bit pink in the widest part of the piece, and was outrageously juicy.

I let it rest while I took some pictures, and sliced it to put on a green salad.

Fortunately, there are leftovers. Is it too early at 7AM to eat dinner?

Posted by The Pragmatic Chef at 8:07 AM | Comments (5)

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March 19, 2007

Chilebrown's Corned Beef w/ Survival Spice

Paul sent some pictures of his St. Patty's Day corned beef that he rubbed with Survival Spice™, which I've never tried, I'm ashamed to say!

He also made some amazing looking jalapeño cheese corn bread. I wonder if he used any of the Novello version of the Tibvrtini Olio Extra Virgine di Oliva I see there?

Okay, Chile, give it up. How about a few recipes?

Posted by The Pragmatic Chef at 11:39 AM | Comments (2)

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March 9, 2007

Friday Flank Steak

Happy Friday, everyone! Forgive the alliteration in the title, and the infrequent posting this week. There's nothing funny about this London Broil steak, but it was really good.

If you recall, I stumbled on a marinade of Tibvrtini Extra Virgine di Oliva, organic Tibvrtini Aceto di Vino Blanco, and some Survival Spice™ that I thought would work with this flank steak, and it did. I rubbed the steak with Survival Spice®, and put in a one gallon baggie, and made a mix of 2 parts or so Tibvrtini olive oil, and one part white wine vinegar, and poured it in to the bag.

I let it marinade for about two days, than pulled it out of the marinade. I'll rub it with more Survival Spice® before I cook it next time, because what the beef didn't absorb basically got washed away, but hey, it was a first attempt! I let it come to room temperature while I got the fire going, then grilled it over a medium hot pecan fire. I let it rest a few minutes, then sliced it across the grain, to cut as much connective fiber as possible.

This is really good stuff, and really simple- no chopping onion or garlic or measuring stuff, just rub it and give it enough marinade it to get it wet, then turn it twice a day or so.

Have a great weekend! Cook something good, willya? Email me a picture of something you feel like sharing.

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

Posted by The Pragmatic Chef at 8:20 AM | Comments (0)

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February 28, 2007

John's Leg of Lamb

(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:

Posted by The Pragmatic Chef at 5:27 AM | Comments (2)

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February 26, 2007

Steak Kebabs with Survival Vinagerette

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.

Posted by The Pragmatic Chef at 6:16 AM | Comments (5)

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February 21, 2007

Survival Chicken Caesar Salad

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.

Posted by The Pragmatic Chef at 10:07 AM | Comments (7)

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February 19, 2007

This has great potential...

(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.

Posted by The Pragmatic Chef at 3:15 PM | Comments (3)

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January 23, 2007

Jack Bauer loves Meatball Sandwiches

Okay, I have no idea if Jack loves them or not, since no one on that show ever eats, but that's what I made last night. There are lots of varieties of meatballs, along with meat choices- beef, veal or pork, but for a meatball sandwich I like straight 100% beef. I mixed the beef with some homemade bread crumbs, eggs, fresh parsley, lots of garlic, and enough salt that it doesn't taste bland.

I browned these off on a sheet pan while I buzzed up some crushed tomatoes with an immersion blender, then added uber amounts of garlic, some parsley, and seasoned it with dry thyme, kosher salt, and copious amounts of crushed red pepper and Survival Spice™, which adds a lot of flavor to tomato sauces, while keeping it recognizable as an Italian sauce. I added the meatballs to the sauce, and let it simmer for a few hours.

Got some good rolls from the bakery, and sliced them, along with some pepper jack cheese, making sure that the sandwich would sit flat on the sizzle plate. If you line the sides of the roll with cheese, the sandwich won't soak through as quickly, and don't overdo the sauce if you don't want to wear it! I topped it with a little greated parm cheese, got it hot in the oven, then turned on the broiler for a few minutes at the end.

Jack would be proud. I hope he wouldn't kill me for it.

Posted by The Pragmatic Chef at 7:10 AM | Comments (4)

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January 15, 2007

Chilebrown's Beef Brisket

(Photo: Paul "Chile" Brown, of his beef brisket)

Chilebrown is a patient man:

I woke up at 3:30 am to put this baby in. It is only up to 152. I got the hardly can waits.

I'll bet it took a while. Brisket has lots of connective tissue, and it's not uncommon to cook one at low heat for 8 hours or more to fully break down the fibers. Follow the link to learn more, or just scroll down to drool over the finished dish...

I emailed him to ask him what rub he used on it:

Yours, of course. Man it was the bomb.

Pretty serious looking brisket, Chile, I'll bet it was worth the wait. How long did you end up cooking it for? Let's hear some details!

(Photo: Chilebrown's Smoked Beef Brisket)

Posted by The Pragmatic Chef at 6:47 AM | Comments (4)

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January 9, 2007

Survival Tip with Onion, Portabello and thyme oil

(Crazy plating, I know, but ya gotta try stuff...)

I just had to have a steak for the Florida/Ohio State (blowout, as it turned out) game last night, so I grilled off a nice strip of tri-tip, rubbed with our Survival Spice™ barbecue rub. I've mentioned this before, but grilling tri-tip, even a strip like this where you're tempted to sear it off, is much better cooked over medium heat so you've got time to break down the connective tissue instead of tightening it up.

I was going to just grill the red onions and portabellos, too, but then I had a bit of inspiration. I sauteed them instead with a bit of thyme, using more oil than I normally would. What did I do with the oil after the veggies were done? Poured it over the steak, of course. You've got all this lovely infused mushroom, thyme and onion flavor going on, why waste it?

It was awesome. Survival Spice™ by itself is all you need, of course, but the extra flavor wallop from the oil was a nice change.

Been cooking? Email me what you've been making!

Posted by The Pragmatic Chef at 8:18 AM | Comments (4)

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December 29, 2006

Pepper Jack Basil Burger

Happy Friday, everyone! I'm traveling this week in the wonderful MIdwest, but here's a shot of a burger I made recently. The basil really added a lot of flavor, and worked with the cheese and the Survival Spice really well.

Another 'made up' meal, but sometimes those are the best ones...

Sorry for the light posting, but it's been a fun and busy week. Enjoy the weekend, and cook something good, willya?

Posted by The Pragmatic Chef at 6:33 AM | Comments (4)

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December 18, 2006

Weekend Wings

I had a hankering for wings over the weekend. Actually, I hanker for wings far more often than that, but I just happened to be at the grocery store when this particular hanker began, so it was an easy hanker to satisfy.

Wow. I just used the word 'hanker' three times in a sentence. Is that a record? Try it sometime, it's not as easy as you think...

I like to grill my wings, rather than deep fry them. Grilling them over wood imparts smoky flavor to chicken, as oppposed to deep frying, where the only flavor to be picked up is the delightful essense of the Mrs. Paul's fish sticks you threw in there the last time you used it. No, thanks.

I grilled these with our Survival Spice™ barbecue rub, low and slow, to render out the fat and get them nice and crispy. In a skillet, I whipped up a "kitchen sink" sauce of butter, Frank's Red hot, Tabasco, Sciracha, hot chipotle bbq sauce, and more Survival Spice™.

Quick toss in the sauce after the wings were done, and life was good.

Don't ask me why I cropped the photo so close, there was just something mesmerizing about the glaze on the wings.

Cook anything good this weekend? Give it up!!!

Posted by The Pragmatic Chef at 4:13 PM | Comments (1)

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November 29, 2006

Bob's Southwestern Turkey

Bob, as part of his Thanksgiving feast, sent along this shot of his Southwestern turkey that he rubbed with our Survival Spice™ barbecue rub and smoked over mesquite. Mmmmmmm....

I really like the fact that he also incorporated our rub into his "Green Baby Beans"- sauteed with mushrooms, red onions, garlic, Survival Spice and a cabernet wine sauce over polenta. A lot of imagination and hard work went into this, Bob. Well done, sir!

Posted by The Pragmatic Chef at 7:23 AM | Comments (1)

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November 16, 2006

Tri-tip burrito

Here's a thrown together meal that turned out pretty well, another of my "crap, it's dinner time what do we have in the fridge and what can i make out of it" situations, which sadly have become the norm.

I had some tri-tip cut into strips on hand, so I hit them with Survival Spice™ barbecue rub, and grilled them off with some onion, while I heated up some black beans, and sliced some Colby cheese. Threw some large tortillas on the grill after I removed the beef and onions, and made some quick burritos.

The trick with tri-tip cooked this way is to not overdo the heat, just a nice medium fire until they're medium rare.

The photo's not that good, I know, but the burrito was!

Posted by The Pragmatic Chef at 6:19 AM | Comments (4)

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November 6, 2006

Easy Meat Loaf

I've made meat loaf a lot of different ways, but this is the easiest yet so far! As much as I like meat loaf with chopped onion, or celery, or carrots, or even pine nuts, after getting home from work late one night I knew none of that was going to happen, and the results were still terrific.

This is so simple, but packed with flavor. A couple pounds of 80/20 ground beef- don't use that stuff packed in a cylinder so you can't see what you're getting, get something you can look at, or grind it yourself. Add an egg, a good glug of dijon mustard, a handful or two of parmesan bread crumbs I always keep on hand in the freezer, and of course plenty of our Survival Spice™ barbecue rub. Mix it well together by hand, but don't pack the heck out of it, you don't want a brick, this stuff is dense enough as it is!

Pack lightly into a loaf pan, and bake at around 350º for 40 minutes, then take it out and pour off the released grease and juices, so it can brown and not boil. Top it generously with ketchup and more Survival Spice, then bake at 375 until the loaf is done and the ketchup/SS mixture is browned nicely. Let it rest for 5 minutes, slice and serve.

This stuff makes amazing sandwiches, if you've got any left over. Which is unlikely, so make two, just in case...

Posted by The Pragmatic Chef at 7:17 AM | Comments (0)

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October 18, 2006

Simple Grilled Salmon and Asparagus

After a busy day, there's nothing simpler than firing up a good gas grill with a few wood chips and grilling your dinner. No pots, no pans, very little cleanup, and really delicious.

Last night was salmon filets, oiled and rubbed generously with our Survival Spice™ barbecue rub, which is fantastic on salmon. After the salmon was on the grill for a few minutes, I added some lightly oiled and seasoned asparagus. A good squirt of fresh lemon juice during the last 5 minutes of cooking, and that was it.

Healthy, amazing and easy. Three of my favorite words.

What did you have for dinner last night?

Posted by The Pragmatic Chef at 7:58 AM | Comments (2)

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October 16, 2006

Taking Stock in Tortilla Soup

There's nothing like homemade soups, sauces and gumbos, but a critical ingredient to all of these dishes is starting out with a great stock. I know- it's time intensive, it's a pain in the butt, etc., granted; but if you make a larger quantity and freeze it, you'll find yourself enjoying a great bowl of 'whatever it is' far more often this winter.

I actually had an afternoon last week to do a little cooking, so while I was getting other stuff done around the house, why not make stock?

Continue reading "Taking Stock in Tortilla Soup"

Posted by The Pragmatic Chef at 7:34 AM | Comments (2)

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October 10, 2006

Chicken Cacciatora

The good news- there was absolutely no Spam® in this...

My buddy Bob gave me a bunch of home-grown basil the other day. I wasn't in the mood for pesto, so I decided to make some pasta sauce with it. You know my M.O. for basic pasta sauce- lots of sauteed garlic in Tibvrtini Olio Extra Virgene di Oliva, crushed to order tomatoes, crushed red peppers and basil only- so I won't go into detail on that.

To make the cacciatora, I oven-roasted some chicken legs and thighs seasoned with our Survival Spice™ until they had a nice color and were nearly cooked through, and also sauteed some mini red and yellow peppers along with a chopped red onion. I deglazed these with some white wine, then added them to some of the tomato sauce. Once the chicken was ready, I added it as well, then simmered the whole thing for an hour.

Boiled some penned until it was al dente, then garnished with parmaseano reggiano and a sprig of Bob's be-YOO-tiful basil. Thanks again!

Bottle of red, and some crusty bread. Life was good.

Posted by The Pragmatic Chef at 7:45 AM | Comments (1)

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October 4, 2006

Pork chops with Chipotle Cream Sauce

Wow, Chilebrown hooked me up. He sent me some home smoked chipotle peppers, and I knew immediately what I wanted to do with them.

Continue reading "Pork chops with Chipotle Cream Sauce"

Posted by The Pragmatic Chef at 8:04 AM | Comments (4)

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September 20, 2006

John's Lobster with Ugga Bugga Lobster Sauce

John in Chicago sends along a really fantastic-sounding lobster dish using copious amounts of Survival Spice™:

I made a sauce by taking butter and adding fresh lemon verbena & garlic and warming it to infuse the lemon verbena ................................... I grilled the lobs w/ survival spice and redusted when they came off ........................... ugga bugga

Wow. Sounds like that hits all the right notes! I've mentioned Survival Butter and how amazing it is with crab, but John took it at step further by adding lemon verbena. Nice touch! He didn't mention if he clarified the butter, but you certainly don't have to.

I'm not sure exactly what "Ugga Bugga" meant, but I assume that means it was good!

Been cooking? Email me!

Posted by The Pragmatic Chef at 8:01 AM | Comments (2)

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September 18, 2006

Roast chicken with Survival Stuffing

It's starting to cool off here in the desert, and I found myself craving a Thanksgiving dinner. By cooling, I mean temps under 100º, but it makes a huge difference here in Phoenix.

Well, it's not Thanksgiving yet, and I didn't have a turkey on hand, but this stuffed chicken dinner satisfied my "turkey jones" nonetheless.

Continue reading "Roast chicken with Survival Stuffing"

Posted by The Pragmatic Chef at 1:30 PM

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September 11, 2006

Whatchacallit

I have no idea what I made last night, but it was good.

Another of those market basket days, where I had a bunch of ideas what to make with what I had on hand. Pork chops and a French style mushroom cream sauce, maybe a Southwest influence with the addition of pasilla chiles; a simple pork and sausage gumbo; hot Italian sausage sandwiches with peppers and onions- my head was filled with possibilities.

I think you know this, but this is my favorite way to cook- inventory what's on hand, then make something up. What could you make with these ingredients?

Continue reading "Whatchacallit"

Posted by The Pragmatic Chef at 7:58 AM | Comments (2)

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September 6, 2006

Grilled Corn on the Cob with Survival Butter

Grilled, boiled, whatever, I love corn on the cob, which to me is one of the best things about summer. I've talked about Survival Butter before, but until Ana mentioned using it on corn on the cob, and raving about the flavor, it really hadn't occurred to me to try it.

Here's a shot of the Labor Day feast, where I tried it for the first time, and I have to say I loved it, too. I'm all for being a purist with corn, even omitting butter most of the time, but try this for a great change.

Thanks, Ana!

Posted by The Pragmatic Chef at 9:11 AM | Comments (1)

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September 5, 2006

Grilled Pork Chops and Corn on the Cob

Pork chops and corn on the cob- sure sounds like Labor Day to me!

There's a few ways you can go with pork chops- super thin, so you can cook them quickly on high heat, leaving a nice crispy bit of pork goodness. You can also go with a thick-cut pork chop that you can still cook quickly, or smoke nice and slowly.

These were grilled over pecan wood, which is my default grilling wood these days, at a fairly high heat. I lot of people like their pork cooked to death, but I'm not one of them. For them, go the thin/crispy pork route.

Sigh. I have to talk about this for a minute, so indulge me. I really, really hate to even bring it up, because it's such a rare thing anyway and a serious buzz kill, but seriously, it's okay to eat juicy pork chops. Really. They can even be a bit pink, and still have no chance of containing trichinosis. By the time your pork is medium rare to medium, it's fine. Want to hear numbers? Okay. Trichinosis, even in the incredibly remote chance of infection, is gone at 138º. Medium rare pork is right around 145º. Even medium, around 150º, is still moist. If in doubt, use an instant read thermometer, and relax. Sorry for digressing, but the whole "pork paranoia" is so pervasive, it makes me crazy, and I think knowledgable people don't talk about it enough because it's unappetizing. Hope this helps.

Where was I? Right, chops. I rubbed them well with our Survival Spice™ barbecue rub, which is so good on pork that even the chops will send you a thank you note!

After they came off the grill, I let them rest a few minutes. Pork chops, because they're generally so lean, really benefit from resting 5 or 10 minutes or so before service.

Man, they were good. The sauce you see on the side is from a friend's company that I'll talk a bit about later in the week, but suffice it to say it's one of the best bottled sauces I've had!

Posted by The Pragmatic Chef at 6:41 AM | Comments (7)

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August 24, 2006

Paul's Talkin' Turkey

Paul, aka Chilebrown, sent me this terrific picture of a turkey that he smoked on his Weber recently. He didn't send any information, but grilling or smoking a turkey on indirect heat is a great variation from traditional birds, though I recommend that you don't stuff them. Many times on Thanksgiving I've both oven-roasted and smoked a bird to provide variety, and the smoked turkey was always gone first. The leftover meat and carcass makes an awesome smoked turkey soup, too, try it!

This doesn't look rubbed, but our Survival Spice™ barbecue rub is awesome on turkey, chicken, and Cornish hens, too!

If Paul checks in, hopefully he'll provide some details, but I'd say this picture speaks for itself. Well done, Paul!

Posted by The Pragmatic Chef at 8:04 AM | Comments (1)

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August 23, 2006

How to cook a hamburger- or Survival Burgers, my way.

Who wants a burger? We had a cookout at a friend's house recently, and I whipped these Survival Burgers up. And yes, the way that I see it, a cookout is plain grilling- burgers, dogs, brats, etc. No smoke, no low and slow, that's barbecue, thankyouverymuch. Gas grills work fine for cookouts, but a handful of soaked wood chips makes a world of difference, try it. These were grilled by my buddy Tim, who did a great job of making sure everybody got the burger that they wanted, the way that they liked them cooked.

For these burgers, I started with 5 pounds of USDA Choice 22% fat beef, and about 2/3 of a tin of our Survival Spice™ barbecue rub, mixing it in with the beef. Nothing wrong with just sprinkling it on top, mind you, but if you're doing it ahead of time, it'll give it time to add some great flavors.

I like a fair amount of fat in my burger meat, because they basically become self-basting, the fat dripping through the meat on its way out. You end up with a moist, flavorful burger that really doesn't have much more fat that it would it you started with the 7% uber-lean beef that is remarkably similar to a hockey puck once cooked, especially if you proceed with the utterly charming "smash-the-crap-outta-it" technique with your turner.

Don't do that! What the hail's wrong with you?

Sorry. I'm sure there's some logic to pressing all the flavor out of a piece of meat that you paid good money for, but it eludes me. Want it crispy? Make it thinner. As you pat it out, let there be some gaps in the edges, then use a super hot fire. The thinner bits will have a nice crunch to them, but you'll still have a moist patty where it counts.

And if you're making burgers for a gang, take the time to carmelize some onions, or saute some mushrooms and sweet peppers, and seek out fresh tomatoes and lettuce. Nothing wrong with a basic burger, but don't let the condiments be an afterthought.

Burgers. I love 'em. You?

Posted by The Pragmatic Chef at 8:20 AM | Comments (0)

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August 22, 2006

Mixed Survival Nuts

Wow, I'm totally addicted to these already. Definitely a great snack, and really easy.

I preheated my oven on convection roast at around 250º, while I put some mixed nuts I've been buying at Costco on a sheet pan, and gave them a light spray of some canola oil. I'm not sure this was necessary, because the oils in the nuts are released when they're heated, but for a first effort I wanted to do all I can to make sure the Survival Spice™ adhered to the nuts properly.

Once they were hot, I dumped them into a work bowl, added some Survival Spice™, and tossed. I'll be curious to see if the flavor intensifies over the next few days, if it doesn't I'll add more next time.

Oh, and there will be a next time. Definitely.

Try this! Especially if you're watching carbs.

Posted by The Pragmatic Chef at 8:01 AM | Comments (0)

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August 17, 2006

Biggles does Tri Tip

(Photo: Dr. Biggles)

Biggles, the Bay Area's foremost meaticologist, sent me an email the other day that he was nice enough to let me share:

Hay,

Got my dinner meez in to place and at the last moment found a
fresh tritip in the fridge I'd forgotten about. Today okay,
tomorrow it would have been tossed. It was huge too, so I
couldn't let it go or freeze it. So, I swapped out the other
beef ball-tip roast (tough life, I know) and Survival Spiced
(TM) the sob.

From drab to badass in a few moments.

Thank you sir.

Guy didn't mention how he cooked it, but you get the idea. I love tri tip, and our Survival Spice™ barbecue rub does a great job of adding awesome flavor and creating a great crust on grilled meats.

Thanks, Biggles!!! You da man.

Posted by The Pragmatic Chef at 8:37 AM | Comments (1)

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August 14, 2006

Pot Roast with Carrot, Green Chile and Mushroom Gravy

(The gravy is unusual looking, I'll admit, but tasty...)

Sometimes, I just like to make dishes up. Okay, I do it a lot, actually.

Part of what I love about cooking, other than the eating (of course), is starting a dish without a clear idea of how it's going to end. Having a clear idea of what you're making is naturally more efficient, and there's a certain comfort to knowing that you're going to have predictable results. This is particularly true when you've got company coming over.

There was none of that involved with last night's dinner, so why not 'take the gloves off' and make it up?

Continue reading "Pot Roast with Carrot, Green Chile and Mushroom Gravy"

Posted by The Pragmatic Chef at 8:36 AM | Comments (2)

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August 7, 2006

Sunday morning Salmon Survival Scramble

TPC note: Oops, this didn't publish yesterday for some reason, sorry! Here's the post:

Okay, it's Monday. Let's make the best of it!

Here's breakfast from Sunday morning- forgive the alliteration, but it was good. A simple use of some leftover wild caught salmon I had grilled Friday night, with some organic brown eggs and green onions. Scrambled up with a touch of milk and some of our Survival Spice™ barbecue rub to add to what was on the salmon, and it was ready for some toast and jam.

How was your weekend? Cook anything good?

Posted by The Pragmatic Chef at 9:03 AM | Comments (0)

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August 4, 2006

Survival Halibut with Veggie "Noodles" and Avocado Salad

Here's another in a series of healthy, yet utterly delicious dinners I've been making lately.

The fish dish, Alaskan Halibut (thanks, Lloyd!) was lightly oiled and seasoned with Survival Spice™, then just coated with fresh bread crumbs mixed with more Survival Spice™. Fried over medium heat in a cast iron skillet with a squirt of lemon juice, it had a great crunch on the outside, and was nice and moist throughout.

As for the side dishes, I was craving pasta but didn't want the carbs, so instead I sliced red onion, Italian zucchini and yellow squash in thin, noodle-like strips and sauteed them in Tibvrtini Olio Extra Virgene di Oliva and plenty of lemon juice. I talked about the Poolside Avocado Salad the other day, and the cilantro vinagerette I drizzled over the plate really gave it a nice fresh flavor, and brought the whole thing together.

The "noodles" were really a great alternative to my pasta craving, try it!

Posted by The Pragmatic Chef at 10:30 AM | Comments (4)

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August 2, 2006

Cast Iron Pork Chops topped with Mushrooms and Red Onions

As you well know, I've been eating a lot of veggie dishes lately. There have been days recently that as I posted a dish I could just feel the carnivores begging for a nice hunk of meat.

I've been jonesing too, I guess, so last night I grabbed this nice thick-cut pork chop, basically a pork porterhouse because it has a nice sized tenderloin attached to it, and heated up a trusty cast iron skillet. As the skillet got hot, I lightly oiled the chop and generously rubbed it with Survival Spice™, which gives pork all the lovin' it will ever need. I roughed chopped a red onion and sliced some regular white mushrooms, and other than prepping a simple green salad, I was good to go.

I wanted this to be simple so I did everything in the same skillet, but if you want a nice crust to your chop, the last thing you want to do is dump everything in at once. Other than the fact that your veggies would be done far too soon, your mushrooms in particular are going to release a lot of liquid, which would keep your chop from getting beautifully browned. And we love a nice crispy crust, don't we?

So, into the medium hot skillet the chop went, nicest side down. I gave it plenty of time to get nice and crispy, and to let the Survival Spice™ work its magic. Once I flipped the chop, I added the onions to give them a head start, then the mushrooms a few minutes later. The chop was done, so I transferred it to a plate and then topped it with the mushrooms and onions.

Oh man, was it good. Juicy, crispy, and tender, and wonderfully complemented with the veggies on top. Don't forget, I had a salad, too...

Posted by The Pragmatic Chef at 8:11 PM | Comments (4)

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August 1, 2006

Simple Appetizer- Poolside Avocado Salad

Busy, busy around here today, but I wanted to share something I made as a side dish yesterday- an modified form of guacamole.

I don't know what made me do this- I was going to make traditional guacamole, but the avocado halves kept their shape and looked so great after I cubed them, I decided to just fill the cavity where the seed was with diced red onion, lemon juice, cilantro and some Survival Spice™. If I had fresh tomatoes, I would have done a concasse, but I didn't. Such is life, I guess.

I was generous with the lemon juice, and to give it another dimension I made some cilantro oil with a bunch of fresh cilantro, some Tibvrtini Olio Extra Virgene di Oliva, which made it absolutely magical, and a little lemon juice and kosher salt. A quick drizzle of that, and it was good to go.

And it went. Quickly.

Posted by The Pragmatic Chef at 3:15 PM | Comments (5)

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July 27, 2006

Paul's Chicken Chilebrown Bleu

(Photo: Paul's Chicken Chilebrown Bleu. I had to sharpen this a bit in Photoshop, possibly something "went wrong" with Paul's camera lens during an afternoon at the grill, indulging in a few adult beverages...)

Well, Biggles started it. After sending me a sneak peek at the Grilled Chicken Cordon Bleu he had made, we got to emailing about how to do it differently, and through that afternoon we had convinced ourselves that not only should he post it, but that I was going to give it a try using a different approach.

Paul, aka Chilebrown, of course got wind of this, and deciding that a venture involving poultry, pork and cheese was a noble undertaking indeed, sent me this:

You guys were killing me with your Cordon Bleu. I am giving it a stab. I am kicking it up a notch. I boned the chicken and stuffed it with "Paul Bertoli's Italian Sausage". I then put a layer of home smoked 'Buckboard Bacon"with a center of Jack Cheese. I then rolled and tied it. I finished with a sprinkling of everybodys favorite rub. (TPC note: Survival Spice™, of course!) It will be baked in the barbeque tonight.

Nicely done, Paul! This was another approach that we had talked about, but I decided to do the "stuff the skin" method first. There are more pictures below the fold.

Continue reading "Paul's Chicken Chilebrown Bleu"

Posted by The Pragmatic Chef at 9:44 AM | Comments (3)

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July 21, 2006

Stuffed Grilled Squash

I made these to serve along with the Grilled Chicken Cordon Bleu last weekend, and I'm going to do it more often.

It was a busy weekend geeking on the chicken technique, so I was really scrambling for a side dish. Fortunately, I had some Parmesan bread crumbs in the freezer from the Kid's Parmesan Chicken Strips I made a while back, which made my job a lot easier. Once again, making extra and freezing it saved the day!

I just halved some yellow squash, then scooped out the middles, saving it to mix with the bread crumbs. I lightly oiled the squash lightly and seasoned them with Survival Spice™. Next, I just rough chopped the squash bits, mixed it with more Survival Spice™ and the bread crumbs that had already been mixed with parm and some dried herbs, then filled the squash.

They took about 15 minutes on a hot grill, and were amazingly good. Try it!

Posted by The Pragmatic Chef at 7:00 AM | Comments (3)

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July 19, 2006

Pork Shoulder Salad

Busy days don't doom you to a horrible dinner death, as long as you cook when you can and keep the basics in your pantry and in your fridge. This was a 5 minute dinner I made last week that was not only amazing, it was healthy and inexpensive, too.

Starting with some of the BBQ pork shoulder I made over the weekend with Survival Spice™ and a basic BBQ sauce, I halved a head of butter lettuce and rough chopped a few scallions on the bias.

A quick drizzle of Tibvrtini Olio Extra Virgene di Oliva and Tibvrtini Aceto di Vino Blanco provided the most basic and the most incredible vinagerette imaginable, then I topped the greens with a scoop of the reheated pork. Season and serve.

Easy. Amazing. Healthy. A great combination.

Posted by The Pragmatic Chef at 10:09 AM | Comments (2)

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July 17, 2006

Grilled Chicken Cordon Bleu

Dr. Biggles really outdid himself last week when he smoked a Chicken Cordon Bleu on the grill. In the comments, we discussed alternate ways of creating a smokey, gooey, delicious combination of chicken, ham and Swiss cheese. Dr. B noted that he lost quite a bit of cheese during the cooking process, so I thought about different ways of addressing that. Here's the approach I tried first.

Continue reading "Grilled Chicken Cordon Bleu"

Posted by The Pragmatic Chef at 10:09 AM

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July 10, 2006

Porking out by the Pool

I can just hear you: "Okay, you've been busy. Okay, so what? You still have to eat, right?"

Mea culpa. It's been a bit crazy around here, a lot of good things going on, for which I have all of you to thank. I have been eating, but truly, with the Arizona heat in the summer, plus having no time for anything but the essentials, it's been pretty meager pickings as of late.

I picked up this pork shoulder during my last dash through the market. I didn't have a clue what I was going to do with it, but I decided to take a day off on Sunday and do some much-needed swimming and grilling, so why not combine the two in one picture?

I rubbed this generously with our Survival Spice™ barbecue rub and all purpose-seasoning, which wraps pork tenderly in its spicy arms, and let it hang out on my gas grill with lots of pecan chips all afternoon. It spent the last 3 or 4 hours wrapped in foil, for about 6 hours of total cooking time.

Was it good? Yep. I'm going to slice it and make sandwiches with a few new barbecue sauces I'm evaluating.

How about you? What did you cook this weekend?

Posted by The Pragmatic Chef at 10:00 AM | Comments (5)

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June 1, 2006

John's Survival Frites

(Photo: John's Survival Frites)

I'm finally getting around to posting the Survival Frites from the great dinner party I attended in Chicago in May. These amazing frites were dreamed up by John, who also made the veal piccata that night.

The potatoes were deep fried until really crispy, then dressed with olive oil, minced garlic, Survival Spice™, extra kosher salt and parsley. I shot this picture while they were still in a work bowl, the oil and flavor soaked into the potatoes as they sat.

They were unbelievably, mind-blowingly good. When I raved about them as we were eating, John mentioned that the secret ingredient was the Survival Spice.

I didn't know until he told me. Amazing what a little of this stuff will do to a dish. I'll definitely be making these, soon. I just hope I can do John's idea justice.

Posted by The Pragmatic Chef at 11:59 AM | Comments (2)

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May 3, 2006

Paul's Methuselah Ribs and Marinated Tri-Tip

Paul, aka Chilebrown, has sent in another really creative dish. Naturally, I have to applaud anyone with the good sense to use Survival Spice™ on ribs, of course...

This is a creation I call Methusela. It was ribs coated with Surival Spice. I baked it in a spiral, in the oven. and served it with Fresh Asparagus and Rice Pilaf. The Tri Tip came marinated from the butcher. It was a sweet marinade with flavors of Soy Sauce. The Truffled oil was served over the Pilaf and Asparagus.

Nice, Chile! His truffle oil was made from Oregon truffles and our Tibvrtini Olio Extra Virgene di Oliva. Truffle oil is a great thing to have in your pantry, it gives a lot of dimension to a dish without being too intrusive, plus it's much more cost effective than buying truffles, though Paul mentioned that they were pretty reasonable.

Here's his marinated tri-tip, cooked just right:

Email me your food pics! We love to see them, especially because I'm going to be too busy to be cooking much for the next few weeks.

Posted by The Pragmatic Chef at 8:43 AM | Comments (4)

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April 21, 2006

Survival Spice™ now available at Amazon.com!

Desert Island Foods™ is happy to announce that we've formed a partnership with Amazon.com to sell selected products, starting with our "Six Pack" of Survival Spice™. It will sell for the same price as at our site, but you'll be able to add non- DIF products to your shopping cart as well. Our full product line, including individual tins, will always be available at Desert Island Foods™.com, but really, isn't it time to grab a six-pack for your summer grilling anyway?

We've spent a lot of time looking for a web partner, and one of the biggest reasons we decided to proceed was the remarkable Amazon feedback and review system. We've built a great following just by word of mouth, and we believe that we can accelerate this by exposing our products to an even larger market. We aren't afraid to go toe to toe with anyone!!!!

If you care to leave a review by following the link I'd appreciate it, but please, be totally honest and don't refer to our Desert Island Foods™.com website by name. That's kinda like taking your eggs to Denny's® and asking them to cook them for you, I think.

Thanks again for all your support, whatever you can do to help keep spreading the word is really appreciated!

Update: We've gotten some great reviews, please feel free to add you own!!!

Posted by The Pragmatic Chef at 7:28 AM | Comments (10)

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April 18, 2006

Pecan Grilled Pork Chop with potatoes and green salad

It's nice to have all day to put together a meal with great sauces and creative garnishes, but here in the real world it just doesn't happen during the week very often.

This was a simple dinner that took only 45 minutes to put together. I started with some thick cut pork chops, which were rubbed with Survival Spice™, then grilled over pecan wood. The potatoes were microwaved until tender, oiled and rubbed with kosher salt and were grilled along with the chops, which really gives them a nice smokey flavor.

The romaine salad had a simple Tibvrtini Olio Extra Virgene di Oliva and Tibvrtini Aceto di Vino Bianco dressing that is still my favorite combination of these two extraordinary flavors, bar none.

What did you have for dinner last night? Email me a picture and a description!

Posted by The Pragmatic Chef at 11:44 AM | Comments (2)

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April 13, 2006

"Easy Orange Survival Glaze" for Ham, version 2

(Photo: Mary, of TPC's Easy Orange Survival Glaze)

I've revised this slightly, just because the orange color was so over the top. The picture is of the first version, with 6 ounces of orange juice concentrate. The old recipe was delicious, but I think this will work better on an Easter Ham. Let me know if you try it!

Update: Rob reports that for a Texas ham, he rubbed his ham with Survival Spice™, and put it in a crock pot with a liter of Dr. Pepper for 8 hours. Unfortunately, it didn't last long enough for him to take some pictures!

Continue reading ""Easy Orange Survival Glaze" for Ham, version 2"

Posted by The Pragmatic Chef at 6:36 AM | Comments (0)

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April 12, 2006

Janella's Grilled Tilapia with Survival Spice™

Here's a great picture sent in by Janella of some Tilapia filets she grilled recently with Survival Spice™:

Well, since everyone takes pictures of their creations, I took one of mine. These are talapia filets, rubbed with EVOO and then coated with Survival Spice!!! These were grilled for 5 minutes on one side and 2 minutes on the other and they were goot! AND we usually don't like fish!!! All we could taste was the Survival Spice!!

That does look really 'goot', Janella! And for those who do like the taste of fish, you can cut back on the Survival Spice™ a bit. When using SS on fish, or anything really, you should vary the seasoning to suit the amount of flavor in the fish. Oily fish like salmon can really take a lot of seasoning, but subtle fish like halibut and tilapia don't need as much.

For more fish ideas and grilling tips, visit our archive here.

What did you have for dinner last night? Email me if you've got pictures!

Posted by The Pragmatic Chef at 9:37 AM | Comments (1)

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April 11, 2006

Sunday Morning Fritatta

(I should have let this cool a bit before I sliced it, but hunger conquers photographic excellence nearly every time around here.)

Sunday morning I made breakfast for some friends, and I was in the mood for a fritatta. For those who don't know, a fritatta is basically an open faced omelet baked in the oven. One of the nice things about them is that they rise a bit while cooking, which results in something much lighter than you would expect. The ingredients can include just about anything, but here's how I made this one.

Continue reading "Sunday Morning Fritatta"

Posted by The Pragmatic Chef at 10:36 AM

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April 5, 2006

First ribs of the BBQ season

(TPCs Smoked Spare Ribs, photo by Mary)

... But certainly not the last. These were rubbed with Survival Spice™, indirectly smoked with pecan wood for 4 hours, then finished over a charcoal fire. Although I'll occasionally do an indirect-only smoke for 7 or 8 hours, I like how a medium direct fire crisps up the meat, and the higher temperature completes the last step towards 'falling of the bone' goodness.

What's your favorite way of cooking ribs? Or eating them, for that matter!

Posted by The Pragmatic Chef at 7:17 AM

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April 1, 2006

Emeril Loves Survival Spice™

DIF Newswire April 1, 2006 --New Orleans, LA --

Celebrity Chef Emeril Lagasse raved today about Survival Spice™, after one of his employees gave him a tin:

WOW!!! All I can say is BAM!!! BAM BAM BAM!!!!! This stuff is fantastic!!! It puts my Essence blends to shame! You'd be crazy not to go to Desert Island Foods™.com and order some!

###

Please check out Emeril's complete review by clicking here.

Posted by The Pragmatic Chef at 7:02 AM | Comments (13)

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March 24, 2006

Great appetizer ideas from Sue and Lloyd

I've had a few really good emails this week I thought I'd share. The first one is from Sue, a professional cook in the Los Angeles area who teaches cooking classes all over the country, who uses Survival Spice™ in really creative ways:

Used the SS lightly dusted on small slices of fresh pinepple...

Transformed an old James Beard recipe from late 30's or 40's when he catered. Pierce a tiny tomato with a toothpick, dip in salt (kosher or sea) and then in vodka - my updated version: add a perlini (tiny, tiny mozzarella cheese ball ) to tomato, dip in tequila and then in Survivial Spice! I use antique salt cellars or tiny sake cups.

Yesterday, in a Spring Chicken class - SS in a Fickle Marinade - curry, chile sauce, dijon, soy, and honey....a light dusting of SS.

Good stuff, Sue! Here's a great pork rind idea from Lloyd, who also gave us the idea for Parmesan Survival Corn:

On the subject of spicing up pork rinds; I think I've just about got it. I ordered this mister from Amazon, then I went down and bought a coffee grinder at the general store. So what I did is, put 4 tablespoons of the green parmesan (I tried the really good stuff but it was too wet) and 1 teaspoon of Survival Spice™ in the coffee grinder and turned it into a powder. Then I took a bag of pig skins and dumped them into a big bowl and misted them while flipping them around. I then put them back in the bag and dumped in the powder. I shook the bag up really well and commenced to sample.

It’s kind of f@#$ed up though, because I don’t think Atkins meant for you to eat a whole bag of pork skins in one setting. Oh well. Next time I’ll grab some of the wife’s really good parmesan and dry it out in the oven first.

I put up a link to the mister that Lloyd recommended. Disclosure: I would get a small commision if you bought one through the link, but it costs you nothing. Is that so bad? And why not refill it with our Tibvrtini Olio Extra Virgine di Oliva?

Got an idea for using Survival Spice™? Email me!

Posted by The Pragmatic Chef at 12:09 PM | Comments (0)

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March 15, 2006

Grilled Salmon Salad with Tibvrtini vinageratte

(TPCs Grilled Salmon Salad with Tibvrtini vinageratte)

This made a great, light, easy lunch yesterday, something I should do a lot more, judging by the way my clothes mock me as I try to squeeze into them. Ah, the struggles of a middle-aged man who's in the food biz...

My dress pants: Look, Porky, you've been trying to squeeze into me for 5 minutes. Get a sackcloth or a mumu, wouldja? I'm bustin' at the seams here!

Where was I? Right, lunch.

I grilled some salmon with lemon juice and Survival Spice™ and once cool, flaked it by hand. This is a great technique for using any leftover meat- steak, pork, chicken, whatever you've got on hand. I had some salmon, romaine lettuce and a carrot so that's what I used. No sweat, I can make a meal of this.

I've been into simple oil and vinegar dressings again lately, after coming full circle on lots of exotic, elaborate combinations. BTW, one of them I got via email from Shelleigh was using Survival Spice™ mixed with ranch dressing. Try it, it's amazing, but I digress. Again.

After prepping the lettuce, which I'll talk about tomorrow, I peeled a carrot using my zester, which gives a nifty edge if you're into that, mine just happened to be closer than the peeler. The way I like to do simple oil and vinegar dressings is to toss everything lightly with Tibvrtini Olio Extra Virgine di Oliva, which is just amazing for salad. I prefer this to pouring on a finished dressing, because it coats the greens without them laying in a pool of oil. Really tasty oil, but enough is enough, right?

I plated them, topped them with the salmon, and drizzled it with Tibvrtini Aceto di Vino Bianco, an extrordinary white wine vinegar that we also sell. (Hint, hint.) A squirt of lemon helped marry the greens to the salmon, and I seasoned generously with kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper. The right amount of seasoning is critical to making simple dressings work. I finished it up with some grated parm and lunch was served.

Really easy, really great, but my pants still don't fit. Crap.

Posted by The Pragmatic Chef at 6:48 AM | Comments (0)

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March 7, 2006

Parmesan Survival Corn v2

(Photo: Parmesan Survival Corn v2)

Here's take two of the Parmesan Survival Corn I made recently. It doesn't look substantially different, but a few changes are notable. I used grated grana padano cheese intead of the green can, which was a great improvement, I used more oil this time so I didn't need to add butter to make it stick, and I added the spices to the popcorn inside the Whirley-Pop™, instead of mixing it in the bowl.

I'm pretty satisfied with the flavor, but I'm still not content with the way the cheese and Survival Spice™ mixture is sticking to the popcorn, so one more version is on the way. At the moment, I'm using 1/2 C of popcorn, 3 T of oil, 3/4 C of parm, and 1/4 C of Survival Spice™. I think I'm going to try using some Fontina cheese too, the flavor is very similar to parm, and it's meltable.

I think it's close. I sent some home with my brother the other day, and his wife emailed me:

What did you put in that popcorn? Crack? Oh my gosh! I couldn't stop eating it!!!!

Think I should add some butter back in?

Posted by The Pragmatic Chef at 9:39 AM | Comments (7)

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February 24, 2006

Parmesan Survival Corn

I can't stop eating this stuff.

A customer in Alaska, Lloyd, emailed to say that he made this recently with popcorn but he's also doing it with pork rinds. I just bought a neat gadget called a Whirley-Pop™ that I'll review Monday, so with this cool popper and a great idea in hand, I had to give it a try.

I really can't stop eating this stuff, I just had to go back into the test kitchen and have some more.

Where was I? Right. I'm going to try different techniques, but for this batch, I used about 3 parts cheese to 2 parts Survival Spice™. I had some parm in a green can that I needed to get rid of, so I used that. It doesn't have enough flavor, though, and because it's so dry it doesn't cling to the popcorn very well, so next time I will definiteIy use freshly grated. I melted some butter, then added the dry mix to that and mixed it up. When the popcorn was done, I tossed it with the mixture, added a bit of kosher salt, and there it was.

Was, being the correct term. It's gone now.

Posted by The Pragmatic Chef at 9:47 AM | Comments (6)

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February 16, 2006

Smoky Pork Memories...

(Photo: TPC, smoked pork butts)

I was going through my photo archives this morning, and found a picture I don't think I've ever posted of a few pork butts I smoked late last spring for pulled pork sandwiches. There's nothing like slow cooked BBQ. It's time intensive, I know, but well worth the effort, and if you smoke a few extra cuts each time you fire up the smoker and freeze them, it's a real treat to be able to have great BBQ whenever you want.

These butts were rubbed in Survival Spice™, then smoked with pecan wood with soaked apple chips, which is one of my favorite smoking combinations, for about 7 hours at about 225º. I took this picture about an hour before they were done, and let them cool.

The next morning, I pulled the pork, simmered it for about an hour in some BBQ sauce I made, and served each sandwich topped with some homemade vinegar cole slaw on a toasted sesame seed bun.

What's your favorite BBQ sandwich?

Posted by The Pragmatic Chef at 10:16 AM | Comments (9)

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February 10, 2006

Diana's Bison Teriyaki

(Photo: Diana's Bison Teriyaki)

Diana was nice enough to send some more information about her bison purveyor and why she likes bison so much:

Canadian "regulations" have eliminated the term "Porterhouse" ... it must be "T-Bone", 'cause ... that's what the bone says. However, I still call it a Porterhouse 'cause it has the filet still attached. "T-Bone", to me, is the steak without the filet. My butcher, Saslove's Meat Market, provides an amazing array of organic, anti-biotic free product and other delights.

There's not much of a "game" taste to bison. Much more like "pure" beef. It always leaves one wanting more. You don't know "tender" 'til you've tasted this.

Now, what to do with that leftover "Survival" bison steak that I happened to cook at the same time ;P

Diane has provided an example of how dovetailing your weekly home menus is a fun and great way to get a number of dishes out of one basic ingredient, in this case, the organic bison she bought and used previously for the Bison Steaks she made with Survival Spice™ the other day.

This really looks wonderful, Diana. I thought her comment about calling a porterhouse a T-bone was interesting, too. The porterhouse cut is the large end of the loin, and it does have more of the filet than the T-bone end, which is the tail end of the tenderloin.

Continue reading "Diana's Bison Teriyaki"

Posted by The Pragmatic Chef at 8:39 AM | Comments (2)

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February 7, 2006

Diana's Organic Bison Steaks

(Photo: Diana's Organic Bison steak with rice pilaf and sauteed carrots)

Another terrific email from our North of the Border foodie friend, Diana. Who could forget her Everyman's Edible Slider w/homemade Chili Sauce, or the Puffy Corn Omelet that she entered in Food Fight Four?

Diana's lucky enough to have a local butcher that has organic bison steaks, so she grabbed what looks like a porterhouse cut and the Survival Spice™ and went to work. Served with a rice pilaf and some sauteed carrots, I have to say it's a great meal, even if she was rooting for the Seahawks...

What did you have for dinner last night? Email me a picture with a description!

Posted by The Pragmatic Chef at 9:20 AM | Comments (9)

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February 2, 2006

Chilebrown's Chile Verde

(Photo: Paul Brown)

I love chile verde, so I was glad to see that Paul came up with a great version using Survival Spice™. I think he was smart to add the oregano and cumin, they're important flavors in Southwest dishes, including the Traditional New Mexico-style Pork Chile I've posted here before. It also is a good example of how you can use Survival Spice™ as a starting point, and add whatever you want to customize it to a particular style of cooking.

And dig all of Chile's grills. I was up to 6 setups when I moved a few years ago, but he's hardcore!

What have you been cooking? Email me some pics and a description!

Continue reading "Chilebrown's Chile Verde"

Posted by The Pragmatic Chef at 9:25 AM | Comments (1)

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January 31, 2006

Slow baked pork chops

(TPCs Slow-baked pork chop with roasted red potatoes and brussel sprouts, with sausage/pine nut/Bosc pear dressing and home made demi-glace.)

This was all about slow cooking. I had some dressing in the freezer from Thanksgiving already, so all I had to do was prep the brussel sprouts (wash, peel and cut an 'X' in the base to help them cook evenly) and potatoes. I lightly oiled then rubbed the nice, thick pork chops with Survival Spice™, and put it all in a roasting pan, drizzle it with some good olive oil, then baked it at 300º for about 90 minutes.

Normally, I would either sear the chop first, or cook them at 250º for even longer, but I was curious to see how this would work out, and it was really good. You lose a bit of flavor development by not searing it first, but this gets you a really tender, moist chop that I enjoyed eating. If you wanted to, you could brown one side first, or just throw it under the broiler for a minute at the end.

After everything was done, I poured the fat out of the roasting pan, hit it with some home made demi-glace I made Saturday, and finished the sauce with a pat of butter.

I'm going to post on the demi-glace later this week. This was made from odds and ends I had stashed in the freezer, but it turned out really well.

Posted by The Pragmatic Chef at 9:01 AM | Comments (0)

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January 30, 2006

Omelet with grilled salmon, pepper jack and chives

I try to cook a good breakfast at least once each weekend. I know you didn't think a lot of my bacon sandwich last week, but someday in a weak moment you'll try it, and then you'll thank me, silently. I'll know...

I love omelets. Fast, easy, and endlessly versatile. Here's one I made from some leftover salmon, flavored with Survival Spice™. If you haven't tried Survival Spice on salmon yet, you can see the great color it adds here. I chopped some chives from the garden, cut up some pepper jack cheese, and it was done. Easy.

You might think this took a lot of eggs to make, but it's only a 2 egg omelet with some milk added. The trick to getting nice volume to an omelet is a hot pan. Eggs are leaveners, activated with heat, so you need to be a little aggressive with the fire. It's important to also have all your fillings cooked beforehand, so they don't cool the eggs and you're not waiting for your filling to cook while your eggs burn. Saute everything in your pan first, then remove to a plate, wipe the pan out then assemble your omelet.

This is a great combination of flavors. The salmon already had great flavor and pairs really well with eggs, the pepper jack added a bit more heat and creaminess, and the chives contributed flavor, texture, and the familiar onion quality you typically enjoy with lox.

Posted by The Pragmatic Chef at 8:21 AM | Comments (6)

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January 24, 2006

Survival Spice and Tofu

We're proud of Survival Spice™, our 2006 Scovie Award winning barbecue rub, but it really picks things up around the office when we get customer emails. Here's a great one from a customer in Mesa, AZ:

My 6 year old daughter is a Vegan (for the most part, a matter of taste). Her favorite dinner food is Tofu, sliced thin (1/2 inch), brushed with an Herb Flavored Olive Oil and Balsamic Vinegar with Survival Spice sprinkled on it - Broiled til golden brown in the oven - with MORE dipping oil on the side. I ran out of Survival Spice a while ago and tried different "Mrs. Dash's", my own sorry mixtures - she knew. She KNEW!

In fact, last night's dinner was the motivator to order more Survival Spice; "Mama, this isn't like it used to be, it smells wrong and it isn't pretty". ROFL!!!!! I knew exactly what she meant.

Have something to say about Survival Spice™? Let us know!

Posted by The Pragmatic Chef at 11:32 AM | Comments (2)

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December 23, 2005

TPC's Not-quite Prime Rib Roast prep

Update: The finished dish can be seen here.

I'm making a standing rib roast for Christmas dinner this year. Normally, our family goes the turkey route, but after I made a full 7 bone roast right after Thanksgiving last year for visiting family members, I got the request from everybody that had tried it.

This is a good sized 4 bone small end cut. It's a choice grade, so technically I can't call it prime rib, though that technicality gets overlooked by the vast majority of restaurants that serve it. I'm going to marinate it for two days, and roast it packed in kosher salt. It's a great presentation, and the wow factor as you crack open the hardened salt shell in front of everyone is well worth the effort.

For those of you who have never seen it done, it's a traditional technique that can also be done with pork or even fish as well, as long as whatever you're cooking is at least 5 pounds or so. Much smaller than that, and it will cook too quickly. There's a recipe outlining the technique on the back of a Morton's Kosher Salt box, so I won't belabor that part of it here, but I do vary the technique from theirs as far as cooking time. I've found that cooking it at the lower temp (350º) causes the beef to steam, rather than roast, so I've had better results at around 425º. 350º may be okay for the smaller portions in their recipe, but it didn't give me the nice crust that I wanted. Surprisingly, for all the salt involved, it doesn't become salty, so I like to serve a small chunk of the crust with every portion.

Continue reading "TPC's Not-quite Prime Rib Roast prep"

Posted by The Pragmatic Chef at 8:33 AM | Comments (4)

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December 21, 2005

TPC's White Bean and Ham Soup

(Photo: TPC- not a bad pic, if I do say so myself...)

It's the end of the year drill at Desert Island Foods™.com, and one thing in the DIF test kitchen freezer was the ham from the Orange Survival Glaze photo shoot. End of the year- everything must go, so I took about half of it, plus the bone and made this bean soup I've been craving since it got cold here. Okay, cold in Phoenix is relative, but I saw a mini-icicle on a garden hose one morning a few days ago. Brrrrrr.....

Okay, back to the soup. This took about 3 1/2 hours start to finish, without presoaking or precooking the beans. With a soup like this, I really don't think it's necessary because the extra starch helps thicken the soup. If you were really pressed for time, I think you could just put the beans in with the ham bone and omit the first onion and carrot. Take the extra hour if you possibly can, though.

Continue reading "TPC's White Bean and Ham Soup"

Posted by The Pragmatic Chef at 5:20 AM

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December 14, 2005

Jim's Survival Party Mix

(Photo: Jim, taken through a plastic bag)

Wow, the Maestro of Munchies has done it again!!! Jim, the creator of the popular Halloween Survival Seeds has created "Survival Party Mix".

Jim followed the recipe for Chex® Party Mix and substituted Survival Spice™ for the seasoned salt in the recipe, but mentioned in his email that he would substitute Survival Spice for the onion and garlic powder, too, when they make it again and I agree.

That said, here's Jim's recipe with his future modifications. Thanks, Jim!!!

Continue reading "Jim's Survival Party Mix"

Posted by The Pragmatic Chef at 12:14 PM | Comments (3)

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December 9, 2005

Chilebrown's Rockin' Crab Cakes

(Photos: Paul Brown)

Emails like this just make my day. Paul "AKA Chilebrown" Brown sent in a delicious looking crab cake recipe using Survival Spice™, which as I've noted before, adds wonderfully to the flavor of crab, accentuating the sweetness of the meat and adding succulence with a little zip.

If you're not fortunate enough to have access to fresh lump crabmeat, using a mix of 1/2 lump and 1/2 shredded is a good substitute. It's important to be gentle when mixing these, so you don't break up your expensive lump crab meat, and as Paul noted, giving them time in the refrigerator to set up before cooking them will help keep them together.

Paul, you rock. Here's his recipe:

Continue reading "Chilebrown's Rockin' Crab Cakes"

Posted by The Pragmatic Chef at 6:45 AM

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December 7, 2005

Alaskan Halibut, Green Beans and Potatoes in vinagerette

(Another charming, slightly out of focus photo by yours truly...)

Just a simple weekday dinner, nothing fancy. Okay, the weekend meals aren't that elaborate either, most of the time, I gotta admit. Not during the holiday crunch, anyway...

As I was steaming some red potatoes and green beans, I took some fantastic Alaskan halibut (thanks again, Lloyd!), drizzled it with a bit of oil, and a touch of lemon juice and Survival Spice™.

While that was on the grill, I made a quick vinagerette of some butter, Tibvrtini Olio Extra Vergine di Oliva and Tibvrtini's amazing Aceto di Vino Bianco, along with some salt and pepper in a bowl.

When the veggies came out of the steamer, in they went into the dressing, sucking up the butter and all those great flavors.

The halibut was terrific, subtle with a great buttery texture. Just a pinch or two of seasoning was plenty. This would make a killer Nicoise salad. Hmmmm.... if there were any leftovers, that is.

Posted by The Pragmatic Chef at 7:39 AM | Comments (6)

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December 5, 2005

Easy, Easy Grilled Chicken

Our friend, the chicken. What a great pallet to build flavors on. Enough fat to carry flavors deep into the meat, then they melt away, leaving you with a lean, healthy meal.

This was so easy. Take a whole chicken, tuck the wing tips under the wings, cut out the backbone with a pair of poultry shears or a sharp knife, and press to lay it flat. Drizzle with olive oil, kosher salt, and some lemon juice, then rub generously with Survival Spice™ on all sides. I cooked this indirectly on the gas grill with some pecan chips, but you can easily just put it on a sheet pan in a 375º oven.

This took about 45 minutes, then I let it rest for 5 minutes or so. Man, it was good. Crispy skin, and nothing but flavorful, juicy meat underneath. A crusty baguette and some grilled asparagus finished it off.

Did I mention it was easy?

Posted by The Pragmatic Chef at 8:46 AM

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November 14, 2005

"Easy Orange Survival Glaze" for Ham and Turkey

(Photo: Mary, of TPC's Easy Orange Survival Glaze)

I've been working on this for a while now, and I think it's ready to share. This is a simple glaze that gives both a beautiful appearance and a nice hit of flavor to ham, turkey, chicken and duck. It's well balanced, with lots of orange flavor, a nice sweetness, lots of depth from the dijon mustard, and a subtle bit of heat from the Survival Spice™.

It would be easy to add lots of interesting stuff to this, if you wanted to customize it- garlic, tarragon, use a different citrus component, the list is as long as your imagination.

Try it this year! Please let me know if you do, and if you experiment with variations! Pictures are a plus. It was a huge hit at the photo shoot this weekend, after eating a pot of gumbo we weren't even hungry, but couldn't stop nibbling at it. I HAVE to try this on duck...

Continue reading ""Easy Orange Survival Glaze" for Ham and Turkey"

Posted by The Pragmatic Chef at 9:20 AM

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October 26, 2005

Alaskan Halibut

(TPCs Alaskan Halibut crusted with pine nuts and Survival Spice™)

I hate to keep going on about this, but this truly was a magical pairing of ingredients, and I don't say that lightly. Lots of things I cook up in my head before I cook them on the stove aren't quite as good as I hoped that they would be, but this was exactly what I intended to make.

Halibut is an amazing fish to work with. It's incredibly subtle, with a firm texture, and it's important to not overwhelm it with strong, inappropriate flavors. I decided to just make a simple crust of ground pine nuts, flour and Survival Spice™. I've used Survival Spice™ with halibut before as a rub, but it's important to not overdo it. Salmon and other oily fish- lay it on, it can take it.

I dusted the fish with flour and kosher salt, squeezed a bit of lemon juice in lieu of egg wash to help the breading stick, and then just lightly breaded it with the mixture. Again, think subtle. Pan fried in Tibvrtini Extra Virgin Olive Oil and butter, it was ready in minutes. Covered on a plate, I tossed the raviolis and the blanched asparagus with the sauce and it was good to go.

The sauce was intended to add richness and decadence in terms of mouth feel, and the background heat from the pasilla chiles was just right. More richness from the cheese raviolis, and the asparagus finished it off. Truly a special meal in so many ways.

Posted by The Pragmatic Chef at 11:34 AM | Comments (5)

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October 19, 2005

Beef Brisket- by John

A great email from John in Chicago:

got off early and what the heck, a brisket is in order! I'm slow roasting it @ 250 degrees slathered in survival spice, rockin. jb

John seared it on a large grill pan before he put it in the oven. This is a great technique when you don't have an outdoor grill, it's too frickin' cold to grill outside (perish the thought!), or you just want something different. Survival Spice™ works really well, indoors and out. More pics in the extended entry.

Continue reading "Beef Brisket- by John"

Posted by The Pragmatic Chef at 10:22 AM | Comments (0)

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October 14, 2005

Survival Citrus Chicken a la Biggles

(Photos: Dr. Biggles)

This episode of "What did you have for dinner last night?" is brought to us by the revered master of the coals and all that's carnivorous, Dr. Biggles of Meathenge fame. Shame on you if you call yourself a foodie and don't visit his site every day!

Biggles did an uber-simple weekday meal, "Survival Citrus Chicken a la Biggles", along with a green salad. A quick marinade of lemon juice on the chicken and a healthy rub of Survival Spice™, and he was cookin'. Biggles tells the tale in his inimitable way, in the extended entry.

What did you have for dinner last night? Email me with a picture and a description! Important: delete the spam busting "REMOVETHESEWORDS" from the email address. I hated to put that in, because it's confusing, but I already have plenty of Nigerian investment opportunities to consider over the weekend.

Continue reading "Survival Citrus Chicken a la Biggles"

Posted by The Pragmatic Chef at 9:16 AM | Comments (4)

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October 12, 2005

Alaskan King Crab legs with Survival Butter

(Photos: Mary, who seems very happy to shoot food pictures...)

What a feast. I got a shipment of Alaskan seafood in yesterday from my buddy Lloyd, who totally hooked me up. Alaskan King Crab legs, more crab, halibut filets and steaks, and killer smoked silver salmon.

He's challenged me to develop some Southwest techniques for preparing them, and since I just flew in yesterday, last night's dinner needed to be simple and fast. I clarified some butter, and infused it with plenty of Survival Spice™.

I'm a real purist when it comes to crab, especially the best King Crab on earth, so I wasn't sure if it would go over, but it did in a big way! I had to dump the plain butter into the "Survival Butter" because it clearly was the favorite. The sweetness complemented the crab beautifully, and the spice gave it a wonderful depth of flavor, again, complementing the crab's flavor and not obscuring it at all. Wow.

We sat outside on the patio watching baseball, drinking Red Hook ESB and dipping huge chunks of this amazing crabmeat and a Willo Bakery baguette into the butter, and life couldn't have been any better. Thanks, Lloyd!

Posted by The Pragmatic Chef at 12:48 PM | Comments (4)

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July 22, 2005

Roast Chicken w/Veggies

(Photos: Dr. Biggles)

This is a great dish. One pan, no fuss. Dr. B used Survival Spice™, which I love to see, but don't feel like you have to have to use one of my products to send in your dish. This is all about giving people ideas for simple, amazing weekday dinners. Though I really feel that my stuff really makes that easy, I'm not going to stand on a soapbox with a frickin' megaphone. Here's Biggles' email:

Here is tonight's meal. What with Gout in the forefront of my mind, using mostly vegetable matter is what I need to be eating. So far, I've found roasting those nasty things the best way to go. No vegetarian dinner would be complete without two slices of horizontally sliced thicky bacon within the veggies and a whole chicken roasting up on top. After putting, carrots, celery, onion, shallot and broc in to a bowl and tossing with extra virgin olive oil, I sprinkled in a large amount of Survival Spice. I did this because I wanted a sweet and spicy return on those little bastards. The darned broc is pretty tender so I piled it high under the chicky. Everything is better when it comes from under a chicken's wing.

The bird got some extra virgin olive oil, kosher salt and an assortment of herbs. Since I can't eat most of the chicken, I put some Survival Spice on the chicken wings, those MINES. Add about 3/4 cupfuls of natural chicken broth and install in to a preheated 375 degree oven.

Every half hour pull out and toss the veggies. At this point you could put a lump of butter over the chicken or baste with good dry white wine. Hells bells, do boff. As with any basic roasting meat, this goes on the bottom rack. Serve this, if necessary with some starch. Fresh corn located on the cob would be a good choice.

The important thing to remember here is to roast your vegetables, use your roast or bird to marinate and not use too much broff in the bottom of the roaster.

ps - As far as the size of your roaster goes, you want most of the vegetables to be exposed to the heat. Leaving them under the bird will steam the them and while this isn't a bad thing, it isn't what we want. We're looking for blackened portions of your food, something tasty.

What did you have for dinner tonight? Email Me a dish you're proud of.

Posted by The Pragmatic Chef at 9:42 AM

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July 7, 2005

Food Fight Winner #3!!!! - Biggles' Stuffed Pork Roast

Biggles' Survival Stuffed Pork Roast

We have a winner! Congratulations to Dr. Biggles, whose fine food blog MeatHenge is frequently filled with succulent goodies like this, really did a good job with his entry.

Second place goes to Paul for his "Chinatown Pork Roast." Two winning pork recipes this time, both done with similar cuts of meat but completely different cooking techniques. I'll post Paul's entry later today or tomorrow. Both dishes are great and it was a tough decision, as both of these as well as quite a few others this time were really good.

My take on the winning dish:

The blade end roast is a great choice for this kind of technique. It's fabbed out from the front part of the loin nearest the shoulder, so you can see a few ribs and the end of the shoulder blade in the pictures, hence the name. That bit of T-shaped shoulder blade in the top is what is sliced and sold as "country spare ribs", in case you didn't know. Lots of bone=lots of flavor.

The choice of chard is good. Chard has a bit of background bitterness, so it supplies depth of flavor and moisture to the pork as it cooks. I like to use pine nuts a lot too, for their crunch, saltiness and character, and toasting them as Dr. Biggles did is an absolute must, his toaster oven trick is a really good one.

His note on it needing a bit more salt is perfectly valid. Survival Spice™ contains far less salt than a lot of spice blends on the shelf. A lot of blends out there have more salt than anything, and I chose to go a different route. Survival Spice™ contains a well-balanced amount of quality kosher salt and no more. Salt is inexpensive so why pay more when you can later season to your own taste anyway?

Congratulations again! Biggles and Paul both win a DIF T-shirt, a tin of Survival Spice™, and a DIF refrigerator magnet.

Thanks to everyone who entered, this was the best contest yet. And keep sending in those great pictures in! I'll post a few more reader food pics this week.

So without further ado, Dr. Biggles recipe, rich with great photos, is in the extended section:

Continue reading "Food Fight Winner #3!!!! - Biggles' Stuffed Pork Roast"

Posted by The Pragmatic Chef at 8:13 AM

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June 2, 2005

We have a winner!!!!

Food Fight #2 is over. Thanks to everyone who entered, keep sending in those pictures, you could win next time! The second Food Fight was won by Chris from Phoenix, AZ. His updated Chicken Cordon Bleu was simple, imaginative and his description was the most enthusiastic I read this time:

One of the first things I really made well was Chicken Cordon Bleu, and still have a mild addiction to stuffed chicken. I thought about how you go to Arby's and they have this in sandwich form, combined with how I like a good chicken club. I mean, chicken, cheddar and bacon! It's great. So I thought I'd reverse this into stuffed form.

Cheddar and bacon seemed like it may not work quite right, so I opted for prosciutto and a sharp white cheese.

His recipe was also well done, using a standard breading technique of flour, egg and bread crumbs. This technique using Survival Spice makes terrific fried chicken, too. Here's the recipe:

It takes: -2 good sized chicken breasts -4 slices prosciutto -4 small slices of a sharp white cheese (measurements are relevant and not really exact - also depending on how much you really like cheese) -1 cup flour -1 cup bread crumbs -2 tablespoons Survival Spice™ -1 egg

- Preheat oven to 350 degrees
- In a small warm pan, warm up prosciutto a bit (this may not be needed)
- Butterfly cut chicken open (I like to open it up further so I can cover and create a pinwheel effect)
- Place prosciutto and cheese inside chicken and roll up into a nice little package (set aside)
- In one bowl, add flour and mix in 1 tablespoon of Survival Spice
- In another bowl whisk egg
- In a third bowl, add bread crumbs and 1 tablespoon of Survival Spice
- Take chicken and dredge in flour, then coat with egg, and breadcrumb mix
- Bake at 350 for 20 minutes

Goes great with garlic mashed potatoes...

Posted by The Pragmatic Chef at 7:48 AM