Limoncello Chicken Wings

A couple of years ago, we took a trip to Boulder, Colorado. We stopped in Denver for lunch at Marco’s Coal Fired Pizza. We had one of the best pizzas that I have ever eaten, but even better were the Limoncello chicken wings! The recipe has been published in many of the local Denver papers and then even have it posted in their restaurant. I snapped a picture of the article and after two years, finally made the recipe.

This picture definitely does not do the wings justice. You have to trust me on this one. You have to actually taste them to understand how amazing they are!

Ingredients (with my twist)

• 3-4 pounds of chicken wings
• Three whole lemons, washed and quartered
• 5-6 sprigs of fresh rosemary
• 10-ish sprigs of fresh thyme
• 5 sprigs of fresh oregano
• 1 tablespoon of kosher salt
• 1 teaspoon-isa of red pepper flakes
• ½ cup Limoncello
• 1 ½ cups extra virgin olive oil

Don’t worry too much about the exact measurements for the fresh herbs. Just remove herbs from their stalks and get a nice equal pile of each. The more the merrier! You can’t really add enough fresh herbs to this!

One other thing to note. I did not make my own Limoncello! I bought Guliana’s Limoncello at Standard Market. Not necessarily to support her, but because that was the only brand they had in stock. Keep your Limoncello in the fridge - it is great chilled!

Marinade

This is easy, put everything, except the wings, into the blender and puree! Yes, you are putting the lemons in whole. It seems odd at first, but just do it! The puree will be a little thick, but that is exactly what you want.

Place the wings and marinade into a Ziplock bag (I split the wings into two bags) and marinate overnight.

Cook the Wings

We cooked the wings on the Green Egg (of course), using the plate setter to achieve indirect heat. We put a pizza stone on top of the grate and let the temperature rise to 600 degrees. After the grill and the stone reached temperature, we cooked the wings on the stone. The wings took about 30 minutes to cook and we flipped them every 10 minutes.

If you are doing this in your oven at home, cook these for 20-30 minutes (until charred) at 450 degrees. You can also cook this on your regular grill on indirect heat. I recommend getting your grill as hot as you can to cook these. The high heat really produces a very moist piece of chicken.

Make sure to serve these wings hot. When you take your first bite, the sweetness of the Limoncello and the crispness of the char will really come through. These definitely aren’t your ordinary chicken wings and they are also not your typical lemon chicken. You just have to taste these in order to really appreciate the flavor!

Mangia!

P.S. Marco’s still exists, but under a new name Racca’s Pizzeria. For those interested in learning more about Racca’s:

Why the name change?

Racca’s blog

Middle Eastern Chicken Dinner

Yup…still on my NYT kick!

I saw this recipe a few weeks ago in the Thursday Food section.

Middle Eastern food is new to me, so I followed the recipe exactly. In fact, it was so exact, I’m going to send you directly to the NYT Cooking Page for the recipe!

Sumac was a little hard to find. Trips to Whole Foods, Standard Market, and Mariano’s proved unsuccessful. Finally found it at World Market.

This chicken had and incredible depth of flavor. I cooked this on the Green Egg on direct heat at 500 degrees for about 15 minutes total. The recipe calls for chicken thighs, but I am sure you could also use chicken breasts. I would cook the breasts on indirect heat though, to avoid them drying out.

I served the chicken with yellow rice and a really hearty Cabernet. We didn’t have a lot of leftovers, but I think this chicken would be great for tacos or even in a panini with some pepper jack cheese. If you give this try, let me know how it turns out and how you served it! I’m always looking for new ideas!

Enjoy!

Spicy Garlic Rosemary Grilled Chicken

When I was making dinner last Sunday, I decided to add some chicken to the grill so that I would have something for lunch during the week. I ended up eating this chicken several days last week - plain, on a salad, and in a taco. It was a great quick lunch with a lot of flavor.

Here is the recipe:

Ingredients:

• 4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
• Zest of 1 lemon
• 4-5 rosemary sprigs, finely chopped
• 2 cloves of garlic, grated
• Pinch of crushed red pepper flakes
• Pinch of salt
• 3 grinds of black pepper
• 3 tablespoons olive oil

Preparation:

• Mix all of the ingredients, except the chicken, together in a measuring cup.
• Place the chicken breasts in a Ziplock bag and pour the olive oil/herb mixture over the chicken.
• Seal the bag and rub the marinade into the chicken. Place the chicken on a dish in the refrigerator for 4 hours.
• Remove the chicken from the refrigerator and heat your grill to 400 degrees.
• Cook the chicken over direct heat for 3 minutes per side. Check the temperature and continue to cook for 1-2 minutes per side until the internal temperature reaches 165 degrees.

This recipe was inspired by the NYT’s recipe Grilled Chicken Salad with Green Beans, Olives and Capers. Since I was making this recipe in advance for the week, I just focused on cooking my chicken and then adding it to what I had in the house throughout the week. The chicken was juicy and full of flavor. The red pepper was a nice kick. a

Enjoy!

Grilled Pork Chops with Cherry Sauce

As you can probably tell, I’m on a New York Times recipe kick. I’m not sure how I found this recipe, but it is definitely one to save and make again!

The pork chops are rubbed with a very flavorful herb mixture. Take a quick look before you read the ingredient list.

You can find the original recipe on the NYT website, but here is my modified version of the recipe.

Ingredients:

• 2 pork chops, bone-in, thick cut
• 4-5 sprigs rosemary, finely chopped
• 6-7 sprigs thyme, finely chopped
• 2 cloves of garlic, grated
• 1 cup fresh cherries, organic if possible, pitted and halved
• ½ cup “fruity” red wine (see note below)
• 1 shallot, finely chopped
• 3 tablespoons unsalted butter
• Kosher salt
• Freshly ground black pepper

So, I had to look up what “fruity” red wine meant. Based on what I read, my recommendation is to buy a Pinot Noir from California or New Zealand. I shopped at Whole Foods that day, so I also looked at the categories that were checked for each wine and picked something that said “fruity.”

Preparation:

Cook the Pork Chops

• Combine the garlic, rosemary, thyme, 3-4 grinds of black pepper, and two small pinches of salt. Rub all over the pork chops. Marinate anywhere from 2 hours to overnight in the refrigerator. I marinated mine for about 4 hours.
• Remove the pork chops from the refrigerator and let them get to room temperature. I often forget to do this, so my goal is to have the chops out at least 30 minutes before I cook them. That is usually how long it takes to heat up the grill. Speaking of which, heat the grill to 400 degrees!
• We cooked the chops over direct heat, about 3 minutes per side to start. We kept checking the temperature until the internal temperature reached 140 degrees. I cannot remember the actual cooking time and to be honest, the cooking time is going to vary depending on how thick the chops are. If you start with 3 minutes per side as a rule of thumb, then go to 2 minutes per side until you reach the correct internal temperature, that usually works well. Once you take the chops off the grill, let them sit, covered, until they reach 145 degrees. They will continue to cook, so don’t worry. It should take about 5-7 minutes.

One thing to note. The NYT recipe calls for a combination of direct and indirect heat. That actually is a great method. We were a little lazy last week, so we did everything over direct. Also, if you have a Green Egg and are going to use the direct/indirect method, try starting with indirect heat first, then sear the chops on direct heat at the end for only 2 minutes per side. After watching a lot of the videos on the Green Egg site, this sees to be the most common method. This made me uncomfortable at first, because it is against everything I have learned to date. However, we have cooked steaks like this multiple times now and they turn out like butter, with the perfect amount of char.

Make the Cherry Sauce

• Add a tablespoon(ish) of butter to the skillet. When the butter stops foaming, add the shallots and cook until tender. This will take 2-3 minutes.
• Add the cherries and wine and let that cook until the mixture reduces to a thin syrup. This will take about 5-6 minutes.
• Add another 2 tablespoons of butter, one at a time, until it is incorporated Add another pinch of salt and a couple of grinds of black pepper. Give the sauce a taste and adjust the flavor to your liking.

I wasn’t sure if I was going to like the sauce, so I served the sauce on the side. It definitely added something to the dish, but the chops alone had a great garlicky-herb flavor and didn’t need the cherries. It is a great way to use cherries that you have not finished eating yet for sure!

And, here is the final product…

I definitely recommend giving this recipe a try. The herb rub is versatile and could be used on anything. I think this would be great to serve on steaks!

Bon Appetit!

If you liked Blackberry Crumble...

Earlier today, I posted a recipe for blackberry crumble with peach ice cream. Tonight, I made peach crumble with peach ice cream. Thanks to Rustic Road Farm for the most amazing peaches!

The recipe is the same; just substitute peaches for the blackberries. This picture is beautiful but doesn’t do the crumble justice. The soft, succulent peaches, the crunchy topping, and the velvety texture of the ice cream are just amazing together! Wish I could serve this to everyone reading right now!

Bon Appetit!

Blackberry Cobbler and Peach Ice Cream

All I can say…F*&^ING YUM!

So my “enabler” subscribes to the New York Times and as a result, I have the opportunity to read the Food section every week. A couple of weeks back, we saw a recipe for Crunchy Berry Almond Crumble. Since we have a tree nut allergy in our family, I decided to modify the recipe a bit. The result? Well, I already said it above…f*&^ing yum! (Yes, Lili & Diego…I owe you $5 for those words!) Here is my version of the recipe.

Ingredients:

For the fruit

• 3 pints blackberries (use organic if you can)
• Zest of one orange
• 2-4 tablespoons granulated sugar (will depend on the sweetness of the blackberries; I used three this time)

For the crumble

• 1 2/3 cup flour
• 1/3 cup brown sugar (light or dark - whatever your preference is)
• 1/3 cup granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/8 teaspoon allspice
• Pinch of salt
• 1 stick of unsalted butter, melted

Preparation:

• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
• Mix all of the ingredients for the fruit together and set aside.
• Whisk together the dry ingredients for the crumble.
• Add the butter to the crumble ingredients. Mix the butter and the dry ingredients with your fingers until crumbs form. Feel free to “smush” the crumble pieces together to form larger chunks.
• Add the fruit to a shallow dish (e.g., pyrex dish or a gratin dish). Cover the fruit with the crumble mixture.
• Cook the crumble for 50-55 minutes. You can serve hot, but I prefer to let the crumble get to room temperature and serve it then.

Serve the crumble with ice cream or freshly whipped cream. I served this a few times this past week; first with peach ice cream, then with cherry ice cream. The ice cream recipe is available on the blog. Substitute peeled and finely chopped (lightly pureed) peaches for the cherries. SOOOO GOOD!

Bon Appetit!

Citrus Herb Marinated Grilled Shrimp

I saw the recipe for Citrus and Herb Marinated Shrimp in the August, 2016 issue of Food and Wine Magazine. Just reading it made my mouth water. Although I don’t cook seafood that often, I made this recipe the same day. These shrimp were cooked perfectly and the herb-citrus marinade gave them a huge burst of flavor!

Ingredients:

• About 1 dozen large uncooked shrimp, shelled and deveined, shells removed
• Zest and juice of one orange
• Zest and juice of one lemon
• ¾ cup chopped cilantro
• ¾ chopped parsley
• ¼ teaspoon red pepper
• Pinch of black pepper
• 1 ½ cups extra virgin olive oil

Prepare and Cook the Shrimp:

1. After cleaning the shrimp, spread the shrimp on a sheet pan and place in the fridge, uncovered, for 2 hours to dry.
2. Mix all of the marinade ingredients in a bowl and add the shrimp for 30 minutes.
3. Heat your grill to about 400 degrees.
4. Remove the shrimp from the marinade and season lightly with salt. Place shrimp in a seafood pan or on skewers and place on the grill. Cook the shrimp 2-3 minutes per side (depending on the size of the shrimp). Shrimp are done when the are white throughout.

I ate these alone with a squeeze of lemon, but they would be delicious as part of a salad, served on top of Giada’s Lemon Spaghetti, or tossed with Pasta Agli Olio (see previous blog recipe!).

Bon appetit!

Thanks Grandma Pat!

So, I had a birthday last month and thanks to Grandma Pat, I finally got a set of silicone cupcake molds. Sure, paper cupcake liners are cute, but they are kind of pain. Plus, when you really want to make cupcakes, you never had the liners you really want to use!

Lucky for me, Grandma Pat hooked me up! I have been talking about buying these but just never actually went out and bought them. Thanks to the new molds, here is the finished product…

Believe it or not, my favorite cupcakes don’t involve a fancy, homemade recipe. I use Pillsbury’s Devils Food cake mix and Creamy Vanilla Frosting. After I iced the cupcakes, I added some sprinkles, only because I had some in the pantry.

It may not sound super fancy, but these are my all time favorite cupcakes. And now, they are so much easier to make with my silicone cupcake molds!

Thanks Grandma Pat!

Grilled Cheese ALWAY Makes Me Feel Better!

Whether its a freezing cold day outside, I have had a bad week, or I just feel like crap, a good grilled cheese sandwich always makes me feel better. To be honest, any grilled cheese sandwich makes me feel better!

I’ve made grilled cheese in a frying pan, in a pizzelle maker, and in a fancy panini press. They have always turned out good, but what you really need is a good, non-stick pan, Land O'Lakes American Cheese, some good sourdough bread, and a lot of butter!

I’m traditional, thus the Land O'Lakes (yellow) American cheese. If you want to be all fancy, you can use a mix of cheeses like that great scene in the movie Chef when Favreau makes that mouth watering grilled cheese. Regardless of your cheese choice, just do this…

1. Heat up a non-stick pan, then add 1 1/12 tablespoons of butter.
2. Let the butter start to melt and get frothy, then add your constructed grilled cheese sandwich…two pieces of sourdough and about 5 slices of cheese.
3. Allow the sandwich to cook for about two minutes. When the butter starts to dissipate, take a quick peek to see if the sandwich is starting to brown. Once you see that nice golden color, flip the sandwich.
4. Add another ½ - 1 tablespoon of butter to the pan, right next to the sandwich, then lift the sandwich a bit and tilt the pan so the butter slides underneath. Cover the pan with a large bowl and let it sit another 1-2 minutes.
5. Remove the bowl, take another peek, and if you see that beautiful color, it is time to eat! If the color is a little light or the cheese isn’t “melty” enough, put the bowl back on for another 30-60 seconds, then check again!

I always serve my grilled cheese with chicken soup. During the winter, I make a great Lemon Chicken Orzo soup. I’ll post that next time I cook up a batch. But, when I’m not in the mood to exert that much effort, a box of good chicken broth, the juice of a lemon, a chopped serrano pepper and some ditalini pasta make a nice soup too. And, if I am being exceptionally lazy, I heat up a open a can of Chickarina from Progresso. It’s the only canned soup I eat, but it rocks!

Enjoy and feel better!

Chocolate Cherry Ice Cream

A couple of years ago, I was on an ice cream kick. Every trip to the grocery store resulted in me bringing home Jeni’s Bramelberry Crisp or Three Twins Chocolate Malt. All of a sudden, I decided I had to start making my own ice cream and my “cooking enabler” (a.k.a. my husband), bought me a Cuisinart Ice Cream Maker.

I don’t remember the first ice cream flavor that I made, but I do remember my last…Chocolate Cherry Ice Cream!

The picture doesn’t do the ice cream justice, so you will have to trust me that it was super creamy and delicious!

This recipe obviously is going to involve an ice cream maker. You can get these relatively inexpensively and they do a great job. Make sure to read the directions on your machine in advance. You usually need to freeze the bowl overnight, so plan ahead!

Ingredients:

• 1 ½ cups fresh cherries, washed and pitted
• ¾ whole milk
• 2/3 cup granulated sugar
• 1 ½ cups heavy cream
• 1 ½ teaspoons pure vanilla extract
• 2(ish) tablespoons of good milk or dark chocolate
• Pinch of salt

Everything I used in this recipe was organic. At minimum, try and buy organic cherries. You leave the cherry skins on for this recipe, so I would highly recommend this.

Preparing the Ice Cream Base:

1. Put the cherries into the bowl of a food processor, fitted with the chopping blade. Pulse the cherries until roughly chopped.
2. In a medium bowl, combine the milk, sugar, and salt and whisk until the sugar is incorporated. You can also user a hand mixer, but I’m usually too lazy to get mine out of the pantry.
3. Add the heavy cream, vanilla, and chopped cherries to the milk mixture. Grate in the milk or dark chocolate. Mix all of the ingredients together, pour into a shallow pan or pyrex dish, and chill (covered) for at least four hours or overnight.

By the way, I have no idea how much chocolate I really used. I just kept grating until it looked like enough. I made up the two tablespoon measurement above - please let me know how much you end up using! It also might be interesting to add a flavored chocolate bar like Mo’s Dark Chocolate Bacon Bar by Vosges.

Make the Ice Cream:

1. Take the bowl for the ice cream maker out of the freezer, attach it to your ice cream maker, and pour in the ice cream base. Allow the ice cream maker to mix until the ice cream is thickened, about 15-20 minutes. Read the directions for your machine as times may vary.
2. After the ice cream is mixed, pour the ice cream into plastic 32oz (tall) containers and freeze them for at least 2 hours before serving. I usually use two containers and fill them both ¾ of the way full.

Definitely give this recipe a try and let me know if you enjoyed it. I have two others for you that I’ll be posting (eventually)…Cranberry Orange Chocolate Ice Cream and Mango Sorbet. Keep watching for those!

Bon Appetit!

Winner, Winner...

If you took me to the airport and told me I could take a plane anywhere tonight, I would fly to Vegas and eat at Mesa Grill. There are three primary reasons for this…

• First: Every meal I have had there has been the BEST meal I have ever eaten.
• Second: I’m not willing to leave the contiguous 48.
• Third: Wheel of FORTUNE!

Every since my first trip to Vegas with my husband, we have gone to Mesa Grill. The picture above is from out last trip and I seriously had the most amazing dinner. I always start with the Tiger Shrimp Roasted Garlic Tamale…because you HAVE to! I never liked tamales, until THIS tamale. You can win any tamale hater over with this appetizer!

For dinner I had the Grilled Lamb Porterhouse Chops with preserved serrano chile sauce, mint chimichurri, and plantain tamale. My husband had my second favorite entree…New Mexican Spiced Rubbed Pork Tenderloin with bourbon ancho chile sauce and sweet potato tamale.

I can’t remember the actual name of the dessert, but it was definitely a chocolate, caramel and chile molten chocolate cake of sorts.

Mesa is a staple for us, but so is Wheel of Fortune. I don’t know why, but ever since my very first trip to Vegas with my sister, Lia, I have been addicted. It is a slot machine with the option to “spin the wheel.” This past January, I got the opportunity to spin on my very first bet. The result…$400! I cashed out and headed to the black jack table…my second love!

It is definitely difficult to replicate Vegas in Illinois, but I have to thank my husband for giving it a try. My SECOND favorite slot machine is the “sparkly” Triple Diamond. Thanks to him, an actual “sparkly” Triple Diamond from Vegas sits in my office. Look who was the big winner tonight…

I can’t imagine a better evening than a great meal at Mesa and gambling. That would be my choice EVERY time. So if you dare to ask, you already know the answer…

VEGAS BABY!

Back to Basics!

We are continuing to enjoy the Green Egg!

Last weekend, we went back to basics…

Yup! Hamburgers and hot dogs!

You can’t get more basic than a char dog and a good cheeseburger and that is exactly what we enjoyed. We topped off the evening with some grilled peach and vanilla ice cream with crumbled Cranberry Oatmeal cookies.

Diego, wait to you get a taste of Uncle Tone’s new burgers! They are A-W-E-S-O-M-E!

Watermelon Popsies!

And this is how we finished off our night…

Watermelon popsicles and Silicon Valley season finale!

Popsicles

This recipe is actually pretty simple…

1 pound cubed watermelon

Zest and juice of one lime

2 shots vodka

Puree in a blender and then pour into popsicle molds. Freeze for several hours (I made mine at 11am and we ate these around 8pm and they were perfect).

Show is about to start…Buona Sera!

Pizza ala the Green Egg

Pizza Dough

The best dough recipe I have found so far has been Roberta’s Pizza Dough. The dough comes out perfect every time. Definite props here to the 00 flour; it totally makes the difference. I’ve found 00 flour pretty regularly at Whole Foods, Standard Market and even Caputos. I haven’t had good luck at either Jewel or Marianos, so make sure to plan ahead.

Just a tip. I made the dough in the morning and let it rise pretty much the entire day, covered with a wet towel. I think making and using the dough the same day is better than leaving it in the fridge overnight.

Assemble the Pizza

I stretched and shaped the dough until the pizza was about 10" in circumference. I created a little edge or lip (like the video said) and added a thin layer of pizza sauce. I cheated here and just used a jarred sauce from Standard Market and added a little chopped garlic, oregano and pepper. I shredded some basil on the top and used part-skim mozzarella, which I hand shredded.

If you watched the NYT video above, the recipe calls for fresh mozzarella. I have made this using fresh mozzarella too, but honestly, I like the flavor of aged mozzarella better. And, if I am being completely honest, I actually forgot to look for the fresh mozzarella, so the aged mozzarella had to do! I drizzled a little olive oil on the top of the pizza, just before placing it on the peel and putting it on the Egg.

Cooking on the Green Egg

My “assistant” and I heated up the Egg. Once the fire started to burn, put the place setter in Egg, upside down. We added the grate and then the pizza stone on top of that. We raised the heat to about 550 degrees, put the pizza on the stone, and cooked the pizza for about 7 minutes. The crust was nice and crispy and the cheese was melted perfectly. It was the perfect first time recipe. Next time, white pizza with garlic, soppresatta, and arugula. My favorite!

Tonight’s Wine

Tonight’s wine is Casal Da Coelheira Reserva 2012 from Portugal. I don’t recall having wine from Portugal before so I did a little research. Here is great site that speaks to the Tejo region, in the heart of Portugal, where this delicious wine was from.

Buon Appetito!

Frozen Honeydew Basil Margaritas

This afternoon’s cocktail…

I saw this recipe in the July 2016 issue of Food and Wine magazine and my mouth started watering. I went shopping the same day to get the ingredients I needed; I had to try this one! The end result was sweet, tart and spicy (due to the addition of the Tajin). The only thing that could have made this cocktail better was being poolside!

I’ve listed the recipe here, along with the tweaks I made to make it my own…

Basil Syrup

½ cup sugar

½ cup water

About 10 springs of basil

Bring water and sugar to a boil, continuously stirring until sugar has resolved. Add the basil leaves for about 10 seconds and then pour into a blender to cool. Cool about 3-4 minutes and then puree until smooth. Strain the puree into a shallow bowl and place in the freezer for about 5 minutes to chill.

Margarita

4 cups (~ 1.5lbs) chopped honeydew, frozen (I put mine in the freezer overnight)

1 cup fresh lime juice

1.25 cup white tequila (I used Cabo Wabo Blanco)

6 tablespoons of basil syrup

Add all of the ingredients in a blender and puree until smooth. I stopped the blender after about a minute and tried to shift the honeydew around a bit. It took about 3 minutes to puree the honeydew until it came to a good consistency.

Serve

To serve, I rimmed the glass with Tajin and another squeeze of lime. You can also garnish with basil, but I saved my extra basil for tonight’s pizza (more to come…)

Salute!

Shout Out to Rustic Road Farm!

Thanks to Rustic Road Farm for helping me make this…

I found Rustic Road Farm about two years ago. I started going for the fresh veggies and eggs, but kept going back for the amazing pork they produce. Tonight, we made pork chops from Rustic Road on the Green Egg.

Recipe

This recipe was extremely simple. I seasoned the pork chops (after bringing them to room temperature) with sea salt, pepper and cumin.

Cooking Method

We (my Green Egg assistant and me) bought the Green Egg up to about 400 degrees. We seared the chops for about 1 minute, rotated the chops 90 degrees, then seared the chops for another minute to get a nice cross hatch. We flipped the chops and did the same on the opposite side.

We took the chops off the Green Egg, inserted the plate setter, and waited until the Egg reached 400 degrees again. We finished the chops on indirect heat for about 15 minutes, flipping them twice during that time.

We took the chops off once they reached 140 degrees, let them sit for about 5 minutes, then served them once they reached 145 degrees.

Accoutrements

I served the pork chops with lemon orzo. You will find that recipe further down in my blog!

This is such a simple recipe, but the delicious flavor of the pork and the smoke and juices that the Egg seals into the meat is impossible to describe. Rustic Road Road Farm is located in Elburn and for you city folk, it is worth the drive! Take some time to watch the goats at the front of the farm and then visit the pigs behind the actual farmstead. I’m not a farm girl, but visiting this place makes me feel like Eva Gabor in Green Acres (most of you youngsters probably won’t remember that show, so click on the link)!

Bon Appetit!

Best Ever BBQ Ribs...V 2.0

It was another weekend spending time with the Green Egg!

This weekend, we revisited the Best Ever BBQ Ribs recipe from Bon Appetit Magazine.

The recipe was pretty similar to the original version on this site. Here are just a couple of tweeks:

Rib Prep

First, rub the ribs with Canola oil (instead of Chili Oil). Next, create a rub for the ribs that consists of:

• 1 tablespoon each: mustard powder, sweet paprika, garlic powder, black pepper
• ½ tablespoon each of: cayenne, cumin, and sea salt

Cooking Method

We placed 2 slabs of St. Louis style ribs in a rib rack, on the Green Egg, over the plate setter (aka the “convEGGtor”). In addition to using the plate setter, we soaked apple wood chips in water for about 30 minutes and then drained them and placed them into the charcoal right before we started cooking.

The ribs cooked at a temperature of 275 degrees for about 2.5 hours.

After the slow cooking time, we removed the plate setter, brought the grill up to a temperature of approximately 350 degrees, smothered the ribs with BBQ sauce and then grilled them at the higher heat for about 5 minutes per side.

The Sauce

We used the same BBQ sauce recipe as before - equal parts Sweet Baby Rays Honey BBQ and Famous Daves Sweet and Saucy. I added a touch of water and some Makers 46 (for obvious reasons). I let them come to a quick boil before starting to spread it on the ribs.

Bottom Line…

These ribs were even more tender than the Best Ever BBQ Rib recipe I posted previously (V 1.0). The smokey flavor was just perfect - not too much; not too little. As usual, I made more than we could eat,so later this week we are having pulled BBQ rib sandwiches on garlic sourdough bread. Have you had garlic sourdough bread? If you haven’t, you are missing out!

Bon Appetit (V 2.0)!

Mojo Marinated Pork Shoulder

Ah….another slow roast day!

A couple weeks ago, I watched Chef again. I love the scene where they just finished cleaning up the food truck and Martin is making his Mojo for the pork shoulder. Just looking at that makes my mouth water. I decided to try the recipe for myself. For version 1.0, I used pork tenderloin instead of pork shoulder, just to speed up the cooking time. Grilled on indirect heat, the pork took about 20 minutes to cook and had that great cilantro-orange-lime flavor. The meat was incredibly juicy. I decided to make the Mojo again, but this time using pork shoulder, which is what the recipe originally called for.

Roy Choi was a consultant for the movie. The Chef movie recipes are available on-line, but I included a link for the Mojo Marinated Pork Shoulder here.

For the Mojo…

• 1 bunch cilantro
• Zest of 1 orange
• ¾ cup freshly squeezed orange juice (about 3 medium oranges)**
• ½ cup freshly squeezed lime juice (about 6 limes)
• ¾ cup olive oil
• 8 garlic cloves (per the recipe, but I used a full head of garlic)
• ¼ cup fresh mint leaves
• 1 tablespoon dried oregano
• 1 tablespoon dried cumin
• 1 tablespoon black pepper
• Kosher salt (to taste)

TIP: Use Cara Cara oranges if you can find them. They are much sweeter than traditional naval oranges and have a beautiful red flesh.

I put all of the ingredients in a blender and pureed everything until it was smooth. You can definitely chop up all of the ingredients if you would like, but the blender is much easier. Divide the Mojo, reserving at least a ½ cup to use as a sauce.

For the Pork Shoulder…

• 4-5 pounds pork shoulder (I used bone-in, but boneless works too)
• Kosher salt

Season the pork with a generous amount of salt. Place the pork in a very large, resealable bag (if you have one) or into a glass dish. Pour the Mojo into the bag/dish and rub the Mojo into the pork. Let the pork sit in the Mojo marinade overnight.

Cooking the Pork…

I used the Green Egg again with the plate installed for indirect grilling (aka the “Conveggtor” on the Green Egg site). The pork cooked at a steady temperature of 225 degrees for almost 4 hours until it reached an internal temperature of 140 degrees. I took the pork off the Egg, removed the plate and brought the Egg’s temperature up to 500 degrees. I seared off the pork for about 4 minutes on each side, then let the pork sit 10 minutes before cutting into thin slices. When I took the pork off the grill after searing it, the temperature was 145 degrees.

Note that the actual recipe calls for the internal pork temperature to be 160 degrees. If you do google pork temperatures, there are recipes that say to cook the pork until the internal temperature is 195 degrees. The FDA endorses the 145 internal temperature and I have been cooking most of my pork this way. You can’t really over cook pork shoulder; the longer you cook it, the more tender it gets.

Accoutrements…

I served this with cilantro lime rice (which I made in the rice cooker) and a bottle of Ghost Pines Cabernet for dinner.

Buen Provecho!

Who has a Taste for Brisket?

I Do!

Yesterday was a slow cook day. Brisket with a Santa Maria rub on the new Green Egg.

I cooked a 4 ½ pound brisket at a constant temperature of 225 degrees. I rubbed the brisket with canola oil and Santa Maria rub (see previous recipes) and let it sit for about 4 hours prior to putting it on the Egg. Three hours were in the fridge; the final hour was on the counter so I could get the meat to room temperature. I cooked the meat for a little under 4 hours, following an old recipe I had. The meat was a too well done for me. The recipe said to look for an internal temperature of 195, which just seems too high. I need to do some research on that, so stay tuned for a Brisket 2.0 post.

I definitely need to compliment the Green Egg. It maintained the temperature the entire time (exactly), which meant I had to do nothing except sit there with a Corona and enjoy the weather!

I served this with guinea potatoes (cooked in a cast iron skillet) last night and a bottle of Smith and Hook Cabernet.

I hope you get a chance to make this one - the flavor was amazing!

Enjoy!

It’s been awhile…

I have been on a sort of a sabbatical from both cooking and blogging for the past several months. Call it a writer’s block, a rut in terms of cooking style, or just overall laziness, but it happened. The nice weather over the last couple of weeks has inspired me, so I thought I would post a quick summary of some of my favorite meals.

Clockwise, starting from the far right…

Lamb chops marinaded in garlic, rosemary, thyme, lemon, olive oil, kosher salt and pepper roasted on a charcoal grill (direct heat for 1 minute/side, then indirect heat for about 2-3 minutes/side)

White sangria with Pinot Grigio, brandy, Cara Cara oranges, lemons, limes and a can of Sprite served with frozen oranges over ice

Lemon chicken, which you can find a recipe for on this site

Vanilla bean ice cream with peaches and cinnamon sugar cookies (nothing fancy but tastes great after a meal of spicy food!)

Tri-tip with grilled potatoes. I posted my tri-tip and potato recipe previously, but made a few recent changes that have toned down the spice a bit.

First, I rubbed the meat with canola oil. I changed the rub to include: 1 tablespoon EACH of garlic powder, sweet paprika, dried rosemary, dried thyme, kosher salt and black pepper. In this version, I added only a ½ tablespoon of cayenne. The cooking instructions remain the same.

I grilled the potatoes in a cast-iron skillet on a very hot charcoal grill. The flavor was amazing and the potatoes were more evenly cooked and much crispier than in the oven. I cut the potatoes in even pieces then added garlic powder, kosher salt, black pepper, dried oregano, shallots (cut in large chunks) and canola oil. The potatoes cooked about 30 minutes over direct heat (most of the time).

Hopefully my cooking and my blogging is back on track and you will see more posts very soon!