I tried a very nice white wine from Austria last night. Brand - Hugo, varietal - Gruner Veltliner (2009).

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1. One 16 oz can of garbanzo beans (chickpeas).
2. Put 3.5 to 4 oz of liquid from the can into a blender with the beans.
3. Add to the blender 3 Tbsp of lemon juice (1.5 oz).
4. 2 Tbsp tahini
5. 1/4 tsp garlic paste
6. 1/2 chipotle or chili powder (hot Indian one)
7. 1/2 tsp salt
8. 2 Tbsp olive oil
9. Couple of shake of black pepper (or freshly ground black pepper).
10. Blend till creamy.
11. Garnish with chili or chipotle powder.

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375 degrees convect. 30 min in preheated oven.

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Nothern beans

Nothern beans are a lot more delicate than pinto beans. They absorbed a lot more water during the hydration and, after I cooked them for 2 hrs, they were completely overcooked and mushy. They still tasted good with pasta. I curious, though, about the possibilities.

1. Mashed white beans with some spices, a la hummus
2. Mashed potatoes and mashed white beans
3. Pasta with beans or pasta beans salad
4. beans with sauted spinach as a side dish

Braised pork baby back ribs

My smoked ribs come out somewhat uneven as one end of the rack is wider and has more meat. This side ends up being undercooked and still pink when I'm done with the ribs. One time I cut it off before marinating and used it for the braised pork ribs. I used basically the same recipe as for my sweet beef chili. As it's not gound beef I wanted to give it more time to cook, so I added a cup of water to the recipe and cooked it for 4 hours. Ribs came out awesome, totally fall-off-the-bone tender. The sauce, on the other hand, got to be too dense and too potent. Ribs need lighter sauce. Mayve a light tomato sauce or something along the lines of rabbit in white wine. Stainless steel pan was great for browning.

Braised Pork shoulder for tacos.

I chopped carnitas meat into bite sized chunks and braised it in cochinita pibil sauce for 3 hours. Pork became very tender and tasted great in tacos with marinated onions. Sauce was too thin. There needs to be maybe twice as much of it as I had and it needs to be thickened with something.

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This wine was pretty good. Kind of sour by itself, but still with a good flavor. It was very good with a creamy pasta.

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This wine was pretty good.

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1. 8 cups sliced summer squash
2. 2 cups sliced onions
3. 2 sliced bell peppers (or jalapenos if you want it spicy)
4. 1 Tbs of salt
5. 2.5 cups turbinado sugar (it was too sweet for my taste, I will probably use less)
6. 2 cups vinegar
7. 2 Tbs mustard seed
8. 2 Tbs celery seed

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I've been attempting to make my venison chili recipe with beef. I've used only half the meat the recipe calls for. Once I realized that screw up, I thought it was not going to come out good, but I kept on cooking it. There were other small deviations from that recipe. In the end, I don't know what particular change to attribute it to, but this beef chili has turned out to be spectacular. The tomatoes have broken down to give it this sweetness that just made it super delicious. In my wife's words, "We were throwing it in our mouths as if we had not eaten in a week."

1. 2 large chopped yellow onions, in a stock pot, with small amount of olive oil. Cook until they start turning brown.
2. Throw a large handful of cumin seeds into the cooking onions.
3. As onions are nearing completion of their cooking, in a frying pan brown the beef. I used 1.2 lb of 93% ground beef (7% fat). I salted and peppered the beef. After it's browned, put it in with the onions. 
4. Deglaze the frying pan with dry white vermouth and add to the onions pot.
5. Add one can of the Hunt's tomato sauce (about 15 oz, 425 g)
6. Add one 28 oz (794 g) can of Hunt's canned tomatoes (sauce too! Don't throw away the sauce!). I work through the tomatoes to remove the butts.
7. 1 tea spoon of ginger paste.
8. 1 table spoon of garlic paste.
9. A generous splash of Italian (chianti) red wine vinegar. I'd guess 1-1.5 oz.
10. A generous shake of black pepper.
11. While I salted the ground beef, I did not add any more salt to the chili.
12. 1 tea spoon of Spanish smoky paprika.
13. 1 tea spoon of ground cumin.
14. 1/3 tea spoon of chili powder.
15. 1/4 tea spoon of ground chipotle powder.
16. Simmer uncovered at the small flame until liquid reduces.
17. Once the chili starts to stick to the bottom of the pan, cover and cook at the smallest possible fire.
18. Total cooking time is 2.5 hours.
19. At the end add just the beans from 2 cans of dark red kidney beans. Discard the bean can fluid.

This chili was truly so good, I could eat it with a spoon out of a bowl. Cold. Normally I would serve it in nachos.

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This wine was very good. Smooth and full bodied. Nativa Terra, Reserva Carmenere, 2009. Curico Valley, Chile.

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This wine was really really bad. Arido Malbec 2008. Mendoza, Argentina.

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1. Two cups of dry pinto beans, put into cold water and refrigerate for up to 2 days. During this time the beans will expand 2x and will lose a lot of stuff that causes flatulence.
2. Rinse the beans, put in a pot and add enough water to cover the beans.
3. Add 1/3 teaspoon of salt
4. add 1/3 teaspoon of black pepper
5. Add 1/3 teaspoon of chili powder
6. Add 1 full teaspoon of cumin
7. Bring to a boil and gently simmer for 2 hours
8. Turn off heat, take a ladle full of beans and fluid into a blender and liquify. Pour back into the pot.
9. Can be consumed immediately or refrigerated for up to 3 days.

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I have learned this real toor dal recipe in the house of one of my Indian friends. He and his wife are real honest to goodness Indians and this recipe is real homemade Indian cooking. Now, I have adjusted the recipe to make it less spicy and to suit my tastes better. I'll tell you how I adjusted it, so you can bring it back to its original glory. Or go with my own version, which is really good, too. What I've changed is:

1. I use less spices. I will indicate which spices have been reduced.
2. I use beef (or venison) stock. Original called for 6 cups of water. I use 2 cups of home made beef stock and 4 cups of water.
3. Original called for 1 chopped tomato. I love tomato in this soup, so I use 3 tomatoes that I de-skin first.

This is all!

Here is the recipe:

In a pressure cooker saute:

1. 1 finely chopped red onion
2. 1 tsp black mustard seeds
3. 1 tsp cumin seeds.

Meanwhile in a cup mix the following spices:

1. 2 chile de arbol (original called for 3)
2. 7 curry leaves
3. 1/3 tsp chilipowder (original called for 1 full tsp)
4. 1 tsp coriander/cumin (1:1) mix
5. 1 Tbsp garlic paste (I've started adding 1 tsp of ginger paste recently, too)
6. 1 seeded jalapeno pepper (original called for 2 serranos)
7. 1 tsp salt

Once onion is sauteed, put in the pot:

1. 4 cups of water
2. 2 cups of stock
3. 3 de-skinned tomatoes cut in quarters
4. 1 cup toor dal lentils

Dump the contents of the spices cup. Stir everything well, close pressure cooker, bring to pressure and cook for 20 minutes. Stir well again before serving.

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Mashed potatoes are very popular in my household. I like to add chopped green onions to this dish. So I was thinking maybe I can make a mashed potato dish with even more vegetables in it. I like Indian cauliflower masala, it often has potatoes and green peas in it, in addition to cauliflower. So it should stand to reason that cauliflower and potatoes would go well together. Thus I made mashed potatoes with sauteed cauliflower and green peas in it.

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I have come up with a better way to mix up my house salad recipe. Basically, instead of putting the salad mix into the bowl first, you put it in last. It makes it easier to mix.

1. Put in the bowl chopped tomatoes, carrots, onions, corn, kalamata olives, and feta cheese.
2. Mix everything up.
3. Add salad mix. Now you can judge more easily how much salad mix to use.
4. Add the dressing: balsamic white vinegar, white wine vinegar, olive oil.
5. Mix it all up again

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This time I got a very lean single-muscle piece of brisket. About 5 lb. I used the same rub as before. I started it on Friday morning at 8:45 am.

At 12:15 pm (after 3.5 hours) it was at 145 F.

At 6pm (9 and 1/4 hours) it was at 158 F.

9 am next day it was at 175 F.

11 am next day (after more than 26 hours) it was at 195 F.

It was tender but dry. At a BBQ store it would be classified as "extra-lean". We ate it all, it was good enough to eat.

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My second attempt at BBQ brisket was a miserable failure. I bought a very small piece (1.6 lb) of lean brisket and cooked it straight on the griddle. In 4 hours it only reached about 150 F and after 8 hours it reached 175 F. At that point I gave up and took if off. I cut into it and it was dry and chewy like a shoe leather.

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I have already tried to smoke pork shoulder (Boston butt) twice. Here are the data:

First time it was an elongated 3.5 lb piece with a bone. I marinated it for a day and smoked overnight. Final time was 13 hours and the temperature reached 197 degrees F. It was perfectly tender and not too dry.

Second time it was a 4.8 lb boneless piece, but I cut off 1.3 lb for other purposes, so again it was 3.5 lb of pork that was smoked, but it was more rounded and no bone. I marinated it overnight and cooked during the day. Initially temperature was 42 F, after 3.5 hours temp was 149 F, and after 9 hrs 15 min the temp was 174 F. That's when I got it out of the smoker. The fibers were totally tender, and seemed to be juicier than the first time, but it seemed to be harder to pull apart with my fingers.

Either way, I don't consider this to be presentation food. Myself I would eat it just fine, but I would not offer it to my dinner guests.

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My first attempt at BBQ brisket. I wanted to find a very fatty brisket for my first attempt and I found one at The Meat House in Austin. Almost $5 a pound is a bit expensive for brisket, especially considering it's mostly fat, but what wouldn't I do for the science. Sigh.

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I used the same rub as I used for my pork ribs. I let it soak into the brisket during the day in the fridge and then smoked the brisket overnight. Final time was 10 hours. It was a bit too long for such a small chunk of meat (just over 5 pounds) and the final temperature was 210 degrees F. The books recommend 195. This did not hurt the brisket, though. It was plenty juicy and tender. I did struggle with cutting off the fat. A big chunk of the brisket was also the part where meat fibers are well covered with fat. I did not eat those parts. I carved out the solid meat pieces. So, while certainly successful, this was not an inexpensive experiment. I maybe got 1.5 pounds of top quality beef out of 5.2 pound chunk of brisket that cost me $23.

To watch the temperature I got this very cool and inexpensive gadget at IKEA. For only $6.99 it doubles as a timer. I liked it so much I got a second one.

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It is amazing just how easy it is to BBQ if you have an electric smoker. I got the most basic model of Brinkmann electric smoker at Home Depot for $70. It does not have a thermometer. It does not have a temperature regulator of any kind. All you can do is plug it in and wait. And it works!

This is my first attempt at making BBQ pork ribs and it came out so good, I'll never need to buy barbequed ribs again!

Chips:

1. I used Jack Daniels oak whisky barrels chips that I got at Academy.
2. Soak them overnight.
3. Drain water into the water pan of the smoker
4. Put chips on the electrical element
5. They'll last for about 45 min, which is enough for basic smoke flavor.

Rub:

1. 4 tsp of sugar
2. 1 tsp of salt
3. 2 tsp Spanish paprika
4. 1 tsp ground cloves
5. 1 tsp dried garlic
6. 1 tsp dried onions
7. 1 tsp black pepper
8. 1/3 tsp chili powder
9. A generous handful of coriander seeds (probably about 2 tsp), crushed. Don't use coriander powder - it has no flavor. Seriously.

This is plenty more than enough rub for 1 slab of pork ribs.  Rub it generously and leave pork in the fridge overnight. Next day put the ribs into the smoker and turn it on. Come back 5 hours later and enjoy great food!

How do I know it should be 5 hours? I bought 2 BBQ books and both of them agree that BBQ baby back ribs needs to be cooked for 5 hours. They were right.

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