Ribs, Pastrami, and Walnut Raisin Bread

Tyler helps with the bread baking

Day Before:

• combine warm water, salt, yeast, maple syrup etc.
• add flour, oat bran, wheat bran and a couple other things in the mixer.
• Rest on counter for 2 hours, put in fridge.

Day of (next morning):

• Lightly grease (Pam) a loaf pan
• Remove a 1.5 lb (grapefruit) chunk of dough, shape, put in pan
• Rest for 1.5 hour
• Preheat oven to 350, for 20 minutes
• Put bread in oven, with 1 c. water in a broiler pan (for some steam)
• Bake 40 minutes.
• Let cool and enjoy

The whole point of the book is that its easy and fast to bake high quality bread. There is no kneading, no thing precise… just throw the ingredients together and bake later. It’s so easy that its hard to do it wrong.

Our family *loves* the Ghirardelli 6 Pack of Triple Chocolate Brownie Mix from Costco.

Mix up the batter, pour in a pan, cook,  cool and serve.  Bonus points for a little powdered sugar dusting on top  Easy enough to make and the kids can help out too. In our case, a 2.5 YRO and a 4.5 YRO.

Shrimp Tikka Masala - http://www.seriouseats.com - Photograph: Blake Royer

Shrimp Tikka Masala

- serves 4 -

Adapted from Martha Stewart Living, January 2010.

Ingredients

2 tablespoons neutral oil or clarified butter (ghee)
1 large onion
3 tablespoons grated ginger
1 tablespoon grated garlic
2 tablespoons tomato paste
2 teaspoons garam masala
1/2 teaspoon chili powder
1 cup water
20 medium-to-large shrimp
1/4 cup plain yogurt
Salt and pepper to taste
Cooked rice for serving

1. In a heavy pot such as a dutch oven, heat the oil over medium heat. Add the onion and cook gently until golden, about 20 minutes, then add the ginger, garlic, tomato paste, chili powder, and garam masala. Add a little oil if necessary to allow the ingredients to blend into a thick-yet-runny consistency, and cook until the flavors have begun to marry and are very fragrant, 3-4 minutes.

2. Add the water and stir until the mixture is smooth, and season to taste with salt and pepper. Add the shrimp and cook gently over medium heat until they are just cooked through, about 4 minutes.

3. Remove from the heat and stir in the yogurt quickly. Serve immediately with rice.

Recipe Credit: http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2010/01/dinner-tonight-shrimp-tikka-masala-recipe.html

I will update this post over the course of the smoke (approx 18 hours)

• Purchased two Pork Shoulders -total of 14 lbs from Village Meats in Wayzata, Mn.

• 7 PM – Place the meat on a cookie sheet, cover with your favorite rub. Tonight I’m using Wee Willy’s Porkie Pal, let it rest and warm up from fridge temp. for an hour or so

• Turn on the Bradley Smoker on High, place the trays, water bowl (3/4 full with hot water) and let it warm up for 30-45 minutes.

• It’s 9PM – Place the pork in on the bottom two racks, smallest one on top. Insert a remote digital thermometer to monitor the internal temperature (IT) – We are shooting for 190-205 final temperature - prob. ~18 hours from now.  I’m using Apple Wood bisquettes and will give 4 hours of smoke.  The vent on top is about 25% open.

• Check the temp. of the smoker at about 10, then time for some sleep, back at 1. At 1AM (after 4 hours of smoke), check the meat, and refill the water bowl.  Notice the smoke coming out the top and the temp. reading of 117.

• UPDATE: 7:30 AM – The Bradley has been on all night long, suffering thru sub zero tempratures… but things are looking on track. The smaller shoulder has reached 154 degrees.  Time to swap the shelves and update the post.  Looking good, eh?

• UPDATE: 4PM – The shoulders are off. One came off a couple hours earlier than the other prob. due to the size difference and the way they were rotated in ths smoker. Here is the final meat (see the bone sticking out?) and initial pull of the meat. Gotta say it looks fantastic.  The dark spots are the bark (and man is that packed with flavor).

• The final result… Pulled pork sandwich (carolina style – with coleslaw on top) and cornbread. It was a crowd pleaser!

Couple of last notes… The Ryan family was over for dinner, and we had my favorite BBQ Sauce – Cowtown BBQ Sauce – the retail version of the sauce from Okalhoma Joe’s in Kansas City and my new favorite Cornbread from Trader Joe’s!  I won’t mention the rack of ribs that I fogot about in the smoker…

I ordered some of the basic supplies:

• Pizza Peel
• Williams Sanoma Baking Stone
• 6-Quart Square Food Container and Cover
• Oven Thermometer

I’ve made the French Bread, Broiche and Oatmeal Bread. The French bread is my favorite so far – its dead easy to make a baguette at home with this technique.

Last weekend the family got to enjoy a couple loaves of Oatmeal Bread from Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day. It ends up a little on the small side, but very tasty. I’m not sure yet if I have a mix problem, or if the bread is just small.

• renamed the blog from gulpandchew.com to unfoodie.com – too many people choked on the name Gulp and Chew.
• Rehosted the blog from Rackspace Cloud to DreamHost.com so I can focus on the blog and not worry about being a sysadmin too.

Back at it…

• 2 or so pounds of ground beef (I prefer the 85% lean)
• Saute 1 large white or yellow onion in butter (and sometimes a little olive oil) until they are caramelized to your liking
• In medium bowl, combine beef, onion, a couple shakes of Cayenne, Paprika, salt, pepper and maybe some garlic powder.
• Grill until a hit of pink in the middle. Slice of cheddar on top.
• Don’t forget to butter and toast the bun

This time around, I used a smoked paprika, and I really think it helped enhance the charcoal grill / smokey flavor – they turned out great! They were cooked pretty well done (no pink left), but they always remain juicy thanks to the onion and butter.

ABT’s are very simple… A cored Jalepeno, stuffed with cream cheese and smoked chicken (or other meat), wrapped in bacon and then smoked. They were better than expected, and not overly spicy; A sure crowd pleaser.

I’ll be following this recipe for ABT’s specifically in my new Bradley BTIS1 Original Smoker as soon as I can. I did make a point to pick up a King Kooker Jalapeno Rack to make the whole thing a bit more organized.

Here is the recipe in full (http://www.susanminor.org/forums/showthread.php?t=25)

ABT=Atomic Buffalo Turd

These little treats will satisfy almost anyone and bring most back begging for more. The prep time is where the real work is but worth every minute. I like to use left over brisket and Boston butt but you can substitute cocktail wennies, cooked shrimp, left over rib meat, smoked chicken or just about anything you can think of.

Ingredients:

• 6 medium to large jalapenos (straighter the better)
• 1 8 oz. block cream cheese softened
• 1 pack uncooked thin sliced bacon
• 1/4 lb. cooked meat
• 1 Tbsp. of you favorite rub
• toothpicks

Directions:

1. Preheat Bradley smoker to high.
2. Remove stem from peppers and slice each pepper length-ways.
3. Clean out all seeds and white membrane. I highly recommend wearing some type of gloves during this process. The pepper juice can cause adverse side effects. Set peppers aside.
4. Take the cooked meat product and place it in a food processor along with 1/2 of the rub. Chop until meat is ground and mixed but not by any means a paste.
5. Fill each pepper half with meat. Set aside.
6. Take softened cream cheese and pinch off a piece about the size of the pepper.
7. Mold the cream cheese to form the opposite side of the pepper on top of the meat. Repeat for all peppers. Due to the complete mess this will make you may use a pastry bag with a open tip or a plastic bag with a corner cut out to squeeze out the cream cheese onto the peppers. When all peppers are complete sprinkle the remaining rub over the top of the cream cheese.
8. Take one piece of raw bacon and completely wrap the pepper with the bacon. Using thin bacon is important because it will stretch to cover the pepper best.
9. Use a toothpick to secure the bacon.
10. Once all peppers are ready move them to a Bradley rack and place them in the preheated smoker on the second rack down. Apply your favorite smoke until the bacon is fully cooked and the peppers are soft. This usually takes 1 1/2-2 1/2 hrs depending if you are cooking other food items.
11. I like to cook them on high if possible so the bacon will be crisper. Remove when done and serve hot.