The piri piri is done! Well, okay it was done a few days ago. At first I was excited to see how it would come out. Then, after seeing it stew in its own juices for those seven days I was a bit apprehensive. If I didn't do it right opening that jar could unleash some unholy brewness ...
Maybe about a month ago or so my dear sister & her husband gave me a bottle of Everett & Jones BBQ sauce. This is a local place for us, even so I was hesitant to buy into a bottled sauce. I figure everything is worth a try, once.
It's been quite a few years since I bought a chicken piece. Back in the early 1980s I bought chicken pieces because I found the texture of raw chicken ... icky. With those nifty little packages all nice and clean, I was able to just dump them into a bowl for marinading purposes or directly onto the grill. There used to be a package called the "combo pack" which gave you a few more pieces than a whole chicken, I felt like I was getting over on the industry and usually walked out tall and proud. "Check me out, I have one package with more than a whole chicken!" Sounds awfully silly, today. But then, I was The Man.
Don't forget everyone! February 25th is National "Oil Thy Carbon Blade Day!"
Get out your old carbon knives and send them some oily love!
Remember, rust not only sucks, but it pits & ruins.
Hugs and happy Mardi Gras.
Well, I don't know what the weather is like where everyone else is, but here brother ... it's rainy. Another damn weekend on the inside looking out. My kitchen is still half painted, my awning that covered my grilling area blew away and my hardwood floors need attention. Can I work on any of those projects? No. You know why? That's right, it's raining. Time for a little cheffing.
Over the last few weeks I've been searching for some interesting marinade type stuff I could use for this year's grilling season. My new hangout, Chuck Taggart's gumbo pages and my old hangout bbqsearch.com found me with a ton of great ideas. I decided to start with a recipe I found on the gumbo pages, Piri Piri.
It's darned hot Portuguese-African condiment ... or so I am told. You see, once you put it together, it has to sit a week and I have until next Friday to find out.
It's meat free Jebbers, just for you.
I know I'm pretty easily excited when it comes to meat and/or food. But I have to say this was one of the best, easy meals I've cooked in a long long time. It was very rich and flavorful, exactly what a hearty meal is supposed to be. Plus it's low in carbs ...
Yeah !! Clearly I had fun taking this shot. Uncle Laurent's gift to the children (dinosaurs & palm trees) almost made it to their hands. I just had to knock off a few shots before E tore the leaves into tiny bits.
And yes, this last Saturday I visited the Berkeley Farmer's Market. I wanted to see what Jan was up to at the Blue Bottle Coffee company and see what Taylor had in the way of sausages. I was hoping for the Spanish Chorizo, but it wasn't ready yet and most of it was ear marked for the Spanish Table in Berkeley. He said he's save me one, yay!
I walked away with this little salami. It is amazing, the first hit on the texture is bright and not too forgiving. Then, you break into the middle where it's like butter in your mouth. The finish is clean and smooth without the bite of too much damn salt. YUM !!! This time I didn't eat it all though ...
I've never met Sukie personally, but if I met her today I would have given her a big hug. My sister and brother in-law went out for lunch today (Sorry Dennis) at Sukies and had a wonderful lunch. There was a happy cook back there in the kitchen because each meal was perfectly proportioned, tasty and delivered promptly to our table steaming hot. 45 minutes later I have that funny overwhelming urge to drink a lot of water ... perfection !!!
Just look at that Hot Turkey, Hot Roast Beef and Country Fried Steak Club sandwich.
Sukies is a real treasure for when you need to have some old American standard meal, served on a white platter in a booth. That's right, we got to sit in booths !!
Hey, Rick made another batch of his Kwoliguica. It's an old family recipe and he says it's a combination of German and Portugese something or other. The way he figures it, they must have been loaded when the put it together.
And this time they spent 5 hours in the SMOKER !!!
They're pretty darned rich sausages so they'd be GREAT with eggs Saturday morning. I just called at 10:46am on Friday and he has a dozen left. So get there soon cause I'll be getting a few early this afternoon. BOOYAH !!
Rick's Quality Meats
510.233.9390
1600 Liberty Street
El Cerrito, CA 94530
A few years ago I spent maybe 4 months researching a smoker. If I was going to spend my hard earned scrilla I wanted to make sure I got a decent pit. During my travels around the nation (via my office chair & a computer) I ran across some neat information. Here's something I kept hid away and ran into it recently. It's the story of how Kingsford Charcoal Briquets came into being, and a few added comments from Kit Anderson, Top Pitmaster ...
Last Friday I was perusing Chuck's Gumbo Pages for something to cook over the weekend. Many of his recipes require quite a list of ingredients, some of which are out of season here. Such as Crawfish (that's pronounced CRAW fish, not Cray). That was okay because I stumbled upon his recipe for Round Steak & Gravy with Onions. It sounded rich, hearty and something I could tackle without spending all day in the kitchen. But what caught me was the opening paragraph;
"This is Cajun food at its simplest. You've probably never heard of this dish, nor are you likely to see it on a menu or in a cookbook. However, as Cajun cook and food writer Marcelle Bienvenu said, it's almost certain that if you asked any native of southwest Louisiana "who lives along Bayou Lafourche or Bayou Têche or on the prairies near Ville Platte or Crowley about this dish, he would confess that round steak in gravy is one of his favorites.""
I found this to be really cool.
A dish that you wouldn't find anywhere, neat.
This last Wednesday in the SF Chronicle was a wonderful article by Shanti Wilson. The article entwines it's way through her personal life, recipes and coherent methods on keeping your cast iron cookware in great shape.
I highly recommend taking the time to go read it!
This last saturday I had two reasons to make a Gumbo. The first reason was that the blackeyed peas came out so well I wanted MORE. And the second reason was my sister had been to the Ferry Building over in S.F. and picked me up a few gorgeous Andouille sausages. I had most of what I needed right there.
Well, keeping with the fast food jag that Meathenge has meandered lazily into...
"you've got to have stuff that sucks so that you know when somethings are cool. I mean... if everything was cool all the time you wouldn't know it was cool. And that would suck."
-Butthead
Mrs. Meathead and I went to The Crazy Chicken place.
I get to eat processed LoVE. Easy ...
