BBQ For the Truly Lazy

With Independence Day tomorrow, grills will be out in force around the country.  I'll be doing more smoking than grilling, since I have to cook for a friend's wedding this Saturday and he wanted some of my 'Q (Not much ... just enough to feed 70 people).  I love summer but, even more, I love BBQ.

For those of you serious about your BBQ, you know there's only one way to do it:  low and slow.  Every pitmaster has their own rules, but generally:

• Smoke at temperatures below 300° F and closer to 225° F (I personally aim for 215-235° F).  This is often referred to as cold smoking.
• Pork shoulder (also called Boston Butt) should be cooked to an internal temperature of 180° F, so the meat is tender yet still juicy and ready for pulling or chopping (depending on the kind of sandwich you like).  This translates to around 1.5 hours/pound of smoking time (roughly). 

Everything boils down to the amount of heat applied (focus on temp not time, and you'll always have great 'Q), so monitoring the temperature is critical.  Many BBQ fanatics recommend 2 probe thermometers when smoking:

• One stuck in a wine cork and wedged into the grill grates of the smoker to measure ambient temperature.  Make sure you push the probe all the way through so the end is exposed.  Also make sure the end does not touch the grates (or your readings will be way off).
• One stuck in the meat itself.  Aim for the center of the thickest piece of meat, avoiding any bones.

If you get probes with alarms, so much the better.  Set the temperatures you're looking for and go do something else.  In the case of the ambient monitor, set the alarm to a temperature 5-10 degrees below what you want not to exceed.  You may even wish to use 2 ambient probes:  one for the upper and one for the lower limit of your optimal smoking range (if you do that, you are truly a BBQ geek).  However you do it, the smoker will then alert you when it needs tending.  As an added benefit, this keeps you from continuously opening the lid and peeking at your creation in the making which, while good for the ego, slows down the cooking time as the heat (and smoke) escape.

But what if you find yourself in a time and coordination crunch.  You want to throw a party, but can't afford to sit and watch a smoker for 8-10 hours (or more).  How can you possibly BBQ when you've got a smaller grill and still have fun at the party?  It's easy, as long as you're willing to bend the rules a bit and braise your meat before you smoke it:

Braised, Smoked, Chopped Pork Sandwiches

Ingredients

• A boneless pork shoulder (boston butt), sized to how many people you're feeding (# people / 3 = lbs of pork)
• Your favorite BBQ rub
• A can of your favorite beer

The Braise

Preheat oven to 275° F.

Rinse the pork to get rid of the excess blood.  Pat dry with paper towels, and place in an aluminum half-sheet pan (like those used for disposable buffets).

Sprinkle BBQ rub liberally over the pork, getting all sides and into the folds.  If there's a large fat "cap" on the pork, position it in the pan so the cap is on top (to baste the meat as it cooks).  Pour about 1/3-1/3 of the beer over the pork (you don't need much, as the meat already has a good deal of liquid in it).

Cover the pan with aluminum foil tightly (no cracks or leaks), place in the oven, and braise for about 6 hours.  Remove from oven, leave covered while preparing the grill/smoker.

The Smoke

Put some hickory chunks in another pan and pour the rest of the beer over them.  Add enough water so the chunks can soak and let them soak for at least 30 minutes before you need them.

After the chunks have soaked for 15 minutes or so, fire up a chimney of coals (or start the coals in your grill), and let them burn for 15 minutes until they get nicely covered with fine white ash.  Rake the coals to one side of the grill (creating hot and cold zones), toss a couple of the soaked chunks on the coals, cover the grill and let it sit for a couple minutes and start smoking.  Position the lid so the lid vent is over the cold side of the grill.

Once smoke is coming through the vent, take the foil off the pan, drain off the liquid that's accumulated, and place the pork pan and all on the cold side of the smoker (you may wish to put a few more wood chunks on the coals).  Put the lid back on and let it sit for at least 30 minutes to an hour.  At this point, you're not cooking the pork (you don't need to), you're imparting smoky goodness into the exposed meat ("building a bark" as they say).

After an hour, the meat should have a crusty mahogany color to it.  Take off the grill, cover, and let it rest for 15 minutes, then chop it up (or pull it apart with a couple forks).  Be sure to mix it up so you combine the smokey exterior meat with the juicy interior meat. 

Serve with sauce, slaw, pickles, whatever trips your trigger.

You can do the braising overnight in your oven, and the meat will be ready to finish in the morning for you.  The purists will argue that "it's not true BBQ".  Whatever.  It still tastes darned good.

Roll, Canada!

Don McMillan ("the only comedian who works in PowerPoint") speculated that we've been spelling the name of our northern neighbor wrong all along, the correct spelling being "CND":

"Just ask a Canadian how they spell the name of their country.  They'll say 'C, eh, N, eh, D, eh' ..."

Ok, ok, ok.  So you had to be there (or get the CD).  Regardless of how you spell it, yesterday was Canada Day.  Once called "Dominion Day" (now that sounds ominous, coming from the land of the cruller and Kokanee), it celebrates the July 1, 1867, event that created the federation of the original four provinces:  Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Quebec, and Ontario.

And the "cuisine d'Canada"?  It's as varied as that of the US, with a prominent French influence (can you say Québécois?), which lends itself to delicious dishes and even more delicious names (bear with me, I'm just warming up).

Take the humble cinnamon roll:  dough wrapped around a cinnamon-sugar filling (a pastry roulade, if you will).  My mother made some wicked ones when I was growing up, though they were called "caramel rolls" (that's "sticky buns" for some of you).  Brown sugar and butter in the pan, melting during the baking process to produce a wonderful sugary glaze that was almost better than the cinnamon/sugar-infused bun itself.  And that wonderful, yeasty aroma that would spread through the house was intoxicating.

When I was little, I'd help bake sometimes, though it was often less "help" than "eat the odd-shaped ends of raw dough, sugar, and melted butter".  I wish I'd picked up my mother's skill with baking, but I'm as good a baker as I am a gardener, but I've a very "brown" thumb(when I'm not hitting it with a hammer while aiming for a nail).  I've killed more sourdough starters than should be legal in civilized society, and I've not had to register as a yeast offender (there is no proof that the "marinara bread' adventure ever happened, I swear).

At any rate, enough waxing sentimental.  Sticky buns are the order of the day, and here is the recipe my mother gave me 20-some years ago:

Rolls

• 1/2 C lukewarm water
• 2 pkg dry yeast
  
• 4 T sugar
• 2/3 C warm milk
• 2 eggs
• 2 t salt
• 1/4 C lard, melted
• 4 C flour (about)
  
• 1/3 C butter, melted
• 1/2 C brown sugar
• 1 T white corn syrup or water

Soak the yeast in the lukewarm water for 5 minutes.

Pour milk and melted shortening over sugar and salt in bowl.  Cool to lukewarm.

Add yeast and unbeaten eggs.  Mix well.

Add flour a little at a time and beat.  Knead in remaining flower to make a soft dough.  Cover and let rise 15 minutes.

Mix the butter, brown sugar, and corn syrup or water together, and pour into greased pans, drizzling thin layer on the bottom of the pan (make sure it's spread around so there's a deliciously gooey pool for each roll to sit in while baking).

Divide dough into two parts.  Roll into rectangles and spread with softened butter.  Roll rectangles into roulades.  For added flavor, sprinkle with cinnamon-sugar before rolling.

Slice roulades into rolls about 2" thick, producing about 12 rolls per roulade.  Place rolls in the greased pans, making sure each gets its face-down end dipped in some of the butter/sugar mixture.

Cover pans and let rise for about 1/2 hour (or until doubled in volume).  Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

Bake until golden brown (about 30-45 minutes).  Remove from oven and let cool in pans briefly.

Flip pan over onto cookie rack.  The syrup will still be rather hot (be careful), but if you do it soon enough, it will be fluid enough to aid in removing the rolls.  Let cool until you can't take it any more.  Indulge. 

Makes about 2 dozen rolls.

What's so Canadian about sticky buns?  I'm glad you asked.  The Canadian version's filling is a wonderfully decadent brown-sugar creme, with an even more delicious name:  Pets de soeurs.  That's French for "nuns' farts". 

Bon Appetit, eh?

Allez Cuisine!

In preparing for the kickoff of this month's NaBloPoMo topic (food) I came across this little tidbit:  Bocuse D'Or Europe 2008 is happening today and tomorrow in Stavanger, Norway.  That's beyond cool:  At the exact same time the first ever European qualifier for the 2009 competition is being held, bloggers all over the planet are firing up their keyboards to tackle food blogging from all angles.

Coincidence?  I think not.  I like the thought that while the best chefs in Europe are showing what they've got, bloggers are doing the same.  It has a certain Zen about it, don't you think?

If you haven't watched the Food Network (and if you haven't, why are you reading this blog?), the Bocuse D'Or is the Olympics of the food world, just like what Formula One is to racing, or The Cannonball Run is to Dom DeLuise fans.  First launched in 1987 by Paul Bocuse and Albert Romain (director of the Parc des Expositions in Lyon) as the ultimate cooking challenge, it pushes top chefs from all over the world to be their absolute best.

And with that, and another obtuse Food Network reference (this time, Iron Chef), "To the kitchen!"  Let the blogging begin!

NaBloPoMo July 2008

Been trying to come up with the incentive to do this more regularly, to "get in the groove".  Sometimes, on needs some external incentive, and it looks like NaBloPoMo has come to the rescue.

We're going to attempt to write a (meaningful) post a day for the month of July as a participation in NaBloPoMo's July theme of "Food".

Time to put up or shut up.

Food Game Friday: Go-Go Gourmet

Kicking off a new feature of the blog, Food Game Friday will attempt to showcase a new food-related game one Friday a month (for starters). This month's pick is Go-Go Gourmet, available over at Reflexive Arcade:


The description speaks for itself:

Search, sauté, and serve your way to gastronomic greatness! Go-Go Gourmet puts you in the heat of the kitchen with hidden object and time management gameplay, all rolled into one! Find ingredients, whip-up recipes, and juggle hungry customers as you quickly and efficiently toggle between orders to prepare more than one request at a time! With 7 uniquely themed restaurants and more than 25 unlockable upgrades, Go-Go Gourmet will leave you hungry for more!

So head on over to the arcade and download your copy today!