While I try to have a lot of variety in my cooking, there’s still a ton I haven’t tried. For some reason, German food has been stuck in this category for a long time and I’ve been meaning to remedy this for…just as long a time. Finally though, after hearing mention of beer brats at work, I couldn’t take it any more and decided to try to dress up this comfort food to be more than what most view it as: a glorified hot dog (so don’t go putting bratwurst in hotdog buns! Its better than that!).
This is a simple meal to prepare, and its really big on flavor. The brats are parboiled in a mixture of beer, shallots, and spices (think the sweet but savory, clean flavors of juniper and caraway) before they get crisped up with the smoky flavor of the grill, leaving the beer mixture to reduce to a thick sauce. These are served alongside some tender,
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Posted by mike on September 8th, 2009 in Barbeque, Fruit, Main course, Mediterranean, Pork, Sauce, Side dish
A while back, I was contacted by the folks behind Saucy Mama, a purveyor of sauces, marinades, and the like. They very generously sent a sizable package of goodies my way, and while I am always happy to have free food sent my way, I tend to approach it with a bit of skepticism. I curiously popped open the jar of chipotle mustard since that caught my eye and quickly had visions of pork chops dancing in my head (ever since trying the chops and more offered by my new favorite pig farmer, it seems that many things prompt me to think about pork chops, lol). After a quick trip to the farmer’s market, I had everything I needed for an amazingly delicious and fast meal.
The pork chops were massaged with a simple spice rub and kissed with that distinctly smoky flavor you can only get from the grill. While those cooked, I prepared the cream sauce in the style of
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Posted by mike on August 31st, 2009 in Barbeque, Pork, Sauce
Summer time is burger time, and now that I have a meat grinder, its that much more fun for me to experiment with different kinds of burgers. After seeing these Pacific Rim Burgers, I knew I had to try something similar. Plus, it had been a while since I did much with chicken (we’ve been eating more beef lately), so it seemed like a fun change. So I took that recipe in a similar direction and made a teriyaki chicken burger.
I really enjoyed this–the burgers had a nice, tangy-but-sweet teriyaki flavor, with a good mix of peppers and light heat to them. The texture, something I was curious about (never dealt with ground chicken before), was also thankfully quite nice. The sweetness to the teriyaki also made it easier to get a good caramelization on the outside of the burgers from the high heat of the grill, which made it that much more enjoyable. The burgers were topped with a surprisingly
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Posted by mike on August 9th, 2009 in Asian, Barbeque, Chicken, Main course
After grinding my own steak burgers, I couldn’t wait to try doing so again. In the name of keeping things interesting, I thought I’d keep my Asian kick going, and sought some inspiration from my recent Thai green curry with beef. I was sad to run out of the stuff, so I thought how could I make it again, but in burger form?
I chose two well marbled and very beefy cuts for the burger: ribeye and shortribs (and this is entirely personal preference–you want intense flavor and a good bit of fat). Then, I incorporated other flavors from green curry–green curry paste, peppers, ginger, lime, basil, coconut–and worked all of that into the ground beef. The flavor was a bit more subtle than I’d expected; kind of an upfront aftertaste–a pretaste–before the dominant beefiness dominated. You pick up a hint of coconut, the distinct green curry flavor, a bit of heat, and a green oniony/gingery kind of lingering flavor that
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Posted by mike on July 20th, 2009 in Asian, Barbeque, Beef, Main course
Whenever I’m entertaining a crowd, I instinctively fall back on burgers. There’s a lot of room to play and people’s expectations always seem low so it’s easy to blow people away. So I thought I’d try something new again, but a little simpler than the burgers I’ve made before. The goal: less “extra” flavors and something incredibly rich and beefy–more of a steakburger.
This was my excuse to play with my new KitchenAid meat grinder. I started with two separate cuts of beef: chuck (for fattiness–keeps the burger juicy) and ribeye (also fatty, but much more intense beef flavor). You could certainly throw the steak in a food processor, but a real meat grinder won’t turn your meat into texture-free paste. The goal is to nicely emulsify the meat and fat so you have a somewhat homogenous and tender end result
But anyways, back to the meat. These were incredible–very flavorful, very beefy, and very juicy. The supporting elements I worked into
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Posted by mike on June 5th, 2009 in Barbeque, Beef, Main course
Every now and then, I have odd cravings that don’t jive with one another, so something new is born. In this case, I wanted Indian and barbecue. There just isn’t much cross-over in that realm (as far as I know). My compromise? A whole chicken, halved, marinated tandor style, smoked, and then slathered with a tangy, strongly spiced sauce that borrows from both barbecue and Indian cuisine for style and flavor.
In reality, this is quite simple and that’s why it’s so darn good (but such is barbecue). The chicken is slowly smoked–richly flavorful, crispy skin, and surprisingly tangy from a simple marinade. Plus, whole chicken is the best (I always love a good roast chicken).
What made this different was the sauce glazed on at the end. It’s a simple barbecue sauce, but tinged with a generous helping of Indian flavors–cinnamon, cardamom, tamarind, fenugreek, cilantro, etc. The total combination worked wonderfully and had me licking my fingers clean.
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Posted by mike on May 16th, 2009 in Asian, Barbeque, Chicken, Indian, Main course, Sauce
