Foodies BS Thread.

Just for ha-ha's, I went outside and conducted a little test.

I've got, as I've shown here a couple times, a four-burner gas grill for my daily cookin' needs. The grills burners are, from the perspective of the cook, vertical away from you, arranged right to left. Essentially, there's a burner pointing away from each dial, as it were, not including the fairly useless (round) side-burner.



So, as you can see here, I set up a probe thermometer with a binder clip on the far left side of the upper rack, and turned on just the far right burner to its lowest setting. Then I set my timer for 5 minute increments and sat back.

After 45 minutes, here's the HIGHEST rating I've seen:



The rate is 210-217, depending on the wind. Which makes me a very, very happy camper. It JUST so happens I have some pork ribs in the chill-chest not working real hard, and I'm thinking I needs to try this thing as a MacGuyver'd smoker tomorrow...

*contemplates

 

1-I dried the ribs off with a paper towel, then sprinkled generously with any pork dry rub you like, I used a sweet and spicy one that was in my cabinet. Then I seared on a hot grill for a couple of minutes.
2-I then redressed with the dry rub. I put the rack on a long enough piece to have about 4 inches on each side. Then you kind of make a boat with the foil and pour some root beer or whatever kind of soda you want to make. I know guys have used dr pepper,coke or pepsi, this time I used Barq's root beer. Then take another piece of foil and place it over top and seal it well.

3- Into a preheated 350 oven and let it got for 2:30 to 3:00 hours. After the 3 hours I took it out and drenched with a bbq sauce and rootbeer reduction that I made about 30 minutes before the rigs were done on 350 for 15 to 20 minutes.

They came out good. I am long winded about this recipe but it is super easy!!!!

 

If it was breakfast you wanted I would def recommend the recipe I have for the tater tots.... maybe for next time.

 

Throw it right on the grill....

 

Making some steaks tonight.

 

Mmm...those looks yummy Dennis! ^^^

 

I have a t-bone in the fridge awaiting me hehe...since I didn't do my proper mother's day dinner for myself yesterday.

 

Gonna pan roast these puppies and having some roasted potatoes.

 

That look awesome and they look even better cooked!!!!!

 

Nice!!

 

^^^
What he said!

My grill was about 450(+)F very quickly after the dough hit the grill it firms up. It's amazing really....3 minutes or so then you flip it over, toss on your marinara/pizza sauce then go to town with the rest of your faves!

Chicka Woot! Pizza on the grill....FTW!!!

 

Happy Belated Mother's Day toooooo me...

 

Lasagna for the family tonight.

 

So, the wife catches me off-guard this morning, and says she wants something 'homestyle' for dinner.

I asked her..."Well, isn't everything I cook technically home-style, since this IS home?"

Nonplussed by my non-answer (or, non-correct answer, same thing really), she changed it up a bit and said she wanted something old-school. Gramda food. Comfort food.

I groaned aloud at this part, usually it involves crying, apologies on my part, and a quart of ice cream.

Still, she said she would bring something home for me to make whatever out of. Which, on one hand, is quite nice: It means no prep on my part, and since she won't be home until like 530, I'm either down beaten and destroyed by around 8PM or riding high as King Kitchen Bitch. Plus, it can't be anything too drawn out and complicated...not if she isn't bringing home the critter in question till past 5, and wants to eat at a reasonable hour.

So, right on time, she comes a kickin' in the door, growling about the traffic. She slaps 3.5 pounds of THICK cut pork shoulder chops on the counter and says, "Get cookin, ace. I'm hungry!"

Here we are. Lets do this!

First off, these are thick bastard shoulder chops. Plus they have a nice split of white meat and dark. Ok, think!

BANG. We're havin' smothered chops!

Take a big baking dish. Dump in a package of that Lipton soup mix stuff. Yea, I know its a lot of sodium, but we aren't eating the soup, we're using it as a cooking medium. Add a can of that condensed Cream o' Mushroom soup. Yea, I know, trust me on this. Add in about half a cup of milk and stir the whole mess. This won't be a stew or a soup either. We just want a flavorful liquid to transfer heat and moisture.



Get out one big honkin' steel pan. Grab the peanut oil (I've really come to love its lack of flavor and high smoke point) and dump about a tablespoon in the pan. Get it heatin' while you dry the chops with paper towels, and salt & pepper liberally.

Once the pan and oil are both HOT, get what you can into the thing. I went with two batches of two chops each, so we're looking about 4-5 minutes per side, per batch. 20-22ish minutes total to sear up.



When cooks on TV talk about crust on a steak or chop, THIS is what they mean. Take a look!



This is also what they mean by 'fond'. That's the brown bits of protein stuck to the pan. Don't ever overlook these. These are the base of all the bestest sauces in the history of pretty much ever.

So, once you've got your four mammoth chops nicely browned, into the aforementioned baking dish. Slap some foil on it and turn your attention back to the pan you just set down empty.

So, now you have this gorgeous layer of brown yummy fond. Take about a 2/3rds cup of chicken broth and use that to deglaze the pan. Let the liquid simmer down to about half its volume (around 4-5 minutes) while you use a wooden spoon to stir up all that awesome goodness from the pan bottom and get it dissolving.





As it reduces, it'll start getting darker and thicker.

Once you've stirred, reduced, dissolved, and gotten it where you want it to be, it'll look like this here. This was about 6 minutes for me. Notice how much more nummy this looks than the last two pics.



If you taste this, it'll pretty much knock your socks off. WAY too strong for a standalone sauce....extremely rich and VERY meaty. But, if we were to add this INTO the baking dish with the chops....

Cover the baking dish and bake at a relatively pedestrian 300ish for about 20 minutes. Thicker chops, add a bit more time. Thinner, go a little less.

Add on some fresh veggies or a rice side of your choice...



Aaaand I'll be doing an extra four miles or so tomorrow to make up for THIS plate....*grumble*....

 

^^^ Looks good!

 

The biggest PITA about cooking like this:

Cleaning up. Look at this. Even with the splatter screen!