The Culinary Musings of a Good Eater

Casual glimpses Into the life of a good eater

Every last bite, gulp and delicious slurp for your viewing pleasure.

Saturday, April 16, 2011

Ribs and BBQ: a match made in heaven

Can there be anything better than barbecued spareribs? Not!

A couple of weeks ago I picked up about 25lbs of St. Louis-style pork spareribs. Got an awesome deal on them as well: $0.99/lb. Can't beat that with a stick. I saved $4 a pound on these. Can you blame me for buying every pack of ribs in the display case?

From The Hollow Leg Diner - images

I mixed up a big ol' mess of dry rub and started prepping the ribs on Saturday morning. We were having the family over on Sunday for BBQ'd ribs and I had a lot to do.

From The Hollow Leg Diner - images

I got to try out my new vertical rib rack for the first time. It works well and is quite the space saver. I also used the opportunity to try out some new BBQ techniques that I read about in Adam Perry Lang's book, "Serious Barbecue". I started all the ribs over indirect heat in my BBQ. After about an hour or two, I sprayed the ribs with a mix of apple juice and cider vinegar and wrapped them in foil. They went back on the BBQ in the foil. Wrapping the ribs in foil allows them to baste in their own juices as they slowly cook. After a couple of hours the ribs are cooked through. The meat is nearly falling off the bone. At this point you remove them from the foil, brush them with BBQ sauce and put them back on the grill to finish. Putting them back on the grill sets up the sauce and gives the ribs a nice shiny finish. I used a hybrid BBQ sauce for this batch of ribs. I started with Chris and Pitts sauce and added honey, spices and all the cooking juices from the ribs.

From The Hollow Leg Diner - images

Were the ribs well-received? I guess.........................

From The Hollow Leg Diner - images

They sure didn't last long.

Those ribs were so good, we had an encore rib dinner again last Sunday. This time we went all out with the Southern BBQ glory. We had mac n' cheese (two types), corn bread, beans and potato salad.

From The Hollow Leg Diner - images

I suggested that we have a salad or some veggies, but Lupe just scoffed at the idea. She looked at me with absolute contempt and said; "Why would you want vegetables with ribs and mac and cheese?" I couldn't argue with that sentiment. Why, indeed? Who needs healthy when you've got the best damn BBQ around? So that's what we had: pork fat and carbs. Oh, but it was soooo good.

I had to stop stacking ribs on this serving platter when the pile got too steep. I wasn't out of ribs; there just wasn't any room on the plate.

From The Hollow Leg Diner - images

There was plenty of food to go around. By the way; look at the smoke ring on those ribs. Woooo-doggy! Might fine.

From The Hollow Leg Diner - images

Who'd a thunk that such a skinny kid could eat so much?

From The Hollow Leg Diner - images

Good stuff.

From The Hollow Leg Diner - images

Of Brine and BBQ

I've known about brining meats for quite a while now; however, I've never gotten around to trying it. Having come into the mother lode of cheap pork loins recently, I had the perfect opportunity to try out a new technique. I've always had problems with pork loins. They can be unforgiving on the BBQ. Before I got a probe-style thermometer I had more than my share of overcooked pork loins. I'd invariably get distracted and come back to the grill to find the loin at an internal temperature of 150 or 160. That's a disaster with most store-bought pork loins. They have so little fat, they turn to shoe leather very quickly when overcooked. I've found that I get the best results when I remove the loins from the heat when they reach 129-135, depending on the size of the loin. With the probe thermometer I can continuously monitor the internal temp. I am much more confident now that I can watch the temps continuously. Hell, the other day I turned the BBQ around so I could watch the thermometer from inside. I went in, opened the window in the bathroom and took a shower. All I had to do was peak out over the top of the shower door and I could see the thermometer. That's what I call BBQing in comfort.

So that brings me to the brining. I've been pig hunting lately and I need a good way to prep and cook the leaner wild pig meat (assuming I ever actually kill one). Brining should do the trick nicely. The unforgiving, lean pork loin is the perfect training ground for wild pigs. I was amazed at how moist and tender a brined loin can be. You also gain some latitude with the cooking temperature. I found that even letting them go to 150 still yields very good results.

From The Hollow Leg Diner - images

I like searing pork loins directly over the charcoal and then moving them off the heat for a nice long, slow cook. My new BBQ works well for this. It has an offset firebox that has it's own cast iron grates. I can sear the loins on the firebox grates or on the first grate next to the firebox, depending on the amount of charcoal I'm using.

I've been using hickory and apple wood chips a lot lately. I love the flavor that you get. Even the pork loins, which don't take all that long to cook, still get a nice smoke ring.

From The Hollow Leg Diner - images

There's nothing like a moist, tender pork loin with a beautiful smoke ring.

A couple of Sunday family meals

Now that we are living close to Lupe's family, we can have some big family meals at our house. Back in San Diego, I was always making big meals for just the two of us. No wonder why I gained so much weight. Now I can have fun and cook big meals, but I get to share them with lots of folks. Here are a couple of recent Sunday meals.

Lamb kebabs and grilled lamb

Lorena came over to help us with the prep work.

From The Hollow Leg Diner - images

She helped Lupe make all the veggie kebabs. I wanted to have the veggies separate from the Lamb, so I could get them all cooked properly. The lamb kebabs just had lamb and onions, while the veggie kebabs had red bell pepper, calabacita, red onion and mushrooms.

From The Hollow Leg Diner - images

Along with the kebabs, I grilled up part of a butterflied leg of lamb. I figured I could cook the lamb kebabs a little more than I would normally do with lamb, while I could have the grilled leg medium rare.

From The Hollow Leg Diner - images

I served it all up with some grilled asparagus, steamed veggies and smashed potatoes. Good stuff.

From The Hollow Leg Diner - images


Lasagna dinner

I've been working on refining the lasagna recipe. The first time I did lasagna for the family it turned out very loose. The flavor was great, but they were awfully runny. I've cut back on the meat sauce on the red lasagna and have upped the percentage of cheese, and bechamel. We did two types again; meat sauce and spinach.

From The Hollow Leg Diner - images

From The Hollow Leg Diner - images

Along with the lasagna we had an antipasto salad, grilled asparagus and fettuccine with meat sauce for those who didn't want lasagna (or for those who just wanted to pack on the carbs).

From The Hollow Leg Diner - images

Another winner and everybody got a door prize......a big plate of lasagna to take home.

The return of the enchirito

When I was a little kid I used to love getting enchiritos at Taco Bell. An enchirito is a little burrito that is covered in enchilada sauce and cheese. As far as I can tell, they just made enchiladas with the ends of the tortillas tucked in like a burrito. Just a marketing ploy for an American market that was completely ignorant of real Mexican food. It worked; I loved the damn things. The best thing about it was the sliced black olives on top. I now know that they are about as unauthentic as anything from Taco Bell, but I love black olives and I use them in lots of my 'new' Mexican dishes.

I made venison enchiladas a few weeks ago and they had some structural problems. Trying to get them out of pan resulted in the filling spilling from the open ends. Still tasty, but messy and hard to get any sort of pleasing presentation on the plate. What to do? What to do?........

Enchirito them damn enchiladas. Same great flavor, but enclosed in a nice, tidy package. This time I got the great big, giant tortillas. Each enchirito was the full width of the baking dish. Each enchirito was probably enough to feed two. Of course, I had a whole one all to myself. Sometimes you just have to sit back and admire the damn food before you eat it.

From The Hollow Leg Diner - images

See, Lupe was impressed. She just had to take a moment and admire the beauty of the enchirito. Oh, by the way; they were goooooood!

From The Hollow Leg Diner - images

Friday, April 15, 2011

Homemade pickles

Not just any pickles; kosher dill pickles. It took a couple of tries to get things right, but it was sure worth the effort. I used Alton Brown's recipe for this batch. These are very good. Very similar in taste to the pickles that they serve at Canters Deli.

From The Hollow Leg Diner - images

From The Hollow Leg Diner - images

What goes well with pickles? Everything. Especially pastrami sandwiches. To keep with the homemade theme, I decided to make my own pastrami to go with the pickles. I picked up a bunch of corned beef after St. Patrick's Day with the express purpose of making pastrami. Again, I turned to Food Wishes for the recipe. I didn't cook this in the oven, as Chef John does, but I did use the recipe for the spice rub. I smoked this on the BBQ for about 5 hours. It was a little salty, but the flavors from the spices were dead-on.

I don't go with the traditional deli-style pastrami sandwich. I like mine on Jewish rye with yellow mustard, swiss cheese and sliced pickles. A couple of pickle spears on the side and you got yourself one helluva lunch.

No pictures of the pastrami sandwich. I was hungry and ate it before I remembered to get the camera. I planned to take pictures the next day when I made another sandwich for lunch. Ate that one too fast as well. Next day.....pretty much the same. Seeing a trend develop?

Hammin' it up

Did another ham. A whole bone-in ham marinated and injected with mojo criollo.

From The Hollow Leg Diner - images

Tender, juicy, spicy.......totally awesome.

From The Hollow Leg Diner - images

So, what could possibly make this any better?

Any ideas?

Anything? Farris? Farris?

How about Tater Tots?

Yes, TATER TOTS!

Lupe has been bugging me to make her some Tater Tots for a long time now. I've been tempted, but I've really been trying to keep my body in runway form, at least through the end of fashion week. Well, that's over, so now I can binge. Tater Tot time!

From The Hollow Leg Diner - images

Spicy ham, Tater Tots dusted with garlic and Cayenne pepper and veggies in a white wine, cream sauce. Now that's some good eatin' raht there.

Everybody is happy when Tater Tots are on the plate.

From The Hollow Leg Diner - images

Valentines Day

Valentine's Day dinner wasn't that memorable (the food, not the company). The real high point of the dinner was the Boston cream cake. This is another gem from Chef John's Food Wishes website. This is basically two cakes filled with Boston cream filling and topped with chocolate ganache. Doesn't get much better than that. Oh yeah, sharing it with my Valentine sweetie was better than that.

From The Hollow Leg Diner - images

Spring recap

I have no excuse for not posting anything in two months. It's not like I've been too busy to post. And I've definitely been cooking a lot. Oh well; I guess I'm just a slug. How the heck do real bloggers write new stuff every day? I feel like Ernest Hemingway when I do two posts in a week. Enough belly achin', let's get to the belly pleasin' food porn.

This is from a while back. Before we moved up to Long Beach, I had to travel up here every week for work. The last week before the move, I stayed at the Crowne Plaza in San Pedro (ooooohhhh swanky). Since I was exiled in San Pedro, I had the perfect excuse to eat at the fish market at Ports O' Call. I wasn't really in the mood for a whole deep fried rock cod........

From The Hollow Leg Diner - images

.....so I opted for the next best thing; the shrimp plate (camerones y papas).

From The Hollow Leg Diner - images

This is the best thing you'll ever get served on a plastic cafeteria tray. And I do mean on a plastic cafeteria tray. No plates needed for this giant helping of shrimpy goodness. The dish consists of potato, onion, tomato and peppers sauteed on a flat-iron grill. When the veggies are cooked, a pound of shrimp (or however much you want to buy) are thrown on the grill. Everything is seasoned with what seems to be a Cajun-style seasoning powder. I think they splash a little water onto everything to make a nice, sloppy sauce. This big mess is dumped straight onto a cafeteria tray. I do mean a big mess. The shrimp aren't peeled, so you're going to have to wade in and get a little messy. Actually, you're going to get a lot messy. That's part of the fun of it all. Along with the shrimp and veg, you get these big pieces of awesome garlic bread.

The only thing that can make this anymore awesome is to eat there on a Sunday afternoon. Fully half the Mexican population of Los Angeles comes to Ports O' Call after church on Sunday. It is an absolute zoo. You have to send somebody out to find a table while you're waiting in line to get the shrimp, or waiting in line to get the shrimp cooked, or waiting in line to get drinks. There's a lot of waiting in line goin' on. That's just as well, because it's going to take at least a half hour for your scout to find a table. Most of the seating is out on the patio, overlooking the harbor. The patio is as crowded as a feed lot in a cattle yard. Along with everybody getting their grub on, you've got strolling mariachi bands and all sorts of unlicensed vendors hawking various and sundry trinkets and crap. It's pretty much like eating at a place in Mexico.

From The Hollow Leg Diner - images

From The Hollow Leg Diner - images

Good times. We're going to gather up the Lopez family and head back there some Sunday. I can't wait.