smokeapalooza 2008

Kinda like that, but not. Perhaps the event was more like a smokathon. Anyway, the idea is that some endurance in withstanding smokey air was involved, but instead of fundraising, I blew some cash. Then I stayed home, raided the freezer for more food, cracked open a beer, and went out back and choked on smoldering embers for a long time.

A few weeks ago I fired up the bbq and did up anything I could. I figure if I'm going to commit some kind of carbon footprint no-no, then I should be more efficient and cook a bunch at once. Pork shoulder, beef bottom round, and some salmon fillets made it onto the grill. It was a huge load of food that I finally, just today, polished off the remaining leftovers. (Well, kind of, I put two of the fillets into the freezer.) I guess it's been a long couple of weeks steeped in wood smoked foodie goodness.

The pork shoulder was cooked too hot and didn't develop that fall-apart succulence I was looking for. No prob. Just "cook it again in something else" I always say. A trip to the chest freezer yielded roasted chile verde sauce. So, smoked pork with sautéed onion and mushroom enchiladas, topped with a verde sauce just screamed to be made. Served with desert pebble beans cooked with onion, garlic and a twig of epazote. Fresh white corn from Efren, likely picked that morning, and smeared in more butter than I care to admit, rounded the dish out. It was pure satisfaction and felt like the flavors were old school.

The smoked salmon from the smoke-fest had been nibbled away at for at least a week when I finally decided to make quiche. It was in the true spirit of the dish. I had no main course for dinner that night, but eggs, milk, cheese, big flavorful meat, and a want to practice making whole wheat pastry crusts were present in the house. It resulted in this. The salmon hunks sank a bit, but the crust was my flakiest to date. Overall, I think mom would have been proud, and for the most part, the family ate it. Well, the little one ate the filling and the big one ate the crust. If only I'd known ahead of time and just given them these respective portions.

The beef bottom round stayed almost entirely intact for darn near two weeks before I did something with it. I kept thinking of how cured meats hang around a deli for a few weeks and extended this to mean I had plenty of time to come up with a plan. It suffered the same initial toughness that the pork did and needed some more slow cooking "treatment." I began with sautéing a few poblano peppers, a bell, and the largest jalapeño you ever did see along with a hugenormous yellow onion. I cut the beef into disks of a sort, then hacked these in half and threw them into the pepper and onion combo. In the spirit of using leftovers I poured a home-canned jar of seasoned tomato sauce over the whole mess, and then cooked it for about two hours more on low heat. For the last half hour I uncovered it to thicken it some. Meanwhile a bag of masa from a few months back had been defrosting. I slapped some gobs of it around in my palms and laid this on top of the sauce and meaty goodness. I then put this in the oven for about 40 minutes.

It was like a smoke-bomb tamale pie. The high pepper count and tomato tang gave it one rocking jolt of flavor. The smoke from the meat stood up against it all and announced the dishes origins. I ate it for four days straight, but you know what? Right about now I could go for some more.

Well, this Sunday promises to be another smoke filled day. Once again, I'm preparing food for an upcoming backpacking trip that I volunteered to make some jerkey for. Since my experiment last year worked out so well, I'll be looking to duplicate it to some degree. I've got the peach wood and rump roast lined up, and the rest of the marinade in the works.

Now, if I only had a respirator........

last post of the year

I can't believe it's been one complete trip around the sun for this blog. I mean, I've actually done it and managed to write something for an entire year. I know this is nothing compared to some of y'all out there who've been plugging away for the better part of this millenium. I applaud you. But, I'd like to take a moment to say "self, I'm proud of you" and "kid, keep it up and maybe someday more than 8 people will read your blog."

So where to now? Do I continue the exploration of sight and sound and continue crankin' out posts, documenting things like how I nearly asphyxiated myself with peach smoke whilst creating my first jerkey? I think so. It should be written down. Only now with two monkeys, the task is going to be a much taller order. Wish me luck.
Please?

So back to that jerkey. I went and begged my local butcher to slice me up some Marin Sun rump. I took this and marinated it overnight in my own special concoction. The following afternoon I fired up the smoker with some peach wood, creating an enormous amount of smoke, causing anyone downwind for a few blocks to wonder why they don't hear sirens blaring. Anyway, after the grill was filled and the fire turned down low (which is really difficult) I let the pieces get about two hours of smoke. At this point the flavor was developed plenty, so I got out the dehydrator racks and began tranferring some to be finished off inside.

It only took seventy three more hours to dry, or so it seemed. I did three batches on the grill, finishing all of them on the dehydrator. With two pounds of finished product from a six-plus pound roast, the half-day smoke fest came to rest. With veggies and fruit dried already, the grub for my upcoming backpacking trip is complete.

I'll be back in a week. Much stronger, well rested and with a belly full of fish and sourdough. I'll give you a full report when I return.

Well, within a few weeks of returning that is. Written between changing a diaper, reading a story, stirring some sauce, kneading some dough.......trying to get some sleep......



PEACH SMOKED BUTT JERKEY (a recipe of sorts)

6 pounds of beef rump roast
2 cups soy sauce
1/2 of a large torpedo onion
6 cloves garlic
2 inches fresh ginger
6 blistering hot tiny peppers
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup water
1/4 cup salt
4 extra ripe peaches

Talk someone into slicing the beef into very thin sheets across the grain. Dice the onions, mince the ginger and garlic and chop the chilis. Combine with the soy sauce, sugar and salt. Skin the peaches, remove pits, and thoroughly mash, then add to the sauce. Place the sliced beef into a large bowl and pour the marinade over, using some water and another splash of soy sauce to insure that the beef is all submerged. Cover and place in the fridge overnight. The next day fire up the smoker with some peach wood. After a nice coal bed is established and the smoke chamber is running at or below 200 degrees (F) place the marinated beef sheets on the grill and commence smoking. Try not to inhale too much yourself. Especially since you'll be doing this for nearly eight hours if you are doing such a large recipe. After the beef is somewhat dry (on the surface for sure) place the beef on a dehydrator rack and dry until done. (Another 2-4 hours depending on thickness.) Eat some immediately, give a taste to the butcher, and bring the rest up to the high mountian lakes to snarf on while tossing small metal objects out into bodies of water in hopes of pissing some fish off enough to bite. Store in a bear-proof canister. Which by the way, is not monkey proof.

beef and porcini tomato sauce (holiday raviolis part 1)

I love christmas. I love the excuse to make decadant things, you know stuff that takes FOREVER to make or involves multiple days and layers of creation to arrive at mouth bliss. Raviolis definately qualify for satisfying these criteria, and prior to the cookie crunch of last week I managed to take two days creating a new version of them. Three cheers to the reason for the season!

Day one involved a ton of stuff. It started with a run to the local market that houses our new source of good beef. When I discovered that Baron's of Alameda was now in Star Grocery, within about a mile of my house, I thought "Marin Sun available in the hood, I just gotta make ravs!" Grandma's version calls for at least two different types of meat to be included in the ravioli (chicken, pork, veal, usually the first and last but I just can't do it), and beef in the sauce. I thought about it a while and concluded that I would venture into new territory by sticking to some form of fresh cheese with herbs in the filling this time. The sauce would remain beef, being as though I've been feeling good about supporting Marin Sun Farms, and didn't want to stray too far from what I've made in the past.

The butcher gave me some bones from a prime rib to start my stock. I roasted these in the oven for a darker stock (but in retrospect should have started off with more bones). After these were done, I put the veggies in the pot to saute a bit, then added the bones, boiling water, and my own little bouquet garni (I've been wanting to say that one for a while now). This concoction was boiled together for about five hours, strained, and then reduced in volume by half.

With the stock complete it was time to start the red sauce. The beef chunks get sauteed in olive oil with garlic cloves after being dredged in flour seasoned with salt and pepper. While this happens, the dried porcini need to be soaked in the stock. I chop the dried shrooms somewhat finely and add to a few cups of hot stock. When the beef reaches a nice dark brown, the bowl of soaked porcini and stock gets dumped in with the beef. Cover and turn this way down to a slight simmer and allow to cook until the beef is starting to fall apart. This usually takes at least two hours and gives plenty of time for the rest of the vegetable ingredients to be put into a large pot (8 quart) and boiled together to make a nice red sauce.

With the beef all tender and the red sauce ready, I married the two so they could cook together for at least another hour while I made some ricotta. I started with using a half gallon of whole Straus and two cups of Berkeley buttermilk, heating together over a medium high burner. Stirring the mixture until it reaches somewhere around 140-150 degrees (I no longer check it with a thermometer, but it seems to be steaming nicely at this point) I stop, and begin scraping the bottom of the pot gently, trying to stir it as little as possible in order to free the curds that form without breaking them. These will float to the top and the milk will look like it has cottage cheese floating in it. When the milk gets to the high 170's it will suddenly separate into easily distinguishable curds and whey. There is no mistaking it. One moment you have milk with lumps, the next you have water and cheese curds. At this point the ricotta is done.

Remove the pot from the stove and using a ladle, begin pouring the whey through the cheesecloth lining a strainer. It is not critical, but saving the whey by having another bowl under the strainer will enable you to use this nutritious by-product for something else, like watering some plants, as they apparently like the stuff. With most of the whey removed from the pot, start gently ladling the curds into the strainer. When complete gather the edges of the cloth into a knot and tie around something which it can hang from (the kitchen faucet is handy) and let it drip. After a half hour or so, depending on ambient conditions, the ricotta should be ready for your recipe.


At the very least, the cheese should be ready to sample. But with so much sauce cooling on the counter, and spaghetti in the cupboard, I just had to try out the combo to gain some sort of perspective on how they should come together the next day. After this bowl I was thinking ricotta, spinach and parsley with sage ravioli. Yeah, that's the ticket. Yeah.......and that, would be part 2.