Archive for March, 2009

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Lightly Smoked Salmon


2009
03.06

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Posted in Food Recipes, Main Dishes, Seafood | No Comments »

Ingredients Lightly Smoked Salmon:

  • 2-3 lb. boneless/skinless salmon fillet
  • 4 tablespoons of kosher salt (Do not use regular salt)
  • 4 tablespoons of dark brown sugar
  • 1/2 teaspoon of onion powder
  • Balsamic vinegar (as much as needed)

Preparation Lightly Smoked Salmon:

  1. Mix salt, sugar and onion powder together with a good grade of balsamic vinegar to form a paste.
  2. The paste should not be runny.
  3. Place the fillet in a PLASTIC container with the skin-side down and spoon the paste over it.
  4. Place in the refrigerator over night.
  5. When ready to cook, take fillet out of refrigerator about one hour before placing on the grill.
  6. Place the fillet on a greased piece of aluminum foil (I use butter or margarine) turn grill to medium heat and watch for the salmon to start to milk.
  7. What you will see is that the oils will start to come out the top.
  8. This is the sign to cut the grill off and leave the salmon to finish cooking prior to taking it off the grill.
  9. Ideally, the salmon should cook at 120 degrees in 45 minutes.
  10. When removing the salmon from the grill it helps to hold each end of the tin foil as the salmon once cooked will easily break up.
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Shrimp or Mango With Guava Lime Glaze


2009
03.06

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Ingredients Shrimp or Mango With Guava Lime Glaze :

  • 3 Tbsp olive oil 2
  • 1 Tbsp minced garlic
  • 1 Tbsp minced ginger
  • 1 tsp. Crushed red pepper
  • 18 colossal or 36 large shrimp
  • 2 red bell peppers each cut into 12 pieces
  • 2 ripe but firm mangos each cut into 12 pieces

Combine all above and marinate (refrigerated) for 4 hours

Shrimp or Mango With Guava Lime Glaze

Ingredients Glaze:

  • 2 cups Guava Nectar
  • 1 cup Orange juice
  • 1/2 cup red wine vinegar
  • 1/3 cup lime juice

Preparation Glaze:

  1. Boil until reduced to 2/3 cup.
  2. Prepare by alternating shrimp, mango and peppers on soaked bamboo skewers.
  3. Grill over medium heat 3-4 min per side, basting with guava/lime Glaze.
  4. Serve over rice.

Serves 6

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Blackening As An Outdoor Cooking Method


2009
03.05

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There aren’t a lot of new methods for preparing foods outdoors. However, there is one very distinct technique that is relatively new and very popular. It is called, “Blackening.” That seems an odd name for a technique, as when food is cooked to the stage of blackness, it is probably burned and ready to be discarded. Yet, if you look on most of your better restaurants’ menus, you will see blackened chicken, fish, steaks, etc. Where did this technique of cooking come from? How do you use this technique? What are some good recipes for preparing blackened foods? I will provide these answers in the following article.

Louisiana chef Paul Prudhomme came up with this technique of cooking when he developed his very popular recipe for “Blackened Redfish.” The recipe became so popular that the redfish became endangered and had to be protected, as every restaurant in the world wanted to get their hands on redfish to serve it blackened. The technique is very simple in that you first dip the food, in molted butter and then into Cajun spices before frying it on very high heat. Because of the high heat, blackening creates a lot of smoke, hence, it should be done outdoors. Outdoor grills work well when you use them at their highest heat rating. You may also use a cast iron skillet and a propane stove. The big idea here is that you must bring the cooking level beyond the smoking stage end to the white-heat stage, which is very hot. Most of the time, it will take about 15 minutes on high to achieve this type of temperature.

How To Use The Technique:

First, you must decide if you want to buy the commercial blackening powders or make your own. There are many on the market and readily available. Chef Paul Prudhommes’s “Louisiana Cajun Magic” called, “Blackened Redfish Magic” is very good and will be useful on any blackened meat, not just redfish. You then need to secure yourself a couple of large plates or bowls to hold the dry mix and -melted butter with a dash or so of lime juice. You should use unsalted butter and never margarine. Now, with the grill on its highest heat, set a black iron pan or griddle on the heat source for at least 15 minutes. If the grill has a lid, keep it closed. While this is being completed, the food preparation can begin. Using two separate dishes, each large enough to coat one piece of food, spread your powder in one dish and your melted butter with lime juice in the other. Coat food on one side until a blackened crust forms, about three or four minutes per side. The food is only turned once. You may want to pitch in a small ounce or so of butter on the last bit of frying, be careful, it will likely flame up, but it looks professional.

Although you can blacken anything, including veggies, I would try the meats and fish first until you get the technique down. Blackened meats should also be served on warm plates. This can be easily done by placing the plates in a microwave oven for a minute or so or putting them in an oven at about 300 degrees for five to 10 minutes.

As always, I have my own invention to blacken things and I hope to demonstrate it at the upcoming Home Show and Fair February 5 and 6. Look for me there, and come by for samples of my prepared blackened food.

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Hot Vidalia Blue Cheese Spread


2009
03.05

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Posted in Desserts, Food Recipes | No Comments »

This spread is good on crackers or may also be used to put over steaks before they are grilled. It is also good on fried or grilled chicken wings.

Ingredients Hot Vidalia Blue Cheese Spread:

  • Large Vidalia Onion
  • 5 cloves of garlic
  • Handful of Hot peppers (maybe mildly hot or real hot) Tablespoon of Olive Oil
  • One lime
  • ½ teaspoonful apple cider vinegar
  • One container of Crumbled Blue Cheese (about half of a cup)

Preparation Hot Vidalia Blue Cheese Spread:

  1. Place onion with shell off, of course, peeled garlic, washed hot peppers in tin foil pan and smoke in smoker for 45 minutes.

  2. Brush on the olive oil about mid way.

  3. Once smoked, put in the juice of one lime, the apple cider vinegar and the blue cheese and process in the food processor until smooth.

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Hunan Chicken


2009
03.05

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I like to try a lot of different seasonings when cooking outdoors. This practice can be expensive; however, I have found a little special place, which allows me to try out gourmet seasonings and marinades at cut-rate prices. You will find my special spot at the Farmers’ Market in Flagler Beach every Friday. You will find Sandy’s Boxes of Goodies along South Daytona Avenue (just look for all the boxes on tables). If you have never stopped by this place; do yourself a favor and dig into all the many outdoor cooking useful supplies. This is the place that I originally found five-spice powder (Hokan FiveSpice Powder) that I use on my deep-fried turkeys and also Tony Chachere’s Creole Seasonings which I use to prepare my ribs for smoking. There are other goodies I have found lately at cut-rate prices, and I will share them with you and how I have used them

Barbecue Sauces Galore

There is always a box of just barbecue sauces. Some are mild, some are sweet, some are hot, etc., There are even international barbecue sauces. Recently, I found a Thai barbecue sauce (Mai Kitchen Thai Barbecue Sauce). I found Texas Best Barbecue Sauce (Cajun style), VH Sauce for spare ribs (dry garlic), and a host of others that allow me to sample them without a major cost. When I am serving barbecue, I put all my sauces out for my friends to try. I picked up a bottle of House of Tsang Bangkok Padang Peanut Sauce and found that it is rather tasty on ribs, but really great on beef (Satay-Thai Barbecue).

Great Marinades

I like to put my own marinades together, but at Sandy’s place the price is so right on the dry packs as well as bottled marinades, that I just had to pick some up. Recently, I picked up these outstanding marinades: Cardini’s Roasted Garlic & Herb (chicken), Trinidad Steak Marinade (steak, chicken and pork); McCormick Golden Cajun Style; West Indies Spice Co. PIRATES’ GOLD (Meat, Poultry & Seafood) Marinade; Caribbean Jerk with Papaya Juice; and you can generally find most, if not all of Chef Paul Prudhornme’s MAGIC Seasoning Blends. I have just used a few, but there are many other marinades that I plan to use as soon as I find space.

Rubs And Mustards

You will find all ingredients to make any rub that you may want to put together. Not only that, you may find some stuff ready to go. I came upon Konriko’s Jalapeno AllPurpose Seasoning (excellent as jerk chicken rub). I would have a hard time making a spicy rub any better than this one. It may be a bit too spicy for most! I also picked up a can of Szeged Hungarian Hot Paprika. This is really good stuff, and sometimes hard to find. Again, the price was right! There are lots and lots of mustards to try, from the basic Mister Mustard (Hot) to the Maine Honey Dijon (dijon mustard with honey).

All Kinds Of Vinegars And Oils

Heinz Gourmet Tarragon Vinegar; Nakano Seasoned Rice Vinegar (great in marinades and in salads); Maitre Jacques’ Raspberry Wine Vinegar (this is great when mixed with almond oil ); and a number of other special vinegars with herbs. You can always find extra virgin olive oil at a fraction of the cost. I need not tell you how much fun you can have putting some of the special vinegars together with some of the special oils. To me, this is the outdoor cook’s dream, an opportunity to try out and experiment with all kinds of flavor possibilities. I plan to introduce some new rubs, pastes and marinades in the future from the things that I pick up at Sandy’s Place.

Recipes Made From Things I picked Up At Sandy’s place

Vinaigrette Dressing

  • 3/4 cup Maitre Jacques Raspberry Wine Vinegar
  • 1 1/2 cups Deviance Extra Virgin olive oil
  • 1/2 cup fresh basil leaves, finely chopped l teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon pepper
  • 3/4 teaspoon dry oregano
  • 2 cloves garlic, minced
  1. Combine all ingredients; mix well.
  2. Store in refrigerator.
  3. Serve chilled over fresh greens.

Hunan Chicken

  • 2 cups vegetable oil
  • 2 pounds frying chicken cut in pieces
  • 21/2 tablespoons light soy sauce
  • 1 tablespoon FiveSpice Powder
  1. Marinade the chicken in mixture of soy sauce and FiveSpice Powder for three hours.
  2. Heat oil to 350 degrees in large saucepan, and deep fry chicken for 15 minutes;
  3. serve.

There are a lot of other things at Sandy’s, such as special popcorn, pickles, crackers, soups and jellies, just to name a few. But, if you get a chance to stop by and find something you can use in outdoor cooking,