Fatboyz Firepits Pit Grilled Ribeyes

Open pit grilling is possibly the most challenging yet fun test of a pitmaster's skills.

An open pit is basically your camp site fire ring, a truck tire rim with a fire in it. It doesn't have the fancy vent controls or protection from the elements that modern cookers have. In fact, the only difference between an open pit and what cavemen used is the truck tire rim.

We received the final addition to our deck renovation today, a custom fire pit from Fatboyz Firepits. Like most fire pits, ours will be used primarily for warmth and socialization on our deck, but you know I had to use it for open pit grilling too!

The first order of business was simulating a camp fire. To do that, I used a chimney full of hickory wood chunks. Let them burn until you have glowing hot embers. If you are camping and already have a fire, let it die down to embers. This is a good time to enjoy a beer or 3.

Dump the hot coals into the fire pit and let the grill grate heat up. Rub it with an oil soaked rag and toss on some ribeyes seasoned with salt and pepper.

As you can see, there is not a lot to protect your food from wind and ambient air temps. It's up to the caveman....errr....you to move them over the heat as needed to cook.

Here's a tip from Adam Perry Lang's BBQ25 [Review upcoming]. Make an "herb brush" by tying fresh herbs onto a wooden spoon.

Start basting your meat with a mixture of butter, oil, and garlic after the first flip.

Even though you are cooking over coals, the baste will cause some flare ups. It's okay in moderation. I love the shot of the flame teasing the steak.

Because these are exposed to the elements, they took much longer than the 8 minutes I do them on a 450f Big Green Egg. They took right at 24 minutes with 6 minute flips to hit an internal temp of 125f.

Results:

The steaks lacked the grill marks of my usual Egg seared steaks and I was worried they might be more done than I like. But I was wrong. After a 10 minute rest, they were perfectly medium-rare. They were tender and juicy. This was different than my usual steaks but every bit as good. Part of that was cooking over pure wood embers and the herb brush basting added a little something too.

Because I only did I small fire, I ended up placing a grate with 8" risers in the fire ring. This got the steaks closer to the coals and also protected them a bit from the wind that was picking up. If I had a full sized fire I would have used the original grate.

Review:
Fatboyz Fire Pits
We stumbled across Fatboyz this spring at Pork Knox, a KCBS sanctioned BBQ contest. Danny custom makes these pits by hand (not CNC machined) which blows my mind considering the detail he gets. [NOTE: Original artwork was created by the talented Russ of Inner and Outer Demons.]

Danny can custom make pretty much whatever artwork or text you want. He is a true craftsman that is proud of his work.

These units are great for a fire pit, open pit grilling, or as a stand for dutch oven cooking. The cool evening temps are just around the corner and I look forward to spending nights out on the deck listening to a cracking fire.

We had him make one for my parents' 50th anniversary and now this one for us. Both were well made and about $100 cheaper than the store bought (and non-custom) fire pits we had priced. If you have any interest in a fire pit, we highly recommend you get in touch with Danny through his website. Shipping might be a bit for these hefty dudes but it's worth it.

[Standard Review Disclaimer] applies but we paid full price for these pits and Danny doesn't even know I'm posting this.

Grinding Your Own Chili Peppers

I've been having some fun this summer courtesy of a $6 dehydrator purchased at a garage sale.

Having absolutely no idea about what I was doing, I tried drying chili peppers and making my own paprika, ground red pepper, and other ground chili mixes.

This is definitely not a how to post. Just a report on what I've done and an encouragement that if you find a $6 dehydrator at a garage sale, buy it.

Some of the peppers were grown by Alexis on our back deck.

Some were purchased at the Market Square Farmers Market.

I tried cold smoking some (learned I should have cut them up first).

We interrupt this post for a Celebrity Produce Lookalike Sighting....The bell pepper is one from our plants this year and credit goes to Alexis for recognizing the face.

But whatever I did, I ended up deseeding the peppers and slicing them up into pieces. The thicker the skins of the peppers, the smaller the pieces needed to be. Then I'd dry them from anywhere from 12 to 36 hours.

I just guessed that they were done when the peppers were inflexible and crispy almost like plastic. I wanted them to break in my fingers. If they still had bend to them, I left them in the dehydrator.

Then I would put them in the coffee grinder.

I had to experiment with how long to grind them. 10 seconds produced a very coarse grind.

Twenty seconds yielded a hearty grind that would be good when looking for bold flavors in a rub.

But 30 seconds seemed to give the typical "ground pepper" texture.

My red pepper batch was pure red cayenne peppers that dried about 12 hours. It's hot but more flavor than hot and I will hate using store bought cayenne ever again.

The paprika was made from red bell peppers. Don't think I did this one right. The thick peppers took 36 hours to dry out. The ground pepper mix doesn't remind me of paprika but it is a kick ass ground sweet pepper with that classic roasted red pepper taste.

Then there was the "mongrel mix". I threw in a blend of peppers ranging from poblanos to some very hot yet tiny thai chili peppers. The ground mix is the green one in the first picture and buddy, it packs the heat and pungent chili flavor. I'm playing with a bit of it, the "paprika", and cumin for my own chili powder.

Again, I am entertaining myself, this is NOT an instructional post. But isn't that what food blogging is about? Don't take yourself too seriously and have some fun!

Have you ever dried your own peppers and have some tips to share?
Have you ever found a celebrity in your produce bin? Jesus on your toast? Elvis on a bunion?

Cha-Cha Chorizo " Stir Fired" Rice

There is an old saying attributed to a Prussian Prime Minister about sausages and laws....you don't want to see them being made.

I tried making my own sausage from scratch this weekend. If I was going to make my own sausage, I wanted to make my favorite sausage, chorizo. And if I was going to make chorizo, I wanted to try something out of the ordinary and over the top.

I turned to Smoke & Spice by Cheryl and Bill Jamison.

To me, Smoke & Spice is a foundation for anyone interested in learning how to barbecue or how to improve what they are already doing. (Not to mention, it's a James Beard Award winner.) I first stumbled across the Jamison's when I found their Poultry Perfect Rub recipe on the BBQ FAQ circa 2004 when I first started on my BBQ journey, which is my favorite poultry rub to make from scratch. Their most famous recipe has to be the Renowned Mr. Brown for smoking pork butts, a true classic. The Southern Succor Rub is one of my favorites for pork. I highly recommend this book to anyone with an interest in BBQ.

So I had a high degree of confidence making their Cha-Cha Chorizo. The orange and jalapeno gives it a twist.

Cha-Cha Chorizo
Reprinted with Permission from Bill & Cheryl Jamison

1 3/4 pounds pork butt, with fat, ground by your butcher or with a meat grinder at home
3 tablespoons chili powder, preferably Gebhardt's
1/2 cup minced onion
1/2 cup cider vinegar
Juice of 1 orange
6 cloves garlic, minced
1 jalapeno, minced
1 1/2 teaspoons dried oregano, preferably Mexican
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cayenne or ground chile de arbol
1/2 teaspoon canela (Mexican cinnamon) or other cinnamon

At least an evening before you plan to smoke the sausages, start the preparations. In a large bowl, mix together the sausage ingredients. Refrigerate, covered, overnight or for a couple of days.

The full recipe in the book gives instructions for smoking these using a tangy mop sauce, but I was just after raw chorizo.

I formed mine into eight 1/4 lb links which is about the size of a bratwurst. I took two of mine that haven't been smoked yet and made this super simple yet amazingly good side dish for dinner. It reminds me of "dirty rice" from Louisiana but had a citrus and southwestern kick. This dish would not be the same using a normal Mexican chorizo.


Cha-Cha Chorizo Stir Fired Rice
NibbleMeThis

1/2 lb Cha-cha Chorizo sausage
1 cup long grain rice
1 cup chicken stock
1 cup broth
chopped cilantro for garnish

Cook the rice according to directions using the broth and water. Allow to cool.

Set up the grill for direct heat and get to 350f. Place a wok on the grill and brown the chorizo.

Add the cooked rice and "Stir Fired" it (my term for grilling ala stir fry) for another 60 seconds.

While I was doing that, Alexis cooked her first protein on her Big Green Egg - Grilled Shrimp. She used shrimp that our eldest son brought back from his Florida trip and seasoned them with chili powder and homemade paprika. Grilled them for 2 minutes a side at 400f.

We garnished the rice with cilantro, served it up with deep fried corn and grilled oranges and wow, what a plate.

It was all good but the rice was a huge hit. We've had it two nights in a row.

The roasted orange squeezed over it all was a nice splash of taste!

Thanks to the Jamison's for permission to reprint the chorizo recipe. Check out their website to check out this and their other books. You can also sign up for their free newsletter.

Standard Review Disclaimer applies but I paid full price for the book and have no affiliation with them. I just like their stuff!

Sage and Cheddar Beer Bread

I don't think yesterday could have been any more perfect. The brilliant blue sky made it easy to be in a good mood. The weather was cool enough to leave the deck door wide open while we cooked outside. I had some college football game on the television but the sound turned down and the stereo playing our favorite old compact disks. We were just enjoying each others company on a gorgeous day.

To top it all off at the end of the day the smell of fresh baked bread was in the air. Alexis had her first cook on her Big Green Egg and made Girlichef's Sage & Cheddar Beer Bread.

Sage & Cheddar Beer Bread
Girlichef adapted from Farmgirl Fare

2 1/2 c. unbleached ap flour
1/2 c. whole wheat flour
1 Tbs.sugar
1 tsp. salt
1 Tbs. baking powder
2 1/2 Tbs. fresh Sage, chopped
1 c. sharp cheddar cheese, shredded
12 oz. beer, at room temp.
1 egg
2 Tbs. water


Heat oven to 375° F. Combine flours, sugar, salt, baking powder, sage, and cheddar in large bowl. Slowly stir in beer and mix just until combined. Batter will be thick. Spread in a greased loaf pan. Beat the egg and water together and brush gently over top of loaf. Bake until golden, ~45 mins.

Cool in the pan on a rack for 10 minutes, then remove bread from pan and cool it directly on rack until ready to serve... either warm or at room temp.

Alexis had her Egg set up as a coal fired convection oven - plate setter in with the legs down. The "plate setter" is a thick ceramic insert for the Big Green Egg used for indirect cooking. They also fit in the Big Steel Keg (f.k.a. Bubba Keg). Can you tell which one is mine and which one is hers?

She had a pizza stone already in there from the cookies she baked earlier....

so she just put her stoneware loaf pan on top of that.

The temps were a little low at first (350f) but she got them back to 375f by opening the bottom vent a little. Because of that dip, it ended up taking right at 1 hour to bake.

While she was baking that, I used my Egg to make my European Street Style Beer Cheese Soup in a Lodge #12 cast iron dutch oven. I followed that recipe as previously written but did one thing differently. I cooked three slices of bacon in the dutch oven first, removed them and used that oil for sauteing the mirepoix.

This was the perfect meal to end the perfect day.

The beer cheese soup was velvety (yet no Velveeta, tyvm) and rich with just a slight kick from the Fire Ant Juice. The beer bread was a joy to bite into. My choice of beverage for dinner? Why beer of course!

It's Football Time, ya'll !

College football started this weekend which means tailgating, finger foods, and maybe an adult beverage or two.

For a quick lunch today I deep fried some hot wings and onion rings.

Lord of The Wings will snicker, because I breaded my wings. For a wing purist like LOTW, that is the BBQ equivalent of boiling ribs.

I tried using panko in the breading. A bit too much texture, in my opinion but Alexis loved them that way. The sauce was a medium sauce that was half butter and half Fire Ant Juice. Excellent flavor!

What is your favorite food for game day?

Big Green Egg Table Finished

We have finished the table for Alexis' Big Green Egg (BGE) as of tonight.


It started off as a pre-made BGE short table from the dealer. We had learned a few things from tiling our first table a few years ago, such as sawing off the rounded ends makes tiling easier.

Next we dry-fit the tiles to figure out our game plan.

Then I temporarily brad-nailed some flashing around the hole. This would let us get a smoother grout line around the circle. Now we could top the table with thinset.

At this point, we pressed the tiles into place.

I built a frame around the front piece and we repeated the tile process in that frame.

Then I built a frame around the table top and clamped it all together to rest for 24 hours.

Next was grouting. You say "forced child labor", I say "a character building experience".

From there, it was time to stain 2 coats and a spar varnish.
Despite starting from a pre-made table, I'm pretty proud of the craftsmanship that we put into this one, especially the tiled accent piece on the front.

I'm happy with it.
But I do think I heard my other Egg table say, "Stupid new guy and his 'tiled accent piece'.....he's not so ****ing special."
More Masterbuilt Electric Smoker Giveaways
Hey guess what!!!! There are two more Masterbuilt 30" Electric Smoker Giveaways going on. Hurry up and enter them both.

BBQ Grail (Inventor of the MOINK ball)

and

Barbecue Master

Grilled Pork Chops

Don't look now, but Labor Day weekend is coming up. Sadly, that is the last hurrah for many folks' grill. If you are a casual griller and just want to finish up the "season" with something different than burgers and dogs, I'd recommend that you go with some nice thick pork chops.

But dinner was delayed for about an hour tonight.

I've seen the Blue Angels a few times but I saw the greatest airshow "off" earth tonight. As the sun was setting through the trees, three hummingbirds were swooping, flying, stopping mid-air and dive bombing each other all around our deck, where we have a new feeder. You could hear their wings beating as the raced around us. It was just too entertaining to interrupt by firing up the Egg.

I tried getting a shot of their aerial dogfights but the lighting was too low to get a high speed photo. But I did manage to get a few shots when they would perch to catch their breath.

Okay, back to grilling. Can you imagine how hard it would be to spatchcock a hummingbird?

What? Is that wrong?

You might think I am weird, but to me a very nice and thick bone in pork chop is every bit as good as a t-bone steak, when cooked properly. There's the delicious larger white meat side, the smaller yet amazing tenderloin side, and finally, you can't beat gnawing on the meat near the bone of a grilled pork chop.

I've detailed how I like cooking thick pork chops before with my Porkus Chopus Maximus recipe but the basics are:

1. THICK - Get very thick pork chops that are 1 1/2 to 2" thick. I might not have a ruler with me in the grocery store but I just make sure that the chops are thicker than two fingers.
2. BRINE - Soak in a brine to enhance flavor and moisture.
   
3. RUB - Use a bold rub to spice up the pork.
   
4. SEAR - Get your grill marks over direct high heat. A cast iron grate helps!
   
5. ROAST - Finish the chops off over indirect heat to get to proper internal temps without burning the outside.

Tonight, I used a different brine that worked very well.

Impromptu Pork Chop Brine

1 cup apple juice
12 oz beer
1/2 cup salt
1/2 cup turbinado sugar
2 Tbsp black peppercorns (whole)
Water to cover the meat

Soak for 2-4 hours.

This time, I tried searing the chops at a lower temp (450 vs 600f) but longer time than my Porkus Chops Maximus technique. I thought I could get around the roasting part but still get the nice seared outside.

I still ended up having to switch from direct heat to indirect heat so I didn't burn the outsides before the internal temp hit my 140f target (before resting).

In the last 15 minutes, I brushed them with the award winning Pork Barrel BBQ sauce that I won from Rex at Savory Reviews a while back. I've used this a few times and know why it won Men's Health Magazine's favorite bottled sauce. Good stuff.

We served it up with corn on the cob with a barbecue rub butter and broccoli that was topped with a habanero/jalapeno cheese sauce.
An overdone pork chop is horrible. But a properly cooked thick pork chop like this is heaven!

So what's on your menu for the Labor Day Weekend?