Souvlaki Sliders

A souvlaki slider is not a pitch thrown by Major League Baseball's hottest new Greek pitcher. It's an idea I had last night when I realized that I had the wrong type of pita bread.

But first, I have an exciting announcement from the folks at Kingsford Charcoal. How would you like to spend three days in Vegas learning from a BBQ Master named Chris??? No, no, not me - I am talking about a REAL BBQ Pitmaster - Chris Lilly. Chris has won multiple world BBQ championships and he is a walking library of BBQ information. Chris has a masterful delivery for sharing his knowledge in his classes. Here is Chris at a cooking class I attended at Dead End BBQ here in Knoxville last May.


This year three lucky winners will get flown to Las Vegas to learn the latest in grillin' and thrillin' from Chris at Kingsford Charcoal's annual Kingsford University. To make it even better, this will be held at the Las Vegas speedway during the Sprint Cup weekend. CLICK HERE TO LEARN HOW TO ENTER KINGSFORD UNIVERSITY. Believe me, this is one you don't want to miss!

Okay, back to the souvlaki. This idea has been percolating in my head ever since Mr. Holloway posted his souvlaki over at the EggForum in November. It is a simple yet flavor packed dish.

Souvlaki Sliders
source: NibbleMeThis
Yields: 12 appetizer portions (2 each)

2 boneless pork loin chops, cut into 1" cubes
4 whole pita breads
1/2 cup red onion, diced

Marinade
1/4 cup lemon juice
1/4 cup parsley, finely chopped
1 dried red chile, crumbled
1 1/2 tsp kosher salt
1 1/2 tsp coarse ground pepper (I used RichardFL's Indian River Rainbow Pepper)
1 large or 2 normal sized clove of garlic, finely minced
1/4 cup olive oil

Tzatziki sauce
14 ounces greek yogurt (ours comes in 7 oz sizes, but two cups would be fine)
1 Tbsp red wine vinegar (fig balsamic also works well)
3 cloves garlic, finely minced
1/2 cucumber, seeded, peeled, coarsely chopped
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1 Tbsp olive oil
3/4 tsp dill weed

Make your marinade by slowly pouring the oil into the lemon juice while whisking to make a vinaigrette. Add the remaining ingredients. Toss the cubed pork in the marinade to thoroughly coat. Refrigerate and let marinate for at least 8 hours but 24 hours is best.

Make the tzatziki sauce by combining all ingredients in a food processor and running it 5-9 pulses until you get the consistency you like. Refrigerate for at least an hour before serving but will hold for several days.

Once the meat has marinated, it is time to assemble the skewers. Don't be alarmed that the color of the meat has turned slightly. It's not going bad, it is the marinade acting on the meat.


Here is my video tip about types of skewers and tips for using them.



My Big Green Egg was busy smoking an 11.5 lb butt so I got Alexis' Big Green Egg set up for direct heat at 350f. Next time I would use 400f. Grill the souvlaki 2 minutes a side.


When they are done, brush with lemon juice just before taking them off.

Lightly brush your pita bread with olive oil and grill 1 minute per side.


If you were doing these as a main course, you'd be ready to eat just as they are.


But to make these as an appetizer portion, cut the pita bread into wedges as shown. (A whole pita cut into 6 equal pieces or a half pita cut into thirds...figure it out, this isn't a geometry class.)

Place a dollop of the tzatziki sauce on each wedge, sprinkle with diced red onion, and top with 1-2 pieces of the souvlaki.

These are tasty and a great way to spread two pork chops into a dozen appetizer portions. You could also garnish them with some diced tomato, chopped mint, or anything that floats your boat. You could also place the meat and goods inside the wedge for a more "slider" style, but we found them easier to eat like this. Enjoy and get grilling!

How I Smoke Chicken on my Cheap Offset Smoker (Brinkmann, Char-Griller, etc)

This weekend I had a craving for BBQ.

Now some of you might think I BBQ all the time, but last year the majority of what I did was grilling, fire roasting, "stir fired" dishes, and such. I wanted a proper old fashioned BBQ chicken dinner with barbecued beans, potato salad, and ABTs.


And since I was going old fashioned, I thought I would go "old school" and break out Trevor's Brinkmann Pitmaster Deluxe.


The cheap offset smoker is the first smoker that many people ever get. The cheap offsets include the Brinkmann Smoke n Pit (SnP) you can get at Home Depot or the Char-Griller at Lowes, both around $200. While these units might not be able to match the quality of high end cookers like Big Green Eggs, Stumps Smokers, or even a well made Ugly Drum Smoker, with a few modifications and techniques, they can meet the needs of the weekend backyard warrior. When well cared for, these units can last many years. Mine is going on seven years old.

The Modifications
These are only the ones I have done and are the easiest. (For the "bible on SnP mods," read more here: Smoke Ring.)

I installed a metal baffle (red arrow) to deflect the heat from coming directly out and up of the fire box. I also use a water pan (yellow arrow) to act as a heat capacitor helping to tame heat fluctuations and add moisture to the cooking chamber.


I added a raised cooking grid to increase cooking surface capacity by 324 square inches. I bought the grid at Lowes and some nuts and bolts, nothing complicated or expensive.


I lowered the bottom of the exhaust stack to the level of the grid. This evens out the temps in the cooking chamber. Before, the hottest gasses in the chamber escaped at the top yellow arrow. Now, those hottest gasses mix with the rest of the air in the areas where your food is cooking. To do this, just roll up a piece of flashing and stuff it up your stack. The tension of it trying to unroll will hold it in place.

The best "modification" for cheap offset smokers is great weather.

If you only ever intend to BBQ during the daytime in the summer, then these are the smokers for you. Seriously. If you are a fair weather kind of BBQr, then an SnP will be perfect for you and not break your budget. And let's be honest, that's 95% of people. Most people aren't idiots....errrr,ummmm... "hardcore" like me and my BBQ Brethren, who enjoy cooking in the snow, wind and rain.

The Cooking Process
Brine your bird or bird pieces in a simple brine for 3-4 hours (Multiply as needed to cover pieces/bird.)
1 quart water
2 Tbsp kosher salt
2 Tbsp maple syrup
1 bay leaf


Rinse and dry the bird thoroughly. Drying is a key step in avoiding rubbery skin. Season the bird with your favorite hen rub. My rock solid favorite for years has been Poultry Perfect Rub from Bill & Cheryl Jamison's book Smoke and Spice. It has the right blend of seasoning and enough paprika to get a gorgeous colored bird.


For my fire, I like to use the Minion Method which is basically adding some hot coals to a bed of unlit coals to create a low temp, long burning fire. I set my coals up like this. (The flecks of color you see are hickory, I was using Kingsford Hickory Briquettes).


Then I start a half chimney of coals and when they are burning hot, pour them into the void. The hot coals provide the initial heat and the unlit ones provide sustained heat as they gradually ignite. After dumping the hot coals in, have the intake vent barely open and the stack vent fully open like this. Notice the exhaust of the stack, you don't want thick white smoke, just a thin blue smoke.


Once the temperature of the smoker gets to 275f, add your chicken to the smoker. I normally BBQ/smoke at a 225f temp at the grate but I like to go a little hotter for chicken to avoid rubbery skin. On a cheap offset, a temp reading of 275f is about 250f-ish at the grate level.


Now "mop" the chicken every 30-45 minutes using my favorite mop sauce. True mopping literally uses a cloth mop dipped in the liquid and then dabbed onto the meat. You realize how careful you have to be with cross contamination, right? To make it simple, I put the mop sauce in plastic deli style condiment squirt bottle and just splash/squirt the mop sauce onto the chicken.


NMT Chicken Mop Sauce
adapted from Bill Martin

1 cup apple cider vinegar
1/2 cup beer
1/2 cup Kraft original BBQ sauce
1 ounce hot sauce
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp pepper

If your coals start burning out a couple of hours into the cook, "re-Minion" them by moving all of the hot coals toward the cooking chamber...

And add fresh ones on the other end.


If the ash starts to build up under the coals this will restrict air flow. I have a tiny garden shovel and a metal ash pail with a lid that I used to "clean a path" like this. (Quit making fun of my arthritic, bent up coal grate....it's the original one! He's got character. And he's only 7 years old, honestly, who picks on a 7 year old?)


Quit "mop/splash/squirting" the chicken when it hits an internal temp of 140-145f in the breast.

Pull the chicken when it hits 160f in the breast and 175 in the thigh. Let rest for 10 minutes so the carryover cooking will take it to 165f/180f. This has consistently taken right at 3 hours when you can hold a steady temp.

To finish, it depends on my mood. Most times, I leave it as is, but sometimes I like to give it a VERY LIGHT glaze of a premium BBQ sauce like Carnovire or Billy Bones.

Bone In Pork Roast on the Grill

Happy New Year!!

It's the beginning of 2011 and tomorrow is the two year anniversary of Nibble Me This so I thought I'd make a few additions to my blog.

Video Tips

I tried my hand at video recipes in 2010 and they were just too difficult. I couldn't get the detail wanted in 5 minutes or less and the level of stress was not enjoyable. This year I am going to incorporate brief video tips to focus on a given technique used such as this one I made for "How To Score Meat".

These are shorter, easier to produce, and have a narrow focus. I'll get better making and producing these as I go along.

Detailed Cooking Log

This one is for the BBQ addicts and data geeks out there. I have uploaded my cooking logs that I use to record the details of my longer cooks. It's right over there in my side bar, see the button that looks like this:

I plan to keep this updated and hope others might find it useful for planning cooking times, seeing what worked, and what didn't. I refer back to these often when getting ready to BBQ something.

But on to the main course......

Bone In Pork Roast on the Grill
Since Alexis had to work today, we celebrated New Years Day yesterday with a fabulous meal of a fire roasted rack of pork, collard greens, hoppin' john, and rice.

I used a 3 1/2 lb, five bone rack of pork. I scored it and seasoned with with 1 Tbsp of Holy Smokin' Chipotle and 1 Tbsp of maple sugar.

The Holy Smokin' Chipotle is probably one of the best new rubs I have tried in all of 2010. One of the tips I learned from a BBQ class with Mike Davis is to taste your rub by itself first. This one just sings with flavor, it was a taste symphony unfolding on my taste buds.

Unfortunately, it's not for sale. I received mine as a gift from fellow Egghead and Egghead Forum member, RichardFL. Richard makes it and a few other premium spice blends for himself and friends. I asked if he planned to market these great rubs and he replied, "No, takes the fun out of it, this is my hobby....I don't play golf anymore and fishing still frustrates me!"

I seared the roast, fat cap down over 400f direct heat on the Big Green Egg for 5 minutes. I flipped it and cooked another 3 minutes. I thought the temp was a little low for searing but got the tip from Chris Lilly's book and he was right. Again.

I then changed the grill to indirect heat, added two chunks of cherry wood and reduced the heat to 350f. I roasted it until it hit an internal temperature of 125f and glazed it with Big'uns Carnivore Robust BBQ Sauce. Carnivore is made by another Egghead and lucky for you, you can buy it at Carnivore.com.


I let the roast finish to an internal temp of about 145f, when I pulled it from the grill to rest. One lesson learned: I did learn to NOT get BBQ glaze on the frenched bones. They stayed relatively white for the first 1 hour and 15 minutes but then as soon as they got glaze on them, they turned dark.


As you can see from the cooking log that roast took right at 1 1/2 hours after the searing. I let it rest for 30 minutes and the carry over cooking raised it almost 15 degrees to 161f.


I usually like my pork roast at a finished temp of 150-155f so I was worried it would be dry but nothing could be further from the truth.


The roast was tender, juicy and I'd say the best pork roast I've ever had or made. The robust flavors of the rub and sauce were mouthwatering. What a way to end the year!

You could make this in the kitchen as well by pan searing or oven searing the roast before roasting it at 350f in the oven. Since you probably don't have Richard's Holy Smokin' Chipotle, you could substitute Tone's Garlic Pepper. It won't be the same....but it'll still be good.

I Did It All For The Gnocchi Soup

I came to a realization tonight.

I am an impractical cook. Or at least inefficient. Who else could make and "easy" dinner using leftovers and still mess up 2 pans, 1 pot, 1 baking sheet, and a meat slicer? But in my defense it was worth it.

I took the last little bit of our prime rib and shaved it thin on the slicer.


Then made mini sandwiches with caramelized onions and a demi-glace mayonnaise (2 tsp demi-glace to 1/2 cup mayo).


But as good as the sandwiches were, this post isn't about them it was all about the soup, because it was phenomenally good. I enjoy thick, creamy, hearty soups in the winter and this one does my bidding. I had it for dinner last night, lunch today, and dinner tonight. I hope I came close in writing it all down the way we made it because Alexis and I both said this was one of the best things we have eaten in all of 2010.


I Did It All For The Gnocchi Soup

Inspired by Copykat.com's clone of Olive Garden Chicken And Gnocchi soup

4 Tbsp butter
1 cup onion, diced
1/4 cup celery, finely diced
1 large clove garlic, chopped
4 Tbsp all purpose flour
2 cups half and half
1 cup heavy cream
1 cup whole milk
3/4 cup carrots, shredded and then chopped
2 cup beef stock
2 cups fresh spinach, rinsed, stemmed and chopped
1 ea poblano chile, roasted, peeled, seeded and chopped (sub one can diced chilies)
1 lb potato gnocchi
3 sprigs thyme
1/2 t black pepper
1 t salt
1 Tbsp butter
1/4 cup potato starch (substitute corn starch if needed)

Garnish: Homemade croutons

1. Melt the butter in a pan over medium heat and saute the onions and celery for about 5 minutes until they are starting to turn semi-opaque...ummm clear...uhh..awww screw it, TRANSLUCENT.
2. Add garlic and cook another minute.
3. Sprinkle in the flour while stirring and cook for a few minutes to make into a light roux.
4. Remove from heat and stir in the half & half/cream/milk mixture. The recipe called for a quart of half & half, I used what I had on hand to make a quart so don't get hung up on the proportions.
5. Return to heat and simmer until thickened and starting to reduce (about 15-20 minutes). Make sure to keep your heat at a simmer at most from this point on.
   
6. Add the carrot, stock, spinach , poblano, and seasonings. Simmer and stir until reduced (Another 30 or more minutes)
7. Remove 1-2 cups of the mixture and liquify in a food processor, blender, or Magic Bullet (yes I actually have one for just this kind of thing). Whisk in the starch and return to the soup.
8. Add the cooked gnocchi and 1 Tbsp butter. Stir and let warm through.
   
9. Serve topped with homemade croutons.
   

Results:

• I already told you that the soup was a magnificent dish, enough said.
  
• But this was the first time I ever taken the time to really caramelize onions, taking 1 1/2 hours. I didn't get them as brown in the end that I should but ding dang nabbit, their tender sweetness made them good enough to snack on.
  
• The "demi glace mayo" which started as a joke because of the "Creme Fraiche" episode of South Park added a nice beefy depth, I can see using that with burgers in the summer.

Chorizo Rice Dressing or Stuffing

Trying new recipes is kind of like that Kenny Rogers' song The Gambler.

You've got to know when to hold 'em
Know when to fold 'em
Know when to walk away
Know when to run

Sometimes you instantly know that you won't be trying a certain dish again. Sometimes you know you've got a keeper. But it's the "in between" ones that can test you. If it didn't thrill you the first time, is it WORTH trying again with modifications? Or are you just wasting good ingredients & time after bad?

I wanted a different stuffing/dressing for Thanksgiving last year and found one called Arnold's Rice Stuffing With Chorizo and Hot Chilies. It was okay but my comment that I wrote down "Okay, but not really a stuffing. More like a baked rice dish."

I tried it again this year but this time I adapted it according to the notes I made last year, made substitutions/additions, and cooked it on the grill.

Chorizo Rice Dressing
Adapted from a lost source*

1 poblano chili
1 medium yellow onion, peeled and diced
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
1 lb Mexican chorizo (raw chorizo, not smoked like Spanish)
2 cups cooked rice
4 slices white bread, cubed
1/2 cup green onions, chopped
1/4 cup cilantro, fresh chopped
1/4 tsp kosher salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
1/4 cup beef stock (or au jus if available)

Roast the pepper directly over flame. You can do this on a gas burner or a broiler, but I did mine over a 500f grill. Just put on and let go until each side blackens and blisters, about 2 minutes a side. The aroma that chilies release as they char is inspiring for me as a cook, it's as if they are opening up all kinds of culinary kick-assery. (NOTE: I am doing two here but the recipe just calls for one. I made an extra to have for eggs, tacos, etc.)


Anyway, when they are done, put them in a zip top back and let them rest for at least 5 minutes. Meanwhile, reduce the heat on your grill to medium (~350f). On the Big Green Egg I did this by cutting the bottom vent to only about 1/8th inch open. Remove the chilies and cut off the large end. Slice down the length of one side to open the pepper flat. Remove all the seeds. Flip and remove the charred skin. You can do this by hand but a paring knife makes quick work of it.

Next preheat a wok on the grill (translation: preheat a large skillet on your stove top for you kitchen dwellers, ha ha) and add 1 tablespoon of a high heat oil such as peanut oil. Saute the onions for 4 minutes.

Add the garlic and cook another minute. Next add the chorizo and cook until browned. This was probably about 10 minutes but I really wasn't counting.


Add the rice, bread, green onion, cilantro, salt and pepper and toss thoroughly for about 1 minute.

Transfer to a buttered 2 quart casserole dish. You can make ahead to this point and hold refrigerated for a day or two, which is what we did. (And the only reason I have pictures, because I had a "no picture/blog" rule for Christmas dinner this year.)

Set up your grill for indirect heat at 350f. Drizzle the dressing with beef stock, cover tightly with foil, and cook for 20 minutes. Remove foil and cook another 10 minutes.

The dressing turned out much better this time and it is one that I will "hold" not "fold". It was the right choice to go with the rib roast we had but would be equally matched as a stuffing for a spiral sliced pork roast.

I don't have pics of that because of my self imposed Christmas photo/blog blackout. But if you happen to have any leftover.....it makes a fabulous breakfast topped with a fried egg!


*The source was lost. I found a link for it but when I searched for it today, I can't find it online. The only exact match came from a UK site that does people searches and it matched on "Andrew Rice" but oddly enough, the search thread gave the exact recipe title even though I didn't include the all of the words.

Waffles: Two Pigs In A Poke

Need an idea for using up some of that leftover holiday ham?

We smoked a ham Wednesday afternoon because we knew that we were going to be wildly busy the two days before Christmas. We wanted to have plenty of options for quick meals like ham & cheese omelets and ham sandwiches. Here is one of the quick breakfasts that we came up with - Two Pigs In A Poke Waffles.

Finely dice ham and cook a few slices of bacon.


Put some of the bacon and ham in your waffle iron. For a Belgian waffle maker like my Waring Pro, use two slices of bacon and about 2-3 Tbsp of chopped ham. You can read my full review of this waffle maker here, but after several months, I highly recommend it. If you have a gift card to use, keep an eye out for this one. We bought ours at Sam's Club.


Pour your favorite waffle batter over top of the meat. I was using the recipe for Oh Boy Waffles!


Cook as you normally would. One of the problems I ran into at first was trying to judge how much batter to use, since I needed to reduce the normal amount to account for the extra volume of the ham and bacon. The first ones I reduced the batter too much but they still tasted good.


But with a little practice.....


Then next batches came out perfectly. Turns out you don't have to reduce the volume of batter much at all.


Want to know a secret? Even the ugly ones taste great.


Now it's time to go clear a path out to our Big Green Eggs, I don't want to be tracking in snow and ice while I cook.

Fire Day Friday Post: Smoked Cheese

Today is my weekly Fire Day Friday post when I guest post over at Our Krazy Kitchen. You know that you want to know the story behind this contraption, don't you?

The local news is calling for snow starting 1am Christmas morning and lasting through the morning. We are getting our first White Christmas ever!!! I probably won't post until after that so I want to genuinely wish each of you and your families a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays.

Travel safe, be well, and may your stocking be full of natural hardwood lump coal!