Book Review: "Charred and Scruffed" by Adam Perry Lang

I recently read Adam Perry Lang's "Charred and Scruffed" and really enjoyed the techniques he presented.

His background is quite impressive with classical chef experience as well as much time spent in the traditional BBQ circuit.  However, in this book he blows up typical notions about grilling and I was excited to test some of his techniques.  You can read the book for more and visit his website, but what I did was to test out his "board dressing" concept, which seems intuitive but is rarely something you come across in recipes.  Yes, a good pan sauce is common and makes a ton of difference in the kitchen, but when it comes to grilling, most recipes just suggest to let your meat rest and soak in its own juices before slicing--and that's it.

Lang's concept is to have a bit of sauce to spread on the cutting board before you let the meat rest, and "layering" on more flavor.  Here's a simplified approach I took:

First, I grilled some skirt steak with minimal seasoning (salt & pepper).  For the board dressing, I mixed some teriyaki sauce with garlic salt and chili powder, and spread it across my cutting board:

I then placed the skirt steak on the board to rest for about 10 minutes as you would normally do with steak:

Finally, I sliced the skirt steak across the grain (essential basic for skirt steak, brisket, etc.--look this up if you aren't familiar) and tossed the slices a bit around the "dressing":

This seems like a simplistic technique and an obvious thing to do, but I never read recipes that suggest anything like this (not that I go by recipes that much anymore).  What Lang does with his book is present a series of steps like this that he uses in a multi-step process that opens up a whole new set of flavors--even seasoned grillers should learn something from it.  He finishes the book with slew of great little side dish recipes that complete the meals.

I recommend this book highly and look forward to more food experimentation using the techniques!

Great Meatloaf Recipe

Despite all my cooking experiments, I don't recall ever making meatloaf, but wanted to introduce my kids to this all-American comfort food!  I just didn't want to use my mom's or grandma's dried out versions (my mom is unlikely to Google this post and my grandma is long gone, RIP!). 

I adapted a recipe from one of my favorite Food Network authorities, Alton Brown, and did the following:

 

Here I mixed up a couple of pounds of a meat blend from Casey's Foods in Naperville, IL, (http://caseysfoods.com/), which is 1/3 ground chuck, 1/3 veal, and 1/3 pork.  I added two eggs, a bit of salt, and about a TBSP of chopped cayenne pepper that I grew on my patio.  A cool tip from the original recipe is to use a half cup of ground BBQ potato chips chopped in a food processor instead of the usual bread crumbs to add flavor and texture.  I went the extra mile by mixing in a 1/4 cup of mirepoix (look it up) of finely chopped and sauteed onion, carrot, and garlic, but you can probably skip this by dashing in a bit of garlic salt instead. 

I formed the meat into two "logs" to fix my pan and lit the charcoal grill; see the photo to see how I grilled it indirectly, though I cooked it right over the coals for the first 20 minutes or so in the pan.  I also added some sliced jalapenos so my son and I could get some heat (my daughter won't go there!).  You'll need to use your own judgement about cooking on a grill or in an oven.  Overall it cooked about 20 minutes directly over the coals while in the pan, then another 15-20 indirectly away from the coals.  Flip it once.  Only once if possible.  Don't overwork your meat :)  Just throw it all in the oven for 40-50 minutes on maybe 350 if you don't want to bother with the grill. 

The baste is simply 3/4 cup ketchup and a bit of worcestershire sauce mixed in. It all went over really well, especially when with a little extra sauce around for topping the sandwiches we ended up making out of the meatloaf!  Definitely awesome on the grill! 

Tips for Home Cooks--Roasting Chicken, Curing Salmon at Home, etc.

In the last few years I've been doing a lot of reading about cooking and have improved a lot of things in my home cooking.  I humbly present my first set of tips for home cooks who want some simple ways to boost what they can do, some of which I've already posted about (see the links highlighted):

• Roast a chicken every week, enjoy it with sides and maybe a gravy from the drippings, and use the extra meat for either a chicken noodle soup or shred the leftover meat for a taco filling.  Substitute rotisserie chicken from a store if easier.

• Use leftover french bread that is getting a little stale by chopping it up and tossing it like crutons in a salad with vinegarette, or use the chunks to thicken a soup.  Even simply heating up chicken broth with some leftover bread will warm you up and be an easy snack.

• Pat dry sea scallops for sauteeing, otherwise they won't sear and just poach lamely in all the water they release upon cooking. 

• Saute onions!  Just slice white or yellow onions thinly and saute them in olive oil until the have a nice mix of carmelization and sweetness while retaining a bit of crunch.  Use medium to high heat but reduce before burning them.  With some experience this can become the number one topping for your burgers and chicken breast sandwiches. 

• Cure your own salmon--buy a good, fresh piece and rub a mix of salt and brown sugar all over it, then rub in a splash of rum or whiskey.  Wrap it tight and in two days you'll have a delicious filet you can thinly slice into lox.  Place it atop a traditional bagel & cream cheese, or go for a BLA--bagel, lox, and avocado (mash avocado and lemon juice as a topping, and add slices of tomato and red onion to complete it)

Braised Oxtail Ragout on Pastina

On a recent episode of Drive-Ins, Diners, and Dives on Food Network I saw a chef create a really interesting braised oxtail dish atop risotto.  I recreated it fairly successfully by first braising some oxtails over very low heat with some beef broth.

After the oxtails simmered for a couple of hours, I sauteed onion, carrot, and garlic in olive oil until fairly soft (the garlic, of course, went in after the onion and carrots had partially cooked already).

I then added some tomato sauce and red wine, shown clearly in this highly professional photo!  (note, if someone wants to get me a Christmas gift, then you probably know what I need!)

I drained the oxtails and let them cool, and when the sauce had reduced to a syrupy texture, I shredded strips of the meat on top of some pastina I made (risotto is probably better but I am not good at it and it's more time consuming).

I then poured the ragout on top of the meat and ate a very tasty dish!

Pork Tenderloin on the Grill

Last night I managed to pull off some pretty solid late fall grilling for my kids; I grilled this pork tenderloin and roasted some potatoes.  My kids wanted some grilled apple slices as well, which are shown here in the picture alongside my sweet 10" (26cm) Wusthof chef's knife, would could almost double as a sword:

The sauce is my simple honey mustard, but I improved it with a kick of soy sauce this time around.

Very satisfying!

Whole Hog in Ecuador (from 1996)

15 years ago I traveled to Ecuador for some more explorations of the Andes, Incan ruins, and cultural experiences (I had been to Peru the year before).  I dug up and scanned this great photo of a whole roasted pig used to make dishes at a street food stall in a market, likely in the capital, Quito.  I love how the head is still there and the eye is just staring you down, daring you to sample his delicious roasted flesh!  (click once on the image to enlarge it) In the States we'd just shred the pork, put it in a big aluminum pan with some sternos underneath, and keep the actual carcass hidden from the average diner.  My guess is that in some cultures they aren't so squeamish about knowing the real source of their food, and having the head in full display shows that this is pork was cooked right there on the spot!