food stuff
Seasoned with salt, pepper, garlic and some spicy montreal steak seasoning.
It was cold and windy. Had trouble keeping temps up. I left the chicken in the foil pan during the cooking.
Did some simple roasted potatoes. First added some peanut oil, then the same rub as the chicken. Roasted in oven at 375 for about an hour. Basically till they were getting brown. Stir once after 30 minutes.
I forgot to get the finished pics as it was getting late.
Some pics of the chicken the next day.
The strip loin roast came out pretty near perfect for Christmas. To recap, I started with a 16.5 pound roast that I picked up from Sam’s club. After trimming it, it was probably closer to 15 lbs.
The trimmings.
Seasoned with salt, pepper, garlic and some lawry’s seasoning salt.
Wrapped it back up and let it sit in the fridge till Christmas morning. I think it got about 36 hours or so to sit in the seasoning. Christmas morning after the kids opened their gifts, onto the grill. Temps were running about 275-325 during the cook. Smoked for about an hour and a half until roast reach 120. Wrapped it up and off to the grandparents.
Roast was finished in the oven at 500 degrees for about 10 minutes.
After resting, the roast got to 140 degrees internal which was a bit higher than I was shooting for, but it came out really well.
Made some au jus to go with it. Had a pan under the roast in the drill with some onion, leeks, garlic, carrots, tomato paste, my homemade beef stock, and some salt and pepper. This was finished on the stove with some corn starch to thicken it just a bit and a dash of worcestershire sauce. No pics.
Made a ham Sunday
Left overs
Ham soup
Ingredients – black pepper, beef broth, tomato paste, onion, garlic, carrots, green onion, and some beans
I sauteed onions and garlic in some reserved ham fat, then added about 2 cups of beef broth, a can of tomato paste and the left over ham. Add water to cover then brought to boil. Reduce to simmer and let cook for a couple hours. Add in vinegar to taste then 3 cans of beans and some sliced carrots. Simmer for about an hour. I also added some green onions cause I had them.
While that was cooking, it was time to prep the Strip loin for Christmas. Trimmed the roast.
Scraps
Seasoned with salt, pepper, garlic, and Lawrys seasoning salt. Wrapped and back in the fridge for a good 24 hours.
Save-a-lot ran an add this week for a Rib Roast for $4.99 per lb. Thought I would check it out and see if I could find a decent one to do as a practice roast this week in preparation for next week. I think they had two in the case. One was about 3 lbs but had zero marbling so I decided to pass. They also had some eye of the round at a decent price so I picked up one that was about 3.5 lbs. Seasoned it last night with salt, pepper, and Olde Thompson steak and burger seasoning, then vac sealed it. I will be cooking this either tonight or tomorrow.
I always wanted to try this french dip au jus, so picked it up with some cheap beef broth.
There is a lot of sodium here. For Christmas I will be using my beef stock and adjust the ingredients if I like the flavor profile of this concoction.
Also here is this year’s Christmas tree.
Update – Cooked the roast last night. First thing, the Au Jus was not good. Had a heavy soy sauce taste that was off putting. I made it per instructions. After I tried to dilute it with the beef broth and some shallots to try to even out the taste, but it was a lost cause. It got dumped.
The roast I smoked until internal was 135. Temperature started around 340 and I just let it ride out without adding any more wood. Towards the end it was running at 260 or so. I did not time it. The flavor was very good and I would say it came out about medium after resting. The roast was in the vacuum pack with the seasoning for almost 48 hours which I think helped with the flavor.
Picked up the roast for Christmas. This year we will be doing a whole strip loin.
Started making a huge batch of beef stock last night.
Ingredients:
10 lbs soup meat with bones
Carrots
One head of garlic
2 onions
8-10 stalks of celery
Spices: Salt, pepper, rosemary, thyme, basil, bay leaves
Rubbed the meat with oil, salt, and pepper then roasted in 450 degree oven till browned. Put meat in stock pot and covered with water. Roasted the veggies on the same pan till browned then put them into the pot. Bring to boil then reduce to simmer. Cooked all night. Strain or remove meat, bones, and veg from pot then reduce. Still working on reducing.
Picked up two extra thick cut steaks. Each steak was a bit over 2 lbs. Total weight was 4.6 lbs. They were labelled as porterhouse, but one was more like a t-bone in size. Seasoned with salt. pepper. and Olde Thompson Steak and Burger seasoning.
https://www.oldethompson.com/product-details.aspx?ProductID=532&PageID=23
Got some wood going in the offset to use as coals in the main cooking chamber. Started the steaks indirect then finished with a sear.
I ordered some firewood from Madden Brothers to use in the smoker. Stacked it all yesterday while doing some other stuff outside and smoked a pork shoulder.
The shoulder I smothered normal yellow mustard on then covered with Oakridge BBQ black ops since I had it on hand. I mixed up a mopping sauce based on this recipe, but instead of using apple juice, I used apple sauce (since we had some) and I added some mustard.
http://amazingribs.com/recipes/BBQ_sauces/lexington_dip.html
I started it kind of late about 1:30 PM, so I ran the smoker in the 325 range for 8-9 hours. Came out really nice and pulled very easy.
Making some hot sauce with some of the peppers I grew this year. I already pickled some jalapenos. The recipe is based on Emeril’s recipe found
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/emeril-lagasse/homemade-red-hot-sauce-recipe.html
Below is the mix of peppers
– Red/Green jalapenos
– Super Cayenne
– Some little peppers I forgot the name of
– 6 Ghost peppers
Trimmed the tops and into the pot with onion, garlic, a handfull of baby carrots and some peanut oil. Saute for a few minutes.
Add kosher salt and 6 cups of water (or enough to come up to the top of the peppers)
Cook out the liquid and let cool to room temp.
Use a stick blender or food processor to process to desired thickness while adding one cup of white vinegar. Taste. I added a bit more salt and two teaspoons of sugar to help round out the flavors.
Recipe calls for letting this age in the fridge for two weeks but so far it has a real nice flavor and heat.
Rubbed the pork with kosher salt and montreal steak seasoning. Covered the top with slice onions so they would render as the roast cooked. Cooked indirect for a little over two ours till internal temp was 145. Covered and let rest for 30-40 minutes.
