Amazing Cheese and Butter Bread

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If there ever were a contest for the best bread that you ever ate this recipe would place in the top three.

Ingredients:

Bread Dough
4+ TBSP Unsalted Butter 
6+ Ounces Parmesan/Romano Cheese  
Oven Safe Parchment Paper

Pull or cut off chucks of the dough and roll into balls about the size of 1 1/2 large eggs.  One by one, roll them in a bowl of melted butter and then roll in a separate bowl consisting of the cheese.  Be somewhat generous with the butter and cheese but don’t go overboard.

Place them into a parchment lined bowl and top the dough balls and drizzle with any leftover butter and sprinkle with cheese.  Let rise for 45 minutes.

Place a lidded dutch oven “pot” into the oven in the center rack and heat the oven to 450 degrees. 

Remove pot from the hot oven with pot holders and remove the lid.  Pick up the dough balls from the bowl by holding onto the edges of the parchment paper and place into the pot.

Cover the pot and return to the oven for 30 minutes. Remove the bread from the pot, discard the paper and immediately place the bread back into the pot and return it to the oven uncovered. Bake for an additional 15 minutes. 

Remove the pot and using tongs remove the bread and place on a rack to cool. 

Pull off individual balls and enjoy. 




Cream Corn

Cream Corn
Cream corn has never been one of my favorite side dishes but after having a bowl full at a Houston BBQ restaurant I have been convinced otherwise. 
I made mine according to the recipe posted on Allrecipes.com but with a pinch each of Tarragon and Rosemary. 

BBQ Pork Belly

I have recently been reading several articles that spout the virtues of pork belly so I decided to give it a try but trying to find a pork belly is not the easiest thing to find in stock at your local grocery store. I checked a source two on the Internet and the prices ranged from 15-50 dollars per pound. For me these costs were outrageously outrageous. Seriously folks, how many of us can afford $50.00 per pound for fatty pork.
I made some inquires with grocery stores near my home (a few miles from New Orleans) when amazingly I found a Winn Dixie store who had one. The meat market manager told me that he had received an order from someone who wanted three belly’s but since there were four to a case he had the remaining one in the freezer.
It was a tad bit more than 14 Lbs and much more than I had planned on buying and obviously that’s a bunch of belly and I was worried about the cost. I had hoped that the per pound cost would be somewhere in the $5-$6 bracket I was shocked when he charged me $2.08 per pound.
Enough about that; so what exactly is a pork belly? Well its exactly that, the belly of a pig that is most often used to create one of the tastiness pieces of meat known as… Bacon.
To make bacon, the pork belly is cured and cold smoked, but for BBQ it is not cured or brined but smoked for hours until the fat had rendered and the meat is as tender as a fine steak. Just think of BBQed pork belly as high-end pulled pork from a pork butt.
I trimmed the belly into several manageable pieces leaving one large piece to cook but since this was the only piece of meat that I was cooking I used my Weber Performer Deluxe instead of my Weber 22 inch WSM.
I set up the Performer fueled with Kingston charcoal and hickory chunks and hoped to smoke the belly at 225-250 degrees but that was not working. Suffice it to say, 300 degrees worked without a hiccup.
After about three hours in the Performer the belly had a significant amount of smoke but was still tough, so I double wrapped it in foil and put it in the oven set at 225 degrees.
After about an hour I was enjoying the wonderful smell of BBQ pork in my kitchen so I pulled it from the oven. It was oh so tender so I stripped it of its foil and placed to on a cooling rack to set.
With fat rendered, the succulent and juicy belly meat was indeed a culinary experience.

Fried Shrimp Sandwich

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The primary ingredients are a quality bread, raw shelled and deveined shrimp, tartar sauce, Knoriko Creole Seasoning and Frank’s REDHOT sauce.  The seasoning and hot sauce can be substituted for a brand of your liking. 

The Process:

Make the Tartar sauce:

1/2 cups Mayo
2 TBS finely diced dill pickles
1 TBS White Wine Vinegar 
1 TBS Capers finely diced
1 tsp coarse ground mustard
1 pinch ground pepper
Refrigerate immediately

In a frying pan add enough vegetable oil to cover the shrimp when frying, about 1/2 inch deep should be sufficient.  Heat to 350 degrees.

Measure out enough flour to roll the shrimp in twice and add in enough seasoning based on your particular tolerance for salt. Prepare a pan or shallow bowl and beat one egg with a little milk to make a bath. 

Dry the shrimp on paper towels and coat once in the flour.  Add the shrimp to the egg bath, ensure that they are coated evenly and then immediately return them to the flour mixture for another roll.  

Place the shrimp in the hot oil and fry until cooked through.  This usually takes only a minute or two depending on the size of the shrimp. Remove and drain on paper towels. 

Spread the tartar sauce on the bread, add the shrimp and sprinkle with the hot sauce.  

Enjoy!

Hot Dog – The Legendary Tubesteak

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Nothing screams “America” more than baseball and hot dogs so in celebration of Independence Day 2015, I make this culinary tribute to the legendary tubesteak. 

You may have to ponder the many choices of toppings such as yellow mustard, spicy brown mustard or chili and cheese.  But life’s too short for compromise so I went with them all on not one, but two, four ounce – 11 inch Schickhaus dogs.

Enjoy your Independence Day!  


  








Scotch Egg Recipe

scotch eggs recipe


In all honesty I had never heard of Scotch Eggs before I saw them on Chef John’s food blog but I immediately knew that I had to make them even if it were only for the experience.

In a nutshell, Scotch eggs are (at least in this case) steamed eggs with the shell removed, covered with Italian sausage, then rolled in flour, egg and Panko bread crumbs and fried one at a time in vegetable oil. 

At first blush you may think that it would be difficult to engulf the egg in a protective covering of sausage without piercing them but it really isn’t all that difficult if you practice a little patience and follow Chef John’s technique. 

Accompanied by a sauce consisting of mayonnaise and Dijon mustard this is a rich, savory and crispy treat.  But as Chef John commented, becareful when you go in for your first bite ’cause that pretty egg yolk can be as hot as molten lava. 

     

Avgolemeno Soup

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If you like the flavor of lemon, Arborio rice and chicken then this soup is worth trying.  Thick like a porridge or thin like soup it’s a winner and sure to satisfy.  

For mine, I used a very straight forward and easy recipe provided by Chef John at Foodwishes.com.  All ‘ya gotta do is follow the link below for the instructional video. 

Makes 6 Servings Avgolemeno Soup: 

1 whole chicken, about 3 pounds
3 quarts cold water
2 tsp salt at least, plus more to taste
1 onion, chopped
1 carrot, chopped
2 ribs celery, chopped
2 bay leaves
1/4 tsp dried oregano leaves
2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
2 cups finely diced onion
2/3 to 3/4 cup Arborio rice, depending on how thick you like it
1/2 cup fresh lemon juice
2 large eggs
1/2 tsp freshly ground pepper
pinch of cayenne


Food Wishes

  

Pork Chops with an Asian BBQ Glaze

Cooking pork chops should be easy but often they are dried out and tough but they don’t have to be.  I recently found a remedy by following Chef Buck’s procedure which can be found at the link provided below.  The glaze recipe is complements of Cooks Illustrated.

Glaze for 2 chops

1 Tbs Ketchup
1 Tbs Hoisin Sauce
1 Tbs Rice Vinegar
1 Tbs packed light brown sugar
1 Tbs soy sauce
1 Tbs sesame oil
1 tsp Asian chili-garlic sauce
1/2 tsp grated fresh ginger

1 1/2 inch thick pork chops

Fry chops in an oven proof pan with 2 tbs of olive or vegetable oil at high temp for 5 minutes

Turn the chop over and fry for an additional 5 minutes adding additional oil if necessary

Place pan in a 350 degree preheated oven for 5 minutes

Remove from the oven, plate and let the chops rest for at least 5 minutes

Top the chops with a judicious amount of the glaze (much less than pictured)

Serve with a cup of glaze on the side

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mAjlfkzr2sg&list=PLWQmw8wY3TOeaIPCTihQHRuQGSMvYoNAK

Crème Fraîche (creme fraiche)

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Making Crème Fraîche is as difficult as adding sugar to your coffee or tea…seriously!

But what is Crème Fraîche?  Essentially it is a mild tasting sour cream but with a dose of sophistication. 

Why should I make it.  Well there are two reasons.  First look at the ingredients of your store bought sour cream and the second reason is that you can use it like sour cream but it won’t curdle when added to hot gravy’s, soups or the like.  And thirdly, it’s really cool to make something on the cheap that costs big bucks at the grocery store.   
 

Recipe:
2 cup heavy cream “pasteurized,” not “ultra-pasteurized” 
3 Tbs cultured buttermilk

Gently stir the two ingredients together and let sit on your counter in a warm place for about 24 hours with a loose covering such as a paper coffee filter or paper towel. 
Cover and refrigerate for a 24 hours.   
That’s all folks!
If you want to know what you can make with Crème Fraîche try this link.  



 

Homemade French Fries (Cooks Illustrated)

From CI’s America Test Kitchen…no variations to the recipe please…none at all!

1.  Use only Yukon Gold potatoes, don’t remove the skin
2.  Slice into 1/4 x 1/4″ planks
3. Place the fries into a pot and cover with room temp Peanut Oil and add some bacon grease for superior taste if available
4. Turn burner on high until the oil is boiling 
5. Start timer and don’t touch the fries for 15 minutes!

6. After 15 minutes gently stir the fries frequently taking great care not to break the fries for an additional 10 minutes
7. Remove the fries to drain on paper towels and sprinkle with salt, vinegar, Cayenne or whatever you want.