September 2004 Archives

image: Hoffman Farms Quail stuffed with pork sausage and wild mushrooms. Smoked with hickory & applewood.

And this time I oiled the grill racks well so the little dudes wouldn't stick. They take less than an hour to cook and come out so darned nicely. A splendid package indeed.
What I'd like to see is how one removes the rib bones, that's fancy cuttin'. It was a direct bite in to the breast meat and down in to the sausage & mushrooms, makes it even nicer.
Got wholloped in the eye lid with a good sized chunk of burning mesquite last night, made my eyeball all sore. Made it past my eye glasses it did, POW. Like an asteroid er somethin'. Ouch.

Be sure to check out the special roast Fatted Calf has this week. Plus there is an upcoming wine related even next Wednesday. You go, you have fun.

MeatHenge will be out camping for a few days. Get out an enjoy the weather while you can.

Read the newsletter:

Last Thursday I received an email from Kim, she used to work at Fatted Calf and now works for Stonehouse Olive Oil Company. It was an innocent little email, the subject header only read, "have you seen this?" The body contained an url to an article. SOUTH TO NORTH, Smoking chipotles can become a great habit, written by Jacqueline Higuera McMahan. I read through the article a few times, I love the little smoky beasts. It seemed innocent enough, but I knew better. It isn't easy maintaining a low temperature fire (under 200 degrees) for long periods of time. I wasn't interested at first, but after doing a little research I decided to go for it, immediately.

Last week, during the Time Capsule adventures, Grampa & Gramma mentioned something about a recipe that included putting an entire lemon in a game hen. It'd have to be a small lemon, fer sure. Well, this last weekend I had a big chicken and a big lemon, it was time.

Well, actually the newsletter rolled in last night. I crawled in to bed around 10pm making a mental list of the things I want to get on Saturday morning. Money is a bit tight, so I have to really hunker down and make sure I only get what I need. First off, this week's special are the Hoffman Farms sausage stuffed quail and this week they gots tons of mushrooms along with that fancy sausage. I figure I'll get a few of those. I would like to get a portion of that Pate de Campagne, mark that down. I've got a jar of Sugo Di Carne already, so I don't need one quite yet. And absolutely won't leave without a nice portion of the Salame Toscano. In the past I've noticed Taylor or Ian pack something that isn't on the menu, so I'll do some poking around once I arrive. Again, try to get there at least by 10am and most surely by 11am.

The Fatted Calf ...

Most everyone loves beef tri-tip roast, smoked, grilled or otherwise. From what I hear, Californians have really pioneered this cut. Robert in New Orleans says finding a tri-tip locally is damned tough if not impossible. And when he did find one, the butcher asked if he was from California. Yeah well, I found a way to improve the cut. Add cured pork (see above).

Here we see lamb crepinettes searing over a mesquite fire.

HA !!! Boy, I'll bet the staff at Fatted Calf were moving slow on Monday, Tuesday and probably feeling much clearer by Wednesday. That was one heck of a party and getting ready to sell meat this coming Saturday just can't possibly be something to look forward to. Even so, they will be at the Farmer's Market on Saturday holding down the fort.

onward ...

Yes you are correct. I have posted several ways of dealing with a pork shoulder roast, bone in and otherwise. Yes you are correct, they came out very pleasingly and worth the time and effort. Even so, I would really like to get something mouth watering explosive right out of the smoker. This means you don't need to shred it and fry it in lard with more spices. Which is fine, believe me. But I want a large thick hunk of meat to have stunning mouth splitting flavor from the center all the way out to the edges. This time, I succeeded.

The Fatted Calf & Hog Island Oyster Co. Picnic was set for September 12th, 10:30am SHARP out in Marshall California. More specifically Marshall Boatworks right on HWY 1 just up the road a piece from Pt. Reyes Station on Tomales Bay. We'd been having a heatwave, 94 degrees on a daily basis going on 2 weeks. Not Sunday morning it wasn't, we're talking heavy over cast with some icky looking darker clouds. Didn't matter, if Fatted C. & Hog Island were involved I would have taken a taxi out that windy road for one and a half hours.

What do you do when you buy a three pack of lean pork roasts from Costco and have a delivery of fresh organic vegetables featuring a large sack of tomatillos?!?! Make Chile Verde!

Aaaiieee !! It's today! September 10th that Chef Benjamin Christie's new television cooking show premiers. For those of you in Asia able to watch ABC Asia Pacific, please TIVO Dining Downunder.

Check out some of the highlighted recipes for this season:

Mud crab and paperbark smoked kumara gnocchi
Japanese pumpkin frittata with baby rocket and bush tomato chutney
Panfried monkfish with bunya nut hash and macadamia nut pesto
Wattleseed pavlova with riberry syrup
Bread and butter pudding with stewed quandong

Go check out his web site and read his Bio, the man may be a youngin but he's accomplished a lot. One of which being appointed to the position of Executive Sous Chef at Laguna Bintan, which comprises of 3 luxury properties on the Island of Bintan off Singapore.

I'm hoping his show will hit the states on PBS soon, something this good will surely be passed over by FoodTv. (even typing that makes me say, "blech")

I'm sure Ben will do just fine, probably nervous the first few shows. But he'll roll and come out just fine.

Good luck!

Yay! Finally an image of Fatted Calf's meat on a Fatted Calf Newsletter post!

Ya know, sometimes when you eat the same ol' thing each week you get kinda tired of it. At some point you'll find yourself eating a nice big bowl of corn flakes instead. And some times you find yourself plotting for that meal again. Yeah well, it turns out Taylor decided to put sausage stuffed quail BACK on the menu for this week!
YOU GET ANOTHER CHANCE !!!! Please please please, don't miss this opportunity to get yer quail. I know they're small, but they gots sausage and a juicy fig inside. So wonderful.

Get thee to the Berkeley Farmer's Market Saturday morning by 10am or LOSE.

Grilling/Smoking Tip: Handle these birds carefully and make damned sure your grill surface is greased well. They're tender little bastards and will break & explode at a moments notice. If they do, don't panick. It'll still turn out FINE. Just be aware.
They don't take long to cook either, I found even smoking them with hickory I was able to pull them at 50 minutes easy. I easily could have done only 45 minutes. Stick your temperature probe in to the cavity, where the stuffed sausage is. I pulled it just before 180 F.

on with the show ...

Joe Bob heads out to Wheat Ridge Colorado.

I have been meaning to stop in here at El Jaliciense for ages and since I just
left the Arvada Arts Center seeing a cool car show.....
Ordered up pork chops with iced tea for Sunday lunch. I was the only gringo
in the place so I was hopeful.

Route 66 from Oklahoma City to Tulsa...July 2004

I was enroute from New Mexico to Tulsa and decided to take old Route 66 from Oklahoma City to Tulsa. It sort of follows the newer toll road but is a great way to see the real OK. They had lots of rain the week before so everything was green and muddy with red clay soil. Beautiful drive and food along the way.
Right away near Welston....I came upon Pioneer BBQ.

Hi, I'm Mrs. Meathead and I will be your hostess for today.

Today, the Friday before Labor Day, I am "working from home." And usually when I'm "working from home" myself and Mr. Meathead take the opportunity to go out to fancy lunches we normally wouldn't have the opportunity to have. Our recent favorite restaurant is just behind our house, "Saigon Seafood Harbor." We have the great pleasure of having the parking lot to the Pacific East Mall in Richmond as our backyard. Well "Saigon" isn't in the mall, it is next to it. So we drove there. It is huge, with lots of parking. And they need it because this place hops. For lunch, go no later than 11:30am, for dinner, no later than 5:30pm. Or you will be cranky.

Hey hey hey. Some very cool things happening at the end of this week. First, click on the pretty image above and check out that way cool 'watermark'. It's a Meathenge watermark! That's really cool just so you know or need to pass that along.
Secondly, The Fatted Calf has Lamb Crepinettes this week! I believe that's a first and since we're having a family meal on Monday, I'm going to get 10! Better get there soon on Saturday morning, you gotta beat me. These Crepinettes have lemon, olives & mint. How awesome is that? Very.

Joe Bob calls in this one from ... Walsenburg

On the way to NM in July 2004....going through Walsenburg Colorado....

Andy Popejoy's BBQ

Screeched to a halt when I saw this place. They advertised a smoked Tamale that sounded interesting. The gal inside was braying into the phone forever and several folks left. I stuck it out for my one tamale. It was smoky.....like smoked yesterday and reheated maybe?
Interesting smoky murky musty flavor. I would like a fresh one next time. The Q was out to the side in its own carport hut affair. Not going either.

I think this place is worth another visit. Downtown Walsenburg. Can't miss it.

Welp, it was time to smoke the little quails. I spent some time after work cleaning out the smoker, getting things ready. This year has seen a lot of meat run through the beast and it needs looking after. I got the fire started a little later than I had planned, but after seeing how tiny these little stuffed quails were I figured I had more time to fuss.
I used mesquite as my main heat source with large chunks of raw hickory to bring up the flavor side.
And boy did we get flavor, let me tell you whut.