Recently in supper Category

I wasn't quite sure if I was going to post this or not, but since the images came out and I did a few things differently this time I thought I would offer it up.

I've been wanting to do a whole chicken in the crock-pot since I did the pork, yesterday was the day. I called it Eyeball Chicken because I opened the fridge and looked for, then grabbed stuff. No measuring, used my eyeball for portion control. I did use a lot of the ingredients and portions from my Crock-pot pork shoulder taco heaven - Or, I did it, I did it, I did it !!!

As previously stated, ya can't just dump stuff in to the pot and walk away, you must do some extra things to bring everything up. Meaning, after cooking for 3 or 4 hours, the chicken was not brown or appealing to say the least. I jacked my oven up to 550, installed the bird to a cookie sheet with a cooling rack, popped it in the oven for 15 minutes, worked like a charm.

Before you prep anything, put your cup of broth or beer in the pot and jack the heat, high or low.

Whole chicken - washed dried and trussed - rub with favorite rub - s&p, granulated onion, dried parsely and ground celery seed, whatever.

liquid - 1 cuppa - add to pot, turn on
carrots - peeled & sliced
celery - peeled a bit and sliced
onion - mine was big so didn't add it all
mushrooms - sliced a few times - way less than bite size
garlic - as much as you want, smooshed then sliced once
tomatillos - brown in broiler

I realize my choice of ingredients here pretty basic, except maybe for the tomatillos. Am still attempting to get my process down, then I can move on. Ya dork.

Install veggies to warming pot, lay trussed and rubbed chicky over the top. Install lid and walk away until everything is done, mine was on high for nearly 3.5 to 4 hours.

Sigh, looks like your typical crock-pot meal, the chicken was really pale and the broth was thin. What to do?

The chicken needed color, decided not to use the propane torch, figured I'd burn the rub. So, I jacked my oven's temp to 550, rack in the middle. I needed it hot and fast as the chicken was already done, had to get the heat everywhere at once. Used a cookie sheet with a steel cooking rack, installed chicken to oven for 15 minutes.

Separate the veggies from the broth, reduce broth by 1/2, added a little salt. I could have used a thickener to bring it to a gravy, but there were quite a bit of veggies left, quite a bit. Dumped half the veggie supply in to the broth and used the motorboat to whiz everything to the consistency you see in the spoon above. While it did have more of a vegetable taste to it, there was plenty of broth and chicken fat to bring it around nicely.

I found with a little bit of work before and after can really offer up some great results. It was just me and Z for dinner, but nearly the entire bird was gone in 30 minutes, it was that good. I know what you're thinking punk. "Oh Biggles, if I'm going to brown the meat or go to that much trouble at the end, I might as well just use the oven or stove-top." I get that, I do. But you see, what you're doing is breaking up all the work so you can go do something else for the rest of the day. And, if you're late coming back, or forget to come home due to beers, it's no big deal.

xo, Biggles

Here's the post I was talking about yesterday, did this a week ago or more.

Been looking for a simple crock-pot recipe/method, something that didn't require too much effort. I have learned though, that one really should take the extra few minutes to brown this and/or that, reduce a juice, do a little more than just dump, cook and pray. I did it.

I'm still in the experimentation stage, so headed out to find some stunt meat. Something inexpensive and easy to deal with, a pork butt. My local grocery had some mystery butt in a clingy net, perfect. For all the reasons stated above, and because it was portioned in to an equal log of meat. I could count on the same cooking time from end to end, non-confrontational.

My Crock-pot is a 5 quart rig.

Pork butt - 4 to 5 pounds
BBQ dry rub
Flour
Carrots - 4-5 peeled & sliced
Celery - 2-3 stalks peeled & sliced
Onion - 1 whole - mediumish
Garlic - Fresh as much as you like (4-6 cloves depending on size), smooshed - whole
Chicken broth - 1 cup

If you're actually reading this for a tidbit of juicy goodness for procedure, there is at least one thing in there you might enjoy. See if you can find it.

Either bring the meat to near room temp or not, considering how long this sucker takes to cook it probably doesn't matter. I didn't and it came out perfect.

Install broth to crock pot and turn to high or low depending on how fast or slow you want this to go. Clean, prep and slice all your veggies (not the dry rub) and install to pot for the pre-heat process.

Get your cast iron pan hot with some oil in there, maybe 3 swirls around the pan. Pat the roast generously with the BBQ dry rub. Then, roll the sucker with flour. Shake a bit to get any excess off, but make sure the roast is covered in both. Install to pan and brown well, 6 minutes a side?

Install your butt to the crock and put the lid on, yer done.

8 some odd hours later, when your butt is soft and juicy, pull. Remove netting, using two forks shred the sucker, set aside. Strain the bits from the juice using a strainer of some ilk, use a fat strainer and get rid of the liquid fat (there's enough already even for me) reduce juice by maybe 1/4 to 1/3. Combine everything together in the large stock pot you used to reduce. And here's the tidbit I mentioned earlier, add more of your BBQ dry rub to the meat & juice slurry.

Here's the scoop, it doesn't matter if you're smoking, grilling or roasting a large hunk of meat, getting your spicy flavors to the internal portions isn't possible unless you're injecting. I've tried injecting and it's a pain in the butt, so to speak and doesn't deliver the flavors I can get by adding a little of the dry rub later on. Try it.

Simmer a little more and you're done. Do with it what you will.

With little effort, this will work with any cut of meat that lends itself to a long cooking time. Even the boys did a face plant in the meat and devoured it.

I bless this recipe and method,

The Good Reverend Doctor Biggles

I really can't take any credit here, the crock-pot did it. Or should I say, didn't do it. Actually, it is my fault I didn't follow the recipe. In my defense, I rarely if ever follow any recipe.

As everyone knows I bought a crock-pot a few weeks ago and came up with this, Is it a crock, or not? I'm finding more crock than not. I'm okay with it now, it's become the Zen of failing or not having much control over what I cook, it feels good. Last week April mentioned something about wanting to have a decent beef stew recipe for her crock-pot, but didn't want to end up browning the meat first, translucentizing the veggies and whatever else took place outside of the pot. Me being the Meat Buffoon that I can be, decided to break the rules and try making a beef stew by putting everything in the crock-pot without doing anything to it. Just to see what I came up with, basically reinventing the wheel. Sure I could have done the typical "research" on the internets, but couldn't be bothered.

I did something really silly, this time, for this recipe. I knew the flour would need to be a part of the ingredient list for the subtle thickish sauce that we all crave in any good stew. But I wasn't going to take the time to brown anything and end up cleaning a 35 pound cast iron fry pan in the process. All I wanted to clean was a knife and a cutting board, that was it. Um, so I dredged the meat in flour, then just plopped the meat in along with everything else. I did do one thing I was pretty impressed with, pre-heated the crock-pot. Add liquid and turn the sucker on, brilliant!

Ingredients:

Beef Stew Meat - 2 pounds (make bite sized or not, don't matter. Looks like you get 50%+ shrinkage anyway).

A.P. Flour - 1/2 cup (makes a nice mess on your fingers and in your kitchen)

Onion - 1 Yellow er White - (I like the white ones)

Carrots - 4 - Peel & Slice

Celery - 3 - Peel a little of the ribbing and slice

Fresh Garlic - All you want (I did 5 big cloves)

Bay Leaves - 1 or 2 (I didn't have any, so didn't use them)

Salt - Kosher (add it)

Fresh ground black pepper - Grind it (add it)

Worchestershire Sauce - 1 tsp?

Chicken broth - 3/4 cup

Good hearty red wine - 1/4 cup

Note: Mess with whatever you want, but I suggest keeping the liquid amounts there.

Huh, lookie there. Sounds like a great beef soup recipe, don't it?

After it was done, put a colander over a large pot and separated the bits from the juice. Used a fat separator thingy on the juice, put to stove and jacked the heat a bit. I reduced it until it tasted ... flippen fantastic ! Woot. Reinstalled everything together and let cool, install to fridge for the next day.

Keeripes, that was most excellent. Both Z and I tore in to it like to rabid 3-legged weevils. So, I made beef soup. Duh. The flavors and textures were a lot more complex than one might think after so many hours and so little care, thought, effort. The small amount of wine added quite a bit of action to the final product, don't leave that out.

xo, Biggles

I remember way back when, nearly 30 years ago. My mother went through a few crock-pots and recipes, I did my own searching. Mostly I escaped the grasp because I wasn't able to fuss with my food during the cooking period. You get what you get, no chance for tasting, changing direction and/or redirecting to a final end that tasted as good as you could do in the oven or stove-top.

As with any situation, time changes everything. I need help. No longer do I have hours in the late afternoon and evening to give what I want to eat and serve to my boys. I would really like to have something tasty and somewhat healthy at the end of the day wherein I would really like to only serve or cook rice, er mashed taters. I figured maybe the crock-pot would have another life here at Meathenge Labs.

Earlier today I picked up a large 5 quart rig, it was time. They feel as cheap as they ever were (no longer in the color of an avacado) But with the internet, I figured I could find some guidelines to use the damned thing. Nope! Between the included recipes and what I've initially found on the net is quite the contrary.

So far, it's all about the canned, the packeted and then again, the can. Sure you can use the fresh vegetables and the meat, but if you truly know what you're doing? The onion soup packet or the mushroom soup is an ingredient. If you're really a Home Chef, you'll add the fancy "Brown Gravy" packet.

It's 2010 and was just only then 2009, so dreamed maybe the cooker would come with decent recipes. The first one I viewed about pork chops and rice included a can of mushrooms. A can of mushrooms?

My brother inlaw Darkleynoone, a skilled cook and crock-pot stud interjected that I needed to lower the moisture addition, it's tough to do dried herbs in a crock-pot and to maybe cook the starches separately. I totally understood.

But what's with the large glut of complete crap in regards to the crock-pot and ingredients?

xo, Biggles

UPDATE 6 hours in the pot:

I work maybe a 6 minute drive from home, decided to come home to see how things were going. As I opened up the front door, the smells were really good. Nothing compared to my traditional pot roast, but still quite good. I probably added too many veggies, but wanted enough to use them to eat and not just a disposable addition. I did add a cup of chicken broth, maybe next time I won't. If you click on the image, you can get a little larger idea and can see there's plenty of moisture in there. Dang, those meat additives release a lot of moisture! And considering how little evaporates during cooking, I may end up reducing them later in a sauce pan. Yeah, pull meat and let it rest for a bit. Strain veggies from broth, reduce. So far, so good.

Biggles

ps - And two hours after that? It's done.

Update a few hours after that - Dinner was served:

I'm blown away, completely. This was better than good and for a Wednesday evening meal. I totally kicked your ASS. This isn't to say it didn't take some effort, it wasn't something I just threw together and walked away. I'd added too much moisture (1 cup of chicken broffs). At nearly 8.5 to 9 hours I set the cooker to warm for another hour while I drove for 1.5 hours to pick up Z from school. When I got back I separated the meat, and then the veggies from the broth. I reduced the broth until it tasted how I wanted, then added a slurry of cold water and corn starch to give it some consistency.

If you learn the cooker's ways, positive and negative, and can stay away from canned and packets, this cooker is Meathenge Approved. It may take a few tries, fortunately it only took me 1 try to make a National Class meal. I'm huge and need to go take a nap.

xo, Biggles

Yeah baby! I cooked something! Even got a few pictures worth posting too. Sure, it's no Bacon Tamales like Chilebrown of Mad Meat Genius just did. But I was so inspired by Jerry of Cooking by the seat of my Pants recpie for Cottage Pie that I couldn't resist.

I ran across the post a few weeks ago and thought to myself, I could totally cook that. Brown ground beef with goodies, make mashed taters, assemble, bake in hot oven. Yeah, it took me a few weeks before I would attempt such a feat, but I did it. Now I own its soul.

You already know how good they are and how easy it is to prepare, so I won't go in to the gory details. It came together in a few minutes and I jacked the oven's temp over Jerry's version to 450. Z and I ate the entire pie it was so good, so perfect. I've always been a fan of the saying, "Less is More." But now I've proven it yet again to myself, it's true!

Oh boy, I can still taste it, smell it crisping up in the oven, ungh. Wanna see that again?

xo, Biggles

Lordy, it must have been 3 weeks ago when Chilebrown of Mad Meat Genius gifted me more than a few pounds of No Name Bacon. It wasn't long after when he posted his review of No Name Bacon. He and Ms. Goofy are a machine, they can get it done. I'm not a machine, I'm lucky to find clean underwear and get my wagon gassed up on a weekly basis.

After going through 2 pounds ourselves here at Meathenge Labs and 1 pound to my sister and husband Meathead, we're giving the No Name Meat Company more than a few thumbs up.

It's a good, solid commodity bacon. Good fat to meat ratio, great smoke flavor while cooking, good smoke flavor for eating, a nice semi-low sugar content with an easy finish.

If you see it, and want good bacon, buy it. This bacon is Meathenge Approved.

xo, Biggles

That was really weird, never even considered it.

Last night I really wanted a casserole type meal. Something rich, creamy and full of gooey flavors that didn't take too terribly long. I was far to lazy and tired to deal with assembling the standard way, along with the extended cooking times. This would be a staggering 45 minutes to an hour, this wasn't going to do.

For the last week have been heavily using my Hello Kitty rice cooker to make rice & peas for dinner. Butter & chicken broth bring the flavors up so it's a meal that I can deal with. Was sitting there last night thinking, "What if I use the rice cooker, as a cooker?" Everyone knows when you're cooking rice, keep you paws off the lid so it can do its business. But what if I cooked a meal in it, opened the lid every 10 minutes to stir and add water or broth as needed?

I pretended I was making that casserole and added a cup of rice, knob of butter, can of cream of mushroom soup with a can and at least of water/broth along with some dumb ol' frozen peas? Put it all together and hit the "on" button. Every 10 minutes or so I opened it up to stir and check on moisture content, wanted a certain juicy constancy. The automatic function turned off before it was done, so hit the "on" button again to jack the heat. While all this was going on I browned off a few sausages on the gas range.

Within about 25 minutes I had myself an excellent white trash meal and enjoyed it thoroughly. If you feel the need to thrash me for not eating locally produced, organic this and that, I don't care. It got me through the evening and satiated my palate. And I have to say, if you're doing College Food or Dorm Food, this can't possibly go wrong. The Japanese rice cooker not only does rice well, but it can double as a faster than normal food cooker. 2 of these and a hot plate could do wonders, don't pass it up as just a "rice cooker".

Remember though, with that amount of salt infusion, copious amounts of liquid will be required.

xo, Biggles

Doh ! I cooked this about a month ago and it's been one of the posts waiting in the wings. Yeah, it's like that and I have more than just a few.

I been so tired of the chile powder, paprika and the likes. I've had so much over the years which is why I've been using mostly good kosher salt to marinate my meat in lately. A while back Eric the Knife Guy and his lovely wife Janet gifted me some spice blends from Oregon Spiceman. This particular blend is their Pepper Rub. Black pepper, white pepper, sweet basil, garlic powder and salt. Sounds good and smells even better.

I had a good load of fancy pork country style ribs from Ted of Highland Hills, it was time. Brought down the trusty clay cooker, sliced up an onion, too much garlic, rubbed the meat 2 hours before, installed enough chicken broth, and slid it in to a cold oven set to 400 degrees. I probably even soaked the clay cooker a bit, like you're supposed to.

Pull when pully aparty, pull when broth is rich in flavor and texture. Probably around the near 3 hour mark.

How was it? The fancy pork and its flavors pulled right through, so tender, so juicy in its own perfection. But the clean bite of the pepper delivered to my waiting gullet everything I was looking for. The onions brought to the table a sweetness, the garlic rounded out all the flavors with a husky bellow. The pepper rub was a delight and packed a slight punch, tilted my head with complex flavor thinking. It wasn't something I could serve the boys with their "tender" (read: undeveloped) palate. But brother, or sister, this juicy delectable is absolutely divine poured over a more than heaping pile of buttery mashed taters, even perfect for a mid July festival.

fini

Spring is everywhere, Cookiecrumb of I'm Mad and I Eat is in full swing with light soups and green garlic. The farmer's markets are absolutely over-flowing with everything from the garden. It's time to take advantage of the season's bounty, face first. Eh?

Bah. I'm not done with winter yet.

I had a pork shoulder roast in the fridge that really needed to have something loverly done to it. I got it from Ted at Highland Hills Ranch at the Berkeley Farmer's market, high quality pork!

And by high quality, I mean he raises his own animals and brings them to market. Heritage breed stuff with nothing added and fed right.

And then? I realized it was Wednesday and I was going to be on the road picking up the boy in an hour, not back for way over an hour and by then it would be nearly 5pm. Whatever it was I had to do, it had to be done now. It'd take this little beauty hours and hours of slow roasting time. Oil, Survival Spice, a sliced white onion and 5 cloves of whole garlic. Installed to a cold oven set to 300 degrees in a water soaked clay oven.

Know what? It ain't done yet. Why did I bother posting this? The smell coming from the kitchen is an absolute delight! Spring? Bring it on, but I'm dragging my comfort food in one hand and a club in the other this year. Nyah.

Biggles

ps - As Tommy of Tommy's Kitchen requested, here are the results!

There was tons of juicy liquid only from the meat & onions. It was exceptionally rich and turned my eyes skyward.

When the meat reached 200, I pulled it. Both Z and I tore in to this within minutes, sometimes he's picky about what he eats. Not this time, no sir. It was everything we smelled for a few hours and more.

Biggles

Oh goodness me! Listen up, I pay a lot of money to live here, own a home in the San Francisco Bay Area. It rarely gets above 75 or below 40, this is how it is. Oh sure, we get a freeze now and then, maybe a few times it gets up in to the 90's. I love my fog, fresh bay breeze and anything after that. What I don't like is huge, nasty, bucktoothed HEAT.

And brother, or sister, that's what we've had in the last few days. Yesterday at around 4pm it was 94 just outside my kitchen. It dropped to 86 soon enough, but when I was actually cooking dinner for the boys, the kitchen leveled out at 92. I only spent nearly 2 hours in there cooking & cleaning, so it wasn't too bad. Gah!

This is not okay and planned on a different menu plan for Tuesday, tonight!

Chilebrown of Mad Meat Genius sold me a badass propane stove a few years back, so I brought that out. Fired up the grill with some mesquite and hickory chips. The menu? Pork chops, beef burgers, mashed taters with a finish of corn on the cob.

Such a treat for the whole family. It was as though we were out camping in the wilds of Montana, sorta. Everyone got involved in making it go and had a great time. The indoor kitchen was ignored and the outdoor was enjoyed. LOVE !!!

If you'd like to see the rest of the story, please visit here and see Too hot, cook outside, everything!

Biggles

Only recently have I started making spaghetti soup again, and it's as divine as I remember. Over 20 years ago my Uncle Ralph made it for me and it's about as simple to make as a glass of milk. But just because it's simple and trashy, don't mean it won't deliver an absolutely rich, warm and filling meal that everyone will adore as much as we do.

You know how you, like, have leftovers when you make a red sauce spaghetti type situation? Sometimes there's pasta left over too, but I'm talking about the red sauce leftovers. Put it in a pot, add enough chicken stock or broth to bring it to a soup consistency. Either use the leftover pasta or cook fresh. Bring to simmer, turn off and serve.

xo, Biggles

Every time I even remotely remember some of the downright stupidity and lack of thought versus research that C.I. magazine spews my mind goes in to a tailspin. One such largish article they put in to print was a review of pork and its many cuts. It was well laid out with pictures and everything. They wanted us to know what was which and how to play with each one. My jaw hit the floor when they said the pork sirloin roast was not recommended.

Not Recommended was all that cut got. It was too hard to slice they said, too uneven. Not Recommended. Wtf, over?

The pork sirloin roast is one of my top favorite cuts! It's got the rich porky flavors that you'd find in a butt roast, the tenderness of a loin roast, you can cook it to 138 or 190. How could this cut not pass muster? They're stupid, that's all there is to that. And? For this recipe I didn't use a knife at all! Gah.

Last Saturday found Biggles at the meat area, lifting up packages of this and that. I wasn't inspired until I spied a sirloin roast in the back. Yoink! It was about 3 pounds of inexpensive perfection. I knew right where this sucker was going, in the clay cooker and it was going to be simple.

Jack oven to 400, rack on bottom. Sliced a white onion and laid on the bottom, 7 cloves of whacked garlic and a sprig of fresh rosemary. Kosher salted the roast and brought to room temperature. Put the lid on and toss in the hot oven for 25 minutes, drop to 350 for an hour. Turn temp down to 325 and cook for another 3 or so hours.

Use 2 forks to splay meat and let it sit for a bit to soak up the juices that collected on the bottom. Remove portion of meat to fry pan, add BBQ sauce and gently warm. Slice bun, install meat and enjoy! The pork could have been used in the sammich as it was, so perfect. Toothsome, rich and every bit a winner. It's porky love at its best. MmMmMmmm, porky love.

Biggles

The flavors are still on my tongue. Am attempting to bring you some word, some phrase or metaphor that can describe what the last 12 some odd hours were like. Please click on the image and just sit with that for a moment while I collect my thoughts.

Over the past month I've been monkeying around with this clay chicken cooker thing. The last dish I made was exceptionally proud of, for several reasons. Not only was it a winner in the chicken & rice casserole flavor department, but it cost just under 5 bux total. This is the dish where I learned that an entire, diced onion is too much. How did I find out? Ask the boys as they dove out the car's windows the following morning, heh. I still got it.

All along, been wanting to do a pork roast of any kind in the thing, duh. Sunday afternoon found me at Joya de Ceren, visiting Omar and seeing what tasty treats I could find in his meat cooler. Pork shoulder baby! 3.5 pounds of a really great looking hunk of meat. I grabbed the ingredients I thought I needed and expected to have that sucker in the oven within an hour or so.

That didn't happen. Too much relaxing and one too many naps, the day was gone. There's always Monday!

Man, I got home Monday and was in no mood. I could tell where this was going, the days would slide and so would the pork. Nope, I had to make it work and it had to be now. All the ideas of making my own Mexicanny dry rub went right out the window. It was just after 4pm and had only just jacked the oven to 300, I had to move.

Wash, dry meat and let the chill come off. Rub with extra virgin and grab Scott's Survival Spice. This ain't just some old premade nothin' blend. Scott put a lot of time and effort in to this rub and it shows. If I don't have any of mine laying around, or no time to make one, this is the one to grab. And brother, or sister, I'm glad I did.

Sliced a white onion in to rings and laid on the bottom of the roaster. And maybe 8 cloves of garlic, whacked once with a knife, peeled. One thing I've noticed about cooking in the clay oven, I'm far more thoughtful about moisture. That is to say, what you put in there, even an onion, will add moisture that doesn't escape, much. So, just the little amount of onion, garlic and the moisture in the meat was enough to cook this thing for 9 hours.

Here it is in a nutshell, onion, garlic, dry drubbed meat, 300 for 4 hours, down to 250 for 5 hours. Pull, let rest for an hour or so and refrigerate. Total cost is about 8 to 9 dollars, not counting 9 hours of natural gas pouring in to my range. I know I may be going out on a limb here, but I'm putting the flavors, texture, juice factor and pully apartyness at the very top. I would say this roast could very well be the best pork shoulder I've ever received from my oven.

I have spoken.

ps - I didn't soak my cooker because the inside upper and lower lid are glazed. Not sure soaking it with water would have done anything positive.

Where have I been? Off having a good time doing other things, tee hee.

Well, I had a hankerin' for a good ol' American casserole a while back. Something rich with juicy flavors that satisfies down to your toes. Hip to that? Had planned on the standard chicken, rice, creamy condensed soup with a few additions recipe. It's easy and would satisfy.

Wanna come see what I came up with instead?

Editor's note: Hand still really hurts, doing this post in batches. TCB baby!

Who here likes a good pot of beans? Excellent, me too. Who here has screwed up a pot of beans badly enough to just toss the batch? Hmm, yeah. Me too. Beans are an odd lot, even with a recipe it can head south at any given moment. Just because they're dried, doesn't mean you can get an old, nasty bag full. If one little ingredient is added and found to be too much, or not enough? You're a goner. Please click through to read about my little bean adventure, you'll be glad you did.

Here's the pork steak I was talking about earlier this week, procured from Ted of Highland Hills at the Berkeley Farmer's Market. Keeripes man, what great meat!

He said something about it being Country Style Pork Ribs and it does look like it now, it didn't when I brought it home. See, it looked like a morass when I got home, but when I finally started playing with it, it all came in to place. Wanna know something funny? It's the same cut that I came home with the other day after visiting Omar at Joya de Ceren here in Richmond. Wait until you see what I did with that one.

Kinda makes sense now, eh? Since it was Monday night, I didn't have time for anything fancy, apply kosher salt for an hour and a half before.

Preheat large cast iron skillet, oil it a little. Bacon, goose or duck fat is preferred. And by preheat, I mean get that sucker smoking hot. Install meat to pan and rest a decently flat somewhat heavy object on meat. I used a lid from my camp 10" dutch, a perfect match. Your first side is the presentation side and give it the longest sear. Flip when all caramelly, cook to 138F and rest for 8 to 10 minutes.

The pure, succulent pork was absolutely amazing. The hard sear really brought out the flavor of the pork and nothing else. Such a treat for a tired ol' Monday evening. It makes frozen peas with butter taste good. Errrr, edible.

xo, Biggles

Alright, so I knew I was going to be late in to work this morning because I had to wait for the phone guy. Tiny E showed up sick on Sunday and knew Monday would be at home, okay. Z and I got up and were ready to hit the road at 6:45 and I decided to clean my glasses, like I do every morning.

Ping! Why do I have my glasses in my left hand and a lens in my right?

Sigh, no driving for Biggles this dark and early morning. Fine, I'll just cruise the net. No, the screen was a complete waist of time. Okay, I'll just watch tv! No, even with a 36" tube that didn't work either. Dammit! See, I'm nearly legally blind in my left eye and my right isn't much better, glasses bring me back to 'normal', at least my vision anyway. Do I have a spare? Sure, at work!

The sun came up and wore my prescription sunglasses to go get them, yay. No yay, the prescription is so old I'm nearly typing this by silhouettes of the letters. Grrrrr. And speaking of prescription, the phone number of the place where I buy my specs has been disconnected or is no longer in service. Phlesbsbsbsbsttt !

Mondays, right?

What didn't suck? Last night's supper, that's what. I procured me a top sirloin beef steak from Ted the Rancher (Highland Hills Farm) at the Berkeley Farmer's Market on Saturday morning. Ted's herd is the true organic, grass fed, heritage breed situation. Usually I find grass fed beef not to my liking, the grain does give a distinctive flavor that I adore.

Pulled it from the fridge Sunday, let it sit out for an hour with a kosher salt rub.

The cast iron griddle with grills up, super heated. Rub bacon fat all over steak.

Grill hard until done, a rare medium will do nicely, thank you very much. Wow, and double wow. I really have to admit Ted's top sirloin was absolutely divine. I'm going to do this again soon, I can hardly wait. I apologize for any illnormal writings or editing of the pictures. I had to do it based upon feel and silhouettes, I can't see worth a pinch of moon poo.

Biggles

A little pork roast I snagged at the Fatted Calf store last weekend.

Cheers!

I just couldn't stand looking at the vegetable/tofu post anymore. So, here's last Thurday's chop dinner.

xo, Biggles

Not sure really, on how to start this one. So, I think I'll do it this way.

Oh yes I did.

I had a little rack of ribs all ready to go. It was too icky outside, the wildfires are way out of control and makes being outside just plain miserable. Um, but I had a rack of ribs to cook. I sat around the house with the air filter going, attempting to come up with something simple, good and smoky. Wildfires are kinda inspirational that way.

What if I put the ribs in my kitchen's gas oven, at 250 or so and put a smouldering pan of hardwood dust in there? Jack the exhaust fan way up and let'er go for a few hours?

Oh yes I did. Didn't think Wedgewood made a smoker, did you?

MmMmMmm, spiiiiine.

They aren't easy to find, you have to really look and even ask around to find them. But when you do? There's nothing like fresh pork spine grilled over a real fire.

How best to grill thine spine?

I feel about as inspired as a white 3x5 index card. With nothing on it. Not even a stack of cards, just 1 card, laying in a pile of clutter. Yeah, just like that. Sitting down at Meathenge is about as easy for me these days as ridding the world of all known diseases at a glance. Heck, at this point I'd be happy with just curing cancer, ya know?

Well, ol' CB stopped by the other day and said I should either go on a Meat Adventure (regular gas is at about $4.50 for 9/10ths of a gallon as of 7:14 am this morning), so that's out. Or fire up the grill?

I can do that, I know how.

On March 25th CajunGrocer.com contacted me and asked if I'd like 10 pounds of mudbugs for 'review'. Oh, let me think, YES. Remember them? They were the ones that sent Meathenge Labs a Turducken, yeah that's them.

The little guys come delivered to your door alive, moving, and making this clicking sound like rice crispies in milk. The party wasn't until Saturday, said crawdads arrived on Friday, not a problem. Hose them down, toss into cooler with a bag of ice (drain open), easy enough. But it didn't say whether to leave them all tied up in their sack or not, I decided to let them out in to the cooler. Free range crawdads ... dumb Californian. Wanna come see how it turned out?

How could I possibly take this photograph last night and not share it with you today. I mulled it over for 4 or so hours and decided, "It's going up!".

The boys and I have taken our local Joya de Ceren market to heart lately and added some kind of taco dish at least once or twice a week. In the past we've used their premade meat/pepper/onion mixes, they're all really good. But they have a chile powder and related in them (yum!). And unfortunately Z ain't hip to them flavors, so I decided to make my own, sorta. Sure I'll be compiling my own lime based marinade soon, but a bottle of La Lechonera Spanish Marinating Sauce did just fine for last night.

Check out the picture of a fat little piggy, in a sling, with the marinade also in a sliing, getting the piggy all ready. Priceless.

We ended up eating 2 pounds of flank steak for one dinner. A little excessive I know, but it was really good. Especially with corn tortillas that get all puffy when you heat them, so good. I'll make up my own marinaddy for next week and see how that goes.

Cheers!

Um, this recipe actually turned out really tasty. I pulled it out of a 1968 Family Circle Great Chicken Recipes book, see?

Yeah, that one. I had originally wanted to do a recipe from a recent Food & Wine issue. But after nodding off while reading the list of ingredients I decided this book would do just fine for a Saturday evening. Come see, the pictures are quit tastee.

Been spending more and more time at Joya de Ceren market, it's close, it's happy. Plus, when shopping for dinner, I really have to work at spending over 10 bux for everything I need. Crazy, huh? I made my way back to the meat counter and had planned on their marinated meat action, always good. But noticed these crazy little center cut pork chops. They had fat and most importantly, they had plenty of bone in there (best flavors to gnaw on). So, I had Omar toss in 4 of those, just in case.

I'll be honest with you, this post went around a few different poles before landing here. I was heavily armed with most certainly one of the best pork chops within 1.2 million miles, the technology to bring it forth and an absolutely sure fire way of making the best mashed potatoes ever, easy.

Good thing Meathenge is here, with his camera. To capture it all and lay it down so you can run home to play. Don't you love me? Don't you care?

Tuesday evening Tiny E came from the kitchen and said to me, "Papa, we need to go shopping to fill up the fridge." And I'm thinkin', "I'd rather go shopping to fill up my tummy." We did both.

One of my things is to start on the side of the grocery store where there's no meat. This way I can weave my way through the store, ever building my expectations. Was hoping for the sale on the baby back porky ribs, nope. Guess what I spied with my meaty eye? Those large packages of beef with the little spice packet for to make the corned beef dinner! Sure if I was a real go gettem' food blogger I'd spice my own. But it was Tuesday evening and wasn't feeling it.

As you can see, this post is here because the pictures came out all pretty. Boiling meat for 2.5 hours with spice packet, then adding taters and cabbage doesn't exactly count, in my book, as a recipe. It was a fricken' great meal though. And the leftovers? I can hardly wait.

Oh, and this meal doubles as an air freshener.

xo, Biggles

Alright, so I was in Joya de Ceren, an El Salvadorian grorcery in Richmond, for pork chops last night. They had some really wicked little chops all riddled with juicy fat. Yoink. Just one row over I noticed they had some pork shoulder pieces. I love pork shoulder. I rarely see it cut like this, it was cut just a tad over 2" thick. Kinda like a pork steak, only measured in pounds. Yeah, I bought it. That and two smaller chops, two sodas came to a whopping 8 bux. But how to prepare?

Ya ever have a hard time frying a pork chop? Ever sit down to your meal and just shake your head and think maybe some day you'll get it right? Well, we're smarter now, huh. We have that dumb Cook's Illustrated and we all know now that we need to brine or make sure we get a thick one. Blah, blah, blah. But what if you're at the store doing some shopping and you get the urge for a nice pork chop dinner for tonight? No time for brining and finding a thick pork chop at the local grocery can be few and far between. Aroo?

Meathenge is honored to have the very famous musician, artist & all around fun person, Amelia Ray step in for a little recipe action today. I haven't seen her in quite a while, but it looks as though she's doing just fine. And I have to say this recipe is pretty fricken cool. Just when you thought you'd had chicken every possible way, something like this rolls along. Let's sit back and see what's she's gots.

Lemon Chicken (Ivory Coast Recipe)

Someone left an entire chicken in my freezer a couple of weeks ago. I don't have an oven, so I searched around for a recipe for cooking a chicken in a pot on the stove. I found a dusty old Italian recipe book, and there, to my delight, was a lovely recipe for lemon chicken!

Here we find a most excellent sirloin of beef roast. The sign said it was grass fed & had a range to roam around in or on. Let the little dear come to room temp first. Wash, dry, install the extra virgin. Fleur de sel straight from Paris. Laura gifted it to me a while back and have been using it sparingly. Anyone know where she went? I hope all is well. Okay, so we have the oil, salt, fresh rosemary & creamy white pepper corns from my good friend Rob over at Salt Traders. He's got some seriously badass product over there for sure. Carefully lay 3 bacon rosettes on top, I had to use a toothpick to hold in place. The bacon is some of Fatted Calf's finest and has a nice firm texture, hence the toothpicks.

Introduce your work of art in to a cast iron pan with a trivet below. This goes in a preheated 375 degree oven, on the bottom rack until about 130 degrees internal temp (kinda on the juicy rare side). Check temp at 40 minutes, just to see. Pull, let rest for about 10 minutes, slice as thin or thick as you wish. Mines is about 1/4", dredge each slice in juices that flow from hunk. Serve with pride!

Oh, and since I only used 3 slices, I decided to cook up the rest to a medium rare.

Serve as Hors D'oeuvres, people will love you.

Ya know, the roast tasted like really good, mild beef. Not all grassy, must have been finished with a little corn, eh. Thank you! Not bad for a little Wednesday meal, eh?

xo, Biggles

My most excellent friend Kevin of Seriously Good, whom I spoke with today, informed me that his recent adventure was inspired by a meat photograph I took recently. He rambled his self down the Florentine road and came up with Pork Chops Florentine.

I'm impressed and wishing some of his creation was warm, and in front of me. Go have a gander and it could very well inspire something within you.

xo, Biggles

I've been accused more than a few times that some of what I do here isn't reproducible in their kitchen. I feel kinda bad because most of what I do is quite simple, straight forward and doesn't require rocket science. I think it was Shannon that tried this Pressed Chicken and the first time was a complete disaster. Meathead attempted the salt marinated chicken and ended up throwing it away, so sad.
What to do, what to do? Tinker and Tanker knew what to do, and they did it!

This recipe was given to me by Gramma D'Alessio a handful of years ago. I was seeking something off the beaten path for my typical American ways of tomato based sauces. She hit the nail right on the head with this one. She's been cooking for so long, you know damned well she doesn't necessarily work from recipes. Spoonfuls of this, handfuls of that and if an ingredient doesn't pass muster? Use something else or leave it out altogether. When is it done? When it's done. This is why I didn't probe for exact amounts. All I wanted was her story. What did she usually use? 1 or 2 pinches? What does she see, smell, taste and feel?

This is a simple love of ingredients that when fawned over will produce a warm, rich and inviting sauce. This will easily go right over ravioli, use as a poaching base for seafood or for a dressing around meats & veggies.

Wanna come see?

We don't eat much beef steak or fancy beef roasts around these parts (Meathenge Labs). Why? For several reasons. One of which being it costs too much. The other is that I find beef is really quite quirky as to its cooking times. One minute you have perfection and in five? A stinky ol' boot. While this isn't a problem for skilled meat craftsman, I've got 2 small boys and their neighborhood friends about my feet at most times. I need a meat that will give me a few minutes of leeway.
That being said, I had my Highland Hills Farm Chateaubriand from the farmer's market last Saturday and Monday night seemed a perfect moment for me and my meat.
Today I'd like to offer up a few pictures and meat technology that might help some of you getting a good steak from your range in your kitchen. I didn't have time for the grill and I hate my broiler. So, off we go!

No, this isn't a close-up. Look to the right and you'll see my stove, and there in front? A large bread knife.
Where did it come from? What would one possibly do with such a beast? Got any ideas?

Today's entry is brought to you by Nikon's latest and most recent release, the 105mm f/2.8G ED-IF AF-S VR Micro-Nikkor with Nano Crystal technology. Man this lens is fricken amazing. You can shoot 4 stops slower, hand-held.

You shuddup. No, you shuddup. No, you shuddup. You shuddup. No. You shuddup. Purely having fun today, nothing more, nothing less. I've been in an odd mood with regards to food over the last week. At weird times of the day I've been lusting after those old traditional American casseroles. Something way too rich, creamy and/or cheesey. A dish made with frozen vegetables and a crunchy topping of some kind. A dish that Gramma would carry in with a huge smile during the holidays, warbling something about someone's favorite casserole. That's what I wanted, but wasn't sure how to go about it. Then, I was also interested in cooking chicken another way, other than roasting. It wasn't until yesterday when I was digging through Meathead's discarded cookbooks that I sawr my prey, Tater Coated Chicken.

Oh man oh man, oh man. The weather here is bright, warm and clear with a finish of crispy clean. The family and I recently returned from a fine 2 day getaway and are doing well. I come here today with a recipe I sorta followed from a newly translated cookbook, La Bonne Cuisine by Madame E. Saint-Ange. This revered tomb was lovingly translated by an amazing man by the name of Paul Aratow. Why am I so googly over such a cookbook? It was originally published in 1929 and has probably been a bible of sorts for many French Chefs since then, such as our beloved Julia Child. And today, I find it such a great big fat hairy deal because only last year was it released in English!
At first I considered the recipes a little long winded, mostly because for the 1 recipe I was interested in for that moment, I already knew most of the ins and outs. But then I realized, if someone didn't know how to deal with wild game (a rabbit), this book lays it down so you know what to look for and how to judge. This book is a walk-through guide to French cooking and a glimpse in to the past. Some times it's this good to be alive.
Before we dive in I would like to give a warm congratulations to Ten Speed Press of Berkeley for landing the opportunity to publlish this book. This most surely is a chesire moment for ya'll. Okay then ...

I have a whole fresh rabbit, a fancy cookbook and a little time. Interested to see how it all came together?

I can't believe I'm sitting here thinking that this is the first time I've had bacon as a main course for dinner. Sure we've all had bacon with dinner. Or bacon as dinner, at least some of us anyway. But this is the first time I've served bacon as the main course in dinner.
Last weekend I received an email from Chilebrown, he was starting up another load of his homemade bacon. Each batch varies a little, smoking temps, cuts of meat and cure times. I've been pleading for a bacon with more smoky flavors. And brother, or sister, he came through in flying colors.
I enjoyed this batch a lot. It had great pork flavor and was matched by an applewood smoke that left you smacking yer lips. Both Mama and agreed it was on the salty side, but it seemed to go over fine because everyone's plates were clean.
Saturday's supper was easy, fast and a topnotch way to end a nice afternoon.
Meathenge recommends you try having bacon as your main course for your next Saturday Supper.

Xo Xo

Barrett from Too Many Chefs has inspired me a handful of times over the last year or so to try some vegetarian dishes. This isn't easy to do, maybe I've changed my wily ways? Probably not, but Barrett puts forth his recipes in a way that doesn't attack me for being a meateater. Or, mentioning in the prose some place how meateaters like it and they never miss the meat! That crap blows my stack. Anyone who tells me I won't miss the bacon or I won't miss the pork roast is off their rocker. Barrett doesn't take that route and it's pleasing to cook from his stash.
Today we have Biggles' version of Barrett's Poppyseed Cabbage and Egg Noodles.

Do you see the froggy relaxing?

Most everyone was in attendance, poor Babs wasn't able to come down to enjoy. Let's give a large raspberry to Allstate for being such pigs. The day's weather started a little gloomy, but cleared up soon enough for everyone to enjoy. Meathenge Labs goes traditional for Thanksgiving (Gravy Day). I figure we have all year to play with food, don't mess with my roasted turkey and gravy, don't mess. Today's post is just a little sharing of what went on in and around the stove and table. Wanna see?

Day of hell finishes with Love, meat love. In fact, it was far better than I had expected. Fatted Calf delivered to us a Rabbit Boudin sausage that I played over the top of a green salad, this was shaved with fancy hard cheese of crazy tasty.
Go in to detail? No. This is what it is, just have a gander.
A kind end to a day, share the love.

Biggles

I rolled home the other day with a pound of freshly gound beef chuck under my arm, ready to make the boys some burgers, they love burgers. After putting my things down I checked the food stuffs for hamburger buns, no buns. See, personally I can take or leave buns for home made burgers. We didn't have them when I was growing up, just didn't seem to matter either way. But our boys care, they love their burgers & dogs on buns. This of course, in no way means they'll EAT the buns, but they're there just in case. What to do? Hmm, we had hamburger meat and I found some hot dog buns. Hamburger meat and hot dog buns, oh dear.

Holy cow, what a month. And here we are at the end and the Is My Blog Burning - Vegan thingy is due, tonight.
It wasn't too long ago that Sam called me out on this one. She specifically nailed Meathenge, which makes sense actually. I've ditched ALL but the Grilling IMBB years ago, just don't have the time. I know everyone is praising the lovely Sam, "oh isn't she JUST THE BEST???" Grrrr.
When she first posted the theme, I wasn't phased. Some of the best meals I've been served have been at least vegetarian, maybe vegan. I don't remember cause it was 15 years ago. In any case, what made me crazy was that I've never intentionally made a vegetarian or vegan meal. And what put me in to a mood swing last week was that I didn't have a slammin' vegan recipe or 3 to make people swoon. Dr. Biggles was in a rut without a jeep or shovel. What to do?

Today's images brought to you by the camera I used when I started Meathenge over 2 years ago. A sturdy little Nikon Coolpix 950 (2 megapixels) with a Nikon SB-50DX Speedlite held together cool lookin' flash bracket. It was tough going back to framing images by looking at the lcd screen on the back, but after a bit it was okay.

The day? Saturday after the farmer's market. I'd picked up my rabbit pate with chives and an olive tapanade stuffed lamb leg roast from Fatted Calf, but had to stop off at El Nat grocery for some milk. That's when the inspiration hit, it was time to once again (5 or 6 tries, I forget now) to attempt John Bell's Southern Fried Chicken. My previous attempt was some of the worse food I've ever produced. But this time I had all my ducks in a row and was sure success was in my near future. Man, I love duck fat.

The genisis for digging up this old cookbook and preparing a dish came from Meg at I Heart Bacon. She's hosting a Virtual 40's-70's Party, neat huh? In true Biggles tradition, I found a cookbook I liked from 1909, not anywhere close to the 1940s or the 1970s. This is how I follow directions, only to a point. I opened it up right to the meat section and found something that interested me, Steak à la Bordelaise. I read through the ingredients and in typical boy fashion, figured I knew how it all went together. The way I figured, the steak was to simmer in the sauce, nope. I had it wrong, a good wrong though.

This entry came about late last week when the Fatted Calf newsletter rolled in. One of their specials for the week was a new sausage, Cotechino (kotehkeeno). I was interested to see, I wanted to know a bit more. So I did what any wild eyed hillbilly would do, google it. Here's what I found:
"This hearty and satisfying dish is traditionally eaten on New Year's to bring abundance and fortune. Cotechino is an Italian fresh pork sausage. It is creamy and delicate in flavor. It is sometimes sold precooked or boiled but the best ones are fresh. If you can't find cotechino a high quality fresh pork sausage flavored with nutmeg, cloves and pepper will suffice."

Yeah, I dunno. Boiled clove flavored meat wasn't what I was interested in at that moment. I might try it, but surely wouldn't enjoy it, no sir. Later on that same day, Amy stopped by and offered up a recipe she thought would get me close to how it was supposed to be. That was the inspiration I was looking for. Holy cow, I am so glad I did. This meal turned out to be one of the best meat surprises in probably 6 months or more. Meat Surprises can be a really good thing.

Chuck Wagon in background compliments of Mr. & Mrs. Meathead. Thank you!

Here it is, attempt #5 at John Bell's Southern Fried Chicken. Before I go on, let's recap for a moment. Not too long ago a friend visited from Alabama to give us some razamataz and cook a load of fried chicken. Not bad for someone on vacation, eh? Since that warm, fun filled day I've spent my afternoons attempting to figure out how come his chicken is legendary and mine sucks. I have to say though, I've learned a lot over the year and it's getting better. The last attempt I made (while at work) I found out my fryer wasn't hot enough, only 320 degrees. Other than the oil not being hot enough, I was THIS close. Really.

This last week found me at a food blog I hadn't visited before, Kitchen Monkey. I like the name of the blog and he's got a picture of a chimp on his banner, I'll read.
He's got a post on there about making his own noodles for a Ramen Soup thing with tender bits of meat & vegies & egg. I wasn't interested in the soup, but making my own pasta needed to be done. You see, Mama purchased a pasta machine years ago and never really got to using it. It's cold here, been raining a lot, what the hell else do I have to do?

Last night started out innocently enough. It's Tuesday night, family is hungry, time to start cooking. The last few times I've been using a tortilla press to make Flat Burgers for the kids. I know many of you have probably done this more than a few times over the years, but I thought it was worth a mention here. See, usually when one makes burgers, they puff up a bit in the center, then don't get browned on the edges. Plus, since they aren't uniform one part is over cooked and the other is just right. Then, if you do have children you're probably not paying real attention and over cook them anyways. Yeah so, if you make them about a 1/4" thick, they cook entirely in about 3 minutes. Big time score. Alright, so I figured I'd do the flat burgers. And since Z loves mashed potatoes, I'd do that as well. Besides I'm a big fan of the spud myself, no problem. I hadn't planned on making gravy, but after watching the taters loll around in the hot water, they spoke to me. "Make gravy for me, if you love me. If you love me you'll make gravy." Who am I to not listen to a spud?

Yeesh, what a long and winding road it's been over the last day. On Thursday (yesterday) I stayed home to look after one of the chillins, which made sense because I had and have a nasty head cold. Okay, so Senior Biggles is home, what should he do? Cook.
This sounded like a perfect day to try something out of Dana Crumb & Shery Cohen's Cookbook. And I have to say, some of the recipes are a bit dated, but the content is right there. From diet advice to offering really nice vegetarian alternatives to the main recipe, very thoughtful.

OH crap, who am I trying to kid, it's just a really cool book by a really cool group of people and the pictures are fun to look at. That being said, I wanted to try, "Robert Crumb's Favorite Macaroni Casserole."

Earlier this year, March 15th's Entry to be exact, marked my quest to reproduce John Bell's Southern Fried Chicken. This is a specific piece of chicken I'm looking for. I can sharpen my own blades, when I'm not busy and I can fry chicken with the best of them. But I am unable to make fried chicken like John's. This is the 3rd episode within a string of however many it takes to get it done. And brother, (or sister, sorry)I got darned close this time.

Yahoo !!! Meat Sauce. Good meat sauce, tasty meat sauce. Lovely happy wonderful meat sauce. The kind of meat sauce you add tomatoes to and nothing else. The kind of meat sauce you don't have to add tomatoes to. Nor do you have to add salt and/or pepper. The kind of meat sauce that gives you smiles from your tummy to your mouth and back again. This my good people, is Sugo Di Carne.
Now that I have your hopes up, here comes the truth. I didn't make it. I picked it up from The Fatted Calf last Saturday. Speaking of which, they won't be there for the next two Saturdays. Good thing I have ONE LAST container of Sugo. However, when they return you'll be able to do this for yourself ...

There they are, cans of 'food'. You know the ones, I'm talking about. Those cans that just don't get used. Those bastard cans you have to move out of your way every time you reach for the pasta, tomatoes or what-have-you. This week my wife had enough of it and as I pushed the cans of beans out of the way so I could get some fresh dried beans (I planned to soak them over night) she said, "use these you foo!" In my mind I cringed, canned beans? Simmered for hours? Wretch.

The 'clear' decision was to use the canned beans for my concoction.

Last night we all arrived home a little later than normal. We had about an hour or so to put something together, no big deal. Well, it turns out that my wife met someone at the boy scouts summer camp that had a minivan FILLED with artisan day old loaves of bread. SCORE.
As you can probably guess, we don't abide by the Atkins 'eat no fuel' diet and had no problem devouring a entire loaf of bread for dinner. What made it easier to choke down was a layer of read butter, fresh 'maters, fresh parsely, some pesto, fresh crushed purply garlic, pebrella, fresh mozzarella, fresh parmesan, salt & pepper to finish. Make melty & toasty in oven. Serve.

Brought to you by Mama! Biggles sliced up and heated the ham, that's meat and it is my department.

What does one do with that great big leftover leg o' ham? You make a lot of dishes with ham of course. Last night, it was corn chowder with ham which was very good indeed and inmouth. Tonight, it was spinach-rice casserole with ham. A very tasty dish, even if it is spinach.
I pulled the recipe for Spinach-Rice Casserole outta Mollie Katzen's Moosewood Cookbook (New Revised Edition); hacked it up, and called it my own.

mama did this one eh!

Okay, I took my first crack at cooking paella last Wednesday. I used a one
of the simplest recipes, "Tricolor Paella with Cheese, Anchovies, and
Almonds," found in the Vegetable Paellas section of Penelope Casas's
Paella!: Spectacular Rice Dishes From Spain. (I didn't realize that
anchovies were vegetables.)

Anyway, I picked that recipe because we had all of the ingredients to
make it go, except the anchovies and the bell peppers, so it wouldn't
cost us an arm and a leg to prepare it. Since I'm no longer working, I
have to be more conscious about keeping our arms and legs, uh... I mean
maintaining a modest food budget.

Of course, the anchovies turned out to be more expensive than I had
anticipated, because Dr. Biggles (bless him) brought home a whopping
ten-dollar, econo-sized can of anchovy fillets when I only needed six of
the little dudes. I don?t know what the hell I?m gonna do with all the
surplus fishies. Anchovy pancakes, anyone?

Please note: El Cerrito Natural does sells itty, bitty cans of anchovy
for $1.09, but they were fresh out that day.

Mmmmkay, so here is a little yummy from my wife. Everything turned out just fine, as near as I could tell. I really enjoyed it, especially for a Wednesday's supper.
However, IT finally happened. That's right, the dreaded battery failure. Yeah yeah yeah, I know. If I'd used my old bitchen' mechanical 35mm rigs I would have been able to continue. But using film cameras with web logs isn't practical.
Anyway, first off the batteries died in my flash unit (commonly known as a 'potato masher'). Okay, no biggie. I can live without a flash. I snapped off a shot of something and the battery in the camera went dead. No problem I have a backup battery that I charged the other day! ... and promptly left it at work. Sigh. So I grabbed my wife's digital camera, but I didn't know its specs and got too damned close with it. All the really nice shots of the finished meal are WAY out of focus. Way out. Feh. At least the meal came out like it was supposed tah.

Go Mama:

Tonight's dinner was Kashmiri Kofta Curry which I adapted from Indian
Food & Folklore edited by Jo Lethaby. It's much spicier than our usual
fare, but the kids were out of the house and I wanted to have some
flavor on my plate. Never mind that the dish, although wonderful, was
still a bit too hot for me. Yes, I'm a wienie. Fortunately, it was
just right for Dr. Biggles, as would be for anyone else who can stand
the heat.

Think back, back to that all night party that found you sicker than a dog (sorry canine lovers). You know how your mouth salivates right before you wretch? Yeah? Well, when I look at the pictures I took of this meal versus what it tasted like ... that's how I feel. Like wretching. Sure you're thinking to yourself, "dang man, it's just Chicken Cacciatore, lighten up pal." Yeah, well you didn't have any.

preface - Many if not all of MeatHenge's postings include yummy shots of the meal in question. Well, I got pictures this time, but the final shot (for me anyway) didn't look all that enticing. However, all my fears disapeared when I took my first bite. The brother/sister taste of the Merquez sausage and the Kalamata olives was outstanding. As you dug through the bowl you got something warm and happy each time. I'm a big fan of the couscous, so I figured I'd eat it no matter what it looked like. I'm tellin' ya, if you enjoy couscous write down this recipe and make damned sure you follow my wife's changes, they're necessary.

May 6th UPDATE: Well, it's been a few days and we had our second round of leftovers last night. As long as you don't store the couscous with the stewy portion of the meal, it keeps VERY well and tastes wonderful days later. XO

Here is Mama:

When Biggles introduced merguez to me several weeks ago, I became an instant fan of these flavor-packed little bundles of love. They are spicy, yet not hot, and they remind me of one of my all time favorite dishes -- couscous. The rumor was Taylor had merguez available this week, I knew what I had to do...

Directly from The Fatted Calf, upcoming things this Saturday ...

Mushroom Mayhem at the Market

That Taylor, he's always thinking. When our friend Anthony, the part time mushroom picker showed up at the market a couple of weeks ago, Taylor grabbed him and asked for some goodies. What resulted will be ready for you to pick up at the Berkeley Market this Saturday. The Skinny Pork Sausage with Morels will be great on the grill or perfect with pasta this weekend, and the incredible Duck Pate with Porcini Mushrooms actually improves upon what we all thought was a pretty wonderful thing.

Nothing says spring like a basket of home made Southern-like fried chicken. Well, almost Southern-like fried chicken. On March 15th, MeatHenge hosted a birthday party and what turned out to be a real Meat Fest. Other than the birthday girl we had a guest, John Bell from Alabama. He offered to make us some of his fried chicken, sounded great to all of us. Well, we thought we were watching pretty closely. Turns out it isn't as easy as it looked. John's Fry Cook Fu is stronger than we knew.

This just rolled in, hot off the presses. We don't have much time, you must act right now.

Call the Fatted Calf immediately and order your Agniello Ripieno roast for Easter, Phone/Fax (510)653-4327.

Easter Special
Agnello Ripieno
Italian style Lamb Roast filled with Nicoise olives, orange zest and fresh pork sausage.
Price is $7.00/lb., approximate weight will be 5.5 to 6 pounds.
Each roast serves approximately six people and must be special ordered
by Wednesday April 7. For pick up at Berkeley Farmer's market,
Saturday, April 10.

Go NOW.

Wow, what a weekend. I started my Saturday off by heading out to the Berkeley Farmer's Market to visit my pals. I have to say, spring has sprung and people are out. The Fatted Calf had a row of customers 40 minutes before opening and Jan at Blue Bottle Coffee was swamped when I arrived soon after opening (10am). She qued me several times to jump in and make myself useful. That didn't happen, I was still all twitterpated from the work week and 'jumping in' on a Saturday wasn't a possibility, this time.
Since the weather was fair I decided to get myself some Hungarian Kielbasa from Taylor & Kim for some smokey barbecue love action later that same day.

And that is what I did. Around 3pm I fired up the smoker and got my hickory fire all warmed & spread nicely. In went a olive oil and herb flat chicky and I saved the kielbasa for the last hour and a half.
The chicken was served with Everett & Jone's barbecue sauce, warmed ever so gently. IT WAS JUICY NICE !!! You are well aware of how juicy a chicken can be when cooked in your oven at home? It was that juicy coming out of the smoker. What a TREAT. The Kielbasa was rich and bright and just enough heat to make you smile. Since there were only two people for dinner, my wife and I (the chillins won't eat smoked meatses), we saved half the kielbasa for Sunday's meal.
We had to make a few more trips to the store, but later Sunday found my wife hard at work in the kitchen with pie dough. Here is where the remaining sausage met its divine end.

Ha, okay I was ready to cook something out of a newspaper. Our local rag isn't exactly known for its culinary surprises, but they try. This one they pulled from "Real Chocolate" by Chantal Coady. They list the carbs and so forth but for crissakes, it's meatless black beans with no lard. If you're worried about carbs & cholestrol in a meatless, lardless black bean dish you have some serious issues.

Featuring Kallisti's (my sister) Chicken Girl Doll. Check out her site for more pictures of that and many other infamous dolls of distinction.

This last Sunday was Uncle Cindy's 50th birthday. What does the MeatHenge crew do for someone's birthday? That's right, cook a lot of meat. Sunday was no different. This time though, we had a guest celebrity that came all the way from Mobile Alabama to give us a demonstration for cooking Southern Fried Chicken. I know, the variances here are enormous, but I can't dwell on that. I wanted to see what John Bell was up to.

Quick dinner suggestion 9-14a.
Here's a quick way to have a really nice meal. Hamsteak. That's right, a ham steak. My butcher usually has a ham he can cut a slice off of, but all grocery stores carry a nice ham steak. Just heat & serve. With this you can have a salad or any greenery. We usually go for the mashed potatoes (Z loves them the best).
Dang man, good fast meat.

Earlier in the month K and I went to Occidental with another couple and all our kids and stayed the weekend in a very nice place. Secluded, with beautiful views, it belongs to an old family friend and I've been there many times over the years. Anyway, we ate. And yes, we ate meat. Namely a 9 lb Neiman pork roast with potatoes and carrots thrown in near the end to cook up in that nice pork fat. Check out that fat in the pic after we had cut into it. It was goood!
Thought you might like to see it.

http://www.mattheckert.com

We've been obsessed with Sukiyaki ever since we tried it at a little Japanese restaurant, Katana-Ya Ramen, up the street on San Pablo Ave. A very popular but tiny place. I dare you to try it on a weekend.

So, with 238,473 conflicting online recipes we decided to wing it and try figuring it out ourselves.

I decided one day that I had a hankerin' for a tasty dish that Mom used to fix for me when I was a youngin'. Cheesey Shrimps over rice! Damn that sounds good. But the hitch is that she used Campbells Cheddar Cheese Soup. Which I haven't had in at least 10 years. Mrs. Meathead kept sayin' "You can't make that for dinner, that's not dinner that's lunch."

I said "No no. Mom served it as an entree. That makes it dinner in my book."

However, it took me several weeks after I bought the stuff before I was willing to make it.

The ingredients, easy. The labor, simple. Three words: Boil, Heat, Eat!

Campbells is always looking to help out the busy homemaker, the college student on a limited budget, the bum in the alley.

Wow! I don't remember it ever looking this remotely unappealing. Yellow goo. Bravely I forge onward.

Fortunately the shrimp is as tiny and wonderous as I ever remember it being. Hmmmm? I may have to get Moms shrimp shell pasta salad recipe next. Black olives, little gherkins and little shrimps whipped inside shells and mayo!!! Can you taste it?

Dear Shrimp,

Goodbye so soon?

Hehh hehh hehh? I boil you alive!

Not enough for you? No? How about I take a little somezing off zee top, eh?

Take THAT! You poor excuse for a starch.

Ladled over rice and accompanied by Mrs. Meatheads Cucumber Salad (that had marinated for 24 hours) we were ready to eat.

Well, the cuke salad was extraordinary.
But the shrimp goo? *sigh*

Ciao chow!

This was the best dinner I ever done made. We watched the Iron Chef Run-offs New Years Eve and Iron Chef Chen did some fantash ground pork in hot bean sauce stir fry that actually looked like something I could make. I.E. I have a copy of "Henry Chung's Hunan Style Chinese Cookbook". Anyone familiar with Chinese food in San Francisco ought to know Henry's Hunan. Worst decor, best damn food you will EVER eat. The cookbook dates back to the 80's, so the recipes are a little less anglo-friendly (no chow mein recipes and a lot of the chicken still has the bone in). This is the most exquisite food, and everything, and I mean EVERYTHING is hot and spicy.

So, here it is, the best food in the world!

Aside from the salami and some Mexican Chorizo, Fatted Calf's Rosso Sausage was another yummy yum yum that I picked up yesterday morning. Imagine this treat at your dinner table. It was quite tasty, a lot like a traditional Italian Sausage. I didn't find any fennel (I don't care either way, I just noticed it is all) and you could taste a bit of the red wine.
All in all is was a very nice sausage experience. My wife found them a bit salty and yet both plates were cleaned.

Okay, so sometimes I may get a little carried away with the whole meat thing. I'll be the first one to admit it. I enjoy lighting fires and cooking meat, get over it. The problem with Meat Blinders securely fastened to your head is that you forget other yummy things. It's been many years since I whipped up a frittata (Italian Broiled Omelette Thing) and while leafing through one of Jeff Smith's cookbooks I ran across a recipe for one. Not that it amounted to much, but it reached out to me. Off I went ...

For this holiday's meal my wife was kind enough to offer a few of these tourtières. As you can see, it's a bit of work. She did the pie dough cause she knows how. I supplied the LARD and fresh ground pork meat, cause I know how. (Thank you to Jan for dropping off the remaining needed LARD). If you haven't had or made a tourtière in the last ten years, you haven't lived. Print out this recipe and swear to yourself, DAMMIT TO HELL MAN, THIS TIME I AM GOING TO MAKE THIS WORK !!!

Against most everyone's advice (especially my doctor's), I still like to fry food. OH sure, using less oil in the pan is better for you, but can you possibly get a decent crispy brown pork chop without much oil? Mebe.

A month ago, give or take, I purchased some fancy Calphalon commerical 11" fry pan (non-stick). I figured I should have at least 1 or 2 non-stick rigs in my arsenal. Well, I was wrong. My pork chops looked as though they'd been microwaved. Nasty to say the least. So I gave it to my uncle, he's not a snob.
Since I feel right at home cooking with cast iron, I had no problem going back to using it for my chops. I can also say that my cast iron is pretty damned well seasoned, by that I mean I can fry an egg with no added fat and NOT have it stick. Anyhoo, I've been playing with getting an even brown crust on my chops with very little fat. And by taking a look at the picture above, you'll see it's pretty darned close. I melted just a little bit of Lard in the pre-heated cast iron and wiped it with a paper towel. Truly, not much fat in pan. I turned up the heat a bit more, tossed in the chop with a bacon press on top. I left the press on top for the full cooking time, maybe 6 minutes a side or so. Look! That's nice lookin' and not all greasy!
Not enough leavenings for gravy, but this is supposed to be somewhat healthier for you, eh? This and a vegie or salad is well worth the price of admission.

Nope, nothing special here. This right here is THE standard ol' Spaghetti. It's exactly what everyone makes more than a few times a month and for us maybe once a week. Every batch is different from the last but always just as tasty. Yum.

Come check out this Danish Viking Smoked Salt Pan Sauce I made last night ...

Juicy inside & Crispy Outside

Are you tired of receiving this (see below) when you ask for Chili? Are you thinking that just possibly you could do better? You can. You will. You must.
And if you've done any research for chili recipes you know that there are as many variances as there are home remedies for the common cold. Just ask anyone. Some people don't like beans, some do. Or add tequila or whole tomatoes, or no tomatoes. You just need to find what you like and do that. I found that using coarse ground beef and real chilies help with the final product. All the rest is just for fun.

Egads man, it's been a long time since I last entered. Sorry about that, nothing personal. The last month has been chocked full of chores around the house getting ready for winter. I've also been stricken with a nasty case of a head cold, not to mention my boys and my wife. This means I have no time for goodies or for entering it into the site. So with this in mind, here we go.

One of our favorite meals, either for lunch or dinner is the Easy Taco. What you need is one of those dumb rotisserie chickens or leftover meat. Pretty much anything will do. Dice it up small and moosh it a bit.
Sautee maybe 1/4 of an onion along with a few cloves of garlic. Something simple. Maybe 3/4's the way through toss in the meat. At that point add your dry spice mix. What you're looking for is mostly cumin, then chili powder, onion powder, salt and pepper. Of course this is variable and only meant as a guide.

Once you've done this, about fifteen minutes, go ahead and start dicing up tomatoes, raw white onions, cilantro and anything else you can find to toss into the mix. Here it is.

Welcome to MeatHenge's New Mexican Chili Beef Stew. Within the following article you will find a stewed chili beef recipe sure to make your mouth water and your tortillas swell. Clearly it can be used for a handful of different applications, but our favorite IS the tortilla platter.
I will do my best to lay out what I did. Mostly because this is a combination of maybe two or three different recipes (I made it up). I can't stress enough, if you have any questions please email the lab staff of MeatHenge.

I found myself over at Robert's food blog early Tuesday morning, around 9am. His last entry was for Red Beans and Rice. Since he's in New Orleans and likes food I figured he'd have a decent recipe. I was inspired enough to spend my day going to three different grocery stores to find what I needed. You'd think Red Beans and Rice, how tough could that be? Well, decent sausage isn't all that readily available in this part of The Bay Area. By 3pm I had everything I needed, including being at home.
Robert's recipe will be posted at the end of this article so you can have it for your very own, or go to his blog and kahsnatch it directly.

A slighly modified recipe for "Macaroni & Cheese" from "Louisiana's
Fabulous Foods, and how to cook them" 1960's maybe?

16oz package of macaroni
3 quarts boiling water
1/4 cup of butter (recipe called for 1/2!!!)
1/2 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon dry mustard
1/4 teaspoon cayenne
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon salt
2 1/4 cups milk
2 tblsp minced onion
16oz grated sharp cheddar

Cook macaroni in boiling water until done. Drain. Melt butter in double
boiler, add flour and cook until butter and flour bubble, then add
milk. Cook slowly until it thickens. Then add rest of ingredients--Mix
with with cooked macaroni and put in baking dish. Bake at 350 for 30
minutes.

We usually reserve flour tortillas for quick lunches grabbed at a taqueria filled with burrito stuff. If you're lucky they grill them first, but usually they have those steamers that soften/warm them up. Yum, warm doughy crap.

What is the bastard child of Pork ribs? Pork chops.

And what is the cute older sister of Pork chops? Cajun Pork chops.

And thanks to Justin Wilson's 1986 magnum opus, that is what we had tonight.

But due to the recipe stating "Let them cook until the gravy is done." they did come out a little overdone.

But yeeehaw! Thems good eats.

When one starts with dried chili peppers you know it's just got to be a tasty dish no matter how it's served. This one was no different. I'm not sure why we used turkey, considering we just went through an entire 14 roast turkey. Oh well.

This dinner came out very nicely. I believe all we'd change would be the addition of raisins. The dish was too sweet. Look at those chilis! I used mostly the New Mexian Red chilis with maybe 4 dried pasillas tossed for the fun of it.

I was so excited last night after biting into this chop meat. THIS WAS IT !! The darned thing was juicy, crunchy and had an all around ultimate chop taste.

I've found, as most do, that one of the key points of shallow or deep frying is keeping the oil hot enough. This is clearly one of those times. So I dug out my electric skillet, set it to 375 and I was on my way.

As far as seasong goes, that's up to you. Just make damn sure you have decent pork. No dry rub will bring back bad or nasty grocery store pork. Sorry. Get your good meat, salt & pepper with a light dusting of flour.

Yum.

Pork Mmkay? You unnerstandy? Marinate the sucker in port and olive oil, salt & pepper. Toss into a crock pot with carmelized (sp?) onions, garlic and some teriyaki with some chicken broth. When near done toss in some kalamata olives and server over brown rice. That's what you see. DEElicious.

Okay, so it is a simple meal and damn tasty. The reason I posted this is because THOSE ARE OUR OWN POTATOES !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!. That's right, they popped right out of the ground the other day. I don't remember what kind they are exactly, but I've never had such a creamy tater. Absolutely amazing! Oh and the chops were damn fine as well.

So Mz. Meathead says " I gotta Hankerin' for Henry Hunans HOT & SOUR Chickey!" We whipped out the Henry Handbook and hunkered down for some wok and woll. Man was dinner mighty fine.

Here's the beginning of a little Pad Thai. There wasn't any meat in the mix, so I added some shrimp. As you'll see in the next entry. It turned out okay for a frozen premade meal. Trader Joes has some edible frozen entrees. Ya know? For when you don't have enough sanity points to carry through with a regular meal? Yeah, that's it.

all marinated and searing nicely in olive oil. CHOMP !!

Wow, Trader Joe's strikes again. Niman pork chops way thick. Sear sear sear and make it cry! Slice chop and into mine mouth they do fly. Taters and salad fill the gap, hand against my belly it goes slap.

Here is the simmering portion of the tomato based sauce of baby back pork rib love. Man, it only has another hour or so to simmer then it is EAT TIME. The smells pouring from the kitchen have been first rate. Of course it helps to have made buttery cookies in the breakfast hour ....