I’ve never met Sukie personally, but if I met her today I would have given her a big hug. My sister and brother in-law went out for lunch today (Sorry Dennis) at Sukies and had a wonderful lunch. There was a happy cook back there in the kitchen because each meal was perfectly proportioned, tasty and delivered promptly to our table steaming hot. 45 minutes later I have that funny overwhelming urge to drink a lot of water … perfection !!!
Just look at that Hot Turkey, Hot Roast Beef and Country Fried Steak Club sandwich.
Sukies is a real treasure for when you need to have some old American standard meal, served on a white platter in a booth. That’s right, we got to sit in booths !!
Author Archives: Biggles
Meat Alert !!! Smoked Sausages
Hey, Rick made another batch of his Kwoliguica. It’s an old family recipe and he says it’s a combination of German and Portugese something or other. The way he figures it, they must have been loaded when the put it together.
And this time they spent 5 hours in the SMOKER !!!
They’re pretty darned rich sausages so they’d be GREAT with eggs Saturday morning. I just called at 10:46am on Friday and he has a dozen left. So get there soon cause I’ll be getting a few early this afternoon. BOOYAH !!
Rick’s Quality Meats
510.233.9390
1600 Liberty Street
El Cerrito, CA 94530
Creation Story – Kingsford Briquets
A few years ago I spent maybe 4 months researching a smoker. If I was going to spend my hard earned scrilla I wanted to make sure I got a decent pit. During my travels around the nation (via my office chair & a computer) I ran across some neat information. Here’s something I kept hid away and ran into it recently. It’s the story of how Kingsford Charcoal Briquets came into being, and a few added comments from Kit Anderson, Top Pitmaster …
Round Steak & Gravy with Onions
Last Friday I was perusing Chuck’s Gumbo Pages for something to cook over the weekend. Many of his recipes require quite a list of ingredients, some of which are out of season here. Such as Crawfish (that’s pronounced CRAW fish, not Cray). That was okay because I stumbled upon his recipe for Round Steak & Gravy with Onions. It sounded rich, hearty and something I could tackle without spending all day in the kitchen. But what caught me was the opening paragraph;
“This is Cajun food at its simplest. You’ve probably never heard of this dish, nor are you likely to see it on a menu or in a cookbook. However, as Cajun cook and food writer Marcelle Bienvenu said, it’s almost certain that if you asked any native of southwest Louisiana “who lives along Bayou Lafourche or Bayou T
Cast Iron Cookware Love
This last Wednesday in the SF Chronicle was a wonderful article by Shanti Wilson. The article entwines it’s way through her personal life, recipes and coherent methods on keeping your cast iron cookware in great shape.
I highly recommend taking the time to go read it!
Shanti’s
Article
Chicken & Sausage Gumbo
This last saturday I had two reasons to make a Gumbo. The first reason was that the blackeyed peas came out so well I wanted MORE. And the second reason was my sister had been to the Ferry Building over in S.F. and picked me up a few gorgeous Andouille sausages. I had most of what I needed right there.
Yay Super Bowl !!!
I get to eat processed LoVE. Easy …
Fast Food Treat – ALERT !!!
Ha! Looks as though Wienerschnitzel has a new gift for us! It’s called a Tamale. And this beast comes covered it what looks to be some kind of chili and cheese sauce. After some deliberation we decided the filling is supposed to be beef. It was Ed’s wonderful lunch treat, so I asked him what he thought. His response was, “exceptional”. You can take that however you wish.
If you’re looking for a really great home made looking fresh and tender Tamale, then look no farther! Wienerschnitzel has what you need. Emil says you can get this fine sauce treatment on fries as well …
the pot after the peas
Dang man. After simmering those blackeye peas the other night for 1.5 hours look what it did to my cast iron dutch oven. INSANE. It was nicely cured before. Well, that’s gone!
I smeared it with Grapeseed oil (any oil or fat with a high temperature smoking point will do), turned it upside down on the middle rack of the oven at 300 for an hour. And look …
Matt’s Niman Pork Roast
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
MeatHenge has been SPAMMED !!!
Hey, some butt uploaded a spam advertising gambling over in the UK somewhere, to every entry that I’ve ever made to MeatHenge.
Well, it looks as though my sister found the most awesome fix. Listen up geezers, I want you to be able to post a COMMENT from time to time. So here’s the dealio.
When you click on COMMENTS, the comment box pops up. It’ll ask you for the normal stuff, name, email and/or url. But AFTER those, you’ll see a grey box with lines in it and numbers. Enter those numbers in the grey box into the orange box below. This will allow you to leave a comment.
Simple.
Now to delete those 300 some odd damned spams.
Blackeye Peas
As near as I can tell, for many of you this meal is a semi-regular pot that you’re all too familiar with. Some of us obviously live in a cave.
I clearly live in a cave.
The more I read the recipe, the more I fumbled with the recipe in the isles of the two grocery stores I had to visit, the more I readied the ingredients, the more I chopped and compiled, the more I watched the stuff boil, the more excited I got. Which means by dinner time I was a nervous happy wreck.
onward …
Ajanta – Distinctive Indian Cuisine
Ha! It was our 9th anniversary last night which means we get to go out for a night without the chillins. Something, so far, we’ve only done once a year (going out to eat without kids in tow). I was giddy with thrill of getting something to eat that has flavor. Something spicy, wild and I didn’t have to prepare.
The upper portion of Solano Avenue in Berkeley usually pulls us in. There are a handful of places to dine or spend time in a book store pouring through the cookbook section. That type of stuff. Or try a dumb over roasted or stale cup of coffee at Peet’s or Starbucks. We parked a few blocks away and hiked up. We could see across the street one of the Indian places was pretty darned busy, I suppose 8pm is dinner time for some. I poked my nose over into the Boran indian restaurant, but since both my wife and I have already been there and done that … maybe the Indian restaurant with the fancy white curtains would do. It looked pretty upscale and maybe we should have had reservations. They didn’t look nearly as busy, so we made our way in.
Again, I want to make sure you understand since we only make it to one nice restaurant a year, maybe I shouldn’t be writing a small review. Clearly I have nothing to compare it to.
Even so, my initial reaction was that we had chosen the right place. The decor was pleasing, welcoming and well, damn they had huge color murals on the walls with naked women sporting huge round breasts. I had arrived. The staff were very well dressed, very attentive and all had a purpose with where they were going. Not just madly dashing or meandering. They are professionals and their timing was perfect from the very first moment we walked in to handling of the check towards the end.
After a few moments with the menu it was clear there wasn’t anything on there I wasn’t willing to come back time after time for. I was going to try some new dish they had with simmered chicken, but noticed they have a tandoor oven. That sealed it, I had to try the swordfish dinner from the tandoor oven. I can’t remember what my wife had … why? Because I’m a bad note taker and my memory fails me at every turn. She was happy with it though, I can tell you that.
The appetizer was some very light and flakey deep fried wafers with cumin seeds. I don’t know how they got the seeds to stay in there, the seeds were thicker than the wafer. Since we were having a nice quiet dinner a bottle of Indian white wine was necessary. The fish came on a loudly sizzling cast iron platter I could hear from ten feet away. This I wasn’t expecting, so it was a nice suprise. Both meals came with fluffy basmati rice and a little sauce action. The naan smelled great! The pieces of fish were done just right. The temperature of the tandoor oven was apparently right on and chef was watching.
Between the food, the wine and the company it was a wonderful evening out. Oh and don’t forget those delightful murals, I really liked the murals.
Ajanta
1888 Solano Avenue
Berkeley, CA 94707
510.526.4373
www.ajantarestaurant.com
Spanish Chorizo Sausage
Earlier this week I foned Taylor at Fatted Calf (I’ve repeated his url and address enough at my site, you can darnwell search for it yourself or feel free to email me directly) and asked about his whether he’d be at the Farmer’s Market in Berkeley today. I also gave him a heads up that I was going to need a dozen some odd sausages and some cured meatses. I’m thoughtful and didn’t want him to run out, just cause I needed a cooler full.
Smoked Pork Ribs on Monday ??
January in these parts can be wet and tends to be a bit chilly. In the last month it’s been quite wet and this last Monday was sunny and about 65 degrees. This was the day I had been waiting for. The previous week I had purchased a small slab of pork ribs figuring on smoking them that coming weekend. I made a fresh home made dry rub and it sat that way all weekend. Oh well, the longer they sit, the more that rub would have a chance to do it’s business.