Cocktail Confessions

Well, here it is, Episode 15.  I wish I could say I’m really happy with the outcome, but in my own humble opinion, it’s “meh” at best.  Why you ask?  Originally, I had sat down last weekend with my friend Brian Liles (yet again) and had made a sweet recording that was a good solid hour plus.  It could have easily been broken into two seperate Podcasts, and I think it was one of our best yet.  There was a myriad of interesting topics on the table as well as we had at least three to four craft beers in us each as we made it.

However, due to the fact that I hadn’t take the time to reboot my computer after some auto-installed patches from Microsoft prior to our recording, it seems that Audacity (my podcast recording software) somehow corrupted the data.  No matter how many times I tried to recover the orphan files after a failed save attempt, I just couldn’t resurect it.  As I say in this podcast, let that be a lesson to all you tech heads out there.  Always reboot your PC after critical patches are downloaded and installed.  I clearly should have known better, so I have no one to blame but myself.

Feeling somewhat pressed to have a new episode ready, I took my portable Zoom to work and made this recording on my lunch break while sitting in my car.  I’m happy with the audio quality, but as you’ll hear, there was really no set agenda for this one.  It’s about 40 minutes of me ranting on some of my political views, Howard Stern, and my upcoming business trip to Atlanta, GA.  Also, I was able to throw in a cocktail recipe, the ‘original’ Texas-tini (not my version from a few weeks back in which I thought I was so clever with the name), and a recipe for grilling artichokes.  Hence the title ‘Smorgasbord’.

In other news, I’m rapidly approaching my 40th birthday (8 days from this writing) and I am clearly having a mild midlife crisis.  I hope its not too evident in my recording, but I’ve been feeling a bit under pressure lately in various personal aspects: financial, work, trying to be a father to a teenage girl, etc. So perhaps that lends to my somewhat dour attitude in if you pick up on it.  Hopefully I’ll snap out of it soon because it really just doesn’t feel like me and I’m very aware of it.

I’ll work on the show notes and recipes contained within later if I get a chance, but suffice to say I will be out on business the next week (starting tomorrow) so I most likely won’t be making any updates here for at least a week. 

As I usually do, I try an pick an intro song that encapsulates either my mood or something that somehow pertains to the audio content of the episode.  Here, I chose “Take this Job and Shove it” by Johnny Paycheck.  I have two comments about this: 1) Yeah, I’m not gonna be quitting my job anytime soon, but the last few weeks, I really feel as if I’ve been holding back my frustration on various career related issues and I’m just not that happy overall, and 2) I really thought Johnny ‘Paycheck’ was a fake name and he was trying to cash in on the name Johnny Cash, especially when you have a song about a job and then shoving it.  Turns out, I was partially correct, as his real name was Donald Eugene Lytle.

Texas-Tini II

• 3 oz whisky (try a sweet or smooth blend like Crown Royal or Canadian Mist)
• 1.5 oz sweet vermouth
• 1/2 oz Blue Curacao (orange flavored liquer, but blue in color)
• Shake all three ingrediants over ice and pour in sugar rimmed martini glass, or mix all three in lowball glass over ice and skip sugar.

Grilled Artichoke

• 2 fresh artichokes, stems cut at least 1 inch from base.
• Place artichokes in pot of boiling water with the freshly squeezed juice of 1/2 lemon to reduce oxidation of leaves (prevents leaves from turning brown). (Optional: zest some of the lemon peel and add zest (to taste) to fresh mayo.  Mix, and chill in advance for dipping.  Lemon zest adds a nice fresh, flavorful kick to the mayo).
• Remove after 25-28 minutes of cooking, drain excess water, and let cool enough to handle.
• Preheat grill to medium-low heat/flame.
• With sharp knife, cut artichoke in half, lengthwise and remove choke/heart (purpleish center with bristles) with spoon.
• Brush halves with olive oil and season with kosher or sea salt and fresh ground pepper.
• Place flat side down on grill, cooking approx 2-3 minutes, then turn 45 degrees and cook additional 2-3 minutes or until nice grill marks appear.  In the last few minutes, ‘drizzle’ some quality balsamic vinegar over artichokes for additional flavor and color.
• Serve with fresh lemon zest mayo (above), and/or melted butter and garlic combo.

Show Notes

• Coming soon

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (40.7MB)

I’m usually pretty good at creating my own content here, but I came across an interesting article over at FoxNews.com and thought it deserved a little attention here.  I’m cutting out some of the fluff, but you get the meat of it.  If you want to read the full article as it was written by Elena Ferretti, go ahead and click here.

Article

It’s axiomatic: from summer barbecues to Octoberfest, beer makes the party. Lucy Saunders takes it a step further. Beer, she says, makes the meal when the meal’s cooked with it. And she’s talking more than beer-battered onion rings.

She’s talking Cheddar Ale Spread with ancho, chipotle and pale ale, and Chocolate Malt Ganache. Saunders, author of “Cooking With Beer,” “Best of American Beer and Food” and “Grilling with Beer” also runs Beercook.com, whose emphatic motto is: “Because beer is Food!” Beer, specifically craft beer, she says, is for far more than just quaffing.

Most people understand - intuitively if not practically - that cooking with wine infuses food with depth, distinction and subtlety. Some dishes use the harder stuff, too; think Penne alla Vodka, or Bananas Foster aflame with rum. Beer hasn’t (yet) become part of our pantry, says Saunders, because while cooking with beer has been part of culinary history for centuries, “it’s been under-appreciated as it’s generally been the province of home cooks, via hand-me-down recipes.”

A craft beer’s flavor is determined by how barley is treated during malting, the process of germinating barley to create a high-starch content seed. The starch will eventually be converted into a fermentable sugar. The ‘maltster’ heats the grain to stop seed growth, which retains the starch content, then roasts it to develop various flavor characteristics and color, similar to the process of roasting coffee beans. Briess Malting in Wisconsin, says Saunders, is the last independent specialty maltster in North America and makes an incredible range of specialty malts for brewing.

Saunders, a Midwest native who, in addition to teaching, runs water conservation workshop for brewers and cheese makers, says she has a “palate for grains” and has loved the taste of beer for as long as she can remember. It started with her mom’s Cheese and Beer soup (beer, caramelized onions, asiago, cheddar and parmesan), Carbonnade (a jaw-dropping ale, beef and onion stew and a major Belgian culinary contribution along with waffles and chocolates) and her dad’s beer-based steak marinades.

The first commercial cookbooks, including some with recipes for cooking with beer, appeared in England during the Tudor era, late 1400s to mid-1500s. That was due not to beer’s ubiquity but to Gutenberg inventing the printing press in 1440. Previously, cookbooks were hand-written and used primarily by monasteries and the upper classes, says Saunders, who majored in Old and Middle English. Instead of a term paper she translated Tudor recipes, cooked and catered a medieval feast for her professor and other students and “hired frat brother friends as serfs to serve dinner.”

Americans’ love affair with craft beers started in the 1980s for a few reasons, says Saunders. By the mid-70s many states lifted a Prohibition-era ban on home brewing allowing people to recapture a forgotten craft. Also, in the late 70s and 80s, study-abroad programs proliferated and students started tasting European beers that had been crafted from long-standing brewing traditions, introducing their palates to flavors other than Budweiser and Miller Lite.

Saunders says that craft brewing combines the artistry and creativity of cooking with the rigors of science. It’s about fermentable sugars, final alcohol content, color and mouth-feel, and evoking flavor and aromatics from grain’s entire taste spectrum. “It’s a continuous learning and creativity curve. That’s the allure. It’s a great challenge and when the results are delicious they are shared and enjoyed. It’s why it’s here to stay.”

For anyone who likes a truly unique way of grilling or cooking very moist and flavorful chicken, I give you this podcast.

The very first time I saw this take on grilling chicken was around 2001-02 and I had seen it on FoodTV.  I was fascinated on the method and idea of both basting and cooking a chicken from the inside out using liquid, and in this case beer.  It looked simple enough and guaranteed to be a talking point amongst friends who see you pull the bird of the grill.

You’ll be amazed, if done correctly, how moist the chicken actually is, especially after sitting on the grill for hours.  And despite the fact it may look a bit complicated, it really isn’t at all.  The most caution I can give though…and I learned this from my own experience is to be very careful removing the can from the bird without adequately letting it rest and cool down juts a tad.  That can is hot, and the left over brew is basically boiling (it did just turn to steam after-all), and you can easily burn yourself.  Oh, and make sure you leave the bird on long enough to cook thoroughly….no matter how good it may look on the outside, you don’t want to get sick from raw chicken (I’ve done that as well, and it isn’t pretty by any means).

Don’t be afraid to experiment with various rubs and spices, and of course if you have fresh herbs liek rosemary or thyme, don’t be shy to try them out either.

Like I say in the episode, best enjoyed in the company of friends and can be paired with lighter wines or like beer.  Enjoy on a nice spring or summer day, get the tunes going, have some light side dishes and I promise you, if done semi-correctly, your friends will want to know how you made such a good main dish.

Show Notes:

• Intro music: “I am a man of constant sorrow” - Soggy Bottom Boys
• Recipe: Beer Can Chicken

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (18.4MB)

Disaronno

Okay, I know I start this podcast by calling it number 7, but in fact it is actually episode 8.

I wanted to try something in a new direction, and seeing that I got some favorable response from a Facebook entry I posted recently on a grilled steak sandwich recently, I decided to devote an episode to basic grilling.  I’m not sure I’d call it Grilling 101, because I could talk on and on in regards to different subjects as it pertains to outdoor grilling, but I thought this was a good place to start, especially for those that are just sick and tired of plain hot dogs and hamburgers or may be afraid of the grill.

I’d be interested in what you think about this episode.  It ran a bit longer than I initially expected, but I’d like to think there’s a lot of good information in this episode.

Disaronno (pictured) is an Italian almond tasting liqueur which strangely does not have any nuts it anyway has an alcohol content of 28%.

Show Notes:

• 01:11:  Intro Song: Holiday for Strings (written by David Rose, performed by The Voice of Walter Schuman).  I ripped this segment from one of my Ultra Lounge CD’s.  I like it because it has a real ‘camp’ factor to it, and should transport you somewhere back into the early 1950’s.
• 01:55:  Disaronno liqueur and A&W root beer cocktail.
• 04:35:  Grilling 101 (charcoal v. coal, picking oils, cleaning, meat choices and quick grilling tips)
• 31:10:  Grilled steak sandwich recipe.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (41.5MB)

Good day all.  I’ve been a bit busy with work as of late and the heat the last few days has really drained me of energy to put a lot of thought into some good entries, and even more so when it comes to sitting down and doing my next podcast.

I’ve been thinking about doing a series of episodes concentrating on my love for BBQ’ing, because it’s one of my favorite leisurely and social activities (and it doesn’t hurt that I truly enjoy both cooking and eating), but I’m trying to think of the format and logistics.  It’s kinda hard to set up a mic outside near the grill, but now that I have my portable recorder (which I still haven’t broke in yet), maybe I’ll try it with some friends in the future.  It’d be fun to hear a few guys jawing away while pounding a few beers and learn a few grilling techniques as well.  If you ever get the chance, look for reruns of an older show starring Bobby Flay called “Grillin’ and Chillin’”.  It was fun to watch Bobby and the other guy banter back and forth, albeit no beer was involved.

Another idea was to have just a few smaller episodes, maybe 10-15 minutes each where I talk about preping a specific menu and maybe pair that menu with a beer or cocktail.  But I’ll really have to mull that idea over because I truly do think it’d lend more to have at least two, maybe three guys all kibitzing while cooking dead meat.

So this past weekend, I had an impromptu BBQ over at the house and invited the neighbor and his wife wife over to partake in my ribs.  The bummer of it all was I think I may have had one to many “Christmas’s” to drink, and I don’t really recall eating my ribs, although everyone else said they were great (and I even got the nice compliment that my ribs were the best on the street since a few of the guys have taken a spin down baby-back avenue).

I figure I’d share one of my simple techniques and recipe for ribs in a jiffy.  I have plenty of rib recipes and this is just one, and so far it hasn’t hasn’t failed me yet:

Initial prep-

• Take a nice meaty slab of baby back ribs, cut in half with a clean, sharp knife, and rub down with some oil.  Most people use canola oil as it has a much higher burning point, but I prefer the extra richeness of olive oil.  It’s important that the oil is relatively fresh (oil can go rancid if not stored properly).  Season both sides with slat and pepper, and please use kosher or sea salt, not table salt.  Pepper shoudl also be freshly milled and cracked.  Just a light smattering of both, the real seasoning comes next.
• Apply a liberal amount of your favorite dry rub to the meaty side and pat it in.  Not so much on the underside where the membrane resides, but enough to add color and some flavor.  Of course if you wanna mill your own spice rub, it’s gonna be really good, but since this is a no fuss recipe, I just grab a prepackaged gourment rub I tend to like with a little chipoltle, and I also sprinkle on a few fresh rosemary leaves from my herb garden (I love rosemary).
• Allow to dry-marinate in the fridge at least one hour, preferably longer to allow spices to penetrate and work their magic.
• In a microwave safe container mix the following ingredients- 1C white wine, 1.5 TBS white wine vinegar, 1 finely diced clove of garlic, 1-2 TBS of Worsteshire (for saltiness), 2-3 TBS of either honey or molasses (for sweet).  Give a slight whisking to, then nuke for 1 minute and set aside (it’ll be used momentarily).
• Preheat oven at 225 degrees and set rack to middle position.
• Wrap the spiced ribs length wise in a very long sheet of aluminum foil, shiny side facing meat, leaving a bit of room, yet crimping aluminum shut except on one end.  At open end  of foil, pour in your wet mix and slightly tilt to allow wet mix settle in, then crimp the open end shut.

Cooking

• Place ribs in oven, crimped side up so liquid won’t leak, and allow to cook at this low temperature undisturbed for at least 2.5 hours.  Possibly 2.75 hours.  This low temperature will break down the callogen in the ribs and baste the ribs in the liquid steam and keep them moist. At this time, go ahead and remove from oven and foil.
• Finish off ribs on BBQ over medium heat for another 15 minutes (7-10 minutes each side or longer depending on preferred wellness).  At this point you’ll start getting good grill marks.  (Optional) Near end of grilling if you want, go ahead and baste ribs with a wet sauce if you want for extra flavor.  Personally I think they are good just with the dry rub, but if you just have to add a BBQ sauce, go ahead and do lightly now.  But be careful not to burn ribs as some sauces have a tendancy to burn because of the high sugar content.
• Let ribs rest a good 10-15 minutes before cutting and serving as you want the internal juices to relax back into the meat.

Enjoy with your favorite sides and beer.  For me, it usually pinto style beans with jalepenos (instead of baked beans), a southwestern potato salad, fresh melon slices, or whatever you like.  Oh and did I mention a good beer?  Go for an amber ale or other medium bodied beer.

What is it in the genetic profile of man that our gender with it’s sometimes considered a vowel ‘y’ chromosome enjoys applying various forms of combustible fuels to incapacitated slabs of fat laden proteins?  And why is it that much more fun when liberal amounts of alcohol are involved?

Is it a harkening back to our ancestor’s discovery of fire?  Perhaps it is our adolescent fascination of pyromania despite our parent’s incessant warnings.  Maybe it is the ‘believed’ ability to escape the scourge of estrogen in the traditional kitchen, or is it a modern day metaphor of genitalia comparison between men on who has the ability to be considered back yard chef supreme?

Whatever the case may be, most men like to grill.  One of those men happens to be me.

My family didn’t grill much when I was a child.  Oh, we had a gas grill in our backyard, but my mom was keen on keeping everything clean back then, and of course cooking fatty meats with all those sauces and rubs were a no-no.  Instead it would be a place to overcook teriyaki chicken and baked potatoes both wrapped up tightly in aluminum foil.  No, my father didn’t put up much of a fight back then, and I can’t really blame him.  It was easier to let mom do her ‘cooking’ than listen on endlessly that he may have spilled some sauce on the concrete or didn’t clean the grate properly.

For years, the only exposure I had to real grilling was those pathetic and synthetic hot dogs one would eat at the beach cookouts and the extra sand was considered a side dish.

It wouldn’t be until I was in college that I finally learned what it was like to hold a real spatula while standing over charcoal briquettes that were zealously over doused in Kingsford’s lighter fluid by drunken fraternity brothers.  Oh what a sight that was.

Miraculously young men who had never earned the appropriate merit badge in scouting were now all of a sudden fire starting experts, most likely honing their skills over various water pipes and rolled tobacco and zig zags.  With 15 plus hungry and inebriated souls all standing about like Cal Trans during rush hour in their feeble attempts to get a grill going, it would eventually resort to adding more fuel.  When in doubt, add more fuel right?  Of course our quarter pound burgers would soon resemble carbonized hockey pucks and have a familiar taste of 87 octane from a Shell station.

It would be years later that one afternoon while sitting around with my friend and room mate Sam that we somehow landed on the Food Network where we watched a marathon of various grilling shows.  By the end of that afternoon and the continual self salivating like Pavlov’s dog I had decided to buy my first grill.  

The following Sunday I found myself standing in the seasonal section of Target and dropping $149 on a Thermos propane barbeque that would launch my own expeditions into the wonderful and tasty world of bachelor culinary delights.  

The assembly of the BBQ alone, with its various nuts and bolts and hoses and various doohickeys, was a right of passage unto itself.  Like an adult erector set, I constructed with pride my Thermos grill and we stared back in awe upon its completion at its magnificent matte black complexion as it found its new home taking up a third of our paltry deck.

To be continued….