Bought a choice rib eye today at Cash and Carry (Smokinman88 – they are like $6.29/lb – it was about $100 for a full boneless rib eye – VERY fresh) and cut it into steaks (sorry, no butcher picks – too messy for one person to butcher and take pics). Anyway, kept out the ends for a little informal meal. Started with some BP Double Secret Steak rub
Fired up the Memphis to 275 and put ‘em on for 30 minutes to get a little flavor on and warm ‘em up a bit. Then into a ripping hot skillet with some peanut oil for a quick sear on all sides
Meanwhile, started cutting up the fries
Everyone into the pool (peanut oil again – I LOVE the taste it imparts)
Fries are done.. oh my, can’t keep out of these things!!
Plated and ready to eat…
Mrs. Kite says “you better put mine back on, it is too red” .. not to worry honey, it is just freshly butchered. Judging from her moans as she was eating, I would say it was a hit!!
the weather is finally up to around freezing so I can play this week! January in Canada needs some warmth so I made some Mole chicken chilli. Started with my base stuff that got no Traeger love.
Got all of that going and left it alone for a few hours. Then I got my veggies and chicken ready to go. I have some bell, Anaheim and Serrano peppers, and my mole rubbed chicken all ready to go.
On to the Traeger with some Tomatillos for a green salsa.
Off and ready to go for a swim.
Everybody in!
Got a bowl with some avacado and my tomatillo salsa (that I forgot to take pics of) and a chunk of conbread my wife made.
Add a big glass of milk and it was comfort food 101. Thanks for looking.
On a recent trip to a beef plant, the hubby brought home some pre-marinaded tri-tips.
Then, I figured as long as we were firing up the smoker, might as well make use of all that space, so pulled out some "mystery" pork loin - got a case of these awhile back, not sure what the exact cut is, some sort of a loin that is boneless. Rubbed the loin with Plowboys Yardbird.
Warmed up the Yoder with mesquite pellets (all we had on hand... time to stock up!) and on goes the tri-tip and the pork.
Smoked at 225-250 for a little less than 2 hours and pulled when IT was 140. Lightly wrapped in foil and rested for probably 30 minutes (waiting on the hubby to get home from work).
Here is the tri-tip:
and the mystery pork:
Plated with some pasta salad, baked beans, and some bread (and half eaten...my crowd was hungry!):
oh so juicy!
Both cuts of meat were fabulous... but the flavor of the rubs really didn't go well together, but we just couldn't resist trying both! The younger kids thought the pork with the Plowboys was a bit on the spicy side.
Even throwing on mystery meat results in some seriously great tasting BBQ. Looking forward to leftovers all week!
I seasoned the fish a few different ways today. Some got a soileaus dusting, some got big poppa smokers desert gold and some got an old bay,parmasean,butter,garlic and mayo seasoning.
The mayo seasoning started like this.
A good tablespoon mayo, one garlic clove minced,a half tablespoon of old bay and a teaspoon of soft butter.
Mix it well then add some parmesean cheese.
I wrapped eight green beans in a half strip of bacon and seasoned them with desert gold.
The weather here in Illinois is sucking bad today..rain turning to sleet then snow tonight so I moved the MAK into the porch.
While the beans are cooking I got the fish ready to go on.
I didn't have bread crumbs so I made some out of salad croutons.
The breadcrumbs went over the mayo parm seasoning.
The green beans are done now its time for the fish.
I cut some mango to grill as well. These got a treatment of brown sugar before they went on.
I really really love grilled fruit!
Aight now! Everything is done lets plate er up!
Here's the wife's plate. She has some fish, green beans and some mango.
My plate got the mayo seasoned fish with bread crumbs, some soileaus seasoned fish and some desert gold seasoned fish. All three were fantastic! I love grilled fish even better than fried now. The green beans were excellent! This is the first time I made them this way and they didn't disappoint. I think next time ill wrap six beans instead of eight so they cook more evenly.
I'll wrap it up now I gotta get ready for work..thanks for looking!
This recipe works with boneless skinless thighs or breasts. Was made for the thighs
Making a marinade. 1 teaspoon coriander, half teaspoon cumin seeds.4 tablespoons oil ( i use grape seed) 2 chipotle peppers in adobo. this will do 4 pieces of chicken. After you marinade (30 minutes is fine) salt and pepper or add spice to taste, but honestly they are good just with the marinade.
Yesterday cooked the thighs on the Traeger Jr at 375 using the grill pan and one thigh on the rack. Today cooked the breast on the MAK at 400 (which is preferred ) Two in the grill pan and two on grill grates
This is very easy and flavorful. Just a little heat, most guest will be fine with it.
You will notice the hotter heat when using the MAK gave nicer grill marks , the taste was the same. Good enough that extras got made for lunches this week.
Had a couple of tri-tips to do and looking for a little variation applied different seasonings, 3 Eyz and then also Tatonka Dust to the tri-tips and fridged them individually wrapped over night.
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Gave the tri-tips some oak/charcoal smoke for 2 hours with the grill running at 150º.
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Turned up the grill to 250º and added a potato/veggie mix with fresh minced garlic.
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Towards the end of the cook added some garlic toast.
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Tri-tips were cooked to 140º and foiled for a half hour rest before slicing.
Was really wanting Artichokes all week, so tonight went with a theme dinner-
Decided to do an Artichoke heart stuffed chicken breast and grilled artichokes.
Start with the chicken stuffing-
Heat some olive oil, thyme, and crushed red red pepper
add chopped artichoke hearts, garlic, and salt and pepper and simmer for few minutes
Next comes chopped sun dried tomatoes, fresh basil, and goat cheese
Mix it up
Let the stuffing mix cool and prep the chicken, using boneless skinless breasts here
Pound them out thin
Add the stuffing mix
Fold the meat over and secure with toothpicks and then hit them with some olive oil and Desert Gold (sliced some tenders off the breast and hit them with DG for the kiddos)
Next put some beautiful "frost kissed" (aka brown) Artichokes into the steamer for about 30 minutes
Chicken breasts onto the MAK over the flame zone
Cleaned up the Chokes and hit them with olive oil and Desert Gold
Breasts and tenders pretty much done, chokes on the grill
Chicken done
Chokes done
All plated up
This came out great- by far the best stuffed chicken recipe I have tried to date, all of the flavors blended perfectly and they weren't too heavy to boot. All in all a wonderful meal.
OK, here are the results from this weekends cook. Nine participants. Since I, unfortunately, couldn't taste anything I looked at multiple visual criteria to decide this weeks top 3 spots. I looked for a great money shot, what was plated with the meat, camera skills including lighting and composition, how well you explained how you got from raw ingredients to the finished product and level of difficulty. I also gave extra points if you used BPS products in your entry, gave a recipe or if your entry was "out of the box" or humorous in some way. So it wasn't just about a great money shot, there was more to it than that. You all had fun presenting but this needed to be fun for the judge as well.
Since there were multiple ways to earn points I kept everyones cook on an Excel spreadsheet with all the different scoring criteria in columns and the spreadsheet tabulated everyones score and it picked the winner according to highest cumulative score.
Here are the participants:
Kite - Rib eye with fries, my oh my
soupyjones - Mole chicken chilli
7sanders - First Tri-tip and a mystery pork loin
Chili Head - Grilled walleye with bacon wrapped green beans.
RickB - Lamb Chops With Butternut risotto and Sautéed Kale
Scallywag - Spicy Quesadillas
jimsbarbecue - Quick chicken
MossyMo - 3 Eyz Tri-tip and a Tatonka Dust Tri-tip
CarterQ - Artichoke heart stuffed chicken breast and grilled artichokes
Here are the top 3 place holders:
3rd: CarterQ - Artichoke heart stuffed chicken breast and grilled artichokes
2nd: Chili Head - Grilled walleye with bacon wrapped green beans
1st: RickB - Lamb Chops With Butternut risotto and Sautéed Kale
Thanks for the call Scooter! Congrats to Chili and Carter, both cooks were exceptional. To all those who entered keep up the good work. And as usuall thanks BP for the playground and it's always fun getting in your pocket!