Southwestern Chipotle Chicken Corn Chowdah

Ingredients:
8 cups chicken stock
2 cups milk
3 tbsp flour
8 pieces of bacon
2 red onions
3 stalks of celery
1 large can of corn
2 regular sized cans of cream of corn
6 red potatoes
2 red peppers
2-3 chicken breast
Pack of chipotle peppers (about 6)
About ½ cup fresh minced cilantro
Salt
Pepper
Cumen
Paprika
4 bay leaves
Cayenne pepper

In large pan, fry bacon until crisp
Remove bacon and set aside for garnish (or eat. It's tasty)
Add 2 chopped red onions to bacon fat and cook until soft
Reconstitute and mince chipotles
Cut up chicken into bit
Add chicken broth, chicken, celery, potatoes, red peppers, chipotles and cook til everything is done
Mince cilantro
Stir flour into milk and the add to the rest of the soup
Add spices and simmer for a little bit then serve

Pork Shoulders

So Chef Butts got us two pork shoulders for this weekend. I picked them up Saturday afternoon at about 5 and started the process of cleaning and firing up the smoker. I figured these would take 12-14 hours so I ended up using the Minion Method for a long burn with steady temps.

The Minion Method consist of filling a chimney starter about 3/4 of the way full and then dumping pretty much the rest of the bag of charcoal, mixed with the variety and amount of whatever type of smoke would you choose, into the ring on a Weber Smokey Mountain smoker. I have the 22", so the 18" might not hold the rest of the entire bag. From there you light the coals in the chimney starter and when they're ready, you dump them on top of the coals in the smoker. The few coals that are lit will get the smoker up to about 250 degrees without getting it too hot and making it hard to bring the temperature down. They'll slowly light the coals underneath allowing for steady temps and a long cook time.

Now, onto the meat.

Steak Roll Up

What you need:
Steak (Flank, hopefully)
Asparagus
Baby portabella mushrooms
BBQ saws (WV slang)
Provolone cheese
Garlic
Salt
Pepper
Popeye's wife

The mix is chopped asparagus, chopped baby portabellas, minced garlic, salt & pepper sauteed in some olive oil to soften it up a bit.

Usually I use flank steak sliced in half to make a long thin piece to roll up, but the local podunk grocery store didn't have any so I ended up with one of there "Flat Iron Grillers". I sliced the top 1/3 almost all the way through leaving just enough to henge open. Then from the top hinge, I sliced another 1/3 back to other way doing the same for a nice long thing sliced piece of steak.

Layered with Sweet Baby Ray's BBQ, provolone, and then the mixture and rolled it, skewered it, then cooked it to a medium rare/medium. I don't have any finished photos, but it didn't survive the onslaught of the 5 people that were in the kitchen when it came out of the oven.

Spare parts from spare ribs

So Sunday night was an easy night. All the left over trimmings from the ribs went into a put with BBQ sauce and a cup of water at a time. It was simmered for about an hour or two, adding water when needed.

After it was cooked long enough, the leftovers were pulled and more BBQ sauce was added for some very tender pulled pork. So I think I lived off of those ribs for a little over a week.

More ribs

So I got to test out my 22.5" WSM on Sunday and smoked 7 racks of ribs. I know I could have at least fixed 12 with the two racks on there. Unfortunately, my camera decide to transform itself from a camera into a paper weight, so I don't have any photos.

Peanut Butter Burgers

Sorry, pictureless. That's ok though, they weren't very picture worthy...but man did they taste amazing.

Stuff:
2lbs 80/20 ground beef
Smooth peanut butter
Extra sharp cheddar

Optional:
Sweet Baby Ray's bbq sauce
Garlic powder
Onion powder
Chipotle pepper powder
Salt

I like adding stuff to my beef before cooking burgers. I'm guessing if you were to measure, you'd find that the two large squirts of Sweet Baby Ray's I used was equal to 6-8 Tbsp. The rest was about 1 tsp each of garlic powder, onion powder, and chipotle pepper powder. You could substitute cayenne for that. The salt was just added to taste. Stir it up, and throw it in with the 2lbs of ground beef.

Mix all that up and make patties. I like making mine extra large and thing, so when they cook, you don't end up with burger balls like at all the cookouts you've probably ever been to. 5 Guys has this cool way of taking a large iron press type device and smashing the hell out of them when they're on the grill.

So at about the 85% done phase, toss on a slice of extra sharp cheddar and top with a spoonful of peanut butter. When both start to melt to an exceptional gooey mess, toss it on a bun and each.

Warning: If you're allergic to peanuts, it may be worth dying to experience this amazing combination at least once in your life...right before you die. But I didn't tell you to try it and if you do, I'm not liable for it what so ever.

I finally did it

I ordered the Weber Smokey Mountain smoker that I've been debating on for a while now. I ended up going with th 22". If I get it by this weekend, I'll have photos and a report of it in use.

The worst part about a diet...

...is missing all the good food. So after riding 10-20 miles after work, I don't have much of an appetite and it would really be a waste to fix something. I guess maybe I'll pig out next week some time. Future projects planned include:

• More ribs, smoked - Really can't go wrong with these.
• A McGanbang - Just sounds mutha f'in delicious.
• Stuffed flank steak - Sliced and used for sandwiches with a oil, vinegar, basil, etc topping.
• Soup - I bought a new cook book with nothing but soups.

What happens on opposite day, stays in opposite day

So on Thursday, 4/20, I was going to buy a brisket and smoke it. Unfortunately my extreme lack of unplanning had once again foiled my plans; non of the local butcher shops were open...go figure.

So instead of having a nice juicy hunk of undercooked and flavorful cow flesh, I ended up with veggies. Talk about a let down...

The sad tale of the only child Kronk

This is the tale (what I remember, have seen on Facebook, and have collected from friends), of my 28th Birthday on the 17th day of March.

I have finally gained the courage to revisit this foul day and hope that next year fares even better.

C Bass

Not much to this here post. Chef Butts brought over some sea bass filets last week. They were cooked simple enough, oil salt & pepper. The bed of edible matter underneath is sliced small red 'taters, savoy cabbage, onion, garlic, and baby portabellas.

Yep, kinda boring. It's OK though. Tonight I'm probably smoking ribs and a brisket with some kind of weird side and fixing the SJB&BSL. Be prepared...

Thai Soup: or There and Back Again

So the soup of Mordor, er...yeah.

Chef Brad made red Thai curry coconut soup last week. He used a large chicken and made stock then made the soup. It lasted all of one night. There was still a ton of stock left over...

So Monday I made creamieish chicken noodle soup. I cut up a couple of potatoes, three leeks, two containers of sliced baby portabellas and some celery and tossed it all in the stock. After that, I added a pint of whipping cream and some egg noodles and we had chicken soup. One of the two bowls I had that night I decided to add curry powder and crushed red peppers. I'm smrt.

Well, what a coincidence. The next time it was reheated it had the rest of the red Thai curry paste added and was almost back to it's original iteration. Is it true what they try to instill into us from Lost? You can't change the future. No matter how many times you try to make chicken noodle soup out of curry soup, it'll always end up curry soup?

I survived St. Patrick's day

Barely. But it was all in all a good birthday. I bought myself a motorcycle the morning of the 17th. I think I made it until at least 11PM. I know my friends had a good time.

The art of shamrocks and being shit faced

My dear reader (singular tense is not a mistake), I embark on this suicidal journey to the mouth of hell to face my demons and conquer my fears. Corned beef & cabbage be damned! Guiness & Baileys be cast aside to the hungering mouths of those less deserving! Tomorrow is the day of my creation and the day of my undoing. Tomorrow is the day when we separate the boys from the men. Let us forever hold that in our hearts as we set out knowing that none of us shall ever return the same. Let us say a prayer to old Saint Pat, thanking him for this gift that he has bestowed upon us and let none ever be able to say that we let humanity down.

Go forth into this gentle night so that tomorrow we may rise and let loose the dogs of war!

Holy crap, chef tables are impossible to get reservations at!!!

Well, it's 5 more days until my birthday and no chef table reservations. I tried Jose Andres's Mini Bar in Cafe Atlantico several times. It's impossible to get a Friday or Saturday reservation. I almost feel like I'm calling into DC101 trying to win tickets or something. Maybe I could call up Anthony Bourdain and ask for a favor for my birthday. Better yet, I could make a fake Anthony Bourdain Facebook acoount and friend a fake Jose Andres for a fake Mini Bar reservation. That sounds like a more appatizing plan.

Anyways, I've already made dinner plans for the day after St. Pat's and regardless of the fact that I'm going to be smash bag hungerover, I'm fixing food. Well, helping Chef Butts anyways. We're fixing some variation of Tom Kha and a steak curry. I'm looking forward to getting some photos of that.

I'll be in Baltimore for a Brunswick Photographer's Guild meet at the aquarium and walkabout through the inner harbor. I'm probably going to end up in Towson and if I do, I'll be at Kyodai. Maybe I'll buy myself a Canon G11 for my birthday and I'll take some photos of the sushi. Kyodai has one of the rotating conveyer belts that travels around the sushi bar. I always like stopping there when I'm in Towson.

Seared tuna, for a photo

I bought some tuna steaks from a local seafood place, Season's Best Seafood, in Martinsburg, WV. They have a pretty good selection of Seafood and they're always friendly and offer good service.

And by the way, I did this entirely for the photo...

Holy mutha licka Volt!

Well not much to report here. I called Volt about Table 21 figuring that I could at least get a reservation for some where close to my birthday. On their answering machine it stated that table 21 was booked until February (Hells yeah! Table 21 here I come!) of 2011 (...maybe for my birthday next year...).

What a let down. There's a restaurant in DC that does something similar that I've know about for quite a while. Maybe I'll contact them...

Hot saws...

So I started making hot sauce for Maria's Taqueria in Shepherdstown, WV. They're just samples now as we (I have a not so silent partner) are working perfecting recipes that we could have bottled and sold. Right now the Dr. Kronk & Mr. Butts brand hot sauce has three recipes certified as tasty by Maria's staff and patrons.


The Chipotle Bacon & Brown Sugar Hot Sauce
The Habamatoe
The Serranamo!


Maria is going to start supplying us with peppers, so you'll have to keep your eyes open for any new concoctions. A word of warning; if you find a sauce with the name of "DO NOT PUSH", taste at your own risk.

Volt!

www.voltrestaurant.com

Planning on visiting this place in February or March some time. Sounds like it'll be a very expensive, fun time.