What did you cook today?

[ronnie_suburban]

Riffing on a Char Kway Teow recipe I made a few months ago, I took a bunch of liberties here, with the main goal to come up with a rice noodle dish that helped get RID of a bunch of stuff I had on hand. As for the CKT recipe itself, I was mainly interested in the sauce, which strikes that perfect balance between salty, sour, umami, sweet and bitter. To that end, this foray started with a taste test . . .


Dark/Thick/Sweet Sauces
A dark/thick sauce is a component of the stir-fry sauce that powers this dish. First step was to taste these 3 products side by side and choose the right one for the dish . . .

ABC Sweet Soy (Indonesia): mildly salty, mainly sweet and a bit tart. Very balanced overall with only minimal complexity.
Karamel Masakan (Malaysia): Mainly bitter, and intensely so. It almost tastes like burnt sugar devoid of any sweetness. Long finish, very complex.
Healthy Boy Black Soy (Thailand): Very salty up front with a touch of bitter, a touch of sour and only a faint, back-end hint of sweetness.

I like them all -- and they're all quite different -- but considering what I was going for today -- I opted for the ABC . . .


Mise En Place & Tsunehisa Nami AUS10 Gyuto, 210mm
Everything but the 10mm rice noodles (soaking out of frame): Black pepper, green cabbage, eggs, soy sauce, oyster sauce, dark/sweet soy sauce, Thai birds eye chiles, shallots, scallion greens, palm sugar, fish sauce, homemade sambal, avocado oil, leftover meatloaf (w00t! ), chopped garlic, lap cheong and scallion bottoms.

Sauce consists of soy, dark/sweet soy, fish sauce, oyster sauce, palm sugar and black pepper. Once the sauce is made and set aside, it's a fairly standard stir-fry prep. After everything cooks, the last two items in are the soaked/drained noodles and the sauce. Once the noodles reach the desired doneness, it's time to eat . . .


Stir-Fried Rice Noodles with Meatloaf & Lap Cheong
Adding the thinly sliced strips of cabbage throughout the cook helped round things out and with no bean sprouts on hand, the ones I added at the end of the cook did a nice job of approximating a similar crunch.


Plated Up
With some spicy-sweet cucumber salad, which is hitting its peak atm.

[ronnie_suburban]

The first Monday after DST resumes is always a comfort. Post-work grilling by daylight begins again. But first, some side-dishery . . .


Broccoli Mise En Place & Tsunehisa Nami AUS10 Gyuto, 210mm
Hot soybean paste, shoyu, broccoli, avocado oil and chopped garlic. Keeping it relatively simple.


Stir-Fried Broccoli
This was a quickie, which I was able to take care of while the main course was going outside . . .


Grilled
Bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs . . . my happy place!


Plated Up
With some toasted/buttered rosemary-polenta bread from Loaf Lounge.

Happy Monday!

[billk1002]

Monday night grilled fish...

Chilean sea bass marinated in a ginger soy sauce.
Cast iron zucchini.
Cilantro lime right rice.

Cheers

[TheLegalRazor]

Bill, great meal and great view. Where are you located?

[billk1002]

Bill, great meal and great view. Where are you located?

Well thank you, Bradenton FL, that is Palma Sola Bay, we recently bought a pre-retirement condo.

[ronnie_suburban]

Some freezer stock, some lump charcoal and ~1 hour (not counting thaw time) . . .


Grilling
Just used what I had on hand, so one slab of spares (top and right) and one slab of baby backs (bottom and left). This was after they'd cooked for about 50 minutes and had been glazed (hoisin, soy, garlic, honey, ginger, toasted sesame oil, etc.)


Party Ribs
On the platter. I always love scallions with grilled pork, in any form.


Plated Up
With spicy-sweet cucumber salad and a slice of toasted/buttered milk bread. No question this method will work with spares or baby backs but having them side by side confirms my earlier analysis that it's a better method for baby backs.

[billk1002]

Some freezer stock, some lump charcoal and ~1 hour (not counting thaw time) . . .


Grilling
Just used what I had on hand, so one slab of spares (top and right) and one slab of baby backs (bottom and left). This was after they'd cooked for about 50 minutes and had been glazed (hoisin, soy, garlic, honey, ginger, toasted sesame oil, etc.)

Ronnie, just spectacular, they look incredible, I am just going to have to give that method a try.

[ronnie_suburban]

Some freezer stock, some lump charcoal and ~1 hour (not counting thaw time) . . .


Grilling
Just used what I had on hand, so one slab of spares (top and right) and one slab of baby backs (bottom and left). This was after they'd cooked for about 50 minutes and had been glazed (hoisin, soy, garlic, honey, ginger, toasted sesame oil, etc.)

Ronnie, just spectacular, they look incredible, I am just going to have to give that method a try.

I take no credit, other than being able to follow someone else's instructions but yeah, it's a solid method. I've done it a half-dozen times and they've turned out great each time. The best thing, especially for a Low & Slow guy like myself, is being able to have some delicious ribs ready in roughly an hour. There was no way I had time to use the smoker today but these ribs, I started at around 4:30 and by about 6:00, we were eating. Are they as good as L&S bbq'd ribs? Not quite but there's no compromise here. They're totally delicious in their own right. And again, baby backs are the way to go here.

[ColonelJLloyd]

I'm going to have to try this method for sure. I sometimes catch ribs on sale or BOGO and don't have the time to smoke them. I'd like to know what you're using to keep your charcoal centered, Ronnie.

I've been cooking, if not as much as usual since it's my busiest time of year at work. I've also had myriad other projects (drywall/paint, minor plumbing issues) that have taken my time. The country hams I cure as part of a group that dates back to the 1960s were cured and ready to hang a full four weeks ago and while I've long wanted to cold smoke them this year I finally built a contraption to make it happen. I wanted to smoke them immediately but it didn't work out for various reasons so left them to hang in their pillow cases wrapped in paper. Anyhow, I finally got them started on Tuesday. I'm using my pellet grill to supply the smoke supplemented with a couple of those perforated smoking tubes and some chunks of hickory charcoal. The pellet grill is set to 175F so probably closer to 150F in there and the temp inside the box hasn't gone up a single degree. So I do have a box for true cold smoking going forward. Maybe some gravlax is in my future. I admit to being very curious as to what the hams are looking like right now. I will see if I can get a look through the damper later today or maybe remove the side panel.

Untitled by ColonelJLloyd, on Flickr
Untitled by ColonelJLloyd, on Flickr
Untitled by ColonelJLloyd, on Flickr
Untitled by ColonelJLloyd, on Flickr

[XexoX]

Nice setup Colonel Llyod! Do you raise your own hogs/pigs?

[ColonelJLloyd]

Nice setup Colonel Llyod! Do you raise your own hogs/pigs?

Thanks. No, I didn't. I'm an urban dweller now. For many years when I lived in a very rural area in the western part of the state my neighbor and friend did raise 5-6 every year that we would slaughter and process into various sausages (andouille, kielbasa, breakfast sausage, Italian, boudin blanc), bacon, hams, etc. I have such great memories of those January weekends.

These are just commodity hams purchased for us by a butcher shop owner who's family business used to cure country hams but stopped in the 1960s when they became essentially unprofitable. That's how this thing began and I only became a part of it 5 years ago.

[stevem627]

My family roots are from Kentucky, and my uncle used to cure country ham and I have fond memories of this special ingredient.

I remember MANY years ago when we first got married, my wife decided to surprise me with dinner using a slice of country ham. She had no idea how to make it and made it like a slice of regular ham. Needless to say, I explained when I saw it that it wouldn’t be edible since she hadn’t soaked it to get rid of the salt. She said it was really tough…

Once she learned about the ham, she fell in love with it.

I miss those family hams.

Well done ColonelJLloyd!

My Father was a Kentucky Colonel btw..

[ronnie_suburban]

I'm going to have to try this method for sure. I sometimes catch ribs on sale or BOGO and don't have the time to smoke them. I'd like to know what you're using to keep your charcoal centered, Ronnie.

I've been cooking, if not as much as usual since it's my busiest time of year at work. I've also had myriad other projects (drywall/paint, minor plumbing issues) that have taken my time. The country hams I cure as part of a group that dates back to the 1960s were cured and ready to hang a full four weeks ago and while I've long wanted to cold smoke them this year I finally built a contraption to make it happen. I wanted to smoke them immediately but it didn't work out for various reasons so left them to hang in their pillow cases wrapped in paper. Anyhow, I finally got them started on Tuesday. I'm using my pellet grill to supply the smoke supplemented with a couple of those perforated smoking tubes and some chunks of hickory charcoal. The pellet grill is set to 175F so probably closer to 150F in there and the temp inside the box hasn't gone up a single degree. So I do have a box for true cold smoking going forward. Maybe some gravlax is in my future. I admit to being very curious as to what the hams are looking like right now. I will see if I can get a look through the damper later today or maybe remove the side panel.

Untitled by ColonelJLloyd, on Flickr
Untitled by ColonelJLloyd, on Flickr
Untitled by ColonelJLloyd, on Flickr
Untitled by ColonelJLloyd, on Flickr

Beautiful set-up, Justin. A much, MUCH nicer version (less redneck) of what I've been using over the years to cold-smoke my salmon . . .


My Cold-Smoking Rig

Your hams look so picture-perfect.

As for the rib method, I'm using a device called a BBQ Whirlpool, which I bought via amazon. There are all sorts of them on the market and they're pretty affordable.

[XexoX]

Nice setup Colonel Llyod! Do you raise your own hogs/pigs?

Thanks. No, I didn't. I'm an urban dweller now. For many years when I lived in a very rural area in the western part of the state my neighbor and friend did raise 5-6 every year that we would slaughter and process into various sausages (andouille, kielbasa, breakfast sausage, Italian, boudin blanc), bacon, hams, etc. I have such great memories of those January weekends.

These are just commodity hams purchased for us by a butcher shop owner who's family business used to cure country hams but stopped in the 1960s when they became essentially unprofitable. That's how this thing began and I only became a part of it 5 years ago.

I've never had a country ham, so I don't know what I'm missing. back in the earlish mid 1970s (when I was in junior high and high school, we raised pigs for a few years. There was a place in Hubbard Oregon that cured/smoked our hams and bacon, took them a month or so before we got them back. I've never had anything as good as those were Maybe these would count as "city" hams. Even the picnic hams were better than most hams we could find in the store.

[mauichef]

I'm going to have to try this method for sure. I sometimes catch ribs on sale or BOGO and don't have the time to smoke them. I'd like to know what you're using to keep your charcoal centered, Ronnie.

I've been cooking, if not as much as usual since it's my busiest time of year at work. I've also had myriad other projects (drywall/paint, minor plumbing issues) that have taken my time. The country hams I cure as part of a group that dates back to the 1960s were cured and ready to hang a full four weeks ago and while I've long wanted to cold smoke them this year I finally built a contraption to make it happen. I wanted to smoke them immediately but it didn't work out for various reasons so left them to hang in their pillow cases wrapped in paper. Anyhow, I finally got them started on Tuesday. I'm using my pellet grill to supply the smoke supplemented with a couple of those perforated smoking tubes and some chunks of hickory charcoal. The pellet grill is set to 175F so probably closer to 150F in there and the temp inside the box hasn't gone up a single degree. So I do have a box for true cold smoking going forward. Maybe some gravlax is in my future. I admit to being very curious as to what the hams are looking like right now. I will see if I can get a look through the damper later today or maybe remove the side panel.

That is amazing!!!!!
I would love to try that and yours!
Well done.

[mauichef]

Locally sourced Baby Back Ribs with meathead's Memphis Rub, Vivienne's Famous Slaw and Potato Wedges

Sorry about the crappy photos and plating. We still don't have our "stuff" here. Should arrive in a week.

[XexoX]

... Sorry about the crappy photos and plating. We still don't have our "stuff" here. Should arrive in a week. ...

You're forgiven.

[ronnie_suburban]

Been spending some time down the noodle rabbit hole lately and was further inspired by some beautiful fresh shiitakes I saw at H-Mart. Decided to bring it all together . . .


Mise En Place, Kurosaki Shizuku R2 Gyuto, 210mm, & Anryu Blue #2 Hammered Petty, 75mm
Shiitakes, graffiti eggplant, fresh wheat vermicelli, gochugaru, avocado oil, fish sauce, dark soy, minced garlic & microplaned ginger, lap cheong, scallions, dried heaven-facing chiles, soy sauce, oyster sauce, fried tofu and yellow onion.

I used the Anryu to dig the stems out from the shiitakes. Even fresh, they can be tough. I left the one shiitake intact and sliced it after I took the pic just because it looked so beautiful, and I wanted to memorialize it. Noodles needed only about 2 minutes in boiling water before they were ready to add to the stir-fry. I didn't time that very well but was able to keep them from clumping by tossing them in a touch of oil after they cooked and holding them in a bowl until it was time to add them to the wok. In the end, it came together really nicely . . .


Stir-Fried Noodles
Happily the shiitakes were front and center here. They delivered a fairly pungent funky perfume to the dish that I found irresistible. Their texture -- slippery, silky and slightly chewy -- was satisfying. All the rest of the business worked well with it. I'll probably never remember exactly what I did here in the future but if I could, I'd definitely make this one again.

[billk1002]

Saturday Steak

Flank steak - rubbed with a steak and chop dry rub, then marinated in a balsamic steak sauce.
Little red potatoes - EVO, salt, pepper, garlic powder, 425 degrees for about 30 minutes.
Cast iron little red tomatoes until the pop - EVO, salt
Bib lettuce salad with tomatoes, cucumber, red cabbage
Salad dressing - EVO, balsamic, citrus champagne vinegar, parsley, garlic cloves, salt, pepper, Italian spices
Chimichurri - Cilantro, parsley, garlic cloves, red wine vinegar, salt, pepper, red pepper flakes

Happy Saturday

Tsunehisa Nami AUS10 Gyuto 210mm

The grill shot

The porch

[ronnie_suburban]

Hadn't made pancakes in as long as I could remember but we were in the mood, so pancakes for breakfast . . .


Buttermilk Pancakes
Broadbent bacon and 2 over easy.

Given today's date, dinner was a no-brainer . . .


Corned Beef & Cabbage, Etc.
Onions, carrots and red potatoes, too. I used some green cabbage and red cabbage, so everything has a strange tint. Served with some horseradish cream sauce and yellow mustard.