Pork Picnic Cut

Time to step up your game. I don't do this often so pay attention.  This one is a little more involved than the every day burger. Enter the pork picnic shoulder cut.  Hunks of pork like this need a lot of time, a little heat and lots of patience. 

Step one, rub the picnic down with plenty of spices.  My dry rub consists of

1. 1-2 Tablespoons of chili powder


2. 1-2 Tablespoons of ground cumin


3. Teaspoon of sugar


4. Tablespooon of kosher salt


5. Half teaspoon of allspice


6. Tablespoon of garlic powder


7. Tablespoon of onion powder


8. Splash of olive oil to create a paste

After mixing all of the spices together, rub them into the meat.  In addition, I also like to pull out my injector, fill it with my rub and inject it into the shoulder.  The key here is to add plenty of vinegar to the rub to make it a proper liquid.  If you dont enough liquid you will clog the injector.  Stick the pork in the fridge for at least two hours to let the rub become one with meat.

The key to grilling something of this size is low and slow. Your goal will be to cook it under indirect heat at 200 degrees for 10 hours.  This is usually easier said than done.  I normally get lit and then close the vents so its just enough to keep the fire going.  Invest in a thermometer to make sure your fire doesn't get too hot.  Though its a lot of work, your efforts will pay off.

Mixed Herb Pesto Sauce

I am always looking for variety in what I eat. One staple of mine in the summer is pesto. traditionally pesto is made with basil, pine nuts, olive oil, salt, pepper and some parmesean cheese. The BBQB takes thi basic recipe and constantly expands on it.
Today's pesto contained:
1) Bunch of basil
2) Few leaves of purple basil
3) Bunch of parsely
4) Toasted walnuts
5) Olive Oil
6) Salt + Pepper to taste

Put all ofthe ingredients above in a food processor and process it into a paste. This can be used on numerous food including pasta, fish, pork chops, bread etc.

Tamarin, Garlic and Chili Shrimp

Is a grill pan a handy device to have in a kitchen? Yes. Is it valid replacement for a Weber charcoal grill. No. Do I own a grill pan? Yes I do.

Yes, its true, I don't grill every night. Tonight I decided to head down to Gadaleto's and pick up some sea food. I ended up with some fresh shrimp and a couple of flounder fillets.

I was in the mood for a little spice so I decided to make a tamarin, garlic, and chili glaze. That's right, a glaze. To make the glaze, I added the following ingredients to my food processor and processed 'em.

1) 2 Dried red chilis

2) 1 Teaspoon tamarin paste

3) Tablespoon of peanut butter

4) Splash of olive oil

5) Pinch of salt

6) Few grinds of pepper

7) 2 Cloves of crushed garlic

Once processed, pour the mixture into a sauce pan bring to a boil and then turn off.

cTo cook the shrimp, I skewered them on wooded skewers, basted them with the glaze and placed them on my grill pan/griddle. With the pan on high heat the shrimp only took about 2 minutes on each. Make sure you baste both sides heavily.

The final plate was served with some baked flounder topped with a pesto sauce, some steamed broccoli, and some french bread. I nailed this one.

Texas Brisket

This week I find myself in Texas, just north of Dallas. After work tonight, my coworker invited me over to his house to meet the fam and for some Texas BBQ. I don't really have any exact recipes to share with you but here are some pretty good pictures I took with my cell phone.The jist of it was of course low and slow. The brisket was actually cooked in the oven for several hours at 140 degrees. He then finished it off on his charcoal grill for about 30-40 minutes. It was excellent.

Review - Gilmore's In West Chester, PA

At the moment, I have some friends in town from Europe and they offered to take the BBQB out to dinner at Gilmore's in West Chester, PA. I had never been and must say was pretty excited to go. I used to live in France for a little bit and (no big surprise) absolutely love the food.
My friend went online and decided that we should all try the Chef's Tasting Menu. Since there were five of us going there, my friend walked over the restaurant in the afternoon and asked if we needed to let them know that we planned to have the tasting menu. They assured us they did not need to reserve the tasting menu.
When we arrived to our 8:30pm seating we were promptly and cordially greeted at the door and shown to our table. The dining area is well decorated with paintings and is quite nice inside. Gilmore's in a BYOB so we packed in 4 bottles of wine. Things were really starting to look good. ...But it is here that Gilmore's really dropped the ball. When we tried to order five of the Chef's Tasting Menus the waiter had to go back and check if there were any more left...and indeed there were only three left. I must say we were VERY disappointed. This was unacceptable in my opinion...especially since we had specifically gone to the restaurant earlier to make sure this did not happen. I was even a little embarrassed in front of my guests.
Therefore, instead of ordering five menus, we ordered the three and then went a la carte for the other two meals. Now, I must say, after that opening debacle, things made a sharp turn for the better. The food was absolutely excellent. The Chef's menu was phenomenal. The exact menu is below and it costed $60. In addition, the servers were fairly knowledegable about what they were serving and one of them even knew some French. A few of us speak a little French so we enjoyed convering with him a bit as well.
Surf and Turf - Slow braised veal cheeks with seared sea scallop
Pickled oysters on cucumber cappellini with horseradish cream
Duck confit and siitake pot stickers, port sauce
Porcini dusted rabbit loin with morels and spring vegetables
Creme au Miel

When they brought the first course out, it looked so good that I forgot to take a picture of the dish. But let me tell you, that was one heck of a scallop.

The second dish, pickled oysters, was extremely interesting. I had never tried a pickled oyster before. They have a completely different tast than fresh oysters. There is no fishy or salt-water taste at all. Actually, they had a very subtle delicious flavour. These guys are good.

The third dish was equally impressive and delicious. The BBQB, in general, is a big fan of things wrapped in dough. Therefore, these duck potstickers were another home run. ...as was the rabiit (not shown)

An interesting consequence off not having five Chef's Menus was that the table ended up trying many different dishes that we otherwise would not have. Therefore, everything worked out for the best. Thank you Gilmore's for a fantastic evening. Dessert, coffee, and four bottles of wine later we rolled out of there as extremely happy campers. We be back!

Bacon Wrapped Filet Mignon

A friend of mine made these bacon wrapped filet mignon steaks for me a while back. In my opinion, filet mignon really needs the bacon in order to be successful. Frankly, there just isn't enough fat in filet mignon to bring out the flavor. Luckily, mother nature allows us to create a marriage of flavor between swine and bovine to save the day.

Preparation is quite simple actually. Just wrap the outside of the steaks in a nice piece of bacon and secure them using a toothpick or two. Coat with salt and pepper and thats it.

The only trick to grilling the filet mignon is to make sure the bacon is cooked without overcooking the steak. On a hot grill, I wouldn't want steaks this size on there for more than 6 minutes. Therefore, its a good idea to move them around a bit and stand them on end it order to get the bacon cooked...as in the picture above.

Now thats a place setting. My friend's final plating included some steamed broccoli, and garlic and cheese mashed potatoes all resting on some delicious brown sauce.

The BBQB also recommends bacon wrapped asparagus, bacon wrapped scallops, and bacon wrapped bacon.

Its Gettin' Hot In Here

Summer has hit us pretty hard here in West Chester, PA, this week. To combat the heat and to take advantage of a bag of limes that I had in my fridge, I whipped up a batch of home made margaritas. Though the pre-made mixes you can buy at the grocery store are convenient, they are not a serious alternative to a 'real' one.

...And here is what the BBQB deems a real margarita.

1. Two parts tequila
2. One part Cointreau (I believe you can substitute triple sec here)
3. One part freshly squeezed lime juice
4. 2 Teaspoons sugar (Optional and only really necessary if your lime juice is not that great)

Put all of the above ingredients into your drinker shaker with some ice...shake. To salt the rims of your glasses wet the edge of your glass and then dip them in some coarse kosher salt.

Chops and Dogs

I had intended to redo my orange juice and soya sauce pork chops from a week ago but instead of doing them on a gas grill I was going to do them on my charcoal Weber...well long story short, I got home from work a bit late and decided to forgo the marinading process and just go with pork chops au naturelle. I'll redo the OJ marinade another day.
I got these chops in a value pack from the Giant in West Chester, PA. Before grilling them, I sprinkled them with kosher salt and some fresh ground pepper. Frankly, I dont really think that is enough spice for chops but I just didn't have the time.
To round out the meal, I also picked up a package of Hatfield Pepper and Onion Sausage Links.

On a hot grill, chops this size only take about 4-5 minutes on each side. While the chops were cooking I placed the dogs on the outside of the grill, away from the direct heat of the coals. My goal was for the dogs to finish by the time each of my guests had finished their chop. Their nothing like finishing a meal with a nice flavourful sausage. This was actually the firs time in a while that I tried a Hatfield product and I have to say it was excellent. I'll be buying them more often.

The final touches for this meal included some pasta salad, limes, garlic bread, and a magnum of Fish Eye Cabernet Savignon.

Sunset Magazine Festival Dominated by Barbecue Themes

My Northern Californian connection sent me pictures from the Sunset Magazine Festival that took place in Menlo Park , California on June 7th and 8th. Now, normally, I don't have copies of Sunset Magazine hanging out around the John; however, apparently there was a huge grilling theme at the Festival and Weber had a huge showing.

He sent me a bunch of photos. He keeps pushing the gas grill on me. Strange, one would think a guy from California would be a little more eco-friendly and get a charcoal grill. Perhaps I'll send him the classic Weber 22 1/2 inch charcoal grill for his birthday.



Thankfully he did send a photo of the classic...




Apparently, they are also grilling pizzas in California...



Here are the raw ingredients...

Big Apple Barbecue Block Party

I am up in New York this weekend and this afternoon I went over to the Big Apple Barbecue Block Party. It was a good time with lots of food and beer booths. In general the food was really good and the atmosphere was pretty cool. There really is nothing like a bunch of people listening to live music, drinking beer and eating good food. If only the West Chester Restaurant Festival was this relaxed.

I was happy to see the Victory Brewing Company make a strong showing at the event.

Chili and Lime Spiced Chicken

This is a recipe that I do a lot of variations on. The basic ingredients are: chili powder (hotter the better), cumin powder, onion powder, garlic powder, olive oil, pepper and salt. Spread that basic rub all over the chicken legs and thighs. I like hot legs and thighs.

To really boost the flavor I also squeezed in a few limes and even added some lime zest. Add all of this into a zip top bag and let it marinate for at least an hour or two in the fridge. These limes I bought from Acme a few days ago were excellent. I've been using them in everything from chicken to gin and tonic's to mojitos.

Often I cook chicken with indirect heat. This time I put them directly over the coals for about 20 minutes. You really need to watch your heat with chicken though to make sure they dont burn. If the grill starts to get too hot then just move the chicken to the other side of the grill and finish them with indirect heat.

Grilling Season Is In Full Swing

As we all know, grilling season is in full swing. Personally, I grill all year round but even I start firing up the Weber more often when the weather turns nice. Some people use Memorial Day as their kick-off point but I coincide my calendar with the first offering of Iron Hill's Hefe-Weisse. I was lucky enough to get up to Iron Hill last Thursday and throw back a few of them. Is it me or have the glasses gotten smaller since last year? My waitress assured me that they had not.
After my beers at Iron Hill I turned it back to my place and hoisted a few more Franziskaner Weisse beers. I have an assortment of beer glasses...and I like to use them. For those of you who need some grilling encouragement, here are the steps neceesary to begin grilling.

How to start grilling:

1. A grill. Your biggest expense is going to be the grill. The problem with choosing a grill is that there are many options out there to choose from. There are not only many different vendors to choose from but you must also answer the age old question on whether not to get a gas or charcoal grill. Lucky for you, there is only one correct answer to each question: The Weber 22 1/2" Black - One Touch Silver Kettle Grill. And the best part is that it will only run you about $80-$90!


2. A chimney. This little device costs about $12 and is vital for the whole grilling process. A chimney is the best way to light your charcoal. Take two sheets of newspaper, crumple them up, and stick them under the device. Next fill your chimney with enough coal to cook whatever you plan on cooking. The more you grill the more you will be able to predict how much charcoal you will need. For instance, if I am grilling a 2-4 hamburgers or 2-3 steaks I will usually on use half of a chimney. However, if I am doing chicken or ribs, I will use an entire chimney. The other day I was actually able to grill/smoke a pork shoulder for 10 hours on one chimney full of coal...but then again I'm the BBQB


3. Some grill tools. Get some decent tools. You will need some tongs, a spatula, and a wire brush to clean off the grill. These are pretty vital as well. Don't skimp out on these or you will be dissappointed.


4. Some charcoal and some food and you are all set!