The steamed lobster feast is a hallmark of New England multi-generational family togetherness. Armed with cracking tools, warm butter and hot broth bowls, and a pile of hot water white cornmeal iron skillet Rhode Island Johnny cakes, each member keeps plenty busy and mostly to themselves. Senior Swamp Yankee John Quinn tolerates the maple syrup, but rarely without comment.
Just next door the Cellar clan steams the catch with a propane burner. Same idea as frying turkeys in peanut oil. It's lots of fun and offers a nice focal point for everyone to stare at. Kinda like a campfire or fireplace.
In they go. Not sure how these fellas met their maker but we always sever the lifeline before cooking.
Even Min agrees that a lobster fest is no time to clutter things up with side dishes. To0 bad she's never invited.
Ice cold beer is a lobster fest must. Belgian Stella and Boston ale. I'll have a Stella, Stephen.
Posted in Rhode Island, Seafood 6 Comments »
We got busy and ate. Almost too late for the photo.
My college buddy Philip and I have been cooking together and talking about cooking for 30 years.
He’s an inventive cook, always open to new ingredients and techniques, but with one foot firmly planted in his native Boones Mills, VA, soil. He never was an ingredient snob. Ever since I’ve known him, Philip has been dreaming up recipes combining world cuisines with his favorite childhood southern ingredients. Like that sweet and sour hominy made with ginger ale. It tasted remarkably like Chinese restaurant sweet and sour shrimp. Heck, we were munching on bright pink beet dip made with homegrown beets way before the latest crop of serious young chefs who throw around words like “local roasted beets” were even born.
His mother taught him well. And me too. The Bernard family introduced me to all the stuff that’s so in now–vegetable and herb gardening, cooking from the garden and serious pickling like those delicious sun chokes. Pretty much everything I know about southern home cooking began in Boones Mill.
We ate like royalty on those cool autumn Saturday mornings when his folks would drive up to Blacksburg to tailgate before the Virginia Tech football games. The cornucopia in the trunk was impressive–pimiento cheese, chicken salad, fresh tomato and basil sandwiches oozing with mayonnaise on white bread. One of those sounds perfect right now.
Here’s Philip’s Succotash Pasta. He and good old fordhooks go way back.
R.B. and I ate so eagerly that we almost forgot to take a picture.
Succotash Pasta
1 box of pasta (I like penne, bow tie, shells)
1+ cup frozen Fordhooks
1 cup frozen corn
1 sweet bell pepper (I like the orange one) diced
1 clove garlic, minced – - optional
1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon olive oil
Handful of chopped mixed herbs – - basil, thyme, rosemary, mint optional Zest of one lemon, optional
1/4 cup heavy cream, optional
1/2 cup grated Parmesan, optional
Cook pasta in a big pot of salted water as usual.
When pasta is about half done, stir in limas and corn. By the time water returns to boil and pasta is al dente the vegetables should be cooked as well.
While cooking pasta, melt butter in a saute pan and add olive oil and garlic if desired. ( I don’t always want garlic for a week nite dinner).
Strain pasta mixture and put into a large bowl.
Add butter and olive oil and toss.
Salt and pepper to taste and that’s it for the basic recipe.
Add optional ingredients as desired to jazz it up but the basic recipe is killer and easy.
A great accompaniment is garlic herb toast which can be made by increasing the butter and olive oil to 3 tablespoons each. Heat the butter and olive oil, add garlic and herbs then take slices of Italian bread and dip into the mixture on one side, place on a cookie sheet, and toast until golden. Then take leftover butter and herb mixture and make the pasta.
Serve with a grilled caesar (sans croutons) and a glass of New Zealand sauvignon blanc and you’ll forget how far away the weekend is!!!!
Posted in Food, Pasta, Vegetables 2 Comments »
I put down the clicker when it landed halfway into Julie & Julia the other night. I’d seen it but had to see Meryl’s Julia some more. Just that day I’d watched Julia make tarte tatin on the Cooking channel. “…And let the utensils fall where they may!” I love her and I swear that as a young woman Julia Child is a dead ringer for Bill Clinton’s sister. To my surprise no one but me seems to get this. Check out black & white eps of The French Chef and see for yourself.
The movie’s fun of forgetting it’s not really Julia is unfortunately interrupted by Julie. If she’d enjoyed her Judith Jones-less Bourguignon in the boeuf the distraction might have been forgivable.
And so to the problem of the moment: do I blog about my little attempt at “oven roasted sausage ragu” inspired by Jamie at Home in his episode on tomatoes? Too Julie Powell?
What the hell. You can always click off, right? Anyway the guy is awesome. He’s clever, doesn’t muck things up American-style, has a great accent and loves what he’s doing. I mean he’s having a ball up there, wazzing everything up. He reminds me of my teen acting phase, the little shadow-scared INFP, and the hours trying to copy the Artful Dodger and Eliza Doolitle’s father from dad’s soundtrack LPs.
Jamie on the set link best I can do.
Just watching him in his videos cross-legged in front of a fire pit and the grate loaded with meats and fish in an English spring with cameras rolling. Kindling, dry wood, bushes, wha’evah, tee-pee-style wood and coal fire. He’s a Balding Eagle Scout — with the hair.
We’d be great pals, I know it, if only. We’d be up all night him and I a coupla chum bums, one crazy experiment then another an’ another and of course some bottle rockets aimed straight away at ol’ Roger’s house just for ‘esses and ‘gees until it’s daylight finally and then to some coffee on the coals. Steaming hot dark black. With fresh English cream. And grilled bread toast and bacon and quick griddle eggs. Wash it all down with a nice pale ale. Proper campfire breakfast. I can see us now. Here’s me without ol’ Jamie.
As close to an action shot as I get. Got your own tree stump seat right here for ya, James.
Min would call it a full-blown bromance and she’d be right. Maybe my pal Tom Parker Bowles can get me a proper intro. I need to check in with him anyway. Man, that would make the decade totally complete, now wouldn’t it? See, I was afraid of this, rabbitin’ on and on about ol Jamie. Here I go morphing into the R.B. version of smitten Julie. If only my hair might shoot forward like his, then I’d really be living the dream with that one, wouldn’t I?
Back to the damn dish and knock off the dreaming. The tomato sausage bake was brilliant, the sausages, blimey, all cooking up into the fresh roasted tow-mah-toes and big herbs, well that bit’s brilliant as well. It’s really lovely this dish. An’ it’s whot O’ym really oll a’bout. ‘Ome cuuking. Brilliant.
Read the recipe post at JamieOliver.com here.
A bit contrived, sure, but it's a food blog. We're all contriving in some way or another. It's how we try to get others to pay us attention. Enough of this "one hand clapping" business. Time for a TV show!
In sum, Jamie cooks some pawn-che-tuh in olive oil on a half sheet in a wood-fired pizza oven, adds to that an array of tomatoes stem-side down with cores removed, rosemary, thyme, oregano, bay leaves, and roasts until the skins peel off. Into the mix go the sausage links drizzled in more oil, some unpeeled garlic cloves and back into the oven. He served his over ripped up crusty bread.
Bacon is swell for ratings, apparently, as he skips this step in the actual recipe. No matter. And when in god's name will anyone but us say out loud that it's the liquid smoke that makes bacon so damn good? With good olive oil and sausage drippings, skip the bacon. Drop in a spoonful of bacon fat if you feel the need. Or a T of liquid smoke.
Once cooked I should have pulled the bacon and left the fat in the tray. The cooked pieces just flapped around in the final dish, their flavoring purpose having already been served.
Tennessee tomatoes are the best part of Tennessee. One, anyway. Them and eating a cheeseburger at Brown's Diner a couple booths from Marty Stewart. The Bud on tap is extra cold and good.
Jamie says the tomato skins should blister and pull off in about five minutes. After nearly 30 minutes in a 350°F oven, mine were still fighting back and causing me to crush the tomatoes more than was recommended. (“I’m not making a tow-mah-toe soauce, that’s jest not intrissting”). His wood oven must have been hotter than my 350. Anyway, the smells of the roasting tomatoes, the fresh herbs, oil, and bacon fat were really amazing. And dropping in the hot Italian sausage truly lit the house up. Usually I’m smelling up the backyard so this was a really big deal for me.
After 45 or 50 minutes the sausages were cooked and the thing really came together. See how the bacon looks out of place.
In the end, I needed a pasta base rather than Jamie’s crusty bread, good as his looked. A fancy bag of fusillo gigante Min scored at T.J. Maxx for cheap did the trick. So, thanks, Jamie. You’re freakin’ brilliant.
Wait, one last thing. The blackberries at the farm stand where I got the tomatoes were top stuff. Absolutely top stuff. Had to have a go at them. Peaches a bit firm, but still delicious. Lovely.
Posted in Food, Meat, Pasta 1 Comment »
Leftover steak isn’t like leftover wine. It actually exists. Beyond a round of steak tacos or as a snack for a six-foot teenage boy staring into an open refrigerator, is leftover steak all that fun once the sizzle is gone and the cold hard fat no longer possible to ignore?
Hell, yes it is when it’s the main ingredient in a Tossed Steakhouse. Fresh greens, red onion, nuked potato cubes, blue cheese, and steak. The whole steakhouse meal in a perfect salad.
The key is proper re-warming of the meat. Whether in a microwave, an oven, or toaster oven, the medium rare meat turns to well in no time. Grey and gone of its juices, it turns tough and rubbery. Not at all the rib eye you remember.
Best way to dodge that scenario is to cut the meat into bite-size pieces which both speeds up the warm-through and multiplies the surface area available for a little added crust. Then, a few minutes in a hot skillet or, as here, over a hot wood fire in a vegetable basket for several minutes, and the sizzle is back. Better yet, you don’t have anything to cut to enjoy the salad.
Tossed Steakhouse
Rib eye steak cut into bite-size pieces
Leaf lettuce
Cubed nuked potatoes
Your favorite vinaigrette dressing
Crumbled blue cheese
Red onion slivers
Chopped fresh tomatoes
Warm the rib eye cubes like we suggest above and toss with the lettuce and potatoes in a large salad bowl. Drizzle with your favorite vinaigrette dressing. Top with crumbled blue cheese, onion slivers and tomato. Steakhouse in a bowl!
Posted in Beef, Food, Salads No Comments »
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Nice racks.
The New York Times has acknowledged oven ribs! Thank you.
We’re delighted that food scientist and author Harold McGee has come out as a cheater. In the midst of the barbecue myth and mystery, here’s another myth buster who’s figured out that the foolproof low and slow method for tender, juicy, moist pork ribs is the oven. As anyone who’s served burnt or undercooked baby backs can tell you, the regular gas or charcoal grill is a challenge for good ribs. There’s not enough surface area to protect the meat from the direct heat which wrecks the ribs. And you can’t make enough for your friends.
Now Harold, you need to take the next step with us and try liquid smoke. Your suggestion to develop a smoke flavor using smoked paprika or chipotle pepper, cloves, cinnamon, and vanilla just ain’t cutting it. The natural smoke perfume has already been distilled into a ready-to-us small bottle called liquid smoke. Now you’ve got everything but a smoke ring. And no one will miss it. Try it, Harold.
Great ribs need just a few things: a simple dry rub, natural smoke flavor, low steady heat, and a sauce, if you like.
We’re here to tell you that a 325° F oven (or as low as 250° F), your own quick dry rub seasoning and sauce made from basic pantry staples, a small bottle of liquid smoke, and some heavy duty aluminum foil will consistently solve your rib anxieties. All we’re doing is replacing the wood chunks with liquid smoke (stay with us here) and using the consistency of the regular kitchen oven instead of the more finicky backyard smoker which is probably full of soccer balls anyway.
Hey, guys with bruised egos, here’s the best part: even when cheating with an oven, you can still get to use your clunky grill kit tongs, dull cleaver, and goofball “stay back men cooking” apron when you finish the ribs with sauce on your fancy stainless grill. We guarantee not only a Drop-Dead-Go-to-Hell glazed finish, but the surest way to the best party you ever threw with the least hassle. An oven full of foil-wrapped racks of ribs is a beautiful thing to behold.
Our cheater oven ribs kick ass!
Cheater Rib Cheat Sheet
Dry Rub—The three basic components of a dry rub are salt, pepper, and paprika—it’s really the smoke you want to taste. Make up your own mix or buy one already to go. We like to add a little brown sugar to a rub for ribs to add a little caramelized flavor to the meat.
All you need is a good jar and some supermarket seasonings.
The Ribs—Baby back loin ribs are short, spares are long. Meatiness depends on the rack. Both are good and get what you like. We usually buy them at Walmart or Costco. Open the ribs, flip them over bone side up, and look for the silvery membrane covering the meat and bones. If it’s still on there (sometimes they take it off), take your finger or a spoon handle and, holding the ribs with a paper towel, lift up the membrane and pull it off. It might take a few tries but you’ll quickly get the hang of it and your ribs will taste better without the chewy layer.
Pull the membrane right off the back of the ribs.
Have your friend with giant arms sprinkle the rub.
The Smoke—The all-natural smoke that will bring these ribs to life comes in a handy four-ounce bottle parked near the Worcestershire and barbecue sauces. Without a lengthy dissertation, know that liquid smoke is real smoke made from real hardwoods captured in water and filtered. Yes, they sell it at Whole Foods. We’ve all been enjoying it since the 1960’s in bacon, cold cuts, sauces, hot dogs, pizza crusts, and anything that lists “natural smoke flavor” on the label. It’s not a weirdo chemical from New Jersey, not that there’s anything wrong with New Jersey. A tablespoon per pound of meat is a good rule of thumb. No, that is not too much. Trust us.
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Sprinkle on the smoke. Go ahead and be generous.
And now for the secret recipe…
Makes 6 to 8 servings
Ultimate Cheater BBQ Oven Ribs
6 pounds (3 racks) pork loin (baby back) ribs, membrane removed
1/4 cup Cheater BBQ Dry Rub (or your favorite)
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 small bottle (about 4 ounces) liquid smoke
1. Heat the oven to 325° F.
2. Mix the dry rub with the brown sugar in a small bowl.
3. Place each baby back rack on a large (24-30-inch long) sheet of heavy duty aluminum foil. Brush each rack with a light coating of bottled smoke. Spread the sweet rub over both sides of each rack.
4. If time allows, wrap up the ribs in foil and refrigerate them for a few hours or overnight.
5. Place the sealed racks on a couple of baking sheets and put them in the oven.
6. While the ribs are cooking, make some barbecue sauce and set it aside.
7. After 1 1/2 hours in the oven, pull the ribs out and carefully unseal the foil. The escaping steam will be hot.
8. Cut into a rib or two and check the meat for doneness and tenderness of the meat. We like the ribs to feel cooked, but not too loose. If you prefer more tender meat that pulls away from the bone with less resistance, reseal the foil and put the ribs back in the oven for 15 to 30 minutes.
9. Unseal the foil, pour off the meat juice and discard it. At this point, wrap the ribs and refrigerate to grill later. Or, get them ready to grill.
10. Lay the ribs on a cutting board and separate them into one-to-three or four-rib sections.
11. Heat the grill.
12. Dip the ribs in sauce and grill, turning frequently until well caramelized, about 10 minutes. Do not let the sauce burn.
13. Serve with additional sauce on the side.
Posted in Cheater BBQ, Food, Liquid Smoke, Meat 3 Comments »
Farm fresh egg oozing over green beans flavored with fried bits of pancetta and Parmesan curls. Love those crispy edges.
A real highlight of fetching the summer CSA box or roaming a good farmer’s market is grabbing a couple dozen farm fresh eggs. Unfortunately, on more than one occasion, our Saturday spirits were dashed when the eggs were all sold out. So if you’re planning on eggs, go early. Eggs always go first.
Why shell out four or five bucks a dozen instead of the usual $1.50, you ask? Surely there are plenty of philosophical and economic rationales to support the splurge, but all we’ll say is that four dollar eggs are gorgeous and delicious.
Even in the supermarket, eggs are no longer a cheap commodity product. They’re categorized and branded to death like so many shelf space hogging product lines. Good luck figuring all that out.
In the restaurants, chefs have been early adopters of the emerging designer egg trend, showcasing the little jewels in all kinds of dishes. The two particularly standout egg preparations on menus and in the news are the more rustic fried egg instead of poached and the upscale deviled egg. Excellent developments both. Here’s a fancy food trend easy enough for any Cheater Chef to do at home. You just have to score the eggs.
- Lately we’ve stumbled on chefs plopping runny, rich yolky eggs on everything. Why not, they create their own sauce. No need to learn how to poach in simmering water either. Just fry and serve on almost anything.
- Runny fried eggs can transform/chef up salads and green vegetable side dishes.
- We’ve seen eggs on all kinds of salads starting with the classic French Frisee with crispy lardons and fried egg perched on top. Take the old standard wilted spinach salad with bacon dressing and swap out the hard cooked egg with a sunny-side up. For the Caesar, dress the romaine with a light olive oil and fresh lemon juice vinaigrette (anchovies optional) and top with fried eggs and some shaved Parmesan. Fry eggs for a salad in olive oil or other neutral oil. You don’t want butter on a salad. You’ll love the warm/cold component of these dishes.
- One of our favorite summer green vegetable sides or first courses is tender green beans with onion and pancetta topped with a fried egg and Parmesan cheese like in the photo. Notice the rustic beauty of the crispy egg white edges. You can’t get that with poached. Follow the same path with asparagus or a bowlful of fresh baby peas. This summer, Hollandaise is out, pure runny yolk is in. Who needs all that buttery sauce, anyway?
- Runny eggs baked right on brick oven pizzas are another trend. At home cook the eggs in a skillet and add to the pizza comes out of the oven. You’ll appreciate the foolproof consistency of cooking them separately.
- Fried eggs and pasta make a good match, too. Imagine a runny egg oozing into a bowl of orecchietti with broccoli rabe and Italian sausage. When you stop and think about it, any lightly dressed olive oil and garlic pasta tossed with vegetables could benefit from a fried egg.
- For years we’ve been brunching on our Sunday burgers Benedict made with last night’s grilled hamburgers topped with a bright sunny side-up egg. Add roasted peppers, watercress, spinach, you name it. And then there’s always hash.
- Deviled eggs have always been a favorite on the home front, but now chefs are paying them more attention. Lately the devils are paired with fancy seafood like shrimp, crab meat, lobster, and smoked salmon. Chop and stir your choice into the yolk mixture or garnish each with a pretty bite.
- They also work well with salads. Imagine a bed of mustardy watercress and local tomatoes adorned with a deviled egg. Or, deconstruct the Caesar again, this time with romaine spears and deviled eggs flavored with anchovy and Parmesan curls. No matter how you apply them, deviled eggs are welcome at parties casual or fancy. Just select the smallest size egg for easier serving and eating.
Posted in Appetizers, BreakfastBrunch, Food, Vegetables No Comments »
See that nice layer of smoky fat. It's like brisket butter. Serve it with plenty of raw onions and a fresh tomato, cucumber, cilantro salad salsa.
We’ve been obsessed with smoking brisket since returning from a recent barbecue tour through the Hill Country around Austin, Texas. We’ll write about our home Texas barbecue shenanigans later (it’s a long, happy story). For now, here’s one important thing we didn’t expect to learn.
Lardo, Texas style.
Sure, we enjoyed plenty of the brisket the traditional way, moist, greasy chunks of meat downed with lots of dill pickle chips, sliced onions, and fresh saltines. But, one night for a quick snack, we ate the brisket cold right out of the fridge. When it’s cold and hard, you can cut it paper thin. Whoa. It could have come right out of a fancy salumeria. Salty, peppery crust, buttery smoky fat, tender delicate meat.
Can’t you imagine a pricey restaurant first coarse of thinly sliced smoky brisket, instead of the usual trendy house-cured pork product, elegantly presented on a rectangular plate scattered with slightly undercooked fava beans? Would cost you at least 12 bucks. Ours was Walmart brisket for $1.98 per pound. And you can have as much as you want, not just three slices.
The creamy fat is unbelievable especially with the signature Texas salt and pepper rub. That simple rub becomes a tasty black helmet of a crust after only a couple hours in a smoker and a few more in the oven. It’s Lardo, Texas!
Key is to cut it paper thin like you would prosciutto right out of the fridge.
Posted in Appetizers, Beef, Cheater BBQ, Food, Meat, smoke 1 Comment »
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I was busy fixing supper minding my own business.
Is he trying to kill me?
Of course not, it's a kitchen concert!
Is that Neil Young or Barry Gibb?
Soulful.
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Moonwalk. Who doesn't love that?
Nice moves!
Drum solo on my head. I didn't feel a thing.
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I had no idea all this happened while the pasta was boiling until we downloaded the camera the next day. Dinner was actually very good.
Posted in Balding Eagle Scout, Life 1 Comment »
This home economist draws the line at this!
Is anyone out there really doing this–
Hey kids, who wants to make snickerdoodles?!
Here’s a recipe on the bag of sugar. We can make them with already prepared refrigerated sugar cookie dough. All we have to do is blend some cream cheese and powdered sugar into the dough that’s already dough. We’ll still have to get out the mixer though, so it will seem like we’re really cooking. And we’ll get bonus points for getting a mixing bowl dirty. Where’s the mixer anyway? Do we even have one? We can use some actual sugar and cinnamon to roll them in.
I sure wonder about the Domino’s market research that suggests it’s a good idea to offer a semi-homemade Sandra Lee recipe on a bag of sugar. It must be really bad news for this everyday baking ingredient to stoop to advocating prepared cookie dough instead of providing the easiest scratch cookie recipe of all time on the bag. If you still have to get out the mixer, why not a bag of flour, butter, and leavening?
At the very least, they could have offered a recipe for a quick glaze or two and flavored sugars to decorate prepared cookie dough. Adding more fat and sugar to an already balanced dough sounds risky to me.
Here’s the link to our regular old snickerdoodle recipe.
Posted in Desserts No Comments »
R.B. is crazy about grilling and fire. Here's his patio and SOME of his grills and smokers.
R.B. is well-known for overdoing everything the hard way. Gives him some sort of bone-weary sick pleasure. He’s all about his own aches and pains index. If he’s not sore the next morning, yesterday was a bust. Must be why he so enjoys hauling and chopping wood, tending a smoker all night…
So why would a guy like R.B. write Cheater BBQ? Why would he venture out beyond the safe confines of the church of barbecue looking for answers? Because he’s a free thinker, a problem solver, who sometimes just wants to eat good food with friends without all the hassle. It’s the way of the Balding Eagle Scout. Here’s to barbecue diversity.
And another thing, if you use vanilla extract, what’s wrong with liquid smoke?
Cheater BBQ makes a great Father’s Day gift.
He's particularly fond of his EQZ and calls himself a chicken guy.
We have tons of photos like this. Lots of fire and meat.
It's not just meat and fire. Here's some zucchini.
Don't those burgers look great.
Another one...
It is nice to have popcorn from the fireplace.
Give it a rest RB!
Live, Love, Cheat!
Posted in Chores, Fire, Grill, Life, Liquid Smoke No Comments »
Get tips for making perfect skillet cornbread. It's the only bread to serve with summer fresh vegetable suppers. 
