The Brooklyn Chili Takedown Rides Again

There will be blood. And chili! Oo! November 22 at The Bell House - The BROOKLYN CHILI TAKEDOWN shall transpire. Mitten Prichard* hosts the takedown that started it all , 5 years ago in Brooklyn - and invites all the cooks in NYC to prostitute their best chili concoction. The masses will love you for it, because everybody loves chili. And even Texans admit, Brooklyn chili just so happens to be the best in the world… they said that yesterday, at a bar. They’d been drinkin’, but I’ll count it.

CALL FOR ENTRIES! If you’d like to ENTER, email me, and also check out the FAQ page to answer your most pressing questions!

Bell House
149 7th St
Brooklyn, NY 11215
(718) 643-6510

Nov 22

Buy tickets here!

*first pet + first street - you know the deal…

White Castle Pulled Pork Slider.

In the interest of all things "barbecue," late last night I had my first White Castle Pulled Pork Slider. And no, I hadn't been drinking.

I do have to admit that I have a certian fondness for the White Castle Cheeseburger. Out of all the big fast food chains, they are my favorite. But pulled pork? C'mon.

I was prepped for the worst, but I decided that I had to do it. This was a chance to check out some more mainstream barbecue. I did it for you my loyal readers.

Surprisingly what I got was a pulled pork sandwich that tasted like the barbeque pork sandwiches of my youth, before real barbecue had arrived in New York. It was tasty and dripping with the familiar red barbecue sauce found in almost every kitchen in America. Mind you, the White Castle Pulled Pork Slider is about as far away from real barbecue as their hamburgers are from the real deal, but I actually enjoyed it!

Would I get another one? In a New York minute.

BBQ Contests: Sayville Fall Festival

This contest is presented by RUB Restaurant - you know the same fine folks who sponsor Grillin' On The Bay - NYC's only sanctioned event, which will be on March 27, 2010. The winner of the Sayville Fall Festival Grilling contest will recieve an automatic entry into Grillin' On The Bay 2010. I hope we get someone new! Good luck everyone.

Blue Collar Bar-B-Q Sauce wins The American Royal

I just wanted to take a moment and congratulate my friends Jay and Steve Curry from Spice Wine Iron Works on thier sauce, Blue Collar Bar-B-Q winning "Best In The World at this year's American Royal"

Now that is a really big deal. The American Royal is the Super Bowl and World Series of barbecue competitions all rolled up into one. Thousands, probably tens of thousands of people compete at this event every year. For Jay and Steve to take top honors, this is an accomplishment to be very very proud of.

The Curry boys describe Blue Collar Bar-B-Q as "Thick and bold, this sauce is a great everything sauce. It works well as a great finishing sauce for any BBQ." And now they can claim it's award winning.

So if you're looking for a new "great finishing sauce for any BBQ," go out and get bottle of Blue Collar Bar-B-Q. Trust me. It's good.

Smoked Eggs

Smoked Eggs. "Why?" asked my wife. "Why not?" says I. Apologies to Robert F. Kennedy, but when it comes to putting things into the smoker, I share his optimism about the world. I'll try to smoke anything at least once. Maybe I should be apologizing to Cheech and Chong!

So I boiled my eggs, cooled them and cracked them as per Adam Perry Lang's directions. But I didn't have the egg carton, I put them directly on the grill. I don't think the egg carton really matters as after 12 minutes in boiling water these eggs were already well cooked. Would they still benefit from time in the smoker? We'll see.

My fire was running at 225 and the maple and apple smoke really smelled wonderful on this fall afternoon. There's an old saying in barbecue, "If you're looking, you're not cooking." So I resisted the urge and kept the smoker covered for the full hour Adam recommends.

And what did I find when I opened the cooker? Well, see for yourself....

I was disappointed that they didn't look as pretty as the eggs in Adam's cookbook, but then again, I'm not a food stylist. Many times real food looks nothing like the pictures used to sell it. Have you ever had a McDonald's hamburger look like one in the ads? I haven't. For a real interesting site that deals with just this situation, take a look at Fast Foods: Ads vs. Reality.

The brown eggs suffered more in the cooking, but I assume it was due to the fact that they were about one week older then the white eggs. I was still curious to see how they'd taste.

Peeling these eggs were darn near impossible. The egg whites held on to the shell and only the yolks were salvageable. I did get to taste small portions of the whites and frankly, they had no discernible smoked flavor. So what do you do with 6 eggs yolks? I made Remoulade Sauce, which in turn made a very tasty shrimp salad. And it the sauce spiced up some cold cut sandwhiches the next day.

So even with the disappointing eggs, all in all the day was a success! Smoke on!

REMOULADE SAUCE

Printed from COOKS.COM

---

2 hard cooked egg yolks, sieved
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 1/2 tbsp. prepared mustard
1 1/2 c. mayonnaise (not salad dressing)
1 tbsp. Worcestershire
1 tbsp. paprika
1 1/2 tbsp. horseradish
Dash of Tabasco
2 tbsp. vinegar
1/4 c. finely chopped parsley
salt and pepper, to taste

Blend ingredients and chill. Go easy on salt and pepper.

Makes about 2 cups.

Shrimp Salad: For shrimp salad, blend 1 quart cooked, chopped shrimp, 1/2 cup chopped celery, 1/4 cup chopped onion, 2 boiled eggs and enough Remoulade sauce to hold the mixture together.

BBQ Restaurants: Eat At Joe's

My buddy Joe gets some well deserved praise about his BBQ joint, Eat At Joe's in Wikieup Arizona. Take a look at this clip from Arizona Highways TV.

Smoked Eggs and Chili

A couple of years ago, my buddy the Blue Mule over at Howling Hog BBQ posted about smoked eggs. I was intrigued and have always wanted to try them. I actually did get to try one at the Harpoon BBQ Contest when I finally met the Blue Mule in the flesh. I enjoyed the eggs and the company, but now curiosity satisfied, the idea of making them got buried deep in the back of my feeble head.

But then, Adam Perry Lang publishes Serious Barbecue, and looky here, there is a recipe for Smoked Eggs. Suddenly a fire that died down long ago was rekindled. I was making chili and there was plenty of room on the smoker for another item. It was time for me to make smoked eggs!

I'll publish my experiences in another post, but here's Adam's recipe for Hard Smoke Eggs (copied from Oprah's website)

Hard Smoked Eggs

Recipe created by Adam Perry Lang

When I worked in French kitchens, we used to infuse eggs with all kinds of fancy stuff, like cheese and truffles, but before my friend Marc Farris, BBQ TV, clued me in to this cool way to cook eggs, I had never infused them with smoke. It's insanely easy: Boil them a bit and then throw them in the smoker for about 45 minutes. Believe me, nothing makes a better egg salad than these babies.

Ingredients:

Makes 12 eggs

• 1 dozen large eggs in a cardboard carton (save the carton)
• 1 Tbsp. kosher salt
• 2 Tbsp. finely chopped chives
• 2 Tbsp. thinly sliced scallions, white and green portions
• 1 tsp. fresh squeezed lemon juice
• 1 tsp. celery salt
• 1/4 cup to 6 Tbsp. extra virgin olive oil

1. Preheat an indirect barbecue with a drip pan and hardwood (preferably hickory or oak), a ceramic cooker with deflector plate and hardwood (preferably hickory or oak), or a charcoal or gas grill with a box or packet of hardwood (preferably hickory or oak) to 225°F.

2. Place the eggs in a saucepan that will hold them in an even layer. Pour in just enough water to cover and stir in the salt. Place over high heat and bring to a boil. Cover and remove from the heat. Let sit, covered, for 12 minutes. Remove the lid and put the eggs under cold running water for 5 minutes.

3. Remove the eggs from the water. Roll each egg on the table to crack the shell. The shell should remain intact, but be cracked. Set the eggs back in the carton.

4. Place the carton of eggs with the top open in the cooker for 1 hour.

5. Meanwhile, in a small bowl toss the chives and scallions with the lemon juice, followed by the celery salt.

6. Remove the eggs from the cooker.

When cool enough to handle, but still warm, peel the eggs.

Cut the eggs in half lengthwise and arrange on a plate. Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with the chive mixture.

From Serious Barbecue by Adam Perry Lang. Copyright © 2009. Published by Hyperion. Available wherever books are sold. All rights reserved. Photo: by David Loftus

Adam's Chili ala WhiteTrash BBQ

So, I cooked today. I actually cooked today! I lit a fire! I broke out the Weber Smokey Mountain and put on a pot of chili. I don't know if I mentioned it but I live on a corner lot, on a busy street that sees a large amount of foot traffic of people coming and going to the subway. Cooking barbecue on the Weber usually causes stares, as the WSM is a bit unusual for this neighborhood, but lifting the lid and stirring a pot of chili on the Weber caused people to stop in their tracks and ask questions!

As I mentioned I followed Adam Perry Lang's recipe from his book Serious Barbecue as closely as I possibly could. Below is a close up of the chili after about 1 hour on the smoker, after the first stir. Adam doesn't mention stirring the chili in the cookbook, but as the chili cooked I noticed that the top "skin" of the chili took on a much darker hue, so I stirred it into the pot every hour or so.


So, how did it taste? Did it live up to the chili Adam serves at Daisy May's? I have to say no. It wasn't as good, but it was still some of the better chilies I've had in a long long time. There was almost no heat up front, but a good amount after and in the throat. It definitely needed some more heat and a strong shot of Tabasco helped immensely.

So what was wrong with it you ask? Well, it may have been my choice of peppers. The Chili Mulato has a strong "chocolaty" taste that came through in the bowl of red which changed the taste from a bowl of Texas Chili to more of a bowl of Mexican Mole. Here's a look at the final product served with some "popcorn" brown rice.


Next time, I'll order the New Mexican Chili that Adam recommends!

Lighting the fire, feeling the heat and smelling the wood smoke has made me restless. I'm feeling very antsy tonight. The wander lust has been awoken. Watch out, now. Beware of Maya.

A Bowl of Red

Tonight, I'm making Chili. No, that's not right. Tonight, I'm beginning to make Chili. To be more precise, I'm making Texas-Style Chili aka Bowl of Red. And I'm using a cook book for the recipe.

If you've been reading this blog for awhile, you will know how much I love the Chili that Adam Perry Lang makes at his restaurant Daisy May's BBQ. You can always rely on the chili at Daisy May's. It's always fantastic. Rich, spicy, thick and savory. Everything a bowl of red can be.

So what does Adam and Daisy have to do with my making Chili? Well, in the beginning of the summer, Adam published the cook book Serious Barbecue. Let me tell you it's a seriously good cookbook and highly recommended, and on page 193 he lists his recipe for Texas-Style Chili aka Bowl of Red. Since I bought the book, way back in June, I've been dying to try out this recipe. If this chili is half as good as the chili he serves, it will make an outstanding meal.

I'm not going to give you the recipe. You'll have to buy the book for that, but I'm following the recipe as closely as possible. I can't tell you how rarely I follow a recipe. Usually I use recipes as inspiration and adjust them to what I have on hand or to what flavors I like. Adam's chili is so good that I'm following his recipe as closely as I possibly can.

So far, I've only made two small modifications. Adam call's for 1 (one) lb of whole pod dried chilies, preferably New Mexican. Now I thought I could buy those in one of my local markets, but all they had were Mexican chilies, so I bought 2 oz of Chile Guajillo, 4 oz of Chile Mulato and 10 oz of Chile Ancho all produced by Central Chilera de Puebla. I've never used the Guajillo or Mulato Chilies before but Ancho and I are old friends. I hope these chilies aren't too hot!

So far, this has been a complex process. I had to seed and stem all the dried chilies, soak and steam them and puree them with some more ingredients as per the recipe. I would say it took about 45 minutes to prepare it to this point. Right now, the meat and chili mixture is marinating in my refrigerator. That's a picture of the meat mixture above. I don't have any plastic bags large enough to hold the 4 lbs of chuck, cut into 1 (one) inch cubes, so I used a baking dish. The meat is thoroughly coated with the chili mixture, thinly sliced sweet onions and micro-planed garlic.

More tomorrow after it hits the smoker.

Oh, if you decide to make this. Buy some disposable rubber gloves before you begin. Chili oil on your hands leads to chili oil in places chili oil doesn't belong. Trust me. It's not pretty.

Fatty Chicken Sate

Grilled chicken with a thick peanut sauce. Not as spicy as most Thai places but still very good.
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Fatty Food

Slider and Al Carbon Taco. The slider is a mix of pork and beef. The taco uses hanger steak for it's beef. Both were a spicy and savory treat.
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Fatty Crab's Crew

Visit these energetic folks at Madison Square before it's too late!
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Fatty Que Steps Out

Fatty Crab has a new booth at Madison Square Park serving up some delicious treats. Here's the pit master, Robbie Richter, of their soon to be opened Brooklyn outpost Fatty Que
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Southern Hospitality's Oktoberfest

Looking for something to do tonight? Here's a little suggestion.

Southern Hospitality's Oktoberfest Celebration

Thursday, October 08, 2009 07:00 PM

Host: SoHos

Cost: FREE

Southern Hospitality's Oktoberfest Celebration

Thursday October 8th - 7pm

Put On Your Liderhosen and come Drink Some Liters with us Southern Style!!!

$8 Liters of Wurburger Festbier
&
Blue Point Oktoberfest

Smoked bratwurst and sauerkraut $12.95

Cash Prizes for Best Liderhosen outfit

Live Music By The HomeTown Sweethearts

U2 - Cheap Basterds

Don't believe in excess
Success is to give
Don't believe in riches
But you should see where I live
I...I believe in love - God, Part II - Bono

I guess that includes tips.
This just in from the BostonHerald

U2 chows down on some North Carolina ’cue
By Associated Press

With or without ’cue?
After their performance Saturday at Carter-Finley Stadium in Raleigh, U2 chose with.

The News & Observer of Raleigh reported that Cooper’s BBQ was about to close Saturday when the band’s private jet services coordinator called, asking for enough food for 25 people: barbecue, pork rinds, five fried chickens, pig skins, ribs, cole slaw, hush puppies.

Owners Debbie and Randy Holt said yes. But they don’t take credit cards so the coordinator, known to the Holts only as Maurice, had to verify there was enough cash on the plane to cover the $277 bill.

The Holts prepared the food for the 10:50 p.m. delivery. Debbie Holt and her 14-year-old daughter, Ashley, delivered the food to U2’s private jet at Raleigh-Durham International Airport, receiving $300 cash. - BH

So $300 cash on a $277 bill. Jeez, Guys. Could you spare it?

R.I.P. Gourmet

Conde Nast has killed off one of my favorite magazines. Goodbye Gourmet. You will be missed.

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/business/bloodbath_at_conde_nast_mags_axed_0E28iBTko2radgEPVFPUWP

Beware of that hamburger

I'm never buying prepossessed ground beef again.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/04/health/04meat.html?_r=2&hp

I'm a Great Uncle

Please welcome my first great nephew.....

Adrian Thomas Lynch, 7 lbs, 2 oz., born just after noon, 12:15pm.

Welcome the newest Lynch to the world! Congratulations Holly and Bill!

BBQ Entertainment

FIRST FRIDAY BLUES SHOW

Featuring

BLACK COFFEE BLUES BAND

October 2^nd 11PM

Waterfront Ale House

540 Second Ave

New York

212-696-4104

And for you on my side of the Brooklyn Bridge....

ATLANTIC ANTIC SUNDAY OCT 4^TH

^{Big Ed Sullivan, Popa Chubby, Dimitri, Galea & Friends}

And Now For Something Completely Different

I know I've used that title before, but it's so appropriate! Personally I think most Japanese vegetables taste like crap, but who am I to judge?

The Japanese Food Report Presents:

From Soba to Artichokes:
Vegetarian Cooking, Japanese-style

A Workshop and Tasting at the Saveur Magazine Test Kitchen

Featuring Chef Masato Nishihara of Kajistu restaurant
Moderated by food journalist and blogger Harris Salat

With Special Sake Sampling from Boutique Importer Joto Sake

Monday, October 26th, from 7 to 9:30pm, at the Saveur Test Kitchen

In a culture where eating meat was taboo for a thousand years, vegetarian fare became an essential element of Japanese cooking. No other cuisine prepares vegetables as sublimely and beautifully, with such reverence for the seasons, peak flavor and an ingredient’s intrinsic natural state.

Join Chef Masato Nishihara of Kajitsu, New York’s acclaimed Shojin-style Japanese vegetarian restaurant, and food journalist and blogger Harris Salat for an intimate look at the Japanese approach to vegetarian cooking, presented at the Saveur magazine test kitchen.

Chef Nishihara will introduce practical, simple and utterly versatile techniques to prepare a multitude of vegetarian dishes—methods perfect for home cooks. Through demonstration and tasting, the chef will help participants understand the umami flavors that inform this cooking; vegetarian varieties of dashi, the fundamental stock; and how to work with ingredients as varied as soba, lotus root, fennel and artichoke.

The workshop will include a special sampling of artisanal sakes with Henry Sidel, president of boutique importer Joto Sake.

• Limited to 20 participants
• Standing only in the test kitchen (no seats)
• $35 per person
• To register, please visit www.japanesefoodreport.com/2009/10/workshop.html

About the Presenters:
Chef Masato Nishihara cooked for ten years at Kyoto Kitcho, one of Japan’s most revered kaiseki restaurants, before heading Kajitsu’s kitchen.

Harris Salat’s stories about Japanese cuisine have appeared in Saveur, Gourmet, The New York Times, and other publications. He edits the Japanese Food Report.

Henry Sidel founded boutique importer Joto Sake in 2005 to introduce artisanal sake produced by family run brewers following age-old, traditional methods.