I Smell Smoke - On Sunday Anyway

Yes, boys and girls there was smoke rising over Brooklyn this weekend. With the help of my daughter and brother, we pulled out a grill and built a lovely charcoal fire and cooked.

I guess I must be feeling my Latin roots as this weekend's menu was definitely in keeping with my culinary heritage. First up was Chicken with Brown Rice and Chorizo which was published in Issue 111 of Saveur Magazine which is this month's issue. Basically it was Arroz con Pollo with a little sausage stuffed in the pot for good measure.

Boy hardy, it was damn good and I highly recommend this recipe. It's been a long long time since I made Arroz con Pollo and I'm wondering why. It's easy and definitely one of my favorite dishes.

The picture above is taken from Saveur and is what your finished dish should look like. My was a little darker as I cooked it in a cast iron dutch oven and over cooked it a bit. I should have checked the rice before the timer went off. Life goes on.

On Sunday, Mother's Day, we broke out the grill and made the Surf and Turf Tacos which was published in the June/July issue of Everyday With Rachael Ray. The recipe isn't on line yet, so here it is...

• 1 Small head napa cabbage chopped.
• Juice of 6 limes (Way too much in my opinion, use 3 limes)
• 2 cups of sour cream
• Sixteen 6-inch flour tortillas
• 1 Tbsp garlic powder
• 1 Tbsp paprika
• 1 Tbsp ground cumin
• 1 tsp chili powder (I used Ancho Chili)
• Kosher salt to taste
• 1 pound trimmed skirt steak cut crosswise into 1/2 strips
• 6 Tbsp vegetable oil
• 1 pound red snapper fillets, cut crosswise into 1/2 strips
• Pepper to taste
• 1 cup guacamole
• Salsa

Method

• In a large bowl, toss the cabbage with half the lime juice. Cover and refrigerate.
• In a small bowl, whisk together the remaining lime juice with the sour cream. Cover and refrigerate.
• Preheat the oven to 250 degrees. Spread the tortillas on a baking sheet, cover with foil and warm in the oven for 10 minutes.
• Meanwhile in a large bowl, whisk the garlic powder, paprika, cumin, chili powder and 2 teaspoons salt. Add the steak tossing to coat with the spices.
• In a large skillet, heat 1/4 cup oil over medium-high heat until rippling. Add the steak, lower the heat to medium and cook, turning occasionally, until browned, about 5 minutes. Transfer to a large plate.
• Add the reaming 2 tablespoons oil to the skillet. Season the fish lightly with salt and pepper. Cook the fish in the skillet, turning once until golden, about 5 minutes.
• Lay the tortillas on a work surface. Spread 1 tablespoon guacamole on each, then top with some of the cabbage. Divide the meat among the 8 tortillas and the fish among the remaining 8. Fold to form tacos. Server with more guacamole and cabbage, the lime sour cream and the salsa.

All in all a pretty good meal, but not exactly what we did. I'll get into that tomorrow.

Barbecue Completes Its World Dominance

Saveur Magazine has just released it's 2008 Top 100 list and guess what tops the list. Yup, it's BBQ. Barbeque rules!

1 Most Beloved National Pastime
The frenzied grilling, the enormous barrel smokers, the piles of tender ribs—is it any wonder that COMPETITION BARBECUE is our favorite sport? Pluck, hubris, and good humor are on display in equal measure at these open-to-the-public, juried events, as backyard hobbyists, brandishing team names like Partners in Swine and Dr. Porkenstein, vie for glory against barbecue-circuit legends like Paul Kirk, of Manhattan's RUB restaurant. We're not alone in our predilections: over the past five years, the number of official barbecue contests around the country has grown from about 200 to more than 600, says Carolyn Wells, co-founder of the Kansas City Barbeque Society, competitive barbecue's main governing body, which sets contest guidelines and trains and accredits judges (there are now more than 8,000 of them). The best part about the sport: the fans are as generously compensated as the players. Attendees get to eat to their hearts' content and bond with fellow 'cue fanatics amid a haze of fragrant wood smoke.

Umm, I hate to break the spell here, but most barbecue contests do not allow the attendees to eat from the competitors. Before you go to an event, check with the contest organizer.