Since it was 96* today and about 185% humidity, I decided to cook inside. I ain’t one to cook too many fancy schmancy meals, so I decided on a good ol’ standby…..sheet pan sausage and veggies. It’s so good and you can pretty much use whatever sausage and veggies you like….[no turkey sausage!] Anywho, I used some good old hot garlic sausage from my favorite place, B & W Meat Market, and added the following: green and yellow onions, red and green bell peppers, Campari Tomatoes, fresh green beans, 1 jalapeño and a couple of red potatoes. This is so good served with some yellow rice!
Ready for the oven….375* for about 45 minutes
Done
I was too lazy to make up some cornbread, but just bread and butter ain’t bad…
That sausage is incredible. The best commercial sausage I have ever had, specifically that hot black pepper garlic. I'm getting low on my stock from April, but thankfully I will be in Shenandoah on Friday so I will make a stop on the way home.
22” Blue Weber Kettle with SnS insert
Kamado Joe Jr with Kick Ash Basket
Char-Broil Smartchef Tru Infrared Gasser
Anovo Hot Tub Time Machine with Custom Hot Tub
#inspiration from Smoked Transistors I went to pick up some “cheeky monkeys” (nickname at home). My timing was way off to hit the grill, so I called up the IP. Red wine, chicken stock, onions and garlic. Chive mashed and roasted green beans.
I have to know…. How much did you trim from these Smoked Transistors ….. I trimmed off so much. And it was one cheek per pack. How big were these cows? 🤣🤣🤣
I've been in the mood for something cajin so I decided to make jambalaya, or at least an approximation thereof. I used Mike Hultquist's recipe from Chili Pepper Madness: https://www.chilipeppermadness.com/r...age-jambalaya/
This reminds me why I don't do cajun food as often as I'd like. So much dicing. All the dicing.
After I got everything mise-en-place'd I browned up some andouille sausage in a pot.
Removed that and added some diced chicken thighs. Alas, I made the mistake I always seem to make.... I overcrowded the pan so the chicken steamed more than browned. Here we are after that was removed.
Next, the expected trinity of celery, onion, and bell pepper got softened....
To that was added five minced cloves of garlic, some cajun seasoning (HEB makes a commercial one that is cayenne-forward that I like), oregano, and thyme. Then 1.5 cups of brown rice were added in and stirred for a few minutes to get toasty.
The chicken and sausage return to the pot along with three cups of chicken stock (sadly, not homemade), some Worcestershire sauce, and a generous splash of Louisiana-style hot sauce (I used Frank's, but would have preferred Crystal's). Three bay leaves are added and the entire thing is brought to a simmer.
In Mike's recipe, this dish should be finished in 30 minutes, but he used white rice. I used brown. I am so used to cooking brown rice in a pressure cooker (25 minutes start to finish) that I forgot just how long brown rice can take on the stove top.
The rice was still "crunchy" at thirty minutes. So I kept checking it every ten minutes. It took nearly an hour to finish to my liking. This actually turned out to be beneficial.....I could definitely tell the flavors were "blended" more each time I took a taste.
Here we are, plated up with some chopped celery leaves for garnish.
This was quite good! I wish I had anticipated the extra cooking time for the rice. The chicken, while it didn't overcook, was starting to disintegrate/shred. The chicken -- perhaps grilled next time -- might work better being added at the end. The sausage was fine and clearly rendered some fat into the stock. Good stuff.
Celery leaves are so under rated!!! Now I want jambalaya. In my house, it’s called “spicy rice”. Especially if I use chicken only. But I have plenty of sausage on hand thanks to my friends here in the pit.
SheilaAnn Yes! I am starting to use them in place of parsley. They have significantly more flavor plus, with the larger leaves, I find them far easier to chiffonade than parsley. (Plus, they come free with the celery!)
Boneless leg of lamb marinated with a Southern Living Passover recipe on the Weber Kettle Rotisserie and SnS over Cowboy Briquets. Listening to Pandora with a Makers Mark 46 and a cigar while spinning.
Dewesq55 Marinade for leg of lamb:
1/4 cup lemon juice
3 tablespoons Dijon mustard
3 tablespoons minced garlic
2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 teaspoons dried crushed rosemary
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon salt
1 6 lb boneless leg of lamb
Combine ingredients in large heavy duty zip plastic bag, seal and chill in the refrigerator for at least 8 hours or overnight turning occasionally. I also massaged the bag so the marinade was worked into the lamb. Don't know if that helps the lamb or not. I used a 2-gallon zip bag.
Put on grill of your choice with drip pan under lamb and cook to your desired temperature
BTW, I did soak the butcher's twine in the marinade prior to trussing.
Dewesq55 I posted it under the picture. I don't know what year it was published. I tore the page out of the magazine and put it in a recipe book. I never could find it on line.
This is my 3rd cook on the new PBC. Nine pounds of chicken hindquarters that my local corner grocery store had on sale for .99/pound.
Lmk if the pictures don't post.(I can see them ok)
I'm one of those people that absolutely cannot fall asleep if they are hungry....and lately, I've come to the mind I really should find something other than chips & queso or some other ultraprocessed food for late night snacking. I've tried fruit, but the sugar just keeps me awake.
Protein & fat, that is what is supposed to fill you up right? So I starting thinking....once I discounted that steak tacos at 2 am would be impractical (lol), I remembered a snack I've tried to make several times, but just never could get it right: baked chickpeas/garbanzo beans.
But then I remembered, I now have an air fryer. Could that convection make a difference?
So at HEB today I picked up a 15.5 oz can of garbanzo beans. I wanted to keep the salt down and, wow, various brands vary wildly in salt content. I was surprised that HEB's Organic brand ("Central Market") has the lowest salt and was less expensive that some of the others.
(Aside: be careful when looking at "low sodium" varieties as you may find that much of the salt has been replaced with Potassium Chloride, a salt substitute. Goya's has this. I'm sensitive to KCl and it has a distinct metallic taste that I don't like.)
So I opened the can and rinsed the beans in a colander. You need to dry these things before cooking, but I realized that with an air fryer I could just dump them in the basket and the pre-heat cycle should dry them quite well and it did.
I then dumped the beans into a bowl and added 1/2 tsp kosher salt, 1/4 tsp each of garlic powder, onion powder, and smoked paprika, and 1/8 tsp of ground black pepper. To that, one tablespoon of olive oil. With a gloved hand, I mixed well, then dumped them all back in the air fryer which had been pre-heated to 400 F.
I set it for 12 minutes and I checked and shook every four minutes, then dumped them out to cool slightly.
(They look a bit darker in the photo than in real life.) YUM! Nailed it! Crispy and crunchy! And stupidly addictive! I probably could eat this entire can of them!
I probably will do one minute less next time as they were a tad dry. Also want to try some cajun seasoning on these that I think would be fantastic.
For 1/2 cup, 120 calories, 2 g unsaturated fat, 6 g fiber, 6 g protein.....I think I just upped my late night snacking game.
Smoker:
Landmann Smoke Master Series Heavy Duty Barrel Smoker (COS) - With mods including 2 level rack system with pull-out grates
Masterbuilt ThermoTemp XL 40" Vertical Propane Smoker
Weber Smokey Joe with mini-WSM Tamale Pot modification
The Good One Marshall
Gas Grill:
BBQPro (cheap big box store model) Stainless steel 4 burnerswith aftermarket rotisserie.
Brook King Regal S490 Pro
Charcoal Grill:
Weber Smokey Joe Charcoal Grill 14"
Thermometer:
2 x Fireboard 2 with Drive cable and 20 CFM fan and Competition Probe Package
ThermoWorks Mini Instant Read
Lavaworks Thermowand Instant Read
ThermoWorks IR-GUN-S Industrial Infrared Thermometer
ThermoWorks ThermaPen Mk4 x 2
ThermoWorks Thermapen ONE
Govee Bluetooth Thermometer with 6 probes
Miscellaneous:
Anova Sous Vide Immersion Circulator - 1st generation
Anova Sous Vide Immersion Circulator - wifi/bluetooth connected
Favorite Beer:
Anything to the dark side and malty rather than hoppy. Currently liking Yuengling Porter and Newcastle Brown Ale. In a bar or pub I will often default to Guiness
Favorite Spirit:
Bourbon - Eagle Rare for "every day"; Angel's Envy for special occasions, Basil Hayden's, Larceny
Favorite Wine:
Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon Super Tuscan Sangiovese (Including Chianti Classico Riserva) Brunello di Montalcino
Favorite Meat(s):
Pork - especially the darker meat. I love spare ribs and anything made from shoulder/butt meat
Chicken - Mainly the dark meat and wings
Beef Ribeye steak
Favorite Cuisine to Cook:
Can't list just one: Indian, Chinese, Thai, West Indian/Carribean, Hispanic/Latin American, Ethiopian, Italian, BBQ
Favorite Cuisine to Eat:
Indian, followed closely by BBQ.
texastweeter - it's Spanish Garlic Shrimp. If you like shrimp and garlic, you have to try it. Check out the recipe on this site. The bread is just to sop up the delicious, garlicky sauce
If you go to a true Spanish, as opposed to Hispanic or Latino, restaurant, you will find their version of this dish, usually in the appetizer section, of their menu. It is a classic. My recipe is largely based on a Kenji recipe from Serious Eats. It uses 10-12 cloves of garlic, prepared 3 different ways. It's reasonably easy. Preparing the different versions of the garlic being the most complex task. You do need shell on shrimp, because you need the shells to flavor the oil.
Smokin-It 3D
Weber Kettle with an SNS
Masterbuilt kettle that I call the $30 wonder grill
Bullet by Bull Grills gasser
Anova WiFi sous vide machine
Thermoworks Thermapen and Chef Alarm
Pasta alla vodka sauce - we found some amazing fresh gluten free pasta last week while in Treasure Island. And after a google….just down the road from the house here at home!! I don’t know if I’ll be making fresh GF pasta much now after finding this brand.
If you are GF or cooking for someone who is GF, Taste Republic fresh pasta is outstanding and they make a number of types of pasta! https://tasterepublic.com/
My vodka sauce was excellent - perhaps a bit too much sauce for the amount of pasta, but it turned out great with some grilled chicken breast on the side.
Kamado Joe Big Joe III
Pit Barrel Cooker
Camp Chef Flat Top 900
Weber Performer 22
PowerFlamer Propane 160
Meater +
Thermoworks Smoke
Thermoworks Thermapen
Temp Spike
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