Food | Live the Live ™

Archive for the ‘Food’ Category

KOREAN-INSPIRED BARBECUE, PART 2

Posted: July 11, 2020 in barbecue, Carnivore!, CHARCOAL, Food, grilling, Recipes, Uncategorized
Tags: barbecue, BBQ, chicken, food, Korean, recipes

Bulgogi is the name given to the most common form of Korean barbecue. Unlike the daeji bulgogi that I cooked in a previous blog, this one is not based on a chili sauce that can take the roof of your mouth right off.

I used chicken, though this would work with pork as well, and for the best flavor, it’s best to marinate the meat in the fridge overnight.

2/3 cup soy sauce
1/2 cup chopped scallions
6 tablespoons sugar (I use organic cane sugar)
5 tablespoons fresh garlic, grated or through a garlic press
5 tablespoons sesame oil
1 tablespoon sesame seeds
1 teaspoon black pepper
5 lbs. chicken pieces (skin-on thighs work best)

Combine all the ingredients except for the chicken in a bowl and mix well.

Place the chicken pieces in a large Ziploc bag and pour the marinade in. Seal the bag well and squish it around to make sure the marinade makes contact with the chicken. Place the bag in a bowl (to prevent accidental leakage) and keep it in the fridge overnight. Squish the bag around every few hours to make sure the marinade does its job.

When you’re ready to cook the next day, pre-heat the oven to 350 and remove the bag from the fridge and let it come to room temperature. Place the chicken on a sheet pan (discard the remaining marinade) and bake it for an hour.

Light a hot grill and push the coals to one side of the grill. Place the chicken pieces on the cool side of the grill and close the lid, opening the vents. Every few minutes, turn the chicken pieces over so they get nice grill marks but
don’t burn.

KOREAN-INSPIRED BARBECUE

Posted: July 5, 2020 in barbecue, Carnivore!, CHARCOAL, Food, grilling, Recipes
Tags: barbecue, BBQ, chicken, food, grill, Korean, recipes

I’ve always been fascinated by Korean barbecue. Every time I see it on TV or catch a recipe on an e-mail blast, my mouth waters and I say to myself that I’ve got to experience it some day. But the painful reality is: Korean barbecue can be really spicy…and I’m a total wuss.

Korean barbecue 101: Gogigui means “meat roast” in Korean, and it refers to the method of roasting beef, pork, chicken, and other meats. Meats can be marinated or not. Bulgogi is the name of the most common Korean barbecue. Meat is marinated with soy sauce, sugar, sesame oil, garlic and pepper, and then grilled. Galbi uses beef short ribs, and adds onions to the marinade. And the hot stuff is daeji bulgogi, because the marinade isn’t soy sauce-based, but based on the hot-n-spicy Korean chili paste known as gochujang.

All of the marinades looked delicious, but the hot one with gochujang would be my biggest challenge, so I decided to start there. I found a great recipe, and quickly realized that I would have to turn the heat way down if I was actually going to try to eat it! For example, the original recipe called for 2 tablespoons of white pepper. I totally left it out. And it called for a full cup of gochujang. Not only did I cut that part in half, I doubled many of the other non-spicy ingredients.

So is it authentic Korean barbecue? Probably not. But it’s my version of it. It’s got lots a flavor and still carries a bit of heat.

For gluten-free diets: finding GF hoisin and soy sauce is easy. Look for the La Choy brand. But I haven’t been able to find gochujang that has a GF label.

3/4 cup ketchup
1/2 cup gochujang
1/2 cup hoisin sauce
1/2 cup honey
1/2 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 tablespoons freshly grated ginger
1 tablespoon freshly grated garlic (I use a garlic press)
1 tablespoon unseasoned rice vinegar
4 lbs. chicken pieces

Pre-heat the oven to 500 or its top temperature.

In a bowl, mix everything but the chicken pieces. Brush the sauce onto the chicken pieces, then wrap them in aluminum foil. (I like to tear a long piece of aluminum foil and lay it on top of a sheet pan. I place the chicken pieces on the foil, brush them with sauce on all sides, then fold the foil over the chicken, making one large pouch that holds all the meat.) Leave the pouch on the sheet pan and place it in the oven, then lower the oven temp to 350.

Cook the chicken for about an hour at 350, making sure it’s almost completely cooked. Juices should run clear, not bloody, when you poke it with a fork.

Start a hardwood fire on your grill. Push the coals to one side of the grill so you have a hot side and a cooler side with no coals underneath it. Place the chicken pieces on the cool side of the grill (if you put it on the hot side, it will stick and burn), brush with more sauce, and put the lid on the grill, making sure you have the vents open for air circulation.

See those 2 black bits in the foreground? That’s where the chicken stuck to the grill because I placed them over the hot coals. Don’t do that.

After a few minutes, lift the lid, flip the chicken pieces over, brush them with sauce again, and close the lid. Keep doing this until the chicken is nice and caramelized, with tasty grill marks.

If you want to serve some of the sauce on the side, it’s important to pour some of the sauce off and set it aside in the very beginning, so you’re not using the same sauce that the basting brush touched the raw chicken with.

QUARANTINE COCKTAILS, PART 8: REFRESHING CUCUMBER COCKTAIL

Posted: July 1, 2020 in Cocktails, Cucumbers, drink recipes, Drinks, Food, garden, mixology, Recipes, Uncategorized
Tags: cocktails, cucumber, food, recipes

Just because I’ve got a garden full of fresh veggies, it doesn’t mean I have to gorge on nothing but salads! Sometimes, a refreshing cocktail is just what I need after a long day of yard work. This one fits the bill!

Imagine a vodka mojito, using cucumbers….

4 fresh cucumbers, peeled and seeded
Small ice cubes
1 cup loosely packed fresh mint leaves
2 teaspoons granulated organic cane sugar
3 tablespoons fresh lime juice
4 oz. vodka (I like Tito’s)
1 oz. orange liqueur (I like Cointreau)

Peel and seed the cucumbers. Coarsely chop them and then purée them in a food processor until smooth. Strain them through a fine sieve, pressing the solids to extract as much liquid as possible. Or, if you have one, use a juicer. Set the extracted cucumber juice aside.

To a large glass pitcher, add the mint leaves, sugar and lime juice. Muddle the ingredients so that the mint leaves release their oils. Add 3/4 cup (at least) of the cucumber juice. Add the vodka and Cointreau. Muddle again briefly.

Fill tall drinking glasses with ice cubes. Strain the cocktail into the glasses. Garnish with a cucumber spear or peel…or mint.

GREAT ONION RINGS AT HOME

Posted: June 24, 2020 in Food, frying, Recipes
Tags: food, fried, onion rings, recipes

If you look online, there are a million ways to make onion rings. So, in doing my research, my first step was to decide how I wanted them. Did I want a big, thick batter? Or something extremely light? Or something somewhere in the middle?

I’m not a fan of onion rings that have more batter than onion. After all, my nickname is “Ponas Svogunas,” which means ”Mr. Onion” in Lithuanian.

So, after looking through dozens of recipes, I finally came up with one on my own that really satisfied my craving for onion and also a craving for a great crunch.

The set-up requires four trays, and lots of messy dunking before it goes into the oil. But it’s all worth it in the end!

I have a deep fryer, but the basket in it is small, so I can’t fry as many onion rings at one time as I’d like. So using a larger pan with a shallow pool of oil was the answer: it allowed for more onion rings to be fried in a single batch.

Yellow onions, sliced abut 1/4″ wide

In the first pan..

2 raw eggs, scrambled

In the second pan…

1 cup whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking powder

In the third pan…

2 more raw eggs, scrambled

In the fourth pan…

2 cups Panko breadcrumbs
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon granulated onion
1 teaspoon granulated garlic

I like to fry with peanut oil, so I pour an inch or two into a large pan and heat it to 340°, using a thermometer.

I peel the onions and cut them into quarter-inch wide slices, breaking them up into rings. (If a couple of rings of onion stick together to form a thicker ring, I don’t have a problem with that!)

Once that’s done, the procedure is really simple: dunk the onion rings in the first pan with the egg, coating them well. Then dunk them into the second tray with the whole wheat flour, shaking off any excess. Then dunk them into the third tray with the egg, making sure it’s completely coated. And finally, dunk them into the fourth tray with the seasoned Panko breadcrumbs, again, shaking off any excess.

Drop the onion rings into the hot oil and be sure to flip them so they cook on both sides. Cook until they’re golden brown. Place them on a sheet pan with a metal rack to cool.

WHAT A FOOD-FANATIC FATHER WANTS FOR FATHER’S DAY

Posted: June 21, 2020 in barbecue, CHARCOAL, Cocktails, Drinks, Food, grilling, MARTINI, mixology, Recipes, smoking, Uncategorized
Tags: cookbooks, Father's Day, food, gifts, grilling, smoker, smoking, wood chips

Skip the necktie. If your dad’s a food nut, he deserves something better! All of these ideas have been rigorously tested by our panel of experts (OK, just me), and get a big thumbs up. This article was originally published a few years ago, but I’d still be happy to get any of these for Father’s Day!

Masterbuilt Electric Digital Smokehouse: I’m a bit of a purist when it comes to grilling. I refuse to use a gas grill because I think there’s no difference between that and my kitchen stove. I use real hardwood charcoal, with real smoke and real flavor. But when it comes to smoking meats, basic smokers require constant maintenance so that the temperatures don’t fluctuate. I’m just too busy for that, especially if I’m cooking something low and slow for about 12 hours. So I have a digital smoker. I plug it in, set the time and temperature, and then periodically add wood chips through a side drawer to smoke the meat. I can literally set it and forget it. I have it cook through the night, so I wake up to a beautifully smoked slab of meat in the morning.

Cognac! How can you go wrong with booze for Father’s Day? But if you’re looking for something really special to give Dad (or your favorite blogger), it’s Kelt XO. What makes Kelt XO special is that before bottling, they place the barrels of cognac on board ships that sail the world for months at a time. During this time, the cognac gently rocks back and forth in the barrels, slowly acquiring a smoothness you can’t find in other spirits. Each bottle even comes with a tag that tells you exactly what ports around the world your cognac has been to. Worth the search at high-end liquor stores.

Jack Daniels smoking chips: Whether you have a smoker or not, these chips will make anything you cook taste better. Made from the old oak barrels that they use to age Jack Daniels, you get a serious hit of whiskey in every bag…and in your food. Simply toss a handful of chips you’ve soaked in water for about a half hour, and they will infuse the food on your grill with flavor. You can also use them dry, on charcoal or gas grills.

Cookbook favorites: “Jamie at Home,” by Jamie Oliver (a great combination gardening/cookbook), “Charcuterie,” by Michael Ruhlman and Brian Polcyn (the best book on how to cure and smoke meats), “Barbecued Ribs, Smoked Butts, and Other Great Feeds,” by Jeanne Voltz (my absolute barbecue Bible!), and “Martin Yan’s Feast: The Best of Yan Can Cook” by Martin Yan (the authority on Asian cooking.)

Redi-Check Remote Cooking Thermometer: Even someone who has barbecued all their lives runs the risk of burning or undercooking a roast or a large bird. Opening the grill and jabbing the meat with a thermometer several times causes the juices from the meat to run out, leaving it dry…and every time you open the grill, you lose precious heat. This is the better solution: You stick the needle into the roast or bird and leave it in there the entire time it cooks, so no juices leak out. You plug it into the monitor which then calls you when the meat is ready (from as far as 100 feet away!) You set the time or temperature, and then get to join your guests for the party.

Smoking Gun: There are times when you don’t need a full-on smoker. All you want to do is smoke a small piece of fish or a hunk of cheese. You simply take some of the finely ground wood chip powder (comes with the gun) and place it in the pipe-like bowl. Light it, and the Smoking Gun will blow that smoke through a hose into the Ziploc bag where your piece of fish is waiting for its magical transformation to smoky deliciousness.

Mason jar cocktail shaker: A fun new way for Dad to make his martini.

Oh, and by the way…dads don’t care if your gift is late. You can still buy it now and give it to him later!

QUARANTINE COCKTAILS, PART 7: AGING SPIRITS IN OAK BARRELS AT HOME

Posted: June 15, 2020 in Cocktails, drink recipes, Drinks, Food, mixology, Recipes, travel
Tags: aging, barrels, cocktails, drinks, food, recipes

It used to be that only the big distilleries were able to age their finest spirits in charred oak barrels. But now, there’s a movement goin’ on…and hand-crafted oak barrels are available to aficionados at home.

Companies like Redhead Barrels (http://www.redheadoakbarrels.com) are offering oak barrels for aging that range in size from 1 liter to 20 liters. And that’s where this enthusiast comes in: with a 1-liter barrel, I’m able to age my favorite spirit–vodka, rum, whiskey, bourbon, mixed drinks, anything–in just a few weeks, elevating the flavors to levels previously unknown.

My 1-liter barrel arrived with the spigot and bung separately. Curing the barrel is necessary before using it. I do this by rinsing the barrel out a few times to remove any loose pieces of wood chips or splinters that may still be inside. I hand-turn the spigot into the barrel until it fits snugly and place the barrel in the sink on the included stand. I fill the barrel with very hot water…and watch. Some barrels are totally watertight and will not leak. Others may take literally a few days of repeated fillings with hot water before it thoroughly seeps into the wood, expanding the wood fibers to seal the barrel.

Once there are no leaks, it’s ready to go. I empty the water out of the barrel and fill it with my favorite spirit. Because there is more wood surface area to less liquid (as compared to large barrels), alcohol will age faster…in weeks instead of years. Once I’ve aged it as much as I want (tasting it along the way is the best way to determine this), I simply pour it into a bottle to stop the aging process. I rinse the barrel out thoroughly, and I’m ready to age yet another spirit.

I chose to age a cocktail that I first savored at the Greenhouse Tavern in Cleveland, Ohio, the brainchild of talented chef Jonathon Sawyer. The call it a Negroski, their take on a Negroni. It features equal parts Campari, Cocchi sweet vermouth, and OYO stone fruit vodka. They make large batches of it and keep it in a barrel until they serve it. So enamoured my wife and I were with this drink, that I begged the bartender to give me the recipe.

Doing the math, equal parts of each ingredient meant 1 1/3 cups of each to make a quart…which fit perfectly in my 1-liter barrel. Once I corked the top with the bung, it was time to let it age.

A slight daily rotation of the barrel gently rocks the liquid inside, exposing it to the barrel’s charred wood interior, giving it more flavor. And at the end of a week, I was ready for my first tasting: the wood had a subtle influence, rounding out the flavors. I wanted a little more, so I waited another week…even better, but not quite there. It took a total of 3 weeks before the drink reached its flavorful peak.

I poured some of the drink into a cocktail shaker with ice, stirred briskly with a spoon, and strained it into a martini glass, garnishing with a twist of blood orange peel. Delicious!

Since my first batch, I’ve aged Manhattans, my homemade Lithuanian honey liqueur (Krupnikas), and even simple spirits. It’s amazing how an average whiskey becomes something quite spectacular after just 3 weeks of aging!

THREE-HOUR RIBS

Posted: June 9, 2020 in Food, pork
Tags: Asian, Berkshire, food, pork, recipes, ribs

Yes, this is a pork blog…but first, an introduction…

My diet continues, and one of the foods that I absolutely love and can eat quite often because of its low calorie/high protein combination is poke: basically a Hawaiian version of unconstructed sushi. I’ve developed a combination of flavors that I simply call my “Asian Mix,” and I’ve found that it not only works well in dishes with seafood like tuna and salmon, but also with meat. I recently marinated beef flap in my Asian Mix, then grilled it over hardwood…delicious!

One of many versions of poke I made with my Asian Mix: wild-caught Alaskan salmon with cucumber, avocado, onion, and sesame seeds.

So I said to myself: “Self! Why not pork?”

It just so happened that I had a rack of St Louis-cut Berkshire pork in my freezer, so I took it out to thaw. I peeled the skin that’s on the back of the ribs and tossed it out. I cut the rack in half, and then sprinkled the ribs ever-so-lightly with a little Lawry’s Seasoned Salt, a classic in barbecuing. I placed the ribs in a plastic container, and moved them to the fridge to rest overnight.

Berkshire (also known as kurobuta) pork ribs, lightly seasoned with Lawry’s.

The next day, I removed the ribs from the fridge, placed them on a sheet pan lined with non-stick foil, and placed the pan in a pre-heated 450-degree oven. Once the sheet pan was in and the oven door was closed, I immediately lowered the temperature of the oven to 325. I let it cook for an hour.

After one hour, I poured off any fat that rendered from the pork, and flipped the ribs over. I put the sheet pan back in the oven, still at 325, for a second hour.

After hour two, I once again poured off any fat, and set the sheet pan down. I tore off a new piece of aluminum foil, placing it flat on the counter, and I placed one half-rack, bone-side up, on the foil. I brushed it with the Asian Mix. I flipped the half-rack over, and brushed the top side. Then I folded the foil tightly around the half-rack to create a packet as tightly sealed as I could get it.

Brushing the ribs with the asian Mix before wrapping it in foil and returning it to the oven for one more hour. Looks good already!

I did the same with the second half-rack.

I placed the two foil-wrapped half-racks back on the sheet pan and back in the 325-degree oven for one more hour.

After the third hour was up, I removed the sheet pan from the oven and let the ribs rest for 15 minutes before unwrapping the foil.

Beauty, eh?

Asian Mix (for 1 rack of ribs)

2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons hoisin sauce
1 teaspoon chili garlic sauce
1 teaspoon sesame oil
1 teaspoon rice vinegar

Combine all the ingredients in a bowl. Mix well.

Just the right amount of heat from the chili garlic sauce. But feel free to add or reduce to your personal taste.

ASPARAGUS WITH BUTTER AND PARMIGIANO REGGIANO

Posted: May 31, 2020 in Food, garden, Recipes, Rhode Island, Southern New England
Tags: asparagus, cheese, food, parmesan, Parmigiano Reggiano, recipes, vegetables, vegetarian

Butter and cheese. Can anything be better?

Little by little, asparagus season is winding down. I’ve had a month of gorging (and sharing with friends.) It’s time to let some of the stalks grow tall, and open up into the beautiful bushy asparagus ferns that will decorate the garden all summer. It’s important to leave these ferns alone, because they’re storing up energy for the next season. I let them turn brown and fall over when colder weather arrives, only removing them the following spring before the new season starts. That assures that my asparagus roots are re-charged for another amazing season. Asparagus is such a low-maintenance crop; it’s definitely one of this veggies every lazy gardener should grow.

I still have bags of asparagus in my fridge, and I enjoy it in a variety of ways: I love it raw, chopped into salads, pickled, oven-roasted, and in pasta dishes.

This is a great side dish with any main course like a big slab of meat, and has special meaning to me because my cousin first introduced me to asparagus with this recipe when I was just a kid. She passed away many years ago, but I think of her every time I make this simple but delicious dish.

You can use almost any grated “parmesan” cheese, but nothing beats real Parmigiano Reggiano that you freshly grate yourself.

1 lb. fresh asparagus spears
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
3/4 cup grated Parmigiano Reggiano cheese
sea salt and freshly cracked black pepper

The easy way to trim an asparagus spear is to grab the thicker end between two fingers and bend it. It will snap at the point where the tough part ends and the softer, edible part begins. I toss the bottoms into my compost pile.

I heat the butter and oil together in a pan and then add the asparagus spears, cooking over medium heat for about 5 minutes, until al dente. (You don’t want them mushy.)

While the asparagus is still in the pan, I sprinkle the Parmigiano Reggiano on top, letting it melt a bit. I season with sea salt (I prefer Flour de Sel) and freshly cracked black pepper.

That’s it! With fresh garden asparagus, it’s all you need! I ate this batch right out of the pan!

LAMBURGERS WITH FETA CHEESE DRESSING

Posted: May 28, 2020 in barbecue, burgers, Carnivore!, CHARCOAL, Food, lamb, Recipes
Tags: barbecue, burgers, feta, Greek, grilling, lamb, recipes

It’s National Hamburger Day! But instead of the usual beef burger, try something that’s often overlooked: lamb. Some people think the taste of lamb is too strong. The really good lamb, grass-fed Australian or New Zealand lamb, can have that taste. Most American lamb is a bit milder. I mix one pound of ground lamb meat with one pound of ground grass-fed beef to cut the gaminess of the lamb. The flavor is just right.

These lamburgers are best when grilled over hardwood charcoal. But they’re just as tasty if you pan-sear them in a cast iron skillet and finish them in the oven.

1 lb. ground lamb
1 lb. ground beef
2 tablespoons + 2 teaspoons extra Virgin olive oil
1/2 onion, minced
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
1 teaspoon each fresh parsley, mint, and dill, finely chopped
1 teaspoon dried Greek oregano
1/2 teaspoon cumin
1 large clove garlic, squeezed through a garlic press
1 scallion, finely chopped, green part only
1/2 cup breadcrumbs
1 egg
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper

Heat 2 tablespoons of the olive oil in a skillet over medium heat. Add the onions. Cook them until translucent, about 6 minutes. Transfer the onions to a plate and let them cool.

In a bowl, mix the onions, mustard, parsley, mint, dill, oregano, cumin, garlic, scallions, breadcrumbs, egg, and salt and pepper.

In another bowl, combine the lamb with the beef. Then add the onion mix bowl to the meat and make sure all the ingredients are combined.

Form the meat into slider-sized patties. Place them on a baking sheet covered with non-stick foil, and place the baking sheet in the fridge.

Don’t let the lamburgers get too cold in the fridge…just enough to firm the meat up a bit. If it gets too cold, give it a few minutes at room temp to warm up again. Grill the burgers until cooked to medium.

If you’re cooking indoors, heat some avocado oil in an oven-proof pan, preferably cast iron. Sear the burgers well on both sides, then place the pan in a 350-degree oven to finish cooking.

Place the burgers on slider buns with lettuce and tomato, and smear the bun with the feta cheese dressing.

My recipe for feta cheese dressing works really well with lamburgers. But it’s also great on a salad.

3/4 cup plain Greek yogurt
1 cup mayo
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper sauce, like Franks Red Hot
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1/2 teaspoon granulated garlic
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
4–5 oz. crumbled feta cheese

Combine all the ingredients in a bowl. Mix well. Cover and refrigerate. If you can wait a day, it’s even better.

GRILLED CLAMS WITH PASTA

Posted: May 25, 2020 in barbecue, CHARCOAL, Food, Recipes, seafood
Tags: barbecue, CLAMS, food, grilling, pasta, recipes, seafood

Who says you have to only cook burgers and steaks on the grill? This is one of my favorite ways to enjoy clams…and without the clam knife! I always use hardwood charcoal.

A couple of dozen (or more) little neck clams, washed and purged
1 stick (8 oz.) of unsalted butter
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/4 cup chopped parsley
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon dried basil
1 teaspoon minced garlic
1/2 teaspoon sea salt

The clams should be stored in the fridge until ready to use…not in water, not on ice. Place the clams in a bowl and cover it with a wet dish towel.

Before cooking, I like to purge my clams to remove as much grit as possible. I fill a large bowl with cold water, add sea salt and some corn meal to it, and mix it around. Then I add the clams to this bowl and let them sit in this liquid for at least an hour. They will suck up the corn meal and spit out sand and grit. After an hour, I pour off the water/salt/meal/grit mix, and thoroughly wash the clams. Now they’re ready to grill!

I start my hardwood charcoal grill and divide it in half: coals on one side, no coals on the other.

While the coals are heating up, I grab a disposable aluminum foil tray and place it on a burner on my kitchen stovetop over medium heat. I add the butter, olive oil, parsley, oregano, basil, garlic and salt, and stir it all to combine. Once the butter has melted and everything has blended, I bring the tray over to the charcoal grill and place on the side of the grill without coals. It will stay warm.

Once the coals are hot, just place the clams directly on the grill. (Use tongs, unless you want to remove all of your knuckle hair.) They’re done as soon as they open, but you can cook them as long as you like, from raw to more thoroughly cooked. As each one reaches its desired doneness, place it carefully in the aluminum tray, making sure you don’t lose any of that precious liquid inside the clam shell. Give it a swish in the butter and herb mix.

When all the clams have been cooked and are in the tray, serve them with that herby butter sauce on top of pasta…or simply eat them with a fresh baguette. A glass of great white wine is a must.

Really easy and really delicious!

Live the Live ™

Follow Blog via Email

livethelive