Inspired by the classic Chinese pork dish called Char Siu Pork, I decided to give it my own spin.
The original recipe calls for pork neck or collar, or pork shoulder…fattier cuts. I chose pieces of heritage Berkshire pork belly that I had already cured, but not smoked.
As with almost any recipe that calls for honey, I choose to use maple syrup instead.
And the classic Char Siu Pork uses food coloring, to give it that signature red-dyed look. I chose not to use food coloring.
The marinade is pretty straightforward, and I added a tweak or two of my own…
1/4 cup maple syrup 1/4 cup hoisin sauce 2 tablespoons brown sugar 2 tablespoons soy sauce 1 tablespoon oil (I use avocado oil) 1 teaspoon Chinese five spice powder 1 teaspoon sesame oil 1 teaspoon rice vinegar
2 lbs. pork belly (in this case, it is already cured)
Cut the pork belly into manageable pieces, placing them in a large freezer bag.
Combine the marinade ingredients in a bowl, mixing well, then add it to the bag with the pork belly. Seal the bag tightly, and squish it around, to make sure the marinade covers all surfaces of the pork.
Marinating needs to be for at least 4 hours, but overnight in the fridge is even better. Place the freezer bag with the pork on a sheet pan or in a bowl, to avoid any accidental spillage in the fridge.
About an hour or two before cooking, remove the pork from the fridge, to bring it to room temperature.
Pre-heat the oven to 325°.
Remove the pork from the marinade, and place it on a rack. Roast it for 30 minutes.
Meanwhile, pour the remaining marinade into a saucepan. Bring it to a simmer over medium-high heat, and cook for 2 minutes until it’s syrupy, being careful not to burn the sugars. Remove it from the heat. (Do not taste the marinade before doing this, since it touched raw pork!)
After the pork has roasted for 30 minutes, take it out of the oven, and brush it with the marinade. Flip it over and brush it again, then return it to the oven for another 30 minutes.
Remove the pork from the oven, and brush it again with the marinade, returning it to the oven for 20 more minutes.
If the pork looks like it’s charring too quickly, cover it with foil.
At this point, measure the temperature of the pork. It should be 165°. The meat should be tender, but not falling apart, and it should be caramelized and sticky from the marinade. Let it rest 10 minutes before slicing it.
Colder weather always has me craving comfort food…and nothing says comfort more than Shepherds Pie!
To make this recipe, I used organic vegetables, organic grass-fed dairy products, grass-fed beef, pastured eggs, and homemade chicken stock. These extra efforts made a big difference to me, but use what you are most comfortable with and have easiest access to.
And although the basic recipe calls for beef, I’ve had great success using lamb and even venison.
If you’re on a gluten-free diet, the only gluten in this recipe is in the all-purpose flour. Using a GF flour, like Cup4Cup or Bob’s Red Mill 1 to 1 Baking Flour, does a great job of thickening without the gluten.
Potatoes are the classic ingredient in Shepherds pie, but I found that sweet potatoes are a fantastic substitute. (See the photos at the bottom of the blog.) Give either one a shot yourself, or be really bold and try a combination of the two! The procedure is the same either way…
2 oz. cheddar cheese
1 1/2 lbs. Russets(or sweet potatoes), peeled and cubed 1/4 cup half-and-half 2 oz. unsalted butter 3/4 teaspoon Kosher salt 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper 1 egg yolk
Grate the cheddar cheese. Set it aside for later.
Peel and cube the potatoes and place them in a pot of cold water. Bring it to a boil and cook the potatoes until they are fork-tender. While they are boiling, place the half-and-half and butter in a microwave safe bowl and zap them for 35 seconds to warm them up. Once the potatoes are done, drain them and place them back in the pot. Add the half-and-half and butter and mash really well. Add the salt and pepper and continue mashing. Finally, add the egg yolk, mixing quickly and thoroughly. Then set the potatoes aside.
The meat filling…
2 tablespoons bacon fat (or your favorite oil) 1 cup chopped onion 2 carrots, peeled and diced small 2 garlic cloves, minced 1 1/2 lbs. beef, cut into 1/2″ cubes 1 teaspoon Kosher salt 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour 2 teaspoons tomato paste 1 cup chicken broth, preferably homemade 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce 2 teaspoons freshly chopped rosemary leaves 1 teaspoon freshly chopped thyme leaves 1/2 cup fresh or frozen corn 1/2 cup of fresh or frozen peas
Preheat the oven to 400°.
While the potatoes are cooking (above), prepare the meat filling.
Place the bacon fat or oil in a pan and set it on medium high heat. Add the onions and the carrots and cook until the onions are translucent. Add the garlic and stir. Add the beef and the salt and pepper and cook until the meat has browned nicely. Sprinkle the meat with the flour, and mix to combine, cooking for another minute. Add the tomato paste, chicken broth, Worcestershire sauce, rosemary and thyme, and stir to combine. Bring this to a boil, reduce it to a simmer, and cook it for about 10 minutes, until the sauce has thickened nicely.
Add the corn and the peas to the meat mixture, and then pour it all into a baking pan. ( I used a 9-inch round metal baking pan that was about 3 inches deep.)
Spread the mashed potatoes on top of the meat mixture. If you use the mashed potatoes all around the edges, it seals the meat mixture in, and prevents bubbling over and messing up your oven. A rubber spatula makes this job easy.
Place the pan on a parchment-lined baking sheet (to prevent spills), and in the oven to bake for 15 minutes.
After 15 minutes, remove the pan and sprinkle the grated cheddar cheese on top of the potatoes. Then return the pan to the oven for 10 more minutes, until the cheese has melted and created a beautiful golden crust on top.
Remove the pan from the oven, placed it on a wire rack, and let it cool at least 15 minutes before serving.
As I said earlier, sweet potatoes make a great substitute for regular potatoes. Give them a try!
Let’s face it: there are few foods as magical as bacon. Add bacon to just about any dish you’re preparing, and it elevates it to incredible new heights of flavor. The BLT is possibly the greatest food combination ever invented: just a few simple, fresh ingredients, when placed together, transforming into one of the greatest sandwiches on planet Earth.
BLT wraps: home-cured and smoked bacon, local farmstead romaine, home garden tomatoes, always Hellman’s mayo.
If I’m buying bacon, I go on-line to Burger’s Smokehouse, a family run business in Missouri that has made great bacon for decades. The prices are good, and they include shipping. (smokehouse.com) I buy in quantity and freeze what I don’t need right away. My favorite is the thick-sliced country bacon “steaks.”
But nothings beats making your own.
Bacon comes from the pork belly, and they’re easy to find in any good butcher shop. But to get something a notch above, I’ll buy a heritage breed, like Berkshire pork, from Heritage Pork International. (heritagepork.com) I follow the simple curing techniques outlined in “Charcuterie,” a great book written by Michael Ruhlman and Brian Polcyn.
To cure bacon, all you really need is salt and sugar, and what they in the curing biz call “pink salt,” which is not to be confused with salt that happens to be pink, like Himalayan salt you would find in a gourmet store. Pink curing salt is bright pink to let you know that it’s a special salt that should only be used in small quantities for curing. The reason is: nitrites. Nitrites delay the spoilage of the meat, and help keep the flavors of spices and smoke. They also keep the meat nice and pink instead of an unappetizing gray. That’s good. However, nitrites can break down into nitrosamines, which have been known to cause cancer in lab animals. But let’s face it: you would need to eat a ton of cured meat to really worry about this. (I buy uncured deli meats and hot dogs at the supermarket, because processed meats are a different story. But since I know exactly what goes into my own bacon, I’m not worried about the level of nitrites.)
To make the basic dry cure:
1/2 lb. kosher salt (I use Diamond Crystal Kosher salt) 1/2 cup light brown sugar or turbinado sugar 1 oz. pink curing salt
Mix the ingredients well. An important note: all salts do not all weigh the same, so go by the weight and not a cup measurement. (Morton’s Kosher salt, for example, is heavier than Diamond Crystal.) I keep this basic dry cure stored in my pantry, ready to use when I need it.
When it’s time to be makin’ the bacon, I combine this dry cure with other ingredients to make my bacon rub.
My bacon rub:
1/2 cup basic dry cure 1/2 cup brown sugar or turbinado sugar 1 tablespoon fresh cracked black pepper 1 tablespoon granulated garlic 1 tablespoon granulated onion
Mix these ingredients well (yes, there’s quite a bit of sugar there, but I like my bacon a little sweet!) Rub it generously all over the pork belly.
I have a large plastic container with a lid that fits one average (4-lb.) slab of pork belly perfectly. I place the belly inside it, put the lid on, and place the container in the fridge. (Sometimes, I’ll season the belly and wrap it tightly with plastic wrap before putting it in the container. Optional.) The pork belly stays there for at least a couple of weeks, maybe three. I flip the belly every few days. You’ll see that the salt will draw moisture out of the meat and form a gooey brine. This brine will continue to cure your pork belly, so leave it in there. Just flip it, put the lid back on the container, and back in the fridge.
In two or three weeks, you’ll be able to tell the pork belly has cured because it feels firm. Wash the brine off the meat well with cold water, and pat it dry with paper towels. Place the belly in the fridge for an hour or so and it will develop a tackiness to the touch. This is a thin layer of proteins known as a pelicle, and it helps the smoke stick to the meat.
Now it’s time to cook. You can simply cook the pork belly (without smoking it) at 200° for about 2 hours, until the internal temperature reaches 160°. This isn’t bacon…it’s pancetta. Or you can simply slice it and fry it up in a pan. (Also delicious.) But it’s the smoke that makes it bacon.
Smoking foods can be a challenge to many, so a great alternative to the traditional charcoal smoker is an electric one. It allows you to control the exact temperature inside the smoker without checking on it constantly (a real luxury when you’re slow smoking brisket or pork shoulder for many hours), and it offers a tray where you place your wood chips or pellets to give your food that authentic smoky flavor.
My electric smoker has a digital readout, which allows me to set an exact temperature. I smoke my pork belly at 250° for 2 hours, using hickory chips. (I’m not a fan of applewood, the other commonly used smoking wood for bacon.)
Bellies in the smoker. A water bath underneath to catch any grease drippage.A couple of hours later: beautiful bacon!
The reward is so worth the effort. Just remember that you still need to cook the bacon before you can eat it. Don’t eat it straight out of the smoker. That first slice you cut off your bacon and toss in a pan to lightly fry for a few moments will be the best bite you’ve ever had in your life!
I recently received this wonderful gift from my buddy, Dr. Chezwick. I’ll be using the same techniques that I would for a regular slab of bacon, only I’ll cure it for less time, since it weighs less, and is thinner. I’m thinking it will be delicious!
Even though we’re still shoveling ourselves out from under the last snowstorm here in New England, now’s the time to start prepping brisket for corned beef on St. Patrick’s Day!
Before every St. Patty’s Day, supermarkets are full of packages of processed corned beef in preparation for the big celebration. But, interestingly, corned beef isn’t really an authentic Irish dish.
The phrase “corned beef” was coined by the British, and although the Irish were known for their corned beef throughout Europe in the 17th century, beef was far too expensive for the Irish themselves to eat and all of it was exported to other countries. Owning a cow in Ireland was a sign of wealth, and the Irish used theirs for dairy products, not beef.
The Irish ate pork, and a lot of it, because it was cheap to raise pigs, and they traditionally prepared something like Canadian bacon to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day in Ireland.
In the 1900’s, when the Irish came to America, both beef and salt were more affordable, and the Irish, who lived in poor, tight-knit communities, often next to Jewish communities, bought much of their beef from Kosher butchers. And so many of the Irish learned how to corn their beef using Jewish techniques, but adding cabbage and potatoes to the mix. That’s what we have today.
It takes about 3 weeks to make corned beef. Doing it yourself is not difficult. It just takes time.
Corned beef has nothing to do with corn. ‘Corning’ is a technique for preserving raw meats for long periods by soaking it in a salt brine. This method was used in England before the days of commercial refrigeration. Back then, the large salt kernels used in the brine were called “corns.”
Brining is a time-honored way of preserving meat and it prevents bacteria from growing. Both pastrami and corned beef are made by this method. Both start with a brisket of beef. Corned beef is then cooked–usually boiled–and served. Pastrami is made when the brined meat is rubbed with more spices and then smoked to add extra flavor. So corned beef and pastrami are the same meat, just treated differently.
Saltpeter is an ingredient that has been used in brining beef for years. It adds the traditional pink coloring to the corned beef and pastrami meat, a bit more appetizing than the gray color it tends to have if you don’t use it.
Saltpeter can also contain carcinogens, so there’s always talk of avoiding it. It’s found in pink curing salt, which is used in small amounts during the curing process. (Not to be confused with Himalayan pink salt, which is just plain salt.) Since I only make my corned beef once a year, I’m OK with it either way. The general rule of thumb is only 1 teaspoon pink curing salt per 5 pounds of meat.
I get grass-fed brisket in 10-pound slabs, but use whatever size you find comfortable. Just don’t go too small, or the brine will make that tiny piece of meat extremely salty.
Brining the beef brisket
Step one: corned beef…
beef brisket (about 8-10 pounds)
2 teaspoons paprika
1/4 cup warm water
3 cloves of minced garlic
2 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon mixed pickling spices
3/4 cup salt
1 teaspoon pink curing salt (optional)
2 quarts water
Place the brisket in a large container made of non-reactive material, like glass or plastic.
In the 1/4 cup of warm water, dissolve the sugar, minced cloves, paprika and pickling spices.
Dissolve the 3/4 cup of salt (and optional teaspoon of pink curing salt) in the 2 quarts of water. Pour in the sugar/garlic/paprika/pickling spices mix and stir everything together. Pour the mixture over the meat in the container. Make sure the meat is totally beneath the surface of the liquid. (You may need to weigh it down to do this. I place a couple of plates on top, which pushes the meat down into the brine.) If there’s just not enough liquid, double the recipe, leaving out the pink salt the second time. Cover the container.
Refrigerate the container and its contents for 3 weeks, turning the meat once or twice per week. At the end of the third week, remove the container from the refrigerator and take out the meat. Soak the meat in several changes of fresh cold water over a period of 12 hours to remove the excess salt. I add ice to the water to keep the meat cold.
At this point, if you want corned beef, most people boil it.
I prefer to lay some aluminum foil down on a sheet pan. Then I coarsely chop carrots, onions, and celery, placing them in a single layer on the foil. Then I lay my brisket on top of the veggies, and wrap the meat tightly in the foil. I place the baking pan in a pre-heated 350 degree oven and cook for about 3 1/2 hours. (That’s for an 8-pound slab of meat. The cooking time will be less for a smaller cut.)
If you want to make pastrami, there are more steps to take…
Step two: making Pastrami…
Brined and rinsed corned beef brisket from above recipe, patted dry with paper towels
1/4 cup Kosher salt
1/4 cup paprika
3 tablespoons coriander seeds
2 tablespoons black peppercorns
2 tablespoons yellow mustard seeds
1 tablespoon white peppercorns
3 tablespoons brown sugar
1 tablespoon granulated garlic
Combine the coriander seeds, black and white peppercorns and mustard seeds in a spice grinder and grind them coarsely. Place them in a bowl. Add the salt, paprika, brown sugar and granulated garlic. Mix well.
Rub the mix into the corned beef well, covering all sides.
Heat your smoker to 225 degrees and smoke the meat for several hours. (My wood of choice is always hickory.) When the internal temperature of the meat has reached 165 degrees, it’s done. It isn’t necessary to smoke pastrami as long as you would a regular brisket because the long brining time makes the meat more tender, and you’ll be steaming it next.
It is very important that absolutely everything that comes in contact with the meat is very clean. (This includes your hands.) Also, make very sure that every inch of the meat reaches the 165 degrees before it is removed from the smoker. The corned beef is now pastrami.
Delis that serve pastrami go one step further: they steam the meat so that it becomes incredibly tender and easy to slice. I place a baking pan with boiling water in the center of a 350° oven. I put a grate on top of it, placing the pastrami on top of the grate. Then I invert a bowl over the pastrami to keep the steam in. I will cook it this way for at least an hour to steam the meat before slicing and serving.
Fat Tuesday is February 17! Laissez les boss temps rouler!
Back in the 80’s, I worked at a radio station in Mobile, Alabama. My New York buddies thought I was crazy to move to the South, but that’s where the job was. When they realized that I was only a 2-hour ride from New Orleans, I wasn’t so crazy after all! I spent every possible weekend there: the food, the music, the people…
When I moved to Rhode Island, I really missed all the fun of the Big Easy. So I decided to have a Mardi Gras party every year. I’d invite 80+ people, and I cooked all of the dishes myself. I made all the classics: red beans and rice, crawfish etouffe, gumbo, Cajun chicken (my own recipe), and, of course, jambalaya.
For the seasoning mix:
2 bay leaves
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon white pepper
1 teaspoon granulated garlic
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
I find it easier to measure and chop all the ingredients before I start cooking.
4 tablespoons olive oil
1 1/2 cups finely chopped onions, in all
1 1/2 cups finely chopped celery, in all
1 1/2 cups good quality chopped ham
1 1/2 cups chopped andouille sausage (Here in RI, I use local Portuguese chourico from Fall River, MA)
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper sauce (I use Frank’s Red Hot)
3/4 cup tomato sauce made from pureed whole tomatoes
2 cups uncooked rice (I like Texmati brown basmati rice)
3 cups chicken stock (preferably homemade)
1 lb. peeled and de-veined wild-caught American shrimp
Over medium-high heat, heat the olive oil in a large sauce pan. Add 3/4 cup of the onions and 3/4 cup of the celery. Cook until the onions are translucent.
Stir in the seasoning mix, then the chopped ham and the chourico, and then the cayenne pepper sauce. Cook until the onions are a dark brown, about 20 minutes, stirring constantly.
Add the remaining 3/4 cup of the onions and celery. Cook about 5 minutes.
Open a can of whole tomatoes and puree them in a food processor to make sauce. Add 3/4 cup of this and cook for about 5 minutes.
Stir in the rice, mixing well. Reduce the heat and simmer for about 12 minutes.
Add the chicken stock, stir well, and bring it all to a boil. Then reduce the heat and simmer, covered, over very low heat until the rice is tender but firm, about 15 minutes.
Remove the cover, toss in the shrimp, stir, then put the cover back on and cook for 5 minutes more.
Sometimes it’s hard to get wild-caught American shrimp at my local seafood store or supermarket. But for me, buying tiger shrimp or other Asian products is not an option. Once I learned about how they are farmed, I decided I’d never eat those shrimp again!
When I find wild-caught American shrimp locally, I buy extra to keep in the freezer. (The better supermarkets, like Whole Foods, have them.) For many years, I bought my shrimp online from http://www.cajungrocer.com. Not only will you find shrimp there, you’ll find many other Cajun classics: King cakes, Turduckens, andouille and alligator sausage, even live crawfish. And the price of their shrimp, even with shipping, is the same as the nasty Asian shrimp you buy in the store. Make some room in your freezer, order large to save, and stock up on the real deal!
Inspired by a recipe from chef Martin Yan, these beef skewers are absolutely delicious when grilled over hardwood charcoal, but are mighty tasty when roasted in the oven as well.
Choose a piece of beef that has some marbled fat throughout…that will give it extra flavor. Ribeye is a good choice, although this time around, I used a beautiful hunka grass-fed beef flap. I trimmed as much fat and silver skin off the beef as I could, then I sliced it thinly on the bias–that is, against the grain of the meat.
Marinate the beef for at least 4 hours in the fridge…overnight is even better.
2 tablespoons sesame seeds 1/4 cup soy sauce 1/4 cup white wine (I used an unoaked Chardonnay from Australia) 1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lime juice 1 tablespoon sesame oil 1 tablespoon sugar 2 green onions, minced 2 teaspoons minced garlic 2 teaspoons grated ginger
Place the sesame seeds in a small frying pan over medium heat. Cook the seeds, shaking the pan frequently, until the seeds have lightly browned, about 4 minutes. (If you’re using black sesame seeds, they won’t turn brown, but they’ll have a dry look to them.) Immediately remove the sesame seeds from the pan to cool, then place them in a spice grinder, and pulse until they’re ground up.
Place the crushed sesame seeds in a bowl with all the other marinade ingredients, mixing well.
Slice the beef on the bias into thin strips about 4″ long. Place all the beef in the bowl with the marinade, and squish it around to make sure all the meat makes contact with the marinade.
Place the bowl in the fridge for at least 4 hours…overnight is better. Squish the meat around every couple of hours if you can, to ensure it is coated well.
Once the meat is done marinating, remove the bowl from the fridge and let it come to room temperature.
Get out those bamboo barbecue skewers that have been sitting in the kitchen drawer for years. If you’re grilling outside, you’ll want to soak them in warm water for an hour so they don’t burn while you’re cooking. If you’re using the oven, you won’t have to.
Start skewering the beef…about 3 pieces of meat per skewer. Spread them out on the skewer a bit so they aren’t bunched up.
If you’re grilling outside, start a hardwood charcoal fire, and spread the coals out so that you have a medium fire. If it’s too hot, the beef will burn. When the fire is ready, place the skewers on the grill and watch them carefully, turning them so they cook evenly.
If you’ve got a convection oven (an “air fryer” for you youngsters), pre-heat the oven to 350. Place the skewers on a grate that is raised an inch or so above a sheet pan, so that the warm air in the oven can circulate all around the meat.
Place the sheet pan in the oven and cook the beef until it has browned nicely on the top. Then pull the pan out of the oven, and flip the skewers over, returning them to cook a little more on the other side.
Enjoy your beef skewers with whatever you like! I served mine with stir-fried vegetables, lo mein with a peanut-chili sauce, and dumplings with a homemade dipping sauce.
I recently bought a one-pound bag of wild-caught American shrimp and had this craving for a poboy. Just so happened that the night before, I made myself a pizza, and I took part of the pizza dough, rolled it into the shape of a torpedo roll, and then baked it, saving it for a sandwich the next day.
I thought a slaw would go really well with the fried shrimp on the sandwich, so I graded some carrot and thinly sliced some cabbage, and I combined it with some leftover Alabama white barbecue sauce that I had in the fridge. It sounds crazy, but the ingredients in the sauce work perfectly for a coleslaw: mayo, vinegar, etc. Not only would the slaw add crunch to the sandwich, the Alabama sauce, with its acidity, would take the place of a remoulade for the shrimp.
All I needed now was to dredge the shrimp and fry it, to put the sandwich together.
Once the shrimp was thawed, I took eight of them (it was a package of medium-sized shrimp that came 32 or so to a pound) then I patted them dry with a paper towel, setting them aside.
I was ready to start putting this bad boy together.… Or I should say, Po boy.
First, the slaw…
1 medium carrot, grated 1/2 small cabbage, thinly sliced1 cup mayo 4 tablespoons sour cream 4 tablespoons white vinegar 2 teaspoons Dijon mustard 1 teaspoon black pepper 1 teaspoon granulated garlic 1 teaspoon granulated onion 1/2 teaspoon salt 1/2 teaspoon sugar
Place the carrot and cabbage in a large bowl. In a separate bowl, mix the other ingredients well. (Technically, Alabama white sauce uses buttermilk instead of the sour cream, but that’s what I had in my fridge, and it’s delicious with it!) Pour as much of the Alabama white sauce into the veggies as you like, depending on whether you like a wetter or drier coleslaw.
Set the coleslaw aside in the fridge, covered, until you’re ready to use it.
Save that extra Alabama white sauce for your next batch of grilled chicken!
Slice the torpedo roll in half lengthwise, and lightly toasted. Set it aside.
The set up.
1 egg, scrambled 1 cup rice flour 1 tablespoon Tony Chachere’s Cajun seasoning
In one bowl, scrambled the egg. Drop the shrimp in there, and toss them around.
In a second bowl, combine the rice, flour, and the seasoning.
Take the egg-covered shrimp, and drop them into the seasoning bowl and toss around until they’re well coated. Fry them in a pan of avocado oil until they’re golden and cooked through. Drain them on paper towels.
To assemble my Poboy sandwich, I put some mayo on both sides of the bread. Then I placed a nice thick layer of the coleslaw. Then the shrimp on top of that. And then, for even more crunch, I covered it with some baby lettuce.
Mardi Gras is a couple of weeks away!! Here’s a great dish from New Orleans…
One of my favorite dishes to come out of New Orleans is Barbecue Shrimp, so on a visit to the Crescent City a couple of years ago, I had to make a stop at the place where it all started.
The first unusual thing you notice about the classic dish, New Orleans Barbecue Shrimp, is that it’s not cooked on a barbecue grill and it has no barbecue sauce.
So why the name?
Its origin goes back to the mid-1950’s, to an Italian restaurant in New Orleans called Pascale’s Manale. The story goes that a regular customer had just returned from Chicago, where he had dined on an amazing shrimp dish. He asked the chef at Pascale’sManale to try to replicate it, and what resulted was actually better than the original. And though no barbecue grill or sauce was used, it is believed that they gave it the name “BBQ Shrimp” to cash in on the backyard barbecuing craze that was all the rage at the time. Whatever they call it, I have to say that it’s worth a special trip to have the dish!
The classic New Orleans Barbecue Shrimp is served with shell-on shrimp, so you have to make a big, buttery mess of yourself as you devour it. And it’s served with plenty of crusty French bread.
At home, sometimes I’ll leave out the bread and go for rice instead. And I’ll peel the shrimp completely, using the shrimp shells to make the stock I cook the rice in.
2 lbs. large wild-caught American shrimp, peeled and de-veined 1 stick butter (4 oz.) 1/2 cup beer 1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce olive oil
For the rice…
1 cup rice (I like jasmine rice) 2 1/4 cups water or seafood stock (see below) 1 teaspoon olive oil 1/2 teaspoon Tony Chachere’s Original Creole Seasoning
Cook the rice following the directions on the package. I like using stock instead of water when I cook my rice, so after peeling all the shrimp, I toss the shells in a saucepan full of water and I boil the heck out of it, strain it, and use that stock to cook the rice. I add the olive oil and the Tony Chachere’s (available online or at your favorite food store) to the stock before cooking the rice.
To cook the shrimp, I heat a little olive oil in a large skillet over moderate heat. Then I add the shrimp, and sear them on one side (about 30 seconds) and then flip them over to sear on the other side (another 30 seconds.) I’m not trying to cook them all the way through, just get them a bit caramelized. Then I remove the shrimp from the skillet and set them aside.
(I often serve the BBQ Shrimp over the rice with broccoli. If you want to use broccoli, add a little butter and olive oil to the same pan you seared the shrimp in. Cook until the broccoli is nicely caramelized, then remove from the pan and set aside.)
In the same skillet, I heat the butter until the foam subsides. Then I add the beer, Worcestershire sauce, and 2 teaspoons of the seasoning mix. I mix well, then add the shrimp and broccoli back in the pan, simmering for about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.
As recently as a couple of years ago, I had never heard of beef flap. But I purchased one from Slanker’s, a distributor of grass-fed beef out in Texas, and it’s become one of my favorite cuts of beef.
You won’t find beef flap in most supermarkets…at least I haven’t been able to find it…so online ordering may be one of the only ways to give it a try.
And yes, I grill outside even in cold weather!
Beef flap is also known as bottom sirloin butt, and it comes from a part of the cow where flank steak comes from, only farther back. So it has its similarities to flank.
Beef flap is wonderfully marbled and is fantastic for a variety of dishes, including fajitas, stirfrying, or just enjoying it grilled.
I’ve marinated beef flap in many different ways, with Asian flavors and classic American BBQ spices, but one of my favorite ways is to give it a marinade that is similar to Italian dressing.
Some folks actually use bottled Italian dressing to marinate meat, but I prefer to make my own.
Olive oil White wine vinegar Salt Pepper Granulated garlic Granulated onion Dried oregano
Combine these ingredients in the proportions that you like in a bowl, mixing thoroughly.
I like to trim the beef flap, removing any silver skin that might be on it, and cutting it into pieces that are about 4” square and 1/4” thick. If the meat is too thick, I slice it lengthwise in half, to make a thinner cut. I place all the beef in a Ziploc bag, pour the marinade in, squeeze the air out of the bag and then seal it tightly.
I squish the bag all around to make sure that the marinade makes contact with all the meat, and I place the bag in the fridge overnight. (I usually put it in a bowl or tray, just to avoid any accidental spillage.)
The next day, I remove the meat from the fridge and let it come to room temperature before I cook it on a hot hardwood charcoal grill.
Beef flap cooks quickly on the grill, especially if you like it medium-rare, but because it has that fat marbling, it still stays juicy even if you like it well done.
And if you can’t get outside, a hot cast iron grill on the kitchen stove works just as well!
We’re waiting on the big snowstorm here in New England. If I didn’t have to go to work today, and spend the night at the radio station to be there for my show tomorrow morning, I’d probably be cooking something like this!
I based this recipe on one found online that didn’t have any specific measurements. So I played it by ear and came up with what I thought was a pretty darn good version of it.
It’s simply layers of sliced vegetables and a mix of cheeses that bakes in the oven. It’s an easy to prepare dish that can be made the day before and then kept in the fridge overnight until you’re ready to bake.
The veggie layers…
Sweet potatoes, peeled and thinly sliced 1 medium butternut squash, peeled and thinly sliced 3 tablespoons olive oil 1 teaspoon dried thyme 1 teaspoon dried rosemary salt and pepper
The amount of sweet potato versus butternut squash is up to you. But you need a total of about 3 pounds of sliced and peeled veggies. If you have a mandolin for slicing, use it. But I went with a sharp knife and got some pretty thin slices that way.
Once you’ve sliced the veggies, place them in the pan you’ll be baking with. Add the olive oil, thyme, rosemary, and salt and pepper, and toss everything to mix really well. Set it aside.
The cheese…
12 oz. ricotta cheese 8 oz. shredded mozzarella 4 oz. grated Parmigiano Reggiano 1 egg 1 tablespoon chopped fresh sage (or 1 teaspoon dried) salt and pepper
In a bowl, mix all the ingredients well, until it’s soft and creamy. Set it aside.
Walnuts…
1/2 cup walnuts, chopped and toasted
This is optional. It will be sprinkled on the lasagna at the end of cooking.
Cranberry glaze…
1/2 cup cranberry sauce 2 tablespoons maple syrup 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
This glaze is a bit tart, and is just what you need with the richness of all that cheese. Whisk these ingredients in a bowl until they’re smooth and set it aside.
Preheat the oven to 375°.
Remove the veggies from the baking pan, setting them aside in a bowl, so you can start the layering process back in the pan. Line the bottom with a layer of veggies, followed by a thin layer of the cheese. Then it’s another layer of veggies, and another of cheese, etc.
Depending on how thick your slices are, and how heavy your veggie layers are, you’ll get 3 or 4 layers of veggies, with cheese in between. You want the veggies to be on the top layer, no matter how many layers you go, so keep that in mind.
Wrap foil over the baking pan and bake for 45 minutes.
Foil removed and going back into the oven. (As you can see, this time I ran out of veggies for the top layer! All good!)
After 45 minutes, remove the baking pan from the oven, and remove the foil. Sprinkle the optional walnuts on at this point, and return the pan (without the foil) back to the oven for another 15 minutes.
Once the cooking is done, allow the baking pan to rest for about 10 minutes before slicing. Pour some of the cranberry glaze on top when serving.
Part of our Christmas dinner, along with beef stroganoff, broccoli and egg noodles.
Live the Live ™ 