hooklineandskillet

Over the winter we ventured down to the Eastern Shore of Virginia for an oyster roast. The bushels of Hog Island oysters were simply dumped on grates over a hard wood fire and covered with burlap. the result was salty, smokey, plump roast oysters. After seeing a few similar cook outs on “man fire food” the seed was deeply planted. the final straw was an episode of “the best thing i ever ate” on food network. The host walk us viewers through the New Orleans Tradition of Roasting oysters with garlic butter and parmesan cheese as Drago’s. I immediately got off the couch and made it my weekend task to source and roast Oysters in that same fashion. the tricky part was sourcing wild oysters that wouldn’t cost me and arm and a leg. down at Gosmans fish market in Montauk i found some east end locals that were a dollar a piece, they weren’t quite as deep and large as i wanted but they would do the trick for a trial run. after firing up the smoke to 500 degrees and shucking a few dozen MTK locals i melted some butter and threw them over the heat. after adding butter i sprinkled some parmesan cheese on top. I let them roast until the cheese was crispy. They turned out incredible.

This was it, the big test. Nine months after getting the Lang I was ready for the real deal. For this years BBQ I invited 25-30 of my closest friends and family out to East Hampton to party in the back yard, listen to some killer live music by Alex Vans and the hideaways and most importantly chow down on some kickass BBQ. The plan was to serve dinner late Saturday afternoon. I had three 8lb pork shoulders and a 12 lb brisket. Prep was going to be essential due to the fact that I would be fully participating in Saturday afternoon activities (beer-ski, pool, dark-n-stormies..lather rinse repeat). I gave all the meat a standard yellow mustard coat and dumped a liberal amount of 344 spice rub on top. Early Friday morning I fired up the smoker for the first part of the cook. After consulting BBQ chef mike goodman of captains BBQ in st augaustone fl I planned on cooking hotter and smokier for 4/5 hours on Friday to get a good bark on the meat. I would then wrap the meat in foil and bring it to temp on Saturday. This worked out incredibly well especially for the pork shoulder. Smoker ran at 250 on Friday and closer to 225 for 6 hours on saturday. The pork was ridiculous. I purchased some bear claws to assist in the pulling process. They are an awesome product but this pork pretty much pulled itself. The bone fell out. I have never seen anything like it. After adding a little famous 344 vinegar sauce we were in business. The brisket was a different story. I got a standard cut from the butcher and it was a disaster. Texture reminded me of sand. Nuff said. There was no marbling in the cut and if that didnt insure failure, i didn’t put the attention into it I normally do.

Pics below. More to come…

Katie and I headed out to East Hampton to help get the homestead ready for the season.  Being that I didn’t have to pack many clothes I figured there would be enough room in my suitcase for a 9 lb brisket.  The plan was that we would get into EAst Hampton around 8pm Friday night, Katie would could up some dinner for the tow of us and I would man the smoker.  I have been talking to a number of guys who run BBQ restaurants about their cooking technique.  Now while i will be the first to admit that true BBQ is all about the challenge if cooking with nothing but wood these guys have to churn out a ton of food on a daily basis and it has to be consistent.  I love entertaining and I also love getting a good nights sleep so i thought i would give BBQ cheating a chance.  Apparently after 4/5 hours the meat is not capable of taking in anymore flavor.  The logic goes that at this point you can wrap the meat in foil and throw it in the oven for 10-12 hours.  I decided to give this a shot.  I also broke out my new I-Grill which is fcking awesome for anyone who loves data.

Being the condiment lover I am I love coming across a condiment that i can aply to a food that wouldnt otherwise require a condiment. Hot oil is one of these condiments. I find myself getting pizza for the sole purpose of consuming hot oil. Katie and I made a batch a few weeks ago and it went fast. This afternoon I found a great spice shop down on second ave and 6th street. They had a huge selection of peppers. I didn’t pick up any ghost peppers but I did grab a package of dried whole Arbol Chili peppers. Recipe and pictures below.

1 liter of olive oil
3 teaspoons of ground cayenne red pepper
1 teaspoon of red pepper flakes
2 sliced jalapeños
10 dried arbol chili peppers

Cook for 45 min.

To my chagrin Katie got me brand-spanking-new skis that are way cooler then I will every be (at least that’s what the ski bum in the shop told me). The are all mountain LINE flights with fancy Solomon bindings. They are a bit longer than what I am used to using but for the better. Turns out I needed a bit more edge under my 215lb frame.

We had a great weekend with Dr. Distler and Kathryn who were visiting for the weekend.

Featured delicious items of the weekend were pistachio crusted honey shrimp, long trail coffee porter, and BIG W’s BBQ!! I got talking to BIG W and he smoked his meat at 200 for 19 hours!! I stand by my claims that he has the best BBQ in the north east. He also had a quite innovative dish which was made up of chopped up pork and brisket ends in the form of a scrapple served over a wild rice with lime. The citrus really worked suprisingly well with the meat.

After a restless few hours of sleep I awoke at 5:30am to fire up the smoker. I got the oak logs started around 6:15 and snuck in a quick cat nap while they burned down to coals. Today we are working with a 12lb bone-in chunk of pork and a 7lb fatty brisket. I coated the two in some yellow mustard and my soon-to-be-famous rub last night after trimming the brisket a bit and removing the thick skin from the pork. In past cooks I haven’t removed the skin from the pork, I hope this new method creates some tasty bark on the outside. Both slabs went on the smoker at 7:30am at a temp around 225. I am keeping the brisket in a pan to catch the drippings while the pork is directly on the grate. I also have a water pan in there on the firebox side to balance the temperature and keep it humid.

Sauce for the pulled pork below. This was a home run!

1/2 cupapple cider vinegar
1 tbsp dark brown sugar
1/2 tsp ‘344 rub’
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
1/2 cup ketchup

Seasoned Pork and Beef:

12 Noon update:

Day one of ski season 2012/2013 went down on Sunday. I headed up to Okemo on Saturday morning. The conditions were pretty good. They had gotten 5-7 inches on the prior Thursday and the temp was around 25 degrees so they were making a ton of snow. I used my ski track app. It was pretty incredible. I love data and this thing records, graphs, and tracks everything. Stats are below along with some pictures.

Update: 12/27/12
Today while at work I was getting inundated with epic tales of how much it is snowing everywhere from Telluride to Park City to Chicago to Vermont. Okemo got 16 inches of the fresh stuff. #jealous

12/23/12
Okemo
Top Speed: 35.4
# of runs:6
Distance:7.5
Vertical:6,289
Max alt:3,310
Duration: 3hrs

Beautiful day at Okemo

Onesies are the way of the future:

Eric and OB crushing it at Steamboat

Katie’s Telluride view: