Brazilian BBQ

I finally accomplished a task that i have been wanting to for a very very long time. For the last 4 years, i have been wanting a great way to do true blue Brazilian BBQ. It all started when the wife wanted to have a fun campfire and roast some shmellows and cookie dough. I was on a secret mission to search for some wire hangers, who has those anymore, to make the roasting sticks. After a good 20 minutes of searching, I FINALLY found some! Now the adventure begins!

Cre`me Fraiche

This little discovery goes to my wife. She came home with a carton of cream and cultured buttermilk. I smelled the buttermilk and was disgusted with the flavor and smell. She was so excited and told me that she was gonna make some homemade sour cream. I responded with a HUGE resounding NO WAY! You aint gonna make me eat anything with that nastyness of buttermilk. She laughed and said, "Well, tough. Your going to try and thats that." She was happily excited and wanted to share the excitement with me. To make a long story very short, in turn, i learned my lesson and it was the most amazing flavored sour cream i have ever ever EVER had!!! PERIOD!

Baklava

BAKLAVA! The sweet, sticky, lemony goodness. I know Christmas is right around the corner when i am in the mood for this mana from heaven.. It is not as hard as it may seem, nor does it have anything to do with grilling or bbq. But, it is my favorite treat. The next few posts ay have nothing to do with bbq. But they can be used with bbq or grilling.
Now, baklava, is not challenging or difficult, it just takes FOR FREAKIN EVER!!!! Never ever try and make the Philo dough. Its impossible, so I just buy mine at the store for $4 a pound. Make sure to thaw out the dough before you start. Thus, said, if you want a challenge, then try and make your own Philo dough. So what are we waiting for? Lets get started!

The almighty cheese

Life has many many simple and enjoyable pleasures. One of those said pleasures is the satisfaction of making your own cheese that is so elegant that it needs its own ramekin to be displayed in. It requires more energy to cook a pot of rice then it does to make fresh Flamage Blanc or what some of the traditionalists call Farmers Cheese. It is a very mild product that goes great with walnuts, grapes, apples, crackers and my absolute favorite, homemade artisan bread. The soft and creamy texture creates an amazing pairing with the crunchy crust and custardy crumb of homemade artisan breads, which i will have to post about soon. This is a BBQ and grilling site but, i think i can make an exception.

Why do we collect things

Here is a collection of my rubs and seasoning blends that i use on a regular basis. I do not use these for competitions but they are pretty dang good. My favorite one is the seasoning salt. I use this all the time as a substitute for regular table salt on vegies, burgers, fries, and salads.
This is a simple post, not alot of info but hey its all good. So here ya go my friends and fellow brethren. (Thanks to meatwave.com for photo.)

A little char and a little scruff. The making of a perfect steak

As I pulled into the drive way, I happen to notice the thermometer on the front porch was alot lower than it usually is. Tonight, it was in the low teens. A very cold and dreary night. To brighten me spirits, I had some nice new organic grass feed New York steaks and some rib-eyes thawed out to room temp. Now, from here on out, I am going to do some UN-orthadox procedures to these steaks. BUT these procedures will produce the most tastiest, juiciest, tenderest steak mankind has ever had!

Signiture rub basics

Instead of giving you my recipe for my rubs, oh wait i already did that. How bout i also give you the basics of how to build a basic rub and then add to it for your own signature championship style rub.. huh… sound good.
The hardest thing about rubs is balancing out the seasonings so that one seasoning does not over power another. Hopefully i will be able to explain how to accomplish this.

You gotta build one of these

If any of you are familiar with the popular La Caja China pig roasters, I have a friend who has spent a great amount of time designing his own. His first design used a kitchen sink for the fire box. He choose the sink method for a couple of reasons. The first, thats what he had lying around. Second, he wanted to show people that you could make a pig roaster with parts lying around the yard.  I have never used one of these before but i have seen Mr. Bobby Flay use one in a throw down.

A table for two part two

Everyone! I finally finished my kettle and UDS table. After months of planning and finding the required ingredients, it is finally finished. Some of the pieces of wood for the legs had to be spliced together using some homemade metal brackets. haha.

Wood fired pizza

Pizza is one of those strange foods that i personally do not care for one iota! I have always had problems with soggy dough,to much sauce to much this and that. As a great philospopher from the 1800's once said "“The greatest challenge to any thinker is stating the problem in a way that will allow a solution” With that new knowledge, i set out for just that... a solution!