WEEKEND ON THE GRILL: Asian Inspired Marinated Beef

Sometimes, I get in a rut on the barbecue...steaks, chops, hot dogs, burgers, chicken...and just want to break out and do something different. Lately, we've been watching some travel shows and drooling over the food shown from Thailand, Vietnam, China, and Japan. I want to make something more like that.

A few weeks ago, we had a cheap, easy version of a teriyaki bowl featuring Trader Joe's Korean inspired Bool Kogi. Today, we're doing it from scratch.

I've put together a very tasty marinade and am letting my skirt steak soak in it overnight, then will grill it up and see how good we can get it.

First, the ingredients:

Marinade:
1/4 cup - Worcestershire sauce
1/4 cup - low sodium soy sauce
3 teaspoons - honey
1 tablespoon - olive oil
1 teaspoon - Chinese five-spice powder
1 teaspoon - mince garlic

Plus:
2 lbs - skirt steak
3 - sliced green onions

Mix the ingredients for the marinade, put steak in sealable bowl or plastic bag. Pour marinade in to soak and refrigerate overnight.  Cook on grill, 3 minutes per side over direct head and 5 minutes per side over indirect heat, covered.

On the side, I'm making grilled corn on the cob, elote style. I've steamed some corn, cut each cob in half, and then cook over direct coals, 5 minutes per side. Apply some mayonnaise and parmesan cheese before serving.

In addition, I'm cooking some zucchini in foil and grilling pineapple slices...5 minutes per side direct heat...putting a few mandarin orange slices and serving all up on a bowl over rice.

Add the green onion over the top after you've put it all in a bowl.

The leftovers also make a superior steak 'n eggs omelet for the next day's breakfast.

This week's gardening:
Picking weeds out of the lawn, deadheading the roses for the last time in the season, spraying deer repellent on the front yard bushes.

Stop by the Musick Channel Garage Sale to pick up some treasures from our stash of over thirty years of collecting, like these great Liberty Falls collectibles which would look great under your Christmas tree.

Darryl Musick
Copyright 2018 - All Rights Reserved

DINNER: Grilled Chicken in a Shitake Cream Sauce

You've got your basic four barnyard meats...beef, pork, and chicken. Oh sure, you might mix it up with a duck or some lamb.  Maybe some sausages or even fish but for the most part, you're going with the big three.

It's imperative to mix it up as much as you can, try something different, to build your recipe database and to not get bored.

This is what I did with this week's meal..we'd had steak last week and only had a pack of chicken thighs along with the beef in the freezer so I needed a new way to prepare the chicken.

Of course, the easiest way to change it up is with a new sauce...

INGREDIENTS


3 or 4 chicken thighs (we leave the skin on)
1 small, white onion
8 whole shitake mushrooms
1 teaspoon minced garlic
1/4 teaspoon tarragon
1 tablespoon strained bacon grease or lard
1/2 cup chicken broth
1/4 cup half and half
salt and pepper to taste


The chicken is grilled on the barbecue according to our barbecued chicken recipe. When done, we just pour the sauce on top.


Finely dice the onion and two of the mushrooms. I use a small food processor for this.


Heat up the bacon grease (or lard) in a small sauce pan.  When hot, add the diced onion and mushroom mixture.  Cook on high until the onions are translucent.

Slice the remaining mushrooms. Add them and the chicken broth to the sauce pan and bring to a boil.

Add garlic and tarragon. Reduce heat to low and simmer 15- 20 minutes to reduce.

Turn heat off. Two minutes after turning off heat, add half and half, stir in, and ladle over chicken to serve. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Darryl Musick

Copyright 2016 - All Rights Reserved

An Amalgamation of Classics

Sometimes, in my kitchen or even the bar, I'm kind of like a Dr. Frankenstein...mixing different things together to get a hybrid result. Or would that be Dr. Moreau, crossing different species to rush along evolution? Anyway, this dish...very suitable for a sunny, summer day barbecue...is one of those creations

Go to Minnesota and you need to try a Juicy Lucy (or 'Jucy', depending on where you get it). This burger is a specialty here where the cheese is put inside the meat patty before cooking.

Here in Southern California, there's another local chain that has made its mark with the 50~50 burger. This burger features a patty that is half ground beef and half bacon.

Here at the Sunday Sauce blog, we figure why decide between one or the other? We'll make both, hence the 50~50 Juicy Lucy.

INGREDIENTS

1 lb ground beef
1 lb ground pork
2 strips cooked bacon, cut into thirds
1/2 teaspoon Kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1/2 teaspoon Slap ya' Mama
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1 egg
1/2 cup shredded cheese
6 slices of colby jack (or your favorite) cheese

Mix all the ingredients in a bowl (except for the bacon and cheese), cover and let chill in the refrigerator for at least an hour.

I cover a large cutting board with wax paper and do the same with a handy plastic bowl.  Years ago, my cousins gave me a burger press, one of the handiest gadgets I own.  I'll be using that to press out the patties.

I'm doing double burgers with two quarter pound patties.  I put about an eighth of a pound down on the wax-paper covered cutting board and sprinkle a bit of the shredded cheese on it. Another same-size bit of meat goes on top.

I press down with my press as hard as I can. Some meat will squeeze out the bottom. I lift up, put that meat back in the middle and press again.

This is the patty I get as a result.  With my fingers, I press gently all around the patty to spread it out a bit.  I like to have a finished patty that's about an inch wider in diameter than my bun because it will shrink that much in cooking. That way, I'll have perfectly sized patties for the bun.

Put the finished patties on wax paper in the plastic bowl. I'm doing six patties for three double burgers. In the end, I think maybe one patty for each one would have been plenty but make as much or little as you'd like.

Cook over the coals in direct heat for two minutes per side.

Finish with 4-6 minutes on each side over indirect heat, covered, putting cheese on top for the final few minutes.

Garnish  as you would your favorite burger and enjoy. I also put some bacon on ours.


Darryl
Copyright 2016 - Darryl Musick
All Rights Reserved

This Week's Menu: Buffalo Style Chicken Thighs and Chorizo and Eggs

Chicken wings are so good but it's a lot of work for just a few bites of meat. We fix that by using thighs instead and a homemade Buffalo sauce that's easy and out-of-this-world good.

Some farmer's market dollar-a-pound squash makes a medley for the side dish and breakfast is one of our easy staples, chorizo and eggs.

Recipes are at the links below.

DINNER: Buffalo Chicken Thighs

SIDE: A summer squash medley using our basic super side barbecue vegetable recipe

BREAKFAST: Chorizo and Egg Burritos

Darryl
Copyright 2016 - Darryl Musick
All Rights Reserved

DINNER: Buffalo Style Chicken Thighs

Like wings but find the work is hardly worth it for the amount of meat you get? Then this recipe is for you.

Instead of skimpy little wings, we're substituting thighs which, in my opinion, is the tastiest part of the bird.  Other than that, it's all the same.

Here's how we do it...

INGREDIENTS
6 chicken thighs (you can do boneless but I recommend you leave the skin on)
1/2 cup Louisiana hot sauce (I'm using Frank's Red Hot)
6 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
1 tablespoon gremolata
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/4 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce

Melt the butter in a medium sauce pan. 

Add all the ingredients except the chicken. Bring to a boil, then lower to a simmer for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Set aside.

On a charcoal grill, put charcoal on one half of the grill. Sear the chicken directly over the charcoal for 1-2 minutes on each side. Move to indirect heat on the other side of the grill. Cover and cook for 10 minutes on each side.

Remove the lid and place the chicken, skin-side down, directly over the coals. Monitor very closely...when the flames kick up under the chicken, move it immediately to the indirect side or a spot over the coals where there are no flames. If you leave it over the flame, the skin will burn. 

Once the flame dies down, move the chicken back over, skin-side down.  Keep doing this for 7-10 minutes. This will make the skin extra crispy but not burned.

Toss the chicken in the sauce, covering every piece completely and serve.

Darryl
Copyright 2016 - Darryl Musick
All Rights Reserved

DINNER: Garlic Herb Barbecued Chicken

Every now and again, I try to hit the sweet spot with chicken on the barbecue. Sometimes I'm successful (like my chicken 'wings' style thighs that I need to post someday) and others not so much.

This week, I'm at the upper end of the successful range. Not quite perfect but, still, a solid entree.

When cooking chicken, I like to use thighs. They're juicier and have more flavor than breasts and have more meat than drumsticks.

I have a butcher at the Original Hollywood Farmer's Market who will even debone them for me without removing the skin...these are best of all (it's easy to find boneless/skinless thighs but most meat counters don't leave the skin on). Ask your local butcher if they'll do this for you.

INGREDIENTS

6 chicken thigs, skin on
1 Cup buttermilk
1 tablespoon garlic infused olive oil
1 teaspoon Kosher salt
1 teaspoon black pepper
3 hot red chiles (like Thai chiles)
2 tablespoons poultry rub

Put the buttermilk and chiles into a blender. In a sealable bowl, marinated the chicken in the buttermilk/chile mixture overnight.

Before cooking, drain off the marinade. Sprinkle the thighs on both sides with the salt and pepper. Apply the rub.

On a charcoal gril, cook on each side for 3 minutes each, covered.  Move to indirect heat, cook for 6-8 minutes on each side, making sure all the juices running out are clear.

Move back, skin side down, to the direct heat.  Cook for 5 minutes, watching carefully for flareups and moving to another part of the grill when they happen.  This last step will make the skin extra crispy.

Cover with foil and rest for 5-10 minutes before serving.

Darryl
Copyright 2016 - Darryl Musick
All Rights Reserved

DINNER: Smoked Tri Tip Roast

Texas has it's saucy version of barbecue, Memphis has its rubs, and Kansas City it's smoke.  All three are hard to get good versions of here in California but we do have an ace up our sleeve.

My home of the Golden State has its own style of barbecue, smoked tri tip.  

It's a part of the cow that used to be ground up, or even just thrown away sometimes, until a butcher at the Von's in Santa Maria came up with this triangular cut.  It's a bit tough to start but cooks on the Central Coast figured out that smoking it came up with a tenderizing and tasty way to serve it.

You can now find tri tip being served up in every corner of the state on weekends at fairs, farmers markets, church group fund raisers, and on almost every corner of Santa Maria.

This is a meal I reserve for special occasions. It takes quite a bit more to prepare and cook than the other recipes you'll find on this blog but it is well worth the results and you can have very good leftovers for days.

INGREDIENTS
2 or 3 tri tip roasts - minimum grade of USDA Choice, Prime if you can swing it.
1 tablespoon Kosher salt 
1 tablespoon pepper
1 tablespoon cayenne pepper
1 tablespoon paprika
1 teaspoon mustard powder
1 teaspoon onion powder
16 oz pineapple juice
16 oz orange juice
1/2 pound hardwood chips (hickory, oak, or mesquite)

PREPARATION

The day before, put the roasts in a sealable plastic bowl and fill with a 50/50 mix of orange and pineapple juice. Seal and put in the refrigerator overnight.

Put the wood chips in a bucket and fill with water, let sit overnight.

RUB

Mix the cayenne, paprika, mustard, and onion powder together.

COOKING

Drain the pineapple and orange juice into a small sauce pan. Simmer on low for about an hour. This can be used as a glaze when the meat is done.

Sprinkle the salt and pepper over all surfaces of the meat.

Apply the rub thoroughly on all surfaces of the meat.

Drain the water from the chip bucket so that you only have soaked chips left in it. In a smoker or a charcoal grill, put a ring of charcoal around the edge. Don't make a full circle but leave about a quarter of the circumference empty. It should resemble a Greek omega symbol - Ω

Put a layer of wet wood chips on top of the charcoal.

Light each end of the ring. I put about ten briquettes in a starter chimney and and then put about half of the burning charcoal on each end of the ring.  This will burn slowly around the ring but give enough of the temperature to cook (you're shooting for 250 degrees F).

The wood will also help regulate the temperature along with providing the smoke needed for flavor.

The meat all goes in the center, with no direct heat underneath them.

It's a slow process, maybe two hours for one roast and an hour for each roast you add to that. A meat thermometer will help you monitor the progress. Keep the smoker or grill covered, check once an hour or so. Remember that each time you remove the lid, you'll be adding 15 minutes to cooking time so do this sparingly.

You're looking for an internal temperature of 140 - 150 degrees F for medium rare. Once done, remove to a platter, cover with foil for 10 minutes before serving.

We like to serve it as a sandwich with my wife's homemade sourdough bread with a little jack cheese...

...or as an entry, as shown above.

Darryl
Copyright 2016 - Darryl Musick
All Rights Reserved.

This Week's Menu: 49'r Flapjacks and Barbecued Pork Belly

We were at Costco recently and came across a big package of pork belly in the meat section.  Hmm, never made anything with this precursor to bacon. Why not?  I'll see what I can do.

Today is the results of that experiment, which came out quite well in my opinion.

We're also starting the day off with a very popular dish in pancake houses across the nation.  Love 46'r flapjack, those thin but oh-so-good pancakes you get there. Don't love how much you have to pay for them, though, so I came up with a way to cook them at home where they taste just as good as the cakes you get in the restaurant but made for a fraction of the price.

This week's menu is ready to go! Recipes at the links below.

Breakfast: 49'r Flapjacks

Dinner: Barbecued Pork Belly

Darryl
Copyright 2016 - Darryl Musick
All Rights Reserved

DINNER: Barbecued Pork Belly

Who doesn't like bacon? Well, this isn't bacon but pork belly is the meat that becomes bacon after curing. We're going to cook it as a dinner entree on the barbecue.

As with a lot of dishes, cooking the meat is just a formality. The key to this dish is the sauce.

Let's see what I have in the fridge that I can use for that purpose.

Here we go, an onion, some sherry, and raspberry preserves. That should work well with pork.

INGREDIENTS
1 pound pork belly
kosher salt
pepper
worcestershire sauce
1/4 medium onion, finely chopped
1 cup raspberry preserves
1/4 cup sherry
2 tablespoons butter (or, as I did today, bacon fat if you have it available)

Put the pork belly in a sealable bowl. Lightly sprinkle with kosher salt and pepper on each side.  Splash on enough worcestershire sauce to have a fine coating on top. Seal and put in the fridge for later.

I need to find my smallest sauce pan. There it is. Holds about a pint, maybe a little more.

I had made some bacon for breakfast today, so I saved a little of the bacon fat to use in place of the butter for this. Heat up your bacon fat (or butter) in the sauce pan. When hot, put in the onions and cook until translucent (about 5 minutes).

Add the sherry and boil for 5 minutes, stirring a couple of times.

Pull out any large pieces of onion that might float up and discard.

Add the preserves and stir in. Boil 5-10 minues, stirring occasionally.  Reduce heat to low and simmer for half an hour. Take pan off of heat when done.

On a charcoal barbecue grill with coals only on one side, place the pork belly over the direct heat and cover. Cook about 4 minutes on each side.

Move pork belly over to indirect heat, cover and cook for another 8 minutes per side.  When done, remove and cover with foil. Let rest for 10 minutes.

Serve with sauce ladeled over the meat.

Darryl
Copyright 2016 - Darryl Musick
All Rights Reserved