Video - from start to finish by Ben

This was recorded on 11/13 and basically it was two 6-7 lb butts, injected normal (see prev post) with normal rub. Temp held around 230 ish and went 16 h total then wrapped for 3-4 more hours. The smaller butt probably could have come off sooner, but it was still excellent.

Video: Making of the Pizza (with Mike)

This is the full on making crazy pizza with Mike. This was the second pizza made that night. The first was just herbs, spinach and garlic, and was out of control good. This one had more toppings than Mike had ever attempted, but the dough still held up well, and it to was insanely good.

Original post on recipe specifics

Mike Makes Pizza at 1427 from Benjamin Neely on Vimeo.

The Final Aporkalypse by Mike

Is coming!

Texas Beef Brisket by Mike

With the nice weather, the recent string of non-bbq related topics, and the Final Aporkalypse less than two months away it was time to get down to serious business and throw some meat on the smoker. This weekends project was a beef brisket and a side pork ribs just for the hell of it. I woke up Saturday morning and decided it was time to pick up a new Weber kettle grill just to be frivolous. The doinky grill that was already at my house just isn't going to cut it anymore.

Brisket
I've tried several times to smoke brisket with little to no luck as it always turned out dry. However, I saw some nice looking cuts at Earth Fair that had a nice layer of fat and also decided I'd try placing it in a shallow foil pan in an attempt to keep in the juices. On Friday afternoon I rubbed the brisket with 1 T kosher salt, 1 T ancho chili powder, 2 t cane sugar, 1 t fresh black pepper, 1 t cumin, 1/2 t onion powder, and 1/2 t garlic powder and refrigerated it in a big Ziploc bag overnight. At the same time I rubbed the rack of ribs with a mixture I had made for the Superbowl ribs. Saturday around 11 I fired up the smoker loaded with mesquite and put the brisket on at 12:30 pm. The smoker maintained pretty much dead on 215 degrees and I took the brisket off around 7:30 pm. This picture was taken around 6pm. I should have noted what the internal temp was but I got lazy.





This turned out much much better than previous attempts and I credit the properly cut brisket and the foil pan to some extent. Also, I basted with a 50/50 mixture of apple juice and bourbon about every hour.





Ribs
These didn't turn out as good as I would have liked so I'm not going to go into much detail. I tried out the Stubb's brand of charcoal I found at Lowe's and I think it burned much hotter than I anticipated. They were a wee bit overcooked and a wee bit is more than you would think :). These were cooked on the new Weber and I never bothered to check the cooking temperature. The asparagus I threw on at the last minute turned out well though.





Yum!
I mixed a standard bottled BBQ sauce with some NC style vinegar sauce and served my brisket over a slice of crusty French bread. Thanks to Marion for the amazing potato salad. I went for a subtle yet elegant garnish...can you see it?

Caldeirada: portuguese comfort food by Ben

So, following the Mike's lead here on non-bbq related things, I am posting this because 1) its one of the few things I am known for, 2) made it last night, and 3) BBQ is about to take over again, like this weekend.  I take no credit for this recipe. I learned it from Jaap Togtema's Portuguese wife when I was working in Holland, and wrote it in the back of "Zorba the Greek", and brought it here. After making it many many times, I wrote down the recipe I developed, since the original was only approximate. Also, most people I give the recipe to add something to it, such as a different fish/meat, sweet potatoes, or mushrooms, etc. though I make it like I do.

Ingredients

0.5 cup EVOO
0.5 cup White wine (I prefer a dry chardonay or pinot grigio)
lotsa garlic (i try to have around a table spoon of minced but the more the merrier)
1 medium/large onion (white, yellow, or vidalia work)
tomato (normally one but you can take out or add more based on desired final consitency)
3 bell peppers (I do 2 orange and 1 yellow but you can vary this as well)
bay leaves (equal to # of fish or chicken breast)
~1 lb meat (normally fish but can be chicken also)
smidgin of curry
salt and pepper
potato (yukon golds are my favorite but anything works, including sweet potato apparently)

In a decent size pot (like you would cook chili in) add EVOO, wine, garlic, onion (cut in half and slice), tomato (wedges), sliced bell peppers, bay leaves and curry. Mix. Salt and pepper this mixture to taste. Add fish or chicken cut in small (1 inch) cubes and stir. Thinly slice potato (the thickness will determine cooking time) slices and lay in a single layer on top of mixture. Bring to boil on medium heat then cover and heat at medium or medium low for 20 min. Check potato layer doneness, if not done, check meat. if meat is done and potatoes aren't, stir potatoes under and continue to cook. Normally I just stir under after 20 min and then cook for 10 more minutes. Serve in bowl. Will make enough for 3-4.

Top is after add potatoes, and the bottom is once it is done cooking.

Additional comments: If using fish, smaller pieces may be more prone to disintegrating when boiled so take into consideration. Also, if you want to increase recipe, just increase all accordingly, don't worry about having relatively less potatoes. You might have to cook longer as it takes longer to get to temperature.

Whole Wheat Sourdough Pizza by Mike

For my first contribution to Charleston Pig I figured I'd chronicle my attempt at making super thin whole wheat sourdough pizza. Not only is there no pig, but there's no meat or grill involved whatsoever. So....here's a picture of a porterhouse and a bison sirloin marinating next to a beer and a bottle of olive oil just to sort of tie it all together...or not.

The Sauce
I started Saturday afternoon making the sauce since I like to give it a day for the flavors to do whatever they do. I opened a 28 oz can of San Marzano whole tomatoes and went through a ridiculously tedious process to strain out the seeds and remove the bitter excess liquid. After that I just used an immersion blender to crush the whole tomatoes until there are no large solid pieces left but still had some texture too it. To this I just added a pinch of dried oregano, a pinch of sea salt, a pinch of sugar, and a pinch of red pepper flakes. I mean just a pinch because I like to taste the tomatoes. That's it, no cooking, just let it sit in the refrigerator over night.

The Dough

• 3 1/2 cups whole wheat bread flour
• 5 1/4 t wheat gluten
• 1 T olive oil
• 3/4 t dry yeast
• 1/3 cup sourdough starter
• 1 1/2 t honey
• 1 t sea salt
• 3/4 cup room temp water

After finishing the sauce I started on the dough. I took a dough recipe from some pizza dork website and wanted to alter it a little to use my sourdough starter and then substituted honey for the original sugar. First I sifted the flour and gluten in order to lighten up the whole wheat flour, supposedly this will keep it from being too dense. Next I mixed the water, oil, dry yeast, salt and honey in the mixer until it was thoroughly mixed. I then put the dough hook on and added the sourdough starter and started mixing on low while gradually adding the flour. The original recipe said to only mix until it forms a ball....this took about 3-4 minutes. I let it sit for a few minutes in a lightly oiled bowl and then covered in plastic wrap and put it in the refrigerator overnight. It is suggested you let it rise in there for 24 hours. Here's an exciting picture of a dough ball.

The Pizza

Sunday evening I pulled the dough out and let it come to room temp while the oven heated up to 500 degrees. I tossed some flour on the counter and started to roll out the dough trying to get it as thin as I possibly could. I could have gone thinner but it was evident that I wouldn't be able to easily get the dough on the pizza peel so I stopped before I screwed up 24 hours of preparation. after getting it on the peel and pinching the rim up in an attempt to create a lip I used a chop stick to put a bunch of little holes in the dough. This keeps big bubbles from forming. Typically there is a tool called a docker to do this but I found the chopsticks to work just fine.

Finally I put the sauce, fresh mozzarella, Parmesan cheese, kalamata olives, roasted red peppers, and artichoke hearts on the dough and tossed it in the 500 degree oven on a pizza stone. after 7 minutes I took it out an threw on some fresh basil leaves and put it back in for 5 minutes. I was satisfied with the results. I think I would double the honey to a tablespoon and maybe cook it on a pan so I could brush it with olive oil to give the crust more flavor. It was a bit on the bland side but had good texture.

The End
I promise the next installment will have pigs on smokers.

Marion done made some sour bread

 

It was an adventure, and I am sure that the other bread dork on this blog will post some of his experience too, but basically we used a starter from wild-yeast and greek yogurt, and once it was groovy, used the recipe on williams and sonomas website, except we did use wheat flour with wheat germ.