Guest Chef Smokes His Way onto My Blog

Generally speaking I don't do guest star appearance on my blog. I figure that you read this blog for my delicious and fantastic insights into food and that if you really wanted to you could visit Paula Dean or Alton Brown on their own blogs. But every once in a great while a  little known chef comes along whose talent and skill produce fantastic food that I just can't ignore. Carl Walker, is just such a chef, who yesterday in my backyard smoked a mean set of ribs and pork steaks. Just look at the results!

First, Chef Carl creates the "smoke" by using charcoal and hickory chips.

Pork steaks and ribs have been "rubbed" and left in the fridge overnight to marinate. They cook for about two hours while savor hickory flavors the meat.

The final result is a tender piece of smoked meat topped with homemade tangy sweet sauce. So delicious!

An Open Letter to Mr. Bernard Clayton

Dear Mr. Clayton:

I am an avid user of your book "Brenard Calyton's New Complete Book of Breads". I've been pleased with the variety of breads in you book and have had success with all the recipes I've tried. However, yesterday I had a disaster with your "Lemon Walnut Bread". Your recipe calls for 1 3/4 cups of sugar however, it does not state until much later in the directions that only 1 cup of sugar goes into the batter and the remaining 3/4 C of sugar was to be used a topping. Please, for future books please make sure to note  divisions of the same ingredients with the list ingredients. Sincerely, Amber Walker

My Favorite Dish

I found this a few years ago at a rummage sale/ fund raiser at a local High School in NY.  It was in  the "high dollar" area and I offered 12 dollars. The lady running the table said she thought it was worth more but after a few moments was willing to part with it for 12 dollars.

Not only do I think it's very pretty it's been so useful. I think it's a pasta dish and I've served lots of pasta in it. My trick is to drain the pasta into a large bowl or pot and then set the pasta dish over the pot of steaming water. This keeps my pasta warm while I'm doing the last minute stuff for dinner.

I've also found this dish to be a great place to proof bread. The ceramic holds in heat. I simply turn on the oven to whatever degrees my bread will bake, place the dough in the dish sprayed with cooking spray, cover with lightly sprayed plastic wrap and dish towel and walk away.

I love this plate. Thanks haggling fund raiser lady for letting me have it for 12 bucks!

Hot Avocado Soup with Poblano

This soup's remarkable flavor grows more and more attractive with each bite. Rich, with a mildly fruity, green tang from the yellow and poblano peppers you only need a small cup to enjoy this full flavored soup. I served it with grilled burgers and it paired nicely. The flavors were just as fantastic the next day as I ate it at room temp with a side of tortilla chips. I dipped the chips right in the soup and it was just heavenly. It would make a great appetizer with chips, served warm or cold as a light summer supper or as an eye catching side dish. I topped it with shredded colby jack cheese as I couldn't locate the queso fresco at my local Wal-mart. The recipe suggested using feta as an alternative and soaking for an hour to remove the saltiness. I decided to skip the soaking and squeezing of feta cheese. Because I have a kid who hates spicy food I removed all the glands and seeds from the poblano (this removes the heat). I've included a link on seeding peppers for those of you who like it mild. If you've never seeded a hot pepper before be sure to click on the link in the recipe. You can wear latex gloves or make sure you wash your hands and cutting board after. Touching your eyes after chopping a hot pepper burns!

Hot Avocado and Poblano Pepper Soup

Serves Six

Estimated prep time: 40 minutes. Estimated cook time 1 hour.

Equipment needed: chef knife, cutting board, large pot, food processor.

Soup

2 Haas Avocados peeled, pitted and diced

3 tablespoons lime juice

1 tsp vegetable oil

1 1/2 C yellow or white onion chopped

1 yellow bell pepper, seeded and chopped

1 poblano pepper seeded and chopped

1 1/2 tbsp chopped garlic

1/2 C dry white wine

4 C chicken broth

1 tsp ground cumin

1/2 tsp chili powder

1/2 tsp pepper

Salt

6 springs of cilantro

Garnish

1 Tbsp finely diced tomato

1 Tbsp thinly sliced green onion

Crumbled queso fresco or shredded colby jack

tortilla chips for garnish.

Directions

In a med bowl put diced avocados and all but one tsp of lime juice. Mix lightly and set aside.

In a large skillet or pot ( I prefer pot) heat oil and saute onion, bell pepper, poblano and garlic until LIGHTLY browned (about five minutes) over med high heat

Add wine, reduce heat to med and scrape up browned bits and simmer until about half of the liquid is gone (about one or two minutes).

Add broth, cumin, chili powder, pepper and 2 1/4 tsp of salt. Simmer, covered for 1 hour

Puree broth mixture in food processor or blender along with reserved avocado mixture and cilantro. Thin to desired consistency with broth or water. Taste and adjust seasonings and as needed.

Add tomato, green onion and 1 tsp of lime juice in a small bow.

Serve soup hot with garnish, cheese and chips.

Easy Chinese Lemon Chicken?

The Best American Recipes 2000 says it found a recipe for Chinese Lemon Chicken that mostly eliminates the problem of spattering oil and burning honey found in the traditional recipe. I was skeptical mostly because I don't like ginger and the recipe called for 3 slices of fresh ginger but decided to risk it all and try it!

The good news! My kids loved it. They each ate an entire piece of chicken plus some of ours. The ginger/lemon combination was very subtle just giving a hint of flavor.

The not so good news. Despite the techniques listed in the recipe the honey still burned leaving a black coating on the bottom of the pan and lemon wedges making the sauce unusable for the chicken. While oil splatter wasn't horrible it was still enough to make my stove yucky. Also, I couldn't find rice wine and used rice vinegar instead. However, living in a small southern town does at times, limit what we can find.

I may try this again, however after stir frying the ginger and lemon I would cook the chicken on med heat instead of alternating between med and med high.

Chinese Lemon Chicken Serves 4-6

2 lbs chicken thighs, skin on

1 tablespoon rice wine ( i used rice wine vinegar)

1 tablespoon soy sauce

1 tablespoon honey

1 tablespoon oil

1 lemon

3 slices fresh peeled ginger

1/2 tsp salt

In med. bowl combine rice wine, honey and soy sauce, set aside. Slice 1/8 in of each end of lemon and then  halve lemon and divide each half into four wedges. Remove seeds. 

Heat large skillet and oil till hot but not smoking. Add ginger and lemon and stir fry for one-two minutes until lightly browned. transfer to a plate and set aside.

In same skillet carefully add chicken skin side down. Fry for 3-4 minutes to brown then turn over and brown other side for 3-4 minutes adjusting between med-high and med. heat. Sprinkle with salt and honey wine mixture and the lemon and ginger. Reduce to med heat, cover and simmer for 8-10 minutes, turn chicken and reduce to low heat, simmer for another 8-10 minutes until chicken is cooked.

Stir fry the lemon and ginger

Chicken was tender with subtle flavor but I found it hard not to burn the honey!

Little Potatoes, Big "MMM"

"Tasty" and "Addicting" are just two words to describe these little roasted potatoes. "Crusty Puffed Potatoes" found in The Best American Recipes 2000 are easy and delicious. A little salt and oil rubbed on small red potatoes provide just a right amount of salty crispness. The potato skins puff making it a great looking side or appetizer. And you can make them in 30 minutes so it's perfect for weekday dinners as well. The recipe calls for cooking right on the oven racks but I found my potatoes a little small for that. I simply baked them on oven proof cooking racks and they turned out great. If you're looking for a new way to serve potatoes try it!

Crusty Puffed Potatoes

serves 4

8 small red potatoes

2 teaspoons olive oil

2 teaspoons coarse salt (sea or kosher)

Preheat oven to 475 degrees. Place oven rack on middle level. Rinse potatoes,dry well with paper towels. Rub the potatoes with oil. Cut each potato in half and sprinkle the cut side with salt. Place the potatoes cut side down on cooling rack and let stand for 10 minutes so the salt can draw out some of the water. Bake potatoes directly on the oven rack (or oven proof cooling rack). Increase temperature to 500 degrees and bake until the potatoes are puffed and golden, about 5 minutes more. serve hot.

Little roasty, puffs of happiness!