Flambé

     I made my first flambé dish tonight. I was complimented that I did no appear nervous. I will make it again too. Easy pan roasted pork tenderloin with bourbon-soaked figs from Serious Eats. 

http://www.seriouseats.com/2015/11/pork-tenderloin-bourbon-soaked-figs-weeknight-dinner.html

Paella again

     I made paella again last night and I made it better. We (my family, my sister-in-laws family and an extra cousin for a total of 9) spent the weekend on The Sound camping. We hiked (a little, 2 year olds don't tolerate longer), went to the beach, played cards under the tarp while it rained and ate pretty well despite the campfire ban. 

     After all that I had to cook with fire so I turned to my usual paella recipie on Epicurious (http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/grilled-lobster-paella-366437). This time I added clams which opened up in about 10 minutes and spilled their tasty juice all over the dish. 

     Most importantly I held back from adding liquid during the grilling which increased the socarrat at the bottom of the pan. I also made sure keep my grill at 400°. I believe that I can make the socarrat a bit fuller if I cook a bit longer. The recipie called for a total of 40 minutes and I probably did about 45. Next time 50-55. I wish there was a way to check without disturbing the dish. Everyone agreed that it was delicious and my niece from the Midwest tried clams for the first time. Super win!

Grilled Potato Salad

Grilled Potato Salad

1 bag mixed new potatoes chopped in at least quarters

1 medium yellow onion chopped about the same size as the onions 

Olive oil

Salt

Pepper

1/4 cup mayonnaise

1/2 cup cornichons chopped

     Toss potatoes and onions with olive oil, salt and pepper. Nuke for 5 minutes. Grill in grill basket in medium direct heat tossing every 4 minutes until done, about 16 minutes. Pull off grill and allow to cool for a little while. Toss with mayo and cornichons. Serve warm. 

It is the season for Gelato!

     I made my favorite Gelato today due to a request from my co-workers. I also remembered to take pictures during the process. The recipe is here. First you can see the simple tools and ingredients.

     You take the lemons, zest one of them and juice all of them. Keep the pulp. Chop up the zest.

      Discard the seeds and the membranes. You may need to put the pulp in the food processor but just for a second or two, you don't want to loose the texture.

      Add the juice & sugar and dissolve.

      Whip up your cream a bit.

     Put all in your ice cream maker.

      I run it for 30 minutes until starting to firm up. Make sure the freezer in the machine is good and cold and has been freezing for at least 24 hours or it won't set up very well.

      Put in a shallow wide, freezer safe Tupperware. It freezes quicker if it is spread out. It usually takes a day to get really frozen.

I smoked a pork butt today

     You can can do it on your webber! I smoked a 7 pound pork butt for 6 hours loosely following this recipie (http://howtobbqright.com/pulledporkrecipe.html). I had less time than I wanted so I had to crank the temp up near the end to reach the nirvana temperature of 195° F. 

     First I injected the roast with an apple juice brine then let it sit I that juice over night. Then I used Apple wood chips at about 250° F. The little smoker box sat right on the flavor bars on one side with the heat and the roast sat naked on the grill on the other side with a drip pan under neath. I mopped with soy sauce once and drippings the other. After 4 hours of smoke I put the roast on a pan with all its drippings and sealed it. I increased the temp to 350° and let it ride till I got to 195° F. It was delicious. I would use less salt and more sugar for my taste and I would use all the time and bring it up to temp slower. The meat was mostly falling apart with the deep interior still very tender. I wish I had a picture of the end product. 

Paella

     Paella is actually pretty easy to make. There are very few exotic ingredients, a special pan but the cooking is quite easy. What is hard is making it great. I would say that less than half of the times I have made it I have achieved socarrat. Socarrat is when the rice makes a tasty crust that caramelizes the rice and makes it crunchy and sweet. Last time I added to much water during the cooking and it stayed too wet. Another time I am sure that the grill was not quite hot enough. When I was in Spain in 2012 we went to the fantastic restaurant in the Mercado de la Boqueria. We had a wonderful meal. However we had three kids and a very short attention span and had to hurry their paella. They were horrified and now I understand. Triste.
     I used Gourmet's Grilled Lobster Paella recipe but I replaced the lobster with shrimp. I think is looks great and tasted good but not great. I will do better next time. I still have lots of summer left.

Thanks Alton Brown

I love Alton Brown's simple dietary list. Well I love lists and hate the idea of diets so this looks like a great plan. He lays it down nice and simple. Not like I can follow all of it.

Daily: whole grains, green tea, fruit, nuts.

Three times a week: oily fish, tofu, yogurt, sweet potato.

Once a week: alcohol, desserts, red meat, white starch.

Never: soda, canned soup, “diet” anything, fast food.

http://lifehacker.com/simplify-your-diet-with-alton-browns-four-lists-method-1699651847