Dish Up Literacy Tonight

Come eat out at Smokin' Pete's or other participating restaurants for a good cause! Page Ahead, Washington State's leading provider of children's books and literacy programs gets over 160,000 new books into kids' hands each year.

Tonight restaurants will donate 20% of sales to Page Ahead for their annual "Dish Up Literacy" night.  At Pete's also have live music tonight by Dysfunction Junction! So whether you come for the bluegrass, or the books, it's going to be a great night.

One last extra special perk: Secret Garden Bookstore will give you a 10% discount on book purchased for Page Ahead. We will have a book drop at Pete's all week, or you can purchase books and leave them there.

Redhook Ale Sausage Fest 2010

You may have noticed I missed posting last week. Between running around getting everything ready for Sausage Fest, starting a new co-op pre-school, which had some 3-hour thing I needed to do almost every day, and attending a 4-hour writing workshop (yay!), I never caught my breath.

Then the weekend hit. Besides preparing "bites" for 2000 at an outdoor beer, meat, and music festival on the Redhook Ale Brewery grounds, we also had a wedding for over 200 the next day, another catering, and a ton of large pick up orders for the big football weekend.

Poor Eric. Friday night I saw him between the hours of 2:45 am 5:45am, the time he went to bed, and the time he got up to go back to work. I know of no other person than my husband that can time hundreds of pounds of meat for multiple functions with a demeanor so calm, he makes others nervous. You see, he is most comfortable in the eye of chaos. Give him a 12-item menu for a complicated wedding, and he's fine. Throw in a hail storm and 30 mph winds and he's downright chipper.

For Sausagefest we decided to make pulled pork sliders, chopped jerk beef sliders, and MOINK balls (Me: What do think of this menu, honey? Him: Whatever. You're going to do it no matter what I say). The festival expected 2000 guests minimum, so each of the 11 vendors were instructed to provide 2000 tastes of each item.

I do a lot of catering math, so I knew that it wasn't possible for one person to eat one of each menu item from 11 vendors. Most vendors served 3 items, so 33 times 2-4 oz of meat per person would be about 6 pounds of meat per person.

Still, I knew the MOINK balls, a steal at only a buck each, were going to fly out the tent. We soon learned just how much labor it takes to make 2000 bacon-wrapped meatballs. I'm glad we did, because we sold at least 1500 of them in about 6 hours.

I was on the ball station for a long stretch. It was relentless. All day I heard, "Double ball! Combo with a ball! Pork slider with a ball! Nine meatballs!" I kept trying to find a bottle of water, but the ball orders wouldn't stop. We traded food with the great folks at Salumi, and I only had time to eat one delicious slice of cured pork. I don't know what happened to the other plates they sent over, but hope someone on our staff was able to eat it.

Molly Moon's Ice cream was right next door. I'd had visions of trading tastes with them throughout the day. We both had lines 30 people deep that didn't let up for 4 hours or more. At one point I couldn't hear the orders anymore. I'd repeat it, then the order would float away from my brain.

That's when I begged some icecream from the two people scooping like machines in their spiffy ice cream truck. We traded protein for dairy and that little bit of maple-bacon ice cream I savored in a 2-minute break, saved me. Yep, I can say I've been saved by Molly Moon's ice cream, gosh bless 'em.

It was intense, a blast, and I saw a number of friends there. I didn't get to roam, like I'd hoped, but as you can see, we took our new smoker on her maiden voyage, and she smoked like a champ. I'm already booking caterings with her, so she's off and running.

Pre-school is settling down, as is the summer, so I hope to post more frequently. Fall is my favorite season. Creative juices flow more readily, and the rainy months in our little corner of the country beg for blog posts about stews, smoked turkey, and squash on the grill.

It's also time to take a long, deep breath. Did you breath deeply just now? Good. So did I.

Recipe: Smoked Meatloaf (Not your mama's)

The other day I whipped together dinner using a little of this and a little of that in the refrigerator. I was happy to use up odd bits that were still good, but on their way out.

My four-year old took one bite and spit it out. "Blech!"

I took a taste and though it was edible, I kinda had to agree with him. That night my facebook status update read, "It was not my best work. More cleaning out the fridge than cooking, really."

That inspired me to create something really good using what I had on hand in the refrigerator. I had 2 carrots, 3 mushrooms, 2 stalks of celery, half an onion, a hard end of bread, half a package of bacon, and some ground beef in the freezer. All I needed was some pork sausage and I had everything I needed for meatloaf.

Not your mama's meatloaf

At least not my mama's.

My mom basically added a few dried herbs and an egg to a hunk of ground beef, shaped it into a loaf, poured over a bottle of ketchup and cooked until well done. I was programmed to think I hated meatloaf, until one day while babysitting when I was about 14. Before leaving, the mother of the child I was sitting pulled out a meatloaf and gave me reheating instructions for dinner.

I looked at it with suspicion, but heated it in the microwave like she said. I cut off a slice and to my surprise, it had cheese and salami in the middle of it. What's more, the red sauce on it wasn't ketchup, it was a delicious marinara.

Ever since that day I learned that meatloaf can be a place of creativity and self expression....and no place for ketchup.

This meatloaf is smoked, and really, once you cook meatloaf on the grill, I swear you won't cook it in the oven again. I won't. This is based on my recipe in She-Smoke (Not Your Mama's Meatloaf, pg. 164), but of course I changed it to use what I had on hand, which is what we do when we are cooking. We use the ingredients in the larder and only buy what we absolutely have to. I encourage you to do the same with this recipe.

Ingredients
1 cup bread crumbs
1/4 cup milk
4-6 slices bacon
1/4 cup olive oil
1/2 large onion, diced
1 carrot, finely diced
3-4 large mushrooms, finely diced
2 stalks celery, sliced thin and down the middle
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon kosher salt
2 teaspoons pepper
2 pounds ground all-natural beef, 90/10

1 pound pork sausage (ground, not in casings)
1/2 cup salsa (I used up the tomatillo salsa in my fridge. Any salsa will do)

2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
2 teaspoons dried basil or finely chopped fresh basil (or herbs of your choice)
2 teaspoon ground dried sage
2 eggs

Step-by-Step
1. Cook bacon on low until brown but not crispy. Set aside. Pour out half the fat, but leave the pan nicely coated.

2. Add olive oil and saute onion until almost clear. Add carrots, mushrooms, celery, garlic salt and pepper. Cook until beginning to soften.

3. Chop bacon and add to vegetable mixture. Set aside and make a fire in charcoal grill, smoker, or gas grill. Once hot, get your smoke on with wood chunks or chips. Target temperature should be 225-250 degrees.

4. While fire is getting hot, gently mix the ground beef and pork sausage. Add the bacon-veg mixture. Whip egg, herbs and Worcestershire sauce together and pour over meat. Gently mix until ingredients are incorporated.

5. Shape into 3-4 small loaves. Place on a cookie cooling rack, perpendicular to bars.

6. Place entire rack with loaves on an indirect grill with a drip pan underneath. Smoke meatloaves for 2 hours, or until internal temperature reaches 160. For a faster cook, 300 degrees at 1.5 hours.

7. Cool for 10 minutes and slide loaves off racks onto plate. Cool another 10 minutes before slicing. (I've found that if they cool too much, they start to stick on the racks. 10 minutes is still warm enough to slide, but they'll still need a little setting time before you eat).
Incidentally, I made four small loaves and gave two to a friend who had twins only a month ago. She said it was the best they'd ever had. Of course, she's sleep deprived and probably living off cereal and church casseroles, but it was still nice to hear.

Our New Rig

For years I've wanted a mobile smoker for our catering. We have big grill, but our smokers are hard wired into the restaurant. Mobile smokers can be pricey, but in the Northwest they are also pretty rare. This isn't Texas. There isn't someone on every corner selling last year's model. It's actually quite tough to find a used one and we are not really the types to buy a brand spankin' new rig. That would be too grown up. Besides, we like a little seasoning to our equipment.

But the other day, I typed in "smoker trailer" to Craigslist and this one came up. It's a custom job, a little funky, but it's a good unit. The indirect smoker section can easily fit a whole pig, plus there is a larger grill section, accessible from both sides, for direct or indirect grilling.

I love it. Eric's been cleaning it out, scraping off some rust spots, and lighting fires in it every day. I've been on kid duty all week so I haven't been able to play with it yet. We'll fire it up next week with meat before its maiden voyage at the RedHook Ale Brewery Sausage Fest on September 18. If you are in the area, come! 11 other vendors and we will be serving up meaty "bites" for a mere $1-$3. I think Molly Moon's ice cream is even doing a bacon ice cream.  Plus there will be beer and music and I think prizes. Did I mention bacon ice cream?

If I haven't found my camera by then, I'm buying one for Sausagefest. I want to get a zillion great shots of our new rig, fully loaded with butts, brisket, and other meaty bites. 

Scenes of Summer

Ah September, are you really here? I remember waaaayyyy back in April thinking about the massive amount of catering we'd have to do before it was fall again. It seemed like an insurmountable task at the time, so I only looked one week ahead at a time.

Then we got so busy I only could look ahead one week at a time. There was too much to do!

I tend to keep this blog and my work life at Smokin' Pete's a little separate. It's challenging, as they are both about barbecue, but this blog is also about the time I'm not in the restaurant. It's about cookin' in the backyard, with kids running around me, and about how I try to sneak in writing time here and there. Hopefully I share a few tips along the way to help you, or at least a story to make you laugh from time to time.

This blog is also a creative break from work for me. I can post what I want; I don't get paid for it and I blog because I like it.

But this week I have to write about work. We had a helluva summer! We did more catering than ever and sort of grew up as a business: we finally bought a catering van after years of delivering in our station wagons (or as one client called it, our "clown cars", because we fit so much in our two wagons), we have a higher caliber crew, and could rely on our staff more than in years past, and yesterday, after over a year of looking, we bought a mobile smoker!
 
I'll show you pictures of it tomorrow. First, I thought I'd share some shots of summer. Enjoy.

Smoked chicken finished off on the grill for a crowd of almost 2000.

Meat. It's what's for dinner.

One of my floral arrangements this summer. I always forget to take pictures!

Biker night at Pete's. This group drives up at least once a month.

Fixin's platter and our Sweet Potato Cornbread.

Not the prettiest pic, but hey, I'm workin' here. CB, if you're reading, note the Char-Broil hat.

We cater a lot of weddings and rehearsal dinners, more than you might think. This wedding was stunning, as was the bride. She wasn't afraid to chow down on some ribs in her dress either, bless her.

I had many visits by old and new friends this summer, including this one by Barry "CB" Martin of Char-broil, Larry "The BBQ Grail" Gaian, and his lovely wife Celeste. Larry and Celeste breezed in between a wedding rehearsal and trip to Pike's Place Market. We ate Eric's Kalbi Beef Ribs, plus a sampling of barbecue.

Smoked Salmon. We smoked these wild Sockeye with a mix of alder and cherry.

And finally, though I have loads of cute pics of my kids this summer, I am reticent to put them out here on the web. I'll instead share one of our two new furry kids. This is Saber (short for Saber tooth Tiger). She's a cuddle bug.

Hope you all had a wonderful summer and that you all remember this: barbecue is good any time of year. Especially February. Don't forget to eat ribs at Pete's in February, y'all. It will beat back the winter blues for both of us.

Recipe: Smoked Stuffed Trout with Farro & Greens

The very first night, within an hour of unloading my new Big Green Egg, I fired it up. Eric had bought some wonderful looking Rainbow Trout, and we decided to smoke-roast it on the Egg as a christening.

I'm also on a latent farro kick. Latent because back when every food blogger was bowing to the hip "new" Italian grain, I was digging in my heels, saying, "Why should I spend $8.50 on a little bag of stinkin' grain?"

I still kind of think that, but I do see what all the hub bub is about. The kernels are so...meaty. And they take on flavors so delicately. E' bellissimo, the farro. Farro, by the way, is a generic word for wheat in Italy, and they note it as farro small, medium, or large. The stuff that we get in the expensive little bag at the fancy grocery store, is a very large variety. It may actually be some variety of spelt.

Eight plus bucks for a small bag, though. Come on! This is something I'll only cook with something special, like the trout I'm about to show ya, if I'd stop yapping already.

This recipe is easy. With a Big Green Egg, you can do it blindfolded. At least after the charcoal is lit. This works perfectly well on a gas grill too, cooked indirectly.

Smoked Stuff Trout with Farro and Greens
© Julie Reinhardt

2 Rainbow trout, book cut (see below)
2 cups cooked farro
1 cup Swiss Chard, chopped fine
3 tablespoons chopped tarragon (or herb of your choice)

2/3 cup grated Parmesan

4 tablespoons melted butter

salt and pepper

Step-by-Step

1. Cook farro in salted water, set aside.

2. Book cut trout, meaning cut down one side of the bones as if filleting the fish, only don't cut all the way through. This way the fish opens flat like so:

3. Mix remaining ingredients together and stuff fish.

4. Smoke-roast at 250-300 degrees for 45 minutes to one hour. (I used plum wood because we have plum trees and other fruit trees that give us year-round free smoking wood. Use what you have on hand. Alder is nice for fish.)

What I loved about this dish, aside from the lovely smokiness of it, was that it made a whole meal! The grain, greens and fish are all in one. I made a simple heirloom tomato salad with nothing but salt on it to balance out the flavors.

I must add one note that the pictures on this post, and for the next week or so, will be sub-par. I've lost my camera. Lost it! I can only hope it's buried under something in my office and will re-surface soon, which tells you a little about the state of affairs in my office. I'm left with my phone camera, which is fine for a quick shot of the kids, because they are cute no matter what, but doesn't quite capture food well enough.

I really don't want to buy another camera. Correction, I do want to buy another camera, but can't really afford the one I want. But I digress...

Happy cooking everyone!

Baby Eggatha

I've wanted a Big Green Egg since before I had babies, and now she's finally here. Everyone, meet Eggatha. Isn't she pretty?

A huge thank you to the folks at Associated Energy Systems for making this happen. I've done a few Egg events this year, from giving one away on CBS Better Mornings Atlanta, to making MOINK balls at the Pacific NW Eggfest, to a demo with AES, and I hope to do more, especially now that I'm a card grill carrying Egghead.

In my book I call the Egg an "insulated barbecue womb", because it holds temperature so evenly. I also love its versatility. Most grill/smokers do one or the other better, but the Egg truly is both. You can make pizzas fast and furious one night, and slow cook a pork shoulder the next day.

I'll post my first recipe on the Egg next. We christened it with smoked stuffed trout. It was eggcellent. OK. I promise to get these egg puns out of my system. Really.

It's that time of year again

This is the time of year that I do two things: I make crazy lists and spreadsheets about moving off the grid and disappearing into my solar-powered bunker, and I rebel. I rebel from all the extra noise, be it on-line, like twitter or face book, the noise of the nightly news, and the noise of those little obligations that wear on you, but you really should do.

Like pay bills, and make a copy of your new insurance card for the doctor, or file things.

I rebel because while everyone has been enjoying their summer days and vacations, we have been catering in the heat, in parks, on roof tops. Every. Single. Day. Or if by chance we get a day or two break, the phone seems to ring off the hook.

I'm not complaining. In barbecueville, you take as much as you can muster in the summer months, because the winter is loooong. No matter how loyal your customers may be, people just don't eat as much barbecue in the rain as they do in the sun.

But by mid to late August, I start to lose it, just a little.

I read novels at night until 2am.

I search craigslist and the web for things I don't need.

I write poetry.

And, as you can see, I rebel from my blog. I have about 15 posts stacking up. None finished, but all pretty close. A picture here, a proofread there. I have all sorts of things to tell you about... from pictures of a friend's book launch party, to pork sliders, a smoked trout stuffed with farro recipe, a Salmon Bake I attended, new food poetry Friday posts, my new Big Green Egg....

The list is long and as soon as I get my rebel yell on, or off, I'll get right back to it.

Until then, enjoy the dog days of summer. Keep cool, read good books, and if you are so inclined, pen a few lines of poetry on an envelope from your purse.

My mom-in-law is coming in less than two days. I really should deep clean the bathroom, but The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society is calling me. Sigh. I think I'll just read a little bit first. Anyone buy that?

I wouldn't come over tomorrow if I were you. I have a feeling I'm going to be speed cleaning like a madwoman. The kind that might wind up in a solar-powered bunker if she doesn't get a little down time soon. Wish me luck.

Mother-in-Law Kalbi

I'm lucky that I get along with my mother-in-law. Politically, we are near, we both loathe Walmart, and we generally don't vote for the red team, unless by red team you mean a bottle red wine. She's sharp as a whip, and I wouldn't want to get on the wrong side of that whip.

So when she e-mailed me, "That's NOT Kalbi!!!", about my blog post a few weeks ago, I had to let my first three reactions go, and then have a talk with my husband.

"Those are the cross cut short ribs I always buy, and what is served in all the Korean restaurants here. What does she mean I have the wrong cut?"

Turns out instead of a thin cross cut of the beef ribs, her Kalbi recipe, and probably more authentic than what I get on Highway 99, has the ribs cut across only once, in half, then scored along the top. Same basic marinade, only these are the big, meaty ribs, not the thin slices of them.

Lucky for me, we have a band saw in the walk-in refrigerator (we cut our own dog bones). So honey goes to the shop and cuts me up some beef ribs just like his momma used to buy.

These meatier bones need more time marinating and some indirect time in the smoker than the thin cut short ribs.

The Marinade
Make the same marinade as the other Kalbi ribs I did a few weeks ago, but instead of overnight, marinate meat for 1-2 full days.

Combination Cooking
Make a hot hot charcoal fire and sear ribs. Keep on turning for about 5 minutes. Set aside while you make an indirect, low fire.

I used my Weber bullet smoker and used the bottom part first as a grill, then put it back together for smoke, added wood, the water pan and lowered the temperature with the vents to about 200 degrees.

Smoke ribs for about 45 minutes to an hour to tender up. This isn't slow and low barbecue - you want the ribs to stay on the rarer side, like steak, but giving them some low heat will break down some of the tough connective tissue.

The Glaze
Make a glaze and brush on liberally for the last 20 minutes of cooking time.

Heat 1 cup chicken stock and whisk in 1 tablespoon of cornstarch. Add 1 cup white sugar, 1 cup soy sauce and 1 tablespoon sesame oil. Boil down until it thickens. Makes enough for about 6 racks of beef short ribs (12 Kalbi pieces).

Serve with white rice and grilled zucchini or a fresh cucumber salad and dig in.

Visit today with Larry "BBQ Grail" and Barry "CB" from Char-Broil

Today I get to visit with three great folks at Smokin' Pete's, Larry "BBQ Grail" Gaian, his wife Celeste, and Barry "CB" Martin. I spent almost a week at Memphis in May with all of them, so this is a reunion. The four of us went out to dinner every night and ate both good and bad barbecue in the city.

Both Larry and Barry are well-known in the barbecue community. Larry runs a few websites, most notably The BBQ Grail, where he blogs, twitters and facebooks about all things barbecue. He is also the inventor of the MOINK ball, a delicious concoction I've made on this blog (and many other times).

Barry is the man behind the "CB" persona over at the Char-Broil forums, and he writes the blog and the Char-Broil newsletter. You'll also see him at big events, talkin' infrared with the masses.

I'll try to add pictures of our gathering tonight. We'll be eating barbecue at Pete's, of course!

Writer friend Holly Cupala's book trailer (and contest!)

A dear friend of mine just launched her first novel, Tell Me A Secret. I just finished reading it and what I loved about it most was that she really nailed the emotional climax of the book. That's not easy to do. As a writer, this is the one thing that I strive for most, and the one thing I struggle with the most.

I know as a reader when an author hits it. It means I'm no longer aware that I'm reading. Instead I'm in the story, rooting for the main character with banners and pom poms...and at some point I'm bawling my eyes out. A story doesn't have to be sad for me to tear up, it has to be honest. It has to connect to that emotional well that resides inside of us.

Holly reaches deep in that well in Tell Me A Secret, a story about a teenage girl dealing with a pregnancy, her family secrets about her sister's death, and finding her way and place in the labyrinth of it all.

For all the other great things about this book, you'll just have to read it yourself. And to help you get this hot little book in your hands, Holly is running a fabulous contest where you could win your very own copy. Or a cool necklace like the one in the picture. Or a Tell Me a Secret tee like the one modeled by miss Holly herself, plus tons of other cool swag.

All you have to do is watch this very cool book trailer and then share the love. Share it on Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, or some other place out there in web land. You get 5 points for each share. Tell Holly where you posted it to get entered.

Miz Cupala (rhymes with Impala) will be featured at readergirlz for the entire month of August, with a live Twitter chat coming mid month.

Later this week I'll post a recipe for the chocolate-peanut butter-bacon cupcakes I baked for Holly's book launch party. For now, go out there and enter. But first, watch this....

Wild Huckleberry Bread

Many of you know that I have a penchant for wild huckleberries. Red, blue, it doesn't matter which variety. I just want to eat them. We pick these wild, tart berries every year, up on some property near Index, WA. You may have read my last year's post called Huckleberry Sweet and Sorrow Tart.

This year was an excellent crop. Just the right amount of sun and rain made them plump and perfect. What didn't go into the kid's mouths, went into to our bucket. Oh, how we could have plundered without the babes! Then again, I'd have missed baby girl's exclamation at every single berry, "Bewwy!", and her chubby little hands stuffing handfuls into her sweet cheeks. 

We promised Eric's mom some berry something when she visits in August. Let me tell you, the stock is dwindling. She may just get a few frozen berries on yogurt for breakfast.

I coralled my son the day after berry pickin' to help me make this bread. I used a recipe in the Joy of Cooking for a baseline of ratios, but made it up as we went along. We ate the entire loaf throughout the day. I think my husband got one slice. Maybe.

Wild Huckleberry Bread

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease an 8 1/2 X 4 1/2 loaf pan.

Whisk together:
1 & 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt

In a large bowl, beat on high:
6 tablespoons butter
2/3 cup sugar

Gradually beat in:
2 large eggs
1/2 cup milk
3 T maple syrup

Add the flour mixture in three parts, beating on low or handmixing until just combined. Fold in 1 cup of wild huckleberries. (You may substitute 1/2 cup of dried berries and 1/2 cup chopped pecans).

Bake 45 minutes. Let cool for 5 to 10 minutes before unmolding from pan to further cool before slicing. Dust with powdered sugar.

Our smoker, our oven

I'm embarrassed to admit this. Back in April, in April, our oven elements at home went out. I tried out the self-cleaning function on the oven, and apparently four years of grime was too much for the thing, so it quit.

It was right before the book tour, and then I went to Memphis, and then catering season hit three seconds after I landed (while I'm admitting embarrassing things: suitcase still not entirely unpacked).

I also checked and they don't carry the elements at Home Depot or Lowe's. All appliance parts live in a place called Tukwila. If you are in the Seattle area, that is. There is an actual town, south of Seattle, that hoards appliance parts and to get them you have to go there. Yeah right.

We haven't missed it much. Eric is the king of the one pan meal, and we have a bevvy of grills and smokers in the back yard. The two things I miss, though, are frittatas and baked goods, if "baked goods" can really be counted as one thing. Two categories then. Fluffy egg dishes and yummy baked things.

But guess what? I don't have to miss a thing. I can do it all on the grill (and so can you).

Today, I did both. Well, I kind of cheated on the baked goods category. I baked Pillsbury dough ready-made cinnamon rolls, which were yum, and besides it was work-related. Yeah. Sorry about your cubicle.

I'm doing an all-day demo at the Big Green Egg dealership in Kent on Tuesday, and needed to time my breakfast choices. I'm going to do the egg dish from scratch, but needed something easier than pie for the second item. Everyone loves a cinnamon roll, so I figure no one will bust me on the store-bought with a mouthful of buttery icing.

Both dishes were so easy and were enhanced by the imparted charcoal flavor that I must share them with you. The first is a Southwest Frittata with Yukon Gold Potato Crust.

I baked on my Weber Smokey Mountain (I don't have an Egg...yet, but it's coming). It maintains heat really nicely, but it likes 250 degrees. I can get it higher, but it takes management, and I had both kids solo today.

Both recipes are timed for this lower heat. If you have a smoker/grill that can maintain 325-350 degrees easily, halve the times. Of course you can do both recipes in the oven, but that's missing the point.

Southwest Frittatta with Yukon Gold Crust

Ingredients*
3 Yukon Gold potatoes
salt to taste
3/4 lb sausage
2-3 T vegetable oil
8 eggs
2 T milk
4 oz grated cheddar or Colby
2 T diced green chilies
1 T diced jalapenos
4 T enchilada sauce
4-6 slices Oaxaca cheese (or other mild, slightly creamy cheese. I like the Oaxaca because it gets nice and smoky, but it's somewhat pricey and not always available)

*A note about the ingredients. I get annoyed by recipes that have you buying all sorts of ingredients where you only use a tiny bit. Just. Like. This. One. The green chilies and jalapenos do freeze well. Buy the smallest jars, or skip one of them. The enchilada sauce is nice for color and flavor, but is optional. Use what you have in the fridge and pantry! Substitute freely!

Step-by-Step
1) Cook potatoes until just done, but still firm. Cool for 1 hour.

2) Cook sausage and drain on paper towels.

3) Slice potatoes in about 1/4 inch slices and fry until just starting to brown in pan. (Remember: Hot Pan, Cold Oil. Don't add the oil until the pan is hot, then add the potatoes. This way they won't stick or get saturated with oil). Salt lightly, if at all. The sausage and cheese will add salt to the dish as well. Set aside.

4) Get coals hot and, when ashed over, spread evenly in charcoal smoker (or in half of a grill so you have an indirect cooking space). I used a water pan and think it helps keep the eggs from drying out.

5) Whisk together 8 eggs, milk, cheese, sausage, green chilies, and jalapenos (sauteed onions and garlic are also nice with this recipe. I was just out. Saute them with the sausage).

6) Place potatoes in an oiled pan that you don't mind getting a bit sooty. A 10-inch pie pan works well. Cut some potato slices in half so the "crust" goes up the sides of the pan.

7) Pour the egg mixture in the pan and place on grill.

8) Bake for 30-40 minutes. Add slices of Oaxaca cheese in a sun pattern, and alternate stripes of enchilada sauce. Bake for another 20-30 minutes until center doesn't wiggle.

9) This is important: Let cool for at least 10-15 minutes.  Cut around edges with a dinner knife.

10: Getting it out of the pan: Place one plate over it and flip. If you oiled the pan well and let the frittata cool enough, it should fall out. Don't worry if some of it doesn't. Scrape any remains and pat back into frittata. Place another plate on top and flip over again. Now the pretty part will show and most mistakes will be hidden. Slice and serve.

Cheater Baked Good Recipe on the Smoker
1) Open a can of ready made cinnamon roll dough.
2) Place in oiled pan as directed.
3) Bake in smoker at 250 degrees for 1 hour, icing it in the last 10 minutes. If you bake at the directed 325-350 degrees, follow time on can.

Eat 'em up. Hopefully you ripped the calorie/fat content part off the wrapper when opening.
You don't wanna know.

NW Barbecue: It's Salmon Bake Time

We went to the Seafair Pow Wow last weekend at Discovery Park in Seattle. I've been wanting to go to this Pow Wow for years to see the traditional dancing, and because they do a salmon bake. To those of you on the east coast, this is our answer to the clambake.

I have a particular interest in traditional salmon cooking, as you may have read in my book. I go into detail on how to create your own stakes and pit for a traditional Coast Salish preparation. We have a touristy, but authentic enough place called Tillicum Village that prepares salmon on stakes as you can see in the photo here. The salmon cooks indirectly around an alder fire.

Making stakes like these is quite easy, and a great way to cook fish at the beach or camping.

The Browns Point Salmon Bake is August 7 & 8, and if you are in the area I encourage you to go. They only host it every other year and it's the largest one in the area. It has a rich history, and one that I have a personal connection to. My uncle slow-cooked salmon in a large pit each year, along with potatoes and corn. He wrapped the salmon in seaweed the kids gathered before the bake. Turns out he learned the technique from the same Native American that started the Browns Point bake. At Browns Point, they cook the salmon on cedar stakes over a pit almost identical to the pit we saw at the Pow Wow this weekend.

The Seafair Pow Wow pit was made of cinderblocks, but instead of cedar stakes, they used modern technology and cooked the fish in mesh cages. They cooked the fish on one rack, then put another on top to turn. This made it easy to flip, with minimal lost of fish in the fire. The Pow Wow itself struck me as a joyful celebration that embraced modernity easily alongside tradition. The MC cracked jokes throughout, saying things like,

            "OK, folks, we just have to wait a second while some duct tape is applied. Duct tape being one of the necessities of traditional Navajo dancing."

It was a fun, albiet hot day (for a Northwesterner). For those of you interested in learning to cook salmon this way, or on stakes, here are a few tips.

1) Cook fish meat side to the fire first.

2) If you are cooking it on stakes, leaning toward the fire, then have the head end, the fleshier end, down, closest to the fire. This way the tail end, or tip, won't get overcooked.
3) Flip it when it is almost done. Leave it skin side to the fire for only a few minutes. Too long and the meat may fall off the skin.

Tips 1 & 2 apply if you are grilling a fish directly, too. Fish baskets are great for the more delicate varieties. I find salmon is a pretty grill-hearty fish, but if you are nervous about it, don't hesitate to use the tools available.


For much greater detail, turn to Chapter 10 in my book, or e-mail me with questions!

Back to some grillin': Kalbi Short Ribs

OK, break's over. Let's get back to some food on this barbecue blog. You may have noticed I haven't posted a recipe for awhile. June and July are our busiest catering months at Smokin' Pete's BBQ, and I'm lucky to have two matching clean socks, let alone cook something worth photographing at home.

This post ain't barbecue, it's grillin', but it sure is tasty. Korean-style short ribs are one of the quickest meals you can throw on a grill. Marinate them in the morning, throw on some rice when you get home, and sizzle these ribs on a hot hot grill.

I usually use a charcoal grill, but this time I tried out my Char-broil Quantum infrared grill. I wanted to see if the infrared grill could really get hot enough for this recipe, because I find regular gas grills don't.

Kalbi Marinade

Make a simple marinade of equal parts soy sauce, rice wine vinegar and brown sugar. Add chopped fresh ginger. Green onion is nice if you have it (I didn't this time). Chili flakes and black pepper will add some heat (I made mine mild for the kids, but I normally like a little kick of chili). Submerge ribs in marinade for 4-8 hours before grilling. Shake off excess marinade before you put them on the heat.

The Grill
Be it gas or charcoal, you want a hot fire for these babies. They are going to cook fast, and you want to sear the outside, pull them off rare on the inside, and let them finish to medium rare while they rest. Leave some indirect space on your grill in case things get too hot or flare up. I rarely have flare-ups, but I once nearly started a back yard fire while grilling short ribs.

On the infrared grill, I prepped the grill grates with a swipe of an oiled rag before turning it on. I find my infrared needs more seasoning than a standard gas grill. I then preheated both burners on high for a full 15 minutes with the lid down.

The Meat
Throw down the ribs for a quick 1-2 minutes per side. As soon as they are marked, basically it is time to turn or take them off.

Green on the grill
While they rest, grill some bok choy you have marinated in canola oil, rice wine vinegar, and a touch of soy sauce. Grill the bok choy on medium heat or indirectly, so the leaves steam without burning. Serve with jasmine rice.

I thought the infrared grill did better than a standard gas grill. While they weren't as reddish pink in the middle as I'm used to, the ribs were as tender as the rarer ribs I get on charcoal. I missed the layer of charcoal flavor to the meat, but that's the trade off when you are going for the ease of gas.