RogueChef
“It IS all about the TASTE”
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Rotisserie Chicken
It is the Labor Day weekend, and one of THE GRILLING HOLIDAYS of the year. I tend to grill and smoke the year round, but this is the last big grilling events for the season.
Most people will do burgers, hot dogs, maybe a steak, possibly a chicken breast, or in a far chance spatchcock a chicken and grill, but none of those compare to a slow roasted rotisserie chicken that has cooked in the grill and been bathed in a combination of hard wood smoke and it’s own juices.
Wikipedia says:
Rotisserie is a style of roasting where meat is skewered on a spit – a long solid rod used to hold food while it is being cooked over a fire in a fireplace or over a campfire, or roasted in an oven. This method is generally used for cooking large joints of meat or entire animals, such as pigs, turkeys, goats or historically, entire cattle. The rotation cooks the meat evenly in its own juices and allows easy access for continuous basting if desired.
Some people treat rotisserie chicken like they treat ribs and chili. A secret rub, massive preparations, all kinds of methods. This is just a bit much. As long as the skin is crispy, the meat meat moist I’m happy.
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Pork Tenderloin Medallions in a Spice Rub
I am on my way to an undisclosed location in upstate New York. Of the many activities I will engage in there the most fulfilling is to cook a new and exciting dish for the lady of Bad Wolf Manor.
I have noticed that the local no-so-mega mart has pork tenderloin on sale.
Wikipedia says:
The pork tenderloin is a cut of pork. It is often sold as prepackaged products by large grocery stores. They are available plain (not seasoned) and with a marinade.
As with all quadrupeds, the tenderloin refers to the muscle along the central spine, ventral to the lumbar vertebrae. This is the most tender part of the animal, because these muscles are used for posture, rather than locomotion.
What they don’t say is that this is the quickest cooking cut of meat in existence, I’ve grilled entire loins in 15 minutes with a 5 minute rest. There is no bone and very little fat, and it will accept flavors like a sponge. It can be brined, (a method used here many times), it can be butterflied and stuffed, it can be glazed, it can be marinated but one needs to take care not to dissolve the meat in the marinade.
The one method I’ve not done is a spice rub.. So perhaps a herb rub, and wrap with plastic wrap overnight, perhaps with a bit of olive oil to help the fat soluble flavors liberate and penetrate. Then I’ll cut to say 1″ thick medallions, lube season and grill to ~ 150F, (~ 4 – 5 minutes a side). Serve up on a bun, sauce with a mustard bbq sauce, add a bit of Asian Slaw, and perhaps some grilled aubergine or peppers or both, or maybe just treat it like a “HAM” burger and add lettuce and tomato…
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Hamburglery in the Second Degree
There are few dishes as versatile as the hamburger and it has made it’s way into trendy restaurants under the guise of gourmet food. These once noble burgers are showing up on menus pimped out with blue cheese dressing, pineapple, chilies, goat cheese, caviar, mushrooms and pesto.
The real secret to ascending above the mediocrity of the masses, and delivering a truly divine burger is the same secret as all true gourmet dishes. Fresh, Simple, Splendid.
Use the freshest ingredients, prepare them simply, for a splendid experience.
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London Broil on the Grill
It’s nice and pleasant up state, and it’s time to grill. But no hot dogs, no burgers, PLEASE!. While in the local wanna-be mega-mart, I noticed that London Broil was available for a very low price, so it does look like it’s London Broil
London Broil is not a cut of beef but rather a method of cooking. It was one of the first recipes to become popular in early restaurants and so the name London Broil because synonymous with a cut of meat.
Originally the cut was flank steak, but over the years the name has been applied to almost any cut of beef that is very lean and less tender. Hence you might find London Broil being a steak or a roast that comes from the sirloin or round sections of cattle.
The original method of the London Broil was simply a flank steak, pan fried to medium rare, cut cross grain and served. This method is perfect for a flank steak because it becomes very tough if cooked too long and by cutting it into strips you made it seemingly tender.
The method later included marinating the flank steak and then grilling or broiling it.
The marinade traditionally used for London Broil has ranged anywhere from a simple mixture of olive oil with salt and pepper to a wide collection of ingredients, basically what was close at hand.
One workable marinade for London Broil is a mixture of soy sauce, olive oil, garlic, ginger, balsamic vinegar and honey. This lens some what of an Asian flair and is very close to what is used in an number of Chinese food restaurants for stir fry beef.
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Satan on Horseback
This is a wild little appetizer from Long Island, by way of the Mekong.
Originally, oysters wrapped in bacon and grilled, were called “Angles on Horseback”, and the same preparation utilizing scallops was called “Devils on Horseback”. If one prepared this appetizer with very large tiger prawns, marinated in a spicy Cajun mixture, wrapped in bacon, dusted with a Cajun rub, and grilled, you would have a hot little number with a very rogue chef twist.
Penaeus monodon (common names include giant tiger prawn, jumbo tiger prawn, black tiger prawn, leader prawn, sugpo and grass prawn) is a marine crustacean that is widely reared for food. The natural distribution is Indo-West-Pacific, ranging from the eastern coast of Africa, the Arabian Peninsula, as far as South-east Asia, and the Sea of Japan. They are commercially farmed in the Mekong Delta and are exported globally from there.
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BBQ Black Beans
It is cooler here this weekend, and I am venturing out of my cool room to cook my first real meal in many weeks.
Since I was asked to cater a BBQ dinner party to celebrate a friends 40th, I have about 1/2 of a smoked brisket, a good quantity of BBQ sauce and I need to use them both. The brisket has been kept in a air tight container, but still has began to dry out, so a low, slow and wet cooking method is required, say like cooking beans in a slow cooker.
There are probably as many recipies of BBQ beans as there are pit masters. What defines this recipie, besides the beans, is my bourbon barbecue sauce, the smoked brisket, and coffee. Coffee adds a depth of flavor and a slight bitterness that offsets the sweet-spicy of the barbecue sauce.
For the smoked meat, I have smoked / barbecue brisket. This will add a smoky flavor from a meat that can be cooked low and slow. As for the beans, I used black beans, but you could easily use red kidney or pintos.
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Chicken Salad from Smoked Chicken
As I have said before:
So what’s so great about smoked whole chicken?
This is like the 60’s. If you can remember them, you were not there… Likewise, if you have not had smoked chicken, you just don’t know …. Imagine a roasted chicken bathed in flavorful smoke and slow cooked to the point where it melts in your mouth.
Now take that juicy, smokey, tender chicken and add fresh spring veggies and a home made mayo, put it on fresh ciabatta with a slice of raw onion, ….. (maybe a slice of jalapeño for a little rogue chef kick…)
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Smoked / Roasted Jalapeño’s
Often I call for jalapeño peppers to kick up the flavor or heat in a dish up a notch, but rarely do I have a recipe that uses them as the main ingredient. Using these, in this recipe, allows me to state, right up front, this dish is hot, this dish is NOT for the wimpy, this dish is rogue chef fare.
A lot of recipes call for bacon, and in my opinion, every thing tastes better with bacon, but there are folks who do not eat pork, or do not eat meat, that would savor the flavor of this dish, so I’ll use a bacon flavored, (not containing pork or meat), vegetable flake to add the taste and texture of bacon crumbles to this. Likewise I’ll use dairy to smooth the harsh edges of the jalapeño flavor and make it a nice even burn….
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