Beef and Veggie Stir Fry over rice

Jul 18 2014

I had my dry brined eye of round for the beef in this dish. I sliced off three slices and cut in strips and then in half. A half hour before cooking I added some soy sauce, diced onions and dried garlic flakes to the beef to marinate for a while. I had rice with some dried onion and garlic flakes, salt and pepper in my rice cooker to be ready.

My veggies were some carrots sliced, snap peas from a friend’s garden, green beans, baking powder slurry and some diced green onions and celery. My seasonings were pretty simple seasoned stir fry oil, soy sauce and some dried garlic flakes. Most stir fries will have a little ginger but I am not a ginger lover so usually don’t use it.

This was the second time using my new wok and I haven’t used my outdoor burner with a wok lately. I started out with it too hot and was glad I had some beer to add to cool it down some until I got it adjusted.

I started with the marinated beef, and only did about a minute and removed it. I added a little oil and then the carrots, green beans, celery and green onions. I stirred a little and then put a lid on to steam them a few minutes. I then added the snap peas and stirred a couple of minutes; I added the beef back in and stirred a minute then added in the baking powder slurry and stirred to mix. I put the lid back on a couple of minutes and it was ready to serve.

We all loved it served over the rice and the grandson ate a nice amount. He has his rice on the side though. The fresh snap peas from our friend’s garden were delicious and the beef was nice and tender.

Ingredients

Beef in for a minute then removed to add later

Carrots, green beans, celery and green onions added

Steamed a few minutes with lid on

Snap peas added

All in and ready to serve

My supper

Dry Brined Eye of Round

Jul 18 2014

The beef you see getting brined is mostly brisket for corned beef or pastrami.  I was looking for a recipe to brine some cheaper cuts of meat that might work on my rotisserie. I found a couple that was wet brine for eye of round. I found this one quite a few times across the net for dry brine. Since it looked like it had been tried more often I went with it. The cooking process looked like it would do better in my Traeger pellet smoker. I was used to doing eye of round high and fast and this was low and slow so hope it turns out.

I found an Angus eye of round Thursday morning, about 3 lbs. It was in a net sock, not sure why; I never had trouble with an eye of round falling apart. I got it rubbed with about 3 teaspoons of kosher salt; wrapped well in plastic wrap and in the fridge by about 8:30 am.

I then went down to our sons to help him install a picket fence. He had 4X4 treated lumber for posts and the fence was premade 4’ X 8’ panels. We had to keep the posts measured just right so took several measures for each post. We set the posts with quick-krete. We worked until 3:00 pm and did pretty well. We had 5 posts set and 2 sections of fence up. I went back down this morning and we got 2 more sections of fence up and two more posts set before noon. The son was doing all the digging; I was the supervisor!

At noon the roast had been in the fridge about 28 hours. I got the Traeger heated up on 180 deg. P4. I took the roast out and cut the net sock off and dried it well with paper towels. I seasoned it with fresh ground pepper. I heated my Lodge steel skillet on my outdoor burner and browned the roast in a little olive oil well on all sides; 3 minutes on the fat side and about 2 on the rest. I got it in the smoker about 12:15, fat side down. My Traeger was holding pretty close to 225 deg. grill level temp.

One hour in I inserted the temp probe and the roast was at 95 deg. IT. It was just a little after 2:00 when the roast hit 128 deg. IT. I shut the smoker off and turned on my manual fan to let the roast come to 135 deg. IT. It took about 10 minutes. Total time was one hour 45 minutes.  I let the roast cool about 20 minutes then wrapped in foil and in the fridge.

The kids dropped the grandson off to stay overnight while they went to Columbus for a night out. He likes veggies and rice so I planned on doing a beef and veggie stir fry over rice and would use some of the eye of round.

At 5:00 I got the roast out and cut 3 slices off for the stir fry. One slice I got a little thick, ¼ inch and thought it might be a little tough. Surprisingly it was very tender; almost as tender as sirloin. It was moist and the flavor was great for just using salt and pepper. This may be my go to method for eye of round in the future. I plan on slicing the rest up thin tomorrow for sandwiches. I will know more after re-heating for sandwiches.

Click here for recipe I adapted from

The roast

Brined, dried, seasoned and ready to smoke

Searing

One hour in

Done at 135 deg. IT

Cooling

Some slice for my stir fry

Cast Iron Gas Burner Info

Jul 16 2014

A fellow BBQ enthusiast wrote me e-mail; and asks what I had under a skillet on my gas burner in one of my posts. It is a cast iron diffuser plate. It is about ¼ inch thick. Early using cast iron cook ware on the burner I had trouble keeping the heat down and not burning stuff. I found this diffuser plate on the net and it helped; so I use it all the time.

In the first pic you can see the burner which is at least 20 yrs. old. It is about as simple a burner as they make and should last a life time. One accessory I found necessary is the venturi brush you see to clean out spider webs after not using a while. If it gets plugged you will notice it by not being able to get a nice blue flame.

The second pic shows the bottom of the diffuser plate. You can see it is recessed.

The third pic shows the plate in place.

Beer Brats, Fresh Corn and Tomatoes

Jul 15 2014

A meal I look forward to every summer is one with fresh sweet corn and fresh tomatoes. That taste you can only get when they are in season. I local produce farm, Sutters, north of here has been in business over 30 years through three generations of family. They now set up 11 produce stands in 8 area cities. I think shortly after I retired 11 years ago they started having one here In Wapak just 3 blocks from me. I signed up for their e-mail notification and I knew the 14^th would be their first day. They pick fresh daily so it is about the best corn you can buy. They open at 10:00am and some days by noon they are sold out of corn. Right now they have tomatoes from Tennessee but in a few weeks will have their own.

I took the grandson fishing this morning, with no luck, and stopped to get a half dozen ears of corn and some tomatoes for supper tonight.

Burgers or Brats are a must to have with sweet corn and tomatoes. I chose brats and had 4 chicken and 4 Cajun brats from my butcher Kah Meats. I used to fix my brats by browning on a grill and then in a beer and onion bath to simmer a while and to hold if I was having a party. After I got my Traeger smoker over 3 years ago I got to fixing them on there about an hour on smoke and then got to 350 deg. to finish. They are good that way. This time I wanted to try the beer bath again on my Weber Spirit gas grill.

I got my corn ready for a salt water soak for over an hour before cooking. I clean the corn by taking two or three outer husks off and trimming the ends then in a pot with a couple handfuls of kosher salt and cover with water. Not sure if that helps or not but it must since I have done it that way for ages!

I used the back side of my grill grates to brown the brats. The grill grates and the pan looked like they were made to fit my two burner grill. I sliced up a large Vidalia onion and in the pan with 4 good pats of butter. The grill was on the center setting and 400 deg. I put the onions on and let them simmer a while and then added two beers. I let that get warm for about 10 minutes and put a pot of water on my gas burner to heat up for the corn.

When the beer and onions were bubbling well I put the brats on for 8 minutes and then turned for another 6 minutes and then in the beer bath and added another beer. Opening and closing the lid my Weber was going from 300 to 400 deg. The brats were in the beer at least 20 minutes before I started the corn.

The corn went in rapid boiling water for 12 minutes. I had tomatoes sliced up and served all. Some of the onions and mustard went on the brats. We had butter, Penzey’s sandwich sprinkle and parmesan on the corn and Penzey’s on the tomatoes. Man did all that taste great! I had forgotten how tender and moist the brats were done in beer. You hardly notice there is a casing on it. I do like brats both ways but if you have never tried them in a beer bath you don’t know what you are missing!

Sutters corn

Ready to soak

Onions and butter on

Beer added

Brats 

Brats done on one side

Brats getting happy

Corns on

My supper

Good!

A simple light brunch today

For my brunch today I had some yellow grits topped with butter and some good bacon, a sunny side up egg and a V8 juice. tasted pretty good.

Bacon Pulled Pork Sandwich and sides

Jul 12 2014

I used the pulled pork I did yesterday and some of Sandman’s coffee bacon for a great sandwich; made some slaw and a new potato dish for the first time, salt and vinegar potatoes.

I did the bacon after lunch on my Traeger at 300 deg. It took about 40 minutes to get it nice and crispy the way I like. After I did the bacon I took a short power nap and then sliced up some cabbage for slaw.

The salt and vinegar potato recipe I found on Food52.com by melissav. It sounded good and looked like it was easy to make. It called for two pounds of gold potatoes sliced ¼ inch thick; boil them in white vinegar for 5 minutes then set off the burner for 20 minutes. I used red potatoes. Thinly slice about 2 cups red onion in a bowl, I used Vidalia onions. Drain the potatoes over the onions and set aside to marinate. Return the potatoes to the pan and coat with about 2 TBS. olive oil.

Spread the potatoes in a single layer on a cookie sheet and brown up under the broiler. It took about 6 minutes and then I turned them for another 6 minutes. Place them in a bowl and pour a dressing mixed up from ¼ cup olive oil, ¼ cup apple cider vinegar, 1 TBS. Dijon mustard, 1 TBS. capers, 1 TBS minced chives, 1 TBS capers, salt and pepper. Drain the onions and add them in stir to mix well. Let it sit at least 20 minutes for the potatoes to soak up the dressing. Serve or set aside for later use. I didn’t add the capers since I am the only one that likes them.

I made up some sauce for my sandwich with 1 TBS each of brown sugar, smoky horseradish sauce, ketchup, Dijon mustard and 4 or 5 drops of Cholula hot sauce. I wanted something a little sweet to balance the cider vinegar in the pork and I knew the potatoes would be sour.

It took a little prep but making our supper only took about 15 minutes. I toasted some buns sprayed with olive oil on my griddle and reheated the pork in the microwave. I made the sandwiches with two slices of the bacon and a generous pile of pulled pork. My wife had Kah’s BBQ sauce on hers and I had my sauce on mine. My wife ended up adding the slaw to her sandwich, she likes big ole messy sandwiches.

The potatoes were good and we both liked them but a little sour for me, may add some brown sugar to the dressing next time. For me the addition of the bacon to the sandwich just might be the ultimate pulled pork sandwich. 

Click here for link to potato salad recipe.

Bacon on the smoker

Looked so good had to show again

Cabbage for the slaw

My sauce

Potatoes in the vinegar

Roasted potatoes

Potato salad mixed and resting

My Supper

Injected Pork Butt for Sandwiches

Jul 12 2014

I had a 6 ¾ pound part of pork butt thawed to do for this week-end. For this one I wanted a little different than I usually do. I borrowed from two members of LTBBQ for it. I don’t usually inject but Smoker Junky’s injection from Steve Raichlen sounded good. I used 1 cup of organic apple cider vinegar, 1 ½ TBS ketchup, 1 TBS. coarse salt, 1 TBS Cholula hot sauce and 1 TBS. brown sugar. I injected it Thursday night, covered and in the fridge overnight.

For cooking it I would follow Old Hickory’s method of taking it to 155 deg. IT on the smoker. Then double wrap in foil, place in a roaster with 1 inch of water and cover and finish it overnight in the oven at 200 deg. F. Like Old Hickory I don’t do long cooks anymore on my smoker if I have to leave my smoker unattended for safety reasons. My smoker is on a covered wood deck close to the house. It sets on a fireproof mat and has good clearance from any wood but I want to keep a close eye on it while cooking.

Friday at noon I wet the butt some with red wine vinegar and put a good coat of rub on it and back in the fridge. My rub was a combination of Bone Suckin rub and Stubbs pork rub.

I got the butt on my Traeger on smoke mode 170 to 180 deg. for 2 hours. I had also added my 6 inch amazin tube and was using oak pellets. After 3 hours I went to 250 to 270 deg. grill level for the rest of the cook. The last hour it was up to about 290 deg. but that was fine for me. At 7:40 it was up to 156 deg. IT so I double wrapped in foil and in a covered roaster pan, with water added, in my oven at 200 deg. Total cook on the smoker was 5 hours 40 minutes.

I was up at 7:00 am and took the pork butt out of the oven at 7:40; it had been in just 12 hours. I let it sit for a half hour and then uncovered and let cool some more. It was very moist and fall apart tender. I used tongs to move it to a pan for pulling and it came out small pieces at a time. I went through it and removed bones and excess fat. I just did a rough pull and I don’t think it needs any of the juice added back in. I saved all the liquid and in the fridge. I will skim off the fat tomorrow and freeze for future use.

It tasted great, I ate enough while pulling for my breakfast! I love the flavor of the injection and will use it again when I plan on using it all for sandwiches. I will also use the oven to finish any large butts I do in the future.

I am having pulled pork sandwiches, coleslaw, and salt vinegar potatoes for our supper and will post pics later.

Injected and seasoned

Two hours of smoke

After four hours

All done

After overnight in the oven

Rough pull

Final pull