Smoked Sausage W/Fried Potatoes and Cabbage

Sept 28 2016

We went from hot summer to fall in about 2 days here in Ohio. I don’t think it got much above 60 today. Oh well the supper I had planned would taste better in cooler weather. I had smoked sausage and fried potatoes and cabbage.

A little country store about 5 miles from here had some good looking sausage that came from a farm and butcher shop just south of here. I have wanted to see if it was good.

I decided to smoke the sausage on my Traeger for an hour then brown in a skillet. I had some Dutch baby yellow potatoes to use. I cleaned and cut in half about a pound of the Dutch potatoes and cut about ¾ small head of cabbage in 1 inch squares.

I poured about 1 ½ cups of water in my Instant Pot, added a steamer basket, the cabbage and potatoes. I lightly salted it. I did them on steam mode for 10 minutes after the sausage was on the smoker for a half hour. They would be done to add to the skillet.

After the sausage was on at 190 deg. on my smoker an hour I browned them up some, about 4 minutes per side in a skillet sprayed with a little olive oil. I removed them to a plate and added a couple pats of butter and the potatoes and cabbage to the skillet to brown some. I added a little salt and fresh ground pepper. When it was getting brown I nestled the sausage back in and heated about 5 minutes.

I served it with some toasted English muffins with butter. I had some Maille mustard with my sausage. The wife and I agreed it was good, pretty good sausage and we always like fried potatoes and cabbage!

The sausage

Potatoes and cabbage in the IP

Sausage ready on the smoker

Browning the sausage

Ready to serve

My supper

Yep some good sausage

EZ Pastrami Smoked & Steamed

Sept 26 2016

Being from Ohio I never had a taste of pastrami until I was 18 and stationed at the Homestead AFB in Florida. A small deli there served pastrami on rye sandwiches and they were delicious. Then after getting married and living in Wapakoneta there was a Jewish Deli in Lima Ohio that had great pastrami on rye sandwiches, then they went out of business. My wife usually had a Rueben.

After I got my smoker and joined LTBBQ Hub had a recipe for EZ Pastrami starting with a corned beef brisket and I have made quite a few of them; it shortens up the process with good results.

I watched a lot of TV shows about NYC Deli pastrami and brisket sandwiches; like Katz the most famous I think. Those sandwiches looked delicious with melt in your mouth pastrami. I wanted to duplicate them, how do you do that if you never tasted them? Well I can imagine what they must taste like!

I read all I could about them and the secret had to be steaming after smoking. Some smoke them for 10 to 12 hours and then steam for 3 hours. I recently bought a 6 quart Instant Pot 6 in 1 electric pressure cooker. I knew I could easily steam a 3 to 4 pound brisket flat in it. I wasn’t sure how steaming under pressure would work.

I got my pastrami cold from the fridge in the steamer and set for 60 minutes. I checked after that and was surprised the IT was at 185 deg. I set it for another 35 minutes of steam the IT was at 211 deg. and after resting for 35 minutes I sliced it and made our sandwiches. I fixed my wife a Rueben with just sauerkraut and Swiss cheese on lightly toasted rye bread. I just had mine with some mustard. Our side was some Bob Even’s double cheddar pasta with Applewood smoked bacon. It’s easy and about as good as any I can make!

The pastrami was moist and very tender; as good as I could imagine would come from a NYC Deli! I think this is my go to recipe for pastrami and want to try a plain brisket this way too. Eating the sandwich there was no tug, just bite through and eat; it was that tender!

Click Here for printable recipe

The corned beef

Seasonings for the rub

Fat Cap side

Meat side

Rub applied

After 2 days in fridge ready to smoke

3 hours in

4 hours in inserted temp probe

A night in the fridge and in the steamer

Done and resting

Resting more before slicing

Slicing

Wife's Rueben

My supper

My Chicken Hot Brown

Sept 22 2016

My chicken hot brown was just a version of a KY Hot Brown using chicken instead of turkey. I thawed out some chicken breast, had some green tomatoes from my garden that ripened and had some of my butcher’s bacon. I bought some commercial sourdough bread to use.

I cooked up the bacon on my Traeger at 300 deg. grill level and was done in just under an hour.

This is a pretty easy and delicious sandwich to make. I heated a can of Rico’s cheddar cheese in a saucepan, added a Tbs. of Worcestershire, a half teaspoon of Cholula hot sauce and a teaspoon of smoked paprika. I toasted the bread and browned the chicken breast in a little olive oil. I had sliced the breast a little over ¼ inch thick.

I made up the sandwiches, open face style, a slice of toast,  chicken, sliced tomatoes, poured cheese sauce over, sprinkled some more smoked paprika over and some dried chives. I topped them with two slices of bacon. I nuked some asparagus I had left and added that and some sliced plum cherry tomatoes too. The cook opted for some more crumbled bacon on his!

That tasted pretty good, simple and easy on the cook and the dishwasher too!

Ready to make the sandwich

Bacon done on my Traeger

Making up the sandwich

My supper

Larded Pork Loin Roast, Parm Potatoes & Fried Tomatoes

Sept 20 2016

I have larded boneless pork loins a few times with great results but don’t think I ever did a bone in loin roast. I do a lot of butts for pulled pork and boneless loins but I was hungry for just a pork roast. I decide I would brine it overnight and lard it with some bacon to smoke. I had a recipe for some parmesan garlic potatoes done in an Instant Pot I wanted to try.

When I cleaned up my garden the other day I had some nice size green tomatoes I could fry for another side. They were getting ripe today but tasted good!

I had a 3.6 pound bone in loin roast that was $1 a pound. That was cheap enough but I think there was 2 pounds of bone! I brined it overnight with, 2 quarts of water, 1/3 cup of kosher salt and ¼ cup of sugar and I injected some of the brine.

I rinsed it, dried and cut about 1X1 inch slits in and inserted bacon pieces. I seasoned it with some Penzey’s Pork Chop seasoning, fresh ground pepper and some dried garlic flakes. It went in the fridge while I got my potatoes on. I got the potatoes in my IP set on “Slow Cook” high mode for 3 hours.

The roast went on my Traeger heated to 190 deg. for an hour of smoke. Then I eased the temp up over the next 1 ½ hours ending with 350 deg. grill level and IT of 155 deg. for the pork.

After I got the roast on I breaded my tomatoes, dipped in corn flour, then in an egg cream mix, then in crushed cracker crumbs. They went in the fridge about 1 ½ hours to set up before frying.

When the roast was done I tented with foil and checked the potatoes, they were not crisp like the recipe said so I put them in Sauté mode and heated the skillet to fry my tomatoes. I got the tomatoes a little too brown on the first side, had the oil & butter too hot, but the other side was good!

I served the wife and I a nice slice of the pork some potatoes and 3 slices of fried tomatoes.  It all tasted good, the pork was tender and moist with a little bacon flavor!  The potatoes turned out good but see notes in recipe.

Click Here for potato recipe

The pork loin

For the potatoes

Potatoes in the pot

For the fried tomatoes

Tomatoes breaded

Roast is done

Resting

Frying the tomatoes

My supper

Skirt Steak & Veggies over Rice

Sept 19 2016

Saturday I had taken a small skirt steak out of the freezer, just enough for a meal for the wife and me. I was glad a cooking tool came this morning, a Jaccard tenderizer. I kept putting it off even though many in here thought they were great. After Smoke, LTBBQ member, said he Jaccards all his red meat I thought time to get one. The skirt steak would be ideal to use it on. I got the original Jaccard brand.

I wanted to have some veggies and serve it all over rice. I had not used my Instant Pot to do rice so wanted to try it. I went for veggies this AM and got some asparagus, red pepper and sugar snap peas. I had some sweet onions to add too.

I prepped the veggies and added some olive oil, soy sauce, Penzey’s sandwich sprinkle and some dried garlic flakes to marinade about 45 minutes. I had some Stubbs Beef marinade for the skirt steak and it was in about 40 minutes after I had used the Jaccard on both sides. The Stubbs main ingredients are Soy, red pepper and garlic.

I heated my Weber Spirit to 400 deg. on med. heat, placed the veggies in a wire basket and on about 10 minutes before I put the skirt steak on. I did the skirt steaks about 4 minutes on the first side and flipped for another 3 minutes.  I stirred the veggies and poured a little marinade that was left over them.

I had my rice cooking in my Instant Pot, 1 cup of water, white rice rinsed in water and 2 Tbs. butter. It was done and on warm hold when I served. I let the steak set a few minutes before slicing.

The wife and I both thought it was a pretty good fast and easy meal. I added a little soy sauce to mine but she said it was fine without. The rice came out well in the IP but I like the little burnt crust my rice cooker adds for some more flavor. I didn’t have much pink in the steak so 3 -2 minutes instead of 4–3 might work better. I thought the Jaccard worked well for this cut of meat! The dog approved too!

Ingredients

Skirt steak in Stubbs beef marinade

About done on the grill

Letting the steak to rest

Rice is done

Steak sliced

My supper

Smoked Brats & Kraut W/Pierogie

Sept 17 2016

Today was a little cool and rainy all day here. I had almost a pound of kraut to use and some frozen brats from my butcher. After Pappy’s post of Pierogie on LTBBQ I had bought some Mrs. T’s loaded mashed potato pierogie. They would hit the spot with the brats and kraut. I also had some cooked down tomatoes from my garden I would add in, I like tomatoes with kraut at times.

This supper was prepared on My Traeger, my Instant Pot and CS skillet on stove top.

I smoked the brats on my Traeger at 190 deg. for an hour. I cut up some onion and garlic to add to the kraut and some onion to go with the pierogie. I heated the IP on sauté mode and as soon as it was hot I browned the brats in a little oil and butter 4 minutes then turned, added the onions & garlic and after 4 minutes deglazed with about half can of beer. I added in the sauerkraut and pulled them up some so they were not on the bottom. I poured the tomatoes over, about 1 ½ cups and some salt and pepper. I set the IP on Meat/Stew mode for 10 minutes.

I had thawed 7 of the pierogie in hot water so heated my CS skillet on med high with 3 TBS. butter and a TBS. of olive oil. I cooked them about 6 minutes on the first side until I was getting some browning then turned and after a couple of minutes added the onions and then spooned some of the butter over.

Sorry missed a shot of adding the tomatoes and the finished pot!

We both thought it was delicious. I use Frank’s Sauerkraut that comes in a plastic bag and it’s made in Freemont Ohio. My wife likes it sour so for this I just poured off the juices and didn’t rinse. I thought adding the tomatoes were good for a change. The brats were infused with the sour from the kraut.

Brats on my Traeger

The pierogie

Browning the brats some

Beer added to deglaze

Kraut added and then the tomatoes

Pierogie one side browned

Turned, onions added and ready to serve

My supper