My Sunday Brunch

Getting caught up now I had some of the sage sauage, pancake with egg on top and maple syrup this morning. My vegetarian daughter-in-law ate a pancake & egg with me. I couldn't get her to try the sausage! Everyone else fended for themselves. That's the way our breakfast & lunches have been going, everyone gets their own.

The sage sausage I had smoked yesterday using Smok'n Spices sage Dibby tasted great with the pancake & egg. I am not a great sage lover but this tasted different. I guess the best I can describe it is smoked paprika does not taste like sweet paprika, it has a taste of it's own. That's the way the sage is & I like it.

My Brunch

Smokin Don

Friday's Cheeseburgers

I have been in the process of making sausage over the week-end. In between other cooking I got behind in my posts. I had enough corn left frozen from last summer. It would go good with cheeseburgers so I did up some on the smoker. My son fried up the corn while I did the burgers.

I did them for 35 minutes at 300 deg. added some cheese slices, topped with the buns for a couple of minutes and served. The fried sweet corn tasted good with the burgers.

Cheeseburgers Ready to Serve

My Plate, Burger & Corn

Smokin Don

Smok'n Spice Sage Sausage

I wasn’t going to cook today, this morning the grandson helped my grind some pork for making sausage. At the last minute I decided to use one of Smokn’ Spices sage Dibby’s on some fresh sausage from my butcher.

I lit it & got the sausage on my Traeger at 4:00. I didn’t get it lit well so had to relight it at 4:10. I got it going well that time. I let the sausage cold smoke until 4:45 so I got some good sage smoke for 35 min. then fired up the smoker on smoke. At 5:00 I went to 180 deg. It was averaging 190+ deg. so let it there until the sausage was at 165 IT at 6:00.

I had started some Zatarains black beans & rice to have with it & also a chicken thigh I had done with the Mediterranean blend the day before. I could taste the spice more in the chicken warmed up & liked the sausage. In a blind taste test I don’t think I could tell you it was sage but I know I could tell it from sausage that was done without. I did like the extra flavor it gave to the sausage.

I like the RSI, reusable better than the Dibby.

Sausage Smoking

After 45 min. I Turned the Smoker on

Sausage is Done

My Plate

Smokin Don

Guy Fieri's Smokin' Potato Salad

Here is the potato salad cook I did to go along with my Smok’n Spice chicken. I did red potatoes instead of the gold the recipe calls for. They are both a waxy potato. I liked the use of smoked paprika; I use it a lot in my recipes for smoking, stews and chili. After seasoning them & adding the olive oil I did them on my Weber Q100. I did them for 5 min. on med turned 90 deg. for another 5 min. then repeated on the other side for a total of just over 20 minutes.

I also decided to grill the red onions; this would tame down the raw onion taste some. I coated them with olive oil & some of Penzey’s galangal, it is close relative of ginger, has a flavor that is similar to ginger, but more flowery and intense. I did them about 3 min. on each side.

I placed the potatoes & onions in a bowl & in the fridge to cool. After they had cooled I diced up the potatoes, onions, celery, & cilantro. I made up the dressing and mixed all together then back in the fridge until supper.

I thought I had gotten the potatoes a little beyond the brown stage! My grandson said they tasted burnt! My daughter-in-law & I liked them. I will use the recipe again but will do the potatoes on my Traeger. I won’t get the grill marks but I know I can get a nice brown on them without burning.

Link to Guy's recipe

The potatoes

Potatoes with olive oil & seasoning

Potatoes done on one side, well maybe a little over done!

Onions ready for the grill

On the grill

All diced & chopped

Dressing added

All mixed & ready to chill

Smokin Don

Smok'n Spice Mediterranean Chicken

Bentley an admistrator over at pelletheads.com, my favorite forum, received a package of a new product called Smok'n Spice from Chris at http://www.cookinpellets.com/ to try out. Since he cannot except free merchandize he ask if I would try it & test out. He knows I do a lot of different cooks & posting on the site. I was glad to try this since I was about to buy their RSI, Reusable Smoke Infusier. I received the package from Bentley Thursday & did my first cook yesterday using the product. Thanks Bentley and Chris! If you have a pellet smoker, any brand, be sure & stop in at http://pelletheads.com/ . Join us for great cooking, sharing recipes, and some fun.

Wednesday I got my Smok’n Spice stuff in the mail & was anxious to try some out. Friday I did two chickens & used the RSI full of the Mediterranean Blend pellets. Chicken probably was not the best choice, since it is always hard to get any flavors through the skin. I already had the chickens and planned on doing Friday.

Thursday evening I spatchcocked the chickens & brined overnight. Friday morning I grilled some potatoes for Smokin Potato salad, a Guy Fieri recipe. I would also have some sugar snap peas & sliced red pepper with the chickens. I got the potato salad made and rinsed the chickens & drip dried in the fridge a few hours before cook time.

I rubbed some garlic butter under the breast skin & over the chickens. I have a small sharp pickle fork I pierced the skin all over the chicken to help get some flavor past the skin. I got the RSI unit lit & chickens on at 3:30. to cold smoke about an hour & a half. I placed the chickens on the top shelf, I figured they may get better smoke coverage. I expected to see some smoke coming from the chimney of my Traeger but didn’t see any. I had to sneak a few peaks but the RSI was smoking good & chamber was full of smoke. After about 20 minutes I could see little whiffs of smoke that was coming out of the hole for the RTD wires on the left side. After ½ hour I took some pics then again at the one hour mark. At that time I was getting some pretty smoke from the chimney.

After an hour & 15 minutes I placed the chickens on the bottom shelf & turned the smoker to 300 deg. I inserted temp probes in each chicken after ½ hour at 300 deg. My grandson had baseball practice at 5:30 & I planned on getting the chicken done at 6:30.

The chickens came up evenly to 180 deg. IT at 6:30 so I turned it down to smoke mode to hold until the kids got home. When I took the chicken off I was still getting some smoke from the RSI. We actually ate about 7:00. The chicken was good, I had a leg, a thigh, & some of the breast meat. I thought it was good & had a flavor from the Med. Blend. I couldn’t distinguish the exact herb flavor; maybe Chris could jump in here & tell us what herbs are in the blend. My wife, son and daughter-in-law all thought like me; there was a flavor and was good. My daughter-in-law just ate breast meat, no skin, & said she could taste it.

I would say Chris has a pretty good product in the Smok’n Spice, I have some of each so look forward to trying them. Next week I plan on doing my Greek style BBR with the oregano pellets. The recipe is just oregano, lemon juice & zest, salt pepper and garlic. The oregano pellets should work well with it. I am not a great sage lover but have had sage sausage I like so may try the sage on some of my butchers sausage.

Link to cooking pellets & Smok'n Spice

Smok'n Spice

After 1/2 hour.

After 1 hour

Smoke from chimney at 1 hour

After moving chicken to bottom rack & firing up the Traeger

Chickens done & you can still see smoke from the RSI

My Plate

Smokin Don

Ropa Vieja, black beans, & yellow rice

It was another nice spring day, in the 60’s. I mowed grass & sat out most of the day watching the two dogs play, and sipping on a cold one. The grandson got home from school & did his homework.

For our supper I heated up the Ropa Vieja I had fixed Sunday. For my sides I fixed some Zatarains yellow rice and some black beans. This was an easy meal to prepare. I cooked the rice per instructions. I sautéed a medium onion, diced; two cloves of garlic, chopped; and a half bell pepper diced in some olive oil. When all was getting soft I added two cans of Bush’s black beans I had drained & rinsed. I tossed in a good tsp oregano & a little ground cumin, & let them heat up while I heated a skillet to fry some flour tortillas.

It was a pretty good meal, not sure my son liked the Ropa Vieja that well, he doesn’t like olives or capers & they definitely come through in this recipe. The grandson liked it all; he’s not as picky as his Dad!

The rice & beans

My Plate

Smokin Don

Smoked Ropa Vieja

Sunday morning I got my pot roast on early in my Crockpot & it would simmer all day for the wife & my supper. At 10:00 AM I put two pounds of pistachios on my smoker to do for two hours & then would start my Ropa Vieja.

Ropa Vieja, “Old Clothes” in Spanish, originated in the Canary Islands. It originally contained leftovers & sometimes potatoes & chick peas. Newer versions are just beef in a sauce. I looked at several recipes and decided on a one from Saveur.com by Kathleen Squires. All the ingredients sounded good to me & I could adapt it to doing on my Smoker. Traditionally it is done with flank steak but I would use a chuck roast.

I seasoned the chuck roast with some steak salt & garlic powder. As soon as my pistachios were done at 12:00 noon I put the roast on the smoker at 175 deg. to smoke for about an hour. While it was smoking I got the sauce started on the stove top using my Lodge cast iron chicken fryer. The recipe called for some bacon but I left it out, sautéed my onions in 2 TBS of bacon grease, added the garlic & peppers and simmered a few minutes. I added the seasonings & stirred to coat. I added the tomato paste stirred & cooked a minute. Then I added the beef broth & crushed tomatoes, stirred to mix well.I left the sauce simmer while I seared the roast.

At 12:45 I turned the smoker up to high. At 1:00 it was up to 400 deg. I turned the roast over & let sear another 5 minutes. I brought my sauce out & placed the roast in it. I turned the smoker back to 225 deg. I left it uncovered to cook for a half hour while the smoker was coming down in temp. At 1:30 I placed the lid on to finish cooking. At this point you could finish in an oven. I chose to just let it simmer on the smoker until 4:00.

At 4:00 I took it to my stove top, removed the roast, it was falling apart. While it was cooling some I added the final ingredients, olives, capers and vinegar. I removed the fat & shredded the meat. I skimmed off some of the fat from the sauce. I added the meat back to the pot & simmered until reduced some and started to thicken. I did a taste test & this is delicious!

After cooling it went in the fridge & will taste great with some black beans and yellow rice later this week.

Link to Ropa Vieja Recipe

Seasoned Roast

Onions, peppers, & garlic sauteeing

Seasonings & tomato paste added

Broth & crushed tomatoes added

Roast after smoking

Roast after searing

Roast added to the pot

Ready to shred

Shredded beef

All in the pot & reducing down

Smokin Don