Weber Gourmet Cheeseburgers

Last nights cook on the Traeger was quick & simple. Awhile back I was at Sam’s Club & they had a taste booth for Weber Gourmet Burgers, I liked them so bought a bottle of the seasoning to try. I found some baby broccoli & had two yellow squash just ready in my garden. I bought 1 ¼ lb. ground chuck, 80-20, at my butchers. This is the best blend for juicy burgers. Some Sargentos baby Swiss slices & a COWB, cheap ole white bun to hold it. I had a slice of Vidalia onion, & mustard on mine, my wife had dill pickle & mustard. I mixed a little over 2 tsp of the Weber seasoning in the hamburger & divided into 3 patties, center indented, per Bobby Flay. 30 min. at 300 deg. would do for the burgers. I put some lemon juice, a little olive oil, & Penzey’s Florida seasoned pepper on the broccoli. They would go into a basket & I put them on about 10 min before I put the burgers on. I cut the yellow squash in half long way, a little olive oil & Paula Deen’s crazy salt, 15 min turning half way through cooking on the grill. I found the baby broccoli should have been steamed or boiled instead of grilled. It came out slightly charred & stems were not done enough for me. After 30 min for the burgers I topped them with cheese & buns for just over 2 min. The yellow squash were a taste treat! The burger was juicy & done just right. They did not have the pretty grill marks like so many people rave about, but I say when you get them in the bun you don’t know if there are grill marks or not!

Seasonings & burgers

On the Traeger & about ready to add the cheese

My sandwich & veggies

Smokin Don

Pork Spare Ribs

A couple of weeks ago I received 40 lbs. of BBQ Delight hickory pellets I had ordered from Big Poppa’s Smokers. I wanted to see if they were any better than the Traeger pellets I have been using. I can only find Traeger pellets locally and most other pellets are too expensive to order because of the shipping. From Big Poppa’s their BBQ Delight pellets are the same per pound, including the shipping as I pay for the Traeger pellets. I bought a rack of pork spare ribs from my butcher to try. I trimmed them up to what I think is a St. Louis cut. The trimmed pieces I did up for the cook! I cut the slab in half since I was going to do half with Sauce & half without. I wet them down w/red wine vinegar, then added the dry rub, wrapped in saran wrap & then in the fridge until ready to smoke, that was about 5 to 6 hrs. A lot of people use a coat of mustard on the ribs to hold the rub, but I prefer the red wine vinegar I have used for yrs. I used some 17th Street BBQ Rub this time, from Big Poppa’s, and would use Bone Suckin Sauce on half. I have come to prefer that sauce, their original style, over my old favorite from Kah’s Meats here in Wapakoneta. It is just a tad more sour & just a hint of heat. So I would say break from your traditional & try new things, you might like it better than your usual. I had some potato salad & marinated artichokes left over from my last cook & they would go well with the ribs. I fired up my smoker & got the ribs on at 1:30 on smoke mode that was running 170 to 180 deg. Total cook time would be 4 ½ hrs. I did them one hr. on smoke mode & then went to 225 deg. At 5:00 I went to 250 deg. then at 5:15 I slathered on some Bone Suckin Sauce on half & flipped. At 5:45 I repeated this & pulled them at 6:00. I covered them w/foil for 10 min before serving. Ribs were great, wife liked them too. I was where I was liking my ribs naked, just the rub & no sauce, but I am getting to be a big fan of that Bone Suckin Sauce. I also like the 17th Street Rub. Did I think the BBQ Delight pellets were better than the Traeger’s? To be honest I could not tell too much difference, maybe with more use I can say one way or the other.

Seasonings & Ribs

On the Traeger

Resting

My plated supper

Smokin Don

Happy 4th

Flag Day at the Armstrong Museum 2009

Happy Independence Day, 4th of July! Today usually a day of family get together’s & picnics, and firework displays. Just the wife & I here and I am not cooking. We will go out to the County fairgrounds for some fair food. Wapakoneta’s St. Joseph Church has put on a 4th of July Picnic every since we can remember. We used to take the children for the evening. They had pony rides for the children, cake raffles, ladies sold their crafts, most of the food was provided by local organizations set up in tents. They sold beer, long neck bottles, iced down in horse watering tanks, they had a Polka Tent with a wooden dance floor, several games of chance & then all would gather to watch a great fireworks display at 11:00 PM. Later they would get more fair like, more rides for the children, plenty of fair food stands, and the beer is sold in a separate enclosed area. We will go out to get our traditional whole hog sausage sandwich but first we have to get my wife a lemon shakeup then some fair fries for both of us w/malt vinegar & salt then on to the little red barn, where the FFA sells the whole hog sausage patty sandwiches, singles or doubles & you can get cheese and all the condiments. I would like the fireworks but too late for me & we will probably head home not too long after we eat!

Chicken Roll stuffed w/sausage

Yesterday I deboned a chicken after watching several how to videos, since this was my first attempt at it. It was not as easy as it looked in the videos! I just did the breast & thighs. I put the legs & wings in a bag & marinated w/Stubs chicken marinade. After deboning I cut a couple of slits in the thick part of the breasts, covered w/saran wrap & pounded to an even thickness. I put about ¾ lb seasoned sausage in a plastic bag & worked it into an even thickness to cover the chicken. I folded each side to the center & tied w/butchers twine. Put it in the fridge to dry some for a couple hours then rubbed on some olive oil, seasoned w/Lawry’s seasoning salt, no MSG, & some garlic granules. Covered w/saran wrap & back in the fridge. I melted about ¾ stick of butter, garlic granules, 1 tsp Worcestershire sauce, & a tsp of white balsamic vinegar and a few twists from the pepper mill for basting. I had some locally made potato salad for a side. I also opened a can of artichoke hearts, added some olive oil, white balsamic vinegar, garlic, & a little salt & pepper. I some little red onions I had bought at the Farmers Market I planned to grill & add to the artichokes. I grilled them at 300 deg on my Traeger for about 45 min, not as done as I would have liked but I sliced them in half & added to the artichokes. I set the chicken roll out about 4:30 at room temp & got it & the legs & wings on about 5 PM in the already hot Traeger, 300 deg. I put it in my rack seam side up so the sausage would baste the chicken & brushed on some of my butter 3 times, last time just before going to high. I had figured at least 1 ½ hrs for the chicken roll. At 5:30 went to 325 deg. At 6:00 the legs & wings were done & chicken roll was up to about 148 deg IT so set the Traeger on high to finish & brown some. Another 15 min the Treager was at 419 deg. & chicken roll was up 165 so turned down to smoke & got ready to pull it. I let it set 10 min. uncovered, removed the twine & sliced to serve. Very good, chicken was tender & moist. Should be some good leftovers! My wife & I had the wings for an appetizer before the roll was done, love that Stubs marinade.

Deboned chicken & sausage

Wrapped & tied

Seasoned

Red onions

On the grill

Ready to slice

Plated supper, note the cook gets the heel!

Leftovers to freeze.

Smokin Don

My first ever Beef Tri Tip

My first Tri Tip ever & it was delicious. In the 35+ yrs. I have been cooking I don’t ever remember seeing a beef Tri Tip roast at the groceries or meat markets around here. It was ground into hamburger usually. It first became popular in California around the Santa Maria area & became known as Santa Maria style Roast. There it is usually seasoned w/salt, pepper, & garlic then cooked over a red oak fire to desired doneness. I first heard of it on pelletheads forum from the CA people there. I looked for it here & ask my butcher about it. Other people must have ask him about it too, just awhile back I drove by & up on his sign was Tri Tip roasts. My butcher is also a Traeger dealer & where I buy my pellets. I stopped in & he had two frozen ones left so I bought the largest 2 1/2+ lbs. I had found a recipe awhile back that had equal amounts of coarse salt, ground pepper, dried garlic flakes, & dried parsley for the seasoning. I tried it on some rib eye steaks & just about as good as it gets, a great seasoning that lets the beef taste come through instead of overpowering it.

Yesterday I trimmed some of the fat on the Tri Tip, seasoned it up good, wrapped in saran wrap & in the fridge until ready to cook. I would have preferred to let it marinade overnight but it was in for a little over 5 hrs. I was going to rely on Big Poppa’s, from pelletsmoking.com, method. Smoke at 275 deg. until an IT of 142 deg then sear on a hot grill for 2 min a side. About 4:00 I mixed up some mac & cheese. I used 2 cups penne, cooked then added ½ can Campbells cheddar cheese soup, a couple hand full’s of Italian shredded cheese, some liquid from cooking the pasta & some half & half fat free cream & placed in a casserole dish. Later I added shredded cheddar to the top & some Panko bread crumbs over that. I took the Tri Tip from the fridge to rest at room temp. I preheated my Traeger to 300 deg Placed the roast directly on the grill, fat cap down, w/ temp probe inserted at 5 pm. I was figuring just over an hr for the roast so at 5:15 I put the mac & cheese in a 350 deg oven uncovered. At 6:00 I turned the oven to 170 deg to hold the mac & cheese. I preheated my Weber Q100 to sear the roast. After 1 ½ hrs. the roast was at 142 deg IT so pulled it & seared on the Weber 2 min on each side. I tented the roast w/foil for 10 min. before slicing & serving w/mac & cheese & a mixed Romaine salad my wife had prepared. On the salad we had Italian dressing & some shaved parmesan cheese.

The roast was very tender & tasty but a little too done for me. You can see some smoke penetration in the photo. I was running my Traeger at 250 deg since I know my grill temp runs about 25 deg hotter than the digital readout. Next time I think I would run it at 275deg to let the roast come up to temp a little quicker & pull it to sear when IT is 135 deg. For me the Tri Tip was the best cut of beef I have had in a long time.

Fat cap side

Lean side

Seasoned

On the smoker

After searing

Sliced

Plated supper

Smokin Don

Lighter Salad

Just to show we do eat a little lighter, after the heavy fat New Orleans BBQ shrimp. My wife & I split the leftover 4 shrimp & had it with fresh garden lettuce, beets, hard boiled eggs, & some dressing. I had some shaved Vidalia onion, blue cheese dressing, & cracked pepper on mine along with some cheese bread & butter. I have a Tri Tip beef roast thawing for my next smoker cook in a couple of days.

My Salad

Smokin Don

New Orleans BBQ Shrimp

Yesterday started out cloudy but turned into a sunny afternoon, breezy & a comfortable 75 deg. I was looking forward to today’s cook, New Orleans style BBQ shrimp. Not very heart healthy but it sure do taste good! I found some wild caught Key West pink shrimp, large 15 to 20 count at Krogers. They were frozen & set it in fridge the night before to thaw. I had some crusty sourdough bread to have with it & a couple of Anaheim peppers I would stuff with a cheese mix. If you have never had this it’s not what most would think of as BBQ. It is usually just some shell on shrimp cooked in bacon, a lot of butter, onions, garlic, spices, hot sauce & sometimes course grained mustard, served with rice & bread to dip in the sauce. My take on this dish has some added tomato paste and garlic chives from my garden. I prepared the peppers first, mixed equal amounts of cottage cheese, shredded sharp cheddar, & a TBS of chipotle ranch dip to stuff them. Usually I would wrap these in bacon but decided not to with this dish. I lost about half the cheese mix when they were not quite done to suit me I tried to flip them over. With the bacon you can start by sealing the end & a toothpick before wrapping. Otherwise it is best to just leave the stem on, slice in half & fix boat style to keep all that good cheese.

You can just prepare this on top of the stove but I wanted to use the smoker & do the peppers & relax with a cold one while cooking. I got all my ingredients chopped & diced and started this on top of the stove. I used Penzey’s Cajun seasoning, on the mild side & omitted the hot sauce. Moved it to the smoker to simmer for 20 min at 325 deg. I should have put the peppers on then too. After 20 min. I added the shrimp & some more beer to cover & cooked another 25 min. at 300 deg. In my plated photo missing is a bowl of the sauce for dipping some sourdough bread in. I served this with Zatarains New Orleans style yellow rice. This is a little messy since you have to shell the shrimp so serve with a wet one. I would suggest using an oil tablecloth too, my wife had to wash her crocheted one after I was done!

Printable Shrimp Recipe

Shrimp, rice, & peppers

Onion, garlic, basil, & garlic chives

Stuffed peppers

Purdy Pink Shrimp

Bacon, onions, & garlic

Sauce ready for the smoker

Just about done

Ready to digin!

Smokin Don