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Peach-Ancho BBQ Sauce

April 21, 2008 - Written by Jonathan

This is a simple barbecue sauce that goes really nicely on smoked meats of all kinds, especially pork and chicken though it’s also great on beef.  It takes all of about 10 minutes to throw together and I promise you, it rules over your KC Masterpiece or other bottled sauce (though I will confess I don’t mind a little KC Masterpiece now and then).  I actually measured the amounts of each ingredient I used; please don’t tell anyone. 

3/4 C Cider Vinegar

1/4 C Tomato Paste

1/4 C Molasses

1/4 C Peach Preserves

1 Ancho Chile, cut into small strips

1 tsp Worcestershire sauce 

1 Tblsp Granulated Garlic

1 Tblsp Granulated Onion

1/2 tsp. Cumin

Juice of 1/2 lime

Stir the whole mess together in a small saucepan over low heat.  Cover & let simmer 1/2 hour.  Fish out the ancho chile strips or don’t.  Mop it on your meats near the end of smoking or grilling if that’s your pleasure, or just serve it on the side.

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Grass-Fed Beef

February 19, 2008 - Written by Jonathan

I just got off the phone with Ted Slanker at Slanker’s Grass Fed Meats. You can visit his web site here: http://www.texasgrassfedbeef.com/

I like this stuff an awful lot. We mostly order the ground beef, roasts, and stock & soup-making bits; frankly, grass-fed steaks are a real challenge to cook well in my view and they tend to be somewhat tough if you overcook them by even a small fraction. I love the flavor of grass-fed beef; it’s meaty, mineral-rich, and deep without being gamy in the slightest. There is a lot of variation of flavor and toughness given that the animals roam around and that they’re leaner than feedlot-raised cattle, and this is another reason why we don’t eat as many of the steaks. Still… I think we might be headed toward a full conversion to the grass-fed lifestyle.

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It’s soup season

December 28, 2007 - Written by Jonathan

Recipes and I are not the best of friends.  My wife likes structure, rules, and measurements; she does the baking and she’s good at it.  I like spontaneity, patterns, and innovation; I think of recipes as interesting places to start.  And I like soup.  Last weekend I made a big pot of beef demi-glace so that we’d have some stock on hand to make soup.  I froze half of it in ice cube trays for easy use in sauces and whatnot.  It occurred to me as this behemoth of boiling bones rattled away on the back burner that I’m not a very good stock-maker, and that the stock is very good almost by accident.  I’m not rulesy enough to make that beautifully clear, golden chicken stock that my grandmother slaved over.  My beef demi is tasty, sure, but it’s kind of… well, arbitrary, you know?

But I will tell you this: I really like a good, precisely-made soup and maybe someday I’ll have the patience and the humility to sit down with a recipe and follow it rigorously.  When I do, I’m pretty sure it’s going to come from this book, which is the Culinary Institute of America’s answer to …

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Camarones al Mojo de Ajo (aka Shrimp in garlic sauce)

December 23, 2007 - Written by Jonathan

This is a fun, albeit somewhat work-intensive dish to make for people who love garlic and who don’t mind reeking. “Mojo de Ajo” is a fairly common term in Mexican cooking and I have noticed that there are a lot of different preparations. This one includes tomatoes; some other mojos de ajo don’t.

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