Virtual Banquet Thread

t-dub

Vapor Sloth
Primal vanilla ice cream with frozen Oregon blackberries we picked last year . . . :drool:

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arf777

No longer dogless
Big cooking day.

So far, have completed another dry rub bacon, this time in a standard rub (salt, brown and maple sugar, sage) but the smoke from pecan shells instead of from a wood. Classic NC method, had to mail order the shells cuz I ain't in NC these days. Still in the smoker, a brisket I am hoping was fatty enough to be pastrami (sous-vide pepper cured), and a heavily-herbed massive bone-in chicken breast (also sous-vide cured, in 4 peppercorns, dill and tarragon). Smoking in pecan shells and pecan wood. Pics later.

And have mk II wet-cured madeira bacon curing for smoking later this week - added armagnac, nutmeg and more maple to the brine this time, and better madeira (Sandeman Rainwater).

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And for breakfast- fresh, Amish-made pork and sage sausage in gravy. Gravy is not quite standard- last week I took the last 4 lbs or so of the over-smoked bacon from a couple of weeks ago, and made a crazy bacon/pork belly stock from it (with mir poix, garlic, bay, sage, fennel, shitload of bacon fat). The gravy here is bacon fat, sausage drippings, the bacon/belly stock, and good sherry. Ended up throwing a butter-poached egg on it halfway through eating it - the yolk made it decadent.

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arf777

No longer dogless
Chicken and beef have come out of the smoker. Pic makes the skin on the chicken look black, but its more of a deep caramel. Already et half of the skin. Some tasty shit. The flavor from the pecan shells is most obvious in the chicken.

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The beef tastes very pastrami-esque, but it isn't pink - ran out of my nitrate heavy pink salt. We'll see how it does after cooling and running through the slicer (bought a deli slicer, got sick of hand-cutting so much bacon). Fattiest brisket I've found in a long time, but still not quite proper pastrami-level.

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arf777

No longer dogless
Forgot to post this - sliced the brisket after letting it rest overnight, and it really came out very pastrami-ey (esque?). Hard to tell on a monitor, but it is actually pink all the way through, much more so than it looked when it came out of the smoker. Note all the tasty fat.

Another batch of bacon coming Saturday. Been in a madeira-armagnac brine all week.

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EveryDayAmnesiac

Well-Known Member
Spicy rutabaga couscous. With spinach, onion, olives, garlic, basil, feta, and lots o' cayenne / black pepper. So easy even I can make it... :lol:

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Doesn't look like much, but each bite packs a spicy wallop! :mmmm:

And hey, I'm trying to lose weight here....
 
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arf777

No longer dogless
More smoker action today. For the vegans and veggies- I did this for my brother, who is not just vegan but some weird macrobiotic that won't eat a whole list of plants- firm organic tofu in a variant of my madeira-armagnac-maple bacon brine, smoked over sugar maple, pecan wood and pecan shells. Surprisingly good.

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For the REAL food people - have duck stuffed with armagnac-soaked nectarines, fresh apricots, black plums, garlic and ginger, smoking in the same wood and shells mix as the tofu. Will post pics when it's ready.
 

arf777

No longer dogless
The duck. And realized I used bad grammar in describing it. It is stuffed with fresh apricots, black plums, garlic and ginger, all soaked in armagnac and brown sugar. And HOLY SHIZNIT is it tasty. Possibly the best thing from the smoker yet.

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EDIT: Damn, damn, damn. I had caught all the fat that came off the duck during smoking, when I went to finish rendering it down I spilled it all over the floor. The duck is fine, but lost a shitload of smoked duck fat I was looking forward to cooking with.
 
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arf777

No longer dogless
Burger - meat is 90% 80/20 Angus chuck, 10% madeira-armagnac bacon; seared and then seethed in bacon stock, topped with gruyere and more madeira-armagnac bacon, full sour kosher pickles and sliced tomato.

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Buildozer

Baked & Fried
Burger - meat is 90% 80/20 Angus chuck, 10% madeira-armagnac bacon; seared and then seethed in bacon stock, topped with gruyere and more madeira-armagnac bacon, full sour kosher pickles and sliced tomato.

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Fuck you Arf777.. All you do is post pictures of food I really want to eat... Badly :cuss:..

:rockon:.. You and t-dub need to meet up and have a leigit BBQ for me to judge :D
:peace:
 

arf777

No longer dogless
Heh. Have been thinking about doing competitions. Need a trailer for my smoker though.

And I am seriously looking into going into the cured and smoked meats biz. May even be returning to a pro kitchen. Have a friend looking at buying a b&b in Denver (420 friendly obviously) with me moving out there to run the kitchen. If it works out, I'll be doing hemp-smoked bacon (actual buds). Since it'd be legal there. Will make very expensive but tasty stoner bacon.

Meanwhile, a smoked duck sandwich. Not the prettiest but damn tasty. Made with the last of the meat from last week's smoked duck (still have some skin I'm making into duck rinds, mmmm), the smoked fruit from inside it, port wine, mayo, kosher dills, dijon mustard and swiss cheese.

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Another big smoker day tomorrow. Have a turkey breast in a sous-vide wet cure (Jameson's whiskey, black pepper, tarragon) for the smoker, two more bacons (mk IV madeira-armagnac, this time with brine injected, and a dry rub one as well) and a small pork sirloin. The sirloin is being done pure NC style. Made a slightly Frenchified NC vinegar sauce it will be basted with while smoking. The vinegar sauce is cider vinegar, tawny port, garlic, bay leaves, sage, nutmeg, black pepper, salt, and brown sugar. A bit red cuz the tawny port is the reddest tawny I've ever seen.
 
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