Food Recipes - Passing time while automating

pete_c

Guru
I don't get to cook as much as I would like these days.  I learned about TV stuff in the early 80's.  It was a small group of 20 of us that volunteered to make a cable TV show about cooking.  I never was in front of the camera and had much fun with the show.  There are VHS tapes somewhere and will find them sometime or another.  We do utilize our natural gas grill these days (well its sort of more than just a grill; so we do more than grill outside).
 
I will start this post with a clip and paste from another post on the forum.  Next will be an old family recipe for Paella, then may Shrimps al diablo and also may post Bell's pulled pork receipe (well sort of family).
 
Geez relating to computers and food; wrote my personal accounting stuff in the 1980's for payroll (and other stuff) using CPM trying to speed up stuff (well like payroll); kind of a use and intro into computers.  That said also helped write a database with a person fascinated by the micro pc's available in the early 1980's; he was an Astronomer from Northwestern University.  He would drive down to the south suburbs and we would have little wine and cheese parties and talk computers (there was 4-5 of us at this little computer meetings - the other guys were from the University of Chicago)...
 
 
I'm going to call them "Petey's" because they are mostly modified by me older family recipe's.  Mostly wife now cooks these days.  She is my sous chef when I cook though.
 
Petey's quickie double baked potato recipe - slight labor day tangent here unrelated to automation (its not really as time consuming as it sounds). 
 
Simple; nothing fancy. 
 
1 - scrub / clean baking potatoes
2 - wet; roll them in a fine sea salt (or any salt really).
3 - wrap them in aluminum; put them on the top shelf of the BBQ grill (keep the grill set to high).
4 - bake around 60 minutes
5 - remove the potatoes; unwrap them.  They will have hard / crispy shells (you want this).
6 - use the aluminum to make little double baked potato holders.  I put them all in a little metal tray.
7 - cut the very top 1/4 of the potato skin off.
8 - use a spoon and remove the potato from the skins and put it in a bowl
9 - mix a little butter, couple of teaspoons of milk, salt, pepper and bit of dry Parmesan cheese
10 - stir it up with a fork; keep it sort of chunky and not pasty
11 - you can lay the top of the cut potato skins inside of the main potato or just eat them while you make the rest of the stuff.
12 - with a spoon scoop your chunky potato mix back to the potato shells
13 - garnish the tops with a bit of Parmesan cheese (optional)
14 - put back on second shelf of your grill a few minutes before you finish the ribs.
 
Petey's quickie (not really) Paella - note that this is a mix of seafood, chicken and pork - very old family receipe  Favorite place that I have had Paella was a place with a Jazz venue and a custom made to order Paella (2 hours while enjoying the music)...not in the US ....picture if cousin's Paella with mussels (which is very tasty)
paella-1.jpg
 
Ingredients
1 - 6 chicken thighs
2 - pork steaks (7?)
3 - shrimp 3/4 lb
4 - 4 cloves of garlic
5 - 1/2 bunch fresh parsley - chopped
6 - 1 can of clams (with juice)
7 - 2 small or 1 large can of whole tomatoes - diced
9- 10 chicken bouillon cubes
10 - 1 1/2 cups frozen peas
11 - artichokes (if desired)
12 - mussels (if desired)
 
Brown all meat separately - season with salt, pepper and lightly with crushed red pepper
Saute garlic and wilt parsley (do not burn)
Add tomatoes and simmer for a bit. 
Add clams and saute a bit
Add 10 cups of water - bring to a boil and add bouillon cubes
Reduce to a simmer and add chicken, pork and clam juice
Simmer 45 minutes
 
Remove meat - add peas and simmer 10 minutes
Add 2.5 cups of rice - bring to a boil - cover and simmer 20 minutes
Add meat, chicken, shrimp and artichokes and heat through (optionally here add mussels over top.
Simmer 5 more minutes or watch for mussels to open
Remove from heat and let it stand covered for 10 minutes
 
Petey's Chicken Vesuvio - note this started as mine (from the 80's - 60's) using an old style electric skillet fry pan modded and updated now by wife; originally though from the mountains of northern Italy very close to Austria; so close that folks thought themselves Austria (neato sking place - Asiago) - wierd cuz I think thought it originated in Chicago....
 
From the wiki I see its been totally redone and wrong....
 
Chicken Vesuvio, a specialty of Chicago, is an Italian-American dish made from chicken on the bone and wedges of potato, celery, and carrots; sauteed with garlic, oregano, white wine and olive oil, then baked until the chicken's skin becomes crisp. The dish is often garnished with a few green peas for color.
 
Personally here have told a "few" restaurant chiefs how not to modify "Chicken Vesuivio" and really never returning to the restaurant due their creativity ineptness.  That and I have seen guesses sometimes in WIki's or twists of fact subtily introduced by authors.
 
The origins of the dish are unknown, but some suggest it might have been popularized by the Vesuvio Restaurant, which operated at 15 E. Wacker Drive, Chicago, in the 1930s.
 
 
 
Petey's Clam chowder - note this started as mine (from the 80's) - very good stuff for a cold winter night - modded an older Irish recipe - its not really Clam chowder but rather it uses Canadian Bacon and my kids always enjoyed it - it was some effort in trying to get my children to eat fish (other than fish sticks) many years ago.
 
Sandy's Easy, Tasty Chili - from the 1960's - Mother in law's recipe from the 1960's.
 
2 lbs. ground chuck
2 medium onions – chopped
1 med. green pepper – chopped
2 cans Brooks (Hot or Mild) Chili Beans
4 sm. cans tomato sauce
chili powder – 2 tsps.  (or to taste)
salt & pepper
 
Brown ground meat (salt & pepper) and drain.  Sauté onions and peppers in little oil until soft.  Add ground meat back to pot and add chili beans, tomato sauce and seasonings.
Simmer approx. 45 min.
 
Oh yeah, twice-baked potatoes.  One of my mother's specialties, even all the cousins looked forward to them at holiday times.
 
Pete:
 
To continue our earlier posts........
When I started smoking ribs many years ago I used a silo shaped charcoal fired smoker and had mixed success. It was hard to control the heat and sometimes I dried the ribs out. At some point along the way I discovered the Traeger pellet fired grill which was a big game changer. It not only allows you to cook over your choice of woods but more importantly it has a digital thermostat that controls the heat better than you could possibly do with a coal or wood fire.
 
With the new Traeger on the patio I set out to find recipes online and came up with the following Youtube video that again greatly improved my ribs. The best part of the procedure is that instead of telling you how many hours to cook the ribs it instead taught me to use my eye. I have not had a bad ribs since I started using this procedure.
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e8OPHPdxodY
 
I also have settled on fast eddy's rib rub but that is a personal thing.
 
http://www.cookshack.com/store/Pork-CS-Recipes/Fast-Eddys-Rib-Rub
 
Try it you'll like it! Mike.
 
My Big Green Egg does a pretty good job of maintaining a stable temperature for smoking.  The plus is it doubles as a regular grill too.  Doing some ribs on it later this week.  
 
Thank-you Mike!  Always looking for new cooking recipe's these days.
 
A couple of weeks ago decided to make our own pizza. 
 
In the 1960's-1980's would barter food for food with other restaurants (well sort of involved from the 1960's) and there was a BBQ restaurant in the south suburbs of Chicago that I always enjoyed bartering food with.  Actually we tested new food recipes all the time; same with an adjacent Pizza place.
 
wkearney99 said:
My Big Green Egg does a pretty good job of maintaining a stable temperature for smoking.  The plus is it doubles as a regular grill too.  Doing some ribs on it later this week.  
I've heard very good things about the big green egg. It is so well insulated that you can regulate the vent very well.My silo smoker was a wedding gift in 1993 and was not the quality of the BGE.
 
The Traeger will also serve as a regular direct heat grill as well as bake. Depending on the ambient temperature it can reach over 400 degrees F. We keep a propane gas grill for seering, quick cooks like dogs and sometimes in combination with the pellet grill. We have a steak recipe that seers the meat on the gas to get stripes and seal in the juice and then finish cooking it on over the wood at about 200 deg. 
 
Mike.
 
pete_c said:
Thank-you Mike!  Always looking for new cooking recipe's these days.
 
A couple of weeks ago decided to make our own pizza. 
 
In the 1960's-1980's would barter food for food with other restaurants (well sort of involved from the 1960's) and there was a BBQ restaurant in the south suburbs of Chicago that I always enjoyed bartering food with.  Actually we tested new food recipes all the time; same with an adjacent Pizza place.
 
We love making our own pizza in the summer when we have fresh tomatos from the garden.
 
Here's a recipe forgrilled pizza that we've been enjoying for years.
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Grilled-Zucchini-Pizza-232310
 
I'm getting hungry, think I'll go get one of those leftover ribs from the weekend.
 
Mike.
 
I've yet to try pizza on it.  I've got a stone and the BGE can certainly get up to the temps needed.  
 
They're ridiculously expensive but the added mass of all that ceramic material really does seem to do a good job at maintaining temps.  I never had anywhere near the same results trying to use a regular kettle Weber for smoking.  I can see where folks using indirect heat smoker boxes get good results.  I wanted the dual-purpose aspect of an Egg instead of a big box just for smoking.  I'm guessing the boxes do the job more efficiently though, or at least with less combustible materials.
 
I picked up a Maverick 732 remote wireless dual thermometer and it's terrific.  I have an iGrill and the bluetooth range sucked.  I also have a dual probe Thermopen unit (along with a folding Thermopen).  The Maverick is close in temp measurements but nowhere near as fast.  It's wireless range covers the whole house, so that makes it a winner.
 
I've yet to pursue the digital fan control methods yet.  The Egg alone has done a decent enough job.  It's only been one windy day that posed a bit of a challenge.  That and having to rig up the gizmos seems like it'd be a bit of a hassle.
 
Went looking just now and found a smoker on a shelf in the basement.  It's still in the box.  Ah...found it...Brinkman....old neighbor; old house built a smoker in the ground many years ago and would smoke "chubs".
 
Thanks Bill and Mike.
 
BBQ with friends last week and with tomatoes from a garden...(thumbs up)....
 
mikefamig said:
I've heard very good things about the big green egg. It is so well insulated that you can regulate the vent very well.My silo smoker was a wedding gift in 1993 and was not the quality of the BGE.
 
The Traeger will also serve as a regular direct heat grill as well as bake. Depending on the ambient temperature it can reach over 400 degrees F. We keep a propane gas grill for seering, quick cooks like dogs and sometimes in combination with the pellet grill. We have a steak recipe that seers the meat on the gas to get stripes and seal in the juice and then finish cooking it on over the wood at about 200 deg. 
 
Mike.
 
I smoke on my BGE regularly (Here in Alabama, If you don't produce some type of smoked meat on a regular basis, you'll be kicked out). I can load the BGE up with hardwood lump charcoal and maintain 275 degrees for 14 hours without ever touching it once set. Because it was so expensive, it took a long time to convince me of it's superiority, but I am a true believer now.
 
Terry
 
roussell said:
I smoke on my BGE regularly (Here in Alabama, If you don't produce some type of smoked meat on a regular basis, you'll be kicked out). I can load the BGE up with hardwood lump charcoal and maintain 275 degrees for 14 hours without ever touching it once set. Because it was so expensive, it took a long time to convince me of it's superiority, but I am a true believer now.
 
Terry
 
That is very impressive and 250 to 275 is pretty much where I do a lot of my slow cooking which is brisket and ribs. And I'll bet that the wood charcoal is cheaper to burn than my pellets but I do love my pellet burner. I would love to give the BGE a try but now that I'm used to my Traeger I wouldn't trade it for anything.
 
I've heard from guys who use propane with wood chunks for smoke and are very happy with the results. I think that it is not so much about the fuel as it is controlling the temperature and moisture.
 
Mike.
 
Mike.
 
It would be nice to see a favorite smoker recipe.  Personally here my brother in law wanted to buy a smoker and I told him to use mine.  His mom and dad were from Alabama.  His mom was the standard relating to cooking during those holiday times many many years ago.  I got close to him mom as he was a friend in high school (well geez and married my sister).  Reina was like my second mom; born and raised in Alabama.  He never did take the smoker (its still in the box) and now I want to try to use it.
 
I've gotten lots of compliments on my ribs. I use the cooking procedure in the video above. That video uses a pellet cooker but any slow cooker will do the job as long as you can maintain about 250 - 275 degrees.
 
I use the following rub recipe:
http://www.cookshack.com/store/Pork-CS-Recipes/Fast-Eddys-Rib-Rub
 
And for a sauce I kind of wing it. I mix whatever store bought bbq sauces I have with a little honey and water and cook it down for a few hours over the wood fire with the ribs. Then when I take the ribs out of the tin foil I pour some of the fat that has collected in the foil into the sauce and cook it down some more while the ribs are finishing up on the grill.
 
Mike.
 
pete_c
 
I think that a pulled pork is a good choice for a first attempt at a bbq slow cook. It's a nice big fatty piece of meat that doesn't dry out easily and until I got used to controlling my cooker I did dry out some meats. You won't be disappointed, there's not much better than  tearing into a juicy pork shoulder just off the bbq.
 
Mike.
 
Back
Top