Whatcha Cooking today?

[karstopography]

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Crab and shrimp stuffed Southern Flounder and Sand Trout Fillets about to go in the oven, the fish caught this weekend by yours truly. Excited about this recipe. Celery, Onion, garlic, orange Bell pepper. A blend of herbs, lemon, butter. Bread crumbs.

[karstopography]

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My son liked the Sand Trout over the Flounder. That’s like heresy. But, I tend to agree with him. Both fish were good.

[Vanman]

That looks real good.

[pepperhead212]

Today was soup weather, and last night, when I put all that lemongrass in the freezer, I pulled out a pound of Italian sausage. I had been thinking of a recipe I used to make - a White Pizza, that I made up many years ago, to duplicate a dish I had in Pizzeria Uno - and I was telling someone about how I made it. I wasn't going to make a pizza, but maybe a soup, with similar ingredients, so here's what I did.

I love barley with mushrooms in soup, so I used up the pound of mushrooms I had, and the sausage I just thawed. But first, I cooked an onion in some olive oil, adding 8 cloves of garlic, and a tb each rosemary and sage, all minced together plus a tb of white miso, all cooked for about 2 minutes. Then, 7 c of water, and a cup of pearl barley I added, and brought to a boil. Adjusted the salt with soy sauce, then I set it to 20 minutes manual pressure cook, then let it release naturally. Meanwhile, I cut up the mushrooms, and cooked those and the sausage. I added this to the cooked barley, and simmered 10 more minutes, and it was done.
Browned mushrooms, for a sausage barley soup. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Sausage, cooked for the soup, to combine with the mushrooms. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Sausage and mushrooms, ready to go into the soup. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Sausage mushroom barley soup, after adding the sausage and mushroom mix, ready to simmer 10 more minutes. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Finished soup, with a little pecorino on top. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

[Amateurinawe]

@pepperhead212 that's looks so delicious, and yes it is soup weather here too.

[worth1]

Got an Elgin sausage and rice skillet bake thing going on.
Lots of hot and spicy tasty things added.
Oregano.
An old refrigerator onion.
Dried onion.
Garlic powder.
Cumin.
Chipotle powder.
Beef broth powder.
Polar soy sauce.
Sausage links.
Basmati rice 2 cups.
Water 4 cups.
Lid on and baking in oven in the new 12 inch cast iron pan at 350F.
Sort of a toad in the hole Texas style.

[worth1]

Needed to add another 4 cups of water due to the not so perfect fit of the lid i put on the 12 inch pan.
That problem will be resolved tomorrow with luck with the actual cast iron lid made for it.
The Academy website says they have them in stock at my Academy store in Bastrop.
I actually drive right by two of them on the way home from work.

[worth1]

Yep with rice not bread flour stuff.
Ya just gotta tick people off sometimes.

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[karstopography]

Just put a 12# Prime Brisket on the Egg, going with my usual lump charcoal and 2-3 post oak chunks and looking to get to around 250 degrees. Texas Monthly came out with their list of the top barbecue joints in the state and I believe all in the top ten use post oak as their wood for smoking. None used Mesquite. Mesquite wood for smoking is one of those odd myths that I see magazines and food writers from out of state talk about as essential to Texas barbecue. Nothing could be more separated from the truth, but the myths remain. Mesquite does get used in hot and short grilling situations, but no one I know uses it for low and slow smoking. It’s far too earthy and overwhelming for slow cooks, at least to most people’s taste.

Brisket is the king of Texas Barbecue, not that people aren’t smoking a lot of other meats and cuts. Hickory or some of the fruit woods are nice for pork and poultry, but post oak is numero uno for beef. HEB had a few Prime briskets mixed in with Select and all were 3.56/#. I jumped all over that 12# Prime at that price.

[worth1]

I think they get mixed up with traditional open pit BBQ and slow smoking meat.
You can get away with mesquite with open pit where the smoke has a chance to get out of the way.
This is or was done a lot in west Texas where that is the wood to be had naturally.
Ya gotta adjust to your environment and what it has to offer.

[GoDawgs]

Tomorrow is Football Saturday around here and a lot of times we make a frozen pizza for a quick and easy lunch. It's also Carb Cheat Day. LOL! Walmart was out of my favorite Screamin' Sicilian this week so last night I made my own dough. It's been a while since I did that but it's resting in the reefer to tang up a bit. Today I will make some pizza sauce from our home canned tomatoes and let it simmer low and slow until it's as thick as I want it. There's some fresh oregano, basil and a hint of rosemary to add in there with the garlic. Then it will sit in the reefer overnight to flavor up some more. Geez, I haven't used that pizza stone in a long time but it's still got that flavor baked into it.

[karstopography]

@worth1 I love open pit type of cooking too and you are right, two different animals offset cooking and open pit like a Santa Maria grill or the one you built. My dad had several “safari” grills fabricated out of stainless steel by local welder named Peanut. There’s a central rod of steel that gets driven in the ground next to the fire and the grill itself is on a frame with a ring that is slightly larger in diameter than the central solid rod. So the grill can be raised or lowered as needed and swung off the fire. Mesquite wood is great for this type of cooking. I’ve got mesquite, post oak, apple, hickory, fig, orange, and cherry wood chunks on hand out in the garage. I like turkey on orange and cherrywood. Each wood has its own flavor and generally less is more.

[worth1]

I just made 5 pounds of ground chuck meatballs for a giant beef soup.
Mixed in..
Water because I forgot to use broth.
Salt.
Black pepper.
Garlic powder.
Ground nutmeg.
Formed into golf ball sized balls and they are swimming in two quarts of unsalted beef broth.
This is all in my giant Birmingham Stove and Range Dutch oven.
To the broth I added sweet paprika and dried onion flakes.

[worth1]

Everything is now added in sequence to cooking time more or less.
Carrots fresh.
Red potatoes skin on.
Corn canned
Green beans canned
Diced tomatoes canned
Onion fresh.
English peas frozen.
Ancho chilies=dried red Pablano chilies.
Nutmeg.
Pablano chilies/ green and fresh.
Canned butter beans.
Skimmed the fat off and added more garlic powder
Knorr beef bullion and paprika too.
Last but not least dried oregano.
I'll eat on this for the rest of the week.

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[worth1]

You would think this is what I'm having for dinner but it isn't.
I having Frito pie with my homemade chili topped with onions my homemade pickled jalapeños and cheese.

[Shule]

If I eat dinner for breakfast, I tend to feel sluggish or something (but that doesn't stop me from doing it). If I eat apples when I'm feeling sluggish, though, I feel more perky.

[karstopography]

Brisket stuffed Baked potatoes. Smoked the brisket on the BGE yesterday, sliced that up and had green beans and macaroni and cheese, that was last night. This evening, some of the leftover brisket, the point or deckle as it is known, I chopped up and heated slowly on a skillet with a touch of barbecue sauce. The point or deckle is the more fatty portion of a brisket. The flat is the leaner, bottom of the cut.

Once the potatoes are done, the brisket will go on the split and spread baked potato, along with whatever other toppings people want. Cheese, sour Cream, chives, bacon.

[Shule]

Here's what I'm eating right now:

* I cooked a couple packets of the noodles of Great Value maccaroni and cheese, and drained it.
* I cut up three ripe Aunt Ginny's Purple storage tomatoes into it with kitchen scissors.
* I added black pepper, pink sea salt, parsley, onion powder, sweet pepper powder (from the garden this year), basil, and extra virgin olive oil, and cooked it longer.
* A fair amount of time later, I added granulated garlic.
* I added the cheese powder.
* When the tomatoes were all cooked in like a sauce, I stopped cooking and added a bunch of Parmesian cheese.

It's pretty good.

[Sue_CT]

I have been getting one of those meal plan boxes that they offered me at a discount to get me ordering again. I only do it occasionally to try something different. This week I had two wonderful chicken dishes, Tunisian Chicken and Schwarma Chicken. Both were delicious! I enjoy trying something outside my wheelhouse occasionally without going out and buying several items I don't know if I will like much less use again. The tunisian is african and the Schwarma I believe is Middle eastern. A fun way to try new things.

[Tormahto]

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Crab and shrimp stuffed Southern Flounder and Sand Trout Fillets about to go in the oven, the fish caught this weekend by yours truly. Excited about this recipe. Celery, Onion, garlic, orange Bell pepper. A blend of herbs, lemon, butter. Bread crumbs.

Sand trout or Gulf trout, and do you know the difference?