Whatcha Cooking today?

[Danny]

PIC went and picked up from our favorite Mexican place this evening. 2 Crispy tacos and queso along with a sinful amount of Guac later, I am just stuffed. They make all their tortillas and chips there, well they make everything there, and most often we will split a small burrito between us, but all their food is so good. Except the hot sauce- you could lose your lips to either of those!!! I am so full I am sleepy now at 7pm.

So good though.

[karstopography]

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I circled back to tri-tip on the BGE once again. Cooked @~300° direct/indirect over Lump charcoal and one chunk of mesquite. Seasoned with granulated garlic, onion, paprika, coffee, salt and pepper.

Lettuce out in the garden still hanging in there. Arugula was planted just a couple of weeks ago, no wonder it’s called rocket.

[Danny]

That looks very good, a bit more well done than I usually care for as I am a "see the quiver still" rare person, but most are not liking it that rare, LOL. Very juicy looking.

Your food looks like you know your way around a outside grill and then some. I cannot grill unless you want it raw or burnt, LOL. I admire your skill.

[karstopography]

That looks very good, a bit more well done than I usually care for as I am a "see the quiver still" rare person, but most are not liking it that rare, LOL. Very juicy looking.

Your food looks like you know your way around a outside grill and then some. I cannot grill unless you want it raw or burnt, LOL. I admire your skill.

The tri-tip can be done in such a way that there’s some more medium sections, where my wife likes it, towards the tip and then more medium rare in the thicker section where I like it.

Seems like a lot of the instructions on cooking tri-tip have a brief sear at high temperature in the beginning, then low and slow the rest of the time. I say the heck with that all that and simply set up a hotter half of the grill and a cooler side. The cooler area on the BGE is simply the old broken up lump charcoal from previous cooks that are marble sized small pieces with some ash mixed in. That burns a lot cooler than the new, just added day of cook larger chunks of lump charcoal on the hot side.

I’ll move over to the hotter side to get a little sear or browning going and then back off to the cooler area. I’m going by look of the tri-tip, the color of the sear. Too much high direct heat for too long and a hard sear can lead to some unpleasant bitterness dominating in the sear in my experience.

The low and slow stuff is fine, but I think sort of unnecessarily draws out the process on these tri-tips. If you want almost edge to edge medium rare or rare, maybe that 225°-250°low and slow is the way to go, but going closer to 300° still gives results where most of the meat is the temperature you want, but the cook goes half as long.

I do use a digital instant read thermometer, but can tell by feel when the tri-tip needs to come off the grill. There’s a little firming up that happens when it reaches around 116-120° or so internal temperature. The temperature in the thicker portion peaked at 134-135° after I loosely tented in foil and rested off the grill for a while, about the heart of medium rare. On rare, there’s a fine line between delicious and raw. Cool or not so warm raw is bad, purple is bad, I’ll stray a little towards medium rare to avoid the raw.

[Rockporter]

Meatloaf, side of garden peas, and mashed taters.

[Sue_CT]

Comfort food!

[Danny]

I like a good meatloaf, and even better are the next day's meatloaf sandwichs.

[Rockporter]

I like a good meatloaf, and even better are the next day's meatloaf sandwichs.

Oh yeah, I will be having one of those shortly, lol. One thing I do because I use one pound each of hamburger and ground pork in mine we have a huge loaf for just two of us This is a situation where i make hubby some lunches to freeze with the taters and veggies and he heats them in the hot logic while at work. He gets a hot meal, and I don't have to eat leftovers for a week, win win. He nixed the peas though, he likes corn with his potatoes and I knew that but thought I would go a different direction, lol. He got his corn to say the least, hahahaha.

[pepperhead212]

I just made a channa dal salad today, this one with some kamut and kippered herring, plus some diced extra sharp cheddar. I minced up a chocolate habanero and an aji dulce, and a generous amount (3/4 c?) of garlic chives, a few chopped peanuts, plus some cilantro and parsley, to add, with a basic vinaigrette. I topped that first bowl off with the egg, but that was a last minute thought.
Salad with channa dal, kamut, kippered herring, diced cheddar, habanero pepper, garlic chives, parsley, and cilantro. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

[Tormato]

As a side, I had corn on the cob, yesterday.

Very surprisingly, WalMart had a bin of fresh corn with the brightest green wrapping leaves, at 50 cents a piece. I pealed back a few tops, and the bicolor kernels were nice and small. I've never seen corn like this, in early April. The shipment must have been a fluke.

The corn was GOOD!

[worth1]

Guess what this is.
You'd never believe it.

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[worth1]

Okay.
It's chili with legumes.
In this case raw peanuts not beans.
5 pounds of ground chuck.
2 cups of raw peanuts.
Other ingredients....
1/2 cup New Mexico chili powder.
1/2 cup your choice chili powder mine was HEB brand.
Half handful Knorr tomato bullion powder.
2 handfuls Mexican oregano.
Garlic powder.
1/2 cup ancho powder.
1/8 cup chipotle powder.
7 ounces chipotles in adobo sauce.
At least 1/4 cup cumin.
3 large garlic cloves crushed.
2 large red onions diced.
Above cooked in oil for a bit.
Garlic powder about 1/8 cup.
1/2 cup port wine.
1/4 cup paprika.
15 ounce can tomato puree.
28 ounce can of crushed tomatoes.
50 ounces of water at least.
This came from cleaning out the cans the stuff the canned goods came in.
7 28 and 15.
Handful of masa harina.

The tomato products made it tart I balanced it out with the sweet Port wine.
Let simmer.
No salt not needed in my opinion because other ingredients had salt in it.
The spicy hot is way in the background.
The odd addition of the raw peanuts go well with it.
Adjust spices to taste.

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[Danny]

Since I've been ill, been craving juuk pretty much daily made with the short grain sticky rice, added some finely ribboned chinese type cabbage and cut up pork. The rice cooker is or has already more than p[aid for it's self.

[Rockporter]

@Danny hope you get to feeling better soon.


We went to big town today and since it is our wedding anniversary (24 years) we decided on Texas Roadhouse for lunch/dinner. He had the BBQ ribs, and I chose the grilled salmon. I always have salmon when I go out but once in a blue moon I will go off the plan, lol. We haven't been there in at least 10 years or so, it is just in an area we don't usually go by so when we saw it we decided to jump off the highway.

[pepperhead212]

I made a curry out of cooked, diced cucumbers, a green pepper, and a large onion, all cooked in the Instant Pot on sauté until it just begins to brown on the edges, then added a spoonful of gochujang and about 3 tb malvani masala (the last of my jar), and cooked it briefly. Then I added 5 c water, and 2/3 c each of red chori beans and mung beans, washed. I salted with some thin soy sauce, stirred in 3/4 tsp turmeric, then set to manual, to pressure cook 22 minutes, and release naturally. While that was cooking, I grated the last cucumber, and made a small amount of raita - the first thing I've made with my mint this year.

When I opened this, I added about 1/3 c black quinoa, stirred in 1 tsp garam masala, and set it to pressure cook 1 minute, then release 5 minutes, then release the pressure, which is enough for the quinoa. When that was done, I prepared a tarka, using some mustard seed, cumin seed, urad dal, 6 whole chiles, some asafoetida, and some curry leaves. I stirred that tempering into the curry, simmered a few minutes, then served, with the raita on the side.
A curry made with malvani masala, Red chori and green mung beans, black quinoa, plus cucumber, green pepper, and onions. And cucumber raita. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

[Danny]

@Danny hope you get to feeling better soon.


We went to big town today and since it is our wedding anniversary (24 years) we decided on Texas Roadhouse for lunch/dinner. He had the BBQ ribs, and I chose the grilled salmon. I always have salmon when I go out but once in a blue moon I will go off the plan, lol. We haven't been there in at least 10 years or so, it is just in an area we don't usually go by so when we saw it we decided to jump off the highway.

Happy anniversary !

[Sue_CT]

Happy Anniversary, Rockporter. Danny, feel better soon! And Pepperhead that looks delicious!

[Rockporter]

@Danny hope you get to feeling better soon.


We went to big town today and since it is our wedding anniversary (24 years) we decided on Texas Roadhouse for lunch/dinner. He had the BBQ ribs, and I chose the grilled salmon. I always have salmon when I go out but once in a blue moon I will go off the plan, lol. We haven't been there in at least 10 years or so, it is just in an area we don't usually go by so when we saw it we decided to jump off the highway.

Happy anniversary !

Thanks so much Danny!

[Rockporter]

Happy Anniversary, Rockporter. Danny, feel better soon! And Pepperhead that looks delicious!

Thanks so much Sue!

[LindaJean]

Sausage and buttermilk biscuits for dinner.
Still gotta dye the eggs for Amara's egg hunt...

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