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Barbie Bonanza

May 25, 2008 by greg 1 Comment

The weather was perfect this Memorial Day weekend for firing up the grill. We had some friends over last night to share in the BBQ bonanza. On the menu was a kalamata olive and walnut stuffed pork tenderloin, Jamaican jerk chicken kabobs, classic burgers on the grill, grilled asparagus, grilled vidalia onions and grilled potatoes.

First let’s talk pork. I started by brining the whole pork loin in a mixture of salt, sugar, whole bay leaves, whole cardamon, garlic powder, onion powder, thyme, oregano and garlic. This was brined for about 3 hours. The pork was then cut open using a roll-cut technique to make a large flat open piece about 1/2 inch think. This was smeared with the kalamata olive and walnut stuffing.

Kalamata Olive and Walnut Stuffing

3/4 cup kalamata olives, pitted
1 tbsp capers
2 cloves garlic
1 tbsp juice from olives
Juice from half a lemon
3/4 cup walnuts
a handful of cilantro
black pepper to taste
2 tbsp olive oil

All the ingredients were blended finely in a food processor.

After the filling was spread evenly over the pork it was rolled up back into a tenderloin shape and tied securely with butcher’s twine. This was rubbed with olive oil, salt and pepper before grilling.

Now for the chicken. I was inspired by Teresa from Running to Eat. This dish was so simple. I just made a Jamaican jerk inspired marinade and let the chicken soak for a couple hours. These were skewered and thrown on the BBQ.

Jamaican Jerk marinade

Juice of 2 limes
1 tsp freshly ground allspice
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp cinnamon
2 tbsp freshly ground ginger
1 tsp black pepper
1 tsp salt
2 tbsp brown sugar
1/4 cup soy sauce
Juice of one small orange
3 cloves finely chopped garlic
1 tsp habanero hot sauce

The pork was grilled over a medium flame turning every so often until the inner temperature reached 165 F. It was taken off the fire and allowed to rest for 10 minutes before slicing.

We cooked some burgers for the kids. These are simply flavored with seasoned salt. Asparagus got a quick grill after being tossed with olive oil, salt and pepper.

I just LOVE whole onions grilled slow over a fire. These vidalias already started out pretty sweet. They were almost like candy after grilling. The pork was stuffed perfectly.

And here’s a plate all assembled.

Filed Under: chicken Tagged With: BBQ, burgers, Jamaican Jerk chicken, pork loin

BBQ Chicken

March 12, 2008 by greg 8 Comments

Well, ok, not BBQ chicken breast or legs or wings. How about BBQ chicken feet? I’ve never made these before but I absolutely love chicken feet. It’s probably for the more adventurous but they really are delicious if prepared well. There isn’t really any meat to speak of. All the nutrition comes from the skin and the cartilage and connective tissues. Like any meat with lots of connective tissue, they need to be cooked for a very long time to break down and soften these tough proteins. If cooked properly they just melt in your mouth and you just spit out the bones.

Chicken feet do need some preparation before you can cook them. You’ll notice that there are rather sharp claws on them buggers. So, the first thing one needs to do is clip them all off. Easy to do with a sharp pair of kitchen shears. Next I scrubbed them well with salt and washed them off. Then the feet were blanched for five minutes in a pot of boiling water. After that they are ready to be cooked however you like. I decided to use my pressure cooker and a sweet and sour BBQ mustard sauce. I started with about a half cup of good spicy commercial BBQ sauce. I’m partial to Famous Dave’s Devil’s Spit sauce. To this was added a few squirts of regular old yellow mustard, a sliced up onion, a few cloves of garlic, a couple tablespoons of citron marmalade and about a cup and a half of the cooking water that the feet were blanched in. The feet were added to the pot and it was cooked under pressure for about an hour and a half.

I actually made these chicken feet over two days. After cooking in the pressure cooker I put the feet, sauce and all, in the fridge to rest until the next evening. I placed the cooked feet on a baking sheet and baked them in a low 225 °F oven for about an hour until the feet were nicely warmed and the sauce sort of caramelized on them.

The feet were served atop a bed of brown rice. I reserved some of the tangy BBQ sauce and added that to the plate. I also had a side of stir fried vegetables. The chicken feet came out just as I had hoped. They tasted sweet and spicy with a hint of sourness. The bones just fell apart and the delicious broken down proteins just melted off of the bones in your mouth. I was happy and fortunately no one else would touch them so I get them all to myself!

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: BBQ, chicken feet

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