All hail the bottom feeders!

This week’s topics include my continued pursuit of good barbeque in Reno, not one but two barbeque reviews, does a critter’s place in the food chain dictate how tasty it is?, and I throw down judgment on a restaurant that is supposed to be one of THE barbeque places in the country.

 

Carolina Kitchen, Sparks, Nevada.  I am still on the hunt for truly good barbeque in Reno.  The closest I’ve come is Famous Dave’s, which has respectable barbecue and very good brisket in particular.  However, I still hold out hope that there’s a little hole in the wall in my home town which serves great barbeque.  To date, I haven’t found it.

 

Recently a friend of mine suggesting that I try Carolina Kitchen.  In her words, “It’s true southern barbeque.  Reminds me of being back home in South Carolina.”

 

Pretty strong praise.

 

So one random Thursday night the Things and I head over to give it a try.  As I walk in, I think that this is absolutely the type of place I’ve been looking for.  Just a room with some tables, basic utensils, and old, outdate furnishings and ‘decorations’.  Absolutely nothing fancy.  There was one small tv in one corner and I swear it was 30 years old.  

 

A true barbeque place should be Spartan.  Hell – I think it should just be a shack with a big ass smoker out back.  “We serve barbeque, and nothing else.  If you want weird crap hanging on the walls and flat screen TVs, go to Chilis!”

We ordered a couple of family style plates so we could try almost everything – hot links, wings, spare ribs, pulled pork, hush puppies, fries, and fried catfish.

 

Let me first say that I like my barbeque with a good, robust rub.  There’s a school of thought that says salt and pepper is enough, and you rely upon the sauce for the barbeque flavor.  In my ever so humble opinion, that’s crap.  Anybody can make good bland ribs, etc., and throw some sauce on it.  Just not my thing.

 

The review?   In a word,…. Meh.  They clearly are disciples of the salt, pepper, and sauce school.

 

The pulled pork was cooked pretty well, but bland and I didn’t taste any smoke flavor.  The spare ribs were horribly bland, somewhat overcooked, and also lacking smoke flavor.  The hot link was very tasty, but buying a store bought hot link and throwing it on the smoker seems like cheating, which is what they did.  I know because I asked. 

 

I was left to wonder if this barbeque would be better on a busy Friday night where everything was coming fresh off the smoker.  This was a slow Thursday night, so I suspect the barbeque I was eating wasn’t cooked fresh that day.  I could be wrong, but that’s my suspicion.

 

However, there were some stars of the show that will absolutely bring me back to Carolina Kitchen.   I have fond memories of my youth of eating fried catfish and hush puppies along the Mississippi river.  I love me some catfish.

 

Carolina Kitchen’s catfish was absolutely fabulous and took me back to those memories.  For those of you that haven’t tried catfish or just don’t like the idea (eww…. They’re bottom feeders… and they’re ugly.. Yuck), you need to try fresh catfish cooked well.

A quick rant about this aversion to catfish because they’re bottom feeders.  What do you think crab and lobster are?  They’re bottom feeding bugs of the sea, and tasty bugs at that!   Plus, catfish is a lot cheaper than those tasty bugs.  A critter’s place in the food chain doesn’t dictate whether they’re tasty.

Actually, maybe it does.  The bottom feeders tend to be tasty, while the apex predators often don’t.   Hmm…

 

Back to Carolina Kitchen’s catfish.  It was very fresh and coated in a cornmeal crust.  Crunchy, yet moist and delicious on the inside.  Squeeze a little lemon on it and it was divine, particularly with a hushpuppy and some sweet tea to wash it down.  The Things absolutely loved it and asked when we could come back.  On Friday nights, they have an all you can eat fried catfish special.  I think we’ll be back.

 

Go try the catfish at Carolina Kitchen.  Fabulous. 

Restaurant Review – Smoque, Chicago.   Before I went on a recent trip to Chicago, I researched some restaurants I wanted to try.  Smoque kept popping up as a restaurant I had to visit.  It’s supposed to be one of THE barbeque joints in the country.  I’ll be the judge of that…..

 

I invite a couple colleagues to join me in a foray to Smoque.  I say “It’s a BYOB joint and we’re going to have to take the L quite a ways.  Not sure it will be in the best neighborhood.”  We’re in the heart of downtown Chicago, so they justifiably asked me why in the world we were going halfway across the City to a barbeque place where they don’t serve beer.  “Because anyone can go to a restaurant in their hotel!  We’re in a new city.  We need to try a LOCAL place.”

 

So my friend P grabbed a 12 pack of Old Style (when in Rome….) and we jumped on the L.  P and D are from the Midwest and somehow watching them tote a 12 pack of Old Style on the L entertained me greatly. 

 

We get off the L at our anointed stop and drop down into what can only be described as a suspect neighborhood.  At night.  And we have to head back under the L and the highway in a poorly lit underpass to get to Smoque. 

Here’s a picture of P heading under the highway with our beer.  Seems a bit out of place, don’t you think?  At this point, P and D are openly questioning my judgment and whether I have any idea where I’m going.

“We’re fine.  Just keep walking.” 

 

We walk about another half mile, and we’re not seeing any restaurants or any kind.  And then it was there.  A perfectly normal looking restaurant filled with lot of suburbanites and their kids.  I have been vindicated!

I ordered a platter with a half rack of spare ribs, fries, mac ‘n cheese (always order mac ‘n cheese if it’s on the menu), and a taster of their brisket.  I also asked if they had any brisket burnt ends, and they obliged me with a handful.  All of this was washed down with Old Style beer, which was not nearly as bad as I anticipated.  I wonder if the Red would give a similar review to her marriage……. 

As I’ve said before in this blog, brisket is where you separate the men from the boys when it comes to barbeque.  Many people can make good ribs and decent pulled pork.  However, brisket is extremely difficult to make well.  It needs to hold it form so that you can pull it apart, but it can’t fall apart.  It must have a robust rub and good flavor in the meat.

The review?  All around solid barbeque, but not other worldly good.  The brisket was cooked very well, but the rub was ok and the meat was somewhat bland.  The spare ribs had a fabulous rub and great flavor.  However, they were a little tough, which means they weren’t cooked quiet long enough.  Bummer, because these ribs could have been great.  My friend said his baby backs were nice and tender.   

 

The mac ‘n cheese was very good.  The fries were spectacular.  Surprisingly, the slaw was fabulous, and I’m not a slaw guy.  Crunchy cabbage and other veggies in a light vinegar-based sauce.  Not heavy like a lot of mayonnaise-based slaws.

 

All in all, Smoque was a very good barbeque joint.  However, it was not, in my ever so humble opinion (I appear to have a lot of those), one of THE barbeque restaurants in the county.  Definitely worth visiting, though.

 

What am I working on?  Nothing.  Too much work travel, so I haven’t been able to cook.  However, the holidays are upon us, so that should change soon.

 

Happy cooking and Happy Holidays.

WF 

 

You don't have to eat sawdust

This week’s topics include a review of Ricobene’s in South Chicago, it is often the case that the best food is in suspect neighborhoods, I make a true foodie mac ‘n cheese (mmm… goat cheese…), and your food doesn’t have to taste like sawdust.  There are options!

 
What am I working on?  Mac ‘N Cheese.  To be more precise, goat cheese mac ‘n cheese.

Yes.  You read that correctly.  Goat cheese mac ‘n cheese.  And, yes, it was awesome.

Here’s the basic ‘recipe’.  It comes from a Michael Symon recipe, which I tweaked a little.  Keep in mind that I said it was good.  I didn’t say it was healthy.

Heat one quart of heavy cream and 2 tablespoons of chopped fresh rosemary to a slow boil.  Let it simmer and reduce by 1/3-1/2.

While the sauce is simmering, bring a pot of water to boil.  Make sure you salt the water so that it tastes like the ocean.  Cook the pasta to a somewhat firm al dente.  You’re going to cook it a little more in the sauce, so you don’t want it completely cooked at this time.  When you drain the pasta make sure you run cold water over it until it’s completely cooled down.  Otherwise, it will keep cooking and your al dente will turn into mush. 

Once the cream has reduced, fold in 8 oz of fresh goat cheese and 2-3 cups of smoked or roasted chicken.  If you want to cheat, a Costco rotisserie chicken would work well.  Throw in a couple good pinches of kosher salt as well.  Let the sauce simmer until the sauce coats the back of a spoon.

Throw the pasta back in the pot your cooked it in and fold in the sauce.  Stir over low heat for a few minutes until it’s steamy, creamy goodness.  Serve in your favorite pasta bowl with a little flat leaf parsley on top. 

This is rich, so you’ll need something to cut the richness.  I made a salad with a homemade lemon vinaigrette.  We also drank a tart Sauvignon Blanc with the meal. 

The review?  Awesome.  The tart earthiness of the goat cheese really goes well in this dish, and it’s rounded out well with the floral notes of the rosemary.   The Things loved it.  Thing  2 ate 2-3 helpings.  Go figure.  Teenage boys eating goat cheese mac ‘n cheese, and liking it!

Restaurant Review – Ricobene’s in South Chicago.  I travel a fair amount for work.  Actually, more than a fair amount.  Whenever I’m on the road, I go out of my way to find good, local food.  I refuse to eat at a Chili’s while I’m on the road unless absolutely necessary.

I recently went to Chicago for a few days.  A friend of mine, E, is from Chicago and E said I had to go to South Chicago for a breaded meat sandwich at Ricobene’s.  “It’s not the best neighborhood, but you’ll be fine.  Lots of cops eat lunch there.” 

A local joint in a suspect neighborhood?  I’m so in.  This has WF written all over it!

So a friend of mine and I grab a cab and head there to lunch.  The cabbie, as though he wanted to remind us that this wasn’t the best neighborhood, said “You’ll have to call a cab to come get you.”  Nice. 

So we walk in and this is the counter.  The lady who took our order must have worked there no less than 30 years.  She was pleasant.  Enough.  Perhaps pleasant adjacent…

I order a regular size breaded meat sandwich, some fries, and a water.  When I saw the size of the sandwich, I was shocked to think that there was a king size version of it.  It was a couple pounds of breaded and fried beef, some sort of marinara sauce, hot peppers, and cheese.  It was the kind of sandwich that makes you wonder how you’re actually going to eat it, let alone finish it.  Seriously, you have to give some thought to how you’re going to take your first bite. 

In short, it was a hot mess.

My buddy who joined me proceeded to take the sandwich out of it wrapper.  Rookie move.  Never unwrap a sandwich like that.  You only unwrap as much as you need to eat it.  Otherwise, more of the sandwich will be on your lap than in your mouth.  Keep it wrapped, and lean over while you eat it so if anything drops or drips, and it will, it falls on your tray and not your lap.  He quickly learned the error of his ways.

The review?  Fabulous.  Sweet marina sauce, hot peppers, and a slightly salty breaded piece of beef.  Great combination.  It hurt a bit, but I finished mine.  My buddy D did not, though he put forth a valiant effort.  The fries were also fabulous, but let’s face it, it was all about the sandwich!

Well worth a cab ride from downtown Chicago. 

The Gospel According to the Wannabe Foodie – Chicken Breasts.  Ok.  I’ll admit it.  I hate chicken breasts, particularly boneless chicken breast.  90 percent of the time, they’re dry and tasteless, no matter what you do with them.  Yes, I know they’re lean protein (that doesn’t even sound tasty!), but they usually taste like saw dust.  The only exception I’ve found is if they’ve been brined, like I do with my smoked chickens.  Seriously – how often do eat a chicken breast and think “Damn!  That’s tasty!”  Rarely, methinks.    

If you must eat boneless chicken, I suggest boneless thighs.  Yes, they have some more fat, but it’s not like you’re eating bacon or butter.  It’s still chicken.  But, they have a LOT more flavor than chicken breasts and they rarely dry out.  You can get them in any grocery store. 

The next time you make something that calls for boneless chicken breast, try boneless chicken thighs.  I think you’ll like them. 

Happy cooking.

WF

Comfort food, WF Style

This week's topic include a further embrace of my inner hillbilly, comfort food, WF style, mmmmm.... legumes....., and I make what may be the perfect steak sauce.

 

 

What am I working on?  Fall is upon us and it’s my favorite time of the year.  There’s a chill in the air and allergens and bugs are dying by the truckload.  It’s also the time when a boy’s thoughts turn to college football and hearty comfort food, such as stews, soups, etc.

 

One of my favorite comfort foods is pork chile verde.  In my mind, it’s really just a thick stew served with beans, tortillas, etc.  Plus, it’s easy to make yourself, and it will likely be better than what you get at most restaurants. 

 

Here’s the beginning of it.  I roast tomatillos and pablano chiles.  I peel the roasted skins off the pablanos and take the stems and seed pods out.  Then I rough chop both.  In a pan, I sauté some chopped white onion, garlic, Mexican oregano, and Mexican thyme.  I throw in the chiles and tomatillos and let that simmer for 20-30 minutes. 

 

And now you have the base sauce for any green chile verde you want to make.  Naturally, I make pork chile verde. 

Because it’s pork.  And it’s good. 

 

I cube a few pounds of pork shoulder and season it with salt and pepper.  Brown it in a large pot (I prefer my beloved French oven).  Take the pork out and sauté julienned onions and chopped garlic.  Throw the pork back in the pot, along with a fair amount of your base green chile verde sauce, some whole garlic cloves, and a little more thyme and oregano.  Add a generous amount of kosher salt.  You could also spice this up with some chopped jalapenos or Serrano, but be careful. 

 

I add enough chicken stock (homemade, of course!) to double the volume in the pot.  Ish.  Remember – you’re cooking this a long time, so most of this moisture will go away.  I prefer to let this simmer for 4-6 hours or more.  As the moisture evaporates, the flavors intensify.  Season with kosher salt to taste.

But what to serve with this…. ?  Legumes!  My favorites are pinto beans, but I had black beans on hand, so black beans it was.  The best part about beans is that they are easy!

 

First, spread the beans out on a cookie sheet and search for nasty looking ones and other non-bean things.  I recently saw them do this on a cooking show and thought “Sheesh.  Now I have to sort through my dry beans?!”  Well, now I know.  When I sorted these beans, I found a handful of nasty looking “beans,” and, …. Wait for it…. , 2-3 little pebbles.  Rocks, people!  Those aren’t cooking down!

 

Spend a little time and sort through your beans.  Trust me.

 

Back to the preparation.  Soak the beans in a lot of water overnight.  Before cooking, drain the beans and set aside.  Sautee some onions, garlic, and whatever else strikes your fancy.  Throw the beans back in and fill the pot with chicken stock.  I also believe that all beans need some pork.  Why?  Must I say it again?  Because it’s pork, and it’s good!. 

 

Check it out.  I used a ham shank.  Yum.

 

Do not add any salt.  That will come later.  If you add salt before the beans are soft, they proteins on the outside of the beans will harden and you will never be able to get the beans to soften up.  I know this sounds like food nerd talk, but it’s true. 

 

Let the beans simmer 8 hours or so, periodically refilling the pot with more stock or water when it gets close to the top of the beans.  When the beans have softened up, you can start adding salt to taste and stop adding liquid.  At this point, start seasoning the beans to taste and let the beans simmer until a fair amount of the liquid is gone and you’re left with the beans in creamy, rich sauce.  You probably know what I’m talking about.  These are the kind of beans you can eat by themselves with a spoon or a tortilla.

 

Back to the chile verde.  Serve with your homemade beans, rice, warm tortillas (I prefer flour, but whatever), and your favorite hot sauce.  You won’t be disappointed. 

 

The WF’s ‘soft drink’.  As I’ve mentioned in past blogs, I spent a fair amount of my childhood in the South.  During that time, I acquired a taste for sweet tea.  Sometimes, you have to embrace your inner hillbilly.  In the South, when they say sweet tea, they mean SWEET tea.  Like more sugar than you can imagine in tea sweet.  Like diabetic coma sweet.   

 

For many years, I got away from sweet tee.  However, lately I’m finding my way back to it, albeit in a WF way.  If I make it at home, I make a strong sun tea and add just enough simple syrup to make it slightly sweet.  Using simple syrup is great because it quickly dissolves and you never have that cloud o’ sugar at the bottom at the bottom of the glass.  This slightly sweet tea over ice on a warm day is absolutely divine. 

 

I’ve also found a sweet tea variation at various sit-down and fast food restaurants.  Inevitably, their sweet tea is frighteningly sweet, so I cut it.  I’ve found that ¼ or sweet and ¾ or so unsweetened makes a perfect beverage.

 

Seriously.   I can’t get enough of this stuff!  Give it a try.

 

The World’s Best Steak Sauce?  I recently read a relatively famous book from a well-known travel channel host.  In it, he discusses demi-glace, how important it is to line cooks everywhere, and how to make his basic demi.

 

I’ve been dying to make demi, so I gave it a whirl.  I pulled out a bag of frozen beef stock made from last Christmas’s prime rib and start reducing it.  I toss in some diced shallots, a few sprigs of German thyme, peppercorns, and a cup or two of decent red wine.  I let it simmer away and reduce until it coated the back of a spoon.

                    

I now know why demi-glace costs so much when you buy it.  I reduced about 8-10 cups of stock and wine and ended up with less than a cup of demi.  I poured it into small ice cube trays to freeze for future use.

 

I can't wait until the next time I make a beef, pork, or lamb dish.  I’ll throw a cube of this into a pan with some butter and pour the sauce onto the plate before I place the meat on the dish.  Should be fabulous.

 

If the guys are lucky, I’ll save this for our next Super Bowl feast……

 

Happy cooking.

 

WF

It's a grill, it's a smoker, it's a ... pizza oven!

The weeks topics include teaching an old grill new tricks, homemade pizza, a review of Bachi Burger in Las Vegas, and I flirt with culinary nirvana. 

Restaurant Review – Bachi Burger in Las Vegas.  I recently watched an episode of Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives where the host went to Bachi Burger in Las Vegas.  I thought “I’ll be there in a couple of weeks.  I should try it.”

First, the setting.  Bachi is a couple miles south of the Strip in a nondescript strip mall surrounded by residential neighborhoods.  Check out the strip mall.  There are thousands of these in Vegas, and none of them would likely strike your culinary fancy.  However, in my experience, some of the best food in Vegas is in strip malls. 

As I walk in, I notice the special board.  Check out the Shogun burger.  Wagyu beef, unagi, and foie gras in a burger?  Talk about decadent.  What kind of evil culinary genius comes up with something like that?! 

I walk in and there’s a 10 minute wait on a Monday night for just me.  This place is either really good or overhyped.  I look around and note a significant lack of tourists.  We’re well off the strip and a tourist would never find this place unless there were told to go here.  This is most definitely a locals place, and I like it! 

I start off my meal with some fries with parmesan reggiano, black truffle porcini cream, and sun dried tomato aioli, along with a 22 oz. bottle of Dogfish Head Pilsner.  Yes.  22 oz.  I know what you’re thinking and don’t judge.  I was thirsty. 

The fries were pretty good.  I expected awesome, but they weren’t.  Not cooked enough for my taste and I could barely taste the truffle in the cream.  However, the aioli was great.  Slightly tart from the sundries tomatoes, which paired nicely with the saltiness of the cheese on the fries. 

A side note.  Aioli is just a fancy word for mayonnaise with stuff mixed in.  Sometimes the mayonnaise is homemade.   Sometimes not.  Most people wouldn’t dip fries in mayo.  However, call it aioli and hell yes I’ll dip my fries in it!

Next came my burger, the Banh Mi burger.  Check out the food porn.  The patty is made of Angus beef, Duroc pork, and shrimp, all cooked in a nauc mam sauce and topped with grilled lemon grass, pork pate, and pickled vegetables.  This is not a burger that I would have even tried 10 or 15 years ago.  Thank god I’m not a picky eater anymore!

I threw everything into the bun so I could as the chef intended. 

The review?  In short, absolutely frickin awesome and the best burger I’ve ever had.  Ever. 

 

First, check out the bun.  Incredibly fresh and spongy.  You could serve anything on that bun and it would be good.  Second, the burger was cooked to absolute medium perfection, which is an art I have yet to master. 

However, what truly set this burger apart was that it was a complete dish.  Every element was supposed to be there.  The spongy bun, the crunch and tanginess of the pickled veggies, the slight heat of the pickled jalapeno, the curry aioli, and the slightly charred flavor of the burger all melded into a perfect bite.  I’ve had many burgers with various toppings. I’ve never had one with toppings that were so well chosen to accent each other.

 

It reminded me of a good bowl of noodles, where everything is there to accent other things in the dish.  The crunch of the sprouts accents the soft noodles, the hot of the peppers accents the saltiness of the sauce, and so on.  Everything is meant to be eaten together. 

Here’s what my plate looked like after the meal.

The best part?  The burger was $9!  This would cost $30 or more at a restaurant on the Strip, and it wouldn’t be as good. 

I have much to learn in the culinary arts…..

Go try this place.

What am I working on?  I recently made pulled pork for 80 people.  My smoker ran all day for that one, but that’s not what I’m here to write about.

I’m writing about pizza, and to be more precise, pizza cooked on the grill.

I know what you’re thinking.  “WF – you’ve finally and predictably gone off the edge.  You can’t cook pizza on a grill.  You need an oven, and preferable one with a pizza stone.”

Oh ye of little faith.  The grill is the perfect place to make pizza, and I’ll tell you how to do it.    

First, you need some dough.  You could cheat and buy some dough from the store and roll it out, but that would be, well, cheating.  However, if you’re in a pinch, so be it.  I suggest making it fresh or doing what I did.  Marry a baker who will make the dough for you.  Spread the dough as thinly as possible. 

Second, you need to figure out a sauce.  I whipped up a quick one with san marzano tomatoes, olive oil, garlic, fresh basil, a little salt, and a bit of dried oregano.  Another option, and one I love, is to thickly slice large tomatoes, put some salt and pepper and olive oil on them, and grill them a few minutes on each side.  Place those on a plate until the sauce it needed and they act as your sauce.  Just mush them a bit on the dough and voila!  Awesome pizza sauce.

Brush the top side of the dough with olive oil and gently place that side down onto a clean, hot grill.  Not “crazy I’m cooking steaks here” hot.  Just hot.  Say 350-400 degrees.  Brush the top side of the dough with olive oil and wait about 2-3 minutes, or until the underside shows grill marks and is starting to brown.

Flip it over.  It should look something like this.  Quickly put your sauce, cheese and all topping on, and close the lid of the grill.  Cook another 3-5 minutes, or until the underside is browned and the topping are, well, cooked. 

Check out the final product.  

Slice and enjoy outside with your favorite cold beer.  You’ve just made pizza without heating up the house.  Perfect on a summer evening. 

For extra credit, cook on a charcoal grill with real wood chunks to get that smoky flavor into the pizza.  Just be careful of the heat.

Happy cooking.

WF