Now that I have a fancy new gas grill, it was time to test the smoker capabilities. I opted to do smoked pork chops again, albeit with a simpler recipe.
I brined the pork chops for several hours in a mix of 1/4 cup of kosher salt, 1/4 cup brown sugar, and 4 cups water. I then put them on the grill, along with some wood chips. My grill is a bit different, so it's not necessary to soak the wood chips. You just drop them in. There's no direct flame so they don't burn up too quickly. Anyway, using the BBQ option resulted in a temperature of 350F, which was higher than the 250-275F that is recommended. The chops cooked quickly, in about 40 minutes. They were tender and moist and tasted like a cross between regular and Canadian bacon. The smoke flavor and salt level were just about right. They were not overwhelmingly smoky. I will definitely be making these again. If I feel like being a really anal retentive BBQ geek, I'll try cooking them more slowly at the recommended temperature.
I really like the infrared cooking so far. I like my meat on the rare side, without a really charred crust, and everything I've cooked so far has come out moist, rare but not underdone, and was nice and tender.
Next up: Chicken Spiedies
Showing posts with label pork. Show all posts
Showing posts with label pork. Show all posts
Saturday, August 14, 2010
Sunday, August 1, 2010
My new smoker/smoked prok chops and salt potatoes
My brother and some of my coworkers are total barbeque geeks. I've been listening to them yap about barbequing and smoking meats, and they were a bad influence on me.
I bought a charcoal grill/smoker. It was on sale for $19. I've been wanting to get a nice big gas grill, and still intend to do so, but finding this was part of my good shopping karma this weekend.
It's nice and small and light, but I can still fit a small turkey in there. When I'm not using it I can stash it in the garage. I like its' design better than my old round one. I'm giving the old one to a grad student.
I got some pork chops, rubbed them down with a spice rub, and then looked at the instructions. Ooops. The grill needs to be cured before the first use, to seal the finish and get rid of paint odors. I cheated and let it cure for two hours, added a few more charcoal briquets and then started cooking the pork chops. I had trouble maintain the proper temperature (250F), so I should've added more earlier. After an hour I gave up and finished off the pork chops in the oven. They smelled pretty good as they cooked. They were moist and smoky, and the rub was tasty. They were somewhere in between smoked and baked. I don't recommend cooking them this way, but it is useful to know that rub is so tasty, especially since I have a lot left over.
My brother reminded me that smoked food is best paired with something blander, so it's not so overwhelming. I used this advice as an excuse to make salt potatoes, which are new potatoes cooked in a saturated solution of salt water. They are a regional dish here, and there's even chemistry involved, so of course I wanted to try them. The salt raises the boiling point of the water and also denatures the protein in the potato, so they get really tender and creamy. They are usually served with melted butter. What's not to like?!?! (Admit it, you really want to try them) Anyway, to take away the guesswork of either preparing a saturated solution or measuring out salt, they sell bags of potatoes packaged with bags of salt. [I found it kind of funny that the potatoes were packaged in Sacramento, where the workers were probably wondering WTF about the salt.] I prepared them according to the directions. The salt/water mixture was pretty close to saturation. I ended up putting the lid on the stockpot so they wouldn't splatter salt all over my nice clean kitchen. After about 20 minutes, they were done. I'm not sure if I didn't cook them quite long enough - they were soft and starchy like baked potatoes, rather than being creamy, but after sitting in the presence of butter for a while they became creamier. As you might expect, there was no need to add more salt, but they weren't overwhelmingly salty. (Be forwarned that I like my potatoes very salty, though.] I may make them again, especially since I still have some potatoes left.
I'll post more once I successfully use the smoker.
I bought a charcoal grill/smoker. It was on sale for $19. I've been wanting to get a nice big gas grill, and still intend to do so, but finding this was part of my good shopping karma this weekend.
It's nice and small and light, but I can still fit a small turkey in there. When I'm not using it I can stash it in the garage. I like its' design better than my old round one. I'm giving the old one to a grad student.
I got some pork chops, rubbed them down with a spice rub, and then looked at the instructions. Ooops. The grill needs to be cured before the first use, to seal the finish and get rid of paint odors. I cheated and let it cure for two hours, added a few more charcoal briquets and then started cooking the pork chops. I had trouble maintain the proper temperature (250F), so I should've added more earlier. After an hour I gave up and finished off the pork chops in the oven. They smelled pretty good as they cooked. They were moist and smoky, and the rub was tasty. They were somewhere in between smoked and baked. I don't recommend cooking them this way, but it is useful to know that rub is so tasty, especially since I have a lot left over.
My brother reminded me that smoked food is best paired with something blander, so it's not so overwhelming. I used this advice as an excuse to make salt potatoes, which are new potatoes cooked in a saturated solution of salt water. They are a regional dish here, and there's even chemistry involved, so of course I wanted to try them. The salt raises the boiling point of the water and also denatures the protein in the potato, so they get really tender and creamy. They are usually served with melted butter. What's not to like?!?! (Admit it, you really want to try them) Anyway, to take away the guesswork of either preparing a saturated solution or measuring out salt, they sell bags of potatoes packaged with bags of salt. [I found it kind of funny that the potatoes were packaged in Sacramento, where the workers were probably wondering WTF about the salt.] I prepared them according to the directions. The salt/water mixture was pretty close to saturation. I ended up putting the lid on the stockpot so they wouldn't splatter salt all over my nice clean kitchen. After about 20 minutes, they were done. I'm not sure if I didn't cook them quite long enough - they were soft and starchy like baked potatoes, rather than being creamy, but after sitting in the presence of butter for a while they became creamier. As you might expect, there was no need to add more salt, but they weren't overwhelmingly salty. (Be forwarned that I like my potatoes very salty, though.] I may make them again, especially since I still have some potatoes left.
I'll post more once I successfully use the smoker.
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Pork Chops with Spicy Citrus Chipotle Sauce
It's day one of the eating through the freezer experiment. I pulled out some soup for lunch and defrosted two thick cut pork chops for dinner/leftovers for tomorrow. I decided to brine the porkchops, and got out a cook book to find the brine proportions. Right next to the recipe for the pork chops, there was a sauce recipe that used orange juice, lime juice and zest, and chipotle peppers. I had all of those things. Perfect!
The pork chops were browned for on both sides, and then put into a 450F oven for about 10 minutes. Use a meat thermometer just to be on the safe side. Puree the sauce ingredients in advance and then cook the sauce down while the porkchops are resting.
Here's the sauce recipe. I modified it since I didn't have molasses. This makes enough for four pork chops. (I made a half recipe)
1/2 cup molasses (I used a combination of brown sugar and corn syrup)
1 cup orange juice
zest and juice from 2 limes
4 adobo chilies in sauce (I had some in the freezer. I just threw in the entire packet - it may've been a bit more)
2 cloves garlic
2 tbsp butter.
salt and pepper to taste.
Puree all the sauce ingredients in the blender.
After the pork chops are done cooking, let them rest under fill. Drain the fat from the pan and add the sauce. Cook it down until it's thick and shiny. Remove from heat and add the butter. Serve with the pork chops.
The pork was done to perfection on the chop that I tested with the meat thermometer. The other one was a bit underdone so I saved it for tomorrow, when I'll be reheating it. Rugrat was crying and begging while I was browning the chops, so I gave her some without sauce. She liked it. As for the sauce, well, it's good I'm on a spicy foods kick. Even so, it was a bit much. I'd back way off on the chipotle peppers next time. It was tasty, though. It wasn't too sweet, and the citrus flavors came through. I ate my pork chop with broccoli and homemade bread. (I have a lot of flour to use up too!) I am enjoying this experiment so far.
Net food cleared from storage
2 pork chops
3 limes that were staring to go bad
1 packet of chipotle chiles from the freezer
2 oranges that fell off the orange tree
some flour + brown sugar
The pork chops were browned for on both sides, and then put into a 450F oven for about 10 minutes. Use a meat thermometer just to be on the safe side. Puree the sauce ingredients in advance and then cook the sauce down while the porkchops are resting.
Here's the sauce recipe. I modified it since I didn't have molasses. This makes enough for four pork chops. (I made a half recipe)
1/2 cup molasses (I used a combination of brown sugar and corn syrup)
1 cup orange juice
zest and juice from 2 limes
4 adobo chilies in sauce (I had some in the freezer. I just threw in the entire packet - it may've been a bit more)
2 cloves garlic
2 tbsp butter.
salt and pepper to taste.
Puree all the sauce ingredients in the blender.
After the pork chops are done cooking, let them rest under fill. Drain the fat from the pan and add the sauce. Cook it down until it's thick and shiny. Remove from heat and add the butter. Serve with the pork chops.
The pork was done to perfection on the chop that I tested with the meat thermometer. The other one was a bit underdone so I saved it for tomorrow, when I'll be reheating it. Rugrat was crying and begging while I was browning the chops, so I gave her some without sauce. She liked it. As for the sauce, well, it's good I'm on a spicy foods kick. Even so, it was a bit much. I'd back way off on the chipotle peppers next time. It was tasty, though. It wasn't too sweet, and the citrus flavors came through. I ate my pork chop with broccoli and homemade bread. (I have a lot of flour to use up too!) I am enjoying this experiment so far.
Net food cleared from storage
2 pork chops
3 limes that were staring to go bad
1 packet of chipotle chiles from the freezer
2 oranges that fell off the orange tree
some flour + brown sugar
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