I may not be a hunter, but I do so enjoy cooking meat.

Awwwww yeahhhhhh....new grill a-comin'. The ol' Aussie grill finally died. So many replacement parts were needed, it would just behoove me to purchase a new grill. At least that's the reasoning I gave myself.

And purchase one I did: Big Red. 750 square inches of enameled cast iron grating.

My prize is the Char-Broil Big Red 3-Zone Infrared Grill. Billed as "infrared" heating, but rather it's more of a radiant heat. Instead of directly over flame causing flare-ups an whatnot, this one has a u-shaped "trough" above the burners that radiates heat to the food. The trough will allow me to add wood chunks for smoking, liquids for steaming, and collect an easy cleanup of drippings. Goes up to 700 degrees for searing or down low for slow BBQing; my heat range choices are wider than the old one.

It's big. And it's pricey. So to minimize any screwing up that I may do, I'm having my people at the Home Depot assemble it and deliver it to me. Can't wait!!!

Summer Chili

Nearly World Famous Gordon Chili was posted here in February 2008. I recently had a taste for it even in the heat of summer, so I spent my Wednesday off preparing it....with a few tweaks. You can basically follow along with the recipe from 2/08, but it changes each time I make it.

Namely, I added more chiles: dried and whole. Habanero, jalapeno, chile, ancho. Just enough insidious heat without burning your lips off.

Plus, instead of using broth and water, I just boiled two full bottles of Great Lakes Brewing's Edmund Fitzgerald Porter to make the chiles pliable before blending. And of course the entire concoction gets thrown in.
And I usually make an absolute mess of the place when I'm in the kitchen, but that's half the fun!

All in all, a fun day in the kitchen...with the dogs underfoot scavenging. Suffice to say neither one is a fan of pureed chile pepper. Spicing is never measured. Cilantro, cumin, chili powder, cinnamon, oregano. A heap of this, a healthy sprinkle of that, and the winner? Because I can and no one is here to tell me "no"...an entire bag of Nestle semi-sweet chocolate chips. Yes!

A huge ass pot of chili and Brown Sugar Cornbread. Yum! Who needs cold winters for good chili? Good food knows no season.

My version of the Bacon Explosion phenomenon

About 3 months ago I posted about a New York Times "Dining & Wine" article about the Bacon Explosion. In a fit of some sort of a what-the-hell moment, I recently went "hog wild" and decided to make one up for myself. I would have posted this earlier, but some stuff came up that relegated bloggishness to the back burner. Anyway, it was greasy, it was messy, but in the end I think it turned out quite well. Don't think I'll make one up with any regularity, but once in a while this is a tasty winner.

Here's the play-by-play:

Spread out your bacon into a square weave. The Bacon Explosion folks used a 5x5 of thick cut bacon, but a 7x7 for me fit a cookie sheet perfectly:

Dust the weave with BBQ rub:

Spread out your sausage to uniform thickness. Delicious Bob Evans wins the day here:

In the meantime, fry up your leftover bacon:

Now here is where I stray from the true Bacon Explosion recipe. I add cheese and onions. And I figure something that's this BAD for you deserves a cheese that is equally bad for you. And by "cheese" I mean an assumed cheese-type product. Velveeta. I laid out sliced Velveeta and sliced onions on the sausage, then included crumbled bacon that was cooked in the pan.

Carefully roll up the sausage leaving the bacon on the cookie sheet. Pinch the seam and the ends shut to keep all the cheesy, oniony, cooked bacony goodness inside:

Now, starting with the sausage roll end, roll the entire project the opposite way so that the bacon encapsulates the sausage:

Ready for the grill:

Just in case this turned out to be crap, I threw on a pork loin as a piggy backup to munch on. In any event, sprinkle some BBQ rub on the roll and grill for about an hour per inch of diameter. Then with about 15-20 minutes to go, slather it with BBQ sauce. The sweeter sauces would compliment the salty bacon rather well. I can't imagine a snappy tart sauce doing well, but do whatever floats your boat:

3 and 1/2 hours later (on charcoal) and it's done!

Slice and serve. I used onion buns. This dish may lop a couple months off your life, but they're the ones at the end, and those aren't any fun anyway. Enjoy!

Bacon Explosion.

Wow.

I just don't even know what to say. It's all so, so, so, disgusting yet eerily intriguing at the same time. But it made the New York Times "Dining & Wine" section, so it's legitimate enough for the masses. I mean, this was the photo from the NYT article:



Wow. Just....wow.

If you love bacon, just click on the links and salivate away.

Take Bacon. Add Sausage. Blog. article in the New York Times.

Bacon Explosion: The BBQ Sausage Recipe of all Recipes detailed blog post at BBQ Addicts to construct such a monster.

I will add that my favorite comment on the bacon blog was:

Adam Weil 01.29.09 at 8:20 am

No cheese?!?! Is it for girls?

Classic.

Inauguration Week Day Seven - Sat 1/24

Saturday was a fun day of running around. In order:

- Lincoln Waffle House restuarant in DC on 10th and E across the street from Ford's Theatre for a greasy spoon breakfast. Then,...

- JR Cigars on 16th and L, or was it 17th and K, or was it the 1700 block of Connecticut? Either way, we got twisted around and picked up some cigars. Then,...

- back to Alexandria to pick up James's neighbor Paul, for we have other manly things to go to, like...

- the German Gourmet in Falls Church, VA for German mustards, brats, cheese, German potato salad, hunks of double-smoked bacon, Ritter candy bars, and the delicious jerky-ish landjäger. Then, the swag goes into the cooler and we make our way to...

- Dogfish Head Alehouse for a late lunch. Then, on our way home, in the same center as Dogfish Head, we stumble upon....

- Old Virginia Tobacco Co. to check it out.

Then we finally made it back to Alexandria for some homebrew, more Sweetwater growlers, and Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street on the telly. Quite the nice day.

Inauguration Week Day Six - Fri 1/23

Today was an easy-going day. Enjoyed the usual stellar Brannon Omelet (trademark and patent pending) in the morning, followed a little later on by a trek by all 4 Brannons plus myself into the S.E. section of DC around the corner from the Eastern Market. The destination? The hyped-up Belga Cafe, a Belgian beer and food extravaganza. I've heard so many good things about this place, and for whatever reason it always seemed to fall off the radar when planning eatery spots to hit. This time, with authentic Belgian food still relatively fresh in my head from September's Belgium trip, a stop at Belga Cafe was written in stone.

A tiny little place, a shoebox. Enormous beer menu. Stupendous. A mini-book. Think fancy wine list from other high end restaurants, and replace it with Belgian beer. Salivating. However, with all things at Belga Cafe, the selections were pricey. VERY pricey.

The food was, well, meh. We started with Kip and Krab Sigaar [spicy cigars of chicken and crabmeat with dipping suaces]. I then had the Vlaamse Stoverij [Flemish Beef Stew] just like at the brewpub in Brussels, but unlike the brewpub in Brussels it just wasn't awe-inspiring. James had the Biefstuk van de Beenhouwer [hanger steak] and the sauce included with it gave it the table top prize. Monica had the Coquilles Saint-Jacques [scallops]. The boys had a mini Le Vrais Steak Belge [steak and fries]. We of course ended with Vanilla Waffels [I'm not translating that] and scoops of chocolate/vanilla/coffee ice cream for the kids minus the coffee. Good, but not the "good" we expected with the prices involved. Yikes!

The service was subpar. Bringing the same 2nd round of drinks without asking if I wanted a different beer instead (I did). Giving James a Troubadour Blond when he ordered a Troubadour Stout. Never refilling the water glasses. Leaving dishes on the table for eons. Scooping the coffee ice cream for the kids when we asked them not to. Just an awful dining experience for the enormous amount of coin we dropped.

Overhyped due to the excitement of FINALLY getting here? Possibly. But it will be truly difficult to return and give it another try. Disappointing.

Monica then broke away to meet Kimberly because Kimberly wanted to go shopping. Shocker, I know. So James and I took the boys home and enjoyed the unseasonably warm weather. We were able to kibbitz outside with cold beverage while the boys and Sam n' Maxie played. But once the sun began to dip low, the chill returned with a vengeance. Inside then for growlers of Sweetwater Tavern beers plus Wes Anderson's The Darjeeling Limited on the telly? A nice relaxing evening.

Inauguration Week Day Five - Thu 1/22

Today?.....we fast.

We go sans food.

We pass the hours with bellies empty.

Why? We're gearing up for dinner in DC on 11th and Pennsylvania tonight at....Fogo de Chao. A Brazilian steakhouse with gobs and gobs of meat. But first, if not food, then what to satiate us?

Beer.

James and I, with all intentions of hitting an art museum or two during the afternoon, decided on the Metro into DC to hit District Chophouse & Brewery for a pre-museum brew. Their delectable Bourbon Stout (aged in Woodford Reserve barrels) is divine. Upon entering, the board states they have a Barack Bock seasonal brew. Well we just MUST try that offering now won't we? Then the lush and velvety Bourbon Stout. Thinking, it IS early, and just an appetizer wouldn't ruin dinner would it? So we break our fast in a matter of an hour and get chicken fingers. But fret not, we're good. Plenty of room for dinner tonight....


With the Barack Bock crossed off our beer ticking list, we discuss the seasonal at Capitol City Brewing, InaugurAle. So, onto the Metro to Union Station and Cap City. InaugurAle was sweet and tasty, which of course was then followed up with their unfiltered version Forty-Four. Finally a coffee stout of coffee stouts, Fuel, was downed as a "dessert beer" this afternoon.

Discussing the InaugurAle at Cap City, it was noted that DC's third brewpub Gordon Biersch also had an InaugurAle on tap. I had it while meeting Jim and Cecile (and Kimberly too) for lunch on Monday. Odd for a lager brewpub to offer an ale, but InaugurLager didn't have the same tone. What are two American Homebrewers Association members to do when GB offers a 10% discount for AHA members? Why we bypass an art museum visit yet again and hop back on the Metro to Gordon Biersch!

The InaugurAle, Gordon Biersch edition, was enjoyed followed by their stellar Schwarzbier. From here, we have a little bit of time to kill before dinner, so let's nab some cigars, shall we? To Georgetown!

The Metro really doesn't serve Georgetown well, which is a shame since it is such a nifty part of town. So, we hopped in a cab to M Street and Wisconsin to Georgetown Tobacco. A meaty Camacho Triple Maduro for James, and a Zino Classic No.6 for me. A really neat shoppe (proper spelling for this establishment) with friendly patrons, friendlier staff, and huge tobacco leaves hanging over the rafters. A dark wood man-cave. Really fun.

So now, we get the call from Monica. She and Kimberly (yes, the four of us got together for the first time since Kimberly's bombshell marital decision. [singing] Awkward....) are on their way to Fogo de Chao. We say our goodbyes to our new cigar friends and hail a cab to 11th and Pennsylvania. It's time for meat!

Fogo de Chao. Gauchos in leather boots with meat on swords bandy about the place! Little coasters, or discs, are involved. Red on one side, green on the other. Ready for meat? Flip your disc to green and watch the gauchos come flying to the table offering meat on swords. Razor sharp knives slice the meat with ultimate ease. Lamb, chicken, filet, 15 different cuts of meat. FIFTEEN!!! Sure there's a delicious salad bar, sure there's tasty side dishes of polenta, mashed potatoes, cheese bread, and fried bananas. But there are FIFTEEN cuts of meat! Have plenbty of meat during this go 'round? Flip your disc to red and chow down. Wow. Gluttonous once again.

Uncomfortably full, James, Monica, and I retire away to Alexandria. Ugh, we're so full....

Inauguration Week Day Four - Wed 1/21

After an exhilarating day on Tuesday and a wonderfully sound sound sleep, it was now Wednesday. Woke up to meet Jim and Cecile before they made their way back to NC at Alexandria's Bread and Chocolate for breakfast. After filling our bellies, they hit the road and I hit the Mall again. Destination this morning? The National Museum of American History, a hodgepodge of artifacts from George Washington's revolutionary war uniform to Judy Garland's ruby slippers to trains to C-3PO. A little bit of everything encompassing the vast canvass of U.S. history.

The highlights for me? Seeing President Obama's name and likeness make the Wall of Presidents. Did I just type that? "President" Obama? Of course, the Revolutionary War exhibit was captivating. This particular exhibit was just about the same as in years past, but it was still quite the spectacle for me. The museum had been closed for I would guess about 2 years or so for renovations, the major one being a new home for the original Star-Spangled Banner. Sadly, no photos of the restored flag were allowed. I almost think the working display of historians repairing the flag was more intriguing than the finished display, but that's neither here nor there.

Another keen item on display was an original Abraham Lincoln top hat. Not just any old hat, but the hat he had with him that fateful night at Ford's Theatre. According to the placard, the hat was transferred from Mary Lincoln to the care of the Patent Office, which then gave it to the Smithsonian in 1867. There it lay in basement storage for fear of the excitement and pandemonium it could cause. Finally, in 1893 it saw the light of day for the Lincoln Memorial Association, and has been a Smithsonian treasure ever since. The museum had quite a bit of Lincoln information and displays as February 2009 is the 200th birthday of our 16th president.

From there, James and I made it to my all-time favorite stop in DC: The National Archives. The original documents of the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights are on display in the rotunda. Awe-inspiring. Plenty of other historic documents are on display, such as a copy of the Magna Carta, the "great charter". The original from the year 1215 has long been since destroyed, and a rare few copies exist mainly in England with one in Australia and one in the U.S. The copy displayed in the Archives is from the year 1297. Per the ever-reliable (wink wink) Wikipedia, only one copy...

...(a 1297 copy with the royal seal of Edward I) is in private hands; it was held by the Brudenell family, earls of Cardigan, who had owned it for five centuries, before being sold to the Perot Foundation in 1984. This copy, having been on long-term loan to the US National Archives, was auctioned at Sotheby's New York on 18 December 2007; The Perot Foundation sold it in order to "have funds available for medical research, for improving public education and for assisting wounded soldiers and their families." It fetched US $21.3 million. It was bought by David Rubenstein of The Carlyle Group, who after the auction said, "I thought it was very important that the Magna Carta stay in the United States and I was concerned that the only copy in the United States might escape as a result of this auction." Rubenstein's copy is on permanent loan to the National Archives in Washington, DC.

Revolving exhibitions make their way through the galleries to make things interesting with each visit. This time, the 1783 Treaty of Paris finally declaring peace between the newly founded United States and England was on display. Wh-wh-wh-WHAT???? Cue up the colonial history nerd in me. This. Is. GREAT! Can you imagine? The original peacetime document? Unbelievable....



We stayed until the Archives closed. Then, famished for sustenance, we made our way to the Metro to hit the African-American neighborhood on U Street for some world famous Ben's Chili Bowl. Delicious chili, chili-cheeseburgers, chili dogs, chili cheese fries, chili half-smokes, the whole nine yards. So bad for you, but so so good. Sadly, when we got there, the line looked like this:
It wrapped out the door, around the corner, and all the way down the alley next to it! Oh man.... So, due to a scoop from none other than Kimberly, we hit the bar next door to Ben's called...Next Door. Ben's son runs it, I don't watch this particular television show but the winner of Hell's Kitchen cooks there, there is a smattering of microbrewed beer, and finally there's a taste of Ben's menu with chili and chili half-smokes. So, in a gluttonous and reckless abandon, James and I ordered up a chili half-smoke each with some beer, then hit the alleyway next door to Next Door and waited for a table at Ben's.

In the cold.

For an hour.

Dedication to chili, my friends. It was SO worth the wait. And the hour wait in between shivering in the cold offset the fact that we would eat two dinners on U Street tonight. Enjoy the sights and the food porn:

Thai Massamun Curry

(blogger's note: James in Alexandria will officially go bonkers over this recipe)

One of our favorite haunts is Greensboro's Taste of Thai restaurant. A staple? Massamun Curry. A yummy dish of coconut, peanut, and potato with chicken over rice. Outstanding. In a fit of experimentation, I searched online for some recipes, then found what I believe to be a fair representation of the dish.

Literally a block down the street from my pharmacy is the Dynasty International Food and Gifts grocery store specializing in Vietnamese and Thai items. After work one day I stopped in to acquire the specialty ingredients...and spent a whopping $3.63 in doing so. Crazy.

3 chicken breasts, massamun curry paste, 2 cans of coconut milk, two potatoes, one yellow onion, brown sugar, lemon juice, crushed red pepper flakes, 1/2 cup peanuts, and the kicker...fish sauce.





Basically, mix all of these together at intervals and simmer. Easy. And delicious. Add a bowl-shaped mound of rice onto a plate then spoon the goodies onto it, and the flavor of Taste of Thai can be had at home. Minus the entertaining idolatry.

Kimberly remarked how much it looks, smells, and IS the real deal from the restaurant. A quality experiment and a successful rip-off if I do say so.

Now what to do with all this extra fish sauce?....

Holiday season Hungarian Nut Roll

Every Christmas I make, if I do say so myself, some astounding nut roll. An old Hungarian recipe is used, however I use a Kitchen-Aid mixer and not my hands to mix this sticky dough. Every time I make this, I marvel at the fact that my Hungarian godmother would make these with only her hands time and time again.

In order to share this goodness with the world, I am here to post the recipe and the step-by-step instructions. You'll thank me.

Sprinkle one packet of bread yeast into 1/4 cup lukewarm water with 1 teaspoonful of brown sugar and let multiply.

Mix 6 cups (that is not a typo: SIX cups) flour, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and 1/4 cup sugar.

Cut in two sticks of butter a la pie dough. Mix in 3 eggs, 1 cup of milk, 1/2 cup sour cream, and 2 teaspoonfuls vanilla. Add yeast.

Allow the dough to rise in a quiet, warm spot until doubled. Then chill overnight.

Make the filling with two pounds of ground walnuts, 8 whipped egg whites plus 1 cup sugar until soft peaks form, 1 teaspoonful cinnamon, and 2 tablespoonfuls honey.

This recipe makes THREE nut rolls, so divide the dough and filling into three. Roll out the dough and spread your filling.

Roll and prick the top with a fork with each roll to vent. Bake at 350 degrees for 30-35 minutes until golden brown. And if you want, do what I do and go overboard and make THREE batches, which equates to NINE nut rolls. NINE. (With enough extra trimmed dough to make a TENTH...experimentally using pecans on that one).


Delicious.

Spicy Chicken Corn Chowder

I love chowder.

New England Clam and any sort of Corn will suffice. (But screw that unnatural Manhattan!)

After my trip to Williams-Sonoma yesterday, with frankly the sole purpose of buying a soup cookbook, I gathered the ingredients and threw together the Spicy Corn Chowder in the book. Now if you know me, I cannot just follow along, I must individualize it. It needs chicken. Dammit, it needs chicken. So, during my barbecued turkey breast smoking whilst brewing beer, I threw on two chicken breasts for the soup.

The goods: one yellow onion, one jalapeno, two potatoes, one stalk of celery (I despise celery, and the fact that you HAVE to buy it in huge stalks annoys me, so I used one teaspoonful of ground celery seed instead), one teaspoonful of roasted minced garlic (found in those tiny jars), 4 cups of milk, 1 cup of heavy cream, three cups of corn, 3 strips of bacon, and a sprinkling of red pepper flakes. Oh yeah, and those two cooked chicken breasts.

In a food processor, pulse the quartered yellow onion, the seeded jalapeno, the celery seed, and the roasted minced garlic:

Cut the strips of bacon then crisp it for 5 minutes max in the large soup pot (mmmm, and it's the double smoked thick bacon from the German Gourmet in Alexandria, VA too):

Remove the bacon then saute the onion/jalapeno/celery/garlic in the bacon grease for a few minutes to brown it up.

Add the peeled potatoes (cubed bite size), cooked chicken (cut bite size), milk, and heavy cream. Bring to a boil then cut the heat to low and simmer for 15 minutes or until the potatoes are fork-tender.

Now add the bacon and the corn. All that delicious corn. That succulent corn. That orgasmic corn.

Simmer it for 5 more minutes or until the corn is tender. Then, with a slotted spoon, remove two cups/16oz/5oomL of solids. With an immersion blender, a regular blender, or a food processor, puree these solids well. Reintroduce the puree to the pot and add the red pepper flakes. Add salt and pepper to taste. Then just continue to simmer until it's serving time. It will indeed need some salt, how much is up to you. Tasting it before any S&P, I thought it just needed a little "boost".

Holy crap. Delicioso. And relatively quick to prepare. A new Gordonian staple. The jalapeno gives a bit of insidious heat in the throat. Nothing overtly HOT, but you know it's there. If you're adverse to a warm mouth and gullet, I suppose you could eliminate the jalapeno, or go with a milder heat pepper. Me? This rocks as it is.

Try it.

And in the immortal words of Lois Griffin, "Who wants chowder?"