Eggrooms

It's a rainy day here in the San Juan Islands... a perfect day for eggrooms.

Whoa - what's that?

Eggrooms is a recipe that I invented nearly 50 years ago for a romantic morning after breakfast. I've never seen it published anywhere... before now.  So the secret is now officially out.

A good blogger would have pictures, both intermediate and finished.  I'm a hungry blogger.

This is way easier (especially for one who fears flipping floppy things with a spatula) than a mushroom omelet.

Ingredients

• Mushrooms, sliced 1/8" thick
• Four eggs
• Butter
• Garlic salt
• Pepper

Start by slicing enough mushrooms 1/8" thick to cover the bottom of your non-stick frying pan.  Try to make the slices uniform in thickness so they all will cook at the same rate.

Melt a tablespoon or so of butter in the pan and saute the the mushrooms over medium heat until they are getting golden brown edges on the bottom side.  Don't try to turn them over - you can't, and even if you could by the time you get the last one done, the first will be over-cooked.  Romove the mushrooms from the pan, retaining as much of the butter in the pan as possible.

Did I mention that I am spatula impaired?  I can only handle two eggs at a time.

Return half of the mushrooms to the pan and arrange them into two circles, more of less, with the centers large enough to contain the egg yolks.  Crack two eggs into the mushroom circles.

Sprinkle with garlic salt and pepper.

We like our eggs over easy - cook as you would normally

Prepare the second two eggs the same way.

You will find eggrooms to be as tasty as a mushroom omelet, but in a different way...

Enjoy!

Eggrooms

Panang Curry, ala Eolian

Panang Curry has forever been the benchmark by which I have judged Thai restaurants.  And I have been struggling for years to come up with my own perfect Panang Curry recipe.  Until now, I have come close, but have missed the mark in one gustatorial dimension or another.

Not any more.

Magic

I have found the magic.

Now mind you, this doesn't get you all the way there, but it is close.  Still needed are a little more peanut flavor, some sweetness, and (perhaps the most magic ingredient of all) some ginger.

Here's my recipe (makes 4 very generous servings).  If there are only two of you, make the full recipe, but only half the rice.  Use the rest on a second batch of rice another day.

Ingredients - serves 4

• 2 cups Basmati/Jasmine rice
• 4 cups water
• 2 tsp salt

•  2 Tbsp Olive oil
• 1/2 large onion, diced into 1/4" pieces
• 3 large cloves of garlic, thinly sliced
• 1 green Bell pepper, diced into 1/4"pieces
• 1/2 cup of carrots sliced into 1/4" pieces
• 1 large stem broccoli, sliced thinly, including the entire stem.
• 1 8 oz can pineapple chunks in water, drained
• 1 to 1-1/2 cups cooked chicken (left overs work best!), cut into chopstick-sized pieces
• 1 12 oz can of coconut milk.  Do not use "light".
• Mae Ploy Panang Curry Paste
• 1 Tbsp peanut butter
• 2 Tbsp brown sugar 
• 4 Tbsp Thai basel, chopped with scissors
• 1 cubic inch of fresh ginger, sliced thinly and diced
• Zest and juice of one lime

The Rice

1. Start the rice - this always takes the longest and can tolerate waiting the best...  Bring 4 cups of water to a boil.  Add 2 tsp salt.
2. Once boiling, add the rice.  Stir immediately to prevent sticking to the bottom of the pan and cover.  When the water again comes to a boil stir again, lower the heat to low, crack the lid and start on the curry.

 The Curry

1. Stir fry the onions and carrots in a couple of Tbsp of olive oil in a 2-qt saucepan until just beginning to get tender.  
2. Add the pepper and continue to stir fry.
3. Add the garlic and continue to stir fry.
4. When the garlic just begins to stick to the pan and/or the pepper is just getting tender, add the broccoli.  Note that Asian cooks don't discard the stems of the broccoli - just cut off the dried out end and slice the rest thin.
5. Stir fry the broccoli until the color changes to bright green.
6. Add the coconut milk, sugar, pineapple, and peanut butter.
7. The Mae Ploy paste comes in a plastic bag inside the container.  Cut off a corner of the bag to make an opening about 3/4" diameter.  Extrude a log of curry paste about 3" long and 3/4" diameter into the pan (more if you are a 4-5 star kind of person, a little less if 2 stars is more to your liking).
8. Mix well.  Add the chicken. 
9. Once everything has come to a simmer, turn off the heat and add the aromatics (ginger, basil, lime zest and juice).  Stir.  You should have enough curry to nearly fill a 2--quart saucepot - 4 generous servings.
10. Reserve enough basil to garnish the servings

Meanwhile, you have been checking the rice all along, right?  When there is no more water visible and there are a bunch of holes in the surface, turn off the heat.  Wait another 5-10 minutes, until the last of the water has been absorbed and you have "sticky rice".

Divide the rice onto 4 plates, divide the curry onto the rice, and garnish generously with the chopped Thai basil.

Present with chopsticks (naturally!)

Panang Curry, ala Eolian

How To: Shuck Oysters

It has come to my attention that not everyone knows how to shuck oysters.  Like many things, it is not hard, but it does require the right tools.  I like this Oxo oyster knife - it is sturdy and has a slight curve up toward the flat side, which you probably can't see in the picture.  Sorry.  The back side has a reinforcing rib which makes it quite stiff and sturdy.

Oxo Oyster Knife

So grab an oyster.  Hold it with the hinge end (the thick, usually pointy end) towards you, and with the flat, or flatter side up.

Your snack awaits

Now, where to insert the knife?  Examine the edge of the oyster and you will see a zone, approximately half way between top and bottom, where the layers of the shell are very close together.  If you are lucky, you may see a dark band near the center. This is the junction between the lower and upper shells, and is not actually sealed. Instead the oyster is mightily holding the two shells together with its big muscle.

Where does the knife go in?

Nolw here's where you could get hurt.  Professional oyster shuckers (at an oyster bar, for example), frequently wear a chain mail glove on their left hand - you probably won't have that, so be *very careful*!

The moment of truth

Touch the knife, flat side up, to the junction between the lower and upper shells, about halfway between the tip of the shell and the hinge. Apply some pressure and twist the knife a little to help it penetrate the joint. Don't worry if you don't get exactly on the junction... the twisting motion will guide the knife tip to the junction. DON'T POKE YOURSELF IN THE LEFT HAND! If you're pushing really hard, you're doing it wrong. Twist more; push less.

Once you get the tip between the shells, swing the knife side to side while slowly pushing it in further, keeping the tip against the inside of the upper shell.  What you are trying to do is to cut the muscle that is holding the shells together.   It will be about midway across the oyster.  You'll know when you cut the muscle - suddenly there will be nothing holding the shells clamped shut.  Open carefully by twisting the knife, being careful not to spill the liquor inside, and be sure to scrape any meat off the under side of the upper shell.

Enjoy in your favorite way!

---

*No oysters were harmed in making this post - this was a re-enaction.  We ate them last nite...

How To: Shuck Oysters 

How To Make: Clotted Cream

Clotted cream.

That has a vaguely unsavory sound about it.  If you are like me, you may have heard of it in some British novel or story - Downton Abbey perhaps.  And you may have imagined something like sour cream...  but how would that go with high tea?

Well, let me assure you, it is not sour cream.  Instead it is a buttery, nutty, caramelly substance that is wonderful when spread on biscuits, pound cake, etc.

I had never had it until I decided to make it just to see what it was.

It is trivially easy.  Here is the recipe:

• Pour heavy cream in an oven safe dish.  It should be big enough so that the cream makes a layer 1-1.5" deep.
• Put it in a 180° oven for 12 hours - over night works well.
• Cool, and then refrigerate.
• Scrape the clotted cream off of the milk-like layer below.  It will be a little like scraping ice cream off of a layer of milk.  There will be a golden brown crust - include it; it will soften when stored with the remainder and add flavor.

That's it.

Could it be any simpler?  The only catch is that you cannot use ultra-pasteurized cream (it's already been cooked).

Try it - you're in for a really special treat!

How To Make: Clotted Cream

Fresh Homemade Pasta

You like pasta?

Well, you'll like fresh homemade pasta even more.

Is it hard?  NO!

Marcato Atlas pasta machine

You will need a pasta machine - if you're on a boat, a hand cranked one is ideal.

Then all you need is flour, water, eggs, and salt.

Makes approximately 1 lb of pasta:

• 365 grams flour
• 8 grams salt
• 2 eggs + water to make 181 grams of liquid

Why am I weighing things instead of following the more usual (American) standard of volume measure?  Well, because flour packs considerably, so the actual amount of flour you dump into your mixing bowl depends dramatically on how you packed it into the measuring cup.  And this is a recipe that is very sensitive to moisture content:  Too much and the pasta sticks to the rollers and cannot be successfully slit.  Too little and you simply cannot roll it.  So, get a scale and weigh the ingredients.

Mix with a fork, then by hand, and finally kneading on the counter until all the flour is incorporated.

Roll out into a log of roughly uniform diameter and cut into 6 equal pieces.

The initial passes thru the pasta machine are simply a continuation of the mixing, but in a shear regime that you cannot reach by hand.  Roll at position 1, fold, roll again.  Do this until all the unevenness in texture is gone.

Fold and roll again at position 3 (yeah, you can skip 2)

Roll again at position 4 (do not fold)

Roll again at position 5 (do not fold)

Hang each of the resulting pasta sheets on a rack to dry slightly.

Move the crank to the slitter portion of the pasta machine.  Slit each pasta sheet and hang the resulting noodles back on the rack, using a long spoon handle to capture and transfer the noodles.

Take the time to separate the noodles on the rack so that they don't stick together.

You can cook the noodles immediately in boiling water, or let them dry over night, or split the batch and do both.  The dry noodles will keep more or less indefinitely, but take considerably longer to cook than the fresh ones.

Trust me, it is so easy and so tasty that you'll never go back to store-bought pasta!

Fresh Homemade Pasta

Ricotta, Again.

Milk is one of those strange products...  apparently they really, REALLY want you to buy it in gallon jugs.  Oh, they'll sell it to you in 1/2 gallon jugs, but for only a few cents less than the gallon jug.

So, being the frugal person that I am, I always buy the gallon jug,  even tho Jane and I frequently don't make it thru the gallon before it starts to get "strong".  Maybe "stubborn" is a better description for a person who refuses to buy the smaller container even tho it fits his purposes perfectly.

And then recently I had a thought, "I wonder if 'old' milk would make acceptable ricotta?"

And delightfully, the answer is a resounding YES!

So, now instead of it being a rare event, I make ricotta at the end of nearly every jug of milk, adding enough from the new jug to make up the difference, because usually there is not enough for a full batch left in the old jug.

And this frequency has led to some experimentation.  First, while ricotta can be made with just about any food acid (lemon juice, vinegar, etc), we like the flavor and texture of that made using buttermilk best.

Second, always add some salt to the curds as you are scooping them out into the cheesecloth to drain.  A little salt really improves the flavor.

Third, try using garlic salt instead of plain salt - it is a delightful addition to the ricotta.

Or try adding finely chopped fresh herbs to the ricotta for another delightful variation.

And since Jane always seems to have a container of heavy cream in the refrigerator, I tried substituting cream for some of the milk.  And here's where I learned something else...  Jane usually buys the "Ultra Pasteurized" variety because it keeps so well.  But as it turns out, the ultra-pasteurization process heats the dairy product to a higher temperature than regular pasteurization, making it unsuitable for cheese making:  it will not form curds.  At all.

My first attempt at cream-enhanced ricotta, substituting a full cup of cream,  produced a cheese that was way too "moist".  In fact, you couldn't really spread it on a cracker - more like you needed to use a spoon.

But problems are often a boon in disguise.  I have found that the ultra-pasteurized cream can be used in making ricotta - as a moistening agent.  But just not so much.  At a level of 1/4 cup in a batch, it produces a ricotta that is delightfully moist and rich.

Ricotta, Again.

'Tis The Season

In years past, we always cleaned the crab before bringing them aboard, cooked them, and then refrigerated or froze it.  Because they are ubiquitous, we used Zip-lock bags for storage.

But after a disappointingly short time in the refrigerator or freezer, the crab looses it's sweet, just-caught flavor.  And the flesh turns kind of leathery.

So this year, Jane is trying something different.  First, she is picking all the meat.  Tedious work, but realistically, most of the crab we froze last year ended up getting picked anyway to make crab cakes.  So she is just doing this up front.

And here is the big change:  instead of Zip-lock bags, we are using a vacuum sealer.  As opposed to the polyethylene Zip-locks, the Food Saver bags are made of a film that is impervious to oxygen, and presumably also to that common "refrigerator/freezer taste".

Bonus:  out of the shell, the crab takes up a lot less space in the freezer!

And of course, none of this applies to the crab which we eat on board, fresh from the sea!

'Tis The Season

It Really *Is* All About The Roux

A long time ago, Jane managed to snag one of those church cookbook compilations at the Shilshole book exchange.  What made this one special was that it was from Cajun Country...  yep, Nawlins.  It seems that almost every recipe in it starts out with something like, "Fry three strips of bacon.  Eat the bacon, and make a roux with the bacon fat."

So, if you're not into the best cooking the USA has to offer, what's a roux?   It is where you brown some flour in fat.  Done properly, it takes a while - up to or more than an hour, in fact.  But oh is it worth it!

Well.

Jane subscribed to a magazine a while back (that I can recommend for a whole bunch of reasons, not least of which is that they use the scientific method extensively in creating recipies...) called "Cooks Illustrated."

It just so happens that this month's addition addressed in one article Cajun cooking's most treasured ingredient:  the roux.  Cutting to the chase, here's the short version:  Instead of standing over a hot frying pan for an hour stirring a mixture of flour and bacon fat, toast the flour in your oven, and use the bacon fat elsewhere in the recipe.  

I made this chicken gumbo for dinner Saturday nite, and oh my goodness, was it good!

I toasted the flour at home in our house oven (I did it in a pie pan, and actually, I toasted much more than I needed, because I anticipated that I'd be making something needing a roux again...).  And then I completed the recipe on board Eolian.

Oh. My. Goodness.

If you try the recipe above, I found that a half recipe was more than enough to feed three...  we'll actually use it to feed four (two, twice).

Oh, and here's a recommendation:  subscribe to Cook's Illustrated.  You'll never have a boring meal again, nor will you have one that requires that you get every pot dirty either.

It Really *Is* All About The Roux

Jane's Crab Chowder

So it's January and you still have some crabs in the freezer. They're too old to enjoy steamed...  what do you do?  You could make crab cakes... again.  Or...

You could make Jane's Crab Chowder!

Jane's Crab Chowder

• Two slightly freezer burned Dungeness crabs, still frozen.
• Two cups water
• Three tbsp olive oil
• One medium onion, chopped
• One cup finely chopped celery
• 1/4 cup finely chopped red Bell pepper
• One cup dry white cooking wine
• Two tbsp tomato paste
• Two cups whipping cream
• Salt and pepper to taste

Put the frozen crabs (cooked before freezing, or not) in a large pan and add the water.   Bring to a boil covered and then simmer 15-20 minutes.  Cool the crab.  Pour the stock thru a sieve and save.  Crack the crab and pick the meat.  If you would like a stronger crab flavor in the stock, you can put the shells back in the stock and simmer for another 15 minutes before straining.

In another medium pot, heat the oil over low heat.  Add the onion, celery and Bell pepper and cook, covered, stirring often until very soft and translucent - but not browned; maybe 15 minutes.  Really, you're steaming these veggies.

Add the wine and tomato paste to the vegetables and cook over medium heat, uncovered, until the wine has been reduced by half, about 10 minutes.  Add the whipping cream, the crab meat, and the retained crab boil stock and simmer uncovered over low heat 15 minutes or so to smooth out the flavors and thicken it up a bit.

If you like, the chowder can be served with a dollop of sour cream in the middle of each bowl.

Jane's Crab Chowder

A Small Little Project

Oooo!  Shiny!

Our rail-mounted BBQ table (it's really a fish cleaning table, but Fish Do Not Fear Me...) was really showing its age. The plastic had suffered extreme UV degredation -  the surface had turned porous and chalky.  And with use, grease and other food stuff soaked into the porosity and then bacteria went to town, meaning that it was porous, chalky and spattered with black spots and streaks.  Truly ugly.  And unsanitary.

So, not too long ago when I went to a garage sale at San Juan Yachts (yup, the place that made the San Juan sailboats...  now they are only making RIBs), I bought a scrap of Starboard for cheap.  Then I cut it up with my trusty little table saw, copying the shapes of the pieces in the old table.  I even used the same screws to put it together.

Not bad for $15 and a couple of hours work in the shop!

A Small Little Project

Lawn Mower Pesto

Have you ever planted chives in a small bed next to your yard?  If you have, you know that they spread and spread.  How about mint?  Even more spreading.

We have.  And when we mow the grass, some of that chive and mint gets chopped up.  It smells wonderful!

Tho this happens every time we cut the grass, Jane and I were discussing the aroma for perhaps the first time last nite after mowing the grass.  In one of those "Aha!" moments, Jane suggested that since it smelled so good, I should try making a pesto out of chives and mint.

Wow!  We had it mixed onto pasta last night.  It was fresh, warm and wonderful!  I'm sure it would be good on salmon, lamb, or just smeared on bruschetta. 

Here's how I made it:

• Grab a handful of chives and pull out the browning ones so that you have all green.
• Strip the leaves off a few mint plant tops - if the soft stems at the top come off too, that's OK.
• Pack these into your Cuisinart along with 3-4 large peeled garlic cloves.
• Pulse until chopped fine.
• Pulse while adding just enough olive oil to stick things together.

Sorry I don't have an exact recipe.  The first attempt smelled a little too "onion-y", so I just added a little more mint.

If we had not planted these two things right next to each other, the idea would never have occurred to us.  But after-dinner research disclosed that we were not the first to discover this wonderful taste combination.  Google "chives mint" and you'll see that even Martha Stewart beat us to it.  You might even get some more exact recipes...

Lawn Mower Pesto

It's aliiive!

There is froth in there

(Cue maniacal laughter and phony German accent)   Bwa ha ha ha haaaa!  I haf created da life!

Inspired by Valerie's efforts on s/v Letitgo, I have made now two batches of baguettes, and will soon be graduating to the use of a levain.

What's that you ask (rhetorically)?  Why it is a natural leavening, consisting of a culture of yeast and bacteria.  You might have heard it called "starter" or "sourdough starter".

How do you make it?  (Aren't rhetorical questions great?)  It really couldn't be easier.  No really.  You mix flour and water in equal proportions and leave it out on the counter to spoil.  That's it.  Give it a shake once a day or so.  The yeasts and bacteria that are in the air everywhere, that are in every breath we take, and who were here on the Earth long before we were, will colonize the medium. 

But wait - how do you get the right yeast and the right bacteria?  This is one of those rare, rare situations...  No matter which yeasts and which bacteria initially colonize the medium, there will be new arrivals every day.  Eventually, the strongest, fittest ones will survive and dominate, pushing the others towards local extinction.  And in a truly weird twist of nature, no matter where you are in the world, it is these same battle survivor species that are the ones you want.  It's almost as if dandelions were the desirable species for yards.  You'd scrape off your yard, and yes, eventually it'd be carpeted with a beautiful green and yellow display, with no effort on your part.

So in my levain, the early colonists are busy building homes, and the battle is just beginning.  Now that there is life in there, I will periodically dump half of the levain and replace it with fresh flour and water.  The colonists need food, after all.

In a couple of weeks it'll be ready for use in bread making.

It's aliiive!

Stitch 'n glue

Step 1: one side and one end glued

We're doing a little stich n' glue construction here aboard Eolian.  Well, maybe not so much stitch, but plenty of glue for sure.  These are gingerbread houses under construction here.  The glue is powdered sugar with just enough water to make it barely fluid.  (If you should decide to try this, beware - it takes less water than you might think, and the slightest additional amount will make the "mortar" too runny.) 

We are making three of them - one each for Hazel and Eliza (Ken and Erica's children).   We are also making one for Monkey  - Adam and Kaci's child, due any day now! - called "Monkey" because the gender will be a surprise - how great is that?  We have both the blue and pink flags at the ready.  (How's that for a sneaky way to announce an impending addition to the crew of Eolian?)

Step 2: Assemble with more mortar

Step 3: Call in the roofers

Step 4: ... and the decorators

This was really fun to watch!  Hazel (standing) is 3½ and did a wonderful job of decorating.  But Eliza, at 2, was much more interested in eating the decorations.  In fact, the construction manager's primary responsibility was to keep enough marshmallows in front of Eliza that she could be persuaded to actually put the occasional one on the house.

Ta da!

I wonder if they will make it to Christmas...

---

Update...

Nope

 Monkey's didn't make it - Rainier The Raider did some counter surfing and left behind only the paper plate foundation...

Stitch 'n glue

Brushed again

Have any brushed stainless on your boat? On Eolian, our stove is brushed stainless.  This finish is produced in the factory by sanding the metal surface.  

The thing is, stainless is hard, but not so hard that use, and more importantly cleaning attempts, can scratch it, ruining that beautiful, uniform appearance.

On our stove, between the two burners you see here, a typical dishwashing sponge with a scratchy side was used to remove some baked on food.  Sadly, it left a clearly visible remnant of the effort:  an area where the scratches ran up-and-down rather than side-to-side.

Since the finish is originally created by sanding, I thought it might be repaired in the same fashion.  But what grit should I use?  Originally I tried 400, but it was too fine, producing an almost polished finish.  So I backed down to 320:  perfect.  I know the photography doesn't really show it, but the cleaning 'fingerprint' is gone, completely.

NOTE:  When sanding, you must be careful to always move the sand paper in the same direction that the original "brushing" went.

Of course, if the scratches are deeper than the ones that 320 grit makes, then it will take a long time to sand down past them.

I did the actual sanding with a 3M sanding sponge that I now have dedicated to the purpose, but I suppose that any sandpaper would work.

(BTW, I used the sanding sponge to renew a stainless head sink too.  It worked just as well there.  In this case, the brushing was circular, around the inside of the sink, rather than linear.)

Brushed again

Potentially useful fact

Tonight I learned something while reheating dinner in the microwave: the wonderful stuffed green pepper Jane had made a couple of days ago.

The stuffing got hot, but the pepper did not.

Think about it:  green peppers are invisible to radar!

(Now what great invention can I make with this discovery?)

Potentially useful fact

More meat mania

We continue to work our way thru the Low and Slow book - we're now at Lesson 4 out of 5.  And I have to say that not only have we passed all the quizzes, we've aced the lessons.  But each chapter has a long list of exercises left up to the student - things we will go back and investigate once we have made it thru all five lessons.  There is a lot of culinary exploration in those exercises!

Lesson 4 is Spare Ribs - more difficult than Baby Back Ribs because the meat is tougher and must therefore be cooked longer.  Here you see three gigantic racks of ribs just as they were when I put them in the smoker.  Each has been rinsed with vinegar, slathered with yellow mustard, and heavily annointed with a special rub (the mustard serves mostly as glue to keep the rub in place).  I purposely left the red Solo cup (yes, adult beverage from my kegerator) in the picture to give some scale.  Those are huge slabs of meat.

And here are those same slabs of meat after spending five hours in the smoker.  Oh. My. Gosh.  Are they delicious!  I couldn't take the same picture of them, on the grill in the smoker, because it was dark by the time they were done.

I'll point out that, tho we tried mightily, Jane and I were only able to polish off one half of one of the racks.  Our freezer is is getting full of smoked meat. 

What a terrible problem...

Update:
We're having everybody and their dogs up to the cabin for Thanksgiving, so we will be doing smoked ribs for the Friday dinner (no, I don't trust myself to do a turkey... yet.)

More meat mania

The resurrection plant

I must confess.

While Jane was back in Indiana for a month with her mother, I may not have been the most reliable plant-sitter.  More than once, Jane's sink-side basil nursery came to look like this (or worse...) when I forgot to keep the water level up.

But weak as basil is outside here in the PNW, it is simply amazing in a beer glass by the sink.  Each time it looked like it had passed into that green jungle in the sky, simply providing it with water resurrected it completely, in all of its spicy glory.  When Jane returned, she was blissfully unaware of my horticultural incompetence.

But I am smiling with relief.  I was not on plant-sitting duty this weekend.   

The resurrection plant

Low & slow

Smoking meat is all about 'low & slow' - cooking at a low temperature for a long time.   You can kind of think of it as roasting meat at 225° - 275° in a smoky atmosphere.   It's not a process that is for the impatient.  And also like sailing, the journey to smoky goodness is a part of the enjoyment.  (There - I worked in a sailing reference, making this a legitimate post for this blog.)

3 chickens on their way to a smoky Nirvana

For my birthday, I received a smoker.  No, let me rephrase that. For my birthday, I received permission to buy a smoker.  I chose the one above: an offset type.  This means that the firebox is in a separate chamber from the cooking meat, rather than being directly below the meat.  I like the design because of the separation of function, and because of the large cooking surface - 36" x 18".  However the large size means more external surface to keep hot, so this smoker burns more charcoal than the more compact smokers, tho I'm not sure that would be true on a per-pound-of-meat basis if I always ran it with a full load.

And here is the result of the effort depicted above:  6 chicken halves, deliriously, deliciously smoky.  Done properly, the taste is smoky, not acrid.  And the flavor goes the whole depth of the meat; it's not just on the surface.  Have you ever been in the South and stopped at a roadside BBQ joint?  Yeah, that good.

They were smoked with alder wood - alder grows like a weed around here, and if you have any, you know that eventually the stems get big enough to just fall over.  So we have lots to use for smoking.

ISBN: 978-0-7624-3609-5

Even tho this post is tagged with 'recipe', I'm not going to post a recipe here.  Instead, I am going to exhort you to get a copy of what I now am calling the 'Smoker's Bible'.  Truly everything you will need to know is in there.  I started from scratch and followed the directions in the book (the chicken was Lesson 2) and the results have been unbelievably good.  Really.

With the book, you can too.

So get smokin'!

Low & slow

The things we eat

Now seriously, how did we get to some of the things we eat?

As an example, consider coffee:

1. You pick the fruit
2. You extract the seeds, and then throw away the fruit 
3. You dry the seeds, and then burn them in a fire  (what?)
4. You grind up the burnt seeds and pour boiling water on them (why would you do that?)
5. You throw away the seeds, and then you DRINK THE WATER!

The only one of those steps that makes any sense is the first one. And all the intermediate products are noxious – no one would want to consume any of them – you have to go all the way thru the process to get something worthwhile.

How did humans ever figure this out?

---

Inspired by a recent post by our friends on ZTC down in the Caribbean, on cocoa, whose preparation is almost as weird.

The things we eat

Boat show consequences

There's always a consequence, isn't there?  Tho sometimes it may be delayed.

When Jane and I attended this year's winter Boat Show, we stopped by the booths of all of our favorite local vendors.  One of those is Sure Marine - like Hank Hill, they deal in propane and propane accessories.  Tho that was a joke, it pretty well covers things if I also include marine space heating and cooling in the mix.

At the show, amongst a lot of other things, Sure had on display all the newest offerings from stove vendors, and we took a quick gander at the new version of our stove.  Not much has changed since 1998 when we bought ours.  Unlike ours tho, the new one  had sealed burners (which would be really nice).  And unlike ours, the old piezo burner ignitor had been replaced with an electronic one.

The old ignitor -
impossible to turn with wet hands

Our old piezo ignitor, unlike the push-button one which seems to be standard on BBQ's, required you to turn a knob.   Doing so wound up a spring and then finally released it - bang!  But when your hands were greasy from cooking (on a stove?  Who would have thought!), wet from washing them during the course of cooking...  or even slightly moist, even I didn't have enough strength in my fingers to grip the knob tight enough to be able to turn it against the spring.

So, those consequences?  I stopped in at Sure Marine and bought one of the new electronic ignitors  - a repair part for the new stoves.  Because so little has changed with these stoves, it installed right into the same hole that held the old one.  Now all it takes is a gentle press of the rubber-coated button, and you get those repeating sparks you may be familiar with if you have a household gas stove.

And it was way, way less expensive than a new stove.

Boat show consequences