Grill Interrupted

                                                                                    

This recipe is one I haven’t made for a really long time. When someone asked me to come up with something special for some fresh salmon they’d bought, I cracked open the archives and grabbed this classic.

The fish is salty after soaking in brine and smokey from the cedar planks, with great texture and subtle undertones from both the honey and whisky. It goes great with some asparagus and Hollandaise sauce. 

By the by, as good as this was hot off the grill, I think it was even beter cold for breakfast the next day on crackers.

The “floating potato” trick is a really cool one if you’ve never brined anything before. You put a small potato in water and add salt until the potato floats. Voila!

Note: the smoking process below is known as Hot Smoking – the fish is both smoked and slow cooked with low heat. The end product is a flaky, buttery soft piece of fish. Other smoked salmon you may be more familiar with (aka Lox) is Cold Smoked and thus the raw texture of it. The two are quite different.

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Whisky Smoked Salmon
Serves: 6

Ingredients:

2 cedar grilling planks
6 four ounce salmon fillets, skin removed
4 cups chilled water
salt
1 small potato
1/4 cup liquid honey
1/4 cup single malt Islay whisky

Preparation:

1. Soak cedar planks in tap water for at least 1 hour.
2. To make brine, pour 4 cups of water into a non-reactive bowl. Add a small potato about the size of a golf ball to the water. It will sink to the bottom. Now begin pouring salt into the water, mixing gently, until the potato bobs to the surface of the water. Discard potato.
3. Place salmon fillets in brine and allow to soak in a cool place for 1 hour. Remove salmon fillets from brine solution and pat dry. Set aside.
4. Preheat grill on Medium-Low heat to a temperature of 350 to 425 degrees F.  Try and maintain this temperature the whole time. Add soaked planks to grill, close cover, heat 3 minutes and flip plank. Once a light smoke develops you are good to go.
5. In a measuring cup, blend together honey and whisky. Gently brush fillets with blended honey and whisky mixture. Place salmon on the plank and close grill cover.
6. Smoke fish until it has a bronzed & shiny exterior and a firm buttery interior, about 15 minutes (no flipping neccessary).
7. When serving, top fillets with a small drizzle of whisky. For a unique presentation, serve straight from the plank.

Filed under: Method, Recipe on February 18th, 2010 | 2 Comments »

                                       

In North Carolina they take their barbecue mighty seriously. Ironically, the biggest arguments are not about the meat, everyone agrees low and slow wins the day, but rather the accompanying sauces. These dipping sauces, or as they call them finishing sauces, have caused many a throwdown. This feud continues today as it has since the early 1800’s. Eastern, Southern, Western N.C. and all places in between lay claim to the “authentic” North Carolina finishing sauce crown.

Although basically all vinegar based recipes, it’s the accompanying ingredients that give each geographic area their own twist. Here I’ve compiled a few different sauces to use on a simple shredded beef sandwich. The subtlty of the sandwich will allow you to really get a feel for which of the sauces tickle your fancy. To serve, bring all the sauces to room temperature and ideally have them in squeeze bottles. Hope you enjoy – and when your guests rave, just tell ’em what they do in the South: the secret is in the sauce!

My favourite combo was the beef piled high, soaked with Western sauce, and a bit of Piedmont sauce spread on the roll.  

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Barbecue Shredded Beef Sandwiches with North Carolina Dipping Sauces

Serves: 6

Ingredients:
6 pounds beef shoulder
1 tablespoon salt
1/2 tablespoon black pepper
2 tablespoons BBQ sauce
6 challah rolls or kaisers, split and toasted
North Carolina Western Sauce (recipe follows)
North Carolina Piedmont Sauce (recipe follows)
North Carolina Southern Sauce (recipe follows)

Preparation:

1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees F.
2. Season the beef with salt and pepper. Roast in oven until tender, about 5 hours.
3. Remove the beef from the oven and allow to cool slightly. When cool enough to handle, shred with forks.
4. Toss shredded beef with BBQ sauce
5. For each sandwich serve about 3/4 cup of the beef on a toasted bun with sauces on the side.

 North Carolina Western Sauce

Ingredients:

1/2 cup white vinegar
1/2 cup cider vinegar
3/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
2 teaspoons Tabasco sauce 
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon cracked black peppercorns

Preparation:

1. Combine all ingredients and mix well.

North Carolina Piedmont Sauce

Ingredients:

2 teaspoons brown sugar
1 teaspoon paprika
1 teaspoon chili powder
1 teaspoon dry mustard
1/4 teaspoon salt
pinch cayenne
1/2 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
3 tablespoons white vinegar
1 cup ketchup
1 tablespoon water

Preparation:

1. Combine all ingredients and mix well.

North Carolina Southern Sauce

Ingredients:

1/4 cup ballpark mustard
1/4 cup honey
1/4 cup light brown sugar
1/4 cup white vinegar, distilled
Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Preparation:

Combine all ingredients and mix well.

Filed under: Recipe on February 7th, 2010 | Comments Off on Barbecue Shredded Beef Sandwiches with North Carolina Dipping Sauces

Bison. Beef. Kissing cousins – but is there really a difference?

Clearly I have a soft spot for the latter. Beef ribs. Beef steaks. Beef jerky. Ground beef. It’s all good.

I’ve heard people go on and on about the benefits of bison, and to be honest, I had never tasted it until today.

So, let’s discuss the facts briefly and then I’ll give you my own personal thoughts.

Bison is considered gourmet meat and the price of bison clearly puts it in that classification. Bison is naturally leaner compared to beef and has a lot of nutritional values that exceed those of its bovine cousin. Ounce per ounce, bison has less total fat than most meat products including pork, chicken and most fish… but is it worth the difference in price?

I asked Briana Santoro (CNP, NNCP)of Naked Label for her professional opinion. She pointed out that nutritionally bison has less fat and less calories. 100g of bison has 1.8 grams of fat and 109 calories. In contrast, 100g of beef has 24 grams of fat and 291 calories. A staggering difference in artery clogging fat! Clearly if you are looking to minimize fat and calories bison is a good option as it has fewer amounts of both.

Another important aspect to consider is how the animal is raised. Antibiotics, hormones and steroids are not given to bison whereas they are commonly used in modern day cattle farming. Bison tend to be grass-fed and grass-fed longer than cattle. Briana was quick to point out:

“This is important because when the bison consume grass they consume vitamin K1 which they can then convert to vitamin K2. When we consume the animal meat we consume that K2. It is this K2 vitamin that helps ensure we get calcium into our bones. Without enough K2 in our diets the calcium isn’t able to go into our bones and instead it ends up in our arteries and veins where it can lead to heart disease. Therefore, eating animal products that are grass fed instead of grain fed (like corn) can help reduce our risk of heart disease and osteoporosis. Since bison are more likely to be grass fed, it can be a healthier choice.

Tip: You want the fat in the animal product to be yellow, not white. Yellow fat means there is beta-carotene in it and vitamin K2 goes where beta-carotene goes. When the fat is white it is actually less nutritive.”

From a taste perspective there’s a bit of a misconception that bison meats have a gamey taste. I have found this isn’t really the case. Bison meats have a similar taste to select choices of beef, but generally have a slightly sweeter flavor than beef.

Bison can be cooked or grilled just like beef. When cooking burgers, bison should be cooked rare or medium-rare because of the low fat content. Bison burgers that are cooked well done will become dry and lose a lot of the sweet rich flavor of the meat.

So, the science of it aside, my 2 cents: I could definitely tell the difference between the bison burger and the regular beef burger immediately. The bison had a wonderful velvety texture. The closest comparison I can think of is if you’ve ever had a good quality chopped steak, you’ll know how it has a nicer, less gritty texture than standard ground beef. I made sure the bison was only cooked to medium-rare, so the meat was not dry at all – as with very lean ground beef, this is something to watch out for.

The flavour was similar to beef, although not identical. I enjoyed it a lot, but am not sure I would justify the additional cost for the flavour alone. That being said, bison is clearly a healthier choice for those concerned about fat and caloric intake.

All in all, I would certainly order a bison steak or burger when in a specialty establishment that prides itself on its preparation of said meat. If you’ve never been brave enough to give it a try – go for it. It’s not scary – grab the bull by the horns and see what you think!

Filed under: Comparison on February 4th, 2010 | 4 Comments »