Coney Dogs - Take 2

I enjoy reading in Cooks Illustrated and Cooks Country about how they try dozens of iterations of a recipe to get it just right. pon further reflection, I downgraded yesterday's Coney Dog attempt to 2 stars. The biggest variable was which bottled chili sauce to try as the base. That could go on for a long time and I wasn't sure the results would ever be what I was looking for.   Carla is still down in Ashland with her sisters and Judy so I thought I'd make another attempt at Coney Dogs. I only needed to buy another pound of burger to go for try two.

I'm trying to get close to Roake's (now Annie's out on TV Highway between 185th and 198th in Aloha). It's  nice meaty, rich, silky sauce. Given that the purchased chili sauce route had little promise, I went back to the web to see if I might find something I could work with. It turns out the internet is home to a argument (as it is for so many things) as to whether wiener sauce should have a tomato base or not.  Since yesterday's had tomato in the chili sauce, I decided to take another attempt at it. I settle on a recipe I found here on Cooks.com. 

Many of the same ingredients as yesterday. I used more liquid than the recipe called for; instead of 1 cup water, I used 1 cup home made chicken stock and 3/4 cup water. I also used some corn meal (aka Masa) because I get a hint of that at Annies/Roakes  As we'll see later, I needed another ingredient in the end.

Ingredient set for Coney Dogs take 2 - I also used chicken stock and Frank's Hot Sauce

 Here's are the prepped ingredients. Really, I only do this for the picture. Many of the spices go in at the same time so I'd use one container. I can't see myself ever doing the normal thing of adding spices as I go; part of the joy of cooking to me is this prep work stage of the project. Maybe it's my programming background; you've got to have requirements (recipe) and design (prep) complete before you can start coding (cooking).

Mis en place for Coney Dog sauce take 2.

Like yesterday, I sautéd the meat and onion for about 5 minutes, skimmed off the fat, then added the spices until they bloomed. Then added everything else for about a 20 minute simmer. If I did this over, I would hold out the brighteneners  mustard and worcestershire sauce until the end. The consistency is much to chunky; rather than using the food processor and all the parts that need washing I used a stick blender. If you do this, make sure you wear an apron; I learned the hard way; T-shirt into the wash.

Simmering ingredients after being blended down to a smoother consistency

I took a taste; ugh. Oh can people like this? I think many people in the midwest just don't know what good food tastes like. I made two adjustments: more salt and 1/4 cup Frank's hot sauce. That improved it a bit. 

I fried a Nathan's Famous, and put it in a bun I popped in the microwave for 8 seconds, laid a bead of CYM (classic yellow mustard to you non-BBQ folks), heaped on a spoonful of chili and topped with chopped onion and cheese.

Dinner is served.

Maybe this needs to simmer for more than 20 minutes, but it was pretty bad on my hot dog right out of the pan. Just not much depth.  I'll try it again after it sits in the fridge overnight. If I get up my courage I'll try a non tomato based sauce; or I'll start from my El Cid recipe without the chorizo and sirloin steak). That recipe really helped my chili colorado project which is in the fine tuning stage.

A note on the photography; I went into manual mode and tweaked the flash setting manually. It took quite a while to get decent pictures. But again, with Carla gone, I had the whole kitchen to mess around with my tripod and try a dozen or so pictures to get the right exposure. I still needed to cool the temperatures in Lightroom. Our brown countertop really seems to cause my camera to see Orange. 

Coney Dogs

Carla usually does a girls weekend a couple of times a year: once for Bunco and once with her sisters. This time it was sister time in Ashland for the Shakespeare festival. They also met up with Carla's best friend from high school, Judy.

With her out of the house I thought I'd try something she probably wouldn't be big fan of: Coney Dogs. I've been searching off and on for a recipe and found a Cook's Country write up for North Jersey Texas Wiener Sauce. With a cross between New Jersey and Texas, and the word "weiner" instead of "hot dog" meant I had to try it. I have seen some recipes where you boil the hamburger; there was a America's Test Kitchen show this season that made Cincinnati chile with stewing the burger. We sauté the meat and onions so I figured I'd be safe. You can find my copy of the recipe here.

Cook's Country, so lots of ingredients.

Coney sauce ingredients

Coney sauce ingredients prepped for use

Sauté the meat and onions in a little vegetable oil for about 5 minutes, until all the pink is gone.

Burger and onion sauté for coney sauce.

 Then stir in tomato paste, chili powder, allspice, and brown sugar and combine until tomato paste darkens. Then add the chili sauce and water, bring to a boil and simmer until it thickens - 7 - 10 minutes

Simmering coney sauce

Take about 1/2 the mixture out and put in a food processor and mix until coarsely ground. Return to the skillet and add the mustard, worcestershire sauce, and  hot sauce. I blended the 3 brighteners in the food processor - oops. No harm done.

Coney sauce thickened

You have to have hot dogs, or weiners, for coney dogs, so fry a couple up. I found some Nathan's Famous dogs; that seems pretty authentic.

Frying some weiners for coney dogs

 I put the buns in the microwave for 10 seconds, slapped in a dog, added some sauce and topped with shredded cheddar cheese and a few onion bits held out of the sauté. I had to have a vegetable so got some of my favorite Ruffles potato chips. Potato chips are vegetables, right?

This was just okay. I gave it a provisional 3 stars. I used a chili sauce I remember from my childhood but I think it was way, way to sweet. If I make again, I'll definitely look for a better sauce. If you make this be forewarned. I don't think Cook's Country thought much of this either; the recipe is on their web site but without a lot of the supporting information one normally sees.

Shredded Beef Short Rib Tacos

Regular readers of this blog know that Cook's Illustrated is a go-to for me recipe-wise. But I suppose not everything can be great. I think Vermonters don't know Mexican food. I had my doubts going into this venture as it called for short ribs rather than skirt steak. But I thought what the heck.
While this was fun to make but ultimately they don't taste like tacos to me.  Perhaps you will like it, if so, you can find the recipe here.

A note on the photography. Last week I attended the KelbyOne Shoot Like A Pro seminar. Scott Kelby touched on food photography at the very end. He recommends tilting the camera for food pics. I think I overdid it. I un twisted the pictures as much as I could.

Onion, spices, beer, vinegar, garlic, ancho chilis, tomato paste and short ribs

The shopping list (Selective sharpening of chilis and onion root in PS)

 Everything but the ribs and onions get mixed together in a Dutch oven. Thick slices of onion go in the liquid to hold the short ribs. This allows the ribs to rise above the braising liquid and get browned.

Mis en place (Selective sharpening on chilis)

Once the beef goes in the oven for 2 1/2 hours I concentrated on the vegetable toppings. The recipe calls for cole slaw with addition of onion and a jalapeño pepper. Purists would chop up cabbage but I was lazy so bought a package of slaw mix. I added a bit more carrot.

Cole slaw ingredients (we added some water as well)

Slaw goes into the refrigerator for 1 - 8 hours.

The beef comes out of the pot to be shredded. The liquid, garlic and ancho chilis go into the blender for a couple of minutes before tossing with the meat.

Shredded beef ready for the blended sauce.

 As I mentioned above, the queso fresco cheese was my takeaway of the day; a mild, lightly salty cheese that I'll be using as a Mexican food topping in the future.

Dinner is served

Mother's Day Dinner

Carla is a little under the weather but we were still able to have a very nice Mother's Day. She puttered in the front yard planting things. Our front yard always looks so nice thanks to her gardening. I have a theory that the entire world can be divided into two camps; those who call it gardening and those you call it yardwork. Carla is a gardener; opposites attract.

Andrew and Henriët FaceTimed with us this afternoon and shared their final pick of name for Baba; sorry, you'll have to wait until he's born late May / early June before we can share. Jeff and Sarah dropped by with a beautiful flower in a coffee mug; they came in time to FaceTime with Andrew and Henriët as well.

I have been totally caught up in "The Martian" by Andy Weir. On my own I would have skipped dinner in favor of finishing the book (book report coming soon). But I bought some beautiful salmon, baby potatoes and asparagus (yes, I actually cooked asparagus!).

I bought a plancha for my grill last month and have been waiting through the spring rain for a chance to use it. Plancha is a fancy word for cast iron griddle; I have an enameled one that fits in the grill by removing one of the grate sections. Cooking raw potatoes would take a lot longer than the 20 minutes for the salmon so I hunted for a recipe and found one on Cook's Illustrated.  I made my own garlic-rosemary olive oil by mixing 9 cloves of garlic, 1 teaspoon of minced rosemary and some salt in 4 tablespoons of olive oil. I sautéd the mixture for a few minutes; don't let the heat get too hot or you'll burn the garlic (like I did). No problem it still tasted great.

Garlic-rosemary olive oil prep

The key is to partially pre-cook the potatoes. I scrubbed, let them dry, cut them in half and poked holes in the skin side. Then I brushed on a tablespoon of the oil and liberally sprinkled salt on them. While the salmon started I microwaved them for 8 minutes on high.

Potatoes after the microwave.

I picked up a beautiful piece of salmon at the market. In October 2011 I made this cedar planked salmon with dijon mustard and brown sugar; Carla requested a redo for her special dinner. I originally got the  Bobby Flay recipe from Food Network; my version can be found here. The recipe calls for taking the skin off the bottom; I totally butchered the job. I've plank-smoked salmon before without removing the skin; next time the skin stays on. Rinse with cold water, dry off, place on a cedar plank that has soaked in water a few hours, sprinkle with salt and pepper, smear with dijon mustard and sprinkle brown sugar on top of it all. Then into the grill until it reaches about 135°F.  I've taken salmon off at 120°, but you are on your own. 

Salmon prepped for salt, pepper, mustard, and brown sugar.

Believe it or not I actually cooked asparagus!. Toss in a bit of olive oil and salt and pepper and onto the grill. 

Asparagus believe it or not

I started the salmon, then immediately put the spuds in the microwave; when they came out 8 minutes later, I tossed with a bit more oil and threw on the plancha, then added the asparagus

 I don't normally need all the space on my humongus grill. But it really comes in handy on a day like this.

Everything on the grill

 The asparagus was a bit large so took a bit more time cooking than the other items.

Ready to serve

Dinner is served.

A nice dinner.

I bought a tripod and ball-head for my camera Friday and used it for these pictures. My angle was way too high, but I was able to shoot at slow shutter speeds without blurring the pictures. I'll work on my camera angles as I continue to use it.

Chili Colorado and Pinto Beans

I've written before about eating burritos at Bob Newlon's house when I was in junior high school. Bob was my best friend in junior high and going into high school. Before we had our licenses, we drove his dad's truck around the undeveloped streets near his house; when we took a turn too hard and the battery fell into the radiator fan. Uh oh. Later when we had motorcycles we drove around everywhere together.

At any rate, his mom made the best pork chili that she made burritos with. I've been trying to recreate that meal for the past five or so years. I haven't been as successful as I'd like; then falling asleep a couple of weeks ago I had an inspiration to use my El Cid chili recipe as a basis. I switched beef to pork, adjusted the liquids, and reduced the spices. You can find my recipe here. The associated pinto bean recipe is here.

If you looked at the El Cid link above you'll notice this is definitely similar. Here is a summary of the changes.

• Substituted pork shoulder for sirloin
• Substituted ground pork for ground beef
• Substituted chicken stock for beef stock (use home made)
• Substituted enchilada sauce and Rotel diced tomatoes with chilies for diced tomatoes.

The line up

 I recommend Las Palmas enchilada sauce over Hatch brand; Las Palmas uses chilies where Hatch has more tomatoes.

Everything prepped; two spice packets in the small bowls.

Sauté the pork in rendered bacon fat.

When done with the pork shoulder, brown the onions with the chorizo and ground pork.

Chorizo, ground pork, and onions

This is why I recommend using a stainless steel skillet to sauté then put the batches into the Dutch oven as they finish. Look at that beautiful faund that we deglaze with the beer. If you only have a non-stick skillet, that's fine. Or if you want to save on dishwashing, do it all in the Dutch oven.

Add the liquids and the first spice set to the meat and onion; simmer for 1 1/2 hours. Make a paste of corn meal and water and add to the mix with a more cumin and other spices. Simmer for another 30 minutes and watch it thicken up real nice.

While the chili is simmering start some beans. If you don't have a pressure cooker start the beans before the chili. Of course you planned a day ahead and brined the beans last night; right?

Pinto bean ingredients - very simple.

Now, I'm still perfecting this recipe for the pressure cooker. The recipe I published is adjusted down to use only 4 cups of liquid instead of 5 that I used for this cook. I had to simmer the beans down for a while to get the consistency I wanted.

Beans after mashing about 1/2 a cup of them and simmering down.

 Dinner is served

Dinner is served

Senate Bean Soup

I used Dad Cooks Dinner's recipe for ham with bourbon honey mustard glaze on Easter Sunday knowing he'd likely follow it up with a recipe the next week for the ham bone. Split pea soup is the traditional soup for a ham bone but it's one of those childhood holdovers of food I just don't like. I imagine it was a meal I didn't like and my folks made me sit at the table until I finished. Or maybe not, maybe I'm just not a fan.

At any rate, I was delighted when Mike Vrobel of DCD published a recipe for Senate bean soup. I heard about this soup years ago and it's been on my list of things to try. The Senate has had a bean soup recipe on the menu every day since the early 20th century. There is an interesting Wikipedia article here. This is a very simple recipe and well worth the small effort required; I rate it 4 stars (out of 5).

I was also anxious to try this recipe because I've never cooked navy beans. I'm a fan of smaller beans and navy beans fall into that category. Check out Mike Vrobel's recipe from the link above and compare it to my slightly modified recipe here.

1 pound of small navy beans

 Nine ingredients make this delicious soup. I added a carrot, and substituted 3 cups of chicken stock for an equal amount of water.

A simple set of ingredients

Coarsely chopped aromatics.

Sauté the onion, carrot and garlic in a couple of tablespoons of butter.

Lightly brown the aromatics

Simmering ingredients at the ready while the aromatics sauté.

Dinner is served

I meant to make cornbread to go with this, but forgot until it was too late. But this hearty soup and a salad made a very satisfactory meal.

Grilled Pork Tenderloin with Garlic-Lime Sauce

Oh, the sauce!
I was reading the May/June 2014 Cook's Illustrated while keeping an eye on the Dodgers game. This recipe looked good, the weather was going to be perfect for grilling and I had the day off. It's a straight-forward recipe that can be done after work. While the pork marinates for 45 minutes you can make a salad or prepare a vegetable, and clean up a bit. Cooking takes about 15 minutes including the resting time.  Carla is not a cilantro fan so my version left it out; my copy of the recipe is here.

 Start with two one-pound pork tenderloins. Cut them in half cross-wise and pound down to about 3/4 inch. Make a series of shallow cross-hatch cuts to increase surface area.

Marinade/sauce ingredients. Add the mayo to the marinade for the simple, delicious sauce.

Reserve 1/2 cup of the marinade for a sauce; put the rest in a zip lock bag with the tenderloin steaks and marinate for 45 minutes.

Reserve some marinade for the sauce

While the pork is marinating throw together a salad

 Grill over direct heat 3-4 minutes per side then move to indirect heat until temp reaches 140°F.

Rest grilled steaks for 5 minutes

 Cut the steaks across the grain and drizzle some sauce on top; pass the rest of the sauce at the table.

Dinner is served

This is a simple yet delicious dinner. I rate it 4 stars.

Rotisserie Chicken

I love roasted chicken. It was warm and dry enough yesterday I could prepare it on the grill rotisserie - my favorite method. I salted a 4 pound bird with 2 teaspoons of kosher salt in the morning and let it dry brine in the refrigerator about six hours. Truss it and spit it and set it on the grill for just under an hour. I took this recipe from Mike Vrobel at Dad Cooks Dinner. My recipe with all the particulars can be found here.

Almost ready to come off the grill

I wanted to get a picture of the chicken after it came off the grill and before I quartered it; but it fell on the roasting pan and the skin came off one side of the breast. I quartered the chicken (eating the wings as I went).

Quartered chicken

 After quartering I slice the two breasts (and further mangle the skin in the process).

Add caption

 Carla cooked up some brown rice then turned it into fried rice, sautéing it in olive oil with red pepper flakes, green onions, and maybe some garlic. Frozen peas complete the meal.

Dinner is served; roast chicken, fried rice, and peas.

Pernil-Style Pork Roast

Carla saw a recipe for a pernil al horno style pork roast in The Oregonian FoodDay. It was close to a favorite recipe of mine but substitutes orange for the rosemary and leaves out the vinegar. There were accompanying recipes for pickled red onions and ciltantro-rice so I thought I'd make up the complete dinner.

I started with a 4.2 pound boneless pork shoulder roast; the rub is made up of salt, brown sugar, cayenne, garlic, orange zest, ground black pepper, smoked paprika, and cumin seeds. I ground the seeds even though the recipe didn't call for it. You can find the details in my recipe.

Boneless pork roast with rub ingredients.

Rub ingredients combined.

After rubbing the roast I covered it with foil and stashed in the refrigerator for 24 hours more-or-less. The next day it roasted in a 300˚F oven until it reached an internal temperature of 180˚F.

I had plenty of time Friday afternoon that I decided to make the pickled red onions.

The recipe called for white vinegar but agree with Alton Brown: white vinegar should only be used for cleaning things. So I substituted white wine vinegar. You can find my recipe here

Prep for pickled red onions.

Thinly slice the garlic and serrano pepper, mix with the vinegar, sugar, salt, cloves and bay leaves. When the mixture reaches a boil, add the thinly sliced onion and carrot and simmer for about a minute.

Pickling ingredients

 Finally put all the ingredients in a glass jar and stash in the refrigerator. Next time I'll use twice the pickling ingredients so the jar will be full of liquid.

Pickled red onion with carrot.

Saturday as the roast was close to finishing. I whipped up the rice dish. I made lots of changes to the rice recipe for use with my rice cooker; you can find my copy with edits here.  I chopped garlic, scallions, and jalapeño, then tossed in the food processor with some water. Once blended it would be part of the liquid for the rice.

Cilantro rice aromatics

In the meantime I sautéd the rice in a skillet with some olive onion; then transferred to the rice cooker, added the aromatics and filled to the proper line with water.

Cilantro rice ready for serving.

The roast came out of the oven looking beautiful.

Pernil-style pork roast.

After letting it cool for about 20 minutes I sliced and dinner was served.

Dinner is served: pernil-style pork roast, cilantro rice, peas, and pickled red onions.