Tango Spice Test Kitchen

Tango Spice Cajun Rub!

Stuffed With Oranges & Onions!

Let's Get Smokin'!

Hear The Sizzle!

Autumnal Smoke Signals!

Dressing On The Kettle!

How Do You Like My Duck?

Sunday, November 9, 2014

Midnight Espresso Corned Beef in the Crock Pot!

The other day I was cruising the meat department at the local grocers and found that their corned beed brisket was on sale. Not that this is a very expensive hunk of meat, but any sale on beef is just fine with me.

Of course, usually you’ll see me cook up this on the WSM or the stick burner so this time I wanted to cook with something a little different.

This is going to be a Crock Pot cook. Not everyone has a grill or a smoker to be cooking up some meat and a crock pot is something that I think most kitchens should have.

Here is how this was done.

Midnight Espresso Corned Beef in the Crock Pot

Ingredients:

3 lb Corned Beef Brisket

4 Carrots / peeled & chopped into 3” pieces

6 Small Red Potatoes / unpeeled

1 Spanish Onion / rough chopped

3 TBS Yellow Mustard

2 - 3 TBS Tango Spice Midnight Espresso

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1 Small Head Cabbage / cored & quartered

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1/4 Cup Water

1/2 Cup Honey

2 TBS Grainy Mustard

2 tsp Horseradish

1 TBS Worcestershire Sauce

1 TBS Tango Spice Midnight Espresso

Directions:

1. Rinse the corned beef under cold water and pat dry.

2. Place the corned beef, fat side down in a 6 quart crock pot.

3. Add the potatoes, onions and carrots around the beef.

4. Spread yellow mustard over the top of the corned beef.

5. Pour the beer around the beef.

6. Sprinkle Midnight Espresso over top the beef, veggies.

7. Cook on low for 7 hours.

8. Remove the lid and add the cabbage wedges, cut side down.

9. Cook for 1 more hour.

10. Remove meat from the crock pot and set aside. Tent with foil

11. With slotted spoon, remove veggies to a bowl.

12. Stain juices into a medium pot.

13. Place the pot over high heat.

14. Bring to a boil, add the 1/4 cup water, honey, grainy mustard, horseradish, Worcestershire, Midnight Espresso and mix.

15. Lower to a simmer & reduce the sauce by half 20 - 25 minutes.

16. Slice the meat against the grain and serve with the glaze.

I have to say that this was a good dinner, very tasty and hearty. The one thing is that the corned beef shredded as I sliced it so the next time I may back off an hour on the initial cook time. The taste was awesome, and the left overs were even better.

I hope that you give this a try, as crock season is here!

As Always, Thank You For Reading!

Gather Your Ingredients!

Coated In Midnight Espresso!

Taters!

Gotta Have Carrots!

Onions & Mustard!

Had To Add More Midnight Espresso

Cabbage Cabbage!

Dinner Is Served!

Sunday, August 24, 2014

Grilled Oysters!

Long Island is a seafood lover’s east coast dream, with the fresh catch of the day availably in almost every town. In spite of this fact, there are a few creatures of the sea I have yet to try.

One of these are oysters. Nope, never could bring myself to try them. That is until I read about grilling them. Indeed, everything tastes better when grilled.

I picked up a dozen oysters from Peconic Pearls and set about getting these gems of the sea cookin’.

Now the method I used is probably not 'the right way', but no biggy, as they finished ‘product’ was darn tasty.

When I got them home I fired up the 18” Weber kettle with some Kingsford Blue. While the coals were getting all heated up I put a cast iron pan on the propane stove and heated up some butter and garlic.

Once the coals were nicely ashed over I placed the the oysters rounded side down directly over the heat. After a couple of minutes they started to open, at which point I moved the opened ones off to the side and removed the top shell. When they were all open and the tops of the shells were taken off I put about a tablespoon-ish of the garlic & butter in with the oyster. I moved them back over direct heat for about two minutes, when the butter garlic oyster juice started to boil.

Once they were all bubbling away nicely I took them off the heat and put on a plate to cool just enough to eat.

I will say that the oyster was pretty darn good, with just the butter and garlic, but with a splash of Louisiana style hot sauce, they we fantastic.

After this I will definitely be enjoying oysters again.

As Always, Thank You For Reading!

Oyster Directly Over The Coals

Peek A Boo - The Oyster Sees You!

The Oysters Were Great With Garlic & Butter

But They Were Awesome With Some Hot Sauce!

Tuesday, July 29, 2014

One Pan Spicy Quinoa!

Quinoa?

Yes Indeed, when I first saw that word I mentally placed a question mark after it. It even took me a while just to learn how to pronounce it correctly.

My first thought was what the heck is Quinoa. I had heard people say how much they enjoy it, read recipes with it as the main ingredient, but had sadly never tried it.

I would now like to say thank you to Angie Spada from over at the FB group Motivational Fitness, Strength & Nutrition for posting a recipe the other day for a quinoa dish the inspired me to give this ‘new to me’ pantry staple a try.

Of course, my version is just a little different from the original, but that is the beauty of the internet recipe collective. You find a recipe that you like, you write it down with a #2 pencil then change it up as you cook.

This is a VERY TASTY dish - a real must try. Hat tip to Angie for posting this one and inspiring me to give quinoa a try here at the Tango Test Kitchen.

Please, give this a go in your kitchen and let Angie & I know how much you enjoyed it.

I have included links to her FaceBook Group and her YouTube page. Stop by, join in on the conversation and let Angie inspire you as well.

One Pan Mexican Quinoa

Ingredients:

1 TBS Olive Oil

3 Cloves Garlic / minced

1 Jalapeños / minced

1 Cup Quinoa

1 Cup Crawfish Stock (sub vegetable stock)

1 (15-ounce) Can Black Beans / drained & rinsed

1 (14.5 oz) Can DelMonte Petite Diced Chili Style Tomatoes

1 cup Corn Kernels / frozen or canned

1 tsp Tango Spice Southwest Sunset (sub chili powder)

1 tsp Cumin

1 Avocado / diced **

Juice of 1 lime

2 TBS Chopped Fresh Cilantro

Directions:

Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium high heat. Add garlic and jalapeño, sauté 1 to 2 minutes.

Stir in quinoa, crawfish stock, beans, tomatoes, corn, Southwest Sunset and cumin.

Bring to a boil; cover, reduce heat and simmer until quinoa is cooked through, about 25 minutes.

Remove from heat and stir in avocado, lime juice and cilantro.

Serve immediately.***

I will let you all know now that this was a great dish, tasty and a really nice texture. I whole heartedly recommend you giving this a try as soon as possible.

** Do not dice the avocado until the dish is off the heat. Keep that crispness as you serve & enjoy.

*** This was great while it was hot, though you should know that it was darn good as a cold side as well. If you make extra, set aside what you are going to cool before putting the avocado in. Dice one and add it just before serving cold.

As Always, Thank You For Reading!

Monday, March 3, 2014

Dutch Oven Corned Beef - Tango Verde Style!

This past Sunday was a really nice day outside, and as such called for more outdoor cookery before the temps turned cold again.

Last Saturday's cook was chicken thighs in the Dutch over in the fire pit. Sunday I decided to give the Dutch oven a go over actual coals, Kingsford blue. Found a handy online coal count calculator that helped out a lot, though I did not follow it exactly. As I get better at using the coals I am sure I will become more confident in Dutch oven cooking.

What was cooked up was a simple corned beef and cabbage. Getting ready for St. Patrick's Day for sure.

Once again this is a write up on the method used for this cook. True Dutch oven folks would have way better methods, though I am really enjoying this tasty learning curve.

Out back I laid out a layer of fire bricks and added a few around the sides for a wind break. I used a propane burner for lighting the charcoal in a chimney, only lighting as much as I needed to get going then more as I needed to change out the coals.

The Dutch oven is a 12" with a lid which can take coals, I also have a rack that keeps food 1 inch off the bottom when needed, like for this cook. I have another 14" dutch oven with a rounded lid, which sometimes makes no sense to me.

Here is what when down on Sunday.

Irish Whiskey & Tango Verde

Corned Beef & Cabbage

Very Tasty Dinner For Sure!

1 2.5 Pound Corned Beef Brisket / rinsed and patted dry

1/2 Cup Brown Sugar

3 tsp Tango Spice Tango Verde

1 1/4 Cup Irish Mist Whiskey

1 Small Head Cabbage / cored & halved

Blend the brown sugar and Tango Verde in a small bowl, set aside.

In the morning I placed the corned beef in a container of cold water, let it sit for 20 minutes then drained it. Repeated this once more.

Patted the beef dry then coated it with the brown sugar mix. Reserved 1/4 cup.

Placed the corned beef fat side down on a rack in the Dutch oven. I used the rack because I wanted the meat to steam rather than boil in the liquid.

On either side of the beef I placed half a head of cabbage, cut side up. It all fit nicely.

The remaining 1/4 cup of Verde brown sugar was divided between the two halves of the cabbage as a topping.

Into the Dutch oven I poured the Irish Mist, drizzling a little on the beef and each half head of cabbage. Ready to cook.

For the coal count it was 12 on the bottom and 24 on the top.

Every 20 minutes I rotated the oven 1/4 turn clockwise and the lid 1/4 turn counter clockwise. Keeping an eye on the coals as well, replenishing them as they neared exhaustion. After the first hour, after hearing the bubbling liquid I peeked in and was treated to a wafting cloud of very aromatic steam. Oh wow this smelled GOOD!

Kept this up for about one more hour. I think all totaled the cook time was just under 2 1/2 hours. I will be doing this again and will fine tune the coal count and the times.

The beef as very flavorful and moist, the cabbage was sweet and tender, with just a few pieces of crunchy goodness where it got just a hint of char.

As Always, Thank You For Reading!