Atomic Raspberries!

A frequent online haunt of mine for reading about good folks preparing great food is The BBQ-Brethren forums. Here you will find outdoor cooks of all skill levels sharing their latest creations or answering questions from the BBQ newbies.

One of my favorite sections is the Brethren Throwdown. Each week there is a friendly 'competition' open to any and all members which always features either a star ingredient or method. I have entered a few and it is a blast. All entries are to be cooked out on the BBQ or the grill, with folks submitting pics of their creations.

A recent throwdown needed to have berries as a main ingredient and the entries were all awesome.

Take a look at that thread here >>

Berry Me Throwdown

This particular challenge was a tie - well deserved by both.

Oldyote from Duluth, MN prepared a stuffed jalapeño which featured raspberries and bbq sauce. It looked so amazing that I had to try it out.

AMAZING! That is the one word that works best. This snack was super tasty and is a must try for everyone who is a fan of ABT's and the sweet taste of raspberries!

Here ya go! This is my version of Oldyote's Atomic Raspberries!

Simple Ingredients:

6 Plump Jalapeños

3 Bacon Slices / halved

1 Cup Cream Cheese / room temp

1/4 Cup Raspberry Spread / Jam

12 Fresh Raspberries

1 TBS Southwest Sunset

1/2 Cup BBQ Sauce

2 TBS Raspberry Spread

1 tsp Southwest Sunset

In a small bowl, combine the BBQ sauce, raspberry spread and Southwest Sunset, Set aside.

Stir up the room temp cream cheese so it is nice and smooth. I took a potato ricer and mashed up some fresh raspberries onto the cheese. To this I added a little Southwest Sunset, for more kick. Blend this well and place back in the fridge while you prep the peppers.

One thing that you may notice is the way the jalapeños are cut. Instead of slicing in half or topping & coring them these were opened like a Bilco door. This little hatch allows for more filling and will be held closed by the bacon. Lay the peppers on the counter and see which side they will lay flat on. Open the upper part by slicing cross-wise near the top and bottom about half way through. Then slice lengthwise from top to bottom, forming the 'door'. Open wide and scoop out the ribs and seeds.

Put the filling in a pastry bag and pipe it in the pepper. Top this filling with a few slices of the remaining berries. Wrap them in a half slice of bacon, secure with a toothpick if you need to. Sprinkle a little more Southwest Sunset on the bacon.

Now place the peppers on the grill, set away from the heat source for indirect grilling. Depending on how hot your grill is running you will be able to tell when the bacon is to your liking. Once the bacon looks like it is done to your liking, slather on some of the berry bbq sauce and let it go for a few more minutes.

These are so dam good, anyone who tries them just says 'wow' and asks for more!

Enjoy!

Tango Joe

A Few Simple Ingredients!

Jalapeno Bilco Door!

Lined Up & Ready!

Sweet & Spicy!

Add The Raspberry Cheese Filling!

Lookn' Good!

Top With Sliced Berries!

Wrapped & Ready!

Add Some More Southwest Sunset!

Fire In The Hole!

Ready To Cook!

Gettin' There!

Sauce Those Bad Boys!

Almost Ready!

So Damn Tasty!

Peach & Zucchini Salsa

This past Sunday I took a short trip to the Rocky Point Farmer's Market to see what was fresh from the fields. As we are in the midst of some of the best farm land on the East Coast here on Long Island there is always something good at the local farmer's markets.

Here is something cool and refreshing that I whipped up from ingredients harvested earlier that same day! Farm Fresh Indeed!

Peach & Zucchini Salsa

2 Medium Zukes / diced small

2 Small Red Onions / diced small

2 Medium Peaches / diced not too small

2 Jalapeños / diced very small

2 Cloves Garlic / minced

1 TBS Lime Juice

1 tsp Tango Spice Southwest Sunset (or more)

Chopped Cilantro / to taste

Simply take all the ingredients except for the cilantro and mix together in a non-reactive bowl. Place in the fridge for at least one hour.

Now mix in however much cilantro as you desire. I happen to really like the taste of cilantro, but I know it can be overpowering for some.

Place back in the fridge for another hour, then serve cold.

This salsa will be good for just about 30 hours. You can put it together for your evening meal or party, then if there are any left overs that will be good the next day. After that, the peaches get a little too soft for my liking.

This is a great salsa that is a change from too mane that have crunch, no body. I like a snappy salsa and this one fits that bill nicely.

Please give this one a try and let me know how much you enjoyed it.

All Fresh From The Farmer's Market
Except For The Lime Juice

Nice Small Dice

Add Some Red Onion

Toss In Some Jalapeño & Garlic

Enjoy Cold, With A Cold One!

As Always, Thank You For Reading!

Tango Spice Company!

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Rain Dates Are For Amateurs!

Here it is 8 AM on a Saturday morning in late May.

To be more specific, this is the first day of the 2013 Memorial Day Weekend! Monday is the a day where all Americans will honor those who served & fell - something we all should do every day.

This is also the 'unofficial' start to summer - the big cookout weekend.

As we have done here for a couple of years, we are starting the weekend off with a Pig Roast. This will be the third year for this event and it is always a blast. Last year we had about 65 people stop by for some good times with family, friends and great food.

All week I have been checking the feed at Intellicast, watching the forecast and checking the radar. It is has been up and down all week, and for the last 36 hours it has been on a steady down hill slide into chilly air and rain! Yikes - what's a dude to do?

Well, Here Is What I Am Gonna Do!

The porker was ordered last week and today is the day I had planned to roast it in the La Caja China and this means that I am going to Roast That Swine! Yep, how about we just act like today is another day at a BBQ Competition or a Chili Cook-off and do what we do best - COOK!

Rain Dates Are For Amateurs!

We have invites out to the same crowd who are here last year and they know the drill - if there is cooking to be done, it will get done. For those who do not want to venture out on a less than perfect Saturday, then more for the rest of us!

So, we will push on through the storm and have some darn good eats today! We will give updates as roasting & weather permit!

Welcome To The Tango Spice Memorial Day Pig Roast 2013!

As Always, Thank You For Reading!

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Smoked Corned Beef - Pastrami!

With St. Patrick's Day just around the corner all the talk is of 'Corned Beef & Cabbage'. Now this may sound a bit sacrilegious but I am in no way a fan of the way these two food items are prepared for this holiday.

So Not A Fan Of Boiled Meat! Sorry, but that is the way I feel. I know it can be done without leaching all the flavor out and some folks do like it.

This month Restaurant Depot has Corned Beef on sale from a few different meat purveyors. I stopped in and picked up a sixteen pounder from Dunphy & Cork. Ah yes, 16 pounds of goodness ready for some serious cooking. No Dunking It Into A Cauldron Of Boiling Water!

Here it goes, how we did this beautiful hunk of meat on the Weber Smokey Mountain!

Smoked Corned Beef – 

We Can Call This Homemade Pastrami!

Ingredients:

1 16 Pound Corned Beef Brisket

Yellow Mustard

Course Grind Black Pepper

The morning before cooking the brisket, it is time to start a little prep. First we took the brisket out of the package and rinsed it off in the sink. There was almost zero trimming to do, as Dunphy & Cork ships out a hand trimmed piece that is ready to go.

After rinsing we want to take out some of the brine that goes into making corned beef. To do this we will be soaking the beef in water for 12 hours, with fresh water changes every few hours. 

The brisket was placed in a brand new, never used plastic five gallon bucket and then was covered in fresh water. The lid was placed on the bucket then the bucket was placed in a large cooler with a few ice packs. Now this is the first time trying this method out and so far it was pretty easy.

Yes, I soaked the meat in water! No problem, I am not cooking it in water - hehehe.

So, after the 12 hours had gone by the beef was removed from the water and patted dry. Then it was placed on a cooling rack over a large baking sheet and put in the fridge, uncovered overnight.

Sixteen pounds of brisket sure does take up a lot of real estate in the fridge, so beware!

On Sunday morning the WSM was set up with Kingsford and a few apple wood chunks. The water pan was filled half way with sand. On the lower rack there was a aluminum pan to catch any drippings.

While the smoker was coming up to temp the brisket was slathered with plain yellow mustard and then a nice coating of course ground black pepper was applied. That’s it, just mustard and pepper. The beef was placed on the top rack, fat side up.

The WSM was holding steady at 245 degrees through the entire cook. The only time the lid was lifted was at the four hour mark to insert two temperature probes. We are looking for a cook of about 6 hours and an internal temp of 165 degrees before we pull it off.

Almost like clockwork the brisket arrived at 165 at 6 hours and 10 minutes, very nice!

The beef was taken off the smoker and wrapped in three layers of heavy duty foil, then put into a towel lined cooler for a rest. The resting time is something that can vary and as we do this cook again we will try different times. The main thing is to resist slicing into the brisket too soon, give it some time to redistribute its juice while it continues to cook in the foil.

This particular brisket was in the foil a little over 4 hours and was still nice and hot when unwrapped.

During the slicing there was a lot of sampling going – wow this was GOOD! Great aroma, awesome look and the peppery goodness that you think of when you are enjoying pastrami! We sliced some up for the neighbors, who are always pleased to get some tasty tid bits.

Out of a sixteen pound brisket there was just over ten pounds of cooked weight. Then while slicing and tossing some of the remaining fat there was just under nine pounds of damn good eats.

Some of the brisket was cut into cubes to be ground for use in some recipes we are working on.

This was so good I think we are going to smoke up another one this weekend!

Happy St. Patrick’s Day Everyone!

   Here are two links to check out.
   The Mad Meat Genius  - I pretty much followed this method.
   Weber Virtual Bullet - A great resource for the WSM

Ready To Go!

Yep - Sixteen Pounds!

Have To Have A Little Fat!

Nice Beef!

Slather On The Yellow Mustard!

Peppered With Pepper!

Use The Course Grind!

Ready To Smoke!

After Four Hours!

The Aroma Is Amazing!

Unwrapped & Ready To Slice!

One Word - Yum!

Check Out That Color!

Now That Is Some Good Eats!

Just Can't Stop Sampling!

Can't Ya Just Taste It!

A Plate Of Great Taste!

As Always, Thank You For Reading!

Tango Spice Company!

Tango Spice On YouTube!

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Double Spiced Pineapple Upside-Down Cake!

On a particularly chilly Sunday in January we were out back again trying another Dutch Oven recipe experiment. So far the Dutch Oven cooking has been a lot of fun and has yielded some great food. Of course, as you notice that I have not gotten into doing coal counts - yet. I will definitely be getting into that very soon, but for now, just placing the oven over a small fire has worked out great.

This cook was for a dessert - and what better dessert for a Dutch oven than pineapple upside down cake. I know, I could have made peach cobbler, but there was a can of pineapple in the cupboard so that is what made up my mind.

As usual, a couple of Tango Spices found their way into the mix. Yes, this is a recipe that uses not one but two of our blends - Double Spiced!

Dutch Oven Double Spiced Pineapple Upside-Down Cake

1 15 oz Can Sliced Pineapple / drained - reserve juice

1 Box Pilsbury Yellow Cake Mix

1 Box Instant Vanilla Pudding

2 TBS Tango Spice Southwest Sunset

1 Cup Reserved Pineapple Juice

1/2 Cup Canola Oil

4 Eggs

1 Cup Brown Sugar

1 Stick Butter

1 TBS Tango Spice Midnight Espresso

In a large bowl mix dry ingredients well. In a separate bowl lightly whisk eggs to break the yokes. Add the pineapple juice and oil, blend together.

Pour the egg / juice mixture into the dry and gently mix together - do not over mix it.

Over a nice little fire, we placed a grate to take the place of a trivet. Our dutch oven does not have legs so we improvise. The grate did keep the oven away from the heat, I think it worked out pretty well.

Place the dutch over over the fire, add a stick of butter and let it melt. Once melted add about a cup of brown sugar. The sugar we used was from Compare Foods and is there store made, which real good, less sticky than regular brown sugar. To this added about a TBS of Midnight Espresso (or more). Spread that out evenly.

Place the pineapple slices over the buttery sugar evenly and then pour the batter over it and smooth it out.

Put the Dutch oven over the fire, and place a ring of coals along the edge of the lid.

Here is where I lost track of the time, so I just lifted the lid and checked the cake. It's all a learning curve and as I get better I will keep track of times and temps so I can pass on some better tips.

After maybe 20 minutes or so on the fire the cake looked done, as the edges were pulling away and had just a hint of dark brown. When I turned the Dutch over a couple of the pineapple rings stuck, but they came off easily with a spatula. The darkened pineapple & brown sugar tasted like candy, which is a good thing.

The cake was moist and fluffy, almost like sponge cake, and with the Southwest Sunset it had a nice kick to it.

So, all in all it was a great cook! This will be dessert again real soon!

Thank you to Joanie & Dean over at Outdoor Cast Iron Cooking for the inspiration!

Butter, Brown Sugar & Midnight Espresso

A Little More Midnight Espresso

The Make-Shift Fire Pit

Add The Batter

Smooth It Out

Get It On The Fire

Heat The Lid

Oh The Aroma!

A Few Slices Did Stick

Added The Slices Back To The Cake

Wow - This Was So Good!

As Always, Thank You For Reading!

Tango Spice Company!

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Dutch Oven Chicken Experiment

We have been very big fans of Joanie & Dean over at Outdoor Cast Iron Cooking for a while now and this has lead us to search out other great cast iron cooking videos. The other day we came across a dutch oven chicken meal that looked very good, this was over at Snowalker13's channel.

While out back chopping firewood on a very nice day we put together a small fire pit and cooked up a version of this dish. The wood pile took up too much time to allow for a full video but we did take some pics of the cook. Hope you enjoy.

Here is what was in the pot

Dutch Oven Chicken

Some Oil

5 Yellow Potatoes / halved

1 Turnip / peeled & sliced

1 Yellow Onion / chopped

2 Large Carrots / peeled & sliced

3 Stalks Celery / chopped

some Rosemary, Sage & Thyme

2 to 3 Cups Turkey Stock

12 OZ Pilsner Beer

2 TBS Wondra - new to me - used for a thickener

Tango Spice Twist & Shout Rub

1 Roasting Chicken / split

Putting this together was real simple.

Put 2 or 3 TBS canola or olive oil in the dutch oven, add the sliced potatoes and slide around to coat. Set them all sliced side up and sprinkle with Twist & Shout.

Add the turnip, onion, carrots, celery and herbs.

Pour in the turkey stock.

Mix the pilsner and the wondra and pout into the pot.

Place chicken on top of the other ingredients, skin side up and sprinkle on some Twist & Shout.

Close the lid and place on some hot coals.

Now I know that I am not using the Dutch oven in the exact right way. There is a coal count for the bottom and the top. Since I was busy with wood chopping and other yard work it was easier for me to just set it and check back on it every once in a while. 

The chicken I had was also a little over 7 pounds, and cooking a 5 pounder would have been better as it would have fit nicer under the lid. Since it did sit so high I did not put any coals on the lid until 20 minutes into the cook.

As I start using the Dutch oven more, I will definitely start to count coals and check the timing more closely. One thing I know is that the chicken came out amazingly moist, and this is a very cool way to prepare a hot meal while messing around in the yard.

You can check out Snowalker's video here.

Snowalker's Dutch Oven Chicken

As Always, Thank You For Reading!

Tango Spice Company!

Tango Spice On YouTube

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Ingredients Are Ready

Simple Fire Ring

Seasoned Potatoes

Ready For The Chicken

Needs Some Twist & Shout

That's Better

Now We're Cookin'!

Ready For Some Top Heat

A Few Coals On The Top

Blackened Chicken - Yum

Ready To Eat

Moist & Delicious!