Red-Eye Crock Butt?

Don’t throw out that unused coffee in your pot! Ever had a really good pulled pork sandwich? It’s expensive to buy one at a place like Armadillo Willy’s. I love smoking my own pork butt (shoulder roast) but since returning to the U.S. I haven’t replaced my smoker. The other day I had an idea. Want to get that pulled pork butt flavor without going to the trouble of smoking it all day long? Maybe it’s too cold to deal with the outdoors? I have a great recipe from a book called "Smoke and Spice" by Jamison called “Red-Eye Butt”.

The recipe is made for smoking but I discovered that you can take the same recipe using strong coffee, molasses, and cider vinegar and convert it to a very easy crock pot recipe. Put the exact same ingredients inside the crock pot set it for 10 hours before you go to work and come home to a tender pork shoulder roast that will fall off the bone and be ready for shredding with a fork. Just spread the shredded pork out on a cutting board, salt and pepper and serve on buns with barbecue sauce. It’s a super easy meal for about the price of one pulled pork plate at Armadillo Willy's or Dickeys.

Goats du Roam?

I promised to make this blog international so here’s a subject for my Kenyan friends that can also be applied to parts of the world where goat is not a staple meat.  For you non-goat eaters, just substitute lamb. 

When I was in Kenya I fell in love with goat.  Especially roasted it makes a delicious meal and depending where you go, a fabulous experience.  If you like roasted goat plain, you’ll love roasted goat with a little flair.  Try this…  Before you put your goat on the barbeque, rub it down (yes I mean like massage it) with a mixture of chopped garlic, chopped rosemary, salt and pepper.  If you like it, add mint to the rub mixture. 

Now a trick for the garlic lovers out there.  Slice your garlic into slivers and then stab some small holes into the side of the leg of goat.  Slide your garlic slivers into the holes before roasting. 

Since we’re on the subject…  We don’t do a lot of personal raising of farm animals but it is quite common in Kenya, to raise your goats and slaughter them immediately before roasting.  I have argued this point with Kenyans but have not convinced anyone to my knowledge.  If I knew I was slaughtering a goat next week, I would feed that goat tons of garlic and rosemary and mint.  I know the meat would take on the flavor of the herbs the goat was eating.  Don’t believe me (and I know you won’t)??  Eat a lot of garlic for dinner and then smell your sweat the next day.  Do you smell the garlic coming out of your pores?  I thought so. 

Goat meat source for Californians: http://www.hhranchca.com/

No Smoking Inside! Baloney!

A while ago I discovered a kitchen device that I pull out happily a few times each year. Again with the smoking Denny? Yes. Especially with smoked fish like trout or salmon it’s overkill to fire up the outside smoker for a 15-20 minute cook time. This stovetop smoker is the answer to a quick and easy smoked fish. You can use it for other things too but I like what it does for a trout. You can put the in whole fish or two or three (cleaned of course), drop in some wood chips and smoke away for like 20 minutes. Make sure you use a light wood like alder for the smoke. Hickory or Mesquite will overwhelm the fish. The result…a nice brown on the outside, smoky on the inside fish.     Your house may smell a little smoky for a few minutes but, is that a bad thing? I like this smoker so much, it was one of the cooking implements I did not give away but rather carried it with me to Kenya and back. I think it cost about $45. it puts smoke flavor into meat so fast I’m thinking that that pork butt recipe could be finished well with about 5 minutes in the stovetop smoker. That’s the time for the hickory or mesquite. You can buy the wood chips at any good barbecue store or use the link below.