Recipe for the Day

[ChadAmberg]

Chicken and Dumplings

Make the Dumplings first:
1 cup flour
1 Tbs. butter
1/4 tsp. baking powder
salt to taste (I just shake some in)
about a 1/2 cup of milk

In a bowl, combine the flour, baking powder and salt.
Cut the butter into the dry ingredients with a fork, pastry blender or fingertips.
Stir in the milk, mixing with a fork until the dough forms a ball.
Heavily flour a work surface.
Roll out the dumpling dough lightly till flat, maybe 3/8" thick at most. Thinner is better. Don't work the dough like bread.
Cut into inch and a half squares with a pizza cutter.

Bring 5-6 cups of chicken stock to a boil. (2+ tablespoons of the chicken Better than Bullion works great)
Add any vegetables such as finely diced carrots, etc.
Add 1 teaspoon of "chicken seasoning".
Carefully add the dumplings one at a time using a spatula.
Cook for 15-20 minutes, while watching for boil over. Reduce heat to medium when it starts to occur.
Stir often.

Add a cup and a half of cooked shredded chicken in the last 5 minutes to heat.

[GilpinGuy]

Awesome pulled pork recipe. My dad gave me this recipe a year or so ago and I've only made pulled pulled pork this way since. I don't use a Big Green Egg and just smoke the butt the way I usually do it.

Mojo Pulled Pork

Step 1: The Paste
The first step in making this Mojo Pulled Pork is to make a spice paste that you will use to marinate the pork butt.

Ingredients:
7-8 pound pork butt
3 Tbsp ground cumin
3 Tbsp chili powder
1/2 tsp ground allspice
1/2 tsp ground cloves
2 tsp ground coriander
1/2 tsp salt
1 Tbsp dark brown sugar
2 Tbsp crushed garlic
1 tsp Cholula Chipotle hot sauce (the small bottle to the left of the olive oil)
4-5 Tbsp olive oil

Directions:
1. Prepare the paste by combining all the ingredients, adding enough oil to make a thick paste.
2. Save 2 Tbsp of the paste for making the sauce later.
3. Rinse the pork butt and pat dry. Place the pork butt on a platter, fat side down. Apply all of the paste to the top and sides of the pork butt.
4. Cover the pork butt with plastic wrap. This will allow you to push the paste around to get even coverage, and it will make sure the paste is kept in contact with the pork.
5. Refrigerate the pork butt for at least 4 hours.

Step 2: Smoking The Butt
Once the pork butt has marinated in the paste for a good long while, it's time to smoke the pork butt. This is done just like any other low and slow pork butt smoking you have ever done. We smoked our butt at 230 degrees for about 15 hours to a final temperature of 200 degrees. We happened to use four fist-sized chunks of maple for this particular pork butt, but use whatever wood strikes your fancy.
The set up we used in the photo below was a large Big Green Egg ceramic cooker, a plate setter inverted on the fire ring, a drip pan sitting on the plate setter, a grid on the plate setter, and finally the pork butt goes on the grid.
When the pork butt is done smoking, you don't really need to do any wrapping in foil or resting. We just took the pork butt out of the cooker and pulled it. You are going to drench it in Mojo sauce (the next section) so you don't really need to worry about juices redistributing or anything like that. (You should prepare the sauce during the last 2 hours or so of smoking the pork butt so that the sauce is ready when you are ready to pull the butt.)

Step 3: The Mojo Sauce
Like we said before, you should make the sauce a couple of hours before the pork butt is done cooking. It will take some time to assemble and reduce.

Ingredients:
2 cups orange juice
1/2 cup lime juice (about 6 limes)
1/2 cup lemon juice (about 3 large lemons)
1/3 cup dark brown sugar
1/3 cup beer
1/3 cup Pyrat Pistol rum
1/2 cup Pinot Noir red wine vinegar
1 Tbsp crushed garlic
5 bay leaves
1 tsp cracked black pepper
1 packet Goya Sazon con culantro y achiote (see the photo of ingredients)
20-30 whole garlic cloves, peeled
2 Tbsp of the reserved paste from step 1

Directions:
1. Add all the ingredients to a medium sized sauce pan.
2. Bring to a boil and let simmer, stirring often. Allow the sauce to reduce by half. The sauce should begin to feel a bit thicker than it started at this point.
3. Pull the pork and place it in a aluminum or glass baking dish large enough to hold it all. Make sure you get all of the bark broken up and mixed in with the pork.
4. Pour the reduced sauce over the pork. Stir it into the pork to make sure all the pork gets coated.
5. Allow to rest for an hour or so.

[GilpinGuy]

Cool idea for Halloween.

[OtterbatHellcat]

Nice.

[Ah Pook]

Necro Post!!

I've been on a pimento cheese kick lately.

Pimento Cheese

Ingredients

12oz pimentos peppers
4 oz. cream cheese
1/2 cup mayonnaise, preferably Duke's
1/2 tsp. hot sauce
1/2 tsp. kosher salt
1/8 tsp. cayenne pepper
1/8 tsp. freshly ground pepper
1/8 tsp. smoked paprika
1/4 cup pickles chopped, plus 1/2 cup of the brine, optional
1 lb. sharp cheddar cheese, grated

Prep

Put the cream cheese in a medium bowl and beat it with a spoon until softened.
Add the mayonnaise and mix.
Add the hot sauce, salt, cayenne pepper, white pepper, and smoked paprika and stir.
Add the pickles, brine, and cheddar cheese and stir.
Add the diced pimentos and stir.

I like grilled pimento cheese samaches.

[GilpinGuy]

Lebnah.
It's basically a homemade yogurt cheese. I made it for the first time and it's yummmmmmy. It comes out almost like cream cheese, so it's great for bagels, crackers, stuffing peppers, etc. And so easy.

Take some full fat, whole milk yogurt with live cultures. Real yogurt - non fat "yogurt" is an abomination.

Anyway, take your yogurt and pour it into a bowl. Mix in whatever you want. I added chopped garlic, chives and garlic greens (or scapes) to make a garlic herb type of cheese. I've heard that honey and walnuts are great, cranberry and honey as well. Anything you want.

Wrap the cheese in a cheese cloth and put it in a strainer like a small colander you use for pasta. Put the strainer in a bowl to collect the whey that will drip out. Let it sit in the fridge for a few days and your done. Unwrap it and put it in a container and keep it in the fridge.

One tip: put something kinda heavy on top of the cheese cloth to speed up the draining. I put a saucer on top, then a can of tomato sauce or something on the saucer.

I dumped the whey, but I know it's super good for you. There must be a good use for it, I just haven't looked into it.

This came out really good. I can't wait to stuff some jalapenos and grill them.

I'll do some version with honey next. It just seems like it will be good with honey it it.

[TheGrey]

Sam's club has been stocking sliced side pork for a few months now. I actually dare hope this becomes a normal part of their meat inventory!

For those of you that have not yet had side pork, gather 'round.

Imagine, if you will, a slice of thick-cut bacon, friend up so that it is crisp, and it crumbles into your mouth as you bite into it. The meat is both chewy and yet bits of deliciousness sort of dissolve in your mouth; the fat is that velvety texture that gives only the slightest resistance as your teeth sink into it- it melts into a burst of flavor as you chew it.

Side Pork is bacon x 1000, when prepared right.

Even when it comes out not-quite-bacon, it is like a mix between bacon and pork chops.

This is how I prepare side pork:

The package you get at Sam's usually holds between 16-20 slices. Some slices will be thicker than others- they usually range between 1/4"-3/4" thick.

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Spread tinfoil in a tray, making sure to cover from side to side. Make sure your tray has edges, because there will be a lot of fat.

Lay each piece of side pork in the tray. Make sure they're not touching each other, for maximum crispness. You don't have to cook the entire package at once. It freezes just fine.

Liberally pepper the side facing up, and sprinkle it with seasoning (I use season salt, but you could use paprika or smoked salt.)

Put it in the oven for 1/2 hour. Pull out the tray (be careful, there will be a lot of fat sloshing around.) Flip the pieces over, sprinkle them with pepper and salt/seasoning, and put back into the oven for 35 minutes.

Make sure it is on the top rack, up under the broiler. Turn off the oven, and turn on the broiler. Broil on high for about 2-3 minutes, keeping an eye on it.

Warning- it will smoke like crazy. If your kitchen is like mine, you'll need fans and open windows.

Broiling it will make it crisp up on the outside. Don't skip the broiling.

Carefully remove it from the oven (again, far more fat than bacon creates.) Serve it as soon as possible from the oven, and enjoy!

[Vanniek71]

Sam's club has been stocking sliced side pork for a few months now. I actually dare hope this becomes a normal part of their meat inventory!

For those of you that have not yet had side pork, gather 'round.

Imagine, if you will, a slice of thick-cut bacon, friend up so that it is crisp, and it crumbles into your mouth as you bite into it. The meat is both chewy and yet bits of deliciousness sort of dissolve in your mouth; the fat is that velvety texture that gives only the slightest resistance as your teeth sink into it- it melts into a burst of flavor as you chew it.

Side Pork is bacon x 1000, when prepared right.

Even when it comes out not-quite-bacon, it is like a mix between bacon and pork chops.

This is how I prepare side pork:

The package you get at Sam's usually holds between 16-20 slices. Some slices will be thicker than others- they usually range between 1/4"-3/4" thick.

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Spread tinfoil in a tray, making sure to cover from side to side. Make sure your tray has edges, because there will be a lot of fat.

Lay each piece of side pork in the tray. Make sure they're not touching each other, for maximum crispness. You don't have to cook the entire package at once. It freezes just fine.

Liberally pepper the side facing up, and sprinkle it with seasoning (I use season salt, but you could use paprika or smoked salt.)

Put it in the oven for 1/2 hour. Pull out the tray (be careful, there will be a lot of fat sloshing around.) Flip the pieces over, sprinkle them with pepper and salt/seasoning, and put back into the oven for 35 minutes.

Make sure it is on the top rack, up under the broiler. Turn off the oven, and turn on the broiler. Broil on high for about 2-3 minutes, keeping an eye on it.

Warning- it will smoke like crazy. If your kitchen is like mine, you'll need fans and open windows.

Broiling it will make it crisp up on the outside. Don't skip the broiling.

Carefully remove it from the oven (again, far more fat than bacon creates.) Serve it as soon as possible from the oven, and enjoy!

You had me at bacon x1000

[ChickNorris]

You had me at bacon x1000

Exactly

[ChickNorris]

Yay! Thank you. Im looking forward to trying this.