Food

[Henry Krinkle]

Experiment. A straight salt cure on a fillet of arctic char.


In another ten or so hours, it'll get rinsed then left to air dry in the fridge for thirty or so hours and then cold alder smoke.

[Henry Krinkle]

Charro beans, almost entirely locally sourced. A friend grew the lentils, the tomatoes, onions, peppers, oregano and thyme and cilantro came from my garden and I made the green chorizo, back bacon, ham and chicken stock used in it. The queso duro is not from here.

[skywatch]

Charro beans, almost entirely locally sourced. A friend grew the lentils, the tomatoes, onions, peppers, oregano and thyme and cilantro came from my garden and I made the green chorizo, back bacon, ham and chicken stock used in it. The queso duro is not from here.

Yum!

Backyard harvest is a thing of great joy.

[bajachild]

Backyard hickory smokin ain't bad either!

[bajachild]

End result. Chicken gone too fast to picture.

[meijlinder]

Pork. Pulled, waiting to be sauced, put in tortillas with cilantro, pickled red onion, cheese, sour cream and salsa.

[Nokie]

^^^^^

I am pretty sure I could eat that entire tray. Looks delicious.

[Henry Krinkle]

A pepper I am unfamiliar with: the lemon pepper. It is roughly the size of a cayenne, with the heat of a scotch bonnet/ habanero and a flavour reminiscent of citrus. I have put it in tonight's meal, gazpacho, and when I get arround to it, I'll pass on my thoughts.




And the gazpacho



Thanks to Scott I now know that the yellow chile is an Aji pepper.

[Henry Krinkle]

After 13 hours caked with salt the char is safe to eat. We\re making cold smoked char though, not char lox so it got a rinse and a two hour soak in cold water in the fridge. The water not only washes away the surface salt but it also pushes the slat deeper into the cells of the meat, enhancing the cure and lessening any food safety issues.



The water bath is followed by at least 24 hours uncovered in the fridge. This allows the cured meat to form an oily crust called a pellicle. This not only protects the meat from unfriendly bacteria it is a magnet for the smoke.




Into the smoker. Top row- roughly a pound of jalapenos. middle , middle 1 1/2 pounds of cheese, bottom row char. The first rule of food safety for a vertical smoker is least dangerous food top to most dangerous at the bottom. One wouldn't want potentially deadly meat juice dripping onto something that might never be cooked, such as cheese or peppers.

[geoffbot]

I'm eating pizza and chips every day. Decent enough all inclusive food here, but the pizza is really nice. I'm going to get fat.