Archive for February, 2009

Guaranteed Perfect Thanksgiving Turkey Barbecue

Thursday, February 26th, 2009
Barbecue Smoker Recipe Man


The technique of indirect cooking is essentially a slow roasting process which guarantees a tender result. When you think about it it’s pretty logical. The definition of indirect cooking is where the heat is not directly applied to the turkey as opposed to a grill where the turkey is seared directly over the charcoal barbecue grill.

In my house it’s always down to me to cook the turkey for Thanksgiving or Christmas and every year I read a bucket load of recipe books and everyone says something different. My biggest complaint is that most of the voices of authority for traditional cooking out there always overdo it and the breast is dry however there is a way to keep the turkey moist and this is why I go for indirect cooking on a barbecue smoker. If a direct barbecue grill is however your thing then you’ll be better going for turkey grill recipes and choose some sliced breast.

Don’t be tempted to go overboard looking for additional flavourings, the smoker will impart all the flavour you need so there’s not much more to add than the basic seasoning, the real challenge is to keep the turkey moist through the cooking process. If you, go for a relatively small bird around 9 – 12 lbs (5 or 6kg) you’ll make life easier for yourself, after that, try my two tips:-

Melt 100g / 4 oz of butter in a pot and add a tablespoon of oil – this baste will give all the flavour of the butter without burning it. In addition I like to part the skin from the flesh by gently sliding my hand up from the neck and smear some butter up there but if you do fancy trying this, do be gentle so that you don’t break the skin.

The second technique I use is to inject the turkey with the butter / oil mix. Use a meat injector (essentially a syringe with a metal capillary attached – as opposed to a needle), gently suck up the butter oil mix and then inject it carefully into the breast. Then it’s just a matter of seasoning with salt and pepper and basting and then place breast side up on the BBQ smoker.

You may be able to get away with a large kettle barbecue but essentially an offset smoker or a kamado barbecue such as a Big Green Egg is ideal. After that is just medium coals and indirect heat @ 225°F or 110°C, a drip tray in the bottom with a couple of tablespoons of water and you’re well on the way. It may be necessary to use foil to shield the sides but that really depends on your barbecue. Just cover and baste every 30 minutes or so with the butter / oil mix and 3½ hours later you should have the perfect Thanksgiving barbecue turkey.

The best test for me is not how long it’s been cooked but a skewer test for clear running juice in the breast and legs or a thermometer and look for an internal temperature of 165 °F. If it’s not quite ready just give it another 30 minutes and a baste and try again.



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Indian Microwave Cooking – Modak

Wednesday, February 25th, 2009
sudhakul


Traditional Indian recipe made easy with microwave. Check aaiskitchen.blogspot.com for details. Ganesh Festival special coconut sweet

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Barbecue How To’s and Two Bbq Recipes

Wednesday, February 25th, 2009
David Slone


Barbecuing is a widespread and honored tradition. Three out of four american families own a barbecue grill and use it, on average, four to five times per month. What better way is there to have fun with friends and family than to have a barbecue?

Before putting the meat on the barbecue it is a good idea to set it out of the refrigerator for about an hour to let it warm up. This will make the meat cook quicker and it will be juicier.

Food safety is an important issue so always be sure that you cook the meat thoroughly. Cut the meat in the thickest part to be sure that the juices are clear to be sure that it is completely cooked. Always be sure to keep utensils used to handle the raw meat separate from those you use to handle the cooked meat. Cross contamination of bacteria can be as dangerous as eating raw meat. You want your barbecue to be both fun and safe for everyone so always be careful.

Barbecued Spare Ribs are a classic American barbecue meal, made from pork. This version is cooked in the oven, not on a barbecue, and uses a barbecue sauce with a distinct Asian flavor, featuring soy sauce, rice vinegar, and garlic.

Remember to give your barbecue a good cleaning after each use. If you have a gas grill, you can turn the grill on for ten or fifteen minutes to allow it self clean. Charcoal grills need to be cleaned with soap and water using a stiff wire brush.

Here are a couple really good barbecue recipes you can try at your next barbecue

Grilled Stuffed Pork Chops

Ingredients:

4 thick rib pork chops, (1″ to 1 1/4″ thick is best)

3/4 cup dry breadcrumbs

Large pinch dried and crumbled rosemary

Large pinch dried and crumbled marjoram

1 Tbsp. melted butter

1/2 cup minced sweet onion

1 small clove garlic, minced

salt and/or pepper to taste

Make several shallow cuts in each pork chop with a knife.

In a large bowl mix the breadcrumbs, herbs, butter, onion, garlic, and salt.

Stuff the mixture into the cuts you made.

Grill the pork chops at medium to high heat for ten minutes on each side side. To make sure the chops are evenly cooked they should be turned several times. Grill them for five minutes or so then turn them over and let that side cook for 5 minutes. Repeat this process two or three times or until the chops are grilled to your satisfaction.

Barbecued Spare Ribs

Here is a classic American barbecue with a twist. This version uses a barbecue sauce that has a distinct Asian flavor, featuring soy sauce, rice vinegar, and garlic.

Ingredients:

2 pounds pork spare ribs

1/4 cup soy sauce

2 tablespoons honey

2 tablespoons hoisen sauce

2 tablespoons white vinegar

1 tablespoons sake

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 teaspoon sugar

1/4 teaspoon of freshly ground white pepper

2 tablespoons chicken stock

freshly ground black pepper and salt to taste

Put the spare ribs in a large casserole dish in one layer.

Using a large bowl, combine the rest of the ingredients. Pour this mixture over the spare ribs being sure to completely coat the meat. Let this marinate overnight, baste occasionally unless the meat is completely covered.

Throw the ribs on the grill and let them cook to your satisfaction. Turn them several times during the process and baste them with the marinade sauce a few times.



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Healthy Chicken Recipes

Monday, February 23rd, 2009
IC


What I like about healthy chicken recipes is that chicken meat is so versatile to cook with and there are just a multitude of ways that chicken may be used in recipes.

Although great care must be taken when handling chicken, using rubber gloves and disinfecting any area the chicken may have touched during preparation with bleach, it has to be one of the tastiest, containing low fat once skin is removed, and its main function is to provide protein. Chick may be roasted, fried, put in stir fry recipes, casseroles, eaten with almost anything and is low cal once the skin has been removed.

My favorite is chicken breasts, bones removed, easy to cook with Sharwood’s Tandori Butter Sauce and a multitude of healthy vegetables, apples, raisins, potatoes, red peppers, Spanish onions. It is an amazing Curried Sauce that just blends with the chicken breasts amazingly well. This can be done in a crock pot by cooking the breasts ahead in their juice, and one bay leaf and 1 tbsp of olive oil. When breasts are cooked, add Tandori Butter Sauce and your red peppers, potatoes chopped in cubes and Spanish onions and raisins and apples. Wow – this is my favorite healthy chicken recipe.

Aside from being lower in saturated fats then red meat, it is also a good source of Vitamin A, the B Vitamins and minerals. Remember when buying chicken to check for bruises, and very yellow skin – these birds have actually been fed colorants to make them look fat healthy. The best chicken for you to buy for healthy chicken recipes, is organically fed and range free grown. No pesticides and an proper anti-biotic-free fed bird. These can often be purchased at your favorite local meat shop, where you should know the practices of the butcher and grower etc.

Man birds are killed at 5 weeks to 5 months of age after being fed to fatten and given antibiotics in their foods. Much better than shopping at a department store for your precious white bird meat.

All poultry must be washed prior to cooking and your hands washed frequently during preparation as mentioned previously, but safety at all costs is important cooking healthy chicken recipes. Any knives, cutting boards, plates must also be bleached.

Chicken is cooked when leg joints move easily, or when meat pulls apart gently with a fork, when in casserole or crock pot. Note for healthy chicken recipes, remove skin prior to cooking and never refrigerate a stuffed chicken before cooking it stuffed poultry should be cooked at 325 F – lower temp will allow bacteria to multiply and higher temps may cook the outside but not the stuffing on the inside.

Once Healthy Chicken Recipe is cooked, savor the flavor. It is one of the better organically fed and grown tastes to experience.



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Barbecues, Smokers And The Environment

Monday, February 23rd, 2009
Barbecue Smoker Recipe Man


Outdoor cooking on the barbecue and smoker is now becoming a serious leisure pastime. Certainly in England where the weather is not altogether reliable, the advent of wonderful contraptions such as umbrellas and patio heaters has made outdoor cooking an extremely pleasurable recreation. In fact so much so that you’ll see people lighting the barbecue in all weathers – a funny lot those English!

Speaking as one of that “funny lot”, an extremely enthusiastic fan of outdoor cooking and now a creator and purveyor of outdoor bbq recipes and free smoker recipes I thought is was I did some research into the subject of my chosen fuel of fun.

What concerns me is that I’m thoroughly enjoying myself lighting fires, grilling fish and steaks and washing it all down with a glass or two of the falling down water and yet I must be damaging the environment, mustn’t I? Charcoal comes from wood, so with all these barbecues there must be serious deforestation going on followed by greater transport costs to ship it from further afield and less trees to absorb the carbon dioxide greenhouse gas.

So in the spirit of my own education and learning I wanted to find out about how charcoal is made and as a result I’ve found out about the process of coppicing.

Coppicing is the cutting of a tree or shrub to ground level. Doing this stimulates the tree to sprout a number of new shoots and they grow very vigorously. Coppicing could be described as similar to pruning except that with coppicing all the wood is removed and not just a few branches. By cutting the tree or shrub to the ground, all dead, diseased and old wood gets removed and that can be put to good use. The tree now free of disease is able to grow as fast as possible and this makes for a thicker plant that is also better for wildlife.

Coppicing is carried out in cycles from one year to many years depending on the species of tree and what the wood is going to be used for. This means that a variety of coppicing activity will be taking place in a wood thereby ensuring the continuation of the ecology and an ongoing supply of wood.

Coppiced trees can survive for many centuries and perhaps one of the most astonishing facts about the English countryside is that very often the oldest trees are those that have been cut down the most! Add to this the fact that because it’s sustainable there aren’t truckloads of charcoal pounding the roads, it really is a local industry.

So now I can write my free smoker recipes for your enjoyment safe in the knowledge that outdoor cooking on the charcoal BBQ grill can remain my chosen method of relaxation and recreation.

Please note that this article is not a statement of scientific fact; it’s merely a way of absolving me of guilt at lighting a fire. Of course we need to be careful whenever the earth’s natural resources are consumed and I work on the principle that the cooking process itself is no more or less environmentally unfriendly that turning on the stove or the oven. Of course I maybe wrong but at least I feel happier knowing that I’m not contributing to serious deforestation.

Not all charcoal is produced the way I have described above so please be careful when buying charcoal to check that it does indeed come from a sustainable source.



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