BBQs and Birthdays

Alright so I guess I jinx'd myself proclaiming "update Monday" to be a recurring thing. I guess I've just been too preoccupied to post these past few days. So here we go...

This past weekend had all the makings of greatness. The weather was AWESOME and made me long for Summer (granted, not last summer...an actually warm Summer). It was also my sister Jenna's fiancée's birthday weekend. I broke my Sunday BBQ tradition and decided to go for it on Saturday. Partially because I was inspired by the beautiful day and wanted to hang out in my backyard and also because I knew that my girlfriend Jenny would only be around Saturday night and Sunday morning and wanted her to enjoy a little bit of the obsession that she ultimately created.

Grizzly the Helper

The beer of the day was Corona, with the weather it was an obvious choice. I decided I wanted to BBQ a pork shoulder and make pulled pork sandwiches out of it. Stater Bros. was having a sale on pork shoulders so I took the opportunity. What I failed to realize at first was how long it was actually going to take. At first glance I read 3.5 hours...but that was just the first HALF of the smoking. I was going for fruity but spicy flavor and the apricot glazed pork shoulder recipe was going to be perfect. I started off injecting the meat with apricot nectar, water, and apple cider vinegar and let it marinate for about an hour. Then went with the wet rub of standard mustard, worcestershire, apple cider vinegar and then generously sprinkled the dry rub consisting of black pepper, chili powder, dry mustard, paprika, old bay seasoning, kosher salt, and garlic salt. I sealed all that in with a light amount of canola oil that I brushed on with a BBQ brush. I preheated the smoker to about 250 degrees and put the pork shoulder in for about 4.5 hours (In hind sight I let it go a little long) while periodically spraying it with apricot nectar juice. At around this time I read further along in the recipe and realized I had a long way to go. Now it was time for the wrapping technique. I drizzled honey, brown sugar, and butter over the shoulder and wrapped it in tinfoil and let it cook for another 2 hours. I should have probably let it go for another 3 hours but now I was pressed for time. I took it out, re-wrapped it in foil and clear plastic wrap then bundled in a big beach towel and let it rest for about 30 mins (again rushed, should have been an hour). Then finally unwrapped it and put it back in the smoker unwrapped. By now it was dark out and I was getting really hungry and Jenny had just arrived and we were supposed to leave to Nic's (Jenna's Fiancée) birthday party in downtown San Diego very shortly. The last cooking step was to coat the entire shoulder with the homemade apple BBQ sauce I had made earlier (that will have to be a separate post I think). Let that cook for another 20 minutes then took it out finally. So about 7.5 hours later I finally had a pretty delicious looking pork shoulder sitting in front of me...take a look.

Pre-cut Pork Shoulder (object larger than appears on camera)

The final product

The final step was to "Pull" the pork and add the homemade apple BBQ sauce to the mix and slap all that delicious meat on a toasted bun and call it done (See left). Overall I was very pleased with how it turned out but as usual I saw some room for improvement (I'm my own biggest critic). I definitely rushed it at the end and wondered how much better it could have been if I took my time and let it cook for the times recommended in the recipe. The pork wasn't quite "fall off the bone" as I had hoped but definitely maintained the tenderness I was going for. Definitely made for some delicious pulled pork sandwiches and lots of leftovers which I will probably be finishing off tonight actually!

After the long day of BBQing it was time to party at the Andaz hotel in downtown San Diego and celebrate Nic's 30th birthday and his brother's 40th. It was quite the family affair in their beautiful suites and rooftop cabana. We ate, we drank, we danced, and had a great time. It actually took me a day or so to recover but at least I had the spoils of my sweet sweet BBQ creation to keep me feeling alright.

One thing I didn't go into detail about was the homemade BBQ sauce. I'll save that for another post as it was a pretty involved process but I had a lot of fun making it.

Cheers!

Short Cook Beef Brisket!

So this is looking like a recurring theme here... It's UPDATE MONDAY! I guess I'm just always so excited about my weekend exploits that I like to experience it all over again in my head on Mondays. Well, this weekend I was really hoping the terrible weather forecast wouldn't prevent me from smoking the brisket I'd been thawing. A little background, I found the brisket in my mom's 2nd freezer and it was from a cow she bought with her friend that was "organic grass fed". So needless to say I was pretty excited about it and to be honest, there wasn't any weather that was going to stop me from cooking it. The original plan was to cook on Saturday but who was I kidding, I always do my BBQing on Sunday and why should this week be any different? I ended up kinda sleeping in anyways and Jenny was in town for one of her best friend's birthdays (girls weekend...lame I know) and I ended up meeting up with them for lunch near Downtown San Diego in Little Italy. So Saturday was out of the question. Sunday, as I should have known, worked out to be a much better day and it was clear and beautiful out on top of it.

So as any good BBQ goes it starts with a beer. This time I went with a Sierra Nevada. One thing I should just mention is that there is always beer in the fridge at my house. It doesn't seem like we even buy beer very often either. People that come over for BBQ's just tend to bring beer and we end up with lots leftover. That and I seem to always be doing favors for people that like to pay in cases of beer. Fine with me!

Ok, I just realized I've been rambling...Let's get to the meat of this thing! I picked the "Short Cook Beef Brisket" recipe from the BBQ book Jenny got me (the gift that keeps on giving). Again, a lot of the same basic ingredients as the ribs but with a few variations. I've either gotten lazy with measuring out ingredients or I just feel more confident with the portions now but this time I definitely misread teaspoon and tablespoon for the cayenne pepper...oops! The basic recipe was mustard, chili powder, and water for the wet rub and garlic salt, black pepper, lemon pepper, cayenne pepper, and chili powder for the dry rub. It also called for pieces of fresh garlic to be stuffed into little slots cut into the meat. I had some left over garlic so I sliced it and placed them on top just for the hell of it. The cook time was relatively short at 2.5 hours at 325 degrees but I can't seem to get my smoker to get higher than 250-275 so I just put it on high and let it go. When I opened it up 2.5 hours later it looked beautiful. Nice and golden brown with the "burnt" tips (the heavily smoked tips are my favorite). The final step, which I'm becoming quite fond of, is the wrapping. I took the meat out and wrapped it with tin foil after drizzling a mixture of brown sugar, honey, and water over it. Then I placed the wrapped brisket back into the smoker for 45 minutes. After taking out the brisket it is always extremely tempting to just dive right in but I swear to you that you'll get even better results if you wait about 20 minutes and let the meat "rest". It just turns out juicier that way...and here is the result!

Smoked Beef Brisket

Closing Comments
Overall I was very pleased with how this brisket turned out. It had a great tender texture with a crispy crust and was very juicy. I especially liked the little garlic pieces. This brisket definitely had a kick to it which I liked to a point but I think I will pay attention to the seasoning portions a little better next time and cut back a little on the cayenne pepper and chili powder. I also want to try this without the wrapping method because it already looks REALLY good before the wrapping and I'm just curious how it tastes. I'd guess a little less sweet without the honey and brown sugar. That's what I really love about BBQ though, you can do whatever you want and tweak it to your liking and it's pretty forgiving. As long as you're not going overboard on any one ingredient, adding random spices, or over/under cooking the meat, it's hard to go wrong. I guess that's the  hard part though...oh well, I seem to have a knack for it so I'm just not going to worry about that :)

SLO Doesn't Disappoint!

Firestone Tri-Tip Sandwich

The weekend trip to SLO (San Luis Obispo) was a success! I consumed two tri-tip sandwiches and probably more fries than I probably should have from Firestone Grill. I freakin' love that place. I swear I'm going to figure out what is in that BBQ sauce of theirs...probably lots of Crack because I get the shakes just thinking about it. I used to go to Firestone AT LEAST once if not twice a week when I was in college...it just never gets old.  I also went to my favorite sandwich place in SLO, High St. Deli. Everything is fresh and the sandwiches are of a very generous size which is a great combo for me. The place has a very old school feel with tin signs from the 50's on the walls. They also only seem to sell beer in 24oz cans/bottles which is just perfect for a college town eatery.

Another awesome and unplanned part of my trip to SLO was a morning drive up Prefumo Canyon Rd. which very suddenly takes you away from civilization and into the wide open rolling hills above San Luis Obispo. I've been up there a few times before but it was Jenny's first time which made it pretty cool to show her something new in SLO (She went to Cal Poly too). I don't know why but that girl just inspires me to do awesome things. It was an exceptionally beautiful, clear, and crisp morning after a storm had swept through the day/night before and we had the sunroof open and windows down with the heat on. When we reached the top and saw the view it pretty much solidified my dream of retiring in a place like this. My only regret on this drive was that I didn't stop and get out of my car and really soak it in...and take some pictures. Lord knows I had my nice camera with me too! Maybe it was the fact that I had no shoes or sandals because we slipped out of our overcrowded room at the Madonna Inn and I wasn't able to find anything in the dark amongst the bodies strewn about...but regardless, I should have stopped and just sacked it up. So as a consolation, I was able to google a sunset picture of the view we saw...Notice Morro Rock on the far left side.

View from Prefumo Canyon Rd. Towards Morro Bay.

View from Prefumo Canyon Rd. Towards SLO.

Pretty awesome...can't wait to retire!

Edit: I realize the panoramic pictures aren't really aligned properly but they are just too nice to shrink down.

Valentine's Day Ribs!

After that Super Bowl BBQ success I decided to do it again for Jenny since she missed out last weekend. This time I decided to also try some pork spare ribs. The recipes were almost identical besides the pork ribs calling for some apple juice added to the mixture and some paprika. I'm definitely seeing a trend in this book by Adam Perry Lang. Once I get the hang of these recipes I will easily be able to just wing it on my own and try my own flavorings. This time the ribs were in the smoker for only about 3 hours. Jenny was getting impatient and it was incredibly difficult for me to deny her my beautifully smoked meats. I've realized that the real "flavor saver" is in the wrapping technique. For the last 30 minutes I wrap the ribs in foil with my 2nd favorite BBQ sauce, Sweet Baby Ray's (my favorite is Firestone of course),  and some brown sugar, honey, and butter. This gives the ribs a sweet and juicy flavor that just makes my mouth water thinking about it. This time the side was grilled asparagus. The recipe was pretty simple and I was improvising the whole way. I started by drizzling some olive oil over the asparagus in a flat pan then sprinkled garlic salt, black pepper, kosher salt, and freshly minced garlic to the spread. When I placed all of the asparagus on the grill I had a flare up really quickly. I think it was the olive oil. I calmed the flare up but it definitely blackened some of the asparagus more than I would have liked and masked the flavorings I had added. This is where I improvised and really struck gold. I used my BBQ brush to add some canola oil and melted butter to the grilling asparagus and then squeezed out a half lemon all over it. The result was a tart and fresh tasting asparagus with some peppery undertones. I was really pleased with how it turned out. Take a look!

Smoked Beef and Pork Ribs with side of Asparagus

I probably won't be BBQing for a couple weeks as I'll be in SLO next weekend but I think I want to try a pork shoulder or a prime rib next time. And since I'll be in SLO I'll definitely be stopping by my all-time favorite BBQ place, Firestone Grill. I simply cannot resist their tri-tip sandwich and their BBQ sauce is something I'm going to attempt to replicate soon!