TEXAS MONTHLY now has a barbecue editor!

From the NY Times.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/24/us/texas-monthly-hires-full-time-barbecue-editor.html?hpw

crankin’ away

and a scene I painted taken from a photo taken by a pal of mine, Mike Farmer. It’s at Kreuz Market in Lockhart, TX

Altercation at the counter

Pig roast at Local Pig, KCMO and another opening.

Wow.. this was great. They made their own beans and the cole slaw was not some bland and overly sweet grocery store salad bar mush. I was most impressed.  This was for the grand opening at Local Pig, a an artisanal butcher shop that produces charcuterie  in the East Bottoms. This is about two blocks from Knucklehead’s, a music venue where have I occasionally sat in on accordion at the blues jams, just north, across the railroad tracks.

The Local Pig has a nice interior.

There was quite a crowd, even when I got there a bit after noon. It was chilly and windy, in the 40s, but pleasant. There seemed to be a rather well-behaved crowd.

The crowd is served.

The plates were quite nice. The buns/rolls were amazingly good. Not some sort of  Bunny Bread/burger bun dreck.

Here’s a photo of my plate.

Pork plate at Local Pig's grand opening.

If I had known, I could have gotten some ribs. But I didn’t. Here’s a plate of rib remains. Sigh. Whimper.

Had I just know; I could have had a rib or three. Shucks.

Lest we forget, the guest of honor… a noble beast..

Head office!

And here’s the guest of honor with the woman who was nobly serving the Boulevard Ales on tap. Good work, folks!

The Guest of Honor and one of his Minions..

Not forgetting, EL TORITO #3 (I think it’s number 3) just opened its new supermercado on the north side of Independence Avenue, across from ACE Hardware. It’s a really nice place to shop for comida and has a great carniceria.

Eat More Goat..

Good stuff here. Back in Texas, I used to cook goats for get-togethers. I cooked a halal goat leg from Petra Market along with two shoulder clods from Belmont Butchery last year for my son’s wedding in Nelson County. Here’s a photo of the goat leg.

Anointed goat leg.

At the wedding, there were Cypriots, Mexicans, Ecuadoreans and at least one Spaniard. They were amazed at how tender the goat was. Halal goats tend to be happy (tender) goats. I draw the line at cooking anxious goats and goats that have been hassled prior to the time of their demise.

From the Bay Area food blog THE ETHICUREAN:

Goat meat is already very popular around the world – the Washington Post claims that goat makes up almost 70 percent of the red meat eaten globally – and its popularity could increase in the U.S. because of the convergence of several things:  renewed interest in grass-fed animals; openings of new butcher shops or revitalization of old shops (such as Avedano’s in San Francisco’s Bernal Heights), and increasing numbers of U.S. residents from Latin America and South Asia. With a bit of education and experimentation by farmers, butchers, chefs and home cooks, this adaptable animal could become a key part of a return to meat raised on pastures.

http://www.ethicurean.com/2011/06/12/goats/

THE ETHICUREAN is a good, non-fluffy, food blog.

 

Peace, Love & Barbecue..

Our band (Leanne and the Bizarros) used to open for hers (Frieda and the Firedogs) back in Austin in the early ’70s.. get back!

Back from KCMO (again) & ASK A MEXICAN.

OK, folks, I was pleasantly surprised to find that one can get a go-cup of menudo at panaderias (Mexican bakeries) in Kansas City. And the panaderias don’t use that foul tasting excuse for shortening that the folks at Sabrosita use. (Was it aviation lubricant from the days of the Contra incursion? It really tastes synthetic. Ikk.)

Here’s a photo from Bonito Michoacan, a Mexican grocery, meat market, & eatery in Kansas City, KS.

buena comida aqui!

You guys crack me up. Arguing about big-boxing the Fan. I’m sure very few of you have cruised down Jeff Davis and gone to Big Apple Market (a ‘hispanic” market run by Koreans). I’ve suggested this but some of you think you need to hire Blackwater operatives to go to the non-bolillo (non-whitebread) parts of this burg.

I can’t wait until ASK A MEXICAN shows up in STYLE WEAKLY. But I’ll have crossed the Mississippi by then.

London Broil con Recado para Bistek

A recado is a paste or rub for roasting meat, fowl or fish. A annatto/achiote based recado is used in Yucatecan pibil cookery. Recados are not unlike Jamaican jerk rub, which also uses allspice, black pepper, and herbs. Trans-Caribbean influences here, I’ll wager.

My son and Rachel came over last Saturday and I decided to take a London Broil and rub it with recado para bistek.

Recado para Bistek

1 tbs black peppercorns
1 tsp allspice berries
1 1/2 tsp whole cumin
2 tbs Mexican oregano
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
one head of garlic roasted & peeled.

Grind this in a food processor or a molcajete. When ready to use moisten with lime juice, lemon juice, or even beer. Rub on the meat and place in ziplock bag for at least an hour in the fridge.

ready to be anointed with recado para bistek

Get your cooker going. I had this sucker in my smoker for 4-5 hours.

anointment

It was great. We had it with guacamole, frijoles rosados refritos, a spinach salad, and tortillas de harina.

the first slice...

We had enough left to take over to a friend’s house for dinner on Sunday.

A musing on barbecue:

From EATING OUR WORDS, a Houston Foodblog collective:

Growing up, we never ate barbecue in a restaurant. The entire idea was anathema ……. You made barbecue at home. It took all day. You invited the family over when it was ready. You ate. Going out for barbecue was like asking someone other than your mother to make you a peanut butter and jelly sandwich as a kid: It just wasn’t going to be as good.

Shoulder Clod: Round 5

The meat is cut and plated for the shindig this afternoon in Faber, VA.  Here are some photos of the process.

It was very good to take a hot shower after 15 hours of tending the smoker and slicing the meat.

crankin' away

Smoky pit & shoulder clod.

The end product:

This is barbecue. Not pork soup on a bun, with cole slaw.

More photos will be taken at the boda.

Shoulder Clod: Round 4

OK, here we are. I got the smoker going at 5:30 this AM and put the meat on at 6:30 AM. I will take it off around 8-10 tonight.

5:30 AM June 4, 2010

Inside the cooker..

2 shoulder clods with a goat leg behind.

This is for a wedding up in Nelson County tomorrow. I used to cook goat for 300 folks at a whack back in the day in Texas.  Speaking of which, I may be able to be a judge at the World Championship Goat Cook-Off in Brady, Texas if I’m down thataway during Labor Day.

Now something from Wally Gonzalez, the Taco Kid.

Shoulder clods: Round 3 (with goat leg)

I could only get two shoulder clods from Belmont Butchery. No problem. I went to Petra Halal Market (Arch & Midlothian) and picked up a five pound goat leg.

I’m using mesquite, apple, & Jack Daniels chips for the smoke. No pecan showed up. Here are some photos.

Apple, mesquite chunks, & Jack Daniels barrel chips.

These will go atop the charcoal tomorrow in the AM.

Goat leg on the left, beef shoulder clods on the right

Now here’s the anointed goat leg in all its glory.

Goat leg ready for a nap.