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Culinary Challenge 11 — Put a New Low and Slow Spin on Smoking or Grilling

Chris_Young_80640

This week's objective: Sous vide is the perfect cooking technique to pair with grilling or smoking. So for this challenge, choose a dish to prepare utilizing sous vide and your choice of either grilling or smoking. The choice is yours and we hope to see a dazzling array of meats, seafood, vegetables, and fruits sizzling over the coals. Multiple posts are encouraged – you've got two weeks, after all!

Outline: Take the challenge in your own kitchen or backyard and then share your results via the ChefSteps forum. Describe the dish you have chosen (please include a photo of the dish) and techniques used to make it. Describe where your idea or inspiration came from, what your plan of attack was, and finally, post pictures of your version of the dish.

The top 3 posts will have their photos posted on ChefSteps' Pinterest board and you will be celebrated for your innovation and devotion. Please have your entry posted by Thursday, June 6, 2013.

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matthew.snyder77

@Brian, how does the flavor of your boar ribs stack up? I love me some cinghiale, but I've not yet found a recipe that does the ribs justice. And I don't know of any butchers shops that stock the product, which means it has to be ordered (I usually buy from Broken Arrow) which means shipping costs. Consequently, I'm a little reluctant to experiment.

Bj_rn_Olfenius_39604

Hi everyone !
So I have been following chef steps for a wile and got very inspired, so I finally bought myself a vacuum sealer that I can use at home and experiment.
I have had this idea for some time but could not decide if I should cook the meat sous vide or not, as I m planing to use this ham in a side dish for a dinner menu, so I i decided that I will only cure the meat but I wanted to share this anyway with u guys .

It's a venison ham I made a wile ago

Here is a link to a how I made this beautiful ham

http://youtu.be/NqEoSm35w4I

prince_of_porcelain

@ParkerCook: They were in the brine for roughly 40 hours, but only because I was leaving for the weekend and wanted them ready to throw on the smoker when I got home. I went with the low salt equilibrium solution so I could leave them for the extended period. I think I could have probably pulled them sooner because they were pretty thin. I've never brined ribs before, but I came across the boar ribs (which I'd never worked with) and liked the idea of pairing with the roots and bark flavors, so a brine seemed like the way to go. Next time I'd pull them from the circulator at 36 hours. I snuck one of the bones for breakfast, and it was a bit better texture at that point in the morning. I let them go the rest of the day, rather than pulling and reheating which in retrospect probably wasn't the right choice. Still tasty though.

@Brandon_Hodgins: I've got a Cookshack smoker. Smokette Elite. I don't have experience with too many smokers, but I've been happy with this one. It's a little spendy, but worth not having to get up every 2 hours or so during a long smoke.

Brandon_610

@Brian Those look good. What kind of smoker are you using?

Brandon_610

@Jack Thanks! I'm a Dr. Pepper addict. Here's the recipe I used. http://www.saveur.com/article/Recipes/Dr-Pepper-Barbecue-Sauce

ParkerCook_66639

@BrianDouglas How long did your brine take?

Jack_Mayer_85396

@Brandon - I'm drooling looking at those ribs! I'm in Texas and see lots of recipes for Dr. Pepper BBQ ...

ParkerCook_66639

That's awesome, @Briandouglas! My family used to own an A&W for years and we would use root beer in everything! Those look delicious.

prince_of_porcelain

Dinner tonight was Root Boar Ribs.

Wild Boar Baby Back Ribs equilibrium brined with Sarsaparilla, Sassafras, Dandelion, Licorice, Galangal, and Elecampane roots, Birch, Wild Cherry, and White Pine barks, with Juniper, Fennel Seed, Star Anise and Allspice. Basically a homemade unsweetened root beer extract. After brining they were smoked for 1.5 hours over Sassafras wood, then cooked Sous Vide at 60C for 48 hours. Glazed with some reserved (prior to adding salt) extract that was reduced and combined with apple juice, cider vinegar and maple syrup and finished with the torch. Accompanied with Jicama, Apple and Fennel Slaw.

Brandon_610

@ren The plating on your pollack looks amazing!

ren_74229

Here's something from a little while back:

Pollock with Garden Roots from Bowser's Castle:

I buried Daikon in embers for this one:

Brandon_610

Here's something I did over the weekend. I cooked some baby back ribs at 140 degrees for 48 hours. Before I bagged it, I hit it with my smoking gun and put a spice rub on it. After the bath I seared it then added a BBQ sauce made with Dr. Pepper and put it back on the grill for a few seconds.

I've made the sauce before and it has been a bit runny in the past so I added .25% of Ultra-Tex 3. Thickened it up great.

They turned out quite well, though they didn't get enough smoke on them. Next time I will use the smoking gun before and after the bath and perhaps in the sauce too.

Brandon_610

Finally got a photo to upload.

Brandon_610

Here is the photo, I think... Didn't seem to post the first time.

Brandon_610

I made a patty melt on Tuesday, since it was national hamburger day. I based it off a Dave Arnold video I saw on Eater.

I pre-seared the burger with a torch, then cooked it at 135 degrees for about 45 minutes in a ziplock with a bit of melted butter.

Then I sautéed some onions and made grilled cheese with rye, jarlsberg and the onions.

I turned my gas grill on the clean setting and got it up to about 650 degrees. Finished the burger on the grill for about 30 seconds per sides.

Slid the burger into the grilled cheese and served it with fries.

Tim_Sutherland_52834

Chicken Bits 'n Salad.

I cleaned out the fridge for tonight. I had chicken liver, tenders, wings and oysters from a chook I broke down earlier in the week. I tossed chooks bits, sans liver, in a bag at 63C for an hour. I made a quick pate with onions, butter, brandy and liver; pushed through a sieve and chilled. Once the chook bits were hot, I tossed them on the Korin grill. The sauce on the chook was a Sauce Gribiche, made with a smoked egg. The egg was a 6 minute boiled egg, chilled, peeled, smoked on the hob for 20mins, the pasty yolk was used to emulsify the sauce and the whites diced. A salad of Romaine, Swiss Chard, Mango, Roquefort and a rice wine vinaigrette finished the main. Dessert was Pecan Tart.

Brendan_Lee_56950

It's off of Lake Manassas in Gainesville, Virginia. My locked wasn't too far from Bill Clinton's and Joe Biden's today.

Jack_Mayer_85396

where at? I know you're in Virginia ... I'm a huge whore for great golf cousres!

Brendan_Lee_56950

Robert Trent Jones, they play the presidents cup there sometimes.

Jack_Mayer_85396

@B, looks great! But I confess, what course did you play?

Brendan_Lee_56950

Today couldn't have been much better. Got to spend the day golfing at a world class course and then had plenty of time left to tackle this challenge and make some delicious food. So for this challenge we have lightly smoked turkey (apple wood) with maitake mushrooms, fiddlehead ferns, cabbage puree, rendered turkey skin "bacon bits" and watercress.

The turkey was hot smoked over apple after being rubbed with the chefsteps #1 rub. It went for about 23-30 minutes at 195F, lots of smoke for a short period to keep the turkey basically uncooked but give it a nice aroma and slight smokiness. It was then bagged and cooked at 56C/90min.

The cabbage puree is the one from the site and it was delicious. My mind is churning with ideas that can go with! The maitakes were seared in a hot pan with olive oil and butter and blanched fiddleheads were added near the end to finish. I also smoked the turkey skin and then rendered it down in it's own fat, chopped into bits, and then recrisped in turkey fat. They're like turkey pastrami bacon bits and they're awesome.

ParkerCook_66639

@jim that looks fantastic! Awesome plating.

jim_53915

Basil flowers are one of the hardest flowers to harvest but their intense minty-basil flavors are so amazing they can really make quite an impact on a dish that it makes it worth the work. Flowers can really lighten up heavy dishes and give a great sense of balance to a hearty piece of meat with their delicate profiles.

seijoed

I've been wanting to do that for a while, it really adds a spin to the plate.

jim_53915

@Johan Thanks! The edible flowers are organically grown in my herb garden: marigold, violets and pansies, chive flowers, sage flowers, and basil flowers. The flavors the flowers impart to a dish are as great as the beautiful colors they provide.

jim_53915

The dishes so far have been awesome! Great techniques and presentations!

seijoed

Really neat colors @Jim

jim_53915

For this weeks challenge I cooked southwest rubbed London broil steak over a lemon goat cheese orzo salad with fresh fruit salsa.

The steak was rubbed with my southwest rub seasoning and then sealed in ziplock freezer bags using water displacement. They were cooked @ 130F for just over an hour. They were then grilled over hardwood charcoal with an actual oak log smoldering in the coals for a heavy smoky aroma and flavor. The orzo was cooked, chilled and then mixed with pineapple mint, grated aged goats cheese, and a lemon thyme vinaigrette. The fruit salsa was made with cantaloupe, pineapple, red onion, lime juice, mint, and cilantro.

London broil can be a challenge to cook on a grill due to its thick size. I feel that adding the step of cooking sous vide to your preferred temperature and then finishing on the grill for flavor and the charred outside texture maintains the best of both worlds without the over done ends. The extra effort ensured that the steaks were quite moist and full flavored, it also made it easier to make the side dishes while the steaks were cooking in the water bath.

Brad_Larsen_62637

I am set up for Sous Vide but am a little unclear on where to

start with the low and slow grilling or barbequing technique. Can someone

suggest a modernist recipe that would be good for the beginner?