Posts Tagged ‘Canadian BBQ’

One of my favorite things to do when we are traveling is to try new BBQ joints all over North America. I love the chance to visit with folks all over and to hear their stories and their BBQ methods.

I am not alone in this pursuit there are many folks and foodies that really enjoy the pursuit of BBQ. These are not high end edited videos. These are just people that are going out and sharing their love of BBQ with everyone out there.

One of those fine folks is Jim “Rhino” Reincke from Bandit BBQ a competition team and BBQ Caterer.He is also a member of the Illinois BBQ Society.

His video on You tube is a great example of the continual pursuit of BBQ.

Here is a video on a BBQ Snoot sandwich in Illinois

Check out his videos and commentary on his You Tube Channel.

This year I may even have to take out a video camera myself and share some of the places we stop along our travels. It seems like a great idea to share all these great and interesting places we stop at.

Well I am once again adding to my ever increasing list of BBQ books. The folks at Big Green Egg were kind enough to give me a copy of their latest book. Just for the record. I don’t have a Big Green Egg. Yet. I am a firm believer that having multiple types of grills is a good idea. They all have different personalities. I love my Traegers. I compete with my Traegers. I really do believe they are the easiest BBQ to own and to operate. So I am definitely a pellet head. However I love playing with charcoal too. Playing with fire can be a lot of fun and certainly a challenge at times. Some women collect shoes I prefer to collect BBQ’s. It makes the whole BBQ experience fun.

So the cookbook is really quite expansive. This is a big cookbook. 320 pages. It is a gorgeous cookbook to own. The pictures are incredible. The recipes many I have tried and would recommend -Smoke Beef Short Ribs done with hickory chips for example. I have found many of the recipes are easily transferable to other BBQ equipment in addition to Eggs.

Some of the recipes also use the stove top (ex Kale on page 307 with the apple wood smoked bacon). It is a delicious recipe.

I like the format of this cookbook. I enjoyed reading the Chef & Pitmaster Biographies. Overall this has to be one of the best laid out cookbooks for BBQ I have ever seen. Plus God bless them they realize there are Canadians and International Folks that BBQ since they even included a Metric Conversion table as well.

From the Gourmet (ex Roasted Fingerling Potatoes with Creme Fraiche & Caviar) to the most basic (ex Italian Sausage subs) this cookbook has it all for anyone who loves to grill & BBQ. I would highly recommend it for the recipes whether you own a Big Green Egg or other grill/bbq.

Theres a new website online for sharing videos, BBQ tips and creating more BBQ communities:

www.GrillQ.com

Check it out and upload, watch and share your BBQ!

As I am prepping for the 2010 season to begin I have to start with where we really needed to improve from 2009. For the last years season I was really happy with our pork. Everything else needs a lot more work. Especially brisket. I have struggled with brisket. Brisket is my challenge above all challenges. Overall for the year we came in 241 out of 4716 on the Pickled Pig Rankings. I am proud and challenged by those results. Just shy of being in the top 5% overall we came in:

• 173 out of 4716  Pork
• 267 out of 4716 Chicken
• 331 out of 4716 Ribs
• 580 out of 4716 Brisket

For these rankings we had 6 competitions that were included:

We did however compete in additional competitions for the 2009 as well that were not included in those rankings:

Canada Southern BBQ Championships
Grand Champion

1st — Pork; 2nd — Ribs; 3rd — Brisket; 3rd —Chicken 1st—Anything  But

_____________

“Smoke on the Water Barbecue Competition Saskatchewan”
Reserve Grand Champion

1st — Pork; 2nd — Ribs; 4th — Brisket; 4th—Chicken 1st—Anything But

_____________

Canadian Pork BBQ Championships
Reserve Grand Champion

2nd—Chicken; 2nd — Pork; 4th — Brisket; 4th — Ribs

_____________

National BBQ Festival “Best of the Best”

Invitational BBQ Cook-off
4th Overall

7th — Pork Shoulder; 6th — Chicken;

_____________

National BBQ Festival “Best of the Best”
Open BBQ Cook-off

13th Overall

9th — Ribs
_____________

BBQ on the Bow Calgary Alberta

4th Overall

1st — Brisket; 3rd — Ribs

______________

Crazy Canuck BBQ Championships Toronto Ontario

4th Overall

3rd—Chicken; 3rd — Pork; 4th — Ribs; 6th — Brisket

Overall we made improvements to our overall BBQ in my opinion. I am hoping to be able to attend more competitions this year however my schedule may have some interesting diversions this year. I can’t share them yet but I am really excited for 2010 overall. I have a lot of practice and work to do. LOL

I want to share one of  my most favorite sauces that I make regularly for home use.

Its not mine. I did not come up with it but my friend Mike Kerslake head chef for Carolinian Winery and Foley Farms has always been very generous in allowing me to share it with people:

Just an FYI we have announced two classes for 2010 with more dates being announced in the future. Please see our Classes tab for more information. Please note all of our past classes have sold out continuously so sign up soon.

Well my day was filled with some lovely cold smoking.  Ian McKend sent me this unit to review.  See the above You tube video for more information about the product. Also here is the Company’s website.
I chose 5 types of cheese I already had in the fridge. Haloumi, cream cheese, a Maclarens Imperial Aged cheddar, and a couple of inexpensive blocks of Marble and Old Cheddar.

For the cheese project I decided to use my own smokin dust. The kit comes with Oak however I am not a huge fan and thought for the cheese that something a little more delicate would be better. I had a couple of bags of Smokinlicious products in the garage, pecan and mango. I think they were an excellent combination.

The kit isn’t very large at all. I will admit I really had my doubts about it effectiveness. How could such a simple tray filled with dust and a tea light impart that lovely smoky goodness on my cheese?

I filled in the two flavors of dust and got it started

So I loaded up my Traeger rib rack with the cheeses and set off for my nearest grill my little Tex. Its right at my backdoor. It has been heavily used over the years. I don’t take this one on the road with me it is my home unit.

About an hour into it I went to check on the cheese. I realized I had made a critical mistake in the placement of the cheese. I had put my beloved Aged cheddar directly over the unit causing some of it to melt.

A quick rearrangement of the cheese and we were once again on the road to cold smoked cheese.

After another hour and a half I pulled the cheese off.

the temperature never varied much above 90F the entire time. At 2.5 hours I think I had enough smoke on it – however next time I will let the aged cheddar go longer.

I am really impressed with the simplicity of this unit and how wonderful the flavor is on the cheese.I am already planning on lots of experiments this summer with it.  I highly recommend this unit for how effective and its ease of use. Now if you will excuse me I have to go make some smoked cheese nachos in preparation for the Canadian US hockey game tonight. It will be fun to watch Canada WIN while enjoying some of this smoked cheese.

Was craving a comfort dish so decided to make my ultimate Mac n Cheese. I only make this dish about once a year. Its a real treat to eat it. This year I made one for tonight and another for the freezer. It freezes and keeps well for about a month. (1 month is about as long as it has ever lasted in our freezer)

Ingredients

• 1 lb dry elbow pasta cooked (*please do not boil past about 7 minutes this should be just a little harder than al dente)
• 6 cups Colby Cheese Shredded
• 1 cup Cendrillon Goat Cheese Shredded
• 1/2 lb bacon
• 1 small red onion diced
• 1 tablespoon dry mustard
• 1/2 c flour
• 1/2 c butter
• 2 teaspoons smoked paprika
• 2 tablespoons dried chives
• 1 teaspoon granulated garlic
• 1 teaspoon fine grind black pepper
• 3 cups skim milk
• 2 cups 1/2 & 1/2 cream
• salt to taste *depending on the cheese you use this can vary wildly

For the topping

• 1 pkg 170 gr panko bread crumbs
• 1/4 cup melted butter
• 1 teaspoon smoked paprika

I start by melting the butter then adding the flour on medium heat. I cook the flour and butter mixture for about 5 minutes. Then I add the milk and cream. Make sure you keep an eye on it so it doesn’t scorch the mixture. I usually have it on about medium low.

Fry the bacon in small pieces. Remove from the bacon fat. Fry the onion in the bacon fat. Don’t even think about draining in the bacon fat from the onions.  Bacon fat is wickedly good in Mac N Cheese. Just add the onions and the warm bacon fat to the milk and cream mixture and whisk to combine.

Really it is really simple from this point on. Add everything else (other than the cooked bacon) and cook until all of the cheese has melted. I prefer the Colby and the Cendrillon since they give it a great deep cheesy flavor. I consistently whisk this making sure there are no lumps.  This is where you should be taste testing for salt. Since the salt levels can vary so much in cheese it will be left up to you to determine how much.

I used two corelle dishes for layering.I use a layer of macaroni, a layer of the cheese mixture then sprinkle on some of the bacon. Repeat until both dishes are full.

For the topping simply melt the butter and mix with the Panko breadcrumbs and the smoked paprika. Spread liberally on both casserole dishes.

Place on a cookie sheet and bake at 350F for 30 minutes. Make sure to let this rest at least 10-15 minutes.

This is great cold the next day or even made into mac balls rolled into flour then an egg wash and even more panko then deep fried. Its creamy bacon cheesy goodness.

We had a fun time going to a few restaurants here in Memphis and area.

The places we went were Germantown  Commissary, Central BBQ, Whole Hog Cafe, Old School Bar-B-Q

Each of the restaurants had some decent food however overall I would have to recommend the Germantown Commissary as my favorite hands down. They also had some of the very best pies I have ever eaten. If you are in the area make sure you stop in.

Today I am off to another bunch of BBQ restaurants. I am really looking forward to them!!

Well it has been a terrific season of BBQ Pitmasters. I can only hope for more in the future. I have been writing about this series since the beginning and for me it has only improved over time. I have my own personal opinions on the editing but once again everyone would like to see certain people like their friends. I am happy for each of the Pitmasters Harry Soo, Paul Petersen, Tuffy Stone, Myron Mixon, Lee Ann Whippen, Johnny Trigg that they got the exposure. I hope it has been a positive experience for them all. I can only hope it will open lots more doors for themselves and many others.

Since I am at the NBBQA conference and just happen to be around a few fellow BBQ’ers I thought maybe getting their opinions on the show would be an interesting way to sum up todays article. So here are their own comments on the show. Ill be updating this throughout the day.

Dave Redmond Sweet Baby’ Rays

When I first saw it I was dying to see it that I have been interested in and passionate about. Then when I saw it I was disappointed I saw arrogance and greed and all of things BBQ is not about it. I talked to Amy about that the Network chose the entertainment vs the educational. Then I saw the BBQ Challenge on the Food Network in the manner much more reflective of the goodness of KCBS then watching the show. As much I wanted that to be the good stuff it was not BBQ Pitmasters. As much as I would have liked to see that continue BBQ pitmasters is just pretty damn cool.

William Bubba Latimer – Bub-Ba-Q

I think the show has progressed since day 1. I did no like the first couple of shows as they did not portray the good guy vs. bad guy thing. One thing we can’t forget is that there has to be an entertainment factor. I love the fact it has sparked in BBQ. I think the show has gotten a little more relaxed as far as the progression. I liked seeing the camaraderie since there is so much of that. That to me is BBQ. The show itself I have come to appreciate it more. I hope that it does continue. I love hearing people talk about the BBQ Pitmasters when they are coming into our restaurants.

Tommy Houston Checkered Pig BBQ

I think the biggest thing this show has done (whether you agree or disagree with content) was create interest. It has spurred a lot of interest in BBQ. Ordinary layman are talking about it. I have people coming in asking me if I know that white haired guy. It is good for BBQ.

Right now all of these BBQ shows could not have come at a better time for people who have restaurants due to the economic uncertainty. People gravitate to comfort. BBQ is comfort.

Randy Twyford – Twyford BBQ & Catering

It has had a major impact – and has made people realize there is much more to a BBQ contest than they see. It has increased the exposure for BBQ competitions and bbq in general.

Darren Warth- Smokey D’s BBQ
It has been good for BBQ. I think they need to show more camaraderie . Show the side where people help each other more.

Chris Jones- Colins Creek Barbecue -BBQ Pitmasters is a show like no other. It has done a lot of good for BBQ and has opened up the eyes to the general public about what goes on at some of these competitions. It also shows that no matter what kind of equipment you have anyone can do this. I really wish they would make it a more family oriented show. I really enjoy competing with my family and would hate for people to be turned off because they have other interpretations of Competition BBQ.

Kell Phelps – NBBQA President I think the show has been great for showing BBQ. I will say though I really did not like the language. When the first episode was on I wanted my son to watch it with me. he is 10 and was so excited. He had told all of his friends since we knew most of them. Unfortunately after the first 10 minutes I took him to bed. It was not appropriate for him.

Kelly Wertz- 4 Legs Up BBQ

I thought the first episode was crap. I think after that it got better. It is still good for BBQ.