Barbecue!

Summer's on us in full swing!

To me, that means barbecue. And I don't mean throw some chicken on the grill and slather it in BBQ sauce. I mean slow, dry cooking over an open flame. There really is no better way to cook meat. It's kind of like roasting but add the open burning charcoal taste.

Last week I did pork, and today I'm doing lamb. Same cut of meat, but different preparations. For both I selected a shoulder cut. You want to select a cut of meat that has a lot of tough connective tissue and some fat. This is not the same as grilling. This is not the proper cooking method for a tenderloin, for example. What you ultimately want to do is cook the meat slowly and at a low temperature, and give the tough connective tissue plenty of time to melt away. The end product is much more succulent and tender than what you started with. You also want to make sure there is some fat on the meat. As the meat cooks the fat melts (or renders) and keeps the meat moist and tender. If you cooked meat this way without any fat it would just dry out.

For the pork last week I used a dry rub of cajun-type spices (salt, pepper, cayenne pepper, paprika, garlic powder, onion powder). Rub it all over the meat before putting in the BBQ. For today's lamb I blended a marinade of fresh herbs (rosemary, thyme, basil, parsley) with lemon juice, extra virgin olive oil, garlic, salt and black pepper. I poured it over the lamb, rubbed it in, and let it marinate for a few hours.

Both meats were cooked enclosed in the barbecue vessel for a few hours. The heat source was smoldering real-wood charcoal. I let the meat cook for about 2 1/2 - 3 hours. Both cuts of meat were in about the 3 pound range. If they were larger, I would have cooked them longer. You want to cook it until it almost falls apart when you poke it with a paring knife.

Feel free to play with this cooking method. It's fun. Marinate or rub as you want, and change the flavor by tossing a few smoking chips on the fire. Hickory, maple or cedar are great suggestions!

The Magic of Brining

This past week I introduced myself to the wonderful world of brining, and as a result made some wonderful stuff!

Like bacon. Yes, I made my own bacon. It's surprisingly easy. Pork belly soaked in a brine for about 2-3 days, then smoked. For a brine I used water, salt, brown sugar and black peppercorns. What I do is mix about 2.5 oz by weight of salt for each quart of water. Then I just sprinkle in a liberal amount of brown sugar and a small handful of whole black peppercorns. Bring the solution up to barely a boil and whisk to dissolve the salt and sugar. Remove from heat. Let it cool down some, and while still warm, pour it into the plastic container you placed the pork belly in. Let it sit in the refrigerator for 2-3 days.

Remove it from the brine and smoke. Ideally you want to cold smoke bacon, but most folks have warm smokers at home. Usually in the form of some modified barbecue equipment. This is okay. Smoke the bacon for about an hour. Cool it, slice it, cook it and enjoy!

You can use this brining technique for anything. Meat, poultry, fish. Smaller pieces only need to brine for a few hours. I did pork chops this way and boy were they good! Tender and juicy off the grill. And that's what brining does. Not only does it add flavor but it keeps meats that may usually dry out while cooking tender and juicy.

Give it a try next time you're looking for something different. You can also add different herbs and spices to the mix to change the flavor profile.

Been a Long Time

Sorry readers that I haven't posted for the longest time, but I have actually been super, super, super busy. Not only have there been multiple weddings and large parties at the golf club the last several weeks, but the LPGA (Ladies Professional Golf Association) actually played a week-long tournament at my place this past week.

I had a sneaky suspicion there would be ALOT of work preparing for the event, but I really had no idea. WOW!!!! For the days leading up to and the days of the tournament (11 days total) I worked just shy of 140 hours. Yep, I worked all eleven days and logged in just under 140 hours. The kitchen staff prepped and cooked for all professional golfers and caddies, the media, and members of the club. The amount of food that passed through the doors of our refrigerator and freezer could have fed a small country.

All in all, it was a great week and I'm glad it's over. The pros had nothing but great things to say about the food and the experience they had at Hamilton Farm Golf Club. I'm not only proud of where I work (for the fact that they were given the amazing opportunity to host a professional event), but I'm more proud of myself for making it through hell week and working through the exhaustion and pain.

Until next time!!!

Fresh Stuff

Sometimes I feel bad when I let too much time elapse between posts. I mean, the blog is called Food for Every Day, isn't it? Ha!

Anyway, this week on my day off, I made the most awesome batch of spaghetti bolognese. I used 100% pastured (grass-fed) ground beef from Whole Foods. Even my guy said you can taste the difference! I also used about 20 organic Roma tomatoes instead of canned. Passed them through the food mill. I also used fresh onions, garlic and basil. You can't go wrong with all this fresh stuff!

As for my little garden, it's still alive and kicking. Next week I'll post some pictures. Honestly, right now it really doesn't look much different from the last post. I can't wait until it starts to produce. Even if I get one tomato it'll be worth the effort.

Big John say's,It's easy being green

Toni gave me the idea of posting one of my favorite sites:

www.localharvest.org/

There's a lot of chemical free food sources here.
I like it because it lists all of the farmers markets on it.

While I'm at it, here are some of the other sites I like:

epicurious.com/

chef2chef.net/

My "Garden"

I'm so proud of myself. I planted a "garden" today. It's in quotes because it's not a real garden in the true sense of the word. It's actually more of a collection of potted plants in my backyard. But it's a start.

It's tomatoes, eggplant, bell peppers and herbs (basil, thyme and rosemary). Here are a few pictures.

This is something I've always wanted to do but never got up the motivation.

This cute little plant to the left is the eggplant. I really hope this one does well. I've never tried to grow my own eggplant before but it's something I love.

To the right is the bell pepper plant. I love sweet peppers in the summertime. There are so many ways you can use them. My favorite way is to fire roast them on the grill, peel the skin off and serve on a nice platter with fresh mozzarella and crusty bread.

Tomato plants- no home garden in New Jersey is complete without a few of these. Need I say more?

And here are the herbs. Basil, thyme and rosemary.

I find myself buying these three the most often, so I figured I'd try to grow them this year. Hopefully they'll take root! I always wanted a lush and beautiful herb garden, and have tried growing them in the past. But I never before lived in a place that got enough sun.

I also have a small box going where I'm trying to germinate Bibb lettuce seeds.

Keep your fingers crossed for me and my little "garden". I'll share updates as the season progresses. If this works out, even a little, I will probably graduate to actually digging up a square of land in the yard and planting one for real.

In Defense of Food

In Defense of Food is a book written by Michael Pollan. He is a journalist who has very strong feelings about food in the USA (which,by the way, parallel mine in many ways). This is an awesome book.

Michael Pollan was a key contributor to Food, Inc. He is shown frequently in the film discussing his views on where his research has led him. You may recognize his name, as he is also the author of various other works, including Fast Food Nation.

In ...Defense... he outlines the history of food in the United States, and gives plausible and comprehensible explanation to the rise of processed foods and how they came to replace the real foods they imitate. In fact, he explains what led up to the exact moment when it became okay for a processed food manufacturer to label a box of factory generated food-like substance as "a good source of [insert nutrient here]". He explains the history of the development of these food-like substances that many Americans live on and eat for 3, 4 and 5 meals a day.

So where does the need to defend food come from? Is he defending the current American diet composed mainly of processed foods and empty calories (now referred to as the Western diet)? No. The food that needs defending is real food. Good, wholesome food that our great-grandparents ate. Not this stuff that lines supermarket shelves posing as food. Not the stuff that's built in factories from nutrients and substances extracted from food. But the kind of foods that don't need labels that promise they bring healthful benefits.

Our nation worldwide is the most obsessed with this idea of nutrition. Somewhere down the line we were told that food is a vehicle to deliver specific nutrients, and if we can isolate the most necessary nutrients and eliminate the "bad" ones we can engineer the perfect foods. Oh, and by the way, we can load them with refined and synthetic sugars, fat-like substances to replace the natural fats that have been removed, and flavor enhancing chemicals that will stimulate our taste buds the way no natural food can. Sounds good? Just read the ingredient list on a box of most of the items you see in the middle aisles of the grocery store.

In the book, Mr. Pollan delves into the long term effects of altering what naturally exists in the food chain. Enter the new age of adults who are significantly overfed yet malnourished, a phenomenon that has never before existed in the history of humankind. Enter the age when chronic diseases (aka Western diseases) are the new norm for adults (hypertension, heart disease, type 2 diabetes, cancer and obesity).

He also makes many poignant references to the importance of culture on food and our eating habits. This is also something we have grossly gotten away from. What happened to the experience of dinner at home with the family? Home cooked food enjoyed around the table along with conversation and bonding with loved ones. Not only about the food, but family dinner was where children learned lessons about healthy eating, sharing with others, social skills, manners, gluttony and the use of please and thank you.

This book is worth reading. If you go to www.michaelpollan.com/indefense.php you can click on the link to read the 16-page introduction to his book. Learn more behind his simple manifesto for a healthier life: "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants." You won't be sorry.