(ZA)Spicy beef skirt fajitas

We discovered a little-known, under-used yet delicious and tender cut of beef - the skirt. We had never used it before and found a recipe in the BGE magazine so we decided to give it a try. It is a surprisingly cheap piece of beef which comes from the bottom of the ribs of the animal, just behind the fore-leg. On account of it's delicate structure, it takes a marinade and spices extremely well and it requires very little cooking to become a juicy and tender medium rare.

Video here

We marinaded the skirt as one piece in a mixture of oil, soy sauce, pineapple juice, minced garlic and cumin. (another marinade we have used was lime juice, olive oil, chipotle, lime zest, garlic and coriander and that was good too)

Set up direct cooking, with the cast iron grid and the half moon griddle to around 450 deg F. We used a probe to ensure we got an internal temperature of 135-140 deg F (medium rare) and cooked the peppers and onions on the half moon. I heated a tin of tomatoes on the cooker in the kitchen...had to find the instruction booklet to refresh my memory on how to do this.....haven't used it in a while!

We added the smokey cooked peppers and onions to the tomatoes and, while the meat was wrapped in foil resting, heated our flour tortillas on the egg for about 30 seconds

Serve the beef, sliced into bite-size pieces, with the tortillas, good strong cheese, the veg, salsa and soured cream. Lush!

(ZA) Zero Alpha's bone marrow steak burger

Adie left the egg unattended again (he went off to try to jog off an epic weekend of egging!) and we all know that while he's away I have my own moments of epic brilliance! 

Good quality rump steak minced with a fresh red chilli and an onion by moi. I added ground coriander, cumin, chilli flakes, a little paprika, oregano, seasoning and (most notably) grated some of my whipped bone marrow into the mix. I used a burger press to really compact them well and chilled for half an hour till Mr W had got his breath back...

The egg was set up for direct cooking at 350 deg F with the cast iron grid flat side up. We oiled the grid and I put a light coat on each side of the burger for good measure.

After about 15/20 minutes the burgers are nicely charred and ready for the American mustard and tabasco bark.

Brush the burger with the bark mix and then flip so that the bark caramelises on the burger to a sweet, spicy, crispy coat. Repeat for the other side.

We then added some good mature cheddar to melt on the burger while we toasted our brioche buns.

The finished burger was moist and tasty....

.....served with our home-made, smokey baked beans, crispy onion rings and our own onion relish. Gorgeous!

(AW) Pulled Pork

Another fantastic cut of meat from Phil at Chapmans...A huge pork butt.

Video here



This badger cooked for 15 hours in the end, and another 30 minutes resting.

We also made a Pink Onion salad to cut through the richness of the dish... And boy did it work! Perfection in a bun!

(AW) Baby Back Ribs

We decided to do a simple yet effective dish, to celebrate the discovery of a new butcher! Big thanks to Phil at Chapmans for this cut of meat and the pork butt we are using tomorrow!

Usual 24 hour marinade in a BBQ rub, and the standard 3/3/10 method of cooking.

Video available here: Video

 3 hours at 225f unwrapped

 3 hours at 225f wrapped

10 minutes basted in BBQ sauce..

(AW) Baked Beans

Nothing says accompaniment like baked beans.... cooked and smoked on the BGE!!

This is a recipe that needs some specific ingredients, don't scrimp, and go for it!

Acquire 4 beef shins, sawn up into 4” pieces. 

Scoop out raw bone marrow and blend for ten minutes with 1 garlic clove and the juice of 1/2 a lemon until smooth, glossy & fluffy.

Pass through a sieve then stir in a small handful of chopped fresh parsley, a big pinch of maldon sea salt and a good grind of black pepper. This makes 4 portions which can be frozen.

Set up the BGE at 300 deg F indirect, with foil-wrapped, soaked hickory smoking chips.

Add some olive oil to the Dutch oven, fry the onion, add 3 cloves garlic, 1tsp smoked paprika and 5 ground cloves
cook for a few minutes to soften onions and cook out spices. 

Add chopped tomatoes, cider vinegar, brown sugar and smoke for an hour, checking to top up with a small amount of water every 15 minutes.

After an hour add chopped, BGE-smoked leftover ham, bacon lardons that have been fried for 10 minutes till crispy (with their rendered fat), ham stock, whipped bone marrow...

and a tin of mixed beans (washed in cold water and drained) and a good glug of home-made barbecue sauce.

Add a little more water, if necessary, then cook for a further 30 minutes, checking occasionally to make sure it doesn’t boil dry.

Store in a jar and leave for a few days to really develop the flavour!!!

(MN) Volcano Burgers

Epic dish... we made 3 types. - http://youtu.be/66dFCVzDWTw

1) Bacon, cheese and cheese!
2) Philli cheese steak
3) Onion Gloucester and Bacon

First... grill some back bacon for the filling:

 

Then.. roll out a 1lb ball of minced beef. you need around 20% fat and make sure the meat is cool... Then, using your favourite beer... use the can to create our Volcano..



Then, wrap the volcano you created with Bacon, belly back bacon! No need for egg white or oil.. it will hold just fine..



When done, remove can!



Next, get your fillings together... use whatever you want! We used Bell Pepper, Onion, Mushroom, Steak!, Mature Cheddar, Strong Cheese Spread and a Gloucester and onion number..

 

Stuff them up good!!

Then, setting the BGE on indirect mode, cast iron searing grill upside down bring the heat to 300F, then bang them on for 1 hour!

After one hour! Pull and SERVE!!

 

 

 

 For the video of the event... visit..

http://youtu.be/66dFCVzDWTw

(ZA) Porky-worky mac & cheese.....bacon style

We egged last night's smoked & glazed pork specifically for this dish tonight, with the added bonus of extra for sandwiches. Cooked macaroni mixed in with a very special cheese sauce, topped with a toasted breadcrumb and bacon rub topping. 

The cheese sauce was made with the usual roux method of butter and flour cooked out for a few minutes and milk stirred in gradually to avoid lumps however, I softened two finely chopped shallots, a good sprig of fresh thyme leaves and two minced cloves of garlic in the butter before I added the flour & milk. 

I then added strong organic "Montgomery" cheddar, stichelton cheese and gruyere, all grated and stirred until the sauce was thick and unctuous. 

Time to stir in bite sized chunks of yummy egged pork and put in a shallow, oven-proof dish then topped with a layer of toasted breadcrumbs, bacon rub (very crispy streaky bacon rashers ground to a powder, brown sugar, hot smoked paprika, ground black pepper and ground fennel seeds) and grated cheddar. 

Due to the weather being completely crap, we decided to cook this in a normal, boring oven at 180 deg C for 30 mins. Served with salad.

Mr W is not normally a big fan of pasta with creamy sauces, so I knew this dish was a bit of a risk but he loved it. The different cheeses, beautiful smoked pork and the sweet/salty bacon topping gave the dish a pleasing variety of flavours with every bite. Oh...and there's plenty left for tomorrow!

(ZA) Zero Alpha's mustard-glazed porky-worky.

 Being left alone with the BGE, I decided it would be rude not to smoke a glazed ham for lunches, quiche and something to jazz up a macaroni & cheese for Tuesday night.

It had been chucking it down with rain all day - proper stair rods - so I had to be quick when I got home from work to get everything set up. I used an indirect setup with an apple chunk that was soaked in water overnight. DigiQ to keep the egg stable at 300 deg F. The apple chunk was very effective, it gave a consistent amount of smoke for the whole four hour cook.

While the BGE was heating, the ham was injected with a mixture of ham stock and garlic granules and then a glaze of honey, mustard seeds, brown sugar, molasses and black pepper was slathered all over it.

It sat happily sizzling away in the egg until the internal temperature reached 165 deg F. This is the resulting, delicious looking ham. Soooo moist when I carved a little to go with cheese in our rolls for lunch.