You Gonna Eat That?

Sometimes, late at night, you get the munchies ... and all semblance of food sanity goes right out the window (it also seems to happen when you're pregnant, or so I'm told). At any rate, I remember people looking at me as if I'd completely lost my mind when (in response to "What do you wanna eat?") I say "I'm thinking pasta and caramel sauce". Now, granted, I wasn't really hungry for pasta and caramel sauce, I was just going for the shock value ... and I usually got it in spades.

Well, checking out metafilter tonight, I found this. Oddly enough, it sounds kinda good (apparently someone else agrees).

Smoked Potato and Andouille Soup

Yet another experiment in crockpot cooking.

Ingredients:

• 3 lbs red potatoes, cleaned and halved
  
• 4 links andouille sausage, rough dice
  
• 1 C onion, rough dice
• 1/2 C carrot, rough dice
• 1/2 C celery, rough dice
• garlic (to taste)
  
• chicken stock
• vegetable stock
  
• olive oil
• chipotle powder
• crushed red pepper flake
  
• crushed habanero pepper flake

Additional Tools:

• Stovetop smoker
• Wood for smoker (either sawdust or chips), hickory, maple, cherry, apple (whatever you prefer).

Instructions:

• Boil potatoes in chicken stock until fork tender (~ 15-20 minutes). Drain, let cool.
• If using wood chips, soak in water for 30 minutes before placing in smoker. If using sawdust, place in smoker according to directions. Place drip pan and grill in smoker, then place potatoes on grill. Place smoker on stove burners on medium heat.
  
• Smoke potatoes for about 30 minutes. They'll develop a nice mahogony color around the edges (using BBQ terms, "bark"). Remove smoker from heat and let cool.
• While potatoes are cooling, heat a little olive oil in a sauce pan over medium heat.
• When warm, add garlic and sautee briefly (don't let it turn brown), then add mire poix (the onions, carrots, and celery) and sweat the mixture. Add salt, pepper, and a dash of chipotle powder (to taste). Sweat for a few minutes.
• Add sausage to pot, and let the mixture heat through.
• While heating, large dice the potatoes and place them in your crock pot.
• Add the mire poix/sausage mixture to the crock.
• Add enough vegetable stock (or water) to cover the mixture.
• Dust the top of the soup with any combination of chili powder (chipotle, crushed red pepper, habanero flake, etc.). This is very much to taste, so add as much or as little as you wish.
• Put the lid on the crock and let 'er rip for anywhere from 4-6 hours.

Hot Sauce Haiku: The Results

Last month, I had a couple posts of haiku for the Hot Sauce Haiku Contest going on over at Baby That's Hot. I didn't win (wasn't really expecting to ... I'm not much of a poet), but a mention as a favorite (yeah, I'm the last on in the list, but I'm still there) in the competition ain't too shabby.

The two that won deserve it ... truly wonderful verse!

In Retrospect: BBQ Party

I did a private BBQ for about 20 people last night. The menu included:

• BBQ Ribs
• Chopped Pork Sandwiches
• Beer Can Chicken
• Grilled Shrimp
• Grilled Salmon
• Cole Slaw
• BBQ Baked Beans
• Cornbread

(recipes will be posted ... later)

Others brought desserts (fruit pizza ... outstanding!), still others beverages. My job was the main course(s) and manning the steam tables. All in all, it was an awesome evening (I should have some pictures up soon). 6 grills ... 6 ... man, that was fun. Three for smoking, 2 for indirect grilling, one nice big 22" kettle for the chickens ... it was amazing. I won't blow my own horn ... hell I won't, I did a damn good job ... at least, that's what everyone said, and that's really all that matters: happy eaters.

If you're gonna have fun cooking for gatherings like this, you also need to accept the downside ... cleaning. So, here I am tonight, dishes are cleaned, staples packed away, and I'm finishing the night with a good bottle of wine (Jest Red ... if you like reds, this is an outstanding value) and cooking off some of the extras I didn't get to (or need to ... I always like having more ... running out is a personal paranoia of mine) prepare. Braised porn loin with mushrooms and garlic ... and a couple more beer can chickens.

As I was prepping the birds for the oven, getting them cleaned, oiled, rubbed down w/ a little seasoning (I like Mrs. Dash for this job right now), I noticed that one of the chickens had a broken leg, just above the knee joint ... and I felt a twinge of sadness when I found it. You know the kind I'm talking about: it's the feeling you get when you empathize with the physical discomfort of someone (or something) else. You hear a friend mention they got their finger slammed in a car door and you feel pain yourself. Well, there I was ... empathizing with what was about to become dinner.

Now, if any of you think I'm going to turn vegan ... forget it. I'm more curious about why I felt this ... why I actually found myself feeling sorry for the bird, even though the leg was no doubt broken long after death, sometime during the packing process. It's strange how it affected me ...

... though not enough for me not to pop them in the oven. I can smell them now ... fantastic!