Still alive...

Life has been a bit hectic recently so I haven't spent much time at home, or done much cooking for that matter.

Things should be sorted soon-ish and I should be back posting as normal.

I've been roped in to run a 'burgerque' tomorrow so there might be some photos from that event.

My inside-out burgers are getting quite a following here ;)

Laters, Mike

Updates are on their way

Sorry, been a bit busy lately but there will be updates very soon.

// Mike

Recipe - Meatball Hero Sandwich

Yet another posting where I get my inspiration from a classic American recipe. I'm sure I manage to break many rules and agitate lots of Meatball Hero aficionados but this is my blog so what I say goes! ;)

Meatball Hero Sandwiches does what it says on the tin, meatballs in a sandwich. The secret here is a good Marinara sauce that has been reduced properly and taken on the flavours well.

Good luck to the Ice Bats against the Jackalopes tonight!

Marinara Sauce

Ingredients
Olive oil
Onion, diced
Garlic, thinly sliced
Fresh thyme leaves
Carrot, finely shredded
Passata
Salt, to taste

Method
Put the oil into a sauce pan with onions and garlic, and cook over medium heat until translucent but not brown (about 10 minutes). Add the thyme and carrot; cook 5 minutes more. Add the passata. Bring to a boil and then lower the heat to just bubbling, stirring occasionally for 30 minutes.

Season with salt to taste. Serve immediately or set aside for further use.

Meatball Hero Sandwich

Ingredients
Meatballs, split in half - makes it easier to put them on the bread
Marinara Sauce
Buffalo Mozzarella cheese, sliced
Pepper
Sliced pickled Jalapenos, if you want to kick it a bit
Bread, small baguettes or panini for example - split in half lenghtwise and slightly toasted

Method
Bring marinara sauce to simmer in heavy large saucepan. Add meatballs to sauce and simmer until the meatballs are heated through.

Gently press center of bottoms of the bread to compact slightly. Spoon meatballs into depression in each roll. Spoon enough sauce over to coat. Put the slices of mozzarella on top of the sauce and balls and put it under the grill until the cheese starts to melt. Season and add the Jalapenos if you want the extra heat. Put the tops back on the bread and serve.

Enjoy!

Recipe - Barbecue Rice using leftover Pulled Pork

Amazingly enough, given the small sized joint I used ;), there was still some leftovers today. Time to create something slightly different.

Ingredients
Cooked rice
Pulled pork
1 can of sweet corn
Peppadew peppers, sliced

Method
Start heating the pork in the frying pan. Add the rice, peppadews and sweet corn and let it heat through/get some color. Once done to your liking - serve with some kind of hot sauce to prevent it from being too dry.

Enjoy!

Easter Sunday Pulled Pork Barbecue Feast

Yes, it did actually snow yesterday but I didn't let that stop my effort to create a Easter Sunday Pulled Pork Barbecue Feast.

In the end the platter consisted of:

Pulled pork with Alabama White Barbecue Sauce
Maple Baked Barbecue Beans
Biscuits
Homemade Psychedelic Coleslaw

The pork joint stayed on the barbecue for over 8 hours. This must be the perfect antidote to fast food. Damn bit more tasty too!

Some of the stuff has been made before and the recipes can be found here. The ones that are missing will be posted in due time. As a taster though, have a quick recipe for Alabama White Barbecue Sauce.

Alabama White Barbecue Sauce

Ingredients
1 cup mayonnaise
1 cup apple cider vinegar
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 1/2 tablespoons cracked black pepper
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt, finely ground
1 teaspoon hot sauce

Method
Mix well and serve with chicken, turkey, or just about anything. I don't recommend grilling (basting) with this sauce however.

The Four Seasons of the Pork Joint

Clockwise from top left: Rubbed and ready to go onto the barbecue, First rub with the mopping sauce, Starting to get chopped up, Cremated or crispy?

Recipe - Baked Camembert

Clockwise from top left: Mixed chopped raw vegetables, Freshly baked bread,
Out of the oven, Top peeled off to display gooey goodness.

This is a very simple recipe. Pre-heat the oven to about 200c. Take one Camembert per person. Remove them from their little wooden boxes, remove the plastic cover and pop them back into their boxes. Put them in the oven and keep them there until you easily can push a knife into them. You shouldn't really feel any resistance when you poke them with the knife.

Serve with freshly chopped vegetables and bread to dip. I normally go for vegetables like carrot, cucumber, celery, cauliflower and so on. It's quite nice with some chilli jam on the side too. Just Freestyle it to suit your taste.

I've heard rumours that you can bring French people to tears by telling them that you do this to a Camembert. All good! :)

Enjoy!

How I ended up planning a barbecue when we got a forecast for snow

Some times I wonder if even junkies gets as hooked as us foodies do.

It must have been Tuesday night that I headed in to one of the local super markets here. Stressing through the shop to get the stuff I needed for my Sausage Stroganoff I ran past the meat section. Even at speed I noticed that they had a very good deal on pork joints.

I spent the evening cooking and chilling, all the while I had that pork joint deal in the back of my mind. What can you do with a pork joint? Besides the out right rude, I was thinking along the lines of maybe a traditional Sunday roast.

The Sunday roast idea quite quickly waned, not Freestyle enough I'm afraid.

So what to do? The idea of all those pork joints being turned into a normal, or even dull, meal by housewives really grated on me. At least one of these pork joints should end up being given the full Freestyle treatment.

In the end I had to fall back to my trusty old friend, the barbecue. Why not get the smoker going and slow cook it on the barbecue? Get myself a small, handy, pork joint and just make myself a couple of simple pulled pork sandwiches.

Did it stop there? Did it hell...

So, come Sunday I will be barbecuing my 3.5kg/7.7lb pork joint. What was supposed to be a couple of simple pulled pork sandwiches have now turned into a fully blown barbecue with at least two sides to go with the sandwiches. If everything goes to plan there will even be home baked biscuits, of the American South variety - not the sweet variety. It was just supposed to be some simple grub for myself, but now I'm having people add their interest in helping me. That is helping me eat the end product. Posting this might give me a couple of extra calls and texts from people inviting themselves.

To make things even more ridiculous, the bloody thing will have to spend 6 - 8 hours or so on the barbecue. The weather forecast for here ranges between cold and rainy to cold and snowy. Perfect weather to run in and out of the house basting a pork joint.

But sod all that, I get to make myself some good food and hopefully feed some friends and hangarounds.

Since it's barbecue time I will be wearing a barbecue approved Hawaiian shirt, even if I have to wear it outside my coat! A mans gotta do and all that...

Y'all got my contact details if you want some pork! ;)

Wanted: Contact with people from Austin, TX

Are any of you readers out there from or around Austin, Tx? If so, could you please drop a comment or something so that I could contact you in regards to a small project that I'm working on.

If you're not from there but knows someone from there maybe you could help me get in contact with them?

Thanks in advance, Mike

Book Review - Digital Food Photography

I bought Digital Food Photography quite a while ago and thought that I'd finally put a review up here.

The book is divided up into the following chapters:

Chapter 1 - The Key Ingredient: Pixels
Chapter 2 - Digital Photography: The Necessities
Chapter 3 - Who’s Digesting It: Advertising, Packaging, Public Relations, and the Media
Chapter 4 - Who’s Doing the Cooking: Working with Food Stylists
Chapter 5 - Prop Styling: Who’s Doing the Shopping?
Chapter 6 - Grabbing Your Attention: Composition
Chapter 7 - The Recipe for Light
Chapter 8 - The Digital Spice: Retouching
Chapter 9 - Get Cooking and Make Some Money: Getting into the Business

This book covers quite a few subjects as you can see from the chapter listing. You'll pick up some tricks of the trade like how they use glue instead of milk when shooting corn flakes. There's also lengthy advise in regards on lighting on different budgets etc.

The photos in it are very appetising and the examples are good. I like this book and don't regret buying it but there's still something wrong about it that I can't really put my finger on. There's something lacking, but I just can't pinpoint exactly what it is. I'm sure to be using the lighting chapter a lot more once I got my new lighting setup.

All in all I must say that it's worth buying if you are into food photography/blogging.

Recipe - Sausage Stroganoff

This is another dish that uses falukorv, or the equivalent/replacement that I managed to find at Lidl the other week.

It's like Beef Stroganoff but using sausage instead. Hence the very inventive name of Sausage Stroganoff. ;)

Ingredients
Falukorv, cut into strips
Onion, chopped
Soured cream, 300ml
Chili sauce, to taste (you can use tomato paste instead)
Smoked paprika, to taste
Butter, to fry in
Parsley, chopped
Salt
Pepper
Rice, boiled

Method
Fry the falukorv in the butter for a little while, then add the onion and fry until the onion starts to get translucent. Add the soured cream and chili sauce (or tomato paste) to add flavor and color. Season. Heat through properly and then add the chopped parsley.

Serve with rice. If you are that inclined you can serve it with a tomato and onion salad or similar.

Enjoy!

Left: The sausage in its casing. Right: The sausage chopped up.