I've had _Paul Kirk's Championship Barbecue Sauces_ for about nine months
now, and I've never been disappointed with any of the recipes inside.
Tonight I decided to cook a tri-tip roast which had been dry-aging in my
refrigerator for a week. I'd also been soaking some pinto beans, so I
drained them, covered them with water again, and started cooking them. I
added some jalapeños, onions, and bacon (with the drippings).
I fired up my grill with some lump charcoal and a chunk of hickory wood. I
put all the coals on one side of the grill, so that the other side wouldn't
be too hot.
I put a light coating of canola oil on the beef, then I sprinkled it with
Penzey's Chicago Steak Seasoning and put it on the grill on the side
furthest from the coals.
The meat was cooked for two hours over indirect heat. I added more hickory
to the fire whenever it looked like the smoke was dying down, and I added
more charcoal whenever the heat dropped below 175.
While the meat was cooking, I made the "All Purpose Texas Barbecue Sauce"
from Kirk's book. It takes a couple hours to make, but it's all one long
simmer. The sauce is an excellent accompaniment to barbecued beef; it's very
savory and a little bit spicy. I'm including the recipe below.
When the sauce was simmering, I made cornbread. I use a cast-iron skillet
and the recipe off the side of the Albers corn meal box. (I don't know if
that recipe is there anymore; I copied it off there a long time ago.) While
the cornbread was cooking, I cut some puff pastry into a rectangle and a
"frame" shape, with the frame being the same size as the rectangle. The
frame went on top of the rectangle so that when it puffed up, it would form
a kind of rectangular dish. The two pieces were glued together with an egg
wash. (The rectangle was repeatedly poked with a fork to keep it from
puffing up too much. The culinary term for that is "docking," in case you
collect that kind of trivia.) That went onto a half-sheet pan, and when the
cornbread came out of the oven, I put the puff pastry in. I also moved a
pint of vanilla ice cream from the freezer to the refrigerator to soften.
The puff pastry only took a short time to bake, but I had enough time to
make the dressing for coleslaw. I followed the recipe for "Creamy Coleslaw"
in _Celebrating Barbecue_.
After the puff pastry came out of the oven, I peeled two pears and poached
them gently in a simple water/sugar/vanilla syrup.
While the pears were poaching, I finished making the coleslaw.
When the pears were done, I cut them in half lengthwise and removed the
cores with a melon baller.
I decided to assemble dessert after dinner, so my last-minute prep was
chopping some cilantro and adding it -- and some salt -- to the beans, then
my girlfriend and I ate. Dinner was what I've mentioned: cornbread,
coleslaw, barbecued beef, and pinto beans. We had Pete's Wicked Strawberry
Blonde Ale to drink.
After a decent interval of postprandial sloth, I put the dessert together:
I melted some milk chocolate, butter, and light corn syrup together to make
a simple chocolate syrup. I put a layer of softened vanilla ice cream over
the bottom of the pastry rectangle, then I arranged the pears on top of the
ice cream (kind of a head-toe-head-toe arrangement). I poured the hot milk
chocolate syrup over all, and sprinkled with sliced almonds. I had a cafe
latte with dessert; my girlfriend had a brandy alexander.
Here's the barbecue sauce recipe:
ALL-PURPOSE TEXAS BARBECUE SAUCE
(from _Paul Kirk's Championship Barbecue Sauces_)
4 cups ketchup
1/2 cup white vinegar
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup honey
1/2 cup molasses
1/2 cup flat beer
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 tablespoon freshly-ground black pepper
2 teaspoons garlic salt
1 teaspoon onion salt
1 teaspoon cayenne
Combine all ingredients in a nonreactive saucepan and bring to a boil.
Lower heat and simmer, stirring occasionally, for 1 to 2 hours, or until
sauce is desired thickness.
Bob