A few weeks ago Liteluvr of Liteluvr’s Kitchen and Stuff dedicated a chile verde dish to Chilebrown of Mad Meat Genius. See, Chile loves chile, especially the green stuff. He searches far & wide, high & low for the best of the best. Liteluvr was inspired enough to do up his own version. I been thinking about it. I have a super badass recipe here, somewhere. I wanted to do something different though, a little off the beaten path.
Last week I was in Joya de Ceren, perusing to see what was new, different or interesting. I walked past the poblanos and thought to myself, “Hay!” Dead ahead are the whole chickens in the meat display case. That, coupled with my recent rediscovery of roasting chickens in a clay pot and it all came together. Roast Chicken Chile Verde.
Wanna come see?
Flashcard – MIA, or is it?
No it ain’t! Last week my main flashcard went MIA, missing in action. Sure I have a few more, but there were a few posts on there and wasn’t able to do my job here in The Lab. I found it! So, hopefully within a few days I’ll get that together with some words and share my Pot of White Beans simmered with Pork Ribs. But until then, thought I would share this high-roast chicken I made the other day. Salt and a 450 degree oven, ain’t that somethin’? But Biggles, breast meat is always dry and tasteless. Not this time pally boy, it was moist and full of more chickenny flavor than I had expected.
I bought the chicken last week from Omar at Joya de Ceren here in Richmond. I didn’t ask where he got it, but it is surely not from grower you’d find at your local mega mart. Check out that leg and wing meat, it’s lean. This bird was able to get about, flapping an’ runnin’. And you know what? Raw it smells different, has a smell, rich and gamey. Even the fancy Rosie or Rocky Jr.’s don’t have this. And after it’s cooked, far more chickenny flavors. And at a $1.39 a pound for entero pollo? Count me in. Thank you Omar!
Okay, so you have a pot of beans recipe comin’. Guess what’s in the oven? Just now? Am working on a Roast Chicken Chile Verde, all dedicated to Chilebrown of Mad Meat Genius. We’ll see how that turns out, I used no recipe. Since it’s cooked in a clay cooker along with a whole chicken, the liquid proportions are WAY down. In fact, I used less than a cup and am thinking maybe no broth could be the way to go. Plus, I cut up everything in a small dice and whizzed the tomatillos. Everything must be cut small to cook in the allotted hour or so that it takes to cook the chicken. I put a foil lined cookie tray on the bottom of the oven, just in case. I think it’s going to spew some liquid, it’s amazing how much liquid using a clay pot retains.
That’s it for now, roger dodge and over and under.
xo, Biggles
Joya de Ceren
12545 San Pablo Ave
Richmond California
(510) 235-5315
A Black Bear Brat-style Sausage Tasting
An impromptu grilling session was set for Sunday. Laura’s neighbor gifted her 3 black bear sausages and a nice package of ground venison. It didn’t take her too long to figure out who might enjoy such a treat, tee hee. So, her, my sister and her husband Meathead met for a little tasting.
Given it’s January, making outdoor cooking/eating dates is dicey at best. But as 2pm rolled around, the thermometer read 69 degrees. Not too cold, eh? Since I wasn’t convinced 3 sausages and ground venison would be enough, I picked up a beef tri-tip roast and some brats. And as they arrived, they displayed some home-made potato salad (my sister is a master at this dish), Meathead’s No Cookie Ingredients cornbread (cornbread master of all-time), and hotlinks. Lordy.
The bear links uncooked looked pinkish and like any other brat, only a little leaner. Once grilled over mesquite and hickory chips they were ready. I was a little apprehensive about it, the last time I was offered bear, I chose the panther instead. It was the way it looked in the canning jar that was the deciding factor, not the taste or texture. Bud’s Meats of Penngrove California made the sausage from the animal. Cheese & jalapeno were added to the mix and I have to say, I liked it a lot. We pretty much decided that if you didn’t know it was bear, you’d think it was a regular brat. And while I dearly love the chile pepper, it would have been nice to taste it first without it.
The venison was light on the meat flavor, low fat naturally, and so fresh tasting. Of course the other items were teeerific, but the bear & venison were the stars and nearly the sole reason to have an impromptu meeting of the meaty minds. I would have invited others, but I didn’t want to share the bear. Know what I mean, Vern?
Please visit my flickr page, Bear Sausage & Venison Patties for a few pictures from the day.
xo, Biggles
Knife Sharpening Class with Eric Weiss – Monday March 2nd
Meathenge Labs did really well through the holidays and the kitchen took a pretty good beating. I noticed some pretty good splashes up against the wall behind the butcher block table, will get those wiped down tonight. The floor, while it did get mopped a few times, is getting a little smoodgy in the corners. I don’t eeeven want to look in the toaster oven’s crumb tray. Note to self, toss in to dishwasher next time along with the vent hood filters. Oh crap, I just remembered while cleaning the fridge I split some of the insulation around the door, damned. I think the stoopid thing is only 4 years old too, dumb Amana. Oh the chores I’ve seen!
Is your kitchen and its inhabitants feeling the same strain? How are your knive’s edges holding up? When you run your steel over them, does it hone right up? Are you one of the rare few who actually takes the time to take them out to get sharpened? Or would it just be easier to pour yourself a large glass of carrot juice and sharpen them yourself? Don’t know how?
Glad you said something! It turns out on Monday, March 2nd he’s holding a knife sharpening class. It’s time to get out of your cave and help the economy a bit. Spend your money well and enroll in Eric’s glass. It’s a good thing to do for yourself and your fellow cave dwellers. Please click through on the link below me here and get the details. Register today!
out of my element aw heck out of anyone’s element
Ahhhh, the coming of fall. The sun gets lower in the sky and the crisp breezes begin. The cool, moist smell of the trees’ leaves turning along with the absolutely brilliant colors that come with are only available once a year. The summer pace turns to one of the coming winter months as we plan for the holidays. The skies darken far earlier, the food gets heartier (gravy) and the relatives, cards and local parties arrive with wild abandon. Even the political climate is changing! The holidays go and leave us with a nice easy lean in to the new year. Some vow on the resolutions and some breathe a sigh of relief that 2008 is gone forever.
Now it’s time to set in for the winter and maybe catch a Sunday ball game with snow falling on the aggressive field of play. Even here we’ve had the heater on more than a few times and most certainly all night long to keep us all from getting the chivers. Bring on the winter! I have a huge pot of leftover great northern beans in the fridge to keep me warm. Bring. It. On.
Um, dude, it’s 75 degrees outside and the grass is bright green and full. wtf?
Take note, just because I mentioned I was wearing slippers the other night to catch the moon doesn’t mean I was wearing anything else.
Behold the glory that is The Good Reverend Doctor Biggles !!! All bow (or avert your eyes) and pay homage. It is warm, ask no questions, fire up all grills.
I have spoken.
Biggles
Huge Moon
Hi Everbody!
We’re still alive here at Meathenge Labs, just recouping after the holidays and basically being lazy as gosh. *-SNORE-*
As many of you know, the last few nights have produced an amazing full moon, just as it first popped up on the Eastern horizon. Per usual, I was 20 minutes late and didn’t get the detail I was looking for. Even with a tripod & circular polarizer, feh. Dumb moon picture. It was most spectacular live though, that was amazing and worth the effort. This would be walking out the back door and standing there like a loon with slippers on.
xo, Biggles
Eating Habits of an 8 year old
Observing children’s habits of any kind can be an interesting journey to say the least. Being a parent, I can say I have more than some experience in this arena.
Whether you’re a parent or not, you’ve surely caught yourself saying, “If/When this happens, my child will be this way.” Such as, “My girl won’t act like that about video games or sugar.” This usually comes from someone who either doesn’t have children, or is only a year or two in. “We’re going to be vegan, no television or refined sugar!”
After many years on this planet I’ve learned that vegan babies wind up dead. And children that are completely left out of our culture, wind up out of control later on in life for those things that they were kept away from. This happens time and time again, it only takes observation and nothing else.
The best I’ve been able to do is lead by example and put in front of them the best I can. Let them work out their own path, with moderation. Here we find Tiny E’s dinner plate, he wanted the center of the pork chop, some rice and a few beans. Since he didn’t want to finish his beans, he offered to eat 2 bananas. I can live with that.
For his effort, he got to have a wine goblet filled with jello he made 2 nights ago.
For me, this is success to the greatest degree. I love my life, and what I’ve done to it.
xo, Biggles
Happy New Year – 2009 Sheet Yeah !!!
Yeah baby, happy new year!
Sure for many reasons, but happy for me for a few other reasons. While the holiday’s are great and all, it feels better to have all that in the past. Life is tough enough to do day by day, but to add that stuff on top of it can make it traumatic at best.
That being said, we did okay here. No disasters. Later 2008, don’t let the door hit you in the ass on the way out.
And sorry for being gone for so long, I spent the entire New Years week on the sofa hacking up small furry animals. I didn’t get a good night’s sleep for over a week and it was getting a bit much. But yesterday it all cleared up and am feeling far better. Thank you Western Medicine, you rock. You know, there’s a reason why people all over the world are clambering for it.
What’s in store this coming year? What resolutions have I made? I don’t know and none. Resolutions are worthless to me. If I want to do something, I do it. I don’t need no damned resolution to cloud my ambitions, it’s my nature. I do have reviews I’m sorely late on, I’m a naughty reviewer. Sorry to everyone to sent me something to review and it hasn’t hit yet.
Where do we go after bacon and smoked pork ribs? I don’t know, only the future holds the answer.
Cheers to you all and thank you for your support over the year, it’s been GREAT.
xo, Biggles
ps – The photograph to the right there was taken with my old D200 and a far older Manual Focus 50 mm f1.2 lens. That my or may not be of any interest to you, but f1.2 is one wide open aperture. Its light gathering, and lack of depth of field ability is stunning to say the least. Not bad for a 25 year old lens, eh?
move your camera in the air, like you just don’t care
Well, I’m pretty well set for the 2 dinners I’m hosting in the coming days, Thursday & Friday. Since the boys are here, it’s all about the gravy for tomorrow, that means turkey. Yeah, we had a turkey for Thanksgiving, but that’s okay. It’s all about the gravy.
For Friday, I have two racks of loin ribs & a tri-tip beef roast destined for the smoker. What else? Does anything after that matter? Pheh.
To each and every one of you, may warm & happy goodness be yours.
Biggles
ps – That’s an ornamental pear tree I shot while moving my camera to the right, with an up & down motion at f8, with a circular polarizer. And at a low ISO, it gave me a long enough exposure time to paint it for you. Cause that’s what that is, a painting. Get it?
Tree Drip
Hi!
What a long, strange trip it’s been – Country Style Rib Roast
Unbeknownst to me, I wound up with the same cut of pork twice in the same week. One ended up more like a steak, the other a roast (got this one from Omar). He couldn’t tell me what it was in English and it looked like an odd globule of meat to me, at the time. It wasn’t until I got home and started playing with it that I realized what it was and how I should go about preparing the beast, it was about 4.5 pounds of the Country Style Pork Ribs, all connected.
As you know, this piggy cut is full of meat, fat & bones and lends itself well to long and slow cooking. Dutch Oven or French Oven or Danish Oven cooking coming!
To be honest, I wasn’t very well prepared. I thought I had everything I needed to get the job done, but I didn’t. What I ended up with was missing maybe 2 dimensions of flavors. It was fricken great pork and juicy juice, but I know what I’m capable of and I missed a few things.
Preheat oven to 325 on bottom rack.
What I had:
4.5 Pork Roast
4 El Salvadorean chorizo links
4 glugs of good red wine
Carrots, onions, garlic & celery
Survival Spice
3 Balinese Long Peppercorns (tee hee, I just noticed a quote by me on their web site!)
And maybe a few other things I can’t remember.
Roughly cut up the roots & veggies, add to dutch along with the whole sausages. Wash, dry meat (really well), rub with extra virgin.
Liberally rub roast with Survival Spice, add liberal amounts of the spice over the bed of non-meat products.
4 glugs of wine to bottom of pan, do not glug over the meat.
But Biggles? What happened, this actually sounds really good? Well, when putting this together I wasn’t feeling herby, I didn’t have the fresh herbs I thought I needed. I went through some dried ones and decided to opt out. Dumbass. And, as it turns out the onion I had was too small and the head of garlic turned out to be the size of half a golf ball. I thought for damned sure I had at least 1 large head left. So, between the lack of the herb action, lack of garlic, onion & chicken broth, the sauce just didn’t have any dark, rich spark to it. See, I should have left the wine go by itself, it would have been just a tad better, but I decided to add 3/4 cup of water. I knew better, but I see chefs and read recipes where they’re adding water all the time. I neglected to use The Force.
Listen up folks, water is for ice cubes to put in glasses full of booze. Water keeps you hydrated when you’re at work or ghod forbid, when you’re exercising. Water has no place in slow roasted meat gifts, no sir. No ma’am! Heck, even those wacky vegetarians know to roast their veggies to make vegetable stock.
Here’s the roast just before I installed the glass lid and gently slipped it in to the oven.
Here’s the same pot 3.5 hours later. Not bad for a Tuesday evening, eh? The rich porky smells mixed with the wine and veggies were absolutely to die for. But, due to my Tuesday ineptness, it fell short of my expectations. In the immortal words of Big D, “NEXT !!!”
Biggles
flat seared pork steak – Highland Hills strikes again!
Here’s the pork steak I was talking about earlier this week, procured from Ted of Highland Hills at the Berkeley Farmer’s Market. Keeripes man, what great meat!
He said something about it being Country Style Pork Ribs and it does look like it now, it didn’t when I brought it home. See, it looked like a morass when I got home, but when I finally started playing with it, it all came in to place. Wanna know something funny? It’s the same cut that I came home with the other day after visiting Omar at Joya de Ceren here in Richmond. Wait until you see what I did with that one.
Kinda makes sense now, eh? Since it was Monday night, I didn’t have time for anything fancy, apply kosher salt for an hour and a half before.
Preheat large cast iron skillet, oil it a little. Bacon, goose or duck fat is preferred. And by preheat, I mean get that sucker smoking hot. Install meat to pan and rest a decently flat somewhat heavy object on meat. I used a lid from my camp 10″ dutch, a perfect match. Your first side is the presentation side and give it the longest sear. Flip when all caramelly, cook to 138F and rest for 8 to 10 minutes.
The pure, succulent pork was absolutely amazing. The hard sear really brought out the flavor of the pork and nothing else. Such a treat for a tired ol’ Monday evening. It makes frozen peas with butter taste good. Errrr, edible.
xo, Biggles
Frozen windshields & behind!
Last night it got down to 28 and the previous night the same. It rarely gets below 40 here in Richmond and deicing a windshield isn’t something we do on a regular basis during the winter. I do know better than to dump warm water on it though, we just sat there with the defroster going until it sluffed off. Cool, eh?
And, I’m so boned! I still have a small handful of books I was supposed to review before the coming holiday. Man, Tiny E and I just got the tree last afternoon! GAH !!! Sorry everyone, I’m late.
Biggles
Old Clay Chicky – works just fine!
Saturday was fun. Chilebrown & Ms. Goofy showed up at my door before 8 am for a trip to the Ferry Plaza in San Francisco. We took separate cars, I followed. Man, it was cold, windy and cold. Even so, we met up with a gaggle of local food bloggers, was nice. The best part though was giving Taylor of Fatted Calf 2 hugs! I don’t get over to SF that often, once every 2 years or so. It was special. On the way back, decided to hit up the Berkeley Farmer’s Market and knabbed me a large pork steak from Ted of Highland Hills, talked with Eric the knife guy and chatted with another pair of food bloggers. A great morning indeed.
On the way back home stopped by the old family stronghold, where Grampa, Gramma & Uncle Ralph live. I had some mail to pick up, truck registration & a few food mags. Gramma asked Gramps is they should give the clay chicken cooker to me. They asked and I said, “sure”. I already have a clay cooker, but what the hell.
I had no idea it was the 30+ year old fambly cooker from eons ago. No idea. When I saw it a chill ran down my spine and couldn’t believe it. I mean, my sister and I grew up with that damned thing.
As you can see it’s pretty well used, oh yes. It’s got a glaze on the inside, top & bottom. It’s thick too, not some cheapass rig, plus it’s got a lip to help seal it tight. Nicely done!
Was considering doing a pork roast, the pork steak or a chicken. Turns out the chicken was the most doable for dinner. I don’t normally do veggies in the bottom, too much moisture for an open roasting situation and the bottom of the meat gets all gray and not caramelly. But this clay roaster is all about the moisture.
In the bottom went a few little carrots, half an onion and about 9 cloves of Big D’s home-grown garlic, 3 chugs of Zin and the last bit of chicken broth. I shouldn’t have done the chicken broth, I’d forgotten how much liquid shows up in the final product, oh well. These are the things I have to learn to suffer through. Salt the chicken, I used dried basil, but who cares. It’s all good. And of course you gotta add the butter!
I felt like setting the oven to 375 and after a half hour, installed the covered chicky.
See?
How’d it taste? No, better than that, much better. The red wine, garlic, and rich chicken flavors were absolutely amazing. Amazing with a capital A.
To finish it up, I pulled the chicken out, put the juices in a fry pan and reduced it. Then hit it with an immersion blender to make a rustic “sauce”. Chicken never tasted so good!
Biggles
Buffalo Bill’s Beef Jerky – Black Pepper – A jerky review
Editor’s Note (that’s me, eh): There’s going to be a few of these jerky reviews and am going to use the intro from the first one, for all. So, if the first part seems a little redundant, it’s because it is, foo.
A few weeks ago the fine people at Jerky.com sent Meathenge Labs a load of jerky for our consideration. MmMmmm, Review Jerky! I smell a party comin’.
A meeting of the minds were scheduled for a mid Saturday get together. These would be, Cookie & Cranky of I’m Mad and I Eat, Chilebrown and Ms. Goofy of Mad Meat Genius, Zoomie of Zoomie Station, Sourdough Monkey Wrangler & his monkeys (even if for a few moments to share some home brew) and a good friend.
If you so choose, please visit for a few snapshots of the afternoon.
Here’s the new stuff, you knob.
This jerky comes to us in a thin, dry form that takes quite a bit of pull. And I believe I’ve figured this Western Cut thing out, huge pieces! What I wasn’t expecting right off the top was a warm, rich beef meat flavor. I don’t know if you can see it in the picture, but one can actually see the fat between the meat there, this my good people is a flavor delivery system. It says it has some teriyaki & brown sugar in there, and it does. But there’s also wine, which cuts the sweet to some degree so it doesn’t go too far. The black pepper is a warm peppery ride that takes a little while to finish. Since it is quite dry and has fat in there, the flavors mingle for quite some time as you chew along.
I like the fact that the meat flavor is given a chance to play, it’s a good thing. So far, this jerky brings more to the table than most. An excellent performer and there’s plenty in the bag for everyone.
Thank you so much Jerky.com for your care package, we enjoyed the afternoon greatly.
Biggles
PS – My new glasses won’t arrive to next week or the one after. I’m using an old pair from years ago and working on the computer or any reading is quite difficult and makes my head hurt. Not sure what the next few weeks will look like, here.