Brief Culinary Update

I got a Smokey on my arm....

Greetings and Happy New Year Everyone! As is evident from our lack of posting, a grand hiatus was taken in December/all of January, so that life stuff could be had and bowl games and etc. You know the deal.

(A photgraphical reinaction of the Fiesta Bowl)

Wha Happen!

So, just as a reminder that we are still here and that triple awesome foodbloggin still courses through our veins in a most professional manner, I give you a brief culinary update and show you that cooking is happening, but just not over the internet. By brief update I mean a small series of pictures of food, and some comments. Hopefully it will be enjoyable for the reader. But mainly it will be enjoyable for me becasue I took the pictures. This is what blogging is.

Anyway, I learned some new stuff recently...

Bhaba Ghanoush:

Bhaba Ghanush is awesome. Deal with it. Also never spell it the same way twice. Its roasted eggplant mixed with tahini and lemon juice and herbs and garlic and olive oil. Oh yes it is delicious.

Hummus:

Hummus is also delicious. This is roasted pablano and dill hummus. Its chickpeas, lemon, herbs, tahini, garlic and oil, mixed in a food processor. The general rule is that you put this where you want it to be delicious and then delicousness is had.

I OWN A MEATSLICER:

Yea. You heard what I said.

So far all I've done is roast beef which is a beef eye round roast covered in oil and salt and pepper and baked in a 500 degree oven until it gets to 125 in the middle. The temp carries up a good 15 degrees. I'm just sayin. Note that the food geniuses at the government think the temp should be higher before eating. So you know...be safe. Dont do what I do. Then you put it in the fridge overnight, let it tighten up and then slice thin. Crazy Delicious.

Poached shrimp:

Poached shrimp is a good way to cook shrimp. Apparently poaching is "to cook in a flavorful liquid". Which made me wonder what it would be like to poach an egg in flavorded chicken stock. But thats getting way off topic.

Anyway, lsmoke cooked the shrimp shells and heads, and mire puax, and fennel in chicken stock for like an hour. We then strained it and brought it to a simmer and dumped the raw shrimp in it. The shrimp soaks up the flavor as it cooks. Unbelieveable. Served with avocado and grapefruit with a citrus vinaigrette.

Dishes of Note.

Breakfast:

This is my first breakfast stack attempt. Its roast beef on the bottom, spinach, caramalized onions, salsa, poached egg, cilantro. Yum. (you may be able to tell that there is a low carb thing going on right now)

Dinner:

This is spinach tossed with a vinaigrette of some sort, with the roast beef, hummus, and babaha ghanoosh as sides, with some cheese of one sort or another. Also there is a soy beans salad on top of the err other salad which is soybeans or edamame, with lemon juice, oil, herbs and garlic, and red onions and tomatoes.

Another Dinner:

Crispy skin salmon, served on top of warm Bhaba Ghanoush, with an aragula salad on top, with standard dijon vinaigrette all over the outer rim...near Romulan space. (if only a single person gets that joke then I will be happy). Also, roasted cherry tomatoes.

Other:

I burned myself wicked bad on the oven.

It was awesome.

I had hats made at the rodeo.

Coolest hats in the county. Let me know if you want one. There are six in this world.

Thanks for reading everyone! We are making CHICKEN FRIED SMOKED BRISKET this weekend. Oh yes. I did say that. So stay tuned!

(El Smokeador has no idea why Smokehopper didn't make a Smokehopper hat. This is the essence of Smokehopper....El Smokeador guesses.) Many props to Smokehopper starting the new year off with a bang. We have many great things ahead of us on the blog. Stay tuned for new briskets the likes the internet hasn't seen. Booby Flay has nothing on us. Booby was not spelled wrong. - ~El Smokeador~