+1 on all you've said re. Allopurinol. 5 years and no more attacks.
I got to dreaming of axes and Kunte Kinte, (we don't do firearms around here!) but the sentiment is the same.
Cliff
Happy whatever you do.
Hi Cal, my “smoker” is merely a chip drawer near the burners in my barbecue. The barbecue is a lesser brand, Char-Broil, likely won’t last long but is the best design I have seen, works amazingly well. The Big Easy is the model.
I hit the smoke hard at first, then let things cook, give plenty smoke flavor for most everything we cook. Large sections of meat are very juicy with a very thin brown layer on the outside.
I don’t have much in the way of red meat either, don’t miss it much since cooking other foods on this barbecue actually!
Christmas menu acquired and set.
A brunch of bagels from a great place in town with several salmons, dill and the usual bagel condiments. Mimosas, bloody marys.
A supper of whole beef tenderloin rubbed with an oil of rosemary, salt and cracked peppercorns. Trussed and grilled on wood charcoal , oven finish to internal temp. Whipped potato and mushroom gravy, steamed broccoli and roasted carrot, and a spinach Caesar of hot garlic with gorgonzola and croutons torn from sour dough baguette. Red wine.. Pinot and Zin.
Key lime pie.. as is customary.. for a stumbling finish.
A brunch of bagels from a great place in town with several salmons, dill and the usual bagel condiments. Mimosas, bloody marys.
A supper of whole beef tenderloin rubbed with an oil of rosemary, salt and cracked peppercorns. Trussed and grilled on wood charcoal , oven finish to internal temp. Whipped potato and mushroom gravy, steamed broccoli and roasted carrot, and a spinach Caesar of hot garlic with gorgonzola and croutons torn from sour dough baguette. Red wine.. Pinot and Zin.
Key lime pie.. as is customary.. for a stumbling finish.
Not quite, I did some stuff this morning (putting the chocolate cover on the hearts and packing). But yesterday was a rush:
3pm-4pm: shopping
4pm-7pm: preparing all the doughs
7pm-9pm: everything rests in the fridge
9pm-1am: cooking time
It really helped to have this on repeat:
A Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols 2015 - King's College Cambridge
Sorry Ed just trying to help, you said your meds were outdated. I have no underlying condition so no need for prophylaxis. Just a once every 10yr or so attack from pork & shellfish at a big dinner, beef or lamb nothing.
Perhaps we can get back to the norm of Cal showing off his meals!
Maybe we could even get into details like the effect of too much water in bread dough.
When much younger and learning to bake, my mum told me my bread just wasn't up to snuff and suggested I ask a baker friend. Her response was I made great bread and she loved it as it was better than hers. One of the things I learned was to look at baked bread and see the effect of the wrong amount of water.
My father during WWII was in charge of providing 1/3 of the fresh water for the coming Japan invasion army. His critic was the baker. Too much chlorine in the water and the bread didn't rise. They clearly worked this out as his group ate steaks almost every night.
Also on topic, I now have a freezer full of lamb, legs, chops, steaks and ground. Looking for new ideas on how to use it.
For New Years Eve I will make egg salad to go on top of bread crisps to handle the caviar. Bread crisps no sweat 1.5" finished height roll of dough almost pretzel crisp. Egg salad, almost hard boiled eggs ground with cheap olive oil. The "Good" olive oils don't use blended olive oils and have the taste of olives. The cheap ones are made of lots of different olives and often second pressing so have little or none of the olive flavor. Result is folks don't taste that it is a healthier oil. I don't use the common mayonnaise as that is really egg yolks, spices and oil. As I leave some uncooked yolk in the eggs I get the same flavor result but I can then use a pastry bag to place the egg salad on the crisps. Now the caviar I buy on eBay. There are fake caviars (AKA Royal or Imperial) from Russia, that actually aren't horrible and then there are real fish egg stuff that is. The stuff I like best runs about $80 per ounce. But they really want to sell it in kilogram batches. So for this year I bought a small bit at delivered price of $95 per ounce.
Maybe we could even get into details like the effect of too much water in bread dough.
When much younger and learning to bake, my mum told me my bread just wasn't up to snuff and suggested I ask a baker friend. Her response was I made great bread and she loved it as it was better than hers. One of the things I learned was to look at baked bread and see the effect of the wrong amount of water.
My father during WWII was in charge of providing 1/3 of the fresh water for the coming Japan invasion army. His critic was the baker. Too much chlorine in the water and the bread didn't rise. They clearly worked this out as his group ate steaks almost every night.
Also on topic, I now have a freezer full of lamb, legs, chops, steaks and ground. Looking for new ideas on how to use it.
For New Years Eve I will make egg salad to go on top of bread crisps to handle the caviar. Bread crisps no sweat 1.5" finished height roll of dough almost pretzel crisp. Egg salad, almost hard boiled eggs ground with cheap olive oil. The "Good" olive oils don't use blended olive oils and have the taste of olives. The cheap ones are made of lots of different olives and often second pressing so have little or none of the olive flavor. Result is folks don't taste that it is a healthier oil. I don't use the common mayonnaise as that is really egg yolks, spices and oil. As I leave some uncooked yolk in the eggs I get the same flavor result but I can then use a pastry bag to place the egg salad on the crisps. Now the caviar I buy on eBay. There are fake caviars (AKA Royal or Imperial) from Russia, that actually aren't horrible and then there are real fish egg stuff that is. The stuff I like best runs about $80 per ounce. But they really want to sell it in kilogram batches. So for this year I bought a small bit at delivered price of $95 per ounce.
My fishy dinner on Christmas Eve. Marinated herring and smoked eel. Many people protest when I eat eel as it is on red-listed, but the fishermen that makes sure that eels are transported up and down the river (past the power plants) also are entitled for a few percent to be smoked and sold. No gain for the fishermen - no transport of eels.
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There's a nice Turkish place around here (several actually though I suspect some are really Syrian) that does great lamb kebabs. I have noticed that the shish (as opposed to kofta) is prepared very simply - place chunks of lean lamb on skewers, grill over charcoal, sprinkle with a little salt. No spices or additions, maybe one slice of onion added to a skewer. The lamb kofta kebabs have the ground lamb mixed with spices before forming around skewers. I suspect parsley, a bit of oregano, a hint of cumin, some black pepper, salt.
Then the cuisine of the subcontinent has wonderful lamb dishes. Mughal style lamb biryani is nice. Make a rich stock with lamb shanks, onions, and spices, cook rice in the stock with chopped up meat from the shanks. Make a thick curry with chunks of leg meat (or shoulder). Layer the rice and curry in a deep covered baking dish and heat. I can send you a nice recipe if you want, or I'm sure the internet can supply several.
Lamb cooked with methi (fenugreek) leaves is nice, though when I ate that in Bangalore my pee smelled like fenugreek for a day. Also lamb saag (with spinach) or korma with saffron, ground cashews and yogurt.
That's beer from local brewery in Emmaboda. The beer which is a bit hoppy, but not extremely is named Humleboda (Humle is hops and refers to the small village where the the beer is made).
Emmaboda Bryggeri - Emmaboda Bryggeri
I will be happy to oblige when I am spending more time in the kitchen. My BIL bought himself a smoker and has smoked pretty much everything I'm going to eat in the next week or so.
I have had some pretty good luck with the sous vide meats I have done. I use a plumbers torch for the finishing.