Labor Day BBQ

 For years we’ve been making an annual trek to Central Oregon where we celebrate the end of summer in the mountains. Cold nights and sunny warm days (if not plain old hot). College Football kicks off its season and the Oregon Ducks almost always have their first game at home. And while we don’t make the trip over to Eugene these days, instead opting for some R&R at Black Butte Ranch, we don’t miss the game. In sum, it’s the perfect setup for a Labor Day BBQ.

 We use a combination of our Original PK Grill, shown here with a Snake River Ranch wagu tomahawk streak dwarfing a thick cut pork chop, and an older Weber Spirit gas grill. The gas grill got a new cast iron grill grate, replacing the original porcelain coated cast iron grill. The great thing about both of these brands is that they are timeless. These aren’t throw away appliances, the parts for the Weber almost always available to keep your old workhorse going season after season, year after year. 

Slow cooked baby backs were on the weekend menu as well. We cooked some of the ribs on our new Weber Kamado and some on the PK grill. 

I have to give a nod to the potato salad we also got to enjoy. Normally we would indulge in some homemade potato salad but this year we got a gift from my son that we wouldn’t want to turn down. He’s been the deli manager at the local meat market where he started as a “hop” serving customers at the counter, then apprentice butcher, and now deli manager. 

The salad is a house recipe that he has “doctored up” to add a little spice. It is truly good, in fact he tells me that folks from out of state have complimented the potato salad as being some the best they have had this side of the Mississippi. I’ll take their word for it, since it’s been a while since I’ve had any from the southeast for a while. 

I should also mention we started the long weekend with some fresh Oregon chinook salmon on the grill served up with fresh romaine lettuce, homemade caesar dressing, and some sweet corn trimmed off the ear and sautéed with some red bell peppers. 

while the Labor Day holiday marks the end of summer, right now is prime time for outdoor cooking. Fresh caught salmon, fresh picked corn, vine ripe tomatoes, and apples, plums, peaches, and I could go on. All that means the best meals you can find in your own back yard! 

It won't be long before we're talking about smoked turkey on the grill, but in the mean time, a few more weeks of summer awaits.    

Barcelona dinning

 This is our first trip to Spain! But that’s not exactly why we’re here. We actually are joining a group of travelers in Sicily for a guided tour (also our first). The dining experience in Barcelona was great, along with all the walking and the “hop on hop off” bus tour. Similar to Portugal, we found our way to the markets and the wide variety of fish, meat, fruit, and vegetables. 

Winter Cooking

So far my posts have been about places I’ve visited and the food I’ve had the chance to try, mostly BBQ. I don’t travel much in the dead of winter so my food experiences are usually not far from home, and today I’m going write about that very thing. Home Cooking!

If you are really into cooking, and I can tell from looking for recipes on line that many of those who share those recipes are really into cooking. AND really into “the tools of the trade”. Like what kitchen gadget don’t they have? 

I love outdoor cooking, so I have a “few” ways to do that, mostly BBQ or grill. This winter I decided I better consolidate my outdoor appliances, having acquired a few taking up patio space. Just to be clear, I live in Oregon, and yes it rains here. Usually from about Halloween until sometime between Flag Day and the Fourth of July. December through March is our really wet season, the other months are our transition season between rain showers and OMG when is it ever going to rain!? AKA wildfire season. Sorry, I digress. Anyway, I took inventory and thought how can I combine some of this into one cooker? 

Here’s the count; My main almost nightly cooking appliance is a Weber Geniuses natural gas grill (no running out of gas or going to fill bottles). Located just outside our kitchen, it’s an easy choice for a lot of what I do, fully equipped with various Lodge cast iron appliances for a variety of cooking styles. 

Next down the line I have a Weber Smokefire pellet BBQ. It’s a regular “go to” whenever I want to add some smoke wood flavor to my cooking, usually I cook salmon or other fish, chicken, and sometimes pork or beef, although my family likes their steak seared so the gas grill usually gets the nod, however the Smokefire can heat up pretty hot.

Third on that (narrow) side patio is my old tried and true Weber kettle. My wife and son bought a rotisserie attachment for me ten years ago or so, I’ve had the kettle going on over twenty years. In fact I had to replace the coal baskets a few years go because the original baskets had just worn out. I reserve that one for rotisserie or BBQ chicken mostly, but I love the salmon and other foods, including veggies, cooked on the original Weber kettle. The thing is, It’s mostly a Saturday or Sunday go to, when I’m relaxing from work and have time to BBQ, because doing really good BBQ takes time. 

This past year I added two auxiliary tools to that side of the house, a Duxtop induction cooktop that sits on the side of the Geniuses and just this fall, a Weber Q electric grill that I’m still getting to know. Both of these are intended to travel with me in my Airstream Basecamp to use where we have electric service to use instead of gas inside. Did I mention I like cooking outdoors? BTW, I also have a Weber Smoky Joe Hibachi style charcoal grill for the road and campfire gear including my Lodge Dutch Oven. 

On the other side of the house is our outdoor living area, fully covered with a large dining table and casual furniture for lounging. We placed a natural gas fire pit in the “living room” space for those cool evenings. Bonus feature! It has a swing out grill on it that was designed to be able to grill food on or put a Dutch oven or pan on if you like. I haven’t done so, no need I guess. 

Just on the side of the living room space I have a Gozney Dome pizza oven. Since we had the natural gas plumbed in on that side as well, I ordered the duel fuel, so for the quick cooking I fire it up with gas, and when I want to get adventurous I can cook with wood, which gets hotter than natural gas. When the pandemic hit and we were stuck at home is when I really started ramping up the outdoor cooking beyond what I had done in the past. Maybe obsessive? 

Next down that line I have a PK Original grill and smoker. I bought that at the start of the pandemic after I read an article in Food and Wine about outdoor smokers. I’ve really enjoyed cooking on that grill, it does and amazing job of smoking food. The grill space is a little smaller that I might like to have, but I’ve done pork roast, chicken, fish, and one of my favorites, St Louis style pork steaks. Slow smoked for a few hours, then basted and grilled over the high heat side for a short time to finish. What’s really cool about the PK is that I can break it down, so I’ve taken it along on camp trips and to my in-laws cabin to cook for them. I recently added the PK Go tailgate stand to make those trips even easier. PK did a great job designing and building this tailgate stand, and like the original grill that goes back in time, it should last for generations. 

lastly, on that side and tucked away on the end I have a Lodge portable table that I bought for camping with a Lodge Hibachi grill sitting on top of it. I really like the looks and feel of the hibachi grill, but frankly it gets very little use. When I do make something that works on the small space and high heat, it’s fun to cook on. Again, this setup is really for camping because you can put hot coals on the table top for Dutch oven cooking and it’s all very portable. 

So now for the solution! I got the bright idea that I could find a cooker that can consolidate some of these into one, do it all, space saving solution! So I started researching my options. I’d always thought I should have a Big Green Egg, but my wife and put her foot down and said No More! What about a smoker? That would be really cool. Real wood fire, slow, smoky flavor cooking. Real BBQ, you know like the Pit Masters! The Weber Smoke Mountain looked pretty good. It gets really good reviews, and it’s a little simpler than a wood burning fir pit. They come in three sizes and the 18 really started to stand out for me. That’s when I also came across the Weber Summit Kamado E6. Now that really looked like it could do the job for me. One hitch, it’s not exactly inexpensive, which was part of the objection to the Big Green Egg. This grill is portable, and comes with a side table like my old Weber kettle. The price got me looking back at the Smoky Mountain. 

Which cookers could I let go? They’re like children! You love them all for their individual qualities and because they’ve been a key part of your life. OMG, I can’t believe I just did that! Really? Like kids? Anyway, maybe that’s a stretch. But like the kids, eventually they grow up and move away. 

So I landed on the Weber Summit Kamado. It’s like having a Big Green Egg, a Weber kettle, and a PK smoker grill (sort of) all in one. Now comes the hard part. Guess which kids are leaving?! Well, my son wants the Weber kettle for his house, so he gets that grill. I’m “donating” the PK grill to the in-laws cabin, so no more toting it back and forth. And as for the rest? Well, you know I’m kinda attached to all of them so maybe I tuck away the Q and put it in the Airstream “ready to go”, and the Hibachi? ….you know, it’s kinda tucked away. 

Happy Cooking!

Sunday Dinner at Porco Do Casa with Pedro

 We found a great dinning adventure in Porto on AirBnB worth sharing. Pedro owns and operates this off the beaten path old schist stone farm house that he has taken from an overgrown abandoned casa and restored to a working restaurant and soon to be bed and breakfast. Where he now has the dining hall and inside kitchen, was once where grapes were brought in for pressing and capturing the juice. Pedro removed the heavy stone floor from the pressing room and made a picnic table he placed in the center of the yard, 

Pedro arranged for us to be picked up at our front door in the historic old town of Porto where we were driven out the the farm along with another guest, with a short stop along the Douro river. Later we found out Pedro used that stop as a strategy to postpone guest arrival in case he was running late. I’m not sure that worked this time since the other guest had already arrived, as they had decided to drive themselves to the farm rather than pay 46 Euro to leave their rented car parked. 

As soon as we entered the outdoor kitchen which is situated off the courtyard and under the upper floor we found a table already set with the first guest sitting at one end and a cured ham that had already had meat shaved off of it at the other. A basket of some fresh local dark, sweet bread in the middle along with a round of soft sheep’s cheese wrapped in cheese cloth to hold the soft creamy cheese together. We were offered a cold local beer, a cup of wine, and of course a small shot of red Port wine. 

Pedro had been cooking for some time and the fire (behind him here) warmed the space, which was nice because it turns out that Sunday was a rainy, windy day. If you look close, just behind him hanging over the fire pit are some sausages that in a short time he would be placing in a pan over the grated fire pit just behind him on the right side of the cooking area. We learned the origin of those special sausages and some of his own personal history. 

Most Portuguese sausages have always contained pork, but alheira is an exception. In the 15th century, Portuguese Jews created this sausage as a way to deceive the Inquisition. Since they couldn't eat pork, they made sausages with other kinds of meat like poultry and game, adding bread for texture.

The alheira Pedro used is a commercial brand so unlike the sausage of his ancestors this one did contain pork. However it’s the bread added to the sausage that I found most interesting and tasty!

First up is potato soup that has been cooking on the fire in one of the cast iron crocks. Just before serving and as a finishing touch, Pedro adds cabbage leaves he has chopped and stewed in for a short time. The soup is served with some of the local bread for dipping. This is a hearty thick soup full of flavor and a mix of textures. The soup alone could make a great winter meal. 

The dinning table is set & Pedro begins to serve dinner

Following the soup Pedro then serves up the main plate, the roasted pork leg that he has been preparing for three days, roasted potatoes, rice, and a tomato salad. The pork falls off the bone and is as tender and flavorful as you can imagine. 

The pork leg has been brined for three days then roasted in the wood over to perfection. Pedro lifts the pork and serves it up on each guest’s plate. The pork is pull apart tender and juicy. 

Any leftover pork he is happy to share with you on some bread as sandwiches to go, and if there is more he takes the pork to a local bar to share with the locals. Nothing at the table that isn’t eaten goes to waste. His approach is to keep it local and sustainable. 

The plated meal is a perfect balance from meat, to starch, to vegetable. At this point, if you have room for it all you’ll be lucky!

Next up is the desert experience! And I’m not talking about something that simply shows up in front of you. This is a totally interactive desert experience. Crème Boule, wood fire style! Along with a selection of port wines, including Pedro’s own flavored versions of the local drink. There’s also an egg pudding, Pudim de ovos which is rich and delicious. In total, from start to finish, we experienced a great Sunday dinner. 

You don’t need a butane torch when you can use a hot iron branding iron to burn the sugar on top. 

Pedro is very proud of his kitchen, his cooking, and his accomplishments, but most of all he is extremely humble and gracious. We were fortunate to be able to enjoy his hospitality. 

Lisbon dinning

 It’s been quite a while since I’ve written on my blog, so welcome back to me! We just left Lisbon, and while BBQ isn’t a thing there, food and wine is. Let me share something we had never tried before until last night. Braised pork cheeks. Now I didn’t realize pork cheeks were a thing either, thinking maybe it was just a term used to describe a preparation style or perhaps a way a particular cut of pork was trimmed and snapped, maybe a center loin or something. Turns out, it is the cheek meat, not to be confused with he jaw or Guanciale (our favorite for pasta amarati) 

The plate we had was a tapas at a wine bar in Lisbon, braised pork cheek served on a light sauce. Tender and flavorful for sure and easy to cut with a fork. Turns out that while I’ve never seen the cut in our local meat market, it is supposed to be a fairly inexpensive cut of meat. I’ll definitely be asking for it in the meat market and trying this one at home. I was able to find some good recipes on line, so I’ll definitely be trying it when I get home. 

We visited a great market near the old town which was a must do for a foodie. My food focus has shifted a bit towards more seafood (more surf and less turf) so it was really interesting to see the fish mongers in the marketplace. There was a line of four separate fish sellers, with truly the catch of the day, including live eels, and shellfish. I was surprised to see salmon on the local restaurant menus and fresh salmon in the market. While I didn’t personally try it, I spoke with a fellow from Ireland who did and said it was delish. He said it was all about how they grilled it, which I image is a key factor. As I told him, salmon is something we get in Oregon fresh and wild from March through October, and fresh farm from Canada all winter, so not much of an attraction for me.  

We on the train to Porto, so I’ll update my dinning adventures in the next few days. Chow! 

Grapes & Bites

1. 

BBQ in Rovinj

Just outside the old town of Rovinj along the roadside is a great looking BBQ. As you look up from the roadside you see a wood fired spit with two whole hogs on the rotisserie. There are large heavy wood tables nestled under tree shade or tent canopies. It's the only place like this that we found, unfortunately we came across it earlier in the day as we were traveling through so lunch wasn't being served yet. Pork on the menus in this region is generally pancetta so don't expect pulled pork sandwiches at just any stop along the way.

Groznjan

This hilltop town is the home of artist shops and scenic views. This view to the east is from a small cafe where you can have a coffee, drink, or light fair and just relax. Paintings, jewelry, pottery, and even small music box wheels can be found tucked away in this 16th century town. It's out of the way and worth the trip up if you have a few hours to spare.