Smoking the in-laws...

During our vacation last week, my lovely wife and I spent several days at her parents' home in Sleepy Eye, MN.  Of course my father in-law had a sample of my first smoking attempts and thought it would be a good idea to bring the smoker with me, so I did.

I picked up 2 racks of Hormel St Louis Style ribs and a 3lb pork shoulder with the bone.

To prep the pork shoulder, I used the new injection syringe I purchased to infuse flavor in the meat.  I mixed apple cider vinegar with my own meat rub.  I also generously rubbed the outside with my meat rub.  For smoking this shoulder, I used tips left by Joe of Grilling Addiction on one of my previous posts.  I applied the rub and injection about 1 hour before I put the shoulder in the smoker.  For a bit of extra moisture in the smoker, I put 1 cup of the apple cider vinegar in the liquid pan in the bottom of the smoker. I hit the shoulder hard with smoke for about 4.5 hours at 205F. After that time I wrapped the butt in aluminum foil and a poured a tad apple cider vinegar in the foil pack.

To prep the ribs, I applied my rub about 2 hours before I intended to put them in the smoker.  After I wrapped the shoulder in foil, I put the ribs in the smoker.  I did them for about 4 hours as before.  With about 30 minutes to go, I basted the ribs with my own BBQ sauce.

Slicing the ribs

Pork Shoulder right out of the smoker

Ribs fresh out of the smoker

Shredding the shoulder

Look at all the DELICIOUS ribs still in the pan.

 






























The results were good.

The shoulder shredded just how I wanted, (thanks Joe at Grilling Addiction for the tips). It had a nice flavor and a little "bark" on the outside. Next time I am going to go for more of a "smoke ring" in the meat.  I already have some ideas in mind to accomplish that.  My parents are coming early next week for a visit and I have a shoulder waiting in the fridge.  So my next guinea pigs are selected.

The ribs were better than last time. They did not have as much smoke flavor as last time, but had a nicer overall flavor. I am sure I ate half of them all by myself.

Iowa, not just for corn anymore

My lovely wife and I were on vacation the last week or so, that is why I have been lacking for posts, but I will catch up this week.

We had enough hotel reward points for some free nights so we decided to go to Des Moines, IA, for a couple of days.  My wife attends a conference there for work once a year and she always raves about the scallops at a restaurant.....she was right to rave.

The restaurant she raved about is Ohana's Steak House in West Des Moines.  According to their website, Ohana is Hawaiian for "family."  The style of cooking is Japanese Teppanyaki, many people would call it hibachi style- the chef comes and cooks the food in front of you at a large grill, surrounded by approximately 10 seats.   
My wife and I shared the Tuesday night special of chicken and steak and added an order of their house specialty scallops.  The side dishes we enjoyed were the included soup, salad, shrimp, zucchini with onions, fried rice, and noodles.  We enjoyed our chef, Ken.  He put on an entertaining "show" while cooking.  I was the only one at the table who caught a couple of his jokes, but everyone at the table had a terrific experience.  Our table mates were locals that frequent Ohana's and suggested we try the spicy seasoning on the vegetables.  That was a good choice.

Ohana's Steak House was great! My only regret is we should have ordered more of the scallops. They were DELICIOUS! They have a creamy sweet and savory sauce they use on the scallops. I think I would eat an old shoe if it had that sauce on it.

I will definitely try to get to Ohana's again.

The smoke is in the meat...

Today I fired up the smoker for the second time on my journey to greatness... or at least a step in learning the art of awesome food.  I picked up a pork shoulder roast and some pork country style ribs cut from the shoulder.  I prefer country style ribs cut from the shoulder.  They are meatier and have less gristle than the loin end country style ribs, but both cuts are delicious.  If you are interested, many places do not cut country style ribs this way.  But you could request from a butcher 1 inch thick cut pork steaks and then cut the pork steaks into 2 pieces.  (The pork steaks are the same thing.)

I applied my rub from before to the meat and put in the fridge overnight.

I fired up the smoker to attain 205F and added the country style ribs and pork shoulder roast.

I pulled the ribs after about 3.5 hours and we munched on those.  They turned out well.
I took the roast off after about 5.5 hours.  It was tender and delicious!  I sliced 1/2 of it and chopped the other 1/2.

Overall, I was pleased with today's results.  I was hoping to have the roast "shred" more than chop it, but it was still delicious.

Things I learned:
1.  Mix up my sauce in advance, or at least sometime during cooking.  I ate sandwiches without sauce, but it was still good.
2.  Make sure to line up guinea pigs to sample my meat so as to not have so much left over.

A little fish by the lake...

I like sushi. There, I said it. Those of you who know me are probably surprised by this. My wife brought me to Mt. Fuji in Maple Grove, MN several years ago for my first sushi experience. I did not want to try it, so I ordered the chicken tempura (a lightly battered and fried method)... I tried a few pieces of the sushi rolls my wife ordered and since then I have never ordered the chicken tempura again. For new sushi experiences, my wife and I like to buy Groupon deals to try out places we have not tried before. Some are good (Fuji Ya in downtown St. Paul) and some not so good (Tiger Sushi in the Uptown area of Minneapolis.) Besides sharing my cooking and smoking experiences, I am also going to share unique and/or new dining experiences, so here goes:



On Sunday 6/23, my wife and I used a Groupon for Sakana Sushi in Wayzata, MN.

I have a regular roll that I like to order everywhere, a Philadelphia Roll. Smoked salmon, cream cheese, avocado. It was ok here, a larger than average chunks of avocado and smaller than average pieces of cream cheese.

B.M.W Roll- Deep fried spicy tuna, avocado, topped with eel sauce, spicy mayo & tobiko

Sweet Heart- Shrimp tempura, avocado, spicy tuna, lettuce, tobika, wrapped in pink soy paper

Wayzata Roll- Seared tuna, asparagus, radish sprout inside. Topped with tuna, salmon, yellowtail, eel, avocado, caviar, scallion & wasabi mayo, eel sauce

My favorite of the day-

Dynamite Roll-Spicy tuna, salmon, topped with spicy crab. DELICIOUS. A nice little spicy kick, we really liked this roll.

Service- Great


Food- EXCELLENT

(p.s. I am working on a rating system I will use, but for now, this is all you get.)
Overall, I have found my new favorite sushi place. Only negative was an arts and crafts fair going on in the street in front of the restaurant. If not for that, we would have had a nice view of Lake Minnetonka across the street from the booth by the window we sat in. Their tents made better doors than windows. Next time we will have the view. :)

Smoking, my new Frontier....

I have had an interest in trying smoking meats for several years.  I had a small Little Chief smoker I tried, but wanted something bigger and more insulated.  I recently purchased a Masterbuilt 30inch Electric Smokehouse with window and RF controller.  I know purists would call this an outdoor oven that smokes, but it was just what I was looking for in a starter smoker.
For my first attempt, I bought 2 racks of St. Louis style ribs.  I also had a small boneless center cut pork roast that I sliced into 6 chops.  I left the chops plain, but created my own rub to use on the ribs.  My rub I made from some books and left some things out I don't like and added some I like.  The wood I purchased was apple wood chips from Weber.
Friday night I coated the ribs generously with the rub and put them in the refrigerator for the night.

My rub consisted of:
Brown Sugar
Paprika
Black Pepper
Kosher Salt
Chili Powder
Garlic Powder
Onion Powder
Cayenne Pepper
Cumin

Before I could begin, I had to "season" the smoker.  I followed the instructions according to the owner's manual and started the smoker and heated to 275F (highest possible for the smoker).  After about 2 hours at that temperature, I added water soaked wood chips and let the smoker run for another hour or so.  The instructions told to let the smoker cool before using, but I was short on time and patience and only let the smoker cool to 150F before I started the smoker back up.  I set the temperature to 205F and once the temperature was attained, I put the meat in the smoker.  Then it was time to wait for 4 hours.

I mixed up a small batch of my usual bbq sauce, with assistance from my lovely wife.  During the final 30 minutes of cook time, I opened and slathered sauce on the ribs.

My sauce:
Ketchup
Brown Sugar
Onion Powder
Worcestershire Sauce
Garlic Powder
Black Pepper

The verdict came out better than I expected for my 1st attempt.  The ribs turned out tender and delicious.  The cayenne pepper left a nice little burn on the lips after eating.  I was a little disappointed with the chops, I thought they were a little dried out, but my guinea pigs liked them.

Things I learned:
1. Do not wear light colored and/or favorite shirt for smoking.  Good thing I have multiple identical MN Twins t-shirts.
2.  Gloves can get very slick with grease and difficult to get off by myself.  Need to plan better in the future.

Let's get this started

Tonight for supper I used a my wife's idea.  I had thawed boneless skinless chicken breasts in the fridge for a couple of days.  I pounded them flat, seasoned, layered with ham and provolone, rolled the breasts, and stuck 2 water soaked toothpicks to hold them together.  I baked them for about 45 minutes at 375F.  They turned out great.  For the seasoning, I chopped fresh rosemary and mixed with kosher salt, fresh ground pepper, garlic powder, and onion powder.  
This is my first blog post, hopefully they will improve as I learn on the go.  Tomorrow I am going to try out my new smoker......
Stay tuned!