First you pack the bowl…this one was pecan chips. The thing he’s holding has a little tube and a motor. You press the button to activate the fan and hold a flame to the wood chips, and then the smoke fills the glass box. Let it sit for 1 minute, take your drink out… Every sip has the pleasant pecan aroma. He said it was Makers Mark and a little orange liqueur as the base. I had three tiny sips and was passed out snoring on the couch. (I’m a lightweight. My heavy drinking days are long over.)
Had leftover pizza dough from last night, so this morning, I made “English Muffins.” I have no idea if they really are English Muffins or not since I was winging it. I rolled out the dough, cut it with a pyrex bowl into disc shapes, let them rise for an hour, buttered both sides, then fried them in a pan outside and finished by baking them in the bbq. It’s way too hot to bake inside right now.
Picked up some smoked pork chops from the butcher, sautéed them for a nice sear, added some some apples, onions and apple brandy to the pan. They went well with German butterball potatoes roasted in duck fat.
Since soda and I are no longer in a relationship and caffeine is a sometimes-booty-call I’ve been trying out other beverages.
There’s a gallon of cherry bounce which has been fermenting for about five weeks. Not the newer one where you put cherries and sugar into whiskey. This is made from spiced, fermented cherry juice fortified at the end with brandy. Should be ready in another three weeks plus a week bottle conditioning and carbonating.
Now going into the fermenter is Dr. Cronk’s Sarsaparilla Beer aka Cronk. Cronk is the Drink! Drink Cronk. Some friends have a no-name hops vine in their backyard, so instead of 14 g of dry hops there will be 100g of fresh hops flavoring this. This video has the history and recipe.
My summer beverage is tepache. Basically all the bits of a pineapple you don’t use (rind and core) chopped up and chucked into boiled water with brown sugar and spices (cloves and cinnamon bark) and left, covered tightly with a cloth, to ferment for a couple of days. Filter into bottles and leave out for a day or so to carbonate. Refrigerate and serve as a fresh alternative to Kombucha. You may want to add some lime juice.
This may also work with lime juice, rum, lots of ice, and garnished with mint.
Saturday is backyard grill day (even when not a holiday weekend). Marinated some 1inch thick blackfin tuna steaks (caught about 6 miles off Marathon) in pineapple juice overnight. Ever-so-lightly seared on a 500F grill for no more than 2 minutes on a side. Also sliced local mangoes, brushed with butter and grilled for just a bit longer along with homegrown habaneros. Served with coconut rice and a simple arugula salad tossed with sesame oil/key lime.
I call it “Florribean” style “island grill” and I must say, it was freakin’ awesome and I wish I could share it with every one of you (that would have it… sorry, vegans, you guys may have enjoyed the chickpea-patty burger with homemade spicy kimchi I made yesterday, tho!)
This morning at 7:30 I started cooking a brisket using the instructions from ATK. By 3PM I was slicing it up. It’s simple and nearly foolproof. Never cooked a whole brisket before today.
Thank you! I can’t claim credit for anything but being able to follow directions. The good folk at America’s Test Kitchen were willing to go through the better part of 1000 pounds of beef to get this dialed in which is one reason I love what they do.
It’s really exactly as simple as that. I don’t add any yeast (the rind must have it living on it. Wash the rind by the way) leave it for up to 3 days depending on your temperature. When there is white foam on the top it’s done and ready for straining and bottling to carbonate.i don’t use a hygrometer or anything. I believe, according to the recipes on the web, that it’s about 1% but as I haven’t bothered to weigh the sugar the last few times I’ve made it, who knows?
Here’s a recipe, they don’t carbonate it or serve with lime added but I really think it’s worth the extra step.
