A few weeks ago we did a post about people eating cat ,which by the way, was a true story. Today I got this link talking about why people should eat horses. Now I know, first cats, now horses, what is going on in Dan’s little pea brain? I have to say, the person that wrote this REALLY hates horses. Kind of how I feel about cats. I know it is not all about food but it is pretty damn funny. Thanks Martin for the link and thanks to my cousin Shannon for a picture of her horse, who ironically, is named Dan.
It has not stopped snowing here in Durango since the beginning of December and we have above average snowfall in the San Juans. What does this all mean? We have got one awesome rafting trip ahead of us May 22nd to 24th with Mountain Waters Rafting. We did this trip last year and did one of our first outdoor cooking shows and we are doing it again and this time we are making it a three day trip. We had twenty seats available for this weekend and we are down to five left. If you are interested email postmaster@cookmanfood.com. This rafting trip is not for beginners, Class IV and V rapids line the upper Animas and it is non stop. As always, we will have outstanding food on hand and some great companies sponsoring the trip. For more check out http://www.cookmanfood.com/rafting
It has been a while since I have talked about tequila in one of our blog posts. While I should be writing part 2 – 4 of the sausage making, I still have not recovered from the weekend in Laughlin, NV. Had to make a quick trip over there and did 15 hours or driving in 2 days. While we were there, we made it a point to polish off a bottle of fine tequila. I am pretty easy, make it 100% agave, reposado or anejo, and I will drink it straight all night long. I have had over fifty brands of tequila in the last few years but I can’t really put my finger on my favorite. This is a common theme with me for just about anything. I have many favorites with desserts, breakfasts, game I like to hunt, just about everything. I tend not to remember every tequila that I have tried to a level where I have a clear cut winner but rather tie them to experiences. I find this holds true with many products. For the sake of tequila, Corazon, Patron, and Milagro probably hold my more memorable moments which could mean that I didn’t drink enough since I remember something. Hmmmm. What is your favorite?
This is the first of four posts on sausage making that stem from last weekend. Sausage is a bit intimidating at first, you see it all the time in grocery stores, you eat a ton of it, but you really don’t know all that goes into it. We took a lot out of this past weekend and step one that we could have done better was prep.
Prepping on our part did start on Friday night with the purchasing of outstanding pork fat and casing from Sunnyside Market in Durango. You don’t necessarily need good pork fat as any pork fat will do just fine but, you want the higher quality sausage, you have to use the higher quality ingredients. On Saturday I wanted to get up and just start chopping and grinding meat and pork fat but as luck would have it, it dumped snow all night and my wife, refuses to drive in it so, rather than teach my little girl about the art of pork fat, I ended up taking my son to his ski lessons. All good, just didn’t get started on sausage til the afternoon.
Todd and Chris were here shortly after I got home and we got our game plan together. We decided to just dive into a recipe which turned out awsome but would have been much easier with some prep. So, Lessons learned:
1. Grind up fat and meat and keep in fridge early in the day or the night before. Also, cut up the meat into thick strips (See above) and freeze for about an hour. Slightly frozen is much better for grinding.
2. Soak your casing in water with a 1/4 cup of baking soda in it a few hours before stuffing, it helps make them stronger
3. Make sure you have all of your spices you need. Nothing is worse than having to go to the store to pick up spices when you are wanting to be cooking
4. Anticipate that it will take an hour or so per recipe. We were hoping to make 6 or 7 different kinds and ended up with 5. Some better prep would have made us more successful
That is about it for prep. The grinding and chopping was a huge job on its own and mixed with the actually making of the sausage makes for a long day. Next post will be about the sausage making itself followed by a few recipes.
This was a weekend devoted to sausage!!!! Started Friday night prepping, spent all day Saturday making various recipes, and Sunday staging different recipes so they can be made quickly for the next few months. This weekend would not have been possible with out what I like to call “The Sausage Bible“. Great Sausage Recipes and Meat Curing by Rytek Kutas is very educational and extremely easy to follow. We started out with a simple breakfast sausage recipe and moved on to Bratwurst, Chorizo, and lamb, rosemary, and Romano cheese sausage.
This book goes so deep that with one weekend of experience, we are only scratching the surface of what we can do. This book has recipes for every sausage I have heard of and more, it goes deep into meat curing with the making of hams, and also goes off topic and talks about how to properly smoke turkeys and ribs. There are chapters devoted to setting up your own sausage kitchen as well as the history of sausage.
This book is a must have for anyone with a smoker or loves sausage which I think covers just about all of our readers. You can pick up a copy here. There will be much more to come from this weekend this week.
Got the call this morning from my friend Chris about an article on Fox News about an Italian chef that has been banned from TV for telling viewers to eat cats. You hear the jokes and rumors about cats but can this really be true? Here is what the chef says:
“I’ve eaten it myself and it’s a lot better than many other animals,” he told viewers. “Better than chicken, rabbit or pigeon.” He said that for optimum flavour the meat should be “soaked in spring water for three days” before being stewed.
WOW!!!!! Apparently this is a famous dish from the Tuscany region of Italy. Now…one has to wonder how true this is. It has got my wheels spinning about trying the dish. Anyhow have a cat they want to spare and donate to the cause? Bacon wrapped kitten?
Todd recently got together with Josh from Silverton Chocolates to create the perfect dessert for men; Bacon Chocolate. Using some of the delicious bacon from Sunnyside Market and dark chocolate, they create a unique dessert.
Not to often I get a turn around like this from the time a meal enters my mouth to the time it hits the site. My son got really ill this weekend so no super bowl parties this year. We did however take it easy today, are watching the game now, and did a bunch of cooking today. Started the morning off with some biscuits and gravy, lunch was sandwiches, and dinner was grilled lamb chops. For those who do not know, I got a lamb this year by trading some of my elk meat. I have been looking forward to perfecting lamb chops for a while now and think I got it nailed down now.
Here is what I used:
1 lb of lamb chops
3 Tbsp. minced garlic
1/4 cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1 tsp. Italian Seasoning
1/2 tsp. Cayenne Pepper
I defrosted the chops this morning after reading the cookbook yesterday and getting some inspiration. Once defrosted, I put the chops in a one quart freezer bag with about a 1/4 cup of the olive oil, three tablespoons of garlic, and one teaspoon of Italian seasoning. I let the chops sit in that bag for about two hours.
Right before cooking I gave a good sprinkle of the red cayenne pepper to give the chops a bit of a kick. I got the grill good and hot and put the chops on there and gave them a quick sear. I turned the heat down to low and cooked for about 12 minutes until the center was 125 or medium rare.
After pulling them from the grill I served them up with some pasta and some of the marinara sauce my wife made earlier today.
Total prep time: 15 minutes.
Cook time: 12 minutes
Overall, these chops just melted in my mouth. They were extremely tender and had amazing flavor. Served up with the pasta made for an excellent meal. I plan on making these for a few of my friends real soon who were unsure about lamb. This is absolutely one way to convince them that this meat is worth having in your freezer year round. Enjoy
I have had this book for quite some time now and it has just sat on my shelf. Like many cooks, I hate to use a recipe and use cooking as an outlet to be creative. I am not sure what exactly made me pick it up today but I did. It could be that again, it is snowing and I was looking for something to read, and again, I miss my life living in Hawaii but that is besides the point. I have been watching a lot of BBQ TV and doing even more planning for our BBQ event this summer. I spent about two hours going through this book and I was happy to see that this cookbook is unlike others that I have picked up in the past. The recipes in this book were very unique and it really got the creative juices flowing. It covers all meat that you can find at your local butcher shop and even goes into some more less common. It has a great section on grilling pizza and although I did not look into it too much, a section of vegetables. I am going to use the habanero peach chutney recipe the next time I grill a duck breat for sure. If you are looking to take your grilling to another level you should absolutely pick up a copy of this book.
The first time I heard that Peach Street was making a grappa I was a little nervous but also intrigued. I always liked the idea of grappa. Instead of taking the finished product of wine and distilling it such as brandy or cognac, you take the seeds, stems, and skin that come from making the wine and you distill that. The end result, grappa. The thing that annoys me with grappa is how is was a fad in the late 90’s and most of the grappa around that time tasted like lighter fluid. Not that drinking things that taste like lighter fluid was bad but it was all of the yuppies that were drinking it talking about it like they knew anything about great spirits. Now that you know my pet peeve, here is the review.
Located in Palisade, CO, Peach Street Distillery is young compared to some of the more popular well known distilleries in this country. Although they are young, they believe in doing things the right way, the first time. Every product that comes out of their doors is top notch the first time. They make brandy, gin, vodka, bourbon, and other great products, such as grappa.
One thing I love about this grappa is its scent. Unlike the scent of lighter fluid that other grappas can have, the one from peach street has a strong scent of grapes and wine, the way it should be. They get their grapes from Garfield Estates Winery which, is making me want to try their wine. Having had Muscat wine in the past and knowing that it is a very sweet grape, it could pick it out when having my nose above the glass.
The color is extremely clear and the taste is extremely smooth. You can definitely pick up the muscat grape in the taste is this grappa is sweeter than others I have had in the past. At 40% alcohol by volume (80 Proof) it is not any weaker or stronger than most items in my liquor cabinet. However, this is not something you are just going to drink to get trashed. I can go through a bottle of tequila in a night but grappa is in the same category as cognac or brandy in that it is considered a “digestivo” or an after dinner drink.
I love what this distillery is doing and I love that it is in Colorado. The people that are involved are passionate about their products and are going to continue to grow and release new products. If you haven’t figured it out yet, go get yourself a bottle if you can and enjoy it.
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