The Ultimate Brussel Sprouts

How many people love brussels sprouts? Don't all raise your hands at once! From my experience you either love or hate brussels sprouts. I am 28 years old and didn't have my first brussels sprout until about a year ago. My mother didn't care for them, so I never saw them as a child. If she were to cook them for me I am sure I would have turned up my nose to them. Up until my 20's I didn't really eat many cooked vegetables other than corn and carrots. I started to try freshly cooked vegetables instead of canned, and I actually liked them.

So a year ago, one of my co-workers had steamer bag of them, I was intrigued and I really liked them! Then about a week later I say Guy Fieri visiting a diner on one of my favorite shows Diner's, Drive-In's and Dive's and this cook took brussels sprouts to a whole new level for me. Here is my take on the ultimate brussels sprout.

Brussels Sprouts come in a couple of different forms. You can get baby brussels sprouts or regular brussels sprouts. These two come in frozen or fresh form. Of course fresh is going to be your best bet, however frozen is a viable option as well. If you buy baby sprouts you'll just have to rinse them and take of any wilted outer leaves. Trim up anything on the sprout that doesn't look appealing. If they are baby you can cook them whole and you'll love them, or you can halve them. If you found large brussels sprouts I would highly recommend halving them. Toss them in you choice of steamer vessel. You'll be able to tell when they are ready to come out of the steamer, because they will turn really bright green.

While they are steaming get a sauté pan with some butter and crumbled bacon going. Melt the butter and add a little garlic and onion. Don't burn the Garlic! It will give you an awful taste. When your onions are good and sauteed add your sprouts to the pan. Fry them up just until the edges get a little brown and shake them up in the pan. When all the sprouts have a slight browning to them remove and plate.

If you don't want to lick the pan clean after eating these brussels sprouts, they aren't for. After all... what wouldn't taste better when you add bacon and butter ;)

THE PRIME RIB!!!!!!

I have been reminded that it has been a while since my last food blog! So here it is...

For Thanksgiving this year I was fortunate enough to spend it at work with a great group of guys, and my family as well. We had several different dishes and meats. We deep fried a turkey, which may very well been the most tender, moist, best tasting turkey I have ever had! Kudos to Aaron on great brine and perfect cooking time! We also had a ham and of course, some BEEF! I picked up a standing rib roast from R&B Meats in Continental, Ohio. I couldn't ask for a better cut, it was marbled very well, it was fresh, and the flavor was outstanding.

First off, lets talk about prime rib briefly. I am not an expert, but to my knowledge there are two different ways you can get prime rib, bone-in or no bone. I have cooked both and I will say that my favorite was the bone-in or standing rib roast. The roast with out any bones is referred to as a rolled rib roast. If you have read my blog before you know that I am not afraid of fat in my beef! Having said that, I like it to be marbled extremely well. It makes the meat more tender, and adds flavor throughout the entire cut of meat as it cooks. Prime rib is usually an excellent example of good marbling. Many people, will tell you if a prime rib is pink, it is over cooked! I prefer prime rib served medium.

Also, when getting the prime rib from your butcher, ask him to either tie it for you, or net it. This will keep the roast from falling apart while you are cooking.

Whenever I talk to someone about cooking a prime rib, they freak out because they think they will ruin an expensive and very good cut of meat. I think that prime rib is fairly simple IF you remember a few things while preparing and cooking it. So... your buying the roast, you'll need a half to full pound of meat for each person your feeding, depending on appetites. After you bought the prime, take it home and coat the roast in fresh cracked black pepper (coarsely) then cover the roast in kosher salt. I let mine sit in the fridge overnight and let the salt work in to the meat. It may seem like to much salt but it isn't at all, and there is a lot of meat there. The next day or at a minimum a few hours later, pull out the roast and let it warm up (room temp) before starting the cooking process. FYI, some recipes will tell you to cut in to the prime and insert garlic, or rosemary, or other aromatics. As long as you keep these things from burning you can add whatever you'd like for flavor purposes. Personally, I enjoy the simple seasoning of salt and pepper.

When you place the roast in your roasting pan ALWAYS place the roast fat side up! This allows the juices to flow through the prime and add flavor. If you place the fat side down, you'll lose all that flavor and if it burns on the bottom, it will just add more to the clean up.

The next step of putting the roast in the oven can vary based on what you want. You can cook the roast low and slow and the roast will remain more moist and tender, or you can crank you heat up to 500 degrees and sear the outside creating a crust on the outside, which will also help hold in the juices! You will lose some tenderness from searing it but it gives you a good crust on the outside which adds really good flavor. Cooking "low and slow" might be your choice if it is your first time cooking a prime rib. It is easier to control the end product and temperature of the meat, and it has the least amount of variables. "Cooks Illustrated will tell you to roast at 200 degrees F for 30 minutes per pound. So if you have a 5 pound roast you will roast for 2.5 hours. Now take what I just said as a rule of thumb and do the following in the last hour. Get a meat thermometer and check the internal temperature. You always want to cook it to about 5-10 degrees less than what you are actually shooting for. You are going to let the roast rest for a minimum of 10 minutes and it will continue to cook while it is resting. Letting the roast rest, allows all of the juices to remain in the roast and make it more tender and flavorful. So if you want a rare roast, cook to a final internal temperature 130-140 degrees, medium 145-155. So if you want a roast cooked to medium pull it out of the oven at 135 degrees and let it rest for 10-20 minutes and the end temperature will end up at about 145 degrees.

The other method is to preheat your oven to 500 degrees. Take the weight of the roast and multiply by 5 for your cooking time. So if you have a 6 pound roast cook it at 500 degrees for 30 minutes. After the 30 minutes shut the oven off and do not open the door! Let it stay in there for 2 hours. This method doesn't not allow you check the temp through the cooking process and makes me go crazy because I'm not in the loop as to what the internal temp is. If you have a wireless electronic meat thermometer, this would probably be my choice in cooking methods though!

So your roast is cooked! Now it is time for you to slice it and enjoy your product!

If your not in the mood for this cooking process, and you want the joy of an excellent prime rib dinner. I have to recommend J. Alexanders to you! I had dinner there a few weeks ago and I couldn't have asked for a better prime rib dinner. J. Alexanders can be a little pricey, however you get what you pay for there! You WILL NOT be disappointed!

The Dutch Oven

I was watching a cooking show a year ago and the chef was using a dutch oven. I had seen them in stores before this, and always wondered why someone would spend at a minimum of $60.00 for a pot! Some time back I was in TJ Maxx and I walked through the kitchen section. (If you are looking for a good deal on kitchen items TJ Maxx usually has a good find every now and then.) I ran across a Cuisinart Orange Dutch Oven for $40. I couldn't resist, I picked it up.

To this day I have used the dutch oven for everything from chili, to pot roast, roasted chicken, mac and cheese, even a breakfast casserole. You can use the dutch oven on the stove top to brown meat, and add the rest of your ingredients and throw it in the oven. Most dutch ovens are finished with a ceramic coating to resist food from sticking to it at high temperatures. It also makes clean up much easier, inside and out. The pot is designed to keep and hold heat in.

There is only two negative things about using a dutch oven. First it is heavy and cumbersome when you are cleaning it and storing it. But this weight comes in to play by holding in the heat when you need it. Secondly, the cost can get a little ridiculous when it comes time to purchase one. I would recommend shopping around online or stopping by a discount store like TJ Maxx or Marshall's.

Here a few things to try when using your dutch oven:

• Making a roast? Gently heat you dutch oven on the stove top with some canola/vegetable/olive oil. Don't heat it to fast or to high. When it is heated gently place the roast in the dutch oven and sear each side of the roast. When one side of the roast is seared it will release from the bottom of the dutch oven if it is sticking.
• Do you like garlic flavor? Warm your dutch oven with olive oil in the bottom and add some whole garlic cloves. Don't heat to high or you will burn the garlic and it will be bitter. After about 5-10 minutes you oil will be infused with garlic flavor.
• The dutch oven is my best friend in the winter months. One of my comfort foods is baked chicken. You can grab a whole chicken at the store pretty cheap. Take some garlic cloves and shove them between the chicken skin and meat. Place some quartered lemon slices inside the chicken with some rosemary or dill. Throw the chicken in the dutch oven and rub the chicken with olive oil and then salt and pepper. Toss it in the oven and forget it
• Here is tip that my mother taught me when I first started cooking with her years ago. As a child I was always impatient when waiting for something to boil or cook on the stove top. So I would turn up the heat to high. As soon as I would turn the dial up she would be right behind me to turn it down. She taught me to almost always gently heat whatever I was cooking. Gently heating whatever your cooking accomplishes several things. Most importantly it preserves the life of your pot or pan by not warping the vessel. It also will preserve the life of your non-stick surface as well. More often than not, whatever your cooking will cook better if the temperature is raised gently. There are exceptions though, your recipe will let you know when high heat is required.

Hope you can find one of these on sale and enjoy the benefits! Thanks for reading!

Beer Barrel Pizza

I checked out the Beer Barrel in Lima, Ohio last night, with a good friend of mine Ashley. My meal started off with Leinenkugel's Summer Shandy which I probably ordered for the last time this year (insert sad face). We ordered their whole wheat pretzel sticks as an appetizer, they came with cheese dipping sauce and buttery cream cheese dip. They pretzels weren't the best we had ever had, but they were still good.

We ordered two pizza's (don't judge) mainly because I wanted to try two different crusts. The first was their Original Crust with pineapple, ham, and bacon. This pizza was delicious and I would rank it in my Top 5 of all time. I am not normally a huge fan of anything other than thin crust but their original was very good! The bottom was crispy, and the dough was soft after you broke through the crisp exterior. I think it might have been a corn meal bottom. The sauce was very good with a good balance of sweetness and tomato flavor. I really think our choice of pineapple, ham and bacon was a great combination! Then again, bacon makes everything better!

We also ordered their Thin and Crispy Pepperoni Parmesano. It was a simple pizza with the perfect amount of parmesan cheese sprinkled on top. The crust was what I look for in a thin crust, however it was shadowed by the Original Crust in my opinion.

The wait staff was friendly and the atmosphere was nice for what you would expect! There was a small wait when we arrived but went rather quickly. I will definitely be looking this place back up on my next visit. I had a great time, Thank You to Ashley for introducing me to the Beer Barrel!

http://www.beerbarrelpizza.com/menu.html

The Other White Meat!

Some of my favorite things to eat come from pig! Anyone who doesn't like pork, stop reading now, or be prepared to have your mind changed! Everyone who isn't a fan of pork has probably been burnt out on the dry pork chops their mother made growing up, or the over cooked pork roast they had on New Year's Day.  I get that! Growing up, we had pork chops probably once a week, because they were inexpensive compared to beef, and it wasn't the same old chicken!

Some people think that pork is bad for you because of the fat. This isn't always true, most times if you get the right cut or buy from the right place you can get lean cuts of pork. I could go on forever about all the different forms of pork that I enjoy fixing and eating, like bacon, baby back ribs, and shoulders. However, this time I am going to talk to you about the tenderloin.

I bought my first pork tenderloin a few years ago, and I over cooked the hell out of it. It was pretty much one dried out tough piece of pork. Then I fixed it again and threw it in a crockpot all day and I had pulled pork that was very juicy and tender. Pork tenderloin is one of the easiest cuts of meat to fix, but it is also one of the easiest to screw up as well! Some things that will pay off in the end when cooking a tenderloin are, taking the time to marinate, meat thermometer, quality cooking surface, and patience.

I fixed the best pork tenderloin a week ago for my friends Kurt and Shannon for dinner. I actually impressed myself in the end, but I was skeptical the entire time until I saw how much they enjoyed, as did I. I started the pork off with a dry rub of Penzey's BBQ 3000, and sea salt. I put it in a zip-loc bag and set it in the fridge for about 4 hours. You could do this a day ahead of time or in the morning before work if you chose to.

I preheated the grill, the surface was probably about 400 F. I laid the tenderloin on the grill and seared a side of it. You can determine when it is seared when the pork is free from the grilling surface and no longer sticks. I rolled the tenderloin a quarter turn and seared another side, and repeated this until the tenderloin was fully seared. When I rolled the tenderloin on it's last side to sear, I turned down the grill heat to medium to medium low. I then started to baste with BBQ sauce as the last side finished searing. Careful, if the heat is to high, you'll only burn the BBQ sauce and get a bad flavor!

So I have seared the entire tenderloin, but the entire tenderloin is cooked through. I probably spent 4-5 minutes on each side depending on the heat of the grill. My goal at this point is to just get the internal temperature up to 145 degrees and pull it off the grill. Pork's minimum cooking temp has recently been lowered to 145 degrees with a three minute rest period by the USDA. This is the first time I followed it, and it turned out wonderful! Use your meat thermometer to make sure the temp is where you want it and pull it off the grill. After searing and while you are cooking the loin at a lower temp to raise the internal temp, feel free to add as much BBQ sauce as you want! When you let the loin rest feel free to cover with aluminum foil and a towel over that if you want the loin to stay warmer.

After the loin has rested, cut it on the bias. I explained this earlier in another blog, but I'll give the run down again. If the loin is laid on a cutting board in front of you and ensure the ends are at your left and right hand. Take your knife like you are going to cut the loin in half, but before you do that turn your knife so the point is at the 10 o'clock position (9 and 3 would be where your hands are), then also tilt the blade edge on the vertical axis. You are accomplishing two things by doing this. You are making the slices of tenderloin bigger and more aesthetically pleasing, and you are also make the slices more tender! Before you make the first slice, move the knife to the end of the tenderloin you are comfortable starting with, start slicing! If you would like, drizzle a little BBQ sauce over the slices on your plate! Now, enjoy the other white meat! I hope you have changed your mind about pork if you were not a fan, if you were already, I hope this made you hungry!

Schlafly! The beer and the food!

I felt compelled to blog about Schlafly for several reasons. First off because I think they might very well have the best beer in this country! Bold Statement, I know. However, I was first introduced to Schlafly beer when my brother moved to Saint Louis about ten years ago. If there were no other reason for me to love my brother, I would love him for the mere fact that he brought Schlafly Beer and their Bottleworks Restaurant in to my life! (Side-note: There are many reasons for which I love my brother!)

Schlafly's Backround- They started a microbrewery in Saint Louis 20 years ago. You read that correctly, in the heart of the beer capital of this country, they started a microbrewery! The best part is, they were successful! Their beer is served in almost every bar and restaurant in Saint Louis. It is on tap at Busch Stadium, and locals even drink it over the big name beer! I'm not going to to try and knock the "other" brewery in town, but they aren't american anymore, some european company owns them now. They are about as american as Heineken!

Schlafly's signature beer is their Pale Ale. It is hands down my favorite beer! I usually have dilemma when I go to Schlafly's Bottleworks for dinner. They always have a bunch of different beers on tap, and I always want to try them! Some of my other favorites include, Kolsch, Summer Lager, Dry Hopped APA, and Hefeweizen just to name a few! They also have a lot of seasonal on tap as well.

The next best thing to the beer, is the food! I have never had a bad meal there and have eaten there at least a dozen times. If not all of their food is organic I would say a majority of it is! They grow some of their own vegetables and get all of their foods from local farms. There are things to compliment your meal that are local favorites like Billy Goat Chips and Companion Pretzels. The pulled pork sandwich is great, as well as the Buffalo Burger! My brothers favorite is a special they have in the winter, Shepherds Pie!

If you find yourself in Saint Louis, I would make the trip to Schlafly's Bottleworks! Grab a growler on your way out!

What I know about meat!

If you have read any of my previous blogs, you know that I am a huge carnivore and I appreciate a good cut of meat on my plate for dinner. There is something more important than choosing that cut of meat out of the butcher's case, and that's how you cook it!

I grew up eating all of my red meat well done, and hated to see any pink, let alone red in my steak or hamburger. My how times have changed! Now if I cook a steak or burger to well done for myself, I actually get upset with myself!

When I started buying steaks in my early twenties, I always bought New York Strips because of how lean they were. I still enjoy a strip every now and then, however if I have my choice, I will pick a rib eye over a strip or filet mignon! Why you ask? Simply because in my opinion, rib eyes are easier to cook, and their flavor is much better due to the fat marbling. Filet Mignon is really good, and I will never be able to take that away from them, BUT they are extremely expensive. Porterhouses are really good as well but I don't ever need that much steak! Don't get me wrong, I would eat it, I just don't want to feel that guilty. Porterhouses are good because they are marbled as well, and the bone also adds flavor to the meat too. At the end of the day, I am going to go for the ribeye!

This blog could get really long if I go in to a lot of detail about different cuts so I will try and keep it simple and short. There are different characteristics with every different cut of meat. For instance, a rib eye could be cooked to well done, but if it is seared well at the beginning of cooking it will probably remain fairly tender.

So here are some ground rules for a great simple grilled steak! Let the meat come to just below room temperature before cooking. I also usually season my steak at this point with whatever you choose. I sear my steaks on each side, this keeps in those delicious juices that keep the cut tender. I sear one side, flip and sear the other side, about that time I turn the heat down on the grill. About the time the steak is ready to flip back over to the original side, the grill has cooled a little and turn the steak 90 degrees to make those sear marks attractive, then I flip one more time to get the same appearance on the other side.

How do you know when the steak is done? Over time you will know by feeling the tenderness of the meat with your tongs. The more tender, the more rare. This method would apply for filet, strips, rib eyes, porterhouses.

One of my favorite meals to make is beef fajitas. I can't stand that pre-made/pre-mixed crap in the freezer section or the meat case. So here is a better alternative! Grab a skirt steak from your butcher 1.5 -2 lbs. will be enough for four people. I season my skirt steak with 2 tbsp Penzey's Salsa Seasoning, 2 tbsp sea salt, 2 tbsp EVOO and the juice from one lime. Season the steak with salt and the seasoning toss it in a zip-loc bag, add the EVOO and the lime juice and let it marinate for at least a couple of hours, the longer the better! The more the lime juice and salt sit on the beef it will help break it down and make it more tender. Again searing the juices in the steak are important when you toss this baby on the grill! Sear one side after it has released from the grilling surface flip it over and do that side. Depending on your desired doneness, pull it off the grill, if you want it more well done flip two more times. Now here comes the most important piece of advice I can give you about a skirt steak or any cut of meat for that matter! Let it rest! I am serious, everyone wants to cut in to the steak and see there finished product, that is the worst thing you can do! All the juices leave the meat and you lose flavor and tenderness! 5-10 minutes will be sufficient, the bigger the cut of meat the longer you should wait.

Cutting a skirt steak is important also! ALWAYS cut the meat on the bias! If you aren't sure what this means, find the grain and cut against the grain. You may not be able to manage a full 90 degree difference that is okay, also I tilt my knife edge as well so I am also cutting at an angle from the vertical orientation as well. This same technique can be applied for a flank steak as well!

I really want to touch on pork at this moment, but this is getting really long and I will address that in a separate blog devoted to pork, I have to give it the respect it deserves!