Sunday, February 27, 2011

Smoking a Rainbow


I probably have fish at least once a week. Typically pan fried, sometimes with a dusting of flour and sometimes with out. It is an easy and fast week day meal. Grilling fish can sometimes be a bit of a pain depending on the type, particularly with it falling apart when it is flipped. That is okay as long as you are having fish tacos or you don't care about the presentation. You can't beat planked salmon when it comes to grilling fish. It doesn't have to be flipped, generally fast and easy with little need to tend to it while it cooks. But I have been buying Rainbow Trout a lot more and I don't want to pay 3 bucks for a cedar plank every time I want a good piece of grilled and smoked flavored fish. So I think I'll start experimenting. The other night I put together a glaze containing honey, lemon juice, Dill, EVOO, shallot, garlic and a BBQ rub and rubed it on a piece of trout. I then set up the performer for indirect cooking at 250 with some apple wood chips and smoked the trout for 40 minutes or so. It tasted great, I didn't have to baby sit the bbq while it was smoking so I could do other things while waiting for dinner like tiring out my hyper dog. I think I have to be careful with a delicate meat such as fish with the smoke concentration for future smoking because I am sure it could get overwhelmed with smoke if you aren't careful. Apple wood works good and the fish turned out great but I think I will get my hands on some Alder chips for next time and give that a go, as it provides a lighter smoke flavour.

Saturday, February 26, 2011

Eat Me....I am a Perogie!

Probably my one of my favourite things to eat are perogies. I have it occasionally as a meal in it self with fried onions, bacon, green onion, sour cream and cheddar cheese on top. It is also my go to meal to bring to festivus with the boys. However I always buy them and have never made them. Jenn found a perogie recipe in Canadian living so we decided to make them while she was visiting me in scenic Windsor Ontario. We made two fillings, a sweet potato and a cheddar potato. The dough was just basically flour, oil, salt and egg, pretty simple and turned out great.
A standard pint water glass makes the perfect sized circle for perogies.

Lady fingers fold better perogies than stumpy man fingers, I had the dough all over the outside when trying to roll them up. PS gotta love living in a student apartment with lots of counter space.

They turned out great, the cheddar potato were probably the favourite.  The dough recipe was
  • 3 cups all purpose flour
  • 3/4 cup water
  • 1 egg
  • 2 tsp salt
  • 2 tbs canola oil

Tuesday, February 8, 2011

Super Sunday

The great thing about football is it gives you an excuse to drink on sundays.......especially if it is Super Sunday. I spent this Super Sunday watching the game by myself(isn't that sad), working till 2:30 then running home to get some ribs on the grill so they would be ready for kickoff. I followed an APL(Adam Perry Lang) recipe and put a little cinnamon in the rub. I don't know if I noticed the cinnamon but the ribs were dynamite. I wrapped the ribs after they smoked for 2 hours. This is something I don't typically do but I think I might have to start because they turned out tender and moist. I had some coleslaw and baked beans with them as well. Beans were an APL recipe as well. They were delish but I think I might have to watch the sugar ingredients for next time because sometimes I find his recipes a little sweet for my taste buds.