The TGA Recipe Book (or something like it)

[Elovia 645]

This thread is dedicated to post your favorite recipes in order to share with others on the forum.  We have a lot of folks who like to eat (girth size somewhat telling), and others who like to cook (possibly in the same group as the last).  Now here is your opportunity to share how you made that one thing everyone raved about at dinner the other night ... or breakfast ... or lunch ... or midnight cocktail (gigidy).

 

[Elovia 645]

In another thread, @Pasanda asked for my BBQ sauce recipe.  I've posted this here before, but it probably got lost to one of many forum resets.  So here it is again ... the latest and greatest version.

---------------

Elovia's Triple-S Barbecue Sauce*

(Sweet, Smokey & Spicy)

 *not the commercial sauce of the same name; this one has a different set of "S" qualities

Yield:  about 1-1/2 quarts

Ingredients:

2 Tbsp unsalted butter

1 medium yellow onion (sweet and tearless varieties work well, too)

4-6 cloves fresh garlic  (or about 1 Tbsp minced garlic)

1/4 cup water

3/4 cup Jack Daniel’s Whiskey

1 bottle Ketchup, 24oz

1 small can tomato paste, 6oz

1/3 cup red wine vinegar

1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce

1/2 cup brown sugar, packed

1/2 cup molasses

3/4 cup honey

1/2 tsp ground black pepper

1 tsp alder wood smoked salt

1 Tbsp dry yellow mustard

1/2 tsp dried red pepper (or preferably, dried chipotle) flakes

1/2 tsp ground cumin

1/2 tsp smoked Spanish paprika

1/4 tsp ground chipotle powder

2 Tbsp liquid hickory smoke

Directions:

1.     Peel and coarsely chop the onion and garlic.  Place the onion, garlic, and water in a blender and puree to smooth consistency. 

2.     Melt butter over med-low heat in a 4-6 qt pot (with lid).  Add onion-garlic puree to melted butter and cook until somewhat translucent. Ventilate the stove area well when cooking the onion-garlic puree; the fumes may be powerful.  Using a tearless variety of onion may help.

3.     Add the Jack Daniel’s Whiskey and bring to light boil.  Remove the pan from heat and, using a long-nosed lighter, flame off the mixture.  Flame for 20 seconds.  Slowly slosh the mixture around in the pan to keep it flamed for the whole time.  Double the flame time if you make a double batch (I seem to make double batches more often these days so I can have extra to share - this sauce is requested often by family, friends and co-workers).  Blow out the flame or cover with a lid to smother it before returning the mixture to heat.

4.     Whisk in all remaining ingredients and stir until smooth.

5.     Bring the sauce to a light boil over medium heat while stirring.  Turn heat down to low; cover and simmer for 30-45 minutes.  Stir often.

6.     Remove from heat and refrigerate in sealed bottles or jars with lids.

Notes:

This sauce is great made fresh, and it gets better with age.  Keep it in the refrigerator a day or so to develop a deeper, richer taste.  Don’t keep it around for too long because it has no preservatives.  We usually eat a single batch within a couple weeks, and we find reasons to use it so we haven’t had any around long enough to spoil yet.

 

 

Edited May 20, 2018 by Elovia

[Pasanda 633]

Thanks. I love it more, because it's so fucking complicated. I'm going to go for it, and have already ordered the salt. I'm going to have to cut corners, based on product availability, i'm going to need to cut some corners. First corner being Hickory smoked salt, rather than the Alder. Is that OK?

Is southern comfort, or any bourbon OK, instead of Jack.   Found a decent price for JAck, so no worries.

Can i get the chipotle flakes and grind them into the chipotle powder, which is also required? Powder is available, but expensive.

When the sugar says packed, what does that mean? Stating the obvious, does it mean pushed down for a full cup?

Edited May 21, 2018 by Pasanda

[Elovia 645]

1 hour ago, Pasanda said:

Thanks. I love it more, because it's so fucking complicated. I'm going to go for it, and have already ordered the salt. I'm going to have to cut corners, based on product availability, i'm going to need to cut some corners. First corner being Hickory smoked salt, rather than the Alder. Is that OK?

Is southern comfort, or any bourbon OK, instead of Jack.   Found a decent price for JAck, so no worries.

Can i get the chipotle flakes and grind them into the chipotle powder, which is also required? Powder is available, but expensive.

When the sugar says packed, what does that mean? Stating the obvious, does it mean pushed down for a full cup?

This recipe is actually not that complicated past the initial steps.  It is very flexible in the ingredients used. For example, you can use regular salt instead of smoked, or regular chili powder and/or cayenne for the ground chipotle powder. Each substitution will slightly shift the weight of the three "S" qualities. Cayenne will make it spicier, whereas chili powder will make it less so, and either will reduce the smokey-ness. Chipotle flakes and powder enhance the spicy and smokey flavors. They, along with the alder-smoked salt were more recent refinements to the recipe.

As for substituting something else for Jack, I haven't tried. Theorycrafting ... a decent mid-range tequila might lend a peppery flavor, which is something that is on my test kitchen radar.

And yes, squish the air out of the brown sugar to get a full measurement. To be honest, I sometimes don't even measure it and add just what I suspect the measurement to be based on past experience. As with all the rest, add more or less to enhance the balance of "S" qualities.

Good luck and I'll be interested in your thoughts on the recipe since I suspect we have different tastes (from different cultural backgrounds).

[Pasanda 633]

I have the smoked salt, chipotle flakes and powder, molasses, bourbon and the liquid smoke on order. I have the rest at home. I'm going to try a small test batch first.  The rest of my family can't take chili heat, so i'm going to have to be wary at first. Heat levels tends to be subjective.

I had two bourbons at home already; a Southern Comfort Honey and a Jim Beam Apple. I thought both might be risky. Plus one can never have too much bourbon at home.

Will let ya know. 

Here's what i have so far. Yup, nearly 2.5kg of molasses. Pricing error i think. It was cheaper to buy that much on amazon than to walk to the supermarket a buy one jar half the size off the shelf.

 

Edited May 22, 2018 by Pasanda

[Elovia 645]

I see lots of molasses cookies in your future. 

I understand about chili-heat levels. I don't think the sauce is very spicy, even though that word is in the title ... and as you say, spicy is subjective. I think there is enough to notice but it is definitely not so much as to be painful in any way. It does not leave a burning sensation in the mouth. On my subjective scale from zero (this has spice?) to ten (OMG MY EYEBALLS ARE BLEEDING ... DEAR GOD PLEASE MAKE IT STOP), I'd say this sauce is a two - so very mild.

You could also halve the spicy ingredient quantities. I've made this recipe with anywhere between 1/4 tsp to 1 tsp of the flakes and powder. The chipotles really tend to tone down the heat in favor of a smokey flavor. If you used red pepper flakes or ground cayenne powder, the bite would be far more noticeable.

 

Edited May 22, 2018 by Elovia

[Pasanda 633]

True story... When i was 24 (so a long-ass time ago), I was crowned the Curry-King of Edgeware, in an annual competition to eat the hottest known Indian in the UK, called a Bangalore Phal. The winner was judged, not by who finished it (Although many dropped out, there was usually more than one who finished), nor how quickly it was eaten, as eating quickly sometimes gives an edge. The winner was judged by he whose lips were least blue. Not something i should be proud of, yet am 

It also means i don't really consider myself a good judge of spice heat. But i am a good judge of quality anal balm.

[Elovia 645]

"Good judgement comes friom experience.  Experience comes from bad judgement." - Walter Wriston (1919-2005), former chairman and CEO of Citicorp

Edited May 22, 2018 by Elovia

[Pasanda 633]

So. Made a tiny batch tonight. Probably the smallest amount you could make, with a reasonable chance of measuring out roughly the right ingredients. Using a pinch each of the chipotle flakes and powder. 

I have to say, even before fully cooking it, it's just so moreish. I swear there was only 2/3 the batch by the time it made the fridge - i was sucking the spoon dry and it's not even made it to a marinade yet. Very very nice. I'm probably going to stick it on a piece of grilled chicken to test. But not tonight,; it's late.

Also, i neglected to whizz up the garlic and onion (which was a shallot in my case), and I couldn't find the mustard powder, so i give it a splash of american.

But, bottom line, that's a fucking complicated recipe for what is basically a meat sauce.

 

[Elovia 645]

7 hours ago, Pasanda said:

So. Made a tiny batch tonight. Probably the smallest amount you could make, with a reasonable chance of measuring out roughly the right ingredients. Using a pinch each of the chipotle flakes and powder. 

I have to say, even before fully cooking it, it's just so moreish. I swear there was only 2/3 the batch by the time it made the fridge - i was sucking the spoon dry and it's not even made it to a marinade yet. Very very nice. I'm probably going to stick it on a piece of grilled chicken to test. But not tonight,; it's late.

Also, i neglected to whizz up the garlic and onion (which was a shallot in my case), and I couldn't find the mustard powder, so i give it a splash of american.

But, bottom line, that's a fucking complicated recipe for what is basically a meat sauce.

Glad to hear that you like it.  If you make a full batch as given on the recipe, even more will make it to the fridge.   Did the missus and young'un get a taste, too?  It isn't too spicy, is it?

It's great on oven-roasted or grilled chicken (added as a finish coat - cook it on the meat for the last few minutes and it gets good and sticky).  I've also used it as an ingredient in meat loaf and served it with meatballs on a hoagie roll (my meatball recipe is exactly the same as my meat loaf recipe, except the shape is different).  Oh, and of course this sauce goes great on bbq pork ribs which is where it had its start.  In the winter when it's too cold to grill outside, I add it to a shredded pork loin (cooked all day in a crock pot so it is tender and shreds easily) for bbq pork and serve it either on a bed of white rice or on a bun.

As mentioned in the recipe notes, a full batch rarely stays around very long at our house, and we go out of our way to find things on which to use it while we have it. 

I've shared the recipe with a colleague who also mentioned he doesn't puree the onion and garlic in a blender; he admits though that the sauce I make (where I do) has better flavor.  The reason I do that particular step is to make the sauce less chunky and to make its texture more like store-bought.  I haven't used prepared mustard before, but that is good thinkin' on your part.  I find it interesting that you couldn't find the mustard powder.  I often use Coleman's dry mustard which I purchase from the British import section of our market.

 

Edited May 30, 2018 by Elovia

[Pasanda 633]

15 hours ago, Elovia said:

Glad to hear that you like it.  If you make a full batch as given on the recipe, even more will make it to the fridge.   Did the missus and young'un get a taste, too?  It isn't too spicy, is it?

It's great on oven-roasted or grilled chicken (added as a finish coat - cook it on the meat for the last few minutes and it gets good and sticky).  I've also used it as an ingredient in meat loaf and served it with meatballs on a hoagie roll (my meatball recipe is exactly the same as my meat loaf recipe, except the shape is different).  Oh, and of course this sauce goes great on bbq pork ribs which is where it had its start.  In the winter when it's too cold to grill outside, I add it to a shredded pork loin (cooked all day in a crock pot so it is tender and shreds easily) for bbq pork and serve it either on a bed of white rice or on a bun.

As mentioned in the recipe notes, a full batch rarely stays around very long at our house, and we go out of our way to find things on which to use it while we have it. 

I've shared the recipe with a colleague who also mentioned he doesn't puree the onion and garlic in a blender; he admits though that the sauce I make (where I do) has better flavor.  The reason I do that particular step is to make the sauce less chunky and to make its texture more like store-bought.  I haven't used prepared mustard before, but that is good thinkin' on your part.  I find it interesting that you couldn't find the mustard powder.  I often use Coleman's dry mustard which I purchase from the British import section of our market.

 

Colemans is what we have (or should have). Cupboards are full and I just could put my hands on it.

Do you know how long it will keep for, and whether it will freeze? I just want to know when i need to make it up, for my BBQ on the 9th. Trying to make as much ahead of time as possible.

I didn't finish it until nearly 10pm and they both gone off to stay with Granny for 5 nights (woo hoo). So i defrosted a chicken breast last night, expecting to put it in to marinade tonight and eat tomorrow. That'll be the first real test.

 

Did i say... Thanks for sharing. It's now an internationally enjoyed recipe. I also tweeted it last night, giving you credit of course.

[Elovia 645]

We've never had it go bad, and we've kept it in the refrigerator up to a month, but not much more than that because we like it so much that we actively try to use it up whenever I make some.  I include the disclaimer out of caution.  I've never tried to preserve it by freezing, and don't see why it couldn't.

If you make a batch this weekend and let it sit in the fridge, the flavors will improve by the following weekend for your bbq.

[Pasanda 633]

Cheers. 

Applied liberally to some chicken thighs last night. Will be grilling them tonight, for a wrap with some salad. not sure about mayo...?

 

[Guest]

Always use mayo.

[Pasanda 633]

Especially on Dutch fries 

[Guest]

Indeed! And on a "broodje bal", or an eierbal.

[Pasanda 633]

27 minutes ago, Wolphard said:

Indeed! And on a "broodje bal", or an eierbal.

Now you're just being rude!

[Guest]

Fine cuisine, nothing less.

[Pasanda 633]

I know. Just messing wid ya.

[Elovia 645]

12 hours ago, Pasanda said:

Cheers. 

Applied liberally to some chicken thighs last night. Will be grilling them tonight, for a wrap with some salad. not sure about mayo...?

 

Cook them low and slow so you don't burn the sauce.  Slather a bit of new sauce on as they're finishing to get them good and sticky.  Enjoy.

[Pasanda 633]

Didn't eat em last night, as i had a fresh pie delivered. It's on for tonight. cheers for the cooking tips.

[Dunnar 660]

And please don't put mayo on BBQ chicken.

[Pasanda 633]

Pasanda's Leek and potato soup with oven roasted garlic. I've been collecting some recipes over the years, and have a personal book of 79, with a theme of simplicity and taste.

"***Now includes UPGRADE POWER***"

 

Leek and Potato Soup with Oven-Roasted Garlic.

Just a beautiful soup, and a great way to get stacks of veggies into your kids and, although there seems to be a lot of garlic in the recipe, roasting it seems to diminish the overpowered/death-breath abilities of garlic, and believe me, it is the roasted garlic that does most of the work in this dish.

The initial soup is sufficient to deliver around 8 good sized bowls from one pan, but my tip on keeping back 3-4 bowls and going for the upgrade will deliver an additional 4-6 bowls later.

 

Ingredients - serves 8 (or 4 plus an additional 6 when going for the upgrade):

4 medium leeks

4 medium jacket potatoes (either the waxy type of floury. I like Marfona or Elfe for this)

1 whole medium-large size bulb of garlic

Olive oil to fry and roast

1 good size carrot

1 stick celery

1-5 litre of veg or chicken stock

Salt and pepper to taste

Good knob of butter

Either 50ml of cream (single or double), or a good dollop of cream cheese, or mascarpone.

2 teaspoons of mixed herbs

 

…to go full upgrade…

Half a roast chicken.

¼ - ½  cup of barley, depending on how much you like barley.

  

Method:

Cut the very top off the bulb, so you can just see the top of the garlic in each clove (you might need some scissors to cut the central stalk, which can be very woody).

Place the bulb of garlic into a ramekin with the visible cloves pointing up. If you don’t have a ramekin, make a bowl to loosely fit the bulb out of foil and put it on a small dish. Pour around 30ml (a metric glug!) of olive oil over the garlic and seal it in, not too tightly, with some foil.

Put the garlic in a pre-heated oven at 180 degrees for 30 minutes. Once done, leave it out on the side with the foil open until cool enough to handle.

While the garlic is in the oven, pour 3-4 glugs of olive oil into a large saucepan, or stock pot, a minimum of around 6 litre should do.

Peel and roughly chop the carrot, the celery stalk and the leeks, and peel and rough dice the potatoes. Sauté the vegetable on a high heat for 10 mins.

While the vegetable are sautéing, make up 1.5 litres stock using cubes, pre-made or stock bought. If using pre-made stock, ensure it is well seasoned. The seasoning in the stock will be the main seasoning for the whole dish.

Add the stock to the pan with the herbs. Stir and cook for an additional 20 mins, or until the vegetables are soft and well cooked.

Once the garlic has cooled down, you need to extract the roast garlic puree from each clove. I’ve found the easiest way to do this is to squeeze each clove at the base still attached to the bulb, this should force the now-oozy centre out. Be warned, roasted garlic is very sticky, and will fill the room with the most amazing scent. Put all the roasted garlic puree into the pot and cook for a few more minutes.

You can add the cream/mascarpone/cream cheese now, if you are comfortable with how much you will be using. But it may be better to wait until after you have whizzed it all together, and then add it is to taste.

For the next step, the easiest gadget by far is a hand-blender. You need to ensure you have plenty of room in the pan to avoid hot soup splashing out.

Blend the soup until creamy and smooth. This typically takes around 2 minutes, but will depend on the speed and power of the blender, and the size of vegetable chunks.

Because so much of this recipe is variable and seasonal, you will to test and taste for seasoning. Sometimes I may have to add a grind or two of salt. Each time you add salt, cook the soup while mixing for up to 60 seconds before re-tasting, to allow the salt crystals to fully melt.

If you hadn’t already, now add the creaming ingredient of your choice. Also add the large knob of butter. Done.

 

*** Upgrade Version ***

This turns a beautiful soup into hearty meal, of almost stew-like proportions.

I try to make soup a few days before I am due to roast a chicken. We all have a soup meal from the basic recipe above, and I keep the leftover soup (which would be around 2-3 servings) to upgrade it.

Although turkey, bacon and even pork would do, my personal favourite is roast chicken. Basically, strip the remaining chicken from the carcass and break into inch or 2 inch long shreds. Approximately 1/3 to ½ carcass would be plenty to feed 4.

Pour the barley into a pan with a cup of water, bring to the boil and cover to simmer on low for around 20 mins. If the pan boils dry, add some water. While waiting for the barley, bring the soup up to simmer.

Once the barley has cooked, empty all of it, which will have quadrupled in size by now, into the soup. There may be water left over from the barley. In my experience, the soup is usually very thick and you can use the barley water, or just water from the tap to thin the soup to your taste (but bear in mind that the soup will naturally thin out when re-heated.

Add the chicken, and give it a few minutes, while re-heating, for the flavours to mingle. It’s ready to serve.

In both versions of this soup, get the crustiest, most rustic bread your taste buds can handle. A cracking crusty sourdough would do wonders.

 

[Elovia 645]

Quote

Put the garlic in a pre-heated oven at 180 degrees for 30 minutes.

I'll assume that's 180 C ... or roughly 350°F.  Looks tasty.  We'll definitely give it a try, but I'll save it for later.  We generally won't make/have thick hearty soup-like meals until the weather turns colder (fall/winter) or if it has been rainy and cold for a few days (late summer/fall).  This time of year (late spring/early summer) is perhaps our best season - when the area greens up.  Days are generally sunny or partly cloudy, with occasional sprinkles ... in other words, great weather for grilling and for eating light meals.

[Elovia 645]

Here's a two-for recipe.  A big breakfast hit at our house are my Quick Breakfast Burritos; they're also notorious and often requested at hunting camp (I tend to be the camp cook when I go).  The grocery stores here sell something that they call either beef or pork "chorizo" that is basically a tube of flavored grease (it's horrid), which is not the meaty chorizo I grew up eating in the US southwest.  So here are my recipes for both Homemade Chorizo Sausage and my Quick Breakfast Burritos in which to use it.  The ingredient portions for the breakfast burritos are approximate, and I almost never measure them ... instead opting for "a little of this, so much of that, that amount seems right" type of approach.  But it's close enough for starters and to give you an idea of how they're made, and you can adjust the amounts to personal taste later.  Note: this chorizo is not Spanish style wherein it would be stuffed in a casing with a curing agent and allowed to age like a pepperoni; this chorizo is intended to result in a loose ground breakfast type sausage.

----------------------------------------------

Homemade Chorizo Sausage

1 pound coarsely ground and well fatted pork from the butt or shoulder

1/4 tsp ground cumin

1/4 tsp ground coriander

1 tsp whole cumin seed, toasted ^{(Note 1)}

1 pinch of dried Mexican oregano leaves rubbed (finely ground) between fingers ^{(Note 2)}

1/2 tsp garlic powder

1 tsp salt ^{(Note 3)}

1 tsp ground black pepper

1/4 tsp red pepper flakes (option: use chipotle pepper flakes instead for a different flavor)

2 Tbs ground ancho chili powder ^{(Note 4)}

1 Tbs red wine vinegar ^{(Note 5)}

2 Tbs water

Soak all herbs and spices in the water and vinegar.  Mix the soaked spices with the ground meat; I put the meat and spices in a one-gallon Ziploc bag, seal and massage until well mixed.  Wrap well with plastic (or double bag) and let it cure for a day or two in the fridge before use; occasionally mix the meat and spices while curing.  The prepared sausage freezes well uncooked and cooked.

Notes:

1. Make sure the whole cumin seed is well toasted to bring out its flavor.  I toast it in a small frying pan over medium heat, stirring occasionally.
2. Mexican oregano has a strong flavor that can easily overpower and dominate the flavor of the chorizo, so use it sparingly; start small and work up the flavor to taste with successive batches (i.e., start with approximately 1/16 tsp and, depending on preference, you may go up to 1/8 tsp).
3. I have successfully made this recipe by using half or even a quarter of the salt required (for low salt diet).  When using a whole teaspoon, the sausage may taste salty.  Adjust salt amount to taste.
4. Regular chili powder may be substituted for the ancho chili powder, but best results are obtained with the ancho chili powder.  Most common chili powders include some ancho chili in the mixture, but ancho chili has a subtle sweet flavor all by itself.  You can obtain prepared ancho chili powder, or you can finely crush dried ancho chili pods to make the powder yourself; if you go with the latter, you’ll want to soak the combined spices longer.
5. The biggest secret to this recipe is red wine vinegar.  You can use other types of vinegar for different types of flavor, but we prefer the flavors provided by red wine vinegar.

 

Quick Breakfast Burritos (one pan method):

¼ cup cooking oil – e.g., canola, corn, etc.

1 ½ - 2 cups frozen hash browns O’Brien  (cubed potatoes with diced onions and peppers)

¼ pound chorizo (see above) - in a pinch and if I haven't any chorizo prepared ahead of time, Johnsonville makes a passable substitute chorizo

(optional, but preferrable) 5-6 slices of pepper-crust bacon – diced

4oz can of diced green chili

6 eggs

½ - ¾ cup Salsa (to taste) – preferably a thick tomato-based prepared salsa

Shredded Mexican cheese blend (Colby, jack, cheddar, etc.)

Flour Tortillas

Heat oil in large frying pan over med-high heat and add frozen hash browns.  Cook until potatoes start to get soft and lightly browned.

Move the potatoes to one side of the pan and add the bacon (optional) to the open side of the pan and continue to cook until the bacon pieces are mostly done but not crisp.  Stir the bacon and potatoes together and move to one side of the pan.

Add chorizo to the open side of the pan and cook until the sausage is brown through.  Stir the sausage-bacon-potato mixture together, and then stir in the can of diced green chili.

Turn heat down to medium, and push the potato-sausage mixture to one side of the frying pan.

Scramble and cook the eggs in the open half of the frying pan.  When eggs are done, fold them into the potato-sausage mix.  Stir in salsa.  Turn heat off or on lowest setting to keep warm.

Warm the tortillas either on a flat griddle or briefly in the microwave until they are soft (approximately 1 minute on high for a dozen tortillas – microwave power and times may vary).

Add a small scoop of egg-sausage-potato mixture to a prepared tortilla, top with shredded cheese and wrap.  Everyone has their own technique for wrapping into burrito shape.

This recipe makes about a dozen small-medium burritos, or eight to ten large burritos.  Leftover burritos (should you be so lucky) may be frozen and then re-heated in a microwave for a quick and tasty breakfast on the go.

Edited June 2, 2018 by Elovia