Smoked Turkey soup

Was  going to make Turkey pot pie, but was missing some important ingredients. Then I thought I'll make turkey and dumpling stew. Yep was missing  the same ingredients for the dumplings as I was for the crust. Flour's kind of important. Ended up with smoked turkey soup and hot dog bun cheese bread.

Thanksgiving in May

First and foremost, a big Thank you to all of our current and past Military personnel.

For this smoke I ran the GOSM @ 275*-280*. 12" AMNTS loaded with apple. Took approx 4 hours to hit the IT. Weather was rainy, and about 50*, 5-10 knots of wind.



12" AMNTS fired up and burning away. I accidentally dumped the sand out of my water pan, so I did not have any for this smoke. The 18" AMNTS was in the smoker so I just left it there. It is sitting on a cast iron griddle that I use as a heat deflector. The foil pan was there to catch the drippings and also to protect the AMNTS from being dripped on. Later I added the veggies we roasted.



If you look close you can see the TBS

I brined the bird overnight in a concoction of apple juice, salt, brown sugar, bay leave, pepper corns, garlic. I didn't have time to air dry the bird so I just rinsed and then rubbed the bird down. Smoked Serrrano Salt, pepper, garlic and Italian seasoning.

Veggies ready for the smoker.

AMNTS pumping out the TBS, just put the veggies on.

Done!!! Foiled in pan and let it rest for 45 minutes.

 

Nice and moist!

 

Enjoy!!!

Tasty Tri-Tip!!!

Cooked up another tasty tri-tip. Ran the Mini-WSM at 265* using Kingsford blue and cherry. Had a pan of veggies, fat cap and broth on the bottom rack.

Pumping TBS!!!!

MMMMM!!!!







Cooked to an IT of 135*

1/2" slabs of goodness!

Reverse seared Chops and Korn

Fired up the Mini-WSM. 30 knots super cold wind, snow and sleet. Sure glad we got the garden planted... Kingsford Blue and apple wood. Smoked the chops and corn for about an hour then pulled the pot and seared. Love the multi cook all in one Mini!

Got a little distracted and ended up with a bit more char. Which wasn't a bad thing!

YummY!

These silicone tipped tongs, SUCK!!!!  They won't pick up anything, the pork just kept sliding out! Dumb! Enough venting back to food!

Enjoy!

Thai Pumpkin seafood chowder

This soup is full of flavor and a good option for adding halibut, rockfish, shrimp or crab too. For a thicker consistency one can puree it all or puree half the batch.

Look @ those nice Kabocha!, The zucchini, and tomato are from my garden!

I was given some great looking Kabocha squash, so I decided to make Thai pumpkin soup. This soup can be pureed, or not, and can be served either hot or chilled. I decided to add some prawns to the mix, so I will serve it hot and not pureed.

The beginning of something really good, homemade vegetable stock! More to follow!!!

All good soups need to start with a good foundation. I prefer to make all my own stocks, and for this particular soup I choose to make a hearty vegetable stock. Probably the easiest stock you can make. Use whatever vegetables you might have, I used carrots, celery, Leek, turnip, red onion, tomato, zucchini, potato peelings, garlic, parsley, fresh basil, fresh thyme, peppercorns, and a bay leaf!

Several of these Chile's will be going into the final soup! These are Thai Chile's.Love using fresh stuff from my garden!

I decided to post this here because several family members & friends have asked me for the recipe, and thought I'd share it with all.

Like most my cooking I wing it as long as it's not baking, baking's not my forte, so i stick to the book for that! Every time someone asks me for a recipe I kinda Hesitate, just because I follow my instincts when cooking. Usually when people ask me how much of this or that blah blah blah, I come back with the question, well how much do you want to cook? So with that here are the general amounts for about 4-6 servings. Of course with that said, I vary all my seasonings to taste as I go...

So we made the base for the soup, the vegetable stock (you can substitute chicken stock, or fish stock if you prefer) After simmering the stock for and hour or so, I strained the solids out (for clearer stock strain through cheese cloth and sieve).

Vegi Stock, strained. I was not concerned for it to be perfectly clear, so I opted not to strain through cheese cloth.

4-6 cups of stock
1 can of coconut milk, reserve the cream ( coconut milk separates, do not shake can prior to opening, scrape thickened cream)
3-5 cups of peeled squash (any winter squash, pumpkin, etc.) cut into bite sized pieces or cube.
4 medium prawns per serving or a couple white fish fillets cut into bite sized pieces ( If you plan to Puree do not puree fish or prawns.)
Small cucumber cut into small pieces
Small red, or yellow bell pepper cut into small pieces
1-2 red chili peppers, seeded and sliced, or 1 tsp dried chili pepper
2-3 kaffir lime leaves (if not available substitute with fresh lime zest) Kaffir lime leaves can be found @ Asian food markets, if not fresh check out the freezer section.
3-6 garlic cloves finely minced
2 shallots or half a small purple onion diced
1 stalk of lemon grass
tsp or so of shrimp paste, or anchovy paste (once again those who live somewhere where there is a Asian market shrimp paste will be available)
couple Tbsp. of fish sauce (if the soup is not salty enough add more fish sauce instead of salt)
juice from 3-4 limes (hand squeeze, reserve rind for zest if not using kaffir leaves)
several tsp sugar
Thai Basil, Coriander, etc for garnish

So in order to get rolling get all the fresh stuff cut prepped and ready to go, when your done you should have a pile of stuff that looks like this. This soup cooks fast so best to have everything ready to go!

The guts of the soup ready to go!

Heat several Tbsp. of oil in your stock pot over medium high heat. Add garlic, Chile, and shallots (purple onion). Stir fry long enough to meld the flavors.
Add stock, and kaffir lime leaves ( or zest) bring to boil.
Add squash, reduce heat and simmer till fork tender.

Simmering away!

While simmering add shrimp/anchovy paste, fish sauce, lime juice and, sugar.
When squash is soft add shrimp, and or fish, lemon grass and red pepper, do not over cook seafood!
When seafood is done reduce heat, to low add coconut milk, and cucumber, stirring to combine.
Taste re-season if needed and serve! garnish with Basil, coriander, etc...

Yumm!

Note if you are going to puree, remove fish and shrimp prior to , and or cook fish and shrimp, then add as garnish to final dish!

Pulled pork topped crisp skin baked tater

Too the root of it, it's just stew

The weather outside is, crappy. When I woke up this morning I had flash backs of living at the coast. Here on the West Coast we get storms, if we were on the other side of the Pond, they'd be named...

I was going to do an Irish stew with a good Porter Brewed here in the Mecca of Brews (Bend Oregon). I realized that the beer fridge had been depleted and the only beers left were only suitable for drinking! So I cracked a hopped up ale (that I consumed, or three), and proceeded to cut up the all the veggies!!

So into the pot the normal Mirepoix, golden beets (these are in right now go get some, fantastic), tri-color potatoes, fresh minced garlic, salt, pepper, one smoked Hot Hatch Chile (I would have put more in, but the kids prefer a bit less heat.) Normally I would sautee all the veggies in batches in the DO, but due to the weather outdoor cooking was out!. Glass top stove and DO's don't work, so crappy fry pan will have to do, Same for braising the meat!

Round Eye Roast was the cut of meat tonight, it was on sale. Cut it into 1"- 1 1/2" pieces. Braised in Evoo.

Combine it all together add liquid, in this case it was V-8 (substitute for broth) and water, (enough to coverall ingredients ((spicy v-8 is great if you don't  have any other peppers)) and throw it in the stove, smoker, or over the pit, or hanging over the campfire! At 350 in the oven it took 3 hours to get the taters and beets done.

So how about some DO-View!!! Only thing that would have made this better would've been some drop biscuits on top. Next time!!!

Mirepoix, plus garlic in the DO

Golden Beets getting Happy!

Potato Tri-Fecta!!

The meat!

The spice!



Into the oven



Looking good, one hour in! Missing the smoke flavor you get when cooking over the fire or in the smoker

Done!