Times have gotten me busy since my last post on a brisket. However
this weekend I have some good bbq planned. Starting with some more
stuffed jalapenos, which is a key appetizer that I make for almost all get
gatherings. Besides the planned BBQing, I am also taking a look at 3
different cookbooks. First one is called the Asian Grill by Corinne
Trang. The main part of the BBQ this weekend is coming from this book and
overall the book looks like it has some very promising recipes from all over Asia. The book offers a new variety of flavors from
the grill and has made me very exciting. The second book is Steven
Raichlen's Healthy Latin Cooking. Overall Latin food has always been a
favorite of mine and I was excited to see this book. It is more then just
food for the grill, but contains a lot of BBQ. The goal of the book is to
take some traditional Latin foods and reduce the fat and calories by
substituting different ingredients while keeping the flavors the same.
The third book is Bobby Flay's Boy gets Grill. Bobby Flay has always had
some very good recipes, so I had to give this one a shot. Just quickly
looking over the book though, I have to disagree with some of the material in
the book. For example, a brisket recipe that tells you to cook it until
an internal temperature of about 145 degrees, I find this to be on the low side
just by a tad. I always cook my briskets to about 185 to 195 to get them
to be as tender as possible. The fat in the brisket probably hasn't even
started rendering out at 145 nor would the brisket be tender. However his
recipe for the Brisket seems to be very promising and I will have to give it a
shot someday soon. Another really cool thing about this book is the last
section where he plans out the menu for a day of BBQing with friends and
families. Sometimes getting all the correct food together is the hardest
part of BBQing. I just checked these books out from the local library to
give them a shot before I buy them. Sometimes the recipes from a cookbook
look good on the outside, but once they are cooked they don't meet the
expectations. That’s why I decided to just check these out before
purchasing them.
I am also adding a couple new tools to my collection. First one is a
tortilla press I picked up for under $10 from a local Mexican Grocery store in
town. I decided to get the tortilla press to make some fresh tortillas
from scratch. We have a local chain Mexican grill restaurant that makes
some very good tortillas. Even though this tortilla press is more for
corn tortillas, I am going to give it a shot with some flour tortillas too
along with the potential of some flat breads and Asian sesame wraps that are
wonderful. These are usually served with some moo shoo pork (a great Chinese
dish). The other two tools I am adding are a Jalapeno Corer and another
Jalapeno Grill. I have been wanting the corer for a while now to make the
jalapeno coring much simpler and not have to slice the jalapenos in half in
order to remove the seeds and membranes. This will also allow me to use a
lot less bacon since I will not have to wrap the full jalapeno in bacon to keep
it together on the jalapeno grill. Decided to get another Jalapeno Grill
because my current one only holds 21 jalapenos and I never seem to make enough
for the crowd. This one is going to hold 36 jalapenos which will allow me
to cook 57 jalapenos on the grill; this will hopefully be enough for a larger
part of 10 - 12 people. Unfortunately these to tools will not be here in
time for this weekend’s BBQ, but should be here early next week. This
will give me a chance to make even some more stuffed peppers sooner.
J