Carolina Style BBQ Sauce Proprietary Blend #142412

So I've made my own sauce. Given that it's the first one, this is not something I expect will work out horribly well. I started with 1 cup of white vinegar, added 2 tsp of coarsely ground black pepper, 2 tbsp of light brown sugar, 2 tsp of crushed red pepper, 1/2 tsp of ghost pepper sauce, 1 tsp of hot sauce and then let it all meld for a day in the fridge. Then, somewhat distressed because it resembled a mopping sauce and the pepper separated (red pepper floated, black pepper sat at the bottom), I put it on the stove and added 2 tbsp of tomato paste, a few dashes of worcestershire sauce, and a little more sugar.

So it cooked down, and now I have my sauce. It is supremely tangy, more so than any other sauce I have ever had. It is also HOT. It has front and back bite and a round depth to it, burning in shelves across the tongue. I would consider it a light drizzler on a fatty and sweet meat.

So, the numbers on my hot sauce are coded this way. The first digit is the number of the sauce. For a vinegar based eastern carolina sauce, I gave it a 1. I suppose that throwing in the tomato paste may have deviated from the eastern style somewhat, but oh well. Perhaps a "true" eastern carolina recipe will get a different number.

The second set of digits is the date of making it, with no zeros attached. So 42412 Is April 24, 2012. Hence, #142412 on this bottle of bbq sauce.

Given that my family will not appreciate Proprietary Blend #1, I will have to either develop one for them or just let them eat commercial. There are good bbq sauces out there for sale, so this can be my little hobby.

lamb and apricot stew

I attempted last night to replicate a recipe several East Point friends of mine made for me a few some time past. Given that I did not see them cook it, I had to work mainly off of instinct and tacit knowledge about stewing, lamb, etc. It worked okay.

I started with 1 pound of bone-in lamb. This makes just enough for two, with potentially one portion of left overs. 2 pounds will do for serving four (no less, please).

First I heated oil in a dutch oven. Not too much oil is needed--we are sizzling cumin seeds and browning lamb. The fatty lamb will flavor the stew well enough. So thin layer only.

So, then, sizzle some cumin seeds and add the lamb. Salt the lamb generously. Also add a pinch of cinnamon. Then cover with chicken stock (just barely cover), add the dried apricots, cover, and then remove to the oven at 300 degrees for one hour.

I served this with herbed couscous and asparagus.

It turned out delicious, although the dried apricots were fairly roundly stewed, some of them fairly bursting apart. When I do it again, I will go even lighter on the chicken stock and will add the apricots half way through cooking just to see if it changes the flavor. The savory lamb need not be sweetened by the presence of apricots during too much cooking--the cinnamon imparts all the flavor we need in the dish. And I think it important that the apricots retain their integrity. What are we, after all, without our dignity?

Anyway, tasty lamb. EASY dish. Infinite variations possible.

eastern Carolina bbq sauce

The only published North Carolina bbq sauce I have is a "mix" of eastern and western sensibilities (vinegar and ketchup based). Lacking good information on this bbq, I am comparing some recipes.

Some recipes call for more sugar than most, but generally a 1 1/2 cup yield contains a small amount of sugar--say 2 tbsp. Otherwise, it is a straightforward vinegar with some very basic crushed herbs and peppers, and hot sauce. I will likely put my ghost pepper hot sauce to work in a batch.

From amazing ribs

Recipe

Yield. Makes about 1 1/2 cups. Click here to calculate how much you need and for tips on saucing strategies.
Preparation time. About 30 minutes.

Ingredients
1 1/2 cups of distilled vinegar
1 teaspoon hot sauce
2 tablespoons sugar (white, light brown, or dark brown)
1 tablespoon salt
2 teaspoons crushed red pepper
2 teaspoons finely ground black pepper

About the vinegar. Seems to me that the best sauces in the area were made with distilled white vinegar, not cider vinegar. So I tried my recipes with both and I liked the distilled better. If you want to use cider, feel free.

From Allrecipes:

• 1 cup white vinegar
• 1 cup cider vinegar
• 1 tablespoon brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon cayenne pepper
• 1 tablespoon hot pepper sauce (e.g. Tabasco™), or to taste
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon ground black pepper

AND

• 2 cups cider vinegar
• 2 tablespoons molasses
• 1 tablespoon ground dry mustard
• 1/2 cup butter
• 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
• 1/2 cup packed dark brown sugar

Tabouli--spelling or not

Bulgur wheat is one of the healthiest of the whole grains. No chemicals or additives are needed during processing, it is high in dietary fiber, easy on the system, and immensely filling. I've been experimenting with Tabouli recipes for a stock lunch dish--something to keep in the fridge and carry with me during the week. Over the summer, this can be a simple dish to take up extra cukes, tomatoes, and peppers--whatever is around.

So here is the first recipe that I have tried twice now and seem to be getting good results with.

For the wheat: 3 cups of Turkish bulgur wheat covered with 3 cups boiling water, pot covered, and allowed to sit for 10-15 minutes.

Add 1 cup of oil to the bulgur wheat. I prefer to add the oil first, as it loosens up the bulgur. I most often have to drizzle more oil over the salad later.

1 1/2 cups chopped parsley (one bunch of parsley predictably turns out this much chopped)
1 1/2 cups chopped mint
1/2-3/4 of a red onion, chopped
2 tomatoes, seeded, cut into small dice
1/2 cup fresh squeezed lemon juice
3-4 pinches of kosher salt (to taste)

This is the base salad. I will be adding kalamata olives once I chop them, and feta cheese before serving.

As with the chickpea salad I frequently make, this tastes better after several days. If made up on Sunday, it provides food for nearly a whole week for two. To be frank, the only painful part of this salad is pulling all the parsley off of its stems. By the time one arrives at the tomato part of this dish, it has become tedious enough that the whole project is in danger of abandonment. So this week I made it up on Saturday, and will likely chop up more tomatoes and olives tonight to round out the salad.

Cannellini Beans

The white kidney bean is a staple in Tuscany cooking. I admit to being utterly amateurish with it, as I currently only use it in a one-pot chicken dish. However, I wanted to experiment with cooking them up rather than going from the can. Here was what working with dried beans yielded the first time out.

I soaked the beans for 13 hours. A late night wake-up and wander allowed me to add water, as the beans easily double in size while soaked. I brought a pot of water to a boil, added the beans with a slotted spoon, returned to a boil and let them boil for ten minutes. This step is apparently necessary to remove toxins, and is a necessity no matter what kind of kidney bean you are using. I then reduced the heat to a simmer and cooked for nearly two hours.

The beans came out a bit mushy. I think I boiled a bit long (probably closer to 15 or 20 minutes) and then let them simmer too long. Reminder that next time I should check at 1 hour.