A cracking start to the new year, as The Cooks Digest gets back to its roots of cooking a life less ordinary. Throughout 2019 we endeavour to try brand new ideas with each post. To commence the series, a new cut of meat served with a far eastern style flair … Asian-style pork leg steak.
The good news is that I got a new job! After being made redundant and unemployed for six months, I’m once again being useful as a Scrum Master and agile coach to a large, multi-national organisation. It’s also meant that the blog has taken a bit of a back seat whilst I settle into the new role and get to know the teams I am and will be working with. So as a final blog post for the year, we return to one of my favourite meals, steak. And a new technique called the clean caveman for making those amazing reverse steaks ribeyes even better …
The “caveman” steak method involves placing meat directly onto hot coals. I loved the crisp, seared crust results but didn’t care for the ash. So what happens if we get the steaks very close to the coals without actually touching? This is what I tried … the clean caveman steak. And it’s now our go-to steak cooking method.
Earlier in the year, I made apricot preserve pork breast ribs, smoked over orange wood chunks. A reader suggested a similar recipe with peach preserve and smoking chunks. Sounded like a good idea, and the reader, very generously, sent me some peach wood chunks from the USA. He was bang on the money, the peach smoked and glazed St. Louis ribs were amazing!
Another new discovery, this time from Hawaii, Huli-Huli chicken is a delicious alternative to your everyday, classic roast chicken dish. Cooked with a simple spice rub and glazed with a sweet, aromatic sauce, it makes a tasty talking-point for your dinner guests.
Stuffed crust pizza is a well-known take on the classic Italian meal. Cheese stuffed burgers however? That was a new one for me. Known as Jucy Lucy burgers, they are a twist on the classic American comfort food, with cheese sandwiched between two thin burger patties.
Find out how to make your own Jucy Lucy burgers at home with this simple recipe …
For the next in our series of burger recipes, we present the Mad Max Turkey Burger. Infused with the flavours of the unqiue Mad Max seasoning, and packed with a little chorizo, this is a great tasting lean meat burger. And utterly delicious.
A simple recipe this week, perfect for summer evenings. Wild garlic leaf is in season, and my wife had made a batch of her excellent wild garlic leaf pesto sauce. Smokey bacon is a perfect match for it, so I cooked up some bacon wrapped stuff chicken breast with wild garlic leaf pesto pasta to enjoy in the warm summer sun.
It’s the second birthday of The Cook’s Digest! As our Vietnam adventures were the inspiration for becoming immersed in culinary pursuits, it seemed appropriate to cook a celebratory meal using classic Vietnamese ingredients. And thus the Vietnamese pork and lemongrass burger was created, a decidedly different take on the classic burger.
My wife and I really enjoy a thick, moist pork chop, served with fresh vegetables. A tasty, cost-effective meal. I recently acquired some rubs and marinades produced by Nando’s, so decided to give them a try. Yeah, with pork … why not?
Continue reading“Smoked Peri-Peri Pork Chops” Continue reading “Smoked Peri-Peri Pork Chops”
There are some things that naturally go together … Ben and Jerry, Samson and Delilah and in the world of food, pork and chorizo. We used this classic combo to make delicious pork and chorizo burgers, served in a brioche bun with smokey cheese, served with triple cooked chips.
Burgers cooking on the BBQ are ubiquitous with warm, sunny summer days. Yet they can quickly become repetitive and ordinary. How to make them … well, less ordinary?
Through chance experiment we discovered that chestnut mushrooms, Dizzy Pig Red Eye Express rub and a little butter combine to exhibit an umami-like taste. Very left field and unexpected. So we used those ingredients in crafting some truly outstanding smash burgers.
A glaze or marinade can make the humble chicken shine, especially when there is a flavoursome dry rub used as a base. After trying some commercial products that were too salty and sweet, I decided to make my own.
Enjoy this simple, effective and very tasty homemade glaze for cooking chicken in a covered BBQ, Big Green Egg or conventional oven.
Continue reading“Chipotle and Tamarind Roast Chicken” Continue reading “Chipotle and Tamarind Roast Chicken”
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