OT: Comfort Food

[Normous]

matt, Dad was all smiles before, during and after our meal.

He brought out a 47 year old Schnapps his father made. A real treat today

Thank you kindly!

[IronNoggin]

Was looking for something to work as comfort food to help offset yet another cold, wet & miserable day here. Thinking along the lines of a free-range buzzard, when much to my surprise I discovered the very last smoked bear ham, still safely secured in heavy shrink wrap! Excellent!



Tossed that Bad Baby in the clay baker and set about to scorch some Sesame Oil & Butter Brussels's to go with:



Maple Candied Yams definitely go well:



And about then the ham had the whole house smelling Most Wonderful!



A quick slice & dice:



Onto the plates:



Then served under candle light with a rather fine Red:



This one never fails to please! Tender, juicy and full of excellent flavors!

Man, I NEED to collect another fat bear this fall!

Cheers,
Nog

[janesy]

Was looking for something to work as comfort food to help offset yet another cold, wet & miserable day here. Thinking along the lines of a free-range buzzard, when much to my surprise I discovered the very last smoked bear ham, still safely secured in heavy shrink wrap! Excellent!



Tossed that Bad Baby in the clay baker and set about to scorch some Sesame Oil & Butter Brussels's to go with:



Maple Candied Yams definitely go well:



And about then the ham had the whole house smelling Most Wonderful!



A quick slice & dice:



Onto the plates:



Then served under candle light with a rather fine Red:



This one never fails to please! Tender, juicy and full of excellent flavors!

Man, I NEED to collect another fat bear this fall!

Cheers,
Nog

I had a succulent frozen burger pattie pan fried because my wife is scared of the egg. Drizzled in a hearty helping of nothing, and served on a light and fluffy bun made fresh by the fine folks at Dempster's probably some time last week. With a side dish of freshly de-bagged machine whittled baby carrot sticks.

But it's 34°C out and I'm covered in dirt, so it was good. That's it, just good.

Cheers!

[IronNoggin]

Not supper, but will be the focus of many a dessert come this fall & winter!

I did not think our cherry tree was going to produce much of anything this year. The lack of sun meant that 65 - 70 % of what it was trying to grow either rotted on the vine, or simply dropped off the tree. Couple days back I noticed the local birds showing some interest, so quickly surveyed the situation. The ones that were there were ripe, so I set about the harvest. Hate ladders, but these things are so damn good I try to overlook that aspect...

Ended up with over 3.5 gallons of fine cherries! Excellent!

Graded and washed them, then set about to make my Lady's Absolute Favorite: Black Forest Cherries!



Pitting machine makes short work of that task:



One and half ounces of Cream de Cacao per pint, a hot light / medium syrup and ready to go:



Into the water bath canner for 15 minutes roiling boil:



And set to cool:



My Lady can never wait to try them on, and so as usual they barely cooled and she went at it.

Her findings??

Going to be downright pleasurable chowing down of these over the winter!

Three more batches to go...

Cheers,
Nog

[IronNoggin]

Spent yesterday out in the 30 degree heatwave, painting the huge fence that runs around our place. Was sunburned and in a bit of a chitty mood when She Who Rules said: What's for Din-Din. Ignored my initial internal response which would have gone like: "Whatever the hell your making"... LOL Self preservation mode kicked in thankfully!

Did not want much due to heatstroke, and sure as hell id not want to heat up the house by cooking much either. A little rummaging, found a bag of prawns, a vac sealed bag of Dungeness crab, an avo, some shrooms, few cherry tomatoes, onions and salad greens from the yard. Good to go.
Light, refreshing & Yummy!





Cheers,
Nog

[ComfyBear]

Wow Nog, those plates look like they came straight out of a Master Chef's K'itchen. I bet they were scrumptious and delicious, and went down well with the red wine.

BTW, I love your signature and take on political correctness.

[DuckHunt]

Maple Bacon Wrapped Tenderloin

After seeing these, I made a point to put away a few packages of venison loin this past season for the grill/smoker.

What is the concoction that you have them basted with? Bacon makes most everything better, but that looks like the secret sauce to make them amazing.

[IronNoggin]

Butter, Lemon Juice, splash of red wine, chopped garlic, chopped onion & Montreal Steak Spice.

Cheers!
Nog

[AJ01]

Dang it Matt!!!
All of those look fantastic!!
Okay...so when is the cookbook coming out?? Put me down for a couple of copies!!

Excellent post!!
AJ

[xcaliber]

Dang it Matt!!!
All of those look fantastic!!
Okay...so when is the cookbook coming out?? Put me down for a couple of copies!!

Excellent post!!
AJ

[IronNoggin]

Valentines Dinner:

Oversized Scallops on the shell with butter / wine / garlic sauce.



Prawns skewered and dropped on the BarBee.



Clams steamed in butter & white wine with garlic.
My special 4 Cheese Rice.
Spare Gooses.
French Merlot.



Excellent Feast!
Nog

[IronNoggin]

Yesterday was one of those rare ones that only come along every decade or so. For the past 12 or 13 years we have largely lived off of our Stainless Coleman Barbeque. And I nurtured it along, replacing grills and burners when required. But the frame had finally gotten close to fail time, so we set off to find it's replacement...

Given the tremendous luck we had with the last Coleman, that's of course what we focused on. Their new version of the Stainless Model has everything we were looking for, and is capable of converting between propane & gas (we are on gas for heat, so will be hooking this up direct soon).

So we spent the afternoon assembling the new Beast. To break it in, nothing less than a couple of well aged Alberta AAA Prime Rib Steaks would do! Only The Best my butcher buddy smiled as he handed them over. And without further adieu, the test run began:



The Guests of Honor:





Served up with a light spinach pasta, spare gooses and a fine red.



The new BarBee performed flawlessly, and the meal was of course a hit!

Suspect we'll be living high off the hog with this new addition for some time to come!



Cheers!
Nog

[xcaliber]

Awesome! Steaks look tremendous too!

[IronNoggin]

Second night with the new BarBee. Simply had to know how she would handle the smoking end of things. So...

Weird lighting effect in this picture:



And yep, she smokes like a dream:



Warmed up a little leftover seafood pasta (crabs, scallops & prawns in philly) to serve over Basmati:



Added in cheesy garlic toast and a fine Red:



And another successful trial run.
Really liking the new Toy!

Cheers,
Nog

[IronNoggin]

A good Friend of mine is from the Balkans. Recently he shared his family's secret marinade recipe. It is rather unique, so I simply had to give it a try.

The Recipe (shared with permission):

Milo’s Marinade

Ingredients

- Onion juice (one onion is enough). You can squeeze juice from an onion using any crusher. All you need is the equivalent of ~ two tablespoons

- 5 tablespoons of extra-virgin olive oil

- 1 tablespoon of natural balkan style yogurt at at least 2% fat - can substitute with sour cream, although yogurt is better.

- 2 cloves of garlic, crushed

- A few drops of apple cider vinegar

- 2 tablespoons of milk

- half a teaspoon freshly ground pepper

- half a teaspoon of salt

Directions

Mix all ingredients well, let them rest for a half hour for flavours to interact with one another. Put steaks in a suitable tupperware container and pour in the marinade. Coat the steaks thoroughly, by turning them a couple of times in the marinade. Refrigerate. The longer the steaks stay in the marinade, the tenderer they get. I find anywhere between 6 and 24 hours works perfectly. Take them out a couple hours before BBQ time for steaks to reach room temperature.

Marinade Concocted, two whitetail round steaks as the test subjects:



Splashdown:



Flipped them and rolled them around frequently over the next 24 hours, then out of the fridge for a couple hours and ready for the grill:





Got the BarBee smoking hot:



Quick Sear both sides:



Then onto the warming rack to finish (accent on the rare part of medium rare):



Perfection:



Served with Four Cheese Risotto, a great tossed salad with avo, and an uber fine Red:



These steaks turned out as tender as any tenderloin I have ever eaten, and they were outside rounds! Flavour was excellent, very juicy and overall quite wonderful!

This is something we WILL be trying again!

Cheers,
Nog