smoked-mexican-turkey

Smoked Mexican Turkey with Orange Chile Oil Marinade

Dave DeWitt Recipes Leave a Comment

Here’s a double Mexican influence—turkeys as well as chiles are native to the Americas. This recipe will work with a breast as well as the legs. If using a whole turkey or breast, increase the amount of the marinade and inject the marinade in the bird as well as baste it when it’s smoking. Use any Mexican chiles such as ancho, pasilla, cascabel, or guajillo. Serve with avocado slices, beans, and grilled corn on the cob along with corn tortillas.

You can read Mark Masker’s article on smoking turkey on the Burn! Blog here.

Ingredients

Orange Chile Oil Marinade:
6 cascabel chiles, stems and seeds removed, or substitute 2 of the chiles above
1/4 cup chopped onions
½ cup vegetable oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
1 cup orange juice
1 tablespoon lime juice
2 teaspoons achiote paste (available in Hispanic markets)
1 teaspoon dried oregano, Mexican preferred
Pinch ground cloves
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

The Turkey:
4 turkey legs

Instructions

In a pan, saute the chiles and onion in the oil until softened. Add the garlic and cumin and continue to sauté for an additional minute. Remove from the heat.

Combine the chile mixture along with the oil, orange juice, lime juice, achiote paste, oregano, cloves, salt and pepper in a food processor or blender and puree until a smooth sauce.

Make slits in the turkey to allow the chile oil marinade to penetrate. Place the turkey and marinade in a large plastic bag and marinate overnight.

Prepare the smoker using hickory or pecan wood and smoke the legs in 200 degree smoke for 3 to 3 ½ hours or until the turkey is done to an internal temperature of 160 degrees F. If you wish to continue marinating, simmer the marinade in a pan for 20 minutes and brush it over the legs occasionally. When done, remove the turkey from the smoker and brush with the marinade.

To serve, slice the smoked turkey off the legs and serve with the sauce of your choice.

pork with carolinaesque rub

Pork with Carolina-esque Rub

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This recipe appeared in the article “Mike’s Carolina-style Pulled Pork in Mustard” on the Burn! Blog. Read the entire story here.

Serve with Ketchup-vinegar Barbecue Sauce, recipe here.

Ingredients

1 bone-in Boston butt (pork shoulder)

For the Rub:
1/4 cup sweet paprika
2 tablespoons coarse kosher salt
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
2 tablespoons dark brown sugar
2 tablespoons cracked black pepper
2 tablespoons granulated onion
1 tablespoon granulated garlic
1 tablespoon ground cumin
1 tablespoon ground cayenne pepper
1 tablespoon dry mustard

Instructions

Combine the ingredients in a mixing bowl and stir well to incorporate. This seasoning blend will keep about 2 months if stored in an airtight container.

After rubbing the meat, wrap it with food film and refrigerate it for least eight hours. Bring the meat to room temperature while preparing the smoker.

For this cook, I used a Grill Dome ceramic cooker and a PartyQ draft controller from BBQ Guru. The Grill Dome is excellent in holding temperature while being very efficient in using fuel. The PartyQ is a battery-operated draft controller than will keep your smoker’s temperature exactly where you want it to be without constant monitoring. (Unlike other BBQ Guru controllers, the PartyQ does not monitor meat temperature.)

Fill the Grill Dome firebox three-quarters full with lump char wood and ignite. Add four chunks of apple wood and one cup drained apple wood chips; stabilize the temperature of the Grill Dome at 225 degrees F. Place the pork on the cooking grate over a drip pan.
Close the lid and smoke the pork for three hours. Spray the pork with apple juice and continuing cooking, spritzing every hour, until the pork reaches an internal temperature of 190 degrees F.

When the pork reaches an internal temperature of 190 degrees F., transfer the meat to a clean baking sheet. Tent it with aluminum foil and let it stand for about 30 minutes (the internal temperature will continue to rise to about 195 degrees F., the optimal temperature for pulled pork). When the pork is cool enough to handle, shred it into bite-size pieces. The pork may be cooked one day ahead, shredded, and covered with foil or food film. Unless you like having food poisoning, we recommend refrigerating it.

Place the shredded pork into a large cast iron skillet and cook over medium heat until warmed (this will help remove any residual fat from the pulled pork). Add your favorite sauce and cook until bubbling. Pile the shredded pork onto the bottom of a hamburger bun, top with a healthy dollop of Carolina-style slaw and the second half of the bun.

For a sauce, you could use a Carolina-style mustard sauce or a ketchup-vinegar mixture, like like this recipe.

Ketchup-vinegar Barbecue Sauce

Ketchup-vinegar Barbecue Sauce

Dave DeWitt Recipes Leave a Comment

This recipe appeared in the article “Mike’s Carolina-style Pulled Pork in Mustard” on the Burn! Blog. Read the entire story here.

Use this sauce with the Caroline-esque Pulled Pork recipe here.

Ingredients

2 cups good-quality ketchup
2 cups apple cider vinegar
6 tablespoons dark brown sugar
2 tablespoons ballpark (yellow) mustard
2 tablespoons dark molasses
2 teaspoons coarse kosher salt
1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes

Instructions

Combine the ingredients in small saucepan and bring to a simmer over medium-low heat, stirring often.

asian style cayenne hot sauce

Asian-Style Cayenne Hot Sauce

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This year we used about a pound of LC Cayenne pods to cook up a sweet and spicy Thai sauce. Unlike “Louisiana Style” hot sauce, this one is thick, almost like ketchup, and is a lot less vinegary. It is great with grilled shrimp, over rice, for Asian cooking, and even as a dip.

Read Harald Zoschke’s entire article on the Burn! Blog here.

Ingredients

1 pound red, ripe NuMex Las Cruces Cayenne chiles (or similar meaty cayenne peppers)
1/2 sweet red pepper (e.g. Gypsy or a small ripe bell pepper)
1 medium-sized onion, minced
3-4 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 pound sugar
4 ounces rice vinegar
2 tablespoons olive or sunflower oil

2 ounces rice vinegar **
1 ounce maple syrup **
water (if necessary)  **

4-5 empty hot sauce bottles

** These ingredients are to be added after cooking and blending.

Instructions

Rinse the cayenne peppers, cut off the tops with the stems, and slit pods open lengthwise, discarding most but not all seeds. Cut pods into chunks. Also remove the stem and “innards” of the sweet pepper and cut the pod into chunks as well.

In a sauce pan sauté the onion in the oil until soft (2-3 minutes).

Add the garlic and simmer for an additional 2 minutes.

Add sugar and the 4 ounces of vinegar, stir well and bring to a boil.

Add chopped cayenne and sweet peppers, stir well and simmer over medium heat for about 45 minutes, until the peppers are soft.

Meanwhile, sterilize your hot sauce bottles in boiling water and let them drain upside down on a towel.

Blend the sauce in a blender, or in the sauce pan using a hand-held immersion blender until smooth. Using a whisk, blend in the maple syrup and the 2 ounces of vinegar. ***

The sauce should be smooth and thick now, with a consistency almost like ketchup. If the sauce appears to be too thick, carefully add a little water and whisk again. Bring sauce briefly to a boil again.

Using a funnel, fill the bottles with sauce and put on lids immediately.

Design a label and put it on your bottles. Enjoy! Store opened bottles in the refrigerator. Yield: about 20 oz. (i.e. four “Woozy” type 5oz./148 ml bottles). I bet now you’re glad you kept those emptied hot sauce bottles!

*** Since vinegar tends to lose acidity during cooking, we add some of it at the end. That way we’re getting a lower pH (= higher acidity), which is necessary for preservation. If you would produce such a sauce commercially, you would check the pH with a meter and keep it well below pH 4.2).

Tuna Carpaccio with Wild Blueberry Wasabi Sauce

Tuna Carpaccio with Wild Blueberry Wasabi Sauce

Dave DeWitt Recipes Leave a Comment

Thanks to the North America Blueberry Association for this recipe and photo. From the article Blazing Blueberries.

Ingredients

1 pound sushi-grade tuna steak
2 teaspoons oil
Salt and pepper to taste
1 tablespoon honey
2-3 teaspoons wasabi
1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar
1/4 teaspoon sugar
1 cup fresh or frozen Wild Blueberries
handful of arugula leaves

Instructions

Blot tuna steak dry with a paper towel. Heat oil in a non-stick frying pan over medium heat. Cook the tuna on both sides until browned but not cooked through. Remove from heat and let tuna rest in the pan off stove for a few minutes. Season tuna with salt and pepper. Cool completely.

In a small bowl, combine honey, wasabi, balsamic vinegar and sugar. Gently stir in blueberries.

To serve: cut tuna steak diagonally against the grain with a sharp knife into thin slices. Divide steak between four plates, spoon blueberry sauce over top, and garnish each portion with arugula. Serve with a baguette.