Mmm…piping hot pancakes, drenched in your favorite syrup, dripping hot sweet cream butter, loaded with delicious blueberries that burst in your mouth…a haystack of apple-wood smoked bacon on the side…oh, baby!

Here’s my favorite recipe for blueberry awesomeness…what’s yours?

-Perry

PS – If you missed out this morning, do not despair… the entire month of February is Pancake Month!

So, finally, here it is…

The crew at Burnin’ Love BBQ has been working around the clock on a new program designed to assist the home chef in planning, shopping-for and preparing some next-level food in your own kitchens! Actually, we’re going to do those first steps …for you, and save you a bunch of time and dough (ha ha) along the way.

So, it’s with great pride that I would like to invite each of you to the grand unveiling of our new program, “HAUTEMEALZ.COM” (www.hautemealz.com) Please go take a look, poke around, and tell us what you think!

-Perry

There is a widely-shared, strong opinion among many Chicagoans and aficionados that ketchup is unacceptable. A number of Chicago hot dog vendors do not even offer ketchup as a condiment. Many sources attribute the distinctive collection of toppings on a Chicago-style wiener to historic Maxwell Street and the “Depression Sandwich” reportedly originated by ‘Fluky’s’ in 1929. The proprietors of Fluky’s were Jewish, which accounts for the wieners’ pork-free, kosher-style character.

The Chicago area boasts more hot dog restaurants than McDonald’s, Wendy’s, and Burger King restaurants combined.

- Wikipedia

I was jonesing for a Chicago dog this week, so I gathered up the ingredients with the plan to make myself the iconic tube-steak for lunch today. Then, I saw a post on a friend’s blog, featuring a bacon wrapped hot-dog. I thought to myself… “Hey, I have bacon!” (I may not have electricity, or running water…but I always have bacon.)

Thus, the “Perked up” (bah-dum-bump) Chi-Dog was born.

Perk’s “Perked up” Chi Dogs
4 all beef sausages
4 strips of hickory smoked bacon
4 stadium rolls, warmed
2 Roma tomatoes, firm
1/2 cup minced onions
4 Tbs dill pickle relish
2 Tbs deli mustard
Celery salt

Preheat oven to broil.

Bring a pot of water to boil, drop in the sausages, and lower heat to simmer. Cook 5 minutes to warm through.

Remove sausages to a plate and allow to cook slightly, then wrap each in a slice of bacon. Put wrapped sausages in an oven-save dish, and broil for 10 minutes, turning once, until bacon has crisped.

Meanwhile, spread one side of each roll with 1 Tbs of pickle relish, and spread the opposite sides with mustard. Cut up tomatoes in a large dice, the onions in a fine dice, and set aside.

Place one dog in each bun, top with tomato and onions, sprinkle each with a dash celery salt, and serve.

Enjoy!

-Perry

NOTE: I know, I know…it’s supposed to be sweet relish, but I don’t like sweet relish, and it’s my recipe!

Growing up with a chef as a parent is a mixed blessing. On one hand, my old man could throw down some amazing food. On the other hand, after putting in 60 or 70 hours a week on the line…the last thing he wanted to do at home, was cook.

That meant that if I wanted in on the good stuff, I had to go to the restaurant, which meant that my dad got free slave labor, and a grunt that couldn’t hire a labor-lawyer when he’d smack me in the head with a ladle for not having enough “hustle.”

Still, it must have been pretty epic food, ’cause I kept coming back for. more Maybe I just wasn’t too bright.

Let’s say it was the food.

That little rant has absolutely nothing with today’s post or recipe, but it’s my blog and if I want to whine about my childhood once in a while, I can.

One of the recipes that brought me back, time and again, was Dad’s clam chowder. This stuff was freakin’ famous. Dishwashers would work a second shifts, and owners would come in of their day’s off just  to get a couple of bowls. A steady stream of compliments and tips always flowed from the front of the house, on chowder night.

Dad’s workin’ that big six-top in the sky now…so the threat of getting smacked with a kitchen implement has somewhat lessened, and I’ve worked up the courage to post his extremely popular and guarded recipe.

Just a note: it wasn’t a standard part of the recipe, but when the mood would take him, dad might add some saffron, a pinch of cayenne chili powder, to the mix, and maybe even finish the bowl with a sprinkling of crisp-fried cracklins. If he tossed in some fresh steamed baby oysters and green mussels, it became seafood chowder.

FYI…nothing even remotely healthy about this recipe, and if you try to substitute olive oil for the butter, low-fat milk for the 1/2 & 1/2, or some other act of sacrilege and profanation, I hope the old man comes back and smacks you with a ladle.

To quote my sweet old father…”You want healthy? Go home and make a ****ing salad.”

Enjoy!

-Perk

Dad Perkins’ Clam Chowder

1 1/2 lbs Yukon gold potatoes
2 cups chicken broth
1 lg onion, diced
2 cloves of garlic, diced
1/2 cup of butter (1 stick)
2 teaspoons coarse black pepper
dash of red pepper flake
4 anchovy fillets, diced
1/2 lb fresh bay scallops
1/2 cup flour
2 cups bottled clam juice
32 oz chopped clams
1 cup 1/2 & 1/2
1/4 cup fresh Italian parsley, chopped

Gen 4, gathering ingredients

Rinse potatoes, halve, cover with chicken broth, and bring to simmer. (Add water to cover, if necessary).

Melt 1/2 cup of butter in a large skillet over medium heat, and saute garlic and onion until softened. Add red and black pepper, scallops, and anchovies, and continue to cook, stirring, until scallops are just done, about 5 minutes.

Remove scallops and set aside. Increase heat and add flour to skillet, stirring to create roux. Allow flour to cook, stirring often, until four begins to brown and smells nutty.

Slowly add 2 cups of clam juice, stirring constantly to keep the roux smooth, next add 1/2 & 1/2, again stirring.

If you’re using canned clams, reserve the liquid and add it now, to bring broth to desired consistency. If not, add enough water to do so. Add parsley, and cook at a bare simmer, 10-15 minutes.

While broth is simmering, remove cooked potatoes from water, and allow to cool slightly. Quarter.

Add cooked potatoes, scallops, and clams to broth and stir. Cook 5 more minutes, and serve hot with hot baguette slices.

Okay, SuperBowl Sunday is coming up, and what better time to get our smoke on?

A quick confession (before my friends rat me out anyway)…I’m really not a spectator sports guy (I’m not much of a participatory sports guys either, but let’s not open THAT can of worms…)

However, the annual Superbowl party is my exception to the rule.

A bunch of my best friends, tons of great food…sure, I have to watch some football…but there are some great commercials to break THAT up, so…three outta four awesome elements…I’ll take that percentage any day!

As much as I’d like to think that I get invited to these parties every year for my witty banter and cutting-edge heckling of the event at hand, I know the truth…it’s my food that gets me in the door. I’m okay with that.

So, I thought this year we’d take a look at three specific ways that “Game Day” can play out, and how we can do some grilling and/or Q for each.

Most parties, where we would be offering our goods, fall into one of three categories:

1. Party at my place! – Hosting a Superbowl party at you own home offers the most flexibility in what you can prepare and  serve (‘course,  it also means cleaning bean dip off the ceiling, finding wing-bones behind the couch next summer, and two-weeks of lethal dog flatulence because your best friend won’t stop feeding ATB’s to Rover …).

2. Invitation to the pot-lick. – My personal favorite, lots of new dishes to try, and my place stays (moderately) clean. Watch the game (commercials) in comfort on my pals cushy garage home-theater. Nice!

3. Pull in & Pig out! – Ah, the pièce de résistance for armchair quarterbacks everywhere. It’s a ball game, it’s a picnic, it’s a camp-out…it’s the Tailgate Party…how can that be anything but awesome?

Over the next couple of weeks, we’re going to take a look at each of these game-day favorites, some killer bbq and grill recipes adapted to each, and some tips on how to participate as a pit-master. Oh, and I have a great homemade cleanser for getting out those bean-dip stains…

So, let’s take a look at three next-level recipes for hosting a Pig Skin party at your own crib…

Party at My Place

Hosting the party at your own place allows for a lot more freedom in recipes and preparation. All of your  own toys, spices, and gear, are close at hand. This is your pit-master backyard…awesomeness should be a given!

For the main dish, let’s go all-out with Luau Party featuring a whole Kalua pig, or pork shoulder, with a Big Island Luau Party!

Kālua is a traditional Hawaiian cooking method that utilizes an imu, or underground oven. The word kālua literally means “to cook in an underground oven” and also describes the flavor of food cooked in this manner – e.g. the kālua pig, kālua turkey (Hawaiian puaʻa kālua) which is commonly served at luau feasts. – From Wikipedia

Traditional Kalua Pork

8 pounds pork butt
4 tablespoons liquid smoke
4 tablespoons Hawaiian salt
8 to 12 large ti leaves, ribs removed

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. After scoring pork on all sides with quarter-inch deep slits about an inch apart, rub with salt, then liquid smoke.

Wrap the pork completely in ti leaves, tie with string, and wrap in foil.

Place meat in a shallow roasting pan with 2 cups of water and roast for 6 hours.

Dissolve 1 tablespoon Hawaiian salt in 2 cups boiling water and add a few drops of liquid smoke. Shred the cooked pork and let stand in this solution for a few minutes before serving.

Man…that’s makin’ me hungry!

Aloha!

If you’re lucky enough to have a La Caja China, and want to take this recipe to the next level, knock the socks off your party guests with a Whole Roasted Kahlua Pig.

Hawaii plate-lunch-style macaroni salad.

The beauty of macaroni salad is that it is quite forgiving and welcomes a wide range of personalization and experimentation. It’s a casual dish that easily adapts to any type of food or occasion—it is, in other words, quintessentially local.

Island Mac Salad

To make a basic macaroni salad, you don’t need a recipe; just follow these guidelines:

The pasta: Cook 1 pound macaroni (for really local style, cook until soft and fat, but you can go al dente if you prefer).

The flavoring: Stir in ¼ cup very finely grated onion. Not minced, chopped or sliced—grated. It should be liquidy (this is how they do it at Diner’s, a local eatery in Kalihi).

The mayo: At least 2½ cups for real local style. But there are no rules, so use less if you like. Or more.

The add-ins: Carrots, watercress, celery, hard-boiled eggs, pickle relish—whatever suits you.

The finale: Salt and pepper, to taste. Stir well; refrigerate.

Cassoulet

Beloved by generations of French cooks, cassoulet is a rustic, slow-cooked dish made with white beans and a lavish assortment of meats, from duck confit* or foie gras to sausages and succulent cuts of pork, lamb or poultry.

The dish is named after its traditional cooking vessel, the cassole, a deep, round, earthenware pot with slanting sides.

Numerous regional variations exist, the best-known being the cassoulet from Castelnaudary, the self-proclaimed “Capital of Cassoulet”, Toulouse, and Carcassonne. All are made with white beans (haricots blancs or lingots), which have replaced the medieval broad bean Vica fava, and duck or goose confit, meat and sausages.

In the cassoulet of Toulouse, the meats are pork and mutton, the latter frequently a cold roast shoulder. The Carcassonne version is similar but doubles the portion of mutton and sometimes replaces the duck with partridge. The cassoulet of Castelnaudary uses a duck confit instead of mutton. Cassoulet is traditionally topped by fried bread cubes and cracklings. (Wikipedia)

The following recipe is adapted from Guy Fieri’s “pork-oulet” (you can watch the episode at hulu.com), though I put in more celery, carrots and yellow onion than the original recipe asked for. Somehow I manages to miss getting a pictures of the chicken thighs browning, but you’ll get the idea!

I made this recipe last night and, seriously…it’s one of the best things I’ve ever eaten. Incredibly rich and savory,  layer after layer of flavors, big hunks of spoon-tender meat and veggies…this cold-weather comfort food at it’s best!

Tip: When buying your herbs, look for the “pork mix” package of fresh herbs. The one I found contained almost the perfect proportions of thyme, sage, and oregano, that this recipe calls for.  Also, be careful not to add salt until the dish is ready to serve. Both the bacon and chicken stock (if canned) can be wild cards for saltiness, especially after cooking down. Test the broth just before serving and adjust accordingly.

Pork & Chicken Cassoulet

1/2 pound thick cut bacon, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
3 pounds pork butt, cut into 2-inch by 3-inch pieces
4 bone-in chicken thighs, skin discarded
3 teaspoons freshly cracked black pepper
1 lg sweet onion, chopped large
2 cups peeled baby carrots
1 cup (1/2-inch) diced celery
1/4 cup roughly chopped garlic
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
3 cups chicken stock
2 bay leaves
2 Tbs fresh thyme, chopped
1 Tbs fresh sage, chopped
1 Tbs fresh oregano, chopped
1/2 lb button mushrooms, scrubbed
4 (15-ounce) cans cannellini beans, drained

In a pre-heated cast iron Dutch oven, over medium-high heat, add the bacon and cook until just crisp. Remove from the pot and set aside on a paper towel lined plate.

Season the pork and the chicken with salt and pepper. Add the pork pieces to the bacon fat and brown on all sides. Remove from pot and set aside on a large plate. Add the chicken thighs to the pan and brown evenly, then remove and add to the plate with the pork.

Add the onion, carrots and celery into the pot and cook for 3 to 5 minutes. Stir in the garlic and cook for 1 minute more.

Whisk in the flour and cook for 2 minutes, then add in the stock, bay leaves, thyme, oregano and sage and combine well.

Put the pork and chicken pieces into the sauce and cover. Reduce the heat and simmer until the meat is fork tender, about 2 hours.

Add in the cannellini beans and mushrooms and simmer, uncovered, for 25 minutes. Transfer to a serving platter, sprinkle with reserved bacon, and serve hot with warm crusty baguette, or over rice.

BON APPETIT!

PS – If you don’t have a cassoulet pot, here’s a fantastic deal on a Lodge enameled coated cast-iron 6-Quart Dutch Oven.

*Confit (con-fee) is a term for various kinds of cooked meats that have been immersed in a substance for both flavor and preservation. Sealed and stored in a cool place, confit can last for several months. Confit is one of the oldest ways to preserve food, and is a speciality of southwestern France.

Well, I finally got my chance when our families spent New Years eve together this year, and even got to snap some pictures of the process (thank God for iPads) while she explained the step-by-step for me.

Almond Roca has always fallen into the “take it or leave it” category for me…until I tried Mel’s.

If, like me, your only experience with this candy is the gold foil candy in the pink can…you haven’t had real almond roca yet.

The stuff is awesome!

Mel’s Amazing Almond Roca

• 1lb Salted sweet cream butter
• 2 cups sugar
• 2 cups sliced almonds
• Butter for cookie sheet
• 16oz semi sweet chocolate chips

1. Melt 1 lb of salted sweet cream butter butter in a thick-bottom pan, over low heat. Add 2 cups of  sugar, and 2 cups of sliced almonds, then increase to medium heat, stirring continuously, until your candy thermometer reads 300f

3. Pour the mixture into a buttered cookie sheet (with sides) and spread evenly. Be careful, this stuff is unbelievably hot! If there’s excess butter on top, blot it away with a paper towel.

4. Immediately sprinkle 16oz of semi sweet chocolate chips over the hot candy. Wait a minute or two for the chocolate to soften, and then spread it evenly with a rubber spatula.

5. Sprinkle the chocolate with 1/2 cup of sliced almonds.

6. Refrigerate the roca until the chocolate is set (about 2 hours).

7. Cut into squares with a heavy knife, and serve.

Still no details on when the show will air, or even which show it is…but here’s some behind the scenes action with Roberto and Andrew cooking a pig in the magic box!

I am going to be cooking a 50 pound pig in a home made china box in a week and a half. We did a test cook with a couple of chickens and the box got hot, close to 400 and cooked the chickens beautifully. I had them in a roasting pan with a tent of foil. Took the foil off for the last 30 mins and the skin crisped up nicely. Almost too nice. I am concerned that when I’m cooking the pig, rib side up, that it will burn and crisp up too much. Is it ok or even advisable to tent the pig for the first 2 1/2 hours? After that time I’d take it off and let it cook up to the 190-195 temp and then flip the pig.

What do you think?

Great website, only place I found any mention of internal temps for the La Caja China.

Brian

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Brian,

Thanks! With those kind of temps, I would certainly tent the pig in foil. I wouldn’t worry about crisping the rib side, as there’s not much meat on that side.

Given the heat your cooker puts out, I would recommend a couple of things:

1 – definitely want to use a digital thermo in the pig, and perhaps another inside the box.

2- I’d cut back on the coals by about 25%, so you don’t jump over 300d. Keep a close eye on it though, as a 50lb piggie will suck up a lot more heat that a couple of birds.

Will you be marinating the pig? I’ve found that when the skin has absorbed some extra liquid, it doesn’t burn as quickly.

Keep us updated!

-Perry

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Perry,

Gotta love the quick response, very much appreciated. I will tent for the first part. I have two digital therms, one for the piggy and one for the oven. I plan on doing a creole based spice rub and then inject a brine. I haven’t completely settled on the brine recipe. Will likely be a mojo based brine.

The Caja China website says it will take about 4 hours to cook a pig. Is that for a 50 pound pig? Wondering if I can use that time for planning.

Thanks,
Brian

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Easily, the best egg dish I’ve ever had, and it’ll be the traditional Christmas breakfast at our house from now on!

Light, fluffy, savory, ethereal…like eating an egg-flavored angel.

Here it is, exactly as written down…

Nana’s Chili Egg Puff