Campfire Fajitas

Well... we were going to call this Campfire Surf and Turf Tacos, but when we got to the store they didn't have any acceptable shrimp.  Further, it's not really tacos.  It's more fajita than taco.  So, instead of shrimp we got some Real Tree Smoked Sausage.  As I said in the previous post this was the first campfire/completely outdoors recipe we've done.  This was last Friday night at Crooked River State Park.  I was camping out there so I could set up early to smoke some pork shoulders and chicken the next day for my company picnic.  The gates of the state park open at 7am, and that just wasn't early enough to get start smoking so it would be ready by noon.  On to the Friday night dish of Campfire Fajitas.

This is the first collaboration I think of my brother in law and I on the blog.  Here he is, Nicholas Jeremy Brandon, a real American Hero.

So the two of us made our way to the office to get the meat I already had in the office refrigerator and the other essential supplies for the company BBQ.  We got some camping equipment from the garage, cooking materials from the kitchen, fresh herbs from the garden, smoker from the shed, and of course fire wood.  Then we made our way to the grocery store to pick up the meat, red onion, garlic, sausage and coffee singles.

Here's our beautiful camp set up.  It's the best spot in the campground.  Lots of shade, slightly secluded and river front property of course.

Here's our beautiful river sunset.

...told you there'd be broments.
And now, campfire fajitas:

So, when camping and cooking over an open campfire it is very important to get the fire going first.  It's much better to cook over a bed of coals than a roaring fire, but to each their own.

We got the fire going then set up camp.  Then we rubbed the pork shoulders and chicken down for the next day and put them back in the cooler.  Next we got to prepping for the meal.

For this you will need:
1 pack of flour tortillas
5 red potatoes quartered
2 large cloves of garlic, chopped
Olive oil for tossing
Salt to taste
5 jalapeno peppers, seeded and sliced
1 sliced red onion
1 pack of strip steak sliced into fajita size bite pieces
1 pack of your choice of smoked sausage cut into bite size pieces (we used Real Tree).
1/4 cup fresh chopped basil
2 tablespoons fresh chopped oregano
2 tablespoons fresh chopped thyme

Get a grill skillet.  You can find them almost anywhere.  Start with the potatoes in the skillet first, as they take the longest to cook.  Toss them with some salt and olive oil before fire roasting.

While the potatoes start you can chop the rest of your ingredients.  Once all the ingredients are prepared toss them all together in a bowl or right there on the cutting board with a few drizzles of olive oil and salt to taste.
Add them to the skillet and mix with the potatoes.  Sizzle, stirring on occasion until onions and peppers are softened to your liking.  Push your coals aside and leave the skillet close enough to keep warm and start serving up in the tortilla shells.

Best campfire meal I've ever had.  Sorry dad, it was better than campfire hamburger helper.

One last picture... Here is the rising Georgia sun over Crooked River.

Up Next Surf and Turf Tacos (over camp fire)

So I've got this company picnic on Saturday.  It's at the local state park which has a nice campground.  I've been commissioned in smoking the BBQ for the picnic Saturday.  It's going to be my biggest smoke ever.  3 Boston Butts, 16 pieces of chicken, and a tiny bit of tofu for the vegans.  The ranger is a friend of mine and I've arranged to be at the picnic shelter far before the sun rises Saturday.  In order to do this I will need to be camping.  Chicken takes no time, but pork butts take at least 8 hours.  But this isn't really about Saturday.  This is about Friday night.  A real bromantic time, with my actual bro, well in law.  Oh the broments we will have making this dish.  I plan to cut some fresh herbs from the garden tomorrow, rosemary, oregano, basil how about thyme too.  It takes a little thyme sometimes friends.  Going to bring out some fresh garlic and just a little bit of salt and olive oil.  That's just the seasoning!  We will also have wild Georgia shrimp, some steak cuts, quartered red potatoes, maybe some onion and jalapeno.  All of this, coming soon over an open camp fire.

Stay hungry my friends.

Here it is, Pork After Dark with Au Gratin Sausage and Potatoes

So this smoked sausage walked into a club and saw this fiiiiiiiine lookin' tenderloin.  He said, "hey girl, let's go to my place and make some delicious love."  Tenderloin was a real lady so she made Smoked Sausage wine and dine her first.  She said, "you better soak me in a nice pineapple juice and herb brine first and get me some nice bacon lingerie."  Smoked Sausage really wanted to seal the deal so he did as he was told.  Well, enough of that.... Here's the details.

You will need:
1 smoked sausage link of your choice
1 pack of bacon
1 regular unseasoned pork tenderloin
24oz of pineapple juice
2 cloves fresh garlic
1/4 cup fresh chopped parsley
1/4 cup fresh chopped thyme
1/4 cup fresh chopped oregano
1/4 cup fresh chopped basil
2 cups sliced red potatoes
1/4 cup of salt
About 2 cups of shredded cheese of your choice
1/2 stick of butter
Flour to thicken the butter roux
Milk to thin the roux
Seasoning salt to taste
Bread Crumbs

Brining the Tenderloin:
In a medium size tuperware container combine the chopped herbs and garlic with 1/4 cup salt and 24oz pineapple juice. Mix it all up to dissolve the salt.  Add the tenderloin and let it sit over night in the refrigerator.

Bacon Weave:
Weave bacon like string weave, large enough to cover your tenderloin.  See below.

 Tenderloin:
After 24 hours remove the tenderloin from the refrigerator.  Slice a hole straight through the middle of the length of the tenderloin.  Push the smoked sausage through the tenderloin and cut off the sausage once it's all the way through.  Now cover the exterior in the bacon weave.  Preheat the oven for 350 and cook until internal temp is 140.  Then broil for 5 minutes to crisp the bacon.  Remove and let sit for a few minutes then slice and serve.

Potatoes:

Start a roux for the mornay sauce.  In a small sauce pan melt a half a stick of butter.  Add flour to thicken to a wet sand consistency.  Thin this out with a little bit of milk at a time constantly stirring with a whisk.  Once smooth and creamy add seasoning salt to your taste and the rest of the smoked sausage diced.  Now add your choice of shredded cheese a little bit a time constantly stirring.  In a medium size baking dish make layers of mornay, potatoes, mornay, then shredded cheese.  Repeat until you run out of your mornay.  Then cover with foil and bake at 350 for 40 minutes.  If you put it in the same time as the tenderloin it will be ready at the same time.  After 40 minutes top with a layer of bread crumbs and broil with the tenderloin.  Remove and enjoy.

This was a good one folks.  Even the wife liked it.  Till next time, take care of yourselves, and each other.

Pork After Dark Preview

Up next, we violate a pork loin with a smoked sausage.

Russia again

Well, after some message board/googling I just learned that the Russia hits are likely spam, and the spam is blocked by blogger.  Thanks blogger.

Russia?

So I've been looking at where the hits on this blog come from.  An impressive 10% come from Russia.  So Russian readers, what kind of food do you folks like to eat?  Is there anything special you'd like to see on here?  How are you finding the blog?  How's the weather over there?  Thanks for reading.  Give me an email sometime jeremyscole525@gmail.com

Mexisagna (Lasagna, Mexican style)

First, don't be alarmed by the green hue.  It comes from the cilantro and poblano chilis.  This one really did take me back to middle school Mexican Hot Dish.  Weird how it always followed Taco Tuesdays.  Well, maybe not.  I'm guessing Mexican Hot Dish following Taco Tuesday was just a rebirth of unused taco meat from the day before and soft taco shells and cheese, which is essentially what this is.  So here is what you'll need:

1 20 pack of soft flour tortillas
2 large cloves of fresh garlic
About a half cup of fresh cilantro
2lbs of ground meat (I used turkey this time since we have some non-red-meat-eaters at work) - This was for a Quince De Mayo pot luck at work.
1 chopped onion
3 vine ripe tomatoes (medium size chopped and seeded)
3 chopped poblano peppers or the chili pepper of your choice depending on how hot you want it
4 cups of shredded fiesta blend cheese

Start by browning the meat.  Cook it all the way through.  While this is happening you can chop your produce to go into the food processor.  Once you've got everything chopped put it in your food processor.  Liquefy that glorious business.  This will pretty much turn into a fresh salsa.  Once your meat is browned, strain it.  Return the meat to the pan you cooked it in and add the salsa.  Stir it all well on medium heat for a few minutes.  Now get the baking dish.  I used a large rectangular one.  First spray the pan with cooking spray or your bottom layer will get stuck.  Now make one layer of tortillas, then cheese, then meat, then cheese again, then tortilla again.  Now another layer of cheese, then meat, then cheese, and tortilla for the last time.  You should have a tiny bit of cheese left to sprinkle on top of the casserole for presentation.  Now bake in the oven at 350 for about 30 minutes, remove, slice up and enjoy.

See you next time friends.  Another special thanks to the 14% of total readers in Russia, holler a comment or email sometime jeremyscole525@gmail.com

Super Simple 3 Ingredient Crab Salad

The young lady I work with on Mondays always has great taste.  On Mondays we make lunch together.  Today she wanted something with crab.  I didn't get out to do some real crabbing so imitation crab had to do.  So here it is a super simple crab salad sandwich.

You will need:
1 package of crab meat (imitation or real).
1 Poblanno chili pepper (or any kind of pepper if you want it spicy go ahead and fire it up)
1 Cup of mayonnaise or Miracle Whip

Instructions:
Chop the pepper and crab in small pieces, then combine in a bowl all the ingredients and mix well.  Serve on your favorite bread or just eat it the way it is.

Enjoy friends.

Mexican lasagna coming soon

So we are having a Cinco de Mayo themed pot luck next week at the office.  A number of ideas came to mind but one stuck out.  Do any of you remember Mexican Hot Dish from the school cafeteria growing up?  Personally, I can still taste it.  The taco meat, cheese, and soft tortillas just coming together in glorious casserole form, ah delicious.  Not quite sure how it will go down when we put our spin on it.  I can assure you it will sizzle with freshness.

Pan Seared Lamb with Mustard Cream Sauce, Black Eyed Pea Cakes and Southern Style Mustard Greens

My first rodeo with lamb.  Thomas and I cooked this one up.  I used to work at this place in Savannah, GA that had a black eyed pea cake sandwich that was marketed as a homemade veggie burger.  I've been wanting to try to make one myself for a long time now so here it is.  Thomas suggested the sour cream and salsa based off his delicious experience with a black bean rice cake at a Fernandina Beach Florida restaurant.  He also suggested the mustard greens.  All around this was pretty delicious.  Enjoy friends.  Also I'd like to put a nice shout out to the readers in Russia.

Pan Seared Lamb, Black Eyed Pea Cake, and Southern Style Mustard Greens

For the lamb you will need:

-         4 lamb chops

-         Olive oil

-         A rub of equal amounts dry mustard, onion powder, garlic salt, and black pepper.

Directions:

In a large skillet turn on medium heat with a thin layer of olive oil.  Rub one side of the lamb and place the lamb rubbed side down.  Rub the top side now.  Cook to your desired temperature, flip and finish on the other side.  Let rest for a few minutes and then top with the mustard cream sauce.

For the greens you will need:

-         1 bag of fresh mustard greens

-         2lbs of leftover smoked pork

-         Juice of 3 limes

-         ½ cup of salt

Directions:

Wash the greens first.  Then place in a large stock pot with water to submerge, salt, lime juice and smoked meat.  Stew for about an hour.

For the black eyed pea cakes you will need:

-         2 cans of black eyed peas

-         3 cloves fresh chopped garlic

-         ¼ cup fresh chopped parsley

-         1tbsp fresh chopped oregano

-         1tbsp fresh chopped thyme

-         ¼ cup fresh chopped basil

-         ½ sweet onion chopped

-         Flour to bind

-         Juice of 2 limes

-         Olive oil

-         Oil for frying

Directions:

Strain the peas and place in large mixing bowl.  Pour the lime juice and herbs in the mixing bowl.  In a small skillet sweat the onion and garlic with a light amount of olive oil.  Then add the onions and garlic to the mixing bowl.  Mash the contents well.  Now add the flour for binding, just enough to bind.  Make some pea cakes (kinda like making hamburger patties).  Makes about 5 cakes.  Heat some cooking oil in a shallow skillet and fry until golden brown.  Top with salsa and sour cream.

 

For sauce and toppings:

Mustard Cream Sauce:

-         1 cup sour cream

-         ¼ cup mayonnaise

-         Horseradish brown mustard to taste

*mix ingredients together and serve on top of lamb

Black eyed pea cake topping:

-         sour cream and salsa

Tortoise Q Smoked Wangs!!!!

We've got a newcomer to Dinner Bromantic.  This recipe is his.  Welcome Blake Moody.

Blake and I met back in August of 2012 at a BBQ competition where he took first in ribs.  Blake is the owner and operator of Tortoise Q BBQ Competition BBQ Team out of Jacksonville FL.  This all started with a pot luck at work tomorrow where I decided to smoke some wings for the folks at work.  I've never smoked just wings before so I sought the internet and then turned to Blake.  Blake has been a longtime fan of Dinner Bromantic and I am pleased to finally collaborate with him.  This really is all him.  I just did the cooking.

First thing you need to do is go to the store and get a 2 liter of your preferred soda.  I used Dr. Pepper as I see it often used in BBQ recipes.  You will also need Siracha sauce, brown sugar, 6 limes, real butter, and wings.  You will also need a smoker and roaster pans.

Next combine in a sauce pan 3 cups of the soda of your choice, 2-3 cups of brown sugar, and the juice of your 6 limes.  Boil and then reduce heat, stirring often until reduced to syrup.  While you are cooking the glaze fire up your smoker so its ready.  

Next, prepare your wings in roaster pans.  Season liberally with salt and pepper and spread the wings evenly.  Cut up 1 stick of butter per pack of wings into small 1 inchish cubes.  Then spread those butter cubes around the pans.  

Next, smoke the wings as seasoned with the butter, salt, and pepper for about 45 minutes at 250 degrees.

Continue stirring your glaze until it is syrupy while you are smoking.  After this strain the butter from the chicken, and pour half of the glaze over the wings and toss evenly, cover and smoke for another 25 minutes.

After this, uncover and pour the rest of the glaze over the wings and toss again.  Smoke for another 25 minutes.

Welcome to deliciousness.

You're welcome.

Pan Seared Salmon with Cucumber Buerre Blanc and Roasted Asparagus

Interesting birth of this dish.  I had just spent the day with my niece and I was on my way back home to think of something to cook.  I had considered just getting sushi to go, since I was told to go ahead and have something my wife wouldn't want since she was out with her friend.  Then I though about cooking up something fancy.  When I'm on a fancy quest of culinary, I often call Thomas.  Thomas is the Executive Dinner Service Chef of a local restaurant and a solid bro.  We've done some BBQ together and one of the recipes on here before.  I had his stuffed grouper recently at the restaurant The Mad Hatter Tea Shop in St. Marys, GA.  It had this delightful sauce called a ber blanc on it.  Which is litterally in French (butter white).  So I called Thomas and asked him how to create a ber blanc in a nutshell.  Then I noticed he was unloading supplies at the restaurant.  So I said, "I'll just come to you and help you unload."  So we discussed food and what I should make.  This then led to us cooking this delighful dish together.  Enjoy friends.

Pan Seared Salmon with Cucumber Buerre Blanc and Roasted Asparagus

You will need:

-         One large filet of salmon.

-         2 cloves of garlic finely chopped.

-         ½ red onion chopped.

-         1 ½ stick of butter.

-         1 pack of Arborio rice.

-         1 large can of chicken stock.

-         1 cup of heavy cream.

-   About 1 cup of white wine, we used pinot grigio.

-         About 4 tablespoons of olive oil.

-         Salt, pepper, and garlic powder to taste.

-         About ½ cup of malt vinegar.

-         1 cucumber chopped.

-         ¼ cup fresh grated parmesan.

-         1 fresh bunch of asparagus (trim the edges).

Begin with the prep work of chopping your ingredients: Red onion, garlic, cucumber, and chop about a stick of butter into cubes for quick melting, and trim the asparagus.  At this time you may also want to season your salmon.  We seasoned it by a simple rub of salt, pepper, and garlic powder.  Make sure you season both sides of the filet.

Buerre Blanc:

We recommend starting the ber blanc first.  In a small saucepan begin sweating ½ of your pre chopped onions with the malt vinegar.  Sweat this down until it is almost dry.  Now add the white wine, cream, and cucumbers.  With a stick blender, blend down the onions and cucumbers in the sauce.  Now reduce this by half.  Right before it comes time to plate the dish add the butter about 2 cubes at a time and whisk well.  Continue until it is nice and thick, but not too thick.  Season even further with salt, pepper and garlic powder if you like.   

Risotto:

In another small sauce pan pour in your chicken stock and turn that burner on medium low.

In another pan, a deep frying pan is what I use, begin sweating your garlic with ½ a stick of butter and the rest of the red onion you have chopped.  Do this until your garlic is brown and the onions have caramelized.  Now add with a ladle, one ladle full of chicken stock to your deep frying pan with the garlic, onions and butter.  Immediately add the Arborio rice to the pan.  Continue adding ladles of chicken stock, one ladle full at a time constantly stirring the rice until it has reach a consistency where it doesn't dissolve in your mouth but has a slight chew to it. 

If you don’t time it perfectly for the risotto to be done at the same time as everything else, that is ok.  Just remove from heat and cover.  Once it comes time for plating just add a few tablespoons of butter to the risotto and stir it up.  This should break it apart and make it more presentable.

Asparagus:

Preheat the oven to 350.  In a baking dish season the asparagus with a light dressing of olive oil topped with salt, pepper, and garlic powder to taste.  Then lightly coat them with the Parmesan.  Bake for about 10 minutes.

Salmon:(Make sure you season both sides of the filet)

In another frying pan, get it on medium hot with the olive oil.  Place your salmon fillets down on the hot pan.  Cook until the color of the fish changes about ¾ the way up the filet.  Flip and cook for about another minute to minute and half. 

To plate the dish:

We started with a generous portion of risotto.  Topped with the salmon filet and buerre blanc sauce, then asparagus at a very appealing angle.

We really enjoyed this one.  Hope you all do too.

Fat Tony's Cottage (Shepherds pie with an Italian twist)

So my brother in law and I wanted to cook something this time.  We were stumped on what we wanted to make but then it hit us, shepherd's pie.  So I googled a typical shepherd's pie recipe and then we made it our own by changing it up a bit.  The major change didn't happen until we were in Publix, specifically at the meat locker when we chose to go with ground Italian sausage rather than ground beef.  We had already got Parmesan cheese for the mashed potatoes.  If you look back at one of the first posts there is a Parmesan garlic mashed potato recipe that we used in this recipe too.  For our first rodeo with shepherd's pie, this turned out really nice.  The hardest part was thinking of the name, "Fat Tony's Cottage."  

Ingredients:

1lb ground Italian sausage

1lb red potatoes

1 cup Parmesan cheese (fresh shredded)

1 cup white cheddar cheese (fresh shredded)

1/4 cup fresh chopped thyme

1/4 cup fresh chopped oregano

1/2 chopped Vidalia onion

1 cup fresh or frozen peas

4 cloves fresh chopped garlic

3/4 stick of real salted butter

1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce

Fresh ground black pepper to taste

1/2 cup heavy cream

1 egg yolk
About 2 tablespoons of flour

Let's get started.

First you'll need to quarter your potatoes and get them boiling in a pot.

While the potatoes are cooking chop the onion, garlic, and herbs.

Once you have your herbs, onion and garlic chopped start heating a deep frying pan with 1/4 stick of butter.

Spread the butter all around and then add the onions, herbs and garlic.

Cook these until the onions have sweat (they should be translucent). Stir often.

Now add the peas and stir until the peas are cooked (about 3 minutes).

Preheat your oven to 400

Now add the sausage.  Break it apart into smaller pieces.

Add the Worcestershire sauce. 

Mix this with the rest of the pan and cook until browned thoroughly.
Add flour and mix well to thicken

Add pepper as you like.

Potatoes should be ready to strain about halfway through the cooking of the meat layer. 

Strain the potatoes and return to pot.  

Add the Parmesan, heavy cream, and the rest of the butter (1/2 stick).

Mash the potatoes well.

Now add the egg yolk and mix that thoroughly. (very important ingredient as it is a binder for the potatoes).

Now get a square baking dish about 3 inches deep (typical Pyrex square dish).

Spread out the meat mix first, evenly across the dish.

Next spread out the mashed potatoes.

Top with one cup of fresh shredded white cheddar.

Bake for 25 minutes.

Taste:  The sausage really sets it off along with the Parmesan and oregano flavoring really give it a nice cross culinary profile.  A hearty delicious meal with elegance and explosion of flavor.

The Memphis Asian (Memphis style BBQ sandwich in egg roll form)

This one all started one night when my brother in law and I were playing Monopoly and we got hungry.  I had left over smoked pork butt in the fridge and egg roll wrappers too (I was going to try to sub egg roll wrappers for seaweed in making sushi, but was able to find the seaweed).  Glad that worked out.  So I said "dude let's make some smoked pork egg rolls!"  He said "hell yeah I'm down!"  That night we made a very simple one, meat and egg roll with a mustard sauce dipper.  While eating it I said, "you know what would make this a million times better?  Memphis style coleslaw."  Two weeks later, the Memphis Asian was born. For your ingredients you will need:

All you see here:  1 Bag of dry coleslaw, egg roll wrappers, your favorite mustard based bbq sauce and some left over smoked pork butt.

I only used about half of the bag of slaw and about a pound of pork.  It should make about 16 rolls depending on how heavy you stuff.  I kinda eye balled the sauce, but it was in the 1/2 cup ball park.

Next, gather your ingredients in the bowl:

Toss that beautiful mess:

Now start wrapping.   Once you are ready to wrap get a shallow pan of oil hot.  If you have a deep fryer that would probably work better.

Here is the step by step wrapping.  Wrapping directions are also provided on the egg roll wrapper package.

Step one:

Step two:

Step three:

Step four:

Now it's fry time.  Make sure you've got good hot oil.  Since all the ingredients are cooked the frying takes less then three minutes (about a minute and a half on each side).  Unless you are deep frying which then it's till they are golden.

And now.... The Memphis Asian!

Two words, FRICKIN DILISIOUS!

Smoked Chicken Salad

I did this one with one of the kids I work with.  Last night I got my new smoker and smoked 2 whole chickens.  Instead of tacos, as planned for our Monday cook at therapy, we made chicken salad.  Turned out great.

You will need the above ingredients:

2 breast smoked chicken
1/2 cup celery finely chopped
1 cup mayo
1/2 tablespoon of your favorite bbq dry rub

Directions, simple.

Measure all your ingredients, place them in a large enough bowl to hold them all, and mix well with a fork or spoon.

Put it on some bread for a sandwich or just eat as is.

Enjoy friends.

Coming up... Smoked chicken salad.

Soon to come... smoked chicken salad.  So delicious.