Added Equipment to my collection

I had a gift card to Sur La Table and decided last night would be as good of a time as any to add to the collection of equipment I have for BBQing.

Last night I purchased a Potato Grill Rack. Seems like a neat idea for cooking potatoes on the grill or egg.

Also added a new set of grill tongs and grill spatula. They seem to be made of high quality and the folding mechanism has a good locking feature similar to a buck knife.

Not much in the short term planned for the egg.. a few things going on that means I won't be home for dinner. But we'll back grilling soon.

Still on the search for a good pizza stone for the Big Green Egg. Trying to not have to drop $65 on the official stone, but as of right now I haven't been able to find anything that works.

Easter Leg (boneless) of Lamb

Easter time and my wife's favorite food is leg of lamb. We went with a boneless leg and for today's eggventure we took the recipe straight from the big green egg's web-site and followed it to the T. As usual we purchased the boneless leg from Costco. It was a nice 5 lb leg.

The recipe called for a paste made of flour, salt, marjoram, thyme, sage, pepper, garlic, ginger and olive oil. Mixed together the paste, instead of using a garlic mincer I used a microphone greater to help the garlic mix into the paste better. I then coated the inside of the leg with half of the paste/rub, folded up and used some cooking bands to essentially tying up the roast. I left the roast in the fridge for a couple hours to let the seasonings add some flavoring.

When it was time to get ready I fired up the big green egg with the plate setter in, legs up to 350 degrees. Put the roast on the grill rack and left it for an 75 minutes until it hit an internal temperature of 140 degrees.

Once the leg of lamb was ready I took it off and wrapped in foil for a good 15 to 20 minute rest. After that nice long rest we sliced it up in 1/4 to 1/2 slices and put it out to serve. The lamb was great. The combo of spices mixed in well and the lamb was cooked just right. Everyone that had some thought it tasted great.

Lessons Learned: Not a lot with this one. The lamb turned out great and tasted wonderful. I mistakenly cut two of the bands, so I should be more careful, but I did get the other 3 back to re-use. I can't say how easy these bands were versus trying to figure out the right way to tie up a roast, I'd definitely recommend them. They can be found at Amazon with the link below:



Next up... Not sure, but in two weeks I'm going to do a rib tasting of various rubs to start trying to figure out what I like best. Planning to do 5 racks with 5 different rubs.

Leg Of Lamb

My first steak on the Big Green Egg

Unfortunately I was too wrapped up in searing my first steak that I forgot to take pictures.

There was a sale on dry aged rib eyes at the local grocery store (Byerly's). They always have the best meat when it's on sale and affordable.

I picked up 4 Choice rib-eyes a little less then a pound each. Took the meat out of the fridge about an hour in advance to let everything get to room temperature.

I decided to use the simple technique recommended on the Big Green Egg web-site for rib-eyes. Set the egg up to 650 degrees for a nice hot sear. I was amazed at how fast the egg was able to get up to that temperature (about 20 minutes with two starter cubes).

When everything was ready I put the steaks on closed the lid and waited 2 minutes. Flipped the steaks over for another 2 minutes. One more flip and closed the top and bottom air vents and let the steaks "cook" for another 2 minutes. That was it. Pulled them off, let them sit for 5 minutes and they were ready to go..

The steaks tasted wonderful.. with the exception of that was thinner then the others, it cooked to a more medium-well, which is too cooked for my liking, but nobody complained.

Lessons Learned: What the thickness of the steaks.. This one seems obvious after the fact, I should have caught it before hand, but I didn't. Also don't get so caught up in the cooking that you forget to take pictures..

Next up: Boneless Leg of Lamb for Easter

First attempt at Ribs

Ribs have traditionally been my nemesis. I've tried them a few times on a weber kettle and a charbroil offset smoker with just no luck.

For this attempt I used a recipe Weber sent me for a caribbean inspired flavor. The rub was a combination of Salt, pepper, oregano, garlic powder and onion powder. The ribs were from Costco (again). I learned a lesson here, after working at it for 10 minutes to take of the membrane, turns out it was already removed.. Who knew.. A quick google search confirmed that is often the case.

Coated the ribs in the rub and put on the V rack I grabbed from Amazon and let sit for a hour.

I set up the Big Green Egg with the plate setter legs up, added two handfuls of soaked apple wood chips and fired it up to 300 degrees. Once the egg was ready, I put the v rack of ribs not the egg. Closed the top and didn't touch it for 3 hours.

While the ribs were cooking I made the glaze. The recipe called for guava preserves, but being in minnesota I had a hard time finding them. The alternative was apricot preserves, which seemed to work fine. Mixed with ketchup, garlic, ginger, 1 habanero and mixed over heat.

When the 3 hours were up the ribs looked perfect. I pulled them off, pulled the plate setter off and heated the egg up a little. Added glaze to the ribs and put back on the egg for a quick sear to add crunch.

After a quick fired sear, they were ready to go.

These ribs were by far my best attempt at the ribs. I can't wait to do it again. They were so tender almost fall off the bone, but not quite. Didn't need a knife at all to separate out portions. They were a tad bit salty for my taste, still fantastic.

Lessons Learned: Costco Ribs often already have the membrane removed. Guava preserves is really hard to find (at least in Minnesota) and look at going a little easier on the salt.

Still can't wait for my next round of ribs.

Pork Tenderloin - Take 2

With 3 pork tenderloins in the freezer, no reason not to cook a couple more. This time we had a guest over, so we thought we'd try the chili rubbed pork tenderloin with blackberry sauce from the Big Green Egg Cook Book

The Recipe calls for 2 pork tenderloins, rubbed in 1 tbls of chili powder, salt and pepper. The pork wasn't 100% unfrozen yet, so I put the rub on a little early and let them thaw on the counter. The turned a nice dark red color as the chili powder soaked in.

While the tenderloins were thawing I made the black berry preserves. This was a little bit of an adventure, but it seemed to turn out alright in the end. The instructions said to melt sugar in a small sauce pan on the stove and caramelize. Once caramelized pour in blackberry preserves, balsamic vinegar and chicken stock. But when I poured in the liquid the caramelized sugar instantly hardened and turned into a candy like substance. Maybe it's supposed to do this, maybe not, but after some stirring and boiling then hardened sugar eventually melted back in. But it had me worried there for a little bit.

This recipe called for the tenderloin to be cooked over direct heat around 400 degrees. So I fired up the big green egg, plate setter removed and got it going. Yesterday was quite windy, so no issue with getting the egg up to temperature. 15 minutes in I was ready to go.

Put the tenderloin on for 5 minutes, then flipped as the recipe asked. My thermometer read 155, so I took it off, let rest for 5 minutes in tin foil and started to slice it up. A little too rare for my liking, so I threw it back on the egg for 5 more minutes. The thermometer was reading 200, which has me a bit worried, because there is no way that the meet was 200.

Second time off the BGE and it was just right. A little taste of the meat on the cutting board and the chili powder was overpowering and a little spicier then I had expected. When I served it with the black berry sauce though, the tastes complimented each other really well. I don't think I would have liked the pork without the black berry sauce.

Lessons learned tonight: Need to figure out how to deal with bowling sugar and cold liquids, half the recipe for the blackberry sauce (had way too much of it leftover) and look at calibrating my thermometer or look for a better placement in the meat. Something was off.

Today's upcoming adventure. Ribs.. using a carribean glaze recipe I received from Weber's cook book.

Pork Tenderloin - 1

We were at Cosco the other day and picked up a package of pork tenderloin. We've always been happy with their tenderloins, they come in packs of 4. 3 go in the freezer and the other was for the grill.

For preparation I coated the outside in yellow mustard and then coated with a BBQ rub I had bought a while ago. Nothing special, just a generic BBQ rub. I let the meet sit for 30 minutes to take in some flavor. While the meat was sitting I soaked some apple wood chips in Smithwicks beer (still have lots left from St. Patty's day).

Fired up the big green egg with the plate setter in, legs up. Added the wood chips and once the egg hit 350 I put the pork in. It took about 45 minutes for the pork to get to 145 and I took it off, let it rest for 10 and then cut.

The pork was medium rare, a bit too rare for my liking. But I was able to use the pieces towards the end for dinner and save the middle more rare portions for the next day. The tenderloin was nice and tender and moist. So far so good on the Big Green Egg. The next day we used the leftovers to make mini cuban sandwiches on the panini press. They were fantastic.

Beer Can Chicken

For the second of the lower temperature adventures we choose to make a beer-brined beer can chicken. I took the brining recipe from the Green Egg Cook book.

Brined the chicken overnight with 8 cups of water, some salt, sugar and 24 ozs of light beer. Also soaked some cherry wood chips in a mixture of beer and water. Once the brining was complete I washed the brine off and patted dry. Basted the outside of the chicken with a little olive oil and then add my favorite rub from Dinosaur BBQ called foreplay. It brings a nice cajun flavor I hopped would compliment the brine.

Once the chicken was ready I loaded it onto the beer can chicken roaster my inlaws gave me for christmas a few years ago. I put a little bit of Harp beer and some more rub in the beer can attachment and let the chicken rest for 30 minutes.

Fired up the egg to 400 degrees with the wood chips and plate setter, feet down. About an hour 1:20 on the egg and the breast area was at 165 (have I mentioned how much I love the dual probe thermometer?). Let the Chicken rest for 15 minutes and then carved it up.

The Chicken was great. The brine added a nice flavor profile that went well with the foreplay rub, a little sweet, a little spice and some salt all mixed together. The skin was nice and crispy and full of flavor. We thought overall it was one of our better roast chickens and would be an easy reliable meal for when we have guests over. Definitely something I'll make again, play with the brine, rubs and wood some.

Also something I learned with the dual probe thermometer. There is an order in which you need to turn it on, otherwise the receiver will not pick up the temperatures. You need to run the receiver (the wireless portion you take with you), then turn on the part that the probes plug into. I was about to curse the thermometer and give it an early addition to the trash, but finally researched it (I guess I should have read the directions first). You learn something new every day.

Our first eggventure - Carnitas

When I bought the Big Green Egg the representative from the company said we had to cook on it a few times under 400 degrees to break in the seals before going with the high temperature sears.

We begin our first attempt with a simple recipe for Carnitas borrowed from another blog (not sure if they want credit, in case I screwed this up). I wasn't ready for a long cook BBQ pork butt just yet, so we went with an easier braising in a dutch oven.

We bought a 5 lb pork butt from Costco, cut into 4 to 6 inch pieces.
Added:
The juice from 4 Oranges (1 cup)
1 Tablespoon of kosher salt
1 teaspoon of Cumin
1 teaspoon of Garlic Powder
1 teaspoon of Onion Powder

Mixed all together in the dutch oven and then went out to fire up the BGE.

Filled the BGE with BGE charcoal, put a fire starter in and worked at getting it to 350 with the plate setter in, legs facing up with the grate on top. Our first adventure was temperature control. It took about 20 minutes to get the BGE up to 350. Put the dutch oven in with the cover on. From here I closed the top and bottom vents to 1/4 open. Being my first time with the BGE it took 40 minutes of small adjustments to get the temperature to stabilize, going as high as 365 and as low as 335. But in the end we were able to get it to stabilize around 350-353.

After the first hour, took the cover off the dutch oven and it smelled wonderful. Went another hour with the cover off, gave it a stir and checked in on it every 15 minutes, giving it a stir.

The recipe was supposed to take 4 hours, but the internal temperature hit 205 within 2.5 hours a little faster then I wanted it to. Time to take it off, let rest for 10 minutes and then pull apart into small strips using my BBQ gloves.

In the end the Carnitas tasted pretty good. Mrs. Eggventure made a bowl combining the Carnitas with Spinnach, black beans and a cup of Carnitas to keep the "points" down. I heated up a couple of corn tortillas, put some avocado, jack cheese and hot sauce with the Carnitas. It tasted pretty darn good. Mixed in with a Smithwicks left over from St. Patty's day and I was happy with our first attempt with the BGE.

Beercan Chicken is up later in the week.

Big Green Egg Table

Our Big Green Egg homemade table. Took a couples days worth of time along with some elbow grease.

Overall it measures 60" x 28". The top is made out of Ironwoods IPE Decking. A slate tile was inserted to work as a hot plate staging area. And a nice corona bottle opener for those days when I went to mentally "get away".

I've since picked up a cover from Lowes made for outdoor furniture. Works like a charm.

Welcome to Our Big Green Eggventure

It all has to start somewhere.

We are a married couple of 2.5 years, originally from the New England relocated to the Minnesota Southwest Metro in the last year and half.

It's time we begin our journey past just simple grilling into BBQing. We love to eat it, but now we need to learn how to cook it. We recently purchased a Big Green Egg, bought some supplies, build a table and waited for the deck to thaw out. Spring is just starting to peak out with our first day of 50 plus degree weather, so no better time then to begin the eggventure.

We plan to write about the good, bad and uglies as we learn the ropes of the BGE, the high temperature sear and the low and slow 20 hour pork butt and everything in between.

We don't claim to be experts or really know what we are doing at all. We're relying on word of mouth, books, videos and the other blogs out here in cyberspace. We'll be learning through trial and error and expect to have the occasion time we end up having to order pizza.

We welcome you all to Our Big Green Eggventure.