The RITE Bar-B-Q

The Eyes of Texas are Upon You
Part 5

Clem Mikeska’s Bar-B-Q
1217 S. 57th
Temple, TX 76504
254-778-5481
http://www.clembbq.com/index.html

So for a couple months now I have been wanting to go down to Temple for a little BBQ, as I have heard and read that Mikeska’s is one of the best in the bizz. But I just never got around to it, something always came up and I really just didn’t want to go by myself. These trip are so much more fun with a friend or two. So Sunday morning rolls around and one of my friends (Ale) texts me, and suggests we go to Temple for lunch and hit up the mall, instead of just staying in town to see The Rite. I thought that was a great idea… not even a broken window on my car was gonna stop me from road-trippin’. (was robbed a couple days earlier- thanks to who ever f-up my SUV for a busted-azz Ipod) .

So after gorilla tapping my window up (stronger than duct tape), loading up the ipod and filling up the tanks we hit the road. What should be a 30-40 minute drive feels like a walk in the park, im not sure if it was the awesome company, the low traffic, great music…. probably a combination of each, but it felt like a short drive. So we exit off into Temple, Im checking the street numbers, looking for 57... I see 49, 50, 52, then all of a sudden I get Ave H and J what shit like that. Apparently I was looking on the wrong side o the road of the underpass and the numbers continued on the other side, so I had to pull a U. But whateve, it all worked out.
So we pulled in, I must say, this is one fancy place. Its huge, its well designed and decorated, it has a outside patio for dinning and a massive inside dinning area (with lots and lots of stuffed animals all over the walls.) Even got an ice-cream and gift shop area. The place looked very clean and shiny, people were friendly. I really liked the over all feel.

So next was the check out the menu, their menu is fairly basic like most BBQ joints. A single meat plate, 2 meat plate, meats by the lbs, sandwiches, sides, potatoes, and desserts. They are a buffet style restaurant, like most BBQ joints. You tell them what you want and they serve it up for ya down the line. I chose the 2 meat plate with Brisket and Turkey, and Ale chooses the sausage plate. For sides I choose the classic yellow potato salad and their cole slaw, a side of spicy sauce and chocolate moose & Oreos for dessert. Ale gets their yellow potato salad, mac & cheese and their regular sauce. Once you go through the line and pay your bill, you walk over the side bar to get your drink, breads, and side items like onions, pickles, peppers, etc. I got some Frost Bite Root Beer since Iver never had it, also picked up some bread and pickles.

The first thing I try is the turkey; It was juicy and had a good flavor. Next was the brisket; it had a nice deep colored smoke ring, was tender and juicy, and had a great flavor. According to his site he seasons the brisket, which I could taste some of. Was a nice overall flavor, but I couldn’t pick out any specific spices. It was some of the best brisket Ive had yet. The cole slaw was nothing very special, Id call it run of the mill Slaw; fresh, sweet, and simple. The potato salad, now this through me for a loop and Ale. The texture was slighty smooth, and you could tell it was fresh… but the flavor… It had this very different after taste, kinda reminded me of jalapenos and allspice, I wonder if there used sweetened jalapenos… cause those would’ve given it this flavor profile or something very close. It was something Id never tasted in potato salad before…. very different. I kinda liked it, it grew on me the more I ate it. The bbq sauce wasn’t anything out of this world, id had better and id had worse. It was your run of the mill tomato based bbq sauce. Last but not least, the Rootbeer, I liked it. Kinda reminded me of Barques Root Beer, but less “bite.”

Over all we had a great time eating lunch there, enjoyed the food and the atmosphere. It was definitely different than what either of us are used to eating in our home town…. but in a good way. Id like to go back and try their ribs and pork loin.

After lunch, instead of heading back to the 254, we decided to visit the Temple mall. Shopped around, walked around (had to loose the BBQ weight), got some Henna Tattoos and got to watch the RITE at the malls theater.

Had a great day with a great friend… and I hope there are more to come.

My BBQ Adventures

Last Couple of Weeks

So I’ve decided to not only document the new restaurants and BBQ joints I dine at, I figure Ill start documenting my home BBQ Adventures. Ill try to cook a recipes or two out of my BBQ books every week, as well as try a few of my own recipes and document how they work out and the road getting there.

Well over the last 2 weeks I’ve already tried 5 different recipes- Cornbread, Grilled Chicken Thigh, Cole-slaw, Deviled Eggs and Baby Back Ribs.

The grilled Chicken Thighs weren’t out of a book, they were just something I threw together. I marinated them over night in a little Peach Nectar with roasted ground mustard, white pepper, sweet paprika, and kosher salt. After marinating I put a slight rub on them with some salt and pepper, then lit the grill. While the grill was warming up I started on some corn bread from scratch, following a recipe from one of my BBQ books. It consisted of your basic stuff- corn meal, flour sugar, etc… nothing out of the ordinary. I haven’t grilled chicken in a long while, and Ive only grilled chicken thighs once before, so its not my forte… but I want to get better at it and try some new things. By the time I finished grilled them, I decided I had started with too high of a heat (and couple bad flare ups) which resulted in slightly charred skin. But in the end, the chicken was moist, sweet and delicious. So next time, Ill stick with the same marinade, maybe add some brown sugar and remember to start with a lower heat on the grill. The corn bread was pretty good too, I personally would’ve preferred it to be sweeter, so I took a mental note of that.

Later that week, I cooked a beef stew that I just threw together… but thought this would be a good chance to try a revamp of the Cornbread recipe. I changed two things in the recipe- 1. I used nearly twice as much sugar. 2. I used a stone ground , mildly course, corn meal. The end result was a sweeter cornbread, with a very different texture. The courser cornmeal gave the corn bread a slightly more chewy ness to it, which I really liked. It was like gum chewy, it was just more to chew due to the bigger pieces, its hard to explain. I guess try to imagine a snickers with shopped peanuts, instead of whole ones. It totally changes the texture, but not in a bad way. Kinda made me feel like I was eating cornbread made out on the trail.

Today I decided to go all out, I smoked some Baby Back Ribs, made some cole-slaw and fresh deviled eggs. Two of them I made from recipes in one of my books, the ribs and the eggs. The cole-slaw I just kept it simple with mayo, lemon juice and sugar and just mixed together till it tasted good. The Ribs were a two day process. Day 1 I had to prep them, by removing the membrane and putting the rub on them. The rub was a “Caribbean” style rub, with allspice, cinnamon, garlic, onion, and a few other things in it. After rubbing it down, I wrapped it in plastic wrap and placed it in the fridge to rest over night.

Next I had to make the Pineapple BBQ Sauce from scratch. The Sauce consisted mainly of pineapple juice, dark rum and diced onions and diced pineapple. It was different from any other BBQ Ive ever had, and unlike most I wouldn’t eat this one “by itself.” For one it was a little chucky so I threw it in the blender, and two the flavor kinda restricts it to just saucing meats- while cooking and right after. Not really a “dip your bread in” type of sauce, but still very good. Would probably also be good on pork or chicken. So I finished making the sauce and threw it in the fridge until I began smoking the ribs.

The Ribs I started smoking at around 1pm, it was around 50 degrees with a little wind out side and felt great. I smoked them using mesquite and apple wood for flavor, and mesquite lump charcoal primarily for heat. Over the past few months Ive gotten a lot better at judging and maintaining the fires in my pit to where I can walk away for almost an hour at a time, as I refuel it and monitor the heat. Which is really pretty great, cause it allows me to multi-task… like watch some football, cook other items, or go do some work around the house. Where as the first few times I smoked stuff, I didn’t move away from the smoker unless I had to. Id just camp out there with a cooler, my ipod and a few books and maybe my laptop. So while the ribs were off smoking, I started work on the slaw and the deviled eggs.

Sorry to say I kinda cheated with the slaw, I really didn’t want to buy a whole head of cabbage cause I wouldn’t eat all the slaw it would produce. Soooo I bought a small bad of pre-chopped slaw mix. But I did use real Mayo, lemon juice and sugar. I kept it simple, using about a cup of mayo, a tsp of lemon juice and just kept adding sugar until it was sweet enough for my taste. In the end it was good, but I think I could’ve knocked up a couple more degrees of sweetness.
Now I love deviled eggs, and part of my job at work is to make them for the store and I like the ones we make at work, but I wanted to try a different “base”. So I went through my books until I found one that sounded good and put it to work. It is a mayo and sweet relished based recipe…But I did add a couple of things 1. I added some hot sauce for a kick 2. I added some egg whites for texture. And for fun, in half the “batter” I added a tsp of yellow mustard for little more kick. Then came time to fill the egg whites with the batter, but low and behold I lost my pastry bag… so I went poor school on it and used a Ziploc bag with a corner cut off. Both batched of Deviled eggs were pretty good, only thing that could’ve made them better would be the Apple Smoke Bacon I thought about adding.

Now that the D.E. were done and the slaw was done, there wasn’t really anything else to do but wait for the ribs to finish up. Every hour Id check on the pit, Id open up the smoke chamber to glace at the ribs and sprtiz with a pineapple solution, as directed by the recipe… to add flavor and moistness. At the 2 hour mark, I rotated the racks of ribs so they’d cook fairly evenly. I also cut out the apple wood after the 2 hour mark, cause I feel that after that point the meat has built up enough bark and flavor that can be applied from that specific wood. By 4:50 they were falling off the bone goodness, so right before I took them off I slathered them with the Pineapple BBQ Sauce, close it up and “turned up the heat.” After about 5-10 more minute of cooking I pulled them off, wrapped them in foil and left them to rest.

After about 10-15 minutes of Resting it was time to DIG IN! The ribs were very good… they had a nice smoke flavor that wasn’t too overpowering, the pineapple sauce added a nice sweetness and extra crunch to the bark, and the rub added subtle hints of flavor. Not only was the flavor good, but the meat was tender and could easily pull it off the bone, and it was moist, not dried out at all.
All in All, it was a very successful Week.

The Books I found these Recipes are as follow:
Corn Bread: America’s Best BBQ, Davis and Kirk
Deviled Eggs: America’s Best BBQ, Davis and Kirk
Caribbean Pineapple Baby Back Ribs with Pineapple BBQ Sauce: Planet Barbecue!, Steven Raichlen

$16 Dallas Bar-Ba-Que

The Eyes of Texas are Upon You
Part 4

Big Al’s Smokehouse
3125 Inwood Rd
Dallas, TX 75235
(214) 350-2649
http://www.bigalsbbq.com/

Earlier this week my oldest cousin needed a lift to Dallas for a flight, so naturally I offered my services because I am just that awesome of a cousin. Yep, that must be it…. Not the free dinner and roasted green chilies he offered to me.

So I figured while up in Dallas maybe I could grab so grub. I Google mapped the surrounding area and stumbled upon a BBQ joint called Big Al’s Smokehouse and decided itd be a good place to try out. Not only was it very close to Lovefield Airport, but they have been around for 30 years, so they must be doing something right.

The drive to Dallas really wasn’t that bad, till we got right outside the airport and thanks to a traffic accident, the flow of traffic…. Well it was a crawl. But we eventually made it to Lovefield, dropped his ass off, and then I was FREE! Free to eat some BBQ that is. So I popped on by Big Al’s and scanned their menu.

After glazing over their menu, which is a nice selection of items…. Quite a few meats and plenty of sides to choose from. I did notice that their prices were fairly high, must be ego or Dallas prices, cause I haven’t paid this much for BBQ ever. But I was hungry and wanted to try the place out, so I picked their 2 Meat Plate. For the meats I chose brisket (obviously) and some of their pulled pork (love pulled pork). The brisket they cut in front of you behind a clear panel, and the pulled pork they scooped out of pan in a steam table. The sides, even fries, seem to be self serve… at least at night they are. They had plenty to choose from, but I went with their cole slaw and creamed sweet corn. Its actually funny that they had creamed corn, as I was discussing with my manager earlier in the week, that not many places serve it.. and low & behold I find one that does. For a drink I stuck with a sweet tea, and of course grab some of their BBQ sauce and a jumbo roll. Once all and said, this meal cost me an even $16, the most Ive ever for paid for some BBQ… besides a fund raiser. So the question is… “was it worth it?”

Well the brisket had a decent smoke ring, nice overall texture though I did have a couple of dry and chewy pieces. The flavor was fairly neutral with a hint of smoke, but I didn’t taste any seasoning. The rest of the pieces were juicy and tender. So over all I didn’t really find the brisket to be anything overly special. The pulled pork was pretty good. It was juicy, granted it was sitting in juice and contained in a steam table, but it still had a nice consistency and flavor. It would’ve been good as a sandwich topped with some cole slaw. Speaking of cole slaw, I really like their slaw. It was a thick cut mixture, fresh and crunchy veggies, with a nicely sweet sauce. The creamed corn was by far my favorite dish I got. It was well prepared, great texture, excellent flavor. It definitely wasn’t canned, it was too fresh and flavorful for that. If you like creamed corn as much as me, you’ll enjoy this. The sadest part of the meal was the BBQ sauce, kinda reminded me of watered down ketchup… ya… no bueno.
Oh and I cant forget the self-serve, FREE soft-serve ice-cream they offered. That was a nice touch.

The restaurant itself was very nice and roomy…. Plenty of seating, a couple of Tvs, and the employees were nice. But man was it dead, it was just me and one other guy who was reading the newpaper… while a few people came in throughout to get food to-go.

So back to the question I asked earlier, was it worth $16? Honestly I don’t think it was. Ive gotten BBQ else where that was comparable and nearly half the price. But that’s not to say I didn’t enjoy the meal overall, cause I did…. Id just rather not have to pay soooo much for it. Im considering going again to try their ribs and chicken, but I might try to take a friend and each of us get a 1 meat plate and share… cover more. Or if for some reason I take my cousin back up to that airport, or anyone else, Ill probably stop by and pick up a pulled pork sandwich and a side.

Turtle Food

TURTLE FOOD
p1

Making home made pizzas is one of my favorite meals to do. Not only is it fairly easy, it is fun and tastes great. Ithink everyone should make their own pizza every once in a while. It can be a fun thing to do with friends and family. I try to make it at least once a month. Last month our family had a Pizza Party, where we all bring a pizza or two to chow down on, hang out and watch some good ole football. Most people buy a pizza from Papa Rollos, Papa Johns, Rosatis and etc. I decided to make a couple of mine.

Before making the pizzas I have to make the dough from scratch. I use a fairly basic recipe that my Chef handed down to me. It works great and tastes great, but I’ve been trying to make it even better- Sweeter and with a little hint of garlic. So ive been experimenting with different sweeteners- sugar, honey, agave syrup, etc. On the two batches of dough I made for the party I used honey in one and agave syrup in the other. Now the first dough came out just perfect, great consistency and puffed properly. The second one, well… didn’t work out too well. IT baffled me, I couldn’t figure out what had gone wrong. It bothered me so much I had to text one of my culinary buddies and try to figure it out. After chatting we came to the conclusion that I was an idiot and forgot to add a full 2 cups of flour. So I had to start over and make it over again.

Once I got past the dough stage I had to figure out what exactly I wanted to put on them. I had already bought plenty of different fresh veggies, meats and cheeses. The sauce I used on them was a basic tomato sauce with garlic and pepper. One pizza I decided to top it with Roasted Green Chili, Jalapenos, Orange Bell Peppers and Jalapeno Bacon. The second pizza was topped with Pineapple and Canadian Bacon. For cheese I topped them both with Mozzarella and Fresh Parmesan.

Both pizzas were a hit, everyone liked them… Especially the green chili one, it turned out to be rather spicy (Least thats what I hear, I actually never managed to get a slice of this one). What I do know is that I still want a more flavorful crust, one with more zing. I also need to remember to add the correct amount of flour.... ;)

But I do beleive the Ninja Turtles would be proud and asking for more.