Ye Olde Garden

First plant purchases of the season!

I’ve caught the spring fever bug if you’ve sneaked a peek at my Instagram. Temperatures in the North Texas area are in the low 80s for the past week. It was time for my seasonal commute to North Haven Gardens and big box stores around town.

First, off to North Haven Gardens…herbs, colorful annuals and perennials snagged:

I wanted to start some lemongrass from seed, but haven’t found any local retailers selling seed. Calloway’s Nursery in Denton had this one specimen in stock, so I figured I’d pick it up…along with a bag of expanded shale. The kitties like inspecting grassy things.

I need to shop for some catgrass seed!

I finally found some Red Rubin basil seeds at Home Depot. Couldn’t resist picking up lily bulbs and more annual/perennial color. Weekend garden project, here we come!

 

Dining, Recipes

Recipe: Taiwanese-style Three Cup Chicken or Pork

I’m a fan of cooking shows, especially the globe trotting kind. While he’s no Andrew Zimmern (whose Bizarre Food series I absolutely enjoy), I recently digested Ainsley Harriott’s street food series “Eat the Streets” on Netflix and was excited to try out some ideas I gleaned from the show.

One of them is a strangely familiar dish, bearing passing resemblance to Filipino adobo chicken…in which chicken parts are braised in a soy sauce base.

Three Cup Chicken/Pork is an easy poultry dish made herby with garlic, ginger and basil. As the meat braises in a spicy-salty-sweet sauce, the basil really gives this dish the perfect finish.

I found pre-cut drumsticks at my local 99 Ranch grocery, but you can chop your own or substitute chicken thighs. I’ve also cooked this with pork belly–which is especially divine.

Serious Eats’ article on San Bei Ji helped me refine some of the measurements and ingredients to suit my family’s tastes. As it stands this recipe contains a lot of heat, but feel free to adjust or omit the chili peppers.

  • 1-2lbs of chicken drumsticks, cut into 3rds (or pork belly)
  • 2oz black or toasted sesame oil
  • 2oz mirin or rice wine
  • 4oz kecap manis, sweet soy sauce
  • 1-2oz chopped garlic
  • 1-2oz ginger root, sliced into rounds
  • 5 pieces of thai bird chili peppers (less to moderate the heat)
  • .5-1oz thai basil

Over medium-high heat, saute garlic, chili peppers and ginger root in sesame oil until fragrant. Add protein, rice wine and sweet soy sauce and braise for 15-20 minutes. Add thai basil and toss until wilted.

Dining, Recipes

Recipe: Smoked Lamb Shoulder + Smoked Pulled Pork

Take 10lbs of lamb shoulder (we sourced ours from Central Market), rub generously with salt, pepper and garlic powder overnight, then smoke over oak and hardwood just like a beef brisket.

Mind you that this lamb shoulder does have a few rib bones in it, so a little more studious monitoring is required so it doesn’t overcook. Our Thermoworks Thermapen MK4 and Dot make this an easy task.

Most BBQ lamb recipes I’ve seen treats lamb like a steak, to be grilled or seared over high heat to a rare temperature. In this instance we are cooking low-and-slow for juicy, fatty, shred-ready pulled lamb.

We wrapped the lamb shoulder at the 165F mark and smoked till internal meat temps reached 195F-200F in our BGEXL, again as we would a beef brisket. I should mention that we also had a pork shoulder (boston butt/picnic) also sharing grill space with the lamb that we sauced and wrapped at the stall temperature. (Our favorite bottled sauce on most everything barbecue is Trader Joe’s Organic Sriracha & Roasted Garlic BBQ  Sauce.)

Once rested, we started pulling the meats apart and feasted on the bbq goodness for over 2 weeks.