I haven’t blogged for ages, as other things like work, and wedding prep appear to be getting in the way. Life eh? It’s obviously got it’s priorities for me all wrong. Anyhow, we recently had our first BBQ of the year. I recently got a hot kettle smoker off Lakeland (tupperware porn ahoy!), and it is my current pride and joy. Expect many more posts that involve me smoking anything that can be smoked. I was keen to try it out, and the first recipe that had to be done was for the slow smoked beef short ribs over at the fab blog Will Eat For Money: http://willeatformoney.blogspot.com/2010/04/recipe-slow-smoked-short-ribs-of-beef.html.
This was extremely simple, save for having to order the short ribs off my butcher (good old G. G. Sparkes, they never fail me). You do have to marinade the ribs the day before though, so don’t read this recipe at 3pm on a Sunday when you’re looking to eat at 6pm. It’s worth it though. These are seriously moreish – smokey, tender, falling apart meat, that pairs beautifully with a bit of BBQ sauce.
Alongside the short ribs, I had been itching to make my own burgers and burger buns. I had a dilemma between making potato rolls a la Josh over at Cooking the Books: http://cookingthebooks.typepad.com/cooking_the_books/, or the brioche burger buns Helen of Food Stories had made from a recipe at Smitten Kitchen: http://smittenkitchen.com/2009/07/light-brioche-burger-buns/. In the end the brioche buns won out, though the potato rolls will most definitely be made soon. The brioche buns turned out incredibly well – light, slightly sweet but with a bit of weight to them. Moreover, they weren’t so massive as to prohibit being able to eat your burger without getting lockjaw.
For the burgers, I had wanted to make a Richard Corrigan recipe that involved adding bone marrow to the mix. I had pondered as to how easy it would be to extract the marrow from the bones, but in the end it was very easy. This just involves putting the marrows bones standing upwards in a 150 degree oven for around 15 minutes. Once slightly heated, the marrow can be extract from the bones using a knife. Then it’s just a case of putting it in the fridge to firm up, at which point it can be chopped up to put in your burger mix. The rest of the recipe involves softening some finely chopped onion and marjoram (I couldn’t get any so used oregano), adding it to some minced beef, lots of seasoning and your chopped bone marrow. Easy as.
Sadly, I have no photograph of said burgers due to them being scoffed incredibly quickly. Instead, here is my own recreation. I think you can see from this picture how wonderful they really were.
Alongside this beef-fest, my fabulous friends brought along scallops, langoustines, Thai dressing, anchovy and rosemary dressing, and chillies fried in butter (in a homage to the fab Meatwagon Bobcat burger). Now those are the types of friends anyone can be happy to have around.
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