Smoked-Stuffed Jalapenos with Cheese & Butt, Bacon Wrapped

Posted on by June 30, 2022

6/30/2022 – Inspired by the recipe at ChiliPepperMadness to some extent.

Made this with Everman (mild) jalapenos from the garden.

Ingredients:

  • Jalapenos
  • Creme Cheese
  • Sharp Cheddar cheese grated
  • Diced smoked pork butt with a lot of 6POGS bark
  • Creole Seasoning

Directions:

  1. Cut jalapenos in half and removed the seeds and pith.
  2. shock in some creole seasoning.
  3. Mixed about 1 part creme cheese with about 3 parts cheddar.
  4. To the cheese mixture (call it 2 parts) mixed in 1 part chopped meat.
  5. Mary blended will with her hands.
  6. By hand pressed the stuffing into the halved jalapenos.
  7. Sprinkled with Creole seasoning.
  8. Wrapped with Zeigler’s thin-sliced bacon.

Smoked in the Recteq for ___ minutes at 300°.

Pickled Jalapenos And Carrots ToTry

Posted on by June 28, 2022

Taqueria-Style Pickled Jalapenos And Carrots

  1. First, slice 4-5 jalapeno peppers and 2 medium sized peeled carrots into 1/4 inch slices. Discard the stems. 
  2. Next, heat a bit of olive oil in a large pan to medium heat. Add the jalapeno and carrot slices. Cook them, stirring a bit, for 5 minutes.
  3. Add 2 chopped garlic cloves, 1 teaspoon Mexican oregano and 1 teaspoon black peppercorns. Stir and cook another minute, until you can smell the garlic.
  4. Add 1 cup water, 1 cup white vinegar, 1 bay leaf, 1 tablespoon sea salt, and 1 tablespoon honey or sugar (optional, for a touch of sweet).
  5. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for 10 minutes.
  6. Cool, then transfer to a jar along with the vinegar and water pickling liquid and seal.

From Chilipeppermadness.com

Catfish Creole – Quick & Easy ToTry

Posted on by April 12, 2022

Recipe by Acadiana Table at https://acadianatable.com/2022/04/11/catfish-creole/. Substitute a variety of fish or shellfish such as snapper, flounder, or shrimp. Use this as a guide for our fresh tomatoes, onions, peppers, and bluegill or bass.

INGREDIENTS

  • 4 tablespoons vegetable oil
  • 4 tablespoons all-purpose flour
  • ¾ cup (half of a 4.2-ounce container) C’est Tout Dried Trinity Mix
  • 1 tablespoon minced garlic
  • 3 cups seafood stock, plus more if needed
  • 1 (28-ounce) can peeled whole tomatoes, crushed
  • 1 (6-ounce) can tomato paste
  • 1 (10-ounce) can mild diced tomatoes and green chiles, such as Rotel
  • ½ tablespoon Acadiana Table Cajun Seasoning Blend, see recipe here
  • Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
  • Hot sauce, to taste
  • 2 pounds catfish fillets, cut into large pieces
  • 4 cups cooked angel hair pasta
  • ½ cup diced green onion tops
  • Lemon wedges

INSTRUCTIONS

  1. In a cast-iron pot or Dutch oven over medium heat, add 4 tablespoons of oil and an equal amount of flour. Stir the roux with a flat-edge spatula until light brown with a nutty aroma, about 5 minutes.
  2. Add the C’est Tout Dried Trinity Mix and the garlic, stir to mix well, scraping the bottom of the pot. Pour in the seafood stock and continue stirring until the vegetables rehydrate, about 3 minutes.
  3. Add the canned tomatoes, crushing them by squeezing them in your hand. Add the tomato paste, Rotel, and the Cajun seasoning. Stir and cook over medium heat for 20 minutes. Check the dish for flavor and thickness; season with salt, pepper, and hot sauce to taste, and add more stock to desired consistency (Note: It should be a stew-like consistency with chunks of tomatoes and diced vegetables).
  4. At this point, you have two choices: you can refrigerate and serve later, or you can add the catfish and continue cooking just until the fillets easily flake and are not overcooked, 10 to 15 minutes. Serve over angel hair pasta (or rice) and garnish with green onion tops and lemon wedges.
  5. Notes
    1. It is essential to serve this dish immediately since the delicate fish fillets will break down in the hot Creole gravy.
    2. serve this dish over pasta for a change, but most Louisianans will opt for rice
    3. always cook with “mild” Rotel so I can control the level of spice.
    4. Feel free to substitute a variety of fish or shellfish such as snapper, flounder, or shrimp. I’ve found that bottled clam juice is a good substitute for seafood stock.

Mary’s Chicken & Sausage Jambalaya

Posted on by November 24, 2023

4/4/2022 – This has been a favorite for years but we just now realized it is not on this website.

[Followup on 11/24/2023 – For Thanksgiving 2023, we made a double batch for Wednesday evening when Hughes and Leonards had arrived. For that cook we measured the ingredients more so than usual; in particular to get the ratio of the Trinity to be 2:1:1. We think that cook was better than past ones but must also acknowledge it included more meat than usual.]

Ingredients

  • Large chicken leg quarters: trim fat and extra skin; separate legs from thighs; dry brined for at least 24 hours.
  • Seasoned the chicken with Kit Whol’s Creole Seasoning and fried it.
  • Large can of Blue Runner Jambalaya Mix
  • 12″ hot pork sausage, cut into 3/4″ lengths
  • Tasso made with 6POGS plus cayenne and smoked for 4 hours
  • 2 medium onions chopped into large pieces
  • 8 ribs of celery, chopped into 1/4 inch lengths
  • four large garlic cloves, chopped small
  • 2 bell peppers chopped into large pieces, min. 1/2″
  • Kosher salt and fresh ground black pepper.
  • Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Directions

  1. Season the chicken liberally with Kit’s Creole Seasoning.
  2. Cook it to 165 in a heavy cast iron pot. Do not overcrowd the chicken. It will require 3-4 batches. Remove from the pot as it is done. Remove from the bone and cut into large bite-size pieces.
  3. Once the chicken is done, add to the pot with the oil and giblets, half of the onions and celery to the pot and stir until it is beginning to wilt. Then add the other half of both.
  4. Add the bell peppers and continue to stir until it is hot and wilted.
  5. Add the garlic, tasso, and sausage. Stir until the sausage is beginning to render.
  6. Add the can of Blue Runner
  7. Add 1-2 T of black pepper and salt to taste.
  8. Simmer for 2-3 hours.

Small Roast on the Recteq

Posted on by April 1, 2022

3/31/2022 – Today bought about a 2 lb. chuck roast at So. Ala. Custom Meats. Salted it to dry brine for a few minutes, added our fresh ground black pepper, and Meat Church’s Garlic & Herb rub.

  1. 3:20 PM – Put it on the Recteq set to Extreme Smoke.
  2. 4:00 – Turned up the temp to 260°.
  3. 5:00 – Turned up the temp to 350° and installed a probe that showed the IT to be 130°.
  4. 5:30 – IT is too high at 186° so pulled and wrapped in aluminum foil to rest for about 30 minutes.

It had good color and was moist. There was some red color to the internal portions despite the high IT. It had a good flavor that should be good as leftovers.

Next Time:

  • Dry brine the day before.
  • Leave the temp set at 260.
  • Watch it closer or set the alarm in the phone app.

Smoked Chicken on the Recteq

Posted on by March 5, 2022

3/5/2022 – The smoke turned out very good with a good flavor and very moist.

Cleaned fat and separated 10 lbs of legs from thighs. Salted them on both sides and seasoned with Creole Poultry Seasoning. Let them rest and warm-up for an hour.

Put them on the preheated Recteq set on Xtreme Smoke and let them smoke for 45 minutes. Raised the temp to 260°. With the probe in the largest leg pushed in to almost touching the bone.

When the IT was 180, checked other pieces with the Chefworks temp probe and they were all in the same range with none higher. Pulled and wrapped to rest for 15 minutes.

Smoked Chicken Legs Wrapped in Bacon

Posted on by October 23, 2022

2/28/2022 – Skinned and wrapped in standard (not thick) sliced bacon the large chicken legs then smoked them on the Recteq. After cutting them from the leg/thigh quarters they were salted two days before. Several hours before smoking they were “rubbed” with our blackening rub made per Prudhomme’s recipe, then wrapped with the bacon, and then “rubbed” again. That much of the hot rub was almost too hot.

  1. 5:30 PM – Laid the wrapped legs in the preheated Recteq on Extreme Smoke.
  2. 6:00 PM – Raised Recteq to 275°.
  3. 6:50 PM – Raised the Recteq to 400° as the largest leg was 160° IT with the probe almost touching the bone.
  4. 7:00 PM – The bacon-wrap is sizzling fast and looks like it should not go any further so pulled them and wrapped them in foil to rest.

They had a light smoke flavor and great color. The bacon was done and not soggy. The bacon wrapping worked out well.

T-Bone’s Smoked Then Seared

Posted on by April 30, 2022

2/14/2022 – These Valentine steaks turned out great. It was good that they were great pieces of 1″ thick beef…that happened to come from Rouses. After the smoke/grill process, the center was near pink with a gradual color change to the smokey-red, very damp surface. This was like a sous vid where the IT is slowly brought up to near done then seared to get that great seared flavor.

  1. They were salted for dry brining with kosher salt
  2. Sat out after salting for about 1.5 hours
  3. Preheated the Rectec to 180 Extreme Smoke
  4. Put them in until the IT on the thickest one was 110
  5. Put them on the hot preheated tail-gate gas grill
  6. Pull them when the IT on all but one part was 135 plus

4/30/2022 – Jeff & Maggie are visiting and brought 2 dry-aged 1.5-inch thick T-Bones. Prepared almost the same as above. They were very good but not outstanding.

  1. They were NOT salted for dry brining. It would have likely made them moister although they were not dry.
  2. Sat out for about 3 hours
  3. Preheated the Rectec to 180 Extreme Smoke
  4. Put them in until the IT on the thickest one was 110
  5. Put them on the hot preheated tail-gate gas grill
  6. Pull them when the IT on all but one part was 135 plus