Bacon Cheeseburger Hot Pockets for the Muffpot

We just completed our first trip of the season out to Wyoming to do a bit of mountain snowmobiling.  Went to Togwotee Mountain Lodge with 3 friends.  The lodge is nice but they don't provide us with a hot lunch when we're out riding.  So I had to hit the kitchen before heading west.  We have muffpots installed on our machines to heat our food up while we ride.  Hot pockets are a popular item for that.  I'm not going to eat that "packaged stuff", so I made my own.  I have 2 muffpots on my Ski-Doo, one for lunch and one for dessert.  But this time I put another hot pocket in the second muff pot for our guide, Brent.  Feed him well and he will find us better powder.  Too bad the  homemade hot pocket wouldn't make his Arctic Cat run better, but we had a great time anyway.

I made Bacon Cheeseburger hot pockets this time.  A great combination of ground beef, smoky bacon with a little ketchup and mustard, and of coarse, cheese.  Below is my recipe.

HOT POCKETS

Hot Pocket Dough

·                    1 ½ cups warm Milk

·                    1 tsp Yeast

·                    2 Tbs Sugar

·                    ½ tsp Salt

·                    1/3 cup Oil

·                    1 Egg, beaten

·                    4 Cups Flour

·                    1 Egg, beaten with 1 Tbs Water

In a small bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water. Let stand until creamy, about 10 minutes.

In a large bowl, combine flour, oil, salt, sugar, egg, and the yeast mixture; stir well to combine. Beat well until stiff dough has formed.  Place in a greased bowl and cover.  Allow it to rest until doubled in volume. Turn dough out onto a well-floured surface.  Form into a log and cut in half.  Then cut each half into quarters, you should have 8 equal pieces. 

Bacon Cheeseburger Filling

·                    1 pound of Ground Beef

·                    ½ pound Bacon, cut into pieces

·                    1 medium Onion, diced

·                    2 cups Cheese, shredded

·                    Ketchup and Mustard, to taste

Heat a heavy bottomed skillet on medium heat, add bacon and fry until crispy.  Remove to a plate lined with a paper towel to drain.  Pour off most of the fat, and return the pan to the heat.  Add the ground beef and cook until well browned.  Add onions and continue to cook until they are soft.  Transfer to a bowl to cool completely before assembling the Hot Pockets.  

On a floured surface, roll a dough ball into a 7 x 9 inch oval.  Add ½ cup of the burger mixture to the center.  Add a few dabs of ketchup and mustard, season with salt and pepper, then cover with a ¼ cup cheese.  Pull the short ends of the dough together and pinch tightly to seal.  Continue with the other 2 sides.  Place seam side down on a greased sheet pan.  Continue with the remaining pieces.  Cover the hot pockets with plastic wrap and allow to rest for ½ hour before baking.  Brush each piece with some of the egg wash and bake in a 350° oven for 25 minutes, or until golden brown.  Cool on a wire rack.  When cool, wrap each hot pocket in aluminum foil and freeze until ready to go snowmobiling.  Works equally well with Italian sausage, mushrooms, pizza sauce, and mozzarella cheese.

To cook Hot Pockets, remove foil and wrap in parchment paper.  Place in Muff Pot, put Muff Pot back into its holder on the exhaust pipe and ride the sled like you stole it.  It should be hot and ready to eat in 2-3 hours or 15 to 20 miles. 

October 2011 Hunting Trip

Another fall hunting trip is in the books.  My brother and I along with two other buddies roughed it in the Chequamegon National Forest couple of weekends back.  A little grouse, woodcock, and duck hunting and some rustic camp cookery.  Fortunately we brought plenty of food because there were no ducks and we didn't shoot many grouse.  We did however get 2 woodcocks and 1 grouse.  So Saturday afternoon I whipped up a appetizer to throw on the grill.  And it also happened to coincide with cocktail hour, go figure. Here is the recipe.

Bacon Wrapped Grouse and Woodcock

Ingredients

·        2 Boneless, skinless Grouse Breasts

·        4 Boneless, skinless Woodcock Breasts

·        ¼ cup Kosher Salt

·        ¼ cup sugar

·        1 cup of hot water

·        1 can of Point Beer

·        1 Tbs Black Pepper

·        2 Cloves of Garlic, smashed

·        1 Tbs Italian Herb Seasoning

·        Thick Cut Bacon

Mix salt and sugar with the hot water. Add the pepper, garlic, and Italian seasoning to the brine liquid.  When salt has dissolved, add half of the beer to the brine and drink the rest. Cut the breast halves into 1-½ inch pieces and place into zip top bag containing the brine.  Place in fridge or cooler for about an hour.

Drain liquid and discard; wrap each piece with a half strip of bacon.  There should be enough bacon to go around the breast pieces twice.  Secure with a wooden toothpick.  If you don’t have toothpicks you could whittle some out of a chunk of wood or use wooden matchsticks with the tips cut off.  Whatever works?

Place the bacon wrapped breasts chunks on a grill.  Grill them slowly, about 20 minutes or until bacon is crispy. For extra flavor, drop the grill grate into the fire so you coat the pieces with ash.  You know who you are.

Trout Almandine

• Fresh Rainbow Trout, filleted
• 2 cups Sliced Almonds, divided
• ½ cup flour
• 8 Tbs Butter
• ¼ cup Amaretto

Place 1-cup almonds in a food processor and pulse to a fine texture.  Place in a shallow bowl with the flour, mix well to combine.  Heat a non-stick skillet to medium high and add 4 tablespoons of the butter. Meanwhile add a heavy pinch of the remaining sliced almonds to the flour-almond mixture. Take the trout, flesh side down, and dredge them in the flour and almonds, pressing down on the fish.  Repeat with the remaining fillets.  When the butter is melted and bubbly, add the trout to the skillet carefully flesh side down.  Sauté for about 5 to 6 minutes or until browned.  Carefully flip fillets and cook another 1 to 2 minutes.  Remove fish to a plate and loosely cover with foil.  Wipe the skillet clean and return to heat.  When the skillet is hot again, add the Amaretto and flambé.  Allow the alcohol to cook off.  Then add the remaining butter.  Stir to combine and pour over the trout.  Season with salt and pepper.  Serve with parley boiled red potatoes and fresh asparagus.

Apple Waldburg Balsam Smoked Pork Porterhouses

When it comes to pork, nothing beats a thick-cut bone-in pork chop.  I brine all my pork now.  Brining is a great way to increase flavor and moisture content of leaner cuts of meat, such as pork.  If you have never brined a piece of pork before you don't know what juicy and tender is all about.  Not only does it provide flavor it prevents the meat from drying out as you cook it.  Brining is simple and basically there are no rules.  Brine is salt...  You can use whatever you like with it; water, beer, or wine.  Most of the time I use beer or vinegar.  This time I used some artisan vinegar I got at Vom Foss.  The vinegar was a Apple Waldburg Balsam vinegar. The pork was 2-inch thick, bone-in pork porterhouses.  The brining took 24 hours.  The fun started at the smoking process, time to tap a frosted glass of Point Special and watch pork chops smoke.  The rest of the story goes as follows:

Brine:

·                    1 cup water

·                    ¼ cup Kosher Salt

·                    ¼ Brown Sugar

·                    1/3 cup Waldburg Apple Balsam Vinegar

·                    1 Tbs Whole Peppercorns

·                    2 Tbs Pickling Spice

·                    2 cups Ice Cubes

Put a medium saucepan over high heat; add water, salt, brown sugar, vinegar, peppercorns, and pickling spices.  Heat just to a boil; remove from heat and mix thoroughly to dissolve the sugar and salt.  Add ice cubes to cool brine completely before using.  Put the chops and the brine in a zip top bag and place in the refrigerator for 12-24 hours. 

 Brining Ingredients

 Smoker:

After the brining process, prepare smoker for low heat.  Place chops on the grate and smoke slowly for 1 ½ to 2 hours.  Make sure smoker temperature is around 160 to 170 degrees.  You do not want to cook the chops in the smoker.  Add wood chips to the coals to produce a nice smoke.  You can use any fruit wood chips like apple or cherry, but don’t use mesquite, oak, or hickory, they are too overpowering.

 Chops on the Smoker

Smoked Chops Ready for a Spice Rub

Grill:

Prepare your gas or charcoal grill for direct high heat.  When the chops are done smoking you can add any spice rub you would like at this time.  I chose to use a herb seasoning made from crushed brown mustard, garlic, rosemary, thyme, and sage.  The chops will be somewhat dry to the touch after smoking, so you can brush a little olive oil on them prior to the seasoning.  

 These chops are ready for some grilling action!!

During the smoking process, the chops have cooked partially.  They do not require long cooking time when they reach the grill.  Put the chops on the hot grate and grill for 4-5 minute or until the internal temp. reaches 145 degrees for medium doneness.  Remove them to a plate and allow them to rest for 5 minutes.

 The final product, yum!

Sorry no photo of the inside of the chop, by this time I had a few beers and was too hungry to take any more photos, you know how it goes.

The Drunken Gourmet is back in town.

It's not that I was out of town or anywhere in particular.  Not even taking a break from cooking all together, but just incommunicado for awhile.  I still cook almost daily, a guy has to eat. I just lack the ambition to write about it.  My summer was full of grilling, frying and food creations of all kinds.  I even got some photos of some dishes.  The process of getting them to this blog and getting it down on paper, is a whole other deal.

Here are the highlights of the past several months in a few words...  Camp cookery in the Chequamegon National Forest, 16 oz. pork chops back in May.  Wing Night here at home every other Thursday.  Homemade Salsa and my own concoction of wing sauce.  I brined and grilled seven 10  pound boneless pork loins for my friend's wedding. Another camp cookery episode in a different part of the Chequamegon Forest which included brined and grilled grouse and woodcock breasts.  All of these would have been excellent blog choices.  However, here it sat idle.  I digress.

So here I am in the middle of November, no Packers game today.  Cold, rainy,  a great day for a beef stew.  My way, Drunken of coarse.  I'm not drunk, well not today, but the stew is. 

Drunken Beef Stew

·                    1-½ pounds Boneless Beef Short Rib meat or Stew Meat, cubed in ¾” pieces

·                    ½ cup Flour

·                    1 Tbs Salt

·                    1 Tbs Fresh Ground Pepper

·                    1 Tbs Paprika

·                    2-4 Tbs Canola Oil for frying

·                    6 Cloves Garlic, Whole

·                    1 Medium Onion, roughly chopped

·                    1 Bottle of Point Amber Beer

·                    3 Whole Bay Leaves

·                    Few dashes of Worcestershire Sauce

·                    5 Medium Potatoes, peeled and chopped

·                    5 Carrots, chopped

·                    1 Medium Onion, Chopped

·                    Handful Celery Leaves, chopped

·                    1 14 oz. can Diced Tomatoes, with liquid

·                    ½ cup Green Peas, frozen

Preheat oven to 325° F.  In a large cast iron Dutch oven, heat 2-tablespoons oil over high heat.  In a large bowl mix flour, salt and pepper, and paprika together.  Dust beef in flour removing any excess.  Fry the beef on all sides careful not to overcrowd the pan or the meat will not brown properly.  Remove well-browned pieces to a plate and continue with the remaining beef pieces.  Add more oil if necessary.  When all the meat is browned, reduce heat to low and add the garlic and one of the onions.  Sauté for 2- 3 minutes and then add the Point Beer.  Use a wooden spatula to break up any browned bits on the bottom of the pan.  Bring this mixture to a boil; add bay leaves, Worcestershire sauce, cover and place in oven for 1-½ hours.  Check the pan after one hour and add more beer or water if needed.  The meat should be very tender at this point.  Then add potatoes, carrots, the other onion, and the tomatoes to the Dutch.  Mix thoroughly, and season with salt and pepper.  Cover and place back in oven and continue to cook another 1-½ hours or until the carrots are tender.  Then add the peas and heat through.  Serve with fresh bread and a cold Point Amber.

Cubed Beef

Fresh Veggies

Beef Braising Away in the Beer

Stew Served on top Fresh Bread, yummm!

Smoking Good Time

 Last weekend I had the entire Saturday to get some yard work done and lounge around the house.  No sense in just letting the smoker grill just sit there doing nothing, so I put it to work...  Baby Back Ribs.  It was about 2 pm when I put match to paper to light the charcoal.  But I am getting ahead of myself.  

It really started in the morning with putting the rub ingredients together and applying it to the racks.  I like my baby backs with a little zip, but J doesn't like the heat as much so she just salted her rack(the ribs that is).  My rub is a combination of paprika, chili powder, salt, brown sugar, black pepper and cumin.  Her rub was  Penzy's Pork Chop Seasoning.

  The grill was ready for meat around 2:30.  I used my Brinkman smoker grill utilizing the in-direct grilling technique.  Ribs on!!  I employed  a cast iron smoker box and hickory chips for flavor.  I also used a mop consisting of apple cider vinegar and Worcestershire sauce.  I placed this mix into a small spray bottle applying it every 1/2 hour or when I added more wood chips.  I kept the internal grill temp. around 250 degrees F and smoked the ribs until the charcoal went out, about 4 hours. 

Then removed the ribs to a half sheet pan and covered them with aluminum foil.  The ribs are basically ready to eat at this point, but I had to put them in a warm (200 degree) oven for a while due to a couple of friends that stopped by for a few cocktails.  We hardly have cocktail hour here, because its cocktail HOURS.  The beers were flowing earlier in the day while the ribs were on the grill, but its whiskey time. 

J and her friend, lets call her Debbie, started in on the margaritas and Mai Tais well before the ribs were done.  See above, the beer was mine.  Anyway we weren't ready to eat yet, so the ribs kind of hung out in the oven.  This turns out to be the secret of lip smacking smoky fall off the bone goodness.  The moist warm environment under the foil makes the ribs turn out this way.  Eventually I got the ribs out of the oven and then brushed on some homemade jalapeno jelly on them instead of a BBQ sauce.  I brought them down stairs to the bar and J, me and our friends went through them with a couple of more drinks.  I can't wait to do them again.

Wings

I love hot wings... I could eat wings once a week. Last summer J. and I did wings every Thursday night for dinner. We grilled them, fried them and even once, baked them. Grilling was the easiest way to do them. Just fire up the gas grill and toss them on. We also grilled them on a charcoal grill. Those were awesome. Frying the wing turns out to be the best tasting wing. It just takes more time and having to deal with the oil afterward. We played with the sauces. J would make her sauce and I would do mine. I like my sauce to be a bit hotter than she would like. Below are the wings from the last time we did them (a few weeks ago because I was ski-dooing out west). I dusted them in flour and deep fried them, sauced them in my favorite pepper sauce with some butter and sugar. Sorry, no exact quantities on the wing sauce, I'm bound by confidentiality. HA HA.