Month: September 2012

This is the most badass mountain of nachos I’ve ever had; well…at least since the first time I did it in 2004.

Photos courtesy of Chrystal Cienfuegos

If you didn’t know, I love football.  I love sports in general but football is all I have time for anymore.  Although my team will likely never win it all, my friends and family create great memories every season rooting for our perennial loosers.   With football having a much shorter schedule than other sports, it allows fans to continually make “an event” out of most Sundays that would otherwise be delegated to house work…shmouse work.

Like most football fans, our fall and winter Sundays revolve around food and drinks.  Sometimes the food is easy and sometimes it’s a lot of work, but it’s always delicious and usually centers around a grill.  This years Superbowl party was no exception.

Since I didn’t do much cooking during the regular season we tried to go all out this year and get everyone involved.  And everyone DID get involved, it was beautiful.  We weren’t rewriting the book on anything, but when you attempt to do things properly and there’s a bunch of hungry people, there’s just a lot to do.

We had fried chicken bites with dipping sauces and grilled carne asada nachos.  Fried chicken is fried chicken, no real need to discuss that one other then stating how ridiculous perfect fried chicken is, ohm nom nom.

The event was around the nachos since 90% of the party had never been witness to such a thing.  Granted we’ve all had nachos before, but never like this.  I think we may have even missed the picture of just before the lid goes on which showed how tall the pile was.  We were actually gonna do two batches but just decided to go big on one.

What pictures cannot show is the depth of flavor achieved from the charcoal.  The BBQ smoke flavor permeates and the bottom gets all cheese fried crusty.  We of course fried our own chips, grilled the meat, made the beans and made the salsa.  The second batch was going to have some nacho cheese swirled in but we never got there.  I think this was all done during halftime.  How we pulled ourselves away from another mind blowing Super Bowl halftime show…I’ll never know :-|

Chrystal is a Local photographer and does an amazing job for any event.  http://chrystalcienfuegos.com — I highly recommend her boudoir shots for any woman wanting to give their husbands whiplash.  My wife took some and I’m still cleaning drool off the keyboard.

Mmmmm beef fat…

Not suet…which is clean, easy melting fat that’s obtained from  just outside the kidney of a bovine. But beef fat trimmings.  Not only is rendering fat kinda cool, but it’s a deeper flavor that reaches juuuust outside our norm.  Easily obtained from a serious butcher shop, suet and fat is inexpensive, easy to render and gives you a clean, savory cooking oil.   On new years eve I set out to make traditional carnitas.  Slow cooking pork butt in pork fat until tender, then raising the temp to fry and crisp.  Cooking meat in its own fat compounds the flavor and rings in that authentic bell.  Unfortunate to those classic carnitas plans, my sister in law was coming over and like always, I forgot she doesn’t dig on the swine.  So I switched it up a bit and decided to try beef carnitas instead.

Getting The fat

Went to the local butcher and asked ’em about getting some suet.  They didn’t have it and I didn’t want to drive across town to get it, so I asked them if they had any fat trimmings.  They didn’t right then, but would later in the afternoon.  Cool. I went back later and got 10 pounds, came home and chopped it up into fist size chunks. Beef carnitas, here we come.

All it takes to render fat is a heavy bottom pan and a heat source on low.  It took about 3 hours to render and I didn’t really do it to perfection.  Towards the end my impatience got the best of me and I got it a little hot.  It didn’t damage the oil to detriment, but it took away the clean purity of perfectly melted fat.  I put it through a strainer to remove the fried pieces of crispy fat and any particulate matter. In went the lime soaked beef to a long slow bubble, bubble, bubble.

Chewing The Fat

Towards the end of cooking and several cape cods later, I over-cooked the beef a bit.  The result was extremely delicious buuuuuut, a bit chewy.  Not to jerky standards but still jaw wearing.  You’d think I’d have learned my lesson at the family reunion, (referenced in my engagement story). Oh well.

Earlier that day when I got the fat, I realized I was gonna have a fry station ready to rock for midnight munchies, so i picked up some yukon gold potatoes and flour tortillas. Around 11pm I fried the potatoes and they were salty and luscious…and needed at that point. But what came next was an experience no one saw coming, and no one will forget. Well…it was NYE, so a couple people might forget.

The Next Fatty Level

“Did you suck the head?  Did you get any juice when you sucked it?” –Most common question of the day and an entertaining out of context quote.  Gigitty.

What is a mud bug chug? A crawfish boil.

I’ve got a buddy named Doug. Doug (who is on loan from Louisiana) just threw his 2nd Annual: San Diego Mud Bug Chug. The big difference in a classic boil and this party is that Doug is a home brewer of scrumptious and original beer. Yes, pairing beer and crawfish is nothing new. But Doug does it really well, and in copious quantities. Again: home brewer. 

Hoppy SD

As hop heavy beers gain in popularity, it still isn’t the standard for American beer drinkers…unless you live here :-)With San Diego’s growth in the craft beer world, the city has not only made a name for itself that is synonymous with quality, craftsmanship and originality, but it’s also known for it’s distinct style of hop heavy profiles; and in many circles, double IPA’s are referenced as “San Diego style Pale Ale”. This movement has made even casual San Diego beer enthusiasts familiar with quality, bitter, full flavored brews. I say this because (and correct me if I’m wrong), I question how many people have had the opportunity Doug gives us.

To reiterate

The experience of a crawfish boil with 3 outstanding home brews (out of a tap), all of which gave their own story to the day. So…thanks Doug.He brewed his flagship IPA coined, Matrimony Ale, which (me thinks), was made the first time as a wedding beer for a mutual friend. Matrimony Ale is classic, balanced, refreshing, and smooth; and whenever it’s around, is my favorite of the day. The other two beers of the day were a spiced ale and a smoked lager. The spiced ale was spiked with Kochu, a distinct Korean chile pepper that gave a perfect amount of heat on the back end; and when I say back end, I mean on the finish, lulz. The other brew was a smoked lager that tasted exactly like it was intended to taste. Nice and smooth with a bite of smoke that begged for a bug.

The flavor keeps coming

That begging is what blew me away. The perfect food pairing of the crawfish with the spiced ale or the smoked lager, both on their own or even together. Yes together…if you’ve never combined quality beers before I highly recommend it. If someone scoffs at the idea just let it go. Later on in the party their curiosity will get the better of them, and they will be forced to apologize and give you props. ***Disclaimer–This only works with tapped, high quality beer and a little forethought toward the end product. Meaning…no suicides. Crawfish are boiled in a powerful chile and spice broth that can go with any beer really. But these two beers, whether separate or combined, connected the dots to a perfect food and beverage pairing.

Pairing

To the uninitiated, a food and alcohol pairing is successful when both food and drink are elevated as the flavors intermingle. This unlocks hidden flavors or pulls known flavors to the forefront.It was a gorgeous San Diego day with lots of friendly, happy people gettin’ down and dirty on a table full of authentic cultural cuisine. I relish communal eating experiences and I get fired up even more when I know someone took the time to prepare something artisanal; something that can’t be re-created by myself, or procured anywhere else. It lets your guests know that you care about quality and their happiness.Here’s some pics until next year, woot woot!

The Spices