SPECIAL - BBQ Brethren "Noobians vs. Veterans" Throwdown!!!

[caseydog]

I figured I should do a cook just for this throwdown -- a meal that will not appear in any other throwdowns.

I looked through the fridge, freezer and pantry of the SS Farkanaut, and came up with all the ingredients without having to go buy anything.

I started by pulling a bone in pork loin chop out of the freezer, and marinading it overnight in some Stubb's Pork Marinade.



I also made my very first homemade mac-n-cheese. Starting with a roux of butter and flour, to which I added 1.5 cups of half-and-half, and two cups of cheddar, and some other stuff, until it looked like this...



I didn't have any macaroni, so I used penne instead. Topped with bread crumbs, and into the oven.



While that baked, I fired up the 18.5 OTG, and grilled my pork chop to an IT of 145.



While the chop rested, I grilled an ear of sweet corn -- but forgot to take a picture of the corn grilling.

The end result was a juicy and flavorful chop, some crisp and tasty corn, and a wedge of thick, creamy mac-n-cheese.



CD

[Happy Hapgood]

Originally Posted by landarc

As long as his palm point forward and not backwards, I think he will be okay.

That's safe for everyone except CD!

[Happy Hapgood]

What A Shot CD! Dang! Should we show even a little mercy to the Noobs? Great cook!

[campdude]

I was cooking a meal to enter in the Olympic TD today, but I thought I needed to enter it here too. I made Chili Colorado and homemade refried beans. The SS Farkanaut has been getting off some great shots and I didn't want it to run out of gas, hence the beans
Those noobs won't know what hit them! Even my squirrel wanted in on this one! The whole cook thread can be found here http://www.bbq-brethren.com/forum/sh...=1#post2163943 Use the plate pic for the entry.

[Kathy's Smokin']

Good shot, Campdude, and we definitely need the gas, would be terrible to run out in the middle of a skirmish! Where did all the peppers go, in the beans? We've got blazing missles, noobs! Add a little fiber and we can really mess you up!

[twinsfan]

Great job CD! Nice shot for the veterans.

[campdude]

Originally Posted by Kathy's Smokin'

Good shot, Campdude, and we definitely need the gas, would be terrible to run out in the middle of a skirmish! Where did all the peppers go, in the beans? We've got blazing missles, noobs! Add a little fiber and we can really mess you up!

The long skinny red ones are a pepper called salsa peppers. They were supposed to be mild. They're not! I can't use them in anything that the Mrs. eats. I tossed them in the smoker and smoke dried them while I was cooking everything else. I'll grind them into chili powder for use in something down the road. All the rest of the chilis got used in the meat dry rub or the red chili sauce.

[Kathy's Smokin']

CD -- beautiful chop, love the colour and crust, wish I could taste that mac n cheese with a cup and a half of 'half n half' and the corn looks perfect. Direct hit!

[caseydog]

Originally Posted by Kathy's Smokin'

CD -- beautiful chop, love the colour and crust, wish I could taste that mac n cheese with a cup and a half of 'half n half' and the corn looks perfect. Direct hit!

Most recipes call for milk. I didn't have any milk, but I had some organic half-and-half with a week left on the use-by date. It's not like mac-n-cheese is health food, right?

The mac-n-cheese was really very good, but it was my first attempt, so I am already thinking of ways to make it better. I'm thinking a sharper cheese, or a blend with one really tangy cheese to give it a real bite. It needs more cowbell.



CD

[R2Egg2Q]

Xin vui lòng chấp nhận điều này như việc thâm nhập của tôi vào này Throwdown thay mặt cho các Farkanuats!

OK, in case Google Translate got it wrong, I'm trying to say "Please accept this as my entry into this Throwdown on behalf of the Farkanauts!" in Vietnamese.

To continue the barrage from the SS Farkanaut, I'm submitting a slightly modified version of my entry from the Summer 2012 Olympics TD.

In international themed Throwdowns, my past Indian & Japanese inspired dishes have done pretty poorly so why not continue the trend in the east and go with Vietnam? Maybe I'll get as many votes as the Vietnamese win medals (which at the moment is Zero... perhaps my ticket into the elusive Zeros club)!

I often have a dish at the local Pho restaurant called Bún Thịt Nướng (BBQ Pork w/Vermicelli) which actually uses grilled pork but I thought I'd substitute pulled pork as I had a butt that needed to be cooked.

So just after Midnight I put the butt on the Large Egg and let it smoke over some hickory & cherry wood:



After a couple of hours of smoke, I bumped up the temp on the Stoker and went to bed. After about an 8 1/2 hr cook, the butt was ready to come off:



It was wrapped in foil and towels and put into a cooler to rest until I was ready to prep for lunch:



I took a little time to clean & scrape off the grill while my "kid" offered to help:



A few hours later I gathered these ingredients for the Nuoc Cham sauce(red boat fish sauce, sugar, water, lime juice, garlic, thai chili, and a shallot):



Nuoc Cham with all of the ingredients mixed in:



From there I moved on to prepping the veggies (carrots, cucumber, mint, romaine lettuce):



Into a bowl went some rice vermicelli topped with the carrots, cucumber, mint, romaine lettuce, and drizzled with some Nouc Cham sauce:



I took the pork out of the cooler and started pulling it:



and it topped the bowl:



Please use this pic for the TD Vote Thread.



Everything was tossed to mix everything together and then the eating began!

[landarc]

Oh man, that looks good, really good. I love the BBQ pork on vermicelli, so, this is perfect.

[buccaneer]

This is just the kind of food I LURVE!!!
Would have loved the last shot to be of the vermi and ingredients and sauce all mixed and tossed through but since I eat that gear often enough I can see how delicious it would be!

[buccaneer]

Great meat campdude!
Exceptional as always CD!
That pork looks so tender on the inside shot and amazing colour outer!

[Fo Sizzle My Nizzle]

Just some down and dirty hamburgers tonight. I started with some ground chuck from the butcher's shop that was ground right in front of me. I'm used to buying packaged ground beef from the grocery store so this was a treat for me. I mixed it with some ranch seasoning, ground chipotle, chili powder, garlic powder, onion powder, freshly ground pepper, and kosher salt. After lighting incorporating everything and making patties, I put them back in the fridge to cool out while I got everything else prepped.



I then fired up the WSM for a temperature of 300 degrees. While I waited for the smoker to heat up I pan fried some center cut bacon. After spending the first half of my evening in the kitchen I decided I'll need to start looking for a quality cast iron skillet so I can move more of my operations outside.



Prepped some fresh avocado, iceberg lettuce, tomatoes, and some colby-jack slices of cheese.



After the WSM got to temp I threw on a couple chunks of hickory and slid my meat on in for about 30 minutes. Wifey prefers her burgers well done so I oblige since she lets me purposely sit on the deck drinking beer these days. Otherwise I would have only left them on for about 15 minutes to get a medium rare like it should be. Pulled them off and let them rest while I heated up a grill pan over medium high heat (yeah I could have fired up the grill but we had a storm rolling in so I ran for cover like a noob). Once the pan was heated I added some butter and then the smoked patties until they had a good char on both sides, about 3-5 minutes a side. Only thing left at that point was to construct the beast.

Toasted the bun with some mayo slathered on the bottom and ketchup/mustard on the top. Then I added all the pieces from the burger construction station before sitting down and shoving it in my face.

Not sure if this is an official entry. I'm thinking I'll keep putting up what I can then make a game time decision closer to the equinox.

[Kathy's Smokin']

R2Egg2Q -- we love Korean food, too, and my partner almost always get BBQ pork with vermicelli -- looks like mung bean/glass noodles, my favourite! Did you soften them in cold water or boiling water? Beautiful bark, the whole thing looks great! Love your four legged kid, we have four legged kids, too. You need to repost saying it's an official entry in the title box -- if you don't see a title box in the posting area click on the button "go advanced" at the bottom, beside the button you click to post reply, and it will give you a title box above a new large message box. We definitely want this entry in our ammunition. With so many pages on this thread an entry without declaration in the title box will be very easy to miss. We have a lot of smack talk postings with pron that are not official entries in this TD thread so it will be more confusing and complicated by the end of summer.


Fo Sizzle My Nizzle -- what did you think about the taste of the chuck 'ground in front of you' vs. the ground beef you would normally buy at the store? I'm curious because I found grinding my own pork shoulders and legs gave me a tastier cooked pork than already ground pork. Beautiful burger, why not make it an official entry anyway? By the end of summer this thread will likely go over 100 pages, why give yourself a lot of work to sort through it and to decide what to enter and what not to enter? This special TD allows multiple entries, and since it is war, the more the merrier. If you cook something in the time frame given enter it unless it's a huge disaster. Your burger is good, it's not a disaster, make it official without asking for hours of sifting and choosing at the end of summer. You're on "the other" team but you're still my brother so had to say it.