bigabyte
somebody shut me the fark up.
- Joined
- May 10, 2006
- Location
- Overland...
For the BBQ Brethren "Around the World" Throwdown, I really wasn't sure what place around the world I wanted to do a dish for.
At first I was just thinking of any international dish I was familiar with, one which I just so happened to have all of the ingredients for on hand at that very moment. I actually am due to run to the store, so this meant I had limited supplies to start with, and I figured making something with this limited supply might make it a fun challenge.:becky:
So I'm look through recipes for cuisine I'm familiar with and I'm either finding things I can't make, or it just doesn't sound exciting enough. So I decided to change my search strategy to searching by ingredient. I would search on 3 or 4 main ingredients and see if anything came up that could lead me to a dish from some far away exotic land. I eventually Googled "black beans", "rice", and "pulled beef" and lo and behold, there was a dish that was not only a popular dish in a particular foreign (to me) country, but is also considered that particular countries national dish!:whoo: I had scored big time.:thumb:
Then I realized what country it was. I began wondering how in the holy farking bloody heck I could possibly make a Throwdown dish representing that farking country.:loco: The odds of me visiting it are pretty farking slim really.:cop: Then I figured, let's not focus on our differences, but on the things we have in common. So while I make the dish let me tell you a little bit about what our great nation, the United States of America, and this other nation has in common.
The primary geographical commonality between these nations is that they both reside in the America's, and are both part of what was the original "New World" explored by the earliest explorers from Europe in the late 15th and early 16th centuries. The United States happens to be in North America however, and this other nation happens to be in South America, so despite this commonality there is also a marked difference between them.
Another geographical commonality is that they have shorelines that border the Caribbean, each with beautiful shorelines. While only Hawaii and the Florida Keys are considered Tropical climate for the United States (despite the Florida keys being in subtropical latitudes), all of this other country is technically in the Tropics, but has climates ranging from tropical to alpine. Both nations have tropical shorelines, temperate plains, and high mountains covered in snow and ice.
Both of these nations share common natural resources such as natural gas, petroleum, iron ore, gold, and other minerals.
Both of these nations now have Universal Health Care Systems, although the other country gives it free of charge, while in the United States you are forced to pay for it.
Both the United States and this other country are Federal Presidential Constitutional Republics, and consist of three branches of government, the Executive, Legislative and Judicial branches. The Executive branch for both countries is led by a President who is elected by the people. The Legislative branches are a bit different in that this particular country is Parliamentary, but like the United States, the number of representatives per state is variable. The Judicial branch for both countries contain a highest judicial body over the land, with ours called the "Supreme Court", and theirs being called the "Supreme Tribunal of Justice".
Both of these countries have a storied history with Beauty Pageants. Here are the current pageant winners for their respective countries.
Both of these countries share world famous waterfalls, although to be fair, the best part of Niagra Falls is on the Canadian side, but Niagra Falls isn't fully Niagra Falls without the American side. It just so happens that the most impressive waterfall in this other country is the largest drop for a waterfall in the world.
Both countries are led by highly controversial Presidents. These Presidents share some things in common, like hating George W. Bush for example. Here are the current Presidents for each country. I guess another thing they have in common is that I am not particularly big fans of either of them, but that's just my personal opinion, and you may happen to like them. To each their own I suppose.
So, in case you have not been able to figure out the country, it is the country of Venezuela.
And the dish I am making is called Pabellón Criollo. As taken from Wikipedia, the foremost authority in all things food, this dish is described as follows:
It is commonly served with fried plantains (which I do not have on hand), but luckily there are variants as described below:
I do have eggs however. Sadly, I do not have any Capybara and do not feel like going to Cozad Nebraska to get one, although if I did make that trip I might just find a plantain, but frankly I do not want that, I would rather have the egg. So therefore I will be technically making "Pabellón Criollo y a Caballo" with shredded beef and an egg on top.
Making the Black Beans and Rice are very boring processes and I will not bore you with that. Instead let's fast forward to the good stuff.
I put some chopped onion and peppers in a cast iron skillet with a "liberal" quantity of oil on my 22" Weber kettle fueled by 100% pure AMERICAN:thumb: Hardwood lump charcoal.
Once the onions got translucent I added some pulled smoked Brisket point from a brisket I made a few weeks back. Because of all of the oil, it's almost kind of like Carnitas, only beef, and using oil instead of lard, and not quite as much oil either.
Once I was satisfied, I put the Black Beans, White Rice and Pulled Beef on a plate like so...
Then I fried up an egg in the cast iron skillet on the kettle grill (no pics, lots happening too fast) and I laid the egg on top of the dish, like the egg was riding it.
I may not be fond of that Huge Chevy guy, but this was a really tasty dish.
So I guess there are some things I like about Venezuela. Whodathunkit?:loco:
At first I was just thinking of any international dish I was familiar with, one which I just so happened to have all of the ingredients for on hand at that very moment. I actually am due to run to the store, so this meant I had limited supplies to start with, and I figured making something with this limited supply might make it a fun challenge.:becky:So I'm look through recipes for cuisine I'm familiar with and I'm either finding things I can't make, or it just doesn't sound exciting enough. So I decided to change my search strategy to searching by ingredient. I would search on 3 or 4 main ingredients and see if anything came up that could lead me to a dish from some far away exotic land. I eventually Googled "black beans", "rice", and "pulled beef" and lo and behold, there was a dish that was not only a popular dish in a particular foreign (to me) country, but is also considered that particular countries national dish!:whoo: I had scored big time.:thumb:
Then I realized what country it was.
I began wondering how in the holy farking bloody heck I could possibly make a Throwdown dish representing that farking country.:loco: The odds of me visiting it are pretty farking slim really.:cop: Then I figured, let's not focus on our differences, but on the things we have in common. So while I make the dish let me tell you a little bit about what our great nation, the United States of America, and this other nation has in common.The primary geographical commonality between these nations is that they both reside in the America's, and are both part of what was the original "New World" explored by the earliest explorers from Europe in the late 15th and early 16th centuries. The United States happens to be in North America however, and this other nation happens to be in South America, so despite this commonality there is also a marked difference between them.
Another geographical commonality is that they have shorelines that border the Caribbean, each with beautiful shorelines. While only Hawaii and the Florida Keys are considered Tropical climate for the United States (despite the Florida keys being in subtropical latitudes), all of this other country is technically in the Tropics, but has climates ranging from tropical to alpine. Both nations have tropical shorelines, temperate plains, and high mountains covered in snow and ice.
Both of these nations share common natural resources such as natural gas, petroleum, iron ore, gold, and other minerals.
Both of these nations now have Universal Health Care Systems, although the other country gives it free of charge, while in the United States you are forced to pay for it.
Both the United States and this other country are Federal Presidential Constitutional Republics, and consist of three branches of government, the Executive, Legislative and Judicial branches. The Executive branch for both countries is led by a President who is elected by the people. The Legislative branches are a bit different in that this particular country is Parliamentary, but like the United States, the number of representatives per state is variable. The Judicial branch for both countries contain a highest judicial body over the land, with ours called the "Supreme Court", and theirs being called the "Supreme Tribunal of Justice".
Both of these countries have a storied history with Beauty Pageants. Here are the current pageant winners for their respective countries.
Both of these countries share world famous waterfalls, although to be fair, the best part of Niagra Falls is on the Canadian side, but Niagra Falls isn't fully Niagra Falls without the American side. It just so happens that the most impressive waterfall in this other country is the largest drop for a waterfall in the world.
Both countries are led by highly controversial Presidents. These Presidents share some things in common, like hating George W. Bush for example. Here are the current Presidents for each country. I guess another thing they have in common is that I am not particularly big fans of either of them, but that's just my personal opinion, and you may happen to like them. To each their own I suppose.
So, in case you have not been able to figure out the country, it is the country of Venezuela.
And the dish I am making is called Pabellón Criollo. As taken from Wikipedia, the foremost authority in all things food, this dish is described as follows:
It is commonly served with fried plantains (which I do not have on hand), but luckily there are variants as described below:
I do have eggs however. Sadly, I do not have any Capybara and do not feel like going to Cozad Nebraska to get one, although if I did make that trip I might just find a plantain, but frankly I do not want that, I would rather have the egg. So therefore I will be technically making "Pabellón Criollo y a Caballo" with shredded beef and an egg on top.
Making the Black Beans and Rice are very boring processes and I will not bore you with that. Instead let's fast forward to the good stuff.
I put some chopped onion and peppers in a cast iron skillet with a "liberal"
quantity of oil on my 22" Weber kettle fueled by 100% pure AMERICAN:thumb: Hardwood lump charcoal.
Once the onions got translucent I added some pulled smoked Brisket point from a brisket I made a few weeks back. Because of all of the oil, it's almost kind of like Carnitas, only beef, and using oil instead of lard, and not quite as much oil either.
Once I was satisfied, I put the Black Beans, White Rice and Pulled Beef on a plate like so...
Then I fried up an egg in the cast iron skillet on the kettle grill (no pics, lots happening too fast) and I laid the egg on top of the dish, like the egg was riding it.
I may not be fond of that Huge Chevy guy, but this was a really tasty dish.
So I guess there are some things I like about Venezuela. Whodathunkit?:loco:
