Pitmaster T
Babbling Farker
- Joined
- Apr 3, 2011
- Location
- Texas
So my MKT has shown to be so adaptive it is hard to pin it down to a concept. Well duh... it was designed to feed hundreds of soldiers.
MY MKT-85
The overall goal is to find a good mid-point where there I can branch in to several TYPES of food with the maximum amount of cross-utilization. One thing I did not like so much about selling JUST BBQ was that you basically slaved away for 18 hours THEN, exhausted... you sold it. I also lost business when people identified you with great BBQ but had in mind something else - because here - everybody does BBQ. LOL In addition, I teach and am likely working during the week. So cooking up mounds of BBQ is not really conducive to that career. The solution is smaller amounts of BBQ meats produced to exist an already diverse flat top menu. Recent events have proven this to be quite profitable and hassle free.
I have done Steak Dinners, Kabobs, Breakfast, Tacos, Po Boys etc.
I am settling on a rather eclectic concept. Before my father died he talked about a fad in food Galveston County had for a while due to its high Latino and Italian Community. I-Mex Food. A fusion of Italian and Mexican.
Then there was Tex-Mex if course and in the late 1970s, born was the fajita craze.
My concept will be four basic menus. 1) Burgers and Dogs (of the Mexican Variety - meaning the condiments make it more ethnic), 2)Tacos, 3)Po-Boys and some 4) Italian Meats, sauces, Peppers and Onions for instance. You will notice the condiments Bob and I have been discussion on Mexican Hot Dog Carts will lend itself to all these types of fare.
This week I began work on my red salsa - Salsa Rojo. I love the texture of fresh salsa but also the taste of roasted vegatables. My method was changed to reflect how I typically would make the roasted portion - in an electric roaster and not an oven or stove top. I would need to make a lot.
Many of you will know that I have that huge griddle and question, "why not just blister the veggies on that?" The reason is typically that salsa needs to sit a bit for all those flavors to meld. I also wanted a method in which I could dump the veggies somewhere out of the way and cook them. The foil pan idea cuts down DRASTICALLY on the mess.
Ohhhhhhh.... I forgot, before I start, everyone wants to hear about a terrible mess up and fail, right? I bought a $300 Juicer from GoodWill for $29. I have discovered two really good applications for it. One is lemonade, peels and all, extraction. MMM Good!. The other is frozen sorbets. This thing poops out great sorbets from frozen (even packaged) fruits. However.... do not extract LIMES this way. EXTREMELY BITTER AND RUINED MY FIRST BATCH OF SALSA.
DO NOT USE THIS... JUST SQUEEZE THE LIMES. lol
HOT LATINA GIRL - speaking of squeeze
The first problem I encountered the day before was that the collections of fluids from the vegetables inhibited roasting. So I devised a way to drain away the juice (which I wanted to reserve). I simply poked holes in one pan, set it on another with some ramekins in between. The top pan was oiled to prevent sticking.
HOLES
SET UP
TEMP WIDE OPEN
I roasted a partial amount of veggies. One half purple onion, one full yellow onion, two full garlic pods, three red peppers. I punched holes in one foil pan to drain into the other as it went. I did not have much liquid as it mostly was contained in the tomato skins. I cooked at 425-450 in the electric roaster and probably could have cooked longer. I did not discard the skins of anything (just the stems of the peppers) this time.
IN THE ROASTER
Left uncooked was the other half of the purple onion, about a half a pod of garlic, and one pepper and three plums. This was chopped in the food processor into a slurry.
Two bunches of cilantro were used with about one cup of (wash)water and the juice of 2 lbs of limes. I used 6. I also added a can of roasted tomatoes. I know that seems redundant but I had it and the recipe needed more tomato so I bought it in case I needed to adjust. I have heard SOME places simply used canned roasted tomato and fresh roasted peppers in their process. LOL Salt was added here as well and blended.
I dream of a salsa so good, neighbors send me their selfies as a way of thanking me.
HALF WAY POINT
It cooked the veggies about two hours. It got more carmelized than this. This was blended.
What I did not show is my chili process.
This time I seeded and de-stemmed Anchos and Cascabel with Arbol for heat. I used .33 pounds of Ancho, .09 of the Cascabel and maybe 5 of the Arbol (could have used more for my heat taste but I chose not to, The process was to de-seed all, de-stem, fry in oil THEN I sat them in a can of beef broth with four other bouillon cube; so basically I think that would be six cubes if I did not use the broth. I added just enough water to cover, simmered for 20 minutes and let sit an hour. This was blended. Salt was added.
Finally all was blended with the immersion blender. Had I brought my deep tub I would have used it for all of this.
The taste is deep and robust as its color. I could drink it. The lime juice does freshen it up as does the part fresh ingredients. I can’t wait to taste this in a day.
FINISHED PRODUCT - RICH - I COULD DRINK IT
The boys and I tasted this and then went to the pool. We all still had that delicious residual of garlic on our minds. LOL I-Mex for sure.
I am open to your comments - especially those who know their chilies. LOL I don't. I like my salsa a bit thin.... with a combination of fresh and roasted... the taste... beefy background and I think the chilies I chose and beef stock did that. The lift I like was from the lime juice but I have heard some use vinegar. A lot of joints in this part of Texas use a hybrid of canned tomatoes and roasted or sauteed peppers and onions. Canned veggies already have vinegar in them for preserving. This may be why gringos like it so much, LOL. My salsa was designed to augment my tacos - NOT for chips.
Bob Brisket... what do you think?
MY MKT-85
The overall goal is to find a good mid-point where there I can branch in to several TYPES of food with the maximum amount of cross-utilization. One thing I did not like so much about selling JUST BBQ was that you basically slaved away for 18 hours THEN, exhausted... you sold it. I also lost business when people identified you with great BBQ but had in mind something else - because here - everybody does BBQ. LOL In addition, I teach and am likely working during the week. So cooking up mounds of BBQ is not really conducive to that career. The solution is smaller amounts of BBQ meats produced to exist an already diverse flat top menu. Recent events have proven this to be quite profitable and hassle free.
I have done Steak Dinners, Kabobs, Breakfast, Tacos, Po Boys etc.
I am settling on a rather eclectic concept. Before my father died he talked about a fad in food Galveston County had for a while due to its high Latino and Italian Community. I-Mex Food. A fusion of Italian and Mexican.
Then there was Tex-Mex if course and in the late 1970s, born was the fajita craze.
My concept will be four basic menus. 1) Burgers and Dogs (of the Mexican Variety - meaning the condiments make it more ethnic), 2)Tacos, 3)Po-Boys and some 4) Italian Meats, sauces, Peppers and Onions for instance. You will notice the condiments Bob and I have been discussion on Mexican Hot Dog Carts will lend itself to all these types of fare.
This week I began work on my red salsa - Salsa Rojo. I love the texture of fresh salsa but also the taste of roasted vegatables. My method was changed to reflect how I typically would make the roasted portion - in an electric roaster and not an oven or stove top. I would need to make a lot.
Many of you will know that I have that huge griddle and question, "why not just blister the veggies on that?" The reason is typically that salsa needs to sit a bit for all those flavors to meld. I also wanted a method in which I could dump the veggies somewhere out of the way and cook them. The foil pan idea cuts down DRASTICALLY on the mess.
Ohhhhhhh.... I forgot, before I start, everyone wants to hear about a terrible mess up and fail, right? I bought a $300 Juicer from GoodWill for $29. I have discovered two really good applications for it. One is lemonade, peels and all, extraction. MMM Good!. The other is frozen sorbets. This thing poops out great sorbets from frozen (even packaged) fruits. However.... do not extract LIMES this way. EXTREMELY BITTER AND RUINED MY FIRST BATCH OF SALSA.
DO NOT USE THIS... JUST SQUEEZE THE LIMES. lol
HOT LATINA GIRL - speaking of squeeze
The first problem I encountered the day before was that the collections of fluids from the vegetables inhibited roasting. So I devised a way to drain away the juice (which I wanted to reserve). I simply poked holes in one pan, set it on another with some ramekins in between. The top pan was oiled to prevent sticking.
HOLES
SET UP
TEMP WIDE OPEN
I roasted a partial amount of veggies. One half purple onion, one full yellow onion, two full garlic pods, three red peppers. I punched holes in one foil pan to drain into the other as it went. I did not have much liquid as it mostly was contained in the tomato skins. I cooked at 425-450 in the electric roaster and probably could have cooked longer. I did not discard the skins of anything (just the stems of the peppers) this time.
IN THE ROASTER
Left uncooked was the other half of the purple onion, about a half a pod of garlic, and one pepper and three plums. This was chopped in the food processor into a slurry.
Two bunches of cilantro were used with about one cup of (wash)water and the juice of 2 lbs of limes. I used 6. I also added a can of roasted tomatoes. I know that seems redundant but I had it and the recipe needed more tomato so I bought it in case I needed to adjust. I have heard SOME places simply used canned roasted tomato and fresh roasted peppers in their process. LOL Salt was added here as well and blended.
I dream of a salsa so good, neighbors send me their selfies as a way of thanking me.
HALF WAY POINT
It cooked the veggies about two hours. It got more carmelized than this. This was blended.
What I did not show is my chili process.
This time I seeded and de-stemmed Anchos and Cascabel with Arbol for heat. I used .33 pounds of Ancho, .09 of the Cascabel and maybe 5 of the Arbol (could have used more for my heat taste but I chose not to, The process was to de-seed all, de-stem, fry in oil THEN I sat them in a can of beef broth with four other bouillon cube; so basically I think that would be six cubes if I did not use the broth. I added just enough water to cover, simmered for 20 minutes and let sit an hour. This was blended. Salt was added.
Finally all was blended with the immersion blender. Had I brought my deep tub I would have used it for all of this.
The taste is deep and robust as its color. I could drink it. The lime juice does freshen it up as does the part fresh ingredients. I can’t wait to taste this in a day.
FINISHED PRODUCT - RICH - I COULD DRINK IT
The boys and I tasted this and then went to the pool. We all still had that delicious residual of garlic on our minds. LOL I-Mex for sure.
I am open to your comments - especially those who know their chilies. LOL I don't. I like my salsa a bit thin.... with a combination of fresh and roasted... the taste... beefy background and I think the chilies I chose and beef stock did that. The lift I like was from the lime juice but I have heard some use vinegar. A lot of joints in this part of Texas use a hybrid of canned tomatoes and roasted or sauteed peppers and onions. Canned veggies already have vinegar in them for preserving. This may be why gringos like it so much, LOL. My salsa was designed to augment my tacos - NOT for chips.
Bob Brisket... what do you think?
