Grip and Rip

Fixing a Competition BBQ recipe can be a lot like working on your golf swing. With golf, there is a lot you can think about... chin up, bend knees, adjust grip, point right elbow at right hip etc. Problem is you can end up feeling like a pretzel up on the tee box. Sometime you're just better off keeping it simple... grip and rip.

Same deal with competition bbq... its easy to add things to your recipe... a new injection, a finishing rub, a glaze, wrap in foil... wrap in foil with a second marinade. As with a golf swing your competition recipe can get off track with too many adjustments.

So when I got thinking about how to improve my pork recipe, instead of thinking about what to add, I thought about what to remove. Here are the results of this weekend cook session where I focused on stripping everything away except for just a couple of ingredients. Was pretty tasty and I thought competition worthy.

Mothers Day

I made a vidallia onion and morel gravy enriched and thickened with some butter/reggiano. Roasted some yellow beets and a beautiful piece of chilean sea bass. The gravy went on some potato gnocchi and applied a healthy drizzle of white truffle oil to the finished bass. Matched up with a Cambria Pinot Noir. It was cool to feature an ingredient I picked out of my front yard.

Morels!

After striking out on a couple of foraging hikes recently, look what Jenny finds growing on our front door step this AM! A bunch of gray morels. I'm going to work them into a potato gnocci and chilean sea bass preparation for Mothers Day dinner... I'll post back with the results.

Smoked Chicken Enchiladas

What to do with all the left-over chicken from competition practice sessions? My family is close to boycotting chicken, so I have to hide it in creative preparations. For Cinco de Mayo I prepared some enchiladas where I roasted tomatoes, garlic, vidalia onions, and then pureed the roasted vegetables with a healthy dose of chipotle en adobo. Pan fried the tortillas, dipped in the enchilada sauce and rolled with pulled smoked chicken, refried beans and some jack cheese. Good eats but it killed my diet.