Steak Pizza

Our weather in southwestern Ontario tends to be not as harsh as the rest of Canada but we still see subzero temperatures and a fair amount of snowfall each year.  That does not deter us or many in our region from outdoor grilling.  The grill is typically very close to the back or patio door, within an easy shovelling distance if need be.  Our grill is under a soon to be enclosed roof on the deck making it a three season room.

The weather was unseasonably warm so we grilled rib steaks.  Now, these were quite large steaks at an inch and a half thick as hubby does not like grilling thin steaks.  We buy our beef in bulk so the abattoir does a custom cut for our meat.  He likes his steak rare while I like mine medium rare but on occasion will eat rare.  

The real focus of this meal was the lightly seasoned rib steaks.  We served them with campstyle potatoes and a Caprese salad.  The sweet basil is homegrown mainly hydroponically and in the Aerogarden.  I currently have several basil plants on the go and honestly, you can never have enough basil!  

Campstyle potatoes is a rather simple, versatile dish always made in cast iron usually with potatoes and onions but sometimes mushrooms.  Cast iron gives the perfect caramelization for this dish!

I know many will think this funny but we always have left-over steak.  That's just the nature of the beast.  On the other hand, we love cooking once but getting two or more different meals out of what we cook.  We try very hard to minimize food waste so lef-overs are used within a couple of days or froze for later use.

Left-over steak can be used in so many ways.  One of our favourites is as a sandwich in pita bread.  This time I made sourdough flatbreads for steak pizzas.  These were a bit of a spin on the Margherita pizzas.   Toppings included red onion, sweet basil, fresh tomato, steak and of course lots mozzarella cheese.  The end result was a delicious meal with very little effort.
 

Rib City at Immokalee, Florida

We arrived at our vacation home on May 8 with our friends.  Our plans were to fly out from Fort Lauderdale to Aruba on May 12 so we decided to make a bit of a scenic trip leaving the day before to show our friends the coast.  This type of sight seeing of course involved stopping to eat.  We stopped for lunch in Immokalee, Florida were we found a Rib City located at 621 North 15th Street.  It looked inviting, and we are always in the mood for ribs!

We ordered the three cheese fries ($7.95) as an appetizer.  They were made with waffle cut fries, something just a bit different than French fries.  The toppings were Monterrey Jack, Pepper Jack and cheddar cheeses with real bacon bits.  The fries were served with spicy ranch sauce for dipping.  Oh my, were they good!

Now, this is a very easy and inexpensive, home style dish that could be made at home.  McCain's waffle cut fries can be found in the freezer section of the grocery store or a less expensive alternative is to cut them yourself from fresh potatoes using your food processor.  Simply fry the waffle fries until golden brown then top with the three cheeses and homemade bacon pieces then place in a hot oven just until the cheeses are melted.

I ordered the back rib plate lunch special ($8.99) that included a half rack of tender ribs, choice of two sides and toast.  I chose coleslaw and baked beans as my sides.  This was a delicious meal, very much home style cooking.

You just can't go wrong with BBQ ribs in the summer!  The trick it to cook them long and slow.  You can use a rub for the slow cook then a mop (wet sauce) when finishing them up.  I make my baked beans from scratch to use that day or home can as well as creamy coleslaw.  This home style BBQ is one of our favourite summertime meals.  Sometimes we add in grilled local corn and/or some type of dessert like homemade ice cream. 

Fancy Hot Dogs

As a foodie my camera is always close by.  I take a multitude of food related pictures on any given day.  The pictures are not restricted to those dishes I have made but rather encompass anything food related that strikes my fancy.  I take pictures of food in restaurants, diners, community events as well a photograph recipes I want to try from magazines when flipping through them in waiting rooms. I am particularly fond of taking pictures in the bakery section of supermarkets.  Some of the foods are just so delicious looking and then, there is the presentation.

A few days ago, we were in a supermarket where I spotted they absolutely gorgeous fancy hot dogs.  Two things immediately popped into mind.  First, these fancy hot dogs would be a lovely, unique addition to BBQ ideas for a family get-together even though they are not actually grilled.  Although, they could easily be baked on the outdoor grill.  The second thing that came mind is that these fancy hot dogs really would not be difficult to make.

You could use Pillsbury* crescent rolls (refrigerator section of grocery store) or pre-made puff pastry (freezer section of grocery store) or homemade puff pastry as the fancy hot dogs are all about presentation.  The bottom of hot dog is a solid sheet of pastry for the wiener to rest on.  The top dough is a fancy pastry cut using a series of alternating slits on the folded dough  then gently stretched open.  Once in place covering the wiener, simply seal the edges.  Bake at 400°F/200°C until the crust is golden brown.

Home Canned Barbeque Pork

There are many reasons for canning meats, poultry and fish. Quite often an excess of meats coincides when the freezer space is as well so canning is one method of being able to preserve the excess for later use. Jars of homecanned meats are convenient foods to have on your pantry shelf. They are already cooked so all you need to do is heat and serve. Canning allows you to take advantage of hunting and fishing but also allows you to take advantage of meat sales. Just as in other home canned foods, you can control the ingredients and tweak the flavours so it is a win-win situation.

A couple of question from my readers:

1. How many 6 quart baskets are there in a hamper? A. A hamper is 5/8 of an Imperial bushel or 32 quarts. There are 20 quarts in a hamper or 3 1/3 - 6 quart baskets.
2. Do you have a food preservation schedule for home use? A. I do not use an actual schedule because I follow the growing seasons for the heavy preserving season of May to October. Anything that can be canned or frozen outside of the growing season is fit in. For me this means starting with asparagus. Each crop lasts a certain length of time so that gives me a time frame to work in. For example strawberries start mid-June and generally runs for 11 days. During the time frame, I will focus on that crop but will also be doing other preserving.
3. Can vegetable beef soup be canned? A. Yes, vegetable beef soup and most soups can be canned providing they do not contain rice, barley, noodles, thickeners or dairy. The hot soup should be ladled into hot jars. Wipe the rim and adjust the two piece lids. Process in a pressure canner at 10 lb pressure 60 minutes for pints, 70 minutes for quarts.
   

As you know from my previous post, pork shoulder roasts are on sale for $1 per pound which is a very good price. My husband picked up a 16.4 lb piece that had not been cut into roasts yet for $16.40. The regular price would have been $53.97! I processed the first batch of roasts into canned shredded barbeque pork (read more here) and while the results were good, I was not pleased with the amount of fat in the jars. The focus of this batch of canned shredded barbeque pork was fat reduction.

Pork Roast Prep

This pork shoulder came cryovac sealed and was not cut into roasts. Since the meat contained a couple of bones, it was actually more convenient for cooking. I placed the pork shoulder into a large roasting pan fat side down. I knew I would be defatting later so fat side down made sense. That way I could lift meat later leaving as much fat and bone undisturbed as possible. The shoulder just fit the roaster!

The pork shoulder was prepared much the same way as the pork shoulder roasts. The nature of this cut is it will be fatty. The fat is needed for the long and slow cooking process. It keeps the meat tender while adding flavour so I did not cut any fat from the meat prior to cooking.

I rubbed Blazin BBQ Rib Rub into the surface of the pork shoulder. Then topped with Spanish onion slices. The onions add both moisture and flavour. Unlike the first method I used, the sauce was not added until the pork shoulder was about half way through the cooking process. The pork was cooked at 200ºF for 6 hours then the temperature was raised to 250ºF and the meat was allowed to cook for another 2 hours.

Defatting

Once the pork was cooked, I removed it from the oven. The pork was transferred to the lid of the roaster while the sauce was strained into a large saucepan. Using tongs and forks, I carefully pulled as much meat from the fat and bones as possible. I ended up with a large saucepan of strained sauce (1) two large baking pans of shredded meat (2). Both were allowed to cool then were refrigerated overnight.

The fat congealed on the surface of the sauce (1) that had taken on a jelly like consistency and yes the fat was that yellow having picked up colour from the sauce. I carefully removed as much fat as possible from the top of the sauce. There must have been a good almost two cups of fat, all that would not be going into my finished product!

The two baking pans of shredded meat were reshredded using forks. Any obvious pieces of fat were removed. The pans were covered with tinfoil then to heat in the oven set to 250ºF not only to heat for the canning process but also to allow and fat to melt out. While I knew this would not remove a lot of fat, any fat removed would be a good thing. Once the meat was heated, I brought the sauce to a boil then prepared for canning. The meat was put into hot jars leaving 1-inch headspace and hot sauce was ladled onto the meat leaving 1-inch headspace. I wiped the rims, adjusted the two piece lids then pressure canned at 10 lb pressure for 75 minutes (500 ml jars).

Comparison in the Jars

The end result was 7 - 500 ml jars of shredded pork barbeque roast and one gallon vacuum sealed freezer bag. In comparison to the first batch (1) the second batch (2) had considerably less congealed fat in the jars when they cooled. I had two concerns after the first batch cooled. The first was the amount of fat left in the final product. Lowering the fat for a healthier product was something I really wanted to do. The second concern was the aesthetics. A large amount of congealed fat in the jars simply does not look good. Reducing the fat in the finished product gave a much nicer result.

Overall, I'm pleased with the results of the defatting process for barbeque pork. The extra defatting steps did add more time and work so processing could not be done the same day but at the price, I have no complaints. This is something I'm willing to do to get a lower fat finished product. Any step that will result in a healthier homecanned version is always of primary concern for me. Now I have the method worked out for canning barbeque pork and have another pork should weighing in at 16.95 lbs, I will do up another batch using the defatting method.