Well, I survived another successful tailgate. This was the second annual Men’s Day Out tailgate. Last year it was me, my father, and my father-in-law. This year my brother joined us for the fun. I have to admit, I wasn’t as ambitious this year as I was last year, with the menu. Time just kind of seemed to slip by and next thing I knew it, it was Saturday and I hadn’t started any prep for Sunday’s game. This year’s menu was:

Beverages
PBR (Pabst Blue Ribbon)
Rhubarb Refreshers (a mix of homemade rhubarb syrup, rums and seltzer)

Food
Chips with Horseradish Dip
Black Bean and Jicama Salad
Macaroni Salad (store bought-I feel so ashamed!!!!)
Bourbon Mustard Marinated Boneless Pork Chops
Onion Buns
Watermelon

Being in store for a hot, sunny day I didn’t want to go overboard on the food and just have tons left over. Just enough to keep us full and satisfied so that we wouldn’t have to spend too much money on the outrageously priced food in the stadium.

Despite having to watch the Brewer’s lose yet again, for which my father-in-law seemed quite happy (he’s a Cubs fan so any time the Brewer’s lose he’s happy!), the 4 of us had a great day watching baseball, drinking a few beer and enjoying the afternoon.

I’ll try to get a few of the recipes up in the next day or so. Hope everyone had a safe and enjoyable holiday weekend!!!!

I don’t make salmon often since my wife can’t stand it, but when I got my new smoker I knew I had to do a batch of hot smoked salmon, as it is one of my favorite things in the world. I also really like the more traditional cured/cold smoked salmon that often accompanies bagels, but hot smoked salmon just can’t be beat, in my opinion.

As luck would have it, as I was shopping, last weekend, for things to try out in my new smoker, I came across some wild sockeye salmon at my local grocery store. Despite its having been previously frozen (not necessarily a bad thing when it comes to hot smoking salmon), the fish looked great and I knew immediately that I would have to buy a side and smoke it.

Unlike cured/cold smoked salmon, that takes days to make, hot smoked salmon can be done in a single day, and is a rather simple process. One thing to remember though is this salmon is not fully cured to the point of preservation so it should be kept under refrigeration when done and should be eated within a week.

The brine for this recipe is pretty straight forward. Feel free to add any other flavorings that you feel would go well with salmon. Replace the brown sugar with maple syrup, cane syrup or even plain white sugar. Add coriander and/or various other spices and herbs such as tarragon or dill.

I slightly overcooked my salmon as you will be able to see in one of the photos, but because the wild salmon I used had such a high fat content it still came out nice and moist.

Hot Smoked Salmon

1/2 gallon cold water
3/4 cup kosher salt
1 cup brown sugar
1 tsp. freshly cracked pepper

1 side wild caught salmon (use a smaller fish, 1-2 pounds for this recipe. Any larger and you might need to increase the brine)
freshly cracked black pepper

Combine 2 cups of water, the salt, sugar and pepper in a pot and bring to a boil to dissolve the salt and sugar. Once dissolved stir this into the remaining cold water. Make sure the temperature of the brine is 40°F or lower. Pour into a large pan, big enought to accommodate the side of samon. Weigh down the salmon to ensure it is fully submerged. Brine for 1 hour per inch of thickness of the fish, with a minimum of 1 hour brining.

Once brined removed from liquid and quickly rinse off under cold, running water. Place on an oiled rack, skin side down and gently dry the surface. At this time you can add addtional seasonings such as spices or herbs. I chose to add freshly cracked black pepper. Place in front of a fan and allow to dry for about 1 1/2 – 2 hours, or until the surface is dry and slightly tacky. This is called the pellicle and it is a layer of proteins that will help protect from too much moisture loss during smoking. It also creates the ideal surface for smoke to stick to, and, in instances where smoking is used as a preservation method it also helps to keep the fat from rising to the surface and spoiling. For us, it is the first 2 reasons, for forming the pellicle, that matter.

Once dried place the salmon in the cold smoker. By starting in a cold smoker you run less of a risk of drying out your salmon and will achieve a better flavor. Start your smoker, and if possible set it for 160°F. Once your smoker reaches this temperature, which should take about 20-30 minutes, start monitoring the internal temperature of you salmon and pull it when it hits between 155-160°F

I allowed the temperature of my salmon to get away from me (sorry got caught up in a TV show!), and it cooked a little too far. The white you see on the surface of the fish is protein that is being squeezed out of the fish. This usually results in a dry product, but I caught it just in time, barely, and it turned out fine. Monitor the temperature of your salmon to make sure this doesn’t happen. This can also happen if you are smoking your fish at too high of a temperature so monitor the temperature of your smoker.

From start to finish this project took me approximately 4 hours, with only about 30 minutes worth of actual work, so this can easily be accomplished in an afternoon. Of course, if you don’t have a smoker you can still create great tasting hot smoked salmon on your covered grill, using just enough charcoal to maintain that 160°F temperature.

I don’t like to get political on this blog, which is devoted to food and not politics, but I couldn’t stand by and not comment on the recent happenings here in Wisconsin. We recently saw the passage of bill that would allow the sale of raw milk, to consumers, in the state of Wisconsin (currently it is illegal). Unfortunately, our governor, in his “wisdom,” decided to veto the legislation. Yet another way our government plays babysitter, not allowing us to make these kind of decisions for ourselves. Governor Doyle claims he vetoed the bill due to the concerns of the public health sector, while proponents of the bill claim he was swayed by the lobbyists of the large dairy agribusinesses. No matter what the case, I disagree with his veto and those that chose to buy and/or sell raw milk will continue to be “criminals” in the eyes of our government.

Like so many other things we do, there is risk involved with consuming raw milk. But shouldn’t it be up to the individual to decide what is right for them? Is it the government’s job to “protect us from ourselves” and act as our babysitter?

While I could rant on and on about this, I won’t. If you wish to read more about this issue you can check out the news article here. Hopefully, this will come up again in January once Wisconsin’s new governor is in place. And hopefully, this time the governor will see fit to let us make our own decisions.

It’s the middle of May and that means that the rhubarb I’ve been watching grow for the last 6-7 weeks is finally ready to start harvesting. That may not mean a whole lot to many people, but I get all excited just thinking about it. Yes, I know I need to get out more! But seriously, I love the tart flavor of rhubarb. Paired with strawberries, it becomes the ultimate late spring/early summer food pairing, at least in my book.

Last year, I wrote about rhubarb a couple of times and you can expect the same again this year. I’ve got 3 huge plants in my backyard; enough to keep my family constantly in rhubarb desserts for the next 2 months and still have enough to give away to friends not blessed with their own plants, and, depending on how rhubarb crazy we get this year, enough to freeze so that we can have rhubarb pie later in the year, when the craving hits.

While my favorite way to eat rhubarb is in pie, we try to find other ways to use it to keep things fresh and lively. This recipe is a great way to showcase shortcake early in the season, when many of us have to still rely on strawberries shipped in from California, instead the the more flavorful sun ripened strawberries that can be picked closer to home.

The recipe calls for sweet vermouth in which the rhubarb is poached. I like the added subtle flavor this adds, but if you don’t have sweet vermouth and don’t want to buy any, the fruit will still be plenty flavorful if you substitute water.

Poached Rhubarb with Strawberries

12 oz. rhubarb, cut into 1/2″ chunks
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup sweet vermouth
2 Tbsp. grenadine
2 cups strawberries, hulled and sliced

Combine sugar, vermouth and grenadine in a nonreactive saucepot and bring to a boil, stirring to dissolve the sugar. Add the rhubarb, bring to a boil and cook for 3-4 minutes. The rhubarb should still be slightly undercooked when you remove it from the heat, or it will overcook and turn to mush. Leave out on the counter and allow to cool to room temperature. The rhubarb will finish cooking and sweeten up as it cools. Once cool, add the strawberries, stir and refrigerate. This can be made a couple of hours ahead.

Shortcake
I used this recipe originally for this dessert.

2 cups All-purpose Flour
1/4 cup Sugar, granulated
1 pinch Salt
2 tsp. Baking Powder
1 each Egg, beaten
1/2 cup Half and Half
1 tsp. Vanilla Extract
6 Tbsp. Butter, chilled and diced

Preheat the oven to 400. In a large bowl combine the flour, sugar, salt and baking powder. In another bowl combine the egg, half and half, and vanilla. Add the butter to the dry ingredients and cut it in using a pastry blender or 2 knives. The mixture should resemble coarse crumbs when done. Add the wet ingredients stirring only to bring the dough together. Don’t over mix the dough. Turn the dough out onto a floured work surface and knead 4 to 5 times. Pat into a cirlce about 7 inches in diameter and 1 inch thick. Using a biscuit cutter 3 inches in diameter, cut out 6 rounds. Place on a sheet tray that has either been greased or lined with parchment paper. Brush the tops with an egg wash made of 1 egg, beaten with 1 Tbsp. of either water or half and half. Sprinkle tops with granulated sugar then bake for 15-20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Place on a rack to cool.

To Assemble

Split 4 of the shortcakes in half and place bottoms in a bowl. Top with 2 scoops of vanilla ice cream and equally divide the poached rhubarb and strawberries over top. Cover with top half of shortcakes and serve.

I’d like to thank everyone that entered my 1st Anniversary giveaway, and thank you all again for making my first year of Once a Chef… successful! To determine the winner, I numbered all the comments I received both here and on Facebook. I then chose one of those numbered posts randomly using the random generator at random.org. The winner of my first giveaway, “Grilling for All Seasons,” is Shirley Koachway. Congratulations Shirley! Look for your book to arrive in the next week. And again, thank you to everyone for supporting Once a Chef Always a Chef!!!!

Ten days ago I wrote the arrival of my new toy, a Bradley smoker. Due to crappy weather, work, and other obligations I finally just got around to using it, and as you can see by the picture above I didn’t waste any time in trying a number of things out. The highlight of the initial run was the hot smoked salmon. Sorry, you’ll have to wait for an upcoming post to hear all about it as I think it deserves a page all to yourself. All I’ll say is that despite slightly overcooking the salmon, it came out tasting fantastic and still moist. Even my wife, a hardcore salmon hater, didn’t spite it out immediately!!! That’s big praise coming from her.

Since I waited so long to use my new toy, I couldn’t stop at just the salmon. I wanted to try a number of things, so I also bought a large package of chicken thighs. I seasoned half with a traditional BBQ while the other half was seasoned with Penzey’s “Tandoori” seasoning. If you have never heard of Penzey’s before, I urge you to check out their website. Their spices are not cheap, but are of excellent quality! Unfortunately, the tandoori spices got kind of lost in the heavy hickory smoke I used on the chicken.

Finally, because I love them so, I had to do a rack of ribs. Cooking them slow and low, this 2 1/2 pound rack took almost 5 hours to cook, 3 of those hours cooking in glourious hickory smoke. In the end they were tender, moist and bursting with smoky goodness. I finished the ribs with a Maple BBQ, which I will need to re-make sometime as it was one of those “just toss into a pan” kind of sauces.

Now that I got my first fix of barbecue from my new toy I can’t wait to play some more. Some friends and I were talking and I think a Pulled Pork party is in the cards for the near future and once summer hits with full force I’ll be doing a smoked gazpacho, using tomatoes that so a brief spin in the smoker for just the lightest touch of smokiness. I can’t wait!!!

It’s hard to believe it has been a year since I started this little venture, and while I started this more for my own sake than for anyone else’s, I hope that you, my readers have gotten as much enjoyment out of reading this blog as I have in writing it. I started this blog for very selfish reasons. I wanted an outlet for my culinary creativity, one of the things my current job lacks. Don’t get me wrong, I love my job and I love the life it has allowed me to live over the past year, but as with every job there are pros and cons, and one of the cons of this current job is the lack of much culinary creativity. This blog has helped fill that void. While I may have started out writing in a vacuum and for selfish reasons, but what I have discovered over the year is a vibrant and talented community of food bloggers. I am still amazed at many of the bloggers out there, and awed at the time many of them spend working on their blogs. I am humbled by the look of many of these blogs. There are a number of bloggers out there whose photographic skills should be making them lots of money, and creativity that shines through is inspiring. For a long time chef, who had been feeling rather burnt out for the last few years, this community has injected me with a renewed passion for my craft.

To thank my readers for the support they have shown throughout the year I thought I would do a giveaway on my first anniversary. Since I am a huge fan of grilling and barbecuing I thought a book on grilling would be appropriate.

I am giving away a copy of Rick Browne’s “Grilling for All Seasons.” The book came to me via the folks over at Chef Talk and later this month or early next month you will be able to read my review of the book there.

To enter the giveaway leave a comment below saying you would like to win. To get ab additional entry become a fan of Onceachefon Facebook. You can also get another entry by following me on Twitter at Alwaysachef. If you already follow Onceachef just state that in a comment and you’ll get credit for those. That gives you 3 chances to win. You have until the end of Saturday 5/15 to enter. Good luck and again thank you for supporting Once A Chef!!!!

America has a passion for grilled cheese sandwiches. From the standard home fare of American cheese stuffed between white bread to the exotic creations dreamt up in fine dining establishments across this country, we can’t seem to get enough of this humble sandwich. Of course, in finer dining establishments they aren’t called grilled cheese sandwiches, but rather they are called paninis. No one in their right mind is going to drop $8 or $9 or more for a “grilled cheese”, but give it an Italian name and stuff it with some roasted veggies and Italian cheese and we’ll snatch them up!

Don’t get me wrong; I love grilled cheese sandwiches in all their guises. There is something just so very satisfying about toasty bread oozing stringy cheese. I’ve mostly graduated from that childhood standard of American processed cheese and Wonder bread, though sometimes even that is just what I am looking for, to more exotic flavors. Gone is the Wonder bread, replaced by sourdough or a hearty whole grain bread. American processed cheese has been replaced by a world of cheese, sometimes something mild and gooey such as fresh mozzarella, sometimes it’s something tangy like asiago or a well aged cheddar and sometimes it’s something pungent (or stinky as my daughter might say) such as a well ripened Gorgonzola, or better yet a mix of cheeses, providing a number of flavors and textures all at once.

Some days I like my grilled cheese plain, with nothing but cheese. On other days, I like to stuff my sandwiches full with meats, vegetables, or even fruits, all depending on my tastes and what cheeses I have hanging around.

Today’s sandwich was a last minute creation, when my wife asked me to pick something up, at the store, for dinner. I would love to be able to tell you that the roasted peppers, marinated artichokes, and roasted tomatoes packed in olive oil were my creations, but they weren’t. This was dinner “on the fly,” after a hard day at work.

Living in Wisconsin, I would be remiss if I didn’t tout the cheeses made here, in this state. Wisconsin gets kind of a bad rap, I should know, I used to kind of laugh at it before I moved here, but this state produces some extraordinary cheeses. Wisconsin has some of the best cheesemakers in the world. It is easy to focus on the vast quantities of bland, “American” cheeses this state produces to supply our countries demand for boring, tasteless cheese, but beyond that there are many great cheesemakers here producing cheeses that are well thought of and sought out the world over. The fresh mozzarella I used comes from Belgioioso. It’s a cow’s milk mozzarella with a delicate milk flavor and a nice soft texture that melts well. To give the sandwich a counterpoint I sprinkled some grated Bellavitano cheese over top. Bellavitano is a line of cheeses from Sartori, another Wisconsin cheesemaker. Paul Sartori emigrated to this country, from a small village just outside of Asiago, Italy in the early part of the 20th century. By 1939 he had started his own cheesemaking company, which eventually became Sartori Foods. They have always focused on Italian and Italian influenced cheeses. One of their newest cheeses is Bellavitano, and I find it’s flavor profile to be somewhere between asiago and parmesan. Not quite as sharp or as dry as parmesan, but a bit more assertive than asiago. This one was then finished off with a soaking in balsamic vinegar adding another layer of flavor and a hint of sweetness, a perfect mix with the fresh mozzarella.

I call this an Antipasto Panini as most of the items in this sandwich you would find on a standard antipasto board.

Antipasto Panini
for each sandwich

4 oz. fresh mozzarella, sliced 1/4 inch thick
1oz. Bellavitano Balsamic cheese, grated (substitute asiago in place if you can’t find Bellavitano by Sartori)
2 slices prosciutto
1 oz. roasted peppers, cut into julienne
2 oz. roasted tomatoes, tossed in olive oil with minced garlic, basil and oregano
2 oz. marinated artichoke hearts
2 slices sourdough bread, at least 1/2 inch thick
olive oil

Preheat a panini grill. Meanwhile place mozzarella on one slice of bread, covering completely. Cover with prosciutto. Top prosciutto with peppers, artichokes and tomatoes. Sprinkle Bellavitano or asiago over top of everything. Cover with second slice of bread. Brush outside of sandwich with olive oil and grill until browned on the outside and the cheese has melted.

My new toy arrived recently, and I can’t wait to play with it!!! My Bradley smoker showed up on my doorstep last weekend, and although I haven’t had a chance to use it yet, I am so excited I just had to share! Isn’t it beautiful? I can’t wait to try it out and let you all know how it does. If anyone has suggestions for what to make, please let me know!

In my long career, in the restaurant world, I’ve held most every position there is, from dishwasher and busboy to chef and manager and pretty much every job inbetween. While I have enjoyed cooking the most, my second favorite job has always been bartender. I love the interaction with the patrons and enjoyed the showy aspect of creating a good cocktail. I took pride in the drinks I poured and would handcraft each one.

While this country may be experiencing a “cocktail revolution” or “re-awakening” I still am disappointed by the number of bartenders that really have no clue about how to make a proper cocktail. To them, it’s just a matter of throwing some booze in a glass, adding a premade mixer, stirring it up and maybe adding some soda. There’s no thought behind how the drink is made and the general mindset seems to be “the stronger the better.” While this attitude seems to be changing, at least in the cities and at higher end places, it’s still business as usual at the vast majority of bars. That’s why I mostly drink beer. It’s pretty hard for a bartender to screw that up, but ask for something as simple as a Manhattan or Old Fashioned and all bets are off. And forget about any of the more complex drinks that require precision in measuring and a little technique. To most of today’s bartenders, the word jigger is a bad word and most would rather be dead than caught using the measuring device. Unfortunately though, well made cocktails need to be measured out. Without measuring there is virtually no way to get the proper balance a drink needs.

But even measuring doesn’t do much good when you add crappy ingredients to a cocktail. Bottled sour mix, OJ from frozen concentrate, and a whole host of packaged bar mixes might help to speed things along at busy bars, but they certainly have no place in the making of a good cocktail. It saddens me when I see someone order a margarita with a premium tequila only to watch the bartender ruin it by using a bottled mix instead of fresh juice.

That said, today I was playing around with cocktails at home. I had this crazy idea that I wanted to come up with a way to combine gin and fresh tarragon, one of the first herbs to come up in my herb garden. There wasn’t much out there, on the web or in any of my cocktail books to guide me in combining these two items so I was on my own. Grapefruit seemed like a natural way to bridge the gap as grapefruit pairs well with tarragon and all citrus fruits pair well with gin. I then needed a sweetener. Grenadine would work perfectly in this aspect, providing sweetness, flavor, and a little color to the cocktail, but I refused to use the store bought stuff as it tastes nasty and has no resemblance to pomegranate, which is what grenadine was originally made from. So I decided to make my own.

Homemade Grenadine

12oz POM pomegranate juice
12oz sugar
1 Tbsp. lemon juice

Combine all ingredients in a large container with a tight fitting lid. Shake the mixture until your arms feel like they are going to fall off. Allow to settle for about 30 minutes and if there is undissolved sugar settling on the bottom, repeat the shaking process. Continue until all sugar is dissolved. Store, tightly covered in the refrigerator. Will last for about 3-4 weeks.

Once that was solved I decided I wanted to give my cocktail an old fashioned look and texture to it. I wanted a nice foam to top the cocktail and I wanted it to have a nice velvety texture to it. There is only one way to achieve the look and feel I wanted-raw egg white. Okay, I know what you are thinking, “Gross!!!” but egg whites have been used for years in cocktails, and trust me, by the time the cocktail has been properly shaken you won’t even know it is there.Many drinks relied on egg whites, the most familiar being the Ramos Gin Fizz and the whole family of Sours (Pisco Sour, Whiskey Sour, etc.). Nowadays, bottled sour mixes achieve that foaming action through the used of chemicals and additives. I think I’d rather take my chances with the raw egg white. If you are worried about food poisoning you can always use pasteurized egg whites but let’s look at the reality. Statistics say that about 1 in 20,000 eggs is infected with salmonella. That means you have a 20 times greater chance of dying by drowning, 4 times better chance of dying by choking on your food, and a 3 times better chance of dying from a slip and fall, than you do from contracting salmonella. Even then, if you are a healthy adult the chances of actually contracting the illness is even much slimmer. But again, I urge you to try this cocktail using the egg white, even if it is pasteurized. It is just not the same without it.

I have titled this drink “The Dragon’s Tongue Cocktail” as an old name for tarragon is Dragon’s Wort. Make sure you go lightly on the tarragon. It is an assertive herb and can easily overpower the other flavors in this drink.

Dragon’s Tongue Cocktail

2 oz. Gin (I used Tanqueray)
4 oz. grapefruit juice, freshly squeezed
1/2 oz. homemade grenadine
1 small sprig tarragon (3-4 leaves)
1 egg white

Fill a cocktail shaker with ice. Add ingredients and shake for at least 1 minute. Don’t skimp on the shaking as it is this shaking that will create the lovely foam that sits on top of the drink. Strain into a chilled cocktail glass and serve.