Brine for Poultry and Pork

November 16th, 2009
by: Blue

My Tía Loca sent this recipe, it sounds fabulous.  Gracias Tía Loca, te amo!

Ingredients For Pork or Chicken:

Kosher Salt – 2/3 cup
Brown Sugar – 2 ½ tablespoons
Whole Peppercorns -  ¾ teaspoon
Water – 1 quart
Ice Water – 1 ½ quarts

Ingredients For Turkey:

Kosher Salt – 2 1/2 cups
Brown Sugar – 2/3 cup
Whole Peppercorns -  1 tablespoon
Water  - 1 gallon
Ice Water  - 1 ½ gallons

Directions:

In a large pot over high heat, combine the salt, brown sugar, peppercorns and water. Bring to a boil and continue boiling, stirring until the salt and sugar are dissolved, about 3-5 minutes. Remove from heat and transfer to a large bowl. Let cool to lukewarm, about one hour. Stir one-third of the ice water into the brine.

Place the chicken pieces, turkey or pork chops in a brining bag (available at Williams-Sonoma and worth the trouble). Pour the brine and remaining ice water. Seal the bag and place in a bowl (pork chops or chicken) or ice chest (turkey). Refigerate or keep covered with ice/water for 6-12 hours or for up to 24 hours for turkey.

Before cooking, remove meat from the brine, rinse thoroughly with cold water and pat dry with paper towels. Cook as desired.

(Taken from the Williams Sonoma brining bag box and worth sharing…)

Mitchell Barbeque Sauce

September 27th, 2009
by: Sue

My Dad loved to barbeque, and one of my favorite childhood meals happened when he barbequed pork chops over charcoal with this sauce sopped on when the chops were nearly done. Since it has a lot of sugar, if you put it on too quickly, the meat will blacken too much and you’ll have blackened pork chops. This recipe came from his family, I understand that Granddad Mitchell brought it from Louisiana. Our family fled Louisiana after the Civil War and came to Texas. Good move!! This sauce because of the high vinegar content will tenderize your meat if you also use it as a marinade before cooking. Forget about bottled sauce, this is the best!!

1 large can tomato juice
1 quart vinegar (preferably apple cider)
2 lb. bag brown sugar
3 -4 onions, peeled and sliced
3-4 lemons, sliced
8-10 cloves garlic, sliced thin
1 bottle worcestershire sauce
1 bottle Tabasco hot sauce
salt
pepper
Optional: 1 can tomato puree to thicken

Combine ingredients in large pot. Bring to a boil then simmer for 30 minutes, or you can reduce this by cooking longer. When the smell of sauce wafts through the air, remember all the joys of barbecues in the past.

Pour into quart canning jars. This does not require refrigeration. Use as a marinade or brush over barbeque in the last few minutes of grilling.

This recipe was from my Dad who got it from his Dad.

Steak Marinade

March 30th, 2009
by: Blue

I made filet mignon this weekend, used this marinade and grilled them over mesquite wood. Abso-lucking-futely perfect.

1/3 cup olive oil
2 Tablespoons brown sugar
2 Tablespoons balsamic vinegar
3 Tablespoons chopped garlic
3 Tablespoons chopped chives
1/2 cup soy sauce

Mix. That’s it. Pour over steaks.