Chile-Lime Marinade

This was originally posted at DC's Musings February 3, 2009. A friend recently asked how I grill my tri-tip and it caused me to think of this wonderful and simple marinade.


I love to barbecue (or grill, I use the terms synonymously knowing that barbecue is a type of food in some regions and how it is prepared in others--if you have an issue then you have issues). I love to experiment. I love to experiment with food and flavor combinations for my barbecue. This weekend I hit a homerun on a new technique that many may already know, but it was new to my un-culinary-educated experience.

Some of my favorite marinades and basting liquids contain lime juice--fresh lime juice from the limes on our tree in the front yard (a "Mexican" or "Key-Lime" tree). The limes are just smaller than a golf ball with incredible flavor. Squeeze one on a piece of tri-tip or a butterflied chicken and bliss is found.

Grilled chili peppers is also one of my favorites from the outdoor cooker, I love the flavor and the spice they bring to a tortilla filled with any grilled meat. With kids the flavor and the spice can sometimes be too intense so I have had to cut back on how many, and what type, of chilies I like to use. Until Saturday.

I was listening to a radio program and the on-air expert (not Melinda Lee who I very much enjoy) was explaining how the heat in chili peppers is cut by acid and if you soak them in acid they will retain their flavors and loose much of their heat. Perfect! I like acids: citrus juices, alcohol, vinegar (in smaller doses than Leslie) and was excited to try a new technique.

Saturday afternoon to prep for my Super Bowl chili I cut the stems off and just scraped out as much of the seeds as I could in jalapeno, Anaheim and banana peppers. Then I put them in a Ziploc with the juice of two of our small Mexican limes. Making sure the juice got inside the peppers I put the bag in the cold-box overnight.
Sunday morning when I opened the bag to retrieve the peppers for roasting I was hit with the wonderful aroma of chilies and lime--it smelled fantastic. Not one to waste something that smells that good I quickly rubbed my pork loin chops with salt, pepper and house rub, placed in a bag, poured in the chili-lime juice and vacuum sealed the contents. Into the cold-box until after church to marinade.

I grilled the pork over the mesquite and without basting the flavor of the chili-lime marinade was terrific. There was little heat, but not too much, and to be able to enjoy the flavor of the chilies without worrying about the heat was a plus.
The pork, the roasted peppers and the left over chili-lime all went into the chili pot for what may have been the best SB Chili I have made in the almost 25 years I have been making it.

Try it, bag of chilies and lime juice then use to marinate chicken, pork, tri-tip, fish--you'll love it!

A Cautionary Tale

Mmmmm, sugar cookies. Also mmmmmm, sugar cookie dough, so good it's put in ice cream. Every memory I have of my childhood that involved making cookies includes my sister as the queen of eating the raw dough. With three kids my mom would have two beaters and a bowl, one piece for each kid. My sister was oldest, biggest, meanest and most desirous of the sugary raw goodness (for accuracy let it be known that while Sharon is still the oldest she is neither the biggest or meanest--we have no more mean amongst the Smith Sibs). Part of making cookies is a few tastes of the dough. A caution on eating raw cookie dough though....

Sunday was a family party to celebrate Jenna's birthday. Instead of a cake she wanted a giant sugar cookie. On Saturday Blaire and I made the dough (very good and easy recipe from Sur La Table cookbook: 2 1/4 cups flour, 3/4 cups sugar, little salt, 2-3 egg yolks, little vanilla, two sticks of butter). Not having time to make the giant cookie-cake we put the dough in the fridge overnight.

When it was time to make the giant cookie on Sunday the dough was too hard to roll out so I left it out on the counter for a while. Once soft we began to play around with making the giant cookie when Jenna decided she would rather have a bunch of "J" cookies. So we rolled out the dough and began pressing "J's".

As we worked and re-rolled our dough it got softer and softer. Instead of refridgerating some and using as we needed it I just kept rolling and cutting, rolling and cutting.

At one point early in the process Blaire snagged a little extra piece of dough--no shock. And smacked her lips with a giant, "MmmmmmmmMMMM!" Much later in the process I proceeded to do the same thing. I grabbed a small piece of dough, about the size of a dime in diameter and popped it in my mouth, gave a few chews and swallowed.

BAD IDEA!

I started choking and gagging. The dough had gotten so warm that the butter and flour combo made it stick in my throat. I proceeded to gag and cough uncontrollably until the dough ball moved slightly and I could breath--pant would be a better word. I swallowed warm water to melt the butter and for several minutes stood over the sink gagging, coughing and trying to dislodge the butter-dough ball from my throat. I even pushed my finger way down my throat to try to pull it up but could not grab it--though I did spread it and flatten it. After several minutes and lots of warm water I felt I was no longer choking and was able to sit and catch my breath.

Once I knew I could breath I calmed down a little, but it was still a frightening for me--and probably the girls as nothing ruins a cookie making project like Dad choking and gagging. Had the dough ball been bigger the situation could have gotten a lot worse.

The obvious moral of the story is, enjoy your raw cookie dough, but make sure it is somewhat chilled and not prone to stick on the way down other wise instead of baking cookies you could be tossing them....or worse.


DCS 02222010

Crowning the Queen of Stuftivus

"I didn't know that eating pork improved sexual activity," Fernandez said in a meeting with representatives of the swine industry late Wednesday. "It is much more gratifying to eat some grilled pork than to take Viagra."

So says President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner of Argentina. Between issuing true political pork to subsidize the pork industry of Argentina and promoting pork as a benefit to an active sex life, President Fernandez de Kirchner is hereby dubbed the Queen of Stuftivus II.

In her honor Smokey suggests a Saturday evening dinner with your honey featuring a menu of oysters and champagne, followed by bacon wrapped pork sausage on a bed of pulled pork with a Guiness, finished with a chocolate souffle and small glass of Tokaji.

What a great two days for Stuftivus! On Thursday we get our muse for Stuftivus II and today we find our Queen for Stuftivus II!

Now off to cook some pork for dinner!

Stuftivus II Finds Its Muse

Stuftivus I centered on the Bacon Explosion. From the simple email from Sister Sharon about the Bacon Explosion came an explosion of commentary on Facebook about when Dennis, aka Smokey Stuftivus, would be embarking on such a culinary journey. The answer begat Stuftivus. With the help of Reno Mike and some pork products it was a rousing, and rotund, success.

Now Sister Sharon has descended from Mount Novato with yet another delight. The Brandcheezie (pictured compliments of its home at Brand BBQ Market in Chicago). Some thoughts.

First, "cheezie" is in the name! Harkens "E-Z Cheese". Possible substitute for gorgonzola or blue cheese? Squirt some E-Z Cheese in that big guy? Harkens my E-Z P-Z Pasta N Chee-Z would would be a fine side dish for the Brandcheezie.

Second, while the original Brandcheezie is fried, I think Reno Mike and I showed our grit at Stuftivus I in being able to grill huge amounts of bacon wrapped pork wrapped bacon, so the Stuftivus version of the Brandcheezie will not doubt come to grill.

Third, is there a better Muse out there for Stuftivus II than the Brandcheezie? If so I don't know that I want to know. Smokey will be dreaming of sausage stuffed with cheese wrapped in bacon glazed with barbecue sauce and alcohol.

Coming soon the official date for Stuftivus II: We thought about fish, but its still about Pork!

You know what won't be at Stuftivus II, or any Stuftivus!