Discussion Thread -> "2015 Memorial Day Open" Throwdown (Entries and Quality ON TOPIC *CLEAN* Discussion Only)

Moose said:

And it ain't over yet!

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Yep, and there's a Brethren Bash going on this weekend!!! Brace yourselves!!!!

bbqwilly said:

This TD is ridicilous.

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Ain't it? I feel like I jumped into the deep end of the pool for my first one after being a half arsed member for oh, what 6 years or something like that? I wonder how many calories are posted on this thread so far?

Man-O-Man, what a bunch of great cooks we have around here, a bunch of superb entry's happening.

Well, I pretty much had to work through the Memorial Day weekend, but here is my entry, better late than never:-D.

I started out with this beauty from SRF/Double R Ranch, a beautiful Porterhouse steak;


Seasoned up with the Worcestershire, Montreal Steak and a little extra garlic;

I let that work it's magic while I prepped the rest, some bacon wrapped onion rings and grilled taters;

After about an hour on the Kettle at ~350;

And the grilled taters;


And of coarse the star of the show;


Laid out on a platter;

For my plate, I had the majority of the strip loin;

A bite shot;

Man it was tasty, real, real good!
Please use the following shot for my entry shot please;

Thanks for looking all!
You can see the full cook thread here; http://www.bbq-brethren.com/forum/showthread.php?t=211442

Keep on Qing,

KC

Please accept this as my official entry to the "2015 Memorial Day Open" Throwdown!

So, with the biblical flood upon the State of Texas, our Bash locale was closed. I opened up the peeps patio to our fellow North Texas Brethren for the Spring North Texas Gullywasher Brethren Bash!

Fired up Earl nice and early with some post oak and pecan wood and threw 2 choice chuckies on rubbed with a mix of Oakridge Black Ops and Coopers Old Time BBQ Rub!!





Once they got to 165-ish IT, I chopped up some bell peppers, a red onion, and 3 serrano peppers. I chopped up the first serrano, seeds and all with the plan to de-seed the 2nd and 3rd. While chopping the 2nd, the pepper squirted into my eye, and I immediately thought, "oh, this is gonna be bad!". However, it didn't sting but for a few seconds, so I figured the peppers weren't really hot after all and dumped all 3 in, seeds and all!



For the braising liquid, I opted to use some of the Rabbit Hole Rapture Brown Ale from the local Justin, TX brewery, Rabbit Hole Brewing. I poured in what I figured was about 12 oz from the growler, put the chuckies in the pan, and foiled it tight. Back on the smoker until it was pull tender.





While it was cooking, we passed the bottle of Cabo!





And when I wasn't drinking the Rabbit Hole Rapture, I was drinking this...



A few hours later, it pulled beautifully!



After it was pulled, I mixed it all up and put it back on Earl uncovered until most of the liquid was reduced...this is the key, IMO! Don't get antsy and serve this up while soupy, or else all your flavor stays in the soup!

When it had reduced to my satisfaction, I took it off the heat and served it up on French dinner rolls with sliced american cheese from the deli.



Please use the above as my entry photo.

I have made this before with different beers and have always been a fan! However, doing this for the bash and having this posted by a fellow brethren about the pulled beef really made my day!

erbeman said:

Peeps stole the show with his pepper stout beef. It was amazing! I can't wait to attempt to make it myself. Thanks again for opening your home to all of us.

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If you would like to see more about the bash, see the thread linked below!

http://www.bbq-brethren.com/forum/showthread.php?t=211364

Thanks for following along!

This is my entry into the “2015 Memorial Day Open” Throwdown.

Yep I’m hosted a Paella Party on Memorial Day Weekend. This being my first Paella, and a pretty full house of guests (10 total) coming, I hoped it would turn out well. Now, after surfing the Web I came to realize that there is no one recipe to follow as everyone did something different. So this is a combination of 3 or 4 recipes I found on the web taking things I liked from them all. (Bear with me as this is a long one)

Here are most of the ingredients. (Chicken and squid not shown)

Clams and mussels

Prawns (These were alive the day before)

1 lb. of U15 shrimp.

O.K., here I’m getting started on the Paella. I sliced and diced up all my veggies. (In my hurrying around I forgot to put these Red Bell Pepper slices on)

I de-boned the chicken thighs. And made stock with the bones.

As I don’t possess a Mortar & Pestle I put the Saffron threads into a 1 cup Pyrex measuring cup and used a spoon to crush them. I then put 1/2 cup of white wine in with them and brought this to a boil in the microwave to pull out all the flavor of the Saffron.

I then cut up the sausage into ¼” slices. (Use Spanish Chorizo if you can get it. I couldn’t find this so I use Portuguese Linguica) Chicken stock is ready. (I poured in 1 container of store bought stock to what I made and continued to reduce)

I peeled the shrimp and reserved shells to make up a Shrimp & Saffron Stock. I put the shells into a sauté pan with a little EVOO and sautéd until they started to turn orangey pink in color. Now I added 1/2 cup of clam juice, the Saffron broth, 4 cups of chicken stock and simmered for 20 minutes.





While that was simmering I lit the kamado. I then took everything (but the red bell peppers) out to my gas cook top.

I heated up some OO and seared the chicken thighs. Removed and reserved. (Note: Unless you have a very wide burner (which I didn’t) you’ll need to rotate your pan every couple of minutes for even heat distribution)

I then cooked up the Linguica. Removed and reserved.

Now heated the onions and bell peppers until they start to wilt. Added the minced garlic and continued to cook for another minute or 2. Now the 2 diced tomatoes and continued to cook until it starts to caramelize and then add 3 bay leaves.
Now add the rice in the shape of a cross.

Stir the rice into all that flavor goodness and let it toast for 2 to 3 minutes. (Until you start to hear some cracklin)

Now add the wonderful (and still hot) Shrimp and Saffron broth. You should hear some sizzling when it hits the pan. Shake the pan to try and level everything out and do not stir it again. Now evenly redistribute the chicken and Linguica into the pan.

Move it over to your pre-heated (to 425) kamado and let this cook for 15 minutes. (I forgot to add the peas and green beans until after the picture)

After 15 minutes you’ll notice the liquid has reduced nicely. Now I add the mussels (too many) and the squid and cook for 2 minutes.

Now I add the shrimp and cook for 1 minute.

Now I add the clams and cook for 2 minutes and then finally add the prawns and cook for 5 minutes.

I now checked to see if my rice was done. There was still quite a bit of liquid bubbling as the mussels and clams had opened up, releasing their juice. (there were too many mussels) So I open the lid and let my fire get really hot to try and reduce the liquid further. Ideally you want the liquid to be almost completely absorbed and a slight crust start to form on the bottom of the pan. After most of the liquid was gone I took the pan inside and added some fresh lemon wedges.

I garnished with parsley and it’s ready to serve to my quests. Here are those pics.

Here’s the money shot below.

OMG! Having never made this before I’ll have to say it was a lot of work but it is sooooo worth it. Flavor was unbelievable. The actual cooking isn’t that hard so long as you’ve done all your prep work beforehand. I urge you all to give this a try.

The entire cook thread can be seen here: http://www.bbq-brethren.com/forum/sh...d.php?t=210916

I had a great Memorial Day Week if that makes any sense and it looks like I'm not the only one with all of the fabulous entries. :clap2:

This is my Memorial Week story and my official entry into the Memorial Day Open.

It all started by my wife and I getting invited to my SIL's brothers house for dinner. This was a special occasion because I knew there would be some special guests there, three to be exact.



Yup the triplets were there, those are the real deal World Series trophy's and rings. I told him that he needs to get the rings resized since they didn't fit my fat fingers very well.



The next day we left for a week and a half camping trip. I was off the grid just campfires and beer.



Old washing machine tubs make great fire pits.



The following week on Wednesday I caught a weak wifi signal at the campground and was able to check my e-mails for the first time. That's when I saw an e-mail from Annela @ SRF congratulating me for my TD win. :doh: I had totally lost track of everything but what a nice surprise. Then I had to try and catch the weak wifi signal to contact the mods for the next TD. :frusty: stupid wifi signal I was tempted to toss my phone in the fire a couple of times. :tsk:

The following day I set out on a 6 hr road trip to three different butchers the first was Fagundes meats in Manteca CA. then Lockeford Meats and Sausages in Lockeford CA. then finally Swingle meats in Jackson CA.





It's almost like I asked Siri to find me cow signs but Siri never listens to me so that wasn't it. Fagundes didn't have a cow sign (they better work on that). I made it back with over $700 worth of meat (not all mine) and this is the only pic of cooking meat while camping. :tsk:



They were some beautiful shorties though. My Chubby performed like a champ all week it was a short rib smokin', pulled pork makin', tri tip cookin', pig candy makin' machine all week. My favorite meal all week was a Swingle meats Kona marinated tri tip sandwich. I had a whiskey river tri tip from Swigle left over so I decided to duplicate one of my cooks today on the performer.



Reverse sear is the only way to go on Tri Tips IMO.



Ordered some Grill Grates for my trip but UPS farked that up.



Vote picture below.



The Tri Tips were ridiculously tender I had to murder a couple while camping to suit peoples tastes but no mater what they were so juicy and tender and the onions and bell peppers complimented them so well. Thanks for lookin' :thumb:

That's a wrap, folks! I'll work on getting the poll up in just a bit!