Memorial Day cooking

Well. I may have finally gotten the hang of the Egg. It all starts with Josh doing the fire and making sure you use a meat thermometer. I actually read the latter in a mag, confirming what I had already learned. You can't use a digital thermometer which is sad, so I poke the meat every few minutes. Still learning about that part of the timing. It takes a while for the one we have to register temp, but the instant-read ones are like $96. Ouch.

Anyway, here you see a portion of the bone-in dry-aged ribeye that I made us Friday. I took it out at 110 and it turned out beautifully. Probably one of the damn most beautiful steaks ever. Since my source for sel gris has dried up, I've been using the same generous hand with kosher salt. I think it's working out today. I'll have to check with Josh on how it's going. The last time, I didn't use enough salt and he said he missed the salt crust.

We also had some Egg'd "cambray onions" and brussel spouts (already parboiled). You can see the cut-off bone of the ribeye. I chomped it. It was delicious. That marked the last of the ribeye we had in the freezer so we will have to go buy more. I'm also exclusively serving chimmichurri with steak now. The vinegar and herbs cut so well through the fat.

We had a nice 2001 montalcino brunello to go with it. Mmmmmmmm...

We had a good trip at Peachtree Road Farmers Market. We got arugula and onions with the tops still attached from Green Ola. From Hennessey, we got broccoli and summer squash. From McMullan, we got carrots and more baby squash to round out what we had. And from Burge, we got a selection of potatoes, hakurei turnips, french beans, and wild plums. The plums have already been all used up, making their way into some juleps.

It's pickling time. It was time to create new pickles and all I had was quart jars. Quarts are pretty large. I did a full recipe of the bread and butter pickles, four quarts. It seems that not many people are into bread and butter pickles, so I have a lot of them. But they are wonderful on burgers... if you'd like some.

When Josh had chowchow on his cornmeal-crusted halibut at the beach, he asked if I could make some chow chow. So I did. This is really the first time that I'd ever had chow chow, so it was hard to guess if it was good or not. Mine is a mix of red and green bell peppers, cabbage, green tomatoes, and onions. This was the Lee Brothers recipe. Josh thought it could a touch less sugar but it was still great on Pine St Market sausages.

People love my dills, which is nice. I made a full batch, but only ended up with 5 quarts instead of 8. That probably means that I stuffed them too full into their jars. I don't really remember having to soak them in brine for so long and they seemed a little limp as I put them into the jars. I'm nervous about them but I hope they turn out well. These are pretty nice on the side next to a burger.

When you buy roughly 20 lbs of cucumbers, you have to make as many pickles as you can. I used some to make these Japanese sesame pickles which are pretty tasty. I still have like 4 lbs of cucumbers. No idea what I will do with the rest of them...

Sunday night, we Egg'd some whiskey-cider brined pork chops from Pine St. They had great flavor and the smokiness from the Egg was fantastic. The only thing that was weird was the actual cut of the pork chops. I know you totally can't expect to get picture perfect meat cuts as you get in the grocery store, but ... I know, I'm spoiled. Anyway, they were delicious.

Josh also asked for the Bobby Flay grilled potato salad we make, which is a riff on French potato salad. I parboiled some of the Burge potatoes, then sliced them and grilled them with olive oil, s+p. Then I mixed them with a dijon-y vinaigrette. Delicious.

We also Egg'd the broccoli from Burge. Smoky and delicious. So sad that broccoli season is over.

Today, I made my own version of the crab and avocado salad from George's. I went thinner with the red onion and had more though less lumpy crabmeat. For the dressing, I went heavier on the sesame and light on the soy, adding in a touch of rice vinegar and black vinegar. I also added a few thick pieces of ginger which I removed before whisking and dressing the salad. I think it turned out better, and there was just enough dressing for the salad without a bunch of extra in the bowl.

Since the lump crabmeat that we buy is from Costco, you can never just have one serving. So I just made some crabcakes and they are forming up in the fridge. Soon, crabcakes!