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Food Thread: Indirect Fire! No...Not That Kind!

We had dinner guests last night, and because we also had lunch guests, preparation needed to be simple, because I am at heart a lazy bastard.

Oh look! Some extra Cilantro/Dijon marinade! Refrigerators sometimes reveal wonderful things! That went right on the chicken...thighs and legs. For two reasons. First...I am at heart a cheap bastard (the legs were on sale). And two...because I am at heart a lazy bastard and thighs and legs require far less attention than the other parts of a chicken.

Indirect fire for however long it takes to drink my bourbons and eat some excellent homemade hummus and pita. And shoot the breeze. 45 minutes? An hour? Yeah...sure...whatever it takes. But it takes a very long time to overdo a chicken leg or thigh. And they taste a lot better than chicken breasts. Let's face it, grilled chicken breasts taste like whatever you use to spice them. Or if they are plain, then they taste like nothing at all.

So what's the point of eating them? Especially since they are the most expensive part of the chicken, which makes absolutely no sense to me.

Okay, I will grant the small point that they are convenient and cook more quickly, so if you are making chicken salad or something that is highly flavored, they do offer...something. But next time make chicken salad out of chicken thighs and you will never go back!

Trust me as a Dildo!

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Right off the top of my head? My bet is that a rigorous analysis of food costs in America will show a 50% increase since the drooling, incontinent, nasty old fool in the White House took office.

Wait, How Much Have Groceries Gone Up?

I am offended in the extreme by the arrant nonsense being spouted by our supposed elites inside the Beltway that inflation is 20%. Hot dog and hamburger buns are up about 50% around here. Eggs closer to 100%. Beef around 33%. The same for pork. Chicken prices bounce around a lot for some reason, but the rock-bottom sale price has doubled. Vegetables (yes...I eat them!) are up substantially! Squash and zucchini are up 50%, eggplant is up about the same, and carrots seem to have doubled!

So don't blow smoke up my ass and tell my that food inflation is anywhere near 20%. Look...I'm not going to vote for you and you filth, but telling me the truth might keep me from yelling and cursing at you if I ever see you in public.

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Longtime regular commenter "Stephen Price Blair" has a fun website where he chats about a lot of stuff, including food. But no nouvelle cuisine for him! Old cookbooks seem to be his specialty, and he actually cooks some of the weird stuff we used think was perfectly delicious!

A Centennial Meal for the Sestercentennial

Ugh....a 150 year old mashed potato pie recipe? Except...he made it, and it works!

More weird stuff at the link...take a look. It's a hoot!

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Speaking of Hummus; I made some yesterday with dried chickpeas. I have always used canned, but I figured, give it a shot! I also tried an actual recipe from Balaboosta, a cookbook written by the chef/owner at my favorite falafel place in NYC. Very tasty, although I think next time I will tune it up (more tahini). But using reconstituted chickpeas is a game changer!

Wow...very, very tasty.

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That's commenter "Gunslinger's" delicious-looking attempt at smoked beef ribs on his new pellet grill/smoker.

We had an interesting discussion about pellet "stoves?" "Smokers?" "Grills?" Whatever you call them they seem to be extremely useful, and I am going to address them in an upcoming Food Thread. But in the meantime, drool over those ribs!

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I jabber incessantly about technique, and while I may be a bit off, I firmly believe that short of using absolutely horrendous ingredients, technique will make a fair dish good, and a good dish excellent. Here's a perfect example.

Cast Iron Roasted Butterflied Chicken

The recipe is adapted from Zuni Cafe in San Francisco, and I can vouch for how spectacular it is. Obviously a fine restaurant is going to have advantages over us home cooks, and this recipe recognizes that. But it is solid, and worth a try.

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Good butter, and Flap Meat...whatever the hell that is...just send it, Broccolini that isn't $6/bunch, garlic...lots of garlic!, well-marbled hanger steaks and elk chops to: cbd dot aoshq at gmail dot com.

Who are those poor deluded souls who shake their Manhattans? These are the same people who drink fine bourbon with coke, and probably shake red wine with ice too.

My and the world's patience has run out. Shaken Manhattans henceforth will be banished to the land of Long Island Ice Teas and Frozen Strawberry Margaritas.

And yes, I used to demand fancy bourbon, but let's face it, $1,200 for a bottle of bourbon is just stupid, insulting, and a ghastly affront to most people's palates and wallets. I think the sweet spot is $40-$60 for excellent and interesting bottles, and bumping that to $100 gets you an incremental improvement in quality, but nothing mind-blowing. More than that and I think you are paying for hype and rarity, which may look good in your liquor cabinet, but doesn't translate to more quality in the bottle.