A fantastic Super bowl 2012 bbq buffet !

Ok I admit it. I know absolutely 0% about football. I don’t understand the game, I don’t cheer for any teams and I have no interest in it until the Superbowl. Aside from the commercials (go ahead and judge me) I just like the opportunity to cook for a crowd. Namely – my husband, his buddies and the wives.
Our menu for this year will include ribs, Diva Q 4 cheese abt’s, BBQ Pit Boys beans, BBQ Beef  nachos, chicken wings with a spicy piri piri sauce, bacon wrapped super fatty, and of course lots of libations!

Here is the number one searched recipe that I have posted in the past for superbowl snacking ! It feeds an enormous crowd of hungry game watchers!

Diva Q Ultimate Bacon Jalapeño Sausage Super Fatty

This is a party sized appetizer of enormous proportions – deliciously decadent…Absolutely this is one of my all time favorites from the grill…

Ingredients:
4 lbs sausage (3 regular 1 hot)
2 lbs bacon
3-5 jalapeños (cored membrane removed and sliced in half)
2 tablespoons Smoky Mountain Smokers Spicy BBQ Rub

Filling:
5 tbsp garlic tobasco sauce
5 green onions chopped
2 packages cream cheese
4 tbsp 3eyz BBQ rub
3/4 c Strodes Cherry BBQ sauce
5 tbsp garlic powder
3 tbsp onion powder
2 tbsp Chipotle powder

Mix all the filling ingredients together in a bowl and set aside in a piping bag with large nozzle.
Lay 3 feet of saran wrap on kitchen counter
Spread out sausage (no casings) on the plastic wrap evenly spreading the mixture to approx 1/2″ thick and forming a rectangular shape that is 21/2 feet long.
place the jalapeños in a line down the center of the sausage mixture
Pipe the cheese mixture onto the jalapeños going the entire length of the sausage.
Using the plastic wrap to aid you bring the sides of the sausage mixture up and around the jalapeños and cheese forming a cylindrical tube.
Place on a large tray and chill in fridge or if room allows the freezer for 30 minutes.

Lay 3 feet of saran wrap on the counter. Arrange the strips of bacon to slightly overlap each other. Depending on the thickness of your bacon you will need between 2 – 3 lbs of bacon . (Please see picture above)

Remove the sausage from the fridge. Roll the sausage out of the saran wrap onto the bacon layers.
Bring the pieces of the bacon at the ends up first then continue to bring the bacon slices up onto the sausage until fully enclosed in bacon.

Sprinkle the entire fatty with the Smoky Mountain Smokers Spicy BBQ rub.

Prepare your grill for indirect cooking medium heat (275-300F).

******* Big Caution here… its a LOT of bacon. Bacon grease fires are serious business. Ensure your grill if using charcoal or propane or gas – utilizes a pan (with about 2 inches of water) under the fatty to capture the bacon grease. Always be prepared with a fire extinguisher and baking soda in case of a grease fire. Stay put and stay close. YOu don’t ever want to be far from a grill that has bacon on it.  *******

Place the fatty on your grill in a horseshoe shape. BBQ your fatty until the internal temperature in many locations when probed reaches 165F (approx 2-3hours) and the bacon is crsipy. Glaze in the last few moments of cooking with the Strodes Cherry BBQ sauce. Remove from heat and rest at least 15 minutes. Slice and serve with additional BBQ sauce and hot sauces.

I love Char Siu. I love Char Siu from this dive in Toronto Kom Jug Yeun- their BBQ Pork is truly awesome.  I love it in a bowl of their awesome broths. I love it on rice. I love it on broccoli and snow pea shoots. I just love it. Plus I crave it. Often. The problem is lately I haven’t had much time to get to Toronto. So whats a girl to do? Well in my case its thaw some boneless pork butt and get to it.

Ingredients

8lb Boneless Pork butt

Marinade & Baste

1 cup Hoisin

3/4 cup Mushroom Flavored Soy Sauce

1/2 cup Wildflower honey

1/2 cup sriracha

1/2 cup Dry sherry

2 tbsp minced garlic

2 tbsp minced fresh ginger

2 tbsp white granulated sugar

2 tbsp Umami paste

1 tbsp chili oil

1 tbsp sesame oil

1 tbsp 5 spice powder

1 tbsp red food coloring (*Optional)

Mix all marinade ingredients together in a glass bowl and set aside.

Trim the pork butt off excess fat and cut into long strips and pieces.

* Ever notice when you are not competing you always find the most beautiful money muscles ?? UGH.

Place trimmed pieces in a container that has a tight fitting lid.

Add marinade and place in the fridge overnight. (Seriously why can’t Glade or one of those companies make an air freshener that smells like this? I would so buy it.)

Preheat your grill to 225F I used oak and hickory wood pellets for this and since it was -15 out I used the traeger.

Baste the pieces of pork with the residual marinade every 15 minutes.

Now depending on how big or small your pieces are this can take any where from an hour or 2 until the bark has developed and the internal temperature of the pork has reached 155F or higher.

To say this turned out great would be an understatement. It was freaking awesome. I can’t believe I have not done this before now. I have about 90 lbs of boneless pork butts in the freezer and I can’t wait to make it again. I’ll be adding 1/2 cup of maltose to the recipe next time to give it more shine. Ill also try hanging it in longer strips from the dome of my WSM or maybe on the Weber performer.

My craptastic pictures do not do the pork justice. It was juicy and soo flavorful and it was such a nice change from pulled pork. The smoke really complimented the flavors.

Hope you take the time to make it. Well worth it. Let me know if you do.

Our March class has already old out. We will be announcing another 2 day competition class for May in the upcoming week!

Please note no recording devices will be allowed during class times. A combination of pellet cookers (Traeger) and Charcoal (BBQ Guru Onyx Oven/WSM/Weber Grill) will be used for the class.

This will be an instructional class.

Please note you can also pay in advance via check or cash.

Please email divaq@rogers.com for application form.

Hotels in the South End Barrie Area:

Super 8 

Holiday Inn Express 

Hampton Inn & Suites

Days Inn

Monte Carlo Inn

Grilling with Rich is running a contest for BBQ person of the year. He writes a great blog that is always interesting and with fresh content. I was nominated by some folks and that was quite kind of them. The list is fully stocked with some awesome folks from all over:

So the Christmas meal is over. The presents have all been unwrapped. The libations have been drunk. However you probably still have a few pounds of leftovers in the fridge.

Pot pies are a wonderful way to use up Christmas leftovers. Deliciously easy to make and simple to assemble. They taste terrific too!

Turkey Pot Pie with Biscuit Crust

2-3 cups chopped cooked turkey

2-3 cups leftover veggies chopped (seriously whatever you have throw it in)

2 cups turkey or chicken stock

1 red pepper chopped

1 onion chopped

1 cup frozen peas

3 tbsp corn starch

2 tbsp butter

1 tsp ground sage

1 tsp ground savory

1 tsp salt

1 tsp pepper

Biscuit Topping

2 cups Bisquick

1 cup milk

2 eggs

Heat oven to 400F

I used my 3 1/2 Quart Le Creuset Braiser for this. One pot cooking and baking is ideal for fuss free clean up. You can also pour this into a casserole dish as well.

Saute red pepper and onion in butter until soft. Add in savory, sage, salt and pepper. Add turkey, chopped vegetables, frozen peas and 1 1/2stock. Mix thoroughly and bring to a simmer. Mix cornstarch with remaining 1/2 cup stock (use a small whisk) to create a lump free slurry. Mix slurry into turkey mixture and simmer until thickened.  Set aside to cool slightly.

In a medium size bowl mix Bisquick, eggs and milk.  Spread Bisquick on top of turkey mixture.

Bake for 25-35 minutes or until the crust is golden brown. Cool for 10 minutes prior to serving.  My whole family loves this dish and I end up with a fridge free of leftovers. Win Win situation!

I brine because I hate dry turkey. Throughout the year I brine various birds and pork before it hits the grill. I love juicy meat and brining is a great way to achieve that. Consider it a turkey slam dunk. Juicy flavorful bird and leftover turkey that is still moist well after the Christmas meal. For me the sammies after are almost as important as the actual meal.

My go to recipe for brining turky is Alton Brown’s Good Eats Roast Turkey brine. It is the #1 searched recipe on the food network site. With good reason. It works. Always.

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/good-eats-roast-turkey-recipe/index.html

Ingredients

• 1 (14 to 16 pound) frozen young turkey

For the brine:

• 1 cup kosher salt
• 1/2 cup light brown sugar
• 1 gallon vegetable stock
• 1 tablespoon black peppercorns
• 1 1/2 teaspoons allspice berries
• 1 1/2 teaspoons chopped candied ginger
• 1 gallon heavily iced water

For the aromatics:

• 1 red apple, sliced
• 1/2 onion, sliced
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 1 cup water
• 4 sprigs rosemary
• 6 leaves sage
• Canola oil

Directions

*Personally I omit the ginger in the brine and the rosemary in the aromatics. I love rosemary in beef recipes but I am just not fond of it on turkey.

I also like to use butter and fresh sage leaves under the breast of the turkey to create a really lovely looking bird. It looks wonderful on the Christmas table decorated with additional apples and sage leaves on a large platter.

I bbq my turkey in a disposable pan on the Traeger or Egg. I like to capture the pan drippings & juices to form the base for my gravy. The temperature should be 450-500F to begin and then I lower it after the first 45 minutes to 275/300F. I like to use oak and hickory or apple and pecan pellets or wood chunks.  I keep an eye on the color of the breast and if it starts to get a little dark I cover it with foil. Alternatively you can ice the breast first before it hits the grill. Fill up two Ziploc sandwich bags with ice and place on the breast leaving them there for an hour before you grill. This will significantly lower the temperature of the breast.  The reason is pretty simple dark eat and white meat don’t necessarily finish at the same time.  You want the breast to be 165F when finished and the dark meat to be 180F. Lowering the temp of the breast slows down its cooking time.

Heres a great video on how to carve a turkey:

I like to serve my turkey with whipped potatoes, my sweet potato casserole, grilled parsnips, gravy, cranberry sauce, bread, butter and another favorite of mine Stuffing Stuffed Acorn squash & Grilled Brussel sprouts:

Stuffing Stuffed Acorn Squash with Sage chips

4 medium acorn squash split in half and cleaned out
8 tablespoons butter
¼ lb bacon finely diced
1 medium onion finely diced
3 stalks celery finely chopped
8-12 fresh sage leaves
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 boxes commercial stuffing mix

Directions
Preheat grill for use indirect to 350 degrees F.
In a large disposable sheet pan (this will make clean up much easier) place the halves of squash . Place 1 tablespoon of butter in each half. Grill until the flesh is just starting to turn soft (approximately 1 hr)
Make commercial stuffing according to directions and set aside
In a large skillet, cook the bacon until brown and the fat is rendered, about 5 minutes. Remove bacon reserving fat in the pan. Add sage leaves and fry until the leaves are just starting to turn brown at the edges and remove to paper towels to drain. In the same skillet add the onions and celery, and cook for 2 minutes. Remove from the heat and transfer to a large bowl to cool.
In a large bowl combine commercial stuffing mixture, onions, celery and bacon. Fill each cavity of the squash half with this mixture. Return to the grill to warm through. Approximately 20 minutes. Garnish each squash half with the fried sage leaves.

Grilled Brussel Sprouts

1 lb Brussel sprouts cleaned and trimmed
¼ cup butter melted
Salt
Pepper
Granulated garlic
Fresh thyme sprigs
1 BBQ buddy™ pan

On a charcoal grill with a medium heat (300F) place bbq buddy ™ pan.
Fill with brussel sprouts and sprinkle on granulated garlic, salt & pepper.
Brush with butter. Turn after 5-10 minutes then brush with butter again.
Remove when brussel sprouts are just starting to turn soft (approx 15-20 minutes)
Garnish with sprigs of thyme.

Jack Daniels Honey is one of my favorite libations from 2011. I love chocolate too. So it only makes sense that these two wonderful things come together in a truffle.

Jack Daniels Honey Truffles

2 cups Ghirardelli semi sweet chocolate chips
1 cup heavy whipping cream
1/4 cup Jack Daniels Honey
1 tbsp unsalted butter
1/2 tsp Kosher salt

Coating options:
Ghirardelli unsweetened cocoa
Ghirardelli sweet ground chocolate & cocoa
powdered sugar
finely shredded unsweetened coconut
finely chopped pig candy
honey powder
finely chopped pecans or other nuts
gold leaf

Pour chocolate chips in a glass bowl and set aside. In a medium saucepan bring the cream up to a simmer but not boiling. Remove pan from heat and pour cream over the chocolate chips. Add the butter, salt and Jack Daniels Honey. Stir until the mixture is incorporated and the chocolate has melted to a smooth consistency. Place in fridge for a minimum of 2 hours or even overnight.

Using a 1 ounce ice cream scoop or a teaspoon spoon out the truffles. Roll in preferred coating. Serve immediately or refrigerate to serve later on.

My favorite topping was chopped glazed pecans. I love having these on hand for salads and more.

Absolutely delicious. Just remember these truffles are for adults only! Enjoy!

12 days of BBQ Christmas

On the first day of Christmas,
my true love sent to me
A smoker and some hickory

*

On the second day of Christmas,
my true love sent to me
Two tubs of rub,
& A smoker with some hickory.

*

On the third day of Christmas,
my true love sent to me
Three bags of Charcoal
Two tubs of rub,
& A smoker with some hickory..

*

On the fourth day of Christmas,
my true love sent to me
Four cases of foil,
Three bags of Charcoal,
Two tubs of rub,
& A smoker with some hickory..

*

On the fifth day of Christmas,
my true love sent to me
Five bottles of Jack,
Four cases of foil,
Three bags of Charcoal,
Two tubs of rub,
& A smoker with some hickory.

*

On the sixth day of Christmas,
my true love sent to me
Six butterflied chickens,
Five bottles of Jack,
Four cases of foil,
Three bags of Charcoal,
Two tubs of rub,
& A smoker with some hickory..

*

On the seventh day of Christmas,
my true love sent to me
Seven chili peppers
Six butterflied chickens
Five bottles of Jack,
Four cases of foil,
Three French hens,
Two tubs of rub,
& A smoker with some hickory..

*

On the eighth day of Christmas,
my true love sent to me
Eight first place trophies,
Seven chili peppers,
Six butterflied chickens,
Five bottles of Jack,
Four cases of foil,
Three bags of Charcoal,
Two tubs of rub,
& A smoker with some hickory..

*

On the ninth day of Christmas,
my true love sent to me
Nine probe thermometers,
Eight first place trophies,
Seven chili peppers,
Six butterflied chickens,
Five bottles of Jack,
Four cases of foil,
Three bags of Charcoal,
Two tubs of rub,
& A smoker with some hickory..

*

On the tenth day of Christmas,
my true love sent to me
Ten perfect scorings
Nine probe thermometers,
Eight first place trophies,
Seven chili peppers,
Six butterflied chickens,
Five bottles of Jack,
Four cases of foil,
Three bags of Charcoal,
Two tubs of rub,
& A smoker with some hickory..

*

On the eleventh day of Christmas,
my true love sent to me
Eleven racks of ribs
Ten perfect scorings,
Nine probe thermometers,
Eight first place trophies,
Seven chili peppers,
Six butterflied chickens,
Five bottles of Jack,
Four cases of foil,
Three bags of Charcoal,
Two tubs of rub,
& A smoker with some hickory..

*

On the twelfth day of Christmas,
my true love sent to me
Twelve , Grand Championships!!
Eleven racks of ribs ,
Ten perfect scorings,
Nine probe thermometers,
Eight first place trophies,
Seven chili peppers,
Six butterflied chickens,
Five bottles of Jack,
Four cases of foil,
Three bags of Charcoal,
Two tubs of rub,
& A smoker with some hickory!

Looking for something homemade for Christmas? How about giving some bbq rubs…. Some of the best gifts are not store bought but thoughtful homemade presents …

Mason jars with tight fitting lids make a great place to start. Available everywhere and in many sizes …..

Simply assemble some of your favorite recipes for rubs with fresh spices….

Add a nice recipe card…lots of templates available online..

Rub Recipes:
Diva Q Cajun Rub
Diva Q Basic Beef Rub
Diva Q Basic Chicken Rub
Kansas City Rib Rub
Memphis Style Rib Rub
Carolina BBQ Rub
Brisket Rub

Top the jars with some cute flame ribbon

Happy Gifting !!