Lemon Roasted Chicken

Lemon Roasted Chicken with a Smokey Orange Sauce and lightly sauteed Asparagus


This 5lb bird was stuffed with fresh lemon, thyme and garlic before being pan seared in peanut oil and Roasted in the oven at 350 degrees for about 1hr 45m. The final 20 minutes I added a 1/2 stick of butter to the natural juices and basted the bird to crisp up the skin.

The Smokey Orange Sauce was started by making about 1 1/2 cups of stock from the giblets. I then sauteed fresh garlic and 1 small onion in 4 tbsp of butter until lightly golden brown. I then stirred in about 2-3 tbsp of flour and let it cook for about 2 minutes. Then I added the stock I made along with 1 cup orange juice, 1/2 cup red wine, 4-5 tbsp orange marmalade, 1/2 tsp liquid smoke and salt and pepper. I cooked this down for about 45 minutes to let it thicken, strained and served. Simple and delicious!

Plut's Birthday Feast

Smoked Caribbean Style Ribs
Roasted Sweet Potato & Poblano Pepper Mash
Bacon & Cheddar Cheese Mac with Grilled Jalapenos, tomatoes & red onions
Sauteed Sweet Corn Puree over field greens


First the ribs were marinated overnight in orange, lemon and grapefruit juices, fresh garlic, ginger, kosher salt and pepper. About an hour before cooking, I washed them off, dried them thoroughly and rubbed them with some of my pork rub and let them sit for an hour. Then they went into the smoker for about 4 hours at 250 degrees or so over a mix of hickory and cherry woods. Delicious!!!

The Best Bacon I've Ever Had

My obsession with bacon began when I was just a toddler. My father would leave pork cracklins on the tray of my baby walker.

This piece of bacon weighed in at 6 ounces before it was cooked at 225° for 3 hours.

The outside of the cooked bacon was glazed with its natural sugars leaving the outside crispy while the inside remained tender enough to melt in your mouth.

Homebrew Pumpkin Ale Part 3 - The Naming

2008 Pumpkin Alley Ale

The pumpkin Ale is complete.  The flavor of the fresh pumpkin is interesting.  On Halloween, when this ale was first tasted, the pumpkin gave way to hints of apple and fresh fruits, but not really muchf pumpkin flavor.  A few weeks later, the pumpkin is beginning to come through but its still not overwhelming.  The pie spices I added are very subtle, actually making this a very drinkable ale, not the Pumpkin Pie flavor bomb of a Buffalo Bills or Shipyard.

Next year I will try to get a deeper roast on the pumpkins and see if I can't get a warmer flavor.  Otherwise the 2008 Pumpkin Alley Ale is a success and I'm looking to making more next year!

Palo Santo Marron

For a while, and for whatever reason, it was nearly impossible to find Dogfish Head in Colorado.  A few months back 60 Minutes finally started sneaking back onto the shelves, followed by the 90, India Brown Ale, Raison D-Etre and finally the Punkin brought up the rear in October.  While this is a respectable selection and DFH has clearly gotten through their production/distribution glitches, I still had not been able to find Palo Santo Marron.  I searched and asked every conceivable liquor store to scare some up, even if I had to buy  case...  

Well, yesterday Total Beverage brought the thunder.  From DFH they had Palo Santo, Theobroma!!!, Midas Touch, Pangea along with their standard stock.  They also ran deep in Stone, Port Brewing, Allagash, Lost Abbey, Russian River and tons of fresh fall harvest beers.

Pork Belly- The Finale

So here is the finished dishWhat I did was dehydrate potato slices, grind them up into a chunky powder, and bread the pork belly chunks. Then I fried the chunks in duck fat until they were a little past golden brown. Also on the plate I have pickled mustard seeds, compressed apples & pears, butternut squash puree (under the pork belly), butternut squash confit, port wine balsamic soaked cherries, port wine balsamic reduction, bacon, & fried sage. All the flavors came together very nice. There was a good sweet and sour balance that held up real nice with the fatty pork belly. The bacon pieces added little blasts of salt as did the butternut squash puree. The pickled mustard seeds added a little pop of flavor and texture. I think it was a success.

Pork Belly-The Transformation

Here is the pork belly pieces out of the brine, ready for the confit treatment

Nothing says love like a big glob of duck fat. I was going to use pork fat, but we don't have big buckets of D'Artagnan pork fat at work. Duck fat will have to do.

In with the pork I have shallots, thyme, & butternut squash. I'm not sure if the squash is going to hold up or turn to mush. I'll keep an eye on the texture and if I see it breaking down, I'll pull them out of the fat. If they do hold up, I'm going to use them in the final dish as a crispy on the outside/ mushy on the inside element. How I achieve that is yet to be determined. Any thoughts? I'm open to suggestions?

(update) Here are a couple items that I am going to use in the finished dish:

Pickled mustard seed

Compressed apples & pears

A sauce made with dried cherries or cranberries

Confit butternut squash

I'll keep you posted.

(read Pork Belly - The Beginning)