Well Done Jim!

jimswside wrote:took 1st in best dish( adobo marinated shrimp tacos with a avocado corn salsa - it popped). gave the trophy to Shay

Fantastic, congratulations!

Congrats Jim!

congrats Jim ..I wanted to stick around long enough for awards but had other stuff going on..what a nice turn out for a local contest like that as well

thanks folks,

it was fun, and alot of cool folks yesterday. I think 23 teams total.

nice seeing you out there Heads Red, thanks for the bottle of your sauce.

you're welcome..I know you are not a huge sauce guy but hopefully you will be able to put it to some good use

here are my pics.

shrimp were 13-16 freshwater shell on shrimp from Restaurant Depot(2# bag for $15.75).

I whipped up a an adobo marinade the night before, and marinated the thawed shell on shrimp for a little over an hour. Adobo had some kick so i didnt want to get them too hot.

Grilled them in the shell, maybe 5-6 minutes total. Shelled them and chopped them when done, I wanted the shrimp to managebale in the taco. I used white corn tortillas which were tough to get a good consistancy with, i wrapped a bunch in foil and tried to get them right on the WSM, and then on the kettle. Almost didnt have enough good ones for turn in.

Avocado salsa was made the night before as well, everything except the avocado as i didnt want it to brown. I added the chopped avocado about 30 minutes before serving. "Salsa" consisted of red onion, lime juice, a seeded jalapeno(thanks Jen), tomatillos, corn off the cob, garlic, olive oil, kosher salt, and cilantro. Really came together after a night in the fridge and the avocado really made it nice. Topped eaach taco with a nicve spoonfull of this mix. Really worked well.

grilled shrimp:



"salsa":



assembly:



turn in:



A wins a win:

VERY, VERY nice, Jim.

Your description and presentation have me Jonezing for a brace of your tacos right now.

Huge congrats on the call.

DRC1379 wrote:VERY, VERY nice, Jim.

Your description and presentation have me Jonezing for a brace of your tacos right now.

Huge congrats on the call.

thanks,

its kind of funny I wasnt going to do a best dish, and just do ribs for the comp. As I lay awake Monday night planning my timing for the ribs, I came up with the idea of the shrimp tacos and then the recipe over the next couple days. I also thought of doing Al Pastor, but glad I went with the quick tacos now.

Yeah man! Good deal and congrats again on the win! Good meeting you and pantherintheden yesterday. Glad I was there to see you score the fat award! Keep rockin!

Cbot wrote:Yeah man! Good deal and congrats again on the win! Good meeting you and pantherintheden yesterday. Glad I was there to see you score the fat award! Keep rockin!

right on man, it was great finally getting to meet you.

Our smokey bear champion! Woohoo!

I am almost as tall as that trophy.

petite_gourmande wrote:Our smokey bear champion! Woohoo!

I am almost as tall as that trophy.

thanks p_g.

here is a write up and some more pics from the local paper.

http://glenellyn.patch.com/articles/bac ... cook-off#c

Congrats Jim!

WTG, jim! Shrimps looked great.

Ah Jim...recognition at last for what all of us already knew!

Congratulations, Jim. Everthing looks good. I think I'll be having shrimp tacos ala swside very soon!

thanks folks,

we had a good time, and I was smart enough to bring some shrimp back home for my wife and daughter.

Ive been using the 22.5" kettle alot lately. Sunday's supper was some indirect grilled/smoked, brined, pork chops. A flat iron steak, and a foil pack of red potatoes.

Chops were brined for 2 hours in my brine mix, then 1 rubbed with my killer bbq rub, and one rubbed with a quick creole mustard I threw together



my killer rub:



creole mustard rub:



Kettle kicking out the TBS in God's Country(life is damn good, cont.):



chop basically done:



seasoned flat iron:



finished flat iron:



finished potatoes:



cant go wrong with 2 meats for a meal imho.

Hello, All,

I've only posted a few times, but have enjoyed reading everyone's recipes and reviews. I thought I might put something up in this thread, even tho' the grillin' season is fading fast.

Good 'Q requires a good rub. I'd suppose most folks have their favorite commercial blends. For instance, I've really enjoyed the Spice House's Bronzeville rub for ribs. But there's those times when you run out, and need to toss something together.

I searched the net for rub recipes, and gathered a bunch, 84 at current count, that were primarily intended for pork and beef done lo-n-slo. I put together a database to see if there was some sort of standard, a specific ratio a'la Ruhlman.

There wasn't, but I supposed I might make something pretty generic. What I did to come up with an average recipe was to make a weighted average of each ingredient. I divided the ingredients into classes, those appearing in at least half the recipes, those appearing in a quarter, those appearing in less than a quarter, and those occuring in les than one eigth. I gave the classes a "weight" number, 1, .75, .5, .25 I multiplied the average percent used for each ingredient times the number of times it appears in recipes, and then by the weight number to give an "importance" number.

Here's the "Average Rub."

In teaspoons:

19 brown sugar
15 sweet paprika
9 Kosher salt
8 black pepper, freshly ground
5 garlic granules
4 chili powder blend
3 onion powder

and, just a bit out of order, it would have been 10, because it seems to be a strong flavor component

1 cayenne pepper

I started puting some together this morning for weekend cooking. I'm supposing it will in fact be pretty average, but should be O.K. in a pinch.

I thought I might put something up in this thread, even tho' the grillin' season is fading fast.

Sir, are you MAD?? We have at the very least 6 solid weeks left of perfectly fine grilling weather. Sheez!

gdenby wrote:Good 'Q requires a good rub. I'd suppose most folks have their favorite commercial blends. For instance, I've really enjoyed the Spice House's Bronzeville rub for ribs. But there's those times when you run out, and need to toss something together.

Thanks for posting the rub recipe - it definitely looks like a good one! There are some big benefits in making your own rubs. You can tweak them however you'd like, and you aren't dependent on the survival of a company to maintain consistency. I actually try to avoid any spice mixes and just go with straight ingredients on all my rubs and sauces.

gdenby wrote:I thought I might put something up in this thread, even tho' the grillin' season is fading fast.

Fading?!?! The best grilling weather has just begun! No bugs and you can wear boots, long sleeves and pants (so you're less likely to get burns). I just strung up Christmas lights around my grill area so I can see better as it gets dark earlier. In a few weeks I'm hoping it's cold enough to drink some Port while I'm grilling.

Yes, yes, real grillers don't stop just because of a little frost. Last year, I did some burgers in a -18F wind chill just to thumb my nose at Mr. Winter.

Chilly winds versus cayenne and habenero, which will win?

Hope you enjoy tweaking the rub recipe.

sundevilpeg wrote:

I thought I might put something up in this thread, even tho' the grillin' season is fading fast.

Sir, are you MAD?? We have at the very least 6 solid weeks left of perfectly fine grilling weather. Sheez!

Here in south Georgia grill season is 12 months long. We'll be having the first annual BBQ cookoff at the Laurens County Sportsman Club on November 20 if anyone is in the vicinity then. I expect this first one will be kinda ragged, but we'll get it down right after a few tries. Got a turkey shoot on the same day, too. Win one and put it on the grill/smoker for Thanksgiving.

got myself another Weber kettle to add to the family this past week. This 22.5" kettle only used twice was obtained for only $10.... brilliant.



Had to give it a run, so i smoked some chicken on it for some gumbo I was making, used lump and pecan.



knocked it out:



I was also doing a shrimp dish on the stovetop, but needed to QC the head on shrimp I got in Chinatown Friday night. Did these shrimp over the coals when the chicken was done, used my killer rub(seems to work great on any protein).






no pics of the finished shrimp, but they were damn good, cold high lifes, hanging out with a buddy on my deck. Life does not get much better.

jimswside wrote:got myself another Weber kettle to add to the family this past week. This 22.5" kettle only used twice was obtained for only $10.... brilliant.

Terrific find on the kettle for $10. Chicken looks delicious.

G Wiv wrote:

jimswside wrote:got myself another Weber kettle to add to the family this past week. This 22.5" kettle only used twice was obtained for only $10.... brilliant.

Terrific find on the kettle for $10. Chicken looks delicious.

thanks.

Got the kettle from my wifes work, it has the ash catcher, and the upgraded grill rack as well. Needless to say I am pretty happy.

thai style bbq marinated chix on the kettle, with lump, pecan, and a kiss of cherry. glazed with a rice vinegar, etc. glaze.. kicked ass.

Jim, you continue to stun me with your grill work!

What better way to blow my Fox and Obel Groupon before it expired than a ridiculous porterhouse and a wedge of Roquefort*?

(click any image for a larger version at Flickr)

Prime porterhouse


Brussels sprouts

What can I say, I like Brussels sprouts...

Dinner...


-Dan

* I also got an almond croissant and a loaf of semolina fennel raisin bread, both of which were incredible