Mother’s Day meal on the weekend

[Darryl - swazies]

Just prepping up the ingredients for tonight’s meal. We have both of our presents over ( no kids tonight ) for our annual cook we do. We do this 2 times a year on both Mother’s Day and Father’s Day. Father’s Day is heavier, usually brisket or something similar for the guys, and with it being the mother’s day cook we usually do something lighter. It also just so happens to be the Kentucky derby....which makes it more fun. So mint juleps in fancy crystal whiskey cups, I have 5 quality bourbons for that. The meal is hot smoked salmon with a more simple ceaser salad and biscuits. I plan on cooking the salmon to just under medium so nice and oily still if I can pull it off. For pre race and pre meal treats I am making a queso with chips and pretzel crackers for dipping.......Nothing overly fancy just a few things I have made before that I can make great each time. There will be lots of cocktails and some vinyl spinning for hopefully a great afternoon. Had to move the performer to the garage, we are having some high winds today. Would have loved to use the E6 but it doesn’t move to the garage as nice. Oh yeah and I did my usual 5 hour sugar salt brine, the salmon in the pic is now hopefully forming a nice Pellicle.

 

[Darryl - swazies]

Forgot to mention we are smoking both the queso and the salmon with peach today, and the salmon comes from an hour drive away, nice little place that imports seafood every Friday from the east coast, we went on Friday, picked up the salmon along with crab cakes, shrimp and chowder they make in house....ate all that last night and it is insane good.

 

[Darryl - swazies]

Queso ready to go on, the added spice is gringo grande from killer hogs.....gringo grande is a top shelf spice. If you are only going to own 1 pre made spice....this is the one to own.

 

[Darryl - swazies]

Minty fresh, queso almost done.

 

[Brett-EDH]

Curious why the short time brine? What’s the style and end result like?

 

[Tim Campbell]

Also, what is Townhouse Recto-Verso like? Don't think we can get that in US. Great cook, Darryl!! Hope you had some Neil with the meal.

 

[Darryl - swazies]

Missed final pics, company and all....here is one of the leftovers.
Not sure about your brine techniques Brett.....I find anything 8 hours or close is over salty.
I use 4 to 1 sugar salt.....after about 5 hours I can Pick up the fish and it doesn’t flop down, pretty firm.
From there I wash the salt n sugar off and spend about 3 hours trying to form pellicle.
That’s about 7 hours into the day so cooking is soon after.
Around 40 minutes or so under 300 to hit about 125 degrees, sits for a few minutes.
Crusty firm outside and oily juicy interior.....everyone loved the meal tonight.
Black pepper before the grill and a honey water glaze tops it off.

 

[Wil A]

Love everything about this thread! The queso is a grat idea and I LOVE some Rare Breed and Four Roses. The Salmon looks perfect. Great job!

 

[Darryl - swazies]

Also, what is Townhouse Recto-Verso like? Don't think we can get that in US. Great cook, Darryl!! Hope you had some Neil with the meal.

Recto Versa is the french side of the box......we have this other language a minority uses here in Canada therefore everything must have 2 sides to the box......... I just wasn't paying attention. the crackers are 1 side Ritz the other is salted pretzel.

 

[Darryl - swazies]

english side from web

 

[Tim Campbell]

Thanks, Darryl. This all looks so good.

Would you mind sharing that queso recipe?

 

[Darryl - swazies]

I posted it in the queso thread a while back but here is the short version.
Search for that will get you my recipe and others as well.

1 block of Velveeta
1 block of Monterey jack spicy is good too, chop up all the cheese into blocks
Any melty cheese will work, pic your favorite
1 can of 40% less sodium cream of mushroom soup - campbells is what I use
1 can of Rotel hot or not is okay
quick fry onion, peppers, jalapenos ect, just a few minutes to start the softening
fry to just slightly pink either ground beef or ground pork, spiced your way, I like Gringo.
get them all in the pan.
Top with Gringo grande rub from killer hogs
I add more Gringo once the cheese is all melted
The gringo is the best jarred spice I can buy in my opinion...lots of chilies flavor, makes any dish taste like Mexico.

I would look into finding the queso thread, a few of us had great opinions there.....many would not accept the mushroom soup I was using but I wouldn't do it any other way, the consistency of the queso is perfect.

found it actually

Smoked Queso Dip

Also first cook with the new Killa Grilla grill, big flip door is a nice touch.

tvwbb.com