Colorado Smokin' Game Hens on the Charbroil!

 

Well arrived back in town from New Hampshire late Saturday night. Got up
Sunday to start catching up on the yard, house, firewood, etc. Daughter
driving back to college, son out seeing his girl before she heads back
to college, things to do. One of those days when I want a decent dinner
after the traveling, but I don't want to be slaving in the Kitchen for
hours preparing it. Besides it is 55 F out and not going to have a lot
of these type of days left before winter takes hold and sticks!



So breakout the

CharBroil and lets cook some of those game hens that were on sale a
few weeks back.



So we fire up the charcoal in the

CharBroil to get things started.








A few interesting things about this cheapass chef, you will notice in
this picture a lot of bags of chips in storage.








This is not due to the ever prepared chef having plenty of chips on
hand. This is due to a phenomenon called clearance sale. At the end of
the season the smaller stores don't have space to store all this
seasonal stuff that is left. So they start marking it down to move it
out of stock. This Cheapass chef monitors said sales as they progress.
Knowing that most people are not going to want a couple dozen bags, I
watch until the things are like 70 percent off. Then I swoop in like a
cheapass seagull and buy them all. Same with charcoal! Saves me about
$4.50 (USA dollars something like $500 Canadian) per bag. So we get our
cheaply acquired, no scratch that lets say frugally acquired wood chips
and pan them.







This allows me to top the pan with foil and starve the little chips for
air, which gives you more smoke for the amount of, on sale, inexpensive
chips used.



Now I have to go into the kitchen for a quick prep of the lovely little
game hens.







I have them washed and lined up. Now to season and such for the taste.
Since the smoke does most of the work, I am using a few simple
alterations for the birds. Yoshidas gourmet sauce, season all, paprika (Hungarian)
and some Adolf's meat tenderizers. I do two things that help a lot. After
seasoning the birds I spray them with olive oil to adhere the spices to
the outside skin. Then I stuff them. First with some herbs from the
cheapass chefs kitchen window greenhouse thingy! A little rosemary
seemed to fit the taste I am looking for and will contrast the secret
ingredient well!










And the secret ingredient is: Dried Fruits








As you can see the cheapass chef is using the store brand dried fruit.
Hey I am not displaying it, I am stuffing into a birds cavity for flavor
enhancement and moisture. (I just realized this may have a different
meaning in Australia!) Any way I have stuffed the birds with the apples,
prunes, apricots, peaches, and pears. This to my mind matches the game
hens perfectly.



Outside to check the charcoal







The charcoal is ready and the smoke pan hits the firebox of the

CharBroil to start the magic!



In with the hens








And slam the lids shut. Firebox to 450 F and the cooking chamber should
hold 300 F. A quick lift of the lid shows the smoke pan doing its thing
in the firebox.









And another peek on the cooking side shows the birds and dancing with
fire!!!!








In about two hours they come out looking very nice. Sides for today and
nothing fancy, herbed bread stuffing, and a nice carrot and peas
combination. All washed down with

Grande River Vineyards Sauvignon Blanc! A wonderful New Zealand style
blanc with that zamboni acid affect sauvignon nuts look for! If this was
made a little further west it would be called a Fume Blanc.



Anyway this is how a cheapass chefs hens look when the day is hurried
and the guy is tired!








And this is the table set for dinner. Nothing fancy but we are not
exactly eating terribly either!!!













Til we talk again, fire up some charcoal and smoke something! Won't be
long here in North America and the outside temp is going to go down and
it won't climb for a while!



Uncork a bottle and enjoy!



Chef Bob Ballantyne

The Cowboy and The Rose Catering

Grand Junction, Colorado, USA

Going Solo in the Kitchen, but Mo was there too!

 

So Zane and Mary Lou are away for some down time! Well deserved I might
add! Al is now in full swing of teaching and one of our special clients
has to have lunch. Mike is away at a wedding in Texas so can I put out a
lunch for 12 without burning the kitchen to the ground?



Easy enough chef salad and I have to make a fall dessert. OK have at it!



So first I gather up the mixed greens and layout the plates,








Then I start adding in what I think will be some very cool stuff, so I
cut a little cuke on the bias and place it around the edges, marinate
off a few dozen artichoke hearts with olive oil, balsamic, basil and
sundries'. (The ladies don't want the meat rolled, Al has spoiled them
with cut meats!) So I cut some turkey breast and some ham and lay it on
the salad.








Add in a little avocado, some boiled eggs sliced up, and some sliced
mushrooms. And that completes the basic chef salad. Except I want mine
different. So I had slacked off some smoked salmon, and I took the time
to cook up some lumpia filling. I did a cured pork and shrimp lumpia. I
also put up an oyster sweet sauce for dipping the lumpia into for their
dining pleasure!








Last I place the lumpia on, the sweet sauce in individual serving cups,
salt, pepper and then clean and wrap them.








Next the need the "dessert" as Mary Lou requested. Something fall like
or that reminds them of fall. I think I had the idea and Mo was going to
be here! First plates, I like plates and I think plates are important to
any event. So I picked these up cheap on close out at Wal-Mart.








My idea was to do a cornucopia with some of the fall fruits in and
around it. So I got to work.








Placing the marble chocolate horns down. I then went to building the
chocolate raspberry mousse.







This is a basic mousse with, chocolate, raspberry brandy, Apfel apple
liquor, a little sugar and some cream. Then I whipped the cream with a
little Mexican vanilla, sugar and a slight almond extract was drizzled
into the cream. Folded the two together after cooling the chocolate and
pushed it into the piping bag.



I prepared pears and did a group of spiced apple slices and then topped
it with Mo Mckenna's Brandied Cherries. She gave me a jar of them in
Windsor. And I thought they would be great to finish this dish.








The pear you can not see as I have it sliced thin and inside the horn. I
cover it with the mousse on purpose so the client would discover it
while eating.



Then I thought I would finish it with a little fall Snow Storm.








And there you have it one quick lunch for the Hospice people. All plates
cleaned when I arrived to pick up.



Of course it did not go off without a hitch, I had everything loaded and
was just pulling out to serve when the phone rings. Hospice on the other
end, we have had an additional person add for lunch. Sure but I am going
to be about 10 minutes later on set up. So out of the truck and into the
kitchen I flew. Set up another salad, build another dessert, out the
door over to the site. Three flights of stairs and 5 trips to get it
done. Damn I am getting to old to do this three story catering stuff!



Til we talk again try some of these fall fruits they are fantastic!
Fuji apples are really nice this year and they cook and spice cure well.
Same with the late bosch pears.



Chef Bob Ballantyne

The Cowboy and The Rose Catering

Grand Junction, Colorado, USA

 High Altitude Popovers 3500 ft Rocky Mtn Colorado

 

Well the mystery of the high altitude popover was solved in the last two
week session of creating a new dessert!



Many of you at altitude might have tried to make a popover roll with the
result being a more hockey puck like product, than popover product. At
first I thought this would be a straight forward simple piece of work to
complete the changes needed. But the wide variety of products available
in the North American market made accepting certain things as standards
a mistake.



Popover is a really nice roll that is steam risen and sets with a hollow
center. I want to create a dessert around the popover roll for a
catering we are doing this month. Important client with long term cash
streams if we pull off a spectacular display.



Back to the popover:



Altitude presents several problems all related to air pressure and
boiling points when trying to create the popover. However as we will see
other things affect the popover as well, but they have been corrected in
this recipe.



So after much (like 12 tries I have a recipe that finally produces
popovers every time)



First go to three large eggs above 3500 feet in altitude



The addition of the third egg finally allowed consistent popover
performance. At two eggs sometimes it would work, sometimes it would
make little pucks resembling rubber cement after it has cured. Large
eggs is important, not extra large and not medium but large.



Since we are international in our blog I have also laid it out in weight
for you. Stir the egg and then weigh out the called for amounts.



3 large eggs equals 6.5 ounces or 183.5 grams





Second you must read the protein rating on the flour bag, you really
want to have 4g protein in the flour, not 3g and definitely not 2.6g
this really makes a difference, but for consistent no fail popovers I
found the 4g flour had to be in the recipe. I used King Author bread
flour. I also think most flours listed as "bread flour" are 4g
protein.
2.6g flour in the USA often says "great for biscuits" on it. Biscuits
maybe, but popovers no way!



The fact we have readers around the world it works out this way in
weight.



1 cup flour equals 6.5 ounces or 183 grams



salt is always 1/2 tsp. My scale did not go to a fine enough resolution
to weigh it. Lets call it two pinches as this does not have as great an
effect on the outcome as the eggs and flour.



Milk is also a problem, in that it has many forms, whole, 2 percent, 1
percent, skim, and a whole host of specialty milks. I used three
different kinds of milk. I found if we use weight and not measure we get
the best results (as with most baking weight is the equalizer) But since
a lot of people don't have a scale I have worked it out as follows:



1 1/4 cup of milk will work with any type of milk always. But for best
results weigh the milk you should have 10 3/4 ounces or 307g, if you
weigh it you can use any milk you want, the exception being things that
are named milk but not milk, buttermilk is one of the examples. You can
use buttermilk and similar milk based products, you just have to start
with 1/2 cup of the and dilute up to weight with water. Same with any of
the over heavy milks, cream, half and half, etc.



Last the fat, butter, oil, animal grease all work. I use one tablespoon
equals 1/4 ounce of weight which equals 10g of fat.



This is important as you start to create different type of popovers,
when using bacon grease for example I had to switch to weight as the
bacon crease has a higher density than did the olive oil or butter.



1 tbsp of olive oil equals 1/4 ounce or 10g



Last you must put this together in the correct order or it will fail to
popover.



So mix all the wet ingredients together, then add the salt to the wet,
then add the flour, whisk the flour in until combined but not over
worked into something real smooth.





Fill the mini-popover pan with 1/3 cup of batter (just over half way)
The large pop over pan with 2/3 cup of batter and if you are using a
muffin pan fill them a scant over half way. These fill amounts are as
important as the rest of the recipe.



The oven at altitude must be 400F or you will not get the correct
result. And the oven must be the correct equipment, the oven must be a
conventional type heat not a convection type heat. Convection ovens will
not produce a popover most times at altitude. They produce an occasional
correct roll at best. So conventional oven at 400F.



Don't open the oven for 18 minutes. Just don't do it, ruins the roll as
the steam drops and the structure collapses and once it collapses the
set will not recover.



Spray the popover pan or muffin pan with release. Pam vegetable spray is
a good one, plus I also used the straight Crisco spray, both worked. I
don't use the butter flavored sprays as they leave a kind of nasty
coating on my pans.



Now you will read about preheating the pan in places on the internet,
and a bunch of crap like that, not required, IMACO this is from people
at home trying to find ways to make this thing work without
understanding the structural dynamics of baking. Hence the found ways
that sort of make the New England recipes work, but not really, but
close enough that they could taste the homeland of New England.



Preheat pan, Don't need to do it. Not necessary, using this recipe they
will pop every time unless you open the oven like an idiot after being
told not to do so! (I opened in a couple times in the name of science,
not being an idiot, at least that is the story I am sticking to!)



After 18 minutes you can open the oven and look at them, they will be
formed very nicely. Take a birds beak paring knife and make a small slit
in each one to let steam escape. Close the oven and bake an additional
14 minutes or until they are the crispness you like in a roll.



Serve with butter and watch them disappear.



So to summarize



Altitude Popovers



3 large eggs, 6.5 ounces or 183g

1 1/4 cups milk, 10 3/4 ounces or 307g

1 tbsp oil or butter, 1/4 ounce or 10g



1 cup flour, 6.5 ounces or 183g

1/2 tsp salt, two pinches



400F degree oven



oiled muffin cups, or popover pan



No peeking for first 18 minutes



And you should be able to make the wonderful popover at altitude above
3500 feet. All testing was done at 4750 feet ASL.



More on the dessert popover after next weeks catering featuring its
introduction to the world!



'Til we talk again, take the time to make these spectacularly easy
wonderful tasting roll for your next dinner.





Chef Bob Ballantyne

The Cowboy and The Rose Catering

Grand Junction, Colorado, USA

Durango Weekend Stay: The Rochester, Built in 1892

 

She sits as she has for over a century. Rock solid, built by craftsman,
host to dignitaries, politicians and, if the wall photos are correct, a
whole host of Hollywood stars! The old line stars, ones that cared about
the public and loved the USA, not this new breed of chin drivel that
seems to scream "look at me, look at me!" Anyway on to the story; we
were down for the parent visit weekend at Fort Lewis College. My
daughter attends the school as well as my son's girl friend, so we
decided to take a trip down and have a visit. The weather was great
allowing us to take the

Colorado Million Dollar Highway down to Durango. What a drive and
the color, but that is another blog! Back to the story after an
uneventful drive we pull up to the Rochester Hotel. My wife knows I like
to stay at the old places, they ooze history and I like to sit and think
about what people long since passed on must have thought during their
stay at the Rochester? I mean did they think, "wow this is the best of
times!" Did they have the same ideas and dreams we all have today? Did
they enjoy a meal at one of the local restaurants with the same
attention to what was being prepared and how? I would love to hear the
walls speak! Oh sorry off subject again, so I wheel the jeep into the
parking spot in front of our getaway temporary housing and she is what I
thought she would be!








Stately and solid, one he11 of a gal this Rochester Hotel! Built in 1892
she has transformed and changed but always housed travelers. And as a
bonus she has an older art deco sign. I have traveled as far as South
Beach Miami to look at the wonders of the art deco era! And this is a
little gem right in our southwestern corner!













And set up for comfort, she sports a beautiful relaxing courtyard. Next
visit I am bringing the portable cooking gear and we will have our own
little restaurant for a couple hours of dinner!








An Antique clock on the street side of the courtyard!








If you want to get around town the owners have taken the time to restore
a couple dozen cruisers you are welcome to borrow for the trip! Although
town is one block to the north, some people travel further than the
saloon at the Strattor. I personally don't see the sense in that, I mean
the one block to the saloon and the steakhouse across the street, life
is good! But to each their own, you wanna bike to a different area of
town have at it, I am the one in the saloon window watching you peddle
your butt off with the martini listening to the old guy play the he11
out of that upright piano!








Coming back to the room after a visit to the Strattor's Diamond Belle
Saloon, having imbibed in a few bombay sunlight martinis, one is treated
to the real magic of the Art Deco Sign!








The stay was great, the visit was great, we ate at Sue and Dave's a nice
steakhouse on main street! Fillet mignon for most, I did damage to two
boneless pork chops. Food was excellent, wine was great, company was
extraordinary! We had a great time. Early the next morning I am awaken
to the sound of the old steamer getting ready for the 8 Am run to
Silverton. As most of you know I am trying to put together a fund raiser
on this train. But I need a $25K underwriter to pull it off
successfully. I continue to plan, plot and scheme! And so I leave you
with the image that haunts my brain constantly trying to figure out how
to put it together and pull it off!








til we speak again, stay someplace unusual next time you travel, I could
have saved 30 dollars by staying at a Motel 6 but it just does not have
the history!



Chef Bob Ballantyne

The Cowboy and The Rose Catering

Grand Junction, Colorado

Chef's Garden Finishing the Carrots

 

Kind of a great and bad time of the year. Great as everything is in and
fresh and great tasting and wonderful! Bad because the tasks for the
gleaning are just starting and gleaning means the end of the fresh
vegetables! So today we examine the cleaning of the carrot rows. This it
the last of the stragglers, ready to be put up for a winters day when we
need a reminder of things to come again next year!



So here they are just pulled








Then I wash them off








Then I top them and they start to look like something you would cook
with:








Then they are peeled in prep for the food processor








This gleaning produced three processor bowls full of carrot slices. I
like to prepare them with a blanching before freezing them. I like to
use a pasta cooker for the task, as just with pasta the pasta cooker has
a unique ability to stack and drain for you











If you have not used your pasta pot in a while better break it out. They
get lonely when left alone in the cabinet or hanging on the rack. This
is part of the Simply Calphalon set. They screwed the set up a few years
back by switching the fry pans to non-stick instead of straight
stainless. I love this pure stainless steel set. It cooks like nothing
else in my opinion. Straight heavy bottom stainless is a fantastic
cooking tool. You can still get the set with the heavy sauce pans and
such, but both fry pans will be coated in teflon. While I think non
stick has its place, I think stainless and copper rule!



Next I vacuum pack the produce for the freezer. Now let talk about
another pet peeve I have, over sizing the portions. There is a tendency
to heap food into the bags willy nilly. I submit that digital scales are
cheap enough now that every single kitchen should have one. And you
should use it to put up your produce. It drives me nuts to see people
putting 2 pounds of vegetables into a freezer bag with only two or three
people living in the household. Weigh it and all the work you put into
the garden will reward you far longer into the winter months. I figure 4
ounces per member of the household. So with my daught at college I am
packaging at 12 ounces. And I use a foodsaver vacuum packer. You can get
them dirt cheap now at jardendirect.com. They also sell the bags in 12
inch and 6 inch rolls 18 and 22 feet continuous respectively. This
allows me to package small amounts for my daughter at college. (Hey if
you ate fresh food you whole life it is a little hard to adjust to
institutional cooking) Vaccum packing is a fantastic way to store
vegetables from the garden.








Then it is off to one of our freezers








Bitter sweet, the carrots are complete, the work is done for the year on
carrots, but no more fresh carrots from the garden till next year!



Til will talk again put a few veggies and fruits up, you will be
rewarded this winter with a reminder of warm times when fresh foods
abound!

Chef Bob Ballantyne

The Cowboy and The Rose Catering

Grand Junction, Colorado, USA

Colorado Mountain Winefest Friday evening dinner

This is what we came up with for a menu this year at our Friday night
winemakers dinner.

The Two Rivers Winery and Chateau

Presents:

An Evening with the Wine Makers

Reception

Lamb Kebobs with Two dipping sauces

Tomato Jam sauce

Tzatziki sauce

Featuring Two Rivers Merlot

Salad

Smoked Duck bedded on Frisee with a sour cherry vinaigrette

Featuring the introduction or Two Rivers First Syrah

Main Course

Salmon on a garlic spinach bed, small beef tenderloin with roast new potatoes

Two Rivers Winery Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon

fourth Course

Cayenne Apple Pie in a Cheddar Crust

Featuring Two Rivers Riesling

Dessert course

Handmade Truffles

Featuring Two Rivers Port

This year was a real nice menu, I ordered in lamb saddles and fabricated the
kabobs out of the saddles. Of course not wanting to waste anything I also
reduced the saddle trimming and built myself a nice gallon of pure clear lamb
stock over the weekend while working on the dinners. It is now frozen and
waiting to perform its magic at a feature date. The kabobs where well received
and cleared out of the house in a hurry. Next of the duck salad. Chef Al roasted
the duck with cherries and other stone fruits. I picked and shredded the duck
for the salad, I took the liberty of creating duck stock out of the trimmings.
And would end up using in the next evening on a combined effort sauce Al and I
put together. We strung and tied the loins and Chef Mike Bate steamed the fish
on spinach. I carved the beef and we all plated the main. Of special interest
was Chef Al’s purple mashers. He was able to control the heat on the potatoes so
they kept the purple color and had a beautiful blue hue to the potatoes. Last
the dessert. Using a handmade grand marnier ganache I formed just over 400
individual truffles, then 1/3 of them became cocoa powder coated, 1/3 I did in a
walnut and candy cane crust and 1/3 I did in a special Pistachio Wasabi Jalapeño
crust. They were a hit as was the rest of the dinner. The wines were great and
the evening was rated a success.

Til we talk again

Chef Bob Ballantyne

The Cowboy and The Rose Catering

Grand Junction Colorado

Colorado Winefest Weekend - Also Soup Kitchen Duty

 

So the third weekend in September finds the Colorado Mountain Winefest
in full swing. And the weekend presents a great opportunity for money
making in putting on fine dining events. This year we had been planning
for quite some time, Five Courses on Friday night for 125 people, Nine
Courses for Saturday night with strolling strings for entertainment and
finally the 10 AM to 3 PM brunch for Sunday morning. Our third year at
it so we booked solid in three days. In spite of pricing at $104.00, $115
and $85 respectively we sold out in no time.



A problem arises when I realized it is also my weekend to cook at the
local soup kitchen, Catholic Outreach, in Grand Junction. I do not look
at volunteering as something that I do when it is convenient for me. So
when I took this weekend on, I took it on. Last time I had to miss while
at Chimney Park Bistro for the Chef2chef.net Scholarship Fund Raiser, I
had Al fill in for me. The volunteer coordinator appreciates that very
much. It does not dump the problem in her lap. This time Al is part of
the weekend brigade of loony chefs burning the food for all our dinners
for the weekend. What to do? The volunteer coordinator tells me she will
take care of it and do sandwiches. I explain to her that I will take
care of getting the meal out, somehow. Plan one, bring the stuff to my
kitchen and prepare it then send it over to the soup kitchen. Great Al
will help, Mike will help, and we will get it finished in no time.
Problem, ran out of time Wednesday, ran out of time Thursday, Ran out of
time Friday. SOOOOOOooooooooo what is a chef to do! What we always do
hammer it out!



I formulate a plan in the part of my head that still works at 2:30 AM
Saturday, if I am in the soup kitchen at 6 am, I know this time of the
year I am only feeding about 165 or so. I already know I have a load of
hamburger that was donated, a ton of onions coming off the fields and
about 8 cases of mushrooms came in to the stores. I also have corn lots
and lots of corn. And this time of the year fruit is everywhere. So menu
you building while dreaming the answer comes:



Quick to build

Must use Beef, corn, onions, mushrooms, and potato.

Has to be able to be finished without me onsite.



Ah a no brainer from my youth....... Sheppard's Pie!



That and a green and fruit salad should do nicely.



This kitchen contains a device I love to play with, but never have
actually used until early this year when I started volunteering down at
the soup kitchen.



A Tilt Skillet. 30 gallon jobber with electric lift. I have been making
friends with this equipment over time, fajitas, burritos, lasagna almost
anything can be made in quantity in this wonderful piece of equipment.



So ground meat in, browned and drained, onions added, mushrooms added,
seasoned. Ready to go, at the same time potatoes made, and corn heated.
Stack of four inch hotel pans sprayed with release. Shovel in the ground
beef, spread it, corn and other assorted veggies and spread, top with
mashers and spread, place them in the convection at 325 F. Calibrate
thermometer and teach volunteer how to temp the pies. Please pull at 155
F and place into the ovens under the range. I have them set to hold at
150 F. Ok I have to go cook another dinner, thanks for coming in all of
you and I will see you next month!



Out the door I head. Not bad and it is only 8:15 AM plenty of time to
spend getting the nine course together for this evening!



I just wanted to point out with this story that to many times I see
people who volunteer, but really mean "if I have the time I will try and
help out." I don't believe in that thinking, I think if you say you will
do it, short of death you should see it through. Whether that is making
sure you have cover when you can not make it, or setting the alarm early
after a 3 AM arrival home, you get the job done because you gave your
word you would. And the homeless or whomever you are helping out should
not be secondary, they are a priority just like any other customer!



Til will talk again make up a Sheppard's pie and have a classic meal. It
warms up for seconds a day later real well.



Chef Bob Ballantyne

The Cowboy and The Rose Catering

Grand Junction, Colorado