Xesla Research Organisation

The other day Central Market had some freshly picked ( burrowed? ) Oregon Black Truffles. I’ve never cooked with a whole truffle before so decided to grab some and see what I could come up with. They also had some nice pork on special so I decided to do a Saltimbocca. Brussel Sprouts are in season right now and can be bought still on the stalk so these were a no brainer idea, and I grabbed a handful of sunchokes as well.

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Tags: Brussel Sprouts, Cooking, pork, Puree, Satimbocca, Sunchoke, truffle

Chicken Fried Steak (CFS) is an Austin staple.   Usually a CFS is made from a fairly cheap cut of beef which has been tenderized to within an inch of it’s life.   Being a big fan of slow cooked meats, and recently playing with Sous Vide cooking I was pretty sure I could make a very tender ( yet still nicely pink)  CFS out of a quality steak.

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Tags: Cooking, Fried, potato, Salsa, Steak, tomato

Decided to smoke something different to my usual ribs this weekend so I got a couple of pork shoulders to make pulled pork. I cut the skin off and rubbed them with my standard rub. Left them in the fridge overnight and then smoked them at 115C until an internal temp of 95 C.   I then pulled the meat off the bones and shredded the flesh with two forks.  The bark and burnt ends were seperated from the flesh.

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Tags: pork, pulled, rub

I tend to make a batch of ribs at least once a month, they’re my favourite piece of flesh to barbecue. By barbecue I mean the southern states of America type barbecue with slow heat and smoking wood.

I usually barbecue my ribs dry with a simple rub, and then serve with a tasty home made BBQ sauce. The ribs are actually for lunch tomorrow at work. I slightly oversmoked them but they’re not so bitter as to be inedible.

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Tags: barbecue, bbq, pork, ribs, rub

This is great comfort food, can be made with beef if you prefer to be more traditional, but I think the kangaroo adds a nice twist to it. Feel free to use whole spices, toast them first and then grind them. You’ll end up with a slightly better chilli if you do that.

Apologies for the photos, my phone camera was all I had available to me.

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Tags: chilli, kangaroo

My dearest sister told me that she wanted an icecream cake for her birthday.   After googling around for something suitable for a 24 year old trendster I couldn’t find anything that fitted the bill.     Suddenly a brainwave hit me,  I’ll do one based off a cocktail.

Of course being an old man I have no idea what the kids drink these days but I do remember being forced to drink a Jagerbomb or two.   That decided I went off to get Redbull and Jagermeister and set about making a Jagerbomb Icecream Cake.

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Tags: dessert, icecream, jagerbomb, jagermeister

Turducken is an amazing dish that is virtually unknown here in Australia, but over in the USA it has a cult following, especially with the Cajun and BBQ enthusiasts.    A Turducken is a whole turkey, stuffed with a whole duck, stuffed with a chicken.   There can be as many as 3 different traditional stuffings throughout the bird as well.

An important health warning goes here,  with our high ambient temperatures it can be quite dangerous to prepare and cook a Turducken from scratch as you run the risk of the poultry spending too much time at the dangerous temperatures where bacteria grown quickly.    To reduce these risks you should ask your butcher to debone the birds for you, as they have a cold-room to work in.    To further reduce these risks you should also brine your birds,  creating a slightly salty environment that bacteria don’t like.

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Tags: chicken, duck, meat2eat, pork, smoke, smoker, stuffing, turducken, turkey

This is a great all purpose BBQ rub it’s perfect for anything cooked on the BBQ at low temperatures,  if you’re going to be cooking at high temperature remove some of the sugar so that it doesn’t burn quickly.   Simply combine the following spices and store in an airtight jar.

• 2 Tablespoons salt
• 4 Tablespoons brown sugar
• 2 Tablespoons ground cumin
• 2 Tablespoons chili powder
• 2 Tablespoons black pepper
• 1 Tablespoon cayenne pepper
• 4 Tablespoons paprika

Tags: bbq, rub

This is a great Christmas recipe that will have the family fighting over the last pieces.    I got the recipe from The Smoke Ring, but simplified it a bit to suit the rest of the Christmas food I was cooking.

The sweet cherry sauce offsets the saltyness of the ham to create a delightful harmony.   I cooked this in my smoker ( hence the double smoke ),  but there’s no reason you can’t do it in the oven ( you can add a bit of liquid smoke to the glaze if you want, but it probably isn’t needed ).

The ham is a Zammit, and as usual was purchased at Meat2Eat.

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Tags: cherry, glaze, Ham, meat2eat, smoke, smoked

With the left over duck pieces from my previous Duck with Pomegranate Juice Reduction dish I decided to make a confit of duck. I season the duck pieces with salt, thyme, coriander and garlic and left in the fridge for 24 hours to cure.

This was then cooked at 100 C for 10 hours overnight immersed in a pan of duck fat with shallots, garlic shoots and lemon pieces. New potatoes and Sweet potato were then roasted in the duck fat while the duck was seared under the grill.

Tags: confit, duck, meat2eat, potato