Hearth bread

I've heard over and over that you can tell an authentic barbecue joint based on what they serve with the brisket. If they serve a piece of crappy white wonder bread, that's authentic.

Well, I'm not really big into being "authentic". I'm much more interested in dinner being good. So when I serve brisket, I almost always bake fresh bread. Hanging around the house tending a fire for brisket gives plenty of time to start a loaf of bread and let it rise.

Here's a hearth bread, from my favourite bread book, The Bread Bible. Start with a dough starter:

1 cup bread flour

¼ cup whole wheat flour

½ tsp yeast

1 ¼ tsp honey

1 1⁄3 cup water

Whisk in a large bowl until you get a nice smooth batter.

Separately mix:

1 ¾ cup + 2 tbsp bread flour

½ tsp yeast

Pour on top of the batter. Cover and let ferment in a warm place a few hours. You'll start to see cracks in the dry ingredients where the rising batter starts to poke through.

Mix (in my case in a KitchenAid mixer) with a dough hook until all the ingredients are wet.

Sprinkle in:

1 ½ tsp salt

And mix with the dough hook for another 7 minutes, until the dough is smooth, spongy and just a tiny bit sticky.

Dump the dough into a bowl that's been lightly oiled with olive oil. Cover and let the dough rise in a warm place for a couple hours.

Toss the dough on a floured surface and in as few motions as possible, fold it into a bread loaf shape. Cover and let rise again.

Cut a few diagonal slashes into the top of the bread.

Meanwhile, heat your oven (or your grill) with a pizza stone in it, and a cookie sheet or small metal pan. We want it crazy hot - like 475°F. Let the bread rise one more time for half an hour.

Put the loaf on the pizza stone, and toss a half a cup of ice into the hot pan. Close up the grill/oven. If it's a grill, let the fire die down a bit, to let the temperature drop towards 425°F. If you're in an oven, leave the temperature at 475°F for 10 minutes, then drop the temperature to 425°F and bake for 20 more minutes. Bread is done when it looks like this.

Serve with brisket. Yum.

Worcestershire sauce

Of interest to barbecue fans everywhere:

After more than 170 years, the original recipe for Lea and Perrins Worcestershire Sauce has been revealed. It was found in notes dating from the mid-1800s that were dumped in a skip by the sauce factory. Brian Keogh, a former Lea and Perrins accountant, discovered the notes, which were neatly written in sepia ink in two leather-bound folios, and rescued them.

As it happens, Worcestershire Sauce is related to Asian Fish Sauce. They both use fermented fish. Go figure.

The recipe?

A tale of weal and woe.

As this is October, the month of Hallowe'en, I feel it is only appropriate for me to tell a scary story. This is a tale of weal and a tale of woe. And ultimately, it is a tale of poor planning and bad results. I am solely to blame. I will carry the guilt of my choice for the rest of my life.

We are traveling across California for vacation. We've visited some really beautiful and fantastic places. Sequoia National Forest.

The Aquarium in Monterey.

And we've had some good meals. And even some memorable meals. But this is not that happy meal story.

Family vacations are often a tale of negotiation and compromise. I wanted to visit Santa Barbara, and sample the fabulous wines. My wife wanted to visit Sequoia National Forest. The little one loves sea critters, so wanted to visit the Monterey Aquarium. Fitting these in requires a bit of planning, and a lot of driving.

After a long day drive from Monterey to Santa Maria (at the gateway to wine country), we were tired. We'd been in and out of the car all day, and seen some spectacular sights along the coast. We'd made reservations, via Priceline, at the very cute, extremely old, and slightly rundown hotel, the Santa Maria Inn. It's the perfect setting for a ghost story.

Santa Maria Inn claims to have had all kinds of famous guests. Gregory Peck. Clark Gable. Jack Lemmon. Walter Matthau. You'll notice, of course, that they are all dead. Curious...

Well, as I said, we were tired. Exhausted even. So we decided we would eat in the hotel restaurant. The dreaded "Garden Room". I quote from their brochure:

Embraced by a crackling fire and a casual, yet elegant atmosphere, our guests enjoy true personal service and fresh, imaginative California Cuisine.

Hmmm. We should have noticed the warning signs: The maitre d' in a cheap suit. The monogrammed plates, bowls and glasses at every table setting. The smell of 40 years of stale cigar smoke.

We nearly escaped. We sat at the table, looking over the boring, standard menu for nearly ten minutes before a waiter even looked at us. I glanced over at my wife and said, "If we wait 2 more minutes, I want to leave. This is ridiculous." If only. One minute after that statement an annoyed-looking waiter graced us with his presence. "Would you like something to drink?"

We were ready to order. Everything. And we did, a glass of pinot noir for me, a glass of cabernet for my wife and a glass of milk for the little one. The milk would prove to be the only good choice. Chicken tortilla soup for my wife. A caesar salad with "seasoned" tri-tip steak for me. And a cheeseburger and fries for my son. These are simple things. Hard to screw up. You almost have to try to screw them up...

The wine that arrived was not good (this is in wine country, mind you). It had clearly been open for a few days, and had that lovely oxidized flavor. The milk seemed to go down well. The soup? Simply appalling. It was CostCo brand spaghetti sauce with cheese and stale chicken in it. Not even any seasoning. Yuck. The caesar salad - well, the lettuce wasn't rotten, and the Kraft dressing they drenched on there was of a quality to be expected from Kraft. The seasoned tri-tip? Neither seasoned, nor tri-tip. Indeed, it had been cooked and cooked again, based on the dryness of it. The cheeseburger? Thankfully my son didn't notice that it was a pre-cooked burger that had been microwaved for him. Gross.

Towards the end of the meal, the waiter handed us a comment card and asked us to fill it out. But where to start? "Dear sir/madam: Please steam clean the drapes and carpet. Wash the walls. Throw out the menu. Hire a cook. Just start over. Sincerely, your customers."

Now this isn't the worst meal of my life. I've had worse. But at $52.00 for the meal, this was without a doubt the worst meal, dollar for dollar, that I've ever sat near, much less eaten.

When you see the warning signs, flee. Don't ask questions. Don't look back. Just run, and don't even think about who you're leaving behind. Leave your family behind. (This is a horror story, remember, there's only ever one survivor in those stories). There will be plenty of time to mourn them later...

Bbq brisket

Brisket day is my favourite day (and incidentally, my wife's favourite meal). I get up early (around 6 a.m.). Start the fire, rub the beef, and then tend the fire all day. I know I won't be going in to work, or leaving the house, so I have time to read, relax and have a nice relaxing drink. I love brisket day.

I prefer to do as large a brisket as I can, because the time it takes to properly get the collagen in brisket to break down will dry out a smaller brisket. I aim for a 12-14 lb brisket.

This is my go-to brisket recipe, discovered on bbq.about.com. I've been doing it this way for a few years.

Rub the meat with:

5 tablespoons paprika
2 ½ tablespoons salt
2 tablespoons garlic powder
2 tablespoons onion powder
4 teaspoons black pepper
4 teaspoons dried parsley
2 teaspoons cayenne pepper
2 teaspoons ground cumin
1 teaspoon ground coriander
1 teaspoon dried oregano
¼ teaspoon hot chili powder

Heat the smoker to 220°F. Toss the brisket in the smoker, fat side up. Meanwhile, wet some chunks of mesquite wood.

The real skill with brisket is holding the temperature of the fire. Keep the smoker at 200-220°F through a combination of charcoal and wet mesquite fragments. Aim for 11 hours for a 12 lb brisket. Turn once during the cook to turn it so the other side is facing the fire. It's done when you can no longer pick up the brisket using a bbq fork (i.e. the meat starts to pull apart). Brisket is the easiest and hardest thing to cook. You don't have to do much, except control the heat. But don't undercook it, or it won't fall apart properly. And don't overcook it, cause you'll have a brisket biscuit.

Let rest for 20 minutes before slicing against the grain. Serve with a nice, homemade barbecue sauce (on the side), a nice homemade bread, and some vegetables. Delicious.

Served with: