Sticky buns

Work has been nutty lately. I've got deadlines that would have made me faint only a couple years ago. I'm making genetic constructs in twelve days that would normally take two months. But I have a lot of help, including an amazing group of technicians that are spending their weekends busting their butts. How do you thank someone for spending their weekend in the lab?

With sticky buns, that's how. These sticky buns had research associates damn near weeping with happiness. Truly, I've never seen people react better to *anything* I've ever cooked. These come from the infamous Flour. You'll love 'em. Make a batch. Now.

It's based off of a brioche dough. The buttery-delicious-cakeish bread. For the dough:

2 ½ cups unbleached all-purpose flour, plus more if needed
2 ¼ cups bread flour
1 ½ packages active dry yeast or 1-ounce (28 grams) fresh cake yeast
¹⁄₃ cup plus 1 tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoon kosher salt
½ cup cold water
5 eggs
1 ³⁄₈ cups softened, unsalted butter

Mix the flours, yeast, sugar, salt and water until wet. Add the eggs while mixing, one at a time.

Beat on low power for three to four minutes, until well-combined. Now add the butter, one small chunk at a time while beating. You want the butter to mix in well, so make sure it's good and soft before you use it.

Continue mixing the dough on low for ten minutes, until the dough is sticky and soft. You want it to pull away from the dough hook when you push your finger into it.

Put the dough into a bowl, and place in the fridge for at least six hours. This is partly to firm up the butter. Partly to get the yeast to ferment in the fridge, adding delicious flavours. Partly to allow the flour to hydrate. All of this is called "proofing". Tasty.



Meanwhile, make the goo:

1 ½ cup unsalted butter
3 cups firmly packed light brown sugar
²⁄₃ cup honey
²⁄₃ cup heavy cream
²⁄₃ cup water
½ tsp kosher salt

Melt the butter and the brown sugar over medium heat.



Continue stirring until melted and all combined.



Now add the cream, water, honey and salt.



Mix well. Set in the fridge to cool overnight with the proofing dough.

The next day, cut the dough into two halves. Roll out each chunk of dough into two 12" by 16" pieces.



Prepare the bun filling:

½ cup light brown sugar
½ cup granulated sugar
¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 cup pecan halves, toasted and chopped

Toast the pecans in the oven. 400°F for about 10 minutes, until they start to give off a delicious smell. Let cool and chop them into small chunks. Mix the brown sugar, white sugar, cinnamon and half of the pecans. Sprinkle this mix over the rolled out dough.



Meanwhile, pour the chilled goo into two 9"x13" baking pans (I use Pyrex). Sprinkle in the remaining pecans, half in each pan.



Roll both of the flattened-out doughs up into tight cylinders. Chop each cylinder into 8 pieces.



Plant 8 buns into each pan, equally spaced out.



Cover with a cloth towel, and allow to rise in a warm place for two hours, until doubled in volume.



Bake for 30-45 minutes at 350°F, until golden-brown and delicious-looking.



Let cool a few minutes. Scoop out the buns, flip over and serve with a bit of goop drizzled over top.



The reactions to this sticky buns were positively ecstatic. Sweet, delicious and high-calorie happiness. Fabulous.

By Bbq Dude

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Weeknight lamb kebabs

So it turns out that if you walk into your local butcher, and ask for 2 lbs of boneless leg of lamb, they say, "Sorry, the smallest cut of leg of lamb that we sell is half a leg. That's 4 lb." So after making lamb steaks, we still had some lamb left over. So we have some lamb to eat. On a weeknight.

What's a quick way to prepare some lamb? How about this for 5 minutes of Tuesday morning prep cooking?

1 lb boneless leg of lamb
½ cup fresh-squeezed lemon juice
¼ cup sugar
¼ cup water
2 tbsp chopped rosemary
2 tbsp chopped thyme
1 tbsp red pepper flakes
1 tsp cayenne
olive oil

Trim the lamb of extraneous fat and gristle. Chop the lamb into nice bite-size chunks.

Combine the lemon juice, sugar, water, rosemary and thyme (conveniently removed from the garden moments before), red pepper flakes and cayenne in a ziploc bag. Toss in the lamb chunks. Marinate in the fridge, and go to work.

When you get home, fire up the grill. Soak some wood skewers in water while the grill heats up. Meanwhile, make a salad. Steam some rice. Whatever.

Shortly before the grill is ready, skewer the lamb, leaving space between each chunk.



Don't do that wacky thing from the 1980s, where people skewered chunks of bell peppers in between chunks of meat. That's retarded. (Confession, I used to do this. Alot.) The bell pepper/onion/mushroom/whatever will cook faster than the meat. Only skewer similar stuff on a skewer together so it will all cook at the same speed.



Brush the skewered lamb with olive oil. Cook over crazy high heat. Turn every couple of minutes.



Lamb is best when cooked medium-rare, so don't over-cook it. Just a couple minutes per side. This is a fast, weeknight dinner.



Remove from the heat. And serve immediately (such small chunks don't need to rest).



You'll know it was properly cooked if it's still pink inside.

Serve with a lovely Mafalda (from Fratelli Perata if you can).



How's that for a weeknight dinner. Not. Bad. At all.

By Bbq Dude

Lamb steak

Lamb.



Fresh, delicious, lamb. For the longest time, I thought I didn't like lamb. When it is improperly seasoned, too old, or overcooked, lamb is truly hideous. It's pretty hard to ruin beef. Beef can be bland or dry, but it really can't taste hideous.

Here's a quick, weekend lamb dish that requires very little preparation, but is quite tasty. I modify it from Seven Fires: Grilling the Argentine Way.

2 lbs butterflied leg of lamb
coarse salt and fresh ground pepper
½ cup dijon mustard
½ cup packed fresh oregano leaves, finely chopped
1 tbsp chopped lemon confit
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

Cut the butterflied lamb into 1" thick chunks that make sense as serving sizes. Peel off extra fat and gristle. Cover with a sheet of plastic wrap, and beat those chunks of lamb senseless with a meat tenderizer. It's quite therapeutic to watch the muscle spread and thin out as you whack it. Keep whacking until it's around ½" thick.



Chop the oregano.



Love the smell of that fresh oregano.

Chop the lemon confit.



Liberally season the lamb with salt and pepper. Slather both sides with mustard. Dust on the oregano and confit.



Meanwhile, get your grill screaming hot. Really, really hot. As hot as you possibly can.

Place a cast-iron pan over your screaming hot coals for a few minutes. Add the oil to the pan, and sear the lamb three-ish minutes.



Flip and sear the other side three minutes.



Remove from heat, and allow five minutes to rest. Serve.



By Bbq Dude