Injecting Meat: Pineapple Pork

One method of cooking that we've never  really tried before is directly injecting meat to increase the flavor instead of marinating or standard seasoning. After seeing how incredibly moist and tender the injected meat looks on shows like BBQ Pitmasters, we decided it was time to change that. Luckily the other week we randomly stopped into a grocery store we don't normally frequent and found an injector on clearance - for 99 cents! Here's the intimidating needle fresh out of the package and ready to inject for the first time:

For our first test run with the injecting needle we decided to cook a bone-in pork shoulder picnic roast in the oven. To further go in directions we don't usually travel, the pork would be cooked Hawaiian style with pineapple and slightly sweeter flavors. The final injecting mix included orange juice, teriyaki sauce, ginger, melted butter, ghost pepper salt, and garlic and onion salt.

Here's the pork roast in question, getting washed off before we start the injection process.

This needle is absolutely massive and using it the first time felt a bit like performing surgery. I'm hoping I never accidentally poke myself and press down on the plunger...

With the injector, all the flavors directly infuse the meat from the inside out, so you don't just end up with flavor on the top layer. Adding all that liquid also makes the meat incredibly tender.

Here we've finished injecting the meat and poured some of the excess liquid on top, as well as sprinkled on some pepper.

Towards the end of the baking we added on some slices of pineapple to go on top of the roast. They may look intimidating, but it's not too difficult to crack these open and get to the fresh fruit flavor.

Megan sliced up a few pieces of the pineapple off the bottom. Normally you'd want to cut off the sides of the pineapple first to make it easier to slice, but we were only using half the pineapple and saving the rest for a grilled pork meal the next day (more on that amazing experience later!)

The pork roast is coming along nicely here, and is about to be covered in an extra glaze along with the sliced pineapple.

For the finishing glaze, Megan cooked together pineapple mustard, brown sugar, teriyaki sauce, and orange marmalade.

The pineapple slices were then layered on top of the nearly finished roast. The pineapple not only adds more flavor to the pork, but comes out cooked through and delicious on its own.

Once it's the right consistency, the pineapple glaze is poured all over the pork and pineapple slices.

After finishing up in the oven, here's the final product sliced and served along with brown rice and a salad. To keep the dinner theme consistent, we threw on mandarin oranges and used a sweet dressing for the salad.

Although the needle was a bit scary, using the injection made the roast more tender than any we've ever cooked before, and added in a succulent flavor well worth the effort. There's definitely more meat injecting in our future after this delicious success.

Now that we've gotten comfortable with this style of cooking, we'll soon be putting up a new blog showing how we made world class pork ribs injected with barbecue sauce, and we've still got our upcoming culinary world tour brewing, starting off with a trip into Mexican cuisine. Check back soon for more cooking adventures!

The Breakfast Sandwich

Based on our other excursions into delicious early morning meals, it should come as no surprise that I prefer my breakfast hearty and savory over light and sweet. Pankcakes and cereal are all well and good, but I'll take an eggtastic breakfast skillet or omelet any day, thank you very much. These are by no means the only way to have a great breakfast based around eggs and sausage though. Another fine morning tradition is to put together a breakfast sandwich, using many of the same ingredients that would go into an omelet, but putting it on different kinds of bread.

Here we'll dive into three different variations on the same idea, first starting off with some sausage formed into circular patties.

This is a very basic version with just a single fried egg and some cheese melted on top of the sausage. I like my breakfast sandwiches with some hot sauce, which is getting poured on top.

These breakfast sandwiches were made with "ranch rolls" bought from the bakery in the local grocery store. Despite the name, these aren't ranch flavored, but rather are mid-sized loafs that are crisp on the outside and soft in the middle, especially when lightly baked in the oven for four or five minutes.

For a more traditional look, Megan went with a slice of American cheese in-between the egg and sausage patty.

While delicious, those sandwiches are pretty basic and no-frills. To jazz things up, we heated some strips of red pepper, orange pepper, and poblano on the skillet. For a more in-depth look at using peppers in your cooking, check out our recent pepper comparison guide, covering a range of peppers from most mild to most hot.

Instead of sausage, this time around we went with crispy strips of bacon and fried eggs, which go very well with the cooked peppers.

Switching it up fro the ranch roll, this breakfast sandwich is on a lightly toasted and buttered English muffin.

For our last breakfast sandwich variation, we decided to cook up some skillet potatoes to go on the side. Here we've peeled and diced a potato, which is getting cooked in oil with red pepper flakes, ghost pepper salt, and pepper.

We're again using sausage patties here. While pork, beef, or turkey are great, we've found that the "Gimme Lean" soy sausage actually has a really amazing taste and texture for breakfast meals like this.

This time around we went with scrambled eggs instead of fried, and wheat toast instead of a ranch roll or English muffin.

Finishing up this hearty and varied meal are our golden brown skillet potatoes and an English muffin slice with strawberry cream cheese. There is, of course, a mug of coffee with cream hiding out there in the background as well.

We've covered skillets, bakes, and sandwiches, but there's still more amazing ways to cook up a fantastic egg-based breakfast. Coming up in the near future we'll take a look at the greatest of mankind's creations: the breakfast burrito!

Moving away from breakfast, we'll be starting our culinary "world travel" next week, beginning with a Mexican soup that will knock your socks off, as well as the official kick off of Montana grilling season with a look at different ways to cook pork in all its many forms.

The Pepper Comparison Guide

From the vibrant colors to the flavorful heat, peppers can add whole new dimensions to your cooking in many different kinds of dishes for breakfast, lunch, or dinner. The array of peppers available at the grocery store might leave you scratching your head if you aren't familiar with the different varieties, and getting the wrong pepper might leave you with an unexpectedly or even unpleasantly hot meal.

This guide explains the most common types of peppers we use in our cooking, how hot they tend to be, and what dishes they go best with. Keep in mind when preparing your meals that the heat can vary between individual peppers and between different regional varieties, so you may have one jalapeno much hotter than another, or find that anaheims are less spicy depending on what area of the world you are in. The heat of a pepper is measured on the Scoville scale, which ranges from 0 (not hot at all) to an effective upper limit of about 2 million (searing pain like licking the sun or aiming a can of pepper spray in your mouth). Although the top end is in the millions, even a rating of as low as 350,000 is still incredibly hot and can bring a person to tears. The Scoville scores listed here are general heat ranges for the average peppers at our nearby stores.

Here are the beauties we've been working with most lately (from upper-left to lower-right: orange bell pepper, red bell pepper, poblano, anaheim, yellow banana, jalapeno, serrano, and habanero):

                                                      Red Bell Pepper

Bell peppers have essentially no heat at all, and aren't used to spice up meals so much as add color, flavor, and nutrition. Green bell peppers are the most common, and have a mild flavor that works well in many kinds of food, but we're more partial to the beautiful red version. Reds tend to be slightly more expensive than the standard green bell pepper, at around 75 cents to 1.50 a pop.

As with most peppers, the red bell has a large cluster of seeds inside that should be removed before dicing the pepper itself. Long strips of red bell peppers cut lengthwise are fantastic when cooked on a skillet with balsamic vinegar and olive oil to top pasta. Diced squares or long strips make great additions in omelets or breakfast skillets, and thin slices are a favorite pizza topping, especially when mixed with bell peppers of other colors. We also like to add slices of bell pepper to potatoes and onions when grilling for potato packet side dishes. Finally, diced peppers are an excellent topping for a dinner salad.

Besides being used as an added ingredient, bell peppers also make wonderful centerpieces, such as by baking a red bell pepper stuffed with couscous or sausage.

While good cooked on the stove, bell peppers can really shine when they are "roasted" in your oven's broiler, which causes the skin to blacken and brings out the flavor of the pepper's "flesh." Recently we roasted a variety of peppers to make hummus, and roasted peppers are also used for a type of dip known as harissa. Red bell pepper harissa is an amazing accompaniment to chicken skewers and can be made in several different ways, depending on the consistency and heat you want. For a good starting point, check out this recipe.

                                                      Orange Bell Pepper

Much like the previous pepper, the orange bell also has no heat at all and is used for color and flavor. Adding an orange bell pepper with other varieties gives you a colorful medley that is more visually appealing than using only one type of pepper. Besides the previously mentioned pepper strips over pasta, mix together bell peppers for a pepper themed soup,or to make a fun and crunchy Asian bowl at home.

What discussion on bell peppers would be complete without a look at fajitas? Strips of different colored peppers, along with red and white onion, make excellent fajita fixings. You can do these either baked or cooked on the stovetop or flame cooked on the grill.

Orange bell peppers are a frequent ingredient in the sweeter salsas that feature fruits like mango, but they don't have to just go on sweet dishes. Besides regular pizzas, green and orange bell peppers diced into small squares are perfect additions to pizza bagels. These can be baked normally, but are more fun in countertop toaster ovens. For a pizza bagel, spread a small amount of tomato based pizza sauce on both sides of the bagel along with a handful of mozzarella, then top with diced tomatoes and peppers. Pop the bagels in the toaster oven and cook until the cheese is melted and the sauce is hot for a quick and fun miniature version of pizza.

                                                          Anaheim

Finally getting in a pepper with a little bit of bite, anaheims are actually among the least spicy, usually landing at less than 1,000 on the Scoville scale. Anaheims are great for people who don't want a lot of heat but still want to experiment with peppers or Mexican style meals.  This type of pepper is usually a light green, although depending on the ripeness the pepper may have streaks of yellow or orange near the tip. Anaheims are around twice the size of a jalapeño but can get much larger, up to around six or seven inches long.

There are nearly limitless applications for this versatile pepper, and we like to chop them up or slice strips to put on burgers or in breakfast burritos and omelets. Anaheims also make regular appearances in our  breakfast skillets. If you are putting sauteed vegetables over pasta, then an anaheim can add a slightly spicy element.

To use a whole anaheim, slice open one side of the pepper and stuff the interior with cream cheese or cheddar and hold everything together with toothpicks. These are great on the grill, but can also be baked in the oven. The end result is better than store bought poppers and are healthier, since they aren't breaded or fried. If a more healthy option isn’t for you, wrap the stuffed pepper in bacon or chop up bacon pieces and place them inside the pepper with the cheese.

Anaheims are also sold canned, which are usually labeled as "green chilies" and have a softer, squishier texture. For a change of pace, throw canned green chilies into breakfast burritos or on top of burgers (veggie or beef based).

                                                          Poblano

The thicker, darker colored poblano is comparable to anaheim in terms of heat, usually less than 2,500 on the Scoville scale. Poblanos have a deep, dark green that occasionally heads toward an almost blackish brown. Although usually of the same general shape as an anaheim, some poblanos end up curving as they grow until they get twisted around in the middle.

Poblanos work in much the same way as anaheims, and are good in all the same dishes. Besides using in breakfast creations or stuffing with other ingredients, we also enjoy dicing poblanos to use as a darker colored salad topping along with other toppings like tomato and green onions.

                                                 Banana Pepper

The yellow pepper, sometimes known as the banana pepper, has very little spice - even less heat than the average anaheim or poblano. The yellow pepper usually scores less than 900 on the Scoville scale, and works well by balancing against hotter peppers in chunky or liquidy salsas. If you want very little heat but still want the texture of a firm pepper, throw diced pieces into anything you'd normally make with anaheims, poblanos, or jalapenos.

Along with the red bell pepper and many others, we also roast banana peppers to use in hummus. We'll have more blog entries coming up using banana peppers in different ways, but for now check out a list of recipes to help inspire your cooking adventures at this location.

                                                    Pepperoncini

The pepperoncini is a pickled, jarred pepper similar in heat to a banana pepper, although it can be slightly less or more hot depending on the specific pepper. Pepperonicinis are frequently used as a garnish for house or Greek salads, placed in some sandwiches, or put into antipasta platters or pasta salads. When using as a garnish, either place a whole pepper on the side of the salad, or slice off thin rings and top the salad. The seeds are the hottest part and all clustered together in a tight bunch towards the top of the pepper, so avoid this part if heat isn't your goal.

                                                        Jalapeno

The jalapeno is where peppers begin to actually get significantly hot, although most people can easily stand the heat of biting into a jalapeno. A jalapeno usually scores less than 8,000 on the Scoville scale, and the iconic pepper has a dark green coloration.

Stuffed jalapenos are a classic dish, and there a plenty of varieties to be found in the frozen food section at the grocery store, but making your own can be much more fun and flavorful. For a real change of pace, stuff the jalapenos with crawfish meat (usually available frozen at the supermarket or sometimes fresh at the butcher’s block) and cream cheese and bake in the oven. Jalapenos work in all the previously mentioned dishes used for anaheims or poblanos, but they get noticeably spicier.

Jarred, pre-sliced jalapenos are a staple for the fridge, as they can be thrown into pretty much any savory meal and have a slightly less firm texture.  Sliced jalapeno rings go great in just about anything, from macaroni and cheese to burgers or salsa and even homemade bread.
                                                                

                                                 Chili in Adobo Sauce

There is a lesser known version of canned jalapenos, which are frequently labeled as "Chipotle peppers in Adobo sauce." This is a smoked version of jalapenos with a very different flavor and texture, served in a spicy sauce, that is available in the Mexican section at most stores.

Along the Scoville scale chilies in adobo sauce are usually listed near jalapenos, but it's been our experience that they tend to actually be much hotter. Discretion is advised if you haven't used these before, as it's very easy to make a dish much hotter than you anticipated. In most cases, one pepper is more than enough, with three peppers about being the upper limit before things are hot enough to no longer be enjoyable.

Our favorite method of using these chilies is to cut up about two of the peppers and toss them, along with a bit of the sauce, into ground turkey with some chopped cilantro to make spicy turkey burgers. In a pinch these can also be substituted for other peppers in breakfast foods like skillets or omelets.

                                                            Serrano

Generally hotter than a jalapeno, the long, thin serrano pepper lands around a 15,000 on the Scoville scale. These peppers are usually much skinnier than jalapenos, so they aren't ideal for stuffing, but are otherwise used for the same types of dishes as jalapenos when you want more heat. We most frequently use serranos for Megan's homemade salsa, which will be covered step-by-step in an upcoming blog entry.

                                                          Habanero

Among the hottest peppers readily available in the average grocery store, habaneros garner a searing 350,000 score on the Scoville scale and are best used in small quantities. Directly popping a habanero in your mouth and chewing the flesh and seeds is an all around bad idea, and can leave a burning pain in your mouth for hours. These tiny terrors are most frequently a deep orange in color and have noticeable ridges and valleys around the sides.

It's critical to use gloves or keep some other barrier, such as a paper towel, between your skin and the habanero at all times, and wash your hands thoroughly after handling them.  The capsaicin from the habanero easily transfers to your skin - which can result in pain the likes of you which you never imagined possible if you then touch your eyes or genitals.  Trust me on this one, as I learned a very painful lesson you don't need to experience when making habanero infused vodka for a vodka themed birthday meal.

Habaneros can go in salsas or any number of other meals if you want a lot of heat. To tame them and not eat them directly, we have used habaneros (spicy seeds removed) mixed with wine, vinegar, and other less spicy ingredients to make a sauce or marinade for seafood.

Putting Peppers To Work: Hummus!

Big things are coming soon to Six-Seven-Eight, including our kick off a culinary world tour where we'll make a meal from a different country or region taking a full circular route around the world. Before the taste bud travel begins, our pepper comparison guide is finally coming to help you know the differences between peppers, how hot they are, and what to cook them with.

Prior to our full guide, let's take a look at a fun way to use several different peppers together by making a middle eastern favorite and veggie go-to food: Hummus!

If you haven't had hummus before, the basic idea is to make a dip using the base ingredients of chickpeas (garbanzo beans), tahini (a paste made of sesame), and garlic. While fantastic as a dip just for using with chips or veggies, hummus has a pretty big range of applications, from using it on sandwiches in place of mayo and mustard, or spreading on tortillas to make a wrap.

The most expensive ingredient in hummus is easily the tahini, which can run as much as seven or eight dollars a jar, depending on where you get it. Tahini is available in health food stores, or at the grocery store in the same section as soy products. Although the initial investment is a bit steep, you only need about 1/4 of the jar for a single can of garbanzo beans, so it ends up evening out in the end. When using tahini, keep in mind that it will settle over time into a top liquid layer and a bottom solid layer, so be sure to mix it thoroughly before adding it to anything. 

To make our hummus a little more exciting, we're going to put in roasted vegetables. Here I've cut up large strips of annaheim, jalepeno, yellow banana pepper, red bell pepper, yellow bell pepper, and tomato.

To roast your veggies, set the oven to "Broil" and leave the door just slightly open. Cook for about six to seven minutes, until the skins are blackened and the flesh of the peppers and tomato are getting soft.

After being cooked, allow the peppers to cool and remove the blackened skin, which peels off easily once properly roasted.

Here I've chopped up the peppers and tomato so they will blend easier once we start mixing together all the main ingredients.

Now it's time to get to the heart of the hummus creation process. In a food processor put together a can of garbanzo beans (include some of the water from the can for easier mixing), about 1/4 to 1/2 the jar of tahini, chopped garlic, the roasted peppers and tomato, a dab of vegetable oil, and the juice of 1/2 to 1 whole lemon. I recommend also chopping up a handful or two of either fresh cilantro or parsley.

While a food processor is ideal, you can also make hummus with either a blender or an electric hand mixer. If you are using a blender, make the hummus in small batches and then mix them all together to avoid overworking the appliance or having the blades get stuck on thick chunks.

Make it thinner or thicker to your liking, depending on what you plan on using the final product on, by adding in more or less liquid. This isn't the end though - you need to add in some spices to change up the flavor.  Cumin is a standard in most hummus recipes, as is salt and pepper. Adding in a few dashes of paprika also gives the end result a very nice color.  If you want to make different varieties of hummus past the norm, try adding in different hot sauces or salsa as well and then mix thoroughly.

Once you've got a nice big batch of delicious hummus, you'll need something to dip in it, and we're going to do homemade tortilla chips.  You can make great chips by frying corn tortillas in oil, but this time we're going to do something a bit healthier by baking slices of flour tortillas coated in cooking spray.

And here's the result of all that roasting, chopping, juicing, and blending, along with some fantastic (and easy!) crispy chips.

For more ideas to get started making your own dip, check out a full listing of various hummus recipes at this location.

Other Ingredient Ideas:  Green onions, habeneros, lime, Manzanilla olives, fresh basil

Ordinary to Extraordinary Part1: Habanero Seafood Pasta

In addition to finding new ways to interconnect meals and stretch one main meat component into several different meals, we have been trying a few other ways to save on food costs. Our strategy lately has been to go through our freezer and cabinets to use up forgotten ingredients, as well as picking cheaper lunch materials at the grocery store. This is a bit of a challenge for us, because we like our food to be exciting and full of flavor, so Ramen and frozen dinners aren't our usual choices. We've discovered with a bit of ingenuity and a willingness to try new or unexpected combinations, it isn't all that difficult to make the most ordinary foods into something more extraordinary. Later down the line we'll cover how to make things as simple as hot dogs or even microwave hamburgers into full-fledged awesome entrees,  but this week we're covering how to take very basic seafood and make a restaurant style dinner.

Digging through the fridge we came up with a half empty super cheap bottle of white wine, along with some frozen seafood we discovered while cleaning out the freezer. Some time back we had bought a couple of $1 vacuum packed seafood portions (tilapia, salmon, and scallops) to use for random lunches or whatever and promptly forgot about them, and we also had a bag of frozen shrimp leftover from when Jacob worked the Albertsons stand at the wine and food festival.  None of these on their own make a great meal, and the $1 fish in particular needed a little something extra to be jazzed up and worth becoming an actual meal. Inspiration struck when I realized we still had a habanero pepper left from our upcoming pepper comparison guide.

Among the spiciest peppers that planet Earth has to offer, the habanero is not to be trifled with, as it packs a serious kick. In small quantities though, this fiery fruit offers a unique flavor and just enough heat to keep things interesting.

To start off with, I decided to do a marinade for the shrimp using this spicy recipe as my starting point. The marinade is started by chopping up green onion, garlic, half a habanero, and a handful of cilantro leaves (we'll cover how to use habaneros in a later blog, but it's worth mentioning here that you absolutely should either use gloves or hold one part of the pepper with a fork while cutting with a knife - do not touch this directly to your skin).

All the chopped ingredients are then placed in a bowl along with 1/2 to 3/4 cup of the white wine. Then we change up the flavors by adding in a variety of fun seasonings: parsley, sage, and thyme. To add some sour notes and complement the cilantro, I also squeezed in a bit of lemon juice.

Here the shrimp are being mixed into the marinade and getting ready to sit in the fridge for awhile to soak in the flavors. Silly me, I accidentally left the tails on and had to remove them later before cooking.

While the shrimp were soaking in all that fantastic spicy/sweet/tart flavor from the marinade, I started working on a sauce for the fish and scallops to use up the other half of the pepper. I found a recipe online from a habanero themed website specifically for seafood, but it absurdly called for TEN habaneros! Seeing as how I enjoy having taste buds, I failed to follow that part of the recipe :)

For my version, I chopped up half an onion, half a yellow banana pepper, half a serrano pepper, half a habanero, one chipotle pepper in adobo sauce (more details on using this fun canned pepper will come in our upcoming blog just on peppers) some garlic, and half a green apple.

Everything is pulsed together in the blender with the rest of the bottle of wine and some apple cider vinegar for a touch of the sweet. The sauce is heated up for a few minutes to fully release all the flavors, then refrigerated.

Once the marinade and sauce were ready, I peeled the tails off the shrimp and got down to the business of cooking. I wrapped the tilapia, salmon, and scallops into separate tin foil pouches and doused them liberally with the habanero-apple sauce. The shrimp were already flavorful enough from the marinade, so they went straight on the sheet and were baked along with the fish.

But how to tie it all together? Just shrimp and fish isn't exactly a meal - which is why it all went over pasta. We split up the fish portions into several pieces so everyone got a bit of everything, and then tossed the scallops and shrimp over spaghetti. All the flavors essentially made their own sauce for the pasta, but for a little added kick I spooned some more of the habanero-apple sauce onto the spaghetti. This would also work great with linguine or fettuccine.

There's lots more coming up on the horizon here at Six-Seven-Eight, so stay tuned for more tips on turning ordinary ingredients into extraordinary fare, how to use a range of different peppers, how to make cheesecake that your friends won't be able to get enough of, and our culinary "world tour!"