WISCONSIN? OR CATALUNYA?

They both do white sausages.  And they both do nice mosaic-work.

Although Barcelona has a much better football team.

ANOTHER FROM THE MOST INTERESTING MAN IN THE WORLD.

And here's a Slate Magazine review on the newest installment.

SMOKE DAY 2009: EVERY BONEY DOG HAS HIS DAY.

Girlfriend "Agatha" and I made our second pilgrammage to Wisconsin in as many years and celebrated "Smoke Day" with our congenial host, Boney Dog.

Last year's Smoke Day bash was great, but this year's...well, it smoked it.

 

In an example of product placement that should yield him royalties from the Weber Grill Company, Mr. Dog had four Weber Bullets  chugging away--plus, two Weber kettle grills.  Oh yeah, there was a Big Green Egg smoking turkeys--but that was hidden on the back deck.

All in all, Boney smoked 170 lbs. of swine, bovine, chicken and turkey hunks.  That's not a typo.  I said, 170 lbs. 

In a stunning display of foresight avoidance, I stupidly booked a hotel room in Milwaukee for Saturday night and was unable to take home any of the leftovers--although, in hindsight, it would've been worth the salmonella risk.

Featured dishes were smoked pork butt (using Chris Lilly's six-time world championship recipe and, IMO, the best dish of the day), brisket flat, burnt ends from the brisket point, smoked chicken breasts with Big Bob Gibson's Alabama White Sauce, a perfectly chestnut-colored smoked turkey, spare ribs, hot links, Atomic Camel Turds (ACTs), Redneck Sushi (which is not only Boney's signature dish, but his intellectual property...and don't believe anything to the contrary printed in Wikipedia). 

And then, there was a dish that I had never considered but just may change my pit-tending life forever.  He smoked an enormous chuck roast to 195F-200F, then shredded it.  In other words, pulled beef (pictured above)--which I didn't even know was possible!  

It was so smokey and moist that I really don't see the point of ever wasting my time smoking another brisket.  Yeah, it was THAT good.

Girlfriend Agatha not only loved the Q, but also the fact that she had a designated driver.

On a sad note, neither the One Armed Bandit nor The King were in attendance this year.  So, I had no choice but to punish them by eating their portions.

And as my waist expanded from 31 inches to 31.001, Boney's wife Bobbie threw open the curtains to her beautifully remodeled kitchen and revealed something like 40 (yeah, seriously) homemade pies.  Everything from fruit pies to frozen pies to cream pies.  My personal favorite was, unsurprisingly, the Coconut Macadamia Pie.  But...

...the Apple Bacon Pie was a stroke of genius.  And the perfect way to cap-off Smoke Day 2009.

Thanks, Boney and Bobbie.  We'd been looking forward to this for the past eleven months, and it exceeded expectations...again.

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ANOTHER POST FOR POSTERITY: NONNIE’S FUCAZZO.

And now for another installment of our continuing series.

This classic Nonnie recipe is for Fucazzo (pronounced, “foo-GOTS”)—an Italian onion and anchovy pie that, oddly enough, was one of my childhood favorites.

Nonnie made her Fucazzo in the form of a calzone—spreading the ingredients over a layer of pizza dough, covering it with a top layer of dough and brushing it with egg yolk before baking.

My riff on this dish treats it as a pizza; using the always-fabulous Boboli pizza crusts. I also modified Nonnie’s original by adding chile peppers, fresh herbs, goat cheese and a drizzle of extra-virgen olive oil.

However you choose to spin it, the soul of Fucazzo is the jiu-jitsu between the sweetness of onions and tomato sauce vs. the brininess of anchovies and oil-cured black olives.

Just don't eat a slice before a first date.

NONNIE'S FUCAZZO

1 Boboli Pizza Crust

2 Large Onions

5 oz. Tomato Sauce (just eyeball it)

Oil-cured Black Olives (remove pits)

Anchovies

Fresh Parsely

Fresh Basil

Chopped Green Chiles (Jalapeno or Serrano)

Goat Cheese (optional)

Salt & Pepper

Extra Virgen Olive Oil

Step 1:  Saute onion in some olive oil until soft and translucent.

Step 2:  Add salt, pepper and tomato sauce to onions.  Let simmer a few minutes.

Step 3:  Brush Boboli with olive oil.

Step 4:  Spread onion mixture onto Boboli, leaving a 1 inch border.

Step 5:  Arrange anchovies, chiles, olives and dollops of goat cheese atop of onions.

Step 6: Place directly on bottom rack of 450F oven and bake for 12 minutes.

Step 7:  Remove from oven.  Drizzle with extra virgen olive oil and top with fresh herbs.

PAELLA

I never made Paella during the eight years that I lived in Spain .

Why would I? For a mere 15-20 Euros, I could go to any one of a thousand nearby bars and restaurants and just buy one. For the same reason, I never learned to make deep dish pizza during the years I lived in Chicago or a pick-up truck back-window gun rack during the years I lived in Pennsylvania .

But when I left Spain to live in another country, I realized that this chink in my cooking armor needed to be patched. So I arrived early to a lunch being hosted by a Spanish friend and took careful notes.

PAELLA

- Stock (fish or chicken)
- Meats and/or fish (prawns/calamari, ribs, chicken, rabbit, pork chops, chorizo, etc.)
- Vegetables (onions, tomatoes, garlic, green beans, butterbeans, etc.)
- Saffron, garlic, salt
- Approx. 1 c. rice per person

Step 1: Saute ribs, chicken, rabbit, pork chops, chorizo, etc.

Step 2: Saute and salt onions, tomatoes, garlic, green beans, butterbeans, etc.

Step 3: Add water till it reaches half way up the meat. Turn flame to high and cook until water nearly disappears (approx. 30 minutes).

Step 4: Add rice and sauté.

Step 5: Add 2 c. stock per each 1 c. of rice. If using bomba rice, then 2.5 c. stock per each 1 c. of rice. Stock should cover the rice.

Step 6: Add saffron or tumeric (dissolved in glass of water or stock).

Step 7: Bring to boil, lower flame to medium and leave untouched until syrupy and dry-ish (approx. 25 minutes).

Step 8: Add prawns, clams/mussels and calamari during the last 10 minutes.