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Grilled Teriyaki Asparagus

June 16, 2016 by Mike Vrobel 3 Comments

Time for asparagus, my favorite grilled vegetable. (Spring edition. I'm always sad when Asparagus season ends, but by mid-summer, sweet corn is ramping up.) My son has been on a teriyaki kick - he asks for it on everything - so I thought, why not tempt with grilled teriyaki asparagus? It turned out great! Well…other than the tempting him to try asparagus. He wouldn't touch it. (That's OK - I loved the asparagus.)

Grilled Teriyaki Asparagus | DadCooksDinner.com — Grilled Teriyaki Asparagus

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Now, for the one question you've got to ask yourself about grilling asparagus: do you feel lucky? Well, do you, punk? (Ahem. Sorry, I'm a child of the 80's, I can't help myself). I like to live dangerously when I grill my asparagus, and do it right on the grill grate. And, as long as the asparagus stays perpendicular to the grate, this works fine. But…if a spear gets turned sideways, or I drop it pointy end down, it slides right through the grate and drops into the grill. I view that as the price of grilled asparagus - I'm willing to lose a spear or two - but if you don't trust your luck or your tong skills, use a grill pan. No worries about losing asparagus that way!

Also, because of the teriyaki sauce, the asparagus will burn on the grill if you leave it sit. Keep the asparagus moving, rolling it over on itself (I treat it as one big pile), and pull it off as soon as it is cooked through.

Equipment

Grill (I love my massive Weber Summit gas grill)
Vegetable Grill Pan (Optional)

What do you think?

Questions? Other ideas? Leave them in the comments section below.

For a different fancy grilled asparagus recipe, try my Grilled Asparagus and Prosciutto Wraps. For other vegetables on the grill, check out my Grilled Peppers and Onions, Foil Pouch Grilled Green Beans, and Grilled Shishito Peppers.
Looking for something else? Here is my Grilling Recipe Index.

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Grilled Chicken Kebabs With Italian Salsa Verde Marinade

June 9, 2016 by Mike Vrobel 2 Comments

Grilled Chicken Kebabs With Italian Salsa Verde | DadCooksDinner.com — Grilled Chicken Kebabs With Italian Salsa Verde

Sometimes it’s hard to come up with an idea for a recipe. This was not one of those times.

Le Creuset gave me one of their rectangular dishes with platter lid to use as part of their Grilling with Le Creuset promotion. I took one look at it and said “Kebabs!” This set is perfect for kebabs. Put the skewers in the dish, coat them with marinade, then slide the dish into the refrigerator. Then, when I’m done grilling, I pile the kebabs on the platter for serving. Genius!

Next I had to come up with a marinade. Hmm. What to make? 1 That’s when my wife walked into the kitchen and said “We’ve got a ton of parsley out front - it’s overrunning my garden bed. Can you use it?”

Like I said, the idea for this recipe wasn’t planned - it’s more like it fell out of the sky and hit me in the head. Now, that doesn’t mean that this is a slapdash recipe; my kebabs are carefully planned out. I feel like I have to say this up front, because this is the internet, and some people will feel compelled to tell me I’m doing kebabs wrong. “Don’t mix meat and vegetables on the same skewer!” they’re going to say. They’re entitled to their opinion, but I disagree. 2

My favorite Kebabs are a mix of meat and vegetables - specifically peppers and onions, which cook at the same rate as meat. Even better, the mix of chicken, peppers, and onions trade flavors while they’re cooking. I love a bite of grilled chicken with a hint of onion, followed by a bite of pepper flavored with chicken juices.

Recipe: Grilled Chicken Kebabs With Italian Salsa Verde Marinade

Equipment

Grill (I love my massive Weber Summit gas grill)
6-inch bamboo skewers (So I can pack them into the dish sideways)
13 by 9 baking dish for marinating

Notes

To easily separate the parsley leaves from the stems, grab the whole bunch in your fist, stems facing up and leaves facing down. Run a chef's knife along the stems, "shaving" parsley leaves away from the bunch. This leaves a pile of mostly leaves, with a few stems still attached; I pick through them and pull off any obvious stems, but since it's all going in the food processor, I don't get too finicky about it.
Onion details: cut the onion in half, and discard the inner core, leaving yourself the outer four layers of the onion. Cut onion into 1 inch pieces, then break each piece in two - each piece of onion should be two layers deep. See the picture below - I'm about halfway done with that onion.

What do you think?

Questions? Other ideas? Leave them in the comments section below.

Grilled Pork Shoulder Kebabs with Peppers and Onions and Spice Rub
Grilled Beef Kebabs with Tomato, Onion, Lemon, and Thyme Marinade
Grilled Chicken Thigh Kebabs with Mini-Sweet Peppers

Rotisserie Chicken Pollo Asado

June 2, 2016 by Mike Vrobel 10 Comments

Rotisserie Chicken Pollo Asado recipe. Chicken marinated in a Northern Mexico style marinade and cooked on my grill's rotisserie.

A Rotisserie Chicken (Pollo Asado)on a platter of shredded cabbage — Rotisserie Chicken Pollo Asado

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We were on our way to a Mezcal tasting in Oaxaca when I saw them. Roadside vendors with improvised chicken rotisseries, each about six feet long. Row after row of chickens, spinning over beds charcoal. "Should we stop?" asked one of my fellow students - she knows that I love rotisserie. But, no, we are on a tight schedule, there's no freeway exit…we can't stop. That is one of my few regrets from that trip, that I didn't get to try roadside rotisserie chicken.

Rotisserie Chicken Pollo Asado | DadCooksDinner.com — Making the marinade

I forgot about it…until Daniel Vaughn wrote up Pollos Asados Los Norteños - grilled chicken from the northern frontier - in a recent story for Texas Monthly's barbecue column. Now, this is probably not the style of chicken I saw out the window in Oaxaca; this is chicken from the Norteño Frontera, the border region between Mexico and the US. But it looked so good I had to give it a try.

What makes Mexican roadside chicken? A tart citrus marinade, loaded with spices. Oh, and a grill, of course. I couldn't help myself - I had to try this recipe on my rotisserie, my favorite way to grill chicken.

Looking for a taste of Mexican roadside chicken from your own back yard? Check this recipe out.

Equipment

Grill with Rotisserie attachment (I use a Weber Summit with an infrared rotisserie burner.)
Aluminum foil drip pan (9"x13", or whatever fits your grill. I use an enameled steel roasting pan.)
Butchers twine
Instant Read Thermometer
Gallon zip-top bag.

I wrote a cookbook!

Rotisserie Grilling Cookbook

New to your rotisserie and need help with the basics? Love your rotisserie and looking for new ideas? Grab a copy of Rotisserie Grilling! You'll get 50 of my favorite rotisserie recipes and expert tips on how to set up and use your rotisserie.

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Notes

This recipe doubles easily, as you can see in the pictures. Double all the ingredients, and marinate each chicken in its own zip top bag. (This is easiest with two sets of spit forks, but If you only have one set of spit forks, push the chickens together as tight as possible before locking down the forks.)

What do you think?

Questions? Other ideas? Leave them in the comments section below.

Rotisserie Chicken with Tex-Mex Rub
Rotisserie Chicken with Red Chile Marinade (Pollo Adobado)
Rotisserie Chicken with Spanish Smoked Paprika Rub

My Rotisserie Recipe Index

Grilled Cowboy Ribeye Reverse Seared with Garlic and Herb Baste

May 31, 2016 by Mike Vrobel 4 Comments

Grilled Cowboy Ribeye Reverse Seared | DadCooksDinner.com — Grilled Cowboy Ribeye, Reverse Seared

It’s time to revisit one of my classic recipes. Years ago, I won the West Point Market 3Rest in peace - come back soon. steak cook-off with a grilled ribeye steak with Mediterranean herb butter.

Since then, the reverse sear method has taken off in the grilling world - it’s the best way to evenly cook a steak. When I saw these gorgeous bone-in cowboy ribeyes 2, I had to revisit this recipe.

What is a cowboy ribeye? It’s a bone-in ribeye steak, with the fat around the bone trimmed so it sticks out like a small handle. These ribeyes were monsters, cut 2 inches thick - two of them fed my family of five with enough leftovers for me to make myself a steak salad for lunch the next day.

The trick of the reverse sear is to start the steak away from the heat, treating the grill like an oven. Indirect heat cooks the steak slowly and evenly - important with thick steaks like these - leaving them perfectly pink from edge to edge. Then, once the steaks are cooked on the inside, I baste them with garlic and herb oil, move them over the direct heat, and quickly sear them to add a delicious browned crust.

The keys to this recipe are a probe thermometer, which lets me know exactly when the steaks are done and ready to sear, and a quick sear - you don’t want to undo the low and slow cooking by leaving them over the fire too long and letting them overcook.

Looking for the recipe I would use to win a steak cook-off? This is the one.

Recipe: Grilled Cowboy Ribeye Reverse Seared with Garlic and Herb Baste

Equipment

Grill (I love my Weber Performer kettle grill)
Probe Thermometer (The ThermoWorks ChefAlarm has a high temp cable, great for grilling)
Charcoal Chimney (the Weber Charcoal Chimney holds the exact amount of charcoal I want)

What do you think?

Questions? Other ideas? Leave them in the comments section below.

Grilled Ribeye Steaks with Mediterranean Herb Butter
Grilled Teriyaki Ribeye Steaks Reverse Seared
Grilled Tomahawk Steak
Wagyu Ribeye Steak

Grilled Boneless Chicken Breasts with Citrus Marinade

May 26, 2016 by Mike Vrobel 5 Comments

Grilled Boneless Chicken Breasts with Citrus Marinade recipe. Chicken breasts marinated with orange, lemon, lime, and spices, grilled until golden, brown, and delicious.

I feel it again. The call from the light.

I'm a follower of the dark side of the chicken. 3 My kids, however, prefer chicken breast. Most of the time I buy chicken legs - that's the advantage to making the shopping list - but I try to get them then plain white meat every now and again.

Grilled Chicken Breast with Citrus Marinade | DadCooksDinner.com — Grilled Chicken Breast with Citrus Marinade

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My problem with chicken breast is summed up in one word: Plain. White meat is just…there, without a whole lot of flavor. When I make chicken breasts, my entire goal is boosting the taste. I start with the grill - grilling browns the breast, leaving crispy grill marks that add crunch. I also use flavor filled marinades or brines, to pump up the flavor. In this recipe, I combine the two into a southwestern style citrus marinade, with enough salt in it so it does double duty as a brine. The marinade coats the outside, and the salt penetrates deep into the chicken to flavor it all the way through.

The other key is: don't overcook the chicken breast! White meat is very lean, and dries out quickly. Chicken breast is juicy between 150°F and 160°F; unfortunately, the USDA recommend temperature for chicken is 160°F - right at the top edge of the range. The best way to check for doneness is an instant read thermometer - get the chicken off the grill the moment it reaches 160°F.2

I look forward to this chicken breast - I'm not just serving to my kids to keep them happy. Want a kicked up chicken with extra flavor? Give this recipe a try.

Equipment

Grill (I love my massive Weber Summit)
Gallon zip-top bag (or baking dish) for marinating
Citrus squeezer (optional, but makes juicing much easier)

What to Serve With Grilled Boneless Chicken Breasts

I like to grill the vegetables as a side, like Grilled in the Husk Corn, Grilled Green Beans in Foil, or Grilled Asparagus.

What do you think?

Questions? Other ideas? Leave them in the comments section below.

Grilled Boneless Skinless Chicken Breasts, Quick Brinerated
Grill Roasted Chicken Breasts, Dry Brined with Herbs
Thai Style Grill Roasted Chicken Breasts
Grilled BBQ Chicken Thighs

Road Trip: Everything Food Conference 2016

May 24, 2016 by Mike Vrobel 6 Comments

This post is very Inside Baseball (or “Inside Blogging”). I apologize in advance - if talk of a food blogging conference bores you, skip this post, and I won’t be offended. Come back Thursday and I’ll have a new recipe.

What would you do if you weren't afraid?
- Mary Crafts Homer

I visited with my tribe, food bloggers, at the Everything Food Conference in Salt Lake City over the weekend. Blogging exists in a strange space. I have people that I follow, and that follow me; I consider them friends and fans, and I am a friend and fan of theirs. But I never meet them in real life. I love the blogging life - I would never have met most of these wonderful people - but there is no substitute for getting to know someone face to face.

…at least that’s what I’m telling myself in my Salt Lake City hotel room, hours before the conference, while I quietly have a panic attack. I’m such an introvert. Walking into a room full of strangers gives me the heebie-jeebies 3. Especially a room full of people that I want to get to know. I’m flashing back to my first day of high school, sitting alone in the lunchroom, hoping someone will sit down next to me. "Why am I here? What am I doing? This was all a mistake."

I get to the conference site, and there are clusters of food bloggers huddled around the charging stations, or sitting in the seats nearby, staring at their phones.2 I start the conversation with bloggers the only way I know how - “Hi, I’m Mike. Does anyone know the wi-fi password?” And we’re off and running.

Once I get in the flow of things, I remember why it’s worth riding out pre-conference jitters. I’m in a room full of strangers - but they’re all potential friends. We all share this odd niche hobby of food blogging, and have so much to talk about. We share war stories about nasty commenters, swap tips about blog services, and I learn about favorite new ingredients. Every time I strike up a conversation, I wind up with a new friend. I talk with bloggers big and small; some have been blogging for a few months, some are about my size, some have followings that dwarf mine. They’re all amazing people3, and I have a stack of business cards that I just have to follow up with, because I don’t want to lose touch with any of them. This is why the conference is so worth it. In my day job business jargon I would call it “networking”, but it’s more about making connections in my tribe, the people who love to do the same things I do.

Working on our Food Styling class assignment from TheFoodStylingSchool.com | DadCooksDinner.com — Working on our Food Styling class assignment from TheFoodStylingSchool.com

The 4 secrets to a successful blog? Blood, sweat, tears, and mistakes.
- Bjork Ostrom

The conference itself is fantastic, in an overwhelming way. Every session I go to has me filling pages on my notebook - how to make Facebook Live videos! Pinterest tips! Food styling! Self publishing! Speaking of which, at the opening dinner, who sits down at my table but one of the other guys at the conference, Jason Logsdon, blogger at Amazing Food Made Easy and self-published author of a series of Sous Vide and modernist cooking cookbooks. I’m looking forward to his talk about self publishing, and here he is, right next to me. I don’t start peppering him with questions…until we wind up walking to lunch together the next day. I hope I gave him enough time to eat, but I learned a lot that is going to improve my next book, both at that lunch and in his talk.

It was also really strange to be standing in line for a drink and hear Bjork Ostrom behind me. I listen to his Food Blogger Pro podcast every week, and hearing his voice live, not through headphones, was wonderfully odd. I didn’t want to bug him - he was deep in the middle of another conversation. Then he stopped by my table to say hello a few minutes later. I’m a member of Food Blogger Pro, and he recognized me from my profile picture. 4 I had lunch with him, Lindsay of Pinch of Yum , and most of the Food Blogger Pro crew later in the weekend. I can report that Bjork and Lindsay are even nicer in person than they seem online - and I didn’t think that was possible.

A huge hunk of RealSalt from conference sponsor RedmondSalt.com | DadCooksDinner.com — A hunk of RealSalt the size of my fist from conference sponsor RealSalt.com

Success is built sequentially, one thing at a time.
- Pat Flynn

The only problem with the conference is that I learned too much.

No, really.

On the one hand, I now have ideas on how to improve my blog, pictures, ads, Facebook page, Pinterest feed, Instagram, hashtagging, Yummly, YouTube videos, cookbooks, and sponsored posts. I have a “someday” list of tips, tactics, and changes that is longer than my arm.

On the other hand, my big takeaway was that I need to focus. I can’t do it all - I’m a solo blogger with a family and a day job. 5 I’ve been procrastinating on my next big project - a pressure cooker cookbook - and I need to get moving. The Resistance has been winning, and I need to let go of my fears. 6 The one thing I need to do next is get the book started, to get in a rhythm, to work on it a bit every day.

That’s my big takeaway - that I learned a whole lot of great things, and I need to let most of them go.

Ugh, this is going to be hard.

Me and my winning BlendTec Blender |DadCooksDinner.com — Me and my winning BlendTec Blender

Thank you

Oh, and did I mention I won a super-blender from BlendTec in the end-of-conference drawing?7Out of 300+ attendees! I shipped it home - it’s too big to fit in my luggage - and can’t wait to try it out. (My kids asked me to FedEx it overnight, so they could use it even before I got home to make their daily smoothies. They’re just going to have to wait.)

Also, the food in Salt Lake City is awesome. I loved eating at Pallet, Copper Common, Whiskey Street, and Crown Burger. 8 My only regret is not eating at the Red Iguana, a highly recommended local Mexican restaurant…that always has an hour and a half wait. I could never bring myself to stand in that line.

Thank you to everyone at the Everything Food Conference, especially my fellow attendees. I’ll be in touch, and I hope to see you there next year!

Burger from Copper Corner | DadCooksDinner.com — Burger from Copper Common

Instagrammin'

PS: I may or may not have become an Instagram addict while I was at the conference - all the pictures in this post are from my Instagram feed. Follow me at @DadCooksDinner if you want to see if I keep it up now that I’m home.

I'll be back! | DadCooksDinner.com — I'll be back!

What do you think?

Questions? Other ideas? Leave them in the comments section below.

Pressure Cooker Turkey and Black Bean Chili

May 19, 2016 by Mike Vrobel 11 Comments

I don’t have my pressure cooker turkey and black bean chili recipe on the blog? Whoops. It is one of my go-to weeknight meals. It takes about an hour, but most of that time is the pressure cooker doing its thing while I wrangle kids and homework. 9

The flavors of this chili are inspired by Mexico’s famous Mole Poblano - chiles, spices, and a hint of sweet from cocoa powder, cinnamon, and sugar.2

This chili has a heavier meat to bean ratio than I usually use. My grocery store started selling 3 pound packs of ground turkey, and whenever they’re on sale I grab a pack and make this chili. 3 Tim is happy with all bean chili, but Ben prefers all meat chili. This recipe lets me lean the recipe towards Ben’s preferences without leaving Tim out.

Looking for a weeknight chili, made easy by the pressure cooker? Look no farther - this is the recipe you seek.

Recipe: Pressure Cooker Turkey and Black Bean Chili

Equipment

6 quart or larger pressure cooker (I love my Instant Pot Duo)

What do you think?

Questions? Other ideas? Leave them in the comments section below.

Pressure Cooker Ground Beef and Bean Chili
Pressure Cooker Chili Verde (Green Pork Chili)
Pressure Cooker 15 Bean Chili

Salt Lake City Food Tips? #EFC2016

May 16, 2016 by Mike Vrobel 7 Comments

I'm off to Salt Lake City this week for the Everything Food Conference. I have never been to Utah or Salt Lake City, and I'm looking to my readers for suggestions.

Anyone out there been to SLC? If I have some a free afternoon or evening, where should I go, and what should I do? Any local food specialities I need to seek out?
Thank you,

Mike

DadCooksDinner on the Web May 2016 Edition

May 13, 2016 by Mike Vrobel 2 Comments

Check out my latest guest post at Weber.com: Rotisserie Baby Back Ribs with Red-eye BBQ Sauce

Grill Smoked Chicken Thigh Tacos

May 12, 2016 by Mike Vrobel 2 Comments

Grill Smoked Chicken Thigh Tacos

You need a teacher. I can show you the ways of the Dark Side…of the chicken.

As I’ve said many times, I’m a fan of dark meat chicken…and my kids are fans of tacos. 4But then, who isn’t a fan of tacos? It’s a beautiful spring day, and I want to fire up the grill. When I saw the blowout sale on bone-in chicken thighs at my grocery store, I knew what was for dinner. Smoky, spice, and tender roasted chicken, chopped up and wrapped in tortillas.

Now I could start with boneless, skinless chicken thighs - I do that all the time on weeknights - but that’s more of a grilled chicken taco. I want smoky, tender chicken in this taco, so I start with bone-in thighs, and slow roast them on the grill. 2 The first thing I do is pull the skin off of the thighs - it gets in the way of the spice rub and the smoke, and I don’t like the texture of chopped chicken skin in my taco meat.

The thighs are sprinkled with spice rub, and grilled over indirect medium heat, with a couple of good-sized wood chunks. I let them slow roast in the grill for close to an hour - thighs are hard to overcook, and extra time just makes them more tender. In other words, this is the perfect recipe for a spring day, where you can sit on the deck with a tasty beverage and watch the smoke slowly rise from the grill. 3

Recipe: Grill Smoked Chicken Thigh Tacos

Equipment

Grill (I love my Weber Performer kettle grill)

Grill Smoked Chicken Thigh Tacos - DadCooksDinner.com — Just a pinch of ground cloves

Notes

The accompaniments are just suggestions - anything you like on tacos is fair game (Lettuce! Sour cream! Sliced radishes! Black olives! Hot sauce!)

What do you think?

Questions? Other ideas? Leave them in the comments section below.

Grilled Mahi-Mahi Fish Tacos with Red Cabbage Slaw
Grilled Skirt Steak Tacos with Jalapenos and Onions
Grilled Mexican Short Rib Tacos with Poblanos, Onions, Pineapple, and Tomatillo Salsa

Tomato and Pumpkin Seed Salsa

May 5, 2016 by Mike Vrobel 2 Comments

This week, DadCooksDinner is sponsored by Food Should Taste Good Tortilla Chips. Why do I like having Food Should Taste Good as a sponsor? Because they know food tastes best when it’s made with real ingredients, and their Tortilla Chips are wholesome snacks that deliver on great taste, with real, simple ingredients. They are perfect for Cinco de Mayo entertaining. For more information, visit www.foodshouldtastegood.com.

Food Should Taste Good asked me for a Cinco de Mayo recipe to go with their Tortilla Chips; of course, salsa immediately jumped to mind. (Followed quickly by thoughts of frozen margaritas - see Tuesday’s recipe.)

Why pumpkin seeds in salsa? Pumpkin seeds, pipián or pepitas in Spanish, are a popular ingredient in Mexico. They add a meaty, roasted taste, and blending them with the tomatoes helps thicken up the salsa. This recipe is loosely based on sikil p’ak, Yucatan’s pumpkin-seed dip, but this recipe is a lot more tomato-heavy than you would find in the Yucatan. (And they would use habaneros instead of jalapenos. They love the heat in the Yucatan.)4

Pumpkin seeds used to be hard to find in my area, but now I see them in the bulk section of my local grocery stores. (If you’re having a hard time, check out your local health food store.) I buy the pumpkin seeds roasted and salted, because it makes this a quick pantry recipe; dump everything in the food processor and puree. If you can only find raw, unsalted pumpkin seeds, that’s fine - toast them in a skillet over medium heat until they are just browned in spots, then dump them in the food processor.

About those chips…
I came home to a big box of chips from Food Should Taste Good. That’s when the kids started circling. Normally, when I say “It’s for the blog”, they wander away. Now they won’t leave me alone. “Dad, can we eat the chips? When can we eat the chips? How about now, can we eat the chips?” Not until I get pictures! Back off you vultures! I go get my camera, and when I come back, one of them is going through the box. “I’m not eating them! I’m just checking what flavors you have.”

I made the salsa, took my pictures, and then unleashed the ravenous horde, with a last minute request: “Taste test - what’s your favorite chip?” Mine is the Blue Corn Tortilla Chip, because I’m a traditionalist - I like the big corn flavor, with a hint of sesame. The rest of my tasting panel voted for Lime, Multigrain, and (much to my surprise), two votes for Guacamole. Why the Guacamole Tortilla Chips? According to one voter: “Because they’re spicy. I like spicy.”

Recipe: Tomato and Pumpkin Seed Salsa

Inspired by La Parilla: The Mexican Grill by Reed Hearon

Equipment

Food processor or blender

Garlic and jalapeno, completely minced. — Garlic and jalapeno, completely minced

What do you think?

Questions? Other ideas? Leave them in the comments section below.

Quick Red Salsa
Grilled Tomato and Tomatillo Salsa
Guacamole Salsa

Frozen Margaritas

May 3, 2016 by Mike Vrobel 2 Comments

But there's booze in the blender…and soon it will render…that frozen concoction that helps me hang on.

When I need something ice cold to cut the heat from chips and salsa, here’s the drink I mix up.
This is not a fancy margarita. Frozen margaritas are not fancy, and never will be fancy. But there’s a reason Tex-mex cuisine took over the world. Chips, salsa, and frozen margaritas are that reason. 2

Now, by “drink I mix up”, I mean “drink my wife mixes up.” Dad cooks dinner, but Mom’s the mixologist in the family. 2 I had to keep texting her when I was writing up this recipe: “Does a 2:1 ratio of tequila to triple sec sound right?” (yes.) “½ cup of limeade?” (No, too much. Go with ¼ cup.) “How much ice?” (Eyeball it - about half the blender.)

My sponsor this week, Food Should Taste Good, wanted to know if I had a drink pairing with their chips. Now, this isn’t officially the “sponsored recipe”, but I have to throw in - their Lime, Guacamole, and Jalapeno chips are all great pairings with this margarita.

Recipe: Frozen Margaritas

Adapted From: The Tex-Mex Cookbook: A History in Recipes and Photos by Robb Walsh.

Equipment

Blender (I love my Vitamix - it makes short work of the ice cubes.)

Notes

I prefer 100% agave silver tequila for my margaritas - but, especially for frozen, that probably doesn't matter.
For fancy, spicy salt, add a little ground guajillo pepper to the salt before dipping the rims.
Makes 2 jumbo (12 ounce) margaritas

What do you think?

Questions? Other ideas? Leave them in the comments section below.

Fiery Mexican Martini
Canning Jar Margaritas
Quick Red Salsa

Grilled Ham with Gochujang Glaze

April 28, 2016 by Mike Vrobel 3 Comments

So, can we have the Gochujang ham yet?

My family is gochujang crazed. I’ve mentioned this before, but gochujang, Korea’s spicy red pepper paste, has taken over as the Asian condiment of choice in our kitchen. 3

My wife ran across this recipe from chef Edward Lee in the newspaper a while back. Since then, she asks if we can have Gochujang ham about once a month.

I may be a bit slow, but requests from the wife sink in eventually. This one is for my sweetie - grilled ham with gochujang glaze.

As with turkey, I like to roast ham in my grill. It’s not just because I’m a grilling fanatic. 2 A ham - even a half ham like I’m using here - weighs 10 pounds, and takes up most of my oven. Moving the ham to the grill leaves the oven free for side dishes.

Recipe: Grilled Ham with Gochujang Glaze

Inspired by: Holiday Ham with Heat by Alison Ashton and chef Edward Lee

Equipment

Grill (I love my massive 6 burner Weber Summit grill).
9 by 13 aluminum foil pan (or grill-safe enameled steel roasting pan)

On the grill - lit burners on the sides, ham in the middle

Notes

This is a BIG ham - it will serve a crowd. Even then, I save the bone for ham and bean soup, and use the leftovers for sandwiches.
Don't use a spiral sliced ham with this recipe - the pre-slicing lets all the juices leak out while the ham is heating. Most spiral sliced hams recommend serving straight from the refrigerator for this reason.
I recommend bone-in ham because I'm a bone-in kind of guy, and I get a less processed ham that way. (From least to most processed: "Ham", then "ham with natural juices" are the best options; at my local grocery store, "ham with natural juices" is the best I can do. Next down is "ham with water added", and the worst case scenario is "ham and water product", which tends to look like a square loaf.) Now, I'm a ham snob - I like my pork minimally processed - but this recipe will work with any ham.
The downside to bone-in ham is carving around the bone. The bone is usually on one side of the ham, so I carve the other side first to get nice, big slices. Then I cut the rest of the ham away from the bone in largeish chunks, and carve those (or save them for later for ham salad or pea soup.)
Want to cook the ham on a charcoal grill? See my "Rotisserie Ham with Orange and Honey Glaze" for indirect medium-low setup options; then, instead of using the rotisserie, put the grill grate back on and continue with the "Cook the ham" step.

What do you think?

Questions? Other ideas? Leave them in the comments section below.

Grilled Ham with Honey-Bourbon Glaze
Rotisserie Ham Barbecue Style
Rotisserie Ham with Orange and Honey Glaze

Pressure Cooker Beef Carbonnade

April 21, 2016 by Mike Vrobel 18 Comments

Kenji Alt’s Pressure Cooker Caramelized Onions is a brilliant idea. He uses the sealed environment and high heat of a pressure cooker to caramelize onions without the risk of burning. Normally, caramelized onions are finicky - you have to stir constantly for 20 to 30 minutes. In the pressure cooker, it takes the same amount of time, but it’s hands-off; no stirring, just show up when the onions are done. 3

The moment I saw these onions, I thought about beef carbonnade - Belgian beef, beer, and caramelized onion stew. It was perfect - a first stage under pressure to caramelize the onions, then a second stage under pressure to cook the stew. Easy, right?

Um…the fates laughed at me when I said that.2 This recipe took a bunch of tries for me to get right. Now, all were pretty good - I had a lot of leftover beef stew for lunch, and enjoyed it - but I did learn a few things along the way:

2 pounds of onions needs a little extra water in my pressure cooker to build pressure before it overheats and the onions start to burn…but 3 pounds of onions release so much liquid that they don't brown properly, and need an extra 20 minutes of simmering. In an Instant Pot, stick close to 2 pounds of onions, and add ¼ cup of water to help get things started
Stirring flour into the stew is great for thickening, and traditional for the recipe - but can also overheat the cooker if it thickens the liquid up too quickly. (Like, if you try to add it to the pressure caramelizing onions.) I add a bottle of beer and a cup of chicken stock to the pot for the stew stage, to keep everything loose enough to come up to pressure.
This recipe traditionally has thin strips of beef; flat iron steak is the perfect cut for this. (To save money, substitute chuck roast - but it will require more knife work to get it into the required shape.)
Browning the beef. I tried this recipe without browning, with browning the whole flat iron steak and then slicing, and slicing first then browning the slices. They were all good, but the more browning, the better the flavor. I know browning batches of beef is annoying, and takes time, but it is worth it to build the flavor.

If you’re looking for a “ dump everything in the pot and pressure cook” weeknight meal, this is not the recipe for you. But, if you want to show off, this is a fantastic beef stew, made quicker and easier by the pressure cooker.

Recipe: Pressure Cooker Beef Carbonnade (Belgian Beef Stew)

Inspired By:

Jacques Pepin Carbonnade a la Flamade - Flemish beef stew at [FoodAndWine.com]
Kenji Alt The Food Lab: Use the Pressure Cooker for Quick Caramelized Onions and French Onion Soup at [SeriousEats.com]

Equipment

6 quart or larger pressure cooker (I love my electric Instant Pot Duo)

Notes

Pressure cooker plus frypan for browning: speeds up the browning, make sure to use
It's traditional to serve this stew with buttered noodles, but I love the caramelized onion sauce with mashed potatoes.

What do you think?

Questions? Other ideas? Leave them in the comments section below.

Pressure Cooker Beef Stew with Mushrooms
Pressure Cooker Basic Beef Stew
Pressure Cooker Irish Lamb Stew

Pressure Cooker Browned Chicken Broth

April 19, 2016 by Mike Vrobel 8 Comments

I’m a fan of “use it up” chicken broth, where I use the leftovers from roast chicken to make stock. But…I use a lot of chicken broth in my cooking - in soups, sauces, and stews - and sometimes I have to make stock on purpose.

That’s when I head to the store to get random chicken parts. For chicken broth, I want two things: mostly bones, and cheap. Wings work, but they fail the “cheap” test for me - wings are as expensive as chicken breast nowadays. Instead, I look for necks and backs; my grocery store has chicken backs in the freezer for less than a dollar a pound.3

You can toss the bones straight into the pot to make what the French call “white broth” - and I do that often. But, when I have the time, I like the roasted flavor that comes from browning the chicken. I spread the bones out on a rimmed baking sheet, add the garlic and onions that are going in the pot, and roast everything for an hour to get it nice and toasted. It's not much extra work, and it pays off in a richer flavored broth. 2 Then, everything goes in the pot, and about 2 hours later I have a pot full of broth.

Yes, that’s right, 2 hours later. The timing is 1 hour at high pressure, but the big variable in pressure cooking is the amount of liquid in the pot. And, we want to fill it to the max fill line. Boiling that much water to bring the pot to pressure, and letting it cool down with a natural pressure release take time. Don’t worry - it still takes hours less than a stove top stock, and the results are worth the wait.

Recipe: Pressure Cooker Browned Chicken Broth (with Garlic)

Adapted from: Marco Canora Brodo: A Bone Broth Cookbook

Video

Pressure Cooker Browned Chicken Broth - Time Lapse [YouTube.com]

Equipment

6 quart or larger pressure cooker (I love my electric Instant Pot Duo)
Fat separator (optional)
Storage Containers (I use 2 and 4 quart storage)

Notes

If you are freezing the broth, don't fill the containers right up to the top. (Frozen broth expands - it is mostly water, after all.) I only fill my broth containers ¾ full before freezing.
If you have a larger pressure cooker, you can scale up the broth amount; I can squeeze 4 pounds of bones and 3 quarts of water into my new 8 quart Instant Pot, and double it in my massive 12 quart Kuhn Rikon.

What do you think?

Questions? Other ideas? Leave them in the comments section below.

Pressure Cooker Chicken Noodle Soup with Vegetables
Pressure Cooker Chicken Broth and Shredded Chicken
Pressure Cooker Browned Beef Stock

First Look at the 8-Quart Instant Pot IP-DUO80

April 12, 2016 by Mike Vrobel 97 Comments

My jumbo Instant Pot is here!

I’ve only had it since last Friday, but I want to share my excitement. The Instant Pot IP-DUO80 is the big brother of my favorite pressure cooker, the IP-DUO60. The main difference between the two cookers is size - they look almost exactly alike, but the 80 is scaled up. This is a good thing - the 80 has all of my favorite extras from the 60, including the one piece lid and silicone gasket holder, and the lid holder built into the handles. The only visible difference is the fancy red pressure valve, marked with lines so it is easier to tell when the cooker is pressurized. (With the 60, I had to use it a few times to know just by looking if the pressure valve was up or down.)

When you can see the lines, the pot is pressurized

Dimensions:

Size differences

8 quart dimensions: 15 inches wide x 14.5 tall x 13 deep
6 quart dimensions: 13.5 inches wide x 12.75 tall x 12.25 deep
(Width is from side handle to side handle. Height is from counter to top of top handle. Depth is from front of control panel to back of drain.)

8 quart inner pot: 7.25 inches high x 10.3125 diameter
6 quart inner pot: 6.25 inches high x 9.5 diameter
(Size includes lip)

Why is bigger such a big deal? The extra large pot makes my favorite cooker even easier to use. That extra width has already come in handy; I store used chicken carcasses in the freezer, after we’ve picked all the meat off of them; when I want to make chicken stock, I pull the zip-top bag out of the freezer, open it, and dump the frozen bones into the cooker. This is where the size comes in - a lot of times, the frozen bird is just a little too long for my pot - the chicken’s pygostyle 3 is poking up above the max-fill line. I have to break apart the frozen carcass to get it to fit. As a test, I grabbed my bag of frozen carcasses from the freezer and made stock. The bones fit well under the max fill line in the wider pot of the IP–80.

Instant Pot 8 Quart IP-DUO80 First Look-1580062 — New Pot Width

The other advantage, of course, is I can fill the 8 quart cooker with more stuff when I’m cooking. That really helps when I’m making a big batch of broth, but…most of my other recipes fit just fine in a 6 quart cooker, even cooking for my family of five. If you already have the 6 quart cooker, and it’s working for you, don’t rush out and get the 8 quart. If you’ve been eyeing a second pressure cooker for side dishes, or you’re looking at your first cooker (and cook for bigger groups), get the 8 quart. I have multiple cookers, and in a couple days the 8 quart replaced my 6 quart as the “keep under the kitchen island for easy access” cooker. 2

One more difference I noticed: the IP-DUO80 remembers your last timer setting. For example, the first thing I did with the cooker was do a water test - 2 cups of water, set it to Manual, 5 minutes under pressure. Everything worked fine, so I took it apart, cleaned it, and put it in the dish drain to dry out. The next day, I wanted to make some beef broth. When I hit the Manual button, 5 minutes was back - not like the old DUO60, which always reset back to 30 minutes as the starting time. I think this will be a change for the better…but I’m not sure. If I cook in the same general range of temperatures this feature is a good thing - but if I jump around, cooking a 4 minute mac and cheese one day, then a 75 minute beef broth the next, this won’t be as useful. (Both options - remembering the last time set, or defaulting to 30 minutes, work better for me than some other pressure cookers that always start at zero and force you to count up. I make a lot of 30 to 60 minute recipes, so starting higher than zero means less button pressing.)

I have a new day-to-day pressure cooker.

I’ve used the IP-DUO80 every day since it arrived3, and I love it. I’ll keep using it, and report back if anything changes, but my old DUO60 has been rock solid, and I expect the same from this one. Highly, highly recommended.

[Update 2016-09-29...]

I still use my 6 quart IP-DUO60 day to day

I was excited about this cooker when it first came out, but over time, I drifted back to my 6 quart Instant Pot. Turns out, I don't need the extra space (in my day to day cooking for a family of 5.) The 8 quart now lives on my pressure cooker shelf in the basement4, where I go get it if I need the extra space. I still recommend the 8 quart if you're cooking for larger crowds on a regular basis. Or, if you want a second PC, then it's great to have the flexibility of the larger size. (That's what I use it for, primarily - when I want to pressure cook two things at once.) But, for most people, the 6 quart IP-DUO60 is a better fit.

(More thoughts on this: Longer Term Testing Notes: Instant Pot IP-DUO60 vs IP-DUO80)

What do you think?

Questions? Other ideas? Leave them in the comments section below.

Which Pressure Cooker Should I Buy?
Instant Pot FAQ
My pressure cooker recipe index

Weber Summit Charcoal - Thoughts on #GrillOfALifetime

April 7, 2016 by Mike Vrobel 11 Comments

Weber Summit Charcoal Grilling Center (all pictures courtesy of Weber.com)

"It is so choice. If you have the means, I highly recommend picking one up." - Ferris Bueller

#GrillOfALifetime

Weber just announced their new Weber Summit Charcoal grill, which they’ve been teasing with #GrillOfALifetime hashtags for months now. If you were following me yesterday on Twitter, then you know I’m excited about this grill.5And…my apologies for all the ranting.

It’s Weber’s response to the kamado grill craze - a double walled steel grill, with gas ignition, a 24 inch cooking surface, hinged lid, redesigned vents, and adjustable height charcoal grate. I can’t wait to get my hands on one and try some reverse searing with the adjustable charcoal grate…or low and slow barbecue…or maybe just some butterflied chickens.

Why am I so excited?

Double walled - giving me the heat retention of a ceramic kamado grill without the weight. All my complaints about Winter Grilling? This fixes a lot of the problems.
Adjustable charcoal grate - need to sear? Lift the grate close to the coals for a hit of high heat
24 inch grilling grate - I can always use extra space.

They even built in a port for electronic temperature controllers like the BBQ Guru - I’ve never played with one, but now I’m going to have to try electronic temp control out.

In summary: I wants it. I needs it! Well, other than…

57040dddabf6f_Weber_SCG_18301001_B_resized — Weber Summit Charcoal

The price…

Are you sitting down? $1699 for the Weber Summit Charcoal, or $2299 for the Weber Summit Charcoal Grilling Center with attached table and charcoal bin.

Wow. That’s…wheeze…a lot of money. A LOT of money. 2 This is definitely not a grill for a bargain hunter. But, after looking around, it’s priced in the neighborhood of its kamado grill competitors. It’s a within a few hundred dollars of a 24 inch Big Green Egg XL with Egg Nest, or a Kamado Joe BigJoe. (And those don’t come with a gas starter.)

…but, still, that price. Yikes. I’m going to have to save my pennies for this one…

No Rotisserie

I love my rotisserie, and desperately want one for the Weber Summit Charcoal. I’m hoping Weber makes something like the Kamado Joe Joetisserie - a wedge shaped rotisserie that fits under a hinged lid. But, for now, there isn’t one for the Summit Charcoal. And that makes me sad.

Can I actually get one?

[Update 2016-04-18]: Thanks to commenter Nick for the heads up - Weber updated their available dealer list. This includes The Place, my local high end Weber dealer, just down the road from me in Medina. I'm going to ~~drool all over one~~ check them out in person as soon as I'm done updating this post.

Weber is only selling the Summit Charcoal through a limited set of dealers - and the nearest one is about a two hour drive away from me in Columbus, OH. (They are the only dealer selling the Summit Charcoal in the state of Ohio, from what I can see.)

570413f9f27ec_Weber_SCG_18301001_resized — Weber Summit Charcoal Grill Center

All that said, my grill lust is strong for this one

Now, I know a lot of people are…upset?…offended?…by the price of the grill. The anger on Twitter was intense. If you’re a price conscious shopper, just move on. If you think $1700 for a charcoal grill is expensive…you’re right.

Do I really need a Weber Summit Charcoal? No, my Weber Performer is a great grill, and I still love it. Can I afford one? Umm…ask me when my credit card bills arrive.

But, do I want one? Oh, my, yes. A weather-insulated, XL sized charcoal grill with a gas starter and adjustable charcoal grate? From Weber? I’m so there. Even though the price makes me wheeze (and my wallet cry), I want one.

Other Info

For more info, check out Weber’s official #GrillOfALifetime site, and the reviews from a couple Friends-Of-DadCooksDinner who got prerelease copies to review. 3

Weber.com/GrillOfALifetime Weber's product page at [Weber.com]
The Weber Summit Charcoal Grill My friend Mike at [AnotherPintPlease.com] (And, check out the demo videos on the official Weber site - that's Mike!)
Weber Summit Charcoal Grill - including video review at [AmazingRibs.com]

What do you think?

Questions? Other ideas? Leave them in the comments section below.

Pressure Cooker Brown Jasmine Rice

April 5, 2016 by Mike Vrobel 69 Comments

Pressure Cooker Brown Jasmine Rice is a quick and healthy side dish in the Instant Pot or any other pressure cooker.

I love food blogging - except when I weigh myself on Monday and Thursday mornings. Years ago I lost a lot of weight by cutting out processed starches and eating only whole grain carbs. That meant a lot of brown rice, because I love my stir fries and curries - they help me slip in a bunch of vegetables with my meat.

There are two problems with brown rice.

Problem one: cooking time. It takes a lot longer to cook brown rice - about an hour on the stovetop. That's where my pressure cooker comes in; I can have brown rice in about a half an hour.

Problem two: taste. In other words, my kids. They love the neutral taste of white rice. The first time I tried to serve them brown rice, with its strong, nutty flavor, they took one bite, then refused to eat an more. I would try brown rice every now and again, but they never liked it. That is, until I tried brown jasmine rice. The long grains cook up fluffier than most brown rices, and the flavor is close enough to white rice that they don't mind it as the side dish with a stir fry or curry. I finally have a brown rice I can serve to the kids.

Looking for a nutritious side dish, especially to balance out an Asian meal? Try some brown jasmine rice in the pressure cooker. (I love serving it with my Instant Pot Lentil Curry for a quick weeknight meal.)

Equipment

Pressure Cooker (I love my Instant Pot Duo)

Adding water and rice to the pressure cooker

Notes

My favorite brand (so far) is Jasmati brand brown rice from Rice Select, but I have to admit, I don't have too many choices for brown jasmine rice in my area. If you have a favorite brand, let us know in the comments.

What do you think?

Questions? Other ideas? Leave them in the comments section below.

Pressure Cooker White Rice
Instant Pot Brown Basmati Rice
Pressure Cooker Thai Green Chicken Curry
Pressure Cooker Chinese Pork with Dried Plum Sauce
My Pressure Cooker Recipe Index

Grilled Teriyaki Ribeye Steaks, Reverse Seared

March 29, 2016 by Mike Vrobel 4 Comments

Ribeye steak on a grill, over charcoal, with a flare of fire and a second ribeye in the background — Grilled Teriyaki Ribeye Steaks, Reverse Seared

Every year I ask my readers: are you having Ham or Lamb for Easter dinner?

Here’s my deep, dark secret - grilling a steak is my favorite Easter tradition. Sure, we’d have ham on Easter. After we stuffed ourselves with chocolate bunnies and jelly beans, ham and swiss was a welcome (salty) change. But what I remember most is coming home from Easter vigil mass, when my dad and uncles would head out into Grandpa Weck’s dark back yard and grill us steaks. (Usually with snowflakes swirling around them.)

I continue this tradition with my family - a big, thick steak on Easter eve, with the best bottle of wine we have left in the house. My kids are coming around - especially my oldest, who realized that teriyaki steak is one of his favorite things. This year’s steaks were made for him.4

There is One Simple Trick2Sorry. to teriyaki steak - don’t burn it. Teriyaki sauce has a lot of sugar in it. (That’s why my son loves it.) If I marinate the steak, then drop it over direct heat, it’s going to be black and burnt on the outside long before it gets to room temperature in the middle. That’s where reverse searing came in - I start the steak away from the heat, let it cook through gently, then move it over the fire for a quick minute or two, brushing with teriyaki sauce, and watching it constantly to make sure it doesn’t burn. 3

Looking to add a little Asian zing to your beef? Try a teriyaki steak.

Grilled Teriyaki Ribeye Steaks, Reverse Seared

What do you think?

Questions? Other ideas? Leave them in the comments section below.

The Best Grilled Steak: Reverse Sear or Sear and Move?
Grilled Thick Cut New York Strip Steaks, Reverse Seared
Grilled Tomahawk Steak - Long Bone Ribeye, Reverse Seared
Wagyu Ribeye Steak
My other Grilling Recipes

Pressure Cooker 7 Hour Leg of Lamb (in 90 minutes)

March 24, 2016 by Mike Vrobel 82 Comments

If you want medium-rare lamb, this is not the recipe for you. We're going completely in the other direction - lamb cooked so long that it is fall-off-the-bone tender.

(To paraphrase Terry Pratchett, we're so far from medium-rare lamb we're approaching it from the other side.)

Traditionally, this recipe is pitched as "Lamb so tender you can eat it with a spoon." Now, that's a little bit of hyperbole - a spoon? Not really. But if you're a fan of tender braises and pot roasts, you'll love this leg of lamb.

Pressure Cooker 7 Hour Leg of Lamb (in 90 minutes)

[feast_advanced_jump_to]

Now, for a pressure cooker recipe, this one takes a while. A 4 pound lamb roast is a big piece of meat, and it takes about 90 minutes at high pressure for the lamb to cook all the way through, plus a natural pressure release. And, it's not the weight so much as the thickness. The heat has to penetrate into the center of that blocky piece of lamb.

"90 minutes!" I can hear you saying. "That's not fast!" Well, it is if you're starting with traditional French recipe that roasts for 7 hours in the oven. If you're curious, I tried out different timings: at 60 minutes, it was still tough most of the way through, and at 75 minutes, it was almost tender enough, but it was not quite done in the center of the roast, near the bone. 90 minutes was perfect - tender all the way through.

(Looking for a quicker lamb recipe? Check out pressure cooker lamb shanks - the smaller pieces of lamb cook in about half the time. Or, for a different style of braised meat, try my Instant Pot Boneless Short Ribs.)

Recipe: Pressure Cooker 7 Hour Leg of Lamb (in 90 minutes)

Inspired by: Ambassade D'Auvergne's seven-hour leg of lamb, Patricia Wells, Bistro Cooking

Equipment

6 quart or larger pressure cooker (I love my Instant Pot electric PC)
Fat separator

What do you think?

Questions? Other ideas? Leave them in the comments section below.

Have a boneless leg of lamb? Try my Instant Pot Boneless Leg of Lamb recipe. For other lamb recipes, check out my Pressure Cooker Lamb Shanks and Pressure Cooker Irish Lamb Stew. For other recipes that take hours of stewing and speed them up with pressure, try my Pressure Cooker Beef Pot Roast, Instant Pot Oxtail : Easy Braise, or Instant Pot Goat Curry (Indian Style).

Here is my Pressure Cooker Recipes Index for all my Pressure Cooker and Instant Pot recipes.

Ham or Lamb? Dad Cooks Easter Dinner 2016

March 22, 2016 by Mike Vrobel 3 Comments

Ham or Lamb? What do you cook on Easter? Spring lamb is the answer for most families. My wife's family loves ham - they don't think it's a holiday unless there's a ham on the table. My family's tradition is a little different - steaks grilled late at night, after the Easter vigil mass. Diane and I have a mix of both, now - steak on Easter Eve, ham on Easter.

If you’re responsible for Easter Dinner, here are a few Dad Cooks Dinner recipes to get you going. Ham, Lamb...and a steak. They are all grilling recipes - regardless of the weather, I consider Easter the start of the grilling season. 4

	Rotisserie Ham with Orange and Honey Glaze I love ham on the rotisserie - I get the best crackling skin that way.
	Grilled Ham with Honey Bourbon Glaze (picture at the top of the post) If you don't have a rotisserie, or don't want to go through the extra effort, ham on the grill is almost as good - which means it is fantastic.
	Rotisserie Fresh Ham with Injection Brine Fresh ham is not what I consider "ham". Forget pink, cured meat; this is a leg of pork roast. (Which may be a good think, if you prefer the taste of roast pork to cured ham.)
	Rotisserie Whole Leg of Lamb with Orange and Fennel Dry Brine All the ham recipes are impressive, sure. But this whole, bone-in leg of lamb will really wow your guests.
	Grilled Butterflied Leg of Lamb, Dry Brined This is my quick lamb recipe - boneless, butterflied leg of lamb is easy to grill, slice, and serve.
	Grilled T-Bone Steaks with Mediterranean Marinade This is my Easter Eve meal - grilled T-Bone steaks. I can taste them already...

Happy Easter, everyone!

What do you think? Questions? Other ideas? Leave them in the comments section below.

Cast Iron Duck Breast Tacos with Chipotle Salsa

March 17, 2016 by Mike Vrobel Leave a Comment

Cast Iron Duck Tacos with Chipotle Salsa

This meal is inspired by my trip to Oaxaca. Most of what I know about Mexican food is street food, and Oaxaca did not disappoint. I still dream about the beef head food cart, and the smoke-filled hall of grilled meat in the 20th of November market.

My big surprise was how good the high-end dining was in Oaxaca. A couple of the best meals were not street food - they were fine dining restaurants, where the chef fused Mexican flavors with modern cooking techniques.

Those dinners are the inspiration for these tacos. They’re nowhere near as elaborate - I’m just one guy, not a chef with a full kitchen brigade to help out - but duck breast adds elegance to any meal.

The trick to this recipe is patience. Duck breast has a lot of fat under the skin, and we need to render it out as we crisp up the duck skin. I do this over medium-low heat, leaving the duck breast skin side down until it is golden, brown, and delicious. (You’ll be amazed how much fat is released by this process. A quick sear on the meaty side of the breast and the duck is (perfectly pink) medium and ready to serve.

Cast Iron Duck Breast Tacos with Chipotle Salsa

Equipment

12 inch cast iron skillet (or other large, heavy skillet)
Blender (I love my Vitamix)

Searing, skin side down - look at all the fat rendered

What do you think?

Questions? Other ideas? Leave them in the comments section below.

Cast Iron Roasted Duck Legs
Pan Grilled Duck Breast with Duck Fat Paprika Potatoes
Mango Salsa

Grilled Gochujang Shrimp Skewers

March 15, 2016 by Mike Vrobel 4 Comments

I was right!2 A few years ago I said that gochujang, Korea’s spicy red pepper paste, was going to be the next big breakout flavor. I was early, but it’s starting to happen. I can buy gochujang in my local grocery stores now - a big change from back then, when I had to search it out in local Asian markets. (And, even then, it was hit or miss.)

How else do I know it’s a hit? My daughter is addicted to it. That squeeze bottle of gochujang at my local grocery store is now a requirement for my dinner table. If we have anything even vaguely Asian, my daughter demands it. It doesn’t matter what kind of Asian, either. Korean? Great! But it also goes on her Chinese stir fry, in a Japanese noodle bowl, and with her Thai curry.

Trying to get ahead of her love of gochujang, I brushed it directly on these shrimp on the grill. And…I have another hit on my hands. (I’m not sure if this is a good thing - she’s demanding these shrimp almost as often as she demands the gochujang sauce.)

Recipe: Grilled Gochujang Shrimp Skewers

Equipment

Grill (I love my massive Weber Summit)
Skewers

What do you think?

Questions? Other ideas? Leave them in the comments section below.

Grilled Shrimp and Pineapple Skewers With Coconut Curry Baste
Grilled Peel-and-Eat Shrimp with Smoked Paprika Spice Paste
Grilled Shrimp Skewers with Knob Creek Pineapple Glaze

Pressure Cooker Thai Green Chicken Curry

March 10, 2016 by Mike Vrobel 36 Comments

I love making Thai curry at home - as long as I cheat and use a can of Thai curry paste. Now, I am an adventurous home cook, and buy lots of specialty ingredients, but Thai curries use a lot of things I would never need again. That’s where curry paste comes in. It has all the chiles, aromatics, herbs and spices that make up a Thai chili. Turns out, I’m not the only one who likes a shortcut - lots of Thai home cooks use curry paste instead of making their own base. 2 I like a lot of curry flavor, so I use an entire 4 ounce can, but you can cut back to a couple of tablespoons if you want less heat.

Speaking of heat, green curry gets that bright green color from the main ingredient - Thai green chiles. This is not a dish for the faint of heart - it packs some heat with its Thai flavor.

Speaking of the color - I thought green curry would be a hard sell to my kids, but once they tried it, they fell in love with the Thai combo of hot, sour, sweet, and salty flavors.

I love my pressure cooker for quick curries. I can replace an hour of simmering with ten minutes under pressure and get tender chicken in a bright, spicy, green broth. I add green beans at the end - they would be cooked to mush in the pressure cooker, but a quick simmer gives an extra crunch to the dish.

Recipe: Pressure Cooker Thai Green Chicken Curry

Equipment

6 quart or larger pressure cooker (I love my Instant Pot electric pressure cooker)

Scooping the coconut cream from the top of the can

What do you think?

Questions? Other ideas? Leave them in the comments section below.

Pressure Cooker White Rice
Pressure Cooker Korean Braised Short Ribs
Pressure Cooker Massaman Beef Curry
Instant Pot Thai Yellow Curry
My list of Pressure Cooker Recipes

Top 5 Rotisserie Chicken Recipes (For Your Grill)

March 8, 2016 by Mike Vrobel 1 Comment

I'm a rotisserie fanatic because of roast chicken. There is no better way to cook a chicken, especially if it is dry brined and a little smoking wood is added to the grill. Want to get started on rotisserie chicken? Here are my top 5 rotisserie chicken recipes.

Top 5 Rotisserie Chicken Recipes (For Your Grill)

	Rotisserie Chicken with Italian Black and Red Pepper Dry Brine A simple, straightforward rotisserie chicken, dry brined the night before with salt and a mix of black and red peppers. This is the chicken I make for myself, more often than not.
	Rotisserie Grilling: Barbecued Chicken When I was a kid, backyard barbecued chicken was pieces of chicken, doused in barbecue sauce and grilled. Want the ultimate version of backyard barbecued chicken? Spin it on the rotisserie. Just remember - don't glaze it with the barbecue sauce until the last 15 minutes or so of cooking. Too long in the heat and the barbecue sauce will burn.
	Rotisserie Chicken With Fennel, Coriander, and Red Pepper Spice Rub Here's a fancier version of dry brined chicken, with a rub of cracked fennel and coriander seeds. Again, I'm adding some red pepper flakes to give it a hit of heat - can you tell I like a little spice in my cooking?
	Rotisserie Chicken with Knob Creek Maple Glaze and Drip Pan Potatoes Bourbon and maple glazed rotisserie chicken is decadent and delicious.2 Please steal the drip pan potatoes idea from this recipe - you want to cook potatoes in dripping chicken juices, no matter what kind of chicken you're making.
	Rotisserie Chicken with Spanish Smoked Paprika Rub Spanish smoked paprika is my favorite "secret ingredient" - it adds a subtle smoky flavor to whatever it cooks. Of course, it goes great with chicken.

Bonus Video: How to Rotisserie (two) Chickens

What do you think?

Questions? Other favorite rotisserie chicken recipes? Leave them in the comments section below.

Want to spin something other than chicken? Check out my other Rotisserie Recipes

Looking for even more rotisserie chicken ideas? Check out my cookbook, Rotisserie Chicken Grilling: 50+ Recipes for Chicken on Your Grill's Rotisserie.

Grilled Butterflied Chicken with Garlic Wet Brine

March 1, 2016 by Mike Vrobel 2 Comments

Grill Roasted Butterflied Chicken with Garlic Wet Brine

This has been such a weird winter. 6 inches of snow on Tuesday, then 60°F on Saturday…in February? 2 To take advantage of the unseasonably warm weather, I picked up a 5 pound roasting chicken this afternoon.

Now, I prefer to dry brine chicken, but that takes a while. I need it for dinner to cook tonight, so I’m going with a quick wet brine and some crushed garlic - it’s always good to add garlic.

That’s it for seasoning. I like a simple bird, with salt, pepper, garlic, and the key ingredient for grilled chicken: smoke. I’m using what Chef Michael Ollier calls “opportunity wood.” A cluster of black cherry trees in my back yard were not doing well, and needed to come down. Thanks to the tree service, I now have enough cherry firewood to last me for years - and it makes for great smoking.

One last note - this 5 pound roasting chicken is bigger than the 4 pound broiler/fryer birds I usually get. I couldn't do my usual indirect heat setup of two piles of charcoal on the sides, because the bird was so wide. I went with all the coals on one side of the grill, and the chicken on the other. This also lets me cook the legs more than the breast meat, by putting the legs closer to the fire. Dark meat can always use a little extra heat.

Recipe: Grilled Butterflied Chicken with Garlic Wet Brine

Equipment

Grill (My trusty Weber kettle)
Instant Read Thermometer (The best way to tell if the chicken is done)
A container large enough to hold 2 quarts of brine and the chicken (I use a 4-quart food service container)

Setting up the grill - indirect heat, all on one side of the grill

Chicken over indirect heat - away from the coals, legs pointing towards the heat

Grilled Butterflied Chicken with Garlic Wet Brine - Almost done — Almost done

What do you think?

Questions? Other ideas? Leave them in the comments section below.

Grilled Butterflied Chicken with Dry Brine
Grilled Butterflied Chicken with Garlic Butter
Grilled Butterflied Chicken, Thai Brinerated
Grilled BBQ Chicken Thighs

The Salting Beans Myth

February 23, 2016 by Mike Vrobel 6 Comments

My understanding is you should always cook your beans first and then add the salt second otherwise the beans will not get done. I have seen this over and over - in Southern Living and elsewhere.
- Comment on my Pressure Cooker Senate Bean Soup recipe

I have a lot of bean recipes. 2What can I say? I love beans. In most of them, I recommend soaking the beans in slightly salty water - in other words, brining them. I get a lot of questions about this in the comments, usually with an undercurrent of “how dare you add salt to beans!”

The Salting Beans Myth

To misquote H.L. Mencken: For every bean cooking problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong.

Cooking beans is tricky - sometimes they out delicious and creamy; other times, they never soften. For years, the blame was pinned on salt. It turns out that salt actually helps - it softens the skin on the beans. If you’re going to soak your beans, adding a little salt seasons them through and helps them cook evenly.

Don’t believe me? All my food science heroes agree on this:

Kenji Alt, SeriousEats.com The Food Lab's Top 6 Food Myths: #6 - Salting beans during cooking will make them tough.
Cooks Illustrated: Salty Soak for Beans
Harold McGee, NYTimes.com Harold McGee on Salt: Question #2

But, really, the best way to is to test it yourself. Try my (or Kenji’s, or Cook’s Illustrated’s) salting while soaking technique. That’s what converted me - it makes my beans taste better.

What's it all about then?

So, if it’s not salt, what causes all the tricskyness in bean cooking? There are two culprits:
1. Hard water. That is acidic water…or cooking beans with other acidic ingredients, like tomatoes. If you keep getting tough beans, you may have hard water - add a half teaspoon to a teaspoon of baking soda with the water to reduce the acidity.

2. Old beans. From the US Dry Bean Council: “If stored longer than 12 months, or exposed to unfavorable storage conditions, beans may never soften sufficiently, no matter how long they’re soaked or cooked. On the other hand, some beans can cook up tender after years of storage.” I know - kind of a wishy-washy answer, right? Might be good after a year, might not. Good luck!2 I try to buy beans from a store with lots of turnover. My local health food store has good beans in their bulk food aisle, because they sell a lot of beans. On the other hand, that bag of generic kidney beans sitting on the shelf at the big box grocery? I can see it toughening from here.

In summary: don't be afraid of seasoning your beans - a little salt is good for them.

What do you think?

Questions? Other ideas? Leave them in the comments section below.

Pressure Cooker Senate Bean Soup
Pressure Cooker Red Beans and Rice
Pressure Cooker Pinto Beans in Tex-Mex Broth

Video: Pressure Cooker Macaroni and Cheese

February 18, 2016 by Mike Vrobel 10 Comments

The companion video to my most popular recipe, Pressure Cooker Macaroni and Cheese, is now up on YouTube. Check it out:

YouTube: Pressure Cooker Macaroni and Cheese

[Update 2016-04-06]

Yes, I know about the guy on youtube who copied my recipe and didn't give me credit. He was careful about how he did it - he only copied the ingredients list, and used his own words in the video. That means he didn't violate copyright - ingredient lists and techniques aren't copyrightable, only the specific text of a recipe. Even so, what he did is scummy. 3

Instead of trying to argue with him about it - nothing good ever comes from arguing online, I've found - I shot my own video. So, if you want to help out, vote my video up on youtube.

What do you think?

Questions? Other ideas? Leave them in the comments section below.

Pressure Cooker Macaroni and Cheese
Pressure Cooker Sweet Potato Puree
My list of Pressure Cooker Recipes

Five Fun Food Finds February 2016

February 16, 2016 by Mike Vrobel Leave a Comment

Trying Kenji Alt's pressure cooker caramelized onion technique

Food blogging is a joy…until tax time. Then I get to wrestle with the complications of a small side income. While I sort through my grocery store receipts, here are my favorite food posts from the last few months:

Rick Bayless #TacoTuesday

Rick Bayless introduced interior Mexican food through his restaurant, cookbooks, and TV show. 2 He is doing a new #TacoTuesday video every week, and I’m loving them.
Taco Tuesday Playlist - YouTube.com

The Wonders of Liquid Nitrogen (explained by Dave Arnold)

Dave Arnold, author of my favorite cocktail book Liquid Intelligence, talks about using liquid nitrogen in the kitchen. (Any cocktails that require liquid nitrogen are all right with me.)
The Wonders of Liquid Nitrogen Explained by Dave Arnold - Eater.com

The Science of the Smoke Ring - Daniel Vaughn

Does a thick, pink smoke ring really mean better barbecue? Daniel Vaughn investigates for Texas Monthly.
The Science of the Smoke Ring - TMBBQ.com

Pressure Cooker Caramelized Onions - Kenji Alt

Kenji has another brilliant idea, which I already am trying to work into a recipe - using the pressure cooker to jump-start the tedious process of caramelizing onions.
The Food Lab: Pressure Cooker Caramelized Onions - SeriousEats.com

Roasted Pork Leg - Pernil - Mely Martinez

I’m a fan of slow roasting large cuts of pork in the oven. Want to roast a whole pork leg, Mexican style? Mely has a recipe for you:
Roasted Pork Leg - Pernil - MexicoInMyKitchen.com

What do you think?

Questions? Other favorite posts? Leave them in the comments section below.

Cast Iron Roasted Cauliflower

February 11, 2016 by Mike Vrobel 8 Comments

Oven roasting is a great way to prepare vegetables. The oven browns the vegetables, bringing out their natural sweetness.

It is also a simple, hands off way to make a side dish. I use my cast iron skillet as my roasting pan, and as my prep bowl. Pour the vegetables into the pan, drizzle with olive oil, and toss with salt and pepper - they’re ready to go. Slide the skillet into the oven, and in a half an hour or so, they will be tender, browned, and delicious.2

Cauliflower is perfect for oven roasting in a cast iron pan. Roasting adds sweet notes to its mild flavor. Cauliflower is tasty with a simple coating of olive oil, salt, and pepper, but I sprinkle it with my favorite spice combo - a blend of Spanish smoked paprika and coriander. (I picked up this trick from an Indian friend’s lunch - so if you want to substitute a curry powder, that would work as well.)

Recipe: Cast Iron Roasted Cauliflower

Equipment

Large (10 or 12 inch) cast iron skillet

Drizzled with oil, sprinkled with spices, ready to toss

What do you think?

Questions? Other ideas? Leave them in the comments section below.

Cast Iron Roasted Butterflied Chicken
Cast Iron Spiral Skillet Potatoes
Cast Iron Brussels Sprouts Saute
My other Cast Iron Recipes

Cast Iron Needs To Be Used

February 9, 2016 by Mike Vrobel 4 Comments

Cast iron care really isn't that difficult. The most important thing is to use the pan. If a pan is used regularly, with a light coating of oil, and a good cleaning every now and again, it will season itself.
Mike Vrobel, April 2014, Cast Iron Care, DadCooksDinner.com

Why don’t I take my own advice?

The problem is, I want to be like Jeffrey B Rogers in his awe-inspiring cast iron YouTube videos. I see his collection of cast iron and think “What a great idea! I too should have a closet full of black iron pans!” Then, the next time I’m passing through Lehman’s hardware, I pick up another piece. I mean, why not? It’s only $15 for a 10.25 inch cast iron skillet.

Why can’t I be like Jeffrey? Because it’s not about the closet full of cast iron, it’s about taking care of the cast iron. Jeffrey cares about his cast iron, and cares for his cast iron. Me? I care about my cast iron - once every couple of days, when I pull out a skillet to help with dinner. Then I’ll clean it off and toss it back in the cabinet. I’m not an everyday cast iron user. That was OK when all I had was the 12 inch skillet. But, with multiple skillets, I don’t use any one of them enough to really build up the seasoning. Sunday morning Sausage Gravy? Out comes the big 12 inch skillet. A side of shredded brussels sprouts on Tuesday? It fits perfectly in the 10 inch skillet. Tortilla pizza for the kids on Friday? The 10 inch griddle is the obvious choice. A week has passed and my 12 inch skillet hasn’t been used again…after I weakened its seasoning with simmering sausage gravy. And if I go on a grilling binge or a pressure cooker jag, a couple of weeks may pass before I get back to my 12 inch pan. 2

A few weeks later, I pull out the big skillet and see discoloration on the surface. Why isn’t it black and shiny? 2 Is that flaking? Maybe some shiny parts, or a hint of - gasp - rust? I scrub the pan down and run it through a seasoning cycle.

What I should really do is use the pan more. If I made the gravy, brussels sprouts, and tortilla pizza all in the same pan, I’d improve the seasoning, not weaken it. 3

The right thing to do would be to get rid of one of my skillets, either the 10.25 or the 12, to force myself to use the same pan all the time. 4 But…oh, that’s hard. I don’t want to give one of them up. The 10.25 is perfect for side dishes; the 12 inch is big enough for main courses for my family of 5.

But I have to do it. So, I’m giving up my…sigh…10.25 inch skillet. I think. Ugh, this is hard. Wish me luck.

What do you think?

Questions? Other ideas? Leave them in the comments section below.

Things I Love: 12 inch Cast Iron Skillet
Why Use Cast Iron?
Seasoning Cast Iron
Cleaning Cast Iron

Pressure Cooker Chili Verde (Green Pork Chili)

February 4, 2016 by Mike Vrobel 113 Comments

Pressure Cooker Chili Verde. Green Pork Chili from my Instant Pot, ready in about an hour thanks to pressure cooking.

Is this chili? I mean…it isn't red.

Chili Verde, or Green pork chili, is a staple of the Southwest. Once you leave Texas and its dried ancho based chiles, you get into long green chili territory. The most famous long green is the Hatch chili of New Mexico, which is the start of Chili Verde territory, but Chili Verde stretches north to Colorado, and west through Arizona and in to California. 5

A bowl of pork chili verde — Pressure Cooker Chili Verde

I'm sharing two different versions of the Salsa Verde recipe - one is the real deal, with home-roasted chiles. If I can get New Mexico or Anaheim long green chiles (and fresh tomatillos), I use them - the results are fantastic.

At least, that's what I do in the summer. For all my talk of the Southwest, I only get to visit; I live in Ohio. In the winter, long green chiles are hard to come by - and ridiculously expensive when you can find them. That's when I have to improvise, and canned green chiles and jarred tomato salsa have to be good enough for my Salsa Verde. (While I dream of the hot, dry Southwest during a February snowstorm.)

Blackening the chiles for real deal, homemade Salsa Verde

...or, opening a bunch of cans for cheater Salsa Verde

What do you think?

Questions? Other ideas? Leave them in the comments section below.

Instant Pot White Turkey Chili
Pressure Cooker Quick Chili with Canned Beans
Pressure Cooker Texas Red Chili
Slow Cooker Chili Verde
Instant Pot Pork Stew
My other Instant Pot (Pressure Cooker) Recipes

Pressure Cooker Yellow Split Pea Dip (Greek Fava)

January 28, 2016 by Mike Vrobel Leave a Comment

Pressure Cooker Yellow Pea Dip (Greek Fava)

…and could you bring an appetizer?

Appetizers are my weakness. I’m an enthusiastic home cook, but I would rather cook a dinner party for eight, with a main dish and multiple sides, than bring an appetizer to a pot luck. Appetizers are always so…fussy. They need to be finger food, easy to eat with one hand while the other holds a glass of your favorite beverage. And that means a lot of work - instead of plating for eight people, you have to plate 48 itty-bitty individual servings.2Patience isn’t my strong point.

Dips are my appetizer escape hatch. It’s an appetizer served family style. No fussy individual servings; it’s up to the eater to dig in. Now, I have my favorites - roasted red pepper dip, hummus, salsa, baba ghanoush, - but I’m always looking for new ideas.

When I came across Fava, Greece’s dip made from yellow split peas, I knew I had a winner. It’s quick to make in the pressure cooker - under an hour, end to end, with most of the time spent waiting for the pressure cooker to finish its work. Serve it with a veggie tray and/or pita chips, and you have a healthy 2 dip for everyone to nibble on while they wait on your dinner party for eight.

Recipe: Pressure Cooker Yellow Split Pea Dip (Greek Fava)

Equipment

6 quart or larger pressure cooker (I love my Instant Pot Duo Electric PC)

Notes

I had a hard time with the ratio of water to yellow split peas in this recipe. (As you can see in the Notes section in the recipe itself.) I started with 5 cups of water to 1 pound of yellow split peas - the result was pea soup, not a dip...until I refrigerated the leftovers overnight. I got a surprise the next day - my "soup for lunch" was now the consistency of a dip. I cut back the water in the recipe to 4 cups, so it is useable as a dip straight out of the pot - but it really thickens up in the refrigerator. That's OK - you can loosen it up by heating it up in the microwave - but if you're making this ahead of time, add the extra cup of water.

What do you think?

Questions? Other ideas? Leave them in the comments section below.

Pressure Cooker Hummus
Pressure Cooker Lentil and Bacon Soup
My Pressure Cooker Recipe List

Should I cancel Keep Warm mode for a natural pressure release? No.

January 19, 2016 by Mike Vrobel 56 Comments

Keep Warm mode and Natural Pressure Release

In my Instant Pot FAQ, I have the following question:

Q: What about natural pressure release? When the Instant Pot finishes cooking, it switches to Warming mode - is that OK with a natural pressure release? Or should I cancel it?
A: Cancel warming mode to speed up natural pressure release.

I was reading the Instant Pot Community Facebook group, and saw a heated debate: Keep Warm and Natural Pressure Release. One side was strongly in the “warming mode doesn’t matter” camp, the other was in the “turn warming mode off” group - and used my FAQ post as evidence.

After reading the debate, I started to wonder - am I wrong about warming mode? I assumed that turning off the heat would speed up the natural release - that the pot would lose heat quicker without any heat being added by warming mode.3 The argument against cancelling Keep Warm mode is the pot’s thermostat. Warming mode keeps the temperature between 145°F and 172°F, so it won’t turn the heat on until the temperature drops to 145°F. That’s well below the temperature where pressure will release.

I ran a quick test - I set my IP-Duo and IP-Smart next to each other on the counter, added a quart of water to each, set them for 3 minutes of high pressure cooking, and waited for it to finish. They both came up to pressure and counted down the three minutes at about the same time. I cancelled the Keep Warm mode on the IP-Smart, and waited for the pressure indicators to drop. Much to my surprise, the IP-Duo finished manual pressure release about five minutes before the IP-Smart!

But…is that a valid test? Maybe there is something about the IP-Smart that slows down cooling. To reduce the variables, I ran the test over and over again with my IP-Duo, a quart of water at high pressure for 3 minutes, and alternated leaving Keep Warm mode on and off.

Sitting and watching natural pressure release is only slightly less interesting than watching grass grow. So, instead of babysitting each run, I set my Phone on a tripod and filmed it using time-lapse video mode. Here are the time-lapse videos from the third run, side by side:

You can see them finish within a minute of each other - this is consistent across all the tests. Sometimes Keep Warm mode finishes first, sometimes cancelling it does - but the difference between them was always less than a minute, and it kept moving around as to which was faster. 2

In summary...
Keep Warm mode doesn’t affect natural pressure release. It finishes at about the same time either way, so don’t bother canceling it. I was wrong in my Instant Pot FAQ; I’m sorry I gave you bad information. (And, of course, I updated the FAQ to match this new info.)

Pressure Cooker State Fair Turkey Drumsticks

January 14, 2016 by Mike Vrobel 45 Comments

Are those my favorite turkey legs?

This recipe is late.

This was supposed to be my Thanksgiving pressure cooker recipe - State Fair Turkey Drumsticks. But I got distracted the night I was cooking it, and only took pictures of the beginning of the recipe, up to locking the pressure cooker lid. 3 Everyone loved the big drumsticks, but I had other recipes ready, so I let it go, thinking “Maybe next Thanksgiving?”

Then I kept hearing from my wife. Multiple holiday turkeys were served, and with each one, she said: “These are good drumsticks - but not as good as the ones you made in the pressure cooker. When can we have those again?”

Here they are: my wife’s favorite turkey drumsticks. 2This one’s for you, sweetie!

Recipe: Pressure Cooker State Fair Turkey Drumsticks

Equipment

6 quart or larger pressure cooker (I use an Instant Pot Duo electric pressure cooker)

Everything in the pot - stack the legs as best you can

Notes

6 drumsticks fit in my 6 quart Instant Pot…but it depends on the length of the bones. Shorter legs stack in there without any problem, but longer bones don't fit in there flat, and I have to work them in like a jigsaw puzzle. Don't worry about the max fill line; there is plenty of air in the pot. As long as the lid will lock, the drumsticks fit.
The cooking liquid is delicious poured over baked potatoes. Just sayin'.

What do you think?

Questions? Other ideas? Leave them in the comments section below.

Pressure Cooker Turkey Noodle Soup with Vegetables
Pressure Cooker Chicken Broth and Shredded Chicken
My pressure cooker recipe list

Dad Cooks Dinner 2016 Survey

January 12, 2016 by Mike Vrobel 5 Comments

Video Setup-0195 — My high tech video setup

The holiday rush is over. From the week before Thanksgiving through to New Years Day, Dad Cooks Dinner is hopping. 3 Now we are entering the slow season - February is always my least traffic month. I’m going through my New Year’s Resolutions (write a pressure cooking cookbook, make more videos), and I thought to myself - “Self, 2Yes, that’s an Emeril reference. Bam! that’s great, I love resolutions. But…what do my readers want?”

So, I created a survey at HotJar. I want to find out more about you, my readers.3 What do you like about Dad Cooks Dinner? What do you want more of?

Dad Cooks Dinner 2016 Reader Survey [HotJar.com]

Please click on that link, and fill out the survey? I’m looking forward to finding out what you think. (If the results are interesting to anyone but me, I’ll share what I find out on the blog.)

Mike Vrobel
DadCooksDinner.com

A Farewell to West Point Market

January 5, 2016 by Mike Vrobel 6 Comments

West Point Market was an Akron institution. Unfortunately, I’m using the past tense - West Point closed its doors last week. I couldn’t bring myself to go to the closing sale. I’m sure there were some great deals, especially on wine, but It felt too much like scavengers picking over the bones.

Wine is what brought me to West Point Market. I got into wine around the same time I moved to Akron, twenty years ago. Everyone said to check out West Point - and they were absolutely correct. I bought my first mixed case there, with the help of their salespeople, and was back for many more cases after that.

The summer after we moved in, I got a grill for my new house, and that was the start of my love affair with food. Back then, for an enthusiastic home cook, West Point was the only game in town. Specialty ethnic ingredients? Le Creuset cookware? Exotic cheese? Prime beef? It was my go-to destination for a few years.

This blog’s first big boost was from winning West Point Market’s Finest Cut Steak Cook-Off. Steak recipes are everywhere, but a recipe that won a cook-off? That gets enough notice to get shared on “best of” lists4Or, at least it did back in 2009. and was my first mention on some larger food sites.

Unfortunately, by then I had drifted away from shopping at West Point. Grocery stores improved their international sections, specialty wine shops opened, and I sought out local ethnic markets for exotic ingredients. And…we had kids. I couldn’t afford to be a wine and grocery snob while feeding a family of five. I would visit the wine department a couple times a year, treating myself with a mixed case from their “$12 and under” rack to get the 10% case discount, and add in a few pricier recommendations from the (always helpful) wine staff.

When I heard West Point was closing, selling the land for a Whole Foods, I was sad, but I can’t say I was surprised. The food world has changed in the twenty years since I started going there. I heard a rumor that they will be re-opening as a specialty shop - wine, cheese, maybe baked goods (like their famous Killer Brownies) - and I really hope that’s true. Focusing on what they did best, especially the wine, feels like the best way to keep the legacy of West Point alive.

I say that with a heavy heart. This is one of the times I wish I could stick my head in the sand, and not know how the world works. Because, deep down, I know I was part of the problem. I didn’t shop there often enough to help keep them open. I had plenty of reasons - too expensive, too far away, changes in my tastes - but it still hurts.

Farewell, West Point Market. I hope we meet again soon.

Jane Snow's “Dear West Point Market” inspired this post. She has deeper history with West Point Market than I - if you enjoyed this post, check out her article.

Happy New Year 2016!

December 31, 2015 by Mike Vrobel 3 Comments

Enjoying a sip of my Christmas present in front of the tree.

I hope 2015 was as good to you as it was to me. I passed 1000 posts on Dad Cooks Dinner some time in August - this is post 1072. Thank you to all my loyal readers. You're the reason I'm still here, eight years later, typing away at my keyboard.

To take a look back at 2015, here are my 15 most popular posts over the last year.2 "Most Popular" means most page views, starting with...

Happy new year, everyone!

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I have a new day-to-day pressure cooker.

I still use my 6 quart IP-DUO60 day to day

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#GrillOfALifetime

The price…

No Rotisserie

Can I actually get one?

All that said, my grill lust is strong for this one

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What would you do if you weren't afraid?
- Mary Crafts Homer

The 4 secrets to a successful blog? Blood, sweat, tears, and mistakes.
- Bjork Ostrom

Success is built sequentially, one thing at a time.
- Pat Flynn