My Iron Chef Bradley V Entry

Well, I'm at it again! This is my 4th attempt at an Iron Chef Bradley online cooking competition. The Bradley Forum created this great contest for it's forum members a few times a year. There are 3 "secret ingredients" that must be incorporated into your recipe and t 80% of the cooking must be done outside: BBQ, smoker, gas grill, open fire, etc.

I posted mine yesterday and so far I'm the only entry but there will be more. I cooked mine 10 days ago so I was eager to get it posted. There are a lot of nice prizes, too, which makes me even more eager. Voting is next week so I will let you all know how I did.

Twice-Baked Winter Squash Stuffed with Smokey Beef, Roasted Red
Pepper & Cornbread Stuffing

Ingredients:

1 1/2 red bell pepper
2 winter squash ( I used Carnival squash but Acorn would work the same)
1 pound beef stew meat diced into 1/2" squares
1 medium sweet onion diced
1 6oz package of seasoned corn bread stuffing (I used Mrs. Cubbenson's)
1/2 cup pecans chopped
1/2 tsp beef bouillon
1 TBS olive oil
4 TBS salted butter divided
salt
pepper
water

Chop and toast pecans at 350F for 15 minutes or until lightly browned. I did this in the oven but the rest of the cookin' was done outside

Dice the stew meat into 1/2" chunks

Cut the squash in half and scrap out the seeds.

Cold smoke the squash and stew meat for one hour using pecan smoke.

Roast whole peppers for 20 minutes over high heat on the grill.
Once slightly blackened place in a brown bag for about 20 minutes.
Remove from the bag, peel of the skin and seed.

Dice 1 1/2 of the roasted peppers.

After the squash are cold smoked place them face down in a roasting pan.
Add enough water to the roasting pan have 1/4" in the pan.
Bake in a gas grill for 30-40 mins at 400F with the grill lid shut.

Either on the grill or side burner heat up the olive oil then saute the diced onion until browned.
Remove the onion.

After the beef is cold smoked, salt and pepper the diced beef liberally and add to the hot pan.

Cook until well-browned then add enough water to cover.
Heat to boiling then back off to a simmer and cover.
To make the meat tender it needs to simmer for 45 mins.
Add water if needed.
Once tender pour drain the meat reserving 1 cup of the liquid.

After the squash is cooked, scrape them leaving about 1/4" remaining on the skin.
Add 2 TBS of the butter and 1/2 tsp beef bouillon to the squash that was scraped out and blend well.

To the corn bread stuffing mix add the reserved liquid from the beef, 2 TBS butter.
Then add the beef, the squash mixture, the sauted onion, the diced roasted pepper and the toasted pecans to the stuffing mixture. Blend well.

Salt and pepper the squash shells then add the stuffing mixture evenly distributed to each shell.

Bake at 400F in a closed gas grill for 20 to 30 minutes or until nicely browned.

They are ready to eat! Enjoy!

Here's the Beef!

Remember my little steers that arrived in the Spring of 2009?

Well, they grew beautifully into nicely finished animals. Their hanging weights ended up at 633lbs and 728lbs. I sold the larger one to a family and split the smaller one with another family. Every year there is something new to be learned about growing steers as big as possible in the time frame and doing it as inexpensively as possibly without compromising the quality or sustainability.

The steers are pastured here from when they arrive in the spring into early fall. Every day they are fed a little grain not only to put on weight but to also train them to come when called. I call it "Grain Train". They are not expected to be pets by any stretch but it does come in handy to have them come running when you want to check on them or when one finds a hole in the fence. Shake that bucket of grain and they usually come a running.

Our 20 acres is all pasture of varying quality with the best 5 acres surrounding the house. It is sloping and spring-fed thus stays green from spring into fall. We generally do not have to supplement this forage with hay until mid to late September.

September is when the real graining begins. This is increased every month until the first week of January when the steers are slaughter. Usually the steers are fed a good quality grass hay but this season the hay farmer I purchase from lost his lease on his grass fields and only had alfalfa available.

The great thing about cattle is that you can feed them a lower quality of hay than require for horses. I do not mean lowsy forage that was bailed into hay but good hay that may be at the bottom of the stack and be dirty or slightly moldy on one side. The only shortcomings should be cosmetic and only "skin deep". My hay supplier will generally sell this hay to me at a discount of a third off the price. This year he had beautiful second cutting alfalfa hay that he was selling for $150 a ton and let us have it for $100 a ton.

One ton of hay per steer is usually what is required to feed the animals until their January slaughter dates. Sometimes it's more sometimes less depending on when the pasture gives out.

Slaughter dates have to be made somewhat in advance depending on the time of year. I used to have the steers slaughter in November or December but now we moved it out to the first week of January. This way we are past the hunting season rush at the processors and past the crazy holiday time for us.

The "meat guys" , as my daughter calls them, are always the harshest critics of how well we did finishing the steers. They are kind of like the final exam in the school of beef raising for me and there's no way to cheat to get a better grade. (Not that I would cheat! LOL) But this year I got an A+! The steers were covered with just the right amount of fat and the meat is beautifully marbled.

I have been raising beef every year since 1997 and I think I finally have it figured out. I think! ;)

Jerky Times Three

I had not done a batch of jerky for a while so I thought I'd try some new recipes that I had found. Usually I like using the jerky kits by High Mountain but I wanted to try something new and truly homemade.

My big worry with making homemade jerky is that it's going to turn out too salty. So, when I tried these recipes I alimented any added salt to the soy sauce-based recipes. I just do not see how they could use any more salt.

A 1/2 teaspoon of liquid smoke could be added to any of these recipes. I cooked mine in a smoker so I did not add any to mine. Venison or elk could be used instead of beef, too.

Teriyaki Jerky
1 cup Yoshida's cooking sauce
1 tsp minced garlic
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp freshly ground blk pepper
2 pounds of beef strips

Grandpa's Jerky
1 1/2 cup soy sauce
2 TB brown sugar
1 tsp minced garlic
1 tsp grated ginger
1 tsp freshly ground blk pepper
2 pounds of beef strips

Spicy Jerky
1 cup soy sauce
2 tsp hot pepper flakes
1 tsp smoked paprika
2 tsp minced fresh garlic
3 TB real maple syrup
2 pounds of beef strips

The steps are the same for each of these recipes:

You can use just about any cut of lean meat. Slice it about 1/4" thick preferably with the grain. It's easier to control your slicing if the meat is still partially frozen. Trim off any excess fat.

Make the marinade and let it rest for 20 minutes before add the meat. This give the ingredients a chance to marry. Add the meat strips to a ziploc bag then pour in the marinade. Close the bag with as little air left behind as possible. Mix the meat with the marinade and place in the fridge for 2 to 12 hours.

After marinading, I did mine at about 11 hours, place them on jerky racks lightly sprayed with Pam.

I placed mine in a preheated smoker using no water and the top vent open all the way. After the smoker's temperature recovered to 150F the smoke was applied for 3 hours. I used Bradley's Special Blend but use any type of wood that you like. I allowed the smoker to reach a temperature of about 170F and maintained it there until the meat was done.

Jerky should cook to an internal temperature of 160F to be safe. I've never tried sticking it with a thermometer though. My test is that it is flexible but there is no give when I pinch it between my fingers.

Since there is no cure used in this recipe, I store it in a ziploc bag in my freezer. Jerky has practically zero water content so it does not really freeze solid and is pretty much ready to eat right out of the freezer without having to defrost it.

Here's the Beef! All Two of Them!

In my former life as a Californian there is one thing that I never would have guessed I'd be doing in a million years and that is raising my own beef cattle. I do not fancy myself has a true rancher of beef because I only raise 2 or 3 steers a year. We raise one for ourselves that we usually end up splitting with friends or family. The other ones are sold to friends , too.

We purchased our first heifer out of necessity right after we purchased our home here in North Idaho. Our property taxes are reduced if we have some sort of consumable livestock grazing on it. So, we could raise cattle, sheep, pigs or goats to have our place designated as "dry grazing" land.

At first we thought we wanted to breed our own beef cattle and purchased a hereford heifer from a local rancher. Part of the purchase price included a breeding back to his angus bull. After we had her for a few months he picked her up and pastured her with his herd. She was returned to us pregnant and the next spring gave birth to a baldy bull calf that we castrated ourselves. We raised that baldy steer and he was our first home raised beef.
We leased a beautiful hereford bull in trade for pasture when our hereford cow was ready to breed again. The bull stayed with us the entire summer and we thought for sure we would be raising a new calf the following spring. Unfortunately, our cow did not get pregnant and we had an entire summer with no beef calf to raise for ourselves.
So, this is when we changed our plan: Instead of breeding our own beef, we would sell our cow and purchase beef steers in the spring and slaughter early in the winter after the big fall rush at the meat processors. This has worked out well for us and it makes most of winter easier by not having to worry about feeding any livestock during the coldest monthes.
We have been blessed to meet a wonderful neighbor and his family that raise locker beef and pork for a living. Mike has become our supplier of steers and he has made purchasing them so much easier by shopping the auctions and picking out reasonably priced animals for us that have a gentle temperment and are not too flighty.
Also, we have a few loyal customers that purchase these animals from us at the end of the season. Last year, we raised 3 steers and kept one for ourselves. We are only a family of 3 so one steer that has a hanging weight of 600lbs can last us a couple of years or more quite easily. So, these two new steers will be sold to other families in January.

Raising your own beef is truly fun and satisfying. It's wonderful to have animals that can take acres of grass and turn it into food for your family. We do not have to buy hay until almost October if it is not too dry out to keep the grass alive. And with the cost of hay and grain this year it's nice to have to buy hay only for the last three months of the time that we are raising the steers.