Butternut Squash and Ale Soup

Made this soup on the greatest holiday of all...St. Paddy's Day. Unfortunately I didn't get very many good pics, it dissapeared too quick (seriously everyone loved this stuff)... The recipe comes from the Beer Bistro Cook Book which is also very very recomended!

3 Tablespoons Butter
2 Large Onions
1 Small Butternut Squash
4.5 Cups Chicken Stock
1 1/2 Cups Heavy Cream
1 1/2 Cups Aged Cheddar
12 Ounces Cream Ale
Salt and White Pepper

Melt the butter and sautee the diced onions and squash until the onions are transparent

Add the chicken stock and simmer until the squash is really soft about half an hour

Now blend it all together

 Add the cream and bring to a boil, then back to a simmer

 Get yourself a nice cream ale

 Add in the beer, cheese, salt, and pepper and you are done! 

Halal Chicken

We have started cooking Halal chickens. These birds are most definately a little tougher than your average supermarket chicken (while not technically mature chickens and no where near that toughness they are a little older than typical) but the flavor is far and beyond anything I have received at a big box store. Add to that they are about the same price per pound and bigger and I think you have a winning equation!

Here are a few pictures from an 8 pound halal chicken we did on the WSM the other night. The chicken was rubbed inside and out with a simple rub of:
2 chipotles
Teaspoon allspice
2 Tablespoons onion
Tablespoon garlic
Tablespoon rosemary
Tablespoon Lemon Peel

We fired up a full chimney and tossed it on the WSM with a few unlit pieces of lump charcoal. Left all of the vents wide open and the let the cooker do the rest. About an hour and a half later it was done.

From there we made a spicy chicken stock out of the leftovers composed of:

1 Chicken Carcass with some meat left on it (remember this is for a large carcass)
1 Head of garlic, chopped roughly
3 Onions, chopped roughly
2 Tablespoons Celery Seed
3 Guajillo Chile's split in half
3 Hot New Mexico Chile's split in half

We brought this to a simmer (skimming the fat) and then left it for a couple of hours, letting it reduce accordingly. There was about two liters of stock when all was said and done (strained through a fine strainer lined with cheese cloth).

The next night we smoked a pound of meatballs on the WSM and made a Mexican meatball soup with fried corn tortilla strips.

First off the meatballs:

1 Pound ground beef (we used fresh ground chuck)
2 Chipotle Chile's
1 Small diced onion
1/2 Grated Zucchini
1/4 Cup of Fresh Bread Crumbs
1 Egg
4 Cloves Garlic
1 Teaspoon Cumin
1 Tablespoon Oregano
Salt and Pepper

- Nothing fancy here just toast the chile's and spices, grind them and then mix all of the ingredients together.
- To smoke the meat balls aim for about 350 degrees with a strong wood, we used hickory. Beef can hold it's own flavor wise. They take about 40 minutes.

For the soup:

1 Diced Onion
3 Cloves of Garlic Diced
2 Cascabel Chile's
1 Hot New Mexico Chile
1 Mulato Chile
1 Tablespoon Cumin
1 Tablespoon Oregano
1 Cup White Rice
1/4 Cup Cilantro
Juice of 1 Lime

- Toast the spices and the chiles and grind
- Sweat the onion and garlic until transluscent
- Mix in the stock, spices and the uncooked rice let simmer about 30 minutes until the rice is cooked
- Remove from the heat and add in the meatballs, cilantro, lime juice, salt and pepper
- Top with deep fried corn tortillas

Smoked Tomato Soup With Homemade Crackers

Well the weather has taken a turn. The rain has set in for the winter which means it's time for some good warm food to bring a little pep back to our lives! To me that means soups and braises. Let's start with soup.

One of our favorite soups is tomato soup. When we have a pureed soup we always need crackers! So we got to thinking......And we came up with smoked tomato soup with smoked cheddar and cage aged gruyere crackers. We really enjoyed it so we thought why not share! (remember to keep the smoke mild, it should just add a nice compliment to the soup, not be the main attraction!)

Crackers
1 C Old Cheddar
1 C Gruyere (the better the quality of cheese the better the cracker will be!)

Smoke cheese with a mild wood (We used maple....temps about 100 degrees or under, smoke for an hour) We do all of our smoking on a Weber Smokey Mountain Cooker but any smoker will do!

- Grate cheese, mix with 1.5 cups Flour (Use a low protein flour), and a couple tablespoons of herbs (I used freeze dried chives).

- Mix with 1 cup of buter
- form into balls and squish on cookie sheet (We covered it with silplat)
- Sprinkle a coarse sea salt and smoked paprika on top
- Bake at 350 for 15 minutes or so

Tomato Soup
- 1/2 cup butter
- 3 onions

Dice onions and sweat on med heat with butter

- 6 cloves garlic

Add finely diced garlic for about a minute

- 2 Liters of homemade chicken stock (or a good store bought), or vegetable stock if you are looking for a vegetarian soup.
- 10 smoked roma tomato's (I smoke these at the same time as the cheese. The night before I cut them in half and soak in olive oil. I often add herbs to the marinade but not for the soup. In this case I added 1 C of fresh parmasean. I smoke them for one hour the same as the cheese)

- t Allspice
- Pinch sugar
- T red chili flakes

Put the tomato's with the chicken stock and spices in with the onion and garlic mixture, bring to a boil and simmer for an hour. Take off heat and add:

- 1/2 Cup fresh Thyme (mediteranean, less if using french)
- Salt and pepper

Mix with an immersion blender till a fine puree

Top each bowl with a cracker and serve