Thursday, January 04, 2007

Red Beans and Nice

Now, I'm not trying to brag or anything. (Yes, I am.) But I invited a friend over for lunch yesterday, and he came to my house and cooked.
True, I am a bit of a slouch in the hostessing department (and he knows it from the last time he had a meal at my house). I had food on the premises, although there were problems with its palatability quotient. We did eat it, in fact, and it was — edible.
The meal was saved because this guest taught me and Cranky how to rescue a dish that has become too salty: stick a couple chunks of cut-up potato in there and let them suck away the extra salinity (and then take them out — all of them, heh). Et voilà, red beans and smoked ham shanks (it was over-usage of shanks that had resulted in over-NaCl-ness). Salvaged, the beans were decent, if a little leaden, sloshed over rice. (Should have been more sloshy, but exuberant sloshes of champagne helped wash it down.)
But the good eating, the "dessert," was yet to happen. Our guest brought it: An obscene length of homemade sausage created by the mad meat genius Chile Brown, and a perky knob of tri-tip of beef, slathered in Dr. Biggles' own Hillbilly Jerk rub.
He made it look effortless, popping the beef into a pan in the oven and the sausage into an iron pot on the stove. Ignore, ignore, turn over, take temperature, take out, let rest, slice, drool, eat, cry.
Oh, wait, take picture first. He took this picture, because he's as good a photographer as he is a meat master.
I should have just asked him to write my blog today, too, come to think of it. He'd have done a good job.

15 comments:

MizD said...

Damn. I can't show that photo to Dave. He'd pack his bags and head south in a heartbeat.

Stacie said...

drooling! must find some meat to cram in my mouth. though it won't be tri tip and homemade sausage. poor me!

Beccy said...

Sounds like a wonderful guest!

ChrisB said...

Wish I had guests like that

Mags said...

Mmmm. Meat.

Guy said...

Yay !!! I'm famous on the internet. Just so everyone knows, the beans were fine, even today for a little snacktreat.

It was a great day and a lot of fun to hang out with food ridden nutcases such as myself. I brought some fancy habanero dust to dress the roast with, but Cookie already had the same brand handy. She's got fancy Japanese knives and I have my antique carbons handy. We both have a bookcase packed tight with both new, old and kitchy cookbooks. After our main meal and before the desert of sausage, Cookie, Cranky and myself spent a bit hunting through said cookbooks looking for decent cornbread recipes.

And you know what? I made it from my city streets, across the bridge to the market just down the street from them in exactly 14 minutes. I didn't mention the fact I did no less than 75 the entire way. Except for that nasty joining of two lanes a few miles after the bridge. Tee hee.

I'll do this again.

xo, Biggles

cookiecrumb said...

Well, there you go, Biggles, writing my blog today! But you forgot to mention the recipe we found for spare ribs cooked underneath baked beans, right in the bean pot.
Thank you for 1) your presence, and generous contributions; 2) a sweet write-up.
Oh, and 3) not making fun of our knives.

MizD said...

You know, it just occurred to me: That photo is way too manly for today. What you need is a pic of Nancy Pelosi pounding those sausages into submission with her brand new gavel. :-)

cookiecrumb said...

Mrs D: To be fair, you have no idea how hard Biggles worked to arrange the sausage in not-so-prurient poses. (He did hack 'em up.)

Catherine said...

well, you had me at the red beans! FM next week, perhaps?

chilebrown said...

When you hit the Marin Farmers Market,(Sunday) ask, Chris, "Zukerman Farms's" how many days to asparagus. He will nail it to the day.

Mad Meat Genius, I like that!

Anonymous said...

Is sausage really supposed to look like that? Cause, I gotta say it, that looks a lot like stuff I shoveled from the yard the other day...

Someone needs to seriously re-examine the aesthetics of sausage.

Katie said...

That beef looks nicely rare...I know, I had too much at Christmas ...but still...
The mind thinks diet, the appetite disagrees.

David said...

sounds like a good way to salvage what you had around. You (or your friend) might be interested in the Leftover Tuesdays I'm hosting later this month.

cookiecrumb said...

Yow! Chilebrown was here! The mad meat genius. Yeah, Chile, I'll taunt Chris on Sunday. I like that guy. I guess he's some sort of mad asparagus genius.

KathyF: Well, you are prejudiced.

Catherine: Wednesday? We'll look for you (if the weather's nice; gotta bring the doggie).

Katie: Nice, yes, but even so, Biggles was sore at himself for letting it go a little too long.

Cookingchat: I'm on my way over to have a look-see. I love leftovers.