Bangers and Mash from The Olde Ship

Greg had the Bangers and Mash from The Olde Ship British Pub and Restaurant last time we were there for darts. Here is a picture of what it looked like halfway through....

The onions under the bangers were good, at least that is what I thought I heard Greg say between bites and between the "mmmmhhhggh, mmm, yummmm" sounds.


I think he liked it!

So Cal Crawfish Connection

Before darts this past Tuesday, my son took me to his new favorite restaurant, Socal Crawfish Connection, to have some crawfish.

Entering into this place in the strip mall on the corner of Brookhurst and Hazard, I looked around and saw that it was a clean place with big TVs on the wall showing Auction Hunters and tables with disposable plastic tablecloths with a basket of half-sheet paper towels tore from the roll.


We were greeted by our waiter/owner/really nice guy who informed us that crawfish were out of season but they had other great food. A little disappointed but hungry, we sat down and I let Greg do the ordering for us as he was here before and dinner was on his dime!

He talked to the tatted waiter and decided on shrimp and clams in a milder sauce as he had his old man's acid re-flux to contend with. Along with this, our waiter, Mike Tran, described what magic they do to the Dynamite Mussels, so Greg got an order along with some Holy Crab! Poppers to start us off.


The appetizer came failry quickly and they were cream cheese and crab wraps with a little kick in the end. Very tasty dipped in the sweet sauce on the side.


Mike came back a little later and dropped off a foam plate with a small container with a mixture of salt and pepper, a big mug of cut limes, and our bibs. I followed Greg's lead and squeezed some limes into the s&p container to be used as a dipping sauce, but we figured out a better sauce later on.


Mike came back with our "bag of goodness!"

A double plastic bag with a pound of clams and a pound of shrimp, head and shell on. Just dig in with your hands and go for it! The sauce it was cooked in was full of garlic and all sorts of good spices. The clams were not overcooked and the shrimp was cooked perfectly. As the contents went down you were stuck with a bag of sauce with clams out of the shell hiding in that sauce, along with a buried shrimp I found. Next time we are going to add a side of rice to put the sauce on.

Dynamite Mussels 

These arrived after we were just getting into the "Bag". Hot of the oven with a crispy perfectly spiced topping, with the mussel just warm enough and still tender, dang these were da bomb.

The carnage with the half empty basket of paper towels 

When we were done, another worker came by and gave us a Wet One to get cleaned off and we were 2 happy campers.

I can't believe I ate the whole thing

They clean the table by removing the basket and folding up the contents left on the table, presto, mess is gone. I will be back to this place, it is awesome.

New Item at The Olde Ship

Playing @TheOldeShip, my son ordered an item off the menu named Crisps.

Mighty fine fresh potato chips, excuse me, crisps. They were great. Thank you for sharing Greg.

Brisket and BBQ Beans

It is now 20:30 (8:30 PM for you people who don't know how to tell time using a 24 hour clock) and the brisket is on the smoker.

Brisket is ready to go on the smoker

The brisket is coated with kosher salt, garlic powder, onion powder, papriki, pepper, and sugar. I gave it love and massaged it gently using rubber gloves.

Once the fire was started, mesquite charcoal, I put the brisket in the smoker fat side up, placed some soaked mesquite chips on the fire, made sure the pan I have in the cooking part had some water and 2 heads of garlic.

The vents are set and the temp will be monitored to stay at 225. Now it is time for slow cooking and monitoring the fire and smoke. Stay tuned as this  blog will continue for a lot of hours and I still have my sauce to make and the beans to prepare.


The BBQ sauce is now simmering. I make my sauce with ketchup, and.....well if I tell you the rest of the mixture I will have to kill you and cyber space is a big place so use your own imagination. Anyway it is simmering. 


I will start the beans around 02:00 so until then it is tending to the fire, placing more chips on the fire and maintaining the 225 temp.


I have one batch of sourdough going through the rise and the second batch going through the proofing stage. I plan on making sourdough rolls to go with the rest I am preparing.


Fire still holding at 230-225 and just the right amount of smoke to get that ring that all good BBQr's strive for. And it is only 21:45!


The first batch of rolls came out of the oven but I left them in a little too long as shown below,

A little brown but the insides are still good. I think they will work out great as the juices from the meat and my BBQ sauce should soften them up a little bit. Hopefully the next batch will be better as I reset the timer on my phone to compensate.


2 more hours and then I can start the beans and wrap the brisket in foil so stay tuned you 3 readers of this blog.


I ran out of smoking chips so I thought I would prepare the beans and wrap the brisket up.

I cooked some bacon ends and pieces and put them in the beans with my other seasonings, BBQ sauce, honey. brown sugar, and other stuff.

In the bacon grease I wilted some onions and fresh garlic. Once done I put them into my beans.

Here are the beans all ready to go into the smoker with the brisket resting on top of them on a rack.

And here are the beans and the brisket going to sit in the smoker for a few, almost 12, hours. It is 01:55 now and now I get to take short cat naps for 30 minutes until my alarm goes off for me to get up from watching Young Frankenstein (or napping) to check on the fuel and temp. Later on I will start the other batch of bread.


The second batch of bread is doing it's rise thing and the fire has been fed. It is now 07:40 and about 6 more hours to go.


The second batch of bread is out of the oven and it looks a lot better:

All that is left is to grab the meat and beans out of the smoker and head on over to my daughter's to gobble it up.


All went well as there was no leftover brisket and just a wee bit of beans left. Here we are scarfing up the food. By the way Al, great pasta salad as always.

Sourdough Bread Rounds

My sourdough starter is really nice and is producing some good bread (as long as I remember to put the salt in). It likes how I take care of it and I am finding out some more about how to prep it prior to dough making.


I just have to remember to take my time as this rises slowly compared to the yeast based bread I make. 3 hours start to finish for my white bread while the first rise on the sourdough is about that long.

GB&D

I made a couple of rounds to be used as bread bowls, that is if they last that long.

Spaghetti Sauce

Today I made some spaghetti sauce for dinner and to have for other things later on.


I used 3 green bell peppers, 2 large onions, a few cloves of garlic. I rough chopped them and put them in my food processor and pulsed them until it was finely chopped, almost like a soup.


In my stock pot, I heated EVOO and cooked the "soup" with some kosher salt and pepper. After it cooked a few minutes I added a pound of hamburger and 6 Italian sausages. After the meat was cooked, I added some Italian seasoning and mushroom seasoning.


I then added 4 cups of chicken broth, a large can of tomato paste, 2 cans of chopped tomatoes, and  2 cans of tomato sauce. To this I added about an eight cup of sugar and a quarter cup of grated Parmesan cheese. Oh yeah, just a quarter stick of butter. I let it simmer for a couple of hours and I was ready for the rest of the dinner.


I made some garlic bread from my homemade sourdough bread and cooked some green beans. I cooked some pasta and ta-da, dinner is done.


I made enough sauce to put two meals worth in the freezer and another portion in the 'fridge for some lasagna, possibly tomorrow.

Sourdough Bread Part 2

Well Blogger.com had problems yesterday and the post I made got lost.


Here is my hedgehog loaf that I ended up with yesterday.

It looks funny but tasted great.


I did make some more today and I will post better loaves when it comes out of the oven.

These are the bread bowls I made. Now where is the chili?