Bacon Wrapped Venison Backstrap Medallions

This was my last venison backstrap from my deer last year.  I'm hoping to replace it with more in the freezer when I hunt on my birthday this year.  Venison is a very lean meat and takes a little extra care to cook it right.  Here is a break down of how I prepped and cooked this backstrap.

  

 

 

Ingredients:

• Venison Backstrap - cut into medallions
• Applewood smoked bacon
• Marinade: fresh thyme, brown sugar, honey, molasses, red wine, worchestershire, pineapple teriyaki marinade
• Fresh okra
• Baby bella mushrooms
• 2 cloves garlic
• Seasoning: salt, pepper, garlic powder, sugar
• Reduction: cherry marmalade, balsamic vinegar, red wine 

Step 1: The day before I will prep the medallions and marinade them overnight.  From here it is the evening of the dinner: Precook the bacon.  Cook it about halfway so it doesn't take as long when you put it on the grill.  I do this because I want to cook my venison medallions medium rare to medium and cooking the bacon entirely on the grill would result in a well done backstrap.  The purpose of the bacon is to add flavor and some fat into the venison.

 

 

Step 2: Season the venison medallions, wrap in bacon, and put them on a skewer.  Quarter the baby bellas and cut the tops off of the fresh okra.

 

 

 

Step 3: Add 3-4 heaping tablespoons of cherry marmalade to a sauce pan.  Splash in red wine and balsamic vinegar.  Let simmer over medium heat.  Add minced garlic cloves and mushrooms to the leftover bacon grease. Sautee over low to medium heat. 

 

 

 

Step 4: At this point I will have the BGE preheated to around 400 degrees.  Put the venison medallions on the grill and turn ever 3 minutes.  The cherry marmalade reduction should be pretty syrup like at this point, continue cooking over low heat.  Add the okra to the sautee pan and cook for a few minutes.  Okra is best crisp and can get overcook if left on too long.  Right about the time the okra is cook and the reduction is finished you can pull your venison from the grill.  Again, it's best to cook backstraps medium rare to medium as they can dry out if overcooked.

 

 

 

Plate the vegetables and venison medallions, and drizzle some of the reduction sauce over the meat.  Enjoy with some red wine and watch the Falcons beat the Saints!

Oyster Po Boy Wraps & Fried Green Tomatoes

After Thanksgiving weekend at the beach, my mother in law sent us home with some oysters and green tomatoes.  What should you do with those two items, fry them!  Let me preface this post by saying we rarely fry stuff in our house, mostly grilled food, but when we do fry I like to do it right!  Here's a rundown of this delicious dinner:

 

Ingredients:

• Oysters
• Green Tomatoes
• Romain lettuce
• Whole wheat wraps
• Pepperjack cheese
• Eggs & Milk
• Batter: Flour, cornmeal, salt, pepper, and garlic powder
• Spice Remoulade Sauce: mayo, pickle juice, spicy mustard, sweet chili sauce, cayenne, paprika, horseradish, clove of garlic, hot sauce (franks or texas pete)

Step 1: Make the spicy remoulade sauce.  In a food processor, combine 1 1/4 cup of mayo, 1/4 cup spicy mustard, garlic clove smashed, tablespoon of pickle juice, tablespoon of horseradish, dash of cayenne and paprika, tablespoon of hot sauce, 1/4 cup of sweet chili sauce.  Blend together until smooth consistency.  As with any sauce, you can adjust the amount of ingredients to suite your preference.



 

Step 2: slice the romaine and green tomatoes.  Pour some white wine to go with it!  In a bowl combine 2 eggs and some milk.  In a ziploc back combine 1 cup of flour, 1 cup of cornmeal, 1 tablespoon of pepper, tablespoon of salt, and tablespoon of garlic powder.  Shake the bag up to mix the batter together before emptying into a bowl.

Step 3: Add olive oil to a cast iron skillet and heat.  Dip green tomatoes in the egg & milk mixture until coated.  Add to batter and cover.  Fry the green tomatoes until golden brown!

Step 4: repeat step 3 above for the oysters.  I drained the oil and added new olive oil just to be clean.

Step 5: On a whole wheat wrap add fried oysters, cheese, and lettuce.  Top with spicy remoulade and roll it up.  Serve fried green tomatoes as the side and enjoy!

Sunday Baby Backs & Falcons Football

These were some leftover baby backs I had in the freezer after the National BBQ Cup.  The Falcons were playing the Bucs and the weather was perfect for grilling.  The Falcons won and the ribs turned out pretty good as expected.  Here's a quick rundown of the cook:

 

 

Step 1: remove membrane from back of rack.  spray exterior with some apple juice to help the rub stick.  Rub was kroger brand sweet and spice rub.  Coat top of ribs with an extra layer of brown sugar and allow to set in for about 30-60 minutes before placing on the smoker.

Step 2: Preheat the BGE to 225, add apple wood chips.  These racks went on around noon on Sunday.  Cook unwrapped for 3 hours.  Every 45-60 minutes open up the egg and spray the racks with apple juice to help them retain moisture.  It also adds a little bit of flavor back into the meat.

Step 3: Lay a sheet of foil out and create a bed of brown sugar, honey, and squirt butter.  Lay the ribs meaty side down and curl the foil up creating a boat like shape.  Put some more honey and butter on the underside.  Now add 1/2 cup of apple juice and 1/2 cup of Pineapple Teriyaki marinade (measurements not exact).  Seal the ribs in foil and place back on the grill for 1.5-2 hrs. 

My parents came over for dinner around 4:15pm so I pulled the racks back off around 4:30pm after cooking in foil for 1.5 hrs.  Place the ribs carefully back on the BGE to finish meaty side up for another 30-60 minutes.  I use the word carefully because the ribs are about to fall off the bone at this point.  Spritz the racks with apple juice every so often to keep them moist and glossy in appearance.

I pulled the finished product around 5:15pm and sliced them up.  These were served with BBQ sauce on the side.  The ribs were intact but the meat would pull off the bone with a gentle tug!  Sides included grilled Bush's baked beans and collard greans.

National BBQ Cup Overall Scores

3rd Place Chicken
25th Place Ribs
23rd Place Pork
8th Place Overall

Not a bad weekend for a couple of first timers!

National BBQ Cup Pictures and Results

My first BBQ Competition was a success.  We walked away with 3rd place in the Backyard Chicken category and a check for $100.  Special thanks to Cory Thomas for finding the competition, marketing (see new sign), chicken prep on Thursday, and making sure we got everything in on time on Saturday morning.  Here are a few pictures and commentary from the weekend:

Pretty much set up

 View down the hill from our site

 Chicken wings went on after the cooks meeting around 5pm.           Box prep.

 

Two 8-9 pound Boston Butts on around 7pm (way too early in hindsight)

Charging Cory's truck battery so we can have tunes.

 Rib time, maybe around midnight to 1am at this point.

Cory recognized Stewart Cink on the way back from cook's breakfast around 6:30am.  He was nice enough to talk for a few minutes and let us take a picture.

Ribs are looking good, nice glaze as we're finishing them.

Rib box.

Pork box, not that great in my opinion, but we'll work on it.

Cory and I placed 3rd in Backyard Chicken.  Pretty happy, but tired and a little hungover at the same time.  We're ready to hit the showers and a couch at this point, but not before jumping Cory's truck one last time.  Notice the food stains all over my jacket and jeans!

The reason we'll be back:

 New sign courtesy of Cory Thomas!  Thanks again buddy, had a blast!

Skirt Steak Fajitas with Chimichurri Sauce

This is a very easy weeknight meal.  I actually made the sauce, marinated the meat, and prepped the vegetables the evening before so it was ready to go on the grill as soon as I got home.

Ingredients:

• Flank Steak
• Red, Green, Yellow Bell Peppers
• Sweet Onion
• Red wine vinegar
• Fresh cilantro
• Olive Oil
• Chipotle peppers in adobo sauce
• Oregano
• fresh chopped garlic
• Salt, Pepper, and Paprika
• 1 fresh lime
• Fajita seasoning
• Tortilla shells

In a food processor combine 1 cup fresh cilantro, 1/4 cup evoo, 1/4 cup red wine vinegar, lime juice, 1 cup chipotle peppers in adobo sauce, 2 tablespoons oregano, 2 chopped garlic cloves, and a sprinkle of paprika, salt, and pepper.  Blend until chimichurri sauce is of medium - thick consistency.  Reserve 1/2 cup for fajita topping, but combine the rest of the sauce in a ziplock with flank steak overnight. 
Slice onion and bell peppers, put in large ziploc, and toss with fajita seasoning.

I use a grill skillet to sautee / grill my veggies.  I'll throw the flank steak on once the vegetables are nearly done and cook to medium rare.  Slice against the grain and serve over a tortilla.

Tom's Backyard BBQ Sign

New sign on the way courtesy of Cory Thomas.  He did all the leg work to get this, and we should look a little more legit come competition time!

More Chicken Practice on the Weber Smokenator

Yesterday I received my weber smokenator in the mail and decided to give my chicken some more practice.  Pictured below are chicken thighs that were deboned and trimmed up to appear more uniform.  All fat and cartilage were also removed.  I use 8th Wonder seasoning on my chicken - both sides.

Pictured below is the most time consuming and tedious step in the process.  First I remove all skins before trimming the thighs.  Take the skins and shave the underside to remove as much fat as possible.  The fat almost turns into a liquid substance seen on the cutting board.  You will know when you've removed enough when the skins are translucent.  I had three knives out before figuring out which one was sharpest and worked best.

Pictured below are the skins spread back over the chicken thighs.  Notice that you can see the seasoning on the thigh through the skin.  Season the outside of the skin with more 8th Wonder.  Tuck the skins under tightly and try to make them as uniform as possible.

Pictured below are my chicken thighs on the weber with smokenator insert.  This was my first use of the smokenator, and I was very impressed.  This is a $60 investment that turns a weber kettle into a smoker.  For more information, visit their site: http://www.smokenator.com/. 

I cooked these for about one hour at 300 degrees.  I used some bbq sauce I had in the fridge just for texture, but i'll use a home made sauce on competition day.  My only concern was the overwhelming flavor of kingsford mesquite charcoal in the chicken without tasting any of the apple wood chips, but that will be substituted for natural hardwood lump charcoal on competition day.  Finished product:

The difference in this batch was in the skins.  The effort of scraping the fat off the skin paid off in the ability to bite through the skin without pulling the whole thing off.  I'd say they turned out pretty good.

Tom's First Competition

Competition Chicken Practice

Decent, but I've got a long way to go before next weekend!  Learning slowly.

National BBQ Cup

Tom's Backyard BBQ is competing in the National BBQ Cup next weekend at the Cumming Fairgrounds in Cumming, GA.  This will be my first BBQ Competition.  Come out and check us out!

http://www.nationalbbqcup.com/