Grilled Red Snapper and Mango with Cilantro-Lime Vinaigrette

6 tablespoons olive oil (1/2 lime oil and 1/2 reg)

5 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro

3 tablespoons fresh lime juice

1 1/2 teaspoons grated lime peel

4 5- to 6-ounce red snapper fillets

1 large mango, peeled, cut into thick wedges

3/4 teaspoon cumin seeds

8 large buttercup lettuce leaves

Prepare barbecue (medium heat). Whisk oil, 4 tablespoons cilantro, lime juice, and lime peel in small bowl. Season vinaigrette with salt and pepper. Brush all sides of fish and mango with some of vinaigrette. Reserve remaining vinaigrette. Sprinkle fish and mango with salt, pepper, and cumin seeds. Grill fish without turning until fish is just opaque in center and mango is soft and beginning to brown, about 6 minutes.

Top lettuce cups with fish and mango. Drizzle with remaining vinaigrette. Sprinkle with 1 tablespoon fresh cilantro.

This breaks out in 6 very distinct phases.

1. Meat preparation
2. Chile preparation
3. Husk preparation
4. Masa preparation
5. Production
6. Cooking

Brisket:

Ingredients:

1. 4 heads of garlic
2. Large crab pot
3. 22 lbs of Brisket w fat remaining
4. Ladle of salt

Brisket Prep:

1. Cut the brisket into baseball size chunks
2. Add brisket and garlic to crab pot in garage or outside
3. Add cold water to the crab pot to 3/4 full
4. Bring to a boil and add salt
5. Once boiling, skim the yukkiness repeatedly as it comes to the surface, this will go on for 10-15 minutes until the foam becomes less murky
6. Boil on high for 15 minutes
7. Reduce heat and boil for another hour and 45
8. Take out of water and shred by hand while still hot (forks)
9. Set aside

Chile prep:

Ingredients

1. 1 lb new mexico dried chile peppers
2. 20% of broth from the brisket (u will use the other 80% for the masa)
3. Lard
4. Flour

Process (epic)

1. While someone is hand shredding the beef, clean the chile peppers by rinsing and taking the tops off. Keep the seeds etc inside.
2. Remove about 80% of the broth from the large crab pot.
3. Bring broth in crab pot to a boil again (it was off)
4. Once broth is boiling, stir all of the whole cleaned chile’s into the crab pot broth.
5. Cover
6. Boil on high covered for 5+ minutes
7. Turn off and let sit in covered hot crab pot for 15 minutes
8. Ladle the cooked chili out into a separate large pot.
9. Using a blender, blend the chile and some of the broth to the consistency of canned tomato sauce. Blend it all and set aside.
10. Now to fry the chile sauce. Put a large ladle of lard in a very large pan, (we used electric roaster oven) add a half ladle of flour… yeah are you fukin kidding me. It keeps getting better.
11. Separately heat the spicy broth (see pic for amt)
12. Once the lard and flour are combined and hot, add chile sauce and fry. (we are frying the chile sauce so that it binds better with the brisket)
13. Add the spicy broth into the chile sauce you are frying to make it into a consistency between whole milk and half n half.
14. At ideal consistency, bring to a slight simmer and start to add the brisket. Add broth and chile as necessary based on volume so that its all coated perfectly.
15. Simmer for a while to bring the flavors into the meat, 10-15 while stirring
16. Side note: fresh chile doesnt make your tamales (or anything) too red
17. Set aside overnight for tomorrow we make the tamales.

Prepping the husks:

Choose high quality husks that are not too dry.

1. Separate the larger usable husks from the chaffe.
2. Clean the husks and separate into piles. Bad, good small and good large. Good large is what you want to use. The good small pile is for doubling up for a single tamale.
3. Soak the husks for 20-30 minutes in warm or hot water. This softens them
4. Drip dry them, they will not be totally dry.. on purpose.

A simple way to season and serve grilled sea bass. We used the leaner local stuff, not the super oily chilean stuff.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/2 teaspoon onion powder
• 1/2 teaspoon paprika
• lemon pepper to taste
• sea salt to taste
• 1.5 – 2 pounds sea bass
• 3 tablespoons butter
• 2 large cloves garlic, chopped
• 2 tablespoon finely chopped Italian flat leaf parsley

Process:

1. Mix the spices in a bowl and spread evenly over towel dried sea bass
2. Grill the sea bass on a very hot, well oiled grill for approx 6 mins each side.
3. While grilling, melt the butter in w the chopped parsley and garlic over very low heat
   1. When butter is finished, hit it w a little kosher salt.
4. Spoon butter over seabass on served plates.

Do’s: WIP..not sure yet

Dont’s: WIP..not sure yet

We found this very simple recipe and it worked like a charm. 

1. To prepare lobster tails for grilling: Using kitchen shears, cut the top membrane off the lobster tails and discard. 
2. Partially loosen the meat from the shell, leaving the end of the tail attached. 
3. Gently lift the loosened tail meat up and rest just on top of the shell. Brush tails with melted butter with an herb infusion, we use fresh thyme, lots of it.
4. When the grill is ready, arrange the tails shell side down and cook 6-8 minutes. 
5. Turn tails over so the meat side is on the grill and continue to cook 2-4 minutes until the meat is cooked through. Serve with a touch melted herb butter and fresh lemon. 

 

Dont: add butter before turning flesh down, causes burning

Do: use a lot of herbs in butter, the lobster is basically roasting in the butter

A most epic recipe we got from eric and kenton..amazing…simple.

Ingredients:

Olive Oil

Truffle Oil

Butter

2 Leeks

3 Italian Sausages

Salt

Pepper

1 cup White Wine

Recipe:

1. Cut up leeks into small pieces and rinse
2. Sautee in oil/butter mix for 10 mins
3. Slice open sausages and add sausage meat, discarding the sausage casing. Break up the sausage meat into smaller bites.
4. Cook sausage and leeks until sausage has sufficiently browned
5. Add 3/4 cup of dry white wine
6. Cook until wine evaporates
7. Cook your fresh pasta al dente w lots o salt (like seawater).. fresh pasta only otherwise you could die of sadness
8. Transfer your pasta into a large bowl.. (dont drain, pull out w tongs to ensure some of the salt water stays on pappardelle)
9. Toss fresh pasta w truffle oil
10. Mix in the leeks/sausage love
11. Salt and pepper to taste
12. Serve w grated grana
13. BAM!

Do: use more truffle oil than u might think, make sure u can smell 8-10 inches away

Don’t: use non-fresh pasta or drain the pasta

This is my version of mom’s chicken soup.

Ingredients:

• 1 bone in chicken breast (have your butcher take off skin)
• 2 bone in chicken thigh (have your butcher take off skin)
• 4 large carrots peeled. or equivalent
• 4 large celery sticks. or equivalent
• 1.5 onion
• 3 cups coarsely chopped Kale ish
• 2 tomatoes (the soup/sauce kind) cut in chunks of about 1/6 th
• 1/2 bunch of oregano (bay area herbs container)
• Thyme (fresh ideally but dry works)
• 2 Bay leaves
• 3 garlic cloves
• 1 .5 tablespoon salt
• 1 tbsp whole peppers
• 8 oz tomato sauce (one can)
• olive oil
• 14 cups water

Directions

1. Par boil the chicken in a pot filled with the water and all the chopped garlic, 2 of the chopped carrots, 2 of the chopped celery sticks, 1/2 onion, thyme, oregano and 1 cup kale along with the kosher salt. Start with room temp water and go about 25 minutes over low to med heat.
2. After the 25 mins or a bit less you have par boiled the chicken.
3. Pull out chicken
4. Simmer veggies another 15 to 20 minutes (depending on how much time u have)
5. Strain the veggies out.
6. Return the pot with the stock to stove and simmer to keep warm. At this point taste, you may or may not need bullion…
7. Meanwhile at any point lightly saute all the remaining  veggies in olive oil. They shouldn’t be soft, just jumping with aroma and flavor.
8. Now add the tomato sauce and cook for 5 more minutes.
9. Meanwhile shred up the chicken in large chunks leaving some on bone but dispersed
10. Pour all the sauced up veggies and the chicken into the broth.
11. Simmer for a good 10-12 or more minutes
12. BOOM DONE! (let sit)