STONEWALL KITCHEN MAPLE BACON AIOLI

My sister, ‘The President of Cookies” has known me all my life. She knows that bacon themed products are an easy gift for this bacon lover. This Christmas she gave me a product from Stonewall Kitchens; Maple Bacon Aioli. I am no stranger to Stonewall kitchens with their other product; maple onion bacon jam. We are going to try this product straight out of the jar and with a prime rib sandwich. ( I was looking for an excuse to show off our aged prime rib roast we had for Christmas). Put on another yule log and let’s experience Maple Bacon Aioli.
   My first duty is took take a gander at the ingredient list. It has the usual suspects for a quality aioli with the added bonus of real, actual bacon bits. The one ingredient that disappoints me is ‘smoke flavoring’. (Liquid smoke). Liquid smoke can be genius or if heavy handed a curse. The top is opened to unleash smoky mayonnaise aromas. This smells fantastic. The texture is thick. This thick condiment is speckled with tiny flakes of real bacon. Here comes the million dollar question. How does it taste?

I am in love with Stonewall Kitchens Maple Bacon Aioli. This is a quality mayonnaise type product with the added bonus of real bacon bits. I was worried that liquid smoke would be overpowering but this is not the case. It was used in restraint and is pure genius. The mixture is smooth, rich and a little decadent. I do have one small observation that is crucial. There is a little texture from the bacon bits creating a tasty and wonderful experience. This product is not perfect though. Where is the Maple? There is a little sweetness present but I could not identify it as maple syrup. Am I complaining? No, this is still a great product but does not deliver as promised.

 It is time to show off my Christmas roast.Aged prime rib roast baked in the oven would be the filling of our sandwich. This would be a great test for our bacon aioli. We added a little avocado to our sandwich and then topped it off with a generous dollop of aioli. Can words describe how wonderfully sinfully great this sandwich was. The aioli was the perfect accompaniment to compliment the avocado and beef. My next sandwich will definatly be avocado and maple bacon aioli. What a great product. It does not deliver maple, but, who cares. Brilliant.

STARK’S STEAK & SEAFOOD

American Kobe beef, aged prime rib, you would think we are beefed out for the Holidays. That is not the case. We were on a mini meat adventure to pick up our prime rib roast and it was lunch time. How about a steak at Stark’s Steak & Seafood? Stark’s is a restaurant that promises to be; “casually elegant with an upscale feel. “. Stark’s is one of the six restaurants in the Stark’s Reality Restaurant group. As you know we love a good steak. On this adventure the ‘Great White Hunter’ was chaperoning. Parking Karma was in full effect because we parked right in front.

The outside of Stark’s looks like it has some history. The feel and vibration is definitely from an older generation. The inside is elegant, modern and inviting. We are dinning at the noon hour. The main dining room is closed and lunch is being served in the bar area. Our pleasant hostess tried to seat us at a cocktail table until she felt the wrath of Ms. Goofy wanting a proper table. I was in total agreement with wanting a full table for several reasons. The Great White Hunter and I are large men who need a lot of room to maneuver and we were paying full prices for our dinning admission. We were seated properly and soaked in the ambience.

The menu had the usual suspects of a high end steakhouse. Aged beef, American Kobe, prime, seafood and even burgers were offered.  Everything was a la carte. Our server asked us if we would like some bread.  Need he ask? We were brought some butter and garlic with some bread on the side. This was a garlic lover’s delight. It is almost a week later and I still can taste the garlic. Since we were seated in the bar area Ms. Goofy had a micro beer. The Great White Hunter and I are teetotalers but the bar should be mentioned because it has a reputation of serving fun and tasty drinks.

I had a bone-in 28 day dry aged ‘Prime’ New York strip steak. It was very tender and tasty. It was cooked to a perfect medium rare. It was seasoned very nicely. It was topped with a requested mushrooms and roasted onions. Was it the best steak I have ever had? No. This steak was very decent. Is it possible with all the quality steaks I have been eating recently that I have become jaded to steak excellence? I do not want to believe that but this steak did not ring any bells. The Great White Hunter and I split some sides of potatoes and creamed spinach. They both were rich, creamy and excellent.

The Great White Hunter had the American Kobe. He enjoyed it but was not dancing in the aisles with praise. Ms. Goofy had a wonderful burger that she enjoyed. Starks is a very nice steakhouse. If we return it will be at the dinner hour to experience the main dining area. Starks has a wonderful atmosphere that is old and modern at the same time. Our servers were pleasant and efficient. The steaks were good and possibly great. Maybe I am just spoiled in eating quality steaks.

Starks

TWAS THE NIGHT BEFORE SNAKE RIVER

Twas the night before Christmas and all through the house it smelled like barbeque T-bone steak. Ms. Goofy knows what I like. This present came by the Santa wearing a brown uniform and his sleigh was a delivery vehicle. This wonderful Christmas gift was a box of assorted steaks from Snake River Farms. Snake River sells American Kobe Beef. This is a very high quality beef sought after by chef's, bbq competitors and beef connoisseurs The marbling of fat throughout this beef is spectacular. This provides a luscious mouth feel in every single bite. I would suggest that the flavor has a feel of butter that is unique to this cattle breed. We could not wait till Christmas to sample this fantabulous meat present. A t-bone was enjoyed and savored by all. Ms. Goofy you are the greatest.

STRAWBERRY REAPER PINWHEELS

Christmas is the time for Secret Santa gifts. I belong to a hot sauce group on social media. This group is of like minded Chileheads and hot sauce manufacturers. Every Christmas time we draw names and exchange hot sauce themed gifts. My basket which came all the way from Alabama had some home made Strawberry Reaper jam. The 'Reaper' pepper is a very exotic, extremely hot pepper. It is one of the hottest peppers grown. Including the reaper pepper with strawberry jam may be genius. The sweetness of strawberry jam with the all mighty wrath of the reaper pepper will be perfect for our Holiday Christmas appetizer of pinwheel wraps.

These are very easy to make. Spreadable cream cheese is spread over a green spinach flavored tortilla/wrap. Strawberry Reaper jam is then spread sparingly over the cream cheese. The tortilla is rolled into a cigar shape and wrapped in plastic wrap. An hour in the refrigerator firms this festive mixture. The rolls are removed of their wrapping and sliced into rounds. I loved them. The cream cheese and sweet strawberries were a perfect match to tame and compliment the fiery wrath of the reaper pepper. Ms. Goofy took a minuscule taste and proclaimed them too hot for her delicate palate. Her loss was my gain because these were not only festive with their Christmas colors but devilishly delicious.

PULLED PORK TAMALE

The holidays are here and that can mean only one thing. It is Christmas tamale time. Ever since I was a wee little Mad Meat Genius I have enjoyed tamales at Christmas time. My friend’s mom with help from the women relatives would make a plethora of different flavored tamales this time of year. Chicken, pork, beef and even a sweet tamal with brown sugar and raisins would be made. We would eat our fill and it was good. This time of year I like to recreate this childhood memory by making tamales with my own twist. We are making tamales with some smoked pork shoulder. This should be good.

This was a project that took several days of preparation. The first step was to create the pulled pork. A beautiful pork shoulder was trimmed of fat and massaged with our rub of the day. An eight hour sauna bath in the smoker that was fueled by apple and hickory wood would do the trick. It looked gorgeous with a intoxicating smell to match. You know we had to give this roast a test ride with dinner that night. We had our fill with the added bonus of leftovers for the filling of our tamales.

The next step was to get some fresh masa. We are lucky to be near plenty of Mexican markets. They carry fresh masa. They are sold in three pound packages and are very inexpensive. They also carried different masa flavored with chile peppers, strawberries and pineapple. This sounds very interesting.. This lit the light bulb in my noggin. Why not flavor our masa with some chile powder. A friend gifted me some Hatch green chile powder. This might work.

 My first plan was to make a sauce to accompany and flavor the tamales. This sauce consisted of onions, tomatillos, roasted Hatch peppers, chicken stock and spices. These ingredients were sauteed in a pan until soft. The cooled mixture with the addition of fresh cilantro was placed in a food processor to be pulsed to a chunky consistency. Some was added to our left over pork adding another level of flavor. The rest was reserved to serve with the finished tamales.

It is time to assemble. Corn husks were soaked in hot water to soften. We added Hatch chile powder to our masa. A husk is placed on the board. I used a measuring quarter cup to scoop fresh chile spiked masa to place on the husk. I spread the masa over the husk. A generous amount of sauce flavored pork was placed in the center. We rolled the husk to form a cigar shaped form. One end was folded up. Some people like to fold both ends and use a fancy tie to fasten the ends. I have learned from experience that this is not necessary. When you steam the tamales make sure the open end is elevated with the folded end on the bottom of the steamer. This works for us.

We used a bamboo steamer to steam our little packages of fun. Forty five minutes later and it was time to eat. Ms. Goofy proclaimed these were the best tamale’s ever. I did not pay her to say that. (This time).  She liked the meat to masa ratio which was heavy on the meat. The chile spiked masa was a nuanced flavor that was pleasant. These tamales did have a chile heat bite from the roasted Hatch pepper sauce and flavoring. We served our tamales with some homemade refried beans flavored with bacon lard. The filling of smoked pork was stellar. Oh my! This was a comforting and filling meal. We have created new Christmas tamale memories today.

PORCUS INFERNUM

Porcus Infernum bacon flavored hot sauce from Voodoo Sauces & Salsa is on the table today. This is advertised as bacon in a bottle. This sounds like a wonderful combination of hot sauce and bacon. As some of you may know, I am a sucker for any bacon flavored product.  Voodoo Sauces has my attention with bacon but so many times in the past I have been disappointed with bacon themed products and the promise of bacon. We have our fingers crossed today. Let’s go taste some Porcus Infernum.

Ingredients:

Water, apple cider vinegar, tomato paste, sugar, chile pepper blend, salt, spices, citric acid, ascorbic acid, bacon flavor, 0.5% of monosodium glutamate, hydrolyzed vegetable protein, artificial ham flavor are the listed ingredients. Can we say artificial ham flavor? I am not sure why that tickles my funny bone but it does. I am a little curious about the ingredient; bacon flavor. All that really matter is how it tastes.

Aroma & Texture:

I smell bacon. It is a wonderful smell. It smells a little like holiday ham too. There is a back-up aroma of tomato’s.  The aroma is pleasing to me. The texture is fluid and pours quickly through the opened top. There are no seeds or pulp present.

Label:

An evil red eyed looking swine glares at the potential buyer of this sauce. A humorous description graces the side of this 5 ounce bottle. The label is eye catching and works for me.

Taste:

The million dollar question is; Does Porcus Infernum pass the bacon flavor test? I am going to answer with a resounding yes. We taste bacon like flavor. There is a pork essence that has a bacon/ham nuance. The salt presence grabs your attention just as a well balanced slice of bacon should. Tomato’s and pepper flavor cradles and compliments this bacon flavor. The chile is mild but contributes to the overall flavor mix. The apple cider vinegar adds a splash of freshness.This sauce is well balanced in all its components. We like it.

Heat:

There is no discernable heat but will give this a complimentary one star out of 5 on the heat meter.

Food:

Bacon and eggs without the bacon almost sounds blasphemous. If for some crazy reason you do not actually have bacon on hand this sauce is a good stand-in for bacon flavor. It will never replace the real deal but is actually good in the bacon flavor department.
We tried some Porcus Infernum with some smoked stuffed jalapenos. “Winner, Winner, Jalapeno Popper, Dinner”. This was a fantastic pairing. The smoke, jalapenos and bacon with bacon sauce hit on all cylinders.

Overall:

Porcus Infernum will receive the Chilebrown seal of bacon approval. I have tried so many bacon themed products that have only mimicked and disappointed. Not today. This is the real deal for bacon flavor. . Porcus Infernum will go with any dish in my opinion. Voodoo Sauces & Salsa motto is; “Voodoo Chile Sauces exists to entertain taste buds”.  They have succeeded. Sometimes it is a good idea not to read the ingredient list. Maybe I do not want to know what ‘bacon flavor or artificial ham flavor is.  All I know is that this is a mild bacon flavored sauce for the masses. Good stuff!

Voodoo Sauces & Salsa

THE END

Last night we went to a very nice Christmas party hosted by Harry Soo & Donna Fong. These two celebrity Pittmasters know how to throw a food extravaganza extraordinaire. I just wanted to share an image of "The End' of a roasted whole pig that was one of the many dishes offered. The skin was cracklin with porky goodness. What a fun time.