It's Grillin' Time - Finally!

Well warm weather has sure been a long time coming to Northern IL, and when it has warmed up it proceeded to rain 8 inches over 2 days so  today when the sun came out and the temperature hit the upper 70s it was time to break out (and break in) the new grill.

I decided I didn't need that big grill with the fridge and warming drawer any longer and sold it on Craig's List...  I planned on getting a smaller gas grill and perhaps getting a bigger smoker.. But while at Sears I saw this model on sale and decided to pull the trigger on it.  It is pretty cool, it has a side burner, and rotisserie as well as Sear burner so I should be all set for grilling...  But what it also has is a small oven with separate controls and burner..  Not too big but I bet it would make a pretty good batch of that new cornbread recipe I shared last month!

 All Stainless Steel and if I had natural gas piped to it, it could be converted....



The Oven is on the right side  - it even has it's own timer....  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Well I broke it in with a steak and pork chop and really what I wanted to really talk about from a cooking standpoint.  Recently I have been seeing these mini-sweet peppers in resealable bags.  Small sweet peppers in red,  yellow and orange.  Even though they are small (and usually the smaller the pepper the hotter the pepper) these are not hot at all.  So I thought hey how about stuffing them with some cream cheese and roasting them.  They were GREAT but I think I will have to invest in a pepper roasting rack shortly...  Anyway - had them with some yellow corn and butter noodles with a Charred RARE Strip Steak tonight...  (Sandy had the pork chop)

Ikey watched intently from the back door.... and he sure enjoyed the nice weather - running like a mad man chasing the rabbits out of his back yard...

I know I should have more color on the plate but  it sure tasted good!

 

Ninja Cooking System

I know, I know, here he is with another gadget.. But really I have to say that outside of a good Cast Iron Dutch Oven this tool really can allow you to cook a meal in a single pot. 
For those of you that don't know, the Ninja cooking system is kind of a crock pot on steroids.  You can slow cook, turn it down to "warm" for a buffet type service but also cook in a very small oven type environment as well as steam cook thus shortening the cooking time for most larger items.

Ninja Recipes

My experience has been (as mentioned earlier Siopao recipe) with Dr Pepper infused Pork Shoulder for Pulled Pork and for Easter an 8 lb standing Rib Roast.  All done in less time and with less mess than one would think.

As I mentioned, one pot - I seared both large cuts of meat in the Ninja - placing them directly on the cooking surface - removed them to the metal rack and then used what ever appropriate steaming liquid for each cut of meat...  (Dr Pepper for the Pork Shoulder and Red Wine and Beef Stock for the Rib Roast).   Both were done in much shorter period of time - Beautiful thing about the Ninja lid, it has a hole in the top that allows a digital thermometer to go through it so I didn't even have to open the lid to know when it was done...

Anyway, I have a few pics of the cooking system - and I have to give my neighbor Tammie the "props" for turning me on to the "Ninja".. It really does work...

Going to roast a pheasant or two soon....  Ike and I will let you know how that goes..... :)

All the parts  even a small muffin pan



All controls are right in front temp and or time is adjusted with dial on the right

Here is the basket that meet can sit on - 8 lb roast is about as big as you can fit

Siopaos

Hi everyone;
Another long lag in the posting of on Cooking with Ike.  I had seen this recipe earlier on "The Cooking Channel" and was intrigued by it.  I had never had these before but it looked like a very good use of some pulled pork we had done in our new Ninja Cooking system before Easter (more on that tool later) so I just decided to thaw out the pork, and go for it.
I had boiled some of the Farm's eggs as well so I had all of the stuffing ingredients so just needed to make the dough and steam the end product.  I won't to into details of the recipe here (it was for quite a few (I cut the recipe in 1/3 and it still made a dozen of the little steamed buns...)
One thing I think is important - weigh out the size of the dough for each siopao keeping them consistent size will help in the steaming...    They were very filling and very good with some Sweet and Smoky BBQ sauce...
Here is the link to the recipe...
Siopao recipe

After steaming

See the Hard boiled egg  - wish I would have stuffed more meat in them