Throwdown Sides!

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civilsmoker

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Jan 27, 2015
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I want to say thanks again to SMF for allowing all us like minded smokers to share our love of creating tasty foods!

Next up is a HUGE shout out to ThermoWorks ThermoWorks for being a sponsor! I was expecting a Thermapen one, and after sharing my shipping address I got a ThermoWorks customer service email on walking me through setting up my “new” RFX……

So this morning I got the package and found this inside!!!
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Just wow and awesome! I’m looking forward to putting this baby through some paces! So a future review will be posted once I can get some cooks under its belts!!! Again thanks to ThermoWorks!!!!! What a top shelf sponsor!!!

Next up, some pics of the “Sides”. This year we did something totally different for Thanksgiving….ie it was Sans turkey and a ham was the main dish……so that totally changed up the sides….

First up the sides!
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Top left is the loaded sweet potato…. I wash these down good then a light coat of classic olive and coarse salt. These go in the oven @425 for about 50 min. Be sure to put a sheet pan under them as the sugars come out and will make a mess in the oven. I cook them to an INT of 198, I use a ThermoWorks executive needle so I can reach the center easily. They got rested 15 min covered in foil then split and dressed with honey butter, carmel sauce, and mallows. The mallows are toasted at 425 convection oven vs a broiler to keep the mallows from burning.

Top right is CI corn bread (Duff Goldman’s Recipe)…..the CI is heated dry in a 375 oven then taken out and “coated” with a butter stick and then the batter is added then back in the oven…..

On top is the pimento butter…..this is just some softened butter and pimento added to a food processor and whipped……a bit of salt is added to taste as well….
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It is formed up in some parchment paper and set in the fridge….
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Once set it is sliced into portions….
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The dressing is from a Williams and Sonoma focaccia chestnut fennel dressing. Rather than use box focaccia my wife makes it scratch….
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It is cut up into cubes……a tast test was done with the butter when this was hot to verify both were ok…..the verdict was yes!
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The cubes are roasted in the oven at 225 till the desired crunch….
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The dressing is a chopped fennel bulb, 1 whole sweet onion, a cup of celery sliced, and chopped roasted chestnuts (1c about 12 oz bag) all of which are sautéed with butter till translucent and then deglazed and cooked down with 1c of a dry white wine. That is added to a large bowl of croutons (a 9x12 pan worth, about 24 oz worth) along with 1 lb of sage sausage that has been seared down in a pan. It works best to start with the sausage, set that a side and do the veg in the same pan so you keep all those flavors. Once added to the bowl it is all mixed together along with some salt and pepper to taste along with fresh chopped herbs, parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme. Next hot chicken stock/broth is slowly added to the bowl as it is mixed. It helps if two people do this. It will take about 2-3 cups of broth, it till the croutons are soft but still have a slight crunch in the center….then finish with the salt, pepper, and herbs to final taste. It is added to a butter coated 9x12 then cooked at 375 for 25-30 mins covered then 15 min uncovered followed by a slight broil to get the top crusted to personal taste.

So no pics of the greens but I sort and cut both ends to be uniform in circumstance and length so they cook even. They go into a preheated large fry pan with 1/4 c white wine & 1/4 cup chicken stock, 1 Tbsp sugar, tsp white pepper and salt. The pan is covered and put on high heat to get a solid boil (the liquids will not cover the greens but more like steam). After about 6 mins remove the lid and toss the greens in the liquids then let it boil down to a syrup. About 2 mins. Top them the with butter toasted almond slices and they are ready to serve!

The final side was pheasant two ways. Since the main was ham, we had to have a side of bird!

We ordered a couple of these:
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I treated them with my standard whole bird partial backbone removal……
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Next up they went in a 2% by weight turbinado sugar brine (36 hours)….you can see these two would fit on a single plate….
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Once pulled from the brine they got trusted (tight to protect the end of the breast) and coated with two different rubs…..one with kinders the other with Jeff P. Rub (modified).
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They were also cooked in two ways…….
The sweet rub was put in the RT @ 265 and smoked……

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The savory rub was put in the top rack of the Webber (ran out of ovens…..lol…..) @ 375….
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Once the smoked one hit INT 130 it got basted with a reduced honey, maple syrup, bourbon butter sauce (equal parts reduced by 1/2…thick)…..
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The finished birds. Note they were both coked to a INT of 150/160 legs…..
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We made the blackberry reduction for the ham but it went perfectly on the mini birds…..

The verdict is I think we may be doing ham with these side next year as well! It was a nice change from the traditional. It was also fun to make new items and pare them together!
 
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There is a lot of good looking food in those photos.
Thanks Chris and the crazy thing is we wanted to simplify but it ended up being oven heavy in the end…..we used both house ovens the RT smoker and the Weber and still had to round Robin things and ended up holding some items in the Weber cause I could have it run at 150 easily……I have convinced myself I need a electric smoker/oven now!
 
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That's a whole heap of edible goodness right there Cortney. Beautiful work and congratulations my friend.


Point for sure
Chris

BTW what's with the pimiento's lately. I hadn't seen nor heard of them for decades, and now they're slowly taking over SMF.
 
Wow! Again congrats and enjoy the new RFX. That all looks so good and the color on that bird is so nice.
 
Serious meal there civil! Excellent work 👏

POINTS 👍
Thanks scholz!
Looks great . Love the small cast iron pans for side dishes .
Many thanks chop! Yea the mini CI are really cool for sides. As an FYI I had some old oil in them so did a quick soap sand down and then did a new season in the Weber to freshen them up.
CS, Wow and Wow again! Great sides, birds and a nifty RFX that looks killer.
Much appreciated CM! I was quite surprised on how well everything came together and I'm really excited to test out the RFX for sure!
 
That's a whole heap of edible goodness right there Cortney. Beautiful work and congratulations my friend.


Point for sure
Chris

BTW what's with the pimiento's lately. I hadn't seen nor heard of them for decades, and now they're slowly taking over SMF.
Thanks Chris! Needless to say we had some feasting!

Oh, and yea it's been a long time since we have had pimiento butter and not sure why we did it other than we had some pimientos in the fridge the wife wanted to use so bingo it was a thing. I had to resist even mentioning it due to the voting as all the other threads were happining..... LOL
Outstanding!
Many thanks CKD!
Wow! Again congrats and enjoy the new RFX. That all looks so good and the color on that bird is so nice.
Much appreciated TexKd! I have eyeing a the RFX for a while so I'm really excited to give them a go!
 
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