Huli Huli Chicken and Korean BBQ Shortribs

So what do these two meats have in common? Well, at first glance, not a lot. Only that I used the same marinade for both of them and they were grilled side by side.

one of my co-workers told me about this fantastic marinade her family from Hawaii use to make Huli Huli Chicken. She usually just adds a little of this and a little of that but decided to measure so she could tell me what to do.

Huli Huli stands for "turn turn" in Hawaiian and refers to turning the chicken on the grill. I looked at varying recipes on the internet and found some basic ingredients and then those added ingredients individuals use to personalize the marinade.
















The basic marinade as told to me by LM is listed below.

You can't be garlic shy as there are 10 cloves, coarsely chopped in this recipe.
4-5 green onions sliced
2 Tbsp minced ginger
2-3 cups soy sauce
1/4 cup vinegar (I used rice vinegar)
1/4 cup brown sugar (I added more- 1/2 cup)
2 tsp onion powder
1 tsp garlic powder (as if I needed more garlic)
3 tbsp toasted sesame seeds
1 tbsp oil (I used olive oil)

All ingredients are blended together. Marinade chicken pieces at least 24 hours assuring it is well coated.

Remove chicken from marinade (throw it out). BBQ/grill over hot coals, turning and turning. The best part is the crispy almost burnt skin with a sweet, salty, garlicky flavor. Do not baste the chicken during cooking.

Alternatives which may be added to the sauce include curry powder, pineapple juice, thai garlic sauce, sherry wine for the vinegar, honey for the brown sugar, ketsup and lime juice,to taste.

I had some unused marinade which I used for some Korean beef short ribs I purchased Saturday. These were also marinaded for 24 hours and grilled til done.

Weekend Dog Blogging #70

Ziggy on a Sunday Afternoon amd Mommie wants to take my picture again for WDB.

Actually it has been a fairly low key day. I did a little shopping for next weeks "Throw Down" and I finished the prep of some Korean short ribs and also a specially marinaded chicken for tonights dinner. That will be a separate post later if all comes out well. I am using a recipe given to me by a co-worker for authentic Huli Huli Chicken. Thank you LM.


Sweetnicks hosts Weekend Dog Blogging

Getting Ready For Superbowl Sunday

One of our good friends (B)challenged me to a Bobby Flay style Throw down with BBQ on center stage.

B has been trying to master his BBQ skills for years. With attention to detail, a few tried recipes and the right equipment he thinks his Que can match up to or is even better than mine. How did this challenge start? Well, this past October Four Q BBQ competed in the Imperial Beach, Beachfront 2006 event in San Diego (may I add, 1st Place Pork Butt, 2nd Place Brisket and 3rd Place Chicken). B came out to give us support and to see what this competition thing is all about. As grown folks do when sitting around with friends and family, someone always seems to offer that they can do something better. Yea, B says he'll can match up his que to mine anyday. From this evolved the "Throw down Challenge".

We set the date to revolve around Superbowl Sunday as there would be lots of hungry bellies and an arena of unbiased judges. The host of the party are M and D. It's a tradition now for them to host a Superbowl party. The flyers have been sent out and this is advertised as:

The Competition You’ve Been Waiting For
!!!A Low-N-Slow Barbeque Throw Down!!!

SYLVIE “BRING IT ON”
VS.
B “I’VE GOT BARBEQUE”

The rules are simple, just cook your own que. We are doing brisket, pork butt, ribs and chicken. We do the cookin at B and G's home and then cart all the meats to M and D's. Stay tuned for more on this great event.

Yippee- Crisco's Trans Fats Are Gone

I am going to get off this subject after this post. Crisco products no longer will have trans fats. Good and flaky pie dough lives on. This was announced this week by the J.M. Smucker Company. It's just a matter of time before many others follow suit.

Trans Fat- What's Going To Happen To Choice?

Just an FYI in case you're not keeping up with what is going on in the food choice world. The below article was published in the L.A. Times last week (1/11/07). Basically what it boils down to is that some cities like New York have banned trans fats in restaurant food(as a side line- some cities like Chicago have banned foie gras- duck/goose abuse?). Banning of trans fats is targeted at saving us from heart disease, minimizing financial burdens on health care systems and protecting our children from these diseases.

Yes we know trans fats aren't good for us and so are a lot of other things like excessive alcohol, high saturated fat diets, excessive sugar, cigarrette smoking, junk food and the list goes on. But what is important is that you have a choice. As long as you know it is present (labeling is a must) you can make your own decision on whether to ingest. You can only hurt yourself physically (and a few loved ones as a consequence). Banning trans fats means no choice. Some would argue that many in the U.S. can not make the "right" choice and so they need beauracrats to do it for them. I believe trans fats are bad, should not be eaten, are hazardous to your health and I make a choice to limit how much I ingest. I do not believe it is a matter of law. As noted in the article- what will be banned next- butter? cream? cheese? or even bacon?

I don't ordinarily get on a soap box and voice my opinions but this prompted me. I'm willing to bet you are all aware of the hazards of trans fats in our diet, but do you think there should be laws against their use in our food supply or should you have a choice based on informed decision making?

L.A. County to study trans fat ban
Feasibility of keeping the ingredient out of restaurant foods will be reviewed with industry and health groups.
From the Associated Press
January 11, 2007


The government war on trans fat, started when New York City banned it from restaurant food, has reached Los Angeles.

County supervisors have voted to study the feasibility of banning artificial trans fats from restaurants, and the City Council in December had asked for a similar report on at least restricting it.

"I'm very concerned about the whole trans fat issue," Supervisor Yvonne Brathwaite Burke said after Tuesday's vote for the study. "Every time I buy something, I look to see if it has trans fat."

Public health officials will be asked to review the issue with the restaurant industry and community health organizations, and to study whether the county can regulate trans fats at restaurants countywide or just in unincorporated areas.

Jot Condie, president of the 22,000-member California Restaurant Assn., said he's open to suggestions but believes banning something widely used in homes "has more cons than pros."

"What's next? Butter, cheese or anything that has saturated fat, which accounts for 15% of the average American diet, and also is not healthy, but that also needs to be taken in moderation?" Condie asked.

Since last January, the Food and Drug Administration has required that trans fat content be listed on all packaged foods. Trans fats, listed on food labels as partially hydrogenated vegetable oil, are believed to be harmful because they wreak havoc with cholesterol levels.

Last year, the New York City Board of Health voted to ban trans fats in restaurants and to require food labels on menus at all chain restaurants that already provide calorie information.

Weekend Dog Blogging

With a very cold chill (for Los Angeles anyway), Ziggy is keeping an eye on what's going on outside. Ziggy has gotten use to not having a housefull of eager folks ready to offer him a treat.

This week hasn't been a very big cooking week for me. I have a freezer full of leftovers to get through so I feel guilty about buying anything else. G and I are spending a lot of time trying to redecorate the family room and convert it into a "media" room. That equates to lots of driving all over the city trying to agree on choices and ending the day with a quick meal at some local eatery. The family room was actually a place for the kids (young adults) to hang out. As things go over the years they have trashed the furniture as they made it into their space. G and I finally took it back and now it's time to make it work for us.

Thanks Cate at Sweetnicks for another weekend of dog blogging. See all the other cuties from all over the world at her site.

More Greater Los Angeles Food Blog Sites

Food related blogs have been popping up all over the internet. I have been blogging for nearly two years now. When I first started, I was surprised by how few blogs there were. Even more surprising were the limited number of blogs from Los Angeles based writers. From memory, in 2005 there were specific geographic areas in the U.S. with very strong food blogging comraderie. Seattle and San Francisco to name the leaders at that time. New York was also a strong contender. Well that has all changed with the number of food related blogs continuing to grow daily all over the U.S. in strikingly great numbers.

In October 2005, Rachel at Fresh Approach wrote a response to a Los Angeles Times food section article disclosing a few more L.A. sites that were disclosed in the article. Again Rachel wrote in December 2005 regarding Scott Martelle's excellent article on "Blogging L.A." where three L.A. bloggers were highlighted.

Yes we have come a long way. Amy Scattergood's article "Celebs, gossip! Sure, we'll bite" media dish article in the January 3, 2007 L.A. Times noted 23 L.A. based food blogs. She wrote of a few of my favorites including the Delicious Life, Professor Salt (my BBQ Team mate "Go Four Q")and Oishieats. Many of the other blogs noted I had not visited so I took the opportunity to introduce myself. Interestingly I found myself visiting these new blogs in addition to links they had to other L.A. food blogging sites. Of note is that one site L.A. Digesty just happened to list 16/23 sites proclaimed to have food "News, Reviews and Gossip". The other 7 were noted on most of the blogrolls for the other 16 sites. L.A. Disgesty descibes the site as a "portal for the great Los Angeles food web sites" with reasonable criteria to be included- just routinely blog in L.A. primarily about places to eat and ask to be listed.

With that in mind, I thought it would be nice to list some other greater Los
Angeles blogs which may be of interest to you though some may not offer gossip, reviews or news, it's all good food. My only disclaimer is that I do not suggest that all sites are good and as of the time of this post, they were active sites though some may not post very often. In alphabetical order:

...and eat your green
...my burning kitchen
Bakingsheet
BBQ Junkie
Best of LA Good Eats
Colorado Chow
Daily Gluttony
Eat Drink and Be Merry
Fresh Approach
Good Luck deluxe
Grub Club
Immaeatchu
LA and OC Foodventures
LA Food Crazy
La Vida Dulce
Chowhound LA Area Tips for Dining
Manja Manja
Meet Me at the corner of third and..
Mikey Hates Everything
Monster Munching
Oh So Yummy
Peanut Butter Etouffee
Peru Food
Rate A Restaurant
Slow Food LA
Soul Fusion Kitchen
The Hungry Cat
The New Diner
The Survival Gourmet

Weekend Dog Blogging- Ziggy and Wendi With Tony

Tony really loves animals. He runs around the house with them like he was a little kid. Here he is with Ziggy and Wendi (my sister's maltese). Wendi is a layed back, just cuddle me little girl. Ziggy drives her nuts because he is a very energetic, want to play little boy.

Sweetnicks hosts weekend dog blogging where we can brag about our precious babies.

Resolution

It came to my attention that there are a number of food blogs in Southern California/Los Angeles/South Bay/San Fernando Valley/Orange County/Inland Empire that I had never heard about nor visited. My resolution for this next week is to become acquainted with them. I'm starting my venture with those listed in the January 3rd Food Section of the L.A. Times.

This should be a fun experience.

Dinner is Served- Have A Blessed New Year

New Year's feast for fortune and luck.
Black eyed Peas with Hamhocks
Oxtail Stew
Southern Greens
Cornbread

New Year's Day Dinner In Progress

My New Year's Day dinner menu is a combination of simple soul foods. Black eyed peas, southern green, oxtail stew, cornbread and rice. This is the same menu as last year's with a post from Jan 1, 2006 on the significance of the choices and the recipes. Everything is currently cooking so here is my dinner in progress. Come back for a view of the all the dishes ready to serve.

Ingredients
Veggies ready to flavor

Ox tails browning after a dusting with flour seasoned with salt and pepper
Southern green simmering in a broth with hamhocks, onion, salt, pepper, garlic, red pepper and bay leaf
Black eyed peas simmering in a broth with hamhocks, onion, celery, bell pepper, garlic, salt and pepper