Going Coastal Recipe: Texas Smokehouse Soup
According to legend, Brunswick Stew was first created in Brunswick Bounty, Virginia in the 1820’s. The original recipe varies vastly from the contemporary. That first stew was made with squirrel, stale bread and butter while today’s stew is made using potatoes, chicken and corn. It is the perfect day-after recipe for that weekend cookout as it’s prime ingredients are usually leftovers. This is why it is a staple at BBQ joints from Charlotte to Tulsa.
When I ran the kitchen at Mars Hill Cafe I did a variation on a theme with Brunswick Stew that replaced the chicken with brisket, smoked sausage and smoked turkey meat or pulled pork, replaced the potatoes with kidney beans and replaced the corn with Cajun trinity (onions, celery and bell pepper). Too add to the BBQiness of the soup I use BBQ sauce in the broth. Since BBQ along the Third Coast tends towards walking meat as to flying meat this recipe is better matched to our lifestyle. The beauty of this soup is that you can use any smoked/grilled meat – chicken, turkey, brisket, beef ribs, steak, ham, pork ribs, chops, pulled pork and even leftover burgers. You’ll find the recipe is a perfect use of Fourth of July leftovers. Happy July 4th!
Texas Smokehouse Soup
4 ounces diced smoked sausage
1 tablespoon canola oil
1 tablespoon butter
1 medium onion,chopped
3 stalks celery, chopped
2 bell peppers, chopped
4 ounces diced smoked brisket or beef rib meat
4 ounces chopped smoked turkey and/or 4 ounces pulled pork
2 quarts beef broth
1 15-ounce can diced tomatoes with liquid
1 15-ounce can kidney or pinto beans
1 teaspoon smoked paprika
1 tablespoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon chipotle chili powder
1 6-ounce can tomato paste
1 cup BBQ sauce; adjust for taste
1/2 teaspoon liquid smoke (optional)
1 teaspoon Worcestershire Sauce
Salt & pepper to taste
In a large soup pot render the sausage over medium heat until browned. Add the trinity (onions, celery & bell pepper) and sauté for roughly five minutes or just until soft. Then add remaining meats and cook for another 5 minutes. Pour in half of the beef broth, the diced tomatoes, the beans, smoked paprika, garlic powder, chipotle chili powder then simmer for 15 minutes. Stir in half the tomato paste, the BBQ sauce, liquid smoke (if using), Worcestershire sauce and salt & pepper to taste. Simmer for another 10 minutes. Taste! If the soup is too thick add some of the remaining beef broth. If the soup is too thin add more tomato paste. Serve with Texas toast.
Next Iron Chef 4 Lineup Announced
This cast is sick! Easily the best line-up since NIC 1 which included John Besh, Aaron Sanchez, Chris Cosentino and eventual winner Michael Symon to name a few. Here’s the official press release:
Food Network Selects Roster of Ten Superstar Chefs for the Ultimate Culinary Battle – Each Looking to Become The Next Iron Chef.
Elite Chefs Go Knife-to-Knife in High-Stakes Challenge to Become ‘The Next Iron Chef’
Hosted by Alton Brown, Season Four Set to Premiere Sunday, October 30th at 9pm ET/PT
NEW YORK – April 18, 2011 – Food Network, the leader in food and lifestyle entertainment, today announced the all-star casting and start of production for the ultimate season of The Next Iron Chef. Slated for premiere on Sunday, October 30th at 9pm ET/PT, Alton Brown will again host this 8-episode, top-rated series, which will shoot in Los Angeles and New York. The elite cast includes ten renowned chefs:
- Anne Burrell – Secrets of a Restaurant Chef, Worst Cooks in America (Food Network)
- Michael Chiarello – Bottega Restaurant (Napa Valley), Easy Entertaining with Michael Chiarello (Cooking Channel)
- Elizabeth Faulkner – Citizen Cake, Orson (San Francisco), Iron Chef America – challenger (Food Network)
- Alex Guarnaschelli – Butter, The Darby (New York), Alex’s Day Off, Chopped (Food Network)
- Chuck Hughes – Garde Manger (Montreal), Chuck’s Day Off (Cooking Channel), Iron Chef America – challenger (Food Network)
- Robert Irvine – Robert Irvine’s eat! (Hilton Head Island), Dinner: Impossible, Restaurant: Impossible, Worst Cooks in America (Food Network)
- Beau MacMillan – Sanctuary on Camelback Mountain (Phoenix), Challenge, Iron Chef America – challenger (Food Network)
- Spike Mendelsohn – Good Stuff Eatery (Washington D.C.), Kelsey & Spike Cook (Food2.com)
- Marcus Samuelsson –Red Rooster Harlem (New York), 24 Hour Restaurant Battle, Chopped (Food Network)
- Geoffrey Zakarian – The National, The Lambs Club (New York), 24 Hour Restaurant Battle, Chopped (Food Network)
Judges include the original ‘Next Iron Chef’ Michael Symon, esteemed food journalist Simon Majumdar and UK Iron Chef Judy Joo.
In The Next Iron Chef, the contestants bet on their culinary skills and put their reputations on the line for the chance to compete in legendary Kitchen Stadium. The winner will join the ranks of chefs including Bobby Flay, Marc Forgione, Jose Garces, Masaharu Morimoto and Symon as a member of the Chairman’s team on Iron Chef America.
Hmm, no mention of Cat Cora. Very curious, perhaps she is leaving ICA?
Be sure to read my interviews with NIC1 winner Michael Symon HERE, NIC3 winner Marc Forgione HERE and Chopped judge and NIC4 contestant Alex Guarnaschelli HERE.
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7 Questions with Tom Pizzica
7 Questions is a series of interviews with the culinary movers and shakers you want or ought to know better.
In the history of Next Food Network Star few people have captured America’s heart like NFNS 6 runner-up Tom Pizzicia. Tom’s down-on-his-luck story was brightened by his genuinely jovial attitude. In case you don’t recall Tom was unemployed when filming began, another victim of this never-ending recession. Something about his Teddy Bear lovableness resonated with NFNS viewers like no one in the show’s past.
Also in the history of NFNS no one has ever prepared a dish as bad as the “bacon steak” Tom made as the centerpiece of his Iron Chef challenge. A dish so bad that Food Network VP Bob Tuschman officially proclaimed it the worst recipe in the history of the show. You would think with that kind of praise he would have surely been bounced early in the series but the reality is he dang near won, a tribute to his resilience.
I recently spoke with Pizzica’s friend and fellow NFNS runner-up Herb Mesa who spoke well of his pal mentioning, “. . . what I loved about Tom, Tom’s creativity. Tom would swing for the fences. When his food was on it was amazing. . .”
Luckily, the Food Network has discovered that just because someone does not win the competition doesn’t mean their viewers have washed their hands of them. Aaron McCargo Jr. won NFNS 4 and the series that comes with it but contestants Adam Gertler and Kelsey Nixon have their own shows as well. The same is true for NFNS 5 runner-up Jeffrey Saad. The same appears to be true for NFNS 6 as Aarti got her series by virtue of being the winner but Mesa and Tom are still both part of the FN family. Herb writes a blog for the Food Network web site and Tom is set to host Outrageous Foods.
Tom Pizzica is also set to answer 7 Question:
1. How old were you when you first started to cook?
I think I may have cooked up my own placenta! But really I remember being about six or so and helping my mother with the occasional dinner parties she would throw and I remember being about seven and cooking up my first solo batch of fried eggs and toast while my mother was away on business and my step father was asleep in the bedroom. I immediately was hooked because it was such a great sense of freedom.2. You’re working on a new show for the network entitled “Outrageous Food.” How does it differ from the special that Aaron McCargo Jr. hosted last spring?
It’s actually going to be the exact same show with a different host. The special was done to whet the appetite of viewers and to see how well it would do, I guess it did well because they gave us 8 episodes. It’s produced by Page Productions who are the same masterminds behind the networks #1 show Diners Drive-ins and Dives so I know I’m in good hands.
3. Which chefs have influenced you the most?
I think my favorite is Jaques Pepin as far as the “famous” chefs go but for the most part its the talented unsung heroes that whipped my butt and taught me how to be a good cook that are the celebrity chefs and not some dudes that wrote 17 books that I’ve never met.
4. When you look back at the last year or so of your life what goes through your mind?
The scene from “Old School” where Will Ferrell’s character busts out that incredible argument at the debate and then goes “what happened?! I blacked out.”
5. How many times a week does someone ask you about “bacon steak?”
Oh the bacon steak…how I love thee. I get hit up on facebook all the time about it. I love it. It’s been perfected at home via my trusty pressure cooker. I actually want to hit up the Executive producer of “Next Food Network Star” and see if I can make a guest judge appearance where the challenge is to make the best bacon dish. I love that I took the title from Gertler for having the single worst dish in Food Star history! It’s all fun.
6. You and Brad Sorenson both strike me as pranksters. Were there any practical jokes that the cameras didn’t catch?
We were all too tired for shenanigans like that. Ya know that tired where things cease to be funny and become annoying. We did do a lot of jovial trash talking to each other that wasn’t shown however.
7. After “Outrageous Food” premieres what’s next for Big Chef?
Hopefully 15 more seasons of Outrageous Food! But I’ve been on the road so much that the immediate future after the premiere is hanging with my new wife and close friends, a lot of couch surfing and catching up on “Jersey Shore”!!!
Fellow food blogger and 7 Questions alum, Hagan Blount worked with Tom on the set of Outrageous Foods so check out his blog of the scene. Sneak Peek Sunday, October 31, at 10p/9c; Show Premiere Friday, November 5, at 10p/9c
