Cooking aboard or outdoors

A lady Wiccan! She cooks a mean witches brew.

 

My wife wanted to visit a sister who lives only a few miles away. A terrible thunder storm delayed the excursion. Once the storm passed, the streets were inundated with water, some streets flooded two feet deep. I didn't want to drive in these conditions, so we called a cab. Upon arrival at my sister-n-laws home, the taxisto wanted 200 pesos for a normally 50 peso trip. He was entitled to more money because of the rain and flooding, and scarcity of taxis running. Probably thought he could demand more because I'm a gringo.
My wife and her sister flanked him, and proceeded to give him a piece of their minds. After only a few minutes of the verbal abuse, the hapless and helpless driver escaped in his taxi, abandoning the fare.
They are indeed two fine ladies. But if you provoke them? God help you.

 

Pobrecito taxisto.

 

pobrecito pendejo! I don't feel at all sorry for him. Tried to gouge us!

 

Got two Tuna steaks all thawed out and ready to do something with. I was thinking of smoking then in the outdoor oven over coals instead of using the gas. That and I've got some eel I been meaning to cook up. Maybe do some rice, not sure about veggies, I'll have to go see whats easy at the market

 

Concerning homemade BBQs...I just went to a marine BBQ and the BBQ was constructed out of an old alloy beer keg cut in half then hindged. Very elegant and practicle.

 

Guys where I work built a rig for cooking whole pigs.

They took a fat old propane or butane tank, mounted it on a trailer and cut a door in it. Then they welded a lip so the door would seat, added a charcoal grate, and installed an electric motor and gearing to turn a spit. It gets passed around between employees, retirees, friends and community organizations.. This fall my co-workers did a Jeep run that I didn't get to go on because I was working, and a couple of guys went out early and started a pig so it would be ready when everyone pulled in.

 

I've seen some very weird and wonderful Greek contraptions for slow roasting lamb.
Most were inelegant, and the electrics looked bloody dangerous, but they worked on the day

 

It's been years since I went whole hog. Used to be lots of old bed springs around with an angle iron frame. we'd cut off the springs and keep the frame. Dig a pit about 18 inches deep and as big as the bed frame. Fill pit full of live oak chunks. Not the best BBQ wood, but it's what we had in florida.
Burns down to bed of coals in about an hour.
We'd hammer a forked branch into the ground at each corner.
Pig was gutted and washed, scalded and scraped in a 55 gal drum on a angle.
Hog gets spread eagled in bedframe, tying feet to corners with bailing wire. Fence stretcher used to tighten him up.
Frame rests on crotched limbs at pit corners. About every 15 minutes, 2 men lift and flip frame with pig over, toast his other side. Took all day to cook. About 6 to 7 hours on fire.
Real tasty, and feeds a mob.
Pig weight before killing and dressing, 60 to 70 lbs.

 

In Greece ,Ive seen MEGA traveling BBQs. tractor trailers with dozens of pigs, lamb skewered and roasting on the trailer as it slowly chugs from neighborhood to neighborhood, playing a typical tune on load speakers and tempting , torturing, innocent families with fantastic BBQ smells.

 

Mire al sarcasmo.

 

sin dudas. conosco sarcasmo cuando oye

 

Cooked up one of my standard breakfasts outside this morning, for me and my son who's helping me re-frame our house roof: chorizo con papas, Anglo style.

I diced up a couple of potatoes with the skins on, and browned them at high temp in just a little cooking oil. Added half an onion and a chopped bell pepper, turned the heat down to medium, and kept cooking until the potatoes were done through. Then I added the chorizo and a little chopped cilantro, stirred everything now and then until the chorizo was liquid and bubbling, then cracked four eggs on top of it all and slapped a lid on. When the eggs were about half done, I stirred them into the mixture until they set.

Elegant? No. Cheap and filling? You better believe it....

One of my other standards, that I usually do when out camping, is what the gal who showed it to me called a German farmers' breakfast. I'm not guaranteeing its ethnic authenticity, but it's another good, filling breakfast:

Cook up about half a pound of bacon in a large frying pan until it's crisp. Remove it from the pan and set aside, chop after it's cooled a little. Slice about four small boiled potatoes (cooked the night before) into the bacon grease, along with a chopped onion. When the onions look done, chop the bacon, add it back to the pan and bring everything back up to temperature. Then sprinkle enough flour into the pan to soak up the bacon grease, stir well, and keep cooking for a while to get rid of the raw flour taste. Add milk and stir thoroughly, bring to a simmer, and cook until the the gravy thickens.

Crack half a dozen eggs on top of everything. If you're at home, run the pan under an oven broiler until the eggs are done. If you're at camp, slap a lid on it until the eggs have set.

If you guesstimated the proportions of everything right, you'll be able to cut it into slices like a pie. If it's looser than that, just spoon it into the plates.

 

Love chorizo anyway ya cook it.

 

you guys shoulda tried some of this tuna I cooked up today.

Take two blue fin tuna steaks found in the bottom of the freezer from what has to be at least a year ago. thaw and cut into cubes about 3/4" each side. marinade in whiskey, soy sauce, olive oil, chili oil, and pepper for about 6 hours. Or enough time to let the alcohol kill off any potentially life threatening bacteria. Cook on low in a wok and serve over rice.

I'll let you know how it went in the morning.

that guy with the cast iron stomach
B