Husk Bar 3/10/2015

The four of us had an awesome dinner at Fulton Five (highly recommend a visit) and then, since we hadn't gotten downtown in time for pre-dinner drinks, we decided, what the hell - after dinner drinks!

Of course Husk Bar was the first choice.  Daryl (hope I spelled that right) and Brian were there working their asses off making the delicious and unique, but complicated drinks.  We of course had Ham on a Plate (technically barrel stave but I keep calling it by its original name).  Lovely slices of salt cured Virginia ham.  We also had the pimento cheese.

The beers were Westbrook and Highland.  Ox had a barrel aged Manhattan which is my go to drink.  They combine Bourbons and other ingredients and age for over a month.  Updated regularly and if you like whiskey, you'll love these.

The ladies tried a couple unique drinks that tasted great, but I didn't write them down and no one's around to remind me what they were, so maybe a later update.

Who am I kidding - I'll never remember to update this.

Anyway...

Go to Fulton Five (make a reservation) and got to Husk Bar.  In fact, go to both!  It makes for a perfect food and drink night.

P.S. Don't let Fulton Five not getting a lot of ink in this post make you think they don't deserve recognition, but this is a Sean Brock stalker blog after all...

Chicken Simply Roasted in a Skillet - Page 109

This is one of the easiest and delicious recipes we've done.  The hardest parts are breaking down the chicken (if you've never done it) and having enough skillets.  Neither of these were a problem for us, since Ox didn't drop out of culinary school until after the chicken butchering lessons.  As to cast iron skillets, some may say I have too many, but I don't talk to those people.  I love my skillets and am obsessed with prepping and maintaining them.  I love finding a totally rusted out skillet at a flea market or garage sale and lovingly bringing it back to life.  Hang on a second, I need to go admire my collection.....

Thanks for bearing with me...

We started with a beautiful Keegan Fillion whole chicken which Ox "expertly" quartered (somehow I had difficulty getting a picture that didn't look obscene.)  Seriously, this is the LEAST creepy picture.  The bird wasn't completely unfrozen so that caused some difficulties breaking it down, but Ox powered through it.

The recipe calls for a Garlic Confit that made me drool just thinking about it.  It takes 30 minutes in the oven, which delayed dinner since we missed that part.  I'm literally starving as I write this.  If this blog post trails off to nothingness, it's because I passed out.  Kinda like the Castle Arrrrrg dude in Monty Python and The Holy Grail.

It wouldn't be a Sean Brock recipe if it didn't use 2 cast iron skillets, all the burners and set off the smoke alarms.  Though to be honest, I'm pretty sure the smoke alarms are Ox's fault.  The recipe also involved a complex, two pan deglaze/roux building process that made perfect sense once you did it.  I may use two pans for all my cooking.  The results were quite spectacular.  A beautiful, rich, and tasty sauce over perfectly cooked chicken.  We (Ox) may have over-confitted (made up word of the day) the garlic, but it was actually like garlic candy - chewy and caramel like.

This is our first foray into attempting to upload a video and it is not going well.  I'm actually writing this while I wait for the video converting software that I don't know how to use to finish converting, combining and compressing the videos.  Apparently blogger doesn't accept full HD videos with file sizes in the terabyte size range.  Here's the attempt:

Brewvival

Unrelated to the book - but interesting nonetheless.  The best beer festival EVER is Brewvival put on by Coast Brewing and the Charleston Beer Exchange.  These are the beers we tried and Kirk's rating of them...

2010 Barrel-Aged Blackbeerd	COAST	10
The Notorious P.I.G.	Holy City	10
Rum Barrel-Aged Anfernee	Westbrook	10
Four Roses Barrel-Aged Finisher	Conquest	9.5
Brown Chicken Brown Cow	Holy City	9
French Toasted Wake-n-Bake	Terrapin	8.5
Holy COAST	Holy City	8
Bourbon Barrel-Aged Arrogant Bastard Ale	Stone	8
Stochasticity Project: Master of Disguise	Stone	8
2012 Brown Shugga	Lagunitas	7.5
Passion Project	Stone	7.5
Duck-Rabbator Dopplebock	Duck-Rabbit	7.5
Batch 1,000	Westbrook	7.5
Islander IPA	Coronado	7
Tequila Barrel-Aged Spicy Nachos	Evil Twin	7
Mosaic Promise	Founders	7
Lucky Oyster Stout (randallized)	Freehouse	7
Bearded Workman	Frothy Beard	7
Ristretto Cosmic Black Lager	Green Flash	7
Wild G’Knight Imperial Red IPA	Oskar Blues	7
Smuttlabs Ol' Grundy Humper	Smuttynose	7
Enjoy By IPA 3-14-15	Stone	7
Hop Selection (cask)	Terrapin	7
Welder's Wood	Tradesman	7
Warrior Heart IPA w/ hops and strawberries	Conquest	6.5
Barrel-Aged McRooney's Scotch Ale	Highland	6.5
Mucho Muy Amigo	Holy City	6.5
Ville Moyenne	Holy City	6.5
Commercial Suicide	Jester King	6.5
Blackbeerd w/ peppers and chocolate (cask)	COAST	6
Smoked Rye Pale	COAST	6
2010 Pangaea	Dogfish Head	6
2012 Noble Rot	Dogfish Head	6
Pinner Throwback IPA	Oskar Blues	6
Paul's Working Holiday (cask)	Duck-Rabbit	6
Saison X	Jolly Pumpkin	5.5
Errogenous Rhone	Against the Grain	5
Grand Cru	Anderson Valley	4
Hop Rocks (cask)	Fullsteam	2

Husk BBQ Sauce - Page 236

Second stage of Very Husk Superbowl!  This was also quite easy, just mixing and cooking until reduced.  Tastes delicious!  Very smoky and tangy.

Husk BBQ Rub - Page 311

It's a Very Husk Superbowl!  We're having Husk Cheeseburgers, Husk Wings and Carolina Ice Cream!  Ox trusted me to make a half batch of the BBQ Rub without supervision, probably because it's just mixin' stuff.  I was pissed that the paprika we brought back from Hungary wasn't smoked, so we had to buy some locally for the rub.  It would have been cool to use paprika bought at the source.

Here's the picture:

Fried Chicken and Gravy - Page 101

This recipe is quite a production!  Overnight brining, buttermilk marinade, breading, then frying.  Oh, and by the way, you have to render fat from the skins and combine it with lard for frying.  But wait, you also have to flavor the oil by cooking bacon in it and then straining it.  Super simple!  I'm really hoping this is going to be awesome.

The good news is that Ox is doing all the prep and most of the cooking, so there's not too much for me to screw up...except the pictures.  Forgot my good camera and my phone only sees in tones of yellow.  At least it's not an iPhone (just had to have that spelling explained to me - I hate them even more.)  Here's a lovely picture of the chicken marinating - yum :(  At least the real thing looks good.

Ox is very happy that he got to use his new fry thermometer that his sister-in-law got him for Christmas.  It very handily told us how hot the oil that was pouring out of the pan and on to the burner was - 320F for the record.  No fire occured, by some miracle.

The major dilemma was that the pan couldn't do the whole batch at once, and you add butter for the last couple minutes.  We'll have to see what batch two looks like in the buttered oil.  The first batch was frickin' beautiful.  Perfectly golden brown with the lovely dark spots from contact with the skillet.

The gravy recipe was simple and easy.  We liked the idea of the soy sauce.  After tasting though, the chicken totally didn't need it.  The flavor of the sweet tea brine really came through in the incredibly tender chicken.  So Much Juice!

Wild Ramp and Crab Stuffed Hushpuppies with Green Goddess Dressing - Page 78

Ox decided to violate the recipe guidelines and fry this in the same fat from the Fried Chicken recipe.  I feel that this is cheating and urged him to have two separate pots of red hot fat on his stove and to stop being a wuss.  He was petulantly unwilling to see the light of reason.  I relented when he pointed out that it was his house, his food and that he was cooking, so if I wanted to eat...I mean, I'm not a martyr.

Ox made home-made mayonnaise for the Green Goddess dressing, using an Alton Brown recipe.  He said it was easy.

Holy crap!  The first hushpuppie literally flipped itself in the fryer!  It was like magic.  Maybe the rest will do it too...spell check doesn't like hushpuppy.  Thinks it should be pushpin.  Okay, the hushpuppies not only flip themselves when they're ready but they form themselves into perfectly round balls.  Sean Brock Magic!

This was the perfect day to make these.  Sports radio keeps talking about balls - tacky balls, old balls, soft balls (Deflategate).  Now I get to talk about puppy balls.

These were amazingly delicious.  The four minute kicker in the oven resulted in light fluffy insides with crispy, golden exteriors.  Lovely with the Green Goddess Dressing.