Jack Daniels World Championship BBQ

Ubon's was one of 78 teams drawn to participate in the 20th annual Jack Daniels World Championship BBQ Contest. This invitation only contest featured teams from all over the world. We were one of 2 teams from Mississippi. We were in good company. I think we felt a little intimidated as soon as we pulled up next to the creek there in Lynchburg. We were fairly prepared to face the weather: 55 degrees and raining. Much different from where we qualified: 115 and sunny. I think we represented Mississippi well. We brought home a 2nd place trophy in the Jack Daniels Pork category.

We went old school. Warm Ubon's painted it onto our pork entry. Ain't no school like the old school.

Diamond D got me thinking!

This Barbeque Season has been busy for us. We've cooked in: Vidalia, LA (1st place hog), Madison, MS (2nd ribs, 3rd shoulder) and Cleveland, MS (4th rib, 1st hog, Grand Champions). It's been a good season and will continue to be as we get ready to head to the Jack next week.

We've touched base with some old friends and reestablished some old relationships. We've had time to strengthen our family/barbeque family relationships as well. This was our 13th year with the Campbell family. Our team has also met and gotten to know some new faces. We've spent the last weekend with our new team member Reggie. Reggie is awesome and I can't wait for you to meet him if you haven't already.

The last 3 weekends we've spent with Dr. Swinestein and Diamond D. These are some of the most amazing folks you'll run into. They are good spirited, funny and very talented.

Michael Wayne (Diamond D) started talking about his mama's Green Chili. I have been thinking about it for days now. Tracy (Diamond D also...and one of the finest bbq chicks ever) found me this recipe and I think it will be friday night supper for the crowd:

Sun of Nikki Chili Verde

Instructions:

Heat 2 tbsp Wesson oil
Brown 3 pounds cubed pork loin
Add ½ diced Vidalia onion
Add 1 can chicken broth
Add 3 tablespoons chicken base
Add 1 tablespoon hot Italian sausage mix
Bring to a boil - cook for 45 minutes

Dice one 27 oz can of green chili peppers

Then add 1/3 of green peppers with the following ingredients
½ lb tomatillos diced
5 Serrano peppers diced
2 packets of surgar
1.5 teaspoons garlic granules
1 teaspoon celery salt
½ teaspoon Mexican oregano
1 tablespoon cumin
4 jalapenos diced
1 can green enchilada sauce
6 tablespoons goya recaito sauce

Continue to cook for 1 hour then add the following ingredients:
1/3 of green peppers
1 teaspoon of hot green chili powder
1 teaspoon of mild green chili powder
2 teaspoons of cumin

30 minutes later add the following ingredients:
2 teaspoons of cumin
1 dash of hot green chili powder
1/3 chopped green peppers
Salt to taste
Cook additional 15-20 minutes

Ready to serve!

YUM! I'll let you know how it turns out.

Thanks Tracy!

Crab Bisque

Sunday night we had about a pound and a half of hand picked snow crab meat. I decided to make one of my favorite things...bisque.

I needed some seafood shells to make this work so I started a veloute:

1 stick of butter. 1/2 cup of flour. melt and stir until blonde. Add beef or chicken stock and allow to simmer. season. In a separate pot add olive oil and allow to heat. To the heated oil add coarsely chopped carrots, celery, and onion. Once they have browned, add shells from 2 lbs of shrimp/crab. Add 2 tablespoons of tomato paste and 2 teaspoon of paprika and continue to brown. Add 1 cup of white type wine to deglaze. AFter deglazing add your veloute.

This mixture needs to cook for about 45 minutes. add seasonings of choice and continue to taste through the process. After 45 minutes push your bisque through a sieve. it's important to both drain and to push all available flavor through.

Return to stove and continue to heat. Add 1/2 cup of cream. once the bisque is steaming add thawed corn, about a cup, cooked crab meat and shrimp. This will only need to heat gently. adjust seasoning with worchestishire, seasoned salt.

drizzle with sherry.

Yum. It's a little labor intensive but 100% worth the work.

The Jack and The Story

Today is a good day! We found out late this afternoon that we've been drawn for The Jack Daniels World Championship Barbeque Contest. This is a pretty big deal! It's been at least 10 years since our last trip to The Jack. This invitation only contest is held in Lynchburg, TN on the grounds of the world famous Jack Daniels Distillery.

On our last outing to The Jack I was still playing with our ribs. Heath and I decided that this was as good a time as any to do a bit of experimentation and for some reason we thought tequila flavored beer would be the key to winning. We came in last. Dead Last. Granted it was in a field of talented professionals, but still. LAST. I'll admit it: I cried. Like a whiney titty baby. If you think there's no crying in bbq, you're wrong. It was like being the last place Ms. Universe contestant. You know you can't be that bad, but you're still the biggest loser in the world.

About a month ago my daddy and I recorded an interview with The Story's Dick Gordon.
Daddy let me do most of the talking. OK, I did nearly all of the talking because I occasionally like to be the center of attention. Ha! The interview airs tomorrow night at 7:00 on Mississippi Public Broadcasting. If you can't catch this tomorrow night, please download the podcast.

A busy weekend

My cousin got married and Jacob was in the wedding. We catered both the wedding and the rehearsal. We had a great time. The wedding was beautiful. My friend Melanie handled all of the flowers and I think we made a good team! Most of the food was stuff you've seen the recipe here for. Except:

Marinated Cheese Salad:
1 lb cubed cheddar cheese, 1lb cubed pepper jack cheese, 1 can black olives, 1 can of artichoke hearts, 1 jar of roasted red peppers, 1 jar of green olives, 1 jar of pickled mushrooms. Mix together. For the marinade: 1 bottle of balsamic vinegar, 1 bottle of red wine vinegar, 1/2 cup sugar, 1 package ranch dressing seasoning, 1/2 cup of season 'tup. Allow to soak for at least 24 hours. If you're going to hold this salad for a while...and it will hold for a good while, wait for about 2 hours before serving to add cheese. It will start to dry out after a day or so.

Monday was Labor Day AND Jacob's birthday. We had a weekend of party food. Not that there's anything wrong with that!


Today, I felt a little down. I think sometimes that happens when I've been blown away and busy. When I've accomplished everything I needed to and have the chance to decompress, I find that the slow pace can be mistaken for being down. So tonight we needed something hearty, something different. I think mixed influences and took fusion to the limit. I'm thinking this was Greek sauce, Middle Eastern Meatballs and Semi-Indian vegetables. But, it seemed to work.

Sauce:
Blend together: 1 small container of cottage cheese, 1 cucumber, seeded, 1/2 cup of mint, salt, pepper, 1/2 cup of milk. It was simple and a great dipping sauce for the meatballs. I think it would work well as a summer salad dressing too.

Meatballs:
Mix together: 1 lb of ground lamb, 1lb ground beef, 1 cup mint leaves chopped, 1 shallot chopped, 1 teaspoon cilantro, 1/2 teaspoon cumin, 1/2 teaspoon season 'tup. Form into a patty and skewer with 2 bamboo skewers. A small skewer will hold about 3 of these patties. Grill for about 3 or 4 minutes per side. Ours weren't quite done so we microwaved for about 2 minutes.

Vegetables: slice mushrooms, zucchini, yellow squash, red bell pepper. salt and drizzle with olive oil. Microwave for about 7 minutes. Heat 1 can of coconut milk, 1 tablespoon mint, 1 teaspoon green curry, 1 teaspoon garam masala seasoning, 1 tablespoon splenda/sugar.

I think it was just what we needed.

X MAN

X MAN

Kansas City Barbeque Society Contest

We cooked this weekend in Madison, MS. We broke a long-standing Ubon's rule: Don't cook when it's hot. On Saturday evening I got in the car and it was 115 degrees. We cooked the 4 KCBS categories: chicken, beef, pork and ribs. We spent hours on chicken. My daddy has been cooking chicken my whole life. His daddy cooked chicken daddy's whole life. Sheesh! We experimented and tried and played and sampled. We looked at sample boxes, we played with how to place the chicken. In the end, we had 5 people sweating and threatening and spiting and cussing over some damn chicken! We didn't do too bad. We got an 8th place with the chicken we turned in.

Ultimately we borrowed a recipe from our friends over at Hebrew Hogs.
We marinated the chicken thighs over night in an acidic orange marinade:

5 cups of Ubon's BBQ sauce (OR 1 cup ketchup, 1 cup cider vinegar, 1 cup sugar, 1/2 cup hot sauce) and 2 cans of mandarin oranges, 1/2 cup of your favorite seasoning pureed in a food processor. Before smoking, we injected with an apple juice seasoning solution. We smoked our chicken for about 40 minutes and then finished on a charcoal fire. We used our rib sauce but any super sweet sauce that is warm from the grill will work. It's best if it isn't a super thick sauce. Dip the chicken into the sauce and return to the grill. repeat about 20 times.

Grillin for Life was a great contest. It was as hot as the very 3rd floor of hell, but we enjoyed the process. We finished up with 8th place chicken, 4th place brisket, 2nd place pork and 1st place ribs. Oh, and GRAND CHAMPION! So we're qualified for the draw for Jack Daniels in 2009. We had a great sponsor and look forward to working again with Smithfield. Our ribs were perfect. We're excited to be working with such an amazing product!

Next post: the X MAN movie!