Pellet Fired Crab Cakes

Whenever my business travels take me to Baltimore, MD, I am always on the lookout for a great crab cake.  I haven't been in over a year, so I've been having a craving for some good crab cakes.  This time around I'm baking them up on the Yoder pellet grill.  Here's the recipe that I use:

16 oz. Jumbo Lump Crab Meat
1 tsp. Old Bay Seasoning
2 eggs
2 tsp. Worcestershire Sauce
1/4 tsp. Dry Mustard
2 Tbsp. Mayo
1 tsp. Lemon Juice
1 Tbsp. Mustard
1 Tbsp. Melted Butter
1 tsp. Parsley Flakes
1/2 c Ritz Crackers, finely crushed.

Combine all the ingredients except the crab meat.  Fold in the crab meat, gently, so not to break up the lumps of crab meat.  Shape into cakes.  I baked these on the pellet grill at a grate temp of 375 until the internal temp was 165 degrees, maybe 15 minutes or so.  You can certainly pan fry them or broil them in the oven.  The pellet grill gave them a nice kiss of wood-fired flavor.  Here's a few pics of the process.

The crab cake mixture ready for forming into cakes

Baking away on the Yoder.  I used a Weber grill pan to make it easy getting the cakes off the grill.

The finished crab cakes.  They had a great wood-fired flavor!

Be sure to stay tuned for my review of the Home Tech Flavor Injector.  In the mean time, keep on smokin'!

Smoked Gyros

I was feeling a little creative this past weekend so I tried my hand at smoking up some gyros.  The recipe I used was courtesy of Alton Brown at Food Network.  Check the recipe here:

Alton Brown's Gyro Recipe

The only variations I made to the recipe was that I used one pound ground lamb and one pound ground chuck instead of going all lamb.  I smoked the gyro loaf fatty style at 250 until it reached an internal temp of 165.  Here's some shots of the process.

Gyro meat smokin' away on the Yoder

Slicing some gyro meat! Check out that smoke ring!

Gyro with tzatziki sauce, lettuce and tomato, wrapped in pita 

This was a great recipe and one that I will definitely make again.  I would recommend trying this one if you are looking to smoke up something besides the usual BBQ fare.

Yoder YS640 Testimonial for ATBBQ

As I have mentioned before, I recently had a great opportunity to share my experiences cooking on the Yoder YS640, with the folks at All Things BBQ for a testimonial video.  There was a lot of effort that went into this and I really appreciate the opportunity to help my friends out.  They were recording the entire BBQ experience from almost sun up to sun down.  I smoked a brisket, some ribs, and some hot links for the event.  Here's some shots of the day.

Lights, camera, the whole works for capturing the BBQ experience on the YS640

Trying to do an interview outside, but the audio just wasn't quite right

Capturing the moment of the saucing of the ribs.  Truly epic!

The indoor interview.  This is the one that was used in the video.

Don, Neil, Justin, Myself, and my apprentice Aaron, in it for the long haul

It was certainly a long day, but definitely a blast.  Justin and Neil did an outstanding job with the video and were a joy to work with.  Without further ado, here's my video debut...

Sweet and Garlicky Pork Chops

I had a chance to grill some amazing pork chops using this great recipe out of Steve Raichlen's BBQ Bible.  The pork chops were marinated in an Asian style sauce with garlic, soy sauce, honey and some other ingredients.  I definitely recommend trying this if you can get a copy of his book.  There are a lot of great recipes in it.  Here's how the pork chops looked.

Grillin' away on the Yoder.  I removed the drip tray for a real wood fire grill experience.

The finished chops.  Loads of flavor with this recipe.  We'll be making these again!

March Madness

We smoked up a ton of meat for March Madness over the last two weeks.  That's just how we roll in this house!  The Yoder pellet grill got a great workout smokin' up some brisket, burnt ends, ribs, a fatty, and some hotlinks.  Check out this spread of meat, all cooked on Yoder YS640 pellet grill.

Brisket and burnt ends smoked up for the round of 64.  We had a boat load sweets too that my wife baked up.

Ribs and fatty slices for the next night.  My wife whipped up a batch of her scalloped potatoes to go with it.

The next week for the Sweet 16, I had the pleasure of having the film crew from All Things BBQ follow me around and log the entire process for an upcoming video about their Yoder Smokers pellet grills.  We had a great time doing some cooking on the YS640 and got some great video clips.  I even got to do an interview about the product and how my cooking has been able to evolve because of it.  Here's pics of the smoke from that event.

Some baby backs smoking away.  I also got to check out a custom cut set of Grill Grates for the YS640

Slicing up the brisket flat smoked on the YS640

Here's the spread of meat.  Brisket, ribs, hotlinks, and a flat iron steak grilled up on the Yoder

It's been a fun two weeks of smoking up some great food for my family and friends.  As soon as the video is ready to roll, I'll post that as well some great pics we got from the filming process.  Stay tuned for that!

Asian Burgers Wrapped in Lettuce

I was on a health kick for about 24 hours and came up with this healthy hamburger alternative.  The burgers were mixed with some minced garlic and grilled up on my Yoder Smokers pellet grill.  They were then topped with some broccoli slaw and wrapped in lettuce instead of a bun.  I finished them off with some leftover sauce from PF Changs I had on hand to give it more flavor and a little zip.  This was a great healthy alternative to the routine cheeseburger.

Not to worry.  I'll be doing a brisket and some jalapeño poppers to kick off our March Madness festivities tomorrow.  Then I plan to follow it up with some baby back ribs and a fatty for the next day.  Should be a great weekend of food and fellowship.  Hope you all are smokin' up something good for your basketball parties!

Back in Action

I am back in action after being out of service for a short time while my friends at Yoder Smokers gave my grill another pit stop (pun intended).  They performed a host of upgrades for grill.  Here's all the cool stuff they did in the shop:

First is the adjustable baffle that will really improves high temp grilling in colder ambient temps.  It's really a cool concept.  Check it out...

Slide it left for cold weather grilling or slide it right for all your other needs

The grill also got a new set of wheels as well as casters.  The casters make moving the grill around so much easier.

I had a chance to cook up some pizza when I got it back to check the variation across the grate and I must say, it is much improved.  Both pizzas were done at about the same.  Can't ask for much better than that.

Pizza grilling away on the Yoder.  Also had them add the to shelf as well for even more space.

I'm excited to have my pit back to say the least.  I'll be smokin' up some deliciousness for March Madness in the next week so stay tuned!