ANCILLARIES: Peach Pie

The best peaches I've ever eaten can be found this time of year at assorted fruit stands just off of I-65 in Chilton County, Alabama. Look for the giant peach watertower.

"This towering testament to the fruit that makes the region famous means two things: First, you're slap in the middle of Alabama's peach country; and second, you better take a nearby exit if you want the freshest and the sweetest."
- Tanner C. Latham, SouthernLiving.com




Peach Pie

Start with your favorite pie crust recipe. Ours is a basic butter crust with a little sugar added and cream cheese used in place of the shortening. For a smaller pie/cobbler, you'll just need one crust; for a full-size pie, you'll need to make enough dough for two crusts. Press half of the dough into your baking dish reserving the other half for the top.

Wash, peel and thinly slice your soft, ripe peaches (about 6 to 8 for a small cobbler, 12 to 14 for a pie). Place the slices in a large saucepan over medium-low heat and add sugar and spices to taste. For a full-sized pie, start with about 1 cup of sugar, 1/4 cup of brown sugar, a few light shakes of nutmeg and few heavy shakes of cinnamon. Cook the mixture just until the sugar is all melted and evenly mixed and the peaches are soft and squishy. Remove the mixture from the heat and stir in about 1/4 cup of flour and a tablespoon of corn starch.

Pour the mixture into the pie crust, dotting with a little butter along the way. Use the remaining pie crust dough to cover the pie - making a top crust with slits, a lattice top, cut shapes, etc. - and bake the pie at 425-degrees for about 35 to 40 minutes. The pie is done when the crust is a light brown and the insides are bubbly. Then of course, serve it over vanilla ice cream.






Clanton, Chiton County, Alabama: Exit 212 on I-65 between Birmingham and Montgomery

DESSERTS: Homemade Ice Cream

One of the few culinary traditions that my family has is that we always make homemade ice cream on the 4th of July. Usually we're at my grandparents' house; this year we're at the lake, but we always use the same recipe. I'm told my great-grandparents developed this very basic recipe sometime in the 1920s. I think it's pretty good, but then again, I haven't tasted a lot of homemade ice cream. It can be easily modified from vanilla to other flavors by removing most of the vanilla and adding in other things. We have experimented with that over the years, but for today, here is the recipe for vanilla.

Homemade Vanilla Ice Cream

1/2 qt half and half
1/2 pt heavy whipping cream
2 eggs
1.5 cups sugar
2 tablespoons vanilla (real if you've got it)
1/2 qt whole milk
1 pinch of salt

Mix all ingredients together. Crank away.

ANCILLARIES: Scottish Shortbread

This is a twist on traditional Scottish shortbread that includes pecans and walnuts for added flavor. Still using the basic sugar/butter/flour dough (with startling amounts of butter used to "shorten" the bread), it maintains the original, crumbly texture.

What You Need:

- 1 cup of mixed pecans and walnuts
- 1 1/4 cups of all-purpose flour (sifted)
- 1 1/4 cups of unsalted butter (softened)
- 1/4 cup white sugar
- 1/4 cup of packed brown sugar
- 1/8 cup of raw sugar
- 2 teaspoons of vanilla paste (or pure extract)
- a little extra butter for the pan
- a dash of salt

What You Do:

1. Set your oven or Big Green Egg to 325 degrees and prepare your shortbread pan. For oven baking, you can use an 8-inch or 9-inch square glass or metal dish. For BGE baking, use a 9-inch diameter cast iron skillet on the plate setter. Line the pan or skillet with aluminum foil leaving a small amount to wrap over the sides. Generously (no really, very generously) butter the foil-lined dish.



2. Lightly toast your pecans and walnuts in the oven, the BGE or over a grill - just until they are a little warm and golden. This just brings out the flavor.



3. In your food processor, pulse the sifted flour, 1/2 cup of the nuts and the salt until the nuts are finely ground.

4. With a stand mixer or hand beaters, cream your butter together with the white and brown sugar for about 3 minutes. Add in the vanilla and then slowly add in the flour/nut mixture. Be sure to stop and scrape down the sides often so that everything is evenly mixed.

5. Evenly spread the mixture into your prepared dish or skillet. Sprinkle the raw sugar and the remaining 1/2 cup of nuts over the top and press it into the dough. Bake the bread at 325 degrees for 40 to 45 minutes until it is golden brown on top and darker around the edges.



6. Let the shortbread cool in its baking dish or skillet at first, then remove it by lifting the foil on each side. Let it continue to cool in the foil, then cool further on a wire rack until firm.

Cut the shortbread into small triangles and enjoy!

Ulika Weekend Action

This past weekend was a trial run for a contest that we have in two weeks. It has been six months since our last competition and we needed to knock the rust off. I also needed to get the timing down with the Stumps and the Egg.

Surprisingly, I had no problems with my timing, but I was really off on my chicken and I will probably need to practice some more chicken before Clarksville rolls around. Focusing on the other meats this off-season has caused my chicken to slip a little. However, I should be able to hone in my chicken technique with two weeks left. I was pleased with how the pork turned out and the ribs and brisket were on par. I will need to kick it up a notch or two in Clarksville to get a call in any of the categories. We are really looking forward to getting back on the competition trail and seeing some familiar faces.









Kind of as an "anything butt" on Friday night, friends Patrick, Sarah and baby Jack stopped by to stir up some stir fry on the Egg. Patrick is an Iron Chef of sorts, and stir fry is one of his specialties. He brought over the wok and we fired up the Egg for a molten hot cooking surface. Our stir fry dish consisted of bok choy, mung bean sprouts, cabbage, shallots, broccoli, carrots, ginger, garlic and scallion for garnish. For our protein, we went with chicken and pork medallions that were tossed in some secret Asian sauces (which he left in my refrigerator...not so secret anymore!). Our starch choices were white rice, fried rice, and lo mein noodles. Check out the Gilliam blog for their side of the story.

Iron Chef Patrick Gilliam cooks up some stir fry as Deezy eagerly awaits

My wife also took the opportunity to practice some dessert entries. On Friday night we were treated to a Bananas Foster. This dish was topped with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and while it was more than excellent, we decided that it wouldn't work with the time delays in a contest setting as the dish would be a puddle of cream by the time it reached the judges. On Saturday, the traditional dessert turn-in time was met with some Banana Pudding. In the south, you will often find this pudding as a primary dessert at bbq restaurants. Its smooth texture with the crunch of the Nilla Wafers makes for a perfect complement to the bbq meats. Sarah snapped a few pictures of the Bananas Foster prep, but by the time we reached for the camera on Saturday, the only pudding image that would have been left was that of Deezy licking the bowl.

When Sunday rolled around, I combined the best of both worlds and made brisket fried rice. It was absolutely fabulous. I have determined that brisket is the most versatile of the four competition meats (considering chicken is limited to the thighs). Brisket works great with eggs, in a taco, with fried rice, on pizza, in beans, with cheese and peppers on a hoagie, and in many more applications.

ANCILLARIES: Lava Cakes

Molten Chocolate Lava Cakes with Candied Pecans

What You Need:

- 8 ceramic ramekins (generously buttered and dusted with cocoa)
- 8 ounces of chocolate (6 of milk chocolate, 2 of semi-sweet)
- 1/2 cup of pecans
- 3/4 cup of unsalted butter
- 3 eggs and 3 additional egg yolks
- 3/4 cup of all-purpose flour
- 3/4 cup of white sugar (for the cake)
- 1/4 to 1/2 cup of white sugar (for the pecans)

What You Do:

1. Melt the chocolate and butter in a metal bowl over boiling water in a medium saucepan, sirring constantly. When the two are well-combined and fully melted, remove the bowl from the heat and set the chocolate aside to cool to room temperature.

2. Mix together the whole eggs, egg yolks and sugar with an electric mixer for about 3 minutes - until the mixture is firm like cake batter. Add in the flour and mix for another 3 minutes then add in the melted chocolate-butter and mix for 3 minutes more. Scrape down the sides as needed. It has to be very well mixed!

3. Use a spatula to distribute the batter into the prepared ramekins and place them in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour.



4. While the cake batter cools, candy your pecans with the sugar in a saucepan and leave them to cool on parchment paper.



5. To cook the cakes, set your oven / Big Green Egg and Guru to 475 degrees. Bake the cakes on a place setter or cookie sheet for 12 to 14 minutes. The top will get puffy and the cake should only slightly jiggle in the center. Serve the cakes as soon as they are cool enough to handle. Top each cake with the candied pecans along with whipped cream or chocolate sauce or cocoa powder or vanilla ice cream or all of the above.