Yeah I've heard of the gulf and it's plateau. Kinda crazy. We have completely different coastal waters. That wahoo was my first catch of the year in about 150'. That's about a mile and a half off the coast. Before the three mile federal line, we have 500'. The grouper and mutton were my last catch of 2024. That was in 20' of water or less than a mile off the coast.

 

I saw the garnish on your tartare, and it reminded me of the tostones I made the other night. Twice fried green plantains. They rival the best french fries IMO. I made a dip (not pictured) of 50/50 sour cream and mayo with several glugs of Tapatio.

 

If you know, you know, and hopefully Slayer, you know. If not, 2:43 explains it.

 

We had a little Asado today. Quick and dirty. This is from my wife's side of the Hispanic world which is Argentina. I had the pleasure of having an authentic asado in a ranch in Argentina on the outskirts of Buenos Aires. One of my favorite meals of all time. That one was long and clean.

It started out around 11am with a picado, or crackers, cheese, fruits, olives, cold cuts, etc.
Then it was the provoleta, or grilled cheese which we had today.
Then came mollejas, beef sweetbread from around the heart (there is also a sweetbread from around the throat).
Next was morsilla and chorizo, which is blood sausage and typical Argentinian sausage, which when served with a piece of bread is choripan, which again we had today. The blood sausage we had to day was the sweet variety which is my favorite.
Then were the meats, which were flap and skirt. We had flap today.
In between there was some grass and rotten grapes to help digestion, much like we had today.
That meal in Argentina ended around 6pm. Surrounded by family and many a new friend, it was an experience that transcended food and drink and one I will never forget and every time I have the pleasure of doing one of these for my family and friends it takes me back to that unforgettable day.

 

A while back I went to a restaurant called Hot Rock.. they give you a raw meat and a heated slab rock and you cook in front of you as you eat.
The food came out incredible. Compliments to the chef.

That said anyone else have experience with cooking rocks? I see there's lava slabs and granite slabs. Debating on which one to buy.

 

I had cook your meat on a rock at an Irish gastro pub (https://www.thefieldfl.com/) which had a guy that covers Rod Stewart. The food was good and the entertainment was funny as hell. But honestly, when paying good money for a steak, I'd rather have someone cook it for me.

No idea which rock is better to cook with but The Field says they use a lava rock.

 

100%, if I'm cooking my own steak I'll buy it and cook it at home. These cook-your-own-steak places are bizarre to me.

 

About the only thing I hate less than a "cook your own meat" place (I'll exclude hot pot for now), are places that want to theatrically prepare your food. Hibachi and all the salt bae types drive me f'in nuts.

 

Huh. I don't mind those places once in a while. At least I get fresh, hot food that I didn't have to cook.

 

Simplicity:

 

Had to take care of the wifey today since she's been out of commission with a nasty cold for almost a week. I had gone out Friday night and caught some yellowtails and fileted a couple of the bigger ones but left the scales on, on the half shell if you will.



We had some lobster we caught during mini season which is end of July so those were frozen for a while but that's just what we had. Added some greens for the hell of it. Everything was bathed in avacado oil. The asparagus got salt and pepper. The seafood got seafood seasoning. That's it. Grill everything for about ten minutes and dab some butter on the lobster before pulling off the grill.




And it's getting cold in the northern hemisphere which means Delirium is making Noel. I usually match this with land animals but it went very well with sea dwellers. I guess good beer is good beer.

 

Damn, it's been six months and no posts on here. You boys must not be eating well.

I recently got into making pizza. Neapolitan style pizza to be more specific. I find it much better than any of the other varieties of pizza out there and after all, it is the original pizza.

I've been making them in mixed varieties of course. The classic margherita (which is our favorite), ham, sausage, even blue cheeses crumbles.

Just last weekend I finally got around to doing one I had seen that looked amazing. Take your classic margherita and after cooking it, add very thinly sliced prosciutto, arugula, and a second bathing of grated parmesan and olive oil. Immediately became the new favorite.

In the background of the pic, you may also see a half-eaten shitake mushroom and pancetta pizza. It was good but it did not make the impression of the prosciutto and arugula.



And yes, everything is as fresh and traditional as I could get.

Caputo Pizza flour
DOP San Marzano tomatoes in a can, hand mixed with additional basil from the garden, salt, olive oil, and sugar (yes I like sugar in my sauce)
Fresh mozzarella
Hand grated aged parmesan
And of course, a dedicated pizza oven that gets very hot and its stone floor even hotter. Completely cooks the larger than typical (about 360 gram dough ball as opposed to 270 grams) pizza in 90 seconds.
Enjoy!

 

Looks absolutely outstanding. Jealous. I want to learn to make pizza like that.

 

Believe it or not, I learned to make pizza from youtube. Mind you, I had a lot of help from my wife who was trained to cook in a classic French cooking school in Buenos Aires. Needless to say, when she decides to cook you a meal, it's gonna be good. But since she has a solid understanding of baking, she guided me along the way. Obviously the dough is the biggest obstacle and the biggest difference maker in the pizza. The better the ingredients you put on top, the better the overall taste but certainly the dough is the star of the show, the foundation that holds it all together.

And for that you need to be able to understand baking. It's a science as much as it is cooking. I read a couple of baking books along the way to bolster the youtube recipes and directions.

But even after you get the dough right you still need one more thing: a pizza oven. Your regular oven with a pizza stone or steel can get you good results but it can never equal an open flame oven that can get the floor to over 750*F and higher. This is one of the major differences from Neapolitan pizzas to other pizzas. The thing is meant to be cooked between 1 to 2 minutes max. We have a Ooni gas fired oven. Overpriced doesn't begin to describe how I feel about this thing but how it cooks is actual priceless. Can't get these results without it.

Check out YT videos from Vito Iacopelli (sp?) for a great dough recipe and for good dough troubleshooting, The Neapolitan in the Alps. Vito is a bit of a clown but he's a great entry level influencer to get you started.

Hope you get into it. It's quite the journey and experience and I love making pizzas for friends and family.