Clovis, New Mexico Cook-Off continues

Clovis, New Mexico chuck wagon cook-off continued......

Steve, WC, Ed, Cody, Michael, and Skip

Another recipe I want to try is something that originated in New York City. Yeah, I know.....New York City....get a rope.... Well this little twist is in the meat category.  You do everything the way you want but the twist is to add  ½ flour and ½ corn starch as the flour dip for the crust. With that will go the Jerry Baird’s all-purpose seasoning with a good sprinkling of his Jalapeno seasoning as well.

Chicken Fried Steaks

  I think I may try that ingredient that Kent Rollins used to beat Bobby Flay.  If it is good enough for Kent it’s good enough for us. You will have to ask Kent about that ingredient.

An addition here:  Last evening while doing the potato recipe I tried the flour/corn starch mixture with

Shannon Rollins, Bobby Flay, Kent Rollins at the Chicken Fry Throw Down. 

Kent's secret ingredient to see what kind of crust would result.  It was quite crispy and seemed to adhere to the meat quite well.  I believe I will try this as we begin to cook the meat for competition and do a couple with regular flour and see which we like.  The ingredient has a pretty salty taste and according to Jerry Baird, it is a concoction of powdered eggs and salt and maybe some other seasonings.  Because of the salty taste I thought I would only try Baird’s Jalapeno seasoning in the flour so that it wouldn’t be overwhelming.  I felt it had a pretty ok taste but was somewhat lacking.  I will probably use Baird’s AP seasoning with the addition of the Jalapeno seasoning.  That is to say, use a little of the seasoning in the flour and more on the meat to give it the little bite I’m looking for.  I think if it is added to the flour “the bite” will happen to quickly and it should occur as the judges bite into the meat.

Added a few days later-

I have been thinking about the potato recipe and have decided to use a variation of the two new ideas plus the old recipe that I have been using that has onion, poblanos, and bacon. 

  The spice should make a nice addition and the sprite will also add to the taste.  I probably will not decide if
I want to use the sprite until it is time to put it in.  I just don’t have time to try it out right now.

The gravy will be butter, half and half, milk, flour, salt and cracked pepper corns.

The cobbler recipe will most likely be derived from canned peaches.  So that will call for: Corn Syrup, Dr. Pepper, Amaretto, and Peach Jello. 

The crust will be a vinegar crust with almond flavoring.

Pinto beans will be basic beans with a good sized hunk of mesquite smoked BBQ brisket, some brown sugar and kosher salt.

The bread will be Jerry Baird’s yeast recipe.  However, Steve Woods says that his wife Jennie has a parker house roll that is to die for.  He is going to try to make it himself and

see if we want to try it.  I am still pretty well convinced that Jerry Baird’s recipe will win.

Today, which is Saturday, was another windy day but I was able to get some seasoning done on my new bean pot.  I also got all of the Dutch ovens ready to go.  I also had to do some repair work on my tables and

fix part of the sign that blew off the back of the wagon that proclaimed “us” being from El Paso, Texas. 

The stove pipes are loaded, the saddles are unloaded, the tipi stakes are unloaded and the big metal fly poles are loaded.  Of course this has to do with the Clovis event not judging the wagon or camp so there are many, many items that will not be necessary which in turn we hope constitutes a quicker set up and tear down.  The setup is reasonably enjoyable but the loading after a full day of cooking doesn’t constitute much fun.  

Speaking of fun, we will have a bit of fun helping Cody Perkins celebrate his 15^th birthday.  I am going to get a cake made from the local cake maker, Greggerson’s and have it for him at the contest. Maybe we can get some pretty girls there to present the cake to him. This chuck wagon event raises money for the local girls swim team contest. 

Skip and I left on Thursday morning after our breakfast stop at Whataburger.  We got off about 8:30 and stopped in Tularosa, New Mexico and Skip picked up a few Indian beaded items and I got a flute CD.  Then it was on to Ruidoso where we stopped at the local greasy spoon and had a BLT and a Club Sandwich respectively and then out towards Roswell.  The recent fire has burned the mountain behind Ruidoso Downs and back to the west for about 2 miles and to the east, all the way to the Hondo Valley.  Lots of blackened landscape!

We skirted around Roswell using the truck route and got into Clovis around 4 pm.  We got to the place where we were to set up and met up with the Wagon Boss, Jerry Slaton and dropped off the trailer and we went over to The Days Inn for a little toddy.  In my case it was a tonic and lime and the other “boys” had a cold beer.  We were there only a short while then checked in and went to Red Lobster for dinner ‘cause Jerry doesn’t get to get seafood very often.  It was pretty good and then it was back to the room and kicked back for a while.  I got a little reading in:  Rebels Along the Rio Grande.  Which is an actual journal by A. B. Peticolas written while he was serving the Confederacy in the Civil War.  I am using it as a bit of research to establish some information about a Phantom that Linda and I are going to use in our next book.  It is making for some good reading.  He is a distant relative of a local El Paso Lawyer and another relative of the soldier was married to a friend of ours.

Clovis results coming up....to be continued...