Merry, Happy and latest dish

Larry Maler

Merry and Happy whatever it is you're celebrating. I haven't posted here for a long time due to the pressure of work, but I've recently started egging again with wonderful results. I've decided not to do low and slow because it's such a bother and it never really turned out for me, and instead I'm cooking at temps between 275 and 400.[p]Recently I did a variation on Aloma Tally's "Finger Licking Good Crispy Garlic Chicken" from the recipe area of this site. Instead of using butter & honey, I used salad dressing and honey, and Pecorino Romano instead of Parmesan. The idea of garlic and onions for smoke instead of wood is what intrigued me. The resulting smoke (beside being incredibly aromatic) was finer and more delicate than wat I usually get from wood chips.[p]Last night I made a center-cut pork roast (at least that's what I think it's called - it has ribs sticking out like a rib roast). I stuffed it with a whole garlic's worth of garlic buds. Incredible.[p]I also made a smokey Israeli eggplant salad dish that required eggplant to be cooked directly on the burning coals until the skin is easy to remove. That worked out really nice too. I provided a link to one recipe, but it appears the Internet is full of similar ones. It's sometimes called Eggplant Caviar or Baba Ghanoush.[p]Larry