Alton Brown's flying fruit contraption

I suspect that some of may be wondering why Alton Brown signed "Sorry" on this item to my mom.



Well, let me tell you.

During part of the Good Eats Live show, AB's challenge was to make the one unitasker in his kitchen (we all know what that is) into a mulitasker. With a brief appearance from W, Alton created an item that froze fruit in water cooler.

Then the mayhem broke loose.

Alton hacked the water cooler and the fire extinguisher into some type of device then put in the fruit and blasted away on the extinguisher. Before you knew it, fruit flew like shrapnel. And I was fortunate enough to sit in the first row, in the poncho zone for the Gallagher treatment.

I came out with some water damage from when AB emptied the water cooler in front of me and a few splatters of fruit. My mom, sitting to my right, got fruit splatters and was hit with a blueberry.

At the post show party, she asked AB if he would sign her poncho and said that she got hit with a blueberry. AB wrote "Sorry" on the poncho and told her the blueberry was a snack for later. You can see said blueberry in the photo as well.

Mom told me she was thinking as Alton was saying and writing sorry, that was fun and he didn't need to apologize for doing it.

Quick Alton Brown article

While I work on my recap of the weekend and the fabulous show and seeing Alton again, here's an article from the Saturday Evening Post on Good Eats and its 10 years!

Read it here!

Wild ride

It's late, I've got to long trip home on Sunday but here's a debrief on the 10th Anniversary show and Alton Brown. In a word... awesome.

My seat was first row and the splash zone! ;)

There's a story behind this... there's always a story

It's really mom's experience, but its great.

If its Tuesday, this must be...

It is only Tuesday? Whew. Just a little post to assure everyone that if I go missing at anytime, its not my fault! Convergence of many, many things this week. And topping it all off will be heading to Atlanta for the live show and seeing Alton Brown... again... again in less than a month. I imagine this photo will be Alton's reaction upon seeing me again. ;) But he always tells me he doesn't remember me.

But I do have a few items.

Up first, Amazon is shipping the Good Eats books early! So not only will I have one in my hot little hands at week's end, apparently one will be delivered at my house as well. Oh no, multiple copies. What to do? This earlier than expected shipping date must mean the book will hit shelves soon as well. Booktour is still in October, however.

Barring any major news breaking, I'll probably be a laying low for a bit. Start of a new semester at work is always loads of fun. Doesn't even look as if I'll have time to check Target for the new DVD set.

Packed and ready to head out, but it is only Tuesday.

Anyone going to the big show who wants to contact me drop me an email: lisa@allaboutalton.com

Ready for the LIVE show?

Check out this nice little video about the upcoming Good Eats Live! Marion Laney, director of photography on Good Eats, has given us a little intel on the Saturday's big event. On top of the meet and greet with Alton Brown, is a "goodie bag" and the advance copy of the GE book.

Short Alton Brown article

It seems as if everyone in the free world gets to interview Alton Brown but me for this blog. Okay enough whining, here's an article from the Atlanta Journal- Constitution about the upcoming Good Eats Live! show and AB's weight loss.

Seems AB runs four hours a day. I'd love to know how he works that into his extremely busy schedule! The four hours a day was a typo in the original article. Should've been four miles a day. And poor guy hasn't had a dessert in months.

And it mentions the superfans panel, which I am not going to a be a part of, apparently :(

Read the full story here.

New Good Eats dvd set

I just saw Good Eats dvd volume 20 dvd set is available at Target. I'll be heading to my local store, after work, to see if the set is here yet.

***update***

Denied! Nary a new dvd at Target. There's one about 25 miles to my west, tempted to call them.

Alton Brown's burnt peach ice cream

Summer has finally arrived in typical humid manner. So muggy I haven't felt much like cooking. But making ice cream, that's a different thing entirely. With fresh, local peaches in season, it was high time to give Alton Brown's burnt peach ice cream a try.

I have made my own ice cream several times; however, the ice cream turned out to have big ice crystals and not like real ice cream. I think part of my problem rested in using 2% milk. The recipe used, in the past, called for milk and since 2% is all that's ever on hand, I used it. There may have been too much water in the milk to freeze correctly. I'm saying that was the issue, anyway!

This ice cream began the night before with making the base.

• 2 cups half-and-half
• 1 cup whipping cream
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup peach preserves
• 1 vanilla bean, split and scraped -- I used a teaspoon of vanilla extract because I didn't have a vanilla bean on hand.
• Pinch kosher salt

Heat the mixture to 170 degrees F, then move to a bowl and refrigerate overnight.

The next day, while firing up the grill, I placed 4 halved peaches on the grill. Because I use charcoal, the peaches ended up with a smoky flavoring. The peaches can also be caramelized under the broiler. The charred peaches need to be chopped into pieces for adding into the ice cream later.


Now, I'd like to introduce my ice cream maker. I bought it many years ago at Goodwill for a $1. It was a major find because this was back when I first began watching Good Eats and acquiring better kitchen gear. It has a frozen core as Alton recommended, but is a hand crank model. Nevertheless, it fit my specs and price range for certain. It has been one fantastic little churn. I've made lots of sorbets and frozen yogurts with it, in addition to my huge ice crystal ice cream.

So the ice cream making began with churning the base... and churning... and churning. On thing about making ice cream outside in hot, humid weather, it takes a long, long time to get the cream mixture to "soft serve consistency." But once that magic happens, add the chopped peaches.

Unlike the problems with other ice cream recipes, this one turned out to be fantastic. No big ice crystals, instead it was smooth and creamy. I called it being very similar to peach yogurt with the cream and fruit combo, just not sour like yogurt. The peaches have a hint of charcoal smoke, I haven't decided if I like that enough to grill the peaches again. But I do know, I will make some more of this ice cream.

I know this technically isn't about Alton Brown, but dang I got a chuckle from it and it involves one of his shows. The ICA Chairman, real name Mark Dacascos, will be on ABC's Dancing with the Stars. Not that I watch nor care but it would have been much better to see AB on there. And all of that dancing would fit well into his new weight loss plan. ;) Now I'd watch that!

So while the Chairman dances, when will the new ICA episodes be filmed?

Or maybe this can be the follow up to last year's Wii game.

Alton Brown Chefography, not really but its a start

Last week Food Network spotlighted their culinary luminaries in the feature known as Chefograghy, a take on the A&E Biography series I suppose? Unfortunately, we Alton Brown fans still have not seen our favorite (and best FN host) featured on the program .

Several years ago, AB mentioned that he did not want a Chefography. And I respect his decision. However, over the years of being a loyal viewer and fan, I have read countless articles and features on Alton. In doing so, I have also gained a lot of information about him.

He may not have an official FN Chefography, but he is now the proud owner of an unauthorized Chefography courtesy of me! Will I get in trouble? Well I have the articles and research to back it all up. So look at it as a compilation of information on AB, nothing more. :) Yeah that's the ticket.

Like all great epics, this one begins with Alton's early years. Alton Crawford Walter Brown was born on July 30, 1962 in sunny Southern California--Los Angeles to be exact--he is only member of his family born outside of the Peach State. His parents both hailed from Georgia but had settled on the West Coast shortly after they married, thus Alton became a product of the Golden State. In 2004 AB wrote on his website, "Both my parents were from Georgia...they just got a little lost when they got married is all."

But as an older child, the family returned to the mountains of north Georgia. AB recently quipped at his Nashville demo, his dad told him all the people there talked like the kid in the Shake N Bake commercial (author's note, I had no idea what he was mocking since that commercial aired before I was born.). Dramatic changes in young Alton's life continued, at the age of 10 his father died.



After graduating from Lithonia High School (Lithonia, Ga) in 1980, Alton headed to LaGrange College to study business. Shortly after that he made an important decision by transferring to the University of Georgia to become a filmmaker.

In learning the art of filmmaking as an undergrad, Alton also began his culinary journey during this time. His tactic to get dates--cook dinner for the girl.

Although the grand plan never materialized with the "closer" dish, Alton's idea was to have a dish that would serve both as dinner and breakfast the following morning. After being dumped by a dinner companion he realized his interest for cooking went beyond trying to impress the ladies.

A career in film and television production began, including working as a steadicam operator on Spike Lee's School Daze and cinematographer on REM's "The One I Love" video. Despite these notable jobs, most of his jobs directing TV commercials and didn't find his job fulfilling.

Food was never far from Alton's brain. In between his directing gigs, AB spent his time cooking and watching others cook on the small screen. While the cooking shows intrigued him, they also bored him. Alton knew a fun, informative cooking show could be created. And he was just the man to do it. But knowing the TV industry was one thing, he didn't know the culinary field. Therefore, he needed to gain some knowledge.

With support from his wife, DeAnna, Alton applied to and was accepted into the program at the New England Culinary Institute. The couple left behind their life in Georgia and headed north to Vermont.

The time spent in culinary school opened Alton's awareness to how science plays a role in cooking. Before his attempt to learn about the culinary world, Alton admitted to being a poor student in science. However, it was in studying how food cooked that he learned the vital role of science in the kitchen.

Alton needed to know how and why something worked in order to fully understand it, science provided that answer for cooking, much to the annoyance of his culinary instructors. Chefs are concerned with the art of cooking rather than the science but Alton needed to know more than art and looked to science for his answers. He discovered Harold McGee, notable food scientist, and in the revelation of science's importance in cooking, the seed for Good Eats was sewn.

For two years Alton gained valuable culinary knowledge, although at times it was not always easy. Alton likened the experience of training under a French chef as military-like and at times drove him to tears.

Despite his new culinary knowledge, Good Eats did not just happen upon graduation from NECI. It would still be a long, hard road for Alton to get his brainchild launched.

With his connections in the production field, Alton found money and resources to shoot the pilot for his show. However, no one would bite. Food Network, still a relatively new cable channel, did not except demo tapes, so no one there would give the show a look. The pilot episodes did land in Chicago, on the PBS station WTTW. But that was as far as the show got.

After failing to sell as a TV show, portions of the pilot ended up on Eastman Kodak's website. Not for the cooking or the food or the instruction, but for Alton's visual style and the type of film he used. It was only one minute clip of the show; however, one minute that would prove monumental.

A young executive at Food Network happened upon the Eastman Kodak website and found a very interesting video clip. The man contacted Alton about this unique concept for a cooking show.

July 1999 Good Eats premiered on Food Network and the show cemented Alton Brown's status a budding culinary star. The idea for a smart, informative cooking show was now a reality and Alton used his cinematic skills, storytelling abilities and razor-sharp humor to bring the show to life. And shortly after Good Eats found its home on Food Network, Alton and his wife welcomed an addition in their home, daughter Zoey.

The success of Good Eats brought more opportunity for AB, in 2002 his first cookbook, I'm Just Here for the Food, a book in similar style of the show, garnered a James Beard Award for best reference book in 2003.

As 2004 progressed, Alton was named Teacher of the Year by Bon Appetit and had the chance to be on the American adaptation of the Japanese Iron Chef program. Serving as play-by-play announcer in the "Battle of the Masters," AB infused into the role his now trademark culinary knowledge, wisdom and wit. However, during filming the special in Los Angeles, Alton became ill on the set and was rushed to the hospital with heart arrhythmia. Later it was determined he had eaten oyster sauce in one of the dishes and the reaction he had, originally thought to be a migraine, was due to his intolerance for oysters. Because of this event, Alton now does not eat the dishes prepared on Iron Chef America.

With steady work on Good Eats and Iron Chef America, Alton added another show to his repertoire with Feasting on Asphalt in 2006. The cross-country motorcycle adventure explored the open road and true, honest road food.

The journey wasn't without its pitfalls, outside of Las Vegas Alton's motorcycle hit a patch of loose gravel and he took a nasty spill, breaking his collarbone.

More Feasting on Asphalt, a major award, a great film geek moment and more broken bones followed in 2007. Following up on the first FOA, Alton and crew set out to traverse the Might Mississippi River with motorcycles and more food. While filming FOA, Alton found that his flagship show, Good Eats, won a Peabody Award. Standing in an asparagus field in Illinois, AB learned of the prestigious award.

On top of his busy schedule, AB managed to participate in selecting the newest Iron Chef for the network. Alton often says he's still a filmmaker at heart and in November he was invited to serve as guest programmer on Turner Classic Movies. The films he selected were What's Up, Tiger Lily?, Closely Watched Trains, Point Blank and Blowup. And as the year closed, he broke his right wrist in bathroom accident while preparing to attend Christmas Eve services.

Feasting on Waves continued the Feasting on series in 2008 as Alton explored the culinary heritage of the Caribbean. And played in another sea related show by voicing a character on Spongebob Squarepants.

This year, Alton was named Educator of the Year by the Monterey Bay Aquarium. And reached a milestone as he celebrates 10 years of Good Eats, a show he originally believed would last only a short time therefore he only planned 50 episodes.

*****
Ok, there you have it in a nutshell a Chefography for AB. I know a real one would be better, but its something! :)

And still more from Nashville

Just when you thought it was safe NOT to mention the Nashville event... my new Twitter buddy GeoKaren writes a nice food blog and she was at the Southern Food and Wine Festival, too bad I didn't meet her until after the fact. But she does have a great account of her take on Alton Brown's demo and the meet and great.

Give her blog, GeoFooding, a look and read her story on AB.

Oh and she remembered the smoker comment incident! I'll have to run away and hide now.

Not a fan

I found out a few minutes ago that the winners of the Great Good Eats fan contest were notified.

I'm not a winner.

I'm not a Good Eats great fan.

I'm not an Alton Brown fan either. Remember, I tried to win that title from the Dear Food Network: Grilling show.

And now I ask myself, why did I even enter it? I knew I had no chance.


But, I hope the winners have a great time and enjoy the event. If they haven't met AB before, they will be thrilled and will have a super time. And if they have met him before, they will have another fantastic experience.

I smell pork

For everything culinary that Alton Brown has taught me, inspired me to try and reinforced through Good Eats, I have to say the Feasting on series may just be my favorite of his projects. At the very least, I have equal admiration and affinity for both GE and Feasting.

The first of the series captured my attention for the history, the culture, the road and how these pieces interweave to create captivating TV and the story of our unique culinary American experience.

So on the trip from West Virginia to Tennessee, I decided to pay homage to Alton's wonderful program and sought out a location on the route.

Part of my journey to Nashville lead me on to US Route 60 through Lexington, KY. In FOA, AB traveled this highway en route from Corbin, KY (another location I have visited) to Bowling Green, KY. Although in the travel montage, there is a continuity error he passes the famous "Kentucky Castle" in Lexington before reaching Lexington... but I digress.

Knowing Bowling Green was a city along the route, I checked into the places visited there. And as luck would have it, The Smokey Pig, home of the Monroe County style BBQ, was right off of exit 28 on I-65.

Now I love good Q.

And it is a place AB had been to.

Easy sell.

I was stopping.

I told mom to be on the lookout for a pink pig on a telephone pole, Alton's rational for stopping at the restaurant. That and JC smelling pork at Duncan Hines' grave. We joked about the pink pig on a telephone pole all the way down, I love that line.

The place was a little hard to find from the Google map, there's a reason why I don't trust them. But it wasn't that much off of the beaten path or the exit. The most difficult part was trying to turn into Smokey Pig Road from the highway--there was a car turning around at the entrance of the road (wrong turn?). I growled a bit at the man, hey he was in my way. Don't get between Q and hungry traveler.

The restaurant wasn't fancy. A low-key place. Orders are taken at the counter, you get the food in plain foam containers and to the dining room. The nice guy making the food told us about the extra room over looking the river. That's where we sat.

Both mom and I opted for the pulled pork sandwich. I added tater salad (that's how it appeared on the menu) and baked beans. The sweet tea was great, a perfect blend of sweet and not too sweet. The woman who took the order told me it was sweet, but either in that part of Kentucky "sweet" sweet tea is exactly how I make it or they don't understand that sickeningly sweet Southern style ;)



The Q was great. I didn't try the Monroe County style because the pulled pork called to me. I'm glad I got it. They also had fountain RC products, hadn't seen that since I was a kid. Mom loves RC, so that was another plus. The tater salad was almost as good as our secret family recipe. The beans were tangy. I used the hot sauce on my sandwich. It was hot, even by my insane hot tolerance level. That was the sauce, I believe, the owner talked about with AB in the show.

As we were leaving, I peered into the smokehouse.


So that's my little FOA recreation stop. I didn't have a BMW motorcycle, but I have a German engineered car... does that count?


Yeah, I love Feasting on Asphalt!

Alton Brown on Mara Davis Show video

Thanks to a tip from reader Holly, we can now see and hear the entire interview with Alton Brown on the Mara Davis show from a few weeks ago. I wish I had been invited to participate in the Anniversary show. Guess buying my tickets will have to suffice.

Alton Brown signed my salt cellar

At the Opryland event this year, I brought my salt cellar for Alton Brown to sign. It is one I bought several years ago from his website, not the one I use on a regular basis. That one is like AB's but wasn't from his site. Anyway, I figured it was a good time to bring it along since I have so many different things with Alton's signature on them the salt cellar was a no-brainer.

And of course, I have a little story that now goes along with getting it signed :)

When I came up to Alton at the meet and greet, he didn't give me the traditional "Hi, I'm Alton" greeting. Instead he just said hi. Its not like he had to say this name and after the weekend's events he should've remembered me for a little while, at least, because, only hours before, at the demo, he embarrassed me in front of the whole audience.

I just had to ask about the smoker and its size in relation to other smokers AB had made. And Alton just had to unleash his sardonic wit on me by replying, "what's with women and the size of your smoker."

Paint me stop sign red.

In my attempt at making a recovery, I mentioned the bowl smoked shrimp from the South Beach All Star grilling show. Then AB asked his assistant, "when did I smoke in a bowl?" The crowd busted out laughing about the unintentional bong joke.

He certainly should've remembered me at the meet and greet for that, if nothing else. ;)

Anyway when I got to see him and talked with him, Alton asked who the salt cellar was for. I told him it was mine. He quipped, "you've been to so many of these, I thought it might be for someone else."

We chatted some more and as we did, AB put the glass part of the salt cellar back into the bubble wrap. I hated to tell him it hadn't been in the bubble wrap since I bought it becase I've had it out with my other items in the collection. But, he was concerned for it making the journey back home. He told me to be careful with it because its glass. He even put it back in the box and closed it up for me. I told him I would take good care of it.

Another Alton Brown dinner report

If you wan another perspective, in case you feel mine was tainted or something, on the Friday dinner with Alton Brown in Nashville, here's an article from the Nashville Scene.

But there are a few factual errors in the report, the shoes... the reporter calls them Chinese, I know they are Japanese, AB said so ;) and the 100 guests, it was limited to 44 guests (or so the invitation said).

Oh well, there is a photo of AB serving dinner. :)

Alton Brown demo photos

Here are a few photos of Alton Brown at his Opryland demo on August 1.

Alton Brown in Entertainment Weekly... again

I am told by my friend L, that Alton Brown is again featured in Entertainment Weekly. This time AB is featured for having a great show... actually have two, both Good Eats and Iron Chef America are profiled.

"Your Guide to the Best Food Shows" got it right this time.


Thanks L for the tip!

Alton Brown's kitchen essentials

I missed posting this last weekend because I was on my way to see Alton Brown in Nashville. Tough wasn't it?

Anyway, in case you haven't seen it, it is a little interview with Zap2it called AB's Five kitchen essentials. There's an accompanying article.



I have more info from Nashville coming, btw.

Designing Good Eats

Designing Good Eats
Originally uploaded by Abrams Books

I found more cool photos from Abrams Books on Alton Brown's new cookbook. Check out this super cool stationary AB has!

Dinner with Alton Brown

I have to say the best part of last weekend's Southern Food and Wine Festival wasn't Alton Brown's fabulous fish demo, although it was the best of the three Opryland shows I've witnessed. The highlight of the weekend for me was the dinner on Friday night. While the meet and greet was equally fantastic, it just couldn't compete with the dinner.

The evening started with a little mingling of the attendees at the Old Hickory Steakhouse. Out on balcony we had some wine. I'm not much of a connoisseur so I can't remember the type. AB appeared and talked with a few people, I tried to hang back and talk with him, but I never caught him. In the room, I sat with one of the blog readers, Elizabeth and her hubby. That was totally cool to met someone who reads the blog! :) We had talked before heading into the steakhouse when she gave me that awesome fez monkey towel.

Alton started talking with the people at the other end of the room, so it was a while before he got to our table. But when he did, for some reason I began to giggle. I don't remember what he said or why I started, but I did. He looked at me and said to stop doing that. He kept messing with me and I kept giggling. He said, we'll have none of that, in a joking tone. The more he talked the worse I got. I finally gained my composure and was able to talk with him. I still can't believe I was a giggling mess.

With each course, AB floated around the room chatting with everyone. When the main course was served, Alton even played waiter.


At the desert course, AB came over to our table and asked me how I liked it. I told him the when the waiter cleared the last course, he took my silverware. Alton told me he would get some silverware. He promptly went over to the extra table next to ours and grabbed all of the silverware on the table, then plopped it down in front of me and announced to the room, that I needed silverware. I probably turned red from that.


When Alton approached at the desert course, before I commented on the silverware, he had grabbed my camera from the table. I suspected he thought I would want a photo with him. But after the silverware incident, he made the rounds for the rest of the room.

I picked up my camera and summoned Alton to come back over. He did. And immediately took the camera from my hand. He was playing with it and snapped this:


Then he came close to me to pose for a photo. I remember Elizabeth offering to take our photo and Alton saying he wanted to do it. It was kind of a blur when it happened. AB leaned over me and I saw the flash. But I have proof it happened. ;)


After that, I asked about the shoes.

Yep, this was the highlight of the weekend.

Alton Brown's shoes

When Alton Brown appeared last Friday night at dinner as a part of the Food Network Southern Food and Wine Festival events, he was sporting some unusual footwear. Bright blue tennis shoes. Oh, but theses were not just any bright blue shoes, as many of us soon learned, they were bright blue Japanese Nikes.

In his travels earlier this year to film the upcoming Next Iron Chef, Alton visited the Land of the Rising Sun and apparently he picked up some new shows in the process.

So at dinner Friday when AB was snapping photos. He took my camera from the table and started playing with it. I asked if I could take a picture of them. Alton asked why. I told him that I overheard they were Japanese Nikes and he grinned at me and said "I'll take a picture of them." He tried to get the writing on the heel to show, but the pant leg covered it. Nevertheless, its a great photo because Alton took it!


Here he is Saturday wearing them at the demo.

Alton Brown cooking demo at Opryland

There is so much stuff to report on from the past weekend, I don't know where to begin. All of the events attended with Alton Brown were wonderful. The demo this year topped the ones from previous years, which were beyond incredible. The dinner, well, that was the highlight of the weekend in my book. And my two embarrassing moments, one at dinner and the other at the demo, with AB. Those are next on my list to share, but I'll begin with the demo, after all that's why most of us were there!

The show started with Alton bolting from behind the curtain and to the stage. In fact, he brushed past my seat, giving me a startle in the process. Then he promptly went into discussing his amazing weight loss.

Since March, Alton dropped 45 pounds, he's down to 165 pounds and a size 32 pant from 215 pounds and size 38. He attributes the dramatic loss to a major change in his diet, mainly eliminating most carbs and increasing fats in the form of omega 3 fatty acids.

The omega 3 fatty acids segued into the afternoon's talk on fish. And of course, Alton champions sustainable seafood so he talked about small fish. These smaller, oily fish are the cornerstone of Alton's new diet and he believes are import to the overall health of not only people but our oceans as well.

Alton talked about several types of small fish including anchovies and herring. Be his most favorite fish is sardines. And eats them five times a week. He likes fresh ones but eats the canned ones as well.

However, the featured star was rainbow trout. Again, a sustainable choice for us. AB said all of the trout supplied for the demo came from farms in North Carolina. And inland fisheries are better because they are less harmful to the environment, such as fish escaping and mixing with the native species.

The main reason Americans have not embraced these small fish, Alton believes, is that we tend to like our meat in steak form or butchered leaving no head. At this point, AB drew a fish on the whiteboard (and as you can tell from my crappy angle, I couldn't see the whiteboard) then colored in the eyes looking back.

The fish eyes and heads be came a running joke through the demo about the eyes. My angle on AB demonstrating the dead fish looking back at us with the beady eyes wasn't that great, but my buddy Elizabeth caught a better photo of Alton playing dead fish :) Thanks for sharing that with everyone!


He showed how easy it is to fillet a small fish and prep it for cooking. He even ripped the head off of one trout with his bare hand.

When the time came for cooking, he illustrated three methods.

First, smoking.

Alton used an Army surplus item to rig up a smoker. This device replaced the cardboard box from the early "Where there's smoke, there's fish" episode on Good Eats. AB said the more permanent box came from an incident with his old cardboard box, which he had for three years. The box was eaten by neighborhood dogs.

After that, he opted for this model. You may remember this type of smoking setup as featured on a Food Network South Beach special several years ago.

Alton had through lessons on brining and smoking. First, he brines the fish for several hours in a simple brine of 1 quart of water and 1/2 cup of kosher salt. This brine is not heated since it is a small amount. After the fish is brined, rinse it and allow to dry for 24 hours. If you remember from the smoked salmon and the bacon episodes, this step is vital for forming pellicle on the meat so the smoke can stick to it.

The smoker should maintain a temperature between 150-160 degrees for 2 1/2 to 3 hours.

Next on the agenda was rollmops. This is German snack traditionally made from herring rolled around pickles or onions then pickled. For his version, AB used rainbow trout.

Last Alton made escabeche of trout. This is a Spanish or Portuguese dish where the meat is cooked then marinated.

The whole rainbow trout is used in this dish. On stage this smelled very good!

The recipes for these dishes are here.

Alton Brown's recipes from Opryland Demo 2009

Recipes from Alton Brown's cooking demo at the Opryland Hotel August 1, 2009

Smoked Trout

1 quart water
1/2 cup kosher salt
2 pounds trout filets 3 to 5 ounces each, skin on, pin bones removed

Place the water and salt into a 3 to 4-quart container and stir until the salt has dissolved, 1 to 2 minutes. Add the trout, making sure they are submersed. Cover and refrigerate for 3 hours.

Remove the trout from the brine, rinse thoroughly, and pat dry. Place the trout, skin side down onto a cooling rack set in a sheet pan. Dry in the refrigerator 21 to 24 hours or until the skin becomes shiny and somewhat tacky to the touch.

The next day, turn the smoker on so that it maintains a temperature of 150-160 degrees. Place the trout onto racks, skin side down, separating them by at least ¼-inch and place into a smoker. Adjust heat as needed and cook for 2 1/2 to 3 hours or until the fish is tender, cooked through and has the desired level of smoke flavor.

Yield: 2 pounds smoked trout
Preparation Time: 30 minutes
Cooking Time: 2 1/2 to 3 hours
Inactive Time: 27 hours

Rollmops

For the Brine:
1/2 cup kosher salt
1 quart water
1 pound small trout filets Scaled, skin on, pin bones removed, and cut into 16-20 (4-6-inch long x 1-inch wide) pieces

For the pickle:
2 cups water
2 cups cider vinegar
1 tablespoon sugar
8 whole cloves
8 whole allspice berries
6 whole black peppercorns
4 dried bay leaves
1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
16-20 cornichon or pickled onion
2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
1 medium onion julienned

For the brine:

Place the salt and water into a 3-quart container and stir until the salt has dissolved. Add the trout, making sure they are submersed. Cover and refrigerate overnight.

For the pickle:

Meanwhile, combine water, vinegar, sugar, cloves, allspice, peppercorns, bay leaves, and red pepper flake in a medium saucepan set over high heat. Cook, stirring occasionally, just until the liquid comes to a boil, approximately 5 minutes. Cool to room temperature and then refrigerate overnight.

Remove the trout from the brine and rinse thoroughly under cold running water for 1 to 2 minutes. Submerge the filets in clean cold water and refrigerate for 1 hour.

Drain and rinse the filets. Pat dry. Lay the filets, skin side down and brush lightly with the mustard. Lay a cornichon or a pickled onion on the filet. Roll up each mop and secure with 1 or 2 toothpicks. Place a layer of rollmops in a glass jar or ceramic crock and top with some of the onions. Repeat until all of the rollmops and onions are in the jar.

Pour on the pickling mixture, cover and place in the refrigerator for at least 5 hours and up to 2 days. Drain and serve chilled with crusty bread.

Yield: 16 to 20 rollmops
Preparation Time: 45 minutes
Cooking Time: 5 minutes
Inactive Time: 5 hours to 2 days

Escabeche of Trout

1/3 cup flour
1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt divided
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper divided
4 4-8 ounce small whole trout head-on, scaled, gutted and rinsed
1/3 cup olive oil
1 medium red onion julienned
3 cloves garlic sliced
6 sprigs fresh thyme
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground coriander
1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika
1 1/2 cups dry white wine
1/2 cup white wine vinegar
3 strips lemon zest

Whisk the flour, 1 teaspoon of salt, and 1/4 teaspoon of black pepper in a pie tin or cake pan. Pat the trout dry and dredge on all sides in the seasoned flour.

Heat the olive oil in a 10-inch heavy sauté pan set over medium-high heat until it shimmers. Carefully add the trout to the pan. Cook on each side for 1 minute.

Using a slotted spoon, transfer the trout to a 13x9 glass baking dish. Reduce the heat to medium; add the onion and cook until translucent, approximately 5 minutes. Add the garlic and cook for an additional minute. Add the remaining 1/2 teaspoon salt, 1/4 teaspoon black pepper, thyme, coriander, paprika, white wine, vinegar, and lemon zest. Decrease the heat to low and simmer, uncovered for 10 minutes.

Remove from the heat and pour the marinade over the trout. Refrigerate, uncovered for 1 hour. You may refrigerate for up to 12 hours, but cover after an hour. Serve cool or at room temperature.

Yield: 4 servings
Preparation Time: 30 minutes
Cooking Time: 12 minutes
Inactive Time: 1 to 12 hours

Enter the Good Eats fans contest before Friday

The great thing about having this blog has been "meeting" so many other Alton Brown fans. Whether through comments, emails or in person, it has been so fantastic to learn that other people actually read this site and its not polluting cyberspace!

This weekend I finally got to see one reader Elizabeth, she posts as EB on here. We had a great time talking at Friday's dinner and she and her hubby sat a few seats down from me at the demo. Well, today I learned she submitted a Good Eats fan video for the 10th Anniversary show contest.

Here's her video:



Then I learned that another reader and commenter, luke, entered the contest as well. His site is latent chestnut and here's his video:



I think this post should help Food Network a lot, I've got half of the winners right here! Of course, mine will win as well. :)

Remember, the contest open until Friday.

Good Eats book being printed

Good Eats being printed
Originally uploaded by Abrams Books

While going out to Flickr to post some photos from this weekend, I stumbled upon a photostream from Alton Brown's publisher showing the Good Eats book being printed.

The set is called Making of Good Eats: The Early Years and can be found here on their Flickr page.

I'm excited about getting my copy at the end of the month!

Some photos of Alton Brown weekend events

I'm still processing the photos and the weekend from seeing another fabulous Alton Brown demo. While I work on my big post about the event. And the tales of the craziness at Friday's dinner, here are some photos to enjoy. And believe me, I have a few wild things to talk about this time!


Friday's dinner, AB was at the table next to mine.


From the demo Saturday.



I must say this year's event, billed as the Food Network Southern Food and Wine Festival, overall was not as good as the previous events in the Celebrity Chef Series. I'm not talking about AB's part, his demo was great just like always. And the meet and greet with him was awesome, as always. But with the combining of other hosts and events the whole thing was rushed.

In past years, attendees received items to have signed, apron one year and a poster another, but this year the "poster" included all of the FN hosts attending and was more of an advertisement versus a real poster like last year. The meet and greet was very rushed as well. In the years several items were allowed to be autographed and this year only one. I commented to Alton that I had planned for him to sign something else in addition to my prized item, but they only allowed one thing. He said it was wasn't his rule. I told him I knew it was the event people and their rules.

Playing catch up

Or should that be ketchup? Anyway, I arrived home a few hours ago from my weekend seeing Alton Brown at his Opryland demo. It was great and I have a ton of stuff to tell everyone about the dinner on Friday night and the demo and meet and greet on Saturday.

I will say, the stage seats weren't that great. I was at the back of the stage and AB addressed the crowd more. So next time back to my usual table seats. There was a no flash photography rule, so I have take my photos into Photoshop and correct them.

But in the meantime...

Fez Monkey Towel!


Super, fantastic reader who posts as EB, gave me this fez monkey towel just like Alton's!

Thank you, thank you, thank you! You are the best! :)

Alton Brown's cooking demo

The demo was everything I expected and more! Alton Brown was in fine form for his talk on small, oily fish.

Rainbow trout was the ingredient of the day.

AB smoked it, pickled it and made escabeche of trout.

I'll have a full report of the demo and pictures out when I get back home.

First report from Opryland

Hey everyone, still up sorting everything from the first day of the Food Network Southern Food and Wine Festival. I had the most awesome dinner with Alton Brown as the host. :)



I'll have more details but it was really fun and great food.