Nothing satisfies traveling campers like barbecue! On Friday night, we served up a hearty meal of brassica mixta, corn on the cob and corn bread, and barbecued chicken and tempeh.
Brassica mixta (or as my brother called it, basilica sarcastica) was our hastily re-branded coleslaw. Why re-branded? For some reason, coleslaw is the most over-served, under-eaten dish in the history of cooking. We really like this dish, and we were afraid that if we called it “coleslaw,” no one would eat it. (Someone later confirmed our suspicions by saying “That was great! What was it? Coleslaw?! I hate coleslaw.”) Credit for the naming goes to Aaron: the name comes from the genus brassica, which includes cabbage and other mustard-like vegetables.
Brassica Mixta (aka Texas Slaw)
We’ve linked to the corn bread recipe below, but the key to this dish is really just good course-ground corn meal. Our came from the Littleton Grist Mill in Littleton, NH. Independent scientific research by Rose has shown that the corn meal makes all the difference. (To make this recipe work for 100 people, we used baking pans instead of a cast iron skillet, and we browned some of the butter before pouring it into the pans.)
The barbecued tempeh (it’s actually baked) recipe comes from Rose and is based on a recipe by Peter Berley. We followed it more or less as it appears here, though we used freshly ground chipotle for some extra punch!
The chicken came from Bell & Evans and was butchered for us by Azman’s in Cleveland, OH. To keep things moving, it was par-baked in the kitchen and then finished and sauced on the grill. Unfortunately, this barbecue sauce is, and forever shall be, a closely guarded secret of John A. Copic. To create something similarly delicious at home, we like this recipe from Fine Cooking for grilled, bone-in chicken. The maple-bourbon glaze they suggest is amazing!
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