S2E5: Talk Derby to Me

Learn how to turn your back yard into the triple crown – invite your friends to dress up and gallop over for a horse racing party. The fellas set up a winning trifecta with crab cakes, pork belly burnt ends, mini-cheesecakes and a bourbon cocktail.

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Recipes from this episode

Blackberry Bourbon Smash

Pork Belly Burnt Ends

Crab Cake Sliders

Mini Cheesecakes

Blackberry
Bourbon Smash

Yields: 1 Cocktail
Prep Time: 5 Minutes

When it comes to race day, the go-to spirit to get your spirits up? Bourbon, baby. From Mint Julips to Old Fashioneds, bourbon is the fuel for good stories and occasionally the bad bet. For us though, you can bet on this drink being smooth, delicious and helps you feel lucky, at the track or wherever you want to improve your chances. It’s an easy entrance-to-bourbon drinking, too. It’s trendy and cool to love bourbon (heck, we’re in a bourbon club we love), but tough to learn up front. This is the best starter drink, and enjoyed by aficionados, too. We use mint and blackberries to make a concoction that makes the bourbon shine and get you ready for the big day ahead!

Ingredients:

2 oz of bourbon
3-4 blackberries
½ Tbsp blackberry jam
Mint leaf
½ oz of mint simple syrup
Lemon wedge for garnish
Blackberry for garnish
Mint leaf for garnish
Ice

Directions for Each Drink:

In a shaker, add the bourbon, mint leaf a few blackberries, with the jam and muddle • Let sit for a minute
Add ice, shake vigorously
Pour ice into a tumbler
Strain cocktail over ice
Garnish with a mint leaf and a blackberry
Get into the race

Pork Belly Burnt Ends

Yields: 30 bites
Prep Time: 4 hours

Our experience at the track or any race day party? There’s always some barbecue. In the spirit of the great state of Kentucky, but good smoke is celebrated from Cali to Saratoga, and burnt ends are where it’s at! You don’t want to be at the end of the race at the finish line, but you sure want to be at the end of these babies. Succulent pork belly smothered in a dynamite sauce is the perfect nosh when you’re dolled to the nines or chillin’ on your back porch watching the race on your phone. We got this recipe from one of our favorite riders in the game - our buddy Jared, who is a great smoke master and friend, so this recipe is crafted with love, and your crew is going to love every bite, so get up in here. Not familiar with pork belly? Imagine the sexiest, juiciest bacon of all time, now multiply the flavor and experience times ten. It’s that good, and if you have a smoker, this is not hard to do! Just follow our steps, and you’re off to the races.

Ingredients:

8lb pork belly skin removed (if you get from Costco, the skin is already removed) • BBQ rub (we use at least a ½ C)
1 ½ sticks butter sliced into Tbsp tabs
½ C brown sugar
¼ C honey
1 ½ JRad’s Secret Glaze (ingredients and instructions below)

Ingredients for JRad’s Secret Glaze

1 C of your favorite BBQ sauce (We used Sweet Baby Ray’s)
¼ C apple juice
¼ C apple jelly
1 Tbsp good hot sauce

Directions:

Heat your smoker to 250-275. If you don’t have a smoker, you can try this in the oven. If you do it that way, you might want to toss the pork in a little liquid smoke
Cut the pork belly into 1½-2-inch strips, almost like cubes (width wise, not length) • Rub each strip down, all over!
Place the strips on the smoker and smoke for 2-2½ hours
Once done smoking, pull strips off and cut into 1½ inch cubes
Grab your foil pan and put the cubes in
Slice 1½ sticks of butter and put in with the pork
Sprinkle ½ cup of brown sugar over the pork

Drizzle ¼ cup of honey all over the pork, sugar and butter
Cover with foil and return to the smoker for 1½ hours
After 1½ hours, drain the liquid from the pan and add the glaze, return to smoker for 5- 10 mins
Grab some toothpicks and make somebody’s day!

Directions for JRad’s Secret Glaze

In a medium saucepan, heat all ingredients together slowly over medium heat
Keep stirring until it’s thick and sexy (like JRad and Matt!)

Crab Cake Sliders

Yields: 8-9 sliders
Total time: 35 minutes

To rep the great racetrack in Maryland, and the mighty Preakness, we go with a Maryland seasoned crab cake slider that gets everybody in a position to win, baby! Easily one of our favorite things to make, we have a killer remoulade that goes with any seafood, and the perfect bites for juicy, succulent crab cakes. These babies are all killer and no filler. These sammies fill hearts (and tend to break ‘em when we’ve run out), so make a few extra. We go hard, Spatchcock Style. Or is it Spatchcrab style? Either way, we’re not just having cake in the ocean, we’re bringin’ the ocean to the cake! This is a version of a recipe we learned from the great folks at NY Kitchen in Canandaigua, NY. Check them out!

Ingredients:

Ingredients for Crab Cakes

1 ½ lb. crab meat (Boss Canned is what we used), chopped
½ cup celery, finely diced
4 green onions, sliced
2 cups panko breadcrumbs
1.5 cups mayo
2 Tbsp Dijon mustard
1 finely diced red bell pepper
Juice of 1 lemon (and 2 other lemons for photos)
2 eggs
1 Tbsp of Old Bay seasoning
Salt and pepper
A light lettuce, like bib
Sliced Roma tomatoes
Brioche slider rolls

Ingredients for Remoulade

1 C mayo
1 shallot, minced
2 Tbsp of sweet pickles, minced
1 Tbsp garlic chili sauce
Splash of lime juice
Dash of salt

Directions:

Mix together wet ingredients for crab cakes (mayo, Dijon, lemon juice, eggs) • In a separate bowl, mix dry ingredients (panko, red peppers, celery, green onions and Cajun seasoning)
Combine wet and dry ingredients
Add in the crab meat and season with salt and pepper
Form cakes with the mixture, and coat with extra panko if they’re too wet, (we think an ice cream scoop is perfect, another great tip from NY Kitchen)

Shape them into 3” patties, and place on a parchment-lined baking sheet • Bake in oven for 8-10 minutes at 350 to firm up cakes
While in the oven, mix the ingredients for the remoulade
Put canola oil in pan, heat over medium heat, fry 3-5 min each side until golden brown, if they fry too quickly, lower heat
Remove from pan, rest on paper towels, salt immediately
Assemble the sandwich by putting the cake down first, then the tomato, then the lettuce, and spread your remoulade across the top of the bun

Mini Cheesecakes

Yields: 24 servings
Prep Time: 10 minutes

To fully rep the great city of New York, and Strong Island, er, we mean Long Island, we got the perfect sweet treat for tour racing party The final jewel in racing’s triple crown is the Belmont Stakes, and to represent the third leg of the biggest races, we’ve got mini–New York-style cheesecakes. Easy to eat and even easier to make, they’re nice little bites so you don’t get too weighed down (you’ll notice all of our recipes for a horse racing party are bite-sized, that way you can nosh and pick and choose what you want, just like a racing form at the track). We learned these through trial and error, and they always come out creamy and heavenly. We make a blueberry honey compote to drop off on top, and the sweet berries, fatty cream cheese and honey make this dessert a winner no matter the location or the weather.

Ingredients:

2 C graham cracker crumbs (about 16 full graham crackers, crushed up), for the crust • ⅓ C packed dark brown sugar, for the crust
½ C melted unsalted butter, for the crust
1 C cold heavy whipping cream (we put it in the freezer for 5 minutes before using) • 16 oz cream cheese, left out at room temperature for 20 minutes
⅓ C granulated sugar
2 Tbsp vanilla yogurt, left out at room temperature for 20 minutes too • 1 tsp fresh lemon juice
4 tsp pure vanilla extract
Blueberry honey compote (ingredients/directions below)

Ingredients for Blueberry Honey Compote

4 cups fresh blueberries
2 tablespoons water
¼ cup honey
½ teaspoon cinnamon
½ C cornstarch and water, mixed as a slurry, to use as needed

Directions:

Using one of those 24-count mini muffin pans, line ‘em with those cute little cups
Mix the graham cracker crumbs, sugar and melted butter until is is the same consistency of wet sand (trust us)
Spoon a little of the mixture into each cup, filling up a third of the cup, then pack it down • Preheat the oven to 350, and bake them for 10 minutes and let cool (this will prevent them falling apart later)
Use a hand mixer and whip the cream in a cold metal bowl (we freeze it for 20 minutes before using, mixers too), for 3 minutes, so it forms peaks like whipped cream • In another bowl, use that mixer with a whisk and beat the cream cheese and sugar until it’s smooth and creamy
Add the yogurt, lemon juice, and vanilla extract to the cream cheese mixture until there are no lumps, and use a spatula to push stuff down the side as needed • Add in the whipped cream, and mix it evenly, but don’t go too hard or too long, like a minute or so
Throw it in a piping bag or food storage bag to pipe out, or spoon it onto the crust • Refrigerate the mini cheesecakes in the pans for at least 3 hours
Top with blueberry compote
Get ready to party