Tailgating Prep: Patriots vs Bills

Tomorrow Matt and I are going to Foxboro to watch the Patriots make their record 3 and 0 at the expense of the Buffalo Bills. I'm pretty pumped because this is actually my first regular season game and I expect the atmosphere to be intense. The Bills haven't won a game this year and all signs are pointing to blow out, but it should be exciting regardless. The weather is going to be sunny and in the upper 70s, and the grilling is going to be epic.

We're going to try something new, since this is a 1pm game: breakfast on the grill. We expect to be at the stadium around 10am and firing up Matt's 22" Weber with a brand new griddle. I'm bringing pancake batter, eggs and home fries. We expect to spend another two hours grilling post-game, while we wait for the traffic to clear and enjoy the rest of the afternoon. A visual preview...

I never would have thought you could improve on my bacon jalapeno poppers. Well it turns out you can, to the tune of mixing chopped bacon and sharp cheddar into the cream cheese before stuffing them. I may die of cardiac arrest at 30, but at least I can say that I got to eat these.





Some boneless country pork ribs, rubbed and ready for the grill:



Some Patriot's endorsed brats:



And some buffalo chicken wings, because why not:

Labels: appetizer, chicken, event, football, ribs, rubs, tailgating

Happy Labor Day

I was reading the summer grilling issue of Cook's Illustrated today. I'm not sure if this is always the case, but it seems like with each recipe their goal was to improve on something that was commonly accepted at levels of mediocrity. For example, the section on fajitas pegged them as generally being bland chunks of chicken and peppers that required excessive condiment application to disguise their lack of flavor.



I'd never thought about it that way: we always tend to enjoy the condiments as much as everything else. How can you go wrong with fresh guacamole, salsa and sour cream? I saw the author's point however. You should be able to do enough with chicken that it can stand on its own. The recipe in question was for a quick marinade, primarily lime, cilantro and jalapeno based, with a suggested marinade time of just 15 minutes.





To compliment this, we chose another recipe from the same issue for a dill cream cucumber sandwich. One interesting technique highlighted here was for maintaining the crunchyness of cucumbers. It involved putting a ziplock bag of water on top of the sliced cucumbers to help squeeze out the internal water. In addition the slices were tossed with salt which further drew out the internal moisture. The result was supposed to maintain the delicious crunch of
a freshly cut cucumber, even after being dressed.





As should be no surprise when working under the written instruction of Cooks Illustrated, both dishes turned out to be a success. The chicken was tender and flavorful, and each primary ingredient in the marinade was distinctly noticeable after grilling. The cucumbers were every bit as crunchy as expected, and the fresh dill and sour cream dressing was a refreshing compliment to the citrus spice of the fajitas. Even a quick tip on covering your tortillas with a dish towel after taking them off the grill made a huge difference, keeping the tortillas warm and supple instead of hardening once they come off the heat.

Labels: alley, chicken, event, fajitas, labor day, sauce

Fourth of July Beach Cookout

Grilling on the beach was something I'd really been looking forward to doing this year, and it did not disappoint. Around 5pm the wind started to pick up a little and cleared away all the sun bathers, so we though it would be a good time to light the coals. It was slightly challenging getting coals started in direct wind without the charcoal chimney I normally use. Once the flame caught I put the lid back on leaving a 2 inch game over the side with the coals banked. This in conjunction with the side air vents on the Smokey Joe Gold seemed to keep things burning.



I wanted to let the ribs smoke for at least an hour, using the apple wood chips I had found in the local hardware store. To tide us over, I made some kabobs with fresh pineapple, onion, peppers and shrimp. These cooked real fast, and kept us entertained while some more of that delicious corn we had on sunday was streaming. One thing I noticed was that the shrimp readily absorbed the smokey flavor and also dried out rather quickly. I'm not sure if this was because they were on the small size for grilling, or if it was because they had been pre-cooked when we bought them. Either way, I'm going to have to delve into shrimp grilling a little bit more and try to crack this. The fresh pineapple was delicious as usual.



The ribs cooked for just about an hour and a half, with the rub forming a delicious looking crust. I brushed them down with some Sweet Baby Ray's honey bbq sauce and let that caramalize for another 15 minutes. Just as we were getting ready to take them off a few drops of rain sizzled on the grill lid. As we got the ribs inside it just started to pick up so we dodged a bullet and enjoyed our meal while watching the storm go by.





Please note Cassie's delicious home made sangria in the above photo. The ribs were delicious, with just enough of a smoke ring around the inside to convince myself that one can take a serious stab at doing actual barbecue on a grill, even a small one like the Smokey Joe.

//update: the Flickr photo group Bar-B-Qued Ribs asked for me to submit that photo to them! Super cool, check out all the food porn they've collected.

Labels: appetizer, beach, event, kabobs, ribs, rubs, sauce, seafood, wood smoke

Vacation Begins

Today Cassie and I arrived in Provincetown on Cape Cod and spent a wonderful afternoon of doing precisely nothing. Eventually we got around to venturing out and acquiring some of the goods that make doing nothing so much better, specifically food and beer. At the local hardware store I picked up a Smokey Joe Gold and some charcoal. We weren't looking to break into any culinary circles quite yet, so the evening menu consisted of some good corn and a few hot dogs.





The Smokey Joe Gold has one neat feature that my alley grill at home lacks: a built in handle that also serves to lock the lid in place, making it possible to carry the grill while the coals are still somewhat hot. I'm thinking this should make it feasible to take the grill down to the beach, a whole 20 feet away from our porch, to grill in the sand on of these nights, and then bring it back up after cooking. Can't imagine a better fourth of July.

Labels: beach, event, vacation

Weekend Update

Despite the hype of my previous post, scheduling didn't work out for an afternoon of rib smoking. I am happy to report that break-through success was obtained in another area: the elusive buffalo bleu cheese burger. This was something I had attempted back in August 2005 with mixed results. The primary problem at that time was that I was trying to mix the hot sauce with the hamburger before forming the patties, which resulted in them not staying together on the grill.

This time around, I tried a technique used in this video, simply basting the ribs with the hot sauce during the cooking process, which worked great. I also used crumbled bleu cheese and found that it diffused through the center of the burger much better. I'll post a recipe for this in the near future.

I also made a fantastic gazpacho this weekend following this recipe and highly recommend it. The rosemary grilled croutons are fantastic.

Labels: burgers, event, soup

Grilled Barbecue Chicken Pizza

With my recent desire to rid my digestive system of its daily intake of high fructose corn syrup, I have been making some of my condiments from scratch. My most recent experiment has been a thick, homemade tomato sauce. With the recipe for homemade bbq sauce perfected, it occurred to me that I had all the fixin's for my absolute favorite pizza in the entire world: Barbecue chicken.

It was early AM on Tuesday morning when I started pondering what my dinner plans for the evening were going to be. After taking a quick inventory of my refrigerator, I decided that grilled meat wasn't going to get the job done by itself. What I did have was some raw pizza dough, a package of chicken breasts, some fresh mozzarella, and six ounces of my homemade BBQ sauce. All we were missing was the tomato sauce.



The tomato sauce takes no more than fifteen minutes if you know what you are doing and I had twenty to spare. First step was to boil water for the tomatoes. The recipe requires five peeled vine-ripened tomatoes and the boiling water helps peel the skin right off. While the water boiled I chopped up the onion, celery and garlic and tossed it all into a pan coated in olive oil. Once I had the onion and celery frying up, I peeled and finely chopped the tomatoes and added them to the pan. With ten minutes to spare, the major grunt work was out of the way. I added the brown sugar, basil, parsley, lime juice, soy sauce and two tablespoons of tomato ketchup. The sauce was ready with two minutes to spare and the whole house smelled amazing.



Time for work.



Hooray! Time to grill this mother. After starting the coals I took out the pizza dough that I had rolled out onto a baking sheet before work and laid down an even healthy coat of my sauce while leaving a 1.25" border for the crust. Next, I sliced up the raw chicken breasts into thin strips and laid them out liberally over the whole pizza surface. I spread spoonfuls of the bbq sauce over the chicken strips and then laid down a thick layer of freshly shredded mozzarella. Topped the whole thing off with a small sprinkling of oregano (Thanks Papa Gino's).

I grilled the pizza still on the baking sheet for easy transport and no mess. Tin foil would have worked as well, but it's not a ridged surface and I'm all about function, baby. There's no real specific time frame for grilling this as it all depends on your coal amount and placement. Because I typically place the coals in a sloped pile on one side of the grill I rotated the pizza 180 degrees halfway through to ensure an even crust. The pizza crust should be firm and the cheese golden before removal.



The end result was a delicious and quick weekday meal for me and my roommate Mariel. Because the ingredients are cheap and the sauce and mozzarella can be used again, it's a great option for doing pizza one night and pasta the next.

Labels: chicken, event, pizza, sauce

Turkey Burgers

Matt has been working on an interesting variation to the typical grill burger, and this Sunday he was gracious enough to share the work in progress with us prior to watching the season finale of the Sopranos. A turkey burger topped with a homemade salsa-esque chopped tomato sauce and freshly shredded mozzarella, I can verify that this bird burger has wings. Hopefully we can look forward to an official recipe post this week.





Fresh corn on the cob, jalapeno poppers and some marinated steak tips rounded out the meal, and certainly left us feeling more satisfied than the conclusion to the Sopranos.

Labels: burgers, event, steak, turkey

Memorial Day Session #3 - Epilogue

At last... Game day. Going into Monday, the grilling plan was far from certain. I would be quarterbacking the event, but when I woke up the menu and the guest list was still to be determined. Knowing there would most likely be a holiday rush, I headed to SUPER Stop & Shop at 8:30 AM so I could get first dibs at the meat and produce.

Stop & Shop did not disappoint. I walked into the store and was immediately greeted by a produce worker piling up fresh corn on the cob. My previous corn selection was second rate so I was inclined to serve up some grilled asparagus. But when I saw the corn I had to do it, especially given the occasion. I had toyed with the idea of doing a stuffed chicken and the racks of beautiful thick cut Purdue chicken breasts sealed the deal. After browsing the rest of the produce section, I decided to stuff the chicken with spinach and a blend of mozzarella, ricotta and Parmesan cheeses.



In addition to Nat and Cassie, I anticipated cooking for an additional five people including my roommate Mariel. I had to bring backup. To help feed the masses I picked up a huge package of beautiful chicken wings and a bottle of Ah So Sauce, a neon pink Chinese style barbecue sauce that immediately puts your chicken wings on steroids. Finally I grabbed some hamburger meat so I could pad every ones appetite and ensure that everyone got some of the good stuff.

Upon my return from the store I started the prep work. First, I seasoned the chicken breasts and placed them in a marinade of Italian dressing. I coated the chicken wings in the Ah So sauce and put everything in the fridge. Once the main players started arriving, I sauteed the spinach in a skillet with some olive oil and chopped garlic. Once the spinach cooked through, I slit each chicken breast laterally and stuffed the spinach and cheese in the newly created pocket. After each piece of chicken was stuffed I pinned it shut with a toothpick and sprinkled the top with breadcrumbs.

With the coals started and the food prepped, Cassie began addressing our new glaring problem: We forgot to buy beer. While this may not seem like a formidable solution to the rest of the earth, this is an enormous obstacle to those of us living in backwards ass Massachusetts. We had already failed at a disastrous multi-town search for an open liquor store, so Cassie took my formidable collection of miscellaneous hard alcohol and proceeded to create some delicious summertime drinks.



I placed the chicken breasts on the back of the grill to let them cook slowly. Hamburgers were placed over the coals to cook through quickly as my guests were growing impatient. I wanted to boost the chickens flavor as much as possible so I began adding hickory wood chips that I had soaked earlier. The chicken cooked through perfectly and the blend of cheeses kept the meat incredibly moist. When the stuffed chicken breasts were off the grill I piled on the chicken wings and started boiling the corn. I applied several new coats of Ah So sauce while the wings cooked through.



The results of our grilling efforts were top notch. Both the stuffed chicken and the Chinese chicken wings provided an interesting twist to the menu and we successfully accommodated the thirteen total guests who came to enjoy our grilling madness. Cassie provided the most impressive after dinner treat with a home made thatched crust cherry pie that was a flat out show-stopper. With the help of some great appetizers, Frisbee, Nat's iPod and the Nintendo Wii, we went the distance and capped our memorial day weekend with a truly epic grilling session.



Thanks to Alyson Dusseault for letting us use the awesome Polaroids she took.

Labels: burgers, chicken, event, wood smoke

Memorial Day Session #2

Cassie and I grilled up some chicken fajitas in the alley on Smokey Joe this afternoon. Freshly squeezed margaritas, grilled chicken with peppers and onion, and some corn on the cob from our neighbors who were also grilling. A perfect Sunday afternoon.





Now for a nap.

Labels: alley, chicken, event

Memorial Day Session #1

As we headed into a glorious Memorial Day weekend Nat and I decided this was a prime opportunity to really get our grilling back on track. Waking up early Saturday morning, I though steaks would be a great place to start as we hadn't really done steaks to their fullest in some time. Well, it turned out that Nat had some steaks that had been marinading since 1987... This was a good sign of things to come.

We headed to the SUPER Stop & Shop around noon to gather further equipment. Bacon wrapped jalapeno poppers were the logical opening act as they cook fairly quickly and the spicy flavor fits nicely with a summer style cookout. For sides we went with chopped BBQ vegetables and boiled corn on the cobb. During our trek Nat stumbled across some glorious hickory wood chips, a prize we had been searching for in previous grilling sessions. Finally, we capped it off with a rack of fresh pork ribs which would take the hickory smoke perfectly.

Upon our return, first step was to prep all the food. With the steak marinading in the fridge, Nat mixed together a spicy rub for the pork ribs made with paprika, ground peppercorn, cayenne red pepper, sea salt and Mrs. Dash Southwest Chipotle seasoning blend. We chopped onion, potato, red pepper and green pepper into 1.5 inch pieces which we slathered in Jack Daniels original BBQ sauce and wrapped shut with tin foil. Lastly, we took the hickory woodchips and soaked them in water until it was time to start the insanity.



We started the coals with about a gallon and a half of lighter fluid because A) I left the bag of charcoal outside for a week so the coals were damp from a rainstorm and B) someone in charge of my apartment building threw out my coal chimney stack because they couldn't identify the rusted mass for what it was. Once the fire finally started going we added the soaked hickory chips and placed an aluminum tray of Sierra Nevada ale next to the coals to flavor the food above.



We decided to slow cook the ribs so we could maximize the sun and get as much smokey flavor as possible. The bag of BBQ vegetables was placed on direct heat so we could get as much indirect surface area as possible for the jalapenos and the steak. Once everything was in place we covered the grill and me, Nat and my brother Kevin proceeded to make good use of Nat's new frisbee.



The results of our grilling session were better than we could have ever anticipated. The jalapeno poppers were incredibly spicy, as Nat said he left the seeds in the jalapeno slices. We took Nat's marinaded steak off the grill at the absolute perfect moment and the BBQ vegetables were chock full o' flavor. After devouring the main event, we force-fed ourselves the slow cooked ribs and corn on the cobb. It's easy to forget the impact that wood chips can have on a meal and this grilling session was a helpful reminder. The bar has definitely been raised.

Labels: chicken, event, ribs, steak, video, wood smoke

Urban grilling

A running theme here at the BBQ blog, and you'll have to take my word that it continued to be one during our one year hiatus, is the challenge of urban grilling. Public transportation, social diversity, an abundance of interesting career options and cultural events... In the eyes of the pit master, none of this means jack when it comes with the burden of not being able to grill. Shockingly, most one bedroom apartments in Boston do not come with a half acre of manicured lawn.

Going the entire summer with stove cooked meals is not an option. The resourceful urban griller knows this, and is capable of overcoming. Last night we fired up Smokey Joe, originally drafted to the team for Patriot's tailgating duties, in our back alley. Most people who aren't from the city consider an alleyway to be a narrow space filled with trash, muggers and working women. In our case, its a pleasant space with some convenient steps that serve as stairs and overhead lighting (which is unfortunately motion sensitive, so keep moving).

Dinner consisted of teriyaki marinated free range chicken breasts and grilled asparagus. Easy, fast and delicious, the key words every author knows and loves when marketing recipes to people who whine about not having time to do anything.

The Chicken:
Good free range meat (ideally local), trimmed to serving size. Hit it with some pepper, kosher salt and some hot pepper if you aren't a sissy. Submerge in store bought teriyaki sauce in a plastic bag and throw it in the freezer. The day you want to grill, put the chicken in the fridge before you go to work, and unless you have a super cold fridge, it should be ready to grill when you get home.

The Asparagus:
Toss your fresh asparagus, trimmed of course, with some olive oil and a dash of kosher salt. Squeeze on some lemon and you're done.

Grilling:
Wait for the coals to burn down to medium heat. If you're cooking on a small grill like the Smokey Joe, this is particularly important. The small surface area and close proximity between grate and coals leaves little margin for error, and nobody likes dry chicken. I found that the asparagus cooks at about the same rate as a trimmed chicken breast, so this meal is super easy.

Get your coals piled up on one side, and arrange everything around the middle of the grate so nothing is directly over the highest point of the coal pile. Flip after five minutes and cook another four and you should be in business. As always with chicken, if you overcook it you'll get a lot of excessive chewing and 'no really its good' from the people you're cooking for. So don't screw it up and cook it too long.

Labels: chicken, event, recipe

Marathon 2006!

Photos from our Boston Marathon '06 cookout.

The roof setup:



You run, we eat:



Beer brats, beef ribs with bbq sauce and the classic Nathan's Franks:



Mission accomplished:



A few more photos at Flickr: flickr.com/photos/nattarbox/tags/bostonmarathon06/

Labels: boston marathon, event, roof

Whiskey Chicken

While on a business trip to Miami, Florida I made a pit stop at Bass Pro Outdoor World in Fort Lauderdale. If you like to hunt, fish, raft, grill or think your side got cheated in the Civil War, this store is for you. While inside I bought a gift for my grilling hombre; a bottle of Whiskey Flavored Barbecue Sauce. While I hadn't tasted the sauce yet, there was a lengthy and hilarious story on the back of the bottle involving a bunch of lazy drunk trailblazers who were too sauced to make it to the west coast and thus decided to settle in some valley and make whiskey products.

Upon my return I couldn't wait to test drive our new sauce and made grilling one of my top objectives. Because the sauce was the headliner for this grilling session we opted to go with chicken as it responds well to marinading and takes on the flavor more than other meats. To fully develop the grilling theme of alcohol soaked meat we selected beer brats as our second course. Nat would get the party started with our famous bacon wrapped Jalapeno Poppers.

Saturday morning I made a trip to Whole Foods to pick up the meat. The packaging assured me that the chicken I selected was paid a full salary with health, vision and a 401k before he was executed. I put the chicken breasts in the marinade at 10 AM on Saturday morning. By grilling time the chicken had approximately 30 total hours of soaking in the sauce. We placed the chicken and the beer brats on the grill at the same time. The brats were placed in an aluminum foil basin with onions and two 12 oz. bottles of Bass Ale over direct heat. Nat placed the chicken over indirect heat, rotating consistently to prevent the sauce from solidifying. Sauce was reapplied sporadically to keep the chicken moist and from over searing the outside.

We accompanied the food with a medley of delicious imported beer. The lovely Rachel and myself enjoyed Boddington's Pub Ale while Nat and Cassie had a nice combo of Bass Ale and Stella Artois. I, like a complete jackass, left the hot dog buns at my apartment and Cassie made the trek to the supermarket to save the day. Big ups to Cassie. With our beloved Patriots now on vacation we bitterly devoured our food while cursing the flag-happy referees of the NFL who ended our season.

Labels: chicken, event, sauce

Wildcard Weekend

Heading into NFL wildcard weekend we were required by law to break out the trusty Weber 18.5 and get our grill on. As luck would have it, my legendary grandma, who perfected the art of clogging my arteries when I was in college, sent me a large care package from Omaha Steaks. It being a saturday and having no real responsibilities, Nat and I decided to devote the bulk of the afternoon to perfecting our feast.

After some careful deliberation prior to gameday, Nat and I agreed that we needed to incorporate smoking back into our routine. The last time we had successfully tracked down wood chips for smoking was August, during prime time grilling season. Since then our pitiful search attempts have yielded nothing. But today we made wood chips our holy grail.

The morning of gameday we drew up our battle plan and took an inventory. Nat would secure ribs, jalepenos to make our classic bacon wrapped poppers, and charcoal. After speaking with some woman at the Watertown Target who spoke Spanglish, I was informed that they did sell woodchips. My mission was to get the woodchips, disposable plates and deliver the care package of Sirloin.

As the day unraveled with were met with numerous unforseen challenges. Upon my arrival at Target I immediately noticed that there was not a single mesquite chip to be found. While securing the plates, Nat called me from the field to report that Star Market was completely out of charcoal and jalapenos. I grabbed some charcoal and headed to his house to do some damage control and begin preparations for the grilling.

When I arrived we discussed the wood chip predicament. We had an abundance of time before we had to being the actual slow cooking process for the ribs so Nat suggested we try another store. Home Depot informed him that they had mesquite chips for sale at reasonable prices. Admittedly, I was reluctant to make the trek. Every Masshole with a drivers license was on the road on this day and going to Home Depot involved driving through Brighton. Driving through Brighton on Saturday afternoon is the equivalent of driving my '96 Nissan through the Korean DMZ. Nat would hear none of it. We made the trek and secured the woodchips in record time.

With all equipment secured (with the exception of the Jalapenos) we proceeded to slow cook the ribs. With the slow cook process we could not utilize the Match Lite charcoal that had become a comfortable crutch for our deep freeze grilling. The temperature for the afternoon was hovering around 27 degrees which made the slow cook process particularly challenging. We cooked the ribs with indirect heat for approximately two and a half hours replacing coals periodically. We applied a handful of the soaked mesquite chips directly to the coals about every 45 minutes for sustained smoke saturation. Once the ribs were complete, we cooked the sirloin steaks over direct heat keeping a very close eye not to char the outside. Cassie was placed in charge of putting the stuffed bake potatoes in the oven.

The last of the steaks were being pulled from the fire as the first guests were arriving. The ribs were incredible and the smoking definitely paid off. The highlight of the feast, to our surprise, were the stuffed baked potatoes from Omaha. Our 8 man tag team finished off every last bit of food we had prepared and the Patriots delivered an incredible thrashing to the Jaguars.

Labels: event, ribs, steak, wood smoke

Night Grilling

Looking ahead to the New Years weekend, it became clear that any grilling that was to occur over the next week must be accomplished tonight. Seeing as how Matt and myself both work long office hours, this necessitated a night grilling session. Once a common occurence at my old apartment, under the protective front porch awning complete with outdoor lighting, we were breaking new ground here on Fairbanks Street. Fortunately, a high-output halogen illuminates the back alley to some extent. Urban grilling is fraught with such situations.



I had a lot of Christmas presents to utilize. Most importantly, my good internet buddy Meg who works for Vienna Beef in Chicago had sent a holiday package of delicious meat goodies. She also passed along a recipe for bourbon and bbq cocktail weenies. This was a must try.

My parents, in typical humorous-gift form, had given me a 'marinade syringe' and some associated sauces. Basically it looks like something you'd use to give an elephant a vaccine. We decided to try this out on the neutral canvas of some free-range chicken breasts. I used a honey mequite marinade, and also a cajun spice rub, both of which had been boxed with the 'marinade syringe':







First impressions on the meat syringe. These were good sized chicken breasts. I usually trim them to smaller sizes so people can be flexible in portions, and also so they can sit in more marinade. In this case I didn't, and the syringe still seemed a little large for them. You had to get it in just right to keep it from pouring sauce out the side of the chicken. The meat would sort of expand around the syringe and darken from the sauce.

As for the bbq and bourbon weenies (Whiskey Weenies?), I mixed 1/4 cup of Jim Beam (yee haw!) with 1/2 cup of bbq sauce, and shook them up in a tupperware container. We cooked these in a foil bag over the coals. Also debuting on the grill tonight from Vienna Beef were some delicious polish sausage (kinda like big hot dogs), which we ate while everything else was cooking. And I tried making the same potatos from earlier this month, but for some reason they didn't cook as well. I think the foil bag was too thick, or I had used too many potatos.





The cajun spice rub was really high in salt content, which sort of offset whatever benefit the meat syringe might have offered flavor-wise. The bourbon weenies were good, but obviously could have benefitted from a long marinade. They seem to be more of a party dish than something for casual grilling too. Delicious none the less. As far as the meat syringe goes, I'm guess at this point its intended for large items, like whole chickens or turkeys, and probably good for wild game. For the smaller meat cuts that we generally cook around here, it seems a little cumbersome.

Labels: chicken, event, sauce, sausage

Ribs, dripping with sauce:

Heres a photographic wrap up. The Patriots won, but it was probably THE most boring game ever. Luckily the ribs were delicious. Also, Cassie shut her store down early and got back just in time for some delicious ribs. I tried out a new recipe today, basically diced potatoes coated with an olive oil / garlic / herb combo. I added sliced onions. The whole deal was cooked in a foil bag over direct heat for roughly an hour, and came out as delicious as it sounds. Fact.

Labels: event

Post-Thanksgiving Grill Out

Just a quick update, I am currently knee deep in the muck of designing a NEW bbq site (hence the fancy subdomain, etc). Here are some pictures from todays pre-game grill session:

Labels: event

Break in the Rain

So its been raining for about 10 days in a row here in Boston, hence no grilling last weekend before the game. This morning I woke up to sunshine, but as I'm typing this post the clouds have rolled back in. No matter, grilling will commence at 2pm sharp regardless of weather. Actuallly there are some insane wind gusts too, hopefully we won't blow off the roof.

Todays game is at 4:15pm, which is a nice break from the recent string of 1pm start times that make grilling rather difficult. Matt's friend Fisher is coming down from New Hampshire with some steaks, and I have beer brats, beef ribs and asparagus all marinating for the afternoon. Should be good, regardless of weather.

Labels: event

Jerk Chicken

Another fabulous afternoon on the roof. Using my new HDTV personal video recorder thingey, we put the Sox / Yankees game on pause (how cool is that) and fired up the grill. Not a cloud in sight:



In honor of David Ortiz, who has been kicking butt for the Sox, we decided to try making some jerk chicken. I don't actually know for certain that Ortiz likes jerk chicken, but I had a bottle of Uncle Billy's Voo Doo Jerk sauce and I was itching to give it a try (Uncle Billy's is like the best BBQ place in the state of Maine, and worth a visit if you find yourself in that area). The suggestion on the bottle was to mix equal parts Jerk sauce with maple syrup or molasses. I went with the syrup and added some diced habanero peppers for good measure. Also on the menu today were the house favorites bacon-wrapped jalapeno poppers, and some bbq marinated steak tips:



I banked the coals for indirect heat so the maple syrup wouldn't turn into a carbonized crust on the chicken. Also, when cooking anything involving bacon on your grill, use a drip tray to prevent raging fireballs from incinerating your grub:





Apparently this bee was digging the bbq sauce and/or maple syrup fumes wafting off our roof. Matt entered into mortal combat with this beast, eventually ending him with a mighty spatula blow to the head. We built an honorory funeral pyre on the coals for this fallen soldier.



At any rate, the chicken came out great. Not too hot or over-powering, but more a tang of a zing on your lips. The sweet maple syrup did a great job of infusing into the meat, although I'm curious to see what molasses would taste like (bottom line there is that I needed maple syrup for other things too so it got the bump at the store). The jalapeno poppers were as good as always, one subtle change this time is that they didn't have any jalapenos at the store so they are actually a larger, slightly more mild green pepper. This had the added benefit of serving as a larger vehicle for the cream cheese. The steak was good, nothing too adventurous or new around here, but a good staple to compliment the chicken.

Labels: event

Birthday & Football

The stars were truly aligned last night, as the birthday of yours truly and the start of the Patriot's preseason aligned together on one swelteringly hot August evening. While most don't get too excited for the preseason, there is an argument to be made for watching football outdoors in flip flops. I will be looking back on this Friday night cookout with fond memories sometime in January.

Even since I was about 14, when Mom asked "What should we have for dinner on your birthday?" the answer has always been BBQ, and usually ribs. Keeping this tradition alive, I prepared some of the brown sugar rubbed BBQ ribs that have been such a popular item this year. Cassie made a wonderful dish of tomatos with fresh basil and mozzarella, and also the amazing buffalo wings she's been getting so good at making (we have been on a personal quest to master the buffalo wing for sometime now, and I think she is just about there).

We propped the tv up in a window and sat on the porch grilling while the Pat's marched their new team members to victory against the Bengals. Cassie overdid the birthday gifts per usualy with an Apple Mighty Mouse and some Bang & Olufsen headphones. Probably the best BBQ of the summer.

Labels: event

Sizzlin' Like Fajita Meat!

Fajitas on the grill might be my new favorite dish. I got a couple flank steaks, cut them into good sized strips, and marinated for an hour in fajita sauce and lime juice. Grilled those first so they had time to cool off a little bit, and then cooked some peppers and onions, also in the fajita sauce, using a small frying pan over the grill.

The best part however is actually grilling the fajitas. They sort of puff up these air bubbles after being on the grill for 30 seconds, and the bubbles can grow to hilarious proportions. They're easily flattened out however. You can throw the cheese on the fajita after you flipped it once if you want it to melt. Delicious.

I just kinda made it up as I went along, but this page looks to be a good starting point for grilling fajitas yourself.

Labels: event

Buffalo Burgers

I got this great recipie for making hamburgers with blue cheese (or bleu I suppose if you want to get fancy). Basically it involves putting a chunk or two of hard blue cheese in the center of your patty, which in turn melts and permeates the meat while its on the grill. Its a great recipie, but it got me thinking: where one finds blue cheese, one expects buffalo wing sauce.

So my first attempt didn't work out so well, but I'll share it here so others can learn from it and as part of the documentation process. Generally a true grill master never admits defeat, but in the interests of science or something I'll let it slide this time.

Basically my first approach was to work in some buffalo sauce with the hamburger before forming the patties. Now as anyone knows, you don't go light on buffalo sauce (by the way, I use Frank's Red Hot Wing Sauce, which is pretty much the best you can get without going to some specialty store down south or whatever). So anyway, I mixed it in with the meat and immediately noticed that this had the effect of causing the hamburger to become almost mushy. The patties totally lacked the kind of cohesion you generally expect in a well made burger. I formed them up around the blue cheese chunks and put them in the fridge for awhile, hoping they would firm up.

When it came time to grill, they really hadn't solidfied at all, making them far too delicate for grilling. I only made three, and one fell apart immediately. The other two made it through alright, but I noticed that the meat had dried out considerably. Not to the point where it wasn't tasty, but it wasn't the moist, delicious hamburger one would expect. Also, despite having used a large amount of wingsauce, the flavor just really didn't permeate the way I was hoping for.

So my next attempt, I'm leaning towards creating the patties first, and then marinating them in wing sauce. That, combined with a liberal basting towards the end of the cooking cycle might do a better job of carrying the buffalo flavor to the dinner plate.

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Ribs!

Dudes, I must apologize for slacking on the BBQ Blog. I have been super busy this summer, and even though I manage to cook out on the grill three or four times a week, I have been remiss in writing about it online.

Last Friday Cassie went up to Maine, which meant it was a good night to eat all the things she is fussy about. Hence we had some big ol' pork ribs (not the babyback kind mind you, the big meaty ones), hit with my brown sugar rub and steeped in a delicious BBQ sauce I have been working on (recipie soon, just needs a little more tweaking).

Cooked for about forty five minutes over indirect heat, these babies came mout sweet, tender and delicious. Melt in your mouth delicious.

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Friday Night Heat Escape: Part Deux

Bad weather and a busy schedule have kept me away from both the grill and the blog for too long. Tonight we had some delicious filet mignon, and the results of a new method for preparing vegetables on the grill.

I cubed up some potatoes, peppers, onions and a little jalapeno, and mixed that with a about a cup of BBQ sauce. Its good to let that sit for about an hour so the sauce can start to permeate the veggies. Then you just dump it all onto a sheet of tinfoil and crimp another sheet down over the top to create a foil bag. I let it sit on the grill for about 30 minutes, while we cooked both an appetizer and the steak, and the end results were perfect. The veggies get soft and delicious without becoming mushy. BBQ sauce really helps potatoes get over their otherwise lackluster role of sitting next to the steak on your plate.

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