Coming Off The Back Burner

Clearly this blog has been on the back burner while I dove into the baking project.  Now that I am starting to settle back into a groove for the school year, it is time to start grilling a little before winter arrives and throttles my opportunities.  Today, I had anticipated that The Bride was going to be out of town for the evening, so I selected a protein that generally isn't high on her radar.  I went with the Cajun Chicken Thighs on page 257.  

I needed a recipe that was quick and easy, with no marinade time.  This fit the bill quite well.  Personally, I like chicken thighs much more than chicken breasts.  The flavor is significantly better, and the texture is much nicer as well.  Throw in a Cajun rub, and I was ready to have a fun and simple dinner.   Naturally, I began with the rub.

I trimmed the fat on the thighs, sprinkled on the rub, and set them in the fridge.  As I was doing this, The Bride called to inform me that she was going to driving home, and would be in time for dinner if I delayed for about an hour or two.   No problem.

Four minutes on each side and dinner was ready!

I made a mashed potato gratin for the side, and The Bride and I sat down on the couch for dinner and bad 80's movies.

Both of us were very impressed with the chicken.  The rub has a little heat from the paprika, but otherwise is more herbal in its flavor profile.   The Bride was actually more enthusiastic than I was about the chicken (don't get me wrong, I really liked it) which was surprising.  Normally she prefers the white meat on the bird, but she raved about the rub and went back for seconds.  Overall, this was a hit!  The leftovers will be used in some jambalaya this weekend, which will be fun and appropriate to make as it is supposed to rain (not to mention I have some awesome andouille in the freezer).

190 recipes complete

183 recipes to go!

A New Project!

I have a new project!  Check out A Guy and His Oven (not exactly creative, but going for continuity) if you need something manlier than grilling.  Meanwhile, back to grilling.

Well, not exactly.  This last weekend I smoked a couple of chickens for a BBQ, and remembered that I had come across a salad recipe that used leftover chicken a while back, and after already having the leftovers once, I needed something different.  With that in mind, I prepared the Chicken and Snow Pea Salad With Spicy Peanut Dressing on page 362.

As you can see, I don't have the usual compilation of ingredients as the first picture.  To make a long story short, I deleted it on accident.  I'm sure that at this point in time, you find yourself already over it.  So, you have to boil the snow peas for a minute, and then (as you see below) shock them in ice water.  This makes them nice and crispy.

I then shredded the leftover chicken.

The rest of the salad was prepped as well.  It contained the snow peas, red bell pepper, the chicken, cucumbers, and green onions.

The dressing was obviously peanut butter based, but also contained chicken stock (to help thin it out), red wine vinegar, sesame oil, and chile oil.

A quick visit from Mr. Immersion Blender helped pull the dressing together.

Sesame seeds were toasted for five minutes before being added to the salad, and while not pictured, some fresh cilantro was also finely chopped and added to the salad.

I tossed everything together, and I had a salad!

I liked this salad for two reasons.  First, it was a complete departure from my usual salads.  Second, it provided an outlet for leftover chicken that I had clearly become tired of and needed something new with which to do.  Having said that, the peanut dressing is very flavorful and tasty, but misappropriated in this salad.  It honestly belongs with a noodle dish.  In fact, with the addition of some fish sauce, it would make a nice Pad Thai dressing.  Meanwhile, I will file this recipe under the category of "Good, Happy I Made It, But Probably Won't Ever Make Again."

189 recipes complete

184 recipes to go!

Halfway Done!!!!!!!

Seven more days to vote on what I should do next!

Although I cannot come up with a good reason why, it seems fitting that I breach the 50% mark on the Fourth of July.  I'm glad that it happened on a holiday and that I could celebrate it with red meat.  Very little is more American than a grill out with hamburgers and hot dogs, so The Bride and I invited a few family members over and fired up the grill.  As I had a bunch of heirloom tomatoes ready for consumption, I started with the Fresh Tomato Salsa on page 49 as an appetizer.

The recipe calls for one and a half cups of chopped tomato, so I set my adjustable measuring cup to that mark and began processing the tomatoes.

I cored the tomatoes, squeezed out excess juice and seeds, and diced the flesh.  I made sure to use a little of each type of my heirlooms.

There's not too much more to say...it's salsa.  Everything got chopped up and mixed together.

The Bride and I figured that burgers would be a simple way to go with the family, as they tend to eat less eccentrically than we do.  There were only a couple of burger recipes left, and the closest one to being "American" was The Ultimate Bacon-Mushroom Cheeseburger on page 90.  

When working with portabellas, the first thing to do is to rock the stem back and forth until it breaks off.

Those gills turn black and mushy when cooked, and can visually wreck a meal, so it is best to remove them.  I like to use the side of a spoon to scrape them off the underside.

Instead of just using salt and pepper to season the burger, I had some leftover Holy Smoke Seasoning from Colonel De Ray's at Findlay which also had onion and garlic.  How could that be bad for the burger?

I cooked the bacon and saved the grease to oil the caps for the grill.  This seemed very American to me.

Three of the burgers I made as prescribed, but the other two I stuffed with cheese to create an inside-out burger.  What can I say, I was bored.

The burgers and caps cook for the same amount of time, which was convenient.  Everything looked great!

Burger, bacon, mushroom, cheese...awesome!  

The salsa was good, but needed more heat.  To be honest, I completely omitted the jalapeno from the recipe as my in-laws tend to be very plain about their food.  Thus, I cannot accurately describe what was intended.  Otherwise, it seemed like pretty good salsa.  The freshness of the tomatoes makes a big difference, and by using four types of tomatoes I had a very broad flavor spectrum.  

The burger was highly recommendable.  I liked the inside-out technique as it added an extra layer to the variety of textures this burger contains.  The bacon was crispy, the portabella was spongy, the burger was crunchy on the outside, chewy underneath, and filled with gooey cheese.  The garlic and onion were nice additions, and I also threw on an onion for good measure.  Go America!

188 recipes complete

185 recipes to go!

It's Survey Time! Oh, And I Cook Some Stuff, Too

I need your input!  I asked this question on Facebook and only got one person to answer, which was rather disappointing.  I find myself at a crossroads.  This is my third summer of working on this project, and I am just a little less than halfway complete.  I honestly didn't figure on it taking this long.  It's not to say that I'm bored with the project, but rather that there are other culinary areas that I would like to explore.  I have grown a lot as a cook in the last three years, and have developed new interests.   The biggest issue is that I am starting to feel unchallenged by this project.  Initially, I started this blog to document my learning process as I started to work with charcoal grilling.  Formulating, analyzing, and writing down my thoughts and reflections helped me tremendously, and I am now in a much better place because of that process.   I am no longer intimidated by charcoal, which was the point of this exercise.

So, please let me know what you think I should do...there is a survey at the top of this blog.  I would highly appreciate your honest opinion.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch....

In an effort to keep knocking as much of this project out as possible, I picked out three recipes today.  The Bride sent me a text stating that she needed cheese today.  I obliged by having an appetizer ready to go when she got home, the Mini Grilled Blue Cheese Bites on page 64.

The first thing to do was thinly slice the red onion.

Top it off with parsley, red wine vinegar, and black pepper.  Red onion can be somewhat potent, but the red wine vinegar helps to neutralize that.  The acidity calms the pungency quite a bit.

Melt some butter, and brush it on one side of your bread slices.

Flip the slices over so that the non-buttered side is face up.  Add on a thin layer of your onions (or a thick layer..do what makes you happy).

Weber calls for blue cheese crumbles.  I changed that to blue cheese slices, because I wanted to use Danish Blue cheese.  This stuff is very moderately priced compared to most blue cheeses, but still tastes great.  If you are in Cincinnati, you can find it at Gibb's Cheese Shop in Findlay Market.  It's easily one of my favorite cheeses.

Lay on the slices, close up the sandwich so that the buttered side is facing out on both sides of the sandwich, and you are ready to make TRUE grilled cheese sandwiches.

Corn is starting to come into season, which is why you are about to see me cook it again in the same week.  I figure that I may as well take advantage of it!  Thus, our side tonight was the Cajun Corn With Louisiana Butter on page 334.

Soften, not melt, some butter and add in your spices.

Basically, you are going to do the same thing I did a couple of posts ago.  Soak the corn, pull back the husk, remove the silk fibers, and you are ready to go.  I didn't take pictures of that, so if you need a reminder just keep reading more posts after this one.

Our main dish tonight actually comes from the Starters section, the Zesty Garlic Shrimp on page 75.

Begin this one with your marinade.

Throw those sea roaches in!  I was fortunate to find tiger shrimp from Hyde Park Fish Market that had already been deveined.

Back to the corn!  Here we are, all prepped and ready to make friends with the butter.

Butter up the cobs, and then tie them up again for roasting on the grill.

The Bride came home, and the grilled cheese sandwiches went on the grill, only two minutes per side.  The tricky part is to get the cheese to melt without burning the bread.

Although not shown, it should be noted that I cut each sandwich into four triangles to make it appear more like finger food appetizers.

The corn was on the grill, and as they approached completion I skewered the shrimp.  Weber says to shell the shrimp, but in my opinion, it is better to leave the shells on while grilling.  I've done both methods, and find that leaving the shells on helps retain much more moisture.  Try it, your shrimp will be much juicier!

Two minutes per side on the hottest setting possible, and they come off looking super tasty!

A simple plating later, and The Bride and I had our dinner.

Let's start with the Grilled Blue Cheese.  The Bride said that they were delicious, and I think they helped fix her cheese craving.   I liked them as well.  I would rate them as a success, but not something that I will cook for company.  Still, I can now say that I've REALLY made grilled cheese sandwiches.

The corn was also good, but is for Louisiana weenies.  I expected some sort of kick, but really there was no "heat" to this at all.  It needs some adjustments to be called Cajun.  With those modifications, I think you could have a real keeper of a recipe.  This is also just a good technique to know, because you could easily switch out the spices and have whatever kind of compound butter your heart desires.  This technique will give you a diverse cooking method that can suit many occasions.   This technique, but not this exact recipe, will be seen by company.

Finally, the shrimp was finger-licking good.  Personally, I think it could have used more garlic, but that's often the case with many recipes that contain the word garlic in the title.  When I see a recipe that says "garlic" in the title, I expect to be smacked around with that flavor and find myself saying afterwards, "Now THAT'S garlic!"

Unofficial Standings:

186 recipes cooked

187 recipes to go

Recent Assessment

Sorry, no recipe today, but I spent a few minutes going through and taking count of my progress.  As of today, I (unofficially stand, pending a recount) am at:

183 recipes completed

190 recipes to go

3 additional recipes to go that probably won't ever happen (like whole pig)

I am, therefor, almost halfway done.  Whew!

On a Hot Streak

I continue to pound out recipes recently, which is a good thing.  I REALLY want to finish this blog, not because I don't enjoy it, it's just that I have so many other projects that have come along that I want to try.  I feel that I have accomplished what I set out to do, that is to become fully confident in working with a charcoal grill.  It is actually becoming harder and harder to find recipes, as some of the sections are becoming thin on options, which is a good problem to have.  I think this week I will sit and assess how much I have left to go and what my options should be.  As always, I appreciate any and all input you have.  I am bearing down on 3,000 page views, which in the grand scheme of things regarding the internet is super small, but it is way more than I ever anticipated having.  Okay, enough exposition, on to dinner! 

Knock, knock!

Who's there?

Fish for dinner!

For crying out loud, all I really want right now is a double cheeseburger from McDonald's, and I don't even really like McDonald's.  The Diet and The Exercise continue to work, with even The Bride making a comment that she can notice a difference now.  Thus, I can't give it up just yet.  After goofing off a bit too much this morning, I finally picked out and went in search of ingredients for the Opah Tuna With Creamy Roasted Red Pepper Sauce on page 286.

Yup, another substitute.  Ever try to find Opah in Cincinnati?  Weber suggests making the sauce a few hours ahead of time to allow the flavors to meld.  I didn't want to fire up the grill just to roast a single pepper, so I reused the range burner technique.

While it was on my stove, I put together the rest of the ingredients for the sauce.

This one came out much better than the most recent one, as it had less dimples and creases.  Again, your pepper will look messed up and beyond hope, but underneath is roasted goodness.

A few thousand R.P.M.s later, I had a nice sauce.

I hadn't had pasta yet this week (The Diet restricts me to having it just once a week) so I selected the Grilled Vegetable Pasta Salad on page 343.  I was happy to see my Kroger finally carry baby eggplant instead of the behemoths they usually stock. The smaller ones have far less seeds and are much more tender.

I got into a groove and did all of my prep work at once.

Instead of just brushing the tuna steak with olive oil, I used the olive oil based dressing from the side dish.  I figured this would lend some continuity to the meal.

The vegetables all had different cooking times, which made things a little interesting as I was also trying to simultaneously cook the pasta, but I think I managed to do a decent job.

The vegetables were sliced and diced, and then all of the salad ingredients were assembled together in the bowl.

I'll be honest, I was feeling a little silly when it came to presentation.  I broke out my PVC rings, dressed the salad around the outside edge, and spooned the sauce in the middle.

The fish was beautifully marked and ready to be split for the two of us.

See?  The PVC ring did exactly what I wanted it to!

Voila!

Perhaps someday I'll be in the South Pacific and get to try Opah, but for now this tuna meal was well above average.  The sauce will probably be filed away for later use, but I may try something more interesting with the fish.  Still, it was very tasty.  As a little hint from me to you, I used a smoked sea salt in the sauce, and if you have the means to do so, I highly recommend you do the same.  It made it a little magical.  The sauce, with a little tweaking, could be rather versatile and become a staple in my household.  The pasta salad was also nice, but I really need to trim down the recipe if I need to make it again.  Or, I could just invite a LOT of people over for dinner.  Seriously, the salad is delicious (and quite pretty, if you ask me), but be prepared for the sheer volume of pasta salad confronting you if you make it.