Oil Spills and Shrimp

So this oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is terrible.  I came across an interesting satellite picture of the spill today:

And then I came across this article where they have now set it on fire.  In honor of the city that has seen far too much tragedy lately, I went with the N'awlins Barbecue Shrimp on page 312.

I had planned this at lunch today, and was talking to my teaching partner about what side I should do.  At the time I was thinking of something to do with rice; she suggested something with tomatoes, as that reminded her of New Orleans cooking.  I immediately remembered a recipe that I had seen while flipping through The Guide that would more or less fit both criteria, so the obvious choice was the Couscous-Stuffed Tomatoes on page 370.

Since the shrimp had to marinate, I took care of that right away with the intention of prepping the couscous while the shrimp was doing its thing.  There didn't seem to be enough liquid to really coat the shrimp, and I had to toss the shrimp in the marinating bag a lot to get every piece evenly covered.  I was nervous about overhandling the fragile guys.  I set them in the fridge, and went to work on the couscous.  About half a year ago I discovered Isreali or Jerusalem couscous, which is a rather large-pearled version.  I was apprehensive about the olives, because I am really not fond of the stuff.  I keep trying to enjoy olives, but when it comes down to it, I just don't.  This recipe, however, would be entirely lacking without them.  I ate a fair amount of the couscous stuffing while filling up the tomatoes.  :)

The Bride came home just in time, and I pulled the shrimp out of the fridge.  I immediately noticed a problem...the butter marinade solidified in the cold temperature.  Instead of a nice marinade, I had a nice paste. 

Those aren't carrot pieces, those are butter pieces (orange because of the N'awlins spices) that my shrimp were supposed to be "soaking" in.  Hmmmm.....

So I got The Forge ready, and set the tomatoes on once I had achieved medium heat.  I did not want them to get cold while I waited for the The Forge to achieve high heat for the shrimp, so I set them off to the side on the grill so that the indirect heat would keep them warm.  Once the shrimp were done (about five minutes total) I pulled everything off.  We did, unfortunately, have a fallen soldier.

Yup, the tomato at the bottom right fell to pieces when pulled off the grate.  Oh well.  So I plated the food, and The Bride and I enjoyed a nice evening together.

The shrimp was good, but you shouldn't call something N'awlins Barbecue unless it has some real zing to it.  Next time I will have to double the cayenne.  The butter pieces melted nicely on the grill and acted as a baste, but I still would refrain from calling this a marinade from now on.  I would be highly interested in using this recipe on fresh shrimp, not the frozen guys I get from Sam's Club. 

The tomatoes were a total success.  The couscous stuffing is fantastic, even on its own.  Again, the olives really have the part to play, and the fresh herbs and feta seal the deal.  I highly recommend using large pearl couscous if you have only used the small-grained stuff.  This is a keeper recipe, and so easy to do.  It will come in quite handy in the fall when my father in law unloads his bounty of tomatoes on me. 

Tender is the Loin

Holy cow...I got to grill two nights in a row.  I wanted something light, and not chicken or fish.  I recently learned from Alton Brown on Good Eats that pork tenderloin is now leaner than boneless skinless chicken breast.  Still in the mood for something spicy from last night, I went with the Disappearing Tenderloin with Pico de Gallo on page 180. 

After some discussion back and forth between The Bride, The Cousin-in-law, and myself, I put together the marinade and pico de gallo.  The pico de gallo called for one to two teaspoons of serrano chile pepper.  I think I had three for good measure.  I was to be rewarded for such a move later.  Once The Bride arrived at home from work, I set to getting The Forge ready.  I pulled the tenderloins, applied the rub, and waited on the coals.

Here I was forced to make a decision.  I love learning about cooking from Alton Brown.  I watch Good Eats whenever I can, and have learned many a fine trick in the kitchen.  I've made grilled pork tenderloin following his recipes before, and his technique is drastically different from The Guide.  His method is high and fast, and the tenderloin is done in about twelve minutes.  The Guide suggests medium heat for twenty-five to thirty minutes.  When I was done waivering, I decided to stick to the plan of following Weber's recipes, and went with five pounds of charcoal for medium heat.  At the half-way point when it was time to flip, I realized that I might have choosen poorly.  I like a little char on my tenderloin, but this concerned me.

More on this later. I did, however, sneak one of Alton Brown's secrets in...I boiled the marinade for a few minutes to rid myself of nasty microbes that would spoil my evening, and prepared foil pouches.

When the tenderloins were done, I placed them in the pouches and poured the marinade back in.  Not only does this allow the juices to redistribute, but it gives the outer regions another shot at soaking up some flavor.

This yielded some impressive results.  When I reopened the packs a few minutes later, the marinade had spread out from the residual heat of the tenderloin, and the juices they were a'flowin'!  I sliced them up, The Bride made some quick veggies, we found some leftover New Potato Salad in the fridge, pulled out the pico de gallo, and plated it all. 

This was nice...the tenderloin was still quite juicy, but I would definitely flip this more than once.  The rub charred a little too much for my liking, and so next time I will try flipping the meat every one-fourth of the cooking time.  If this still chars too much, I will just go back to Alton Brown's method.  I liked the marinade and rub (so far I have been VERY impressed with The Guide's rubs) and the meat was perfectly done in the middle.  The pico de gallo was phenominal.  The extra kick from going heavy on the serranos was a reward.  I don't often enjoy mixing food, but having the tenderloin and pico de gallo in the same bite produces a vast array of flavors and heat.  As a side note, the New Potato Salad held up well. 

'AM-BARG-AH!

Today I came to the conclusion that I would like a hamburger!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9q_aXttJduk&feature=related

I was in the mood for something with a little kick, so the Blue-Cheese Burgers With Spicy Celery Slaw on page 96 it was!  To go along with that, page 368 had Macaroni Salad With a Horseradish Kick.  The first thing to do was to prep the burgers, as I could store them in the fridge while the rest of the meal was prepared.

As I assembled the burgers, I noticed a flaw in the recipe.  These were "inside-out" burgers, so the cheese is actually stuffed inside the meat.  I've made these before, and enjoy them thoroughly.  However, the book said to divide two teaspoons of blue cheese amongst the four burgers.  Simple math says that this is only 1/2 a teaspoon of cheese per burger. 

As you can see, this will not do.  I more than doubled the amount of cheese that the recipe called for and went about my business.  Once the patties were formed, they were stored in the fridge, and I proceeded to make the slaw and macaroni salad. 

I noticed an immediate problem.  This recipe called for hard-boiled eggs, and The Bride ABHORS eggs.  I realized that I would have to keep the eggs separate the entire time, and only add them to my portion as I plated them. 

When I first tried the macaroni salad I was concerned.  The Bride is also not terribly fond of parsley, and this was rather heavy on the parsley taste when I first mixed the recipe together.  Honestly, at this point I was less than thrilled, and was about to dub the recipe a "swing and a miss."  With everything ready to go, it was time to fire up The Forge.  My last experience with burgers was less than exciting, but this time around the burgers were the only things being grilled.  I used five pounds of charcoal, the temperature was just right for direct medium, and I went with four and a half minutes before flipping, and then another four minutes of cook time.

What lovely smoke...the burgers turned out just like I prefer.  They were crisp on the outside, and medium on the inside.  The blue cheese melted well, and I was very happy with my decision to double the amount of cheese.  Next time I might even do more!

I liked the burger a lot.  As stated before, I like inside-out burgers.  Blue cheese on burgers brings a nice tang, and the slaw provided a nice texture.  I was a little disappointed in the "spicy" aspect of the slaw.  Being a bit of a chile-head, next time I will bring a little more heat to the party.  The same goes for the horseradish aspect of the macaroni salad.  I usually make my own horseradish from scratch, and using prepared horseradish from the grocery store was a mistake.  If I make this again, a fresh root will be required.  I would like to point out the harsh parsley flavor dissolved into the salad, and became only a background note.  This brought a bit of a sigh of relief.  So, long story short, these are good starters as recipes.  Double the cheese, bring more heat, use fresh horseradish root, and you will be in business!

Swordfish And Tater Salad

Let me begin by saying that I fully endorse ANY recipe that calls for basting with bacon grease.  That is all for now.

Tonight's decision was influenced by the last two nights.  They have been fairly heavy meals, especially last night.  I was in the mood for lighter fare.  I suggested chicken, and The Bride suggested fish.  Thus, we went with fish.  In reviewing the Big Book of Grilling, the Bride perked up at the mention of swordfish.  There were four recipes, and we liked the Sicilian Stuffed Swordfish Rolls on page 289. 

As I am always in the mood for a grilled side, I made the call to put together the New Potato Salad on page 355.  I was drawn by the bacon, grilled onions, and sherry vinegar.

I prepped the swordfish, knowing that the potatoes would be constant work.  My plan of action would be to prep the swordfish rolls and the keep them in the fridge until they were needed.  The swordfish called to be grilled over Direct High heat, and the potatoes needed a lengthy grill time over Direct Medium.  Bringing to mind my most recent experience, I decided to grill the potatoes and then add charcoal to bring the temperature from medium to high for the fish.  Thus, I prepped the swordfish. 

From there I rolled them up, and tied them with butcher's twine. 

Then it was on to the New Potato Salad.  I cut up the potatoes, set them on the grill, and then began the rest of the preparations.  The best part was the following...

Once the potatoes were done, I placed the bacon-grease-basted onions on the grill, and made the sherry vinegar dressing.  Here we have the potatoes, grilled onions, and dressing all ready to be assembled.

And here is the final result, which I would let rest while the newly added coals readied themselves for the swordfish.

Here is the swordfish, fresh off the grill.

And finally, the assembled meal:

This meal was one of my favorites.  My confidence with fish continues to grow, and I am really enjoying learning better-than-basic ways to prepare fish.  I am starting to become a believer that fish does not have to be bland, and can truly be the focal piece of a meal.  The acidity of the potato salad was nice, but people who are used to a more creamy potato salad might not be as fond as I was. 

So what did I learn?  I learned that adding coals is not that big of a deal, and is essential to a succesful long grill.  The only real modification I made to the recipe is that instead of applying olive oil to the swordfish before grilling, I noticed that I had some leftover bacon grease.  Needless to say, this was substituted in.  I learned that when grilling potatoes, I would add about one-half extra pound of potatoes, because invariably some will come off the grill with a little too much carbon, and must be sacrified to the grill gods.  I also learned that grilling onion slices is a lot easier than anticipated, and quite awesome.  This will come in handy in other recipes, including those not in The Guide.  The butcher's twine worked like a charm.  They held well, and came off rather easily. Finally, I learned that acidity can really brighten up a meal, and flavors become more pronounced with just a little squeeze of lemon. 

Back to Basics, Back to Reality

It was time to take a step back and hone some necessary skills.  Burgers are an American classic, and a well-grilled burger can be a hallmark of a man.  I've goofed around with burgers on The Forge in the past, but without proper guidance I have not performed well.  This was the driving force in selecting the Basic Burgers on page 32, found in the Rookie Section.  To be honest, I was in the mood for a more interesting burger, but did not want to gather, buy, prep, and subsequently ruin various ingredients until I was more confident.  If I was going to ruin more burgers, they would be very basic burgers so that I would be less upset.  Since the grill was going to be fired up, I figured I may as well have a side, so I went with the Twice Grilled Potatoes on page 353. 

This session presented some challenges that concerned me.  In reviewing the recipe for the Twice Grilled Potatoes, I noticed that this would be a lengthy grill.  My previous attempts with The Forge were what I would deem Quick Burns.  I would get the charcoal started, cook for fifteen minutes, and then call it a night.  This session, however, presented the challenge of maintaining proper cooking heat for fourty-five minutes to an hour.  On Ol' Faithful this is not a problem.  It is a significant advantage that a proprane grill has in that unless you run out of propane, a griller can sustain the same temperature for hours rather easily. 

I began with my standard five pounds of charcoal for a direct medium grilling technique.  The recipe called for thirty to thirty-five minutes of the first grilling session for the potatoes, with flipping them three or four times.  I decided to flip the potatoes every seven minutes and thirty seconds.  It was here that my inexerience and frustration with The Forge began to reemerge.  Here is where I was at at the end of the half hour.

Notice that two of them are a perfect golden brown, one is just beyond perfect, and the other three are rather burnt.  This has always been my issue with charcoal grills...irregular heat.  It is what is always been so intimidating to me about them, and why I have always leaned towards propane grilling.  Luckily, I was able to salvage these potatoes.

Using a simple paring knife, It was easy to trim the burnt layer.  In fact, they pretty much peeled off on their own.  So I used my melon baller to extract the inside of the potatoes and followed the recipe to create the filling (making a mistake in the process that I will discuss later).  I filled the potatoes, formed and seasoned the patties, and was ready. 

Here is where I was forced to make an inexperienced decision.  By this time, the charcoal had been in use for fourty-five minutes, and were starting to look like they were on the downward slope.  I only needed another ten minutes, but didn't know if the coals had it in them.  I decided to not add more charcoal, as this would teach me for later sessions if it was necessary or not.  So to the grill with the food!

Long story short, I probably should have added just a little bit.  The above picture is after the burgers have been flipped.  I also decided to move the pototoes to indirect heat, which was in contrast to what the recipe called for during their second time on the grill; I was timid about burning them again.  The burgers didn't crisp up on the outside like I prefer, but that was because the coals were outright on their last leg. 

In all, the coals were not hot enough towards the end.  I learned that if I wanted to cook over an extended period of time, adding coals should be in the cards.  The burgers ended up being well done instead of medium because they were cooked low and slow instead of high and fast.  They were still rather juicy, and for only having salt and pepper were pretty delicious.  The potatoes were rather nice as well. 

I also added something to the burger recipe...cheese.  I added the slices with about three minutes left on the grill.  That turned out well.  They were perfectly melted.  To sum up, I'm glad I went with the basic burger recipe.  I need more practice at burgers.  I like mine firm and crispy on the outside (not burnt, but well cooked) and medium on the inside.  More experience is necessary (and non-dead coals).  As mentioned before, the potatoes were good.  Not great, but good.  I did goof up, though.  I was supposed to only use half of the cheese in the stuffing, and place the other half on top of the potatoes on the grill.  This will also have to be attempted again.  I made a note in the cookbook to split the cheese into two bowls during my mise en place.  In other news, I went with a new Tempranillo from the Rioja region of Spain.  It is six bucks, and a terrific value.  Otherwise, a good beer would suffice. 

Second Attempt - The Bride is Away

I've been super busy as of late...today will be my only available day to grill until at least Saturday.  Now that Lent is over, I wanted to get back to the basics and try one of the simple burger recipes for rookies at the beginning of the book.  The catch is that I recently imposed a new diet on myself and can only have red meat once a week.  When I informed The Bride of my decision to have burgers, she frowned and asked that I move that to Saturday.  She is in North Carolina right now, home of BBQ pork, and deep fried everything else.  Today on the phone she even told me about a fast food chain called Fatz. 

So I had to try something else instead.  I really didn't want fish again, and so I settled on pork chops.  Last night before bed I perused The Guide, and decided that I would try my hand at the All American Pork Chops With Homemade Applesauce on page 187.  The ingredients I needed are here:

I also wanted a side, so I went with the Ham and Swiss on a Toothpick on page 89.   The bonus for this was that I got to use up some of the leftover ham from Easter that I have been working on for four days straight now.  For this, I needed:

The first step was to make the applesauce, as that, I figured, could wait once made until the meal was ready to be served.  I feel moderately confident around a sautee pan, so this was easy.  I also got to use my new blender (I went with this as it is easier to clean than the food processor) once the apples had softened. 

Overall, I was really excited about the applesauce.  I was a little apprehensive about using Granny Smith apples - which by the way I really like on their own - as they are a little tart.  However, with the mustard seed, ginger, and chili powder, it was nice and lively.  This is not your grandmother's applesauce!

From there, I decided that the Ham and Swiss on a Toothpick should be next.  According to the book, they needed to be grilled over direct medium heat, and the pork chops needed to be over direct high heat.  My rationale was that I would cook the appetizer right after I dumped the coals from the chimney starter.  That way, I could cook over medium heat while the rest of the coals (I added about pound and a half to bring me up to 5.5 pounds for this session) caught up and gave me solid, high heat.  The directions for the pork chops were to sear them on direct high heat, and then move to medium indirect heat, so I only placed coals on half of The Forge.

 Here are the Ham and Swiss on a Toothpick after prep, on the grill, and then done:

These things are FANTASTIC!  Hooray Weber!  There is a crazy layering of flavors here.  The sweet from the pineapple, the salty and smokiness from the ham (The Bride let me smoke the Easter hams), the gooey melted Gruyer and mushrooms sing, and the salt and chili powder (homemade, of course) round it all off.  It took a monumental effort to not eat them all before taking pictures.  I would have liked better grill marks on the mushrooms, but if that is my only complaint then I should just shut the heck up.

Okay, on to the main event...The pork chops have been rubbed and rested at room temperature, and The Forge is at the ready.  The following two pictures are, respectively, after the first flip while searing them over direct high heat, and then after being moved to the indirect heat side. 

It's not as burned as the picture would imply, but there was a minor flare-up that I caught just in time.  After 7 minutes of indirect medium heat, I was done!  Here we go!

May I just take a moment to explain how much I LOVE this rub?  I've been pretty good as of late at the typical BBQ rub, but savory rubs elude me.  This was quite different, reminding me of Provencal cooking with the mustard seed and thyme.  The cayenne kicked it up the perfect amount so that it stayed savory, but appeased my liking for spicy food.  The celery seed sealed the deal as it was not overdone. 

Also, the applesause was PERFECT with the pork chops.  I don't often like to mix my food while eating, but I gave it the old college try by putting some of the applesauce on a bit of pork chop.  It sung.  The sweet tartness of the applesauce gift-wrapped the flavor package.  It behaved much more like a true sauce than a side. 

For some of the finer details:  I had this meal with some of the leftover applejuice and some glasses of ice water.  Were I not on a diet and in the need to pair a wine with this, I would stick to southern France in order to match the herbs.  Domaine Pellehaute from Gasgogne for about seven bucks would be an excellent choice.  Otherwise, a nice Spanish Albarino would pair nicely.  This is a recipe that is a keeper, and from reading the other recipes for pork chops follows the same grilling technique as the others, so I am confident that they should work out well when their times come.  The pork chops were completely cooked, but still rather juicy. Another two recipes completed, and another two successes.  I like this book.