The Bride Is In Beantown, So....

It's rib time!  Once again, I am reminded that cooking/eating for one is a challenge, but it does have its benefits.  I can eat whatever I fancy, without having to consider another's opinion.  I have been craving ribs for a while, thus I seized this opportunity to indulge.  I started with the Baby Back Ribs With Spiced Apple-Cider Mop on page 154.

The first step with ribs is to always remove the membrane on the back of bones.  Consider it a flavor barrier, especially with smoke.  I also do not like its texture when it is left on the rack.

The recipe simply calls for salt and pepper.  The rest of the flavoring was to come from the mop.

Speaking thereof, you start by simmering the apple cider, shallots, and jalapeno until it is reduced by half.

Meanwhile, mix together the rest of the mop ingredients.  

Add them in, bring to a boil, and then remove from the heat.  Here I have poured them out of the saucepan and back into my recently washed mixing bowl.

I know I have shown you this before, but for any new readers out there, when it comes to BBQ mops, I have options!  Considering the texture of this mop sauce, I went with the one all the way to the right.

As much as I love a good meat-fest, I figured I should make some sort of side dish, and I wanted to make a side that I knew The Bride would be less than keen towards, so I selected the Spicy Maple Baked Beans on page 374.

This looked simple enough; start by sauteing onions.

Once they brown, add in the ham steak.

The ribs came off looking pretty nice.  It started to rain, so I pulled them a few minutes early, but they were showing the signs of completion.  The meat hadn't retracted the preferred three-quarter inch, but I could tell from the texture that the fibers were fully cooked.   For the record, I had mopped about every fifteen minutes.

You are supposed to cook the beans in the saucepan on the grill over indirect heat.  I didn't want to put my nice new saucepan in The Forge, so I went for the indirect heat in the oven instead.

I was a little too excited to start eating this meal, so I forgot the final plating shot.  Oh well.  The ribs were pretty good, but I really didn't get any apple notes out of them.  Apple and pork are natural partners, but here it as more of a solo act.  I definitely picked up on the high sugar level from the mop, which gave the exterior of the ribs a nice crunch from the caramelization, as well as a fun (and somewhat mandatory) stickiness. 

The beans, however, were a failure.  Honestly, they can best be described as tasting like moderately-spiced, maple-flavored refried beans.  They were disappointing.  From a texture standpoint they were offputting, and from a flavor standpoint they were heading in too many non-unified directions.  Harmony was lacking, and the overall flavor seemed confused.  I know they may have benefited from a little smoke flavor from being cooked in The Forge, but it would not have saved this dish.  To be honest, my baked beans thoroughly trump them.  I'm pretty sure my golfing/BBQ buddies would agree.

Happy B-Day Mom!

My mother is awesome.  That's all you really need to know.  

 I wanted to take advantage of two things tonight.  First, I was going to be on my own for dinner, so I wouldn't have to worry about any veto from The Bride.  Second, the weather was supposed to be clear, enabling me to cook outside.  I perused my options after work and settled on the Bratwurst Wraps on page 167. 

In short, The Bride isn't the biggest fan of brats and the like, although she will eat them on occasion.  Tonight I would not have to be concerned with the risk of her turning her nose at them, so I went a little silly at Kroger and Sons down at Findlay Market, picking up a bratwurst, bierwurst, and knockwurst.  

The first step is the boil the sausages in a saucepan with beer, and I used a leftover holiday brew, figuring the spices would contribute that "little extra."

While that is going on, I sauteed the onions until they browned, then added in the sauerkraut, sugar, salt, and red pepper flakes.  

Upon completion of the boiling time, the sausages were just beginning to split.  It was time to take them to grill!

They acquired the obligatory grill marks in just a few minutes.  I wasn't terribly worried about the wursts splitting as very soon I would be completing what they had started themselves.

I butterflied the links, and started the first wrap by placing in a healthy dose of the cooked sauerkraut.

The mustard was added on next.

This, in turn, was followed by the cheese.

Here I ran into a problem.  The tortillas were clearly too small, even though I purchased the recommended size.  I could fold in two of the sides, but the remaining two would not fold in and seal the wrap.

I removed one of the sausage halves, and the wrap was able to be closed.

Three total minutes of grilling was all that was needed (even less might have even sufficed).

Yummy!  For something so simple, this was delicious.  The grilled tortilla added a crunchy/crispy exterior; the cheese and sauerkraut contributed a soft/gooey interior.  The versatility of this meal is quite high, and can be adapted to a multitude of situations.  Even just experimenting with three different types of sausage led to drastically different results.  Altering mustards or other condiments, cheese type, and sauerkraut blends will all change this up.  As I sit and brainstorm, this would be terrific tailgating food.  Most of this can be prepared at home, in advance, all up to the final wrap grilling stage.  This will feed all your friends, and each with a personal touch, if need be.  Take orders the day before, prepare it all at home, bring them to your event, cook them up in mere minutes, and everyone is happy.  Personally, next time (and there WILL be a next time) I will drastically increase the amount of red pepper flakes.  :)  I will also buy the larger tortilla shells (burrito size, not taco size).

A Plentitude of Pesto Pics

The Bride and I remain busy, and the weather hasn't been helping.  Still, I am resolved to grill more this year than last, which shouldn't be too difficult.  Still going (at least somewhat) down the healthy route, I picked out the Pesto Salmon Roll-Ups on page 300, as I had spied salmon steaks (not fillets) at Findlay last week.  For this post, I will let the pictures do most of the talking.

Here is the salmon steak, with my hand used for scale.  This thing was NICE!

The first step is to remove the backbone.  Run a paring knife down one side of it, taking care not to cut the skin.

Here you can see I've cut down one side, cutting through the occasional "pin bones" on my way down.

The pin bones are easy to locate, and even easier to remove with a pair of needle-nose pliers.

The backbone is now removed!

I will need to use the skin to enclose the barne later, so I used the paring knife again to cut away about 2 inches.

I've begun the tuck, and you can see the skin I need to remove from the other side, otherwise I will have a double layer of skin later on.

So I cut the skin from the other flank away entirely.

I finished the tuck, and secured it with a toothpick.  I have have a barne, or medallion of salmon!

This recipe calls for you to make a pesto, and what better way than with a mortar and pestle?

WHAM!  WHAM!  WHAM!

Add in the cheese and oil, and you are set!

Wanting to actually cook two recipes tonight, I picked up what was necessary for the Grilled Garlic Bread on page 374.

You begin by cutting into the bread, but without going all the way through.

I got to use my mortar and pestle again!  I started with just the garlic, as I wanted them to be a nice paste.

 WHAM!  WHAM!  WHAM!

I then added in the butter, parsley, salt, and paprika.

WHAM!  WHAM!  WHAM!  (And STIR, too, this time)

Brush this compound butter between all the slices.

Wrap up the bread, get your salmon ready, and head out to the grill.  Luckily for me, both are cooked for about ten minutes on indirect heat.

They came out nice!

During all of this, I also sauteed some eggplant for an extra vegetable.  I started the plating with that.

I placed the salmon medallion on top of that.

The rest of the plate was filled out with the garlic bread. I called The Bride in to the dining room and we shared this plate.

Whew!  Okay, so I got a little picture happy.  Still, this was a new technique for me, and I wanted to share my learning process.  The medallions are fun, and can make you look like a pro, when in reality they are pretty easy to do.  As soon as you figure out your first one, the rest will be done in seconds.  

For this recipe, unfortunately the eggplant was the best part.  The salmon was good, but it wasn't my favorite.  Then again, if The Bride had her way, we would never eat any salmon recipe but the Oak Grilled Salmon that keeps showing up.  So overall, I liked it, but other than the technique, which WILL be used again, the salmon wasn't that interesting.  There is a lot more potential here, and I will investigate this technique further.  The pesto was nice, though, and it was fun to dip the bread into it.

The garlic bread was the biggest disappointment of the meal.  To be fair, I like my garlic bread toasted, not just warm and soft.  I think that this would have been better if the slices were cut after their initial grilling session and put back on the grill for some nice grill marks and crisping up the exteriors.  I may have to try this to see if this recipe can be redeemed.

Before The Weather Hits

The weather report for the remainder of the week does not look promising for grilling.  Rain tomorrow, possible snow the following, and freezing temperatures after that.  So it was somewhat of a no-brainer to make sure that I grilled tonight.  Last week's somewhat healthier cooking was properly countered by the weekend dining.  It was time to get back in the game with the Red Snapper Fajitas With Black Bean Salsa on page 283.

I wanted to have as much done as possible before The Bride came home.  The fish could marinade for no longer than half an hour, otherwise the texture becomes mushy due to overexposure to acid.  The plan was to have everything in place, so that when she arrived I could drop the fish in the marinade, fire up the grill, and thirty-four minutes later (fish cooks for four minutes) be eating.  With this in mind, the first step was to create the marinade and set it aside.

Next up was the salsa, which was very similar to the salsa I created for a grilled chicken thigh taco much earlier in the blog, but with the additions of black beans and red onion.

I mixed that up and also set it aside for later.  

A couple of hours later, The Bride pulled into the driveway.  I placed the fish into a Ziploc Bag with the marinade for its set time and lit the grill.

After the allotted time I took out the fillets, wiped off the marinade, and (after this picture was taken) brushed them with olive oil.

The purpose of the olive oil at the end is to prevent the fish from sticking to the grill.  In this matter, I have conducted a fair amount of research.  There are two thoughts: oil the grill grates and then put on the protein, or oil the protein and then place on the grill grates.  The research overwhelmingly states that the latter technique works better.  With proteins other than fish, this has worked quite well for me.  With fish, however, I remain unsuccessful.  It is one of the reasons I have abandoned the flesh-down-first-then-flip technique with salmon, opting for indirect cooking instead.  What I am irresistibly drawn to, however, are those wonderful grill marks that indirect cooking provides.  Thus, I gave the direct cooking method another "college try."  With one of the fillets I only had minor issues with the flesh sticking to the grill, and therefor achieved nice markings on most of the surface area.

The other fillet experienced much more sticking, and less-than-desirable results.  Oh well.  I guess it's a good thing that these would be shredded and placed into tacos.

I plated The Bride's meal first, but I know that she would not have wanted a taco (she LOVES traditional tacos, but rather dislikes fish tacos), so I selected a piece that had the nice grill marks, and used a piece of romaine lettuce as a base to enhance the plate's visual appeal.  With a generous dollop of salsa to finish it off, I was done!

I, unlike my better half, enjoy fish as my protein in tacos.  Wanting to keep the carb count down, I opted to use a lettuce wrap instead of a tortilla shell.  I shredded a bit of the less-visually appealing fillet and placed it in the lettuce piece with the salsa.

Low-carb fish taco!

This was a light and refreshing meal...more aptly suited for summertime, but pleasant nonetheless.  The lettuce wrap was a good call, it added a wonderful crunchiness to the softer fish and salsa textures.  Flavors were complimentary, but not overwhelming.  In fact, the marinade may have been underwhelming.  I think more salt may have been in order.  The Bride and I agree that the salsa's additions were not preferred compared to the other tomato/avocado salsa.  Otherwise, this meal has a nice diversity in that it can be either a knife-and-fork meal like The Bride's version, or a silverware-free meal like mine.