Fish Fail

It was a Friday during Lent, so I needed fish.  Yeah, I'm one of those.  I wanted to try something I hadn't yet attempted: grilling whole fish.  So off to Findlay Market I went, in search of whole red snapper for the Mexican Red Snapper on page 283.

I have had good luck with red snapper before while writing this blog, in particular the Red Snapper Fajitas on the very same page that this recipe can be found.  I was confident that I would enjoy this recipe and was excited to try grilling a whole fish for the first time.  What I was NOT excited about, however, was the prospect of having to decapitate a fish.  I've mentioned before in my writings that I grew up fairly detached to my food.  Breaking down a whole chicken was a big deal the first time I did it.  Still, a chicken comes de-feathered, gutted, and without various extremities like head and feet.  The fish monger asked if I would like it if he "prepared" the fish, and I merrily went along, even though I knew that this might be sacrificing some of the integrity of the recipe.  Back at home, I started by making the vinaigrette.

Next, I sliced the vegetables that would be used for stuffing the fish.

I then added in the vinaigrette.

After a quick tossing, the stuffing was ready.  It was time to start preparing the (headless) fish.

The fish needed a long deep pocket for the vegetables.  The fishmonger had started one when he gutted the fish, but it would need some improving.

Upon examination of the interior of the fish, I found that I would have to cut along the backbone through some ribs.  This would provide a much deeper pocket that what was provided.

Just a little hint from me to you:  be careful how you grab red snapper.  I learned the hard way.

The Bride came in to check on how I was doing.  As I ran the knife along the backbone, you could hear a slight crunching/snapping noise as the blade cut through the rib bones.  The Bride shuddered and left the kitchen.  When I was done, I had a much-improved pocket.

I filled in the pocket with the veggies, taking care to ensure that I was still able to close the fish.

It was a bit of a pain, especially with those sharp fins, but I managed to tie up the fish.  At this point, I was starting to become proud of my first attempt with whole fish.

Both fish were now prepared, and The Forge was fired up and ready.  The time had come to enter new grilling territory.

This is what they looked like coming off the grill.

The instructions told me to cut off the head and tail.  As the head was already gone, the tail was the only bit I had to remove.  It basically pulled right off with no resistance.  This fish was done.

Perhaps the hardest part of this whole experiment was filleting the fish.  Having never done this before, I was at a bit of a loss in how to run the knife along the body of the fish, trying to remove as much meat as possible while leaving as much bone behind as possible.

It wasn't easy to do, and my end result leaves some room for desire, but I'll chalk this up to just getting some practice.  I plated the rest of the meal, and called in The Bride.

Normally I end each entry with a small paragraph describing my impression of the meal and recipe.  For this one, I'll simply include a picture of what we ate that night.

:)

Pita Instead of Pi(e)

As we continue to enjoy this ridiculous weather, I continue to grill.  I figure I may as well take as much of an advantage of it while I can.  Rumor is that La Nina is going to create a warmer-but-dryer-than-usual Spring, but I still figure that at some point in time that rain is going to interfere with my grilling ambitions.  Today (like most days lately) I needed something quick and easy to cook after work, as I knew that my energy would be lacking.  I also wanted something from a section that I don't pay enough attention to, so out of the lamb chapter I selected the Moroccan Lamb In A Pita on page 205. 

Finding ground lamb on a Wednesday in Cincinnati can be quite an adventure, but I was fortunate to find some on only my second store.  Naturally, this recipe asked me to mix together the spices as the first step.

What was different, however, was that I was instructed to warm the spices in a pan for one minute.  I've done this before, just not for Weber.  The basic premise behind this maneuver is that some of these spices have oil compounds that need to be "woken up" in order to achieve their maximum potential in the recipe.  

Once you can smell the spices, you are done.  No need to toast them, just remove from the heat and mix in with the meat.

Taking care not to overmix, which can lead to an odd textured end product, I made my four patties.

While Old Reliable (my gas grill) was warming up, I pulled together what I needed for the sauce.  I did take care to pick up Greek yogurt, in order to be a little more authentic.

After less than fifteen seconds of whisking, I had my sauce.

As predicted, this was easy!  A few minutes on the gill was all that was necessary for the patties, and less than a minute for the pitas as well, and I was ready to eat!

I lined the interior of the pita with the sauce, stuffed in the chopped tomato and lettuce, and then embedded the lamb patty into it all.  Dinner was served.

Here is another point of view.  The Bride cut her patty in half and stuffed the two halves in.  What can I say, she is smarter than me.

This wasn't a mind-blowing recipe, but it did serve multiple purposes.  First, it was prepared and consumed in far less than an hour.  Second, there was relatively little clean-up.  Third, it required spices that I hadn't used in quite some time, so it was a nice change of pace. Lastly, it was pretty tasty and interesting.  The only ingredient I wasn't sold on was the saffron.  That stuff is somewhere around seventeen dollars AN OUNCE and it was certainly lost amongst all the other strong flavors.  I'm fairly certain I wouldn't miss it if I ever made this recipe again and omitted it.

Oh, as for the title of this entry, today was March 14th, or Pi Day (3-14).

God Bless This Weather

It's March 13th.  It is seventy degrees.  I grilled porterhouse, specifically the Bistecca Alla Florentina on page 104.  Do I need to say any more?

Here is the well-deserved close-up of my steak.

A big shout-out to Mackie Meats at Findlay Market.  Their quality and customer service are unbeatable to me.  They had T-Bones (giggle at Seinfield reference) in the display case, but I said that I was in the mood for a porterhouse.  Without blinking, the butcher excused himself, walked back to his cooler, brought out the side of beef, and started cutting porterhouses until he got one he liked for me.  Back at home, I brought out all of my top-shelf ingredients.  If your recipe only has four or five ingredients, they really need to shine.   After trimming off the excess fat, I brushed the steak with my finest Provencal olive oil, sprinkled on my artisan sea salt,  and ground my high-end peppercorn mix to add on as well.

I added enough charcoal to approach nuclear fusion temperatures, and tossed on the steak.  Eleven minutes later, it looked like perfection.

I made some green beans for a side, and cut up the lemon.  What could be easier?

Squeezing lemon onto steak was a new experience.  It was best described by The Bride as "refreshing."  Think about it...when was the last time you had a refreshing steak?  This recipe is pure summer.  I'm hooked.  I generally refrain from aftermath pictures, but the following picture perfectly describes my thoughts on this recipe:

For you CSI fans out there, please note the gnaw marks on the bone.  I lost all decorum and picked up the bone and went to town, I simply couldn't get enough.  Seriously, you have to try this.  I usually refrain from fully giving recipes out (trying to keep Weber happy, not that anyone there probably even knows about this blog), but this is so easy.  Rub on olive oil, salt, and pepper, grill, and then squeeze on some lemon.  Use as nice of ingredients as possible, and you will be amazed!

Early Spring Dessert

For being the beginning of March, our weather is downright pleasant.  Granted, we usually expect a warm-up this time of year, but having temperatures in the sixties and seventies is something worth savoring.  This morning The Bride requested the obligatory Oak Grilled Salmon so I figured that while the grill was on, I could make some sort of dessert to cap off the seasonable weekend.  One of the first recipes I opened to was the Apples Grilled In Parchment Paper on page 381, and it looked good/easy enough that I made the executive decision that this would be our dessert.

This was indeed easy, so I won't waste too much of your time going into silly details.  First, remove the cores.

Next, cut into thin slices.

Don't worry too much about the apples oxidizing; they are going to be coated in cinnamon and then turn brown as they bake.  Toss with the remaining ingredients, making sure that everything is evenly coated.

Place some of the mixture in a 12" X 15" piece of parchment paper.  

Pull the top and bottom together, and fold down a couple of times to create a seal. 

Then twist the sides together in opposite directions to complete the sealing process.

I used some scissors to trim up the long ends, because I'm funny that way.

Here they are off the grill.  Initially I was concerned that the parchment paper would burn, especially since they were grilled over direct heat.  

So which presentation is better?  On the left, I plated dinner with the apples still in the parchment paper.  On the right, I removed them from the paper and then plated.  Leave a comment if you have an opinion.

I will add a third adjective to my initial impression of the recipe: delicious.  This takes mere minutes to prep, only ten minutes to cook, and less than a minute to wolf it down in delight.  The sugar level was appropriate for the tartness of the Granny Smiths and the dried cranberries, allowing a delicate and playful balance.  The only change I would make would be to move this to indirect heat for a longer cooking time.  I had a slight charring issue (like I had anticipated) with one of the packets that I would like to have seen avoided.

Giving Bourbon A Second "Shot"

A second round of bourbon wasn't in the original plans.  After work, I consulted The Guide looking for ideas.  As I came across the Lamb section, I noticed that I had not been paying due diligence to these pages.  Taking this into consideration, I drove down to Findlay Market to acquire what I needed.  When I arrived there, I learned that they were out of ground lamb, my primary ingredient.  They did, however, have pork shoulder blade steaks, something usually reserved for the weekend.  I had been craving this cut of meat recently, so I took advantage of this opportunity.  This would require, oddly enough, for me to use the last recipe available for this cut, the Double-Shot Blade Steaks on page 177. 

The "shot" reference in the title concerns a bourbon-based marinade followed by the application of a rub before grilling.  I wasn't terribly excited about the prospect of repeating the oaky adventure from yesterday, but I forged ahead to see what this recipe had to offer.  I did select a different bourbon, opting for Woodford this time around.  I made the marinade, and placed everything into a Ziploc bag for two hours.

While this was in the fridge I started the prep work on my sides, as well as making the rub which would be applied just before grilling.

Here we are, just before heading out to Old Faithful.  I selected the propane grill this time because I only needed about seven or minutes of grill time, which didn't justify firing up The Forge.

They looked nice!

I plated the steaks and my sides (sauteed zucchini and roasted potatoes).  The Bride was off at dinner with friends, so I dined alone.

 This second "shot" at bourbon treated me rather well.  Unlike yesterday's episode, this recipe allowed me to taste bourbon beyond the oak.  I picked up on the caramel, butterscotch, and coffee tones, even behind the frontal notes of the rub, which was quite diverse and interesting, not to mention spicy.  If you have never tried a pork blade steak, I highly encourage you to do so.  As they are cut from the pork shoulder, a rather inexpensive cut of meat, they are a terrifically flavored and economic way to dine.  They absorb marinades quite well, and remain juicy even when cut thin.  Give them a "shot!"

It's Grilling Season!

January and February are always up and down, weather-wise.  This last winter (although not over yet) will be considered the "Winter That Wasn't" in Cincinnati.  La Nina did her thing, and the weather was ridiculously mild.  The problem for cooking outdoors, though, was that although the temperatures were seasonable, it rained an awful lot.  Back towards the end of January the local paper stated that if what we had in rain actually fell as snow (like it normally would that time of year) we would have had over 100 inches of snow that month!  Crazy!  Today was one of those rare occurrences where not only was the temperature nice, it was also sunny, and on top of all that I had a wee bit of energy.  Lately I have been both mentally and physically exhausted, and cooking hasn't always been a priority.  Regardless, it would have been inexcusable to not grill today, so I went with the Tipsy Chicken on page 242.

Oddly enough, the only thing I had to pick up from the grocery store was the chicken.  SHHH!  Don't tell The Bride, but I used some of her Basil Hayden's Bourbon for this.  :)  Personally, I don't drink bourbon, but I can appreciate many of its qualities.  Just sniffing the stuff, you can immediately pick up on the various oak tones, like vanilla, butterscotch, caramel, etc.  This, along with the dijon (good stuff that I received for my birthday), the maple syrup (leftover stuff from a trip to northeast Canada), and the garlic (from the local Kroger) should make an interesting marinade.  Because I am a dork, I got out my small mortar and pestle for the garlic.  I've found that there really isn't a better tool to make garlic paste.

I marinated the chicken in a Ziploc bag for a little over two hours, and then took it out of the fridge to remove the backbone.  I reserved the marinade for sauce-making later.  Here we are, ready to go to the grill for some indirect cooking.  The green beans are not from Weber's recipes, but I had prepped them for my side so I included them in the picture.

I've got grilling whole chicken down to an art now.  Thanks Weber!

I prepared the green beans, and plated.  This was a clean, simple, and a super easy recipe.  This is the plating that I normally would have gone with.

However, as I mentioned earlier I had reserved the marinade so that I could have a sauce.  I boiled the sauce for five minutes to avoid calling in sick tomorrow, and then used a little corn starch slurry to thicken up the consistency.  

The chicken was quite juicy and tender.   While the green beans were cooking I simply pulled off the wing to nibble on something.  I still don't like chicken breast (it's one of three foods that I don't like), but the thigh and drumstick were perfect.  Flavor-wise, to enjoy this recipe you had better like oak and garlic, especially the oak.  Those were, by far, the dominating tones.  The "candy" flavors of bourbon - mentioned earlier - were nonexistent.  The mustard and maple syrup played minor roles, but again, I kept coming back to oak and garlic.  If I were to make this again, I would cut back on the garlic by at least half, and probably also switch bourbons.  I'm not sure what I would switch to, given that I don't imbibe the stuff all too often.  In fact, now that I think about it, if you have any suggestions, leave them in the comments!