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.

Lunchtime With The Bride

I'm worried that I may be getting The Bride a little too used to me being home for the summer.  :)  Yesterday, as the day came to a close, she said that she would be home for lunch, and that she would like a salad (SURPRISE!).  I wanted something a little interesting, so I picked out the Sausage Salad With Arugula on page 357.

In reality, the only item that was grilled was the corn.  To grill corn, as I have done for this blog in the past, you have to soak the husk.  So I placed the ears in a roasting pan, filled it with water, and then used a plate to keep them submerged.

That step takes approximately half an hour, so I used that time to finish my prep work.  I started with my heirloom tomatoes, which are starting to really come in now.

Just before the corn was done soaking, I had finished my mise en place.

Now that the husks were soaked they were much more pliable.  I pulled them back without actually removing them from the ear, all to expose those nasty silky fibers.

A piece of cotton string secured the husk leaves back in place, and they were ready to meet the heat.

The ears take about twenty to twenty-five minutes on the grill, so I used that time to start the rest of the salad.  The first ingredient to go into the saute pan was sausage.  The recipe calls for andouille, which is usually made out of pork.  The Diet restricts me to red meat (and yes, despite pork's slogan, it IS a red meat) so I needed an alternative.  Kroger and Sons at Findlay Market does sell a chicken andouille, but I didn't have time this morning to run down there.  Thus, I settled for chicken and apple sausage.

After the discs started to brown, I added the onion, bell pepper, and garlic.

Once the sausage mixture was done, I turned off the heat and waited for the corn to complete its time.  When you grill corn, the husk will look destroyed, but in that process it protects the kernels from direct heat and so they become perfectly roasted.

To remove the kernels when the cob is still hot, use tongs to hold the ears upright while you use a knife to easily liberate the kernels.

Add those into the andouille mixture and you are almost done.

 

Arugula by itself is fine, but why limit yourself to just one flavor and texture?

I tossed the arugula with some other baby greens to make the salad more interesting.

The Bride pulled into the driveway, so I had one last step to complete.  On the right is a bit of chicken stock.  I heated that in the microwave, added it to the tomato mixture on the left, and then stirred.

This was added to the andouille mixture, which was then used to top the salad.  Lunch was ready!

There is a whole lot going on in this salad.  Flavors are all over the place (in a good way) and there is a wide variety of texture, especially since I added different greens.  Overall the acidity is quite bright, making it a lively salad.  It was also a good call to use the chicken apple sausage; it worked amazingly well.  Overall, I would say that I probably won't make this again, but it was thoroughly enjoyable.  Well done, Weber.

Red Meat = Awesome

The Diet and The Exercise continue to work well, but have a major drawback.  I can only stand so much chicken and fish.  God help me, I love red meat.  When I'm on The Diet, I do get red meat once a week, and I usually reserve it for Fridays.  I also wanted to take advantage of having today off and pick out something that had a long marinade time that I couldn't do during the school year.  As I perused the possibilities this morning, I came across a recipe that could solve this issue:

Yup, my rosemary bush is getting out of hand.  So I went with the Rosemary Tri-tip on page 108.

As soon as I got home I made the marinade.

Surprise, surprise, it went into a Ziploc bag.  :)

Although Weber doesn't tell you to, I wiped as much of the marinade off as possible.  I didn't want it charring because this was going to start over direct heat before moving to indirect heat, and that kind of exposure would surely have ruined the exterior.   The fresh sprigs of rosemary below were to be thrown directly on the coals to create rosemary smoke for added flavor.

Instead, it came off the grill looking gorgeous!

Weber tells you to leave it on indirect heat for twenty to thirty minutes.  I pulled it off after twenty, hoping to keep the meat on the rarer side.  What I REALLY should have done was used a temperature probe and pulled the meat when it hit 135-140, but unfortunately I did not.  So I missed that mark by a few degrees.  :(

Still, it was quite juicy and was somewhere just past medium well (there were still elements of pink throughout), which is tolerable for me.  While the meat was resting, I made the vegetables, and then plated for The Bride and me. 

Delicious!  Despite being ever-so-slightly overcooked, the flavors were awesome.  The marinade added some complexity, but in no way was overpowering.  The mustard and rosemary made a nice crust/bark on the outside (even though most was wiped off) allowing for a variety of textures in the same bite.  The interior of the tri-tip was simply its own flavor, which when you haven't had red meat in a week is screaming at you how amazing it is.  I give this recipe two thumbs up!