I've Been BAAAAAAAAAAD!

So I haven't written in a month...no good excuses.  Even worse, I grilled a recipe weeks ago, and have been sitting on it, doing nothing.  Well, there was this:

Repairing my porch certainly cut into my cooking, but in reality, it was the absence of The Bride that had a bigger impact.  As it turns out, when I'm living alone for an extensive period of time I get VERY lazy about cooking; in fact, downright demotivated.

A couple of weeks ago I invited some friends over for good food and wine.  In discussing wine with a friend of mine, we agreed that many of us wine geeks have a hording mentality when it comes to certain bottles.  We sit on them, waiting for some special occasion that never comes.  Thus, we decided to make our own special occasion, and everyone who came had to bring a bottle that they were reserving.  I called it Horde No More, and for dinner I wanted to serve something appropriate.  Having recently done beef tenderloin (see the previous post), I was feeling saucy and headed down to Findlay to acquire another one.  It was time to cook the Stuffed Herbed Tenderloin on page 137.

I had pretty much all day to cook this, as I had taken the day off.  So I began with my mise en place and prep work.

I was happy to use some of the fresh thyme from my garden.  It's getting seriously out of control.

I wanted the thyme, but just the leaves, not the woody part.  However, I had a plan for the stems, so stripped the stems of the leaves, and set the stems aside.

 

There's something downright wonderful about leeks in a saute pan.

In went the mushrooms, garlic, and herbs, and it suddenly became even better.

While that was getting happy, I made the paste that would be rubbed all over the outside of the tenderloin.

To stuff the tenderloin, you have to first make a slit, but make sure not to take the cut all the way to the edge.  This will create a pocket for the stuffing.

In go the stuffing ingredients (once cooled).

Weber instructs you to close up the pocket and then use toothpicks to hold the seam together.  But, remember those thyme and rosemary stems I reserved?

I used those as sutures instead!

The paste was rubbed on, and the whole thing was wrapped in plastic and set in the fridge for several hours to fully develop flavors.

 

 When the guests arrived, I grilled it up.  For sides I made a ribboned asparagus salad and a tapenade risotto.  T'was lovely.

In Weber's description of the meal, they say to get out the white tablecloth and candlesticks.  They aren't lying.  This was sinful, and a perfect meal for our Horde No More event.  I'd tell you more, but it was a month ago.  Just trust me, it was amazing.

Manliest Meal Yet?

Every Wednesday in the summer is my golf night.  I have been playing with a fine group of gentlemen for around ten years now, and we usually end up going out for burgers and beers afterwards.  This week, however, I invited them over to grill out after golf.  Figuring that I should capitalize on this unique opportunity, I wanted to grill something worthy of such a great group of guys, using a recipe that would normally be overkill for just one or two people.  With that in mind, I went down to Findlay Market and picked up a nice beef tenderloin for the Holiday Beef Tenderloin on page 138.

I was going to be limited on time in that we would be arriving at my house after golf, and it would already be evening.  I had to work during the day and could not have any time to do any prep work, so there was a lengthy step that I needed to take care of last night because I didn't think the gentlemen would have the patience to sit around and wait for the garlic to roast before even beginning the rest of the grilling.  So last night I knocked out this extra hour, and added the roasted garlic cloves to some olive oil to make a paste.  Later, I would use the immersion blender to make this into a smooth, spreadable paste.

Here it is, in all its glory.  It was even fun ordering it.  I walked up to the butcher who inquired how he could help me.  I replied that I desired one beef tenderloin, trimmed.  He smiled appreciatively, acknowledged the awesomeness, and went immediately to work.  In the picture below, you can see the garlic oil paste after its encounter with the immersion blender.

I rubbed the paste all over the tenderloin, and then spread on the red peppercorn and rosemary blend.  This was done in secrecy, in an attempt to surprise the gentlemen later.

The recipe said that you needed to cook the tenderloin to 135 degrees Fahrenheit for medium rare.  I started checking the temperature at the half-hour mark.  The first time I checked, it was only at 110.  So I let it cook another ten minutes, and it was at 130 at that point.  Giving it another five minutes allowed it to reach 135, so I pulled it off the grill.

After the appropriate oohing and ahhing from the gentlemen, I began slicing this beautiful piece of cow into six approximately equal sections.  Upon the first slice, I was immediately disappointed.  It was far beyond medium rare, and most definitely medium well.  I guess I need to check my temperature probe.  Well, there wasn't more I could do, as you can't exactly uncook meat, so we each plated for ourselves and sat down for dinner together.

Weber also provided us with some other features in the final meal assembly.   The black eyed peas were seen earlier this summer.  In fact, I recently had a conversation with a friend who mentioned that she found it rather entertaining that during my write-up of that recipe that I kept talking about this salad instead of the main dish that entry and how I mentioned that it would show up again.  See?  It did!  In another entry I learned that the filet cut tastes so good with a Bearnaise sauce, so I modified the one that Weber gave me earlier by substituting rosemary for the tarragon, as I had rosemary in the rub for the filet this evening.  I figured that it might help tie the meal together.  The potatoes are my own recipe from a long time ago, and are baked instead of grilled.

To aid in the final review, I had the gentlemen give me some notes:

(1) "Lovely."

(2) "Peppery, but it didn't dominate the dish."

(3) "I was pleased that the peppercorns were easily flicked off."

(4) "For the first half of the dish I thought that it was awesome, but by the second half I was kind of done with them."  (in reference to the peppercorns)

(5) "The rosemary Bearnaise was a success!"

Overall, I was happy.  Again, I thought that the meat was overdone, but either the gentlemen were being polite, or they just didn't mind.   There are a couple of other tenderloin recipes left in The Guide, and I can't wait for another opportunity to use them!

Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner = Pork, Pork, Pork

I had a goal.  I wanted to make all three meals in day on the grill.  The Guide doesn't have too much in the way of breakfast items, but there were a couple of options.  So for the morning grilling session, I wanted to make the Chorizo Quesadillas on page 65.

The first thing to do is to cook down the scallions and mushrooms.  The mushrooms will, after some time, release their liquids.  Once the pan starts to become dry again, you can continue.

 Set the mushrooms and scallions aside for now, and cook the chorizo and peppers.

Once the sausage is browned, return the mushroom mixture and combine.

Lay down your first tortilla shells, and then lay in the filling, making sure to leave about a one-inch margin around the edge.

The cheese and cilantro goes on next.

Lay on the top tortilla shell, and at this point you should do yourself a favor.  You should practice flipping the quesadilla BEFORE you try cooking it!  I tried with just one spatula, and let's just say that the quesadilla needed some serious reassembling.  I finally figured out a two-spatula technique so that the quesadilla did not fall apart.  

They should come off the grill lightly browned, crispy on the outside, and gooey on the inside.

Cut them into nice wedges and enjoy!  The only thing I added was some sour cream as I ate them.

So how good were these?  Well, take another look at the picture above.  I ate all of it.  Need I say more?

A few hours later, when I was ready for lunch, it was time to prepare the second grilled meal of the day, the Maple-Glazed Pork Chops With Succotash Salad on page 187.

Succotash is a vegetable mixture of lima beans and corn, which are two things I'm not exactly fond of, but I went into it with an open mind.  The recipe actually calls for you to use frozen lima beans and corn, so you begin by cooking them.

While the vegetables are cooking, you can use the spare time to make your maple-dijon glaze.

What I found odd about this recipe was that there was no marinade time.  Pork chops can be a little plain-tasting, but all you do for this recipe is brush on the glaze and head off to the grill.

 While the pork chop was on the grill, I began to mix the salad before adding the dressing.

The dressing is simple and once added in, the salad has a nice sheen to it.

The pork chop was finished, and so I plated and had my lunch!

Overall, it was a little disappointing.  You know it was not all that impressive when the salad - made primarily of two ingredients that I'm not all amused by - was the best part.  The pork chop simply lacked flavor.  The glaze is nice, and does its best to impart flavor, but has too big of a task.  I ate about half of the pork chop, and actually had two helpings of the succotash.

Right after lunch, I had to start dinner.  This time there was a lengthy marinade time, so I had to make sure that it would be ready for when I was finally hungry in the evening.  Dinner was going to be the Adobo Pork Steaks With Peach Salsa on page 177.

 Bring together what you need for the marinade and then whisk away.

I used the Ziploc bag technique, and then went about my business for several hours.

I've never really had a fruit salsa, so I was intrigued to try this.  Peaches are in season right now, and I acquired some from a local farmer down at Findlay.  While The Forge was heating up, I chopped up the ingredients for the salsa.

The "steaks" came off the grill smelling absolutely fantastic.

Pork steaks and salsa...not too sure what I was going to think about that.  But, I plated and was sat down for my third grilled (pork) meal of the day!

This was, by far and large, the best meal of the day.  In fact, this steak had quite possibly the best flavor in a Weber recipe in quite some time.  The marinade made the pork steak super tender (it was almost falling off the bone before I placed it on the grill), and imparted the flavor all throughout the meat.  It was properly spicy, juicy, and perfectly seasoned.  As a bonus, this was dirt cheap.  I think I paid about $1.50 for the steak.  This would be a great way to entertain a group of people on the cheap.  To make a long story short, I will be making this again!  As for the salsa, I am definitely copying this recipe down for my own personal cookbook.  It is phenomenal, and I now know that I love fruit salsa.

Corey Taps Into a New Section

I can't believe it, but in all this time of writing this blog, there was a whole section that I haven't hit even once yet.  Not one time have I made a recipe from the dessert section!  Today I decided to remedy that situation, along with making something from the appetizer section, which I also have only been hitting sparingly at best as of late.  I also know that I have been slacking recently, not grilling at the pace I could be, so I rounded this meal off with a third recipe just for good measure.  Today's prep began with the appetizer recipe, the Hot, Sweet, and Sticky Chicken Wings on page 60.

 

Step one is to start making the marinade.  Step two, which is optional, is to sigh heavily while using the last of the homemade chile powder that you made from scratch (including growing your own peppers).  I guess I'll have to buy some chile powder, as I won't be able to make any more of my own until around January..

The wings, once tossed to coat themselves in the marinade, need to be left alone for four to six hours.

A couple of hours later I started in on the vegetable course today, which was the Provencal Sandwiches With Roasted Garlic Paste on page 335.   Having done a bit of Provencal cooking in the last half-year, I was rather excited to see Weber's take on this region.

You've seen me roast garlic a couple of times now (if you're new, just go back a couple of entries, you'll find it).  Otherwise, the only things that really get grilled in this recipe are the peppers and eggplant.

You add the some other ingredients to the roasted garlic in order to make a garlic paste.  The recipe instructs you to use a food processor, but I just couldn't picture some nice grandmother in the countryside of Provence using a food processor.  So I used my mortar and pestle.

Okay, so this isn't the most pleasant-looking stuff, but I promise you, it's super tasty.  It's like a southern French bruschetta. 

The vegetables came off the grill, and I also gave the canoed bread a bit of a toasting as well.

On one piece of bread I spread the garlic-tomato paste, and on the other I spread the goat cheese.

Next, the vegetables and lettuce leaves were put in place.

It's rather tough cooking for one from this book.  You can try to scale things down, but it doesn't always work.  To make a long story short, the guys next door got some sandwiches.

The chicken wings went on the grill next, and while I was munching on my sandwich I started making my first Weber dessert.  I kept it simple and went with the Strawberries Balsamico on page 383.

The strawberries have to macerate in the balsamic vinegar and sugar solution for about fifteen minutes.  This will soften them up and add flavor.

In they went!

I had timed this so that while the strawberries were getting their cells broken down, I could eat some wings.  Pretty clever of me, if I may say so.

Have you ever tried to keep a strawberry on a skewer?  As it turns out, it's rather hard.  While trying to turn over the skewer at the midpoint of grilling them, they all fell off.  I'll have to come up with a different strategy if I ever do this again.  Still, I manged to turn them one by one, and they ended up looking just fine.

Half of the strawberries went back into the balsamic sauce...

where they were introduced to Mr. Immersion Blender!

The remaining strawberries were sliced up and added to the sauce.  This sauce was then spooned over the ice cream.  I then sat on the couch and thoroughly enjoyed my first Weber dessert.

So let's take this one at a time.  The sandwich was rather decent.  It does a good imitation of Provencal food, but almost uses too many ingredients.  Most of the recipes I've seen keep it amazingly simple.  I've been surprised over and over again while cooking Provencal food by just how far some ingredients will go on their own.  I feel that in a lot of American cooking, we use too many ingredients and make some meals overly and unnecessarily complex. Still, the sandwiches are tasty, healthy, and use many of the ingredients that are home to that region.  This recipe is rather versatile in that it can be used as a side, appetizer, or even a vegetarian meal.   I'd make it again, if I wasn't so bent on getting this blog over and done with (still a ways off, mind you).

The wings were average.  I like slower cooked wings, where the meat is more tender.  The marinade was tasty, but fell short of its title and description.  It just lacked a certain punch that I have come to expect from wings.  Wings should have a ton of flavor, and this was more subtle than anything else.  The wings certainly weren't Hot, Sweet, and Sticky.

Finally, the dessert was awesome.  Then again, how could any combination of vanilla ice cream, sugary balsamic vinegar, strawberries, and orange liqueur be bad?  At first I wasn't a big fan of the orange flavors.  Plain strawberry ice cream is one of my all-time favorite desserts, and I felt that while I like orange, it was acting like an intruder.  But then I noticed that I wasn't slowing down at all while eating it, and saw that it was actually pretty balanced and really rounded out the dessert.  I'd make this again!