Dinner on the Grill

Last week my friend and I made the most wonderful dinner in the outdoor kitchen, all on the grill.  I thought it would be fun to outline the preparation in full... we had a pile of different foods!  It's like we couldn't stop putting stuff on there to see how it would taste BBQ style.  

Cinnamon-amon-namon BBQ Carrots

In my grilling pan I put baby carrots sprinkled with cinnamon and garlic powder.  I should mention that throughout the cooking process we had hickory chunks smokin' up the grill, yummy!  So I had the wee carrots seasoned in the pan also with a little bit of butter and olive oil and a minimal amount of water to help them steam slightly.  We put them on the grill and closed the lid so they would get smoke.  I had them covered with foil to aid in the steaming process- I poked holes in the foil to let the smoke penetrate.  

After they were on there for a bit, maybe 15 minutes, we uncovered them and let them cook more.  (uncovered is better so they get more smoke).  The final stage is the most exciting!  Now you're gonna add some of your favorite BBQ sauce, I used Trader Joe's Bold and Smoky KC Style.  That's what I had left in the fridge from the ribs.  I didn't use a ton of BBQ sauce because I don't like too much sticky and sweet.  Let them cook a little bit with the sauce and you'll have BBQ sweet and cinnamon carrots!

The Sweet Sides

In addition to the carrots, we also had an assortment of side yummies and grilled up condiments for the main course.  The grilled condiments included the traditional burned up poblano pepper, grilled onions and garlic.

We also put frozen sweet potato fries on an oiled disposable aluminum pan.  The pan was placed over the cool area of the fire and closely monitored so the fries would not burn.  We ended up with gently charred on the bottom super smoky fries.  They turned out perfect.

The most interesting side dish by far was the coconut shrimp!  These were also frozen, so putting them on the grill was taking a chance because who knows how hot the fire really is.  We did our best to try to follow the cooking instructions.  I know it must sound like I do all my shopping at Aldi... yes I did get the shrimp from Aldi.  Hey, but the BQ sauce was from Trader Joe's and the rest from the grocery store and fruit market.  Note on the shrimp:  lotta breading, which you'd expect from a bargain frozen seafood case.  They come with a sweet sauce that was actually good, but you have to really like coconut to enjoy these shrimp.  I liked them, but I wouldn't want to eat a whole pile, too much coconut for me!

So frozen food that is meant to be baked does work on the grill.

The Main Course

I don't know if you can call it a main course, but we're talking grilled turkey burgers.  In case you have food intolerances, Butterball Sweet Onion Turkey Burgers are gluten free, kinda neat.  Ok, we did thaw the burgers before tossing them on the grill.  I usually get carried away with seasoning and prepping my food, but I didn't do anything to the burgers.  The main seasoning I felt would come from the hickory and the cheese I chose to top them with.  Land O'Lakes Four Cheese Blend from the deli.  It's a brick of cheese that is sliced, not shredded cheese in a package.  The four cheeses are Parmesan, Asiago, Romano and American.  It's quite a potent cheese, but on a burger it's just right.

So we grilled up the burgers, putting the cheese on at the end of the cooking process.  The cheese is firm, so it didn't get mushy and drippy on the grill.  Toast up a few buns and you have smoky, cheesy, dreamy burgers!  We also topped them with Dijon mustard and I had wasabi mayo on the side and I tried that on almost everything a little.  The wasabi took down the coconut on the shrimp, worked for me!

Happy grilling, try some frozen food too.  I think I'm gonna try jalapeño poppers one of these days.  Mee-ows!

Chillin' and Grillin' - Veggie Edition

Quick and Easy Veggies, No Prep Needed!

Corn-  there is a debate about husk on or off, and the use of foil.  I remove the husk and just throw the ears on there.  Getting some browning makes it good, I don't see the need to keep the husk on or use foil as if you need the corn to steam.  You can eat corn raw, like many other foods people don't think of.  Put it on there this way and it'll turn out nice.

Portabella Mushrooms-  just like the corn, all you have to do is put it on there.  Mushrooms really soak up the smoke on the grill.  A little cracked pepper is all you need if you feel compelled to put something on them.

Mixed Veggies-  I have a pan that I use on the grill.  It's scorched all over on the outside, I got it at the dollar store.  You can put any assortment of veggies you want in a pan like that and cover with foil so they steam in there.  Most recently I made bok choy this way.  Friday night I put a mix of chopped white mushrooms, onion, celery, green pepper and broccoli In my pan with some olive oil and butter.  I also used a small amount of the Aldi Poultry Grinder spice which has peppers and salt in it.  Uncovering them for a period of time to get the smoke is tasty!  (ok, there was a little prep on this one)

Roasted Garlic-  take a clove of garlic and put it on the grill until it gets mushy inside.  This goes great as a condiment.  To use just squeeze the cloves and the garlic is yummy gooey and comes right out.

Baba Ghanouj

Here’s what you’ll need to make your delicious eggplant dip:

• 2 medium or large eggplants, about 1 pound
• 1 small garlic clove, finely minced
• 2 tablespoons tahini  or sesame seed paste
• olive oil
• juice of 1 lemon
salt, to taste
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cumin (optional)
• parsley (optional)

Grill the eggplants RIGHT ON THE COALS for about 15 or 20 minutes, turning then over until they are charred and slightly wrinkled. You can have wood chips smoking on the coals with them to get that flavor too!  They're going to look burned, but that's ok. Let the eggplants cool so you can work with them.

Next, split the eggplants and scoop out the inside part, separating it from the burned up skin. Using a fork, squeeze out excess moisture from the eggplants and drain the bitter liquid.

Mash the eggplants with a fork until creamy. Add the finely minced garlic, tahini, and lemon juice while mixing it together. Season with salt and add the ground cumin (if you want). Taste and adjust the seasoning as necessary.

Wait, back up...  what is tahini and where can I get it?  Tahini is a vegan sesame seed paste that contains  the seeds and the oil of the seeds.  Some brands may have other ingredients, shop around for one you like.  You can get it at the healthy grocery or neighborhood grocery if yours caters to Middle Eastern shoppers.

Dip chips, pita or veggies into your home made baba ghanouj.  Some veggie grilling links in another post...

Chillin' and Grillin' - Meat Ideas

Lots of chillin' and grillin' went on in the past two days in the fancy outdoor kitchen with my grill mates, the center piece of which is a table top Kingsford grill with two racks and a hinged lid.  It's wonderful to use and cost less than $40.  It can't be left outdoors though when not in use or it might rust.

So here are some easy ideas for spicing up your meats on the grill:

Chipotle Chicken Breast

All you need to make smoky and delicious chipotle chicken breast is the chicken and a pack of Weber Grill Chipotle Chicken Seasoning.  To prepare the seasoning all you have to do is mix it with some veggie or olive oil and rub it on your chicken.  Half of the package was more than enough for three chicken breasts.  The instructions tell you to marinate it for 15 minutes, but I always think the longer the better!  I marinated mine for a couple of hours.

Once the spice pack has time to get aquinted with the meat, it's time to start the grill.  I use a chimney starter to avoid the use of lighter fluid. That tastes yucky, and you CAN taste it in your food.  The fun smokey part in this chicken comes from the use of a few chunks of hickory, soaked for at least 1/2 an hour to prevent burning when placed on the coals.  Any kinda coals will do just as long as they don't have lighter fluid already in them.  

Dump out your lit charcoal in the grill making sure you have a hot zone and a cool spot.  Add the wood chuncks and get them smokin'.  Put your chicken on over the cool zone and close the lid.  Let the smoke do its thing and keep an eye on the meat so that it doesn't burn.  Temp it if you like to check for doneness.

Take 'em off the grill and enjoy!

Greek Sausage (Loukaniko)

This is about as easy as it gets.  I got a package of Greek sausage from the local deli by my house.  The package did not show an ingredient list, so I looked it up.  This is what's in Greek sausage:

• lamb trimmings
• pork shoulder
• ground red pepper
• garlic 
• ground coriander seed
• dried oregano
• fennel pollen
• cracked black pepper
• orange zest
• Retsina wine (or another Greek white wine)

Just put it on the grill with wood chips of your choice and let it get the smoke!

Spicy Baby Back Ribs

For this I used Weber Grill Seasonings Kickin' Chicken and Trader Joes Smoky Kansas City BBQ Sauce.

Marinate the ribs (raw ones, not the precooked) with the Kickin' Chicken and coat with a small amount of BBQ sauce.  After some time marinating put the ribs in a 300 degree oven for 45 minutes or so.  The oven can be cooler if you have more time to do the precooking.  You want the pork to be at least 160 degrees for safety.  I've seen precooking take place in a microwave, but to me that's just weird.

Set up your grill with the hot and cool zones and add hickory for smoke.  Put your ribs on there over the cool area and let them smoke.  Check for doneness with a meat thermometer and add more BBQ sauce at the end when it's less likely to burn.  You can get ribs at a very reasonable price at Aldi and they come out great on the grill.

Lamb Cheeseburgers 

The neighborhood grocery near my house sells lamb patties at the deli.  They have a few green onions and parsley on the top.  I haven't seen ground lamb at the major grocery store chains, so you may have some searching to do to get ground lamb.

The cheese I used on the burgers was also from the mom and pop grocery.  I chose chipotle smoked Gouda.  It was really good!

Throw your lamb patties on the grill preferably not directly over the coals.  Lamb is like an instant fire starter because it's such a fatty meat, be ready for the flare-ups and don't leave it unattended for a second!  Press out more oil with your spatula as they're cooking.  Keep them moving and monitor them so they don't burn.  If you happen to have wood chips on your grill that tastes really good, but is not entirely necessary.

When your lamb burgers are almost done add the sliced cheese to each burger and let that melt in.  Your burgers are done.

Fun grilled condiments include char blackened Poblano peppers, portabella mushrooms, roasted garlic and grilled onion.  Dijon mustard tastes excellent on there too.  Toast your buns on the grill... crunchy crunchy.  Lettuce and tomato top the perfect lamb cheeseburger!

That's the carnivore's grill tour...   Meow-appetite!