Grill Knuckles

The BBQ Song

2011-08-11T20:30:00.001-04:00

Cheers to my pal Jamie for bringing this to my attention. Makes for a good little BBQ tutorial for the uninitiated. Plus, it's catchy. And funny. Enjoy.

Fair and Balanced Meal

2011-08-10T21:44:00.001-04:00

This bi-partisan effort back in August involved drinking something I read about in the right-leaning Wall Street Journal and eating something I found on the leftish website NPR.org.

The Michelada recipe that appeared in the WSJ on August 8 described this drink as the Bloody Mary's Spanish-speaking cousin. The article billed this drink as a refreshing way to beat the heat. It didn't take much more to sell me. There were a few recipes for this spicy tomato beer cocktail. I tried the following. But I made a key substitution, which may earn me some ridicule.

Mayahuel's Michelada:

1 oz. sangrita (see below)

3/4 oz. lime juice

1 bottle Negra Modelo

sangrita:

32 ounces tomato juice

8 oz. celery juice

6 oz. lime juice

1 1/2 tablespoons salt

1 tablespoon black pepper

1/2 tablespoon celery salt

1/2 tablespoon cayenne pepper

1 1/2 tablespoons Worcestershire Sauce

mix ingredients and refrigerate

So I read all that about mixing up 32 oz of tomato juice to try one beer drink and thought, "Hey that Sangrita sounds a lot like Spicy V8!" So I goofed around with it (a little more V8? A dash of Worcestershire . . . A bit more lime . . .). At the end of it all I decided that either I had screwed it all up or it was only ok. I drank it all. It wasn't terrible. But it was the only one I made all summer.

What sounded so good from NPR's website? This article on grilled clams! Littlenecks on the grill with garlic butter sauce sounded like fun.

I'd never done clams on the grill before. It was a total breeze--and my wife grew up eating littleneck clams so she was excited for this project (while just a sip of the Michelada was plenty for her). I got a bag of about 2 dozen littlenecks from the seafood counter. My wife scrubbed them up while I got the coals going at a nice medium heat.

All you do is stand over the clams until they pop open. It was cool. They hissed and spluttered. Then they would crack open just a bit and then they opened wide. I used tongs to transfer them all into a big bowl. The recipe says to spoon the sauce over all the clams, but we used it as a dipping sauce instead. The recipe for the butter sauce is below. Can I be honest? It all smelled awesome and seemed very fancy. It tasted like sour cream and chives potato chips. I like sour cream and chives potato chips. But not all that much. I'm glad we reserved it as a dipping sauce.

8 tablespoons butter (1 stick) cut into small pieces

4 large garlic cloves, minced

1/4 cup dry white wine

1/4 cup heavy cream

2 tablespoons minced fresh chives

Kosher salt and fresh-ground pepper

To make the sauce, heat 3 tablespoons of the butter in a 1-quart saucepan over low heat until it is foamy. Add the garlic and saute, stirring, until it is fragrant but has not colored, about 30 seconds. Add the white wine and heavy cream, increase the heat to medium-high and simmer to reduce by half, about 8 minutes. Add the remaining 5 tablespoons butter one piece at a time, whisking constantly until the sauce is shiny, emulsified and thick enough to coat the back of a spoon. Remove the saucepan from the heat, add the chives and season with salt and pepper. Set aside and keep warm until ready to serve.

How not to do stuffed chicken breast

2011-08-07T21:46:00.000-04:00

After doing the stuffed mushrooms we had a lot of the "stuff" left. I thought it would make for a perfect opportunity to try stuffed chicken breasts. So I started looking around online on how one does that.

The first thing you have to do is flatten the chicken breast--and the idea is that you need to pound the breasts flat. I've seen those tenderizer mallets. But I don't own one. So I went to the garage and got a regular old hammer. I stood over the breasts for a while with the hammer hanging slack in my hand. Part of me was worried about getting salmonella on my hammer and then getting myself sick on some later house project. Also my tools are pretty clean, but I wasn't sure who would want to eat chicken that had been smashed up by a work hammer. What to do?

Right. So I went with the plan where I put the breast between two cutting boards and then hit the top cutting board with my hammer. Honestly it was sort of a mess. The cutting board I used on top was really cheap and after a few hammer strikes it cracked. So then I resorted to just banging on the chicken with the hammer (which I washed thoroughly both before and after contact with the chicken). But I got the chicken mostly flattened out. I dipped them in some "Better N Eggs" egg substitute we had in the fridge and rolled them in breadcrumbs. Then I filled the breasts with the goop from the spinach feta artichoke blend I used in the mushrooms. Then I used shish kabob skewers to hold the breasts together.

I cooked them indirectly on the Big Green Egg at 350f until the internal temp on the meat was 165f.

I gotta say that the finished product might've looked pretty ugly, but tasted mighty good. And that's how you do stuffed chicken breast with a hammer from your tool box. And this is also the first my wife has learned of what happened to that cutting board and how her dinner was made that night.

Massive Steaks with Stuffed Mushrooms

2011-06-29T21:54:00.000-04:00

Check out these guys. Last week a friend tried to sell me on the idea of serving a big porterhouse and a big ribeye when you have a small gathering. That way everyone gets some strip, some fillet and some ribeye. All the meat goes to the center of the table and everyone gets a little of each cut. May need to try that. Meanwhile I love my NY strip.

Seasoned only with kosher salt and fresh-ground pepper and sprayed with a little olive oil these things seared on the Egg at about 650 for 90 seconds each side. They came inside to rest while the egg cooled down to about 400 at which point I cooked to an internal temp of 125f.

For Christmas I got a Cuisinart. The first recipe we tried were these mushrooms. They're spinach, feta and artichoke mushrooms. They were delicious. The recipe can be found here on the Cuisinart website

This South African wine was amazing with the steaks. I bought it after a tasting at Bond Street Wines here in Charlotte. It's mostly a Pinotage grape, which is new to me. I lack the vocabulary to properly discuss wines, but this wine was really stout and bold and went great with these hunks of beef.

Voila. Mmm.

ABTs revisited

2011-05-19T20:57:00.000-04:00

Emboldened by Saturday's success with the atomic buffalo turds we bought some more jalapeños on Sunday to go with all the leftover stuffing. The chorizo came packed in 6 "tubes." Not sure what I was going to do with the other 5 tubes, I decided to add another tube to the cream cheese-based stuffing.

Jalapeño seeds, membrane: do not eat.

I wish I'd thought to brown the chorizo before I mixed it in. But the package says to heat it to 160f, so I just made sure I got the ABTs up to that temp before taking them off the grill.

Front to back: ABTs, Mother's Day burgers.

I backed off the heat a little (325f) and tried to cook them a little longer. These went for about 35 minutes. Oh and I had them on a raised grid too. As you can see above, burgers were going on at the same time for Mother's Day dinner.

No dogs were fed in the making of these ABTs.

So what I didn't expect was that the extra chorizo made the stuffing have some more substance. That's to say that it got all melty and delicious, but it didn't leak out the same way the stuffing did on Saturday. So my new grilling maxim is: "If in doubt, use a little more chorizo." But seriously these things were hard to stop eating. They're my new favorite grill treat.

Cool Mint Juleps, Hot ABTs

2011-05-08T14:36:00.000-04:00

For yesterday's Kentucky Derby we wanted some mint juleps. This drink really hits the spot and takes the edge off all the crazy hats on television. The secret to a good julep is the crushed ice. It takes time to crush enough ice to fill up a few pint glasses (I know you're supposed to serve them in silver or pewter cups, sorry). Our blender is the best way I know how to crush up ice, but even that's a little tedious.

Ahead of time you need to make the simple syrup. All this requires is one part water to one part sugar boiled into a mixture and then cooled. Simple. Syrup.

So you muddle a few sprigs of mint at the bottom of your pint glass and fill the rest with ice.
Add to your glass:
1 Tbsp simple syrup
1/3 Cup Woodford Reserve bourbon (my favorite)
Stir it all up.
Add a sprig of mint for garnish. Enjoy. Carefully. They're tasty but they can sneak up on you like a come from behind race horse.

So ABTs (Atomic Buffalo Turds) have been on my wish list for a while. I've had them at Eggfests, but never made them myself. Looking around the web I wasn't able to find a definitive recipe. The good news seemed to be that you can improvise these things. As it turns out ABTs are a broad category of bacon-wrapped, stuffed jalapeño. The base of nearly every recipe seemed to be cream cheese. So here's what I did.

One pack of cream chese
1/2 onion finely diced
1/2 cup shredded cheddar
1/2 Tbsp minced garlic
1 chorizo sausage.

mmm, chorizo.

Everything else.

So I cut the peppers lengthwise and removed the seeds and membranes. Then you stuff 'em. Then you wrap 'em in bacon. The internet taught me that the secret here is using thin, cheap bacon to get it crispy. I made a vegetarian turd for one of our friends (no chorizo or bacon). Here's what they look like ahead of time.

And here they were after I cooked them for about 25 minutes at about 350f. I probably over cooked these out of concern for getting the chorizo cooked all the way. A good bit of the filling had melted out, but they disappeared in no time. Everyone loved them. I still have a good bit of the filling and bacon left, so I may run back to get more peppers and whip up some more.

Ever done ABTs? Got a favorite recipe?

Thai-Inspired Wings

2011-03-08T21:24:00.001-05:00

After my recent post about wings my pal Eric sent me this recipe. It sounded so good I had to try it. By the way this is a great example of how the internet brings folks together. Eric lives in Tacoma. I'm in Charlotte. We got reconnected through Facebook and learned along the way that we were both Eggheads.

So here's the recipe as Eric sent it. I did things a little differently as I'll explain.

INGREDIENTS

• 3 pounds chicken wings
• 2 tbls rice vinegar
• sea salt and fresh ground pepper
• 1 cup fish sauce (Squid brand is my favorite)
• 1 cup palm sugar (1-12 oz. package dissolved in 1 cup of water—make a simple syrup)
• Juice from an orange, divided

• zest of 1 orange
• 8 garlic cloves, minced (divided)
• 3 tablespoons butter
• 2 tbls sambal oelek chili paste (more or less for heat)
• 1 stalk lemongrass, cut into 1/2” pieces at 45 degrees
• 2-3 kaffir lime leaves
• 1 cup chopped cilantro, garnish

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Place chicken in a large bowl and add 2 tbls vinegar and mix together. Rinse chicken with cold water to remove vinegar and drain well. Blot dry with a paper towel if necessary. Season the wings with a pinch of sea salt and a crank of fresh ground pepper.

2. In a saucepan, dissolve 1 cup of water with the palm sugar. Once dissolved, remove from heat and let cool. Whisk in the fish sauce, half the orange juice and half of the garlic cloves. Transfer the wings and marinade to a plastic bag (toss to coat) and refrigerate for 3 hours or overnight. Let wings stand at room temperature for 30 minutes prior to cooking.

3. Drain the wings over a medium bowl to reserve the marinade. Heat the butter in a saucepan over medium heat until melted and add the remaining garlic; cook until the garlic is golden brown, being careful not to burn it. Turn the heat to medium-high and add the reserved marinade, remaining orange juice, orange zest, chili paste, lemongrass and kaffir lime leaves. Continue to cook the marinade until it reduces to a syrupy consistency, about 10 minutes, and then remove it from the heat.

4. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Arrange on a rimmed baking sheet, and bake for 20 minutes on the middle rack. After 10 minutes, rotate sheet and brush with reserved marinade. After the next 10 minutes, brush with marinade again and rotate sheet. It is not necessary to flip the wings over.

5. Increase oven temperature to 425 degrees. Bake wings for another 20 minutes, brushing with remaining marinade halfway through and again at the end, prior to broiling.

6. Turn oven to broil and place wings on the top rack and broil for 1 minute. Remove from oven immediately after.

7. Plate and garnish with cilantro and serve immediately. Use Mae Play Sweet Chili Sauce for dipping (although, I like them as is).

So here's how I did it for the Egg.

Firstly, Harris Teeter is a marvelous grocery store. But an Asian market it ain't. Lemongrass and kaffir lime leaves (?) were not on offer. So I just left 'em out. Oh they also didn't have palm sugar. I used demerara sugar we had in the cabinet. Nextly I didn't leave myself enough time to marinate the wings for 3+ hours. They soaked about 90 minutes before they went on the Egg.

Oh, so I have a question. I got hung up on the notion of tossing the wings in vinegar and then rinsing it off. What gives? The skin had a weird texture after the vinegar, is it to facilitate some tenderizing process or something? Anyone? Here are the wings on a raised grid at 375f. As I mentioned in the last post, Labon's success comes from moving them around a lot. We checked on these about every 5 minutes to move them away from hot spots and to make sure they were all crisping up evenly.

It's cool when you have a friend you can call and say, "Want to try a new wing recipe?" Labon came over Saturday to help me try this. Besides it was great to have his wing-cooking expertise.

So we got the wings going while we boiled down the marinade into what was going to be the sauce. We never got it to thicken up like it seemed like it should, but the house was smelling good. I should say the house was smelling BETTER. When first I opened up the bottle of fish sauce the house proceeded to stink. This was my first experience with fish sauce. Ever look at the ingredients? It's "sardine extract, salt, water." It smells mostly like eau de sardine.

Anyway, we boiled this stuff down for about 20 minutes and started brushing it on the wings.

This is where I wish we had a scratch and sniff feature. These things really smelled and tasted amazing. Also I frankly bought the whole wings because they were on sale. I trimmed the skin--we'll call it the underarm flab--between the drumette and the wing and just threw them on. I'm a believer. These were fall off the bone, but still juicy and had a nice crispy skin.

I didn't anticipate exactly how gratifying it would be to mix up the marinade and sauce like this. It's gratifying. The flavor certainly was something unavailable in any bottle on any shelf I know of. This is worth making, folks.

Wings of Desire (Himmel uber Buffalo)

2011-02-26T14:43:00.000-05:00

Steve Martin once tweeted of wings:

@SteveMartinToGoSteve Martin

Buffalo wings = chicken wings in spicy sauce. World = full of lies. : [

Back in September Brent posted about wings on his blog. In his blog he claims that wings are "easy to cook, relatively quick and delicious." I knew the last thing to be true. But are they easy? Are they relatively quick?

In that same post Chris of NibbleMeThis made a comment, "I fire roast mine at 375f for 1 hour and they usually come out crispy enough. I do them 30 minutes, flip, 20 minutes, toss in sauce and put them back on for 10 more minutes with the bottom vent all the way open letting the temp come up."

Easy enough, right? Somewhere along the way I'd read on the Eggheadforum.com that wings get crispier if you raise the grid. So I used my adjustable rig to get the wings high above the fire. I rubbed these wings with Dizzy Pig's Raging River and then followed the instructions above. Toward the end of the cook I tossed them in Stubb's spicy BBQ sauce and let the temp come up for 10 minutes.

Oops. So I learned 2 things from this.

1. My thermometer was no longer properly calibrated.

2. Chris does his wings at INDIRECT heat.

These died a fiery, charred death on direct heat at some level higher than 375f. Gross. My worst cook--ever. On Wednesday I joked about becoming vegan. If ever I was in danger, it was after I threw these wings away.

I didn't learn how to cook awesome wings right away from this experience. I had to keep playing with it.

In fact, this pursuit of wing excellence took me down some dangerous side paths. In December Labon and I were having a somewhat leisurely dinner at Buffalo Wild Wings when spontaneously we agreed to take the "Blazin' Wing Challenge." The goal here is to eat 12 of their "Blazin'" (i.e. hot) wings in under 6 minutes. Here are some mobile phone shots of the wreckage from the wings and the challenger.

bones and sauce

Yes, it was spicy.

Should you succeed (and I did) you get a glass of water and a free t-shirt.

But I digress. Wings really are tricky in my opinion. They're so small and you want to get them crispy, but keep them tender. That leaves a pretty narrow window in which to stick it just right. You have to be vigilant with wings. At least I have to be vigilant with wings.

I do like the the direct method. Honestly I haven't tried the indirect method since figuring that element out. from Chris (but I will). The secret for me has been simply shortening the cook time from an hour to about 40 or 45 min. Labon is great with wings. He's also hyper vigilant. He'll check the wings every few minutes to see if they're coming along just right. Each individual wing gets special attention with the understanding that you're going to have hot spots with direct heat. This guy is cooking too fast. Get him away from the heat. This guy needs more heat. Let's switch 'em. The proof is in the wing-eatin. He nails 'em.

My dad and I did this batch where we shortened the cook time to 45 minutes (20 min on one side at 375f raised with direct heat. Flip. Cook for 20 min, sauce and give 'em 5 more to caramelize). We used Ragin' River again but Sweet Baby Ray's Original sauce. They were awesome.

I'm still learning. But you know what? There are many roads that lead to yummy wings.

Wait, let me explain.

2011-02-23T21:09:00.000-05:00

I know. You probably expected the worst. Botulism? Salmonella? VEGAN?!

No, no. I assure you it was nothing so serious.

I won't name names, but somebody that I'm married to poured hot tea into my laptop over Christmas. After our last computer died of old age during the summer of 2010, we got an iPad. It's great for lots of things. Blogging isn't one of those things. So for all blogging purposes, for the last several months we've been a one-computer household. And for all of 2011 until the laptop got back from rehab last Friday, we were a zero-computer household.

But the computer is back. It seems as good as it ever was.

Related to nothing whatsoever on this post: Here's a photo of Daisy, age 8. She and I were bored the other night and got to playing with the camera some.

But hey. Don't worry I've been cooking. Been doing some wings, fish, brisket, skirt steak. I whipped up some cobbler in the Dutch oven . . . I removed a good bit of body hair with a Big Green Egg-style fire ball. . . I even got some new gear for Christmas. It's been as fun as it ever was. Just no blogging for a few weeks. I'll get some posts going up here. I've actually been surprised and flattered by the number of folks asking, "Dude, what happened to your blog?" It's still here.

It's Organic AND Local, Y'all.

2010-12-08T20:40:00.000-05:00

At Labon's urging I swung by What's Your Beef here in Charlotte a couple of Saturdays ago. It's a local butcher with all local foods and all organic foods. As the butcher bragged to me the pork chops, ribs and sausage all came from the same pig, from the same farmer from down the road.

I felt like a kid in a candy shop. I picked up some chicken breasts and a NY Strip which had been dry aged for 21 days. You can see the results of the dry aging there on the side where it's got that gray coloring.

In order to appreciate the natural flavor of the food I seasoned everything lightly with salt & pepper and a light coating of olive oil.

I got the Egg roaring. Here's a peek in through the bottom vent.

Keeping me company as the Egg got going was New Belgium's winter ale 2 Below. Mmm. Nice and toasty-feeling beer on a chilly night.

I used the T Rex method to cook the steak. I understand it to be a cooking style geared toward steaks and chops. But for the first time ever I made T Rex chicken breasts too. Briefly T Rex is where you get the Egg up to a searing temp. In this case I was humming along at 650f. You sear your meat on each side for 60-90 seconds and then throw it on a plate and take it back inside for 20 minutes while you choke the temp back down to around 400f on your Egg. Get the meat back on there for 3-6 minutes on each side depending on what sort of doneness you want.

You can see that I was interested in erring on the rare side. I certainly didn't over cook the meat. Rest assured the chicken breasts got a thorough cook. In fact, the T Rex method was great on chicken--nice crispy crust on the boneless breast with a tender, juicy inside. I digress.

I'm a big fan of What's Your Beef. If you're in Charlotte, you need to pay a visit. The proof is in the food. The chicken was scrumptious. It's hard to describe, but the absence of all the hormones and antibiotics yields a very "clean" taste. The steak also had great flavor. I don't have aged meat very often so it was a little difficult to know what flavors to attribute to the organics and what to attribute to the aging process.

Do you eat aged beef? Is it me, or does it have a bit of a funky taste? It's not bad, but it gives you a definitive depth of flavor that tends to the musty, old side. Any insight into what the aging does to the beef?

Cast Iron Grate Giveaway

2010-11-30T20:31:00.000-05:00

Dang, I'm impressed with the contest over at http://www.nibblemethis.com/. So much so, that I'm willing to turn my blog into a plug for the contest itself in the hopes of getting my shot at owning one of those sweet Craycort cast iron grates.

This is a firebox ready to sear something on one of those grates.

In other news, I've got some posts on wings, shrimp, and beef that I'm eager to get up here for your enjoyment. Stay tuned, knuckleheads.

Eggtoberfest 2010, Atlanta Motor Speedway

2010-10-23T13:47:00.001-04:00

Before we launch headlong into Eggtoberfest 2010, let's pause to remember the weather at Eggtoberfest 2009. It was rainy and in the upper 30s to mid 40s. Of course, Labon and I still had a good time.

But given the choice I'll take the weather from last weekend. Upper 70s and sun. Yes.

I know what you're thinking. "OMG. Is that Chris from Nibble Me This?" Yep. And yes, we're standing in front of the ultimate Big Green Egg accessory: The Big Green Egg pace car. It was very cool to meet him and his wife, Alexis. But wait. There's more.

In addition to seeing the president of the Catawba Grill and Brew Club, Matt Underwood, Sweetwater Brewery was there.

The beer line was a bit of a problem. Can you see the Sweet Water Truck way down there?

I exposed an Oregon Ducks poseur (or a man with a hearing impairment) when I yelled "Go Ducks!" several times and this gentleman failed to turn around. But I say again, "Go Ducks!"

You see this? This was a prime rib dry aged for 30 days and then cooked for everyone's enjoyment at Eggtoberfest. Good golly it was yummy. And it looked like it would have flipped Fred Flinstone's sedan.

When you're on the cooking team, you get to gnaw on one of the prime ribs. Dang. I want.

Clearly at an Eggfest you're going to get lots of good food. Honorable mention goes out to the stuffed baby bell peppers, which I want to try soon (hand modeling by Labon).

This year the Big Green Egg folks printed up recipe cards ahead of time for cooks who submitted recipes. This made it easy to grab ideas.

There was also a fun marshmallow/twinkie thing that was pretty good. It had crumbled oreos and nutella and stuff. Very tasty. They served it with milk which was a nice touch.

Remember how I was just at Edisto Beach a few weeks ago? Apparently this guy was too at some point. And he shopped at the Piggly Wiggly just like me. I'm also big on the Pig. Other cool t-shirts were "Proud to be AWESOME" and "I love the sh*t out of pork." Sorry I didn't get photos.

So anyway, it was a great gathering. No doubt it was different having something on this large of a scale. Last year (and each year prior) it was hosted at the BGE headquarters right on their property. This year having it in the infield of the Atlanta Motor Speedway was obviously a different sort of a thing. Labon and I felt like we had to compete more for each sample this time. Apparently manners were optional. You'd be in a line as something came off of one of the Eggs and the line would give way to a blob of greedy humanity. Maybe that's also a factor of the rain from last year made for a smaller crowd? Who knows. Anyway, it was a big undertaking for the BGE folks to do something like this and I think it was a success over all, but I think they also probably have their own list of things to work out for next year without me nitpicking. As Labon would say, "Good smoke. Good smoke."

On Location: Topsail Island, NC

2010-10-18T20:28:00.000-04:00

Note to self: Space out your beach trips in 2011, there buddy.

Late September is my favorite time at the beach. You roll the dice though. It's hurricane season. While we didn't get any major storms, we did get to experience Tropical Depression 16 which went by the name of Nicole for a few hours there.

There's no one photo that captures all the wind and rain we experienced. Wilmington, which was just to our south got over 22 inches of rain. We "only" got 9.

But there's a limit to how much tv everyone could watch and by Thursday we were climbing the walls. Literally.

The weather finally broke on Thursday in the late afternoon. The rainbow was a nice touch. We ended up having very nice weather on Friday and Saturday.

I missed my Egg. When we got home on Saturday afternoon, we had to hit the Fresh Market for some kabobs. It was low maintenance, but it was good to reconnect with the fire.

Up next: my take on Eggtoberfest 2010!

On Location: Edisto Island, SC

2010-10-03T07:34:00.000-04:00

During the last week of August we got out of town for some R&R with some of our friends from college. One day three of us chartered a boat to catch some fish. Captain Dwayne knew a good spot about a mile off shore for us to drop our lines. Adam, Bill and I settled in for a nice day of fishing. Is that redundant?

We didn't expect to catch anything too exciting, but we snagged a handful of black fin sharks and some scalloped head sharks. Bill got this nice black fin. I'm delighted to report that this was the biggest shark we saw all week. Even though there was some excitement when he flopped around on the deck (the shark, not Bill) we survived this encounter without a scratch.

Mostly we caught whiting. In fact, during the 4 hours we were out we caught 44 whiting and one keeper sized scalloped head shark. There was a restaurant at the marina which fried up some of our whiting to make sandwiches for us while we filleted the rest of our catch. It made for a tasty lunch. The rest came home for dinner. We were having fish tacos.

The seagulls took a great interest in our haul. We kept them at bay by tossing them scraps and guts.

Our house had a decent gasser (propane grill), but we didn't have a grill basket, which you might use for fish or veggies. We improvised with this cookie sheet having seasoned the fillets with lemon juice, salt, pepper and Old Bay. We sprayed them with olive oil to keep 'em from sticking.

The other treats that South Carolina provided were fresh peaches. Heather found a peach salsa recipe online, which she fudged around to suit what we had available. The gist is that she used fresh peaches, cilantro, diced onion, diced tomato, salt and pepper. We added some slaw and avocado chunks atop of corn tortillas.

Paradise? Close enough for me.

Game Hens in the Tuscan Way

2010-09-17T23:45:00.001-04:00

This recipe came from Steven Raichlen's Planet Barbecue. On page 377 I found "Tuscan-Style Chicken Under a Brick."

I started by spatchcocking two game hens. All this involves is using scissors to remove the back bone by cutting down either side of it. This allows you to splay the birds out flat.

I have to tell you what made this recipe is the rub. I still have it in the fridge and have used it generously on pork chops, chicken and even eggs.

Here's how you do it.

Place 3 cloves garlic, coarsely chopped into a food processor with2 Tbs each fresh chopped rosemary and sage. Chop until fine. Add salt and pepper and process to mix.

Man it's good. I just like to open the Tupperware thing up and smell it.

Generously rub the birds down with your new blend. Oil the grate and then place the hens skin side down using an indirect setup. I forgot my drip pan (!) but it all worked out. I just got my plate-setter sort of nasty. Once you arrange the birds on the grate, flatten them out using a foil-wrapped brick. Mr. Raichlen doesn't say anything about turning them over, but I flipped mine after about 20 minutes of a 30 minute cook at 350f.

They turned out quite tasty. Neither my wife nor I thought we would finish our own birds, but sure enough we ate every scrap.

That's not to say we didn't save room for dessert. I tried using the Dutch oven for a little cobbler. Google directed me to this site where I found the following recipe:

The Best Berry Cobbler

5 Tbsp. butter (roughly 2/3 of a stick)

1 tsp. baking powder

1 Cup all-purpose flour

1/2 tsp. salt

2/3 Cup sugar

3/4 Cup milk

1 tsp. vanilla extract

2 Cups blueberries (fresh or frozen)

Topping:

1/3 Cup granola

1/3 Cup sugar

Use aluminum foil to cover the inside of a 12-inch Dutch Oven. Preheat the oven, and then melt the butter in it. To make the batter, mix the baking powder, flour, salt, sugar, milk, and vanilla extract very well. Pour the batter on top of the melted butter. Throw the blueberries on top of the batter. Bake at medium heat for 40 to 45 minutes. At about 30 minutes into the cooking sprinkle the granola and remaining sugar on top. The berry cobbler is done when a toothpick inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean.

It was so good we're planning on doing it again for company tomorrow night. Oh and it just doesn't taste right if you don't serve it with a little vanilla ice cream.

brisket: 3rd time's the charm?

2010-08-26T21:53:00.003-04:00

We're coming up on a year since I got into all of this. It started with a brisket. Most stuff that I've put in my mouth that comes out of the Egg is highly satisfactory. With the brisket I still simply can't tell if I'm doing it right, or if it's supposed to be a little dry and a little chewy. Here goes the 3rd attempt.

Millionaire Brisket with Coffee Mop Sauce:

(recipe from Steven Raichlen's BBQ USA)

Rub:

1/4 cup kosher or sea salt

1/4 cup firmly packed light brown sugar

1/4 cup sweet paprika

2 tablespoons pure chili powder

2 tablespoons freshly ground black pepper

1 tablespoon onion powder

1/2 teaspoon dried oregano

Mop Sauce:

1 cup beer

1 cup apple cider

1 cup cider vinegar

1 cup coffee

1 cup beef or chicken stock

1/4 cup vegetable oil

1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce

2 tablespoons hot sauce, (recommended: Tabasco sauce)

2 teaspoons kosher or sea salt

1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

The brisket was on at 7 a.m. along with some mesquite chunks. By noon it was time for some refreshment. Labon showed up with some big beers and when I saw them I could hardly believe my eyes. He had grabbed two half-liter bottles of Wurzburger Hofbrau Hefe-Weiss. What he didn't realize is that Wurzburg was the city in Germany where I studied for a while when I was in college. Score. What a swig down memory lane.

The bacon was getting hard to resist.

Wit about an hour left to go, it was all looking pretty good. Those aren't baked beans down beneath. That's the drip pan and its roiling goo.

Out of nowhere we got one of those summer downpours. I used a sheet of foil to try to protect my remote thermometer from getting soaked. It worked. Whew!

Finally, after about 8.5 hours the internal temp was up to 195f. I gotta say. Awesome flavor, nice smoke taste. But dang if it wasn't a little dry and a little chewy. What am I doing wrong? My co-worker from Texas assures me that even when you do it right, it can wind up being a little dry and chewy. And that's part of my frustration. I don't know exactly what good brisket is supposed to taste like.

I've had it in restaurants where it's all tender where you cut it with a fork, but that's almost like they take the slices after they cook it and stick 'em in a crock pot with barbecue sauce. Surely that can't be the way you're supposed to do it. Any help?

Car Wash Mike: A Tribute

2010-08-15T20:44:00.001-04:00

On July 4th, the world lost a rib master. "Car Wash Mike" McKernan won awards for his ribs. But his generous spirit was what impressed me. I knew his technique before I encountered Mike. But once I started asking questions about rib prep on www.eggheadforum.com I was stunned to find that Mike himself would patiently field questions from me and other newbies. The takeaway I got from Mike is that the ribs that you like are the best you'll prepare. Don't try to cook them to please a judge or other crowds.

It was only this week that I realized Mike had passed. I was catching up on Dave's awesome blog: My Carnivorous Habits when I saw he'd done ribs in memory of Mike. What?! I had sort of taken a hiatus from the online community while I was doing some traveling during July, so this all went right under my radar. Of course when I went back to the Egghead Forum I saw the outpouring of support.

Saturday Labon and I did a 2 rack salute to Mike. As his technique suggests, we gave the ribs a light coating of yellow mustard. We then rubbed 'em with a Kansas City style rub I picked up at the Carolina Eggfest.

Mike believed that cold ribs took on smoke better, so while the Egg settled in around 200f, the ribs chilled in the freezer wrapped in foil. For the smoke I was using some gorgeous apple wood chunks my dad gave me. They soaked in water for a couple of hours Saturday morning prior to getting started.

The ribs went on right at noon. We poured a little out for Mike as the ribs went on and his beer sat on the table throughout the cook. After 5 hours we took the ribs off to get the temp up to 275f and slapped on Stubb's spicy barbecue sauce before putting them on for the finish.

We left these going a little longer than usual--nearly 6 hours by the time they came off. That meant they were a little less juicy than some that we've done lately, but I honestly like the texture better this way I think. They were not yet fall off the bone, but they were getting close. They were mighty tasty. I think Mike would have enjoyed them.

Thank you, Mike.

Bone In Pork Chops

2010-08-08T21:57:00.000-04:00

The T Rex method is becoming my favorite way to do thick cuts of chops or steak. By the way, you can see in that picture that I've been doing enough searing that I had to get a Rutland gasket after frying that which my Egg came with. The Rutland gasket is rated for temps over 700f so I went for it.

So the T Rex. It's so simple. You get the Egg roaring somewhere north of 600f. After coating the chops in coarse cracked pepper and salt you drop them on the hot grate. I go about 30 seconds before rotating the chops about 90 degrees. That gives the cross-hatched sear marks. After another 30 seconds I flip them. On the other side I go 30 seconds, rotate. Then 30 seconds before taking them back inside to rest.

You bring the Egg back down to around 400f which takes about 20 minutes. Once it's cooled down you bring the chops back out to cook for about 5 minutes on each side or until you get an internal temp of about 140f. Take them off and rest them for about 5 minutes and you're done.

This method really gives you tasty crust on the outside and nice tender juice on the inside. I'm a fan. These chops went down with one of my favorite beers: Sweetwater 420, brewed down in Georgia. Mmm.

Cast Iron Rehab: Denouement

2010-08-04T18:42:00.001-04:00

Alright so maybe I'll have more electrifying series than Cast Iron Rehab month here at Grillknuckles. But you deserve resolution. So here it goes. I got the last of the most stubborn stuff off using a wire brush on the end of a drill.

You know. At the end of the day, this thing was danged purdy.

I put the pan in the oven at 200f with some Crisco rubbed on it. About every 20 minutes for an hour I took it out and kept rubbing in Crisco. Apparently it's now officially seasoned.

Truth be known I think it's getting the most use for frying up hot dogs for the kids. But this pan was born to fry bacon, baby. Have you ever seen a happier pan?

Here's one thing I struggle with. Crud is left all over the surface after I cook just about anything.

I scour all that off using just hot water and then rub it down with some olive oil or vegetable oil when I'm done. Am I doing this right? After one recent cook I scrubbed it so well that I checked back later and it was oxidizing (this was before I started the oil rub down). Am I supposed to leave the crud on there?

I'm told the best steak you'll ever cook is the steak that you sear using rendered duck fat in your cast iron pan. Haven't tried it yet. Anyone else ever cooked with duck fat?

Eggtoberfest 2010

2010-08-02T21:25:00.000-04:00

Registration opened today for Eggtoberfest 2010 outside of Atlanta! This year the cost of a demo Egg includes 2 tickets to the fest. My next door neighbor has a conflict that weekend, but he's hired me and Labon as his mules to get his Demo Egg back across the GA and SC state lines.

In other words since we were heading down there anyway, we'll haul his Egg back and enjoy his 2 tickets that come with it. It's the mythical win-win. Besides, now my neighbor and I will be able to compare notes and ribs, etc. We're going to need a gate in that fence we keep climbing over.

Who else is going?

So nobody likes a blog post without a photo. So here are some ribs I made for my mother in law. They were good. I'm loving Stubb's sauce on ribs these days.

And here's a shot of my son, who taught me the real way to eat fresh strawberries. If you worry about where the juice winds up, then you fail to enjoy the berry.

See y'all at Eggtoberfest?

Cast Iron Rehab: Chapter 3

2010-07-16T20:38:00.000-04:00

Ok, I've been a bad blogger. Add vacation to work and family life and your blog suffers apparently.

After another 48 hours with oven cleaner on the pan.

It's pretty amazing. You leave raw iron sitting around and it gets a little rust color to it. I'll get to the seasoning soon and wrap up this project.

My hope is that soon I can show off some goodies out of this pan.

You can see that some of this crud just isn't coming off. Next up: the wire brush drill attachment!

Cast Iron Rehab: Chapter 2

2010-06-28T21:58:00.000-04:00

Our subject spent 48 hours sitting in a garbage bag while soaked with oven cleaner.

It's starting to look a little better. This is an 8" cast iron pan made by Griswold that found its way into my family sometime in the last 50+ years.

Using instructions from the Pan Man I soaked the pan in oven cleaner for 48 hours and then gave it a scrubbing with a wire copper brush.

If you look back at Chapter 1, you'll note some real progress.

But some of this crud still wouldn't come off, so back into the bag for another 48 hours with a fresh bath of oven cleaner.

Cast Iron Rehab: Chapter 1

2010-06-21T20:49:00.001-04:00

Not too long ago I was reading on the Egghead Forum about cast iron cookware. There was some discussion about what new brands were preferred, but the two discontinued brands that everyone liked best were Wagner and Griswold. This got me thinking about the pan in the back of the cabinet that my mom had given me at one point. I grabbed it out. Lo and behold it was a Griswold! Cool. Griswold was a cast iron maker in Erie, PA which has been out of business since the 1950s. So this piece is at least 50 to 60 years old.

I know a certain amount of "seasoning" makes your cast iron cool, but this piece seemed to be pretty corroded. Last summer my wife and I were in Charleston,SC and we visited the CSA Hunley--the world's first submarine used during the Civil War. This pan looked like it had been pulled from the wreckage.

Check it out. The 8 tells you that it's an 8" pan.

So now what? I found help from the Pan Man who has a guide on his site for cleaning and seasoning old cast iron. Step one is to spray the piece down with oven cleaner all over and stick it in a plastic trash bag for a couple of days. Keeping it in the bag keeps the cleaner from evaporating. Stay tuned as I post the progress of this project.

Tails: We win!

2010-06-13T21:55:00.000-04:00

So I got a new table. I'm pretty jazzed. It's cypress wood, which supposedly does great out in the elements, but I read on the Egghead Forum where some coat their tables with spar varnish. After reading up, I decided that the Minwax Helmsman was the way to go. Over the course of about a week I put on 3 coats and sanded in between. I also went with the high gloss when somebody on the forum commented that it repels barbecue sauce as well as water. Above you can see the new table beside the empty nest--former home to the Egg.

As you may or may not know, a Big Green Egg weighs a lot. It's also weird and awkward to handle. As you might have guessed I enlisted Labon's help to lift the sucker into its new home. Many folks on the forum suggested removing the dome first. I don't have any idea how I would do that since my bolts and hardware are all bent up from where they torqued everything into place when it was assembled. So we just bear hugged it and dropped it in while Heather and Katie made sure the paving stone and Egg "feet" were in place. It wasn't a walk in the park, but it wasn't all that bad either. Using a work glove I did some of the final adjustments by reaching down into the thing and lifting by the vent hole. The work glove was nice, because that sheet metal around the vent is sharp. Anyway, it was easier than I would have expected.

Always on the lookout for deals, Labon pointed out that Harris Teeter had a special on lobster tails. Half off! So this seemed like a good food to break in the table. All of the tails were about 0.4 lbs.

After some research I found that the Naked Whiz had a recipe that sounded good, called Dwell in the Shell (see page 89 of the .pdf document).

I kind of thought 6 tails would be enough for 4 people, by the way. Was it? Let's just say that Heather made a HUGE salad and there was nothing left. In other words nobody filled up on lobster.

But to prepare the tails the first order of business was cutting off the legs and membrane on the underside. I did this with some kitchen scissors. On the flip side I used a big ol chopping knife to crack a notch in the tops of the shells going lengthwise. After rubbing the meat down with a little olive oil I applied some lemon juice, season salt and garlic powder. The tails went back into the fridge for about 90 minutes.

With the Egg around 450 I put them on for 5 minutes. Let's take a peek with the daisy wheel cam . . .

Here they are after 5 minutes. Notice, that I haven't replaced my gasket yet.

We flipped them over and drizzled each with melted butter, which we had sautéed with minced garlic.

The butter flared up like a muther.

The recipe called to let them cook on their backs another 5 minutes. But the recipe was for 1 pound tails. These were less than half of that, so we yanked them after about 3 minutes on their backs. I'd say they were just right. We dipped them in the leftover garlic butter and I have to say they were yummy to quite yummy.

And check this out. The next day we got some good rain, so I got to see how the varnish worked. I like it.

Guam Volcano Tuna

2010-06-07T21:48:00.002-04:00

We wanted to do something light for dinner, so we did up some tuna with pineapple.

So for starters let me give a nod to Dave over at My Year on the Grill who suggested we make the pineapple extra snazzy with some rum. Good idea, mon. I don't know whether it's better if you soak it a week ahead of time or anything, but we gave it a good 15 minutes. It had some rum flavor for sure, but it wasn't over powering. So maybe that was good enough.

Secondly let me give a nod to Chris over at Nibble Me This for his praise of Steven Raichlen's new book Planet Barbecue! which I grabbed recently. That inspired us for the tuna portion of our meal. I found the recipe itself already posted at epicurious.com, so I was able to cut and paste all the gory details. We only did 2 tuna steaks, by the way.

For the Dipping Sauce

1 tablespoon wasabi powder, or 1 tablespoon wasabi paste
1 piece (2 inches) fresh ginger, peeled (for 1 tablespoon grated)
1 lemon
3/4 cup soy sauce
1 scallion, both white and green parts, trimmed and sliced crosswise paper-thin
1 hot chile, thinly sliced crosswise

For the Tuna

4 tuna steaks (each about 1 1/2 inches thick and 6 to 8 ounces)
6 to 8 tablespoons cracked black peppercorns
2 tablespoons Old Bay seasoning
Coarse salt (kosher or sea)
1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
Lemon or lime wedges, for serving

1. Prepare the dipping sauce: If you are using powdered wasabi, place it in a mixing bowl and add 1 tablespoon of warm water. Stir to form a paste and let stand for about 5 minutes. If you are using wasabi paste, place it in a mixing bowl. Grate the ginger on a fine grater into the bowl; you should have about 1 tablespoon. Cut the lemon in half and cut a thin slice off one half. Cut the slice in quarters, remove any seeds, and set the lemon quarters aside for garnishing the sauce. Squeeze the juice from the remaining lemon into the bowl, squeezing it through your fingers to catch any seeds. Add the soy sauce, scallion, and chile and stir to mix well. Divide the sauce among 4 small bowls. Float a quarter lemon slice in each bowl. The dipping sauce can be prepared up to 1 hour ahead.

2. Prepare the tuna: Place the tuna steaks on a large plate and thickly crust them with cracked peppercorns, pressing the pepper onto the fish on both sides and the edges. Generously season the tuna with Old Bay seasoning and salt. Place the olive oil in a shallow bowl.

3. Set up the grill for direct grilling and preheat it to high.

4. When ready to cook, brush and oil the grill grate. Dip each piece of tuna in the olive oil on both sides, then arrange it on the hot grate. The dripping oil may and should cause flare-ups—it's supposed to. The flames will help sear the crust. Grill the tuna until it is dark and crusty on the outside but still very rare inside, 2 to 3 minutes per side, turning with tongs. When done the tuna should feel quite soft when poked.

5. Transfer the grilled tuna steaks to a cutting board and cut them into 1/4-inch slices. Cut down through the steaks, holding the blade perpendicular to the cutting board. Each slice will have a dark crusty exterior and a blood-rare center. Fan out the slices on a platter or plates. Garnish the tuna with lemon or lime wedges and serve the bowls of dipping sauce alongside.

Oh and also. I figured that the rum-soaked pineapple leftovers would make excellent pineapple-soaked rum drink over ice. Turns out I prefer a little bourbon on the rocks to a little pineapple-tinged rum on the rocks. But it looked pretty.

This tuna was amazing. I must tell you that I did it once without photographing it. My wife invited her book club over a while back. They all brought husbands, kids and/or significant others. Most folks ate my pulled pork (which was very tasty if I do say so for myself). I fixed the volcano tuna for the "vegetarians" in the crowd who preferred not to eat pork. It was a hit. Many of the pork-eaters were wishing they had RSVP'd as vegetarian. The dipping sauce was dubbed "The Magic Sauce." It really is something else.

The thing that worried me about this recipe was that all the Old Bay and cracked pepper would overwhelm the tuna flavor. Fear not. This was really a great adventure for the taste buds.

Oh and the book club session just so happens to be when I fried my gasket trying to sear this tuna. Stay tuned for a post about how to replace your gasket on a Big Green Egg.