Dad Cooks Dinner

Grilled Swordfish With Greek Salad

2012-05-31T12:00:00.000-04:00

Swordfish is great for grilling. It is a very firm-fleshed fish, and holds together where other fish flake apart. If you are just starting out with grilling fish, try swordfish.

Swordfish may be easy to grill, but it is very mild-tasting. I marinate swordfish in olive oil with lemon, oregano, and a pinch of sugar. This gives it a crunchy browned crust on the grill. Then I serve it with a Greek salad full of olives, feta cheese, and grilled peppers and onions. The result is a balance of opposites—mild, meaty swordfish meets crunchy, bold salad.

Now, if you've been around for a while (like me), you might be thinking: Swordfish? Isn't it endangered? What happened to "Give swordfish a break?"

Your memory isn't failing you. Swordfish was in trouble back in the '90s, and there was a campaign to save it. Thanks to good fisheries management, North Atlantic swordfish had fully recovered by 2009. Buy swordfish that was caught in North American waters and give your conscience a break—our swordfish is sustainable, and will be around for a very long time.

Recipe: Grilled Swordfish with Greek Salad

Ingredients:
Grilled Fish

4 (1-inch thick) Swordfish steaks
2 teaspoons kosher salt (1/2 teaspoon per steak)
1/2 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
1/4 cup olive oil
Juice of 1/2 a lemon (about 2 tablespoons)
Zest from 1/2 lemon
1 teaspoon dried oregano (or 2 teaspoons fresh oregano, minced)
1/2 teaspoon sugar

Grilled Vegetables

1 large red onion, cut into 1/2 inch thick rounds
1 green bell pepper, cored, sides cut into large planks
1 red bell pepper, cored, sides cut into large planks
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

Greek Salad

Juice of 1/2 a lemon (about 2 tablespoons)
Zest from 1/2 a lemon
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1 clove garlic, minced or pressed through a garlic press
1 teaspoon fresh thyme (or 1 teaspoon fresh oregano, minced)
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 English cucumber, halved and cut into 1/4 inch thick rounds
10 ounces romaine, chopped (about 3 hearts of romaine)
1 pint cherry tomatoes, halved
8 ounces feta cheese, cubed
6 ounces Kalamata olives, drained

Directions:

1. Marinate the swordfish, prepare the peppers and onions
Season the swordfish steaks with the salt and pepper. Mix the olive oil, lemon juice, zest, oregano, and sugar in a zip top bag. Add the swordfish to the bag and massage the marinade onto the fish through the plastic. Squeeze the air out of the bag, seal it, and store in the refrigerator for 30 minutes to 1 hour, turning occasionally. Season the peppers and onions with the salt, and let rest at room temperature until it is time to grill.

2. Set up the grill
Preheat the grill, brush the grate clean, then set up a two-level fire—half the grill on medium-high for the swordfish, the other half on medium-low for the peppers.

3. Prepare the salad
While the grill pre-heats, get the salad ready. In a small bowl, whisk the lemon juice, zest, red wine vinegar, salt, pepper, sugar, garlic, thyme, and olive oil to make a vinaigrette. Add the cucumber to the vinaigrette and toss to coat. Let the cucumber marinate in the vinaigrette until it is time to toss the salad.

Put the romaine in a large bowl, then top with the tomatoes, feta, and olives. Don't toss the salad yet—set it aside and let it wait.

4. Grill the swordfish, peppers and onions
Remove the swordfish from the marinade, let any excess drip off, and put the fish on the medium-high heat side of the grill. Put the peppers and onions on the medium-low heat side of the grill. On a gas grill, cook with the lid closed as much as possible; on charcoal, leave the lid open.

Cook the peppers and onions for 12 minutes, flipping after six minutes. The peppers and onions are done when they have softened and have charred around the edges.

Cook the fish for six to eight minutes, flipping after four minutes. The swordfish is done when it reaches an internal temperature of 130 degrees F. (If you don't have an instant-read thermometer, cut into the fish to check—it is done when cooked most of the way through, but still slightly translucent in the middle. Residual heat will cook the fish through while it rests.)

5. Finish the salad and serve
Trim off any burnt edges from the peppers and onions, then cut into thin strips. Add the peppers and onions to the bowl with the salad, pour the vinaigrette and cucumbers over the top, and toss until everything is well coated with vinaigrette. Serve by filling a plate with salad and topping with a swordfish steak.

Notes:

Don't overcook the swordfish, or it will dry out. I cook it to just shy of medium, then let the residual heat from the grill finish cooking it through.

Cook the swordfish with the skin on, then trim it off before serving. The skin is too tough to eat, but it adds a little extra flavor to the swordfish while cooking.

This post is part of the BlogHer Light & Fresh Summer Grilling series, which includes 100 percent editorial content presented by a participating sponsor. Our advertisers do not produce editorial content. This post is made possible by Michelob ULTRA Light Cider and BlogHer.

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Things I Love: Essential Grilling Tools

2012-05-29T07:00:00.001-04:00

Tongs - my hands on the grill

Memorial Day has passed. Grilling season is now open!

To start you off right, here is my list of essential grilling tools.
*PS: Want a summer of worry-free grilling? Now is the time to clean your grill.

1. Tongs
Tongs are my hands at the grill. 16 inch tongs give me a little extra distance from the fire; 12 inch tongs are better for close-in work with a lot of flipping (like chicken wings).

2. Grill brush
The key to non-stick grilling? A hot, clean grill grate. I preheat my grill grate (five minutes for charcoal, fifteen minutes for gas), then brush it until all the burnt pieces of my last grilling session are gone.

3. 8 inch by 3 inch offset spatula
Tongs are my tool of choice at the grill, but for burgers and flaky fish, I need a spatula. Get a long spatula with a flexible metal head. I've used one with a wooden handle for years, but a inexpensive food service model works just as well and can go in the dishwasher.

4. Thermapen
How do I answer the question "is it done yet?" By using an instant read thermometer. I've sung the praises of the thermapen before - it's expensive, and worth every penny.

5. Silicone basting brushes
I add a lot of sauces and bastes at the end of cooking, and I need a brush to do that. Silicone brushes don't spread sauces as easily as natural bristle brushes - but they come close, and I can toss a silicone brush coated with barbecue sauce in the dishwasher.

6. Skewers
Kebab time! I use three types - short, six inch bamboo skewers for yakitori, 12 inch thin metal skewers for kebabs, and specialty wide skewers for ground meat kebabs.

7. Aluminum foil
Heavy duty aluminum foil is my all-purpose tool on the grill. I foil-wrap vegetable pouches to make a easy side dish, form it into drip pans when I cook fatty meat over indirect heat, and make shields to protect bamboo skewers when I make yakitori. It's a key tool for wood chips - wood chips burn up in an instant if they aren't wrapped in a foil pouch first.

8. Welding gloves
When I need to work with something hot in the grill - preheated grill grates, a chimney starter, a drip pan full of hot fat - I put on a pair of welding gloves.

9. Grill safe griddle or pan
More and more, I use a pan in the grill itself. It protects tender vegetables from the fire, keeps small ingredients from falling through the grates, and keeps bastes warm so I can roll meat in them. Cast iron is the traditional grill pan material - but I have problems with rust. Enameled cast iron takes care of the rusting issue, but is more expensive. Enameled steel is cheap and durable, but thin and prone to hot spots. I use all three; pick whichever one works best for you.

10. Vegetable grate
If you want your vegetables to have a kiss of fire, but worry about them falling through the grill grate, a vegetable grate is your best friend. I loved my cast iron vegetable grate...until it started to rust. This stainless steel model from Weber gets good reviews, and is the next purchase for my grill.

What did I forget?

Anything you use every time you grill? Tell us about it in the comments.

FTC disclosure: All my "Things I Love" posts are about products I use and purchased myself. I did not receive any form of compensation to write this. If you buy something through one of my Amazon links, I get a small commission.

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Pan Grilled Bratwurst and Sauerkraut

2012-05-24T07:00:00.000-04:00

Choucroute Garnie is one of my all time favorite meals. I thought I liked sauerkraut until I had it at Brasserie Flo. That's where I found out sauerkraut could be amazing.

Last fall I fermented and canned my own sauerkraut, trying to duplicate that wonderful choucroute. My batch of homemade sauerkraut was good, but not as good as Brasserie Flo; I need to try again this year.

The homemade sauerkraut experiment left me with a surplus. Now, I love it, but my family…not so much.
*The kids are sure sauerkraut is a trick, one of dad's weird jokes. I mean, sour is right there in the name, and I expect them to eat it? Riiight. Sure thing, dad.

I've been using the kraut up over the course of the last year, and this is my favorite recipe. I combine the basics of choucroute garnie with pan grilled brats, giving me a quick version of my beloved meal.

First, the brats and kraut steam together in a foil-covered pan on the grill, sharing their flavors. Then the foil is removed. The brats are grilled over the open flames while the kraut boils in the uncovered pan, steaming off any excess liquid.

Looking for a weeknight dinner on the grill with great bratwurst and great sauerkraut? Give pan grilling a try.

Recipe: Pan Grilled Bratwurst and Sauerkraut

Inspired by: Grilled Sausages with Peppers and Onions, Cooks Illustrated Magazine, July 2008

Cook time: 30 minutes

Equipment:

Grill safe pan - 12 inch round or 9x13 rectangle
Aluminum foil

My homemade sauerkraut. I'm so proud of myself!

Ingredients:

1 medium onion, diced
2 apples, cored and diced
2 pounds sauerkraut, drained and rinsed
1 teaspoon juniper berries
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
5 bratwurst (one 19oz package of brats)
1/2 cup white wine (or beer)

bratwurst buns
Spicy brown mustard (optional…but not in my opinion)

Directions:

1. Prepare the pan:
Toss the onions, apples, sauerkraut, and juniper berries in the grill pan. Drizzle with the oil and toss again to coat, then spread into an even layer across the bottom of the pan. Put the brats on top of the peppers and onions, then pour the wine over everything. Cover the pan with aluminum foil and crimp the edges shut.

2. Prepare the grill:
Set the grill up for cooking on direct medium heat. For my Weber Summit, I preheat the grill for 15 minutes with all burners on high, scrape the grates clean with my grill brush, then turn all the burners down to medium.

3. Steam the brat pan:
Put the sealed pan on the grill over direct medium heat. Cook with the lid closed for 20 minutes.

4. Grill the brats, simmer the sauerkraut:
Remove the foil from the pan, and leave the pan over medium heat. Move the brats from the pan to the grill, also over direct medium heat. Grill the brats for 2 minutes a side, or until browned, then remove from the grill directly into the waiting buns. Watch out for flare-ups while the brats are over direct heat, and move them around as necessary. While grilling the brats, keep cooking the sauerkraut in the pan, stirring occasionally. The sauerkraut is done when most of the liquid is cooked away, about 10 minutes after the foil was removed.

5. Serve:
Top the brats with sauerkraut and serve. Pass the extra kraut and brown spicy mustard at the table.

Variations:

*Frozen Brats: If I forget to take the brats out of the freezer, that's OK, this recipe can cover for me. Increase the wine to 1 cup, and in step 3, increase the covered cooking time to 25 minutes. (When I start with frozen brats, I double-check with my instant read thermometer to make sure they are done. I want them to read 160°F.)

Notes:

*Watch out for flareups while grilling the brats. And yes, there are going to be flareups. A little fire on the brats is fine, but if there is a persistent grease fire, move the brats away until it goes out.

Flareup!

*If you have a local meat market that makes their own brats, use them! If not, I'm partial to Johnsonville brats. It must be my Wisconsin heritage.

*A trick for feeding the kids - I cut the brats in half before putting them in a bun, to stretch the 5 brats in a package out to 10 full buns. My oldest can rip through three or four brats on his own; halving the brats leaves enough for the rest of us to get a bite in edgewise.

*This technique is great when cooking for a crowd; it doubles or triples easily. All you need is a larger pan; a 13x19 pan can hold a party pack of 12 brats easily.

What do you think? Questions? Other ideas? Leave them in the comments section below.

Choucroute Garnie
Pan Grilled Bratwurst with Peppers and Onions
Basic Technique: Grilled Sausages

Adapted from:
Grilled Sausages with Peppers and Onions, Cooks Illustrated Magazine, July 2008

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Indirect High Heat on Your Grill - Survey Results

2012-05-22T07:00:00.000-04:00

Thank you to everyone who responded to my indirect high heat grilling survey. I got fifteen responses, which I thought was a pretty good turnout.

So, what did we learn?

Most of my responders had Weber grills, and most of those grills were a Weber Genesis

This is not a big surprise - the Weber Genesis is a very popular grill. What did surprise me is that 6 of the 8 Weber Genesis responses were for the new version, with burners running front to back. I'm used to the (now retired) style with burners running left to right. My in-laws just bought a new Weber Genesis, so I'll be able to check the new design out in person.

The other responses: 3 Weber Summits 600 series, 1 Brinkman, 1 Char-Broil, 1 Lynx, and 1 Weber Performer charcoal grill.
*There's always one charcoal purist in the crowd.
Most grills get hot enough to do indirect high heat with their outer burners lit and center burners off. Especially the Weber Genesis model; most people reported temperatures of 450°F or higher for indirect high on the Genesis. The Brinkman grill owner was also doing well; he got 475°F.

The Weber Summit owners had the same issue I did with two burners (out of six) not being enough heat; they would add in another burner, usually the smoker burner to get the temperature up to 450°F.

The Char Broil and Lynx owners were not happy with their grills ability to do indirect high heat, and reported temperatures of 400°F or lower. They didn't have any extra burners they could add, so they were stuck with indirect medium heat.
*I had one Genesis owner who won't turn their grill above 350°F. "I like low and slow…I never go above 400°F as it makes the meat tougher" was their explanation. There's always one low and slow purist in the crowd.
Most responders use a rotisserie. Only three of the responders don't use one; this doesn't surprise me, because if you found my blog, it was probably through a google search for rotisserie recipes.

I didn't specifically ask if indirect high heat led to good rotisserie. I wish I did. There seemed to be a difference of opinion on the subject.

There were a couple of comments from the grills that wouldn't go over indirect medium, saying they weren't happy with the rotisserie results on their grill. That matches my experience - when I'm using the rotisserie, I want the grill as hot as I can get it.

But, I also got a couple of low and slow votes here as well - two responses saying they won't cook rotisserie over 350°F, again, because it makes the meat "tough".
*I don't agree with that statement, but it's a matter of taste. I want a brown, crispy exterior on my roasts, which you only get from high heat. They are more concerned about a tender interior, which comes from not overcooking the meat. There is a wider time window of "not overcooked" with lower heat, reducing the risk of overcooking. I take my chances with overcooking to get a browned crust, and trust my instant read thermometer to tell me when the roast is perfectly cooked.

Thanks again to everyone who responded to the survey!

What do you think? Questions? Other ideas? Leave them in the comments section below.

Click here for my grilling recipes.
Click here for my rotisserie recipes.

Check out my cookbook, Rotisserie Grilling.

Everything you could ask about the rotisserie,
plus 50 (mostly) new recipes to get you cooking.

It's a Kindle e-book, so you can download it and start reading immediately!

Slow Cooker Mexican Shredded Pork with Dried Chile Pepper Sauce (Pork Deshebrada)

2012-05-17T07:00:00.000-04:00

I'm a food geek. I get enthusiastic about recipes like yakitori chicken skewers, pressure cooker Pho Bo, and rotisserie duck with a pomegranate glaze.

But what recipe do my friends and family love? Slow cooker shredded pork. That recipe has a lot of bang for the buck. Toss everything in the slow cooker, come back ten hours later, and you have shredded pork that would fit right in on a Mexican roadside taqueria.

Little league baseball is back in season, and my nights are getting hectic. I've already made my slow cooker shredded pork a couple of times this season; it is time for something new.

This is a riff on mole, the long simmered Mexican sauce. I'm using the slow cooker's long cooking time to give me the advantages of a mole without all the work. The dried peppers soften in the slow cooker, along with some other aromatics, and I use the defatted pork juices as the liquid in the sauce. A quick whiz in the blender, and I have a complex, sweet, earthy sauce with some mild heat.

Give this a try when you are bored with slow cooker pork. It is a tiny bit more work, but cleaning the blender isn't that hard - especially if you use a stick blender.

Recipe: Slow Cooker Mexican Shredded Pork with Dried Chile Pepper Sauce (Pork Deshebrada)

Inspired by: W. Park & Norma Kerr, El Paso Chile Company Texas Border Cookbook

Cooking time: 10 hours

Equipment:

6 quart or larger slow cooker (Crock Pot brand is fine, but I like my fancy one from All-Clad)

Ingredients:

3 pound pork shoulder roast
1 1/2 teaspoons Kosher salt
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
5 dried ancho chiles, stemmed, seeded, and rinsed
1 dried chipotle chile, stemmed, seeded, and rinsed
1 large onion, sliced
3 cloves garlic, peeled
1/2 cup water
1 teaspoon brown sugar
Juice of 1 lime

Directions:

1. Assemble the ingredients in the slow cooker:
Put the pork roast in the slow cooker, then season all over with the salt, cumin, cinnamon, and cloves. Top with the dried chiles, onion and garlic, and water over the top of everything.

2. Slow cook the pork:
Cover and cook on low for 10 hours, or high for 5 hours.

3. Prepare the sauce:
Remove the pork from the slow cooker and set aside. Move the dried chiles, onions and garlic from the slow cooker into a blender. Add the brown sugar and lime juice to the blender. Pour the liquid from the slow cooker into a gravy strainer and let settle for 10 minutes, then pour 1 cup of the defatted liquid into the blender. Slowly turn the blender to high, then blend until you have a smooth chile puree. (Add more of the defatted liquid if the chiles are not moving around enough in the blender.)

4. Shred the pork:
While the slow cooker liquid is settling, shred the pork, discarding any bones or large pieces of fat. Toss the pork with the chile puree to coat.

5. Serve:
Serve with tortillas, red onions, crumbled cojita cheese, cabbage slaw, and lime wedges.

Notes:

Low for ten hours or high for five? If you have a choice, go with the longer cooking time on low heat. I think the pork shoulder turns out a little better. That said, I use the shorter, higher heat version all the time, when I'm behind schedule and don't get the slow cooker set up until lunchtime.
If you use a stick blender to make the sauce, be patient. You don't want to rush things and pull the head of the blender out of the sauce while it's still running...and spray a line of chile pepper sauce across the counter, the wall, your pants, and your (now annoyed) wife. Just saying.

What do you think? Questions? Other ideas? Leave them in the comments section below.

Slow Cooker Mexican Shredded Pork (Pork Tinga)
Red cabbage slaw from grilled fish tacos
Click here for my other slow cooker recipes.

Inspired By:

W. Park & Norma Kerr, El Paso Chile Company Texas Border Cookbook

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The Ten Item Mexican Pantry

2012-05-15T07:00:00.000-04:00

Fish Tacos, made with pantry ingredients
(other than the fish and purple cabbage, of course)

I cook a lot of Mexican food. Taco night, with fresh corn tortillas and shredded cheese, is my kids favorite meal.
*We can't make enough tortillas to keep up with them any more, so Diane insisted they help out.

Making Tortillas

Here is my minimalist Mexican pantry, built on top of my original Ten Item Pantry list. I stock up at my local Mexican supermercado, because these ingredients are cheaper there. But, I can get everything on this list in the international aisle of my regular grocery store if I don't feel like the extra trip. With these items on hand, and I can make a wide variety of meals at a moment's notice.

As a reminder, here is my base Ten Item Pantry:

Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Onions

Garlic

Lemons

Balsamic Vinegar

Beans - canned or dried

Canned tomatoes (diced)

Pasta (or rice, or potatoes)

Chicken Stock (Homemade in the freezer, preferably)

Thyme (dried, or fresh if my thyme bush is in season)

The Ten Item Mexican Pantry

1. Fresh hot peppers - Jalapenos, Poblanos, Serranos
To my taste buds, the backbone of Mexican flavor is a combination of onion, garlic, and hot peppers. Mexican food depends on both the heat and the green flavor of fresh peppers.

2. Limes
A squirt of lime juice is the secret ingredient in a number of Mexican dishes, adding a hint of acidity and citrus that perks up the flavors.

3. Chipotle en Adobo
Chipotle peppers are smoke-dried jalapenos, and add a strong hit of heat and smoke. I buy them dried and ground, but my favorite way to get them is to buy cans of Chipotle en Adobo - peppers in a thick, red, vinegary sauce. I blend the entire jar until it forms a puree, store it in my refrigerator. Then I can spoon out a teaspoon (for a hint of heat) or a tablespoon (for a wallop of heat) whenever I need it.

4. Dried Ancho Peppers - chile powder or whole dried peppers
Yes, a third variety of pepper. Anchos are dried poblano peppers. They have a medium heat level, letting me add a lot of chile flavor without overwhelming heat. I'm torn between Ancho chile powder, which make the backbone of my Tex-Mex and Mexican dry rubs, and whole peppers, which I soak and blend up into salsa. If I had to choose only one, I'd go with the peppers, because they can be ground in a spice grinder to make a powder...but, really, get both.

5. Tortillas
The best tortillas are fresh corn tortillas. The best choice is corn tortillas straight from a tortilleria, or from a Mexican grocery that is stocked fresh every day. The next best choice is to make at home. We buy bags of Masa Harina, mix up the dough, and cook them ourselves right before serving.

The problem with corn tortillas is you can't store them. A day or two in the refrigerator and they are pale shadows of themselves. Flour tortillas don't have that problem - they'll last for weeks in the refrigerator, and once they're reheated, they're pretty good. If I have to buy tortillas from a grocery store, I buy flour tortillas.

I use both - I always have a a bag of flour tortillas in the fridge for emergency quesadillas, and plan one night a week to make homemade corn tortillas for tacos.

6. Cumin - whole seeds or ground
After dried chile peppers, cumin is the most used spice in Mexican cooking. Usually, the two are used together - cumin is a natural companion to dried chiles. Cumin can also stand on its own as a spice, especially with a squeeze of lime juice.

7. Mexican Oregano
A different plant from the Greek or Italian oregano that we are used to, I like its unique flavor in my Mexican dishes.

8. Mexican cheese
I know that drowning food in cheese is a Tex-Mex thing, not a Mexican thing. If I'm feeling Tex-Mex, my cheese is shredded colby jack. If I want a more authentic cheese, I crumble on some cotija or shred some oaxaca.

9. Tomatillos
Unwrap the husk of a tomatillo, and you'll find a small, green fruit that looks like an unripe tomato. But it is ripe, and ready to use, once the sticky coating has been rinsed away. Tomatillos are the main ingredient in green salsa, the perfect accompaniment to beef or Mexican chorizo.

10. Cilantro
Cilantro is a love it or hate it ingredient. Salsa just doesn't taste right without it, but I know some people have a strong negative reaction to the flavor. If you are cilantro-averse, substitute thyme or parsley.

The next five...especially if you have a Mexican grocery nearby

Tortilla chips (Can't have salsa without Tortilla chips...)
Tostadas (Fried corn tortillas. Think of the world's largest tortilla chip)
Chorizo (Make sure to get uncooked Mexican style chorizo. Spanish chorizo is dry cured and delicious, but the spices are wrong for Mexican cooking.)
Mexican Hot Sauce (El Yucateco green habaerno, if I have to pick just one)
Avocados (I have a hard time thinking of avocados as a pantry ingredient, with how quickly they turn from ripe to browned...but how else could I make guacamole?)

Guacamole!

What does this list give me?

With these ten ingredients in my pantry, and a quick stop at the grocery store, almost all of Mexican cooking is open to me. Some sample menus:

Chicken Tacos:

Buy some chicken thighs, sprinkle them with a rub of chile pepper, cumin, and mexican oregano, serve with a red salsa, black beans, and tortillas

Beef fajitas:

Buy some skirt or flank steak, sprinkle with a rub of cumin and lime, and serve with tomatillo salsa, grilled poblano peppers and onions, corn, and tortillas

Pork adobado:

Buy some pork chops, make a dried pepper salsa and rub it into the chops. Grill, and serve with guacamole, refried beans, peppers, and tortillas.

What do you think? Questions? Comments? Ingredients you can't believe I left out? Talk about it in the comments section...

Rotisserie Grilling: Barbecued Chicken

2012-05-10T07:00:00.000-04:00

It's I wrote a Cookbook week on DadCooksDinner!

To whet your whistle, here's a sample recipe from Rotisserie Grilling. Rotisserie Chicken, with a spice rub and a BBQ sauce glaze. Enjoy!

---Start Excerpt---

Barbecued Chicken

I love real barbecue, pork shoulder and beef brisket cooked low and slow. But I'm a Northerner, so when I think of barbecued chicken, I think of thick, sweet, tomato based barbecue sauce.

The problem is, barbecue sauce burns. The high heat of the grill and the sugar in the sauce are a bad combination. I want a glaze on my chicken, not charred carbon. I wait until the last fifteen minutes of cooking, then brush on the sauce in a few layers. This is just enough time to caramelize the sugar in the sauce and thicken it into a tight glaze.

Equipment

Sauce brush

Ingredients

1 (4 pound) chicken

Barbecue Sauce

1 cup ketchup
1/4 cup honey
1/4 cup cider vinegar
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon hot sauce

Barbecue Rub

1 tablespoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2 teaspoons paprika
2 teaspoons brown sugar
2 teaspoons chili powder
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme

Fist sized chunk of smoking wood (or 1 cup wood chips)

Directions

1. Season, truss and spit the chicken

Whisk the barbecue sauce ingredients in a bowl, then set aside.

Mix the barbecue rub ingredients in a small bowl. Break up any clumps of brown sugar until it is completely mixed with the other spices. Sprinkle the chicken with the barbecue rub inside and out, patting it onto the chicken to help it stick. Gently work your fingers under the skin on the breast, then rub some of the barbecue rub directly onto the breast meat.

Fold the wingtips under the wings and truss the chicken. Skewer the chicken on the rotisserie spit, securing it with the spit forks. Let the chicken rest at room temperature until it is time to grill. Submerge the smoking wood in water and let it soak until the grill is ready.

2. Set up the grill for indirect high heat

Set the grill up for indirect high heat with the drip pan in the middle of the grill.

3. Rotisserie cook the chicken

Put the spit on the grill, start the motor spinning, and make sure the drip pan is centered beneath the chicken. Add the smoking wood to the fire, then close the lid and cook until the chicken reaches 160°F in the thickest part of the breast, about 1 hour. During the last 15 minutes of cooking, brush the chicken with the barbecue sauce every five minutes.

4. Serve

Remove the chicken from the rotisserie spit and remove the twine trussing the chicken. Be careful - the spit and forks are blazing hot. Let the chicken rest for 15 minutes, then carve and serve, passing the remaining barbecue sauce at the table.

Notes

If you have the time, use the barbecue rub as a dry brine. Rub the chicken the day before, and let it rest in the refrigerator overnight.

I make large batches of the rub and barbecue sauce. The rub keeps for about a year in the pantry, and the sauce keeps for a couple of months in the refrigerator.

---End Excerpt---

What do you think? Questions? Other ideas? Leave them in the comments section below.

The book:

Rotisserie Grilling by Mike Vrobel

*Enjoyed this post? Want to help out DadCooksDinner? Subscribe using your RSS reader or by Email, recommend DadCooksDinner to your friends. Or, buy something from Amazon.com, like my rotisserie cookbook, through the links on this site. Thank you!

Rotisserie Grilling Sample: Charcoal vs Gas

2012-05-08T07:00:00.000-04:00

It's I wrote a Cookbook week on DadCooksDinner!

To whet your whistle, here's a sample section from Rotisserie Grilling. I let my inner food geek run wild, and explore the science of rotisserie. Enjoy!

---Start Excerpt---

Sidebar: Charcoal vs. Gas

The cheapest charcoal grill browns meat better than most gas grills. Why?

Warning! Science content ahead. If you want to skip it, the summary is: Meat browns as meat juices are exposed to heat and evaporate. Dry heat browns better than wet heat because the extra water has to evaporate before the meat will start to brown. Burning charcoal is dry heat. Burning gas releases water, making wet heat. Therefore, charcoal browns meat better than gas.

*Starting science content. My wife, the high school chemistry teacher, made sure I have the science correct. She says you better not skip ahead. There will be a quiz.

Why is dry heat better than wet heat? The Maillard reaction.
The Maillard reaction occurs when sugars and amino acids are exposed to heat in a dry environment; the result is browning and the release of water. "The result is browning" is shorthand for complex chemical interactions that scientists are still figuring out. The sugars caramelize, interact with the amino acids, and produce all sorts of flavor compounds. Those flavor compounds are what make the browned crust on a roast so delicious.

Meat is full of protein fibers and meat juices. When meat is cooked, the heat tightens the muscle fibers, and they squeeze juices out of the meat. The meat juices are full of sugars and amino acids, and when they reach the surface of the meat, they are exposed to heat. That starts the Maillard reaction. As the juices brown, they release more water. That extra water slows down the Maillard reaction until it evaporates, and browning starts again.

Water prevents browning. Meat needs to be cooked at 350°F or higher to evaporate the water fast enough to keep the browning reaction going, and higher temperatures are better. Boiled meat is gray, without any browning at all, because it is covered with water. This is why recipes recommend patting food dry before cooking; any extra water slows down browning until it evaporates.

Now we get to charcoal versus gas. (Finally!)

Charcoal is wood heated in an oxygen free environment. When all the water in the wood has evaporated, you are left with carbon. When carbon is burned, it produces heat, carbon dioxide, and a little carbon monoxide. That's our dry heat - no water.

Gas is either propane or methane (also known as natural gas). When gas is burned, it produces heat, carbon dioxide, and water. That water is the problem - it needs to be evaporated by the heat of the grill before the Maillard reaction will start.

Now for the good news: a rotisserie helps browning, whether you use gas or charcoal. Escaping juices roll around the surface of the meat, spreading the sugars and amino acids so the Maillard reaction can do its thing. Yes, a charcoal grill with a rotisserie browns better than a gas grill with a rotisserie. But, a gas grill with a rotisserie browns about as well as a charcoal grill without a rotisserie. If you have a gas grill, don't give up - the rotisserie will still help.

*End Science content. You can keep reading now.

If you want a gas grill that browns as well as a charcoal grill, you need more heat, to help evaporate the extra water. This means more burners, especially infrared burners, which do a great job of generating heat. But that makes the grill more expensive. It's tough to beat a cheap kettle grill filled with charcoal.

Don't get me wrong; I use both charcoal and gas grills. In a perfect world, I would use charcoal all the time. However...gas grills are so convenient. They're easy to light and provide constant, even heat as long as you don't run out of gas. There are no worries about charcoal burning down and cooling off; there's no need to add extra coals every hour. In the middle of February, when every trip to the grill involves shoveling snow, I love that extra convenience.

---End of excerpt---

What do you think? Questions? Other ideas? Leave them in the comments section below.

The book:

My Cookbook: Rotisserie Grilling

2012-05-05T08:00:00.000-04:00

As of today, I'm a (self) published author. Though I prefer the term "indie author", since that makes it sound like I'm cool enough to be in a band.

My first cookbook, Rotisserie Grilling, is available for the Kindle on Amazon.com.

Rotisserie Grilling by Mike Vrobel

Rotisserie Grilling is $4.99 for 50 recipes, full of color photographs and step-by-step instructions on how to use the rotisserie attachment for a grill.

Do you have a rotisserie for your grill? This is the cookbook for you.

If you are just starting out, Rotisserie Grilling will teach you the basics. How do you set up the rotisserie? What equipment do you need? How do you secure food on the rotisserie spit? It's all explained. Then you can move on to simple recipes for rotisserie chicken, turkey, and prime rib.

If you love your rotisserie, and are looking for new ideas, Rotisserie Grilling will get your creative juices flowing. From cornish game hens, stuffed with brown and wild rice, to dry rubbed baby back ribs; from rotisserie pineapple with a cinnamon sugar crust, to pork loin stuffed with dried fruit. There are fifty recipes with full color pictures - you are sure to find a new favorite.

Now, get outside and start grilling on your rotisserie!

The book is Kindle only for now - I'm working on formatting a black and white paperback version, which looks like it's going to take a while. (Self publishing in color is ridiculously expensive). If you don't have a Kindle, you can download a free Kindle reader for almost any computer, smartphone, or iPad.

Kindle Reading Apps

Q&A with the author

Q: Why rotisserie grilling?
A: On holidays, I get thousands of hits a day from people looking for rotisserie recipes. I was looking for those same recipes seven years ago, back when I bought my first rotisserie for my kettle grill. Since then, I figured out how to roast a whole lot of things on the rotisserie, and it dawned on me that I had the perfect subject for a cookbook.

Q: Is this just a copy of your blog?
A: No, it is mostly new material. 36 of the 50 recipes are new for the book, as are most of the pictures. There were some recipes from the blog that were too good to leave out. The how to, science of rotisserie, and how to season food sections are improved from the blog. Most of the jokes, however, are recycled

Q: Can I get a preview of the book?
A: Sure! Go to the book's page on Amazon.com - (Rotisserie Grilling) - and "click to look inside" for a preview.

Q: Kindle? Why don't you have a (Choose one or more: Nook/iBook/Sony eReader/glossy coffee table) version of the book?
A: Formatting an e-book is complicated, even for a computer programmer like me. I had to choose one as my first target. I went with Kindle for two reasons:

Kindle has the largest user base. I went where the audience is.
My wife owns a Kindle.

As I said above, my next step is getting a paperback version out. (I'd love to do a color version, because I really like the pictures in the book, but I would have to price it at $25 to not lose money on every sale.) After the paperback version, I'm moving on to Nook and iBook versions.

But, really, if you have the technology to read this blog post, Amazon has a free Kindle reader for you.

Q: I'm a visual learner. Do you have any videos in the book?
A: I filmed two video shorts to embed in the book, "How to truss poultry" and "How to truss a roast." But the Kindle system isn't ready to accept videos.
*Even though the documentation has a "Embedding Audio and Video" section explaining exactly how to do it. Not that I'm bitter about spending a week trying to figure out why it worked on my machine, but wouldn't upload to Amazon. Grr…

Q: Why do you seem to have two covers?
A: I uploaded the first cover, then realized it doesn't work as the thumbnail image that Amazon uses everywhere on their site. The two chickens merged into a jumbled mess at thumbnail size, so I changed to a single chicken. But...Amazon is still pushing the new cover out to their servers, which may take a few days. I couldn't wait to tell you about the book. I was excited, and got too impatient. Sorry for any confusion.

I wound up posting the videos on YouTube and adding links in the book. Here they are:
Video: How To Truss Poultry
Video: How To Truss a Roast

Spread the word!

If you like Rotisserie Grilling, I'd appreciate any and all publicity you could give me. Links, posts, likes, tweets, pins, +1's, email to Uncle Bob the master griller, whatever. Every little bit helps. And if you buy the book, a positive review on Amazon would help out a lot.

Also, if you have any feedback about the book, please send it to me. Ever since I hit the "publish now" button I have nightmares about a spelling mistake on the first page.

What do you think? Questions? Other ideas? Leave them in the comments section below.

The Book:

Grilled Miso BBQ Chicken Wings

2012-05-03T07:00:00.000-04:00

We made a trip to Noodlecat, the casual ramen restaurant owned by Jonathon Sawyer of Cleveland's Greenhouse Tavern. The ramen was great, of course, and I'll be working on my tonsoku broth recipe for a future post. The kids loved the art - there were huge paintings of cats, manga style, hanging on the wall. But what really grabbed me were the miso BBQ chicken wings.

There are no hints on Noodlecat's menu about what ingredients go into the miso BBQ sauce, and I forgot to ask the server. I need to visit Noodlecat again - exclusively for research, of course. But the weather was so nice this week, and I had some miso in the fridge. I decided to wing it.
*Get it? Wing it?.

And yes, I use ketchup in the recipe. The glaze needed a red color, some vinegar, and some sweet flavors; ketchup provides all three. And ketchup is the base of all my barbecue sauces, so it just seemed right as part of a miso BBQ sauce.
*I sound defensive. Ketchup feels like cheating. But that's OK - it works perfectly in the recipe.

Grilled Miso BBQ Chicken Wings

Inspired by: Tadashi Ono and Harris Salat, The Japanese Grill

Cooking time: 45 minutes

Equipment:

Grill (I use my monster Weber Summit. It helps to have extra space to fit all the chicken wings. Here is the current version of my grill. )

Ingredients:

3 pounds chicken wings

Marinade:

1/4 cup miso paste(preferably red miso, but white miso also works)
1/4 cup mirin
2 tablespoons sesame oil (or vegetable oil)
2 tablespoons water
1 tablespoon sake (or substitute rice vinegar)

Glaze:

1/4 cup of the marinade
1/4 cup honey
2 tablespoons ketchup
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 teaspoon Asian chili paste (optional)

Directions:

1. Marinate the chicken:
Whisk the marinade ingredients until the miso is completely dissolved. Reserve 1/4 cup of the marinade for the glaze. Put the chicken wings in a gallon zip-top bag, pour the marinade over them, squeeze all the air out of the bag, and seal. Flip and turn the bag to completely coat the chicken wings with the marinade, then let rest at room temperature for one hour, turning the bag ever fifteen minutes.

2. Make the glaze:
Whisk the reserved marinade with the rest of the glaze ingredients.

3. Prepare the grill:
Set the grill up for cooking with indirect high heat, 450°F or higher. For my Weber Summit, I preheat the grill with all the burners set to high for fifteen minutes, brush the grate clean with my grill brush, and turn off the middle burners. (To get 450°F I have to leave three burners on. I turned off burners 3, 4 and 5, leaving burners 1, 2 and 6 lit).

4. Grill the wings:
Put the chicken wings on the grill grate over the unlit section so they are cooking with indirect heat. Close the lid and cook for twenty minutes, then flip the wings and cook until the wings are browned and crispy, about twenty more minutes. Brush the wings with glaze, cook for five more minutes, then brush with another layer of glaze.

5. Serve the wings:
Remove the wings from the grill and serve.

Notes:

Miso is found in the refrigerator section. If you have an Asian market, make a trip - it will be cheaper, and you can pick up the other special ingredients, like mirin and sake, while you're there.
While red miso is more traditional for grilling chicken, this recipe works with white miso. How do I know? I thought I had red miso...until I saw "white miso" in small print on the side of the container. This was after the wings were marinating, of course.

What do you think? Questions? Other ideas? Leave them in the comments section below.

Grill Roasted Chicken Wings - The basic technique
Grilled Chicken Wings with Spicy Asian Glaze - if you like to live dangerously and grill wings directly over the fire
Grilled Buffalo Chicken Wings
Click here for my other grilling recipes.

Inspired by:

Tadashi Ono and Harris Salat, The Japanese Grill

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Fabulous Food Show Spring 2012

2012-05-01T07:00:00.000-04:00

I had a great time at the Fabulous Food Show at the IX Center in Cleveland last weekend. The entire show was focused on grilling, and I was in heaven as I wandered around the show floor. Weber grills was the main sponsor, and everywhere I turned there was another grill to see. I got to check out the huge 22 inch smokey mountain smoker, the platinum kettle, with its two attached shelves that look like wings, and the massive ranch kettle, that I can barely reach my arms across.
*The only grill they didn't have out on the floor was the new Summit Grill Center. I know it is only slightly different from my faithful Summit 650. I still have lust in my heart whenever I saw the celebrity chefs use one on stage.

There was a lot of fun stuff to see and do (wine tasting, salt blocks for the grill, and boneless rib sandwiches were my favorites), but I'm going to concentrate on the highlight of the show, the celebrity guests.
*I want to apologize in advance for the pictures. I was excited to meet my favorite authors, and didn't pay attention to the quality of the pictures that I grabbed random strangers to take...

Jamie Purviance

The first show I saw was Jamie Purviance. Author of numerous Weber Grill cookbooks, he talked about what he learned while writing his latest cookbook, Weber's Smoke.

Recipe I have to try:
Smoked Artichokes with Smoke Roasted Aoli Mayonnaise, from Weber's Smoke

Best Grilling Tip:
Watch the color of the smoke coming out of your grill. White smoke, maybe with a bluish tinge, is good. Black smoke is bad. Black smoke means one of two things. One: the dampers on the grill are closed too much, the smoking wood isn't getting enough oxygen, and it's releasing too much soot. Two: the food is on fire.

Funniest line:
"I don't know if your friends are like my friends. I hope not. My friends are food hoarders. With cedar plank salmon, I have to score it crosswise into appropriate serving size pieces…or else one of my friends will put half the salmon on his plate."

Steven Raichlen

Next came Steven Raichlen, my grilling guru, and author of twenty-nine (29!) cookbooks. He showed us a range of recipes from his different cookbooks, and asked an audience member up on stage to demonstrate where different ribs come from.

Recipe I have to make:
Sugarcane skewered shrimp with rum barbecue glaze, from How To Grill

Best tip:
Asparagus rafts. Skewer five or six spears with a toothpick to form a flat raft of asparagus. That way, you only have to flip a couple rafts of asparagus, and they can't work their way parallel to the grill and fall through.

Funniest line:
"The three tips to grilling are to keep the grill hot, keep it clean, and keep it lubricated. Now, there is a gender breakdown on this step. If you're a guy, you lube across the patio. The oil will be over here, and the grill is way over there. (Walks across the patio, dripping oil as he goes.)

I can't take credit for that observation. That's my wife's, and she deserves every shoe and handbag in her closet."

Branching out:
Steven is releasing a novel! Island Apart is a story of "love, loss, redemption, and really good food", and will be published in June.

Chef Sawyer with his pig's head

Jonathan Sawyer and Jason Roberts

Jonathan Sawyer is the chef/owner of The Greenhouse Tavern and Noodlecat in downtown Cleveland; Jason Roberts is a celebrity chef from Australia. The two teamed up: Jason talked about homemade sausage, and Jonathan showed how to braise half a pig's head on the grill.

Recipe I have to make:
Half a pig's head on the grill. (Jonathan said I can get a pig's head at the West Side Market.)

Best tip:
Male pigs have pheromones, and occasionally you will get one that has "boar taint" and tastes bitter. To be on the safe side, Jason always orders female pigs from his butcher.

Best line:
Jason is trying to do the math for salting the sausage, 2 percent of salt by weight, but he's used to working in kilograms.

Jason: "Ten kilograms is…five pounds. So that would be 200 grams of salt…um…what's 200 grams of salt in ounces?"

Jonathan grins. "I have no idea. Call Ruhlman. I'm sure he'll be able to tell us."

Wrap up:

And that was my trip to the Fabulous Food Show. They're back in the fall - check the schedule and see if there's a chef you want to see. If you're a food obsessive like me, it's well worth the visit.

Featured Books:

Jamie Purviance, Weber's Smoke
Jamie Purviance, Time to Grill
Steven Raichlen, Best Ribs Ever
Steven Raichlen, Island Apart

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Shaved Asparagus and Parmesan Salad

2012-04-26T07:00:00.000-04:00

I don't know when shaved asparagus became a thing…oh, wait, I take that back. It was two months ago, on Serious Eats. There was a picture of was Jim Lahey's Bird's Nest Pizza, from his new book, and it looked amazing. A blistered crust, covered with shaved asparagus, eggs nestled in their green nests. I threw it in my ideas folder, and moved on.

Suddenly, shaved asparagus was everywhere. It was topping other pizzas. It was covering coppa. When I saw it on the cover of Charred and Scruffed - a grilling cookbook, mind you - I knew that shaved asparagus was having its moment.

So, here I go. I'm running with the in crowd, joining the new hip trend. Which surely means it already jumped the shark. That's OK - this salad is worth it, even if it is no longer "of the moment". Asparagus is in season, and it is time to celebrate. Pick some up at the farmers market this weekend and give this recipe a try.
*And, sure enough, a quick google search shows me LAST summer was when shaved asparagus salad had its moment. I'm supposed to use it to top pizza now. I'm late, as usual.

Recipe: Shaved Asparagus and Parmesan Salad

Adapted from: Jonathan Waxman Italian My Way

Cooking time: 10 minutes (9 minutes of peeling, one minute of tossing)

Equipment:

Vegetable peeler (I love my Y-Peeler, but I'm sure everyone has their favorite)

Ingredients:

1 pound asparagus, tough ends trimmed off
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1/2 teaspoon Kosher salt
block of Parmesan

Directions:

1. Shave the asparagus:
Grab the tip of the asparagus, and run a vegetable peeler down the length of the asparagus spear. Repeat, peeling until you can't shave any more because the vegetable peeler is hitting the board. This will leave you with a final strip still attached to the tip of the asparagus; add that piece to the pile. Repeat until you have all the asparagus shaved.

2. Make the salad:
Put the asparagus strips in a bowl, toss with the olive oil, and then the salt. Using the vegetable peeler again, shave strips of Parmesan directly on to the bowl of asparagus. Serve.

Variations:

Vinaigrette: Instead of olive oil, salt and Parmesan, toss the shaved asparagus in a vinaigrette. My lemon herb dressing is particularly good with asparagus.

Notes:

Shaving asparagus is meditative. That's a euphemism for "it takes longer than I would like on a busy weeknight." But, really, it doesn't take that long, and this salad is the perfect way to showcase in-season asparagus.
For this recipe, thicker asparagus is better. Thin stalks are hard to shave because they are so small to begin with.

What do you think? Questions? Other ideas? Leave them in the comments section below.

Grilled Asparagus
Zucchini and Summer Squash Salad
Grated Carrot Salad

Adapted from:

Jonathan Waxman Italian My Way

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Road Trip: Hana Asian Market

2012-04-24T07:00:00.000-04:00

*My Road Trip posts look at stores for home cooks in the Akron area, my home town. If you don't live in Northeast Ohio, seek out your local ethnic and gourmet markets. You can travel around the world without leaving your city!

Hana Asian Market, in the Merriman Valley area of Akron, has a great selection of Asian groceries. They specialize in Japanese and Korean food, but they have a good selection of Chinese, Thai, and Indian ingredients as well.

I've been stopping in this store a lot as I work on various Korean and Japanese recipes - they have everything I need, and they are happy to help when I can't find what I'm looking for. (Which is often - part of the fun of cooking from another culture is trying to figure out what, for example, shichimi togarashi might look like.)

Hana Asian Market also has a good selection of homemade Japanese and Korean food. There is always homemade kimchi in the refrigerator case; on Tuesday and Wednesday there are freshly made dishes to go.

Hana Asian Market

1390 N. Portage Path
Akron, OH 44313
(330) 836-2700
HanaAsianMarket.com

My top five favorite items they sell, in no particular order:

1. Thin sliced meat for Korean style grilling: Look in the freezer for thin sliced beef short ribs for Kalbi, boneless beef for Bulgogi, and thin sliced pork (belly and shoulder) for Samgyeopsal (recipe coming soon).

2. Specialty Japanese ingredients: Shichimi togarashi (Japanese hot pepper spice blend), Sansho pepper, Ponzu sauce, miso paste, mirin, sake - they have a wide variety of specialty Japanese ingredients. And, speaking of sake...

3. Asian spirits: They have a small but varied selection of Asian beer, wine, and sake.

4. Asian noodles: Ramen, somen, soba; lo mein, bean thread, wide rice pho; dried, refrigerated or frozen. If you're looking for an Asian noodle, they have it.

5. Thai curry pastes: Want to make your favorite Thai curry? Take a shortcut, and use a jar of curry paste.

...And so much more. Jugs of soy sauce, big bags of rice, fermented beans, oyster sauce...if you're in Akron, and looking for an Asian ingredient, check out Hana Asian Market.

Here's the map:

View Larger Map
What do you think? Questions? Other ideas? Know of any ethnic markets in the Akron area that I need to check out? Leave them in the comments section below.

Click here for my Ethnic and Gourmet Markets in Akron

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Grilled Pork Chops with Ancho Chile Spice Rub

2012-04-19T07:00:00.000-04:00

This month's Cooks Illustrated magazine has an interesting tip. They spray a light coating of vegetable oil on a spice rubbed steak before grilling. Why? The thin layer of oil helps bloom the spices, giving them a fuller flavor.

*Why bloom spices in oil? Flavor is in the spice's essential oils, and because of the "oil and water don't mix" thing, essential oils are extracted better by more oil.

I fry spices in oil when I make a pot of chili, but I never thought to use the technique when I'm grilling. I had to try it out.

Grilled pork chops were already on the menu; they became my test subjects. I pressed a simple spice rub into the chops, then sprayed half of the chops with a light coating of vegetable oil.

Cooks Illustrated is on to something. The chops with the coating of oil tasted richer and sweeter than the "dry" chops. From now on, when I cook with a spice rub, I'm adding a quick spitz of oil.

Recipe: Grilled Pork Chops with Ancho Chile Spice Rub

Adapted From: Andrea Gray, Cooks Illustrated, May/June 2012

Cooking time: 10 minutes

Equipment:

Grill (I use a monster Weber Summit. Here is the current version of my grill. )

Ingredients:

6 (3/4 inch thick) pork chops (about 3 pounds worth)

Spice Rub:

1 tablespoon Ancho chili powder
1 1/2 teaspoons Kosher salt
1 teaspoon brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
1/2 teaspoon cumin
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves (a pinch)

Vegetable oil spray

Directions:

1. Rub the pork chops:
Stir the spice rub ingredients in a small bowl until completely mixed, breaking up clumps of brown sugar. Sprinkle the pork chops with a heavy coating of spice rub, then press the rub into the chops until it looks wet. Spray the chops with a light coating of vegetable oil.

2. Prepare the grill:
Prepare the grill for cooking on medium-high heat, then clean with a grill brush. For my Weber summit, I preheat the grill with all burners on high for 15 minutes, then turn the burners down to medium-high and brush the grate clean.

3. Cook the pork chops:
Put the pork chops on the grill over direct medium-high heat. Cook until the chops are starting to brown on the bottom, about 2 minutes, then rotate the chops 90 degrees (don't flip yet), moving them around if some are browning quicker than others due to hot spots on the grill. Cook until well browned on the bottom, about 2 more minutes. Flip the chops and cook on the other side until the chops reach an internal temperature of 135*F for medium rare, about 4 more minutes, rotating the chops 90 degrees after two minutes. Remove the chops to a serving platter, let rest for ten minutes, then serve.

Notes:

Cooks Illustrated went all out in the original recipe. (I know, that's like saying "water is wet". CI goes all out in all their recipes.) The steak was lightly scored, dry brined with salt, garlic powder, onion powder, and tomato paste to add umami. While the steak dry brined, they toasted and ground whole spices for the rub. I didn't have time; it was a Tuesday night, and I had to get dinner on the table. I skipped all those steps and went straight to a pre-ground spice rub and the light spray of oil.
The oil sprayed chops tasted better, but the non-sprayed chops were still good. My daughter grabbed one and ate it down to the bone. The chops are still worth making with the spice rub, even if you don't want to spray them with oil.
I realized, after dinner, that I should have added one more variation into my test. I should have mixed some of the rub with oil and then rubbed the spice paste onto the chops, like my adobo paste chops. That test will have to wait for another day.

What do you think? Questions? Other ideas? Leave them in the comments section below.

Grilled Thick Pork Chops with Adobo Spice Paste
Grilled Boneless Pork Chops, Brined and Honey Glazed
Grilled Thin Pork Chops, Quick Brinerated
Grilled Pineapple
Click here for my other Grilling Recipes

Adapted from:

Andrea Gray, Cooks Illustrated, May/June 2012

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Grilling Cookbooks 2012

2012-04-17T07:00:00.000-04:00

I can't believe how early spring arrived this year. It is only April, right? I should be shivering in front of the grill once or twice a week; with the gorgeous weather, I've been grilling constantly for the last couple of months.

Normally, the spring release of grilling cookbooks gets me revved up for summer. This year, I feel like I've cooked all my favorite recipes, and I need some new ideas right away. Here are the books I'm looking to for inspiration:

Charred & Scruffed by Adam Perry Lang
Mr. Lang (or APL, as his friends call him) is a professional chef turned barbecue fanatic, and it shows in his books. His Serious Barbecue was full of techniques to layer flavor into food. Why brine, rub, smoke, or baste when you can do all of them in the same dish? APL is not for beginning grillers - but if you want to level up your grilling, this is the book you want.

Texas Eats: The New Lone Star Heritage Cookbook by Robb Walsh
This isn't exclusively a grilling cookbook, so I hesitated before adding it to this list. But so much of Texas cuisine comes from over the fire that I had to include it. Especially when I heard it has a recipe for Franklin Barbecue's beef brisket. That is some of the best barbecue I've ever had, and that recipe alone earns it a place on this list.

Weber's Smoke: A Guide to Smoke Cooking for Everyone and Any Grill
Speaking of barbecue, Jamie Purviance took Weber's annual cookbook and smoked it up.
*Hmmm...that sounded better in my head.

I learned my smoke cooking from the Virtual Weber Bullet on a Weber Smokey Mountain, so I love seeing Weber put their weight behind an entire book devoted to smoking. Especially since I use my Weber kettle for my smoking now. I can't wait to see if they have any tricks that live up to the Minion Method.

What do you think? Questions? Any recently published grilling cookbooks that I missed? Tell me about them in the comments section below.

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Pressure Cooker Chicken Gumbo

2012-04-12T07:00:00.000-04:00

I've never been to New Orleans. This cannot stand. I write about food, and I've never been to one of America's greatest food cities. How can I let that happen? Where's my travel agent?

*Stops, looks at credit card statement. Turns slightly pale. Slides statement to the bottom of the pile of bills.

Um…as I was saying, I like to do culinary travel in my own kitchen. New Orleans has a bunch of signature dishes - Jambalaya, etouffee, boudin, po-boys, red beans and rice…the list goes on.
*Man…remind me, why haven't I gone yet?

Gumbo is more than a dish. Gumbo is the perfect description of New Orleans. A collision of cultures mixing into the perfect pot of soup.

Now, I'm not from New Orleans. To paraphrase Terry Pratchett, I'm so far from New Orleans that I've wrapped around and I'm rapidly approaching from the other side. I won't let a little thing like that stop me from making their classic soup.
*PS: No pressure cooker? No worries. Check out the variations section for a non-pressured version of the recipe.

Recipe: Pressure Cooker Chicken Gumbo

Adapted From: Emeril Lagasse, Louisiana, Real and Rustic

Cooking time: 45 minutes

Equipment:

6 quart or larger pressure cooker (I used my Cuisinart Electric pressure cooker)

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 pound smoked sausage, preferably andouille, sliced 1 inch thick
1 pound chicken thighs, cut into 2 inch pieces
1 teaspoon Kosher salt

Roux:

1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup flour
1 teaspoon Cajun spice rub

Aromatics:

1 large onion, minced
1 bell pepper, minced
1 large stalk celery, minced
4 cloves garlic, crushed
1/2 teaspoon Kosher salt

2 quarts chicken stock (preferably homemade)
1 (15 oz) can diced tomatoes
Salt and Pepper
Tabasco sauce

Accompaniments:

Cooked white rice (preferably long grain, cooked with a tablespoon of butter)
1/2 cup minced parsley leaves

Directions:

1. Brown the sausage and chicken:
Heat 1 tablespoon vegetable oil in the pressure cooker over medium-high heat until shimmering. Add the smoked sausage and cook until well browned on both sides, about 4 minutes. Remove the sausage to a bowl using a slotted spoon, leaving as much oil behind as possible. Add the chicken thighs to the pot and cook until well browned on both sides, about 6 minutes. Add to the bowl with the sausage, again leaving as much fat behind as possible.

2. Cook the roux:
Add 1/4 cup vegetable oil, flour, and Cajun seasoning to the pressure cooker. Cook, stirring constantly, until the flour is the color of peanut butter, about five minutes.

3. Saute the aromatics:
Add the onion, bell pepper, celery and garlic to the roux. Sprinkle with 1/2 teaspoon Kosher salt and cook, stirring often, until the aromatics soften, about 5 minutes.

4. Cook the gumbo:
Stir in the sausage, chicken thighs, and any juices in their bowl. Pour in the chicken broth and stir, scraping the bottom of the pot to make sure the roux isn't sticking. Pour the can of diced tomatoes on top, lock the lid, and bring the pressure cooker to high heat. Cook at high pressure for 10 minutes, then turn off the heat and let the pressure come down naturally.

5. Season and serve the gumbo:
Remove the lid from the pressure cooker (carefully, the escaping steam will be very hot). Taste the gumbo, and add salt, pepper, and a little Tabasco sauce. (If you use homemade stock, without any added salt, this will take more salt than you think. A tablespoon of Kosher salt usually works for me, but I start with a half tablespoon and keep adding and tasting.) To serve: put a scoop of white rice in a bowl, ladle the soup on top, then sprinkle with parsley. Pass the Tabasco sauce at the table for anyone who likes an extra kick with their dinner.

Variations:

No pressure cooker? No problem. Cook the recipe in a sturdy dutch oven or large pot. For step 4, instead of pressure cooking, bring the pot to a boil, then reduce the heat to a simmer and simmer for 45 minutes. Continue with tasting and seasoning in step 5.

Notes:

The traditional sausage for gumbo is andouille, but any smoked sausage will work. It won't quite be the same thing...but it will be good.
I think I burnt my roux - if you look in the roux pictures, you can see little flecks of black. Remember, keep stirring, instead of posing peanut butter for pictures. Oh, wait, that's a suggestion for me, not you. Never mind.

What do you think? Questions? Other ideas? Leave them in the comments section below.

Pressure Cooker Short Ribs with Mexican Flavors
Pressure Cooker Pasta and Bean Soup (Pasta e Fagioli, AKA Pasta Fazool)
Pressure Cooker French Lentils
Click here for my other pressure cooker recipes.

Adapted from:

Emeril Lagasse, Louisiana, Real and Rustic

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Steven Raichlen and Jamie Purviance at the Spring 2012 Fabulous Food Show

2012-04-10T07:00:00.001-04:00

Two of my grilling influences, Steven Raichlen and Jamie Purviance, will be at the Fabulous Food Show in Cleveland on April 28th and 29th.
*Oh, and some guys named Emeril Lagasse and Bobby Flay will also be there.

Steven Raichlen is the author of the Barbecue! Bible series of cookbooks, and host of Primal Grill on PBS. Jamie Purviance is the author of Weber's grilling cookbooks. No pressure, right? I'm worried I'll do a remake of The Chris Farley Show, and spend the whole time babbling about how awesome they are.

And...the event is sponsored by Weber, including a Weber Grilling Pavilion. I am so there.

Tickets start at $25, and get you access to one of the celebrity chef's performances - luckily, Jamie Purviance's shows are general admission, so I don't have to pay extra. Because I am paying extra for a VIP ticket to do a meet and greet with Steven Raichlen on Saturday.
*Mr. Raichlen? Remember when you did that recipe with the beef on the rotisserie? That was so awesome...

The Fabulous Food Show is at the IX Center in Cleveland on Saturday, April 28th and Sunday, April 29th. Hours are 10AM to 8PM on Saturday, and 10AM to 6PM on Sunday. More information is available at their website: FabulousFoodShow.com

I hope to see you there!

Rotisserie Whole Leg of Lamb with Orange and Fennel Dry Brine

2012-04-05T07:00:00.000-04:00

*Here is a preview from my cookbook, Rotisserie Grilling. Coming soon to a Kindle near you!

Someday I will rent out a commercial sized rotisserie and roast an entire lamb. Until then, cooking a whole leg is my stand-in.

I made a trip to the lamb specialists at the West Side Market in Cleveland to get the lamb leg. I love the way their lamb legs look, with the shank bone cracked and folded back. The shank becomes my chef's treat while I carve the lamb.
*Thanks to Mike at Turczyk's Meats for the great lamb.

Recipe: Rotisserie Whole Leg of Lamb with Orange and Fennel Dry Brine

Inspired By: Peter Minakis Rotisserie Leg of Lamb [kalofagas.ca]

Cooking time: 90 minutes

Equipment:

Grill with Rotisserie attachment (I used a Weber kettle with the Rotisserie attachment; the kettle is here and the rotisserie attachment is here)
Aluminum foil drip pan (9"x12", or whatever fits your grill)
Butcher's twine

Ingredients:

1 (8 pound) bone in leg of lamb

Fennel rub:

1 1/2 tablespoons Kosher salt
Zest of 1 orange
2 teaspoons fennel seed, coarsely ground
1 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper

Orange-Garlic baste:

1/4 cup olive oil
Juice of 1 orange
1 clove garlic, minced or pressed through a garlic press

Directions:

1. Dry brine the lamb:

Two to twenty-four hours before cooking, mix the rub ingredients in a small bowl. Season the leg of lamb with the rub, working it into any natural seams in the meat. Put the roast on a rack over a roasting pan or baking sheet. If seasoning more than two hours ahead of time, store uncovered in the refrigerator.

2. Truss and spit the lamb:

Two hours before cooking, remove the leg of lamb from the refrigerator. Truss the lamb, then skewer it on the rotisserie spit, securing it with the spit forks. Let the lamb rest at room temperature until the grill is ready.

3. Make the baste:

Whisk the orange-garlic baste ingredients in a small bowl.

4. Set up the grill for indirect medium heat:

Set the grill up for indirect medium heat with the drip pan in the middle of the grill grate.

5. Rotisserie cook the lamb:

Put the spit on the grill, start the motor spinning, and make sure the drip pan is centered beneath the leg of lamb. Close the lid and cook the lamb until it reaches 130*F in its thickest part for medium, about 1 1/2 hours. (Cook to 115*F for rare, 120*F for medium-rare.) During the last 15 minutes of cooking, brush the leg of lamb with the orange baste every five minutes.

99.8*F after 1 hour - need to cook it some more

6. Serve:

Remove the leg of lamb from the rotisserie spit and transfer to a platter. Be careful - the spit and forks are blazing hot. Remove the twine trussing the roast. Let the lamb rest for 15 minutes, then carve and serve.

Notes:

Smoking wood is a great addition to this recipe...but I forgot to add it. Whoops. Soak a fist-sized chunk of oak, hickory, cherry, or apple wood for an hour, drain it, and add it to the coals when you put the lamb on the rotisserie.

A whole leg of lamb serves eight to ten people; if you need a smaller roast, get the sirloin roast from the thick end of the leg. It will cook in about one hour.

What do you think? Questions? Other ideas? Leave them in the comments section below.

Rotisserie Leg of Lamb Provencal
Rotisserie Leg of Lamb, Moroccan style
Click here for my other rotisserie recipes.

Inspired by:

Peter Minakis Rotisserie Leg of Lamb [kalofagas.ca]

Survey: Indirect High Heat on Your Grill?

2012-04-03T07:00:00.000-04:00

Indirect high heat...sort of.
Burners 6 and smoker on to cook the turkey legs more,
and also using the rotisserie burner...

Here is how I suggest setting up a gas grill for indirect high heat:

For my Weber Summit, I preheat the grill for 15 minutes with all the burners on high, then I turn off the middle burners (leaving burners 1 and 6 lit and on high heat). I want an internal temperature of 450*F, or higher if I can get it.

Reader Roy G has the same Weber Summit that I do, and he had some questions after making my Grilled Butterflied Chicken with Dry Brine. His grill was only 375*F with burners #1 and 6 set to high - closer to what I would call medium heat. I was surprised by this; I use indirect high heat on my gas grill all the time. I was sure my temperatures were higher.

Except…my indirect cooking usually includes the rotisserie burner. Or, if I'm not using the rotisserie, I have some of the other burners on to cook a side dish.

I went out and tested my grill. Sure enough, Roy was right. Two burners on high left me with an internal temperature of 350*F. If I turned the rotisserie burner on, I was right where I expected to be, at 450*F. _*After this test, I turn on my smoker burner to get a little extra power when I want indirect high heat on the Summit.

My next test was at my parent's house, with my dad's Weber Genesis. It only has three burners, but each burner is longer than the burners on my Summit. It turns out the longer burner matters - when I set the Genesis up for indirect high heat, with the two outer burners on and the middle burner off, the temperature was just shy of 500*F. This range of temps made me wonder - what about other grills? Are there a standard set of instructions I can use in my recipes, or is it every grill for itself?

The survey:

When a recipe says "set your grill up for indirect high heat", what do you do? And, what temperature do you get? Please answer the following questions:

Create your free online surveys with SurveyMonkey, the world's leading questionnaire tool.

*If you can't see the survey, click on this link to go to the web page: Grilling with Indirect High Heat at SurveyMonkey.com

I'll keep the survey open for a week, and summarize the results for everyone later this month. Feel free to pass the survey on to anyone you think would know the answers - the more responses I get, the better the results will be.

Thank you for satisfying my curiosity!

Grilled Scallops with Grapefruit Vinaigrette

2012-03-29T07:00:00.000-04:00

Years ago, I had scallops in grapefruit sauce at a restaurant in St. Augustine, Florida. The combination of sweet scallops and tart grapefruit stuck with me. I was looking for a seafood dish to serve on a Lenten Friday, saw some great looking scallops at my local fish market, and the memory of that meal popped back in my head.

I grilled the scallops, taking advantage of this incredibly mild winter. I used pink grapefruit in my basic vinaigrette, and the combination was even better than I remembered.

Random scallop fact: Scallops swim by clapping their shell together. Don't believe me? Watch the video:

Recipe: Grilled Scallops with Grapefruit Vinaigrette

Cooking time: 6 minutes

Equipment:

Grill (My monster Weber Summit is overkill for a pound of scallops. I still love it. Here is the current version of my grill. )

Ingredients:

1 pound of scallops, about 1 1/2 ounces each, side tendons removed
1 teaspoon Kosher salt

Grapefruit Vinaigrette:

1/4 cup fresh-squeezed grapefruit juice
pinch Kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons minced fennel fronds (or parsley leaves, or fresh thyme)

Directions:

1. Prepare the grill:
Prepare the grill for cooking over direct high heat, then clean the grate thoroughly with a grill brush and a paper towel dipped in vegetable oil. For my gas grill, I pre-heat with all burners on high for 15 minutes, brush the grate clean with my grill brush, and wipe the grate with a folded paper towel dipped in vegetable oil. (Held with tongs, of course - please don't bare-hand a paper towel soaked with oil over an open flame.)

2. Prepare the scallops:
While the grill preheats, set the scallops on a layer of paper towels, put another paper towel on top, and press gently to dry off the scallops. Sprinkle the scallops with the Kosher salt.

Dry scallops - note the variety of colors

Tendon - pull off of the scallop before cooking

3. Make grapefruit vinaigrette:
While the grill preheats, whisk the vinaigrette ingredients in a medium bowl until they emulsify.

4. Grill the scallops:
Put the scallops on the grill over direct high heat, and grill until they have good grill marks, about three minutes. Flip the scallops and cook until rare on the inside; when the sides of the scallops just look cooked, about three more minutes. Brush them on both sides with the grapefruit vinaigrette, then take them off the grill.

5. Serve the scallops:
Brush the scallops one more time with the vinaigrette and serve.

Notes:

Make sure you get dry scallops. Dry scallops will have a subtle variety of color, from parchment paper white to a very light pink.

Wet scallops taste waterlogged and don't brown properly. Avoid them. Wet scallops will all be the same milky white color. Wet scallops are soaked in STPP, sodium tripolyphosphate. STPP is a preservative, so the scallops last longer at the store. But it also makes the scallops hold on to water; that's why they're called wet scallops.

I had a fennel bulb in my crisper drawer, so fennel fronds went in the vinaigrette, and thin-sliced grilled fennel was our side dish.

What do you think? Questions? Other ideas? Leave them in the comments section below.

Grilled Trout, Herbed and Citrus Stuffed
Grilled Salmon with Coriander-Fennel Rub

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Favorite Links, March 2012

2012-03-27T07:00:00.000-04:00

Recent food articles I've enjoyed:

Rotisserie Boneless Leg of Lamb with Lemon, Rosemary and Garlic [Meatwave.com]
Josh at the Meatwave is one of the other sites regularly publishing rotisserie recipes. I get mentioned in this one, inspiring him to use a herb brush on his leg of lamb.
PS: Credit where it's due: I got the herb brush idea from Adam Perry Lang's Serious Barbecue
PPS: My Easter rotisserie lamb recipe is coming next week.

Canning 101: How to use pint and half jars [FoodInJars.com]
Marisa breaks the news: Ball is bringing back 24 ounce wide mouth canning jars, a taller version of their pint jars. I can't wait to try them with pickled asparagus.

The Feed: How to Dry Fresh Herbs in a Flash (video) [AmericasTestKitchenFeed.com]
Cooks Illustrated finally has a blog! I get my daily dose of the persnickety cooking advice that I love so much. Tips like this one, to dry fresh herbs in the microwave. Next year my thyme and rosemary won't go to waste after the first frost!
*I don't remember who first called Cooks Illustrated "persnickety", but it is perfect. In the Oxford English Dictionary, the definition of persnickety should have a dot picture of Christopher Kimball next to it.

Raw Kale Salad [runningwithtweezers.com]
I love kale, but I've always cooked it. In this recipe, kale is massaged and marinated in a vinaigrette to soften. I can't wait for my next trip to the farmer's market.

Pressure Cooker Roasted Garlic in 20 Minutes [HipPressureCooking.com]
Whenever I think of pressure cooker recipes, I think of hearty dishes - soup, stews, chilis, stock. Laura at Hip Pressure Cooking is pushing the envelope, making really fun recipes in her pressure cooker.
*Bonus: Laura's soft, medium, and Hard boiled eggs in the pressure cooker post is taking the Internet by storm, ever since it was shared on Michael Ruhlman's site.

What do you think? What posts have inspired you recently? Leave them in the comments below.

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Slow Cooker Duck Legs and Tomato Sauce (Duck Ragu)

2012-03-22T07:00:00.000-04:00

Time for another journey to the dark side. Give me the drumstick at thanksgiving, and the legs from that roast chicken, and I'm a happy man. Duck legs are another favorite.

I wanted to make duck leg ragu ever since I read the recipe in Mario Batali's cookbook. But I could never find duck legs. They're too much of a specialty ingredient around here. I can find whole ducks, but duck legs were a special order, if I could get them at all. It was just too much of a hassle.

Then I made a trip to Cleveland's West Side Market, to get a whole leg of lamb. While I was there, I found duck legs. I snapped up all they had in the case. Duck leg ragu, here we come!
*Thanks to Tami at DineInDiva.com for the tips on where to get lamb and poultry at the West Side Market.

This recipe is more involved than most slow cooker recipes, because the duck legs must be skinned before using. Duck skin has a huge layer of fat. If the legs are cooked as-is in the slow cooker, the sauce will be more duck fat than tomatoes.
*After peeling the skin off, chop it into strips and render it in a pan. That gives you duck cracklings and duck fat, two culinary treasures.

I served this ragu country style - half country style, really. I removed the duck legs and pureed the sauce right in the pot with my stick blender. I served each plate of pasta with a ladle of sauce and a duck leg perched on top. If you want an entirely rustic meal, serve the sauce as it is. If you want a more elegant meal, follow Mr. Batali's lead - pull the meat off the duck legs, shred it, and stir it into the sauce.

Recipe: Slow Cooker Duck Legs and Tomato Sauce (Duck Ragu)

Adapted From: Mario Batali, Molto Italiano

Cooking time: 8 hours

Equipment:

6 quart or larger slow cooker (Crock Pot brand is fine, and I like my fancy one from All-Clad)

Ingredients:

8 duck legs, skin and fat removed
1 teaspoon Kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 large onion, diced
1 large carrot, peeled and diced
4 cloves garlic, crushed
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1 tablespoon tomato paste
1/2 cup white wine
1 dried porcini mushroom (about 1/4 ounce)
8oz can whole plum tomatoes
2 sprigs thyme and 1 sprig rosemary, tied together

Directions:

1. Brown the duck legs:
Season the duck legs with salt and pepper. In a large skillet, sear the duck legs over medium high heat until browned on both sides, about 4 minutes a side. Transfer to the slow cooker insert.

2. Saute the aromatics:
Add the olive oil to the pan and heat until shimmering. Add the onion, carrot, and garlic; sprinkle with the salt, then add the tomato paste and stir. Saute until the onion is softened and the tomato paste darkens, about 5 minutes. Add the wine to the pan and bring to a simmer, scraping the bottom of the pan to loosen any browned bits. Pour over the duck legs in the slow cooker insert.

3. Slow cook the duck legs:
Add the mushroom and plum tomatoes to the slow cooker, then break up the tomatoes with a wooden spoon. Add the bundle of herbs, put on the lid, and cook on low for 8 hours or high for 4 hours.

4. Finish the sauce:
Remove the duck legs to a platter. Throw away the herb bundle, then puree the contents of the slow cooker to make the tomato sauce. (I use my stick blender right in the slow cooker crock, but transferring to a blender or food processor would also work.) To serve family style, toss the tomato sauce with a pound of cooked pasta, and serve a big bowl of pasta with the duck legs on a separate platter.

Notes:

*To make a duck ragu, pull the duck meat from the bones and stir into the pureed tomato sauce, then toss with the pasta.

*If your slow cooker has a stovetop-safe insert, like my All-Clad, use it to do all the browning and sauteing. Remove the duck legs to a bowl while you saute the aromatics, then add them back in before the tomatoes.

*Can't find duck legs? Substitute chicken legs - they cook the same. Duck legs have a different flavor to them, more like red meat, but the recipe still works fine with chicken legs.

What do you think? Questions? Other ideas? Leave them in the comments section below.

Slow Cooker Bolognese Sauce
Slow Cooker Chicken Legs with Herb Rub
Click here for my otherSlow Cooker recipes

Adapted from:

Mario Batali, Molto Italiano

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All-Clad Factory Sale: Summer 2012

2012-03-20T07:00:00.000-04:00

All-Clad Factory Sale: Summer 2012
*The dates for this summer's All-Clad factory sale have been announced, so I'm posting my usual heads-up to my readers...

All-Clad's factory is located in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania. Twice a year, on the first weekend in June and December, All-Clad holds a factory seconds sale at the Washington County Fair and Expo Center.

The 2012 summer sale is Friday June 1st and Saturday June 2nd. Hours are Friday from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. and Saturday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Location:
Washington County Fair and Expo Center:
2151 North Main Street
Washington, PA 15301
Phone: 724-225-7718
Website: WashingtonFair.org

This is about a two hour drive from the Akron area. You get prices from 40% to 70% off on factory seconds. In most cases, the damage is just cosmetic; a little scratching on the stainless, or a lid handle that's a bit offset from center.

They have most of their line of cookware available, but not all, and some favorites (like the 12" stainless fry pan, and its lid) are hard to find. Overall, though, it's an amazing value. Make sure to arrive early - there is always a long line to get into the sale, and I've had up to an hour wait to get into the sale.

Questions:
Q: What forms of payment do they take?
A: I've used Visa and MasterCard, and I know they take cash and checks. Not sure about other credit cards.

Q: Does it matter which day I go? Is there stuff only available on Friday?
A: I've been there both Friday and Saturday morning, and have never been disappointed. They re-stock throughout the day; I've seen pallets of their special deals coming in during the sale. They seem to have a large stock of their best deals. That said, certain items (12 inch lids, their pasta multi-pot) disappeared quickly when I was there, so I think some of the items are first come, first serve. My advice? If you can make it early on Friday, do so. But if you can't, don't let that stop you - the sale is still worth the trip.

Updated Answer: A reader said the lines go down significantly later in the day. If you are flexible about what you want to buy, go after Noon, and it sounds like you will avoid the long lines and the wait.

*I am not going this time around; the only thing I really, really want right now is their new Electric Pressure Cooker. I heard it was going for $150 at the last factory sale. But, I'm saving my pennies for a big vacation, so I don't think I'm going. Probably. Unless I weaken.

Related Posts:
Things I Love: All-Clad Stainless Cookware
Review: All-Clad Stainless Cookware with d5 Technology

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Pressure Cooker Corned Beef and Cabbage

2012-03-15T07:00:00.000-04:00

Corned beef and cabbage in the pressure cooker seemed like a simple idea; instead, it was a comedy of errors. I could not get the details right. Here is the post-mortem of my attempts to get this right, so you don't have to make the same mistakes I did.

Problem 1: Too salty.
Last year, I tried my usual "cut back the water in the pressure cooker" approach. I used 1 cup of water instead of covering the corned beef. The result was unbelievably salty. I could barely eat it. The rest of the family took one bite, then ignored the corned beef and filled up with soda bread, cabbage, and carrots. Discouraged, I put one serving of the salty corned beef and cabbage in a container and tossed the rest. The next day, the leftovers tasted fine - I guess sitting in the cabbage and juices for a day pulled enough salt out to make it edible.

Problem 2: Undercooked
This year, instead of winging it, I researched recipes. They all said to cover the corned beef with water. (Whoops.) Then I ran into my next hurdle. Most sources cook corned beef at high pressure for 45 minutes to an hour. They quick release the pressure, remove the corned beef, add the vegetables, and cook the vegetables at high pressure for five minutes. That way, the vegetables aren't overcooked by the long cooking time under pressure.

"Great!" I thought to myself, "Corned beef in an hour!"

I should have known what was coming. Last year I followed Lorna Sass's instructions, and cooked a two and a half pound corned beef for 70 minutes at high pressure. This year I had a monster - four and a half pounds. I checked the recipe book that came with my electric Cuisinart pressure cooker; it said I should cook said 24 minutes per pound. 108 minutes? Seriously? The Cuisinart's timer only goes up to 99 minutes. Nah, it couldn't possibly take that long.

I put the corned beef in the electric pressure cooker, set it for high pressure and fifty minutes. When it beeped, I quick released the pressure and filled the pot with potatoes, carrots and cabbage. The result looked great, the vegetables were perfectly cooked…but the corned beef? Way undercooked. My jaw got tired trying to chew through it. Once again, everyone else took one bite of the corned beef, then filled up on the sides.

I had to crack this. I couldn't let corned beef beat me. I went back to the store and bought two smaller corned beef roasts, each three and a half pounds.

In case it was the lower pressure of the electric pressure cooker, I cooked one corned beef in my electric PC and the other in my stove top PC.

*Most electric pressure cookers have a high pressure setting of 10 PSI. stove top pressure cookers have a high pressure of 15 PSI.

I cooked both roasts for fifty minutes, quick released the pressure, and checked the corned beef. It wasn't done. I kept cooking at high pressure, quick releasing every ten minutes and checking the corned beef, until it went from chewy to tender. The stove top pressure cooker took 80 minutes, and the electric PC took 90 minutes. Finally, success!

But, wow, eighty minutes? So much for corned beef in an hour. Still, an hour and a half (including the vegetables) was much better than the ten hours my usual slow cooker recipe takes. Need a corned beef in a hurry? Get a small one, add plenty of water, and do NOT under cook it.

*Don't have a pressure cooker? Use a slow cooker. Recipe here: Slow Cooker Corned Beef and Cabbage

Recipe: Pressure Cooker Corned Beef and Cabbage

Adapted From: Lorna Sass Pressure Perfect

Cooking time: 90 minutes

Equipment:

6 quart or larger pressure cooker (I used my electric Cuisinart PC and my stove top Kuhn Rikon PC)

Ingredients:

3 pound corned beef with its spice packet
1 medium onion, quartered
1 stalk celery, quartered crosswise
water to cover (about 4 cups)

Vegetables:

1 1/2 pounds redskin new potatoes
1 pound carrots, peeled and cut into 2 inch lengths (or a 1 pound bag of baby carrots)
1 small (3 pound) cabbage, cut into 8 wedges

Directions:

1. Cook the corned beef:
Rinse the corned beef. Put the corned beef, onion, and celery in the pressure cooker pot, sprinkle with the spice packet, then pour in enough water to cover the corned beef. Bring the pressure cooker up to high pressure and cook at high pressure for 80 minutes (stove top PC) or 90 minutes (electric PC). Quick release the pressure, then carefully remove the lid. Test the corned beef with a fork - it should be easy to poke a fork through the thickest section. If it's not done, lock the lid and cook for another ten minutes at high pressure. Once the corned beef is done, move it to a platter, leaving the onion and celery behind in the pressure cooker.

2. Cook the vegetables:
Add the potatoes to the pot, then the carrots on top of them, then lay the cabbage on top of the other vegetables. It's OK if the cabbage comes a bit above the "no fill" line on your cooker; there will still be a lot of airspace. Bring the cooker back up to pressure and cook at high pressure for 5 minutes. Quick release the pressure again. Using a slotted spoon, transfer the vegetables to the platter with the corned beef.

3. Serving:
Pour the broth left in the pot into a gravy strainer. While the broth settles, slice the corned beef. Pour a little of the de-fatted broth over the platter of corned beef and vegetables. Serve, passing the rest of the broth at the table.

Notes:

Leftover corned beef and cabbage freezes well - as long as it is covered in broth.

If you have the time, use a natural pressure release for the corned beef instead of the quick release. It's almost impossible to overcook a corned beef, and my experience with undercooked corned beef has scarred me. I almost added an extra fifteen minutes of cooking time to this recipe, just in case.

Watch out for extra-thick corned beef - you want a flat, even piece, three inches thick or so. If you get a thicker one, or a cut from the point end, give it an extra ten to fifteen minutes under pressure.

What do you think? Questions? Other ideas? Other pressure cooker recipes that may break my will? Leave them in the comments section below.

Slow Cooker Corned Beef and Cabbage
Pressure Cooker Lamb Stew with Guinness and Barley
My other Pressure Cooker Recipes

Adapted from:

Lorna Sass Pressure Perfect

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Things I Love: Cuisinart Electric Pressure Cooker

2012-03-13T07:00:00.000-04:00

I found out that Marcus, my guy at the local Apple store, follows this blog. A few months ago I stopped in to pick up an iPod touch for my oldest son. Marcus made my day by pulling me aside and thanking me for my osso bucco recipe. He told me how much he loved his new electric pressure cooker, and I confessed that I didn't have an electric PC yet.

"What? You have to get one. I already want another one." He turned to Diane: "Will you go get him an electric pressure cooker? Right now. He needs it."

Buy a new cooking gadget? Why yes, I can do that.

I did some research; the Cuisinart 6 quart Electric Pressure Cooker was the best reviewed electric PC on Amazon. I bought it, and now I know why Marcus is such a fan.

Why get an electric pressure cooker?

The Cuisinart electric pressure cooker is great for weeknight, set it and forget it cooking. I put it on the counter behind my cutting board and start feeding in ingredients - brown the meat, saute the vegetables, add some stock, lock the lid, and set the timer. At that point, I can walk away and help the kids with homework. The PC comes up to high pressure, levels off the heat, and starts the countdown timer. When the cooking time is done, the cooker beeps, cuts the heat, and enters a warming mode to start the the natural pressure release. I don't have to mess with watching the pressure valve, adjusting burners, or watching timers. Once the lid is locked, I'm done. I can sit on the couch, ignore the kids fighting over who's turn it is to put silverware on the table, and relax until it is time to serve. I love cooking with self-aware equipment.
*Yes, I know, self aware machines are the first step in Skynet's plan for world domination. It can't be bargained with. It can't be reasoned with. It doesn't feel pity, or remorse, or fear. And it absolutely will not stop, ever...until dinner is ready.

The electric PC is perfect for my favorite multitasking trick, making a batch of stock while I clean the kitchen. Before starting the dishes, I put a leftover roast chicken carcass in the pot with a halved onion and a bay leaf. I fill it with water, set the timer, then start filling the dishwasher. An hour later, the dishes are done, I've relaxed with a beverage, and my stock is ready to strain. Easy peasy.

The other great thing is how quiet it is. There is about thirty seconds of escaping steam between boiling and the pressure seal popping up; other than that, it is silent. After years of using pressure cookers that were only under pressure when they were venting steam, I love the peace and quiet.
*Also, you get the benefits of no flavors escaping the cooker - read my post on Heston Blumenthal and sealed pressure cookers.

There are some downsides:

My biggest complaint about the cooker is the size. Most electric pressure cookers top out at six quarts. For most recipes, that's not a big deal, but feeding a family of five I always bump up against the max fill line. (Which is conveniently printed on the pot, another nice feature.)
*There is one 8 1/2 quart electric pressure cooker, but the reviews on Amazon are not encouraging.

I've had a couple of times where I want to make stock, and the carcass wouldn't fit in the cooker. One was a frozen duck carcass, another was the bone from a leg of lamb. Both of these stocks wound up in my larger Kuhn Rikon pressure cooker, which swallowed them without any problems.
*And turkey stock? I'm not even going to try. I don't think I could break a turkey carcass down into small enough pieces without a hacksaw.

Another problem is heating time. The electric PC is slower to heat up and cool down than my stovetop PC by about 50%. I did a head to head test between my stovetop and Electric PCs to compare the differences. Two quarts of cold water from my tap took 8 minutes to come to high pressure in the stovetop PC, but 12 minutes in the electric. And, when I turned them off and let the pressure release naturally, the stovetop PC was depressurized after 13 minutes, while the electric took 20 minutes.

Surprisingly, quick release of pressure was equal, even when I cheated and put the stovetop in the sink to use a cold water release. Both depressurized in two minutes.
*This matches my cooking experience; with the electric PC I keep saying "The pressure's not released yet?" while flipping the valve to quick release the remaining pressure so I can get dinner on the table.

My other big concern was the lower "high pressure" in the electric PC. Stovetop PCs usually have a high pressure setting of 15 PSI; electric PCs, including my Cuisinart, consider 10 PSI to be high pressure. Now, the manual for the Cuisinart has cooking times that are about 20% slower, on average, than my usual stovetop timings. Unfortunately, I keep forgetting to add that 20 percent. What can I say, I'm used to my normal timings. I haven't noticed any difference in my results. I think the longer heat up and natural pressure release add some extra cooking time under pressure, and the results even out.
*See my pressure cooker corned beef recipe, coming Thursday, for a notable exception. It evens out for shorter cooking times and a natural pressure release, say a half an hour or less. If the cooking time is longer than that, don't forget to add that 20% to the cooking time.

Summary:

I crave soups and stews in the winter. With my stovetop PC, I made one stew a week. I cook two or three soups a week with the electric PC. I know they are quicker with the stovetop PC, but the electric PC is so convenient… They just seem easier to turn out on a busy weeknight.

Highly recommended. (Of course, I also recommend a large stovetop pressure cooker, for bigger meals.)

What do you think? Questions? Other ideas? Experiences with another electric pressure cooker? Leave them in the comments section below.

FTC disclosure: All my "Things I Love" posts are about products I use and purchased myself. I did not receive any form of compensation to write this. If you buy something through one of my Amazon links, I do get a small commission. So, put that coffee down. Coffee's for closers only.

Pressure Cooker Osso Bucco
Pressure Cooker Chicken Stock
Things I Love: Pressure Cookers
My other Pressure Cooker Recipes

Inspired by:

Cuisinart 6 Quart Electric Pressure Cooker

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