My New Grill and Murphy's Law

The old grill was ten years old and I had already replaced the guts once.

At this point, its performance was suspect at best and the results were nearly always disappointing.

I knew it was time to get a new grill.

The dear husband finally agreed.

Naturally I did some research and found the best grill I could

for the amount of money I had available to me.*

It uses "Tru infared(tm)" technology so that there are no hot or cold spots on the grill surface.

That sounded appealing as I was tired of having a warmish area and a cooler area on my old grill.  It had gotten to the point that I had to rely on flare-ups for the food to attain any grill marks.

*In the latest Consumer Reports ranking on grills, all of the top performers were $1,000 or more.  Definitely outside of my budget.  But my grill did get decent enough marks for me.

 I purchased the unassembled grill today and then the Foodie Boyfriend and I spent about an hour and a half putting this together.

And why can't they make assembly directions clearer?

We both grumbled and groused,

but it finally came together.

 

Then it was time to grill dinner.

And Murphy's Law kicked in:

we ran out of propane!

Yep.  Who'da guessed?

So I sent the Foodie Daughter and Foodie Boyfriend off

with the empty tank and some money, with directions to find someplace to exchange the empty tank for a full one.

I was not going to be denied my first meal!

 Finally, we were back in business.

The inaugural meal was boneless pork loin chops rubbed with brown sugar, kosher salt and cracked black pepper, skewers of fresh pineapple, and quartered new red potatoes that had been par-cooked in the microwave for 7 minutes before being tossed with olive oil, kosher salt and cracked black pepper.

I cooked the pork until it reached an internal temperature of 140 degrees.

The meat was moist and tender and we had grill marks!

The meal was worth the wait.

This grill is a keeper.

Mother's Day Dinner

Today I planned a special meal to celebrate my special day. I decided on rib eye steaks with roasted potatoes.

But first things first. I needed a special barbecue sauce.

I've been wanting to make a pomegranate barbecue sauce for a while now, but have been unable to find a suitable recipe. But no matter. I'll just wing it as usual.

The ingredients are:

Hot sauce

Sweet chili sauce

Honey

Catsup

Pomegranate juice

Onion

Garlic

I later decided that more layers of flavor were needed for the barbecue sauce and pulled out some soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce and fresh lemon juice.

The first order of business was to reduce the pomegranate juice to a thick syrup. I also grated the garlic clove and some onion into the juice at this point.



After perhaps 20 to 30 minutes, the juice had reduced to 1/4 the original volume.

I turned off the heat and began adding in the other ingredients, tasting as I mixed to assess the flavors. With a sauce like this, it is important to sample and to adjust to taste.

I was finally satisfied with the sauce and set it aside to cool.

And now for the rest of the meal. I placed the steaks on a rack in a baking dish and liberally seasoned with kosher salt and freshly cracked black pepper. The steaks went back into the fridge for a couple of hours to allow the meat to dry just a bit before cooking.

An hour before cooking, I pulled the meat out of the fridge so that the steaks could come to room temperature before being placed on the grill. This step is important to assure even cooking.

Meanwhile I cleaned and cut some red skinned potatoes. The potatoes were put into a microwave-safe dish and covered with water and seasoned with salt. I cooked the potatoes in the microwave for about 5 minutes.

Then the potatoes were drained and placed in a disposable pan before being drizzled with olive oil and seasoned with kosher salt and black pepper.

The grill was pre-heated and the potatoes were placed on the middle shelf on the grill.

Chopped red onion and bacon lardons were added halfway through the cooking process. Next time I will add the bacon at the beginning, as the bacon cooks more slowly on the grill than it does in the oven.

I also added a couple of small sprigs of fresh rosemary to the potatoes.

Once the bacon had begun to cook, the steaks were placed on the grill. When the meat released easily from the grate, the steaks were turned 40 degrees to create nice hash marks on the meat.

Then the meat was flipped and sprigs of fresh rosemary were placed on top to add a bit of flavor. I also switched the pieces of meat on the grill as my grill has hot spots and cool spots.

The steaks came off the grill and were covered with a piece of aluminum foil and a towel so they could rest before carving. I aim for a doneness of medium-rare, but allow a bit of the meat to reach medium as that is what my husband prefers.

Finally the bacon was cooked through and the potatoes were ready.

The plating.

The steak was moist and succulent. The pomegranate barbecue sauce added just the right piquant flavor to the tender steak.

The potatoes were crisp, the onions tender and the bacon smoky.

Happy Mother's Day to all my maternally-inclined readers!

Two Dinners and Some Nuts

I have been having more fun in the kitchen the past couple of days. It all started early Wednesday morning when I got some beef short ribs ready to sear before slow cooking them all day.

The beef short ribs have been seared and onion added to the pot.

A sauce of yellow mustard, dijon mustard, lemon juice, minced garlic, salt, pepper and sugar coat the ribs and the slow cooking begins.

After 10 hours in the slow cooker, the ribs are fall-off-the-bone tender. Don't be alarmed by the amount of fat in the dish. Unless you are eating the sauce, it isn't a problem and it is perfectuly normal for the fat to be rendered from the ribs.


Mise en Place for "Emeril's Spicy Nuts" (Don't mind me while I giggle.)


First we toast the pecan halves.


Set aside the nuts (er, drupes) and add butter, brown sugar, water, cumin seeds, cayenne pepper, cinnamon and salt to the pan.

Once the glaze has combined, add the pecans back in the pan. Stir and coat thoroughly.

Lay the pecans out on a baking sheet to cool. Use two forks to carefully separate the nuts so they don't stick to each other. This was my first time making such a dish and I am fairly pleased with the results.

The cast of characters for Bobby Flay's Barbecue Grilled Shrimp: cumin seeds, cayenne pepper, black pepper, paprika, brown sugar, and salt.

Tonight's dinner players. Living as we do in Southern Indiana, all our seafood comes to us in the frozen form. Here I have shell-on shrimp, sea scallops and a mahi mahi filet.

The scallops are wrapped in pre-cooked bacon slices and they and the shrimp are on skewers. The dry rub has been applied to both the scallops and the shrimp. The mahi mahi has been salted and peppered and will be grilled whole. Unfortunately, I was too busy cooking to take pictures of the seafood cooking on my stove's grill top.

I decided to try yet another new recipe today: A Beurre Blanc sauce from William and Sonoma's web site. The ingredients include white wine, lemon juice, minced shallot, salt, white pepper, and of course butter.



Wait - what's this? Someone is using a Sharpie(tm) to put grill marks on the fish?



The finished Beurre Blanc Sauce. You may have noticed that this particular recipe eschews the heavy cream that is often found in this classic sauce.



And we have our Mixed Seafood Grill! Excuse me while I go eat now.