The holiday season is here at last; time for family, for friends, and for food.
I wanted to try something a bit different for this post, a twist on a traditional thanksgiving dish. Pig candy came to mind (bacon caramelized with brown sugar, something I’ve wanted to try for awhile), and candied yams. Now that sounded like a fantastic combination.
And it was. Unfortunately I got too excited and forgot to take pictures before the sticky goodness was scoffed by my family. There were no yams left for a second round, but I did have a jar of pineapple chunks, and another pack of bacon. Salty-sweet caramelized bacon wrapped around the juicy bite of pineapple? Oh yes, it was meant to be.
I used a grill of course, but I imagine you could cook these in a frying pan (or even in the oven) just as well.
Ingredients
1/2 pound of bacon
Pineapple chunks (fresh or canned)
1/2 cup of brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon (optional)
If you’re using a fresh pineapple, cut and prepare the pineapple into chunks.
Preheat the oven, and cook the bacon at 350 degrees for approx 20 mins. The bacon should be cooked, but still soft.
Wrap each chunk of pineapple with a strip of bacon (cut the bacon if it’s too long), and skewer this bundle with a toothpick. Now rub thoroughly with brown sugar.
Preheat grill to low, and cook.
Because your bacon is already cooked, the grilling step only really involves caramelizing the brown sugar and crisping bacon. What you don’t want to do is burn the sugar so watch vigilantly and move them to a cooler spot on the grill or remove them entirely, if needed.
(Be forewarned that grilling any sugar makes a mess, be prepared for a little clean up afterwards. It should not be more than a little elbow grease.)
David B. November 20th, 2012
Posted In: Appetizers, Desserts & Fruit, Recipes
Scrumptious and garlicky; these shrimp are perfect as an appetizer or the feature in a fantastic salad.
If you really want to splurge, get enough to fill up on –you won’t find a tastier meal.
Serves 4
12 large shrimp or prawns
1/4 cup butter
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/4 cup lemon juice
2 tablespoons freshly chopped parsley
Sat and freshly ground pepper
Minced red chili or red pepper flakes (optional)
Lemon wedges
1. Preheat grill to medium heat.
2. Shell and de-vein the shimp, leaving the tails on if desired.Put them in a large zip lock bag.
3. Melt the butter and mix in the rest of the ingredients, except the lemon wedges. (If you like things extra garlicy, go ahead and add another clove) Don’t forget to season with salt and pepper!
4. Pour the butter mixture into the bag with the shrimp, push out as much air as you can, and leave to marinate for about half an hour in the fridge.
5. You can either grill them directly separatly, or by threading them onto a skewer for less tedious turning. If using a skewer, curve the shrimp around and push it through both the tail and near the head.
6. Grill for a couple minuts on each side. Serve with lemon wedges and gobble them up. 🙂
David B. October 15th, 2012
Posted In: Appetizers, Meat Poultry & Fish, Recipes, Salads
Planking is a great, easy way to grill; and is particularly suited to delicate foods like fish. The wood plank protects the flesh from the intensity of the flames or burners while imbuing it with delicious smokey flavors. However longer cooking meats like chicken will always pick up more smokiness since they’re exposed to the smoke for much longer.
And planking isn’t only for those cooking with charcoal, this technique works perfectly on gas grill as well!
You can use a variety of timber for planking, cedar isn’t the only option. Apple, alder, hickory –just be sure the wood isn’t treated!
Before grilling, the wood needs to be soaked it in a tub of water for at least an hour (to reduce the chance of it catching on fire). For another layer of flavor try adding a cup of juice or a splash of bourbon to the soaking water.
After soaking, put the plank on a preheated medium grill for a couple minutes on each side. You want the plank to be smoking and cracking before you put your food on it –this will make sure you get the maximum smokey flavor.
Now you’re ready to cook! Brush some oil on the hot plank, and put your food directly on it. No turning needed. Be sure to keep the lid closed as much as possible since a lot of the flavor from planking comes from the smoke.
A few other notes:
Be sure to keep a spray bottle on hand while cooking on a plank. The wood can catch fire, you need to be able to quickly extinguish any flare-ups.
Even though salmon is the traditional planking food, don’t limit yourself. Pretty much any fish is delicious cooked in this way. Also chicken, pork loins, vegetables. Really, anything you’d cook over an indirect heat. Marinate and season as you’d like, then cook it on the plank.
Cedar planks can be reused a number of times, as long as there is wood left. Depending on the length of cooking, I would expect around three uses. Don’t forget to soak it before each use.
Be sure to remove the plank as soon as you’re done cooking, otherwise the wood will just burn up. And if you’re using a gas grill, it will make a big mess in your burners.
Sauce:
1/4 cup pineapple juice
1/3 cup soy sauce
2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 tablespoon olive oil
3/4 cup honey
1/4 cup brown sugar, packed
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/2 teaspoon paprika (Preferably hungarian paprika. Try smoked paprika for an even bigger punch. Or even smoked spicy paprika.)
1 garlic clove, minced
Freshly ground black pepper (about a teaspoon)
6 salmon filets, skinless and boneless
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper
2 cedar planks
Directions:
Prepare the planks as above.
Preheat the grill, medium heat.
Put the juice, soy sauce, vinegar, lemon juice, oil, and honey in a small saucepan and bring to a simmer over med-high heat. Reduce to med-low and stir in the rest of the sauce ingredients, cooking until it has reduced to and coats a spoon. About 20 minutes. Remove from the heat.
Sprinkle the salmon filets with salt and pepper
Your cedar planks should be finished soaking and be ready to put on the preheated grill. Leave them for a couple of minutes over the burners, until they start to smoke, then brush them with oil and pop the salmon filets on top. Close the lid, cook for 5 minutes, then spread a little of the sauce over the salmon. Put the lid back on and cook another 5 minutes. Apply another layer of glaze to the fish. Cook another 5 minutes or until the fish is opaque throughout.
Serve with the rest of the sauce, and enjoy. 🙂
David B. September 3rd, 2012
Posted In: BBQing HowTos, Meat Poultry & Fish, Recipes
One of the things I like about grilling is being able to make simple recipes fantastic. You can hardly get easier or quicker than this one, but it never ever gets old. All the ingredients should either be on hand or readily available. Who doesn’t like buttery garlic bread?
1 French bread stick
1 1/2 stick salted butter, room temperature
3-4 cloves of garlic, minced
1/4 cup minced fresh parsley
1/2 tsp black pepper, ideally freshly ground
1/4 cup parmesan, grated (fresh if possible, it has much more flavor)
Cajun Seasoning – We used their fantastic Slap Ya Mama – White Pepper Blend
Preheat the grill with one burner on high and another on low.
Cut the bread stick as you would like, rounds, diagonal slices, fingers; about 1/2 thick. Place these pieces on a tray for transporting to the grill.
In a medium sized bowl, beat the butter until creamy with a whisk, food processor or mixer. Add the garlic, parsley, pepper, and cheese. Continue beating until it’s fluffy.
Now you need to season the fluffy mix with your cajun seasoning. Add a little at a time, mix, then taste. Create a nice warmth, but don’t overpower the garlic and cheese flavors.
Spread the mixture on both sides of the bread.
Place the prepared bread on the grill and cook until both sides are golden. Watch very carefully! And move the bread to a cooler area of the grill if it starts to burn. It should take around 1-3 minutes for each side.
David B. August 5th, 2012
Posted In: Appetizers, Breads, Recipes
A quick and easy recipe that doesn’t sacrifice deliciousness. Great for a quick meal or cut into fingers and have as a finger food starter. BBQ sauce adds a fantastic depth to standard grill cheese sandwiches. I used Grumpy’s Private Reserve Black Label which had a perfect spicy smokiness, really delicious with the cheese, but other BBQ sauces are great too.
Sliced bread, for as many sandwiches are you want – I used a thick sliced sourdough bread which gave a nice chewy bite to the sandwich.
Cheese, sliced – There are a variety of cheeses you could be used, but you’ll get the best results from one that melts well. (Pre-sliced cheese may be easy, but it never has as good of flavor)
BBQ Sauce – I used Grumpy’s Private Reserve Black Label.
Butter, room temperature for spreading.
Turn one burner to medium and another to low. You’ll cook the sandwiches on medium heat, but can move them to the cooler area if they start to burn.
Butter one side of each bread slice. Lay half the slices butter side down and spread with a generous helping of bbq sauce. The quality depends on how sloppy and spicy you like your food. Layer on the sliced cheese, in another generous helping. Top with a slice of bread, buttered side up. Squish them down a little.
Use a tray or plate to bring the sandwiches to the grill, place them over the burner turned to medium. Press them slightly with a metal spatula while they’re cooking to ensure they adhere together. If the bread starts to burn before they’re done, move them over the burner that’s on low. The sandwiches are done with the cheese is nicely melted and the bread is golden.
David B. June 20th, 2012
Posted In: BBQ Maintenance
Grilling a pizza is one of those things that I’ve always planned to get around to.. in the future. Maybe it was the tinge of weirdness, or additional steps required after making a pizza by hand, but I’ve always decided to do it a different day, or a different occasion. Procrastination aside, I finally started trying to grill pizzas over the last few weeks, and it’s been a revelation. Not of divine proportions, but probably about as close as you could get from a pizza lover. The fantastic thing about cooking pizza on the grill is you can get the pizza to a much higher temperature than a conventional oven. You also get a smokey, barbecuy taste that can’t be matched.
Grilling is always an imperfect science at the best of times. Getting the condition right for your particular grill or barbecue takes time. We had a few disasters here, quite a few.. 2 totally burnt pizzas, a dropped pizza (that one almost ended in tears), and a few that still tasted good but I knew could be better. So don’t despair, it’s worth the persistence, well worth it!
Because the pizza cooks so fast, and the heat can be very very hot, we’ve found you get more consistent results with a thin base and thin toppings. Feel free to experiment.
Using a gas grill: Â Make sure your burners are in tip top shape, and not producing any hotspots Using a charcoal bbq: Keep your coals even across the span of the pizza stone.
There are two schools of thought with grilling pizzas. One is to cook your pizza straight on the grid with an indirect heat source. The other is to use a pizza stone. Using a pizza stone tended to even out the heat a lot better, reduced the risk of burning the pizza, and of course you can compile the pizza in the kitchen rather than on the grill itself.
This recipe is great on the grill. It makes 2-3 pizzas depending on the size of your pizza and how much pizza dough is stolen. I tend to split the pizza dough in thirds, use one, and wrap the other two separately with lots of plastic wrap and store it in the fridge.
1/2 cup warm water (110 degrees)
1 envelope instant yeast
1 1/4 cups water; at room temperature
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
22 ounces bread flour
1 1/2 teaspoons of salt
1. Sprinkle yeast onto the warm water for about 5 minutes. Then add the room temperature water and olive oil.
2. Mix the flour and salt in a food processor. Pulse the food processor while adding the liquid ingredients from step 1. Process until dough comes together, and is smooth and stretchy.
3. Dump out onto a floured work surface. Kneed briefly to form a ball.
4. Put the dough into a large oiled bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Let rise in a warm place, 1/2 to 2 hours.
This sauce is exceptionally simple, and works best with fresh tomatoes, but you could use canned.
1 lb tomatoes
1 Tbsp Olive oil
2 cloves garlic
Salt to taste
1/4 cup good bbq sauce, such as Grumpy’s Goodnight Lovin’
1. Heat a saucepan over medium heat and add the Olive oil and garlic for 30 seconds, being careful not to burn it.
2. Add in the tomatoes and simmer until the tomatoes melt down and thicken, about 20 minutes
4 oz Mozzarella, shreaded or cut half inch thick
8 oz Pepperoni, peeled and thinly sliced
That’s it. You could do whatever you want for a topping and sauce, but remember, be spartan: less is more, especially on the grill.
1. You want an even heat distribution over your grill. If you’re using gas, turn on all burners, if charcoal, spread coals evenly across the bbq. Put the stone in when the grill is still cold, and close the lid for it to preheat (about 20 minutes depending on your grill).
2. Sprinkle semolina or cornmeal onto a pizza peel, then place your pizza dough onto the peel. If you don’t have one, you might need to improvise a little.
3. Add the sauce, and toppings.
4. Take the pizza peel over to the grill and slide the pizza onto the pizza stone.
5. Cooking times vary greatly but you want to take the pizza off when the crust starts browning in spots, about 5-10 minutes. Be sure not to leave it unattended as it can go from delicious looking to a burnt mess in minutes (from experience).
David B. May 2nd, 2012
Posted In: BBQing HowTos, Recipes
Last week, while searching for inspiration on what to write about, I came across a half used bottle of Grumpy’s BBQ Sauce in my fridge. A packet of spaghetti noodles waved at me from the pantry. Hmm. Deep smoky spiciness mixed with tomatoes, garlic, and onions? Sounded delicious to me. There was some ground beef in the fridge as well, the perfect excuse to try something that I’ve wanted to do for awhile. Smoking some meatballs.
My wife wasn’t impressed with the idea of BBQ and spaghetti, but I’m happy to say that after tasting the dish she admitted complete defeat.
2 slices of bread, torn into small pieces. Any type will do, I used multigrain with seeds, which gave a bite to the meatballs
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 pound ground beef, or other meat
1/3 cup grated cheese. The stronger the better, I used cheddar
2 Tablespoons fresh parsley, minced
1 egg yolk
1 teaspoon garlic powder. I would have used a fresh clove minced, but I was out.
2/3 teaspoon of salt
3/4 teaspoon salt Black pepper, good pinch, or ideally, freshly ground Â
2 Tablespoon Oliver Oil
1 Large onion, diced. Feel free to add more, they only improve the sauce.
1 teaspoon garlic powder. Again, if you have a close use that, minced.
1/3 Cup bbq sauce. I used Grumpy’s bold bbq sauce 1 can of tomatoes Â
1 pound spaghetti noodles. I used extra thick tubular noodles.
Salt
Freshly grated cheese, for serving
I used a Weber with charcoal and wood chips to smoke these meatballs.
If you don’t have a charcoal bbq them you can use your gas grill to smoke with this method:
Put about a cup of wood chips, soaked for 30 mins, onto a sheet of aluminum foil. Fold the foil around the chips so they are enclosed in a pouch. Now turn the packet over and poke around 10 or more holes into the foil, so the smoke can escape. This can be put under the grate, just on top of the burner shield, holes facing up.
1. Soak the woodchips for 30 mins
2. Preheat the grill or start the charcoal The meatballs should be cooked with indirect heat, so if you are using charcoal make sure they are moved to the side of the bbq. On a gas grill, you can preheat it with all the burners so it heats up faster, but before putting the meat on be sure to turn off the burner that will be under them.
1. Mix the bread and buttermilk together in a bowl and let the bread absorb the liquid for around 10 minutes, giving it a stir occasionally. You want it to become paste-like.
2. In a medium bowl, mix together the ground meat, cheese, parsley, egg, garlic powder, salt, pepper, and bread-buttermilk mixture. Make sure to mix this very thoroughly.
3. Now it’s time to make the meatballs! You want them around 1 Â 1/2 inches around, and make sure to be gentle when shaping the them. They shouldn’t be squeezed until they’re very firm. There should be about 14 meatballs when you finish.
1. Your grill should be hot now and the wood chips should have been soaking for at least 30 minutes.
2. Put the wood chips in the BBQ or Grill
3. Put the meatballs on the grate or grid, be sure they are not over direct heat. I had trouble with them slipping through on my Weber, so I put them on a cast iron pan and put that pan on the BBQ. You could also use aluminum foil if you have the same trouble.
4. Put the lid on and cook until an instant read thermometer  160 degrees F .
     
   Â
While the meatballs are cooking, you can get the sauce started.
1. Bring a large pot of water to a boil with a tablespoon of salt. When this is boiling, add the noodles and cook until al dente. Drain.
2.  Pour the oil into a pan, heat up, then add the onions. To speed up the cooking, sprinkle them with a generous pinch of salt. This will help them release their juices faster and allow them to soften and begin caramelizing. How long to cook the onions is up to you. Anywhere from just soft, to fully caramelized. In my opinion, the more caramelized they get the better the sauce is. Just don’t let them burn. Keep a glass of water by the pan in case they start sticking. This way can pour a little  water in and they will come off the bottom, without the sticky residue burning.
3. Once the onions are cooked as you like, add the garlic (if you’re using fresh garlic, let it cook for 30 seconds before adding the other ingredients), Â bbq sauce, and tomatoes. Cook this until the sauce has thickened and the tomatoes have melded in. Around 20 mins, but it depends on the temperature you’ve cooked it at. If it thickens too much you can thin it with some water, more tomatoes, bbq sauce, etc.
4. Salt and Pepper to taste. Don’t forget, it’s very important!
Put some noodles in a bowl and top with the sauce. Top the sauce with some meatballs, and sprinkle the entire thing with the grated cheese.
David B. March 6th, 2012
Posted In: Recipes
I kept this chili powder intentionally mild since there were a lot of young kids eating the steak. Ancho chilies run more sweet than hot.
David B. January 23rd, 2012
Posted In: Marinades, Meat Poultry & Fish, Recipes
The Meat:
1. Combine all the marinade ingredients in a bowl, then place the ribs in a plastic or glass dish and cover with the marinade.
2. Refrigerate overnight.
3. Set up your BBQ for indirect cooking. You are looking for a medium-low heat here, so be careful not to overcook it.
Tip:
If you are using a charcoal grill, it is recommended to leave at least half of the fire bed free of coals.
If using a gas grill with a lid, turn for example your left burner on and cook towards the right hand side.
4. Place the ribs in a heavy roasting pan and place on the cool part of the grill.
5. Close the lid, and cook for about 1 hour 15 minutes. Baste the ribs every 20 minutes with your marinade.
6. Add more coals to the fire or turn up the burner so the grill is medium hot.
7. Remove the ribs from the pan and place directly on the grill grate.
8. Cook for 5 minutes on each side, or until caramelized and lightly charred.
9. While the ribs are cooking, place some of the marinade in a saucepan on the grill, bring to a boil and reduce by half to serve as sauce with the ribs.
10. Enjoy, with your favorite beverage!
David B. December 6th, 2011
Posted In: Marinades, Meat Poultry & Fish, Recipes
This recipe is not a breaded lemon chicken recipe that you might expect from your local chinese restaurant. It is a fantastic zesty marinade. Low calorie too, if you’re into that type of thing. The calories come from only the chicken breast itself and the olive oil to marinade it in.
Mix all the ingredients except the chicken in a bowl. Set aside about 1/3 cup of the marinade that you will use to baste the chicken while it cooks. Add chicken to the bowl, and place in the fridge for 30 mins.
Start up your BBQ, and preheat on high until it is nice and roasty. Discard marinade, and place chicken breasts directly on the grill. Cook for 6 or 7 minutes on each side, until fully cooked. Baste occasionally with the marinade you reserved. The internal temperature should be about 165 degrees or the juices run clear. Chicken breast can easily dry out, so be careful not to leave it on too long. Enjoy!
David B. October 31st, 2011
Posted In: BBQ Maintenance
4.7