California Grillin

2007-06-03T00:33:00.000-07:00

June 2nd - N'awlins Shrimp, Grilled citrus talapia & baked potatoes with a pork steak.

Baked potatoes on the grill. Baste them with butter. Throw some coarse sea salt. Wrap them in foil. 1 hour later. perfection.

Pork Steak...see last post.

Talapia: This time I marinated it in a rosemary garlic citrus sauce. I liked the previous talapia I made with a marinade consisting of balsamic vinegar and oil and some other things, but this wasn't bad at all; just not as flavorful as I would like. light.

N'awlins Shrimp: Again, out of the Weber cookbook. The only thing I didnt have on hand was the turmeric, but everything else went into the marinade. I tried grilling these with the skin on and peeling afterward. Unless you are going with colossal shrimp or Jumbo (15 or less per pound) I wouldn't suggest this. It was messy, which is fine for some meals, but not this one. I do think they retain some moisture with the skin on, but I would have preferred to baste them on the grill in leiu of having to peel them afterwards. too small. Tasty though, but not hot enough. Not enough cayenne. I should have thrown in some tabasco or franks into the marinade (about 30 mins).

2007-06-03T00:26:00.000-07:00

May 28th - Pork Steaks

I used a simple rub comprised of fresh ground pepper, smoked salt and some of this Gateway-to-the-North Maple Sugar Seasoning. These turned out really good, much better than expected. The "pork steak" cut contains some fat to render with the bone so, unlike a chop, you can really put some heat to it without drying it out. The picture doesn't really do it justice. Very good and easy to make in a pinch. These turned out perfectly with enough flavor without being too fatty. A forgiving cut for lazy or unattentive grillers.

2007-06-01T23:14:00.000-07:00

May 20th - Grilled Pork Tenderloin on a cedar plank with pineapple relish

This was a new dish for me; I had never done pork tenderloin. It was very good and not at all what I expected from a pork cut. It cooked a little too slowly on the cedar plank. So I had to put it directly on the grill after a little while and wouldn't you know it, the tenderloins came out a little overcooked.
A shot before hitting the flame:

On the plank, on the grill. I used some apple wood for the smoke. perfect !

Had to take them off the plank to hasten the grilling time, but not too long. The tenderloin is not a juicy cut and can suffer from overcooking, if you're not careful.

I also grilled some pineapple to accompany the tenderloin. I got some bamboo skewers that were flavored from Target of all places. They were really great (surprise !)

Here is a shot of the finished dish. I also made a waldorf salad to accompany this meal. That was a perfect compliment. The salad was delicious ! There is something about that spinach+blue cheese+carmelized pecans (no walnuts for me)+lemon vinagrette.

As it turned out, this was one of the most unusual dishes I have ever attempted and it was fantastic. I think it would be a real crowd pleaser, as you don't see too many carribean dishes or exotic grilled dishes very often. I guess some consider the addition of the pineapple relish as a tropical dish. The green in the relish was finely chopped basil ! Here is a shot of the ingredients for the relish prior to simmering:

2007-06-01T23:08:00.000-07:00

May 13th - Buffalo Oysters ! (dreadlock rasta)
Grill a pacific oyster. Add to it some garlic, lemon juice, butter and Frank's Red Hot Sauce.

There you have: buffalo oysters. mmmm.....these were delicious and chock full of tasty cholesterol. As Homer would say....mmmmmm....pork fat.....or, mmmmm....{insert unhealthy food reference here}

This is after they are pulled off the grill and the good stuff is added:

This is after the good stuff is added and the oyster is grilled for about 30 seconds more...

This was followed by 2 tri-tips.

2007-06-01T22:57:00.000-07:00

May 12th - Blue Cheese Burgers, grilled tomatoes and sauteed Anaheim peppers with sweet onions.

We had some ground meat to eat or get rid of. This was lean and needed something to liven it up so I stuffed them with blue cheese...right out of the Weber BBQ cookbook. Not my favorite. I prefer my burgers with more ingredients mixed within them. A little tomato paste is a good additive to burgers. Not only does it give it a little more taste, the bit of sugar that is in tomato paste will assure a pleasing grill mark look. You can see a bit of the cheese escaping on a few of these:

The grilled tomatoes were not as good as I have made in the past. Last time I made grilled tomatoes, I used a pesto sauce instead of a simple home made sauteed onion+garlic mixture topped with Parmiganno-Reggiano cheese. Still, I love grilling vegetables. They seem to all absorb the grill flavor and smoke flavor really well.

But the must-have dish to accompany burgers are the sauteed anaheim peppers with sweet onions. These are so delicious that I could eat them as a side by themselves. Added on top of a burger on a bun or (my preference) in a tortilla, they compliment the ground meat perfectly.

2007-06-01T22:52:00.000-07:00

May 11th, 2007 - Pork Chops

A basic grilling of bone-in pork chops, thinly cut (my preference over the thicker loin cut which is too lean for my tastes...makes it harder to grill, in fact, my favorite is the pork steak cut which contains just enough taste to render it).

Two of these (far right) were made with my Georgia Sauce, the rest were a simple rub of chardonnay & oak smoked salt with cracked black pepper. They were fine.

2007-05-25T16:58:00.000-07:00

May 2007 - Great Grilled Garlic Bread

Here's a few shots of a quick and easy way to make great looking and great tasting garlic bread. Of course its just garlic and butter, but the green stuff is finely chopped parsley. It takes only a few minutes on the grill and is the perfect compliment to a 4 (or more) serving meal:

2007-05-12T13:39:00.000-07:00

April 2007-A full grill

Having a full grill going with different spots cooking different foods simultaneously is fun and also challenging.

This day, for a party of four, I made the following:

Bacon wrapped shrimp

Marinated Shrimp

BBQ Chicken Wings

Stuffed Zuchinni

Bacon Wrapped Shrimp

While I agree, the taste is great; the process is not so great. First of all, you cannot put raw uncooked bacon around a shrimp and grill it. The cooking time for the bacon is too long compared to the shrimp. That is why proscuitto is used. It's much thinner and cooks a lot quicker (but is much more expensive). I tried cooking the bacon half way, ahead of time and while that helped, I found the whole grilling experienced....forced. This is not my first attempt, and now I am thinking that (a) proscuitto is the way to go and (b) shrimp on the grill is simply better in a marinade.

In these pictures, there are some shrimp that do not have bacon around them. These were marinated in a delicious tequila lime marinade. They were much more tasty and easier to manage on the grill. Of course, the skewers were soaked for an hours, but that soaking quickly evaporated and the skewers got sk(r)ewed. In the future, with shrimp, it would be better to go with a marinade and basting sauce, and forego the skewers.

They turned out fine, just not as good as expected. With shellfish, you have less room for error.

BBQ Chicken Wings

The wings turned out great ! No marinade. I simply basted them with sauce late in the cooking process to avoid the dreaded carmelized sugar burnt skin. Much like squeezing a fat burger of all its generous taste, its hard not to baste too soon. These were easy and delicious. A must repeat for a group as appetizers.

Stuffed Zuchinni

The way this works is: you grill the zuchinni for a few minutes, then scoop out the soft center of each, combine that in a mixture of garlic, bread crumbs, cheese, and whatever else you like (personally the combination of parmesan or PG with lemon or basil is hard to beat) then place that mixture back in the center of the zuchinni to grill some more.
These would have been perfect but I made a mistake: I over-grilled them. The zuchinni turned out too soft. Like asparagus, zuchinni should come off the grill with some firmness left in it. In terms of skill and preparation, I get a D. In terms of taste, it was really good, but could have been better.

2007-05-07T11:51:00.000-07:00

May 4th - Oysters, clams & tilapia

As stated in my 2007 goals, I wanted to do more fish so I finally took the leap and made some oysters, clams and tilapia. The clams were unspectacular. The oysters were great and the tilapia far exceeded my expectations.

OYSTERS

The oysters were put on the grill for about 6 minutes and once they began to open, I pried them open, and dropped in some butter, garlic, lemon juice and Frank's hot sauce, topped with some cheese. They would have been ok without the cheese, but the other ingredients were essential and the taste was uniquely wonderful. These Pacific Oysters were large and quite filling. Oystes are very high in cholesterol but provide a good source of This food is a good source of Vitamin C, Riboflavin, Niacin and Phosphorus, and a very good source of Protein, Vitamin B12, Iron, Zinc, Copper, Manganese and Selenium.

CLAMS

Put the clams on the grill, tried to save the juices. Made a mixture of sauted garlic in butter with chopped parsley. As the clams came off the grill, I placed them in the sauce and mixed them. They were alright; but after the intense flavors of the Oysters, the clams paled a bit in comparison. I think it would be better to do just oysters and no clams. A couple of pounds of clams can be $10-$15 and the yield wont be that great.

Tilapia

Marinated the tilapia in lemon infused olive oil, balsamic vinegar along with some cilantro and parlsey, garlic, pepper. Turned out superb. If anything, the balsamic was a little overpowering, so next time, I will use less in the marinade.

2007-05-07T11:44:00.000-07:00

April 15th - Bar-be-cue Sauce, Georgia Style

Today, in anticpation of the next rib session, I made some bbq sauce. This one is a Georgia sauce; it contains a combination of molasses, cider vinegar, worcestershire sauce, mustard, brown sugar and some other seasonings. Its a ketchup based sauce but its not ketchupy like a Kansas City sauce. It is also not a mephis or texas sauce; I guess its somewhere in between. It turned out pretty good, but not great. It worked well for chicken wings but was a little weak for the ribs.

2007-05-07T11:38:00.000-07:00

April 14th - Lemon Pepper

Today I made the lemmon pepper from Raichlen's recipe in his ribs and sauces cookbook. It is very simple, but instead of drying the lemon peels in the oven, I did it in the BBQ. The smell was fairly pungent and none too pleasant. Better to do it outside. Plus you can infuse some smoke.

Combine with peppercorns of your choice (I only had black. I would have preferred white or even green):

2007-03-11T15:28:00.000-07:00

2007 No Gluttony no Glory.
Here we are in the spring training of the 2007 bbq season. For some the weather is too cold still, but in the west and southwest, its time to polish off the instruments of bbq and set some goals.

With the first wave of good weather in late February and March, with much more on the way, it was a chance to stretch out (and wait) for the first tri-tip of the year. After a winter of our epicurian discontent filled with stews and soups and little red meat, tasting real homemade bbq is such a welcome change.

Sunday March 4th: Tri-tip with the same ole rub posted in last year's archives.

Sunday March 11th: First baby backs of the season. With it being so early, I haven't had time to sit down and prepare my rubs and sauces, so I went with an Xmas gift of Bone Suckin Rib-Rub and Bone Suckin Sauce. Last year on Father's day, I made the best ribs I have ever made.
The secret was slow and low cooking. I went with all mesquite today instead of a mixture of mesquite and hickory.

Also I have made some various links so far this year. Just a few.
The cue was officially dusted off on February 11th for a few Louisana Hot Links.

Goals for 2007:

More seafood explorations.

Bone-in rib eyes again, try to repeat last year's surprise success and Best in Show.

maybe a brisket. not sure yet.

Roasted chicken wtih Cajun injection.

Also

Try more new rubs and sauces

Organize into some form, my best of bbq

Cut out the articles from various mags I have collected

2006-08-13T13:29:00.000-07:00

August 13, Tex-Mex Chipotle Paste

1 can of Embassa chipotle peppers in adobo sauce, seeded.
1 bunch of Cilantro
1-2 cloves of garlic
1 small onion

Put this into a food processor and chop it up.

Add 1/5-1/4 cup of olive oil (I used roasted garlic olive oil)
Add 1/5-1/4 cup of lime juice
1 teaspoon of cumin
1/2 teaspoon fresh ground pepper
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
2 tablespoons Tequila

Add to the food processor and puree into a paste.

Smear this immediately onto your meat (in my case, small sirloin tip steaks)
you can also use some of the adobo sauce.

2006-07-29T19:16:00.000-07:00

July 29, 2006. Chicken Fajitas.

Tonight the grill menu included grilled chicken breasts as a part of grilled fajitas.
I always fajitas, and the key is not just grilling the chicken, which everyone does. It's grilling the vegetables, and tortillas.

I used Chiarello's Roasted Red Pepper Olive Oil (which oddly, I could not find linked anywhere...oh well), on the veggies and grilled them over direct flame. Then, I wrapped them in a double layer of paper towels after a nice scorching. This is to remove the skins. Removing the skins doesn't remove the grilled taste at all. It simply removes a part of the pepper that some find hard to digest.

For the chicken seasoning, I used a fajita rub that I had in one of my grill books. I think it was in Smoke and Spice or one of my others....

This was a hit too. Way better than just grilling the chicken.

Remember not to forget some good salsa, beans and mexican rice to complete the meal. Fajitas are a crowd favorite and something no one ever thinks of for a party. Everyone always assumes hot dogs and hamburgers, but creating a party platter of fajitas would be very easy and a welcomed change.

I have yet to find a person who dislikes chicken fajitas. Mostly, I suspect, due to the fact that you can customize the meal to your taste. Provided with enough condiments like sour cream, salsa, mexican cheese, beans, rice, flour and/or corn tortillas, grilled veggies, chicken (or carne asada if you wish), tomatoes, cilantro, and...hmmm, is that everything ? I am sure there are a few other things.

The idea that they can spoon into their tortilla their own personal favs is much more pleasing and generous to your guests than a simple patty of ground beef.

I swear, those Mexicans really know what they were doing when they created these meals ! Add a Corona or Modelo and Bob's Yer Uncle.

2006-07-29T19:10:00.000-07:00

July 22, 2006.

Tri-tip.

This time I did tri-tip with a dry rub of my own making, actually a modified version of one I have used before but still, its my own. The reason: too many (mild) complaints about the dry rub I use being too spicy; so this time I reduced the amount of cayenne pepper and used a milder pepper (white). The result: magnifico !

I seared the tri-tip and then let it cook indirectly for about an hour with some russett potatoes. It turned out even more tasty than my tried and true "Al's famous tri-tip rub" !

I couldn't believe it. My guests loved it ! I really didn't pay that much attention and it turned out perfect. Of course, that is the beauty of tri-tip. It may be the most perfect cut of meat for grilling. Enough marbling to keep it from drying out, but not too much to force your attention and skill.

I will post the ingredients shortly.

AC 7-29-06

2006-07-17T16:33:00.000-07:00

July 9th. Parmesan breaded sea scallops.

Along with chicken, I tried another experiment with parmesan breaded sea scallops. Removed the muscle and used Reggiano Parmesan. The one thing I screwed up on was the breading. Either I didnt give it time to set or I didnt use enough olive oil. As the pictures sort of tell the story, they kind of fell apart on the grill.

Despite that, these were really delicious ! A definite dish worth re-visiting !

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2006-07-17T16:23:00.000-07:00

JULY 4TH. 2006. HOT DOGS AND HAMBURGERS !

Some remarked to me, do you really need a Weber 6 burner platinum series grill ?
I think this picture speaks for itself:

We did hot links and Red dogs from Costco. 2 kinds of burgers, those with Seranno peppers and those without. Those with peppers had a minor kick, but no seeds so they were fairly mild.

I also did Proscuitto wrapped shrimp but no pictures. These were an experiment as I have never done them before. They turned out wonderful. I have done bacon wrapped shrimp using thick hickory smoked bacon and that didnt turn out to well. You need a thin bacon slice. The proscuitto may be a little too thin but they were really tasty regardless.

I should have arranged the dogs and burgers into the shape of a flag for the 4th. Ah well, there is always next year.

Everything turned out fine. If you screw up burgers and dogs (and I have been places where the cook has done this...oi !) then I got no business blogging.

2006-07-17T16:09:00.000-07:00

July 1st. The City so nice, they named it twice.....and a slab of meat after it.

New York Steak. mmmmm, good.

The key to grilling a quality steak is dont ruin it, sear it and dont overcook it. well, 2 out of 3 aint bad, and although I cant get my grill as hot as they do at Mortons or Smith and Wollensky's, just a basic chardonnay salt and cracked black pepper rub; then a 500 degree plus grill for 15 minutes total and Bob's Yer Uncle.

We also had some grilled Zuchinni with a roasted pepper rub on it. Some white pepper and black salt for ***** and giggles.

Actually, this didnt turn out to well. Despite quality meat from a quality butcher, the steaks weren't that great. And a little too medium rare and just quite not enough medium. Another 3 - 4 minutes total would have done the trick.

Now I remember why I do so many tri-tips.

2006-07-17T16:03:00.000-07:00

June 24th. Pork Chops and Corn on the Cob.

Two chops were made with a mesquite marinade and 2 were made with a basic salt and pepper rub (unspoilt). The corn was nothing special, just soaked and grilled. White corn of course.

2006-06-18T21:34:00.000-07:00

June 18. Dia de los Padres.
I want my baby back, baby back, baby back, baby back ribs....I want my....

It's Fahzahs Day so it must me one thing; RIBS.

Today I used a modified Raichlen basic bar-be-cue rub; I added 1 tsp of mustard powder; split the paprika into 1/2 Sweet Hungarian and 1/2 Smoked Spanish Paprika; 2/3 of the pepper was white pepper; used Jurassic Salt instead of regular Kosher salt.

I also did not add any sauce like the mistake I made last time. Cooked low and slow at 250 degrees for 2.5 hours; mesquite and hickory wood; in the last 30 minutes I brushed them with some Bone Suckin Sauce (non Hot) to keep them moist (they appeared dry...but come to find out, I was wrong).

We had three BBQ sauces to choose from tonight. Some Kansas City Hickory Sauce from bar-be-cues galore, bone suckin sauce, and Sauce Kings Garlic and Habanero BBQ sauce; or to put it mildly, the sweet KC (ketchupy) sauce, the vinegary Carolina sauce, and the HOT stuff. (Sauce Kings is a local concoction I stumbled upon...delicious). These were added at the table.

In a word, these were the most perfect ribs I have ever made. The temp was constant, the smoke was good and evident in the ribs, they peeled off the bone just like they should and they were succulent. I started at 2:20 pm, took them off about 5:15 and ate about 5:40 pm.

2006-06-10T23:54:00.000-07:00

June 3rd. Family visiting. Requested the tri-tip specialty. Made one spicy and one sort of....well, also with same spice rub. Potatoes. F. Mclintocks Trail Camp Beans. (was there anything ever made that went better with tri-tip ?. corn. all-in-all a fabulous evening of food.

Used the leftovers to make a thai-steak like salad.

June 10th. Rosemary hamburgers and some hot dogs and hot links. This is the easiest recipe for turning ordinary hamburgers into something special for your guests. They may be expecting ground beef made into patties, but add some sauted onions and roasted garlic, crushed dried rosemary, tomato paste, Jamaican allspice, Jurassic salt and some fresh pepper and there you go.

The tomato paste mixed into the ground beef not only adds a lovely element but it also makes the grill marks jump off the burgers. Must be something about the sugar in the tomato paste and that chars a bit off the 500 degree grill bars on the Weber Platinum.

No wood this week. Pressed for time. World cup will do that.

2006-05-16T23:49:00.000-07:00

May 14th. The Day of the Moms.
RIBS. baby back. 3 racks. 2 hours on the grill. Bone Sucking Rib Rub. 2 sauces. Bone Sucking Sauce, hot and regular. A smoker filled with mesquite and hickory, with a smattering of alder. The sides were asparagus and spicy potatoes (oddly enough they had yukons this week, go figure).
a little over done because like an idiot, I couldnt resist putting them close to direct heat for the last 10 minutes and the ribs ended up a bit crispy but not tough.
Because they were slow cooked, smoked and indirectly heated at 225-275 for a couple of hours, they were tasty.

Here are a few pics:
Prep....bone sucking rib rub. A good one to use if you dont have the time to make your own, which you should always do....

The ribs get going. Sauce on the left, but not on the ribs for a long time. Remember not to put on the sauce until the very end. Advice I could have taken from myself.

Is this not a beautiful site:

Indirect smoking on a weber d6 platinum.

2006-05-09T10:45:00.000-07:00

Sunday, May 7th.

Standard Borracho Burgers. Recipe can be found in the wonderful and highly valuable Better Homes Grillin Cookbook. These burgers stand out from your regular grilled burgers, accentuated by crushed rosemary, tomato paste and a beer bath. I used ground sirloin and kept the grilling brief due to the lean meat.

Joining the burgers were spicy potatoes (recipe can be found in the same cookbook). Since our supermarket isn't carrying Yukon Gold Potatoes right now, I went with this new Ruby Gold product. It's a yellow potato with a red skin; virtually the same. This potato mix has many fans; most everyone enjoys the soft texture of the yukon golds combined with smoked Spanish paprika and thyme. As always, a sweet onion is sliced and strewn about the foil packet. Goes well with gilled steak and benefits from the smoke (mesquite today).

Rounding out the session was some grilled corn-on-the-cob, grilled directly. White corn of course, since yellow corn is not to be found around here anymore ?

I haven't found the hickory wood chunks in Lowes this year. I haven't checked Home Depot. Chunks obviously are better for longer smoking needs. The chips go quickly but are readily available everywhere.

2006-05-07T00:10:00.000-07:00

May 5th - Cinco De Mayo.

Tri-tip with grilled zuchinni and summer squash with peppercorn garlic roasted rustic italian bread.

The tri-tip was cooked medium, and since it was thick, some of the parts in the middle turned up medium rare with some of the parts near the ends were medium-well.

With the vegetables, we did the usual oil sprinkled and herbs de provence with some chardonnay-oak smoked salt. A few zuchinnis consisted of nothing more than smoked spanish paprika.

Bread on the top rack.

A little different, but good none-the-less.

2006-05-07T00:02:00.000-07:00

April 30th.

Today's menu was bbq chicken with grilled asparagus.
For the marinade, I used a store bought mesquite marinade. The asparagus was brushed with roasted pepper olive oil and sprinkled with jurassic salt with some herbs de provence.

The mesquite marinade worked pretty good for being store bought. The asparagus was great and not overcooked/overgrilled which can be easy to do and topped it with parmesan curls. I used mesquite wood in the smoker box.

2006-04-26T11:24:00.000-07:00

Because of all the rain we have had this year in CA, the grill season started late...late...late !
But for Easter, come hell or high water, it was time to uncover the que and fire up the burners and begin, in earnest, the 2006 Grill Season.

What is the 2006 Grill Season you ask ?

Well, football has a season, baseball has a season, hell, even seasons are seasons, so this is my personal place to list everything I make on my grill for this year.

This Easter's menu was:

Grilled tri-tip, 2 varieties of dry rub
1. basic bbq rub.
2. And my world famous "Al's tri tip rub", well not world famous (yet) but locally reknown.
Grilled yukon gold potatoes with sweet onions
Asparagus
bread

Since this was the inaugural opening day, so to speak, we started simple; with a tried and tested favorite: tri-tip a la "Al's tri-tip rub". I won't reveal the recipe, I may enter this in a contest someday, but suffice it to say, it contains a special blend of imported paprika and cayenne pepper, plus some other delicious additions. It's spicy hot (obviously, with the cayenne in there), and with the 10 or so people we had over, I made a non-spicy hot version as well. Can you guess which one went first.

First rule of eating here: everything gets spiced up. I love dry rubs, wet rubs, some marinades, home made bbq sauces. Very little if anything is store bought. Have you ever had home made soup ? How does that compare to a can of condensed soup ? Well, the same applies for bbq sauces and rubs.

A word to the wise: stay away from spice rubs in your local supermarket or even the ones your butcher uses. He may be a great guy, but those are unnecessarily loaded with salt and additives. Go out and buy some quality spices and make your own. Your guests will appreciate the difference.