Grilled Bacon

Ok. Not really grilled, but a new concept in bacon cooking. The lovely wife recently gave me a Weber Summit Grill, which is sort of the Land Rover of Grills. I've been using it pretty religiously, although mostly to cook the same things that I usually do. Its been a summer of comfort cooking, with little new thoughts. But today I did have one. And the idea was bacon. I am out here on Fire Island, and boy's one and two wanted bacon for breakfast. I am happy to cook the stuff, but had no desire to clean up the kitchen (or be yelled at for not cleaning up to kitchen) after woods. So I decided to try grilling the stuff. You can do this, and it works. But you do need a griddle, preferably with a drain hole, and a covered grill. I wish I had a photo of this, but my camera has fallen apart yet again. If anyone knows of an indestructible digital camera, please let me know. I admit I treat them badly.

EQUIPMENT YOU WILL NEED

Covered gas grill. Make sure the grease trap is empty and ready to take more grease!
Griddle, which will fit on the grill covered. If it has drainage holes, so much the better.

INGREDIENTS

Bacon (duh)

Light the grill, and make sure that the elements under the griddle are on high. You need to be able to cover the grill. Other elements should be off. Place bacon on griddle and cover (this really helps). Open in a few minutes and turn bacon. Remove when brown to paper towel covered plate. Spill grease into grill (yes it will flame a little, but if you spill where its not lit you should be fine) and repeat with rest of bacon. One pound of bacon makes less grease than one whole butterflied leg of lamb.

Your non grease filled house will thank me for this tip.

Summer Grilling Cookbook Worth Buying: "Grill It!" by Chris Schlesinger and John Willoughby

One of the interesting things about documenting most of the things that you cook is that you start to realize when you are repeating yourself.  Like last night, when I made leg of lamb for 20, just like I did around this time last year.  Its a good recipe, but variety is the spice of cooking, if not life itself.  So I was especially happy that the mother-in-law bought me Grill It!, the latest cookbook by grill masters Chris Schlesinger and John Willoughby.  I keep a beat up copy of their "The Thrill of the Grill" on my shelf in Fire Island and it is one of my favorite cookbooks ever.  

Grill It! is a glossy version of this book, with pretty pictures and easier to read instructions.  While not as encyclopedic, it is easy to read, and the photos (in the Penthouse style of food-porn; a little fuzzy but lots of detail) are quite good.  Last night I made their grilled mushrooms with bacon and Parmesan.  I can't give the recipe out exactly, but I can say that grilling mushrooms, then tossing them is a mix of crumbled bacon, grated parmesan, butter and salt is a good thing! There are a lot of grilled fish recipes, as well as traditional smoked meals such as pulled pork and leg of lamb (I am going to try their bone in smoked leg of lamb recipe in the next few weeks.  Perhaps the only thing I don't like is their snobbish view of gas: get over yourselves already.  

So, to your arsenal of grilling books, this is one I would definitely add.  Thank you Judy!

Gas Grill Cleaning 101

As Memorial Day approaches, its time to start getting ready for the summer. First step: clean the grill. Rather than sit there with a wire brush and a sweaty hand, why not let your gas grill clean itself? Simply clean out any obvious gunk within a gas grill, cover the grates with tinfoil, cover and place on "high" until the smoke stops. Then rub the grates with Crisco to season it. And you are done.

The photos above are from my grill on Fire Island: no brushes or any other cleaning devices were used in the making of this photo. The only thing is to remove the excess gunk beforehand or you will end up with a heck of a grease fire! Thanks to Saul and Dan for this tip.

ADD ON NOTE 6/4/08 --> PLEASE LOOK AT Dan's comment for some more tips on this technique. If you own a cheap grill, its important!!!

Grill Cleaning

This is a bit of an unusual post at this time of year, but I was cleaning up my grill one last time for the season and I realized I never posted this useful tidbit of information. I would like to thank Saul and Dan for telling me about this cleaning method. I would also like to apologize for not having a good "after" photo, but my Canon SD900 died at that moment, the result of a "lens error." I am not alone. I just bought a Panasonic. We'll see how well that one works.

Anyway, a clean grill is much more important than a clean mind for successful grilling. The easiest way to clean a gas grill is with aluminum foil. After cleaning off the grill quickly with a wire brush and (this is important) finding and cleaning out the obvious black gunk in the shelf under the grill, cover the grates with aluminum foil, cover the grill, and turn the grill on high. After a few minutes you will see smoke coming out of the grill. This is the grease burning off. The reason to clean somewhat beforehand is to limit this grease: it can cause a fire. The grill is clean when the smoke stops, which usually takes less than 15 minutes. Turn off the grill, remove the foil, and grease the grates with Crisco. A perfect clean grill with minimal work!

Roasted on the Grill Potatoes and Mushrooms

When I first started making this dish I received questions from the assembled mass of adults. If we were eating with the kids, they asked, how could we make a potato dish with mushrooms. Their tender little taste buds wouldn't allow it, I was told. My first reaction was that the children should learn to like mushrooms or suffer. Even I realized very quickly that this wasn't a great, or realistic, solution. So I thought about how I could make everyone happy. The recipe that follows is the result of this thinking.

Before working on making both kids and adults happy, I wanted to briefly talk about roasting vegetables in a pan on a grill. The basic principal here is that your grill can double as an oven and it is possible to roast vegetables while you grill meat. The most important thing to remember when doing this is that vegetables often take much longer to cook than meat: start them early!!!

INGREDIENTS

New Potatoes, 2 pounds, cut into 1/4" slices with the skin on
Whole mushrooms, cleaned
Tablespoon of fresh chopped garlic (I use a mini-prep)
Tablespoon of salt
3 tablespoons of olive oil
2 teaspoons of thyme

EQUIPMENT YOU WILL NEED

Grill with adjustable heating zones and cover
9 x 12 roasting pan (or something like it)
Aluminum foil

INSTRUCTIONS
Liberally coat the pan in oil. Add the potato slices and mushroom. Add the garlic, salt and thyme and mix around. Add still more oil and allow everything to get a bit coated. Cover with aluminum foil. While you should try to cover it reasonably tightly it will be important to remove and recover the dish so you can turn it while it cooks.

Preheat a grill such that the grill is as hot as it can get while still only being on low heat directly over the area where the vegetables will go (I have a Weber and keep the back two burners on low and the front on high).

Place the pan on the grill and cover the grill. The frill should be at least 450 degrees. Ignore for at least 10 minutes. After this, occasionally (every five minutes or so) open the grill, uncover the dish, and turn potatoes and mushrooms so they don't burn. Try to keep the potatoes on the bottom of the dish after turning so they brown somewhat. It takes about 40 minutes to cook the dish. It would take less time if you never opened the grill, but I was cooking meat during this time, and you probably will, too. Its ready when the potatoes are a bit brown and soft.

If you have children who don't like mushrooms, it is easy to separate the two vegetables. We did (see photo). They ate the potatoes. We ate both. Problem solved.

Whole Grilled Garlic

Grilled garlic tastes great, and there is no other vegetable easier to grill. Simply take a whole bulb of garlic, place on a hot grill, and cover. Don't worry as it burns, its only the skin. The actual cloves are softening and carmelizing. The garlic is ready when the cloves are soft to the touch.

Feeding Many: Grilled Leg of Lamb

Fire Island is starting to hit some form of peak in terms of number of people, with the weather good and the larger children still not shipped off to camp. For this reason, dinners can be quite large. Yesterday was one of those days, with about 16 adults and an equal number of kids (many of the "eat more than you can" size). Although we did make burgers and grilled portobello mushrooms (for the vegetarians), the main course was a butterflied whole leg of lamb. At about 7 pounds, the leg is large enough to feed a large number of people. However, it is also easy to prepare and cook. The result was a very successful main dish with only a moderate amount of grumbling from the cook.

There are three tricks for making lamb work. The first is a meat hammer. You don't need to pound the meat into oblivion, but it is important to try to make it all an even thickness. This makes cooking much simpler. The second is a dry rub. Although you vary the recipe I use to your own taste, the flavor imparted by the dry rub is extremely important to the meat. The third thing is a meat thermometer. Although you can cook lamb by feel, it is much easier to use a thermometer. I find that the meat is best when cooked to about 125 degrees and then allowed to sit for 5 to 10 minutes. Although this is a fourth thing, a little mini-prep (pictured) helps making a dry rub a snap.



INGREDIENTS

Whole butterflied leg of lamb (about 7 pounds). Trim off excess fat on top, but don't go nuts

RUB
Whole head of garlic, peeled
1 tablespoon of thyme
1 tablespoon of salt (or more)
lime juice from one lime
3 tablespoons of olive oil

EQUIPMENT YOU WILL NEED

Meat hammer
Mini-Chop
Thermometer
Grill (it should be about 500 degrees or so)



INSTRUCTIONS

Pound the meat until its is even in thickness and set aside.

Put the garlic in the mini chop and chop until it is quite fine but not liquid. Add the thyme, lime juice, salt and olive oil and briefly mix. Taste: it should be rather salty and the lime should be rather obvious. Add a little more salt if you are unsure. Rub both sides of meat with the mixture. Roll up the meat and place in a bag. Put in the refrigerator for at least 45 minutes and as much as all day.

Preheat the grill. Put the meat on (fatty side up) and cover the grill if you can. Let it mostly cook on that side and then flip. There can be some flame-up when the meat is turned because of the fat: reposition as necessary. Sometimes I flip it back: lamb is not designed for perfect grill marks! The lamb is ready when several thermometer reading are at 125 degrees. This actually gives you medium rare to medium meat after this large cut rests. I would not cook it higher than 130 degrees: it turns gray.

The meat is best sliced and served.

Grilled Versus Griddled Burgers

Since I bought my two sided indoor grill, I have been wondering whether the grill or griddle side would be better for cooking burgers, which are a staple in the MM household. Because we have been out at Fire Island on weekends, I have not had a chance to try out the indoor grill with hamburger meat until tonight.

I used hand formed patties from chuck which I bought at Ottomanelli's. Each patty was about four ounces and was indented a bit in the center with my finger so it would cook flat. The grill was preheated, the patties were salted and cooking began.

Although it is actually smokier to grill burgers than griddle them (see photo), they are somewhat easier to cook to the preferred doneness and, of course, have attractive griddle marks. The cast iron grill gets so hot that I would avoid cooking very thick patties on it unless I turned the heat down or had no problems with a cold center (which I DO NOT recommend for burgers) . Having said that, there really was a whole lot of smoke, and I have a pretty good fan on my stove and vent outside. I would not indoor stove top burger grilling unless you have good ventilation. If I didn't have great ventilation I would use the broiler or a regular griddle (which cooks faster because more surface area is exposed to the hot metal).

Beer Marinade: Easy as Beer

Those of you who know me know that I am not normally a fan of marinades for beef. For better cuts of meat, the marinade is simply a waste of time and effort. Pepper, salt heavily and place under high heat and you are done. Having said that, several summer favorites, including flank steak, hanger steak and London broil do benefit from being marinated. I had a chance to cook all three (and some chicken, which received the same treatment) during our "Fiesta" over Memorial Day Weekend.

Marinating tends to break done some of the more sinewy meats, such as flank steak, and makes them more tender. For very lean cuts, such as London broil, marinating makes the meat more moist and also makes controlling the doneness easier. I have seen non-marinated London broil go from "blue" to "black" in a minute or two. Although these cuts of meat are less expensive than classic steak cuts such as a porterhouse, they are often more flavorful and need no help with seasoning because they already have a great beef flavor. Because of this, marinating should be an aid to cooking in many instances; not a substitute for proper seasoning or sauce once the meat is cooked.

Beer is my favorite marinade. I usually add a half teaspoon plus of salt to each can of beer (it should taste like salty beer, not salt. Sometimes, I add half a squeezed lemon or lime to each can as well. I try to marinate for at least an hour, but will do it for as little as a half hour or as much as four. I dry the meat off and salt it prior to grilling: this allows it to have a proper char and adds flavor.

Don't get me wrong. There are recipes I love, such as Korean short ribs, that call for a complicated and full flavored marinade. Having said that, a simple marinade can really help a less expensive but flavorful cut of meat shine.

Vegetarian Feast!!

Ha ha. Just kidding. The burgers and dogs went on right after this photo was taken. It does look a little bit like cornucopia on the grill, though! Although I recently posted about grilling corn and eggplant, I thought I should put in my two cents on grilling tomatoes, onion and garlic as well.

Garlic is the easiest thing to grill, and is guaranteed to make everyone very happy. Simply take off the outermost layer of skin, leaving the stem and inner layer or two. Place on a hot grill (500 degrees) and cover if you can. Turn occasionally, and do not worry if the skin blackens: it will. The garlic is ready when the cloves are soft to the touch: fifteen or more minutes. After cooling, peel off skin to get to the cloves.

Tomatoes should be cut in half width-wise (like you were slicing a tomato normally, but just do it in half). Tomatoes can be lightly oiled, but if your grill grates are clean, this is not necessary. Place face down on the grill. Cover the grill if you can, and leave for at least 10 minutes. When the tomato is softened and the skin nearest the grill starts to burn, turn the tomato with a spatula. Cook on grill this way until the tomatoes are cooked, which often takes another five to 10 minutes. The burned skin can be peeled off when the cool.

Onions are cooked the same way as tomatoes, although it can take even longer. You can also quarter the onions and grill them on skewers. I find making onion rings leads to burned onions.

The important thing to remember is that vegetables take longer to cook than meat, and should be placed on the grill well before its time to cook. This is especially true, as many of them need to cleaned after to cooking and prior to eating.

Grilled Peppers

Grilled peppers taste great. Yes, you can buy "roasted" peppers in the specialty stores, and yes, given the price of fresh produce in New York City, it may even be cheaper than making them yourself. But fresh grilled peppers are easy to make and really do taste great. Impress your friends, have your spouse adore you even more, and have your children call you "Pepper God of the West Eighties"; its all good. All you need is either a grill and a pepper.

Preheat a grill to the highest heat possible. It is not necessary to cover it, but the area should be well ventilated. Place the peppers on the grill. Turn occasionally, until the peppers are black on all sides. Remove from heat and place in bowl. After the peppers cool, remove stem and seeds and peel off blackened skin.
I tend to like eating the peppers on the spot. However, they can be preserved in olive oil or an oil-vinegar dressing. They will keep refrigerated this way for several days.

Greetings From Fire Island: Roast Eggplant

I'm sorry I didn't write about this last night, but I spent the better part of the day at the South Side Hospital Emergency Room (part of the North Shore University Hospital Network), getting my shoulder put back in. They did a great job, but I do not recommend this to anyone! When the lovely wife and I finally made it back to Fire Island last night, we were treated to dinner by our friends. Although I didn't cook (I in fact, slept on the couch), I did help with the eggplant. One of the problems I have with grilling sliced eggplant is getting making sure that the slices are nice and brown on the outside and cooked on the inside. Often, I end up with some burned pieces and some raw ones. Sort of a bell shaped curve of eggplant. This is especially painful if I am cooking for lots of people.

Whole eggplant is actually pretty easy to grill. After the eggplant is completed, it can be salted a bit and eaten as is or used in another dish: such as making baba ganoush. More on that later. If your home, you can actually do the same thing by steaming the eggplant. Although you lose some of the "grill" flavor, its a great way to make a lot of eggplant fast.

INGREDIENTS

Whole, medium sized eggplant(s) (not to small or overly huge)

EQUIPMENT YOU WILL NEED

Grill with cover (such as a Weber)

INSTRUCTIONS

Using a fork, prick holes in the eggplant (see photo for the excellent holes made by Dan). This will stop the thing from exploding like popcorn. Place on extremely hot grill (500 degrees is good). Cover grill. Turn every few minutes or so. Don't worry if the skin burns: it will. The eggplants usually cook in about 15 minutes. You should be able to easily stick a skewer through them. Take them off the grill and let them cool. Peel off the skin (which, if burned a little, will come right off). Prepare as you want.