Kobe Beef (Wagyu) Sliders (page 310)

Very simple and very good.  I used red onion instead of shallots.

Tacos (p. ?? can't find the book)

Hi Everybody,

We had the tacos for dinner last night. This may or may not count because it's what we eat every night that we have people over (ask Stephanie, Robbie, Jack, Andrea, Steve, Audrey, Dorothee, or Evan for confirmation). However we cavemanned the steak so I vote that it counts. I'm pretty sure Jess and Britt will never cook steak any other way! Other than that it was just a bunch of peppers sweet and hot, onions, and cilantro. We (notice how I'm pretending like I'm part of this) always grill a bunch of tomatillos when we are having this dish. Cut them up with lime, cilantro, habaneros and olive oil and you've got the best sauce/salsa going!

I'm so proud to say that Jack is downing habaneros these days like a champ.

Ellie

Tuscan Chicken Under (in) a Brick (stainless steel pan)

Audrey and I are now proud owners of a Weber 22.5" Gold Kettle grill, 1 bag of natural wood charcoal, and a chimney starter. We attempted, as our first foray, the Tuscan Chicken Under a Brick. We made the herb rub, which went off without a hitch, and I spatchcocked the chicken, as is often done in situations such as these. The inaugural grill lighting was executed while singing the "Fanfare for the Common Man", as is traditional .

Sadly, there there is little other good news to report.

As soon as I turned over the chimney to dump the hot coals, at least half of the coals fell through the grate to the bottom of the grill, leaving but a few coals remaining on which to grill, glowing valiantly, but huddled in a pathetic heap braced against the howling wind. Not surprisingly, the chicken got off to a good start on the few hot coals, but did not pa. Because we had plans that prevented re-stoking the fire and trying again, I put the chicken in the stainless steel pan that I had been using for the brick, and finished it on the stove.

In the end, the chicken was actually quite tasty. But...I don't think it is exactly what Steve Raichlen had in mind.

SALT!! Page 363

We are trying Francis Mallman's Salt-Roasted Chicken tonight.  It looks like we are grilling a snowball.  It is covered in THREE BOXES of Kosher salt.  "One of the coolest dishes on Planet Barbecue"  We will publish pictures and a video of us "cracking open the smoky golden salt crust at tableside."

Go Pack Go!

OK.   That did not work very well.  The recipe calls for 1.25 to 1.5 hrs.  Ours took almost twice that time.  I think the problem was we did not use the thermometer he calls for.  Don't skip that.  Without it there is no way to test if it is done other than to bring it out of the grill and break up the crust which is what we did.  Internal temp was only about 140 so back it went without some of the salt.  In the end, I just took it out of the salt dish and put it in the oven for 20 minutes or so.

The taste is good and it is nice and moist but I would say it is not worth the trouble.  Kathie took some video footage but I can't figure out how to attach.  sorry


 

Lamb with Garlic and Rosemary instead of Mint from Kenya Page 207

We used the butterflied leg of lamb cooked on indirect heat rather than bone in on the spit.  I also substituted rosemary for the mint in the rub and it was excellent.  Em had made pear ginger chutney which was really good.  Highly recommended.

Mrs. Grill'n adds:  For Christmas, Jack and Andrea found a Barbecue Cookbook by the same author as Planet Barbecue, but this one features only sauces, rubs, and marinades that are good for grilling.  The chutney I used was from page 271, Ginger-Pear Chutney.  I skipped the raisins, and would say that the walnuts are also not crucial.  It is quite hot, and doesn't need to be quite that hot, so unless you love heat in your food, dial down the hot pepper flakes and chili powder.  The lemon gets candied and is delicious.

Apostles on Horseback page 502

I did not harvest the scallops myself like the two Aussies in the picture.  The recipe is pretty easy to make and yum.  Lots of lime in the marinade.  They are wrapped in thick sliced bacon.  The challenge is how to get the bacon cooked.  It really does not have enough time before the scallops are done.  Maybe cook a little in the fry pan ahead of time?  ideas?  anyone listening?

We did take a few pictures but not ready to post yet.

Caveman T-Bones with Hellfire Hot Sauce (p. 151)

Hi Everyone!

The layout of this post is a bit mysterious to me, so apologies if it comes out strangely. We made the caveman t-bones the other night for dinner. This is the recipe that involves sticking the steaks directly on to the charcoal. None of this wimpy grate business. After the steak comes off ("shaking each to dislodge any embers") you stick a cast iron pan into the coals and make an awesome sauce of jalapenos, garlic, and cilantro. Jess, being Jess, substituted half habaneros, but strangely it wasn't burn your mouth of hot, just deliciously spicy.

The whole dish turned out really great, and it looked so cool in the making! My favorite part was the peppers and cilantro sizzling in the cast iron pan (see the picture above).

Also be sure to notice Jess wielding the steak like a caveman, and Tennie desperately hoping he drops it!

The whole project sounds like fun, I can't wait to hear what everyone else makes. Thanks again to Mom and Dad!

Ellie

intro to Global Grilln

Hi All,

Thanks for the invitation! Happy New Year! Our first entry is a movie. Here's the link!

http://www.xtranormal.com/watch/8214133/

Pics of the inaugural meal

Ga Nuong La Chanh - a Vietnamese recipe from Planet BBQ (page 386)

Pictures of the new Weber and inaugural meal

Dad pouring charcoal in the new grill.

The beautiful

table with our giant

christmas tree in the background.

Dad and Uncle Mark with the new Weber.

Notice Mark's lack of shoes.

Grill'n at Hawthorne Place

Emily, Charlie, Roy and Mark were at Jack and Julie's house for Christmas week.  Mary and Uli were there along with Zack, Dorothee and Evan.  Grammy, Jack, Julie, Luke and Tracy and their exchange student Johnathan made for a full house!  Of course we grilled up a storm and had loads of fun and good food.  The first night we grilled butterflied leg of lamb on Jack's gas grill (oops).  Seasoned with toasted coriander, black pepper and cloves it was yum.  Julie had bought two legs so we cut up the other one and put it in a curry sauce which was also very tasty.  Em made her yogurt, tomato, cucumber mix called...?  which goes great with the curry and helps to cut the heat.  What else did we have?  Someone help.  nan bread and...?

Second night was salmon.  We had two huge fillets so Jack did one in the oven with slices of lemon, onion and fresh rosemary.  It was fantastic!  The other we did out of Planet Barbecue.  Salmon Glazed with Belgian Cherry Beer - Page 428-429.  I just want to go on record as not being a fan of drinking Belgian Cherry Beer but as the base for the glaze in this recipe it was excellent.  I followed the recipe except that I used the zester for the orange and the garlic press for the garlic so both were cut smaller than the recipe calls for.  It was ok.  I also boiled the glaze longer than the recipe calls for.  That may be because I had doubled it.  Anyway, it came out great - it would have been even better if we had done it on a charcoal grill, but...

Christmas dinner was pork loin roast done in the oven.  Mary had a great recipe which I will let her tell about.  J&J had gone to Julie's family celebration so we were left trying to navigate in her kitchen without the captain on the bridge.  Pandemonium!!  But we got it done and the meal was wonderful especially with the cranberry relish that Julie left behind by accident.    It went perfectly with the pork.

Sunday was spaghetti so no grill'n.

Monday was one of my favorite meals:  Shrimp marinated in dill, garlic, olive oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper and grilled on skewers and steaks rubbed with ground pepper and coffee beans and some other spices thrown in for good measure.  Sounds like the pepper/coffee steaks are Rob and Steph's favorite too! 

Tuesday the Milwaukeans went out to an Afghan restaurant in Bethesda with the O'Keefes so we left the rest of the gang to fend for themselves and Julie made a yum potato soup. 

Wednesday, Steve and Audrey (and Ginger) came for the night.  I couldn't stand it any longer so I went out and bought Jack a Weber!  He lit it up that night while everyone stood around shivering and singing reveille.  (I was barefoot and not sure what all the shivering was about since it was at least 40 degrees out.)  Tracy will post some pictures. 

The inaugural meal was a huge success.  It was Ga Nuong La Chanh - a Vietnamese recipe from Planet BBQ (page 386) involving chicken grilled in basil leaves.  You are supposed to use lemon leaves but Whole Foods was fresh out of them.  On the basil front, they were AOK so we went with basil.  I'll let others comment on it but I thought it was great.  We had way too much chicken so we did some of the boneless, skinless thighs whole after marinating in the sauce.  Both the wrapped pieces and the whole pieces were good.  Don't skip the dipping sauce which was good.  Someone try it with fresh chili peppers.  I used dried and I am not sure that was right.  Julie picked out some great side dishes that went perfectly with the chicken.    Maybe she will post the recipes.

Check out this web site...  http://www.rocklands.com/  John lives in J&J's neighborhood.  We went to his restaurant for lunch two of the days we were in D.C.  MMMMMMM is all I can say about that.  The ribs were perfect.  I am hoping to go to the pig roast John puts on for the neighborhood every October.

Two other non-grill'n related highlights were Grammy taking us all to Oklahoma at the Arena Stage.  She had been to see the original run in NY back in 1943!  Uncle Jeff played base in the pit orchestra for this showing.  It was excellent.  The other highlight was tour of the Library of Congress arranged by Jack.   Well worth the time if you have not been there.

All in all it was a wonderful week.

Anniversary Dinner!

First of all, thanks to Mark for inviting us to contribute to this blog! We are so excited to be a part of what I imagine is the only blog that chronicles the grilling of both small and large animals (and vegetables if we must) around the world!

It was Steph and my first anniversary yesterday and we had a backyard charcoal grill on the Hawaiian coast all to ourselves. We could hear the waves of the Pacific Ocean right outside our house as we lit the grill. Having our hearts set on trying the coffee/pepper encrusted steaks, we went back to The Art of Grilling for this recipe. It is simple, with New York Strip steaks, covered in coarsely ground black pepper and coffee, grilled medium rare. We thought the added touch of using Kona coffee, hand processed from right around the corner was pretty awesome. Unfortunately, I'll have to add the pictures later, but suffice it to say, it was the perfect anniversary dinner.

We know we set the bar high for Kona coffee-encrusted steaks on the waterfront in Hawaii, but when you set the bar high, interesting things happen... Can't wait to see what else the family comes up with!