Welcome to Bobby Flay Everyday!

I am not an expert. I have never even taken a class. I have no formal training - but I love to grill. I love the food off the grill and I just like the idea, the fun and the relaxation of grilling. So naturally Bobby Flay is a hero. I have his books, I watch his shows and I try out his recipes. So my idea is to grill one of Bobby's grilling recommendations everyday and see how it goes. Bobby Flay Everyday!

The idea to grill and blog is not original. Julie Powell wrote a blog that became a book and then a movie when she cooked all 524 recipes from Julia Child's cookbook Mastering the Art of French Cooking. But this is not French Cooking - this is backyard, after work, tailgate, American male grilling. I grill outside in a man-cave in every kind of weather. There is no "grilling season" for me - its everyday, year-round. We will skip around through Bobby's books and TV shows and grill what we like. But grilling is more than food, its an experience - so we will also report on what music we listened to or what ball game was on while we were grilling. We will keep track of what we were drinking during the grilling and later with the food. I'll try to figure what went wrong when we fall short of Bobby's perfection and pass on any tips I know about or discover along the way. Maybe it will give others some ideas as well.

The photo is of me and two of my brother-in-laws roasting the Thanksgiving turkey on the grill last year. That's me on the far right. In real life I am a college professor and pilot. I have written 12 books, but they were all about flying - here we write about grilling. We write about Bobby Flay Everyday!

Sunday, January 10, 2010

Pork Chops and Apples?



This was the perfect dinner for a winter night. I got this recipe, not from a Bobby Flay grill book, but from a Bobby Flay TV show – also called Grill It! On the show Bobby invites guest grillers to grill the same main ingredient as he does, but in a different way. One ingredient – two different methods. The show I got this from was for Pork Chops, but we loved it because it also features apples. As you can see, I grilled two butterfly cut pork chops, then folded them over with a grilled apple filling together with sliced grilled apples. The chopped apples where placed in a pan together with honey, molasass, sugar, and chipotle and allowed to simmer on the grill until tender. The slices apples were grilled directly on the grill grates then brushed with honey and cinnamon. And over the whole thing I prepared chopped pecans that had simmered in sugar, cinnamon and vanilla extract that we brought back from Mexico. It all came together and was perfect for a dinner by the fire.

Wisdom of the Grill. You can grill just about any fruit, but it does not take long. Grilling will bring out the flavors but care must be taken not tow over-cook or over-char the fruit. Fruit on the grill also is an opportunity for glazes to be brushed on the fruit for extra and sometimes unexpected flavor.

What was on? The college football season officially ended when MTSU won the New Orleans Bowl. The NFL season officially ended when the Titans were eliminated, but I still had the playoffs on. At this point I am routing for nobody, but routing against several. Dorothy has completely forgotten about it and is planning for the NFL draft in April.

What to Drink? We just keep going back to Cline Cellars because it is just so good and its inexpensive. This was Zinfandel – never to be confused with White Zinfandel. WZ is really just cool aid for ladies-who-lunch and don’t know anything about wine. None will be kept in our house. Now I know that on this blog we have discussed wine and food pairing, but you should not get the wrong idea. We are not wine snobs – we just like all the differences in what looks like the same liquid and the experience. When I open a bottle, I want to spend a little time thinking about all the people that labored for that bottle. When I taste the wine I can see the vineyard – I guess that is why we like to go to the actual vineyards so we can remember and picture where the wine has come from. It takes a lot of people and a lot of knowledge to bring you a bottle of wine. If your wine is several years old, then undoubtedly some of the people that made the wine possible have passed away – so you are drinking their life’s work, their legacy.  Hopefully they passed on their craft before they left us so their knowledge will extend to the next vintage and beyond. Never drink wine because you are thirsty – we have soda pop and bottled water for that – no you drink wine to make your food that much better and to remember those who brought it to you.

Although it is still below freezing the weather does show gradual signs of getting back to normal and a thaw. I think I’m going to grill up something really different tomorrow to celebrate!


Paul




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