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!

Monday, February 15, 2010

Valentine's Flay Triple Play

Bobby Flay Triple Play for Valentine's Day. This is Grilled Thick-Cut Ribeye from Boy Gets Grill page 218. Cabernet-Shallot Reduction sauce to go on the steak from Grill It! page 33. And from the Mesa Grill Cookbook, page 193, Twice-Baked Potatoes. Go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aW9f1oW5uuE to see the video of this menu! I started off with the Cabernet-Shallot sauce by chopping the shallots and grilling them in my big iron skillet with olive oil. Once they started getting brown, I poured in about 2/3 bottle of Black Opel Cabernet. Remember Bobby's rule is that you can't cook with wine that is not good enough to drink. The Black Opel is not expensive, but it came at #2 in a taste test last year held by The Tennessean newspaper - so I used it for the reduction sauce and by the glass. I let the red wine sauce simmer down while I put on the Ribeyes. The steak was brushed with canola oil and seasons with just kosher salt and ground pepper. The potatoes were baked ahead of time, bit the all the potato inside was scooped out. I mixed the potato with milk, butter, sour cream and chopped chives until it was like mashed potatoes - then I spooned it all back into the potato skins with cheese and baked them again on the grill. When the sauce had reduced down to a thick consistency, I poured it from the skillet into a small pan, but I left some of the sauce in the skillet. The final trick was that I took the steaks off the grill grates and put them in the skillet with the remaining sauce. I turned up the heat and allowed the Cabernet-Shallot sauce top sear into the meat. Watch the video and you will see the whole process!

Dessert? Dorothy's made-from-scratch Classic Genoise with Chocolate Ganache! In other words a great chocolate cake. 

With dinner and with the cake we had a wine from Tim Miles' Valentine's Day recommendation list: Layer Cake Shiraz. Tim said it was "100% Australian Shiraz brimming with Raspberry fruit and a long layered finish. It's a great choice with dark chocolate or fondue." He was right - Genoise with Chocolate Ganache and a wine called Layer Cake! Perfect!


Watch the video @ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aW9f1oW5uuE 
Paul

2 comments:

Unknown said...

I'm so impressed that you do this every day. I've just discovered your blog but will be back.

Inspired by eRecipeCards said...

great meal, great post... keep having fun!