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!

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Muffuletta

This sandwich recipe originated in New Orleans in 1906 - Bobby Flay updated it and put it in Grill It! page 66. This is Grilled Chicken "Muffuletta" Sandwich with Spicy Olive Relish. I started with chicken breasts from Tag'z Five Star Meats. As usual the chicken from Tag'z is the largest and best quality anywhere. The olive relish was quick and easy. I chopped up red peppers, yellow peppers, serrano chilies and a red onion and put them on a pan to cook on the grill. Meanwhile, I cut up green olives, garlic, parsley, salt and pepper and mixed all that together with red wine vinegar and olive oil. So I had a hot portion on the grill and a cool portion in a separate pan. I grilled the chicken as usual with olive oil, kosher salt and ground pepper.  When the chicken was almost done, I toasted a hero roll on an upper grate of the grill and put provolone cheese on the chicken and another slice on the roll. When the chicken came off the grill, the cheese has melted so I put both the hot and cool parts of the relish together and spooned it all over the chicken. It was messy, but really good. I grilled a "stop light" of peppers (red, yellow and green) as a side dish and we were ready to go!

Weather Report. Blowing snow flurries continue to fall, but no more accumulation is expected. Instead it just got colder. I wonder sometimes how it will be to grill in the summer again. I have a friend named Don Culp. He is known as Captain Culp because he was once an airline captain for Transcontinental and Western Airlines (TWA before it was known as Trans World Airlines). Captain Culp is in his 90s now and does not fly anymore, but when he was in his 70s he flew rings around 20-year-old flight instructors. He would not allow any complaints about the weather, especially hot weather. As he walked out to the airplane, in 90+ degree heat, to give another flight test he would say "Its better than blowing snow!" Which meant you could fly in the heat, but you probably couldn't fly in blowing snow, so stop complaining and start flying. Today we had blowing snow - which reminded me of Captain Culp which reminded me of the heat of the summer which reminded me that I won't always be grilling in the snow!

But until the 90+ degree heat is back - we keep grilling - even in blowing snow.
Paul 

No comments: