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, June 21, 2011

The Big Green Egg

For the first 100 consecutive days of 2010, I grilled a different Bobby Flay recipe and reported on the results here on BobbyFlayEveryday (you can view all 100 days and more in the Blog Archive of this blog which is located on the right side of the screen). On January 7, 2010, I grilled Bobby's Rib-Eye with Balsamic-Rosemary Butter (page 26 of Grill It!). On Father's Day 2011, I recreated this great steak recipe - but this time I grilled the steaks, sausage and twice-baked potatoes on my Father's Day present!
Dorothy surprised me with The Big Green Egg! I always wanted one because its a grill but its also a smoker. My original grill, seen in the photo, is a gas grill with a direct gas line hook-up - there are no canisters to continuously change out. I probably would never have made it 100 consecutive days of grilling last year if it were not for the convenience of the fast gas grill start. So now the debate can start in ernest - which is better grilling with gas or over coal. My father had a charcoal grill as I was growing up and he was an expert. He would grill both beef and chicken for the same meal and called it "Hoof & Feather." I must admit that nothing really ever beats a steak over coal. Bobby Flay's opinion, from several of his books, is that you can add flavor to the food that is cooked over gas so that in the end you have the flavor that you would have gotten with charcoal. I think that is true to a point - but nothing really ever beats a steak over coal.
Here is the inaugural lighting of the new Big Green Egg. The Egg weighs a ton. Its is completely ceramic. The airflow vent in the bottom is strategically placed under the fire box where the coal is placed. And this is not just any charcoal - its lump hardwood with no fillers like sawdust. Under no circumstances are you to use lighter fluid to start a charcoal fire. Lighter fluid is toxic and will make the smoke you produce and the food you grill take on a petroleum smell - you don't want that so use fire starters as shown here.
The advantage of gas over coal is the start up time - but let me tell you the Egg was up to hot temperature in no time and the coals were glowing red within less than 10 minutes. That is a little slower but not that much. I added wood chips that had been soaking about one hour. I found what I wanted: Wood Chips from old Jack Daniels whisky barrels! You can use wood chips on a gas grill if you use a smoker box. I think that is probably more trouble than its worth - but these chips in the hardwood coal were terrific!
The Egg got up and smoking within seconds of adding the Wood Chips.
 Then in went two Rib-Eyes, a New York Strip, some summer sausage and the twice-baked potatoes.
I also fired up the original gas grill (didn't want it to fell left out) and used it to prepare some fresh spinach and green beans...
The first taste of a high quality steak, grilled over whisky infused wood chips and hardwood coal brought back so many memories.
I will grill steak again over gas some day - but not for a while. Tonight, I am going to use the Big Green Egg's ceramic interior plate and smoke some Baby Back Ribs! This could be serious. If you don't hear from me for a while, please send in a rescue team.


Remember that grilling is more than preparing food. Its relaxing, its time with family, its your heritage and childhood memories. So as Bobby would say - Go Grill It! Paul

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

so tell me, are you hooked on the egg? has it changed your life?!