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

Chefmakers at Sea

The dish in the front is Spring Onion and Herb Orzo, then clockwise you see Chicken Cordon Bleu with ham, Chicken Cordon Bleu without ham, Mahogany Chicken Wings and Mustard Basted Chicken with Rosemary Lemon Chicken thighs. That is a lot of chicken! Its all from a class called "All About Chicken" from Chefmakers Cooking Academy. Oh yes, there is one more unique thing you should know. All these Chicken meals were prepared on Royal Caribbean's Freedom of the Seas sailing in the Atlantic ocean somewhere between Port Canaveral and the Virgin Islands.

Royal Caribbean Cruises are known for there excellent dining, so why would we be cooking ourselves? Well it was very informative and a lot of fun. We ended up taking three different classes at sea from Chefmakers, but specifically from Drew Closs.

This was as far away from grilling as you can get. Not only were we 2,000 miles from my home grill, the ship does not allow any open flame. So no charcoal and no gas grilling allowed. Nevertheless, some of the tricks and techniques we learned will be get back on the grill!

These chicken wings were baked in one of the industrial convection ovens of the Chops Grille onboard the ship - but the same process can be used with indirect heat on the grill.

On another day, in another class we made Manicotti. We cooked the pasta in saute pans instead of boiling. They did not all make it to the table when we started practicing tossing and flipping the pasta in the pans

On another day we made vegetable soup - but it was really a Knife Skills class. We just made lunch from all we learned to cut (planks to strips, strips to dice). 

You should check out the Chefmakers website at www.chefmakeratsea.com and think about taking a class the next time you can't see land in any direction!

Winter Solstice Supper

It had been 350 years since a total lunar eclipse took place on the day of the Winter Solstice. To commemorate the two Heavenly events taking place at the same time, we celebrated by bringing two Earthly events together at the same time: Grilling and Baking! 


Solstice means "Sun Standing Still." Each fall the Sun crosses the sky at a slightly lower angle every day. Then on one particular day, the Winter Solstice, the Sun stops getting lower. It holds its lowest position as it across the sky for a day. The next day and every day thereafter, the Sun starts to increase its path-angle across the sky until it stops again at its highest point - that happens on the Summer Solstice. So we grill in the cold for the Winter Solstice and we grill in the heat for the Summer Solstice - and we try to grill every other day in between. 

It was cloudy in Tennessee for the Eclipse/Solstice, so try as I might, there was no sightings from beside the grill. But you can see a foil covered pork roast over low heat on the grill. 


The idea of a Winter Solstice Supper came from Dorothy's friends in Lincolnton, Maine at the Saltwater Farm. Dorothy took a baking class overlooking the rocky Maine coastline there last summer and I have never eaten better since. We wish we lived closer so we could participate more in Saltwater's "Farm to Table" movement - but we follow what they are doing there and for the Solstice we decided to grill-bake our version of what Saltwater Farms was serving for their Winter Solstice Supper - a Grilled/Baked Pork Pie! Please visit the Saltwater Farms site and you will see what we mean! http://www.saltwaterfarm.com/

First I took a pork roast and covered it with Canola Oil, coarse Kosher salt, ground peppercorns and oregano. I rolled the roast up in foil, fired up the grill and slow roasted the pork for about two hours. In the last half hour I took the roast from the foil and put it right on the grill grates. I also grilled some sweet Italian Sausage!

The pork roast came off the grill tender and juicy. This could have been the entire meal right here, but that is when Dorothy brought her baking "A" game. Butter, chopped onion, slices carrots and fresh sage leaves went into a saute pan and brought to a sizzle.

To this Dorothy added chicken stock and cream - and everything simmered and reduced. Meanwhile. Dorothy prepared the dough, let the dough rise in front of the fireplace and later rolled it out.

I chopped the pork roast and Italian sausage into chucks and everything went into the baking pan. Rolled dough on the bottom, followed by the pork, the sausage, the onion/carrot/sage cream and shredded cheddar cheese!

Then the top crust-dough went on, vents sliced and butter brushed.

Into the oven - maybe 45 minutes - then perfection!

It was cold outside (maybe not cold by Maine standards), but it was warm inside because of this perfect winter evening collaboration - the best of both worlds Grilling & Baking!

We opened a bottle of Sterling Vintner's Collection Cabernet Sauvignon. We visited the Sterling Vineyards in California and rode the tram up the hill to the winery once. But that was 1988 - we have been Sterling fans ever since and always have a bottle on hand. The label said this Cab would go well with roasted pork and mellow cheeses - that sounded exactly like our menu. It was the perfect wine for our perfect collaboration! Please check out their website and plan to go ride the tram to Sterling someday: http://www.sterlingvineyards.com/age_gateway 

Hope your Winter Solstice Supper was as memorable as ours. With 'Farm to Table' from Maine, wine from California, and Grill/Baking from Tennessee, the Sun, Moon and Stars seemed to all align. Happy Celestial Holidays - Paul 

First Snow/Grill of the season!

We don't get much snow in Tennessee, but when we do the locals sort of freak out. They buy all the milk at the grocery store, close schools and prove that they don't know how to drive on ice and snow. I can joke about Tennesseans and the snow, because I am one. So when you are snowed in and have no place to go - to me that is the perfect invitation to start grilling. I always say that there is no "grilling season" unless you mean every season. You should never put away the grill - instead get your coat and stand a little closer to the fire. 

This is Grill Fire & Ice! Get the fire going and the snow will just get out of the way. In this case the snow got out of the way for Bobby Flay's Turkey Cobb Burger from page 69 of Bobby's Burgers, Fries and Shakes book. The snow does not get out of the way of your wine glass - but the snow is a great wine cooler!

I started with 97% fat free ground turkey and formed it into patties. I treat ground turkey burgers the same as I would ground beef burgers. Don't add a bunch of stuff to the meat when making the patties. If you start adding onions, chopped peppers, tomatoes, etc then pretty soon you are not making burgers, you are making meat loaf instead - these are char-grilled burgers, not meat loaf with some kind of tomato sauce slathered over the top! Form the patties and press a crater in one side, then season with coarse kosher salt and ground peppercorns. What's the crater for? That is one of Bobby Flay's best tips. If you push down a crater in the center of the patty then when it plumps up on the grill it will return to the proper burger shape.  Without the crater the burger will puff up in the middle and look like a flying saucer. Now there is nothing wrong with a flying saucer burger, but some lesser grillers have a tendency to press down on the burger to make it flat. When they do this they squeeze out all the flavorful juices leaving you with dry, tasteless burgers. This is why one of the Commandments of the Grill is: thou shalt not press down on a burger with a spatula. Before these turkey burgers hit the grill I brushed on some Canola Oil and I did sprinkle on some basil that I had been saving since growing it last summer. 

Canola or Olive Oil on grill meats? The best is Canola because it flames up at a much hotter temperature than Olive Oil. If you use Olive Oil the extreme heat of the grill will cause flare ups that can overly char the meat and gives a burnt (not smoked) flavor. A second Commandment of the Grill that is in use here is: Thou shalt turn a burger on the grill once and only once. Flipping burgers sounds like what teenagers do for a part time job - this is grown-up grilling not kids stuff. Turning the burger more than once just is inviting the juices to leave your burger and asking for a shoe-leather consistency. This Commandment goes for steaks as well. After the burger turn, I added Pepper-Jack cheese to the burgers and covered them with a pan - another terrific Bobby Flay tip. Use a pan over the burgers to melt the cheese. You can't have partially melted cheese on a burger - its just not done. So get a pan that is deep enough to cover the burgers without touching the burgers. Let the heat from the grill get caught in the pan so that the burger gets heat from all sides - especially the top side where the cheese is. Check out this fully melted cheese under the pan!

When the burgers came off the grill, we topped them with the ingredients that made this a "cobb" burger: tomato, bacon slices, avocado, and romaine lettuce with a dressing of red wine vinegar, lemon juice, Dijon mustard and Worcestershire sauce. On the side we prepared Bobby Flay's Mesa Grill Potato Salad - you can find that recipe on page 225 of Boy Meets Grill.    

Once again we proved that no matter if its sunny and 90 degrees or snowing and 12 - its always the right time to fire up the grill! Happy Holidays and Grill! Grill! Grill! Paul

Apple Sage Thanksgiving Turkey

From Bobby Flay's television show "Boy Meets Grill" this is an Apple Sage glazed turkey! We had a big crowd coming over so I got a big bird. I got this one from Tag'z Five Star Meats and it weighed in at about 15 pounds. It all started the day before when I prepared the glaze. I put the cast iron skillet over the grill and seared some chopped red onions, garlic and a serrano chili. Meanwhile, I cored and peeled four Granny Smith apples and chopped them into small chunks. Then all the grilled onions, chili, garlic, and apples went into a large pot together with apple cider vinegar, apple juice, brown sugar, some molasses and (I couldn't resist) a pour of Jack Daniels old number 7.

The pot went over the grill and allowed to simmer and reduce for about 20 minutes. The smell was terrific! The apples turned golden brown and then I added the Sage. After coming off the grill and cooling, I used the food processor to produce the puree glaze. I stored the glaze in the fridge until the next morning - Thanksgiving Day. 

Wisdom of the Grill. Here is another great Bobby Flay trick. I rotated the turkey over the grill for about three hours, but I placed a metal pan under the turkey. During the three hours I kept the pan filled with liquids - alternating water, chicken broth and apple juice. The liquid would come to a boil and steam rose up and continuously basted the turkey from below.

You can see the flame curling around the pan and the chicken broth in a rolling boil. This kept the turkey moist and enhanced the flavor even more. As the turkey turned for the last our, I basted with the Apple Sage glaze. During the final 30 minutes or so, I removed the pan and let the bird turn over a direct flame - the glaze carmelized and this gave the turkey a crust on the skin but without drying out the inside.  I was looking for an internal temperature of 160 degrees, but like all meats its best to bring them off the grill and let them stand for several minutes before carving. I let the turkey reach about 157 degrees before I took it off the grill. I knew the temp would continue to rise a little even after coming off - that insured that I got the best temp without overshooting and drying it out. As you know dry turkey is not good - even though we have all endured it before!

The turkey carving must be just as strategic as the turkey grilling. Rule 1: Don't use an electric knife. Use a regular knife that is very sharp. Cut away the legs and wings first then slice the breasts. Carve straight down from either side of the breast bone all the way through. Rule 2: Don't shave off the turkey breast diagonally into thin slices. If you do that only the top piece will have any of the skin. Why go to all that trouble to glaze the turkey for hours only to have glaze on one piece? Instead, with the turkey breast carved off in one large piece, you can cut across and get glaze-skin in every piece:

Check that out. The legs and wings on the right. The properly carved turkey breast on the left with glaze on every slice!

What to drink? The 2010 Georges Dubceuf Beaujolais Nouveau of course. I went to Tim's Premium Wines and got three bottles. I have gotten three bottles every year a decade. Here is the collection going back to 2002.

Of the three bottle each year, we give one to my father. We drink one with the turkey. We save one for the collection. To be honest it is far from the best wine I ever drank, but I just like the story. The "nouveau" means "new." This is the newest wine of the year. This wine was still grapes growing in France just last August. Every year this wine is blessed by the Pope and then FedEx flies only a limited number of cases around the world. There are parties in Japan to mark the arrival of the year's Nouveau. Tim gets only about 24 bottles each year - he hold three for me! 

Snacks before the Turkey and during the first football game? Zig and Julie put out the cheeses and identified each one on Dorothy cheese slate!

Late fall / early winter is a great time of year. The air gets chilled, footballs fly, the Nouveau arrives, the family gathers, the turkey turns over the grill. So don't put those grills away! Winter grilling season is about to begin - its a great time of year. From Zig, Julie, Rose, Anne, Floyd, Jeannie, Phillip, Stevie, Dorothy and myself, I hope you had a great Thanksgiving and remember - every season is grilling season. No matter the temperature and no matter the menu from hot dogs to the Thanksgiving Turkey - just grill it!

Paul

Bobby in Nashville!

Welcome Bobby Flay to Nashville! I got a chance to meet Bobby Flay - the namesake of BobbyFlayEveryday - this morning at the Williams Sonoma store in Green Hills/Nashville. In the photo I was telling Bobby that I had grilled a different Bobby Flay recipe everyday for 100 consecutive days earlier this year. He said, "That was a lot of work!" It was, but it was also a lot of fun, a lot of learning, and a lot of relaxing at the grill. Bobby was in town to autograph his new book! 

I actually have already grilled some of the recipes in this book during the 100 days as I got the recipe right off the TV show - Throwdown! Looks like I have another 100 days of grill ideas to go! Throwdown! the book, joined my Bobby Flay Library. The brown book at the end is the journal where I make notes from Bobby's TV shows. 

I was able to give Bobby Flay the address to this website, so Bobby if you did get the chance to check out the site you can look on the right side of the screen and find the Blog Archive (just above the links to your website, your Twitter and where I direct readers to buy your other books on amazon). I hope you get the time to take a look. If you do here are a few of my very favorite Bobby Flay postings and videos! 

>>>Super Bowl Super Burger - February 8, 2010 - with a video!

>>>Valentine's Flay Triple Play - February 15, 2010 - with a video!

>>>From Mesa Grill - January 24, 2010

>>>Tag'z - January 8, 2010

>>>San Gennaro and Yazoo - January 5, 2010

>>>Snowball Salmon - February 3, 2010

>>>Final Four Wings - March 28, 2010

>>>Filet Mignon Nirvana - April 2, 2010

>>>Special Edition: Cinco de Mayo - May 6, 2010 - with a two part video!

Bobby, I really enjoyed meeting you today - but I also really enjoyed looking back at some of my favorite BobbyFlayEveryday recipes and photos. I think the grill is calling and with my new book in hand it proves - "Every season is grilling season!" Paul

Back to School BBQ

These are unbelievable Back Back Ribs with home-grilled Bourbon Barbecue Sauce. It is back to school this week so we decided to send the 2010 Summer out with a big flavor bang. Dorothy and I are college professors and we teach year-round, so "back to school" does not have the same meaning it did when I our kids were young, but the start of school still feels like the end of Summer to me. There is nothing better than spending an summer afternoon watching some baseball, having a few really cold ones, listening to Kenny Chesney's "Summertime" and letting some Baby Backs slow roast for three hours on the grill. Here's how we did it. 

I started in the morning by making a dry-rub. In a small bowl I mixed to together paprika, coarse Kosher salt, Turbinado sugar, light brown sugar, with chipotle and chili powders. I stretched out the Baby Backs on a tray, peeled off the interior membrane (don't forget to do that!) and doused the ribs with some sweet Kentucky Bourbon. With the ribs wet with bourbon, I sprinkled on the rub - both sides. I started a three-hour clock in my head from grill light to first bite. When that clock started, I covered the ribs in foil and lit the grill. I set the grill on low and placed the ribs on an upper grill rack. This method really turns your grill into an oven. The ribs never are exposed to direct flame, so they roast low and slow. 

Remember one of the virtues of the grill is that it forces you to slow down and put yourself on the pace of the grill. This is one of the main reasons that you would want to grill on a week-night during a busy week for instance. Your first thought is that you would not have time - but that is the whole point. The grill forces you to make time and while the grill is doing its work you can talk to your family, listen to some music, open a bottle of wine, watch a ball game - the grill helps you do the things that matter. The stuff we fail to do when we are in a fast-food hurry. You can also use a long grill time to overlap your other preparations. I had the Kentucky Bourbon out, so I decided to make a Bourbon BBQ Sauce and Dorothy made Bourbon BBQ Beans and Skillet Cornbread - the aromas were making the neighbors crazy! I started the sauce by grilling some onions in a skillet with butter and some bacon drippings from Dorothy's beans. When the onions were ready I threw in tomato paste and tomato sauce (instead of ketchup), molasses, honey, dry mustard, chipotle chilies, and then I poured in the bourbon - a lot of bourbon. I have not provided any measurements because I never really measure anything. I keep track of proportions. I know I like equal portions of honey and molasses, but I couldn't tell you how many tablespoons or ounces or cups I use. I use what looks and feels like enough and I taste and make adjustments along the way. This sauce was blended together and placed on the grill under the ribs. The sauce simmered for at least two hours.

The sauce tasted more like bourdon during the first hour, but by the second hour all the flavors came together into a thick sweet sauce with a kick. Meanwhile, Dorothy soaked a combination of Great Northern Beans and Red Beans, then simmered them through several cycles. I don't know all the ingredients she used, but at one point she cooked up some super thick cut bacon and she had onions chopped and garlic from the press - and the rest of the bourbon. The beans were baking during the last hour that the ribs were on the grill. 

    

And if that were not enough she had cornmeal, buttermilk, sugar, honey and I don't know what else going into a cast iron skillet to make ranch-style Cornbread. When it was done it was almost like cake. It had great cornbread flavor, but it was also sweet. Those BBQ ribs and beans had some big flavors but the Skillet Cornbread cooled everything off and balanced the feast.

After three hours it was time for the big unveiling of the Baby Backs. The phrase "fall off the bone" is probably over-used but is the correct description here. I opened the foil and brushed on some of the Bourbon BBQ Sauce and let it sit and soak it in.

According to the planet's orbital mechanics, the end of summer does not occur until the Equinox - but that is still about a month away. For others, the end of summer happens when the kicker's toe hits the football on the first kickoff of the football season. Still others think that summer ends when the State Fair ends, or on Labor Day. For us, because we are teachers, we don't think of the new year as January 1st, but as the first day of classes in "the fall." That is when summer ends. Sadly, summer ends for some when they cover and/or put away the grill - but this, of course, is a mortal sin of the grill. Grill season never ends - not with summer or fall or Thanksgiving or the Super Bowl or the Final Four or when pitcher and catchers report to spring training. Covering your grill against the elements is allowed - but never put away your old friend. We have so much to grill - and the grill creates for us plenty of time to do it.

So keep your tongs at the ready. Don't put away your charcoal, your pepper mills, your grill gloves, and your secret recipes. It is the end of summer - the perfect time to Grill It! Paul


One last thing: The St. Francis Turn Up the Heat Contest is over in two days! My YouTube video entry into the contest to become the Sonoma Grillmaster has more views than any other. You can see that video and the entire collection at http://www.youtube.com/user/StFrancisContest#p/f/21/Gr1Y4MUFX_U. 
The judges start their deliberation on September 1st, with the finalist notified by September 15th. Wish me luck!