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!

Wednesday, March 3, 2010

Steak Salad

Steak Salad with Blue Cheese and Cherry Tomato-Hot Sauce Dressing come from Bobby Flay’s Boy Gets Grill page 202. This was a great, fast and light meal after a day’s work. Putting it all together was simple. I first mixed up the dressing. The recipe calls for red wine vinegar, Dijon mustard, chipotles, honey, canola oil, chopped tomatoes, salt, ground pepper, and cilantro. I stirred all that up and set it aside. Meanwhile the grill was heating up. I had some bacon-wrapped beef filets that I brushed with oil and dusted them with kosher salt and ground pepper. I also cut up one green and two red bell peppers into large enough slices that they could not slip through the grill grates and I literally slung then across the grill just to hear them sizzle. When the steaks were done, I let them rest under foil while I put all the other salad ingredients together – lettuce, sliced tomatoes, olives, onion and crumbled blue cheese. I cut the filets into strips and assembled it all on the plate with the green and red grilled pepper strips. Last I spooned on the Tomato-Hot Sauce Dressing and it was ready to go.



Wisdom of the Grill. I wanted an internal temperature in the beef filets of about 135 degrees, a little more rare than normal, but I wanted the filets to finish cooking threw while they rested under foil. Remember you get about 10 extra degrees after the steaks come off. If you want 140 and you pull them off the grill at 140, you will likely get 150. This is why some grillers overshoot the target and end up with over done, dry meats. One of the secrets of the grill is to plan for the extra time so that you don’t overshoot.


I can’t think of anytime when an Overshoot is a good thing. It’s no good in golf. It’s no good when landing an airplane on a runway. It’s no good when putting a sailboat back in the slip and its no good on the grill.


May you always hit your target – especially on the grill!
Paul

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