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