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!

Sunday, August 21, 2011

St. Francis 2011 & Bobby's Dry-Rub and BBQ Sauce

This is Bobby Flay's Dry-Rubbed Rib-Eye Steak with Mesa Grill Barbecue Sauce (page 141 of Boy Meets Grill). That is also Mesa Grill Potato Salad (page 225 of the same book) and grilled red peppers. In addition this is my photo entry to the 2011 St. Francis Turn Up The Heat Contest: http://www.stfrancissavortheflavor.com/index.php?p=contest You can see the entry photo at:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/66627556@N03/6066373321/in/photostream
Last year I entered the contest with a video, that you can still see through this website and 
http://www.youtube.com/user/StFrancisContest#p/a/f/1/Gr1Y4MUFX_U 
But last year I learned that residents of Tennessee are not eligible for the contest! My video had more plays than did the contest's eventual winner - but I did not win as I was never eligible in the first place. The good folks at St. Francis contacted me again this year and asked if I would enter this year's contest. I reminded them that I still live in Tennessee and therefore ineligible. They suggested I make a "faux entry" anyway and mention the contest here at Bobby Flay Everyday. So I did. And again, there is no question that this would have been the winner if I lived somewhere else!


I first made the Barbecue Sauce - the recipe is on page 29 of Boy Meets Grill. Guys you must start making your own sauce. If you do you will not go back to bottled sauce again. With bottled sauce you can almost taste the bottle instead of great flavor. You first chop garlic and red onion and throw it into a sizzling hot cast iron skillet over the grill. Use canola oil instead of olive oil because canola oil won't burn and can stand up to the heat better that olive oil. Next throw in chopped tomatoes.
Let all this simmer about 15 minutes then toss in a mixture of red wine vinegar, brown sugar, Worcestershire sauce, molasses, Dijon mustard, honey, smoked paprika, ancho chili power and cayenne. Let all that simmer together for another 20 minutes.
Take it off the grill and allow to cool. It all goes in the processor to become smooth...
You can keep the sauce in the fridge for up to a week - but I don't think you will have it that long!


Next is the dry-rub for the rib-eye steaks. Many of the same flavors and spices are in the rub as went into the sauce: smoked paprika, cayenne and ancho, but also cumin, coriander, dry mustard and oregano. The  paprika in this case was special. My brother and sister-in-law brought me a canister of Spanish Paprika back from their recent trip to Spain! Thanks Jeanne and Phillip!
After allowing the steaks to get to room temperature, apply the dry rub and really rub it in with the back of a spoon. Then on to the grill...
The rub goes on only one side of the steaks and the rub side goes down on the grill first. Of course the answer to the age-old question, "How many times do you turn a steak on the grill?" is "only once!" When the steaks turned you can see that the dry-rub formed a terrific crust on the outside of the steak that had unbelievable flavor. I used lump coal for the heat, but I added oak wood for the smoke...
The Big Green Egg was in mid-season form. Take a look at that flavorful smoke pouring out of the stack! I used oak wood chips partly to help the steak pair well with the wine. The wine was St. Francis Old Vine Zinfandel which itself is aged in oak. This wine was a great pairing. There is no way a Pinot Noir, or even a Cab could have stood up to the flavors in this dry-rub and barbecue sauce. It had to be a big, bold, spicy wine just to appear in the same photo with this steak. The St. Francis Old Vine Zin was up to the challenge! 


Even the side dishes were big and spicy. The Mesa Grill Potato Salad has jalapeno, green onion, Dijon, red onion, cilantro, garlic, lime juice and cayenne. I found some extra tall red peppers at the store so I cut them into long strips, let them sit in olive oil for about an hour with Kosher salt, ground black pepper and oregano then into the grill basket...
Okay so I won't be named Grill Master of Sonoma County. I won't win the trip to California. But take one look at those steaks and it is clear who should really hold the title! Try these three Bobby Flay recipes and open a bottle of St. Francis and you will be the winner! 
Remember - every season is grilling season! PCraig
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