Prime Cuts

Today Melissa Delgaudio shares her a little piece of grilling dessert awesomeness with us.  Melissa is going to be a new regular contributor ’round here.  By day Melissa is Principal of Honeybee Consulting.  You can usually find her hanging out over on Twitter.

It’s Summer and backyard chefs across the country are reveling in Weberific, char-grilled glee. True, it might seem that there are few things in life as laden with awesomeness as a great burger or steak right off the grill, but if you just open your mind…grilling can be oh, so much more.

More, you ask? Why yes! While there are limitless things that can be cooked on your trusty grill, few will leave you so satisfied and awash in post-meal ecstasy as fruit. Yeah, you heard me: FRUIT.  During the summer, the possibilities are only as limited as your imagination. Pineapple?  You bet.  Bananas?  Sure.  But those are fruits for another day.  I’m here today to talk about peaches and the sweet, magical deliciousness they’ll bring to your table.

Peaches. Sweet, delicious peaches.  Loaded with their own natural sugars and juices, they’re the ideal candidates for grilling.  And they’re nearing the peak of their season, so now is the perfect time to bring them to the table.  Whether you choose a juicy golden peach from Georgia or South Carolina–slightly acidic and a little tangy with notes of butterscotchy goodness–or a sweet, perfect white peach, ripe with undertones of raspberry-like perfection, from Central California, your results will be sublime, I promise you.

Ingredients

4 ripe peaches, halved with stones removed
1 stick unsalted butter, softened
1 teaspoon cinnamon
2 teaspoons sugar
Pinch of Kosher or sea salt
Vegetable (or some other neutral) oil
Your vanilla ice cream of choice

Preparation

Heat your grill to high (and remember to clean your grates … you don’t want your fruit to taste like the blackened tuna you made earlier). While it’s warming up, mix the butter, cinnamon, sugar and salt in a small bowl until thoroughly combined. Lightly brush the cut side of each peach with oil, to prevent sticking. Grill peaches ‘til they’re golden brown and just cooked through (about 3-5 minutes). Top each half with a couple of teaspoons of the butter mixture and serve to your salivating dinner guests with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

Devilishly simple, sweetly seductive. Grilling fruit will tantalize your taste buds and open your mind to all that grilling can be.

Enjoy!

Photo by: mccun934

Recently I went Striper fishing with a few friends around Mystic, CT waters  We had a little luck with a few bass, more than a few large fluke, and summer flounder caught.  We fished from around seven in the morning until one in the afternoon, and after the fishing was over we weren’t ready to go home and call it a day.  So, we decided that the best thing to do was get a few simple supplies for a barbecue with the fresh fish we just caught, get a few beers, and then find a beach with a grill, go for a swim and cook up our catch.   And that’s exactly what we did.

What follows is the recipe for the cookout we had that day which, in my opinion, is the best beach food I have had in years.

The supplies for the beach barbecue:

12 small flounder filets (caught earlier and cleaned on the boat by the mate)
Recycled Aluminum foil
Lemons
Ritz crackers
1 stick of butter
Salt
6 ears of corn

The cookout on the beach:

For beach cookouts in general I suggest not using utensils at all but rather eating with your hands.  When you feel the need to, just rinse them off in the ocean water.  However, in this situation it is preferable to have a medium sized knife around for prep.

Get your grill hot and clean while you prepare the fish for grilling.  Start by getting 6 large squares of foil separated.  In the center of each one put a small pat of butter and lay on top two of the fish filets.  Top the fish with hand crushed cracker pieces, another pat of butter, a squeeze of lemon, and pinch of salt.   Bring the edges of foil together and fold to create a loosely sealed packet.  Next, prepare your corn by simply removing any loose pieces of husk, and then cut off the top inch of the ear along with the majority of the silk.  Use your hands to remove any more loose strands you find.

Get your grill heat to medium to medium/hot and begin by placing the prepared corn, husk and all, directly on the hot parts of the grill.  Several things are now going to happen to the corn…As the heat builds up on the corn as a whole it will begin to steam itself in its husk.  As some moisture is lost from the steaming liquid the sugar and sweetness begins to concentrate.  Char will also start to develop, the husk will become black and begin to break apart.  Some of this char on the actual kernels themselves is desirable, as carmelization, but too much is a bad thing.  You want to try to get an even blackening of the whole husk without too much of it breaking apart.  Once evenly blackened remove the corn from the grill and let it rest 5 to 10 minutes before peeling.  Be sure to remember to use a dry kitchen towel for peeling since you just steamed the corn on a very hot grill.

While the corn is resting, place the flounder packets on the grill but off of the direct heat and lower to medium to medium/low heat.  Cover the grill and let cook for 5 minutes.  At this time you want to check on one of the packets by carefully opening it and checking to see if the top of the fish has whitened with cooking at all.  If so, and it is beginning to firm up, open all the packets an inch or so, to let moisture out, re cover the grill and cook another 5 minutes.   This will allow a bit of time for the crackers to dry out and become crispy, and the fish will not cook as quickly, is it is no longer being steam grilled. Remove the fish from the grill, and let rest for 5 minutes.

While your fish is resting peel the charred corn husks off the corn and wipe clean, season with butter and salt, and enjoy while still hot.  By the time you have eaten an ear of corn the fish will be at just the right temperature to eat with your hands and should flake apart easily, being tender and crisp at the same time.

Try it for yourself the next time you have a little luck fishing and there is a beach with a grill near by.  For me there has always been something about the proximity of water that makes food just taste good.  Whether eating a hot, freshly cooked breakfast while pike fishing on the ice in January or beach dining on freshly caught fluke in July, the best food is simple, fresh, eaten outdoors, with few amenities, and a few friends, period.

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My friend Nicolette Dunn is an amazing home chef and a great friend, this last weekend we shared the responsibility of cooking dinner for everyone. She pulled a recipe from her childhood while I tried new things with the crockpot and chicken. She is guest posting for me today, my post for the chicken will follow in a few days, enjoy.

When most people think of fried rice they think of it as accompanying a Chinese meal.  We don’t usually think out of the to-go box and make it at home as a unique side with an everyday meal.

As a kid, I remember being very excited when we would have a meal with white rice and having some left over at the end of the meal… this almost surely meant we would have my mom’s fried rice with dinner the next day, maybe with some grilled chicken or steak.  When I became old enough to cook for my family I learned how to work the system and cook too much rice for a meal. This way we couldn’t let it go to waste, and I could conveniently point out that the only logical thing to do is have mom make her fried rice with the leftovers.

This fried rice is a nice light side dish or meal that requires very little preparation and just minutes at the stove.  All of these aspects were immensely appealing when we were looking for a side dish to make on a 109 degree day, to accompany Justin’s greatly anticipated Thai chicken dish (recipe to follow).  We needed something light, that wouldn’t compete with the flavors in the chicken and didn’t require much time over a hot stove.  It was decided, mom’s fried rice it was.  It was a perfect fit, inexpensive, light, easy to make and delicious!

Mom’s Fried Rice

Ingredients
4 Cups cooked long grain white rice (2 cups uncooked will yield 4 cooked)
2 Eggs
1 Tbl water
Salt & Pepper (to taste)
5 Slices deli ham
4 Whole green onions
Soy sauce
4-5 Tbl Peanut or Vegetable oil
½ – 1 tsp sesame oil (optional)

Preparation

1. Prepare your rice (one cup of water for every cup of rice) and refrigerate – refrigerating your rice is best before stir frying in order to prevent the starches from breaking down and becoming mushy.
2. Slice ham into ½ inch squares
3. Fine – Medium chop green onions
4. In small bowl, scramble eggs with 1 Tbl water
5. Heat wok on high heat then add 3-4 Tbl oil
6. Reduce heat to med and add eggs
7. Season with salt and pepper
8. Cook on one side then flip
9. Once thoroughly cooked, remove, chop into small pieces and set aside
10. If needed add more oil to pan (enough to coat rice) and reheat wok
11. Reduce heat to med-high and add rice
12. Gently fold rice in oil until it is evenly coated
13. Add sliced ham to rice and stir fry 30-40 seconds
14. Add green onions and stir fry 30-40 seconds
15. Add chopped egg and stir fry for 30-40 seconds
16. Add soy sauce and gently fold in until evenly distributed.

Serve!

If you head over to Justin’s Flickr page you can check out more pictures of this fried rice preparation.

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Oatmeal, chocolate chip, peanut butter, snickerdoodle, macaroon, madeleine, and macadamia nut; all are considered cookie royalty looking down on lesser cookies such as the Shortbread. This well known peasant craves attention, deliberation, discussion, and consideration. It was my goal to help the Shortbread cookie dethrone it’s lofty, regal aristocrats from their luxurious residence of cookie greatness.

Shortbread cookies never get the credit they deserve, they’re simple to make but are often very dry and sometimes lack flavor making them crumbling, tasteless, cardboard squares.

But with a slight change to the most basic recipe and paired with a Brazilian coffee the flavors balance well allowing you to enjoy each individually yet with an embraced sense that all is right with the world. Sometimes relegating to simplicity is worth the questions you might be asked by serving “only shortbread cookies.” There is something nostalgic and sophisticated about breaking the shortbread cookie into your mouth as the foundation and building on top of it by drinking a smooth, full-bodied coffee.

That’s the best part about shortbread and coffee, you can serve it plain and fancy, or you can serve it together with ice cream sandwiched in between two cookies making a fun adventure for your guests, or kids, without the coffee obviously.

The recipe is simple so have fun with it and add additional ingredients like pecans, lemon peel, or brown sugar.

Shortbread Cookies

Ingredients

Makes 12 large cookies
2 1/2 cups flour
1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons sugar
1 cup butter
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 325F.
2. Combine flour and sugar; with pastry blender cut butter in until it looks like crumbs and clings.
3. Knead until smooth, form into ball.
4. On a lightly floured surface, roll dough into a rectangle about 1/2 inch thick.
5. Using a knife cut into twelve large rectangles.
6. Place on ungreased cookie sheet. (Score the cookies if you want it fancy, we made a quilt pattern)
7. Bake for 25 minutes

Enjoy!

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Today we have a guest post from Christpher S. Penn.  Christopher is one of the top minds in social media, an analytics god, a foodie, and a ninja (yes, a real live ninja) on the side.  You can follow him on Twitter where he shares tons of useful information on a daily basis.

This recipe was originally posted over on Christopher’s blog and once I read it I begged him to let me post it here for all of you.  This is an innovative recipe and the first time I’ve read about something like this.  I’m definitely going to give this a try this weekend.

An interesting thing I tried over the weekend. Take a can of crushed tomatoes, add salt and pepper as necessary, then pour it all on a baking sheet and bake it in the oven at 170 degrees for 12 hours or until dry and dark. You end up with a snack that tastes like sun-dried tomatoes and handles like a fruit rollup. Cook it longer or get a cookie cutter and cut circles out of the sheet and bake at a slightly higher temperature and you’ve got tomato chips.

Unlike potato chips, these have zero fat, only as much salt as you put in (or that came in the can), and are darned tasty. For extra fun, add in exceptionally finely chopped basil before drying.

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I recently had a family reunion back in Chicago and my wonderful aunt Regina introduced me to this fabulous watermelon salsa recipe.  Before tasting, I had no idea it was made of watermelon. Even when I did try it, it took me a minute to figure out what ingredients were creating this sweet yet tangy deliciousness in my mouth. I hope you enjoy this very refreshing and healthy summer treat!

Ingredients

3 cups chopped watermelon
1/2 cup chopped green bell pepper
2 tbsp lime juice
2 tbsp chopped fresh cilantro
1 tbsp chopped green onions
1 tbsp chopped jalapeno pepper
1/2 tsp garlic salt.

Preparation

Mix well, chill overnight and serve. Regina likes it best with Lime Tortilla chips. (I agree!)

Enjoy!

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Photo by: ehow

This is a recipe that is about as easy as I will ever post but the bottom line is that it is extremely good.  I recently made roasted cauliflower as the vegetable of the day at Caminito, and made some for our end-of-night staff meals as well.   Naturally when I brought out a plate of cauliflower half of my staff said “no thank you” but me being the chef that I am, I made sure that everyone tried it anyways.  Everyone loved it!  It doesn’t taste like normal steamed or raw cauliflower when roasted at high temperature, it takes on a different texture and sweetness from the carmalization as well as some desirable char form the high temp roasting.

Try this next time you are looking for an easy vegetable side dish, you won’t regret it.

Ingredients

Serving size: 4 people

Large head cauliflower
Vegetable oil
Sea salt (preferably coarse)

Preparation

1. Start by removing the cauliflower flowerettes from the main stem.  I like to start by removing the inner stem with a paring knife, and then cut the main body of the cauliflower in half then, further break it down into pieces of about a 2″ thickness.  Cutting the pieces with a sharp knife rather than tearing or breaking it will create a better surface area to promote carmalization.
2. In a mixing bowl liberally coat the cauliflower pieces with vegetable oil and a decent pinch of salt.
3. Place the cauliflower with a cut side contacting the metal of the pan you will be roasting it in.  This contact with the metal will create the carmalization that you are looking for.  Make sure you use a thick metal baking sheet pan or cast iron skillet.
4. Place the pan in the 375 degree oven for 15 minutes.  After about half that time check the cauliflower and turn to allow a fresh cut side to contact the metal and carmalize.
5. After 15 minutes remove from the oven and check for doneness, it should be crisp but tender, and have the aroma of pop corn.

Enjoy watching your kids and other vegetable haters gobble this treat like it was candy!

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Photo by: su-lin

As one of our wedding gifts Laura and I received a Breville Indoor BBQ & Grill.  What’s so great about this grill is that it has a griddle on one side, grill on the other and can be closed and used as an awesome panini press.  Since getting home from our honeymoon I have been trying different sandwiches, wraps and paninis on it besides using it as an excellent grill.

So, last week while flying through some feeds I came across a recipe for a Nutella Panini.  Never satisfied, I decided to extend this recipe to create an amazing sweet breakfast panini.  What’s even better is that this panini is super easy to make and only takes a few minutes to cook.

Nutella, Strawberries and Banana Panini

Ingredients

2 slices Scala bread (or any other dense and thick bread)
3 tbsp Nutella
1 banana, cut into bite-sized pieces
4-5 strawberries, cut into bite-sized pieces
Spreadable butter
Ground cinnammon
Confectioners sugar

Preparation

1. Heat panini press on medium-high or “sandwich” setting, depending on your model.  If you don’t have a panini press, you could use a grill or small saucepan and use a tea kettle as a weight on top of the sandwich.
2. Spread butter on one side of each slice of bread.  On the other side of the bread spread Nutella on either side.
3. Lightly toss the strawberries and bananas together and distribute evenly across a side of the bread with Nutella on it.
4. Put sandwich together and place on panini press, grill or small saucepan with butter side down.  Press/grill for approximately 1 minute on each side or until the Nutella has become warmed and bread is toasted golden brown.
5. Remove from heating surface, spread a little more butter on one side of sandwich and sprinkle ground cinnammon and confectioners sugar across.
6. Cut into 2 triangles and serve warm

Enjoy!

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Photo by: love-janine

Today Justin Rasmussen provides a recipe he created from experimenting with some turkey patties, coffee, and a grill…some of his favorite things.  Justin is co-founder of CoffeeHouse Ideas, a creative design firm.  You can find Justin hanging out over on Twitter often.

It’s officially summer and that means if you haven’t been grilling already, you should be pulling your barbecue out and firing it up. Everyone knows that putting a rub or marinade on your meat before grilling always brings out great flavor, but what do you do if you’re bored of the same old rubs and need a way to feed your coffee addiction at the same time. We have just the fix for you!

A coffee-based rub can change the way you grill.  It’s no wonder that many fine dining restaurants use coffee-based rubs on their most prime and exclusive cuts. They know coffee helps bring out and intensify the natural flavors of your meat that other spices don’t. When you explore with different blends, origins, and roasts you’ll find those subtleties that are so reclusive in your morning brew become abundantly pronounced.