Let the Marinading Begin...

Frankly, grilling brisket can be fairly difficult. One really needs a proper smoker and you must smoke it for about an hour a pound in order to achieve the proper tenderness. One way I get around this problem is I make pastrami out of it instead. Pastrami begins by essentially marindaing a brisket as if you were making corned beef. Pastrami is just smoked corned beef (at least I think it is...). The marinade takes 10 days so be sure to plan ahead. I am planning a dinner for six so I purchased around 4 pounds of brisket in two pieces. Begin by placing the following ingredients into a pot: 2 quarts water, quarter cup of Morton's Meat Tenderizer, 3/4 cup kosher salt, 1/2 cup brown sugar, broken cinnamon stick, teaspoon of mustard seeds, some black pepper corns, 8 whole cloves, a few bay leaves, 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger. Bring that mixture to a boil and turn off the heat and let it cool to room temperature. Toss the meat and the marinade into a large resealable bag and store in the refridgerator for 10 days.

If it does not work the first time try again!

This a way of getting rid of the evidence...When good burgers go bad, sometimes grilling does not always work out as well as you hoped. Always have a backup plan!

Pork Steaks and Ribs

I received this picture from another brother of the BBQB in Germany. Its a combination of pork filets/steaks and ribs. He uses his own homemade BBQ sauce from scratch. Getting the recipe from him is like pulling teeth though. Once I yank it out of him I'll post it of course. Must share the taste!

What a Meal!

Whipped up another batch of my ribs last night. I pretty much had to roll myself to bed afterwards. As you can see from the picture, not only did we dine on my mouthwatering ribs but on a homemade zucchini bread as well.

Remember to keep the grill nice and hot but postion the ribs away from the heat. A rack like this will need to cook for about 1.5 hours. Be sure to baste it several times with your favorite bbq sauce.

Weber Grilled Peaches!

Ok, here is something I've been wanting to experminent for a long time. In the upcoming few weeks I will try out a few more variations of this dessert. These peaches were sliced in half and had the pit removed. Then, all I did was put them directly over the heat and grilled them for about 5 minutes. Pay attention to them when you are grilling to make sure they dont burn. You are looking to make the entire peach tender. I served these guys along side a store bought cannoli. I think a nice port wine sauce would go well with them though.

Grilled Wild Salmon

My neighbor picked these fillets up at Trader Joes. Just smear on some olive oil, salt, pepper, and your favorite mustard. That's it.
I grilled these guys using a fish basket, directly over the heat for about 6 minutes on each side. If you are worried about buring the flesh side then just cook it a little longer with the skin side down. Though I happen to also like farm raised salmon, definitely check out the wild caught salmon as it has a completely different taste.

Pesto Spread

Here is a little experiment that I wanted to share with everyone. I basically whipped up a pesto sauce using basil from my garden. Then instead of making a pasta dish I served it as a spread for my loaf of sour dough whole grain baguette. Delicious! My friends were pratically fighting over it.

Here is another variation of my favorite type of salad....the salad sans lettuce. This one has diced tomatoes, green peppers and plenty of chopped red onion. The onion really gives this salad its character.

Fresh Ingredients

I can't stress enough the need to use fresh ingredients. I'm actually extremely lucky. I live close to Amish country and have access to farmer's markets on the weekends. If possible always try to use fresh local produce. You'll notice the difference.

Prince's Hot Chicken, Nashville, TN

I simply cannot go to Nashville without eating at Prince's. Their "hot chicken" is like no other. My flight landed around 10pm....I was at Prince's at 10:30...and then after a painful 45 minute wait I had my chicken. Of course it took another painful 10 minutes before it was cool enough to eat without burning my mouth off. At least until the spices hit it.

Ultimate Veggie Sandwich

I had a pile of leftover grilled veggies from the night before and decided to construct the ultimate veggie sandwich. I started with a sour dough multi-grain french baguette. This isn't rocket science but here's what to do. Slice the bread and spread on your best quality olive oil. Cover the bread with all of your veggies and then add plenty of cheese as the glue to keep everything together. Clearly the sliced cheddar I chose is the weakest link in my sandwich but I was simply using what I had on hand. Crumbled blue cheese or feta would probably be a better choice. Toast everything until the bread is crusty and the cheese is melted. Done and done.

Lime Grilled Chicken and Pesto

One thing I havent really touched on enough is the need for fresh ingredients. Granted I am not the Bachelor Gardener but I do value the benefit keeping our own garden. Right now my garden is really coming into its own so I thought I pluck a few basil leaves and make a pesto. A pesto pasta is alaways a strong side for most grilled meats. Its also very simple to make. Just toss in a bunch of basil leaves, plenty of olive oil, some sea salt, 2-4 cloves of garlic, about a half cup of grated parmesan cheese and a cup of pine nuts (substitute walnut if you want) into a food processor and let it rip. In a few seconds you will have your pesto sauce finished. Just boil up some linguini and then add the sauce.

The meat of the day was lime grilled chicken. Start with a couple packages of skinless boneless chicken breasts. Then, in order to increase the surface area to marinade ratio, pound the breast down with a meat tenderizer until it is close to double in size. Go from this...

to this...

Once you have thinned them out then it is time to marinade. Toss everyone in a zip top bag and add the juice of several limes, olive oil, and salt. Let them marinade for at least a few hours. The lime flavor will really seep into the meat. After that, just impale them on skewers and toss directly of the flame. Keep an eye on them as chicken will burn more easily than red meat but most likely it shouldn't take more than 15 minutes.
As another side we did grilled corn. I am not a big fan of grilling corn still inside the husk. To me you are really just "cooking outside" rather than adding any flavor to the corn. Try putting the ears directly over the flame and turning them regularly. Once the entire ear is lightly charred it ready serve. I typically rub a little butter over them and squeeze a little fresh on top with a quick sprinkling of salt. You will never want to eat corn any other way again. Enjoy!

Zucchini From Garden to Gourmet - Build the Ultimate Cheeseburger

Not a great picture but you can see the big guy camoflaged in the plant.

Here is the first zucchini from my garden. What better way to honor it than by grilling it up and tossing it on a cheeseburger. Because it was so fresh I merely sliced them up at an angle and marinaded them in a little olive oil, salt and pepper.
Joining the zucchini on the grill is a sliced red onion, a red pepper and a few long green peppers. As always with the peppers, you can char the outside a bit and then later peel the skin off. Dipping them first in cold water makes it even easier to do. Though I'm really featuring veggies in this post, the ultimate goal was to make a massive cheeseburger - piled high with grilled veggies.

As you can barely see in the picture, the cheeseburger has a red pepper slice, slice of red onion, and a slice of zucchini all piled on top of it. Assuming you can get this in your mouth it makes for a heck of a burger. Dont forget plenty of spicy mustard and relish as well. The ole stand by sides like potatoe salad go really well with this of course. This particular salad was made with purple potatoes. Declious.

BBQ Pork Roast by the B of BBQB

So the brother of the BBQ bachelor tried a little BBQ'ing.

We BBQ'ed a 2 and one half lb pork roast this evening. We used a modified recipe that we found at http://www.razzledazzlerecipes.com/bbq-pork/grilled-pork-roast.htm

Salt and Pepper the Roast
Place it on indirect heat on the grill for 30 minutes.

Baste with a Sauce made by mixing the following.

• 1/2 cup of your favorite BBQ sauce
• 1/2 cup of Raspberry Jam
• 2 teaspoons of chili powder

Continue grilling until the meat thermometer reads 150 degrees F ~another 30 minutes.

Let it cool about 10 minutes.

Even the BBQB's picky niece kind of liked it.



It went well with a salad and corn on the cob.

Dinosaur Bones

My neighbor called me up this morning and asked me if I could grill up some beef ribs for dinner...done and done. I don't typically grill a lot of beef ribs so I was pumped at the opportunity. I pretty much grilled these enormous ribs like I would do pork ribs. I made sure to cover them with lot of bbq sauce. To make the sauce I took a generic store brand and warmed it up in a pot on the stove. I then added plenty of garlic powder, onion powder, ground cumin and a splash of hot sauce. I then got the grill real hot and cooked the ribs wiht indirect heat for about 70 minutes. That was all they needed. They were fantastic. Sometimes beef ribs can be too fatty but these weren't and tasted fantastic.

Desert Candy

In my quest for the perfect meal I stumbled upon another blog that you may find interesting. Go ahead and check out Desert Candy. The author creates a huge assortment of delicious deserts along with lite fair consisting of healthy fresh ingredients.

Rhubarb Crumble

Here is another recipe I got from Abe. I realize that this picture looks a lot like the scene from Eddie Murphy's "The Golden Child", when the cop touches the oatmeal and blood oozes out (sorry for the visual), but I got to tell you it is a formidable way to end a meal. First things first, wash and then cut up some rhubarb and place it into a pot with a splash of water. Add some sugar "to taste" and heat it up a bit. If you heat it too much it will become apple sauce. Not enough and it will be tough. Just heat it to your liking basically. Once the mixture is cooked and sweet enough place single portions into seperate bowls. The top of each bowl will essentiall get dough topping. The dough in the picture is a combination of oatmeal, flour and butter. Once the bowl has been topped (see picture), bake the entire mixture for about 12-15 minutes. This one is a winner.

The Rib Meal

Here is just an idea on how to serve your ribs. On the plate is a grilled rib cooked in Lock's Bar-B-Q Sauce along side with a pile of cole slaw and another of homestyle baked beans. To save time I actually just bought the slaw pre-made from the grocery store. Be sure to dust each with plenty of fresh crushed pepper. And a glass of red or a nice strong beer to wash it all down.

Review: Lock's B-B-Q Sauce

Well, as you can see from the second picture, the rain was coming down pretty hard the evening of the 4th. It was actually a constant battle to keep the temperature up on the grill. All in all, I ended having to cook these ribs an additional 45 minutes on top of the normal hour and a half to finish them off. Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor blah blah blah, was going to keep me from getting these ribs grilled. As you know, normally when I do ribs I whip up my own concoction of bbq sauce. My typical blend consists of a no name store bought brand which I then add garlic powder, hot sauce, and cumin powder to. However, this time, as promised, I used only Lock's Bar-B-Q Sauce completely undoctored.

Review:

I have to admit, when I first poured it out of the bottle it was not what I expected. It is a little thinner than some of the commercial brands out there. I will say though it has its own unique taste, a bit more complex than the rest. It's not a spicy sauce but more tangy and even a bit sweet. Overall it paired extremely well with the ribs. I am anxious to also try it out on other meats. My guess is that it will pair extremely well with chicken. I'll be sure to let everyone know when I do.

Happy Birthday USA!

Its another beautiful day in Zamunda!...actually not really. We're getting drenched down here in southeastern PA. However, nothing is going to stop the BBQB from getting a little grilling in on our nation's birthday. I already have a rack of ribs marinading in a bath of Lock's Bar-B-Q Sauce. Yup, today is the day I finally review this mid-west delectable.

Where the Weer Flows Like Bine

I actually had a weekend that did not involve a grill. However, I did take things on the road and spent a couple of nights in NYC. ...not to mention an afternoon spent at a German Beer Garden in lower Manhattan. Everthing thing from the weissbier to the brats were exceptional. Check out Zum Schneider. However, I will say this, if you happen to spend the whole day pounding $9 beers at Yankee stadium with your buddies, you may not want to then spend another 5 hours at the beer garden. Actually, of course you do...err did.