Get Your Summer Ale While You Still Can

In my endless pursuit to try the world's best wheat beers, I picked up a case of Samuel Adams' Summer Ale. In general, I am incredibly fond of American beers. In terms of variety and quality domestic breweries hold their own with the rest of the world. One area where I am regularly dissappointed however is the in the wheat beer category. Too often they are either too sweet or too carbonated. Actually, I feel that the Germans are the only ones who really get it right. Samuel Adam's Summer Ale however makes a good go at it. My only complaint would be that it probably has a bit more carbonation than I prefer but overall the taste is spot on.

As Promised - Teriyaki Pork Tenderloin Remake

Thanks again to my Danish friends who sent in the recipe for the grill teriyaki pork tenderloin. Yesterday, I had the chance to give the recipe a try. It was incredible. Going into it, I was a little nervous the tenderloins would come out dry. Boy was I was pleasantly mistaken. It was one of the juiciest tenderloins I'd ever tried. I served it to some of buddies who just tore into it.
The recipe obviously calls for marinading the pork in teriyaki sauce. Since I didn't have any teriyaki sauce on hand so I decided to make my own.

Teriyaki Sauce (Enough for marinading 2 pork tenderloins):
1) Half cup soy sauce
2) 2 cloves of fresh garlic (crushed)
3) 1 inch of fresh ginger (shredded)
4) Tea spoon of ground ginger
5) Quarter cup of olive oil
6) 2 tablespoons sugar
7) Chili sauce (optional)

Whisk these ingredients together so that the flavors blend together. Place the pork into zip top bag and add the marinade. Make sure the meat is completely covered and then leave in the fridge for about 2 hours. Initially I thought the 2 hours would take forever but I soon found out that wasn't anything that a few wheat beers couldn't take care of.

The key to the success of these tenderloins is the duration of the grilling. As always with this type of cut, you want to grill them with indirect heat. Make sure the fire is good and hot. Anywhere from 300-350 degrees should be perfect. Keep the tip on and cook for 30 minutes. The next step, and even possibly the most important, is to let the meat sit for another 20 minutes. Keep it covered with a sheet of aluminum foil and then drape it with a towel so it does not get cool. What this does it allows the juices in the meat to settle. This reduces the amount of lost juices later when you cut into it. I pulled resources with my neighbor and served the tenderloin with purple potatoes, roasted peppers, sauteed onions. I thought that the tenderloin looked a little naked so I decided to make a little aoli sauce to go with it.
BBQB Aoli Sauce:
1) A few table spoons of mayonnaise
2) Clove of garlic
3) Fresh basil
4) Salt to taste

Load all of those ingredients into your food processor and liquefy it. You can play around with sauce and use different herbs and spices. Even a pinch of chili powder would work really well as well.

The Fourth Event

Well, I competed in the Whipple Dam Triathlon today. It was a grueling 0.4 mile swim, followed by a 19.5 mile bike ride and finished with a 4 mile trail run. While many of you have of course heard of the 19th hole in golf I was pleasantly surprised that at the end of the race, the nibbles were supplied by Clem's BBQ. It was as if the race planners knew the BBQB would be there competing. The food consisted of pulled pork sandwiches, cole slaw, and potato salad. It was absolutely fantastic. I personally am not always the biggest fan of pulled pork. Even in areas of the country like North Carolina (the Mecca of pulled pork) I dont always like it. Too often the pork has been so chopped up so much that it becomes a big mush. Many places down there even serve it in ice cream scoops. Too often the sandwich bread has the consitency and texture of wonder bread. Distgusting! Clem's was completely different. The used fresh hoagie rolls and the meat was chunky and delicious. They even had a vat of BBQ sauce that I could smother the whole sandwich in. The next time the BBQB is in central PA I will heading straight to Clem's.

In case you are wondering...I didn't win the race

Announcing www.BarbecueBachelor.com !

Ok, the other day I was thinking that it was time to take things to the next level. No more messin' around. Today I'm proud to announce the launch of www.BarbecueBachelor.com! What started out as a way to share my expertise on a 'One Touch Silver 22-1/2" Weber Grill' has graduated into a full fledged repository for backyard grilling ideas.
Stay tuned to the site for new excited and original recipes. In addtion, I plan on expanding the site to include a full index of all the recipes I have shared with you so far. I just bought 3 bags of charcoal from Home Depot the other day. Fall is a great time to get the grill going!

Featured Reader - Teryaki Pork Tenderloin

I'm excited to say I received my first pictures from a reader today! These pictures came all the way from Denmark and are of a grilled teriyaki pork tederloin. Thanks for sending them in, the tederloin looks delicious.

"1) First trim off the excess fat

2) Marinade the tenderloin for 2 hours in teriyaki sauce. You can also add in some chili sauce if you so desire

3) Start your coals.

4) When the coals are good and hot move half of them to one side of the grill and the other half to the other side of the grill. Place a drip pan in the middle to keep the coals separated.

5) Place the tenderloin in the middle of the grill. The hot coals should not be directly under the meat. The meat should cook with indirect heat for about 30 minutes. Remove the tenderloin from the grill and cover for addition 20 minutes before serving.

I hope you enjoy my recipe. Try it out and let me know if you like it!"

Thanks, I will!

Ich Bin Ein Sucker Für Heffe Weizen

As you can probably tell by now, I'm a huge fan of wheat beers. Though I enjoy the Belgium Witbiers my favorites are the Heffe Weizens that originate is southern Germany (Bavaria). Though its a bit on the expensive side, Erdinger makes one of the best out there. Here in PA, a case of Erdinger will run you about $30. This was the first time I tried their Octoberfest Heffe Weizen. Unfortunately I didnt have any non-Octoberfest Heffe Weizen on hand to perform a taste. However, I believe the Octoberfest is a shade or two darker than their normal Heffe Weizen. Not quite a dunkel but more in betweeen. Overall its a darn good beer.

To Wet Your Appetite

A little slide show to wet your appetite and encourage you to get out there and fire up the grill.

And What Have YOU Grilled Lately?

I wanted to try something new and encourage others to send in their tips, recipes, and photos. If you have any great new ideas, or just want to share a picture or two of something awesome that you grilled, let me know about it. I get a lot of my ideas from watching countless hours of the food network channel and of course my friends but I am also interested in learning a few things from my readers. I figure if you're reading this blog you probably know a thing or two about grilling already and might be interested in putting your two cents in. And if you include the recipe I'll be sure to try it out myself and let you know what I think.
One thing in particular I am looking for are interesting new hot or bbq sauces recipes. I usualy prefer to make mine from scratch but I'd also like to hear about any store bought brands that you might recommend.
One thing I plan to grill in the near future is a pork shoulder. If anyone out there has any spice rub mixtures that you suggest let me know.

Please send info to barbecuebachelor AT gmail DOT com - Fire it up!

Did I Mention that the Ingredients Must Be Fresh?

Here's a shot of produce from my garden. The zucchini looks like a mutant but tasted fantastic. Small eggplants like these are incredible off the grill. Grill the eggplants similarly to how you would grill peppers. Char the outside skin completely. When all of the surface area has been charred toss the eggplant in a bowl of water and peel off the skin. Serve with a little salt and butter.

The wine I served to accompany last night's T-Bones was a 2004 Estancia Cabernet Sauvignon. It was excellent and stood up to flavour of the meat.

Massive T-Bones

Yesterday, I was sitting in my office contemplating what flavor of protein I was going to grill up that night when I received an email from a buddy of mine "I just picked up a couple massive T-Bones. I'll be at your place by 7". I'm pretty sure my cholesterol jumped a point or two on those words alone. Done and done.


As I've mentioned before, with quality cuts like this I dont like to mess with them too much. Nature pretty much takes care of the taste on these guys. The only spices I add is olive oil, a generous amount of sea salt, fresh crushed black pepper and some fresh garlic. Thats it. In my mind, the tricky part is cooking it correctly. The biggest sin would be to over cook these beauties. The goal should be to achieve rare to medium rare. If you are "one of those" that likes their steak welll done, then you shouldnt be buying such nice pieces of meat.
Make sure you start with a really hot grill. A good indication that your grill is hot enough is if you cannot hold your hand over the grill for more than a second. Toss the steaks directly over the heat. The olive oil that you put on the meat with encourage the fire and it will begin to sear the downfacing side. Keep the cuts uncovered for 2.5 minutes. After the 2.5 minutes are up put the lid on and wait another 3.5 minutes. This will calm the fire down a bit. You want it seared...not burnt.
After the 3.5 minutes flip the steaks and repeat: 2.5 minutes uncovered + 3.5 minutes covered.

All in all, the cooking time took 14 minutes. The extra minute or two was basically due to the flipping times. Pair these babies with a tomato and dinner is served. As for a beverage, the obvious choice would be a nice and hearty red wine like a cabernet.

Roasted Red Pepper and Basil Humus

Here is another take on my homemade humus. As always this is the perfect appetizer for your friends. Feed them this while you are preping your grill and getting your metas ready. Start with the basic humus ingredients: boiled chick peas, olive oil, pinch of salt, 1-2 cloves fresh garlic (or entire buld of roasted garlic). This basic humus tastes great on its own but this time I was in the mood to jazz it up a bit. This time I added some tahini (sesame paste), bit of raw onion, handful of fresh basil and a roasted red pepper. Because I was preping my grill from a couple of t-bones that I was going to cook that night, I went ahead and roasted the pepper under my broiler. To roast a pepper, all you need to do is keep it under the broiler until the skin turns black. Be sure to rotate the pepper so that it get charred evenly. Next, take the pepper and toss it in a bowl of water and peel off the skin. Thats it!
Once you have your pepper peeled toss all of the ingredients into you food processor.

Check Out Sullicom

I thought I'd give a quick nod towards sullicom. Much like the BBQB Blog, the Sullicom is still in its infancy but so far I really like its vibe. The site is "dedicated to the good things in life - bbq, hot sauce, comfort foods in general, good drink, cool music and some thoughts about livin' life the right way." Excellent! I wish I had thought of that.
Anyways, check out his site. I'll be monitoring it as well and will publish links from time to time.

You Wont Eat Store Bought Pastrami Again

Ok, the day finally came when I can grill my brisket. I had marinaded a brisket now for ten days. I removed the brisket from the bag and washed off the remains of the marinade. If I were to then bake the brisket it would essentially be a corned beef. That would be a big waste of time in my estimation. Instead I of course fired up the grill. While the grill was getting nice and hot, I coated the brisket with ground pepper and ground cumin. Dont be afraid to really coat the entire piece of meat.

Next I cooked on the grill using indirect heat for about 4 hours. Perfection.

8/7/07 - Toronto: Yankees 9, Blue Jays 2

Not only did the Yankees win but I bought this hot dog outside of the Blue Jay stadium for $3. What a day!

Anchor Bar, Buffalo NY

Well, I happened to be in Buffalo yesterday and decided to stop by the Anchor Bar for a few wings. I started out by ordering 10 Hot wings. I have to admit they were fantastic. The pieces were meaty and the flavour was dead on (as one would expect from the home of buffalo wings). I will say this though, I was not impressed by the heat of the "hot" wings. I would call it medium at best. The also have something called "suicidal wings" which I decided to try next. I was majorly dissappointed! It was not buffalo wing sauce but more of a peppery sauce instead. It was awful. I didn't even finish them they were so bad. Anyways, I'm still glad I went...just stay away from the suicidal wings.

A Bit Like the Amish, I Really Can Bake

Actually I must confess that I didn't make this pie. Once I get the recipe from my friend I will post it. Don't worry, this won't turn it into the Baking Bachelor Blog but take my word for it, this pie was ridiculously good.

I Eat a LOT of Ribs

Though it may seem like a strange pair, my neighbor and I whipped up a wicked meal consisting of ribs, grilled salmon steaks, grilled corn, and pesto pasta. As you can see from the picture, my grill was a little overloaded. I got the job done though. The salmon steaks were marinaded in Dijon mustard. It was a glutunous feast that will be remembered.

Grilled Apricots and Peaches A La Mode

Believe it or not but the BBQB ain't much of an a la mode kind of guy. However, these grilled apricots and peaches smothered in ice cream...done and done.

Take each fruit, cut them in half, and place them directly on the grill directly over the heat. The duration that you grill the fruit is a factor of both the heat of your fire and the ripeness of the fruit. You will know the fruit is done when the flesh is mush to the touch. Serve immediately with ice cream and some drizzled syrup.

Had Another Craving For a Tandoori Bird

By now you probably know the drill. I purchased a premade tandoori spice mixture from an Indian grocery store. I just added yogurt and poured it over my skinless bird. Gie it at least 24 hours in fridge for the best flavour. Definitely check the temparature before removing from the grill but the bird will most likely take at least 2.5 hours to cook.
FYI - A great way to use the elftovers if to put them into a flour tortilla wrap with a coating of mustard.