Sunday, September 5, 2010

Do sumpin' different with those peppers!


How's everyone's garden doing this year? Based on the weather we've had to date, I bet if you planted any peppers, they are doing well.

We were in St. Joe, MI yesterday and they had a farmer's market. There was a nice assortment of peppers there, but for some reason I just wasn't interested. Today we went to a flea market and there were a few folks selling produce. What caught my eye was the quart container of "hot peppers - $3". Serranos, jalapenos, habaneros (is that a purple habanero?) and some larger varieties that I was not familiar with. They looked so good to me that I just had to buy some.

Of course, once you get them home it's always "now what"? I had the idea to put a few of them on the grill to roast for a bit, after the pesto chicken breasts were finished. Tomorrow will bring some of these peppers with the morning eggs, and later, a big batch of salsa. If you have never made salsa with roasted peppers, you have to give it a whirl! Roasting indirect on the grill brings out a bit of smoky sweetenss. If you want to tone the heat down some, slice them lengthwise and scrape the seeds out. Wearing vinyl/latex gloves sure are a good idea as well.

I'm going to try something a local suggested to me when we went to Cancun earlier this summer - a relish of chopped, roasted habaneros and thinly sliced onion with lime juice and salt. The lime juice/salt combo apparently knocks the heat down some. We shall see!

Tuesday, August 31, 2010

BW Loses His Frozen Pizza Virginity

My often spoken of friend and neighbor Byron W did his first frozen pizza on the grill:


Ok fellow PSMGCers.. the frozen pizza on a grill so often spoken of per this site...OUTSTANDING...

I went with Palermos Ultra Thin. It was so good that my wife and I mowed through two pizzas.
I told my wife that I had intentions of grilling a Home Run Inn. She said that they werent high on her list for some reason. I had heard alot about Palermos, and we are HUGE fans of paper thin pizza.

Also, I noticed on a web add, Home Run Inn suggesting their pizza being prepared on a grill. I think they owe PSMGC a little credit. I'm not sure who started it on this site(Tim, Chuck,or Jeff) but as far as I am concerned, you guys set the trend. Nice work..

Sorry that I didn't provide any pictures. I was way too busy eating!

No worries, BW. I will say, while I'm generally not a glory hound, I will take the credit for being the first to do it (or at least talk about it here, anyway). In fact, it was part of the original column in the Sun Times Group Newspapers about the club written by Mike Danahey. I haven't done one yet, however, since converting to charcoal. Maybe that's a new experience.

Home Run Inn is the far and away the best, in my opinion. I'm a little curious why Byron's wife, Amanda, doesn't like them, especially since the Home Run Inn Ultra Thin is better than at least 75% of the delivery stuff out there .... I'm not kidding either. Couple that with the fact that you can often get the Ultra Thin at Jewel on sale for five to six bucks and its even sweeter. Amanda is a lot like me with her food tastes, very picky, so maybe it was a bad experience somewhere along the line, but tell her to give their Ultra Thin a shot.

Jeff H.

Sunday, August 29, 2010

Good Eats, with a Twist














So, Alton Brown is one of my cooking heroes. I enjoy watching "Good Eats" and also have a couple of his books. It was only natural that I try adapting a couple of his recipes for the grill.

What we have on Weber #1 is his meatloaf, which is made using cubed chuck and sirloin, which you buzz up in a food processor prior to mixing it up with the other ingredients. Weber #2 had his mac n' cheese, baked in a Stoneware dish until GBD (Golden Brown and Delicious). You can't see the cheesy goodness due to the top layer of buttery Panko bread crumbs. OK, so we're not dieting today, what the hell.... I must say that it was a very enjoyable meal. The meatloaf was moist, flavorful, and not greasy at all. Next time it gets some sun-dried tomatoes. The mac and cheese was excellent, it had a nice smoky flavor and will be even better tomorrow. All things considered, a very successful experiment!

Friday, August 27, 2010

Helloooooooooo, Out There ...

Roll call. Who checked this site today? Please raise your hand in the comments section. It's puzzling that we have 200+ members, but sparse dialogue during peak BBQ season. Do guys sign up and then forget about us?

Tim W.

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Steve M's Carne Asada Fajitas


Hey, here's Aurora's very own Steve M. with his first submission to PSMGC. Is this our first fajita post ever (or at least in awhile)? Take it away, Steve!

Last night, I had a major taste for Fajitas, so I tried out a new recipe. I’ve ordered Carne Asada before so when I came across this recipe I was eager to try it out. The recipe includes the following:

The meat was a 1 lb. Flank Steak seasoned with a dry rub consisting of paprika, brown sugar, chili powder, cumin, salt and pepper. I hit the Flank with some olive oil then spread the rub on evenly to cover the entire piece of meat, then grilled to the desired temp. I like medium rare so I didn’t leave it on for that long, about 9 min total, then let rest.

As for the veggies, I elected to go with Red and Green Peppers and a Red Onion. I sliced them, brushed with oil, and placed on the grill for about the same amount of time as the Flank. Once the veggies came off they were sliced into bite-size pieces. I can’t take the credit for the Guac … my wife Beth makes an AWESOME Guacamole, so I asked her to whip some up.

The rice and beans really tied it all together. Overall, I was really pleased with the way it turned out. Mexican food is one of my favorites and I would absolutely consider making this dish again. I’m always up for trying new recipes so let me know if you have any suggestions.



That's a nice little PSMGC debut, Steven! Be a regular here. Oh, and what's Carne Asada? Spanish for kick-ass fajitas?

Tim W.

Monday, August 23, 2010

Little Help?


Hey gang,

Several of the Jalapenos in my garden have started to get this black "stain". What is this? Does it affect the taste of the peppers? Is it a problem? What causes this? Any experience? Thanks, for any help.

Jeff H.

Sunday, August 22, 2010

What Geno K Did Last Weekend...

Geno sent over pictures of the finished product from last weekend. Can never go wrong with pork, can you, GK? Here's the detail:



"(Here's a picture) of my stuffed pork loin. The most difficult part of this was cutting it in a way to allow me to roll it. I stuffed it with paper thin sliced parmesan and granny smith apples, spinach, coarse ground spicy brown horseradish mustard, and bacon. It is seasoned inside with garlic, onion, sweet basil, black pepper, and paprika. Then I rolled it and my wife, Maryann, hog tied it while I kept it from unrolling itself and spewing all the stuffing. Indirect heat and a little hickory for flavor and the results were quite tasty. Side dish was 5lb of asparagus grilled and peppered. Appetizer was stuffed and smoked jalapenos (Tim W's favorite). The peppers were extremely hot this year, WOW!!"

Love the look of the crust on that guy.

Geno and I were talking offline about the heat of the peppers. I'm running into the same issue - I sliced up a few of my jalapenos for a philly cheese steak this past week and my finger tips felt like they were on fire. My first thought was "5000 Scoville units my ass." Any one else having the same issue? Peppers hotter than normal this year, and do you know why?


Jeff H
.

HEADS UP!

Great deal at the Batavia Menards - and I suspect, the whole chain. Royal Oak Steakhouse Hardwood Lump Charcoal in the 8lb green bag is only $4.96. That is a FANTASTIC price. I just finished getting four chimneys out of one bag. Great value.

Check it out if you're a lump guy.



Jeff H.

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Croatian Inspired Pork Kabobs

A good friend of the family turned seventy recently, and to celebrate, his daughter rented an Escalade Stretch Limo to take us from the meeting place in Addison to a Southside Neighborhood hosting Croatianfest.

What I thought would be a sprawling City Festival actually ended up being a lively, one block affair that didn't disappoint. There were two different locations selling drinks: one, a Vodka and Lemonade stand which everyone except myself hit right away. I went straight to the big tent with a $20, that's where the beer cans were being sold. The great thing about this fest versus some closer to home (ahem, Swedish Days, for example) is that it was a free-for-all with drinks. Here at the Geneva Festivals, they give you a limited number of drink coupons and make you stay in the designated "play pen" to imbibe. So, even though the beers were $4 a piece - still not bad, considering that it was a fest - they weren't paternal about your consumption and would give you as many as you could buy. It was nice being able to put one in my pocket, sip on another and actually enjoy the Fest.

There were multiple food vendors, some selling American fare and others more ethnic fare in line with the home country. None of us had eaten much that day, had a couple drinks on the ride over and were starving by the time we got settled in at the Fest. One vendor in particular really caught our attention: the Kabob vendor (pictured to the right is the son of one of the vendors, working diligently in the operation to keep hot coal under the grill - very cute spectacle). It was a big and busy operation with multiple grills fired up with lump hardwood charcoal, serving nothing but meat kabobs with Lamb and Pork. The line was long, and by the time we got to the order desk they'd sold out of Lamb. No biggie, in my opinion, I've never been big on lamb. We ordered about 16-20 of the pork kabobs, served with a thin slice of hearty-crusted white bread in each basket, and staked out an eating spot.

The sauce, rub and overall taste was fantastic, I thought. Was the meat cooked a little longer than it should have been? Maybe, but the Marinade was so pronounced in the meat that it more than compensated for the extra cook time (couldn't really pinpoint the sauce or the marinade, but it tasted like a tangy Mojo like I do with the Cubans). If I'd have not been in the presence of company that I didn't want to "turn off", I'd have plowed through as many as they'd have put in front of me. The picture to the left is what little was leftover.

I'd decided my next venture - and I'm always looking for new ones - was Pork Kabobs. At Jewel and the great La Huerta Market I grabbed a little over 2.5 lbs of Pork Loin, several Lemons, a Fresh Jug of OJ, honey, and some bamboo skewers.

To maximize the Marinade time, I got to work right away: the Mojo Marinade is really a simple one: .5 cup Oj, .5 cup Lemon/H20 combination, juice of a couple of limes, .25 cup Olive Oil, about 4 cloves of garlic, pinch of oregano. Whisking all of that together, I then went to rub the pork as well as I could with Pullman Pork Chop Seasoning from the Spice House. Once I had a healthy coat of the rub on the pork I cubed it into several 1"x1" pieces, into a deep bowl, marinade over the top. Cover and let set for about 4 hours.

While the Chimney of Coal was coming up to temperature, I took the soaked skewers and began building the kabobs, meat only on most of them. My wife has been a champ with growing Roma Tomatoes in our backyard garden, and had just picked several newly ripe ones. For her, I sliced up a couple and added to her skewer.

After about two minutes on direct heat, I gave them a couple of turns and began slathering on the Teriyaki Sauce. Granted, there's nothing Croatian about Teriyaki, but I thought it would be good for a first run for good flavor. I found an online recipe that consisted of .5 cup soy sauce, .5 cup Sake, and a tbl of sugar. Just before putting the kabobs on, I warmed up with Teriyaki mixture with a little honey inside. It went over the meat nicely. Several applications later over indirect heat, all done.

Texture, good, but not great. Meat flavor with Rub, marinade and glaze, excellent, but room for improvement. I rounded out the grilling with a couple of split Lemons for garnish over the grill, ala Tim W and Mr. Flay. Nice touch.

The recipe was a hit, but next time, we'll tweak a bit. For starters, I want more of a crust on the meat, so I'll cook longer over direct heat. Not too long, mind you, just long enough to get that texture. Second, right before removing I want to glaze with a thin layer of honey for a little extra texture and flavor. And of course, to make Christina happy we'll add veggies this time.

Stay tuned for round two.....

Jeff H.

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Shoutout to Geno K (and shortest post ever) ...

Yo, Geno! I've been making stuffed jalapenos, wrapped in bacon and grilled, like a maniac. Any chance you'd share the recipe for your delicious filling? No offense if it's sacred.

Tim W.