I was looking to grill something a little different since I had the time on a Sunday and it can be easy to fall into ruts in all aspects of cooking. I decided to grill pit beef for sandwiches and used a method I was unfamiliar with. This is basically a grilled roasted beef sandwich, which I thought would be indirect heat slow cooked but instead was directly cooked over the grill in a rather short period with much close attention to the grilling.
Posted in Beef
Tagged direct heat, grilled, horseradish, medium rare, pit beef, roast beef, roasted beef
Many different elements came together both in and on the burgers. There was garlic sauteed spinach, fresh feta, and jalapenos in the burgers and a roasted red pepper mayo spread on the fresh baked buns. We did not make the buns, but got them in the Strip District where we get most of our cooking supplies. These were made the same night as Roasted Red Pepper Bisque and I kept a bit of the peppers aside for the mayo spread.
Posted in Turkey, Uncategorized
Tagged burger, Egg, feta, garlic, grilled, ground turkey, jalapeno, roasted, roasted red pepper, roasted red pepper mayo, sauteed spinach, turkey
Filet and some good friends
We had an absolute feast with some friends featuring grilled filet mignon with sauteed mushrooms and onions, spicy red pepper mac n cheese, rosemary and garlic mashed potatoes, and creamed spinach. The Strip District struck again! I had wanted to get a log of filet for quite some time because the price goes down as you buy a bigger cut, so we called on some friends to help us out.
Posted in Beef, Uncategorized
Tagged American, Beef, creamed spinach, dinner ideas, filet mignon, garlic, grilled, homemade, mac n cheese, macaroni and cheese, mashed potatoes, Meat, mushrooms, onions, potatoes, rosemary, sauteed, spicy, spicy mac n cheese, spinach
This is our first Kittened dish in Pittsburgh and we have been discovering that food is very cheap. This was a 9lb cut of brisket for $30, and that was not a sale. Plenty more to come on the great deals found. I smoked this similarly to the pork shoulder a bit back. Slow cooked over indirect heat, but this time it was cooked as the debut dish on our new charcoal grill that we got for our wedding (thanks Mo and Stosh).
First to prep the rub
Started with a quick made rub.
Yeah, $30!
As similar to the pork, I started the grill with a large pile of charcoal and once it was ashed and ready, it was moved and kept to one side. I also used a store bought foil baking dish as a drip tray below the meat to limit the mess and possible flare up.
The grill will never look like this again.
Opposite the coals
Now a lot of waiting. The grill was covered with the below air intake about halfway open and the lid air intake also about halfway open. The lid intake was placed over the meat, opposite the coals so that the heat and smoke are forced to go around the meat in order to escape. The brisket cooked for about 5 hours total. Here is is about halfway through. I turned it about every hour to alternate the side facing the heat.
About 3 hours in.
And after all five hours.
Allow the meat to sit for 15 minutes or so before slicing and always slice against the grain. It would be great to have a deli slicer here, but that is a bit excessive!
Patient, patient
Hey guys, Eileen here. I am going to fill you in on the sides, which I was responsible for making.
In addition to the brisket, we served a simple horseradish sauce from all recipes (sorry, no pictures of it) and a broccoli slaw from Smitten Kitchen. I have made this broccoli slaw once before for a cook out and people seemed to like it. I decided to make it again, figuring it would be a nice complement to the meat and tangy horseradish sauce.
First, I made the dressing for the slaw, which is composed of buttermilk, mayonnaise, cider vinegar, sugar and shallots.
Give it a good whisk and set aside.
Next, it is time for the broccoli. I used the slicing blade on my food processor to cut the broccoli for me. This method is a major time saver and produces pretty uniform slices of broccoli. Here it is pictured with chopped red onion as well.
To this, I added dried cranberries and sliced almonds and eventually the dressing.
Give it all a good stir and let it sit in the fridge for an hour or so before serving.
It’s a great slaw and a bit different than your typical cabbage slaw. If you are looking for something new to have or bring to an event this could be it! The crunch of the broccoli with the tartness of the cranberries and the sharpness of the red onion are all tamed by the buttermilk sauce. It was a great compliment to the brisket too!
All in all, this meal was delicious! We were very happy with the final product and our guests seemed to be too.
Posted in Beef, Salads, Sides, Uncategorized
Tagged Beef, Brisket, broccoli, broccoli slaw, buttermilk, garlic, good leftovers, grilled, homemade, Horseradish Sauce, low carb, Meat, Slow Smoked
Yes another crab dish and I think that this may have been the best one yet. We had a hankering for some pizza and being that we live in Maryland, making your own pizza is the only option. So we stopped at Marchone’s Italian Market in Wheaton and grabbed a frozen dough ball.
A thorough thaw is very important
This was about 2 hours of thawing and the dough had expanded to about twice the original size.
Thoroughly thawed and ready to work with
If the dough is not thawed to room temperature, it will be very difficult to work with which I have learned from experience. At the same time, you can’t work with the dough too much and remember that flour is your friend!
I rolled the dough out to the desired size while the grill was heating up. Once the dough and grill are ready, give the top of the dough a thorough spray of oil. You will then put the dough on the grill otherwise plain.
Straight on the grate oil side down and plain
Leave the dough on for about 3-5 minutes. Just until the down side is lightly browned and basically firm enough to pick the whole piece up without folding and flopping like raw dough.
We need a new grill!
The bottom of this piece is uncooked. The top would look better if we had a better grill that cooked evenly(grill companies we are looking for a sponsor!). When we move, the gas grill is not coming. The grill doesn’t know that, but I guess once this is published the news will be out.
Now it is time to dress the pizza with your toppings as you normally would and then throw it back on the grill. Instead of a red sauce we used a pesto base.
Summer basil is great
Next we used some more of the famous leftover crab which was starting to run low. Note that this was published well after the dish was made and we did not keep fresh crab in the fridge for 3 weeks.
We were able to be pretty generous with the crab since we had so much. This was almost but not quite a pound.
Cheese it up
We used a store bought Italian blend.
Fresh tomatoes
We love fresh tomato slices on pizza. Now it is ready to go back on the grill for a little longer than the plain dough.
Close the lid, which will help to melt the cheese. I gave it a few turns because of our extremely uneven grill as you can see the full blast flame or no flame options. It would be a good idea to give it a spin either way though. This stage will take closer to 7-9 minutes to melt the cheese and cook the pizza through.
Summer basil again
It turned out great! Slice it up, cheese it up, and go to town!
Recipe for Standard Pesto with Walnut
Greg
(Since I have been begun posting over the last month, we will start to tag our posts)
Pulled Pork
Pork butt also known as Boston butt (not Bill Belichick) was on sale at Harris Teeter for .99 cents a pound which made this 8 pounder quite a deal. I wanted to slow cook it since it was summer and I had the time, but didn’t want to slow cook it for 14 hours. I did a bit of an in between method using indirect heat. First I got the grill started before I prepped the pork.
Keeping all of the heat to one side
I put down a base of charcoal and a few small logs on top as added fuel and to get a smoky flavor. I kept all of these to one side and started them up planning to put the pork on in about a half an hour.
In the meantime, I prepared the pork.
Fat jackets are gross, but necessary for flavor and tenderness
There was a bone in the meat
Next I took about 8 cloves of garlic and cut them in half. Then I cut small slits throughout the meat and put the garlic in, making sure it was deep enough that it could not be seen.
You wouldn't know it, but there is a lot of garlic in there
Next I prepared a dry rub by combining some dry seasonings. I prefer doing this over using a store bought one as they are often packed with sugar and or can be way too salty.
Just pick what you like and mix it up
Then I thoroughly covered the pork on all sides.
Next onto the cooking. The coals were white and ashed over and the wood was burning and smoking well. I opened the bottom air intake of the grill about half way and placed the pork on the grate on the opposite side of the heat so that there was nothing underneath it.
The flames will die down when covered but will still be plenty hot
I then covered the grill putting the top air intake over the meat and opening it about halfway also. This makes the smoke and heat travel over and around the pork in order to escape out of the top. Opening the intakes up halfway gives the flames enough air to be hot and continue to burn. To truly slow cook it, you would have barely opened the air valves, but it again would take twice as long (up to 8 hours 0r more). This is what I meant by using a hybrid method that was still slow (about 5 hours), but not the typical slow cooking process.
After about 2 hours, I opened the grill up and took the whole grate, pork and all, off and placed it aside. I stirred up the coals, got rid of some of the spent ash, and added a few more coals and small pieces of wood. Then I turned the pork so that the other side of it was facing the heat source. It was looking great already and could have probably been eaten, but it would not have been very tender.
After about 2 hours of indirect smoking
This was also going on during the process which really helped. The site's namesake!
I let the charcoal and wood heat back up uncovered for about 10 minutes then put the flipped pork back on. I checked it in about an hour and flipped it around again, and the same in another hour.
Because the temperature was close enough to what I had wanted it to be and it was getting late, I took the meat off after about 4.5 hours of total cooking time. This method also uses the fuel very efficiently as the coals could have gone for another few hours.
Got to about 205 degress at its highest
Government official numbers say to cook the pork to 160-170 degrees, but when slow cooking it like this, you want to get it closer to 200 for the tenderness. This was tender and did come apart pretty easily, but also could have gone for another hour or a little less. Towards some of the bone, the meat was not as uniformly tender, but was still tender enough.
Finally ready to come off the grill
I let the pork rest for a bit so that it could be handled. The fat jacket came right off and many other visible fat pockets were easy to remove, though some people(southerners) would keep most of them for the extra flavor.
In the meantime, I cut up some cauliflower and covered it in vinegar and mustard before grilling. I wanted something tart to contrast the pork and this easy mixture did that well.
Threw it in the grill basket for about 30-40 minutes
Once the pork was cool enough to handle, I shredded it with two large forks which was pretty easy except for a bit around the bone as mentioned. The smoky flavor and rub had really penetrated throughout and there were pockets of stronger garlic flavor than others which I considered prizes.
Pulled Pork
We put the pork in a bowl with some cauliflower and ate some plain and ate some with a bit of BBQ sauce.
Was good enough plain
BBQ sauce is good too.
It was great and I am really pleased at how it turned out. It could have been enjoyed on buns or with slaw or many other ways. As you may have noticed, we do not know how to cook for 2 people and base our portions on a family of 8 which means that there were tons of leftovers which you will see some uses of in the coming days. This may sound difficult, but really was not and also did not require a lot of attention. Don’t put it on and go to the store, but is easy to set up and entertain while the magic happens.
Posted in Pork
Tagged American, BBQ, cauliflower, Dry rub, easy, garlic, good leftovers, grilled, homemade, indirect heat, Meat, pork, slow cooked, smoked
Summer!
This was another summery grilling inspiration. I had a hankering for seared salmon and figured to keep it light by having it on a salad with an oil based dressing. I also decided to spruce up the salad with some methods that I had never tried and some that were truly experimental, but worked out. This turned out much better than the last post, but we give you the truth here!
First off the primary ingredient, the salmon.
It did have the skin on it and I had an idea of how to get it off. I have tried to cut it off, but I always feel like I lose so much in the difficult process.
All dressed up and nowhere to go!
I sprinkled a store bought cajun seasoning on the meat side only.
Next was to prep some of the other salad ingredients. The first was to prep a foil packet of walnuts, sliced garlic, oil, and salt and pepper.
Ready for the grill
I had never roasted walnuts and garlic on the grill like this but it worked out. This packet went right onto the grill for about 6-8 minutes each side. The flavors intermingled well and I threw them right on the salad though I know some would be weary to throw the roasted garlic on the salad. Feel free to discard it or recycle it for another dish, but I think that it worked out well and was not too overpowering.
Post Grill
That was one of the new methods mentioned, the next is also a new method and one that was truly experimental and I was not sure if it would work out. I sliced 2 tomatoes in half and an avocado in half, sprayed them with a little oil, sprinkled with a little salt and pepper and then……
Whats next?
Probably not a big surprise, but right on the grill face down!
It worked out just fine and I would suggest it and try it again myself!
Maybe a minute or two less next time though
I wasn’t sure how the avocado would fare on the grill and it could have used a minute or two less but I was able to peel away some of the burnt parts sort of like peeling the blistered skin of a roasted red pepper. I sliced them and added them to the salad.
Back to the salmon. I was planning to sear it and placed it skin side down first.
Ok, I forgot my plan and put it down meat side for a second.
Once I flipped it after a few minutes, the skin came right off which was the hopeful plan!
Skin came right off. Nice!
Once the salmon was done, I sliced it and put it atop the rest of the salad ingredients.
We used some olive oil and vinegar as a dressing, though much wasn’t needed since there were so many great flavors.
In addition, I threw a little bit of goat cheese on the salad. The warm salmon and grilled veggies melted it a bit and the creaminess tasted great. Overall, was a good meal.
Honestly, this did not turn out great but I am posting it for the basic idea and vision and as some pointers for myself and the readers. The idea was to grill chicken thighs with a thick walnut pesto paste that was almost like a jerk sauce. The first step was the sauce and I started that by prepping some garlic to be roasted in foil.
In some foil with a little oil, salt, and pepper
Into the over for about 15-20 minutes.
After the oven
While the garlic was roasting, I harvested some fresh basil from the garden.
Yep, thats basil
Now it was time to combine all of the ingredients and blend them into the paste.
The base ingredients
All of the ingredients
A side view of the many layers. Like a middle school science project
The final blended product which was not so pretty
Once the paste was prepared, I was ready to apply it to the chicken. I got bone in thighs and took the skin off of about 2/3 of them and left it on the rest.
Dressed up
Then onto the grilling and this is where things started to go astray. A combination of the oil in the sauce, the fat of the thighs, and the skin of some of the thighs led to the grill seriously flaming up. I had to turn the gas off and move the chicken to the other side for a bit until the flames died down. A dirty grill also contributed to the problem. I was able to save most of the thighs, but some did get pretty scorched. They were still edible, but some were a bit too blackened for my usual liking. So I would suggest to use this recipe and bake the thighs instead. I don’t think it was a flawed recipe, but a flawed method.
These flames are nothing compared to what was to come!
I threw some veggies in the grill basket as a side
We dressed them up with some fresh chopped tomatoes and basil and a sprinkle of Parmesan cheese. The meal was fine, but not one of our finest. As mentioned, I think that it would have been better prepared if it were baked and suggest trying that way instead of the grill.
With some siracha garnish
Scallops were on a great sale at Giant, $7.99 a pound for sea scallops down from the usual $10-$11 or even more so I got some but did not have a vision of what I was going to do with them. As you will notice we are big grillers, and being that it has been so hot recently I have been trying to keep most of the cooking to outside which led to grilling. I have tried to grill scallops right on the grill grate before, but that was a wasteful disaster. I have also grilled them in the grill basket, but it was not great. The only other grilling possibility seemed to be skewering, which I had never tried with scallops but was hopeful.
The sale item
I decided to use a standard array of skewer vegetables, but also decided to fall upon the cliche garnish of bacon wrapping some of the scallops.
Raw ingredients, spice, and the soap that cleaned it all afterwards
I skewered everything in a somewhat random order on the bamboo skewers which were soaked in water to try to dissuade their burning which still occurs a bit. I cut the bacon in half and did not wrap every scallop as I wanted it to be an accessory and not a main ingredient. I didn’t want them to be bacon wrapped scallops, but to have bacon be an ingredient in the mix.
I cut the jalapenos into rings and incorporated them into the skewers because I love spice. If you were to do this, you should warn others and even be cautious yourself because as much as I love the heat it definitely got a bit hot at times! Despite that, I will always persevere with the spice!
To season them, I used a storemade tequila lime seasoning from Whole Foods, which we got during our shopping trip for sushi, which was so graciously provided by Whole Foods.
Ready to go
I grilled as you normally would and kept a close eye in order to rotate them well and try to cook them evenly, while not overcooking the scallops.
Remeber to wash the dish before putting the cooked product back in
I also threw a single cup of brown rice in the rice maker to supplement the skewers and for some substance. We often try to eat low to no carbs, but I knew with these skewers that they needed something with them or you would be full after eating, but then be pretty hungry in an hour or so. Just a bit of rice did a great job as a component to the dish and to fulfill the role that I wanted it to.
Grilled scallop skewers
And the completed dish with brown rice and some siracha on the side. We pulled everything off of the skewers and placed it upon the rice. As mentioned, with the jalapenos the siracha was not called upon much, though I use it on many dishes. Overall, this dish was great and I recommend it as a good way to grill scallops, keep the summer cooking to the outside heat, and bring some summery grilled veggies into the mix.
As I flipped through the May issue of Cooking Light I came across recipes for grilled balsamic skirt steak with accompanying sides of tomato, onion and blue cheese salad and garlic sauteed spinach. In! Love at first sight. I felt pretty confident this meal would be a winner and it really was! It’s a great summer time meal and has that complexity and flavor to it that would make any guest think you spent hours in the kitchen, though you secretly know just how easy it was.
For our version of this recipe, we used flank steak instead of skirt steak, since that was what we had in the freezer. For those keeping tabs, it was a beautiful grass-fed flank steak from Trader Joes, Yum.
The marinade for the steak was a little on the sweet side. The ingredients include balsamic vinegar, Worcestershire, brown sugar and garlic. The flavors of the marinade were probably my least favorite part of this meal, ironically though it was what drew me to the recipe in the first place. Next time I think I will go with a standard teriyaki or soy marinade. I like the salt, what can I say. Still though, steak is steak, and so it was still awesomely delicious. The great flavor was intensified by Greg’s masterful slicing- diagonal, across the grain, and very thin- which created extremely tender, melt in your mouth bites of steak. (A true testament to this was that the steak was even good and tender the next day, cold, on a salad!)
In addition to the mouth watering steak, were the fabulous sides that accompanied it. Simple, yet delicious.
The spinach, which I dubbed ‘garlicky spinach’ (so creative, I know), could not be easier to make but tasted so good. We have spinach pretty frequently and often saute it. But for some reason, this spinach was above and beyond what we typically have. It included thinly sliced garlic that first cooked in butter. mmm.
The other side was incredible and so easy to make! Some halved grape tomatoes….
…some minced vidalia onion…
…some vinaigrette…
…blue cheese…
…all stirred together. I make similar side with feta but the blue cheese was an ingenious addition. I really loved this! Next time I make it, I may add some lemon juice for a little more acidity. I used red wine vinegar, though the recipe called for white wine vinegar, which may be why it was quite as acidic as it should be. The vidalia onion was also a pleasant surprise, as I typically would use red onion in this type of side. It’s a much more mellow onion than the onions I typically use and worked nicely not to overpower the tomato and blue cheese.
Here are some more glamor shots of the meal 🙂
Needless to say I really liked this dinner. All the flavors, textures and temperatures of everything worked so well together. The sweetness of the steak was countered nicely by the sharpness of the blue cheese, the flavorful onions, and garlicky spinach. The soft texture of the steak balanced by the crunch of the salad and warmth of the spinach. I could really go on and on… try it and you’ll see!
Recipe for Grilled Balsamic Flank Steak
Recipe for Tomato, Onion, and Blue Cheese Salad
Tagged balsamic, blue cheese, dinner ideas, easy, flank steak, garlic, grilled, homemade, low carb, marinade, spinach, tomato, vidalia onion
Starving Kitten 