Posted on 05/21/2003 12:17:26 PM PDT by stainlessbanner
GET OUT YOUR apron, dig out Dad's favorite barbecue recipe and fire up the grill. Grilling season is here.
Whether you cook with charcoal, gas or a bit of both, guests will crowd around your picnic table if you follow a few simple grilling tips, not to mention recipes, from some top chefs and cookbook authors.
To many, Dad's barbecued ribs, whether dry or wet, spicy or mild, are every bit as American as Mom's apple pie. Indeed, Abraham Lincoln's parents celebrated their wedding with a barbecue, and George Washington loved to go to barbecues and even wrote about them in his diary, according to Steven Raichlen, author of "How to Grill," "The Barbecue! Bible" and his newest, "BBQ USA" (Workman, 2003, $19.95 paperback).
"Barbecue is very deeply imbedded in our national psyche and has been since even before we were a nation," says Raichlen, speaking by phone from his home in Martha's Vineyard, Mass. He expects to be grilling lobster, corn-on-the-cob and peaches or pineapple for Memorial Day there - not to mention a smoked potato salad.
From ribs to lobster, corn-on-the-cob to bread pudding, grilling can be an innovative yet easy way to cook.
Food Network chef and cookbook author Gale Gand, for example, enjoys grilling fruit on a propane grill on her screened-in porch outside Chicago. Grilling, she saiys in a phone interview from New York, "really intensifies the sweetness without adding extra sugar. The hotter the grill, the more caramelization you'll get" when cooking fruit, says Gand.
Gand, co-owner of Tru restaurant in Chicago, takes part in neighborhood grilling parties and believes grilling holds "the same emotional tie as a hearth or fireplace." People seem to gather around a grill "as if some kind of magic or alchemy is going on," she says.
"You hear that crackling sound of the flames, and you know something great is about to happen," adds Gand, who was planning to try grilled crawfish for Memorial Day.
Advice from Gand: Cooks should be sure to clean the grill once a year and keep an extra tank of propane handy so they won't run out of fuel while cooking dinner.
Raichlen has about 30 grills altogether, between his two homes, one in Massachusetts and one in Florida.
In his household, "Everything from the appetizer to dessert tends to get cooked on the grill," he says. "We allow for the occasional green salad or steamed fiddlehead ferns, however."
Raichlen advises home chefs to keep their grills hot, clean and well-oiled. "Food is less likely to stick to a hot grill grate, and you'll get better grill marks," he says.
To clean a grill, Raichlen recommends using a stiff wire brush or crumpled aluminum foil. He suggests oiling the grate before turning on the grill.
"To do that, you take a paper towel, fold it into a little pad, then dip it into a bowl of vegetable oil and rub it across the bars of the grate."
Rick Bayless, chef-owner of Chicago's highly rated Frontera Grill and Topolobampo restaurants, cookbook author and host of the PBS-TV series "Mexico: One Plate at a Time," calls himself "an inveterate barbecuer."
Bayless puts his charcoal and gas grills to good use every February when he invites friends over for a huge barbecue just to remind them "summer is going to come."
Bayless, whose parents ran Hickory House, a barbecue restaurant in Oklahoma City, says he grew up on the flavors of grilled and smoked meat.
"I don't like charcoal. I like to burn logs," he says. Bayless says it's fun to play around with other woods, "But, man, when I get a hankering for that Oklahoma stuff, it's always hickory."
One of his favorite grilled foods is pizza, particularly one topped with melted goat cheese and bacon. And, of course, he likes to slow-cook pork ribs in the middle of his grill, with the coals banked on either side.
Bayless thinks a common grilling mistake is that people get their fire too hot, causing food to cook too quickly on the outside before it's done on the inside. In fact, Raichlen suggests setting up three grill zones: hot, medium and cool. Then if something is cooking too fast, you can quickly move it to the cool zone.
Bayless also suggests brushing or spraying oil on the food rather than on the grill unless the grate is cast iron.
Cookbook author Rick Tramonto, Gand's partner at Tru, also loves to grill, in fact "almost every night in the summer."
Tramonto plans to grill for about 12 family members on Memorial Day, when he'll also celebrate his 40th birthday (he explains the birthday is actually May 30).
"We're hoping to do some half-lobsters, some shrimp, steaks and some lamb chops," he says. "We'll do corn on the cob. I even do baked potatoes on the grill."
Tramonto believes the most common grilling mistake people make is turning the food too soon. "People don't let stuff cook; they can't just start flipping. They don't let it develop a crust. They don't let it develop a good sear, which seals in all the juices and all the flavor," he says.
Tramonto, who owns one gas and one charcoal grill, says he enjoys grilling because of the great flavor and "the whole ambiance of being outside and cooking outside."
He's adventuresome, too. He says he loves grilling frog legs, he cooks outdoors even when it snows, and hopes others will grill more, too. "It brings family together; it brings friends together; it's a great social setting."
He's particularly fond of his Tramonto Potato Wedges. He says one potato should serve two people. For each potato, this informal recipe calls for a half cup of olive oil, two cloves of minced garlic, salt, pepper and cayenne pepper to taste, and one teaspoon of Dijon mustard.
Wrap each potato in aluminum foil and bake it in a 400 F oven for 45 minutes to an hour. Let it cool about an hour. Make a marinade of the olive oil, garlic, salt, pepper and cayenne pepper. Quarter the potato into wedges, then cut each wedge in half before dressing the potato with the mixture. Allow the potato to marinate about 10 minutes, then grill on both sides for about 3 minutes each side.
Recipes
Rick Bayless, Chicago chef, cookbook author and TV food-show host, recently shared his recipe for barbecued ribs, which serve six.
Barbecued Ribs
3 large slabs (about 5 pounds total) baby back ribs, OR 2 medium to medium-small slabs (about 5 pounds total) spare ribs
1/3 cup barbecue spice
About 2 cups hickory wood chips
About 1 1/4 cup barbecue sauce
Lay ribs on baking sheet. Sprinkle both sides evenly with spice. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 5 hours or up to one day.
One hour before cooking, place wood chips in bowl and cover with water.
About a half hour before cooking, heat half the burners on one side of the gas grill on high. (If your grill has three burners, heat two.)
To set up the grill, pour 1 inch of water into a baking pan (a 13-by-9-inch pan works well) and set over hot part of grill, the lighted burners. Drain wood chips. Wrap in foil. Poke six holes in foil, and set next to water pan directly over high heat.
When wood chips begin to smoke, lay ribs curved-side up over cooler part of grill (unlighted burner). Use a rib rack to stand up ribs when doubling or tripling the recipe so all will fit. Close grill. Turn temperature to medium. Cook 1 1/4 hours for baby back ribs, 2 for spare ribs, until beautifully reddish-brown and meat is tender when tested with fork. If grill has thermometer, it should stay about 325 F during cooking. Brush ribs with barbecue sauce, close grill and cook 10 minutes longer.
To serve ribs: Remove ribs to cutting board. With large knife, cut between bones. Serve with remaining barbecue sauce. Heat barbecue sauce in microwave, so it does not cool off the ribs.
Makes 6 servings.
Recipe from Rick Bayless.
Bayless says the following is the barbecue sauce recipe from his parents' Hickory House restaurant in Oklahoma City.
Hickory House Barbecue Sauce
2 garlic cloves
1 cup ketchup
1 to 1 1/2 tablespoons vinegar, preferably the smaller amount
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
1/3 cup brown sugar, well packed into cup
1/2 to 1 teaspoon barbecue spice, store-bought or homemade (you can substitute chili powder)
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
Salt, if necessary
Peel garlic cloves and press through garlic press into small saucepan. Add 3/4 cup water and all remaining ingredients. Gently simmer over medium-low heat for 30 minutes. The sauce is then ready to use.
Makes about 1 1/2 cups.
Recipe from Rick Bayless.
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Chef Gale Gand, co-owner of Tru restaurant in Chicago, created the following recipe.
Note: Gand advises that you keep the clams chilled until you are ready to clean them.
Grilled Clams With Drawn Garlic Butter
5-pound sack cherry stone clams
2 sticks of unsalted butter
4 cloves garlic, crushed
Rinse the clams in the sink under cold, runny water and scrub with a vegetable brush if needed then drain. Keep chilled till ready to grill.
Meanwhile, melt the butter in a saucepan, adding the crushed garlic. Heat the butter a little hotter over medium heat to clarify it. Once the butter is totally melted, skim the foam (salts) from the top. Ladle out just the clear yellow butter fat, leaving the garlic and milky dairy liquid and water in the bottom. Keep this clear butter warm.
When you're ready to serve, just pour the clams onto the grill, spread them out on the grates and close the lid. In about 2 to 4 minutes, they'll open up and they're done. Serve on a big platter with small clam forks; drizzle a bit of the butter over, and serve with more drawn butter on the side to dip.
Makes about 20 servings.
Recipe from Gale Gand.
Your lucky to have HEB where you live. I shop them every time I'm in South Texas. Most of their stores carry alot of really good Texas-made sausages. (Prasek's Hillje, Eckermans-not Eckrich, Elgin, Opa's etc.) My favorite is Eckerman's Garlic Sausage, made in New Ulm Texas.
1 lb dried black beans
2 qts chicken broth
3 large onions (quartered)
2 large carrots (quartered)
2 bulbs garlic
2 bay leaves
2 smoked ham hocks
2 red bell peppers
1 large jalapeno pepper
4 tsp cumin
1 TB dried oregano.
Preheat oven to 425. Season garlic in salt, pepper, and olive oil, wrap in foil, and cook for 50 minutes
On grill, caramalize onions and carrots, place in 12 quart pot. Roast bell peppers, and jalapeno, place in paper bag, to steam for 10 minutes, then peel charred skin off, and roughly chop.
Add all remaining ingredients to pot, adjust salt and pepper to taste, and simmer for 3 1/2 hours.
Remove bay leaves, and ham hocks. Scrape meat off ham hocks, return to soup. Simmer softly, 30 minutes more, then puree half the soup, returning it to the pot. Readjust salt and pepper to taste, top with diced onion, cheese of your choice, and enjoy.
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