Thrill of the grill lasts all week long
Hey readers. Lindsey is taking some much-deserved time off for the next couple of days and so I am minding the store today here at the Fridge Magnet. Hope you all had a great weekend full of delicious food.
I suspect almost everyone fired up the grill this weekend. Our deck is the home of two grills, one gas and one charcoal. The charcoal grill has become our default cook top on the weekends when we have the time to build the fire and soak some wood chips for that extra smokey flavor.
I just hate to waste anything, especially the great flavor that charcoal cooking adds to food. Since the coals burn bright and long, we try to make the most of the fire by throwing on all the food we can. Yesterday we grilled redskin potatoes, filet mignon and pineapple rings for dinner and dessert.
We also cooked chicken breasts (seasoned with curry powder and cumin) and pork loin chops (soaked in Mojo sauce) that we will use for dinner throughout the week.
The idea to grill potatoes came from a Food Network show with Bobby Flay. We used redskins this weekend, but this method works well with Yukon golds and fingerlings. By grilling the taters, we can get them very crispy with only adding a miniscule amount of fat.
I slice the potatoes into quarter-inch slices, then par boil them for a few minutes. Then I lay them out on a grill pan with holes that allows the flames to kiss the spuds. We got this one at Bed, Bath and Beyond but I think you can find them anywhere that sells grills and supplies.
I spray the pan with fat-free cooking oil, then I lightly spray the potatoes and add a little seasoned salt and pepper. The spuds get flipped after four or five minutes, the grilled side gets salted, and then they just finish cooking. If you don’t like using cooking spray, you can also just brush on a little olive oil. They are unbelievably crisp and delicious.
My husband and I really like grilled pineapple, too. We brush on a little maple syrup to help get a nice carmelization on the pineapple. This is great served with ice cream or just by itself. And we get more than one dessert out of this, too.
What did you toss on your grill this weekend?
June 1, 2009 - 12:24 PM
RSS feed 
Baked potatoes and striped bass filets seasoned with lemon pepper and dill, slathered with butter and wrapped in foil. The fish only took a few minutes to cook and were tender and delicious.
I used to have a charcoal/wood smoker, but now exclusively use a propane grill because of the time savings. The smoke flavor I still can’t completely replicate, but I can get it pretty decently with our gas grill, using a wood chip smoker box. I grilled some beef tenderloin, cube steaks, and hot dogs over the weekend, and with the added smoke flavor, they turned out great. If we want to do charcoal or wood cooking, we have a firepit and we also have a frill grate we throw over the flame and can cook that way. We don’t have a big fancy grill either, just the cheapest Charbroil gas grill sold at Lowes since it does the job more than well enough for us. I may one day again get a smoker again, but I’ll need to work less than I do now or it will just sit and collect dust and cobwebs like our past one did. For non-meat items, we frequently will grill corn on the cob, and have also done potatoes, tomatoes, asparagus, onions, and a few other things. Good results each time, and the added flavor is great!
‘grill grate’, not ‘frill grate’ My fingers still can’t get the right keys.
This weekend I barbecued a chicken (100% organic; we raise our own birds). I cut it into pieces, par-boiled them for about 7 min., then put ‘em on the grill. After a few minutes, slathered each piece with homemade BBQ sauce and fresh herbs. Added fresh steamed spinach from the garden (picked at 4:30; on the table at 5:30!!) and rice. Weekend before last, it was a special birthday treat: grilled lobster tails and shish-kebobs of shrimp, scallops, onions, peppers, and mushrooms. Yum-mee! Used the leftovers from the Kabobs the next night in a salad fresh from the garden. Other John, I inherited a smoker a few months ago from my father-in-law; I need to figure out how to use it!!
My boyfriend and I picked up some local beef this weekend from the Grandin Farmer’s Market (Buffallo Creek, I think), seasoned with a little salt and pepper and a wee bit of Chipotle BBQ Sauce, cut up some red and yellow peppers, cherry tomatoes from the market and mushrooms, seasoned those and skewered it all and threw it on the grill. It was delicious! We try to pick up local meats and veggies when possible and I definitely think it makes a difference.
We’ll probably wind up having a nasty fight to see who gets the left overs for dinner tonight.:)
Julie, that chicken sounds delicious! I’m gonna have to get Kevin to get another chicken from you. Those are so tasty!
Flat iron steak, marinated in Allegro and cooked to med. rare over charcoal! I really like that cut of beef, learned about it on this blog maybe a year ago and have had several of them. It’s plenty tender and has a great flavor, with very little fat or waste. Also cooked a couple of bacon-wrapped fillets marinated and cooked the same way. I keep reading about cooking veggies and fish on the grill but haven’t tried it. I need to quit being lazy and experiment! I’ve surely read plenty of examples and recipes right on this blog!
Was planning on grilling during the weekend. But didn’t get a chance to. So, I grilled tuna tonight. It was my first try at grilling fish. I marinated it in oil, lemon juice, cumin seed, and minced garlic. Tasted pretty good.
You all are making me hungry. Julie, your chicken sounds amazing. And we have grilled lobster tails, too. They were outstanding.
Dennis- I love flat iron steaks, too. As far as veggies are concerned, if you like asparagus, it’s terrific on the grill. I toss it in a little olive oil, add a little garlic powder and pepper. It’s so good. My favorite fish to grill is salmon and swordfish.
I have never grilled fish. What is a good way to grill cod fillets? They are not very thick.
Hey Connie- For flaky fish like cod or tilapia, try wrapping the filets in foil and putting that on the grill. We usually add a little butter, seasoning and lemon slices to the foil packet when we do this at home. This works great on the grill or in the oven.
You can also try cedar planks on the grill. It makes a nice flat cooking surface so you can get the spatula under the fish to flip it, and it adds a nice woodsy flavor.
We warmed up the curry chicken last night and had it with corn on the cob and a green salad. Tonight I plan to make fajitas with the rest of the chicken. Grill it all one night; eat for a week.
Oh man, I started salivating reading these comments! Great blog entry, Nona, and great grilling ideas. It was cool and a bit rainy in Cleveland this weekend, and I’m excited to be home where summer is fully upon us and we can do some grilling this week!
Nona, I really like the idea of grilling a bunch of stuff one night and eating on it all week. I have a 10 month old who is crawling all over the place, so getting dinner prepared is sometimes a challenge (generally either I or my husband cooks while the other chases the child)! Being able to warm up something healthy that’s not from a box is very appealing!
Nona, I sometimes try to cook a bunch ahead on the grill, too; but it never seems to last as long as I think it should with lots of lunches and snacking thrown into the mix. Bailie, let me know if you & Kev want another chicken. I have some in the freezer still, and we’ll have fresh birds again this Oct. Oh, and welcome back, Lindsey!!