Reflections on Grilling

I’ve been trying to figure out why I love grilling so much. There are the obvious reasons – it’s healthy, there are no dishes, grilled food tastes great – but I don’t think that’s quite it. If I’m being honest, it’s because grilling is so MACHO. Cooking is great, but it has that sort of housewife thing going on. I have no problem with that, but grilling with the heat and flames and small danger potential is just so much more exciting. Isn’t grilling supposed to be the man of the house’s job? Well in my house, I’m the grillmaster, and I love it.

Below are the top 3  grilled successes of the summer:

Chicken and Peach Kebabs with Raisin Sauce and Middle-Eastern Shake (adapted from License to Grill by Chris Schlesinger and John Willoughby)

Ingredients:

For the raisin sauce:

1/3 cup olive oil, 1/4 cup chopped golden raisins, juice of 2 limes, salt and pepper to taste

For the shake:

2 tablespoons cumin seeds (or 1 tablespoon ground cumin), 2 tablespoons ground coriander, pinch ground cinnamon, 1 tablespoon kosher salt, 1 tablespoon black pepper

For the chicken:

3 tablespoons vegetable oil, 1 tablespoon minced garlic, 1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro, salt and pepper, 1 lb boneless skinless chicken breast cut into 16 chunks, 2 red bell peppers cut into 8 chunks, 2 peaches cut into 8 chunks, 4 skewers

Method

1.) Soak the wooden skewers in the sink, let sit for 30 minutes at least

2.) Make the sauce: combine all sauce ingredients and set aside

3.) Make the shake: combine all sauce ingredients and set aside

4.) Prepare the chicken: in a medium bowl combine the oil, garlic, cilantro, salt and pepper to taste and toss with the chicken. Thread the chicken, alternating with peaches and peppers, on the skewers. Make sure not to pack too tightly to allow the chicken to cook.

5.) Grill the skewers 5-7 minutes per side until opaque all the way through. Pour sauce over the top and sprinkle with shake, serve hot.

Grilled Vegetable Pizza (improvised from Julia’s fig and fontina recipe)

pizzas grilling away

the finished product

Ingredients:

pre-made pizza dough, olive oil, cornmeal, 1 onion, 2 red bell peppers, 2 tomatoes, good quality feta cheese, mixed greens

Method:

1.) Cut the peppers in half, seed and grill on a medium-hot until blackened, then slice.

2.) Coarsely chop the onion and sautee with a little olive oil.

3.) Split the pizza dough in half and stretch each piece as thinly as possible. Coat both sides with olive oil, sprinkle with cornmeal, and place on medium-hot grill.

4.) After about 5 minutes, once dough is stiff enough, flip over. Then layer sliced tomatoes, grilled peppers, onions, and feta on the pizza. Close the grill and cook until the toppings are warmed and the bottom is browned, about 5-10 minutes.

5.) Remove from grill and cover with mixed greens.

BBQ Whole Chicken with Cornbread Stuffing and (optional) Bourbon-Shallot Sauce (again, adapted from License to Grill)

Ingredients:

For the sauce (optional – plain old chicken stock will also work):

2 tablespoons olive oil, 1/2 cup minced shallots, 1 tablespoon minced garlic, 2 cups chicken stock, 1 cup bourbon, juice of 1 lemon, salt and pepper

For the stuffing:

1 stick butter, 1 large diced onion, 2 peeled diced Granny Smith apples, 2 cups of crumbled cornbread (store-bought or a mix works fine), 1/4 cup chopped fresh sage, 1 cup milk, salt and pepper

For the chicken:

1 whole chicken, 1/4 cup paprika, 1/4 black pepper, 1/4 cup brown sugar, 1/4 cup kosher salt

Method:

1.) Make the stuffing: sautee the onions and butter until transparent (about 5-7 minutes). Add the apples and cook for about 5 minutes more. Transfer to a bowl and add the cornbread, sage, milk, and salt and pepper to taste.

2.) Prepare the chickens: combine paprika, pepper, brown sugar, and salt to make a rub. Stuff the chicken with the stuffing, the cover generously with the rub. There will probably be extra stuffing – wrap it in tin foil and save it.

3.) Make the (optional) sauce: sautee the shallots and garlic in a medium saucepan for 3-5 minutes. Then add stock and bourbon and bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer for 30-45 minutes, until reduced by half. Season with lemon, salt, and pepper and let cook for 10 more minutes.

4.) Set the back of the grill to medium heat and place the chickens, breast down, on the unheated front part. The chicken will need to cook for about 1 1/2 to 2 hours. Once during the cooking process make sure to turn the chicken around (still keeping the breast down) and baste with the sauce or stock occasionally. The chickens will be done when a meat thermometer inserted into the thigh reads 165 and the meat is opaque all the way through. Extra stuffing can be cooked in the foil package on the hotter back section for about 1/2 hour.

5.) Remove chicken from the grill and let rest, under foil, for 15 minutes. Serve warm with the extra stuffing and remaining sauce.

For more wonderful and simple grilling ideas, check out this link my wonderful friend Juliana shared with me: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/30/dining/30mini.html?_r=2&scp=1&sq=grill&st=cse

- Carolyn

Whole Wheat Bread

One of my goals this summer was to bake bread from scratch. It took a few tries and completely coated my kitchen in flour  but I do love a good baking adventure. I wouldn’t have minded, however, if it had been slightly less educational. On a somewhat unrelated note, it turns out bread is an integral part of both society and the human experience: for more than you ever wanted to know about bread, watch Conan O’Brian interview a Cornell History professor here. (Note: my bread-baking experience, perhaps due to my inexperience, was not nearly as pleasurable as Professor Kaplan would make it seem.)

Attempt 1:

I thought I’d try for some tried-and-true classics for my first breadmaking experience. Most of the recipes I found online required 12-18 hour ferments and would make something like six loaves; I was hoping for something I could make in a day. I turned to the Better Homes and Gardens New Cookbook (new as in 1981).

Whole Wheat Bread
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 package active dry yeast (2 1/4 tsp)
1 3/4 cups water
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
3 Tbsp butter
2 tsp salt
2 cups whole wheat flour
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

Combine the 2 cups flour and yeast. Mix and heat the water, sugar, butter, and salt “just until warm.” Better Homes and Gardens recommended 115º-120º, which seemed awfully hot. Add to yeast mixture, beating at low speed for 30 seconds, then at high speed for 3 minutes. Stir in the whole wheat flour and as much of the all-purpose as you can with a spoon, then, on a lightly-floured surface, knead in the remaining flour for 6-8 minutes. To knead, fold the dough toward you, push down and away with the heels of your hands, turn the dough 90º, and repeat. After kneading, shape into a ball and place in a large, lightly greased/oiled bowl and turn once so that all surfaces are oiled. Cover and let rise in a warm place for 1 to 1 1/2 hours, until about double. If your kitchen is chilly, you can preheat your oven for about a minute and then turn it off, and let the dough rise inside.

After the dough has risen, punch it down, turn it out onto a floured surface, divide in half, and shape into two loaves. Place in 2 greased 4×8″ loaf pans (Who has so many different sized loaf pans lying around?? Ours were 5×9!). Cover and let rise again for about an hour. Preheat oven to 375º and cook for about 45 minutes, covering with foil for the last 20 to prevent overbrowning.

In an act of unforgivable hubris, I increased the whole-wheat to all-purpose ratio and put in maybe half the amount of butter. The Better Homes and Gardens people did not look upon this leniently. Although the dough expanded beautifully during the first rise, in the loaf pans it sagged into two dense, depressing bricks; my confidence followed a similar trajectory. I baked them anyway, in the name of science. The bread (if you could call it that) actually tasted pretty good but the texture was, well, less than ideal.

Fail.

Top 10 Culinary Moments from Europe

I recently returned from a six-week Europe trip that was chock-full of gastronomic delights.  Even on a tight budget, the food was fantastic. Here is a top-ten list:

10.) Escargots in Paris – because anything swimming in garlic and butter tastes pretty damn good.

9.) Pan Roasted Rabbit – home-cooked rabbit cooked with peppers and tiny onions at a family friend’s chateau in the Provence region of France.

8.) Swiss Cheese Sandwiches – eaten after six hours of canyoning in frigid water, cheese sandwiches never tasted so good.

7.) Mango Gelato – somehow tasted more mango-like than a real mango, enjoyed on the streets of Venice.

6.) Liege Waffles – crispy, sugar-coated waffles from Brussels, drenched with Belgian chocolate sauce.

5.) Himalayan Food – eaten at a restaurant called Yak and Yeti, under an awning in the pouring rain while in Vienna, tasted like fiery and rustic Indian food.

4.) Bissap – a Senegalese drink made of hibiscus flowers from Teranga, a restaurant in Barcelona.

3.) Lychee Truffles – snagged from a chocolate-making demonstration in Switzerland.

2.) Erdinger Hefeweizen – the most delicious, sweet, honey-colored beer from Germany. Drank a whole liter in five minutes flat.

1.) Pofferejes – from the Pancake Bakery in Amsterdam, aka miniature Dutch pancakes slathered with butter and doused with powdered sugar. Heaven.

-Carolyn

SHARK WEEK: Baby Seal Cake

The most awesome week on television is in full swing, and my friends Libbey, Suzanne and I could think of no better way to celebrate than with shark-themed snacks. In order to desensitize ourselves to the onscreen carnage and harden our emotions against the sharks’ tragically adorable prey, we decided to make a baby seal cake and devour it in cold-blooded solidarity with our great white brothers.

Don't look at me like that. You're nothing but breakfast.

Jelly Roll Cake
from this recipe

4 eggs, separated
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup sugar
3/4 cup cake flour
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder

powdered sugar, for dusting

Preheat oven to 375. Spray or grease a 10×15″ jelly roll pan, line with waxed paper, and then spray/grease the paper. Beat egg yolks until thick and pale yellow, add the 1/4 cup sugar and vanilla, beating until combined.

In a separate, larger bowl, beat egg whites until they form glossy peaks–not quite until stiff. Fold in the yolks and gradually sift in the remaining dry ingredients, folding delicately. Pour into pan, spreading evenly, and bake for 12 minutes.

Invert cake onto a dishtowel dusted with powdered sugar. Remove the waxed paper and trim the crust if desired. Place a fresh piece of waxed paper over the top of the cake and roll the cake inside the towel, leaving until cool. When ready, unroll the cake, remove the paper, and spread the top of the cake with your desired filling–jelly, frosting, cream cheese, etc.

Whipped cream and sliced strawberries provide both delicious strawberry shortcake flavor and tastefully graphic seal innards.

To sealify our cake, we used vanilla frosting (the same buttercream recipe as for the cupcakes, minus the chocolate and plus a teaspoon or so of vanilla extract) and gave it M&M facial features, toothpick whiskers, and whipped cream flippers and tail.

Eat with ferocious abandon. Extra points for highest/most graceful “Air Jaws” breaching.

-Julia

Grilled Pizza and Peaches

This summer has involved much quality father-daughter grilling time, and having covered steaks, salmon, whole chicken, pork tenderloin, kebabs, and all sorts of veggies, we decided to take on more unusual grill fare. I vaguely remembered a fig and fontina dessert pizza from a friend’s barbecue, and an overenthusiastic Costco trip had left us in distressing peach excess.

Grilled Fig and Fontina Pizza

pizza dough (I used this whole wheat recipe)
olive oil
6-8 fresh figs, sliced
~1/2 lb. fontina cheese, thinly sliced or grated
honey

Heat one side of the grill to high.

Drizzle cookie sheet with olive oil and place dough in center. Drizzle dough liberally with oil and spread thinly with your fingers.

Slide/flip dough onto hot part of the grill. Cook for about 5 minutes, until it has grill marks. When ready, it should be stiff enough to flip easily.

Quickly flip crust onto the cool part of the grill, top with cheese and figs, and then move back to the hot side.

Cook until cheese bubbles and remove from grill (a pizza peel would have been useful at this point, but a cookie sheet served my purposes). Drizzle liberally with honey, and serve!

Grilled Peaches
from this recipe

4 peaches, halved
2-3 Tbsp brown sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon
a few teaspoons canola oil

Heat the outer parts of the grill, leaving the middle burners cool to create indirect heat.

Brush cut side of peaches with oil and place, cut side down, on the hot part of the grill for 3-4 minutes. Brush skins with oil and flip onto the cooler part. Sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar, turn off all burners, and cover for 10-15 minutes.

These were incredible. I served them with a Berryline-ish frozen yogurt I made by mixing 1/2 cup sugar with a 24oz container of nonfat greek yogurt and sticking in the ice-cream maker, but would taste amazing served with vanilla ice cream as well! They were also wonderful the next morning with some plain yogurt, pecans, and cinnamon.

-Julia

Zucchini Sweet Potato Salad and Grilled Tuna

In the midst of trying to decide how to use the plethora of zucchini(s?) in our fridge and the four sweet potatoes that had been crowding our under-the-sink cabinet for a while, I was tempted by several zucchini salads and a coconut-sweet potato kebab recipe that I found on tastespotting (obviously). But when my search for “yams” yielded a recipe for zucchini-sweet potato-chickpea salad, I knew it was destiny. Except that we didn’t have tahini. So.. instead of going for the Mediterranean feel that was obviously intended, I opted for a more traditional flavor combination – rosemary and lemon! Unfortunately though, I couldn’t find any rosemary, so I used herbes de Provence (rosemary, fennel, and thyme).

Roasted sweet potatoes and zucchini

I drained one can of chickpeas and sauteed them with olive oil, garlic (1 clove), onion (1/2), lemon juice (1 Tbsp.), and salt and pepper. Next, I peeled three yams and chopped them into medium-sized pieces. I used two smallish zucchini and chopped them into pieces of a similar size, adding these and the sweet potatoes to a small mixing bowl. Next, I mixed a dressing of mostly olive oil, some lemon juice, herbes de Provence, salt, and pepper, and tossed it with the potatoes and zucchini, making sure all pieces were coated evenly. I spread these  onto a baking sheet and roasted them for 1 hour at 350 degrees (taking them out half-way and using a spatula to flip them  over). When the vegetables were done roasting, I combined them in a serving bowl with the chickpeas and tossed the salad with the juice of one lemon, a touch of olive oil, and lots of salt. Everyone liked the salad, even Meghan! (she picked the zucchini out).

,

The finished salad!

Next on the menu was grilled tuna with apricot salsa – my Dad took care of the grilling. The tuna was brushed with a mixture of lime juice, olive oil, mustard powder, dried cilantro, salt, and pepper, before placed on the grill (it was supposed to marinate for an hour, but we were all hungry!). The salsa consisted of 4 apricots, 1 medium-sized tomato, 1/2 of a large scallion, the juice of a lime, a handful of fresh cilantro, 1/2 of a small jalapeno (from the garden!), salt and pepper. We chilled it in the fridge for about an hour, and then poured off some of the juice because it was a little moist. So good though!

Grilled tuna with apricot salsa

We also had fresh waxed beans from the garden with salt and butter. They were incredible, and obviously I had to photograph them. Or rather, Meghan did – she went a little bit overboard.

Waxed beans from the garden

Chez François

Every summer my glorious vacation to Linwood has been accompanied by not-so-glorious beach narratives about friends’ various excursions to Chez François, a famous French restaurant to which, until recently, I had never been. Okay, so the stories about the food people eat there have actually always been really fabulous, but the point is, I had never actually gotten to eat the food — I was only given the pleasure of hearing about it. This summer, I graced Chez Francois with my presence not once, but twice.

The first time, my uncle and Grandma treated me to a five-course meal complete with the signature “Amuse Bouche,” an on-the-house dish that is supposed to wet your appetite. We were served “Gazpacho, Avocado Espuma,” a classic tomato-based gazpacho presented in a tall shot glass with avocado foam. So good. Next, we had a variety of appetizers, my favorite being “Artichaut à l’Alouette,” artichoke hearts filled with alouette cheese and served with a Dijon honey sauce and a raspberry sauce. Next was the salad, a medley of delicious greens surrounded by a thin slice of cucumber and topped with julienned asian pear.

La Salade

Then came the entrees. Because I was unable to make up my mind, my grandma selflessly agreed to order one of the dishes I wanted, assuring me that I would be given a taste. That being said, I ordered Roasted Maple Leaf Farm Duck Breast which was served on a sweet potato mousseline with goat cheese, dried sweet potato ribbons, and a Frangelico and cherry duck glace de viande. I pretty much wanted to die.

Roasted Maple Leaf Farm Duck Breast, Cherry Glace de Viande

My grandma ordered “Escalope de Veau aux Fruits de Mer,” lightly breaded veal medallions topped with lobster, shrimp, scallops, and asparagus, and finished with a Normandy wine sauce and fresh dill. Scrumptious.

Escalope de Veau aux Fruits de Mer

Then.. dessert! I ordered a frangipane tart filled with apricots and topped with an apricot glace. It was served with Madagascar vanilla ice cream, but I asked for that on the side because, being true to myself, I hadn’t brought any lactaid! Anyway, it was absolutely fabulous.

Apricot Tart

Needless to say, I was the one telling stories of french cuisine on the beach the next day instead of wistfully listening to the accounts of others!

- Anna

AWESOMEST. CAKE. EVER.

To wish our dear friend Elliott a happy birthday and to express our sorrow that he and his family are moving to Singapore, my friends Tori, Erica, and I made a cake of epic proportions. The cake we made him last year was so extravagantly decorated that someone described it as “clown barf,” so to top it we had to take this cake to the next level.

Cake exterior. What's so special about this? you say.

Our plan? Tie-dye rainbow cake. The final product had three layers of trippy technicolor, complete with a gummy bear surprise (we didn’t have enough frosting to fill a large gap between the bottom two layers).

!!!

Here’s how it’s done: Make white cake batter, from a box or from scratch if you’re a purist about your frighteningly artificially-colored creations. Divide half of the batter evenly among six bowls, then add food color, making each bowl a different color of the rainbow (For more even layers have perhaps twice as much red as purple; calculating the exact amounts for equal layers requires nerdiness beyond the scope of this blog). Pour the red into a greased, 9-inch round cake pan. Before it spreads completely, pour the orange directly into the center of the pan, then the yellow, etc. You’ll end up with something like this:

Repeat with the remaining batter in a second cake pan. Cook according to instructions, allow to cool, then frost. We used two boxes of cake mix, and unthinkingly poured the entirety of the first into one cake pan, leading to our extremely dense but much more tie-dyed bottom layer.  Needless to say, the cake was a huge hit! I bet it would work with cupcakes, too.

We'll miss you, Elliott! Would people in Singapore love you enough to do this? Doubtful.

photography credit to Tori!

-Julia

Swiss chard with pine nuts and golden raisins

Swiss chard is one of those super nutritious vegetables that I feel like I should eat more, but my past chard experiences have involved only bitterness and regret. This recipe, however, is delicious!

Swiss Chard with Pine Nuts and Golden Raisins
from this recipe on NY Times “Recipes for Health”

3 Tbsp golden raisins
2 lbs Swiss chard
3 Tbsp pine nuts
2 cloves garlic
olive oil
salt and pepper, to taste

Soak raisins in hot water for 10 minutes, then drain.

Cut stems off chard, dice them, and set aside.

Bring a pot of salted water to boil. Cook chard for 1-2 minutes, then transfer into a large bowl of ice water for a few minutes. Drain and squeeze the water out of the chard (this involves a lot of deep red juice getting everywhere), then coarsely chop.

Heat the oil in a large non-stick skillet over medium heat. Add diced chard stems and cook 3-5 minutes, until tender. Add pine nuts and cook until they begin to brown. Add garlic and cook another minute (I added about a cup of diced yellow onions at this point just because I had some). Add chard and raisins and toss for 2-3 minutes. Season with salt and pepper, and serve.

Purple cauliflower rice pulao

My mom and I went to the farmers’ market to get vegetables for grilling this weekend and got distracted by cauliflower. It comes in lime green, yellow, and purple! Who knew? Clearly we had to get some.

What one does with a purple cauliflower was less clear. A quick tastespotting search yielded this rice pulao, which looked lovely and didn’t require oven time. We found the dish baffling. It was sweeter than expected, so the men of the household would have preferred less sugar and more spices, but my mom and I liked it. It tasted a bit like rice pudding with extra spices…and vegetables?

Purple Cauliflower Rice Pulao
adapted from this recipe on Cooking Books

1 Tbsp olive oil
1 Tbsp fresh ginger, minced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 yellow onion, chopped
1 Tbsp brown mustard seeds (I used ground mustard, which I added with the rest of the spices)
1 Tbsp ground tumeric (I just had curry powder)
1/2 tsp chile powder
1 cup brown rice
2 cups water
2 carrots, peeled and sliced
2 Tbsp brown sugar (less if you, like my father, prefer your main dishes more distinct from dessert)
1 tsp salt
2 cups cauliflower florets, in your preferred color
1/2 cup dried currants or raisins or both
juice from 1/2 a lime
2 green onions, cut in rings
1/2 cup sliced or chopped almonds

In a large saucepan, warm oil over medium-high heat and saute ginger, garlic, onions, and mustard seeds. When onions are soft, add chile and tumeric and stir, cooking about a minute. Add water, rice, carrots, sugar, and salt and bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer for about 35 minutes. Add cauliflower and raisins, cover, and cook for another 10 minutes, then remove from heat and let stand, still covered, 5 minutes more. Drizzle with lime juice (this turned the cauliflower bright pink!!?!), and garnish with green onion and almonds.

-Julia