Rolled thin steak

This is a thin cut steak with baby spinach and mozzarella cheese.  Some people prepare these in the oven but I find this to be great outdoor cook. 

Ingredients:

• Top round steak thin sliced.  About 6" x 12" strips, two of them.
• baby spinach
• shredded mozzarella cheese
• salt/pepper or spice blend

Directions:

1. Layout the two pieces of steak.  Overlap the two pieces so they stay together.
2. Spread a layer of baby spinach and mozzarella cheese.  See picture.
3. Roll and secure with either short bamboo skewers or tie with string. Season with salt/pepper or a spice blend. I have used Everglades seasoning.
4. Start grill and set it up for indirect heat.  You will want it to be at about 300-350°.
5. Cook on grill with cover on until cooked fully.  The cheese should be melted and the spinach done. Should be about 10-12 minutes.
6. Slice and serve. I did mine with grilled asparagus. Just some olive oil and on the grill.

Country Style Ribs

Another backyard classic that does not take much effort.  Country style ribs are usually thicker than a typical rack of ribs.  They come with the bone in and boneless.  To make great ribs you need about 2 hours.

Ingredients:

• Country style ribs, bone in or boneless
• BBQ sauce

Directions:

1. Set up the grill for indirect heat.  Close the bottom vent to about 1/8 way open.  Keep the top vent all the way open.  You want the vent to regulate the heat low.
2. Baste the ribs with bbq sauce and place on the grill.  Put the lid on and wait.  Check on them every 25-30 minutes.  When you check them you will also want to flip them and add bbq sauce.
3. The ribs should go for about 2 hours but BBQ is done when it is done.  Low and slow is how tto cook them.  Internal temp should be between 160° and 180°.
4. Plate the ribs and you are done.

Some other things you may want to try is adding smoke.  Don't go too heavy with it though.

BBQ Basics - Using the charcoal chimney

If your like me a couple of years ago I did not know what to do with this piece of equipment.  This will show you how to get away from using lighter fluid.  Even though a 10 foot high ball of fire is pretty cool, it is also pretty wasteful.

First you will need 1-2 paper towels and some cheap vegetable oil.  Don't use your expensive extra virgin olive oil.  I keep a bottle of this in the garage for lighting charcoal.




Crumple up the paper towel and then pour some veggie oil on it.  Just enough to soak it, you don't need full coverage.





Fill your chimney with charcoal and light the paper towel.  Place the chimney over the lit paper towel.




When the charcoal at top of chimney has a bit of ash on the coals the chimney is ready to be dumped out.




You can use crumpled newspaper to light as well. The advantage to using a oil soaked paper towel is it does not produce a lot of ash. 

Mushroom cap pizza appetizers

This is a great appetizer for watching Sunday football.   It is really simple and will go fast.  So if you are cooking and want one, make sure to taste one at the grill.   This originally came from John Solak on the tvwbb dot com forums.

Ingredients:

• Large mushrooms
• pizza sauce
• pepperoni 
• mozzarella cheese

Directions:

1. Remove the stem from the mushrooms so that you are just left with the cap.
2. Put about 1 spoonful of sauce into the mushroom.  Don't fill it up just put enough into it to coat it.
3. Add a some pepperoni.  Slice it small or use the mini pepperoni slices.
4. Top with lots of the mozzarella cheese and a couple pepperoni if desired.
5. Set up your grill for indirect cooking, bank the coals to one side.  Use about a half chimney if this is all you are cooking.
6. Place on the grill.
7. Cook until the cheese is melted and the edges are slightly browned.

Caveman T-bone

Hopefully the 'caveman' in the title attracted your attention.  Your probably wondering why it is called that.  Well it basically refers to the cooking style.  See you don't cook this steak on the cooking grate, you throw it directly on the lit charcoal.  Thus doing it as our cavemen ancestors did it before grilling grates.

Ingredients:

• T-bone steak 1" thick (or any other cut you prefer, bone in is better)
• salt
• pepper
• fire

Directions:

1. Start your charcoal.  I used lump as it does not have any binders.  Bank coals to one side of grill.
2. Salt and pepper the steak and wait for the coals to get red hot.
3. Throw steak directly on coals.  Let cook for 2-3 minutes a side then pull off fire.
4. Plate with your favorite sides.  I have chosen a baked potato, also over the fire and Texas toast.
5. This is what it should like when cut open.

Greek pork chops with tomato feta salad

This cook is for pork chops in a Greek marinade.  The marinade for the chops is good for about 2-3 pork chops.  Double the ingredients if you are doing 4-6.   The side is a light tomato feta cheese salad.  The amounts listed makes 2-3 servings.  We will start first with the salad.

Ingredients:

• 1 pint grape tomatoes
• 1/4 cup red onion
• white wine vinegar
• extra virgin olive oil
• 1/4 tbsn kosher salt
• 1/4 tsn black pepper
• 1/2 tbsn basil
• fresh chopped parsley
• feta cheese

Directions:

1. Slice the grape tomatoes in half and dice the red onion.
2. Add the salt/pepper, basil and parsley to the bowl.  Add about a shot glass worth of the vinegar and just a bit of the olive oil.  Mix really well.
3. Now add the feta cheese and mix again.  Store in the fridge until you are ready to serve.

This is how the pork chops are done.

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 1/8 cup white wine vinegar
• 1/8 cup worcestershire sauce 
• juice of 2 medium lemons
• 1 clove garlic minced
• 1/2 tbsn dried oregano
• salt and pepper
• 3/4 - 1" thick Pork rib chops

Directions:

1. Mix the ingredients for the marinade in a measuring cup and stir well.
2. Put a little of the marinade of the bottom of a shallow bowl.  Put in chops and pour the rest of the marinade over the top.  Put aside in fridge and let sit.  Flip the pork every 15-20 minutes and leave in marinade at least an hour.
3. Set your coals to one side of the grill.  Place the chops over medium heat (middle of grill)  for 6-8 minutes a side depending on your grill.  I flipped after 3 minutes four times.
4. Allow chops to rest 5-10 minutes after pulling off. 
5. Plate and give the chops a fresh squeeze of lemon juice and a sprinkle of course salt.

London Broil with home fries

So tonight is another tasty cheap and easy meal. London broil is as stated before a cheap cut of meat but very delicious when done right. Home fries are nothing more than diced potatoes with onion and mushrooms. Here we go.

Ingredients:

• London broil, 1.5-2lbs
• steak seasoning, I used Everglades Seasoning.
• 2 yellow potatoes
• 1/2 large white onion
• mushrooms
• salt/pepper
• olive oil

Directions:

1. Bank the coals in the grill to set up two heat zones.  Direct and indirect.
2. Dice the potatoes, put in a skillet or aluminum pan, add some olive oiland place over direct fire.
3. Stir every few minutes.  Allow to cook about 10-15 minutes.
4. Add onion and mushrooms to skillet with more oil.  Also season with salt/pepper.  Let it cook another 10 minutes.
5. Season both sides of the London broil with Everglades seasoning or whatever you are using.
6. Move the skillet to indirect heat and place broil on the direct heat.
7. After about 3-4 minutes flip the broil.  Then after another 3-4 minutes remove and let rest 4-5 minutes.
8. Slice 1/4" thick and serve with the home fries.

Spicy lime grilled shrimp

Living in southwest Florida I have access to really fresh seafood. One thing I like more than others is shrimp. There are as many ways to cook shrimp as there are species of shrimp. Today we will make something a little bit spicy.

Ingredients:

• 1 lb of 21/25 count shrimp
• 1 tbsn kosher salt
• 1 tbsn paprika
• 1/2 tbsn cayenne pepper
• 1/3 tbsn black pepper
• 1/2 tbsn marjoram
• 1 clove minced garlic
• 1 tbsn minced onion
• 1 lime (squeezed for juice)
• 1 tbsn olive oil (the more virgin the better)
• bamboo skewers 10"

Directions:

1. Soak the bamboo skewers in water for 30 minutes.
2. Make the marinade by combining all the ingredients except the shrimp.
3. Place the shrimp in a large Ziploc bag and then cover with the marinade.  Shake it and spread the marinade around.  Place in fridge while you start the charcoal.  Shrimp should be in the marinade 20-30 minutes total.
4. Once the charcoal chimney is going good, about 20 minutes.  Spread them out in the center and let the grill heat up 5-10 minutes.
5. While the grill grate is heating up put the shrimp on the skewers.  4-5 shrimp per skewer.
6. Once the grill is ready place the shrimp on direct heat.  They should only be on 2-3 minutes a side.  Once done they are ready for the plate.  It is sometimes hard to judge when a shrimp is done especially when soaked in a dark marinade.  It should be slightly firm to the touch but not too firm.
7. Pull off the grill and plate with rice or a side dish of your choice.

This is a spicy marinade and may not be for everyone.  However if you like a little spice you may want to try this with chicken.  Enjoy.

Kabobs

Tonight for dinner are kabobs.  Meat and vegetables grilled on a stick.  Preparation and execution of this cook is pretty strait forward.

Ingredients:

• Steak Cubed 1.5" squares are perfect.  The steak I used is London broil, a cheap cut of meat but really tasty.
• White onion
• Mushrooms
• Tomatoes, bigger than cherry tomatoes.
• Green pepper
• Steak seasoning of your choice.
• bamboo skewers

Directions.

1. Soak your bamboo skewers in water for around 30 minutes.  This prevents them from burning.
2. Cut your meat into cubes.  You want them to all be the same size so they cook at the same rate.  Otherwise you will end up with rare-well done on the same skewer.
3. Cut the onion and pepper to the same size as the steak.
4. Start putting the meat and veggies on the skewers alternating between meat then a couple veggies and repeat.  Put the meat and veggies on in the same order on all skewers for a nice presentation.  As many great chefs say, "you eat with your eyes before you eat with your mouth".
5. Put on olive oil and then sprinkle with steak seasoning.
6. Place the skewers on direct heat.  Mine were on about 3-4 minutes and then flipped for another 3-4 minutes. 
7. Plate with rice or whatever side you want.

Blue and Swiss cheese burgers

Today in America is Labor day. What more traditional way to spend a holiday than grill some burgers? These have both blue and Swiss cheese in them. Here is how they are done.

Ingredients:

• 1lb 80/20 Ground beef
• 4 tbsn minced onion
• 4 tbsn minced mushrooms
• 1 small egg
• salt and pepper
• crumbled blue cheese
• Swiss cheese slices
• hamburger buns

Directions:

1. In a bowl mix the ground beef,  minced onion,  mushrooms,  egg,  salt/pepper and crumbled blue cheese.
2. Form into 1/4 lb or 1/2 lb patties.  I used half pound patties for my cook.
3. Put on grill over direct heat.  The half pound patties took about 6 minutes a side.  With hamburgers you only should flip once.  Lift a corner up and if it stays together it is ready to be flipped.
4. Once the second flip is done move the burgers to indirect heat.  Place two slices of Swiss cheese on both patties.
5. Butter the buns and toast lightly on direct heat.  It will not take long and the butter will cause the fire to flame up, so be careful.
6. Plate it with potato chips and beer and you are done.

Ribeye steak with Hasselback potato.

First up is the Hasselback potato.

Directions:

• Take a yellow or baking potato and slice it 1/8=3/16" thin.  Use a pair of 1/4" dowels, wooden spoons or #2 pencils to not cut all the way through.
• On each slice butter and put parmesan cheese.
• Put on direct heat on the grill for 5-10 minutes.
• Move to indirect heat and cover grill for 15-20 minutes.

Ribeye steak:

• Take out of fridge while Hasselback is cooking.
• I used "Dean Jobob's Road Kill Grill" grinder seasoning on the steak.
• Put steak on direct heat flipping four times.
• Plate with the potato and you are done.
• During last 3-5 minutes of cook add shredded cheese to the Hasseback.

A very nice and simple meal for hard week of work. Enjoy.