Everything on the grill

One of my goals in the summer is to have yummy meals without heating up the kitchen, so I grill just about everything, especially the wonderful produce coming from my CSA.   I facilitated this by buying some sturdy metal pans - two 8" bread pans, and a quarter sheet pan ... both WITHOUT non-stick, so I didn't have to worry about the high temperatures on the grill:

Cauliflower and/or broccoli:   wash, chop into bite size pieces, put in bread pan, shave a bit of butter on top, cover with foil, cook on top rack of grill.

Beets:  remove stems and leaves, wash well but GENTLY so as not to remove skin.    Place in bread pan, add about an inch of water, cover with foil, cook on top rack.     Take off, allow to cool, use fingers to rub off the skin, then slice and keep in fridge for salads the next day.   Beets are naturally sweet but need a touch of salt or a little salad dressing in a salad  ... or serve warm, sprinkled with some chevre and toasted almonds ... or make a beet and green bean salad with a bit of Italian vinaigrette ....

Green Beans:  butter/bread pan as above

Potatoes and spring onions:   same idea as this, but chop the potatoes small, and the onions thin.    Mix with some butter or oil, and sprinkle with salt, pepper, thyme and paprika.   Cook with the sheet pan directly on the grill (closer to the heat), and stir frequently.

Squash:  Slice zucchini or other summer squash thin, mix with one thinly sliced onion and one red bell pepper.   Drizzle with olive oil, salt and black pepper.   Cover tightly with foil and cook on the top rack until the onion is completely cooked.  

Dessert:   wash, (pit if cherries, cut if strawberries or rhubarb), toss in a bread pan with just a little sugar, break 1/2 a frozen pie crust over the top in small pieces, bake uncovered on top grill rack!  I've now made them with multiple combinations of sour cherries, blackberries, strawberries, raspberries, blueberries and rhubarb ... every one turned out great!     I lean towards under sweetening.   You can always serve with some vanilla ice cream.

Weeknight Pork Ribs

I wanted ribs. But my sister was out of town. This might seem an irrelevant fact, but the past two summers when I wanted ribs I bribed her with appetizers and beer in exchange for her slow smoking the ribs in my side yard.

In the past I've had fairly good results from slow roasting ribs, say at 250, for six hours in my oven. They turn out very tender, but it isn't QUITE enough. And who wants six hours of oven heat added to the general warmth of a summer day?

So I decided to try a two prong approach. First I rubbed the ribs with a Penzeys spice rub, and cooked them on low in the crockpot for about six hours. My other crockpot has a setting where it cooks on low for six hours and then switches to warm - so I could set that before I left for work in the morning. But that crockpot is currently in a box.

I then removed them from the heat and just finished them on the grill for about twenty minutes. Only in the last five minutes did I add barbeque sauce - from a bottle, but with a generous addition of freshly grated ginger for extra punch. I have to say they turned out VERY good. Only 93.2% as good as long smoked ribs, but I would certainly do them this way again.

I served them with sweet corn, just warmed on the top rack of the grill and sliced tomatoes.

A whole meal, cooked on the grill!

I've been thinking for a couple of weeks about if it was possible to do an entire meal on the grill. Not a grilled veggie kabobs and grilled chicken type meal, because of course that can be done. I was thinking of a more complete meal - one where I would normally use my oven.

As I posted a few days ago, I simply LOVE zucchini fries now. But with temperatures in the upper 90's today, I did NOT want to turn on my oven. So I decided to try "baking" them on the grill.
















My grill has three burners - so I lighted it up, and turned the left and right ones down to low grill, and turned the middle burned off. I have a thermostat on the front of the grill, so I was hoping for approximately 400 degrees.

Meanwhile I prepped the zucchini - cut it into match sticks, dipped it in a beaten egg (which turned out just as well as the whipped egg white - so don't bother with the beaters), and then in the mixture of panko crumbs, flour and spices. These went into a greased disposable aluminum pan. Onto the top shelf of the grill they went, and I left them there to cook for about forty five minutes.

Meanwhile, I decided the rest of the menu would be potatoes, steak, salad and strawberry shortcake.

For the potatoes I almost followed my recipe from June:














After I put the potatoes on the grill, I made up the batter for strawberry shortcake:

1 cup Bisquick
1/4 cup melted butter
3 Tablespoons sugar

Mix these together, and then add milk until it is a thick dough consistency.



I then spooned the batter onto a sheet of aluminum foil, and put them on the grill. They probably cooked 30 minutes total.





(this was after about fifteen minutes)







I turned the right side of the grill up to high, and went back in to prep the steaks. I normally use a rub from Penzeys called "Chicago Steak Seasoning". I cooked the steaks about three minutes per side, and then took it all off the grill. It worked great!

















To make the strawberry sauce, I melted 1 cup of low sugar strawberry jam (that I canned in May), and added about 10 sliced strawberries. Serve with whipped cream:

Lime-jalapeno grilled chicken wraps

Marinate chicken breasts in lime juice with canned jalapenos overnight. Drain the juice off, and grill the chicken. Allow to cool, or else you'll burn your fingers shredding the chicken.

Shred the chicken with your fingers (not aiming for perfection here). Mix in one pound of frozen corn - preferably frozen ROASTED corn from Trader Joes. Mix in one jar of your favorite salsa verde. Add the juice of a couple limes, some garlic powder or chopped garlic, some ground Ancho or ground chili pepper, chopped cilantro, salt and pepper to taste. Microwave sliced bell peppers (multiple colors is GREAT!) and mix them in as well.

We ate this all last week. I made nachos with it (sprinkle mixture over corn chips, add some shredded cheddar, broil for a few minutes then finish the presentation with a scoop each of guacamole and sour cream), wraps (serve warm, with cheese in a tortilla), and ate it cold on salad. The resident Southerner was well pleased. He topped every variation with hot sauce and/or hot salsa.

Simple don't heat up the kitchen grilled new potatoes

I tried these last night - kind of thrown together after looking up a few simple recipes. Served with grilled zucchini and chuck steak (which I bought for under $2/pound with ACME's new "pick five" deal).

Ingredients:

bag of new potatoes (about two pounds?)
1 small onion
8 cubes of Trader Joes frozen chopped garlic
a few spoonfuls of romano cheese
a few tablespoons olive oil
kosher or flake salt
fresh ground pepper
thyme (dried or chopped from the garden)

Preheat your grill to medium heat.

• Wash and quarter the potatoes
• slice the onion in half and then in thin "half moons"
• mix potatoes, olive oil, cheese and spices in a large bowl
• split potatoes between two large sheets of aluminum foil, and make a flat "packet" of each
• grill for 10 minutes per side