bbq

Today is the BBQ. I am cooking basically for me. My mom, my way hetero life partner, and two of our friends will be enjoying the food, but everyone has places to be and things to do. I don’t mind, ill be happy if people enjoy the food. I’m currently writing as the coals warm, drinking a bottle of my favorite beer (Old Brown Dog by Smutty Nose Brewery) as my dog sniffs around the yard and London Calling plays on the boom box. Something about a post-apocalyptic extravaganza is totally sitting right with me at the moment. The weather is perfect, on the cool side, and sunny. I might move the party to the hammock in a bit, though that would make it impossible to read lappy's screen.

As mentioned, my friends Jay and Sarah are working today. That is hella lame, to be laboring on labor day. As a consolation I will be bringing them some delicious food. In the case of Jay this presents me with certain problems. Jay is not a picky eater, but is a man who knows what he likes. At my last BBQ I knocked one out of the park by making a burger to which he expressed special devotion. A simple burger, it nonetheless made extensive use of garlic, and other ingredients that added up to a delicious whole. That is basically all i remember of the recipe. This is a problem. I want to repeat this success, but due to my habit of not writing my recipes down I forget almost all the ingredients. This is not the first time this has happened, but I'm hoping to make it the last by finally utilizing this blog. So then, concurrent with my sausage saga, I will begin The Quest to Grill the Perfect Burger (Jay Edition). Cheese! He likes cheese. I'll go slice some mozzarella.

Back.

Another long standing issue I have is how to properly utilize the veggies I grill. I love grilling veggies but I always pile so much onto my grilling agenda as to have no time to do anything but, and grilled veggie, while delicious, are not a dish unto themselves. this time I am only making sausages, burgers, and veggies, so I could attend to some veggie deliciousness. I'm still not really sure what to do. One issue is that my gal Friday dislikes the main veggie on offer: eggplant. I certainly understand her reasoning. Eggplant is a very bizarre and slimy creature, more like bread and less like a plant. As a chef I do not believe in forcing people to eat what they do not desire. On the other hand, it makes me not over eager to try the dill, grilled eggplant linguini dish that is eating at the back of my mind. I feel that everyone I cook for should be provided with a full meal, so I would have to make another veggie dish anyway. For today I think salad is going to be the main veggie axe, which people may top as they please. I would love to make the linguini tomorrow, but there are already plans, and Wednesday begins the high holy days for us chosen people, meaning Thursday would be the first day I could do this without undue stress. Still, grilled eggplant keeps. Its not like its going to get MORE slimy.

Anyway, my recipes. This is the one I am using for the eggplant. My only variation is that i am using three medium sized white eggplants rather than the large purple one called for here. As a result, I doubled the recipe, and added lemon pepper because it is good. http://southernfood.about.com/od/grillfruitveggie/r/bl30627e.htm

I had two issues with this recipe. First, the oil and the vinegar separate very fast. I know this isn’t rocket science, but I ended up with half very vinegary eggplants and half very oily eggplants. If possible have someone keep stirring for you whilst you baste. second, if you are actually a good person and use a coal grill, and if you follow the recipe’s directions and use glowing coals, do more like 5 minutes a side or you will end up with charcoal. Its not the end of the world, burned eggplant is tasty, but not really what you go for when you cook.

For the zucchini and mushrooms I marinated them in olive oil, red wine vinegar, lemon pepper, salt. I topped it up with water till they were submerged in the plastic bag. I was originally going to cook them on skewers, but the string beans I was planning on grilling in my classic manner turned out to be bad. I was somewhat disappointed in this outcome, and decided to switch to a similar method for the zucchini and mushrooms. In this vein I cut them into thin slices. After the eggplant were done, I put two tablespoons of garlic and butter in a cast iron pan which I put on the grill to heat up. Once it was hot I threw in the zucchini and mushroom combo. This you can let sit a while. The water from the marinade will take a while to cook off. Actually a long while. Leave out water if you can.

For the burger I took a well marbled boneless steak and ground it with two tablespoons of minced garlic. I grilled till it looked done, and when I flipped it i topped it with shredded mozzarella. For the sausage I made relatively small patties, and cooked them well. This was a mistake. I did it this way due to fears of disease, but that was ill founded. I did the grinding myself, and the pork was very fresh. I found the patties flavorful but a bit dry. Next time i will not overcook them. Mom called the result bacon-y. I can definitely see where she's coming from. I’ll also definitely want to increase the seasonings, including the fennel. The salt was a little overpowering, though maybe that is just because the fat was cooked off.