Pines Ho!

Food shopping is done, so now I'm headed out the LIE.

Don't think I'll be blogging much for the next three days. I hope that I've been dense and prolific since the weekend to leave you with enough to mull while I'm away getting Browner.

Here are a few recipes for the grill, stuff I'm looking forward to making.

Barbequed Chicken

Slice up fresh peaches (or apricots work well) in a bowl. Add just a half a teaspoon of sugar, and then cover with a generous amount of balsamic vinegar.

Light your grill. After the coals have burned down, add some woodchips that have been soaked in water. Put the cover on the grill. Make sure there's ventilation to create a slow burn. If you're good, you'll be able to have smoke without any actual flame.

Place chicken legs in a roasting pan. Cover with the fruit and balsamic mixture. Put the roasting pan on the grill, and put the cover on.

You cannot leave the roasting pan on the grill too long. The challenge is always to leave it on long enough, because once those sweet, smokey aromas hit your nostrils, you'll be set to chow down.

Serve with couscous.

And beer.

How I Grill Steak

Pick out a nice piece of meat. Look for lots of marbling. It's all about fat content, folks!

Pour green peppercorns, kosher salt, and rosemary in a bowl. Take a drinking glass you don't care too much about. Using the bottom of the glass, ground the peppercorns. Add olive oil and balsamic vinegar to the ground mixture to make a sort of soupy meal. Slather the steak with the soupy meal and let it stand.

Make a very hot fire on the grill. Use lots of charcoal, more than you'll think you'll need. (Did you all know that charcoal for grilling was a by-product of the auto industry? Henry Ford needed something to do with the pieces of wood cut from the wooden dashboards of his vehicles. He got the idea of saturating them with lighter fluid and selling them. That way, when people drove his cars out into the country, they'd be able to make a nice lunch for themselves. Neat, huh?)

After you've got blazing white hot coals, put the meat on. Count to 200 (one one hundred one, two one hundred two, three one hundred three...), and then turn it over. Count to 200 again. It should be well on the outside and bloody on the inside. If'n you like your meat well done... well, close out of this window and delete Singletails from your Favorites List because you have no business being here. Okay okay okay. That was harsh. I apologize. Put the cover on the grill and let it cook through. (I'm weeping thinking about what you're doing to that steak. I hope you didn't pay a lot for it.)

After the steak is done, remove and plate. Then, put veggies cut in half or whatever (red pepper, summer squash, and zukes make a nice combination) on the grill. When they're nice and black, remove and slice them down to bite size. Put them in a big bowl as you do so. Make your favorite vinaigrette, pour over the veggies, and toss. Some good grated parmesan makes a nice addition, but isn't necessary. You don't want to kill the flavor of the grilled vegetables.

Serve with beer.

Vietnamese shrimp salad

Slice up some cucumbers. Take off the skin and seed them so you've got cucumber slices that sort of look like the crescent shape of the shrimp.

In a bowl, combine friseed basil, chopped cilantro, finely chopped ginger, garlic, lime juice and lime zest, a half a teaspoon of sugar (go easy!), and peanut oil. Oh. Some chopped peanuts are a nice addition.

Peal and vein the shrimp. Your call as to whether or not you leave the tails on. Pour a lot of Tabasco sauce over the shrimp and toss. Add about a tablespoon of peanut oil to this mixture. Toss again. Put the shrimp in a tin pie plate. Put it on the grill that's doing the smokey water soaked woodchip thing. Cover. You'll only need to keep the shrimp on the grill for a very short time. Don't overcook the shrimp! As soon as they look cooked (no longer transluscent), they're done. Take'em off.

Pick out the shrimp (don't pour the Tabasco, oil and the shrimp--that's a different salad altogether) and put them in the cucumber mixture. Toss and serve.

The shrimp will be juicy little balls of fire, the cucumber will be cool and subtley flavored. Always a crowd pleaser.

Serve with beer.


Who da man?

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