We are lucky enough to have good friends who asked us to go in halvsies on a pastured, organic pig! Both my dear wife and I were raised on locally-grown meat, and we get a little nervous buying that stuff from the supermarket in styrofoam trays, so this was all very exciting for us.
We ended up with just over 100 pounds (2 coolers worth) of chops, roasts, ribs, ham, bacon, and ground pork. Here it is taking up a good portion of our 11 cubic-foot upright freezer.
I just had to fry up some of the bacon right away. I could tell almost instantly that this was real smokehouse bacon because as soon as the pan got warm the whole kitchen smelled like hickory. I cooked it just barely on the crispy side of the crispy/chewy line. Wow! Rich and tender with a substantial meaty taste and just the right amount of salty/smoky goodness.
We were having guests over for dinner, and I was trying to get the side dishes ready when my dear wife squeals, “OMG, we’ve got eagles!”
I went out onto the deck and sure enough, this big guy and his partner were sitting in an oak tree right by our house. They were there for the better part of an hour, taking turns fishing from our pond. It was fascinating.
I’ve been looking for a new veggie pan for a while. The first one I bought was one of those fry pans with holes in the side and a removable handle. It was okay, but the veggies would more stew in their own juices than they would roast. Then I got the Weber grill pan (which need a little “reforming” to fit on the Big Green Egg). It’s great for getting a quick char on flat rounds of bread or slices of onion, or to hold a bunch of , but it doesn’t let the heat get around the food so one side tends to burn before the other side is done.
Enter the steel grill roaster from Williams-Sonoma, a gift from my dear wife. It’s perforated stainless steel, so the food gets directly exposed to the flame, but it’s raised up a bit (via a grid under the pan) so it cooks more evenly.
To try it out I tossed a couple of sliced onions, some halved mushrooms, some sliced yellow and green peppers in a bowl and hit them with a glug of balsamic vinegar, a couple of glugs of olive oil, and a few grinds of sea salt. I gave them a shake and let them marinate while I got the grill ready.
I got the grill up to 400°F and put the grill roaster on by itself for about 5 minutes to heat it up. Using a slotted spoon, I moved the veggies to the pan, reserving the marinade.
I roasted the veggies for about 10 minutes, stirring them often, until the peppers had softened and everything had a little char on it. I took the roaster off the heat and dumped the veggies back into the bowl with the marinade and gave them a shake to coat them.
The Verdict:
The steak was great, but for once the meat isn’t the hero of this story. The grill roaster did an excellent job and I plan on giving it a real workout this summer. The perforations let the juices drain off so the veggies roasted instead of stewed. At 12×14 it’s plenty big – I could have done twice the amount of veggies and still had room to move things around. The raised design and slopping sides keep everything cook evenly.
Clean up went pretty well. It’s dishwasher safe, but the label (yes, I did read it) says to hand wash. I just let it soak overnight and wiped it off the next day. Since it’s solid metal with holes in it, not mesh, there weren’t a lot of surfaces that food could stick to.
When is a steak not a steak? When it’s a beefy tri-tip roast. This cut from the bottom of the sirloin really lends itself to simple seasoning and quick cooking. I tend to treat it just like a big, thick steak and grill it pretty hot and fast.
Pull the roast out of the fridge about an hour before you plan to cook it. Combine the salt, garlic, and pepper in a small bowl. Rub onto all sides of the roast.
Set your grill up for a direct cook at medium-high (450°F) heat.
Put the roast on the grill and cook about 5 minutes per side (this one was thick enough that there where 3 of them), for about 15 minutes total. Turn roast up onto its flat butt end and continue to cook until it reaches 125°F internal (about another 5 minutes). Because this cut is so lean you really don’t want to cook it much beyond medium-rare.
Remove from the grill, let rest for 10 minutes before slicing across the grain into thin slices.
The Verdict:
The roast/steak tasted great, but was a little chewy. Not sure if I didn’t cut the slices thin enough or if I erred too far on the rare side of medium rare.
Fortunately, I have another one of these bad boys in the freezer to play with. Better luck next time, eh?
My sister-in-law raves about this recipe originally from Outback Steakhouse, that they’ve adapted to make at home. I decided to give it a shot one evening. Most versions call for some time in the oven, but I just did it all on the stove top with a lidded fry pan.
½ cup mustard
½ cup honey
1 tablespoon oil
½ teaspoon lemon juice
4 whole skinless, boneless chicken breasts
In a small bowl, combine the mustard, honey, oil and lemon juice. Pour about half the marinade over the chicken breasts, turning to coat. Reserve the rest of the marinade for later.
4 slices Canadian bacon
1 tablespoon oil
1 (4-ounce) can sliced mushrooms, drained
1 teaspoon paprika
1 teaspoon salt
4 slices co-jack cheese
4 slices pepper-jack cheese
Heat the oil in a 10-inch fry pan over medium heat. Add the bacon and cook just until it browns up a bit (2-3 minutes). Remove from pan and reserve.
Put the chicken breasts in the pan and season with the salt and paprika. Cook until one side is golden brown (about 4 minutes).
Flip the breasts and top each with a slice of Canadian bacon, a handful of the mushrooms, and a slice of each of the cheeses. Drizzle with a little of the reserved marinade.
Put the lid on the pan and cook until the chicken is cooked through and the cheese is all melty and bubbling (about 10 minutes).
Remove from the heat and let rest for 5 minutes. Serve with the extra honey mustard on the side.
The Verdict:
Honey-mustard chicken topped with bacon and cheese – what could go wrong? Sadly the end result was not enough and too much, both at the same time. The flavors never really melded. You could taste the individual ingredients but not the “wow” of them all working together. Any one of the ingredients would be tasty by themselves, but piled together they seemed to diminish each other rather than enhance each other. The cheese and bacon overwhelmed the mushrooms. The honey mustard covered up the chicken. Nobody wanted to play nice with each other.
So in the end, I succeeded in making a boring dinner of strip-mall food. Whoo-hoo! Maybe Outback and my sister-in-law have a secret ingredient – I’ll let one of them make this for me if I want to try it again.
If you are new to Indian cooking like I am, this is a very tasty and accessible dish. You get all the goodness of chicken cooked in butter and cream, all the wonderful spices, but without all of the heat that scares a lot of folks away from Indian cooking.
Traditionally, the chicken is cooked in the sauce, not grilled first. But I had the Big Green Egg fired up to cook something else, so I figured I might as well grill the thighs, stash them in the fridge, and then assemble the rest of the dish the next night.
In a small bowl, combine yogurt, garam marsala, oil, juice, and salt. Put the chicken in a zip-top bag and cover with the yogurt mixture. Toss to coat. Squeeze the air out of the bag, seal it, and put it in the fridge to marinate for at least 4 hours, overnight is better.
When you are ready to cook, set your grill up for a direct cook over high (450°F) heat.
Remove the thighs from the marinade and arrange on the grill. Cook about 6 minutes per side, until you get some crispy bits on the outside and the inside is about 180°F. Remove from the heat and set aside.
1 large onion, diced
1/4 cup butter
1 tablespoon garam marsala
2 teaspoons kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
1/2 teaspoon cumin
1 (14.5-ounce can) petite diced tomatoes
1 (8-ounce can) tomato sauce
1 cup chicken broth
1 cup whipping cream
In a sauté pan with a lid, melt the butter over medium heat and then cook the onions in the butter until soft but not brown (about 5 minutes).
Add the diced tomatoes, garam marsala, salt, pepper, coriander, and cumin and cook until the juice from the tomatoes has mostly evaporated and the tomatoes have started to break down (about 5 minutes).
Add the broth, tomato sauce, and grilled chicken. Stir to combine and cook about 5 minutes. Put the lid on and cook for 10 minutes over medium-low heat. Remove the pan from the heat and stir in the whipping cream.
This is traditionally served over Basmati rice, but I put it over a bed of sautéed spinach and red lentils.
The Verdict:
For my first try at this dish, I was pretty impressed. It’s got a lot of potential. The sauce was rich and fragrant with just enough heat. But the meat wasn’t as tender as I would have liked and the sauce was thinner than versions I’ve had in restaurants.
Next time I’ll chop the onions finer, and use a larger can of tomato sauce instead of the combination of sauce and chicken stock. I’d cook the chicken covered longer – say 30 to 40 minutes. I might switch to heavy cream, so I can do a little reduction after the covered cook.
My plan was to take the Adam Perry Lang “butter-bombed” recipe that I had previously tried on a sirloin and apply it to the last pack of t-bones that we had in the freezer. But they were such a lovely pair of steaks, that I decided to do minimal pre-seasoning on them and just hit them with a bit of butter baste at the end.
I fired up the Big Green Egg and set it up for a hot (600°F+) direct cook.
I combined the following in my favorite little cast iron melting pot and warmed it just long enough on the grate to melt the butter:
The t-bones got coated with a little olive oil, a light coat of Dizzy Pig’s Raising the Steaks, and a couple of grinds of sea salt before I tossed them on the grill.
I grilled them for 90 seconds, rotated them 90 degrees and gave them another 30 seconds. Then I flipped them, basted them with the butter sauce, and grilled them for another 90 seconds. I flipped them back over, basted, and let them cook until the thickest steak hit a medium-rare 125°F internal (after 30 seconds on the grill).
I quickly basted both sides again, pulled them off the grill and onto a warm plate. I covered them with another plate and let them rest 10 minutes before serving.
The Verdict:
Wow, these were good! Nice char on the outside and medium-rare on the inside. I like the contrast on a t-bone between the beefy loin side and the buttery soft tenderloin side. As for seasoning, I think this was a great compromise. The full-on marinating and bombing from Adam Perry Lang’s BBQ 25 can be more than the steak really needs, but just hitting it with the baste at the end really bumps up the flavor.
It was warm enough over the weekend that we could finally sit out on our deck. To celebrate, I made up these Mediterranean-ish kabobs. Marinating the meat overnight not only added a ton of flavor, but helped to keep it moist and tender despite the high grill temps and short cooking times.
Step 1 – Get Everything Marinating
Beef Kabobs
1 1/2 pounds beef sirloin, cut into large cubes
1/4 cup flat-leaf parsley leaves
4 cloves garlic
1 teaspoon dried rosemary
1 teaspoon dried oregano (Turkish if you can get it)
1/4 cup olive oil
Juice of 1 lemon (about 3 tablespoons)
2 teaspoons kosher salt
Put the garlic and salt in a food processor and give it a spin until the garlic is minced. Add the parsley, rosemary, oregano, oil, and lemon juice. Process until well-mixed.
Put the steak in a zip-top bag and cover with the marinade. Toss to coat. Squeeze the air out of the bag, seal it, and put it in the fridge to marinate for at least 4 hours, overnight is better.
Chicken Kabobs
1 1/2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breast, cut into large cubes
1 cup plain Greek yogurt (full fat)
1 tablespoon Aleppo pepper (or 2 teaspoons dried crushed red pepper plus 1 teaspoon Hungarian sweet paprika)
2 teaspoons kosher salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 teaspoon dried oregano (Turkish if you can get it)
In a small bowl, combine yogurt, Aleppo pepper, salt, black pepper, and oregano. Put the chicken in a zip-top bag and cover with the yogurt mixture. Toss to coat. Squeeze the air out of the bag, seal it, and put it in the fridge to marinate for at least 4 hours, overnight is better.
Step 2 – Make the Tzatziki
Tzatziki
1 cup plain Greek yogurt (full fat)
2 tablespoons feta cheese (crumbled)
2 teaspoons kosher salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 teaspoon dried oregano (again, Turkish if you can get it)
1 teaspoon kosher salt
2 teaspoons mint, finely chopped
1 small cucumber, peeled and grated
Combine every thing in a small bowl. Cover and refrigerate overnight.
Step 3 – The Cook
Veggies (and Fruit)
3 bell peppers (red, yellow, and green), chopped into 1 1/2 inch pieces
8 ounces fresh mushrooms
1 large yellow onion, sliced
1/2 cup dried apricots
1/2 cup dried plums
1/2 dried cherries
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon garam masala
When you are ready to grill, toss the veggies and dried fruit together with the oil, vinegar, salt, and garam masala in a large bowl. Let sit while you bring the grill up to temperature.
You’ll need 8 to 10 bamboo skewers. Soak them in water for at least an hour.
Set the grill up for a direct cook over very hot (500°F +) heat.
Using a veggie basket, grill the veggies and fruit (stirring often) until the peppers soften and everything gets a little char on them, about 10 minutes. Remove the veggies to a bowl and keep warm.
Remove the meat from their respective marinades and thread onto skewers (the flat ones work great as they keep the meat from spinning around). Grill the chicken about 6 minutes per side. Grill the beef for about 3 minutes per side. In both cases you’re looking for some crispy bits on the outside without overcooking the meat.
When the meat is done, remove from the grill and let rest for about 5 minutes. Then remove the meat from the skewers, toss with the veggies, and serve over a rice pilaf with a dollop of the tzatziki.
The Verdict: I really liked the way the flavors of these individual dishes complimented each other – juicy bites of charred-yet-succulent meat, sweet and savory veggies, tangy and refreshing tzatziki, and the rich blend of herbs and spices bringing it all together. It was a little United Nations on a stick.
This is one of those “surprise” steaks that pop up every so often when we get a quarter of beef from the butcher. The wrapping paper says sirloin, but instead of a nice, thick steak it turns out to be a very thin roast that’s been folded over on itself. It’s not a bad piece of meat, but it’s just not what I was expecting when I dug it out of the deep freeze.
I’ve found Adam Perry Lang’s butter bombing method from his Serious Barbecue book to be the way to go when tackling thin steaks like this that could easily dry out and get tough without a little help.
Marinade
1 thin sirloin steak, about 1 1/2 pounds
1 teaspoon crushed hot red pepper flakes
1 tablespoon hot water
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
1 tablespoon honey
1 tablespoon soy sauce
4 cloves garlic
1 teaspoon Montreal steak seasoning
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon kosher salt
2 teaspoons olive oil
Put the garlic and salt in a food processor and give it a whirl until the garlic is finely minced. Add the pepper flakes, hot water, Worcestershire, mustard, honey, soy sauce, steak seasoning, oregano, and oil. Pulse to combine.
Put the steak in a large zip-top bag and cover with the marinade. Squeezed the air out of the bag, seal it, and toss it in the fridge to marinate for at least a couple of hours, overnight is best.
Resting Butter
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 tablespoon dried parsley
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1 teaspoon dried rosemary
Juice of half a lemon
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
4 garlic cloves, chopped
1/2 teaspoon crushed hot red pepper flakes
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon fresh-ground black pepper
Set your grill up for a direct cook over high (500°F+) heat.
Combine the butter, parsley, thyme, rosemary, lemon juice, Worcestershire, garlic, red pepper, salt, and pepper in a shallow baking pan (I use a 9×13 disposable foil pan that I can set right on the grill).
Heat the pan, stirring to combine everything as the butter melts. Set pan beside the grill.
Remove the steak from the marinade and slap it on the hottest part of the grill. Let it sear for 60 seconds, then flip it over and let it go another 60 seconds.
Move the steak off into the butter sauce. Flip it a couple of times to coat both sides with all that herby/buttery wonderfulness. Return the steak to the grill for another 30 seconds on each side – it will smoke and flare and start to burn, but that’s kinda the idea.
Move the steak off into the butter sauce and give it another flip. Let it rest for 10 minutes. Move the steak to a cutting board, reserve the butter mix and keep the pan warm.
Trim any fat or connective tissue, and then slice the meat on a diagonal into 1/4-inch slices. Put the sliced steak and any accumulated meat juices from the cutting board back into butter mix. Give the pan a shake to coat the meat.
The Verdict:
Too much of a good thing? This sirloin had a good, beefy flavor, but was cut so thin that it would have been hard to cook without drying it out and making it chewy. The marinade and the butter mix kept it moist and tender even when cooked to medium. But while this was exactly what this steak needed, the steak was so thin that the herbs and red pepper almost overwhelmed the meat. The “bombing” would have been perfect on a thicker steak, or if the steak was playing more of a minor role, like in a salad.
and warmed it just long enough on the grate to melt the butter:
