Grill Tip of the Week # 1

There is nothing more frustrating then opening your grill and getting ready to put food on and seeing that there is still gook from your last BBQ sitting on the grill. Taking a few steps between BBQs can really make a difference in how your grill looks and how your food tastes.

I find it good policy to at least once a year to completely clean out your grill, this will reduce the amount of smoke that develops when you are grilling as well as keep any foreign flavors from your grill out of your food.

1. Get a good wire brush
2. At the end of your BBQ while the grill is still warm, brush down the grates to remove stuck on food before it has a chance to cool and get really stuck on.
3. If you have a cast iron grate, once its completely clean, take a paper towel and dip it in some oil to coat the grate and keep it in good shape. With cast iron grates, you have to keep a close eye on making sure it doesn't develop rust.

Grilled Fresh Blackfish with Grilled Vegetables

I am sure that if it was up to most of us, man and woman would live on meat and potatoes alone. For me, even though Pesach is less than 3 weeks away, I still can't help but think of the 9 days and what will we eat? Thankfully not all of my friends are golfers and I do have a few that are avid fishermen. A few months back, one of them caught for me a fresh black fish that I thought about making on the grill. To do that, I would need direct heat and a multilevel fire since the fish and vegetables would cook too quickly if I put the cover on while they were cooking on the grill.

The key with this recipe is to use as large of a filet as possible and to make sure you follow the directions on how to prepare the grill so the fish doesn't stick. This recipe also uses direct heat for the entire recipe and utilizes a mutli-level fire in the grill.

Ingredients:

Marinade:
1 Lemon
1/4 cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Kosher Salt
Fresh Cracked Black Pepper

(2) Fillets of Fresh Fish with skin on
Eggplant
Bunch Asparagus
Sweet Potato
1/2 cup of Vegetable Oil

Step 1. In a bowl, squeeze the juice of the lemon adding the olive oil and salt and pepper to taste.

Step 2. Thoroughly clean and wash the fish and pour half of the marinade over the fish coating both sides.

Step 3: Fill 3/4 of a chimney with charcoal and light it to start getting the coals hot.

Step 4: On a cookie sheet, cut the eggplant in 1/2 inch - 3/4 inch slices and sprinkle salt on both sides to draw out some of the water. 

Step 5: Wash and slice your sweet potatoes into 1/2 inch - 3/4 inch slices on a bias. 

Step 6: Cut and prepare the asparagus. Pour the remaining marinade over the asparagus and toss to coat.

Step 7: Once the charcoal is hot, pour the charcoal in the middle of the grill to create a multi-tier fire, replace the grate on the grill and cover the grill to get it hot.

Step 8: Take a few paper towels, roll them, and fold them over to form a neat bundle. Using tongs, dip the paper towels in the vegetable oil.

Step 9: With the soaked paper towel, brush the grill grate and return the cover. After 5 minutes, using the oil soaked paper towels, brush the grates to coat them and recover the grill to bring up the internal temperature. Repeat this process 4-5 times.

Step 10: Place the fish in the middle of the grill (the hottest part of the grill) skin side down with some of the eggplant and sweet potatoes around the fish over the section of the grill that has a medium level heat. Be careful not to overcrowd the grill because if there is not enough airflow through the grates, it will cause the heat to die down inside the grill.

If the grill is not hot enough, or you have not coated the grates well enough, the fish will stick. After 6 minutes, with a spatula test on one corner of the fish to see if the skin has become crisp and if the fish releases from the grill. If it does, flip it over for another 4-5 minutes on the other side. Now would also be a good time to turn over the eggplant and sweet potatoes.

Step 11: Pull off the fish and the eggplant and place the rest of the eggplant and the asparagus in the middle of the grill over the hottest part of the grill, and the eggplant around the outside over the middle level heat.

Step 12: After a few minutes, with tongs move around the asparagus over the grate to make sure they are thoroughly roasted while keeping an eye on the eggplant and the sweet potatoes so they do not burn.

What kind of fish do you like to BBQ on your grill?

I will gladly pay you Tuesday.......

In every house there seems to be that 'go to' meal that parents serve when they need to make a dinner for their family and can't think of anything else to make. In some houses that meal is pasta, while in others it is chicken nuggets or fish sticks. In my house, that meal is hamburgers. During the winter, we are not ashamed to say that we do it under the broiler (a close second to on the grill), but as soon as the weather changes, we are outside and we are grilling. While Everything Is Better Grilled, when it comes to onions on top of my burgers, I prefer caramelized onions. The reason why I do not put onions inside the burgers is because as the meat cooks on the grill, it's connective tissue and collagen shrinks and begins to stick together which is what helps the burger retain its shape. When there are things in the way of those connective tissues sticking together by something like onions, the burgers tend to fall apart on your grill which is not fun. In addition, as the onions cook, they release moisture which also doesn't help the burgers from falling apart. Oddly enough there are people out there (who hopefully stop after reading this) who like to put bread crumbs in the burgers to help them from falling apart??!! Aren't they turning their burgers into meatloaf?

The other great thing I like about this meal is that it takes about 30 minutes to make and no one walks away hungry. I also like this meal on a Thursday night because there usually aren't any leftovers to contend with going into Shabbos.

This recipe makes (5) 6 oz hamburgers.

1.6-1.75 pounds of ground neck and steak
3 onions
3 Tbsp Vegetable Oil
Dry Rub 

As I discussed previously, when I first started making burgers I tried ground chuck as I thought it would have a meatier taste considering which part of the cow it comes from. However my family kept saying that the burgers tasted dry even though they were cooked to medium doneness. I then tried the ground neck and steak and we found the burgers to be juicy with good flavor. Since this is around Pesach time, all the meat is a little more expensive.

The other important tool to have when making the burgers is a good patty maker. The problem with making burgers by hand is that the middle is thicker than the edges so when they cook, they do not cook evenly. I personally like the Progressive International patty maker as it releases the burgers well, makes the dimple, and is easy to clean.

Step 1: Heat your vegetable oil in a pot. Dice your onions, and place them in pot with the preheated vegetable oil. 

Sprinkle some salt over the onions and cover for 3 minutes on high heat to begin drawing out some of the moisture. After 3 minutes, reduce the heat to medium-low and stir frequently. If the temperature gets too hot or the onions get too dried out before they become fully caramelized, try adding a little water to the pot. I will usually have my son do the stirring while I focus on the burgers.

Step 2: Take the meat out of the packaging and place in a dry bowl.

Step 3: Add your dry rub mixture. 

If you haven't been making a good amount of your rub and storing it in an empty spice container, now might be a good time to start.

Step 4: Mix your meat and spices together. There are individuals who believe that overly mixing your meat when making hamburgers makes them tough. On the contrary, it is not the over mixing that makes them tough, it is the fact that your hands are warm and when you overly work the meat, it warms the meat up. To overcome this, make sure the meat is very cold when you begin mixing it. Make sure the meat is mixed well so that your spices are evenly distributed.

Step 5: Go outside and light your charcoal. For 5 burgers I usually fill a chimney 50-60 percent of the way full of charcoal.

Step 6: While the charcoal is getting hot, go inside and form your burgers. I like to use parchment paper to separate the layers of burgers. I like parchment paper over wax paper because wax paper has a tendency to stick to the burgers while they are waiting to be cooked.

Step 7: Once your charcoal gets hot and you begin to see the white on the charcoal, or it looks like this,  pour it on one side of your grill, and cover your grill to get it hot.

Step 8: Grill your burgers for 4 minutes on each side. Be mindful of flare ups and getting a good crust before flipping.

Step 9: Once the burgers have been cooked on both sides, move them to the cool side of the grill and cover them with the vents open so that they can finish cooking. The thicker the burger is, the longer it will take to finish. 

Step 10: At this point your caramelized onions should be done and your child's arm could rest from the constant stirring.

Step 11: Make sure that you let the burgers rest for a few minutes before you dive in. The resting gives the juices time to settle in the burgers. For me, a perfect burger is medium, for my brother in law, it still needs to be mooing.

How do you like your burgers done?

Do you 'Grill' or do you 'BBQ'?

smoked chicken and sweet potatoes

People use the words grilling and BBQ interchangeably to describe what they do outside on a grill. However, ask anyone serious about their grill (commonly someone who uses charcoal ) and they will tell you that there are serious differences between the two.

For me, 'Grilling' refers to cooking food over a direct flame, while 'BBQ' will invove cooking food using indirect heat or very low temperatures. Grilling may take a few minutes to prepare the food, while BBQ may take hours or even days depending on the type of meat you are cooking. The long periods of cooking time allows the flavors to fully develop in the meat and for the connective tissue in those tougher cuts of meat to fully break down. In addition, true BBQ allows you to infuse flavors from wood like hickory. This is why thicker cuts of meat and less expensive cuts of meats are more suited for a 'BBQ' style of cooking than 'grilling' which will leave the meat tough.

How Do You Like Your Hamburger?

When it comes to making hamburgers, I prefer to form them myself over buying the preformed in the store. The reasons are that preformed store hamburgers have no spices or seasoning in them, and I also like my burgers a little thicker than the more commonly found quarter pounders. When choosing ground beef, my taste testers (AKA my family) prefer the ground neck and steak that I get at Brachs over the straight ground chuck. I believe it has to do with the fat content in the ground neck and skirt that helps keep the burger juicier when it is cooked over such high heat compared to the ground chuck. I take mine a little pink on the inside.

Ketchup? Mustard? Mayonnaise? Horseradish Sauce?

So many ways to dress your burger and so little time. And who could forget the condiments?

Previously, I was a fan of grilled onions on my burgers but lately every time I make burgers I am working for 45 minutes on perfectly caramelized onions.

As for the condiments, these are the only ones I take with my burgers and caramelized onions