Friday, May 26, 2006

Grilled Sweet Potatoes, More Chicken, Pizza, and Ribs?

We've been eating... food!

We sliced sweet potatoes in one-inch, three-sided spears and dressed them in olive oil, salt, and pepper and grilled them 10 minutes each on the two non-skinned sides. They came out good and mushy with lots of charring - will do less time and move away from the direct flames next time, but this seems like a good alternative to boiling or roasting.

Still trying to perfect the split breasts on the grill... tried searing the skin side down, then turning and grilling indirectly for about 45 minutes (the temp in the grill maintained about 375)... Too charry on the skin side, wondering if should even put the skin side down? My brother says my dad's secret is to always be turning the food - but that goes against every recommendation I've read that says "don't turn any more than you have to!" I'll have to consult with the big man to get the real scoop.

We tried adding smoke to the chicken by putting an aluminum tray full of soaked hickory chips under the grill racks - that didn't seem to do very much! Perhaps I added too many in a big pile, next time I will try one layer and see if that helps...

Made pizza with that leftover dough from a while back that had been in the freezer. We made a VERY thin crust and made sure that the oven was a very hot 500 degrees this time... came out great with turkey pepperoni and sliced red peppers and mushrooms - no sauteing!

We have lots of summer vacation planned this year, but this weekend - Memorial Day weekend - we have no plans! Except for one plan, of course - to run the grill all weekend long. The weather for Sunday and Monday looks great.

So we wanted to try our very first attempt at ribs. Have been doing lots of research but if anyone out there reading this has any specific RIBS recipes or pointers, please leave them in comments! We are, as always, open to experimentation!

Thanks!

~S & M

3 comments:

Butta Buns said...

Don't know much about outdoor grilling but here's a twist on traditional Korean kalbi marinade.

1 c. sesame oil
2 c. soy sauce
1 c. brown sugar
2 tbsp. basalmic vinegar
lots of crushed garlic
chopped scallions
red pepper flakes

I'm so jealous that you have a grill. And a backyard to go with it. Happy eating, enjoy the weekend!

Boston Chef said...

Thanks - we need to get sesame oil, we rely too much on canola and olive oil.

Soy and brown sugar will definitely be involved. I like the vinegar and red pepper flakes, too.

Before this grill, we were grilling on our little camper grill that cost about $25! That works, too! Now that we have more outside room, we thought a bigger grill was in order.

Have a nice, long weekend - 90 and sunny on Monday!

Anonymous said...

Boy, the love affair between you and the grill is really heating up!! LOL! Imagine how many great meals you will have cooked by summer's end? And we get to experience them vicariously.