I took some time off. Sue me. I needed to change jobs, move and finish a class on assassination. My plate was somewhat full, no pun intended. So to make up for it I am giving you a fist full of recipes that make for some awesome grilling. Sadly I only have minimal pictures of the eats as they were being eaten right off the grill… there were some hungry people running around with food stuffed in their mouth mumbling/slurring the word Hot, as they were trying to chow down.
1.Grilled squash
It is summer. There should be more squash running around than you can shake a stick at. Or at least that is how it seems to go for anyone with a squash plant in their garden. Here is a way to get rid of some of it while you are hanging out by the grill.
Ingredients
2 – 3 squish (a mix of green and yellow)
Garlic infused olive oil (the regular stuff will work but this is so much better)
Oregano
Red Pepper flakes
Equipment
Grill
Grilling basket
Cut the squish in half and then cut it in half length wise. Chop squish into little ¼ inch half medallions. Throw the squish in a ziplock bag. Add a liberal splash of olive oil, a few healthy pinches of some dried oregano and as much red pepper as your dinner guests can stand. Mix every thing up in the bag. Seal the bag up and let the squish soak up some goodness.
Throw the grilling basket on the grill when you start some of your longer cooking meats so that it can get nice and hot. Once the basket is hot throw the squish in. Stir the squash around every few minutes so any one side does not get overly done. It should take about 10 minutes on a nice hot grill for it to get nice and fork tender.
Once it is done, dump it on a serving plate or platter and send it on its way to table of doom.
2. BBQ Chicken
What cook out is complete with out BBQ chicken? The only problem is it is so damn messy. Seriously, have you ever tried to remove carbonized BBQ sauce from a grill? It is a pain in the ass. That is why I quit making the stuff. Well The girlfriend and I stumbled across something the other day and we thought we would give it a go. Lets just say that the results were awesome so we reloaded and tried again with some chicken…
Ingredients
Boneless Skinless Chicken thighs
Bone Sucking Dry Rub
You can choose to rinse or not to rinse your chicken. I do not because of the increased splash risk of cross contamination. Lay the chicken out flat, what would have been, skin side up. Give it a nice liberal coating of dry rub. Flip and repeat. Roll the chicken up into tight little rolls. Store in a tightly sealed container and let it sit overnight. Take these guys out of your container and lay flat on the grill. I recommend a nice spot where they can cook with some indirect heat. If that is not possible then keep a real good eye on them so they do not char. These should be one of the first things on the grill as it can take a little bit of time to get chicken up to 165 degrees using internal temperature. Flip occasionally to avoid over cooking on any one side. When they hit the magic temp, put them on a plate and send them to their doom.
3. Tiger tips
No, it is not real tiger, but I bet it would taste pretty good if they were. I found this stuff a long time ago called tiger sauce. I think my mom first exposed me to it when she was marinating the hindquarter of a deer roast… It was years later before I discovered it again. I am pretty sure it was my friend Kyle that sent me a bottle for my birthday (thanks man) and I rediscovered the wonders of Tiger Sauce. The stuff is awesome. You can put it on anything or in anything. My favorite is getting some good steak tips and cutting them into bite sized chunks, and soaking them in Tiger Sauce overnight. Throw those bad boys on a skewer and cook till desired doneness. If you want to go over the top with them you can wrap them in with a good thick cut bacon and soak them in tiger sauce and then grill them. If that is the plan then keep in mind you will need to not pack them so tight on the skewers so that the bacon can get cooked all around. These are a crowd pleaser. Hell I think people were trying to pluck them off the grill and put them into their mouth once they knew what I had. I am not including an ingredients list or method because if you read what I wrote it is pretty self explanatory.
4. Fruit murder al la peaches and pineapple.
The final thing that I made was this awesomeness that I have not come up with a name for so I will be working with fruit murder al la peaches and pineapple for now. I have been playing around with grilled pineapple for a few years now and I think I have finally perfected it. All I can say is that this stuff was divine. People were eating it before it even hit the grill. It almost didn’t even make it to the grill.
Ingredients:
1 pineapple
2 cinnamon sticks broken into thirds
1 Tbls Ground cinnamon
1 ¼ C Meyers dark rum
¼ C Meyers dark rum
1 shot of rum
2 very ripe peaches
1 shot of rum
Method:
1. Core the pineapple, cut the skin off and chop it into bite sized pieces. Put into a container that is big enough to hold it with some room left over.
2. Take a shot of rum.
3. Wash the peaches. Remove the pits. Throw into a food processor with the ¼ C rum and the ground cinnamon. Hit the grind button and teach those peaches who is boss. Keep pulsing the grind button until the peaches have been reduced to a pulpy, rummy paste. Then hit the grind button a few more times for good measure.
4. Drink a shot of rum in celebration of peach death.
5. Take the dead peaches and mix with the rest of the rum.
6. Pour the rum/peach murder concoction over the pineapple. Let it soak overnight.
7. Right before it is time to grill, put the pineapple on some skewers. Grill over a medium heat until it gets hot with some grill marks on it.
8. Serve.
9. Drink another shot of rum for the hell of it.
Here is the feast in mid grill... the eaters were circling....
