Summer Kickoff

After a rather long and accidental recess, I'll begin to make regular posts.  Having arrived from Argentina last Friday and now having access to a full, and well-stocked kitchen, I'm ready to begin the summer cooking season.  Now, whether or not you believe in Global Warming, the fact is that it's been pretty hot, at least here in the North East.  Of course, when the sun starts to shine and the sunset pushes a little past its limit each night, men and women everywhere bust out the cooler and dust off the grill.  Now, before you decide to sink a t-bone in Bull's Eye before throwing it on the grill and apathetically prodding it with a long, dirty grilling fork, don't forget that you can put more than a 16 0z slab of beef on your Weber.

Oh, you skeptics'll say, "But, Mark, my grill was made for meat!"  And, yes, perhaps it was.  But times have changed and we're smarter now.  You can grill pretty much anything, but you must go about it in the right manner. 

First, know your grill, your hot-spots, and your cool spots.  Whether you use charcoal, propane, napalm, or a mix, realize that different spots of your grill are different temperatures.

Second, know what you're grilling.  The thinner, the faster it cooks.  The thicker, the opposite.  If you raise the temperature of your grill to the heat of a sunspot, it'll char the crap out of the outside, but the inside could still be raw, so make sure you know the safe eating temperatures of you food of choice.  You can usually get a meat thermometer at a local supermarket.

Third, when cooking meat, remember that it continues to cook even when it's off the grill because of the residual heat, so take it off just before it's the way you want it and LET IT SIT to redistribute the juices.  When you grill meat, the heat contracts some of the proteins which forces the juices towards the center.  By letting the meat sit, you allow the juices to spread out more evenly throughout the hunk of meat and it allows for a juicer mouthful.  For more on that check out Molecular Gastronomy by Herve This.  Also, Jamie Oliver likes to constantly flip a piece of meat while grilling because he believes it keeps more juice in, but I'm not entirely convinced by this hypothesis.

When it comes to vegetables, of course, it's more up in the air.  Always wash your veggies before eating, but you can cook them as much, or as little as you want.  I usually paint my vegetables with olive oil mixed with whichever herbs or spices I feel like adding.

Grilled Asparagus

1 tablespoon minced garlic

1 thingy of asparagus

2 glugs olive oil

1 spray of PAM

1)  Set grill to medium/high

2)  Sauté garlic in pan with olive oil

3)  Wash and trim asparagus and put in greased baking tray/rimmed sheet

4)  Drizzle sautéed  garlic with olive oil over asparagus

5)  Place tray in grill and close, turning occasionally, until crisped.  Usually 10-15 minutes.

-Mark Potkewitz

Stamford, CT

Brine Time

Well, it's still winter, but here in CT it's about 50 degrees, which means it's time to dust off the cob webs and fire up the good ol' grill. I have to admit that I'm not much for cooking in the kitchen. When I'm in front of the stove or cutting board, I stick to the Keep It Simple Stupid philosophy of cooking. A good ham and cheese sandwich is all I need to keep me going through the winter. During the colder parts of the year, I am stuck in the kitchen, which is not the setting that I prefer. Now, though, since it has been warming up early in the season, I have decided to bust out ol' faithful and throw on some meat. What better way to start the grilling season than with beer can chicken!

Now, when I start cooking something on the grill, I look at it in two stages: The preparation and the cooking. I know what you all are thinking...."Yeah yeah yeah, we all have to prepare and then cook, you idiot!" Well, with grilling it's different, because unlike cooking in the kitchen, where preparation consists of portioning out all the ingredients, preparation for grilling is where you get the meat ready to cook. I try to make this first stage last at least 12 hours, but preferably 24. The preparation is where you infuse the meat with 90% of the flavors that you will be enjoying when you eat, by using a dry rub, marinade, or a brine. I have found that the latter is best for poultry, while marinades and dry rubs are best for beef or pork. I can't stress how important these steps are for grilling. I could go on forever about just this step, and what goes into it, and I probably will further on down the road, but for now, lets get on with the cooking.
In this case I will be using a brine, since I'll be cooking beer can chicken. First off, what is a brine? Well, simply put, it is a salt water solution. Brines have been used for hundreds of millions of years by grillers all over the world. The point of a brine is to keep meat moist throughout the cooking process. It works by hydrating the meat through osmosis. If you want a more technical answer, go to this link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brining Basically for my purpose, brining meat makes it juicer. It all sounds very technical, but making a brine is actually really easy. My standard recipe for a brine is 1/2 cup of kosher salt to 5 cups of water. The ratio is 10:1 water to salt. Now if you remember your high school chemistry, you can't put too much salt in the water because eventually it will become saturated, and the water won't absorb the salt, so that's why I like to stick to that ratio of 10:1 or 1/2 cup of salt to 5 cups of water. Next, simply boil the salt into the water, and throw in some bay leaves, one chopped onion, as much garlic as you want, and some peppercorns. Make sure to bring the salt water solution to a boil first, then take it off the heat, let it cool a bit, and then throw in all the other ingredients. Once everything is in there, let the water cool to room temperature before you put the chicken in. Obviously you don't want to cook the chicken in the boiling hot brine. Finally, make sure the chicken is surrounded by the onions, garlic, peppercorns and bay leaves. If it is not completely submerged by the brine, just throw a couple cups or water in the container until it is submerged. Once you have the chicken COMPLETELY SUBMERGED, throw it in the fridge overnight. Mine is currently sitting in the fridge, so I'll have to continue the rest of this post tomorrow when I actually cook the bird. Until then, happy grilling!
Standard Brine:
1/2 Cup of Kosher Salt boiled into 5 cups of water. 10:1 ratio of water to salt
one chopped onion
one whole garlic
bay leaves and peppercorn to taste