But the reason for the extended weekend is not the barbecue yet most of us get caught up in that instead of the real reason. When not dabbling in this little hobby <cough> obsession <cough> While I will be doing a great deal of grilling, I will also take the time to acknowledge why we have an extra day off. I work in IT at the Veterans Administration Medical Center at Jefferson Barracks. The Medical Facility I work at is nestled between the Mississippi River and one of the biggest military cemeteries in the country with more than 160,000 internments. On any given day at work I could see a line of American Flags brandished by the Patriot Guard, hear the anguish of a lone bugle playing Taps or feel the jarring reports of a 21 gun salute. For me, the reason for Memorial Day is an almost every day reminder. But for the rest of us, this holiday is the reminder of those that have fought, and more importantly, died for this country:

So take some time this weekend to say a prayer for those that have lost loved one protecting this country, or donate to a veterans charity, or even just thank a living vet for their service. They have earned it and deserve such.

Now back to the grilling. This weekend there will be more than 50 million barbecues in the United States. A ton of them will have burgers and brats. And that’s fine. Just make sure you go to your local meat cutter to buy your sausages. Me, I do one of these every Memorial day:

Now I realize that not everyone has a grill big enough to do a whole hog, or the inclination to try something so large, (although it is much easier than you realize) but certainly we can find something in between an entire pig and burgers and brats. How about this Eastern Mediterranean inspired rib recipe done with St. Louis style ribs?

What are St. Louis style ribs? They are basically trimmed spare ribs. The rib tips, cartilage and sternum bone are removed, resulting in a rectangular slab:

The uniformity of the cut allows for more even cooking and better presentation which makes these a favorite of competition grillers.

Now onto that rub. This is more exotic than most of the standard paprika, chili powder, brown sugar rubs. And some of these spices can be pretty spendy. I try to find when they are blowing the spices out to pick up things like cardamom and coriander.

Rub Ingredients:

• 2 teaspoons ground cumin
• 2 teaspoons sweet paprika
• 1 teaspoon ground coriander
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon fresh ground white pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon granulated garlic
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cardamom
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/4 teaspoon ground mustard

Mix all the ingredients together in a bowl:

Skin the membrane off the back of the ribs and apply a hearty layer of course salt to both sides of the ribs:

Then hit the bone side with the rub and pat it in before repeating on the meat side:

Now prepare the grill for two zone or indirect grilling. On a Kamado style grill, use a place setter after putting in smoke wood (for this I used plum). For more conventional grills, place the coals and smoke wood on one side and the meat on the other. Target internal temperature is around 300 (plus or minus 25). Target cook time is about 2.5 – 3 hours.

This is called the high heat method, but in actuality is only medium heat (300) but doesn’t sound as good as high heat method. Ribs only take on smoke flavor for about 90 – 120 minutes, so keeping them on longer adds little to the flavor profile. And they will be cooked perfectly to just short of fall off the bone so a lower and slower method is really only extra work for the griller. I realize that some will never want their wives to know this fact as they relish their time outside near the grill. Don’t worry. I won’t tell anyone!

Place the St. Louis style ribs on the grill and close the lid:

After about 90 minutes the St. Louis style ribs are looking good, the meat is pulling back nicely, but the rub is looking a little mealy:

That is a simple fix. Drizzle some liquid over it. I happened to have some white wine, but could’ve just as easily gone with beer, apple juice or even water.

After a little over 2.5 hours, I pulled the St. Louis style ribs from the grill:

Check out the nice pull back:

And of course a great smoke ring:

If you have any questions about St. Louis style ribs or this rib recipe, please feel free to comment below or shoot me an email.

If you liked the pork recipe above, then click here for similar BBQ recipes.

Also, you can follow the Grillin’ Fools on Facebook and post your own grilling pictures, share grilling recipes, or join the general grilling conversation. You can also follow us onTwitter @GrillinFool.

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St. Louis Style Ribs for Memorial Day

St. Louis Style Ribs, slathered with an Eastern Mediterranean inspired rub and grilled with the high heat method. Perfect for Memorial Day

Author: Scott Thomas

Cuisine: BBQ

Recipe type: Ribs

Serves: 3

Prep time:  10 mins

Cook time:  150 mins

Total time:  2 hours 40 mins

Ingredients

• 1 slab St. Louis Style Ribs, membrane removed
• salt to coat the ribs
• 2 teaspoons ground cumin
• 2 teaspoons sweet paprika
• 1 teaspoon ground coriander
• ½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• ½ teaspoon fresh ground white pepper
• ½ teaspoon granulated garlic
• ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
• ½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
• ¼ teaspoon ground cardamom
• • ¼ teaspoon ground cloves
• • ¼ teaspoon ground mustard

Instructions

1. Skin the ribs and salt both sides
2. Mix the spices together in a bowl and spread on the bone side first
3. Then cover the meat side
4. Prepare the grill for two zone grilling with a target internal temperature of the grill of 300 (plus or minus 25 degrees)
5. Smoke for 2.5 – 3 hours
6. Remove from the grill, slice and serve

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Gas grills are great for grilling steaks and seafood, but I just don’t get the smoke flavor I want with a gasser. Gas grills are only good for hot and fast, not low and slow. They’re good for burgers and brats, but no way I can do something like ribs or pork tenderloin on one. Heard any of those before? I have. Hell, I’ve said every one of them at one point or another. I’ll admit it. I was a charcoal snob. I said I would never own a gas grill. If I wanted to cook on gas, I would use my stove.

But then I was contacted by Char-Broil and they asked me to do some writing for them. They sent me a couple gas grills with their TRU Infrared technology, and I was blown away at how juicy the food was, but I was only using it as an outdoor stove top. I made some wicked lamb, grilled pizza, grilled tomatoes, and chicken, but I wasn’t doing any smoking on it.

But not anymore. Not with these little beauties:

That’s an aluminum tin filled with cherry chips. You can buy them on Char-Broil’s website here.

So how does this work? Turn all the burners on the gas grill to high and take the grill grate off the left side. Remove the plastic from the tin of chips and place the tin where the grate was removed. There might take a little finagling with the tin to get it to set on the burner. It’s aluminum and disposable so don’t stress it. It’s pretty pliable. Get it as close to the flames as possible. And soon enough you will see this:

Once the wood starts to smoke, let it go for about 10 minutes, then turn the other burners down to a more moderate temperature before putting the meat on. Here’s how it looks in relation to the pork tenderloin in this recipe:

So, can you smoke meat on a gas grill? Absolutely.

Now to our recipe: Stuffed, Smoked Pork Tenderloin Sliders

Ingredients:

2 pork tenderloins
salt and black pepper
8 ounces cream cheese
4 tablespoons pepper jelly
1 tablespoon fresh garlic, minced
Hawaiian slider buns

Butterfly each pork tenderloin lengthwise, ensuring not to cut all the way through the meat:

Cover with plastic wrap and go to town with a meat mallet to make giant paillards:

Hit both sides of each pork tenderloin with salt and black pepper

Now make up the stuffing. Put the cream cheese, jelly and garlic in a bowl:

Put it in the microwave for about 60 seconds to soften the cream cheese and break up the gelatin in the jelly and then blend well:

Spread the cheese concoction over the pork, roll up, and tie with bakers twine:

Then place the pork tenderloins on the cool side of the grill and away from the smoking tin with the seam facing up to keep the cheese from oozing out as much when the pork tenderloins heat up:

I did these at about 400 degrees. Yes, that’s a little higher than most consider low and slow, but this was the first time I did this and was taking them to a party across the street in a couple hours and didn’t want to mess around with finding the perfect low temp that still was hot enough to get the tin to smoke.

At 30 minutes of smoking, I’m getting some nice browning at the ends closest to the hot burner:

Here you can see the smoke coming from the tin:

At 45 minutes, I decided to flip the pork tenderloins around and move them farther away from the hot burner:

In doing that, I lost a bunch of cheese, so be careful:

And here are the stuffed, smoked pork tenderloins are at the 75 minute mark and ready to come in:

On the cutting board:

Let the pork tenderloins rest for three reasons:

1)   Letting the meat rest will allow the juices, in an excited state from the heat from grilling to calm down and redistribute throughout the meat.

2)   The cheese is like molten lava right now. Slicing into it and the cheese will run all over cutting board

3)   Gives you a chance to grab a beverage or two:

After letting them rest for 8-10 minutes, slice and place on the Hawaiian buns to make pork tenderloin sliders:

The gooey, spicy stuffing of these pork tenderloin sliders is perfectly offset by the soft sweetness of the Hawaiian rolls, all complimented by the smoke from the cherry wood. These are a definitely crowd fillers and pleasers. They would be ideal for your next tailgate. Make them the night before, toss them in the fridge to halt the cooking process and then warm up at the game on a travel grill like this Char-Broil Grill2Go that I happen to own and use all the time.

If you still don’t know how to smoke on a gas grill, or have any questions about the stuffed, smoked pork tenderloin sliders, please feel free to comment below or shoot me an email.

If you liked the pork tenderloin recipe above, then click here for similar BBQ recipes.

Also, you can follow the Grillin’ Fools on Facebook and post your own grilling pictures, share grilling recipes, or join the general grilling conversation. You can also follow us onTwitter @GrillinFool.

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How to Smoke on a Gas Grill

Cheese stuffed, smoke pork tenderloin sliders smoked on a gas grill.

Author: Scott Thomas

Cuisine: BBQ

Recipe type: Entree

Serves: 6

Prep time:  20 mins

Cook time:  70 mins

Total time:  1 hour 30 mins

Ingredients

• 2 pork tenderloins
• salt and black pepper
• 8 ounces cream cheese
• 4 tablespoons pepper jelly
• 1 tablespoon fresh garlic, minced
• Hawaiian slider buns

Instructions

1. Butterfly the pork tenderloins and then place a piece of plastic wrap over and and pound with a meat mallet into pail lards
2. Hit each side with salt and pepper
3. Mix the cream cheese, pepper jelly and garlic in a bowl and microwave for 60 seconds to soften the cheese and the gelatin of the jelly
4. Spoon the cheese/pepper jelly mixture over the flattened pork tenderloins and roll them up
5. Tie the tenderloins with baker’s twine and prepare the grill
6. Take the grill grate off one side of the grill and place an aluminum pan of UNsoaked wood chips right over the heat and place the meat over the side with no burners on
7. Target internal temperature of the grill is 400
8. Smoke for 60-75 minutes
9. Remove from the grill, allow to rest for 8-10 minutes
10. Slice and place on the Hawaiian buns to make pork tenderloin sliders
11. Serve

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As this blog becomes more and more successful (many thanks by the way), I get offered more and more products to try. Some of them I review for the site, some I don’t because they don’t live up to my standards as something I want to share with a few hundred thousand of my closest friends. This is obviously one I wanted to share from the Flat Out Flatbread Company:

I was familiar with the Flat Out products as my wife bought their wraps all the time. The wraps were great, but I wasn’t sure what would be so great about the pizza crusts. But I agreed to give them a shot and they sent me a couple packages. I made the recipe you will see below and had my wife and mother in law try it. What happened next is the sort of thing we see in cheesy commercials. Nobody sips a can of soda or bites into a candy bar and a party breaks out, yet major advertisers want us to believe if we use their products, our lives will be one party after the next. It sounds crazy, but within 10 minutes of sampling the first pizza, I had two more on the grill and someone was coming in the door with cheese and toppings to make more while others were called to join us and we had a grilled pizza party. I’m not kidding. The compliments I got were nothing short of raves. While buying and grilling with these pizza crusts will not turn your life into a non stop party, it could result in a pretty fun barbecue with a pizza bar of sauces, cheese and toppings for your guests to choose from and raves to you for your pit master skills!

Now for the recipe of Shrimp Thyme Pizza:

Ingredients:

6 U16-20 shrimp, deviened
2 tsp fresh thyme, divided
4 tbsp olive oil, divided four ways
1/2 tsp granulated garlic
3 pinches salt, divide three ways
5 turns of white pepper
1 Flat Out Pizza Crust
2 tbsp ricotta cheese
1 tsp fresh, minced garlic
4 ounces fresh mozzarella
2 ounces grated romano cheese

Shell and devein the shrimp and place in a bowl. Drizzle with a tablespoon of olive oil, 1 teaspoon of fresh thyme, the granulated garlic, a pinch of salt and the white pepper:

Let the shrimp absorb the flavors of the thyme, garlic and pepper while you prepare the grill for two zone, high heat grilling. In this case, I set my Char-Broil TRU infrared to high heat on the two left burners but the right burner I left off. Place the shrimp over the heat and grill on each side until they become firm and grilled through:

Set the grilled shrimp aside and prepare the pizza crust for grilling:

Drizzle a tablespoon of olive oil on one side of the pizza crust and spread the oil around with a pastry brush:

Make sure you go edge to edge here, and not just in the middle or you will burn the edges. Sprinkle a pinch of salt on the oiled side and place it over the hot side of the grill, oil down and immediately oil the other side and hit with the salt, and brush the oil from edge to edge:

In only a couple minutes of grilling, the pizza crust will start to bubble like this:

If you do not oil the other side of the crust right away, it will not bubble.  It will curl and harden pretty quickly. Ask me how I know. During my first attempt I stepped away after I put the pizza crust on the grill for an adult beverage and returned a moment later to find this:

It’s pretty hard to add topping to the side that is sloped like that.

Once the pizza crust bubbles on the top, remove it from the grill and flip over so the hot side is now facing up and brush another layer of oil. Combine the minced garlic and ricotta in a bowl, mix well and then spread the garlic ricotta over the crust:.

Then place the fresh mozzarella on the grilled pizza crust:

Now you have a choice here. You can place the grilled shrimp on and put the pizza back over the heat, or you can leave the shrimp off for a moment, place the cheese pizza on the grill and allow the cheese to spread over the entire crust. I did it both ways. The latter had more cheese coverage, but both were great. Place the grilled shrimp on top and sprinkle on a teaspoon of fresh thyme and place back over the high heat:

After only a couple minutes at 500+ degrees, the edges of the grilled pizza will brown:

At this point, pull the grilled pizza to the side with no heat:

Then sprinkle with the grated romano and close the lid:

Remove from the grill after five minutes on the side with no heat and slice:

This was not the only grilled pizza I made and part of the beauty of these crusts. First and foremost, the crust is so light and airy with a flaky crunch that is out of this world. Second, they can be prepared any number of ways. Remember when I said someone went out for toppings and cheese. Well, we grilled this exact pizza again with the grilled shrimp and fresh thyme (I made 12 grilled shrimp to begin with) and then made it again with sliced grape tomatoes:

That was a huge hit as well. My kids aren’t really into tomatoes or shrimp so we grilled a traditional one for them with pepperoni and a red sauce:

In the end, I think we made five pizzas and didn’t have a single leftover. Nothing. Not a piece of crust, a stray slice of pepperoni or string of cheese.  There were discussions of what it would cost to do one of these and opening a food truck. They were that good. These grilled pizzas are going into the regular rotation of what hits my grill from now on. I am proud to call myself an official Flat Out Blog Ambassador, because these things are ridiculously good:

You can buy Flat Out Pizza Crusts and turn your life into a party (at least for an afternoon) at just about any Wal-Mart. You can find the store nearest to you that carries these crusts by clicking this link.

You can find 30 more recipes from some of the country’s best bloggers here with a new recipe appearing each day.

It gets better. Flat Out is also doing a raffle for a trip for two to the Taste of Chicago. You can enter here.

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4.0 from 1 reviews

Shrimp and Thyme Pizza

Ricotta, fresh mozzarella with shrimp and fresh thyme on the flakiest crust you’ve ever had on a pizza.

Author: Scott Thomas

Cuisine: BBQ

Recipe type: Entree

Serves: 2

Prep time:  10 mins

Cook time:  10 mins

Total time:  20 mins

Ingredients

• 6 U16-20 shrimp, deviened
• 2 tsp fresh thyme, divided
• 4 tbsp olive oil, divided four ways
• ½ tsp granulated garlic
• 3 pinches salt, divide three ways
• 5 turns of white pepper
• 1 Flat Out Pizza Crust
• 2 tbsp ricotta cheese
• 1 tsp fresh, minced garlic
• 4 ounces fresh mozzarella
• 2 ounces grated romano cheese

Instructions

1. Place the shrimp, 1 tsp thyme, 1 tbsp olive oil, granulated garlic, pinch of salt and white pepper in a bowl and mix together well
2. Prepare the grill for two zone grilling with high heat (500+ degrees) on one side and nothing on the other.
3. Grill the shrimp through on each side (2 minutes per side) and set aside
4. Brush one side of the Flat Out Pizza crust with a tbsp of olive oil and a pinch of salt and place oil side down over the hot side of the grill
5. Immediately brush another tbsp of oil on the other side and another pinch of salt
6. When it bubbles on top, remove from the heat, and place hot side up on a cutting board
7. Brush on the last tbsp of oil
8. Combine the ricotta and minced garlic in a bowl and then spread over the crust
9. Place the fresh mozzarella on and place on the hot side of the grill
10. When the crust browns around the edge (only 2-3 minutes), slide over to the side with no heat and place the shrimp, tsp of fresh thyme and grated romano cheese
11. Close the lid for five minutes and then remove from the heat, slice and serve

3.2.1226

Recently I went on a coffee bender. No, I didn’t camp out a Starbuck’s for a weekend, mainlining java. I actually don’t drink coffee all that often despite loving the taste of good coffee. I included coffee in a variety or rubs (Coffee/Chocolate Ribs, Coffee Steak) and even a brine (Coffee Brined Ribs). This coffee rub adds a wonderful rich/earthy flavor to BBQ that I just love, so much so that I plan on doing a coffee BBQ sauce soon.

Ingredients:

4 salmon filets
Salt to coat the filets
1/2 cup finely ground coffee (I used a decaf hazelnut blend. Decaf is not a necessity.)
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 tsp black pepper
1 tsp white pepper

One note on the coffee for this. You need to grind it yourself and grind it extra, extra fine. I bought the coffee at the local grocery store, set it to the finest setting, ground it and ran the coffee back through the grinder on the same setting to make it uber fine. Think coffee powder rather than coffee grounds for the coffee rub.

Coat the salmon filets with coarse salt:

Then mix the rest of the ingredients together to make the coffee rub. I thought the coffee cup was an appropriate vessel to do the mixing:

Then sprinkle the coffee rub over the salmon. Go as light or as heavy as you like. Don’t be afraid to go heavy because this rub is outstanding:

Don’t forget the sides and don’t waste that coffee rub on the plate:

Prepare the grill for high heat grilling. In this case, my Char-Broil Tru Infrared 5 Burner Bad Boy!

Place the coffee rubbed salmon skin side down on the grill:

 I almost forgot, you want to forget the tongs and make sure you have a good meat turner like this one:

Regular tongs are only going to mangle the grilled salmon which could wreck your presentation.

I made two different salmon filets for this post/photo shoot. One I flipped over at five minutes:

Don’t sweat the blackened skin. You aren’t eating that. The other salmon filet, I left skin side down the entire time. I removed both coffee rubbed grilled salmon filets after a total of 10 minutes. Here is the second one that I didn’t flip:

After I removed it from the grill, I plated and served the grilled salmon:

The coffee adds a wonderful richness and earthy flavor that melds well with the smokiness picked up from the grill and is countered nicely by the sweet of the brown sugar.

As for flipping or not flipping, I preferred it unflipped, but they were very similar. The flipped salmon filet was a little more done than I like than the unflipped, but it also had a better char on the top. I would suggest if you flip it to remove from the grill at about 8 minutes of grilling rather than 10.

If you have any questions about the above dish please feel free to comment below or shoot me an email.

If you liked the coffee rubbed grilled salmon and are interested in similar grilling recipes, click here.

Also, you can follow the Grillin Fools on Facebook and post your own grilling pictures, share grilling recipes, or join the general grilling conversation. You can also follow us  onTwitter @GrillinFool.

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Coffee Rubbed Grilled Salmon

Salmon rubbed with coffee and grilled

Author: Scott Thomas

Cuisine: BBQ

Recipe type: Entree

Serves: 4

Prep time:  5 mins

Cook time:  10 mins

Total time:  15 mins

Ingredients

• 4 salmon filets
• Salt to coat the filets
• ½ cup finely ground coffee (I used a decaf hazelnut blend that I ground myself at my local grocery store. Decaf is not a necessity.)
• ¼ cup brown sugar
• 1 tsp black pepper
• 1 tsp white pepper

Instructions

1. Coat the salmon filets with coarse salt
2. Combine the rest of the ingredients other than the salt and salmon and sprinkle on the salmon (make sure to get the sides)
3. Set the grill to high heat grilling
4. Place the salmon on the grill skin side down and close the lid
5. Remove from the heat after 10 minutes
6. Plate and serve

3.2.1226

The footprints you see here are not proof of the Abominable Snowman, but merely a St. Louis Grillin’ Fool trying a new grilled lamb recipe during a St. Louis “Spring”!

I grilled these lamb chops while mother nature was dumping a foot of the white stuff all over us, but it wasn’t during the winter. That was in late March, after Spring was supposed to have sprung!

Grilled Lamb Chops Ingredients:

1 tbsp rosemary
½ tbsp thyme
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tbsp dijon mustard
3 tbsp balsamic vinegar
½ cup olive oil
8 lamb chops, about ¾ inch thick

For this recipe, combine all the ingredients, except for the lamb chops, in a bowl and mix well.

Place your chops into a large Ziploc bag and pour your marinade over the lamb.

Close your Ziploc and massage the bag, ensuring all the chops are covered with the marinade.  You want that robust flavor to cover all your lamb chops.  Put the bag into the refrigerator for 2 to 12 hours.

Once the chops have had the chance to absorb the flavors of the marinade, remove the lamb from the refrigerator and allow them to come up to room temperature (about 20 minutes or so).

For this recipe, prepare the grill for high heat grilling. For the Big Green Egg, put a healthy load of lump charcoal in the bottom of the grill and put the grill grate on to get hot. If the grate is cold when the lamb goes on, they will cook before you get a good sear.

At this thickness, the lamb need only about 2-3 minutes on each side for rare, 4-5 for medium rare and 5-6 for medium.

Sauce Ingredients (optional, but recommended!!)

4 tbsp butter, divided
1 stalk celery, finely chopped
½ medium onion, finely chopped
½ cup thinly sliced mushrooms
¼ cup flour
2 cups chicken broth, divided
¼ cup bourbon
1 tsp rosemary, finely chopped
1 tsp thyme

For the sauce, heat half the butter (2 tbsp) in a saucepan over medium heat.  Add celery and onion and sauté until they are tender, stirring occasionally (onion should become translucent).  Add your mushrooms and cook until those are also tender.  These will be the flavor bases for your sauce.

Now, reduce the heat to low and add the other 2 tbsp butter, stirring until the butter melts.  Add the flour gradually, stirring CONSTANTLY!!  Your mixture will have a pasty consistency.  Add 1 cup broth slowly, stirring as you go until the sauce thickens, also known as a roux.  Remove the sauce from the heat and stir in the bourbon, then add the remaining broth, rosemary, and thyme.  Return your concoction to the heat and bring to a boil over medium high heat. Reduce and simmer for approximately 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.  Add salt and pepper to taste and you are ready for a fantastic pairing with the lamb and sauce!!

We plated our lamb with goat cheese grits and sautéed spinach!

HAPPY GRILLING!!

If you have any questions about the grilled lamb chops, feel free to comment below or email me.

Click here if you liked the grilled lamb chops and want to see other grilling recipes done with lamb.

Also, you can follow the Grillin’ Fools on Facebook and post your grilling pictures, share a grilling recipe or two, or join the general grilling conversation.  You can follow us on Twitter@GrillinFool (no S).

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Marinated Lamb Chops

Author: Tom Jones

Cuisine: BBQ

Recipe type: Entree

Serves: 4-6

Prep time:  20 mins

Cook time:  10 mins

Total time:  30 mins

Ingredients

Marinade Ingredients

• 1 tbsp rosemary
• ½ tbsp thyme
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 tbsp dijon mustard
• 3 tbsp balsamic vinegar
• ½ cup olive oil
• 8 lamb chops, about ¾ inch thick

Sauce Ingredients

• 4 tbsp butter, divided
• 1 stalk celery, finely chopped
• ½ medium onion, finely chopped
• ½ cup thinly sliced mushrooms
• ¼ cup flour
• 2 cups chicken broth, divided
• ¼ cup bourbon
• 1 tsp rosemary, finely chopped
• 1 tsp thyme

Instructions

Marinade Instructions

1. Combine all the ingredients, except for the lamb chops, in a bowl and mix well
2. Place the lamb chops in a Ziplock bag and pour the marinade over the meat, working the marinade into each chop
3. Place in the fridge for 2-12 hours
4. Remove from the fridge and place on the counter to come to room temperature while you prepare the grill
5. Prepare the grill for high heat grilling
6. Place the lamb chops on the hot grill – sear on each side for 2-3 minutes for rare, 4-5 minutes for medium rare and 5-6 minutes for medium
7. Remove from the grill, spoon the sauce over and serve

Sauce Instructions

1. Heat half the butter (2 tbsp) in a saucepan over medium heat
2. Add celery and onion and sauté until they are tender, stirring occasionally (onion should become translucent)
3. Add your mushrooms and cook until those are also tender
4. Reduce the heat to low and add the other 2 tbsp butter, stirring until the butter melts
5. Add the flour gradually, stirring CONSTANTLY!!
6. Your mixture will have a pasty consistency
7. Add 1 cup broth slowly, stirring as you go and until the sauce thickens, also known as a roux
8. Remove the sauce from the heat and stir in the bourbon, then add the remaining broth, rosemary, and thyme
9. Return your concoction to the heat and bring to a boil over medium high heat. Reduce and simmer for approximately 15 minutes, stirring occasionally
10. Add salt and pepper to taste
11. Pour over the lamb chops and serve

3.2.1226

I’m a sucker for sauces, rubs, marinades and infused oils. In terms of the latter, the oils are usually infused with something like pumpkin seed, lemon extract or tangerine. There are very few manly oils that stand up to the grill. That is until now:

Grapeseed oil on a steak by itself is outstanding. Grapeseed oil infused with hickory smoke is out of this world fantastic.

Some of you are wondering where I came across such a thing because if you’re like me, you’ve never heard of it either. I was approached by Julia Dotson from Wildtree. She sent me the oil as well as a marinade that I have yet to try, but hope so soon. Julia sells the oil (and marinade, and lots of other goodies) on her website and she teaches some rather unique cooking workshops. I’ll let Julia explain it in her own words:

“I offer in-home tastings where people can get together with their friends and sample appetizers, entrees and desserts. I also lead freezer bag workshops. Friends get together for a fun and productive 90 minutes! Everyone pre-orders their Wildtree bundle and brings 10 ziploc bags with their protein inside. A couple recipes may call for a veggie or two! Along with the groceries the Wildtree Rep provides, each person will prep 10 dinners to take home and freeze. On busy nights, dinner is ready to go! You will also leave with plenty of leftover Wildtree product and more recipes to put it all to use. Labels are included with warming instructions. Nothing beats the peace of mind knowing that you have 10 healthy, delicious dinners ready to go! Hosts grocery shop for FREE.”

One of her workshops is right up my alley. It’s called, “Get Your Grill On.”

If you are interested in trying grapeseed oil on its own, they carry it along with some roasted garlic grapeseed oil which will be part of my next order:

Also, if you like Julia’s facebook page, she offers lots of discounts on the Wildtree products.

I know, I know. I’m addicted to the adobo. The chipotle flavor has a grip on me that I just can’t shake. I love high heat, but it has to have flavor too. If it’s just heat for heat, then that’s a waste. But this, like jerk, is so my speed. And thus, I give you Grouper Adobo.

Grouper Adobo Ingredients:

2 grouper filets, about 6 ounces each
1 tbsp adobo sauce
Juice of one half orange
1 tsp garlic
1 tsp of your favorite BBQ rub
3 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp coarse

The Ingredients

I realize there is only one grouper filet there, but it was all I had left. There will be plenty marinade for two.

Combine the wet ingredients in a bowl to create the adobo marinade:

The Marinade Mixed

Then put the grouper in a plastic bag with the marinade:

Marinating

Marinate for 1 to 4 hours

Prepare the grill for high heat and use a grill pan. Grouper isn’t flaky like a roughy but it’s not meaty like a swordfish. It’s somewhere in between, which means it can fall apart on the grill so use the grill pan:

The Grill Pan

Remove the fish from the bag, but do not wash off the adobo marinade, and put the grouper on the grill pan right over the hot coals:

Searing

After 4-5 minutes, the filet browned nicely. Flip over:

Seared and Flipped

Once it is browned on the other side, firm and cooked through, remove from the grill and plate:

Plated

The grouper is light but meaty at the same time, with a nice bit of heat from the adobo and a little sweet and tart from the orange juice. It is yet another weapon in my adobo craving arsenal.

If you have any questions about the above dish please feel free to comment below or shoot me an email.

For other seafood recipes, click here.

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Grouper Adobo

Grouper, marinaded with adobo sauce, orange juice, and garlic, then pan GRILLED over high heat.

Author: Scott Thomas

Cuisine: BBQ

Recipe type: Entree

Serves: 2

Prep time:  10 mins

Cook time:  10 mins

Total time:  20 mins

Ingredients

• 2 grouper filets, about 6 ounces each
• 1 tbsp adobo sauce
• Juice of one half orange
• 1 tsp garlic
• 1 tsp of your favorite BBQ rub
• 3 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tsp coarse

Instructions

1. Combine all the ingredients in a resealable plastic bag and place in the fridge for 2-12 hours
2. Remove from the bag and prepare the grill for high heat grilling
3. Place a grill pan over the coals and allow to get hot
4. Put the grouper adobo on the grill pan and sear for 4-5 minutes on each side
5. Once it is browned nicely on both sides, remove from the grill and serve

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What screams summer more than fresh tomatoes? I can’t think of anything other than maybe Cardinal Baseball! And not those kinda pink, mushy tomatoes they sell at the grocery store even in the coldest months. Sure, most grocers carry vine ripened tomatoes that are smaller, redder and more expensive. And those are much better than the pink ones, but still not the same as fresh tomatoes that can be bought at the farmers market, road side stand or picked off the vine in your backyard. I particularly like yellow tomatoes for this, but used both yellow and red in this recipe.

With those fresh tomatoes I love to; put them on burgers, place a thick slice on a plate and top with egg salad, cover the top of pizzas before I grill them, put on a grilled cheese sandwich (done on the grill and not in a skillet), top grilled romaine with them, put in grilled flank steak fajitas, and of course grill them by themselves in a grilled tomato salad or stuffed tomatoes with cheese, corn, garlic and shallots.

Grilled Stuffed Tomatoes Ingredients:

4 fresh tomatoes
1 cup shredded cheese (I used a premade six cheese Italian but any white soft cheese would work)
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/3 cup flat leaf parsley, rough chopped
1/3 cup corn cut from the cob
1 tbsp shallots, minced
1/2 cup bread crumbs
1 tbsp olive oil
1 pinch of coarse salt
10 turns of fresh cracked black better and 10 of white (the latter is optional)
4 pinches of the shredded cheese for on top

Ingredients

You will notice that I only have two tomatoes in the pictures because this grilling recipe I made for myself. Don’t worry if you make more stuffing than can fit into four tomatoes. You can freeze the remaining.

Start by taking a sheet of aluminum foil for each tomato. Roll it into a thick chord and then form into a ring like so and set the the fresh tomatoes in them so they will stay upright on the grill:

Foil Tomato Nests

As you can see I sliced the top off the soon to be stuffed tomatoes and now it’s time to get in there with a melon baller:

Core the Tomatoes

Take out the soft, juicy stuff from the inside but leave the outer shell:

Cored

Now you have the option of adding the guts of the tomatoes to the stuffing concoction:

You can use the use what you just pulled from the tomatoes in the stuffing

If you include the guts of the tomato in the stuffing, skip the olive oil. That’s all the moisture you’ll need.

Speaking of the stuffing, let’s get to that.

Combine the rest of the ingredients other than the pinch of cheese in a bowl:

Now get your hands dirty, literally, and mix the ingredients together into a thick stuffing paste:

The Stuffing

Now spoon the mixture into the tomatoes and add a pinch of cheese on top:

If you have any leftover, simply place in a resealable plastic bag and freeze for later:

Now it’s time to prep the grill, in this case the Grill Manufacturer That Shall Not Be Named. The stuffed tomatoes need to be cooked indirect for 60-90 minutes at 275-300. So place the coals and smoke wood on one side and the meat (or in this case, grilled stuffed tomatoes) on the other side:

Place the Stuffed Tomatoes opposite the Coals and Smoke Wood

By the way, those are my Asian Baby Back’s that I discuss in this post.

60-90 minutes seems like a huge swing in cook times. That’s because after an hour they looked like this:

Grilled Stuffed Tomatoes 60 minutes in

I put the grilled stuffed tomatoes on after my baby backs had been on for about 30 minutes, so at this point the tomatoes have been on an hour and are probably ready to eat, but my ribs still needed another 30 minutes. I left the tomatoes on and pulled them when they looked like this and my ribs were done:

90 minutes in

I yanked the stuffed tomatoes from the grill and plated them:

Plated and Sliced

The skin came off as I sliced through the tomatoes.  It was a little chewy and bitter so I discarded the skin:

The Skin – Discard

The cheese on top looked burnt, but it was awesome. It was both crunchy and a little sweet from the caramelization of the proteins. I would probably put more cheese on next time. The rest of the grilled stuffed tomatoes had the acidity of the tomato, the gooeyness of the cheese, sweetness of the corn and the savoriness of the garlic, shallots and parsley, and of course the smokiness of the grill for a well rounded flavor profile.

This is an outstanding side dish to go on the grill next time you do ribs or even some pork tenderloin you might be reverse searing.

If you have any questions, feel free to leave them below or shoot me an email.

If you liked the stuffed tomatoes recipe and would like to see another grilling recipe or two of side dishes and appetizers, click here.  Or other fruits and vegetables click here.

Also, you can follow the Grillin Fools on their Facebook page where you can post your own grilling pictures, share grilling recipe or two, join the general grilling conversation.  Or, you can follow us on Twitter @GrillinFool

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Grilled Stuffed Tomatoes

Tomatoes stuffed with cheese, fresh corn, garlic, shallots and bread crumbs, topped with cheese and grilled.

Author: Scott Thomas

Cuisine: BBQ

Recipe type: Side Dish

Serves: 4

Prep time:  20 mins

Cook time:  90 mins

Total time:  1 hour 50 mins

Ingredients

• 4 tomatoes
• 1 cup shredded cheese (I used a premade six cheese Italian but any white soft cheese would work)
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• ⅓ cup flat leaf parsley, rough chopped
• ⅓ cup corn cut from the cob
• 1 tbsp shallots, minced
• ½ cup bread crumbs
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 pinch of coarse salt
• 10 turns of fresh cracked black better and 10 of white (the latter is optional)
• 4 pinches of the shredded cheese for on top

Instructions

1. Take 1 sheet of aluminum foil per tomato, form into a chord and then form into a ring to place the tomatoes in
2. Slice off the tops of the tomatoes and core them with a melon baller or spoon
3. Combine all the ingredients except the tomatoes and the 4 pinches of cheese in a bowl and combine
4. Fill the cored tomatoes with the stuffing and top with a thick punch of shredded cheese
5. Set up the grill for two zone/indirect grilling with coals and smoke wood on one side and nothing on the other
6. Target temperature for the grill is 275-300
7. Grill indirect for 60-90 minutes
8. Remove from the grill and plate

Notes

The skin should pull away easily when slicing but is bitter and a little chewy so discard the skin and enjoy

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This recipe was given to me by Dave Riley. Yes, that Dave Riley as in the same name as the ad on the side of this page and the newest sponsor of Grillin’ Fools. We’ve said time and time again that we won’t promote anything we don’t absolutely believe in. I was a believer when my Mother in Law made pork chops for Sunday dinner with their All Purpose Seasoning many years ago (and continues to do so). Last night, I sped right past believer and went straight to a devotee when I made this recipe. An acolyte if you will. It was so incredibly simple that I almost don’t want to put it on the site, but it is also so incredibly good that I had to.

Ingredients:

1 slab spare ribs, membrane removed
Riley’s Cajun Seasoning
2 cups brown sugar, reserved for later

The short, but sweet (and spicy) ingredients list

Riley’s is available at Sam’s and Schnuck’s in Missouri, Illinois and southern Iowa. They will soon be in Dierberg’s and Shop N Save as well. You can also get their seasoning online including their Garlic Pepper that is not in the stores yet. I will have a future post with that stuff because it is great too! Please use their products as supporting them is in fact supporting us as well because they put the Grillin’ in Grillin’ Fools. Without the good people like the Riley’s we could’t afford to keep the site up and thus we’d be garden variety fools.

Now back to this recipe.

Remove the membrane off the bone side of the ribs and then coat it heavily with the Cajun Seasoning. Lay it on thick:

Don’t scrimp on the rub

Flip over and repeat:

Rubbed

If you are worried that the ribs will be too spicy, don’t sweat it. HAHAHA! See what I did there? Sweat? Trust me, it won’t be that spicy. Actually not hot at all. More on this later.

Prepare the grill for two zone/indirect grilling with coals and smoke wood (in this case cherry wood) on one side and nothing on the other. For this grill, coals on the bottom and a place setter between the meat and the fire inside my Char-Griller Akorn, Kamado style grill. Target internal temperature of the grill is 250:

On the grill

Notice the white stuff in the background and flakes on the meat? That would be a glorious snow storm:

Oh, what a glorious day!

Other, normal people, when the weathercasters predict snowmageddon, stock up on milk, bread and eggs. I have no idea why French toast is so popular when it snows. Me? I buy ribs and beer!

Close the lid for two hours:

My absolute favorite time to grill

After two hours the ribs have become a wonderful golden brown and the rub is now stuck tight to the meat:

Two hours of Cherry Smoke

That little chunk off to the side was part of the flap at the end of the ribs. I decided to make it a little pitmaster’s prerogative and do some quality control. The quality was marvelous.

Take the ribs inside at this point and put on two sheets of aluminum foil and get that brown sugar out:

Ready for the foil and the sugar

Make sure you use two sheets of foil because if you poke a hole in the bottom the best part of this recipe will be lost.

Lay the ribs meat side up and give them a thick layer of brown sugar (about 3/4 cup of sugar):

Slathered with Sugar

Pat the sugar down so it sticks to the meat and then flip them over to the bone side and repeat with another 3/4 cup of brown sugar:

Snow falling outside, sugar falling inside

Mountains of Sugar

I added the rest of the sugar to the bone side and closed up the foil:

Rats, Foiled Again!?!

Put the foiled ribs back on the grill for 2.5-3 hours at 250-300. Don’t worry if the temperature spikes a little. The foil and the fat and the sugar will keep the ribs from drying out.

After 2.5-3 hours remove the foiled ribs from the grill and take a look:

Foil, and meat pulled back from the bones

This is why the ribs were bone side up and extra brown sugar added:

Pool of pork, sugar and spicy goodness!

That pooled liquid sugar, combined with the fat that rendered out of the meat and the heat of the cajun seasoning is your ticket to flavor town, my friend.

But are they done? Let’s check the bones:

Fall Off the Bone Done

I’d give that a resounding yes.

Now for what brings this whole recipe together into the genius that it is. Slice the ribs and then spoon that wonderful sauce from the bottom of the foil over them:

Plated with that gooey glaze

The sauce is sweet and thick with just a little heat to it and perfectly balances the spiciness of the Cajun Seasoning. I was floored at how terrific these ribs were. I’m doing these for a crowd soon. They are the perfect ribs for a big crew as they are extremely simple leaving time to prep for the party and enjoy company of your guests when they arrive.

If you have any questions about the foiled ribs above please feel free to comment below or shoot me an email.

If you liked the these ribs, then click here for similar grilling recipes.

Also, you can follow the Grillin Fools on Facebook and post your own grilling pictures, share a grilling recipe, or join the general grilling conversation, about all things, well, uh, grilling. You can also follow us on Twitter @GrillinFool.

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Sweet Heat Cajun Ribs

Ribs coated with cajun seasoning, smoked, slathered in brown sugar and foiled

Author: Scott Thomas

Cuisine: BBQ

Recipe type: Ribs

Serves: 3

Prep time:  10 mins

Cook time:  5 hours

Total time:  5 hours 10 mins

Ingredients

• 1 slab spare ribs, membrane removed
• Riley’s Cajun Seasoning
• 2 cups brown sugar, divided and reserved for later

Instructions

1. Skin the ribs
2. Coat the bone side with the Riley’s Cajun Seasoning
3. Flip over and coat the meat side
4. Prepare the grill for two zone/indirect grilling with coals and smoke wood on one side and nothing on the other
5. Target temperature inside the grill is 200-250
6. Place the ribs on the side with no heat and close the lid for two hours
7. Remove from the heat and place meat side up on two large sheets of aluminum foil
8. Cover the meat side with ¾ cup of brown sugar, spreading evenly across ribs
9. Pat the sugar down to make sure it sticks and flip the ribs over
10. Cover the bone side with the rest of the brown sugar
11. Fold the foil up into a pouch and return the ribs to the grill for 2.5-3 hours
12. Remove the foiled ribs from the grill
13. Remove the ribs from the foil, reserving the sauce
14. Slice the ribs and drizzle the sauce over them or put in a bowl for a dipping sauce
15. Serve while the sauce is still warm

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Pernil you ask? It’s a method of cooking pork in Caribbean countries from Brazil to Puerto Rico. I adapted this BBQ recipe from a Dominican recipe. The typical ingredients of pernil, other than pork, is garlic, pepper, and oregano. Some prefer lots of citric action as well. I chose to go with the acid myself. Some argue that true pernil is done with a rear leg of the pig, but in recent years, it has been popularized using pork shoulder or in this case a picnic roast.  Why a picnic roast? I almost always use a picnic roast when I’m developing a pulled pork recipe for two very big reasons. 1)Because I can get a boneless picnic for about $8 rather than buying a whole pork shoulder for about $22:

2) I can also cook this picnic roast in about 3 hours as opposed to six plus for a full shoulder. You could just as easily do this with a pork shoulder or pork butt, but adjust cooking times accordingly.

The first part of the recipe requires making Sazon Dominicano which translates roughly to Dominican Seasoning or as I like to call it, salsa. More on that in a minute.

Sazon Dominicano Ingredients:

1/2 cup red onion
2 jalepeno peppers, seeded and the white flesh removed (use Scotch Bonnets to kick it up the heat)
4 cloves of garlic
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
1/2 tsp oregano (I used dried, but ground would’ve been better)
1 tbsp vinegar
1/2 medium size tomato
1 red bell pepper, stemmed, seeded, and white flesh removed
1 tbsp scallions/green onions
1 tbsp fresh celery

Sazon Dominicano Directions:

Combine all the ingredients in a food processor and blend till smooth:

And when you’re done you have salsa:

I thought there would be more to it, and looked at the original recipe that made about a half gallon of the stuff. I obviously cut back the amounts and tweaked it, leaving out both green peppers and cilantro. Not a cilantro fan and I figure I would go with ripe peppers (red) rather than the green. But green pepper and cilantro would only make it more like salsa. At this point, I wasn’t all that geeked about where this recipe was going.

Pernil Marinade Ingredients:

1 cup of Sazon Dominicano, divided
1 tsp black pepper
1/2 tsp of dried oregano
1/2 cup coarse salt
Juice of 1 lime, divided
Juice of 1 orange, divided

Combine 1/2 cup of the sazon… er, salsa, black pepper, salt and juice of 1/2 lime and 1/2 orange in a bowl:

One of the characteristics of pernil is that the meat must be scored thoroughly or be pierced many times with a long thin knife. Well, I have a boneless picnic roast that is held together by a net so scoring won’t really work:

As you can see, it has a nice fat cap on one side as well as one of those silly little thermometers. Remove the thermometer. You can also see that there are some gaps and crevices with are inherent to this cut which should only enhance the flavor. It is also the reason for the netting as it holds the meat together into a consistent shape which allows for even grilling:

Scoring was out, but I could always stab the crap out of it with this bad boy:

Make sure to go all over, side to side, and top to bottom with the long thin knife:

The next step is to slather the roast with the marinade making sure to get into all those slits I just put into the roast. But that turns out to be not so easy. Then it occurred to me that I had something that I could use to get into those crevices with ease:

Then place the picnic roast in a resealable plastic bag, add the other half of the salsa, juice of half a lime and half an orange:

Marinade for two hours to two days. Normally, I would say two hours to overnight, but I had sick kids and wasn’t able to grill it the following day. I had to do it two days later.

Remove from the marinade:

Set up the grill for two zone grilling with a place setter like in this Char-Griller Akorn Kamado style grill or with coals and smoke wood on one side and nothing on the other. Place the meat on the side with no heat, or in this case, over the place setter and squeeze a half a lime over the top:

Target temperature inside the grill is 300-325 with a cook time of about three hours. I used cherry wood for the smoke.

At the 90 minute mark, the pernil picnic roast is a little over 100 degrees internal temperature and looks like this. I gave it another shower of juice from half a lime:

Target internal temperature for the picnic roast is between 180-190. Some might take it to 200 to make sure it pulls well. That’s personal preference. After 3 hours and we’ve broken 180, the pernil picnic roast looks like this:

Remove the pernil roast from the grill and allow to rest for at least 20 minutes or wrap in foil, wrap in a towel and place in an empty cooler or off microwave for up to two hours before slicing or pulling:

I sliced it in half to get a good view of the smoke ring and the injected salsa:

So what is the verdict? Honestly, the pernil roast was really good. I did not expect it to be good at all. Sazon dominicano was nothing more than salsa, but the flavors of salsa are pretty iconic and combined with the freshness of the citrus turned out to be pretty damn good. Next time though, I might just buy some good salsa, puree it to get it into my injector and save the time of the cutting and chopping. Sure the salsa I made was uber fresh, but I’m not sure how important that is when it is used as a marinade for two days. I wasn’t dipping chips into it, I was using it to marinade a picnic roast before grilling it.

If you have any questions about the grilling recipe above feel free to comment below or shoot me an email.

If you liked the pernil picnic roast and are interest in another grilling recipe with pork, click here for many more.

Also, you can follow the Grillin Fools on Facebook and post your own BBQ pictures, share a BBQ recipe of your own, or join the general BBQ conversation. You can also follow us onTwitter @GrillinFool.

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Pernil Picnic Roast

Pork Picnic Roast marinaded in salsa and citrus and then smoked

Author: Scott Thomas

Cuisine: BBQ

Recipe type: Entree

Serves: 6-8

Prep time:  20 mins

Cook time:  3 hours

Total time:  3 hours 20 mins

Ingredients

Salsa Ingredients

• ½ cup red onion
• 2 jalepeno peppers, seeded and the white flesh removed (use Scotch Bonnets to kick it up the heat)
• 4 cloves of garlic
• 1 tsp salt
• ½ tsp black pepper
• ½ tsp oregano (I used dried, but ground would’ve been better)
• 1 tbsp vinegar
• ½ medium size tomato
• 1 red bell pepper, stemmed, seeded, and white flesh removed
• 1 tbsp scallions/green onions
• 1 tbsp fresh celery

Marinade Ingredients

• 1 cup of salsa, divided
• 1 tsp black pepper
• ½ tsp of dried oregano
• ½ cup coarse salt
• Juice of 1 lime, divided
• Juice of 1 orange, divided

Instructions

Salsa Directions

1. Combine all the ingredients in a food processor and blend till smooth

Marinade Directions

1. Put ½ cup salsa in a bowl along with the juice of ½ orange, ½ lime, black pepper, oregano, and salt
2. Fill a meat injector and proceed to inject the meat
3. Place the roast in a resealable plastic bag, add the other half of the salsa and the juice of half an orange and lime
4. Refrigerate for 2 hours to 2 days
5. Prepare the grill for two zone grilling with coals and smoke wood on one side and nothing on the other
6. Target temperature of the grill is 300-325
7. Place the picnic roast on the side with no heat and drizzle the roast with the juice of one half lime
8. After 90 minutes, drizzle with the other half of the lime
9. Once the internal temperature of the pernil picnic roast reaches between 180-200 degrees remove from the heat and allow to rest for at least 20 minutes

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