All three Grillin’ Fools gathered for an all day grill, chill, and photograph session for the website on a recent Saturday.  It can only be described as epic. We did a wide variety of dishes that you can see here on the site, or check some more candid/behind-the-scenes pics of the process that we posted on Facebook.  One of the recipes I chose to do was rack of lamb because we don’t have many posts about a meat we all love.  The posts we do have seem to focus on cooking lamb racks carefully and not grill them past medium rare lest we ruin the precious, and expensive, cut of meat.  Over-cooked rack of lamb is considered to be a cardinal sin in our group so you can imagine the reaction I received when I announced I was going to indirect the lamb for an hour and a half or longer.  So…we’re off on an adventure into uncharted territory for this Grillin’ Fool.

The first step will be soaking the lamb in  a marinade for 3-4 hours and up to overnight.  I like overnight best.  The ingredients are:

Marinade Ingredients:

2 eight-bone racks of lamb (excess fat trimmed) more about this later
2 tbsp  Worcestershire sauce
½ cup sweet onion, chopped
10 cloves garlic, chopped
10 sprigs fresh rosemary leaves
10 sprigs fresh thyme leaves
1 tbsp ancho chile powder
1 tbsp black pepper
1 tbsp hot red pepper flakes
¼ cup water                                

Combine all ingredients for the marinade and puree in the blender/processor (optional as I didn’t use the food processor, but doing so will awaken even more of the flavors in the marinade) and add to the lamb in resealable plastic bag coating the lamb completely and, preferably, refrigerate overnight.

Dry Rub Ingredients:

4 tbsp smoked paprika (I emphasize smoked variety for a far different flavor than non-smoked)
2 tbsp chili powder
2 tbsp garlic salt
1 tbsp lemon pepper

Sauce/Glaze Ingredients:

¼ cup honey
½ cup of your favorite barbeque sauce (I used Blues Hog)
1 or 2 garlic cloves, finely grated
½ jalapeno pepper, finely grated

The lamb racks are removed from the marinade and ready to be rinsed:

The lamb is patted dry before applying the dry rub ingredients:

Remember that part about trimming the excess fat?   This senior citizen griller forgot to do so.  No problem I’ll just do it now:

Now I have weird-looking lamb racks:

The dry rub is applied:

Love the way it turns fingers orange…reminds me of an old Cheetos joke:

Notice I’m coating the bone side first?

This is why.  If the meat side was done first a lot of rub would simply end up on the cutting board because there would be a lot of surface area of the meat touching the cutting board.  This way the meat side is protected from rub loss because the bend in the bones keeps the meat from the bone side propped off the board due to the concave shape of the bones. Better to lose some rubs off the short section of meat on the bone side than all along the meat side:

Now the meat side is coated:

The racks are entirely coated including ends and taken out to the grill:

Both racks are placed on Tom’s Big Green Egg which has been set up for indirect grilling at a temp of 250 degrees with a little oak wood in the coals for the smoke:

***Editor’s Note ~ For those of you that don’t have a Big Green Egg, or any other ceramic cooker like this, you are probably wondering how one can indirect grill by having the meat in the middle of the grate as in the picture above.  Notice that you can’t see the coals? That’s because there’s a deflector put under the meat that shields the meat and allows the heat to pass by on the outside and out the top.  On a regular grill, put the coals on one side an the meat on the other to get the same indirect effect***

I’m looking to indirect grill for an hour to an hour and a half or until the instant read thermometer reads 125.  Time could vary depending on the type of grill/heat of grill.

While the lamb racks are gently grilling it’s time to make the sauce/glaze.

First, to cut the heat down, remove the white flesh and the seeds.  I used the half jalepeno on the right.  If you want more heat, leave the seeds and the flesh:

Here I’m trying to grate the pepper and it turns out to be quite difficult:

These jalapenos came from Tom’s freezer and aren’t ideal for this as they are a little spongy.  Hint: don’t attempt to grate previously frozen jalapenos. They lose their rigidity and become rather soft and wiggly making grating difficult.  I suggest using a fresh pepper for this recipe.

The garlic cloves are grated:

The grated garlic and jalapeno are added to the honey and Blues Hog barbeque sauce:

Whisk together and set aside:

Time to go check the lamb…I’m hearing a chorus of yells from the outdoor kitchen.

I rush out to see what all the commotion was about and Tom points to the thermometer.  It’s only been 45 minutes and the internal temperature is 145, way past the desired 125 mark previously indicated:

Scott and Tom and our honored guests are not saying much but the looks I’m getting tell me they think I’ve really screwed this up because the next step calls for applying the sauce/glaze and grilling for another 20 minutes to caramelize the glaze.  I don’t want to serve them gray lamb.

***Editor’s Note ~ Since that probe thermometer has a built in alarm, it probably would’ve been a good idea if we had set that alarm to ring at 125. Mental note for us for the next time we do one of these deals at Tom’s***

Here’s what the racks looked like.  Meat pulling away from the bone but not too much:

I reinserted the probe thinking, perhaps, the probe was in contact with a bone thus yielding a hotter temp reading.  Not the case, so I pulled them inside and prepared to continue with the rest of the recipe regardless of the potential consequences.  Be sure to spell Fool with a capital F.

While cooling a bit inside the sauce/glaze is applied.  All I can think is, “That looks really good to this old griller.”

Again, sauce bone side up first, just like with the rub:

Full steam ahead!  Once the lamb racks are coated it’s back on the grill for another 20 minutes to get that glaze good and sticky.  Hoping this doesn’t end in disaster:

The glazed racks of lamb are pulled from the grill.  Notice a little char? That is to be expected considering the honey and sugar in the sauce:

Staying true to form the lamb racks are covered in foil and allowed to rest for 5-10 minutes to allow the juices, which are in an excited state to calm down and redistribute throughout the meat:

The racks are cut into individual lollipops and served to those in attendance.  Lo and behold, the center still exhibits a bit of pink!  I would call this a perfect medium:

What about taste, texture, and tenderness?  It was unanimous!  A definite home run!  Very tender, full of flavor, and melt-in-your mouth texture.  The 3-step process of marinade, dry rub, and glaze worked extremely well together.

Here’s the money shot taken on Tom’s outdoor granite counter… His outdoor kitchen is a great place to grill and chill:

The Barbaresco was great with the lamb.  What is it about Italian wines and food?  So good together.  Also consider a spicy Zinfandel or Shiraz with this recipe.  We hope you give this a try soon and share your experience with us.  We understand lamb is expensive but what a great Valentine’s Day treat for your significant other!  Think about it.  Grilled lamb, I hope it’s snowing, along with a great red wine and red roses on the table…what a great evening!

If you have any questions or comments about either of these dishes, feel free to leave them below or shoot me an email.

If you would like to see lamb dishes, click here.

Also, you can follow us on our GrillinFools Facebook page and post your own grillin pictures or join in on the general grillin conversation.  Or, you can follow us on twitter @GrillinFool to get all the updates from the site.

In the last few weeks and months, a new supplier of rubs, seasonings and hot sauces known as Crawdad’s Classics Gourmet Flavorings has been popping up all over the place in St. Louis and the Midwest in general.  This is a crowded market to try to break into, but they have done so with some great products.  My favorite I will be reviewing here – Crawmama’s Gourmet Dipping sauce. I know the logo above is Crawdad’s, but this is another product line of theirs that is outstanding.

The fist time I had heard of them was at a Blues game a couple weeks ago when I saw a sign over the condiments station that read, “Try a real ‘hot’ dog,” and the logo for Crawdad’s Classics.  Being a hot sauce junkie, I obliged and slathered my hotdog with the sauce. It was great.  It had nice kick but didn’t knock me over. I hate spicy stuff that is so spicy I can’t taste what I put it on.  What’s the point of that? And it doesn’t hurt to be the official hot sauce of both the St. Louis Blues and the St. Louis Cardinals to make me a fan.

Since then I’ve had two of their rubs as well as the habanero sauce which, much to my surprise is not hot.  Well, OK, it’s not “hot” in terms of habenero’s, but it’s still got some heat. But normally I don’t touch habanero sauce because the vast majority of hot sauce makers have no idea how to temper the heat in their insane desire to injure the taste buds of their customers. I don’t fault people that do that. There’s definitely a market for it, but I’m not part of the market. I prefer how Crawdad’s Classics does it. I can taste the habaneros and I can taste, well, anything after the habanero hits my tongue rather than the lingering effects of third degree burns on my taste buds.

Which brings me to this lovely Crawmama’s dipping sauce:

Anyone who has been on this site more than a couple times knows how much I love jerk flavoring because I get the heat I like plus many layers of flavors. That’s the same vibe I get from this sauce that is sweet and spicy and thick and gooey. It’s not nearly as hot as the jerk I slather on stuff and lights me on fire so all of you who shy away from that, and want that Caribbean flavor, this is it. It’s got hints of pineapple that counter the spice that sticks to the food thanks to how thick and cloying the sauce is. The first time I tried it I dipped blackened steak into it, but all I could think about was how it would be on ribs since it already had a BBQ sauce like consistency, if not even thicker.

So that’s what I did.  I got a bottle of the sauce, which can be found at Kenrick’s and Dierberg’s regularly and sometimes at Schnuck’s (but you might have to ask for it as they aren’t displaying it everywhere), and a couple slabs of baby back ribs from Kenrick’s:

I went simple here, salt and black pepper on each side:

Then onto a grill I set up for indirect grilling with some peach wood chips:

After a little more than an hour in the smoke they were ready for some sauce:

The smell of this stuff cooking and thickening is intoxicating.

About 90 minutes later, and a couple more bastings, I pulled the ribs:

And then after some time to rest we sliced and tore into those bad boys:

Excellent smoke ring, meat tender and juicy but not quite fall off the bone, and the sauce was sweet and spicy and oh so good.  I’m already thinking of how to make this again and improve the process.  And I just figured out how to do it.  Rather than go simple with the salt and pepper, why not hit it with a rub and combine two great Crawdad’s Classics products when I hit it with this rub before I slather them with the gooey, sticky sauce:

And just for fun, last night I put the Crawmama’s on a steak:

Mmmmmmm…

So far everything I’ve sampled by Crawdad’s Creations has been fantastic. I can’t wait to use it more extensively.  Next up, the BBQ rub and the dipping sauce on ribs.  I can’t wait.

This may be one of the easiest recipes we’ve ever done on here, but with many things, simple can be outstanding and this is both.

Ingredients:

12 dried dates
12 slices of prosciutto
12 slices of parmesan
12 toothpicks

Now, obviously, I am only doing 6 in this write up, but you get the idea.  For every date you use, you need one slice of prosciutto, one slice of parm and one toothpick.

First thing that needs to be done is to prep the dates.  These dates are not pitted so you need to take the pit out by slicing a slit in the side and popping the little nut like pit out:

And you need to take this little thing off the end if it’s there.  Not all the of the dates have it. All I did was peal it off with my finger:

Place the pitless date on top of a slice of parmesan and fold the prosciutto in half:

Then place the parmesan and date on the folded prosciutto and roll it up:

Now time to go in the smoker with some oak wood:

The temperature was set to 250, but there was no way that was accurate:

The problem was either there was a bad thermostat or this electric smoker wasn’t getting enough power.  Either way, it took almost three hours for these to cook.  I am not recommending you smoke these for 3 hours at 250. I have no idea how hot the smoker was or how long to smoke them for in degrees or minutes.  So how will you know when they are done?  Smoke them until the prosciutto looks like this, because these were delicious:

These were a fantastic combination of sweet and savory and a little crunch.  The dates were sweet, the prosciutto and cheese savory, with a nice smokiness on top of all that.  The prosciutto was a little crunchy around the edges too which added to the taste. This just might be the appetizer that sets your Super Bowl Party above the rest.

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

If you would like to see other sides and appetizers, click here.

Also, you can follow the Grillin Fools on their Facebook page where you can post your grillin own pictures or join the general grillin conversation.  Or, you can follow them on Twitter @GrillinFool

Pinwheels have received a bit of focus recently on our website so I thought about how to kick it up another notch.  How about a 3-meat pinwheel lollipop on a skewer?   I spoke to Scott about the idea and I think he thought I was slightly off kilter for suggesting it.  Well here we go into a fun recipe of grilled meat lollipops.

***Editor’s Note ~ Stay tuned at the bottom for a bonus cookout of these meat lollipops we did the week after we made them the first time***

Here’s a photo of me stumbling into the kitchen after a shopping trip to Kenrick’s… that always seems to bring a smile to my face.  I’m like a kid on Christmas morning:

Ingredients:

2 thin boneless rib eye steaks
½ lb ground sausage
2-4 slices smoked ham

I picked up several steaks as I planned to do additional lollipops later.  Kenrick’s had thin-sliced steaks ready and waiting at their service counter:

The steaks are placed on a cutting board and covered with plastic wrap while I wreak havoc on them with a tenderizer:

I don’t want you to think Kenrick’s steaks need tenderizing, they don’t, but this will flatten the steaks yielding a larger surface area and make it easier to roll.   Remember, we’re doing layers here.

Notice how the flattened steak has spread out compared to the non-flattened partner:

From a different angle you can see how much thinner the flattened steak is:

Snuggled side-by-side:

Notice the placement of thinner end to wider end and vice versa to give a more uniform outer layer.  Be sure the steaks are tight against each other, a slight overlap might not be a bad idea. Here are both steaks flattened:

A half pound or so of ground sausage will be layered on top of the steak:

Sausage was approximately a quarter inch thick, but you could easily go a bit thinner:

Great off-the-bone ham from Kenrick’s. We did a bit of snacking on this stuff while doing our prep:

I’m only using 2 slices for this effort but would increase another layer or 2 next time around.  Hey!  This is the first time attempting this which is a learning experience, much the same as it would be for you:

***Editor’s Note ~ In the bonus cookout below, we lessened the sausage and increased the ham to four slices. Being a week apart between tastings, neither dad nor I could determine which was better. Both were really good, so feel free to use your own discretion here***

Now the tricky part… rolling this baby up into a log.  Be sure to keep it as tight as possible:

I made it!  However, I didn’t quite cover all the sausage:

Could I have flattened the steak more to cover?  Possibly, but the steak can tear easily and fall apart if pounded too thin.  I could’ve stopped shortly before the end of the roll with the layer of sausage to insure better coverage by the steak layer when rolled.

Cover with plastic wrap and place in the freezer for an hour.  The roll will stiffen, but not freeze, which will keep all the layers together after it’s sliced:

Freezer time is up and it’s on to the lollipop part.  I used 6” wooden skewers that had soaked in water for a couple hours to prevent burning.  Longer skewers could easily be substituted or even metal skewers:

Here’s my poor overlap again but also notice the seam made by the rib eye.  This is where you’ll want to place the skewers so the concoction holds together:

Skewers are inserted every inch or so right along the seam:

All skewers inserted.  Looks kind of silly doesn’t it?  Like barbeque acupuncture?

Simply and carefully slice between the skewers.  Use a gentle sawing effort as opposed to cutting straight down:

Viola!  Raw meat lollipop!

The grill is set up with coals to one side.  The lollipops were placed right over a hot fire with the skewers over the side without the heat so they would not ignite:

Here’s the first one flipped… looking good!  Typically, 3-4 minutes per side over high heat will do the trick but it could vary by grill and also weather:

I’d say Scott, who assisted, had a very good bed of coals. Don’t walk away from these once they hit the fire. The sausage in the pinwheel will send a great deal of fat into the fire and can cause flare ups:

Looks close to being done.  Notice the 3 on the cutting board in the background?  They came from the end that wasn’t sealed very well and we decided not to include them in the photos.  We thought they might fall apart so they were set aside.  Later I put them on the grill for my wife who had just returned home from work and the end result came out as great as the others.  They didn’t look as pretty going on the grill but they were great coming off in both appearance and taste.

The lollipops are moved away from direct heat to bake a bit, while we poured the dipping sauces:

The lollipops are plated with sauces for dipping:

The barbeque sauce could also be glazed on the pops on the grill.  The pops were great but we agreed they benefited from sauce.  No rubs or seasonings were applied to any meats for this effort.  Experimentation will likely incorporate a favorite rub, herb, and cheese to add different character.  Different sausages such as chorizo could yield a spicy pop.  There are many combinations possible so please send me your ideas or leave a note on our Facebook Fan Page.  This is a fun recipe that adults and kids both will enjoy and we hope you try at your next family barbeque.

What were the sauces used?  Here they are, Blues Hog Barbecue Sauce and Trader Joe’s Aioli Garlic Mustard Sauce — both were outstanding with this:

***Time for the bonus cookout***

All three Grillin’ Fools, Tom, Scott, and yours truly, gathered at Tom’s recently for an afternoon/evening of epic grilling.  You can find a photo anthology of all that we did during this lengthy and spectacular grill session on our Facebook page or check back here to see all the recipes as we put them up that include: gumbo done entirely on the grill; prosciutto and parmesan wrapped dates which is already up on the site; an amazing lamb recipe; goose breast and water chestnuts wrapped in prosciutto; a venison recipe as well as a product review of the same sauce we used on these meat lollipops on ribs. We also had a couple of honored guests that would get to try the meat lollipops.  Earlier in this post I mentioned that basting or glazing the lollipops would be a tasty alternative and this was the perfect time to try.

I prepped the lollipops at home and brought along Crawdad’s Classics Hot Sauce and Crawmama’s Dipping Sauce for basting sauces:

We sampled the hot sauce last week and thought it to be very, very good.   Some hot sauce is just… well…hot.  This sauce is different. It has a quality throughout that I call, “hot sauce with character.”  We sampled the dipping sauce last week served with blackened steak by Chris Avolio of Hot Shots fame.  What a tasty combination that turned out to be so good I decided to try it on the lollipops.

Here they are hitting the grill, a brand new Char-Broil Quantum Infrared Grill:

What a great addition to our grilling equipment family.  Expect to see a product review forthcoming.

***Editor’s Note ~ Since this was the inaugural cruise of this sweet grill, I thought I would post a couple of the pictures of the virgin grill from earlier in the day***

***Back to your regularly scheduled blogcast***

Now the lollipops are flipped with some serious grill marks appearing.

A couple are basted with hot sauce:

The dipping sauce is drizzled on the rest of the lollipops:

Classic plated shot:

My wife had shopped that day for a variety of plates for us to use in our presentations.  Scott was eager to use one of the new dishes but in his haste he forgot to remove the manufacturer’s sticker.   So much for professional presentation.

OK, back to the food.  The samples were quickly devoured by everyone present and compliments were handed out unanimously.  Great lollipops, great Crawdad’s Classics Hot Sauce, and great Crawmamma’s Dipping Sauce.

If you have any questions or comments about either of these dishes, feel free to leave them below or shoot me an email.

If you would like to see other sides and appetizers, click here.

Also, you can follow us on our GrillinFools Facebook page and post your own grillin pictures or join in on the general grillin conversation.  Or, you can follow us on twitter @GrillinFool to get all the updates from the site.

I know that this sounds a little weird.  Coffee? Chocolate?  Ribs? But bear with me. I was leery when I made a coffee steak recently, but it was so good it made me start to think about coffee and ribs, but then I felt like I needed to balance the coffee out with something sweet which is where the chocolate came from and then I had to hit it with some heat and thus the ancho chili powder. In the end, it came out really well balanced and something I will definitely repeat.

***Editor’s Note ~ While I initially labeled these Coffee, Cocoa Ribs, they are actually Coffee, Chocolate Ribs.  I didn’t use cocoa rather ground chocolate with cocoa.***

Ingredients:

3 slabs of ribs
1/4 cup coffee, finely ground (I used a decaf hazelnut blend, although decaf nor hazelnut are required)
1/4 ground chocolate with cocoa
2 tbsp ancho chili powder (you can use regular chili powder, but I would cut it by 25-50%)
1 tbsp paprika
1 tsp oregano
1/2 tsp ground coriander
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp ground mustard
Salt and black pepper

Combine all ingredients except for the ribs, salt and pepper in a bowl and then mix together well:

Now to the ribs.  These were brined overnight in apple juice, garlic, black pepper and salt.  The ratio is one gallon of fluid per cup of salt.  Add in plenty of black pepper and a quarter to half cup of garlic. The next day rinse the ribs and pat them dry with paper towels:

I realize the recipe calls for three slabs of ribs and I only have two slabs (four half slabs) here. The amounts in the recipe are to make enough rub to cover three slabs, but you don’t have to do three slabs. Keep the rub sealed and dry and it will be good for weeks.

Lay out the slabs, bone side up.  This is very important and I will explain why in a minute:

Here is where the salt and black pepper come into play.  Hit the bottom side heavy with coarse salt and fresh cracked black pepper:

You could put the salt and pepper into the rub, but I like to know that the salt and pepper is evenly distributed to the meat in the amounts I want as most of the time one rub has a different salt content than another.

Then cover with the rub:

After the rub is applied, kneed the rub into the meat and let it set for a few minutes so it will adhere better to the meat.

Then flip.  Here’s why you always do the bone side first. If you had done the meat side first, and then flipped, wherever the rubbed meat touched the cutting board, the rub will stick to the board rather than the meat when you pick the slabs up to put them on the grill.  This way, the natural concave of the bones keeps the meat and the rub elevated off the cutting board, and saves you from having to reapply rub to the meat side when you put them on the grill. See how the bones elevate the ribs off the board in the picture below:

Now hit the other side with salt, pepper and the rub:

Time to get the Char-Broil 940X ready:

We set up the grill for two zone grilling with coals and smoke wood on one side, meat on the other:

I chose hickory over a milder fruit wood like peach or apple, because I wanted to make sure the smoke could stand up to what I was expecting to be a pretty powerful rub.

We’re big proponents of the high heat method for ribs which is a bit of a misnomer. It’s only like 300 degrees so it’s more of a medium heat method but it doesn’t sound as good. The goal is 300 (give or take 25 degrees either way) for two hours. So far so good:

After 30 minutes, the ribs look like this:

Remember what’s in the rub. These things have only been on the grill 30 minutes and yet they look like they’re burnt and yet they’re pretty much raw at this point.

Here they are after an hour:

And here they are a little over 90 minutes:

They are just starting to glisten with fat rendering out and they are supposed to be done in 30 minutes.  Well, the timeline is great in the summer, but not on a day with a high of 39 and a heavy crosswind. Each time I opened the grill to take a status photo for this post, I added smoke wood and charcoal if needed, but the time it takes to get the grill back to full temp on a day like that is a lot longer than a 90 degree day in July.  And the other problem is this:

With as cold and windy as it was, I couldn’t keep the temp above 240. Well, I could’ve but I didn’t add enough extra charcoal to compensate.  At the 90 minute mark I rotated the ribs and at the two and a half hour mark, here’s what they looked like:

After testing the tension of the meat by picking up the slabs with the tongs, we decided that the two thinner half slabs (bottom) were done and decided to put them in foil and put them in the microwave to stay warm while the thicker ones stayed on the grill:

And then I moved the thicker ones closer to the heat:

After another 30 minutes, I pulled the thicker ones.

Here are the thinner ones at the three hour mark (two and a half hours on the grill, 30 minutes in the foil in a powered off microwave):

Yeah, those look terrible.  But they weren’t burnt.  That may be the only downfall of these ribs. There’s no way to tell if they’re burnt until you taste them because the coffee is black and the chocolate has a lot of sugar in it that will blacken quickly. The outward appearance may not be all that great, but they are a mighty fine rib:

And here are the fatter ones:

This rub combines the savory, earthy flavor of the coffee, with the sweet of the chocolate and the heat of the chili. The coriander, paprika, ginger, mustard, and oregano help to balance out this well layered rub.  The only draw back is how black they get, but don’t let that stop you from trying this recipe next time you make ribs.

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

If you would like other rib, click here.

Also, you can follow the Grillin Fools on their Facebook page where you can post your grillin own pictures or join the general grillin conversation.  Or, you can follow them on Twitter @GrillinFool

I love salmon. It’s maybe the most versatile fish there is and the most forgiving.  It isn’t the healthiest fish, but that extra fat is why it is so forgiving. It won’t dry out as quickly as most other fish. And while most people who think of plank grilling and salmon think of cedar, it doesn’t have to be cooked on cedar. I prefer mine on maple planks, particularly this recipe.

Let’s start off with plank itself. Soak it in water for 30-60 minutes so it won’t catch on fire on the grill:

Now on to the salmon while the plank soaks.

Ingredients:

Salmon
Dijon mustard
Brown sugar
Salt

I realize there are no amounts listed. You won’t need them. Trust me. And don’t sweat the mustard if you aren’t a mustard fan. The mustard will act as a glaze that will melt away as the salmon cooks, basting it as it does, but it won’t taste like mustard when it’s finished.

First, get yourself a nice piece of salmon:

Yeah, that’s an outstanding piece of salmon. Make sure to check it for any bones that may be hiding in there and remove them.

Sprinkle a little salt onto the salmon and then spread the dijon over the surface of the filet:

Then sprinkle the brown sugar (about a 1-1.5 tsp per filet):

Then off to the grill. I’m using the Char-Broil Big Easy Roaster, Smoker, Grill, which is an infrared gas grill.  I set the grill to high and let it get warm for about 20 minutes. I started off by putting the plank on the grill to warm it up on the top and get the surface moisture out of the wood so it will smoke a little but it should still be wet enough inside to keep from catching fire:

Then I flipped the plank and put the fish on the wood:

That second piece of fish is some dilled tilapia my wife was craving. There was plenty of room on the plank for both.

On a charcoal grill, prepare a medium heat fire and place the plank right over the coals.

After about 20 minutes the fish is done. No flipping, no adjusting, no nothing. This may vary based on the heat of your grill and your desired doneness.  I like my salmon pretty rare:

Here it is plated where I let it rest for only a minute or two:

My wife’s fish is ready too:

And here it is sliced.  How does that look?

You get some of the smokiness from the maple plank and the sweetness from the sugar and the savory of the mustard that pretty much cooks off, leaving an outstanding combo of sweet, savory and smoky all wrapped around an amazing piece of salmon.

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.

Also, you can follow the Grillin Fools on Facebook and post your own grillin pictures or on Twitter @GrillinFool.

Recently while my wife was out of town on a shopping trip with the gals, I contacted my high school classmate, friend, and fellow Vietnam vet, Adrian R., and invited him over for an evening of grillin’ and chillin’.  As luck would have it his wife was gone for the evening as well.  I picked up a couple of filets and Yukon gold potatoes and he arrived with salad and the ingredients for this wonderful steak topper or side dish if you prefer.  We cracked a good bottle of red, grilled, dined, and watched Blues hockey and he showed me this simple recipe.  I enjoyed it so much that I recreated it the next three evenings. And while this is prepared entirely inside on the stove, it is to be placed on grilled steaks and since we’re about all things grilling, including toppings for grilled food, we figured it was appropriate for the site.

Ingredients:

2 portobella caps (the stems can also be used)
1 white onion
2 tbsp teriyaki marinade (found at most grocers)
2 tbsp unsalted butter (2 more are optional)
salt and pepper to taste

Makes enough for two steaks plus a little more.

This particular evening I traveled to the home of the Original Grillin Fool, Scott, to grill a couple of prime sirloins from Kenrick’s and share this simple, delightful treat with him. This prime sirloin is another example of an amazing and cheap alternative to the typical rib eyes and filets as it sells for $8/pound at Kenrick’s and melts in your mouth:

Here I’m rough-chopping the white onion while enjoying a good glass of red:

***Editor’s Note ~ Dad made me promise not to put the picture of him when the onions fumes hit him.  I caught him mid onion headache and is quite comical, but alas, I’ll defer to him and keep it off the site. That being said, for a small fee, I’ll email it to you***

The onion is ready for the skillet:

Two tablespoons of butter are added to the skillet… OK, looks like I added four.  I’ve always heard two things make food taste better, salt and butter—at least there’s no bacon in this recipe!

Onion is added and peppered:

While the onion is sautéing I give the portobella mushrooms a chop after I brushed them clean. Never clean mushrooms under running water.  They suck up the water instead of the flavor from the pan.

Make the chunks fairly good sized as they will shrink a bit when they hit the skillet:

When the onion becomes golden it’s time to add the mushrooms:

In they go so they become happy as Emeril says:

The onion and mushrooms are married and having fun now:

Meanwhile the steaks are on the Char-Broil Big Easy infrared grill – this grill is simply amazing:

***Editor’s Note ~ That little filet was for my two sons to split. They both have an affinity for steak. Makes a father proud***

Now the mushrooms and onion are cooking down and right near the end of cooking time I’ll add the Teriyaki marinade:

Add just a few splashes and stir continuously until the mushrooms and onion are coated and it begins to thicken up. The recipe calls for 2 tbsp, but that’s just a rough guide. If you go higher or lower by a little, you’ll be fine:

The mixture has thickened nicely and is ready to serve:

And here it is plated over one of those prime sirloins:

The mixture tops a perfectly grilled medium-rare steak and was a very tasty addition to the menu.  I’ve also served this as a side dish—a perfect complement to many entrees.  Other mushrooms could be added and a variety of wild mushrooms would be spectacular.  In addition, many other marinades or sauces could be substituted to please a variety of tastes.  Give this a try soon and it will become a favorite.

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

Also, you can follow us on our GrillinFools Facebook page and post your own grillin’ pictures or join in on the general grillin conversation.  Or, you can follow us on twitter @GrillinFool to get all the updates from the site.

Coffee on a steak?  Actual coffee grounds?  I know it sounds a little nuts, but trust me, it’s outstanding.  First off, I want to point out what cut of steak that is. It’s a teres major. What is a teres major steak?  Other than awesome?  It’s from a little used muscle in the shoulder of the cow and is the second most tender cut of beef other than the tenderloin.  If you are familar with the flat iron, which is also extremely tender, you will know that the flat iron is a steak comprised of two muscles combined by some connective tissue. One of those muscles is the teres minor.

Not only is the teres major extremely tender, it’s also cheap.  Like $8/pound at Kenrick’s where these came from.  Don’t look for them at your local grocer. Every now and again, they might carry it under the name petite tender or shoulder tender, but for the most part, they won’t have any idea what you’re talking about. You have to go to a full service butcher shop like Kenrick’s here in St. Louis who carries them all the time, although you better get there before my dad does. When he goes, he buys them out.  He has good reason to, it may be my favorite steak, it’s that good. I go into the teres major a little more here.

Now let’s get to the recipe for the coffee steak.

Ingredients:

4 steaks (you don’t have to use teres majors for this)
1/2 cup finely ground coffee (I used a decaf hazelnut blend that I ground myself a couple days before at my local grocery store. Decaf is not a necessity.)
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 tsp black pepper
1 tsp white pepper
Salt to coat the steaks

That’s not a teres major steak.  I made this rub three days in a row.  I was just as leery as you are about making a steak with coffee on it.  I thought there would be a 50/50 chance it would be any good.  The first night I made it, I put it on the tiniest filet you’ve ever seen to see if it was any good.  It was outstanding so I decided it was website worthy. The next night, I decided to try it on a salmon filet and take some pics of the ingredients. The third night, I made the steak you will see below for dad to try.

Combine all the ingredients except the salt, I did this ever so appropriately in a coffee cup:

Coat each side of the steak with coarse salt and then cover with the rub and let it come to room temperature:

Here’s a picture of the teres major covered with the rub next to two other teres majors that were getting a coating of jerk that night:

This is my standard method for grilling a steak. While the steaks are coming up to room temp, I set up the grill for two zone grilling with an incredibly hot fire on one side and nothing on the other:

The steak goes over the hot side of the grill for about 90 seconds to sear, is rotated 45 degrees and seared another 90 seconds, flipped and repeated, and then put on the side of the grill with no heat and the lid put on to bake the steak to desired doneness.  Times vary depending on the heat of the fire. 

I want to warn you that with the brown sugar in the rub, the steak is going to look like it’s burnt:

That looks like it’s more charcoal than steak, but it’s fine.  Trust me. 

After it bakes on the side with no heat for a few minutes, it was pulled and allowed to rest:

Notice how thick it is?  The teres major does something very cool. It puffs up as it cooks.  By the time you pull it from the grill, it will be almost twice as thick as it was when you put it on.

And here it is sliced:

And here’s an extra money shot of a piece right before dad devoured it:

What did we drink with the coffee steak? You can’t go with something mild. This 2002 Pax Syrah from Dad’s buddy Don H. did the job nicely:

And this rub is excellent on salmon as well.  Here are a couple shots I took when I put it on salmon:

The only thing I would’ve done differently with the salmon is that I would’ve put it on a maple plank next time. I think the maple smoke and coffee would make for a dynamite combo.

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

If you would like other beef recipes, click here.

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These pinwheels are a great appetizer or entrée and have been permanently added to my list of favorites.  Thanks to Chris Lilly and Big Bob Gibson Bar-B-Q for the inspiration of this classic southern recipe with a slight Grillin Fools twist.  I highly recommend you picking up his grill book. Prep is simple, as you will see, and not very time consuming.

Here’s what you’ll need to create this recipe that will really impress your dinner guests.

Ingredients:

1 pork tenderloin
5-6 bacon strips (depending on how thick the tenderloin is)
Carolina mustard sauce (recipe to follow)
1 cup pecans, finely chopped
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
toothpicks

Makes 10-12 appetizers.

Here I’m trimming some fat and silver skin off the pork tenderloin:

***Editor’s Note ~ This step isn’t really necessary.  The silver skin on a pork tenderloin is not tough like beef  And as lean as the tenderloin is, some would argue to leave the fat on to add flavor. But we’ll be adding bacon so we’ll have all the fat and flavor we need. But dad is a stickler for it looking trim and neat and thus he cleaned the cut up before we sliced it***

The Original Grillin Fool, Scott, was recruited to assist with the prep and he’s slicing the tenderloin into ¼ inch strips. Do not attempt this with a dull knife or anything below razor sharp. The goal is to have the tenderloin strips to be about as thick and wide as a piece of thick slab bacon:

It was a bit of a challenge since the tenderloin is boneless and not firm.  When I repeat this recipe I’ll place the tenderloin into the freezer long enough to stiffen, but not to be frozen through, to achieve ease of slicing.

The slab bacon used was approximately the same length as the tenderloin. This was a small tenderloin and some of the strips weren’t quite as wide as the width of the bacon so I attempted to spread them out a bit to fit with a meat mallet. This is optional:

Next, bacon is placed over the tenderloin strips:

Thinner bacon could’ve been used but I had the thick variety on hand.

There was one extra piece of tenderloin not large enough to roll by itself so we added to another to double up the tenderloin:

They are ready to roll:

Scott rolling the bacon and tenderloin:

Ok—how does that look?

It’s been rolled tightly and secured with toothpicks:

Notice the placement of the toothpicks?  It’s important to place them in this manner. We’ll explain later:

Now we’re going to try a few twists to the basic recipe.  This photo shows spinach leaves being added:

Now all are rolled together tightly and toothpicks inserted:

Here’s another version with basil leaves replacing spinach.  Maybe, with the spinach and basil added, this could be classified as healthy grilling?

Now on to the Carolina Mustard Sauce.

Sauce Ingredients:

1 1/4 cup honey mustard
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
2 tbsp ketchup (not shown)
1 tbsp brown sugar 
1 tsp hot sauce

Makes 1 3/4 cups. 

In a small bowl combine all ingredients well.  For best flavor make 24 hours ahead.  It will keep in the fridge up to 2 weeks.  Set aside about half of the sauce for drizzling and dipping later.

Finely chopped pecans with the salt and pepper added:

Grandson Brennan wants to try the salted and peppered pecans.  As a future Grillin Fool he must learn to exercise patience:

Now I’m coating each wheel with the mustard sauce.  You may want to brush it on and that’s just fine. We found this to be messier than using a brush, but it went on thicker and more evenly this way:

Once coated with the mustard sauce simply roll through the pecans to coat:

Coated and looking good:

Remember the toothpick placement earlier?  This is why—the wheels are sliced down the middle once rolled in the pecans to achieve appropriate serving size and portions. Slice between the toothpicks and you have two pinwheels, each with its own toothpick:

Sliced through and looking good:

Here’s the plateful of all three varieties ready for the grill, obviously we did more than one tenderloin:

Make sure to clean the grill grates or the tenderloin will stick to them. I’m cleaning the grill grates with a paper towel drenched in oil:

You don’t want this stuff sticking to your food:

We’re grilling direct over medium-high heat:

Check for the bacon browning and a little char before flipping.

The pinwheels are flipped and look tasty:

I removed them from the direct heat to finish baking a bit on the indirect side of the grill once the bacon was browned and meat charred a little:

Average cooking time will be around 8 minutes per side, plus a few minutes baking, so about 20 minutes total.  This could vary greatly depending on your grill and fire.  When the bacon edges begin to crisp you’ll be very close to ready. Take a look at a couple plated presentations:

Look good?  

They tasted great!

My grandsons are sampling.  Think the mustard sauce has Brennan puckered up!

That pucker didn’t last long. Brennan wants another:

What a great afternoon—having Scott and the boys over, NFL on a flat-screen, and grilling out back.  It doesn’t get much better for this old griller.

To recap this effort the bacon/tenderloin combination was very good.  The spinach variety added color but no real flavor enhancement.  The basil version rocked our world with not only added color for the presentation but super flavor.  If you love basil, this is the way to go.

Going forward I would grill this again but will also experiment with other herbs as well as pistachios, cashews, or almonds perhaps.  More possibilities come to mind—utilizing chicken with crushed cashews and an orange sauce.  I could go on, but try the original and let us know your results.  This could be a great Super Bowl party appetizer!

If you have any questions or comments about either of these dishes, feel free to leave them below or shoot me an email.

If you would like other pork dishes done on the grill, click here.

Also, you can follow us on our GrillinFools Facebook page and post your own grillin pictures or join in on the general grillin conversation.  Or, you can follow us on twitter @GrillinFool to get all the updates from the site.

Recently, while preparing grilled cheese sandwiches stove top, I realized they weren’t truly grilled. Perhaps they should be titled pan-seared or skillet-fried cheese sandwiches? I recruited the OGF Scott to assist with creating a variety of cheese sandwiches that were truly grilled on my Char-Broil 940X.

***Editor’s Note ~ This post is a good look at the work we do for some of the recipes we come up with. Sometimes there’s a lot more than just slathering some meat with a rub, putting it on the grill and plating it. We often test all sorts of combinations to determine what we like the best.  This is one such post and will have more pictures than any other post we have ever done at close to 70. Enjoy***

I conducted a bit of research by visiting Dianne at The Cheesekeeper in Belleville, Illinois. The cheese selection (along with the wine selection)  is superb and Dianne’s advice on cheese and bread pairings was most helpful. This small store is chock full of many items in addition to cheese…coffee, wine, and many specialty items. If you’re ever in the area a visit there is highly recommended.

Here are the cheeses we used:

Sliced Provel (the only cheese we didn’t get at the Cheesekeeper)

Dill Havarti

Havarti

Applewood Smoked Cheddar

Italian Fontina

Five Counties Cheddar

Now here are the breads we used:

Texas Toast

Cinnamon-Raisin Bread

Crusty Sourdough

Marbled Rye

Just a quick note regarding equipment – when grilling delicate items such as bread, use the tongs with the spatula on one end instead of the more traditional tongs. It helps keep the sandwich together when flipping and repositioning:

Grilled cheese isn’t just bread and cheese.  The bread has to be lubricated or basted to keep from burning. We tested 3 products to baste our bread starting from the left: buttery spread (margarine), olive oil, and real butter:

Scott applying the butters and oil. He appears to be unusually happy. That’s because our St. Louis Cardinals won the World Series the night before we took these pictures. Yeah, there were the obligatory Texas Toast jokes as we did this. Sorry Texas fans. This was our year. You have a great team and will be back for another try, but 2011 was our year:

The next generation Grillin Fool, Finnegan, looks on hungrily:

The Char-Broil 940X is fired up and the grill grates are cleaned with a wad of paper towels doused with olive oil  to minimize sticking:

The test begins. We chose to test on the softer bread—if it stood up to the fire then we were good to go.

The sandwiches were positioned in the center of the grill for even heat:

These require constant checking to determine when the bread is toasted so check fairly often for browning.

This is the olive oil version flipped:

Then the buttery spread is turned:

Now the buttered sandwich is turned:

Two sandwiches are pulled  off the direct heat once they are browned on the other side. Hey! Cross-hatch grill marks on a sandwich! Isn’t this the way it was meant to be?

The buttered one took more time to toast than the other two.  After 10 minutes, the touch test showed that the bread was still soft:

After a few more minutes of toasting, the buttered one is pulled aside as well.  Here are all three off the heat, one is a bit toasty, a reminder to pay close attention when grilling bread:

The lid is dropped on the CB 940X to insure all three sandwiches are warmed through since two have been off the heat for a while:

We had 3 official tasters on site at this point so a portion of each variety was provided to each taster:

Looks pretty good doesn’t it?

There’s something special about the gooeyness of the cheese contrasted with the coarse texture of the bread and now we’re adding the smokey aroma of the grill to this classic.

The consensus was the buttery spread (margarine) was the winner for ease of use, flavor, and how it reacted to the fire. Real butter was a close second but took the longest by far to cook and then was quick to burn. Olive oil tasted, well, oily. If you have no other options, it will do, but it was clearly third best.

Now that we have our bread spread, time to move on with the rest of the test.

The cheeses are sliced:

Here I’m beginning assembly of the sandwiches. This is when the fun begins! There are 6 varieties of cheese and 4 types of bread so the combinations are more than we can do in one post. Here are the combinations we came up with.

Sandwich #1 is Havarti with cinnamon-raisin bread (I know it sounds weird, but bear with me):

#2 is dill Havarti on marbled rye (dill dip and rye bread in a sandwich):

#3 is Five Counties Cheddar on crusty sourdough:

Happy to be applying buttery spread for #4 which is sliced Provel and Applewood Smoked Cheddar on Texas toast:

The last is Italian Fontina on crusty sourdough:

The assortment platter is ready for the grill:

Here’s a recap of what we’re going to grill:

#1 – Havarti with cinnamon-raisin bread.

#2 – Dill Havarti with marbled rye

#3 – Five Counties Cheddar on crusty sourdough.

#4 – Sliced Provel and Applewood-Smoked Cheddar on Texas toast.

#5 – Italian Fontina on crusty sourdough.

Grilling on a pleasant Autumn afternoon and what could be better than a seasonally appropriate pumpkin ale?

It’s time the sandwiches meet the heat! The coals were dropped to the lowest level to minimize burning:

Flame on!

Close attention required! Our concern is that the bread will burn before the cheese melts. This sandwich was over the hottest part of the fire and was toasted in less than two minutes:

Close up of that sandwich (the Fontina) flipped and the cheese already beginning to ooze:

Two sandwiches are flipped:

Notice that part of that second sandwich didn’t toast as well.  It will require some further grilling on that side to get an even toast.

Toasted cinnamon-raisin bread flipped:

All sandwiches flipped:

Looks like an escapee from the marbled rye. I simply tucked it back in:

We’re having fun now, that and we can’t wipe the smiles off our faces after our 11th World Series Win!

Three are done while a couple needed a little more toasting:

How does that Fontina look:

Don’t worry if you do this with marbled rye and it looks black like this.  It just seems to toast a little differently than the rest over open fire. It was delicious:

All five aside—no penalty yet:

Let’s pull ‘em and taste ‘em!

Hitting the kitchen counter—how will they taste?

Love at first bite – gooey achieved:

The Texas toast with Provel and Applewood Smoked Cheddar became a bit messy:

The Five Counties Cheddar didn’t melt through as the others did:

The reason could be that cheddar is a harder cheese than others tested and perhaps could’ve used a bit more time on the indirect side of the grill. It could have been sliced thinner also. I suggest considering all these factors if you decide to go with this cheese.

After we sampled the five sandwiches, we decided to take the top three and do them again for a couple more taste testers that were coming by.  We decided to mix it up just a little and add ‘maters and purple onion to the Italian Fontina on sourdough which three of us agreed was the best:

Second place went to Dill Havarti on marbled rye:

Third place was Havarti on cinnamon-raisin bread. I was told that this may have been a signature sandwich at the defunct Mrs. Hulling’s restaurant. If any locals can confirm this please leave a comment. I told you to bear with me on that one, and if you did, you would know that this was a great sandwich despite the odd combo.

Here are the top three back on the grill:

Marbled rye looking good!

Fontina beginning to ooze, the onion browning:

The Fontina flipped—perhaps a bit early?

Top three flipped:

Dill Havarti oozes forth!

Sun is setting and it’s time to pull ‘em and enjoy!

Each sandwich plated and waiting for us to sink our teeth into:

So who were our taste testers? First was Mimi, Scott’s mom and my beautiful wife (taking out the dogs):

The OGF, Scott and myself, seen here in a picture taken by my grandson, Finnegan:

Not bad considering this was only the second picture he has ever taken, (the first just got our chests), it was taken with a pretty heavy Nikon DSLR, and he’s only three.

Local foodie Mike D. dropped in to sample the grilling effort while exploring Cat Neville’s latest exploits. His wife also participated, but refused to be photographed:

So what was the consensus of the five? Same as the three.  In third place was the Havarti on raisin bread. The sweetness of the caramelized raisins and cinnamon in the bread contrasted wonderfully with the gooey cheese and smokiness picked up from the grill. Add in the crunch of the bread and this was really good:

Second went to the rye bread, dill dip sandwich. That combination is pretty well established and turns out great for grilled cheese:

And number one was the Italian Fontina on sourdough. The cheese married well with the pungency of the sourdough that was only improved with the onion and tomato:

Looking back all the sandwiches were very good and we would grill any of them again. The cheddar varieties weren’t the worst sandwiches they were simply more traditional tasting while the others offered new flavor combinations. The sandwiches were toasted approximately 6 minutes per side then moved to the indirect side of the grill to melt through. This may be totally different on your grill so it’s pretty much a sight and feel effort as well as constant vigilance on checking for browning. Be sure you have everything you need when beginning to grill cheese sandwiches—if you leave to go inside and obtain a beverage you could return to seriously burnt toast. This was one of the most enjoyable and lengthy posts, certainly the most photographs, we’ve done for the website. We had a great time putting this together and hope you enjoyed the journey. This should be considered Episode I since I’m already gathering ideas for Episode II where we’ll kick grilled cheese sandwiches up another notch.

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

Also, you can follow us on our GrillinFools Facebook page and post your own grillin pictures or join in on the general grillin conversation.  Or, you can follow us on twitter @GrillinFool to get all the updates from the site.