Applewood Smoked Beef Rib Roast with Creole Sauce

What could be better than sitting outside on a cool autumn day reading and smelling a nice rib roast smoke away? Smoking is a long process but the end result is so worth it. That smoky flavour is like cranking your bbq's flavour up 5000 times. Plus with the sweet, mustardy creole sauce caramelized all over the roast, this beef was truly delicious.

I don't have special equipment for smoking. Just my beef on the top rack on the opposite side of the heat and smoke-box where the wet applewood chips slowly charred. I had a meat thermometre stuck into the beef and pulled it out when it was about medium.

Along with some bbq sweet potato wedges, my first serious foray into smoking went alot better than I could have expected. Long live the versatility of the grill!

Grilled Sweet Potatoes with Harissa and Ham-Burgers

I'm having real fun with the versitility of the grill lately. Grilled pizzas, fries, veggies, you name it. My aunt in Ottawa does nearly all of her cooking on the bbq nowadays. She even bakes her cakes using the bbq as an oven. Now all I wish I could have access to is a charcoal or brick bbq. No more propane for me.

To make grilled sweet potatoes or regular potatoes, simply toss relatively thick slices of them in oil with salt, pepper and whatever flavouring you want (I added some harissa) and grill till charred on the outside and soft on the inside. It takes a good half hour on medium-high heat but the result is better than trans-fat laden deep-fried fries any day. "Fries" this way are actually healthy.

With the grilled sweet potato I grilled some ham-burgers (ground pork with 25% ham) from the market and a nice simple tossed salad with orange segments, asian greens and bean sprouts. I put spicy jerk bbq sauce on the burgers and sandwiched them in some English muffins which are way better than the crappy air filled burger buns you buy from those cheap bread industrial bakeries.

With a generous dolop of harissa, this meal was nice slow food...meaning that I took the time to select and gather ingredients and then took time cooking and eating it while enjoying my time with my girlfriend. Life is good on the slow side.

Grilled Pizza Pt. 2

So following my success with the grilled pizza, I figured I'd try my hand at a barbecued panzorotto which you could also call a calzone or really whatever you like...it's basically a stuffed pizza dough. There.

Now the danger with anythint stuffed, as all of you pastry pros will undoubtedly know, is that the crust does not always seal properly. So here I am, standing at my barbecue, trying to figure out how I'm going to flip over this damn thing without having half of its innards drop to the greasy depths of my barbecue. Well I managed somehow to do it. The end product, even with contents intact, wasn't all that great.

You see the beauty about the grilled pizza was that it was grilled and therefore crunchy on 2 sides. This panzo was more like an ordinary pizza but with the dough only half cooked. Not all that great. Stick to what works I guess is the lesson for today children. Stick to what works.

Grilled Chicken Wings

It's not the grilling that was the problem or the sweet Thai flavoured sauce I made for marinating/basting. The chicken was too chewy. I had the same problem with the whole chicken that I bought from these merchants at the farmer's market. I don't know if chicken needs to be hung before being cooked or the chewy texture is just a side effect of being grain fed and being allowed to range freely but I didn't appreciate it. This should have been good. I mean when I make my beer-butt chicken the wings sometimes survive the flames and become nice and crispy. So maybe I have to cook the wings longer over lower heat. Maybe. But I'm blaming the chicken. And the chicken man. Damn chicken man...

On another more positive note, the grilled watermelon skewers were good. It was really just warm watermelon but the slight dehydration concentrated the flavour and would be a real nice addition to any heavier barbecue. Heavy pretty much alway being the case when it comes to barbecue. Or Southern barbecue. Not that there's anything wrong with that...

Grilled Orange Butter Scallops

I realised two things while preparing this meal: grilling scallops is made easy by the use of skewers and butter flavoured with oranges could make a really delectable topping for fresh crepes. But the crepes aren't the focus here. The scallops are.

I took this recipe from The Great Scallop and Oyster Cookbook. It's chocful of recipes for baked, grilled, raw and other preparations for these shellfish. I've also got another cookbook from the same series for mussels and clams.

There's really nothing surprising about the recipe I used. Skewer a bunch of scallops (a lady was selling them at work by the hug bag full). For the orange butter, all you need is the juice and zest of one large orange, 1 tsp of brown sugar and 1/2 cup of butter. Simple and great when basted and charred on the grill.

For the pasta, I basically repeated the flavour of the orange in a sort of simple orange sauce vierge with tomatoes, zucchini, spaghettini and parmesan. All and all, it was a nice, well balances supper.

Fancy Foibled Fish & Chips

My intentions in the kitchen often do not match the results. I'm getting better at every attempt. But results vary.

The recipe for this particular dish comes from Canada's grill genius, Rob Rainford. As you can see in the above photo and here http://www.foodtv.ca/recipes/recipedetails.aspx?dishid=6585 the idea is to wrap the halibut (which is in season here by the Atlantic) in prosciutto and then wrap that in a layer of very thinly sliced potatoes. Now below you see how it turned out on my own grill. Yes. That's right. The potatoes are no longer wrapped around the fish and cured ham.

The failure is due to the following factor: I did not use my food processor to slice the potatoes thinly. I thought I'd do it by hand but apparently my knife work still needs more practice. The result was still very delicious.

The fresh halibut which we got at the farmer's market is simply dressed in salt, pepper and lemon zest. You then wrap it in a slice of prosciutto. If you can slice your potatoes thinly enough, toss them in melted butter, salt and pepper, arrange on a piece of foil. Wrap the fish in the potatoes (much easier said than done) and place in the fridge for 30 minutes to let the butter set. In a perfect world, you then take the package from the frige, place on a well oiled sheet of foil on the barbecue, cook 5 to 6 minutes on either side and enjoy with tartar sauce or a lemon couli.

If you do not live in a perfect world, you can make little foil packages of sliced and buttered potatoes and cook these apart from the fish. I think this is a much safer idea. But I will attempt to replicate the first photo again. If a professional TV chef can do it, so can I. Or maybe I can't.

Grilled Salmon

Salmon is something I consider to be a product that needs no help. Cured, smoked, raw or cooked, salmon has a killer flavour that is a real treat. Here I didn’t try to annihilate the flavour. I simply cut a slit in the salmon fillet, stuffed it with fresh dill, thin onion slices, and lemon. I strapped it all together and voila.

I think that the results would have been best if I’d made a sauce with the dill, the onions and some grill lemon (which is really great if you’ve never tried it...mellows out the juices). The salmon sort of started falling apart and, as usual, I didn’t cook the flesh enough. I have a hard time with that. My well done steaks always come off medium-rare. I need a small meat thermometer or something.

Anyways, the grilled salmon has room for improvement. Maybe basted with maple syrup next time with a small amount of Dijon and dill sauce. Mmm...sounds good.

Barnyard Barbecue Rules

I'm choosy when it comes to restaurants. If I can make it better at home or don't find the price matches the decor more than the quality of the food, I'm out. But the Barnyard Barbecue on Mill Street in Moncton is a guaranteed winner.

As the name would suggest, their specialty is barbecue. I mean I had roasted and smoked chicken with beans the other day and they even manage to make that taste delicious. The flesh was smoky, the skin with crispy, the bbq sauce they slathered on top of the chicken was delicious and even the beans were tasty.

You see that's what's great about restaurants that aren't chains. They have to make everything themselves or are doomed to mediocrity. I had a burger at the Barnyard once that goes by the name of "the Burger that Ate Moncton". It was a huge beef patty, topped with shredded pork with all sort of other goodies inside, topped with fresh bread (a must!) and bacon with fries or whatever side you wish for. It's "oh my god" good. That's what it is.

Plus the great thing about the Barnyard is that it's located at the front of the Pump House Brewery. You've got all of the containers and equipment behind floor to ceiling windows that attest to the fact that the beer you're drinking couldn't be any fresher. So while you sit in the southern/hick/shed-like decor, you can watch honest men and women toil away at making the areas best beer.

My only gripe with the Barnyard is service. It could take awhile to get your food amongst other things. Like the other day when we went, we were sitting back in front of empty plates and the waitress looked at us but didn't take the plates. I mean I know it isn't your table but please think about overall customer service here. Come on!

Anyways I do recommend the Barnyard Barbecue. To get an idea of what to expect, check out their menu at http://www.pumphousebrewery.ca/foodmenu.htm. You'll have a great time and even better food and beer. One of the only musts I've found in Moncton so far.

BBQ Season is Coming to an End

Pretty much all the trees have turned yellow, orange, and red. The wind is getting colder. It rains a cold kind of rain that makes you want to stay inside and make soup. But I'm still braving the weather. I'm still firing the grill.

I made an oregano and walnut pesto and stuffed it into some nice big white mushroom. Topped with a tiny mound of shredded parmesan, the turned out juicy and delicious. So did the plump tomatoes on which I placed thin slices of fresh garlic underneath yet other mounds of parmesan cheese. The result was barbecued vegetabley-goodness (I make up words like that).

The vegetables accompanied a piece of steak with perfect hatch marks. One problem I have with cooking steak is that my grill is steaming when I slap the meat on. That's not the problem. The problem is that the exterior chars fast but the middle doesn't cook as fast as what the outside would make you believe. So what I'm left with are beautiful, barelly cooked pieces of beef. Given that my girlfriend just started by capable of overcoming her psychological and bio-class induced fear of anything below medium, I've had to reheat steaks every time I'm ready to sit down for supper.

I think that I'm going to celebrate what's left of the bbq season with roasting squash or grilling root vegetables that are in season. A good grilled vegetable soup, some maple syrup glazzed pork maybe, or stuffed onions. Who knows? But I have to do something before winter hits...and seeing as most of the people who visit my sight aren't Canadian, all I can say is that almost everything stops when Old Man Winter rears with ugly head.

Messy BBQ Ribs

I'm no barbecue expert. I don't have any cookbooks that deal directly with the cooking process nor do I have that much imagination when it come to that very manly grill. This might be why I was suprised to see that the recipe for ribs asking for this fatty meat to be cooked for 1 hour and a half to 2 hours.

Surprise aside, the ribs turned out delicious. The only thing I find with ribs is that restaurants always make them better. I don't know if I don't trim them properly or what it is I do. They're good, tender, and in this case sticky but they're still not great. I know that there are several grill afficionados out there so feel free to give me some rib tips....rib tips....I made a funny :)

For now I'll have to post this recipe I took from the 2002 edition of Better Homes and Gardens' New Cook Book. The sauce would also be great for any barbecue.

Glazed County Ribs

1 cup ketchup

1/4 cup finely chopped onion

1/4 cup cider vinegar or wine vinegar

1/4 cup mild-flavored molasses (I used maple syrup)

2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce

2 tsps chili powder

2 cloves garlic, minced

my optional extra: 2 tbsp chipotle hot sauce

2 1/2 to 3 pounds pork county-style ribs

1. For sauce, in a medium saucepan combine ketchup, onion, vinegar, molasses, Worcestershire sauce, chili powder, garlic, chipotle hot sauce and 1/2 cup water. Bring to boiling: reduce heat. Simmer, uncovered, for 10 to 15 minutes or to desired consistency, stirring often.

2. Trim fat from ribs. For a charcoal grill, arrange medium-hot coals around a drip pan. Test for medium heat above pan. Place ribs, bone sides down, on grill rack over pan. (Or, place ribs in a rib rack; place on grill rack.) Cover and grill for 11/2 to 2 hours or until tender, brushing occasionally with sauce during the last 10 minutes of grilling. (For a gas grill, preheat grill. Reduce heat to medium. Adjust for indirect cooking. Place ribs in a roasting pacn (see above picture) place on grill rack, and grill as above.) Pass remaining sauce with ribs.

Beer Butt Chicken Revisited

I know I've talked about my beer butt chicken before but I won't say that I'm sorry. If you haven't tried this yet you should. If you're making excuses that you don't have a big enough barbecue or that you don't have the proper equipment you should stop stressing over the little things. This is the best preparation for chicken ever and yields the best leftovers.

My photo isn't clear but if you look at the base under the chicken you'll see a black bowl sort of thing and won't you don't see are the two metal arches on which the chicken rests and the cavity these create where a half-full can of beer is placed. 45 minutes to an hour on a medium low bbq and you've got yourself one juicy, tender, awesomely tasting bird.

One thing I especially like about the beer butt chicken are the wings. They come out crispy and smoky and better for than most deep-fried versions you'll find in your neighbourhood pub. I think you could make some sort of hanging rack to cook the chicken wings over the barbecue. If anyone out there owns a bbq restaurant, this is how you should prepare wings. People will go nuts for this, especially when you tell them that it's better for them than the usual grease ladden crap they're served.

The Ultimate Salad

I don't know if I mentioned this before but the house I grew up in was not culinarily inclined in the least. The worst meal my father used to make was those little sausages with canned cream corn and dry mashed potatoes. This meal came from a line of economy cooking along with other such delicacies as hamburger patties in mushroom soup.

When I was in highschool my parents didn't mind a bit if I cooked. I liked cooking. I liked how it was calming, methodical, and how you needed to be organized to get it all together. It's in those days that I discovered that grilling sweet corn without he husk and spreading barbecue sauce between every kernel was simply a great idea.

Seeing as corn is coming into season, I grilled some corn in this fashion for my girlfriend. At first she thought it would just be like all my other quirky food preparations and prefered to stick to her boiled corn with butter, salt and pepper. But after she took one bight of my corn, which I'd slathered with Jamaican jerk bbq sauce, she was cooked.

The next day, I figured I'd use the rest of the corn to make a salad. The result was one of the best salads I've ever eaten although with the amount of ingredients in it, I'm not sure it still qualifies as a salad. We piled the leftover corn kernels all sticky with barbecue sauce along with chunks of cheddar, mangos, apple slices, tomatoes, cucumber, barbecued chicken, grilled red and green onions, grilled mushrooms, and California trail mix over romain lettuce and drizzled the whole with a honey balsamic vinaigrette. The result was really delicious and filling.

Like soups, stews and sandwiches, I find salads have a great potential for variety. You have the form and the basic elements and then you could just keep adding till you satisfied. For salads you know you have a vinaigrette with some vegetables. For a soup you know you have stock with whatever else you want. For sandwiches you have bread, a sauce and some fillings. The options are unlimited and the form is so easy to work with.

Anyways, that's that. Grill your corn with barbecue sauce.

Barbecued Perogies...Who Knew?

I haven't touched my barbecue lately on account of a ridiculous schedule and all too frequent downpours. But these last two days, sitting at home and reading the latest escapade of our friend Harry Potter, I finally had time to cook...even though it was nothing very fancy.

Two days ago my girlfriend revealed that she had a craving for perogies. When it comes of those little morsels of carbs and starch I'm really not one to refuse. So, taking the frozen grocery store variety out of our freezer, I boiled the perogies and prepared a frying pan in which I placed bacon, chopped onion and garlic. But this time, instead of transferring the perogies to a skillet full of peanut oil, I brought the little dough balls to the barbecue. The result was nicely charred, crispy and puffy perogies accompanied by the bacon mixture, sour cream, salsa and hot sauce. And anyone who says "Ew!" to salsa on perogies hasn't tried it yet. They're a match made in heaven

In my book (dans mon livre à moé) everything can be grilled except the obvious exceptions such as eggs and other liquid food items. I cook corn (without the husk) directly on the grill and make sure to get loads of barbecue sauce in between each individual kernel. Today I even cooked some bacon strips on the grill to go with my hamburgers. They sizzled beautifully over the flames they were feading in the bottom of my bbq. I then sandwiched them between the patty and a slice of processed cheese, waited for the cheese to melt and then splattered my face in the tomatoey, pickle, onion, jerk bbq sauce goodness of the hamburger more appropriately called a manwich. Simple but delicious.

Now I just have to figure out a way of making my patties taste less bland, a feat I haven't yet achieved dispite the fact that I load it with flavoured bread crumbs, cajun spice mix, chopped red onion, and an egg. Sigh *

Mushroom Sarnies and Mixed Seafood Soup...Yum!

I've had Portobello's sitting in my fridge for a bit and I really wanted to make a sandwich I got from one of Jamie Oliver's shows a few years back; it was from the time I attempted to go vegetarian. He called it a Mushroom Sarnie...I guess this is just a fancy word for sandwich in British lingo.

Though Jamie cooked his mushrooms in the oven, I decided to go with the barbecue. I just oil my grill, place the portobellos gill side down for about 2 minutes, flip them over, spoon on a generous helping of butter and cook till dripping and loose. That red stuff you see is the butter that goes with the portobello. I've included the recipe below. After that, you just serve the cooked portobellos on rye bread with Dijon mustard and watercress or any type of lettuce. I like this recipe cause it really showcases the meatyness of portobellos. I've seen a chili recipe once where the cubes of beef were replaced by cubes of these wonderful thick mushrooms. (By the way, when you buy your portobellos, remove the woody stems before you put them in your bag...just a little cheapskate trick ;)

My girlfriend also decided to make a mixed seafood chowder with that. Here in the Maritimes they sell relatively cheap packs of mixed seafood that sometimes look as though some young trainy was filleting the fish. This particular mix had haddock, lobster, scallops and really tiny shrimp. They sometimes have salmon, trout, crab and other seafood in there. It's scraps really.

The chowder (seen in front there) includes in order of cooking: bacon, cubed carrots, potatos, onions and celery, fish or chicken stock, fresh thyme, oregano and parsley. You can also add cream but this tends to make for a heavier soup and it is summer after all. We sadly didn't have any fish stock and so the seafood was confused by the broth. A sort of surf and turf thing.

Sun Dried Tomato and Chili Butter

8 oz (1 cup) butter, softened

4 sun dried tomatos

1 red chili (I used a cherry chili)

garlic

leaves of 3 fresh thyme sprigs

sea salt

pepper

1. Stick it all in a food processor and blend or chop ingredients and fold them into butter