EDF Cooking Contest--Grilling Challenge

[Mermade]

Can't wait to see. Hope you brought your camera.

[ElSapo]

I made pulled pork yesterday, a kind of convolted process that ultimately worked out pretty well. I don't have photos because I didn't take any, and a lot of the BBQ photos are starting to sort of run together for me. ...

In any event, the short version is this: I took a pork end roast and brined it in salt and sugar for a few hours and then seared it on the grill. I gave it a good char on the outside and then took it off, coated it in honey, garlic, cumin, cinnamon and so on, and let it absorb those flavors overnight.

The next dat I coated it in BBQ sauce (from previous post), wrapped it in foil and roasted it at about 275 for several hours, until it fell apart.

Once it was falling apart I broke it down with a couple of forks, and poured the juices back over it. I then mixed some BBQ sauce with a touch of hoisen sauce and gave it a good toss.

If I do a final plating I'll try and shoot some photos of that. But the hoisen is a nice touch (in moderation). And the results are surprisingly good - I realize you can't get true BBQ off a gas grill and an oven, but this isn't a bad version. It's got some smoke taste from the char, it's pretty flavorful, and the hoisen adds a floral background note that I love.

Damn. Now I'm hungry.

[SamIAm]

I mostly had ideas for dessert, but first I grilled fajitas:

<font color="red">Fajitas</font>

1/2 C olive oil
1/3 C soy sauce
3 cloves garlic
1/4 C lemon juice
1/2 t red pepper flakes
1/2 t cumin
3 T brown sugar

2 lbs skirt steak
2 green peppers
2 yellow peppers
2 hungarian wax peppers

Dump all the first stuff in a food processor and take it for a spin. Then load that into a plastic bag and add the steak, pressing out the extra air. Move to the fridge and let marinate for an afternoon.



Pull out the steak, cut the peppers, and sear all of 'em. Cut the steak AGAINST the grain, since it'll be a little tougher than more expensive cuts of meat, and you want to break-up the long fibers.




<font color="red">Grilled Fruit &amp; Scones with Honey-Whiskey Custard</font>

For the dessert, I wanted to grill scones and fruit, but needed some sort of sauce. I figured whiskey was a good way to add that smokey flavor to a liquid.

custard

The first step is to drink all but 1 cup of your handle of whiskey.



1 C whiskey
3 C cream
1 C milk
1 C honey
8 egg yolks
2 t vanilla

Add the first four ingredients to a pot and bring to a simmer. Taste this, because it's really good.



Whisk the yolks and temper the sauce in so they don't become scrambled eggs. Over low heat, slowly bring to 175degrees F (because nobody likes their dessert with a side of salmonella). At that point it'll have thickened dramatically, and you can leave a trail on a spoon.



Let it cool, add the vanilla, and then move to the fridge. (Note: If you want to follow exactly my recipe, then pour the custard into an ice-cream machine and run it for a while. Eventually you'll realize that the alcohol &amp; honey both lowered the freezing point, so there's no way this is going to turn into ice cream. Then edit the title of your dish and serve as custard. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img])

scones

2 C AP flour
1 T baking powder
3 T sugar
.5 t salt
5 T frozen butter
1 C cream

Dump the dry ingredients into a food processor and pulse five or six times. (Food processor is the new sifter.) Cut the butter into patties and spread across the top.



Give it ~12 1second pulses, till the butter is incorporated and the texture is coarse cornmeal. Move to a bowl and stir in the cream till barely combined. Work fast, because you want your butter to stay cold for a good textured scone. Move the dough to a board and form into a flat disk.



Cut into 8 wedges and bake at 425 for 13 minutes. Cool on a wire rack.



final

Cut the scones in half and grill them a minute per side. Fro fruit, I tried grilling both pineapple and banana, because they seemed to be high sugar to carmelize well and high surface area so you can see the lines. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img] I never really came-up with a plating I liked.

[Papa Perry]

I did not bring my camera as I was much too busy running the show and being the attention whore that I am.... But one of my clients did and she will be sending them to me. Hopefully she got shots of the food.

It was a huge success. Can't wait to do the next one.

[ElSapo]

Ok - this is a bastardized version of someone else's idea, but here's the thing:

If you live in D.C., you may know the restaurant ZenGo. (I actually think there's one other ZenGo, owned by a corporation called Modern Mexican, but whatever)...

ZenGo has this dish called "Arepas de Puerco." The restaurant mixes asian and latin flavors, and I think it's a huge success. I ate there maybe a dozen times before I moved, and this was always my favorite dish.

It's basically spiced pulled pork on top of a corn cake, topped with guacamole and other spices.

There was always some unidentifiable flavor - something floral and fruity in the background of the pork, and I could never place it. Anyway, so we moved to Carrboro N.C., and the best food I've found since being here comes from these trucks that sell tacos in the parking lots on the weekends. No kidding, this is the best food so far - it's simple, crisp, honest. ...



And one of their tacos had the same flavor that I always loved at ZenGo - the same hint of sweetness in the background. Drove me crazy for a while trying to fiugue it out. You should have heard my drunken Spanish, trying to get this question across. No luck.

Turns out, after some research, it's hoisen sauce. I should probably know this, but I've never been a huge fan of asian dishes and was a pretty picky eater growing up. Hey, I'm working on it.

So anyway, this is my ode to the "Arepas de Puerco" from D.C. It's not as good, frankly. But man, I loved that restaurant.

This is the pulled pork I mentioned in the previous post in this thread. The corn cake is simple, basic, cornmeal, water and salt. Topped with guacamole, a little sour cream, and scallions.

Not a great picture, but mostly I wanted to tell this story.

[Mermade]

El Sapo--I love that you gave the story behind this. Oh, and I especially like the photo of the food truck.

Sam--Fried plantains are one of my favorite things in the world, how does grilling the bananas compare?
I agree; whiskey, cream, honey, milk, egg, vanilla sounds yummy!

[Mermade]

Just a reminder that this is the last weekend for the grill challenge. I'll put the poll up on Monday.

Is there any more discussion about next month's challenge? Should we poll pumpkin v. apple?

[ElSapo]

I vote pumpkin. If you put the poll up Monday evening I will try and post one more entry. I got some ugly peppers today so I want to do a roasted red pepper and bourbon sauce on beef...

[BK_]

Great picture of that food truck.... looks ghostly in a way.

[milliondollaz]

I’m on a whole different level here, so this post is for the amateurs. I found my grill by the dumpsters in my apt. complex one night coming back from the bars. So my drunk roommate and I brought it up to our porch, for future use. It looked like it worked great! Well, 3 months later after I buy some propane, it turns out the diaphragm on the regulator was busted, and it was spitting gas out like a fire hydrant. Crap. After a trip to Wal-Mart, Target, and 3 trips to Home Depot, I finally have the right fittings (I needed 6) to put a Char-broil regulator on my Kenmore. I obviously should have just bought a new one, but I like challenges for some reason. So that’s the equipment I’m using.

The only thing I know how to grill is steak, so that’s what I stick to.

This is the first steak I cooked on my grill, with my new vegetable pan that I bought at one of my trips to Home Depot.


Served it up with some fresh tomato from my tomato plant [before I killed it].


Next up are some steaks for me and a couple friends.


Served this one up w/ grilled zucchini and squash, sautéed some onions, and cooked some fingerling potatoes in the oven. If you are thinking that this is probably above my level, you are correct, I had a girl there helping out.


This is a steak I got from Safeway for 5.99 a pound. Porterhouse! I remembered this thread as I was finishing up the filet, so that’s why it’s partially eaten. The onions were grilled on that same steel vegetable pan that I use every time.