Cedar Plank Salmon Goodness

It was a lovely summer evening and Kelly and I were picking up some groceries as she was planning a dinner of mussels - a recipe she was quite excited about before I rudely said “hey, can you not put that stuff on all of the mussels just in case it sucks.”

<insert 5 minutes of back peddling> 

What I really meant, was that I was used to having mussels fresh in Newfoundland, just boiled in salt water, straight, no frills.  Kel’s recipe involved some sort of cream sauce, and a bunch of stuff that I just didn’t imagine would go well with them, in my narrow mind.  Anyway, after the quiet ride home and several more apologies, Kelly was about to start prepping the mussels and <gasp> the power went out.  Now, because Kelly has refused to allow me to get a giant emergency natural gas powered generator installed for just such an occasion (or the apocalypse), and the fact that we didn’t have any ‘bbq safe’ pots, we could not have the mussels this evening.  Alas.

Luckily, we’d also picked up a nice big salmon fillet at the fish counter, so I opted to grill that for dinner tonight (and hopefully make up for my rude comment earlier).  I had purchased a cedar plank at the grocery store and even though it said I should soak it in water for 4 hours, I figured at least one or more would suffice for our situation. 

Lighting the grill sans power proved to be a slight challenge as normally I use this awesome tool that is basically an industrial strength curling iron and hair dryer combo called a looftlighter.  Recycling had just picked up the newspaper and cardboard a day earlier, so all I had was a small butane lighter and our Enbridge Natural Gas bill…how poetic.  I used the envelope to light a fire and gingerly spent some time blowing on the coals until they caught fully.  This worked out fine as it enabled my cedar plank to soak a bit longer.

Ok so now to the good stuff… I made a simple glaze to put on the salmon which was made up of the following:

2 tbsp of lemon juice

2 tbsp of maple syrup

1 tbsp of Dijon mustard

I put a little extra virgin olive oil on the fillet and sprinkled some sea salt and a wee bit of pepper.  Now that my grill was heated up, I put the cedar plank down for a few minutes and then flipped it over and brushed a light coat of the glaze on the plank.  Fillet then went down on the plank skin down and I coated the top with the glaze.  I kept the grill at a mid-range heat to take it slow and allow the cedar scent to get into the fish.  As well, when the time was right, I opened some wine and gave a glass to Kelly (re-read the opening paragraph to this post for the reason why). 

When the fish looked about halfway done, I slapped some white asparagus down after lightly coating them with oil, sea salt and pepper, as well as some left over grilled veggies from a previous night’s pork tenderloin meal. 

I then lit some candles as the sun was setting, put the iPod on in the rechargeable dock and served dinner up for my lovely wife outside on the deck.  The evening (and my marriage) was saved!  Dinner was great, the cedar smoking and maple/lemon/Dijon glaze worked great!  The wine paired and flowed nicely and all was well in the world.  We finished off with a special ice cream cookie sandwich treat and enjoyed the candles and wine! 

I should and MUST mention that the next night, power restored, Kelly did indeed make her wondrously outstanding mussels that were gloriously flavorful!  Seriously, it was really good.  I loved them very much and the sauce worked great!  I will never second guess her again, ever. 

Happy Kelly

Are you having a heart attack??!! You want an Aspirin?

It was late March of this year and I was playing indoor golf at Golf-O-Max when a friend uttered the title of this post to me.  The amount of exercise I was doing at the time was essentially moving my thunderous body from the couch (yes, we had a couch for indoor golf) about 6 feet to the tee, taking a swing, taking a swig of beer and then plopping back down again.  After Shawn jokingly offered me an Aspirin  for my heart, I went to the washroom and took a good look at myself in the mirror.  I was sweating buckets, out of breath and it honestly did look like I could be having some sort of infarction.  Though I like to think I carried it well, I was fairly overweight and at the age of 34, figured it is only going to get harder to lose it the older I get. 

Those who know me fairly well, know that this is not the first time I have had health realizations.  Here’s a quick chronological recap:

·         10 years back - I thought, ‘hey, I used to do long distance track in school, I was awesome at it!” Two blocks up the road and I was hunched over a garbage can puking my guts out.  And that was it for the running. I now reserve running strictly for when being chased.

·         7 years back – leading up to our wedding, Kelly and I decided to get all svelte and buff for the big day.  We joined a gym, and booked a physical trainer.  Kelly did fine, but on the first day, they give me a fitness assessment as a bench mark.  The attractive spandex clad female who was giving me my fitness test advised me to keep doing squats until I couldn’t anymore.  Being the stubborn and delusional man that I am, and not wanting to lose face in front of the aforementioned female, I just continued doing them until I was lying on the floor dry-heaving.  I quickly realized I was about to puke on the carpet so I crawled out what I thought was the side door and ended up puking in the lobby of the gym, and then scurried in embarrassment to what ended up being the ladies change room.  Truly a defining moment in my athletic memoirs.

·         Last year – My friend Rob had been on my case to get healthy and offered to take me to one of his circuit training classes.  I eventually gave in and about half way through (actually more like a fifth way in) the class…surprise, I’m hunched over dry heaving into a bucket. 

So all that to say, exercise for me usually ends up with me vomiting in front of a bunch of people.  Yet, as we go back to March of this year, here I was in a position where I clearly needed to do something about my weight and my health.  So the next day, I spoke to Rob and he said he’d write down a diet for me to follow and if I did that (and exercise) I’d lose weight and start to get closer to being as awesome as he is. 

I have since dubbed this diet, my BBQ Diet.  Rob’s response to my description was confusion but hang with me, and I think you’ll see what I mean.  

(Author’s Note: This is why this is on a grilling blog. See, I do get there eventually.)

Ok, so what is the BBQ Diet?

The BBQ diet is the eating of tasty meats 3 times a day along with a healthy breakfast.  So the typical day looks something like this:

Breakfast:
2 Whole Eggs
3/4 to 1 cup of Oatmeal (cooked)
Water

Morning Lunch (10:30 – 11am)
1 Cup veggies
1 BBQ Chicken Breast
1/4 to 1/3 cup of starch (ie. Rice)
Water

Afternoon Lunch (2 – 2:30pm)
1 Cup of veggies
6oz BBQ Steak
1/4 to 1/3 of a cup of starch (ie. Sweet potatoes)
Water

Dinner (evening)
1 Cup of veggies
BBQ Fish fillet or steak
1/4 to 1/3 of a cup of starch (ie. Quinoa)

Water

The plan keeps your metabolism moving fast because you are eating often, eating healthy and so your body doesn’t end up storing all the calories for later.  

(Author’s note: This would be a good time to insert a disclaimer about me not being a doctor and nor do I claim any scientific backing for anything I have posted in this blog.  But it worked for me.)

 You can mix and match the meats, slip in some pork, turkey etc.  You get the idea.  Now, Rob’s plan did not require the meats to be barbequed, BUT, I’ve found that by barbequing all of my meats I get some great benefits from the following steps:

-          Grill all your meats for your Monday/Tuesday and Wednesday lunches on Sunday evening.  Repeat on Wednesday evening for the Thurs/Fri lunches. This is crucial as otherwise you’ll not have time to prep each day, you’ll likely skip one of your lunches, end up grabbing fast food, get fat and die

-          Use spices instead of sauces to flavor your meats.  I’m pretty sure the calorie gods forgot about spices and just drink more water if you use a lot of salt

-          Add wood chips to flavor your meats with smoke thus eliminating the need for those crazy calorie rich sauces (I personally find mesquite adds some nice flavor to chicken and beef and have been using this brand) 

-          Once all your stuff is cooked, get yourself a bunch of ziplock bags and prep your meats, rice and veggies so you can just grab and go each day
(Author’s note: do not skimp, buy the brand name.  I’ve found that plastic zipper bags is one of the areas that you really get what you pay for, so spend the extra quarter and get the good stuff)

-          And finally, protect your meals in a suitable and secure lunch pail for transportation to the office. 

So, again, I’m not a doctor or nutritionist, nor am I even an unfrozen caveman lawyer, BUT I am someone who has lost over 20 pounds on the above plan over the last 3 months.  

                                Right Photo Credit: Kysha Hunt

I plan to keep at it and see how far I can go (Rob says I need to lose another 20 lbs).  And worst case scenario, I’m eating tasty grilled meals every day and NOT GAINING any weight.  OH, and I almost forgot, I really haven’t done any exercise at all with the plan, despite Rob’s suggestions to do so.  I do plan to start incorporating some exercise into my routine, but not until I’ve lost another 10 pounds or so because then it will be easier.  To do exercise now would just be harder because I’d be carrying the extra weight.  Think about it, that actually makes some sense in a strange way.  ;)

P.S. Thank you Rob.  And thank you Mr. Holmesdale for asking if I needed an Aspirin, it was the kick I needed.

Hunting for Some Good Schwenker!

This week I’m in Berlin Germany for a business trip and yet sadly, I’ve been unable to find some schwenker yet.  For those unfamiliar with what a schwenker is (which was me as well about 10 minutes ago), a schwenker is essentially a grill which originated from the German state of Saarland.  How it works?  Well, the Schwenkermeister erects his schwenker…<cough> over a campfire and suspends a grill on a chain attached to the tip of it.  Confused?   I think this needs a drawing for those of you whose minds went right to the gutter after reading that last sentence.

So now you get it, right?  It’s a metal tripod and the meat cooks on the grill suspended from the tripod.  I suppose I could have just written it that way but it was so much more fun to take you guys into the gutter with me.  I am planning to ask around today to see if there’s a good schwenker place anywhere close by, but I think this may be an elusive type of thing that true Schwenkermeisters (in North America that’d roughly translate to grill master) only cook out in the country under an open fire.  But fingers crossed.

Now in the meantime to tide you all over, I do have a pic of what I ordered at a Tapas place last night.  The place is called Mar Y Sol and the food was quite good.  Not knowing what it included, I ordered the ‘meat platter for two’ figuring that description was all I needed to know.  I was right.  It was great and featured some steak strips, lamb chops, chicken and sausages.  There were some ‘filler’ veggies on there as well but I didn’t waste my time on those distractions.  Most of the meat was prepared on a gas grill.  I enjoyed this with some sangria to wash it down and cool me from the meat sweats that came on pretty strong at about the 35 minute mark.  The best part about this whole meal though, was that they brought out props prior to delivering the platter of meat.  You always know it’s going to be a good meal when they have to pre-deliver some tools to make sure you are able to get the job done (think about when you order lobster and they have to come out and give you a bib, some cracking tools etc.).  They brought out the obvious steak knife, BUT the best thing was this special two-level box with candles lit on the first level to ensure my meat platter stayed hot on the second level.  That’s just smart, enabled me to take my time and acted almost as a stage complete with floor lighting to properly display my meat.  Very cool.

But back to the world of grilling - I had a great conversation at lunch time yesterday with two Russians, a Spaniard and a German about the predominant use of charcoal on this side of the Atlantic.  They explained that gas grills are just not present here except maybe in restaurants.  Everyone either uses a charcoal grill or hibatchi and if they are city dwellers and don’t have the ability to use charcoal due to the smoke, they just use tiny electric grills as a last resort.  Propane, is not really considered a cooking gas here at all.

Anyway, all that to say that I still have a few more nights in Berlin before I fly back to Canada, and I’ll see if I can track down some good schwenker before I head back.  Stay tuned!

P.S. If anyone knows a good place where I should go, please post a comment here or on the Manuel Grilling Facebook page. 

Who's the Best Fictional Grill Master?

When I started to think about ideas for this blog, one of the things that I woke up thinking about was who, out of all the fictional characters I enjoy, would be the better grill master?  I pondered who should make the short list and I quickly came down to two names: Hank Hill, Assistant Manager of Strickland Propane and Propane Accessories; and recent newcomer Ron Swanson, Director of the Parks and Recreation Department of the City of Pawnee Indiana.

Those who know me well, know of my penchant for pondering who’d best the other in my fictional battle scenarios, most notably my Super Bowl scenario where the Vulcans would face off against the Klingons.  I think that would go to the Klingons, but I don’t think you can completely write off the Vulcans so quickly as they do have great strength and are very analytical.  Anyway, back to the grill… Hank and Ron.  This would be a really good Iron Chef scenario in Battle BBQ for sure.  And since you are still reading at this point, I’ll break the issues of the battle down for you.

Let’s start with Hank Hill.  Now Hank is certainly a master of the grill for sure.  He’s worked at Strickland Propane selling propane and propane accessories for well over 15 years.  He takes his job incredibly seriously and lives by the “taste the meat, not the heat” code of the grill.  BUT, as we saw in episode 95 ‘Hank and the Great Glass Elevator’,  Hank is vehemently opposed to charcoal.  He’s so stubborn that I’d bet if he ran out of propane (which would have to occur from some sort of fluke global propane shortage because he’d never run out any other way) that Hank would likely still not taint his image with the black soot of dirty charcoal.  Still, I do hold him in high praise for his stubbornness when it comes to his response to his son’s question about what to do if a guest wants their steak well done.

I’m not as familiar with Ron Swanson’s grilling resume and background, but from what I have seen, the man knows his meat and his way around a grill.  Ron’s also got a real flair of simplicity and general calm about him that doesn’t limit him to a gas grill.  In the 2nd episode of season 3 “Flu Season”, Ron actually fires up a charcoal grill in the office.  Swanson strikes me as somewhat of a MacGyver of the grill, likely using what's available and he keeps things real simple, letting the meat speak for itself.  Though I’ve mentioned simplicity, don’t let that fool you, some of his ideas such as the turkey hamburger are just so simple, it’s really common sense.  Watch the video here to see the steps on how to deep fry the turkey leg and then put it in your giant hamburger patty… pure, simple, genius.  

So what we’re left with are two very different styles and in some cases conflicting religious camps: gas vs. charcoal.  As well, the anal retentive stubborn nature of Hank makes me wonder if you’d ever get anything new from him aside from perhaps an Alamo Beer Can Chicken.  Actually come to think of it, I don’t think Hank would even use an Alamo Beer on a chicken, I think he’d think it a waste of a good beer.  But discoveries and great cooking can often occur when you use the recipe merely as a guideline and mix things up a bit.  I just think Hank would find that too stressful. 

Ron on the other hand isn’t much for adding any flavor at all.  In the burger cook off of season 3, he purchased his meat at the “Food N’ Stuff”, straight simple ground beef and made his burgers plane jane.  Yet in my opinion, using charcoal is going to add a whole layer of flavor that Hank’s going to lack using the propane grill.  You know, the more I think of it and especially after watching the clip below, I think Hank and Ron would actually be friends, or rather friendly towards each other.  I don’t think either would make the effort to develop the friendship because that's who they are, but they’d sure have a great chat meeting at a gas station.

Anyway, I digress.  It really is a tough call, but I hope I’ve perhaps given you some fodder to consider in making your selection on the poll of who would be the better fictional grill master (located in the top right corner of this page). Cast your vote today! J

Goosebump Inducing Pulled Pork!

If you've read the 'about me' section on this page, you're about to see that this was pretty much the most perfect 48 hours of my life this year thus far.  I had just returned from a 7 hour motorcycle ride from Vermont when my wife Kelly showed me the 6lb pork butt she purchased for me.  Nothing says love like pork butt.  A friend of mine suggested a recipe from The Grill Smith and it proved to be outstanding.  Kelly prepared the rub and then I went to work on rubbing the crap out of the butt (not exactly how I meant that to sound but you get the idea). 

We let the butt sit for a while and stopped for a beer having worked so hard thus far.  Next up was prepping the grill as this was going to be a LONG overnight low and slow smoke.  Being new to the charcoal grill, I checked out a number of links online and settled on this site for guidance.  I didn’t go to the extreme he suggests with separating my charcoal lumps and it still worked fine but followed his general guidance overall.  What I basically learned from reading his tips though, was that I should really figure out how to set and MAINTAIN the proper temperature before I throw the butt on.  So at about 8:30pm, I fired up the grill and over the next 2 hours, I fiddled with the top and bottom vents to make sure I was able to keep the temp at 225 F. 

At 10:30pm, I threw the butt on the grill and after another hour of temperature watching (and confidence building) we went to bed. Now like any good man dreaming of butt ;) I woke several times throughout the night and went outside in my skivvies to check the temperature making the odd tiny adjustment to the vents when needed. 

By around 2pm on Friday July 1^st, the interior temp of the meat hit 195 F and it was ready to come off the grill.  I wrapped my butt in tin foil and put it in a cooler for a few hours.  That time period is crucial as it continues to break down so that the meat just falls off the bone later when you fork the butt ;) to pull it from the meat (sorry for the 80 sexual innuendoes, but there’s just so many opportunities to do so when dealing with pork butt - and yes, I know, the pork 'butt' is actually from the shoulder).

Supper that evening was pulled pork sandwiches with Kelly having prepared an outstanding sauce to top the meat.  We enjoyed with a nice bold bottle of red wine which just made it even more enjoyable. The smoky flavor came through in the pork in such a way that when I brought some in to work the following week, a friend actually got goosebumps while eating it saying it was so amazing.*

*Disclaimer – Rob does have diabetes and there was a lot of sugar in the BBQ sauce Kel made, so it’s entirely possible the goosebumps were not a result of my pulled pork, but hey, he still said it was outstanding.

So, check out the loads of pulled pork recipes online or contact The Grill Smith  for his recipe and get grilling.  This was my first attempt at a low and slow smoke and if I can give goosebumps to a diabetic – dammit, so can you!

Get grilling!  What’s the worst that could happen? ;)