Monthly Archives: August 2013

08.17.13
by

Grilled Whole Fish

Love fish.

Have cooked whole fish, usually poached.

We go to Whole Food about once a month to get Newman’s Own Thin Pretzel Sticks. As far as we know, no other store in Reno carries them. When passing the display of whole fish on ice, we often remarked, “Can’t wait till we get the EGG, we’ll grill a whole fish.”

We now have the Big Green Egg and Thursday we bought a 1 1/2 pound Snapper at Whole Food. (We also got two bags of those pretzels, coffee filters, and a cantaloupe on sale.)

The fish lady helped us pick out the fish and cleaned and scaled it. She also gave us a bag of ice. We put the fish and ice in its own bag and put it on the floor of the back seat of our car, figuring it wouldn’t get too hot down there. When we got home, we put the whole shebang — bag, ice and fish — on a plate in the refrigerator.

Snapper waits for the fire.

I went recipe hunting. Weber’s Big Book of Grilling has a few recipes for whole fish — snapper, trout — but they depend on stuffing, or marinating or foil packets — no straightforward grilling. I looked on…

Cook’s Illustrated Guide to Grilling and Barbecue has a number of recipes and tips for grilling whole fish.

“Fish weighing more than 2 pounds will be hard to maneuver on the grill and should be avoided.”
“Rub the fish with olive oil and season with salt and pepper on the outside as well as the inside.”

“Use a sharp knife to make shallow diagonal slashes every 2 inches along both sides of the fish from top to bottom, beginning just behind the dorsal fin. This helps to ensure even cooking and also allows the cook to peek into the flesh to see if it is done.”

The Big Green Egg Cookbook has a recipe for Whole Snapper with Lemon and Rosemary. Just what I need, except they call for a 4 to 5 pound fish.

“Rinse the fish under cold water and pat dry with paper towels.”

They, too, call for slashing the skin on both sides of the fish, coating the fish with olive oil and seasoning with salt and pepper.

As the recipe title implies, they stuff the cavity of the fish with thin slices of garlic, thin slices of lemon and sprigs of fresh rosemary. (We didn’t have fresh rosemary, so we used fresh dill weed.)

They then go into the grilling method with the EGG:

Set the EGG for direct cooking with the porcelain coated grid and preheat to 350°F.

Snapper over the fire.

The fish was positioned on the grid,  so that it easily could be rolled from one side to the other.

I cooked the snapper 6 minutes per side starting at 400°F and second side at 350°F

It came out juicy and lovely, here served with chard and a bean salad.

Yum !

08.05.13
by

5 Guys come to Reno

We got our car washed recently. Kietzke Lane is a major north-south street in Reno. McCarran circles the city. Hutch’s Car Wash is on a corner of Kietzke and McCarran “behind the Union Bank” in one of those tangled shopping areas that makes no sense.

They do a really nice job on our car and there’s always a coupon in the RGJ or one of those “deal envelopes” that get tossed in our driveway.

As we left Hutch’s, we ran smack into 5 Guys Burgers and Fries. We had heard that they opened in Reno, but didn’t know exactly where. Well, they’re in the same tangled shopping area.

It was about quarter to noon on Friday, so we just parked and walked in.

Big noisy place. We found a line on the left side of the room next to stacked bags of potatoes. One woman was taking orders, so the line did not move extra quickly. When we got to her, we found out why. There are choices.

Who knew they could do such a thing? I went into brain-lock trying to quickly decide what I wanted on my “Little Cheeseburger.” Meanwhile, Carol was in my ear saying “I want relish, mushrooms and steak sauce.” Continue reading →

08.04.13
by

BEAN SALAD, YUM

Yesterday afternoon, I had some beans soaking and Carol sent me a link to Epicurious bean salads… 23 of ‘em. After reading the first two or three, I said to myself, “They make them up just like I do.” So I stopped reading and put my Iacopi Farms prim mateca beans on to cook.

From there, I hit the refrigerator and pantry. So here’s what went in the bowl, roughly in order of quantity:

assembly of the bean salad

Iacopi Farms prim mateca beans
Bush’s canned black beans, drained
Steamed, grilled and chopped blue lake green beans leftover from yesterday’s steak dinner
Steamed, grilled and chopped Romano beans – likewise
Fresh chopped Cherokee purple tomato
Canned ripe olives, sliced
Chopped spring onion
Diced red bell pepper
Sliced cornichons
Canned Water chestnut, julienned

That was topped with Bumble Bee solid white Albacore tuna and garnished with Castelvetrano Olives and a Cheese Stick.
An olive oil, white balsamic vinegar and mustard vinaigrette dressed the salad.

bean salad served

I served Sun Gold tomatoes on the side. While they are bursting with flavor, I find the skins tough and annoying when mixed in with a salad. (Best to roast or grill them and the skins slip right off.)

That was so good, I had the bit left over for breakfast, with HB egg instead of tuna. Double YUM.

breakfast (Why the knife and no fork? Clean knife left from last night’s dinner.)

08.03.13
by

Hot and Juicy

The Perfect Steaks.

I’m still into trying new stuff — new ways of grilling on the Big Green Egg. When I took inventory of the garage freezer I found a Porterhouse steak on the bottom wrapped in white butcher paper. Not sure where or when I got it… probably from Blue Ribbon Meat, they use that kind of paper. Anyway, it was lovely, about 1 1/2 inches thick and with a nice size tenderloin.

I went to the Big Green Egg website in search of a cooking technique, and found this:

The Perfect Steaks (No author or source was listed.)

Ingredients:

2 steaks, 1-1/2 to 2-inches thick, preferably rib-eyes

1/4 cup kosher salt

1/2 tsp white pepper

2 tsp black pepper

1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
Trim the steaks of any excess fat. Mix all of the dry ingredients together and apply to both sides of the steaks. Allow to stand at room temperature for 30 minutes before grilling.
Set the EGG® up for direct cooking. To increase sear marks use a cast iron cooking grid; for extra flavor add wood chips.
When the EGG is heated to 650°F, place the steaks on the grill and sear for two to three minutes.
Open the lid and flip the steaks onto a new section of the grid. After two to three more minutes, flip the steaks once more.
Completely shut down the EGG by closing the damper top and draft door. Let the steaks continue cooking for 3 to 4 minutes, until they reach the desired internal temperature (check with a meat thermometer).
Remove the steaks and let them rest for 5 minutes before serving.

I planned to steam green beans and grill them and grill a peach for dessert, as the steak rested. I had only one steak, but that’s enough for we two.

I set up for direct cooking and threw in soaked wood chips. The fire seemed rip roaring, and I had the bottom draft door full open and the top damper full open, but it didn’t look like the temps were going to go above 400°F.

Change of plans. Might as well grill the peach and green beans that I had planned to grill after the steak. When those were done the temps were still hanging around 400 so I just took the top damper off the EGG.

damper off… a new technique

This was not a technique noted in the recipe but Hoo Baby the temps started climbing. At 600 I threw on the steak and the temps just went up to 700 by the time 2 minutes had passed. Flipped the steak for another 2 minutes… by now the temps hovered around 650. Flipped and took the instant read temperature of the steak, about 85°F. Seared another minute on each side, inside temp 98. Flipped the steak and shut all the grill vents. Grill temps stuck about 500.

Left another 2 minutes, flipped; inside temp about 115, another 2 min, inside temp about 130, took off the steak and took its picture.

After resting about 4 minutes, internal temperature rose to 145, a little overcooked, but real juicy with a fine crust.

Accompanied by a baked sweet potato, blue lake beans and Romano beans.

So, the timing for my 1 1/2 inch porterhouse:
2 min + 2 + 1 + 1, shut down vents, 2 + 2 more minutes. Coulda shoulda taken off at 115 to 120°F.
Now I know.