Barbecuing and Grilling 101
From Linda’s recent NPR interview.
May is national barbecue month. Have you ever turned out black and crusty chicken from the grill? Or, have you cut into a steak from the grill that is charred on the outside, but still cold on the inside? Cooking on the grill takes some skill and with a few important tips we can all turn out perfect grilled foods. My guest on my NPR radio program gave us some tips. He’s Andrew Schloss, a cooking teacher and author. His latest book authored with David Joachim, is Mastering the Grill (Chronicle Books $24.95). And it’s a detailed guide book for everything to do with grilling. Here are some of his tips:
Avoid blackened or burned meats:
Sear meats on the direct flame and then move them to a lower heat or indirect heat. This way they will be browned on the outside and juicy inside.
Grilling Tips:
Keep your grill grates clean and well-oiled. This gives you the best browning, deepest grill marks and purest flavors.
Preheat the grill. Hot grates help to sear the foods and prevents sticking.
Oil the grill grates just before adding food to help prevent sticking.
Accessories:
There are many useful accessories and some are just for fun. Essential ones include, heatproof silicone grill gloves, grill brushes, scraper and scrubbers, grill lamp, disposable aluminum pans, tongs, spatula, grill fork, grill basket, grill trays, thermometer.
Fred Takser’s Barbecue Wine Suggestions:
Fred Tasker is the wine columnist for the Miami Herald and writes the wine suggestions for Linda’s Dinner in Minutes columns. He is heard each week on her NPR show.
The question of the day is, what kind of wine goes with backyard grilling?
The answer is, whatever kind of wine you like.
The even better answer is that it’s ok to use inexpensive wines when you’re grilling. When you’re sitting in your lawn chair sipping a glass of wine and watching a big steak burn beyond recognition, it’s not usually an occasion for a subtle, fragile $600 burgundy. It’s a casual situation.
Now, if you’re grilling a big new york strip, marbled with tasty fat, charred on the outside, red and rare inside, this is the time, if every there will be one in your life, for a great, big cabernet sauvignon. It may be the best wine-food match in the world.
But there are lots of other nice matches.
A fruity pinot noir with a nice grilled hunk of salmon.
A zingy australian
shiraz with the world’s best hamburger.
There are white-wine combinations too.
A crisp sauvignon blanc with grilled shrimp or a delicate piece of mahi-mahi or grouper.
The same wine with grilled veggies - there’s nothing better than a sauvignon blanc with a big, inch-thick chunk of vidalia onion marinated in oil and balsamic vinegar. Or grilled eggplant or summer squash or whatever.
And there’s nothing better than a nice, sweet muscat dessert wine with a grilled dessert of fruit - grilled peaches, grilled pears, grilled bananas - slathered, while still hot, over really rich vanilla ice cream.
Wow. I may need a minute to compose myself.