Well… lots of things! Been too long since I wrote something here. Since my last post, Louise got me a cookbook for my birthday and we’ve made a couple of things from it – pan-fried cod with potato crust and something they call French Countryside chicken which was really good.
The big news for me though is the BBQ I bought a couple of weeks ago! I got a Weber Spirit E310 after lots of research (I research the crap out of anything I buy, ever… it’s a type of OCD I think). Home Depot had a BBQ sale and I got 20% off. For some reason it came assembled even though we didn’t pay for that which was pretty handy! And yeah, it’s a propane grill, not charcoal. I didn’t want the hassle of lighting coals every time I wanted to use it. I’m sure charcoal smoke does make the flavor slightly better for long cooking times, but convenience and even heating is worth that small sacrifice to me.
So far it’s fantastic. We’ve had some sunny weather finally, and I’ve made my own burgers, marinated and grilled some chicken breasts, but last night I found nirvana with a couple of tenderloin steaks and some seasoned sliced potatoes with onions and garlic. Nothing fancy on the steaks – let them warm up to room temperature, then put on some garlic powder, salt and pepper, and brushed with olive oil. Got the grill as hot as it would go, seared them for 4 minutes a side and let them finish off with a lower indirect heat for another 6 minutes, turning once more. They were slightly overdone (medium instead of medium-rare) but holy crap the char on the outside was PERFECT. Less time on indirect heat next time and they’ll be perfect.
The potatoes were great too. I followed this youtube video almost exactly, though I added some cayenne, marjoram, oregano and paprika as well as the salt and pepper they use in the video (I didn’t have any seasoning salt to use so I figured that would be more or less what was in that anyway). 30 minutes on medium heat, then I took them off while the grill was at melting point for the steaks, and readded them for 5 minutes for the final lower temperature bit.
Looking forward to plenty more BBQ adventures over the summer, though I need to find more healthy recipes; all this red meat will do me in!
