Seattle skyline with Mt. Tahoma (aka Rainier). Photo by NOAA

Seattle weather is pretty mild. Blessed with a maritime climate, the city is flanked by a deep salt water  fjord to the west (Puget Sound) and a large snow fed fresh water lake  (Washington) to the east.  It’s usually not too hot in the summer nor too cold in the winter. Usually.  This summer we are sweltering with no rain since May and more-than-a week of 90-degree-plus weather. Just yesterday was the hottest day on record, 102F degrees. Today is s’posed to be hotter! So, with most homes lacking air-conditioning…how to stay cool?

Salmon plated and ready to serve at water's edge.

Long-time readers know that I lived in a floating home for a number of years, only moving because my collection of grills and smokers out grew the limited space afforded by the small deck surrounding the 750sq.ft. 100 year-old fishing cabin. Fortunately I have friends who either live on boats or have access to the water. My best friend Norman is a former neighbor in the floating home community. With a simple phone call we invited our way to his place the other evening, for dinner, practicing the time-tested formula of having the good manners to bring the food!

Norman recently took delivery of a Char-Broil Heatwave infrared grill he purchased online from Char-Broil. He knows about infrared because he’d owned one of the original TEC infrared grills for a dozen years or more before it finally pooped out. A business associate gifted him with a top-of-the-line Weber grill (retail more than $1,500) and Norman used it last year. He complained to me about the lack of truly high heat on the grill, a grilling necessity he was used to when grilling over the natural infrared of his former grill. He asked me about my three-burner Char-Broil RED infrared gas grill, sampled food cooked on it several times and was convinced. Turned out he preferred the darker cabinet and work surface colors of  the Heatwave over  the color of RED so he purchased two Heatwave grills, one for his son and the other for himself. (For those of you keeping score, that’s 2 new infrared grills for less than the price of the expensive conventional gas grill.)

Grilled avocados sprinkled with mild curry powder, grilled lemon wedges (to mellow the flavors) and grilled wild caught Alaska sockeye salmon with dungeness crab.

While the evening breeze lowered the temperature to a reasonable 85F degrees, I grilled the salmon, avocados and lemon quarters on the Heatwave at the grate temperature of nearly 700F degrees and couldn’t have been more pleased with the results. I spritzed the fish with canola oil and seared the salmon on the skin side first, then easily flipped it to quick-sear the flesh.  Removing the sockeye fillet from the grill with a large spatula, I let  it rest, lightly covered with foil, on the platter while the avocado and lemon slices grilled.  I served the salmon with a heap of freshly shelled chilled dungeness crab, the grilled avocado and lemons and garnished  the plate with sprigs of sorrel and tarragon.

Of course, we had something cold and bubbly to quench our thirst!

So tell us! What’s on YOUR grill this week?

Happy Grilling!

Citizens of Mt. Horeb, Wisconsin parade in tribute to mustard at the 2008 Mustardfest celebration on National Mustard Day. (Ahem - the young lady on the right evidently enjoys a little "razzberry" with her mustard!

One of my favorite web sites is The MT. Horeb Mustard Museum, a fun idea that is seriously dedicated to that tasty little seed with so much history, mustard.  The ‘curator’ is a self-confessed silly guy and I like that in just about anyone, but especially so because he’s dedicated to tasty condiment that is so useful for grilling and barbeque. Join in the fun this weekend, or as often as you like, and try out some grilled, barbequed or smoked foods that either use mustard in the recipe or as a ’sauce’ for the finished product.

CB's degree in the existential philosophy of mustard bestowed upon him at an early age by the infamous 'Poupon U'

May I recommend a generous dollub of tangy stone ground mustard as a DEE-LISH-US accompaniment to grilled hanger, sirloin or flank beef steak. Oh, in case you ‘doubt’ my credentials for discussing ‘moutarde’ – I’ll have you know I am certified as a “Philosopher of Dijon” by the infamous ‘Poupon U.’

Happy Grilling!

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Here are some posts you may enjoy which feature mustard:

Mom’s Mustard Eggs
Rib & Pork Rub Tip
Grilled Hanger Steak – ‘Moutarde’
Brady’s Cajun-Style Pork Ribs
Lettuce Wraps of Grilled Meats & Veggies
Grilled “MEAT” Scallopini with Sauces to Match Your Appetite!
Rotisserie Roasting a Ribeye Rack
Roast Pork – Stone Ground Mustard Glaze

And here are some recipes that feature mustard as an important ingredient:

CB’S EZ Georgia-Style Mustard Sauce
Cherry Mustard Grilled Pork Tenderloin
CB’s EZ ‘Moutarde’ Sauce for Grilling.
Suzanne’s Deviled Eggs
Smoky Mist Mustard Sauce

Visitors at the Brickyard 400 extend their hands to "feel the power" of infrared while a tour team member enjoys the moment. Alas, their hands are not steaks.

NASCAR fans were revved up at the Brickyard 400 this past week in Indianapolis! The source of the energy appears to be the excitement generated when they learned about Char-Broil grills featuring natural infrared heat – Grilling’s Juicy Little Secret!™   2

The Grilling Team members were more than happy to provide visitors delicious samples of grilled Bubba Burgers & Hillshire Farm brats with a generous selection of tasty Buccaneer Blends sauces. Most of all  the are very glad to share the juicy little secret within the Char-Broil infrared grills!

This week the team is heading to Columbus, OH for the Ohio State Fair – one of the largest state fairs in the country! Make sure to stop by and see us so we can let you in on the secret!

CLICK HERE for the 2009 Grilling Tour schedule and locations.

I am always pleased to hear from “da goyles” (as I like to call them) and learn what they’ve been cooking, because they cook fresh ingredients  over traditional wood and charcoal fires and that makes for some tasty meals.  Another reason and one that always inspires a smile is reading updates about their family, seems to me they enjoy sharing their food with friends and family, and that’s the best way to dine.  Someday I hope to be invited to one of their cookouts!  This summer has been full of family celebrations for the G.O.G. with at least one wedding that I know of and also a celebration of health and triumph over illness!  This week I’m posting their recipe for Seared Smoked Tuna Loin – certainly one of my favorite meals to prepare – their tasty preparation sounds DEE-LISH-US!

Happy Grilling!

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Hey, CB!

Our summer has been great and we’re enjoying family time as often as possible. This week we took our taste buds to the beach and LOVED grilling fresh seafood at the water’s edge in the open, salt air! Whenever possible we find the best ingredients we can and do as little as possible to compliment the natural flavors and characteristics.

Here is one our favorites – a wood fire grilled smoked tuna loin. YUM!

Stay cool, man!

Alison and Katie
Girls on a Grill

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Seared Smoked Tuna Loin

Our seared smoked tuna loin is a terrific light summer meat for an intimate dinner. We start with the freshest and best tuna “tenderloin” we can buy, then we do our best to leave it alone. There are many different types of tuna you can cook – depending upon what’s fresh, we try to use ‘Sashimi’ grade because it’s got the best flavor and texture. We brush on a simple marinade, sear it with directly over hot coals that also lend some some smoke flavor and WOW!

You can monitor how the tuna is cooking by watching the sides, as the fish cooks you'll see the color change - especially where the flesh is resting on the hot grates and is searing.

Start a one-level fire, medium-hot, using hardwood or lump charcoal.  If you are cooking at the beach be cautious about cooking food over driftwood as it may not impart clean smoke to the food!  We always clean and oil the grates before putting them down on the prepared fire – then put them on and let them heat up.

CB Tip: I find the best wood smoke for fish is milder, like fruit woods.  BUT I do like to add just a touch of mesquite or Kiawe wood from Hawaii.

Place the tuna loin over the white hot coals and this is very important! “Where it hits, it sits!” That means don’t move it until you get good grill marks. You can actually watch the tuna cooking by paying attentions to the sides of the meat just next to the grill – the meat will turn opaque as it cooks. You only want to cook about 1/4 inch in, for rare, 1/2 inch in for medium. Use tongs to turn the loin and cook on all sides for roughly the same amount of time as it took you to cook the first side, until you have cooked all three or four sides, depending upon how the tuna loin was cut. Remove to a platter and let it rest for a couple of minutes. You can cover loosely with foil – but be careful about holding in too much heat and over cooking!

Seared tuna has a crisp texture on the surface with a raw center!

Slice the tuna loin with a very sharp knife into bite pieces that are about 1/4 inch thick. These will provide a full taste and texture experience. The tastiest tuna is seared on the outside, tender and moist in the middle.  The entire mouth feel for each bite is a sensation of flavors and texture that is wonderful!

Here’s the recipe for Girls On a Grill – Grilled Smoke Tuna Loin

CB’s Tip for selecting fresh seafood: Fresh fish should smell clean and have only a slight aroma of salty air – some folks say it kinda reminds them of freshly cut cucumbers!  If it smells like fish – then it’s too ripe and not for eating.  Get to know a good fish monger or meat dept manager and have them show you the difference between grades of fish.

Raw ground beef. Photo by Cobalt123 at Flickr

When I was a kid I can clearly remember my dad using a hand crank meat grinder that clamped onto the counter top. He’d feed chunks of beef into it and turn the crank, as bright red and speckled white freshly ground meat disgorged from the grinder he’d take a fork-full and place it on a saltine, a good seasoning with both salt and pepper and we’d gobble it up. My mom would shriek and we boys all thought we were getting away with something!

Fast forward 50 years.

These days if you prepare your own ground beef and are 100% certain of the quality of the source of the meat – I would still advise against eating raw hamburger as we did. And especially if you purchase ground beef from the grocery store, either prepared at the store by the trained pros in the meat department or in those big tubes of ground meat. There is just too big of a risk that you’ll get some bacteria critter into your system and, just in case you’ve never had it, food poisoning is not a simple issue of discomfort. It can be life threatening!

Raw ground meat is not safe to eat. Hamburger is done when it reaches an internal temperature of 160F degrees as measured by a tip sensitive meat thermometer. Color is an unsafe indicator of doneness. Wash your hands after touching raw meat and before touching ready to eat products like buns. Prevent cross contamination! (This also goes for storing condiments like mustard, ketchup, mayo and the veggies like onions (these are little petri dishes!) and tomatoes, cheese, etc. – keep them covered and out of direct sunlight, cooled at or below 45F degrees!)

Personally I’ve switched over to using frozen burger patties like Bubba Burgers and have pretty much stopped making my own. When I do make my own burger patties, I make them the night before, less than 1/2 inch thick, and I freeze them as well. The chance of cross contamination using frozen meat is pretty slim, but it does have it’s own set of precautions.  I toss the meat on a hot grill directly from the freezer, and don’t waste any time between freezer and grill!  Cooking a frozen beef patty has some advantages, the outside will thaw on the grates and sear, while the moisture starts to travel upwards through the ground meat and begin to cook the center, I flip and sear the other side – then hold in a pan on the grill without direct heat until they finish. This keeps them moist and cooked to the right temperature! You may recognize this as the Sear & Hold method I tend to promote that (I find) ensures the outside has tasty sear marks and the inside slowly cooks to done of 160F degrees while remaining juicy.

Here are a couple of posts that have more information about temperatures for cooking meat, some include free PDF downloads for reference:

Practice Safe Food Handling
Protect your family from food borne ills.

How to cook different cuts of beef.

BBQ & Food Safety
A Free Download from the USDA

Is it Done Yet?
A Free Download from the USDA

Take a minute to plan your outdoor cooking to ensure all food will be handled, prepared and stored safely.  As ‘Chef’ at your home, you are responsible for safe food practices!

Happy Grilling!

Pork is one of the basic meats of barbeque. With apologies to my good friends in Texas (to whom I will remain forever indebted for teaching me how to cook brisket)  pork  is a meat people  really want to learn how to prepare on their grills. The basis for making this statement is the sheer number of recipe downloads, posted comments and emailed questions from readers I see here at Sizzle on the Grill.

No doubt about it, pork is a versatile meat.  When you consider all of the varieties of pork ribs, chops, shoulders, hams, loins, tenderloins and lest we forget – bacon,  I do believe you will pretty much agree when I say: Pork is a great meat to grill. And barbeque. And smoke. And eat!

This past week I came upon a delightful sight at my favorite Ballard market – dozens of fresh, natural (un-treated) pork loin roasts packaged and priced at $1.99 a pound. Yow-Suh.  I picked up a couple, cutting one into chops that I vacuum sealed and froze, and the other prepped to slow cook with smoke on my gas grill. That’s right. My gas grill.  I bet with a little practice, you can  do this on your grill just as well.

I prepped the pork loin roast by slicing a diamond pattern into the fat cap to help it render and crisp a bit.  The only seasoning I used was coarse sea salt and freshly ground black pepper.  As per usual I spritzed the flesh with some canola oil to help transfer heat.

I slow cooked and smoked this 2 lb pork loin roast on my 3 burner RED grill.  You can easily do this technique on a standard gas or charcoal grill as well.

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Country Thunder music fans play a game at the Char-Broil tour stop exhibit!

Country music fans headed to Twin Lakes, Wisconsin this past week for four days of grin’n, pluck’n, dance’n and grill’n

The Grilling Team was there, every two-step of the way – listening to some great music and sharing “Grilling’s Juicy Little Secret – Infrared!”

This week we head to Indianapolis for the famed Brickyard 400! Make sure to stop by and see us and we may let you in on the secret!

CLICK HERE for the 2009 Grilling Tour schedule and locations.

My aunt Sylvia celebrated her 83rd birthday this past weekend and her daughter invited everyone over for a barbeque. Connie (her daughter and my cousin) and husband Guy are both restaurant people so I knew the food would be good – especially cause all the aunts and cousins would also be bringing goodies to eat. And believe-you-me when I say it: My family loves to eat! I wasn’t disappointed at all. But I was pleasantly surprised!

On my way to the horseshoe pit I noticed a Char-Broil Commercial Series grill on the deck.  Surprise #1. As the afternoon progressed (unfortunately not my skill at horseshoes and my 80 year-old Uncle George totally carried me!) I was thoroughly enjoying catching up with family while taking full advantage of my proximity to the bean dip my Aunt Pat made, along with some tasty breads, deviled eggs and such when I saw Brandon, the son of Connie & Guy (Does that make him a cousin once removed?) tending to the grill. Turns out Brandon learned about cooking beginning at the age of 15 working alongside his dad in the restaurant kitchen.  Since graduating from culinary school he’s worked the line at several high-end steak houses and restaurants in the area. Currently he is executive chef at a small bistro in upstate Washington – specializing in food prepared in the rustic manner that celebrates the local farm country and fisherman. Surprise #2.

OK – I always like learning and was immediately interested in watching how a pro handles grilling steaks for 30 folks. I sauntered upstairs, just in case, you know, he needed a hand or some tips.  Ahem. Uncle CB is a grilling guy with a cookbook don’t-cha-know. Ahem.  Cough Cough.  And there was Surprise #3.

Brandon was the Chef de cuisine and fully in charge of the Char-Broil Commercial Series 4 burner loaded with steaks - making things happen!

Brandon had the grill full of seasoned New York style strip steaks and was really making things happen.  While he wasn’t precisely using the ‘Grilling by the Numbers‘ method I’ve written about – he had his own version of it and it was working. Oh man was it working.

Brandon used his own version of the Sear and Hold method of grilling. He worked like a pro calling out names and asking how they wanted their steak done. And, under his breath I hear him quietly grumble about not having tongs to do the job right!

He was calling out names of the senior adults (I’m still a kid comparatively speaking) asking each how they wanted their steaks.  As each called back their desire: “Rare – Medium-Well” he took note in his trained ‘chef brain’ and moved the steak to a specific section of the grill.  The rare steaks started on the warming rack – interesting concept – to start cooking with the excess heat coming off the grill – then he finished them on a hot section of the grill just before service.  Man he was cooking everything to be ready at the same time!

Steaks are grilled to specific doneness and moved to sections of the grates, and grill turned off, to finish with cumulative heat.

After getting the steaks done to his visual liking he then positioned them together on sections of the grates and closed the hood to finish them without any burners turned on so no additional heat  coming in the grill – just using the residual heat in the cast iron grates and the steaks themselves. It was the classic ‘Sear & Hold‘ method. The cumulative heat in the hot grill combined with build-up in the meat to finish each steak to what he had wanted. This guy planned out his meal and his cook!  Wow.

What were the results?  Can you imagine a backyard full of folks playing horseshoes, cousins playing music and messing about, older folks talking up a blue streak so they could hear one another and suddenly it all goes silent? The only words I heard were:  “yum” and the sound of chewing.

Well that’s how I got to spend my Sunday afternoon. What about YOU! What was on Your Grill this past weekend?

Happy Grilling!

A few of the variety of oils I keep in my pantry.

If you are a regular reader of Sizzle on the Grill you may have noticed I usually mention in recipes or online posts that I ’spritz’ meat with a bit of canola oil prior to grilling.  There are a couple of reasons I use this oil and why I spritz the meat, not the grates. First of all, unless the grates are being seasoned, the oil will burn off the grates before I place meat on it.  The oil serves a purpose of helping to rapidly transfer heat from the grates to the meat.  The seared meat proteins release when they are ‘done’ or brown and the oil merely facilitates this.   The second reason is because ‘grilling’ for me usually means I’m searing at a higher temperature, say 500F degrees or higher, before finishing at a lower temperature and I want an oil that will be OK for the higher heat. There really aren’t any that are both great for this high heat AND affordable. After testing a variety of oils I settled upon Canola for it’s generally higher temp capacity and  affordability.

Generally speaking, when frying or grilling I like to use oils which are flavor neutral.  I don’t want to add flavor to the grilled meat from the oil – especially from the oil incinerating at the higher temperature I use when grilling!  Depending upon the technique used to prepare the food I will use different oils because they have specific characteristics which enhance the food flavor. For example, I never use Extra Virgin or cold-pressed oils to cook with – grilling or other wise.  When extra virgin oils are exposed to heat they tend to burn quickly and turn bitter.  I use these primarily as a ‘top dressing’ of flavor on grilled meats after cooking, much the way I  might use a compound butter.

NOTE: I want to be very upfront about the content presented here. To write this post I have borrowed extensively from the exhaustive and comprehensive efforts by Andrew Grygus on the subject of oils. His work is published at www.clovegarden.com. Much of the specific information about oils is edited excerpts from his work and my comments are in blue after the information. The cooking oil Smoke Temperature & Composition chart at the bottom of the post is 100% his work.

As for all of this fuss I’m making about oils – let me fall back to my default philosophy about grilling and cooking: “If you are happy with the results you are getting, then keep doing things the way you do! YOU are the chef. But if you are interested in getting different results, this advice may be useful to you.”

Happy Grilling!

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My 3 most favorite grilling oils

1. Canola Oil:
“Canola” is an invented name (Canada + oil) for genetically modified rapeseed (technically, “low erucic acid rapeseed”). Rapeseed/Canola is a member of the mustard/cabbage family. Unmodified rapeseed is high in erucic acid which has caused heart lesions in animals so is considered unfit for food. The genetically modified (by breeding, not gene splicing) canola version has under 2% erucic acid and is approved by the FDA.  The smoke point of canola oil (400°F/200°C for refined oil) tolerates higher temperatures for frying and grilling  and the taste of canola oil  is unobtrusive so it can be used as a general purpose oil like grape seed oil or peanut oil. Canola oil is considered one of the more “heart friendly” oils, having a very high percentage of monounsaturated fats (though not as much as Olive Oil) and a very low percentage of saturated fats. In the past I’ve purchased spray cans of this oil as they are useful for ’spritzing’ meat. I’m switching to a mechanical spray device that I fill. It’s cheaper in the long run and less waste in the landfill.

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Looking through cookbooks this morning, and browsing about a selection of recipes I’ve saved from online RSS feeds and I’m getting hungry. I’m thinking a grilled whole fish is the right menu item to feature.  Crispy skin and tender moist flesh, served with a fruit salsa maybe and a cold glass-a-something tasty?

Grilled tilapia. (Photo: Webshots.com)

A very good fish to grill whole (and also very affordable) is the freshwater white fish tilapia.  Tilapia has a very light flavor that is perfect for the layer of smokiness you can achieve by cooking it whole on a hot grill. Perhaps stuffed with some flavorful herbs, butter, chopped shallots and garlic!

Tilapia is a fish native to rivers of southeast Asia and is farm-raised with great success here in the states, often in the same tanks as catfish and trout. You will see it on the menu of many Asian restaurants.

You can usually find trimmed fillets either fresh or frozen in most grocery stores. I think I’ll be heading to the International District here in Seattle later in the day where the uber-large Japanese market called Uwajimaya features big tanks of live tilapia from which to choose. I’ll post any pix we take!

What’s gonna be on YOUR grill this weekend?

Happy Grilling!

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Here are some recipes for grilled fish that may interest you:

Lemon Grilled Catfish

Grilled Marinated Tuna Steaks

Low Carb Grilled Trout

Grilled Swordfish with Citrus Salsa

Mixed Shellfish Grill with Roasted Red Pepper Sauce