The use of that word in modern slang notwithstanding – I ask you quite seriously: “Ever cooked a cougar?”

This past Sunday I was at a great Christmas party (there were carols, silly sweaters, great food and an accordion player – yeah, I know how to live it up!)  where I just happened to casually ask a friend I hadn’t seen in a while about what he and his wife did for Thanksgiving. He reported they’d traveled to the remote Idaho location of his father’s new house. My friend is an architect and he wanted to show me some pictures of the home and location on his iPhone. The home his father built by hand is an elegant design and located in an amazingly glorious natural setting with incredible vistas. I was enchanted by the photos and, almost as an after thought, I asked about their dinner.

You know, something casual  like: “And what did you have for dinner?” I guess I kinda thought he might tell me about the wild duck, pheasant or maybe turkey  they had hunted – I believe these are all fairly plentiful within a few hours drive of the home. His reply stunned me.

“Cougar – two ways.”

I’ll admit to never having heard of anyone eating mountain lion. And because the mascot of the cross state college rivals is a cougar – I just assumed he was talking about a sporting event. uh-uh.

Then he flipped to the next picture on the iPhone and showed me this…

"That's cougar pan frying (l) & cougar braising in apple chutney (r)."

“Mountain lion (cougar) are very common in the area north of White Bird, Idaho and a local rancher shot it with a permit. My dad got some from him and suggested we prepare it in his new kitchen.  One batch we lightly dusted in flour and herbs, then pan seared. And the other was pretty much braised on the stove top in an apple chutney mixture.  Both were really quite good but I think the cougar in flour and herbs allowed the true flavor of the meat to come through a bit more. It was lighter in color than pork tenderloin.  The taste is very similar to pork but a little more gamy and, because it’s so lean, the meat dried out quickly like pork.”

_____________________

OK.  I got nothun.

Anyone who’s known me for even a little while – knows that I enjoy good food. Sometimes it’s fancy and sometimes it’s simple – as long as it’s good! Something that always seems to make a good meal better is sharing it with friends and family. I think maybe the association of meals and family started as a kid – especially around holiday celebrations. I do remember the big holiday meals of Thanksgiving – usually at one of the homes of my two oldest sisters. These would be day-long events and lot’s of people. The dinner would never be “on time” as my mother and sisters would bustle about and finally deliver to the hungry group a big ol’ turkey and all the trimmings. When I was older and living on my own – there were many holidays where the closest I came to having that traditional meal was sitting at the counter of a Denny’s just off the interstate. And on several occasions, as an invited guest, I was very surprised (or was it unsettled?) to discover that some folks fixed roast beef or a ham for Thanksgiving.

(more…)

Julia Child - omnivore.

Much has been written of late about the popularity of cooking shows on Television.  Food network is devoted to food preparation as a form of entertainment.  Perhaps it all started with Julia Child and her original TV show broadcast live in real time.  Love, hate or indifferent to her style – ya gotta admire the way that lady swung her mallet in the kitchen.

One of my favorite quotes attributed to her – so let’s just uphold that notion – is this:

“The only time to eat diet food is while you are waiting for the steak to cook.” ~ Julia Child (1912-2004)

I get many suggestions and tips on good recipes. Many of which I try out and, believe it or not – once in a while I even have an original idea. For example – this weekend while watching the game we ordered a ham and pineapple pizza. What a great combination of flavors! I really like the balance of sweet and salty. About my third piece …

Half a pineapple - I removed the core, skin and cut into chunks.

“Hey…” I thought out loud, “What if I wrapped bite size chunks of pineapple in bacon and cooked them in The Big Easy or on the grill?”

Everyone grunted their approval and that was good enough for me. Today I was at the store bright and early making my purchases. Half a pineapple and  one small package of apple wood smoked bacon, thick sliced.

C’mon – doesn’t this sound good?

Grilled chunks of fresh sweet pineapple wrapped in crispy salty bacon.  Yeah – me too.

(more…)

I wanna give a big ol’ “Ooh-Rah!” to our own Mike “Pit Pirate” Hedrick -  an original Sizzle on the Grill Guest Chef and all around good guy – who shared this bit o’news with readers of the Users Forums this past weekend:

Mike Hedrick in full NASCAR mode.

“I’m very honored and excited to accept the position of National Spokesman for “BBQ for the Troops”! We provide and serve more than 100,000 meals of BBQ to returning service people of every branch of service.”

“I am proud to serve in this great American grassroots movement. I’ll be helping get the group Facebook page stocked with content: stories, photos and videos of events. An example of the massive undertaking is feeding barbeque to nearly 20,000 troops this coming May at the 29 Palms, CA training ground. How cool is that?!”

For more information: BBQ For Our Troops

NEXT: These Marines deploy to Afghanistan, early January 2010

December 18th [Friday]
Christmas Party for 600 Marines
5th Battalion, 11th Marine Division
Camp Pendleton, California

Mike has dedicated hundreds of volunteer hours to this project over the years and will be an enthusiastic spokesperson to promote their efforts. With a son in the service who is deployed overseas…Mike understands well the hardships that these dedicated men and women undertake.  An afternoon of tasty barbeque is just a small way of showing appreciation for all they do.

Thanks Mike.

Enjoyed watching this – gave me a chuckle.

Parents may now think twice about admonishing their kids to “Stop Playing with your food!”  They could be working on a masterpiece!

Happy Grilling!

Fresh wild caught King Salmon on sale.  I’ll treat myself to the perfect piece. Trim out the fillet for my dinner – separating the thinner belly from the main thickness of the fish. Gonna grill this for my dinner. Yowsah – it’s gonna be DEE-LISH-US!

Prepare the fish by lightly seasoning with a special rub that includes finely ground cumin, saffron, mustard seed, coriander, nutmeg, cloves, cardamom, ginger, chili, cayenne, cinnamon, turmeric, and a touch of black pepper. Let it rest about 30 minutes to absorb some of the flavor.  Light spritz of canola oil. To the grill!

Searing wild King Salmon, flesh side down on 500F degree grates.

Flesh side down on 500F degree grates of Urban Grill with Quantum Infrared System and sear for about 4 -5 minutes until the sear marks ‘release’ from the grates.

(more…)

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!

Sometimes the best laid plans are canceled.

That’s what happened to me on July 3. The intrepid public relations person for Char-Broil had cajoled the producer of the local ABC affiliate TV station to feature me in a live segment called “Grilling Tips for the 4th” scheduled to air live on the 4pm newscast last Friday, July 3rd.  She painstakingly talked me through all of the necessary elements to making a good impression. (You can believe she has her work cut out with me!) Unfortunately sometime during the night before the scheduled event the newsroom electronic equipment had a short-circuit that resulted in a fire – and the entire building was closed down.

(more…)