Corn grilled to caramelize the natural sugars in the corn.

There are many experienced outdoor cooks who enthusiastically jump in to help with a wide variety of questions and that alone is a good reason to check out the Users Forums now and again.

The other reasons are the recipe ideas that kinda just get casually tossed out there in a post, mostly as an aside.  You may be reading a post about, oh – I dunno, smoke-roasting a turkey in The Big Easy Smoker, Roaster & Grill and the conversation will stray a bit and one person will post, in an off-hand way, a recipe for something they prepared a day or two before. I read them and often-times they simply blow me away.

Last week John – aka “LostArrow” on the Users Forums – posted this simple to prepare and oh-so-DEE-LISH-US! summer dish that you can serve hot or chilled.  I hope you try it…maybe play with the ingredients a bit…and make it part of your regular outdoor cooking menu!

Say – if you have a recipe or tip you’d like to share – post it in the comment section below, send me an email with it attached or – better yet – sign up for free on the Users Forums and add it there when the spirit moves you!

Thanks and…

Welcome to the cook-out!

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Grilled Corn Salad – Serve Hot or Cold

Hey CB – On our drive north from Mississippi to Chicago we stopped for the night in Mt. Vernon, Illinois – located smack dab in the middle of corn country. Everyone we asked gave us the same recommendation: “Go eat dinner at the 9th Street Grill. Well, what can I tell you? – the locals really knew their stuff and so did the kitchen!  We enjoyed a n excellent meal and each of our dinners came with a wonderful side dish – fresh corn that was first grilled and finished in a sauté with other garden fresh veggies. What’s that word you use all the time?  DEE-LISH-US!

Chopped bell pepper, purple onion and freshly grilled corn.

We were just about the last people in the restaurant, it being pretty late (8 o’clock) for farm country folks – so I asked if I could talk to the chef about the corn dish.  He was very gracious – like most good cooks who enjoy making people happy with the food they serve – sharing with me the basics of the dish.

Step One: Use fresh corn picked that day.  Shuck it and grill it on medium-high to mildly char the kernels and caramelize the natural sugars. Remove from the grill and allow to cool before slicing off the cob “sheets” of the corn.

Step Two: Sauté sliced or chopped onion, bell pepper (any color will do, I used orange  cause it was handy – but I bet red or green would look nice in contrast) in vegetable oil until just starting to soften a bit.

Quickly sauté corn & veggies.

Step Three: Add the freshly shaved corn to the sauté and season with salt & pepper to taste. The chef also gave me this tip – he uses a touch of  Lawry’s seasoning in the mix to add a complexity to the flavors. Sauté until thoroughly heated but don’t over cook – as you want to serve the dish so the vegetables retain a reasonable “crunch.”

Serve in a large bowl for family style or plate according to your meal. This is very easy & really good. I bet members of the forum will come up with their own variations of this dish using veggies from their garden and spice flavors to suit their own tastes.  I hope you enjoy!

LostArrow
Full Member – grills & smokes like someone who knows what they are doin.

Cantaloupe on the Big Easy SRG Grate

Hiya CB!

Nothing better after a summer dinner than a grilled fruit desert. Tonight it was grilled cantaloupe with home made frozen mango yogurt. Just sliced the cantaloupe, removed the skin with my fillet knife and dropped the slices on the preheated SRG grate. About 5 – 7 minutes then flip and another few minutes they are ready. Add to ice cream (or in this case mango frozen yogurt) and a nice simple, tasty desert.

Cheers,
David

Grilled Cantaloupe with Home-Made Frozen Mango Yogurt

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How Ya Doing CB?

Well, inspired by your post in the newsletter – I tried my luck with “Baby Back Ribs” today. They were OK but I had trouble keeping the charcoal at a good temp.

I was looking for 275F degrees and couldn’t get it to go over the 225F degree mark. We had a cool NW wind that was keeping everything cooled down. The ribs were a little dry on the outside but tender on the inside. I have not mastered this art at all.

The membrane was removed. Used your method, spoon and paper towel. Worked real good.

I used a dry rub that I like from a mail order place in Tennessee .

Wrapped ribs in plastic and placed in the refrigerator over night.

Started the charcoal in the chimney and separated in two piles in the grill. I used wet cherry wood for the smoke. Also tried using two aluminum loaf pans with the bottoms cut out to contain the charcoal. I did get finally get the grill to 275 degrees. (Also I bought a package of grill liners to make easy clean up.)

Ribs finished.

Any advice you have on ribs will be appreciated.

Have a good week,
Bob C. from NH

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Thanks for sharing this with us Bob. Couple of thoughts come to mind, since you asked:

First – Maybe cooking temperature is a bit high? I’m comfortable with under 250F for a slow cook with smoke. The internal temp of the ribs needs to get up to about 200F for the collagen and connective tissue to break down – it does at about 195F or so – but in a dry air smoker you can risk drying out a bit.

Second – Consider using the “Texas Crutch” – so named because, well to be truthful, I don’t know the actual reason just the mythology.  Essentially it’s the simple technique you perform after an hour or so of smoke at the 225F – 250F range — remove the partially cooked racks and wrap tightly in foil with a bit of moisture added (like apple cider, sauce or such) and let them continue to cook. This really softens up the meat and helps hold in moisture.

Third – Cook the ribs over direct heat for the final 10 minutes and glaze the unwrapped ribs with your favorite sauce. You could make it with a liquid medium like beer, water, ketchup, juice, etc. and the rub you like!

Smoke – Dry wood smokes, wet wood steams. I understand the use of dampened wood in the mixture will seem to slow things down and make the chips last longer. But, think about the competitive BBQ teams – then don’t use wet wood, it’s always painstakingly dried and cured before smoking.  Just sayin’

And the best advice I can give is to check out the Users Forum for advice, tips, tricks and good input from fellow backyard cooks who join in the conversation.  Regardless of the grill or cooker you own and use – you can probably find some helpful advice and friendly conversation there!

Do you have a tip for Bob? Or a question? Or want to share one of your backyard cooking experiences? Post a comment below or send me an email: cb@sizzleonthegrill.com  You can register online to post your comments on the Users Forums as well. (Registration serves to help block automatic spam-bots!)

Thanks and…

Happy Grilling!

Starting with a basic recipe from a cooking magazine and a Sizzle on the Grill post - 'drholly' came up with this idea for bacon-wrapped-roasted-stuffed new potatoes! Click on the picture to read the post.

Perhaps you've enjoyed prosciutto-wrapped melon as a refreshing summer appetizer or small plate. But bacon-wrapped melon that's roasted on the grill? Oh yes! Click on this picture to read the post on the Users Forums by 'drholly'.

Can anything wrapped in bacon that's fried or roasted or smoked be bad? I think 'drholly' proves the answer is no - with his post about cooking bacon-wrapped pickles, that he calls "Piggles-n-Cheese." Click on the picture to read the post.

What do you like to grill or roast outdoors? ‘drholly’ likes bacon and he experimented with several concepts of bacon-wrapped food that he cooked in his Big Easy Smoker, Roaster & Grill. Don’t let that stop you because bacon-wrapped food can be prepared on just about any outdoor cooker. Want to know how or get some advice on how to prepare it on your grill? Just post a question on the Users Forums and folks will jump in with advice and helpful tips and suggestions they have learned from experience!

Have a “bacon-wrapped” recipe or suggestion that you want to share? Post it in the comment section below or on the Users Forums

Happy Grilling!

Thanks and…

Happy Grilling!

You can make pizza on just about any outdoor grill.

Here’s what Grillman has to say about making pizza on his grill:

“I have a 3 burner gas grill…this time I left the two outside burners on HIGH, and turned the middle burner off…I then placed the pizza in the middle over the off burner. Close the lid and wait about 3 minutes and open the lid and turn the pizza 90˚…to help it cook more evenly. Wait about 3 or 4 minutes and the pizza should be about done. If you want it crispier….move it over the burner on high for a bit…till it’s done the way you want”

Read the entire post he made with all the pictures, plus some helpful questions that other readers are asking: CLICK HERE

Thanks and…

Happy Grilling!

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Hey CB!  I had the healthy idea to create a blanket of bacon over my chicken as it was cooking in my SRG.

That is about a 4 lb chicken resting in the bottom of the cooking basket of The Big Easy Smoker, Roaster, Grill - with a "roof" of bacon overhead.

As the bacon "fries" the drippings fall onto the chicken and add a layer of flavor!

I placed a whole chicken on the bottom rack and got some nice thick cut bacon and laid it on the rack above the chicken. In the past when I smoked or roasted a chicken or turkey outdoors on the grill or in my smoker – I always lay bacon directly on top of the bird to keep everything from drying out. But ever since I got The Big Easy I discovered that meat doesn’t dry out when I cook it in there – it stays juicy and has a crisp brown crust or skin. (That’s because of the infrared – right?) Well I kinda missed all that crispy bacon so I decided to try it this way. As the bacon cooked the drippings coated the chicken.

When I roast a chicken in The Big Easy the skin is always brown and crispy and the meat juicy. But in this cook the bacon drippings added some great flavor to the skin!

It turns out the SRG is pretty good at cooking bacon as well and the bacon was ready before the chicken was up to the internal temperature I wanted – so I replaced the bacon with fresh sliced about halfway through the cook.  Anyway I hope you like the pictures – and wanted to show you that it worked out pretty darn good. ~Clark

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Thanks Clark – indeed I do like the pictures and am going to try this myself! If you try this idea on your grill or off-set smoker I would really love to see pictures of the cook and I’ll share them here at Sizzle on the Grill. ~CB

Thanks and…

Happy Grilling!

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How Ya Doing CB?  I would like to share this recipe with you. Our grandson Travis gave me the recipe a while back and we have been cooking our fish this way since.

• 1- Fillet of Haddock
• 1/2 Lemon sliced thin
• 1 Hand full of Ritz crackers crumbled
• 2 Tablespoons of melted butter or spray butter
• A little salt for seasoning
• A sheet of foil to put fillet on cooking spray

Spray the sheet of foil with cooking spray, put sliced lemons on foil,

Slices of lemons placed on "lightly sprayed" aluminum foil.

put fish fillet on top of lemons,

Ritz Cracker and butter crumbled mixture on top of the fish.

sprinkle with salt, mix butter with crumbled crackers and spread on top of fillet,

Foil wrapped fish into a pre-heated grill at about 350F degrees.

then wrap fillet with the foil and put onto preheated grill (I use a small electric grill) preheated to med-high (about 350F degrees) and cook for about 12- to- 15 minutes.

After about 15 minutes - depending upon the size and thickness of the fish - unwrap and serve! Remember to pour some of the juices in the foil on the fish.

I have also done salmon this way and it comes out real good too. This grill I am using is one we had when we did a lot of traveling with an RV. Hope you enjoy this, I know we do. Keep the inspirations going.  ~Bob C from NH

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Here are some other ideas for preparing food in foil on the grill:

Fish in Foil on the Grill

Burgers in Foil

CB’s EZ Cheese Steaks in Foil

Mixed Veggies in Foil

Reader Recipes: Jaxon’s Foil Dinner on the Grill

Zoe’s Grilled Salmon with Pineapple Salsa on Toasted Ciabatta Triangles

Russet potato is spiral sliced and cored on an apple peeler.

I started by slicing a big ol’russet potato on the apple/potato peeler.

Spiral sliced and cored potato is stuffed with cheddar cheese. Season with your favorite but no salt needed, cause of the bacon.

Seasoned with salt, pepper & rosemary/garlic seasoning. Stuffed the inside with chunks of cheddar cheese…

Bacon wrapped around the stuffed seasoned spiral peel potato..., then wrapped in bacon, placed in foil packet and on the top shelf for about an hour. Is your mouth starting to water?

…wrapped with bacon, foiled and put on the upper rack of the grill for almost an hour at about 350F – 400F degrees when the hood was closed.

After an hour - unwrap and take a look at these beauties!

Oh – and the steak just got some McCormick Montreal Steak Seasoning treatment and grilled until rare.

Grilled ribeye steak, bacon-wrapped cheddar cheese-stuffed potatoes and some tasty green beans cooked with bacon and mushrooms!

~ Bassman

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Thanks Bassman..this looks DEE-LISH-US!

Say – what’s sizzlin’ on YOUR grill this week? Why not drop me a line and share your story with a picture?

Happy Grilling!

Laura is one of my favorite people in Georgia.  She’s funny, a talented designer and a great mom. And she loves to cook!  We often exchange cooking tips via email so, when she posted pictures of a recent ‘bacon-wrapped’ cooking adventure, I asked her to share the details. Just so happens she cooked this meal on the Electric Patio Caddie…how bout that!

Happy Grilling!

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Bacon-Wrapped Jalapena-Stuffed Quail

Bacon Wrapped Jalapeños Stuffed Quail

CB, I’m so excited! I finally get a mention in Sizzle on the Grill!!! Thanks for asking about these little beauties.  They were actually quite easy and oh-so-tasty!

Some friends of mine went on a quail hunt and I asked what they were going to do with the birds. That evening they brought me 5 dressed and ready to go! These little birds were as fresh as fresh can be! I researched quail recipes and found a few that I morphed together (I have a problem actually following ANY recipe 100%.)

I preheated the Electric Patio Caddie to 350F degrees while I mixed together about 1/8 cup generic steak seasoning, 1/2 tsp chili powder and 1/4 tsp garlic salt to rub on the outside of the breast. I halved the jalapeños from stem-to-tip and scooped out the seeds. Placing sliced peppers in the underside of each of the butterflied birds and wrapped the little legs around to hold them in place before wrapping the whole bird in thick cut bacon to keep them moist while cooking. I skewered the birds together to make them easier to flip and threw them on the clean, hot grill. I left the birds on there for about 25 minutes and probably could’ve taken them off sooner – even though they were STILL incredibly moist and tender.

Jalapeños Poppers

These were so good CB. I have never had quail on the grill – only in fu-fu recipes at fancy restaurants. I think I may smoke them next time… low-and-slow… to see how they do. Watch out Big Boy, I’m gonna be giving you a throwdown challenge the next time you’re in town! ~ Laura

PSsst: I had some extra bacon and jalapeños peppers so I stuffed the pepper halves with cream cheese and wrapped them with bacon before roasting on the grill too! What’s that word you use? Oh yes! DEE-LISH-US!

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For a printable version of the recipe CLICK HERE.

But – when it comes to the larger animals like deer, elk, moose, etc. – I just don’t have any sources to get some of this tasty meat.  My friend Norman was a bow hunter for years and, with a little bit of encouragement, he’ll share a story or two of some pretty amazing hunting expeditions he’s had around the world.  Lately he’s been talking about doing some wild pig hunting on the Big Island of Hawaii using a pellet rifle. That sounds pretty darn interesting to me but it’s not putting anything on my table right now! All said and done I don’t think I’d make a very good hunter. I would, I do believe, make a good camp cook!  That just seems to be my kind of activity.

Recently I received an email from reader Nate Teske as he was about to embark on a weekend hunt with his son.  Nate wanted to share the story with me. and asked if I’d be interested.  I emailed back immediately and asked for pictures and a recipe or two.  Here’s his report!

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Hey CB:

Our two days of deer hunting this weekend was poor. That said, my boy Spence said it was his favorite weekend (over the last 2 years) at our cabin.   That made the entire trip worthwhile. That’s a photo of him holding a plate of our secretly famous family recipe we call Teske’s Grilled Venison Backstrap Steaks.  Thank goodness we had some in the freezer!

Here’s our time-tested-sure-fired-mouth-watering- slap-yourself recipe:

Teske’s Grilled Venison Backstrap Steaks

Ingredients:

• Bacon slices-thick hickory smoked is best
• Preferred grilling spices (Steak Rub, Montreal Seasoning or Steak/Prime Rib seasoning)
• 1 chunk of venson backstrap (thin strips of tender meat beneath the loin) sliced to preferred thickness (1″ to 1.5″)

Method:
For this recipe, I keep things simple.

1. After cutting the backstrap into steaks, trim any remaining silverskin off. If this is not done, the venison may have a gamy taste.
2. Then rub your favorite seasonings into the meat. (Not too much as it will affect the wonderful flavor of the venison.)
3. Wrap the steaks (around the outside) with the bacon and secure with toothpicks.
4. When your grill is up to temperature (450F degrees – 650F degrees) and the grates oiled, grill each piece for a total of 8-10 minutes until you reached the preferred doneness. The Teske’s like medium rare, (about 145F degrees internal temp) so I do 2 minutes, then a quarter turn for another 2 minutes. Then flip and repeat.  Let it rest for 5 minutes so the juices don’t run all over your plate. We eat this with baked potatoes and broccoli or green beans.

I hope your readers enjoy this recipe and look forward to hearing about any recipes they have! – Nate Teske (& Son!)

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Hey Spence thanks for sharing your hunting trip with us and the family recipe sounds DEE-LISH-US!

What about you? Share your wild game recipes with other readers of Sizzle on the Grill – in an email to CB@sizzleonthegrill.com or in the comment section below this post.

Thanks! and…

Happy Grilling!

For a printable copy of this recipe just CLICK HERE.