If you’re too hot, get your ass out the kitchen. Then pull out the Coleman and light those briquettes. With weather like this, even thinking about turning on the stove can bring on heat stroke. Man created fire for a reason: to cook outside. So do it. But what to grill and how to do it? Well no worries, because whether it’s a bloody T-bone or a soy patty, it really doesn’t matter.
The difference between turning that burger into a hockey puck or a bistro delight can be controlled by a nice marinade and careful timing.
Juiciness is the most important goal when grilling. If the asparagus gets scorched, it’s about the same as eating grass. And if the Gardenburger gets toasted, it’s like chewing’ cardboard. Therefore, marinating or basting while grilling is crucial to keeping the ingredients moist and, most likely, a little tastier.
If meat or seafood is on the menu, then marinades are the way to go. For the less confident cooks, buying a favorite salad dressing or teriyaki or barbecue sauce is the simplest option. By puncturing chicken, chops, or salmon with a fork and then placing them into a Ziploc or bowl containing a favorite marinade for even thirty minutes before grilling can create a saucy little main dish. Want to get super saucy? Spoon the remaining marinade over the meat while it grills.
For the more courageous charcoal connoisseurs, try mixing some spices with oils and vinegar to make your own marinade. Garlic, basil, and thyme go well with pork, beef, or chicken. For fish, citrus flavors are always a safe bet. After choosing personal ingredients, marinate the same way as explained previously, but maybe for a longer duration because the concoction will not have been sitting in a bottle marinating itself like an Italian dressing.
With vegetables and soy products or Gardenburgers there is less prep involved. These items don’t really need to be marinated, but basting them while grilling can make them really delicious. With Gardenburgers, Bocas, or any other meat substitute, dribble on some teriyaki or other dressing as it grills. The same can be done with veggies such as sliced peppers, asparagus, zucchini, mushrooms, or onions, before throwing them directly onto the grill. Cutting them up and putting them on a skewer can help prevent losing them to the briquettes. Or the veggies can be cut up and wrapped in foil with a marinade or some garlic and olive oil. Using foil might take a bit more time, but will make charring the dinner less likely.
Then there’s the timing. Perfecting the doneness of a meat or veggie can be the trickiest aspect of grilling, as it is consistently the least predictable. To check the temperature, the following rule of thumb can help those grilling over briquettes, especially when following cookbook directions. After the briquettes have been lit and they begin to ash, you can tell how hot they are by how long you can hold your hand about six inches from the grill rack. If you can keep it there for five seconds, the heat is low; four seconds indicates medium low; three is medium; two is medium high; and one is high. But, being adventurous and not following cooking directions requires a need to notice if the meat is firming up when flipping it. When it is, slice into the center of a portion to check how done it is.
Beef is tougher to give recommendations on because everyone has their preference, but with chicken and pork, the juice should run clear. With fish, prod it with a fork and make sure it flakes like the texture of fish is supposed to. When it comes to veggies, notice that they will begin to sweat, especially if they are wrapped in foil. Unfortunately, the most foolproof practice is to pull a piece of vegetable off the grill and give it a taste to see it if it’s to your liking. Then there is also the fun fact that after these items are off the grill, they continue to cook for a few minutes. So if that breast looks almost perfect, take it off the heat, get it on a plate, and wait for five minutes. Then it should be perfect.
If all this mixing and marinating and timing guesswork is causing a headache, don’t give up. Do not resort to mac ‘n’ cheese. There is hope. Make a visit to Dinners Done Right at 822 Beltline Road in Springfield and the people there will do all the creative work for barbecue hopefuls. Just throw all the stuff in a bag and follow the directions.
Every month, Dinners Done Right has a new menu to work from, so the summer months have lots of grilling options in particular. This month’s menu includes meals such as flank steak, wasabi-glazed cod, Hawaiian chicken, and gorgonzola and garlic burgers. So after registering online at dinnersdoneright.com for a session, go to the closest location and they have everything set up and waiting. Then go from station to station with a Ziploc bag to build each meal. At a station, the recipe is there as a guide, along with each ingredient and corresponding measuring tool. The best part about Dinners Done Right is that it can help teach which flavors taste good together and may encourage the purchase of a few new things at the grocery store like ginger or sesame oil.
Kay Whitney, co-owner of the Springfield Dinners Done Right, thinks that the franchise is especially helpful for the less experienced cook.
“For people who haven’t done a lot of cooking, it can give you a lot of confidence and encourages you to try new things,” she said.
With Dinners Done Right, users must purchase 12 meals, but it is totally worth it. Depending on how many roommates users live with, purchase can be made in half-portions or whole portions. For example, a half-portion meal includes servings for three people, and a whole-portion meal has six. All this isn’t actually too expensive if you average it out. Twelve half-portion meals is $99 and 12 full-portion meals is $169. That averages out to about $3 for each person to eat a meal. Not too shabby, huh? Plus, if users don’t like all of the 12 meal options, they can be traded. A meal of shrimp pesto can be traded for another steak fajita meal, for example, so that users like everything they bring home.
See, there is no excuse to avoid the grill now. So remember: Keep it juicy and take note of doneness. Unless of course you like eating hockey pucks.
Trial by FIRE
Daily Emerald
July 26, 2006
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