I Love you More on Grilling Days

Tuesday May 28, 2013

Summer, or what resembles summer in England is around the corner and that means its time to fire up the grill that has been sitting and waiting all winter. At our house, we are usually the first to start and the last to stop cooking outside. What my wife enjoys the most, other than eating the delicious food, is having her family around, sitting and enjoying the wonderful smell while I grill. If you have never grilled, you have no idea what you are missing. It has been an American tradition and past time for generations and I am glad to see it catching on here in England. My wife, Sharon, is always saying how much she love how passionate Americans are about grilling. For those who feel intimidated by the process, I am going to share some simple guideline to show you how easy it is to enjoy this great American tradition. 

Step One: 

Buying a grill. I would not recommend getting the small Hibachi grills or the really cheap ones. They will just be a waste of money. Get something at least £25 pounds or higher. Mine cost around £40, but we wanted one that was big enough to cook a lot of different foods for everyone at the same time. You don't need a really high priced one either. Just make sure the metal isn't too thin. The heat will burn holes into it pretty quickly if the metal is cheap and thin. Oh, and get the charcoal kind, not the gas. What's the point of having a gas grill? Might as well just cook on your hob in the kitchen. To get the real taste of barbecue, get a charcoal one. When you buy the charcoal (NOT coal like my very intelligent wife), get the kind you can just light the bags and doesn't require fluid. Using lighter fluid can be very dangerous and if you use too much will make your food taste like chemicals. Also, if you can find some wood chips from a  hickory, pecan, apple, mesquite, maple or any other fruit or nut tree to put on top of the hot coals it will add a nice flavour. Make sure the wood you are using is free nails, glue or anything you don't want cooked into your food. Also, buy a cover it will protect it from the rain and increase the life of your grill.

Step Two:

Safety Tips. First, you must have good weather for grilling. Look at the trees and see if the branches are moving very much. If it is very windy, don't grill. The wind can cause a big fire that can get out of hand very quickly or at the least, cause you to get burned. Make sure there is nothing around your grilling area that is flammable. And keep a glass container of water nearby just in case. Do not under any circumstance grill indoors, under care ports or inside tents or sheds. Make sure the grill has proper ventilation. Grilling indoors will kill you. Or burn your house down. Come on. Be smart and have fun! Grilling is perfectly safe if you just use a little common sense.

Step Three:

Tools of the trade. I use this oven mitt, not my good ones in the kitchen, to lift off hot skewers. The brush is one of my cleaning tools as well as the brush with the scraper on the right side. Tongs, corn holders, fork, spatula and skewers can all be purchased together in a kit for about £10. Again, you don't need a really fancy expensive one. Might even be able to find one on http://www.ilovefreegle.org/ if you ask. Make sure to use metal utensils for grilling though. Plastic will melt, make a big mess on the grill and leave your food uneatable. Get a long lighter like this one. You can pick them up for a buck at any supermarket. This is much safer and will save your fingers from getting burned on a hot lighter.

Step Four:

Light the grill! Remove the grill with the two fork like things at the top of the picture. The grill gets kind of grimmy with soot buildup even when its been cleaned properly. When it's hot, the tools are necessary to remove the grill. I don't tend to remove it until its completely cooled off. Place the bag of charcoal onto the bottom smaller grill. Use the long lighter and light the corners of the bag starting with the edges furthest away from your body so you won't be leaning across the flames. It's really better to move around the grill as you are lighting the bag instead of leaning across. The bag will catch fire and create flames pretty quickly. Don't put the wood in yet. Stay with the grill. Don't leave it unsupervised. Sometimes the flames can get high. Do not close the lid. If you do, the fire will go out.

Let the fire burn for a few minutes. Depending on the weather and charcoal, the time varies. During my last grilling session, my wife said it was flame grilled food. As I explained to her, that is something entirely different. To cook food properly on a grill, you will not be cooking by the heat of the flames, but rather the heat from the charcoal. If you try to cook on the grill at this point, it will burn the outside and the inside will be raw or cold. Wait until the flames have died down and the charcoal turns an ash colour.

It still has a little bit of a flame, but I know when I get the food on and the lid shut, the flames will go out fairly quickly. Place any wood you want to use on the charcoal now. Put the grill back on with those two fork like silver things. And now we are ready for the food!

Step Five:

Grilling the grub. As we are all vegetarians, we are basically just giving our food the a good heating through. You can use whatever meat free products directly from the freezer, but for meat, use well thawed. For southern style corn on the cob, I boil the corn for about 5-7 minutes first. Then I melt butter and bast it generously, Have two basting brushes, one for veggies and one for your meatless or meats. While you are cooking your veggies and meats, keep them basted with butter or whatever sauce you are using. Be careful not to over bast the meats though as they won't cook all the way through very easily if you do. Keeping a good coat of butter on your veggies keeps them from burning and drying out.Cook with the lid closed. The vents on the top (and underneath on the cleaning tray, watch for hot coals falling out though) can be used to keep the flames going when open. I cook with them closed because it doesn't take long for mealtess and veggies to cook. If you are cooking real meat, keep them open to keep the flames from dying out quickly.

I brush on our favourite barbeque sauce on the burgers. Sharon's niece likes hers plain and they seem just as tasty. Worcestershire sauce or any sauce you like is good too. I keep the mealtess products away from the center of the grill because it is the hottest there and will burn the hotdogs and sausage really easy. For thick juicy hamburgers (yeah I miss meat sometimes) or ribs, go ahead and put them in the middle since they take so long to cook. You might want to wait until you turn everything once to put on onions as they cook supper fast.

Turn the corn and bast often. Everything else, just turn once. Put the cheese on last. It takes about 3 seconds to melt good. I usually cook it about 5 or 6 minutes on each side. You will be able to tell when its hot or done. This part takes a little practice just like learning to cook on a hob. After everything is off the grill, I put the pineapple rings on and cook them a couple of minutes in each side. Sharon likes pineapple on her burger.

Step Six.

Cleaning and storing your grill. Keep a watch on the grill and make sure all the coals go out. They will stay glowing and red for 2 or 3 hours after you are done grilling. Keep the lid closed during the cooling off period. Use the scraper and scrap off the excess food and soot from the grills you are cooking on. I wouldn't bother with cleaning off the grill that you place the charcoal and wood on. Just sweep it into the pan underneath that catches the ash with the small broom. Sometimes before I begin grilling, I will take the grills in and wash them with hot water. Doing that too much might cause them to rust though. And again, cover the grill or store it the garage or shed. Make sure it is really cool to the touch and all the coals have been removed first. Covering the grill and leaving it outside though prevents rust well enough.