Another fantastic meal. We had some good friends over for dinner along with a few of their kids who ate pizza but also stopped in at various times to sample the Wisconsin Grill'n. The company at these meals is a lot of the fun. Last night was no exception. Great food, great conversation!
The Baba Ghanoush was very good - grilled eggplant gave it a wonderful flavor but I think what really made it was the extra lemon juice I added. Warming up the pita bread in the grill was a hit. I recommend that you grill each side of the bread on direct heat for about 2 minutes or so - watch it so it does not burn. Then take the stack of pitas and cut like a pizza. This is a pretty easy recipe except the eggplant part. You grill the eggplant whole over direct heat. When the skin gets black and bubbly and you can stick a fork in the meat of the eggplant it is done. I hit it just right with one of the eggplants and the inside scooped out fairly easily, but the other one had to go back on for a few more minutes. The second one never did seem to get to the consistency of the first. Not sure what that was all about. Anyway, the final product was yum and was something you can pretty much make ahead of time so folks can sit around chowing on that while the rest of the meal takes shape.
The Lamb was one of the best meats we have had. The butcher butterflied it for me so I did not have to figure that out. Considering how long it took him to do, I was glad to skip that little exercise. The rub starts by roasting whole coriander seeds, peppercorns and whole cloves in a frying pan for a couple of minutes until they start to smoke. You grind them up in a coffee grinder releasing a nice aroma. Mix with olive oil, orange zest and garlic and wow - what a flavor! The recipe says to pound the meat until it is all a consistent thickness of about 1 1/2 inches. I was not able to get it quite as even as I wanted which meant that some was considerably more well done than other sections. The flavor was fantastic and everyone - even the kids - seemed to like it.
Grilled asparagus is not from the book. We do this quite often. Always good. One hint on grilling asparagus - stay with it. The less charred the better. I toss it with olive oil and kosher salt before putting it on the grill. The oil will cause a lot of flames if you don't control with the lid. You also have to turn it a lot so that it gets cooked through but not burned.
Dessert was grilled peaches, ice cream and raspberry sauce. The peaches get coated with brown sugar melted in butter before they go on the grill. You have to watch these too so that they don't burn. You can tell when they are done because they get soft. I move them back and forth between direct and indirect to keep them cooking but not burning. The recipe in the book calls for cherry sauce which we have had before. It is ok but I thought the raspberry was much better. Recipe is one pint raspberries, one tablespoon or so of sugar, 1/3 cup red wine, 1/4 cup raspberry balsamic vinegar. Boil and then for 30 minutes or so - should reduce in volume by about half. You can add more sugar if you like. Guarantied big hit.
Mark
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Mrs. Grill'n says: I'm sure this posting will make everyone hungry. The grilled pita bread and baba ghanoush were wonderful, and would make our hit parade. As far as the lamb, just sniffing the spices mixed with the garlic and orange zest told your nose that something yummy was on the way. Lamb grills beautifully, and so quickly that it is important to watch the thickness of the meat carefully.
ReplyDeleteA major hit was the raspberry sauce. We had commented unfavorably a few weeks ago on the cherry sauce that accompanies the grilled peach recipe in the book. However, raspberries in the same recipe were a thousand per cent better. They had a nicer texture than the pureed cherries, and tasted better with the peaches. Serving this with vanilla ice cream elicited groans of contentment. Try it!
Coriander, peppercorn and cloves - sounds delicious! I am going to try this one.
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