Baba Ghanoush, Moroccan Butterflied Leg of Lamb and Grilled Asparagus

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

Getting started

My wife, Emily, picks movies from time to time for us to watch that are ... well, let's just leave it that I would not pick them. The other night she announced that she and her sister Kathie who lives with us were going up to watch Julie & Julia which is about a young woman named Julie who decides to cook her way through the recipes in Julia Childs' Art of French Cooking by preparing a different recipe every day. Since I have long been in a secret and one sided love affair with Meryl Streep I decided to give it a go. I made it most of the way through before I lost it and went downstairs to play banjo with my son Charlie. The movie has some very funny parts - particularly the bit where the comedian is imitating Julia Childs cutting her finger while cooking on TV. I was glad to see that Hollywood could actually make a movie about a married couple who were in love with each other. I am not sure about Julie and her husband, but Julia and her man were clearly in love.

Anyway, this blog is not a movie review site. I am starting it because J&J has inspired me to take a shot at a similar concept except from a slightly different angle. I love to cook stuff on the grill and my family and friends love to eat what I cook so... Starting today, I am going to grill my way through Weber's Art of the Grill cookbook. Our son, Steve, is getting married July 29 on an island in NJ which means we will be spending a week at the beach in July which means we will be doing a lot of grilling! The goal is to cook all of the recipes in the Weber book between now and July 29. I am starting Feb 1 so I will be grilling in some pretty interesting weather conditions but that never stops us here in Wisconsin!

Before I start, I want to get one thing straight. No gas. Grilling means cooking with charcoal not cooking on a gas stove that happens to be outside. I have a charcoal grill that has a little gas starter which is great because it eliminates lighter fluid. Highly recommended. It also comes with a little attached cart very well designed by Weber. One of my favorite features is the attached charcoal bin that keeps the coals dry but also keeps them close at hand.

Today's recipe is the first in the book - Prosciutto-Wrapped Shrimp. We will see if the prosciutto helps or hurts the grilled shrimp. Off to the store to buy some prosciutto!

Mark