bbq – Stephfood CLONE

Grilled Eggplant and Haloumi Stacks

This summer was full of grilling, fresh veggies and fresh herbs. One of my favourite dishes made good use of a grillable style of cheese called Haloumi, which holds its shape during grilling and even ends up with adorable grill marks!

Grilling makes everything better. I’m pretty convinced that this is true, and so far I haven’t been challenged on it. Eggplant is one of the easiest things to grill up – it gets tender inside, and full of flavour. I was inspired by the caprese salad stacks I often make in the summer, and decided to come up with a grilled version that featured eggplant.

My introduction to Haloumi made the cheese selection simple. It was a revelation! The cheese melts just a little, and even gets the grill marks, but it doesn’t start to get oozy. You just put it straight on the grill and watch the magic happen. I tried a few different brands that were all delicious, but my favourite came from nearby Upper Canada Cheese Company. Their Guernsey Girl grillable cheese is delicious and salty, and just a little squeaky.

made with Grilled Guernsey Girl cheese from Upper Canada Cheese Company

While the cheese and the eggplant are amazing on their own, I felt they needed something to pull the dish together. I made a topping with diced tomatoes mixed with fresh chopped basil. It’s important to make this a couple of hours before you want to eat, to give the mixture some time to be totally infused with basil.

I made this dish at least a dozen times this summer, and as a result ate waay too much cheese for my own good. Yay!

Grilled Eggplant and Haloumi Stacks

It’s best to choose an eggplant that is longer, rather than wider, with a fairly consistent diameter. This ensures your stacks are roughly the same size.

Ingredients:

4-6 tomatoes, seeded and chopped
1 small bunch of basil, chopped
pinch of sea salt
freshly ground pepper
1 eggplant, 2 pounds, sliced into 1-inch rounds
1-2 tablespoons olive oil
500g haloumi cheese, or another grillable cheese, sliced 1/2 inch thick

Preparation:

Mix the tomatoes with the basil, salt and pepper in a medium-sized bowl. Set aside. If your tomatoes are too watery (even after seeding), you may need to strain this mixture later on to remove the liquid.
*Lightly* brush both sides of the eggplant slices with olive oil while the grill is preheating.
Grill the eggplant rounds until tender, and grill the haloumi slices until softened and lightly browned on the outside. The haloumi will not melt entirely.
Stack the ingredients as follows: eggplant round, haloumi slice, a teaspoon of the tomato mixture.

Grilled Pizza, a Revelation

Pizza is one of the few things that I “let” J make for dinner. He’s a pro with the dough – something I have no patience for.

This post is a bit of a cheat because I didn’t do any of the tough work on this dish… I just helped. Also, this isn’t a recipe post. It’s more of a “results of our experiment” post. Hahahaha.

In any case, here it is:

On the grill!

For this experiment, we decided to stick to one of our usual combinations of sauce and toppings, just to keep it simple. J made his usual dough. For the sauce, I took full advantage of the wealth of fresh basil we have right now and made a lightly tomatoey basil sauce with lots of olive oil. For toppings, we used mushrooms, green peppers, thinly sliced smoked sausage and buffalo mozzarella.

A couple of tips that we collected from various sources and took to heart:

oil the grill well
cook your toppings first!

The second tip was the one that made lightbulbs go off for me. I had never heard it before, but it made total sense. On the BBQ (especially a little propane one, like ours), the bottom will cook before the top. Unless you want your crust to burn, you need to cook your veggies and other toppings that need to be cooked. I sautéed the mushrooms and green peppers to release the liquids, and J lightly pan fried the sausage slices to release some of the fat.

The dough goes on the BBQ first, to grill the bottom before any toppings or sauce go on. Once the bottom is cooked nicely, flip the dough and add the toppings to the cooked side. You want to cook it long enough to get a nice crust with grill marks, and to melt the cheese. Since the veggies were already cooked, we don’t have to worry about them!

Ready to eat!

The Verdict

Seriously, J was over the moon. It was so delicious, and he was so proud of himself for finding a way to make pizza in the summer. We kicked ourselves for waiting this long to try it. Do it. You will not regret it!

The one thing that I want to improve for next time is a way to keep the pizza warm after it’s done cooking. We took it right off the grill, and it did cool off while we were eating. It wasn’t terrible, but I think we can do better. Maybe if we took it off the grill long enough to cut a couple of pieces and let the grill cool a little, we could return it to the grill to keep warm. Hm.

BBQ Lobster

We had never bought lobster before, but for some reason when we saw it at the grocery store, J decided he would BBQ it. Yes, we bought frozen lobster tails at the grocery store. Toronto isn’t known for it’s fresh seafood, so this is the best option for the average joe.

When we got home, J searched the internet to find proof that you could actually BBQ lobster tails. Of course you can – is there anything you can’t BBQ?

This isn’t exactly a recipe – mostly just a log of our experiment, for which I give full credit to the lovely and talented J. I didn’t have anything to do with it, aside from the adding of garlic to the butter that we used for dipping.

This isn’t a fancy schmancy lobster dinner. It was simple and rustic, with some BBQ potatoes and salad.

Buying lobster tails is a very different experience than having a whole lobster. I’ve only ever done that once, and while I enjoyed the experience I found most of it frustrating. After twisting the lobster apart, I spent much of the meal trying to prevent the inner goo from getting all over the rest of my food (are you hungry yet?). I think I also cut myself trying to pry bits of meat out of claws and whatnot.

The most satisfying part of the lobster is the tail. So that’s all we bought!

Here are the grilled lobster tails, in all their glory. They were small, but delicious, and I’m sure we’ll be doing this again soon.

Next, we need to figure out how to cook them on the stove or in the oven.

“Godfather” Orzo Salad

This salad is inspired by a beverage called “The Godfather” (no, not the movie). The blend of smokey Scotch and fruity sweet Amaretto create a perfect balance. Of course this makes a perfect salad! A blend of Scotch, Canadian Maple Syrup, a little soy sauce and other fun things, the dressing combines the sweet and smokey to mimic the drink.

But it doesn’t end there! The other ingredients in the salad contribute to the sweet and smokey theme as well.

Like the last orzo salad I posted, this one features some grilled veggies – but the secret ingredient is apricot, whose sweetness is important to this dish. Sweet sweet apricots, covered in grill marks… heaven!

Perfectly grilling apricots.

This being my first time grilling apricots, I really had no idea how long to leave them on for. Of course, I screwed it up! I first grilled them butt-side down for a few minutes, then turned them over onto the cut side… and quickly realized I needed to pull them off immediately. Most of them were reduced to a soup – still delicious, but wouldn’t hold their shape. I ended up grilling a second batch of apricots – just 1-2 minutes, cut-side down. Perfect.

stuff

Grilled tomatoes and apricots. I think I may have overdone the apricots a little.

To round this out, I also grilled up some fresh zucchini and tomatoes I got from the farmer’s market, along with some portabello mushrooms. Hindsight being what it is, I would have scooped out the tomatoes a little and drained the excess liquid off of the other veggies before I cut them to put into the salad. My salad ended up a little bit wetter than I would have liked, but still so so good!

So have a Godfather – or have some Godfather Orzo salad!

Recipe after the jump!

Continue reading “Godfather” Orzo Salad

Twice as Nice! BBQ Corn to Summer Corn & Rice Salad

When the summer hits, you really want to cook as infrequently as possible. On a hot week like this, I’m grateful for leftovers that I can use in another dish. This post revolves around sweet and juicy grilled corn on the cob, and how to transform the leftover kernels into a fantastic summer salad!

Last night’s dinner was pretty simple and yummy – some corn on the cob and mahi mahi (marinated in piri piri sauce) done up on our wee BBQ. Soo tasty and filling!

After dinner, we had two ears of corn left so I carefully cut the kernels off of the cob and cooked up the rice for my salad. This salad is a mix of sweet, fresh, salty and savoury. You can substitute any of your favourite fresh or grilled veggies, as well as any dressing you like. Keep in mind that the rice will absorb most of the dressing.

Try not to overcompensate by drowning the salad in dressing – that will leave your rice gummy and possibly with too strong a taste. The dressing I used is a mild blend of orange juice, very green tasting hemp oil, a wee bit of apple cider vinegar and fresh herbs. It gives a light coating and flavour without covering the smokiness of the grilled corn, the light anise flavour of the fennel, and the freshness of crisp vegetables.

BBQ Corn & Rice Salad

Ingredients:

1 cup mixed rice, cooked (I use a fun blend of brown, red and wild rices)
1-2 cups grilled corn kernels
2-3 tbsp fresh green onion (green part sliced, white part finely minced)
1-2 tbsp fresh basil, chiffonade
1 tsp fresh mint, roughly chopped
1/2 – 1 cup thinly sliced fennel bulb
1-2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
1/2 red pepper, thinly sliced
1/3 cucumber, chopped

Dressing:

1/4 cup orange juice
1-2 tsp apple cider vinegar
2 Tbsp hemp oil
2 Tbsp Piri Piri sauce
1/2 tsp garlic powder
salt & pepper, to taste

Preparation:

Combine the rice with the corn, onion, basil, mint and fennel. Toss with olive oil.
Mix together the ingredients for the dressing. Be sure to mix well enough that the garlic powder dissolves completely.
Toss the salad mix with the dressing. This can sit overnight if required.
Slice and mix in the rest of the veggies just before eating.