Had the loveliest local-licious barbecue collaboration with the family and boyfriend.
This meal was ALL OVER THE PLACE. In that its ingredients came from all over the place, but were mostly ones that made me proud.
First of all, it definitely had its carnivorous moments. Steve provided (farmer’s market) brats and bacon, and in a delicious act of excess, wrapped one of the brats in the bacon.
There was also (organic, not local) ground beef, which I turned into meatballs with just oregano, salt and pepper, and tons of Worcestershire. Grilled meatballs are grand.
Those apples were leftover from work (salvaged!). I threw them in a foil packet with a wee dab of butter and honey and let them grill til they started getting a bit caramely and gorgeous. Why? I had a grand vision for GRILLED PIZZA, BABY!
Included in that vision was Steve’s goat cheese (er, I think just Trader Joe’s. Mm, still a wonderful food source, even if I abhor their shrink-wrap-addict produce section). He lovingly if messily cut it up for me.
I’ve made grilled pizza with legit homemade pizza dough before, but it’s also just hella easy to get some kind of flatbread or pita (in this case, a flatbread from Costco with an unfortunately lengthy ingredient list that claims to be “low carb” but I just get because it’s 100% whole wheat and delicious and an awesome shape). Threw that on the grill.
If you want to try this at home, cook it for just a few seconds (seriously, start checking at 20- like most grilled foods, it’ll tell you when it’s ready to flip by releasing itself from the grill and letting you flip it.
Then it’ll look like this mm mmm mm blistery goodness.
Top the toasted side with your toppings, and let finish off. Removing from the grill is bloody difficult.
Steve always tries to take pictures of me (with *my* camera), but I generally sneak out of them. So I made a deal with a certain other person, who happened to be on my deck at the time, to be my stand-in. Here “I” am, grilling away!
Hahahah we are silly. Malindi, you have nice legs.
Soooooo having completed our grilling and dried off from the deluge, we strolled inside, et voila; big pile o’ meat
[Confession: had a bite of the bacon-wrapped bratwurst. It was TOTALLY DELICIOUS]
On that skewer, I also did a repeat of dates-wrapped-in-bacon, which was still pretty fab but a bit burnt. Because fact: torrential rain started falling at a certain point in the grilling. So I didn’t have any good action shots of certain parts of this process, and certain foods were casualties of the weather. Sorry, dates. You were still… pretty fab.
Also (farmer’s market!) green things:
I am ALWAYS grilling green beans now. They were SO GOOD! Also just in a foil packet with a bit of water (to soften ‘em and prevent burning), salt and pepper, and olive oil (caramelization, mm). It really totally makes sense- it’s the same idea as those awesome green beans you get at Chinese restaurants with the high heat and bit of oil and caramelization.
The greens.. got a bit dried out. Apologies.
And of course, the piece de resistance, the final pizza, which really was pretty spectacular. Thanks for the cheese, Steve!
Definitely went back for several bites of just apple. Not that there was anything wrong with the bread and cheese elements of the dish, either. I love when grilled foods get all dark and crackly. Never mind that it’s carcinogenic.
Steve made something that was his then-food-phase (he goes through many, often short-lived): honeydew melon with feta, salt and pepper. It was nom.
Quite the well rounded meal. Ate probably three times what was pictured here :D
No comments:
Post a Comment