Category Archives: By Cuisine

Barbecue, Beef

Churrasco Taco

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I don’t eat beef that often but when I do, it’s usually grilled in some form. We had a beef tenderloin in the freezer that I took out and thawed. Then I made a chimichurri marinade based on this recipe: http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/recipes/recipe/0,,FOOD_9936_29257,00.html

I cut the beef tenderloin into 6 strips then pounded them to 1/4 inch thickness and marinated them for about 6 hours. Here they are grilling on the gasser.

They were great just chopped up and eaten on their own. It’s a really good marinade but I think the beef tenderloin didn’t need to sit for 6 hours, especially with all that vinegar.

We couldn’t finish it all that night, so I made tacos and quesadillas on another day. Here’s my taco with jack cheese and homemade salsa. Mmmm. I could have had another but I ran out of tortillas 🙁

Aloha, Nate

American, Yeast

Dinner Rolls

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What are the best dinner rolls you ever ate? I remember once eating some great bread in a steak restaurant near Provo, Utah. Forget what they were called, but they were good.

When Annie and I were dating, every so often we’d go have the buffet at the Plumeria Beach Cafe in the Kahala Hilton on Oahu. Besides the awesome spread there (oh, for the days when we could eat lots more and not worry about the weight), they had a basket of rolls with different selections from regular to whole wheat to sourdough to taro. The taro bread was especially good.

Annie made these two types of dinner rolls for us the other night. The first was “Butter-Dipped Dinner Rolls” from “The Bread Bible” and the second was “Dark & Soft Restaurant Dinner Rolls” from “Whole Grain Baking” by King Arthur Flour. Here are both doughs rising before shaping.

After baking. They were both great, but I think the edge went to the butter-dipped ones. Those were so light, airy, and buttery

These were the best rolls I’ve had in a very long time.

Aloha, Nate

Mexican, Tomatoes, Vegetables

Chopped Salad

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Annie made this great chopped salad based on the “Chopped Mexican Salad with Roasted Peppers, Corn, Tomatoes & Avocado” recipe from Fine Cooking Magazine July 2006, p 57.

First, she roasted some seeded red bell peppers and corn in the oven with olive oil until the peppers were soft, then diced the peppers. She also diced up some tomatoes and avocado. She blanched some broccoli and chopped that up as well (the original recipe calls for diced jicama). All the ingredients were mixed together along with a drained can of black beans and garnished with chopped cilantro.

The dressing was a honey-lime-cumin vinaigrette which included garlic, lime juice, orange juice, shallots, honey, toasted ground cumin, olive oil and fresh ground black pepper. This is a great salad which has a lot of flavor and texture.

Aloha, Nate

Barbecue, Poultry

Beer Can Chicken

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For most people, chicken on the grill means wings, drumsticks, thighs, or breast pieces that are laid down on the grates and cooked over direct heat. Chicken pieces are a lot easier to deal with, and they all cook at the same time so there is less chance of overcooked meat. (For food safety, you want to cook poultry until the juices run clear and no longer bloody.)

Doing a whole chicken, however, is a whole different animal. The bird has such an odd shape that doesn’t cook evenly. Grill the bird long enough to fully cook the dark meat, and you risk having dried out white meat. You have to find a way to cook the chicken until it’s done, while keeping both the white and dark meat moist.

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