Grilled | Rantings of an Amateur Chef

Guest Post: Gourmet Club: Blackened Salmon with Mango Salsa

May 30, 2013

The Ranting Chef Gourmet Club, Recipes, Seafood, Low Carb, Kosher, Grilled, Fruit, Cajun Gourmet, recipes, recipe, dinner, food, cooking, fruit, seafood, low carb, Kosher, grill, postaday 7 Comments

As mentioned previously, I am part of a gourmet club. Recently we had one where the host couple chose a theme of “Starts with S”. All of the food was delicious. I am happy to have Danny back with a guest post for the salmon he made for us that night. Here’s Danny…

Where have I been you ask? Well it has been quite an exciting year since I last wrote for the Ranting Chef. Fatherhood has kept me busy and I cannot put into words how much my wife and I love it. I have always tried to be a good son but now I get to work on being a good parent too. When I started cooking for myself in my early twenties, I have always steered towards fish and seafood. I have experimented with cooking all types of fish, from the fish I catch myself such as bluegill, crappie and walleye to the items I can’t catch locally such as swordfish, tuna and even shark. One of my favorites has turned out to be salmon. The fact that salmon is so good for you is just the icing on the cake. When I cook a meal for my mom, this is the meal that she requests and she raves about it for days. For our most recent Gourmet Party, I decided that I would serve up salmon but try something a little different. The cool texture of mango salsa coupled with hot blackened fish sounded good but tasted even better. I look forward to teaching my son his way around the kitchen and can’t wait to get a fishing rod in his hands. Above all, I will make sure that he supports Catch and Release so someday his children can enjoy fishing as much as we are sure to do.

Blackened Salmon with Mango Salsa

Prep Time: 20 minutes | Cook Time: 20 minutes | Servings: 4 servings | Difficulty: easy

Ingredients:

4 Wild Salmon Fillets
4 tsp. Lemon Juice
Chef Paul Prudhomme’s Blackened Redfish Magic

For Mango Salsa:

2 Mangos (peeled, seeded and diced)
1 Red Onion
2 Cloves of Garlic
2 Tomatoes (diced)
2 tsp. Olive Oil
1 Sprig Cilantro

Directions:

Prepare the salmon by coating with lemon juice. Sprinkle with enough Blackened Redfish Magic to coat one or both sides of salmon depending if salmon contains skin. Grill salmon 6 to 8 minutes per side or put salmon under a broiler for 6 minutes per side.

To prepare Mango Salsa, heat olive oil over medium heat. Sauté onion until tender. Stir in garlic, tomatoes and cilantro. Cook 1-2 minutes. Mix in diced mangos and serve immediately over Salmon.

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Guest Post: Ribeye Bites

March 8, 2013

The Ranting Chef Beef, Grilled, Kosher, Low Carb, Recipes, Steakhouse beef, cooking, dinner, food, Gourmet, grill, Kosher, low carb, postaday, recipe, recipes 2 Comments

Once again we have Paul from The Beard It Speaks. He previously gave us a great recipe for pulled pork. Today Paul focuses on a different meat. Take a look at The Beard It Speaks and Paul’s Ribeye Bites…

A grocer in the area puts whole ribeye on sale periodically. I like to buy the whole ribeye and do all the trimming myself. I cut inch and a half to two inch steaks and freeze. I freeze the fat for use in deer. The meat trimmings have been somewhat difficult pieces of awesomeness that have eluded me in the “how to cook” methods of methodology. This past ribeye carving sent me into a deep think tank of thoughts.

Trying to create something magical with leftovers is a happy time for me. As I entered my happy place the firs ingredient came to mind, Sriracha. Sriracha is such a flavorful complexity of flavors, I wanted to keep the other ingredients simply simple. Soy sauce and OJ finished the marinade.

I trimmed all the meat from the fat, of the trimmings. I also had a small piece of the “steak” that was not big enough to be a “steak”, so that got cut up and added in as well.

I let the meat marinate over night. To cook, I fired up the Weber Kettle with a couple handfuls of coals and opened the vents all the way. We like our ribeye rare, so seared one side, flipped and pulled off the girl around med-rare. Tough to cook small pieces rare. Cut up and toss on a salad. We sprinkle blue cheese chunks along with anything else you want in your salad.

This recipe could be used with any meat. The fatty ribeye meat is very flavorful and easy to cook without over cooking.

Ribeye Bites

Ingredients:
Ribeye scraps
1/3 cup Sriracha
1/3 cup soy sauce
1/3 cup orange juice
Salt and pepper lightly
Marinate over night

Cooking:
Grill at very high temperature for a good sear. Cook to desired level of done.
Cut up into bit size pieces and put on salad.

Let’s Call the Whole Thing Off

January 13, 2013

The Ranting Chef Cheese, Greek, Grilled, Italian, Kosher, Lunch, Recipes, Vegan, Vegetable, Vegetarian cheese, cooking, dinner, food, Gourmet, grill, italian, Kosher, lunch, postaday, recipe, recipes, Vegan, vegetable, vegetarian 11 Comments

You say to-may-toe,
I say to-mah-to.
You say po-tay-toe,
I say po-tah-to.
To-may-toe, to-mah-to, po-tay-toe, po-tah-to,
Let’s call the whole thing off!

I was in the store looking for the bread for this recipe and it called for Focaccia. The bakery only had Ciabatta. Focaccia…Ciabatta…Focaccia…Ciabatta…let’s call the whole thing off. Except I didn’t. I chose the Ciabatta.

While it was not something my carnivorous boys liked, my wife and I thought it was really tasty.

The bread was one long loaf, so I made the sandwich before cutting it.

Make the dressing.

The veggies going into the roaster.

And out.

The bread and cheese.

Layering it up.

AWESOME taste!

California Grilled Veggie Sandwich

Prep Time: 30 min | Cook Time: 20 min | Makes: 4

Ingredients:

1/4 cup mayonnaise
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1/8 cup olive oil
1 cup sliced red bell peppers
1 small zucchini, sliced
1 red onion, sliced
1 small yellow squash, sliced
2 (4-x6-inch) focaccia bread pieces, split horizontally
1/2 cup crumbled feta cheese

Directions:

1. In a bowl, mix the mayonnaise, minced garlic, and lemon juice. Set aside in the refrigerator.

2. Preheat the grill for high heat.

3. Brush vegetables with olive oil on each side. Brush grate with oil. Place bell peppers and zucchini closest to the middle of the grill, and set onion and squash pieces around them. Cook for about 3 minutes, turn, and cook for another 3 minutes. The peppers may take a bit longer. Remove from grill, and set aside.

4. Spread some of the mayonnaise mixture on the cut sides of the bread, and sprinkle each one with feta cheese. Place on the grill cheese side up, and cover with lid for 2 to 3 minutes. This will warm the bread, and slightly melt the cheese. Watch carefully so the bottoms don’t burn. Remove from grill, and layer with the vegetables. Enjoy as open faced grilled sandwiches.

Nutritional Info:

NutritionAmount Per Serving (4 total) Calories 393 cal 20% Fat 23.8 g 37% Carbs 36.5 g 12% Protein 9.2 g 18% Cholesterol 22 mg 7% Sodium 623 mg 25% See More Based on a 2,000 calorie diet

Source:
http://m.allrecipes.com/recipe/14504/california-grilled-veggie-sandwich

Guest Blog: Pulled Pork

January 4, 2013

The Ranting Chef Grilled, Low Carb, Lunch, Pork, Recipes, Steakhouse cooking, dinner, food, Gourmet, grill, low carb, lunch, pork, postaday, recipe, recipes 15 Comments

Time for another great post from a guest blogger. Today we have Paul from The Beard It Speaks. He walks us through how to have some tasty pulled pork. By itself, it is fantastic, but it can also be used as a base for so many other recipes, it is always great to have on hand. Take a look at The Beard It Speaks and Paul’s Pulled Pork…

I saw The Ranting Chef post about becoming a guest writer on his blog. I emailed him about being interested in becoming a guest. After a long, grueling five minutes of contract negotiations, The Ranting Chef and I came to an agreement.

Some background on myself. My name is Paul, I am from small town South Carolina. Which means, most of the recipes I will provide are southern cooking in nature, but not all of them. I might very well surprise you.

As I was thinking of what recipe I would like share as a first post, I knew it would have to be something I was confident about. Whelp, that would be BBQ, pulled pork variety. To many people, this cook exhumes thoughts off grandiose proportions. In reality, it is a very simple cook, with a very forgiving piece of meat. There are three main steps that will ensure perfection. 1 proper cooking temperature, 2 proper internal temperature, 3 Patience.

I prefer cooking on wood or coal grills. Gas grills are fine if that is what you have. I use a Big Green Egg.

First step is meat selection. Boston Butt or Pork Picnic. Both easily found in all grocery stores. When buying butts, try to buy BONE IN. You can season the meat with anything or nothing at all.

Step two is prepping the grill. I cook my BBQ at a grate temp of 275. On average, this means the meat will take about an hour a pound to cook. This time could vary depending on the grill and environmental conditions. You do not need a lot of smoke, a light grey to clear smoke is ideal.

Step three, internal temperature. You want these particular cuts of meat to be at an internal temperature of 195. This allows the connective tissue to break down into collagen. This process makes the BBQ moist and “pullable”. If you want to slice the pork, cook to internal temperature of 180-185. A very important step in this process! The meat will climb quickly to an internal temp of 150-160. At this point, the meat will “hit a wall”. At about 170 is when the connective tissue begins to break down and the meat can sit at this temp for hours. This is where patience comes in. Don’t PANIC! This is the point where beginning BBQ’ers mess up. Just let the meat continue cooking until the internal temp is 195.

Once the meat has been fully cooked, it’s time to pull. Depending on your time frame, you can pull right away or wrap in tin foil and let the meat sit. Be careful, the meat will be very hot. Serve up with your favorite sauce or no sauce at all and enjoy.

I tried to make this cook seem very simple. Because in actuality, it is. Don’t over complicate it! Seriously, you can cook this meat with no seasoning, cook it the way I just described, and you will cook perfect pulled pork.

Left piece is Boston Butt, right piece is a Picnic1/3 of the way!Finished product, waiting to be pulled.

No Shave Never!

Paul

Foreman Happy

December 29, 2012

The Ranting Chef Beef, Chinese, Grilled, Kosher, Low Carb, Recipes, Steakhouse beef, chinese, cooking, dinner, food, Gourmet, grill, Kosher, low carb, postaday, recipe, recipes 1 Comment

I really love my grill and when I pull out the Foreman grill to use in its place, I almost always feel that I really should use the big one outside (even if it is snowing). This recipe, however, I was very happy to use the Foreman.

This Asian beef was very good with the sesame, soy and ginger flavors. I served it over a bed of ramen noodles with some Asian Slaw.

Just a few ingredients.

Marinating the beef.

Here is why I really appreciated the Foreman. I really didn’t want to have to skewer all of this beef. It was so easy to just throw it on the Foreman.

Great!