Barbecued Veggies

Potatoes

Take a couple of pounds of small red potatoes and quarter them lengthwise. Drop them into boiling, salted water and cook them partway – maybe to the point where they’re halfway done.

Remove from the hot water, rinse in cold water (to keep them from over-cooking) and dry them. Spread them on a baking sheet. Preheat your barbecue at this point.

Spray lightly with olive oil and season fairly heavily with seasoning salt and fresh ground pepper.

Put them on the barbecue, in a part of the barbecue that is not overly hot; medium heat is fine. Cook for a total of about 10 – 15 minutes, turning once in the meantime. Use coals or add some fruitwood to a gas barbecue for extra flavor. They’re ideal if they have some good brown color on the outside, but the inside is not overly soft.

Onions

Use sweet onions if possible. Peel and slice thick, at least ¼”. Spray lightly with olive oil and season modestly with seasoning salt and fresh ground pepper.

Put them on the barbecue, in a part of the barbecue that is not overly hot; medium heat is fine. Cook for a total of about 10 – 15 minutes, turning once in the meantime. Use coals or add some fruitwood to a gas barbecue for extra flavor. Do not over-cook. They’re ideal when they’re al dente like good pasta: just a bit of firmness to the bite.

Bell Peppers

Quarter the peppers lengthwise; remove all the seeds. Wash in cold water.

Put them on the barbecue, in a part of the barbecue that is not overly hot; medium heat is fine. Cook for a total of about 10 – 15 minutes, turning once in the meantime. Use coals or add some fruitwood to a gas barbecue for extra flavor. Do not over-cook. They’re ideal when they’re al dente like good pasta: just a bit of firmness to the bite.

Zucchini

Use young zucchinis, before the seeds have developed. Do not peel; slice thick, at least ½”. Spray lightly with olive oil and season modestly with seasoning salt and fresh ground pepper.

Put them on the barbecue, in a part of the barbecue that is not overly hot; medium heat is fine. Cook for a total of about 10 – 15 minutes, turning once in the meantime. Use coals or add some fruitwood to a gas barbecue for extra flavor. Do not over-cook. They’re ideal when they’re al dente like good pasta: just a bit of firmness to the bite.


I love to barbecue veggies any time I'm barbecuing meat: it compliments the flavor of the meat, and allows us to do all the cooking outdoors so the kitchen stays cool on hot days. Besides, my family really enjoys barbecued veggies with our barbecued meat.

Roast Beast Hash

Serves one hungry guy, or two gentle ladies, though this is probably not really “lady food.”

Ingredients:

• 4 ounces of roast beef, sliced shoestring style.
• 1 medium potato, shredded with a coarse cheese shredder.
• ¼ yellow onion, thin sliced.
• 1 egg.

Spices:

• Salt & pepper, generously.
• Cajun spice mix.
• ¾ tsp dried oregano.
• ½ tsp dried basil.
• ¼ tsp dried garlic.
• 1½ tsp chipotle pepper sauce

Directions:

Slice it all up thin. Stir it up in a large mixing bowl. Add spices. Stir it up some more.

Pre-heat a good ol' cast iron frying pan. (Lesser frypans are acceptable if you don't have a well-seasoned black iron pan. Save up your nickels and get one at Goodwill for two bucks.)

Get the pan nice and hot; heat up a TBSP or so of olive oil, and add a little butter for flavor, and turn the heat down to medium. Pour in the whole concoction, and press it down firmly. Cover and let it cook until it’s medium brown on that side.

Flip it once, recover, and brown the opposite side.

When it’s done – and it should be one firm piece, like a large pancake – then add a bit of butter to the frying pan, and fry an egg to go on top of the hash.

This is pretty good if you don’t make bland. This needs to be kind of spicy. The egg on top is optional, but highly recommended.

Overloaded Pancakes

Ingredients (using “guy vocabulary):

• Some Krusteaz pancake mix.
• Some water.

Mix up the pancake mix – as much as you’d usually use – until it’s slightly runnier than usual.

• Some deli ham, thinly sliced and chopped pretty small. I like to use quite a bit. If I use the pre-packaged “thin sliced meat” then I use four or five slices per 5” pancake.
• Some cheese, either shredded or chopped small. I use a couple of ounces per pancake. And this is one place I really like the basic bargain-bin cheddar cheese.

Of course, you’re probably making several pancakes, so use a lot of meat and a lot of cheese. Yeah, I know that’s a lot of content, but trust me, it’s better that way.

• Butter to fry it in.
• Peanut butter (Come on! You don’t eat pancakes without peanut butter, do you?)
• Honey, heated until it’s runny. (Microwave it for a bit; don’t let it boil.) This is better than maple syrup, which is pretty much only flavored sugar water anyway. Unless you have the real thing!

Pre-heat a good ol' cast iron frypan. (Lesser frypans are acceptable if you don't have a well-seasoned black iron pan. Save up your nickels and get one at Goodwill for two bucks.) Put the butter in: when the butter sizzles, the pan’s hot enough.

While it’s heating, stir the meat and the cheese into the pancake with a big spoon. You can add more adulterations if you like.

You can go sweet:

• Some cinnamon and sugar.
• Or brown sugar.
• Or maybe some honey.
• A little nutmeg would add some “pop” to it.
• Maybe some pineapple, cut into small chunks. Don’t get carried away with this one; it’ll mess up the pancake.

Or you can go savory. If you’re going this route, it may pay off to fry the ham slices before adding them to the batter. These don’t do so well with the peanut butter, but I still like it with the honey.

• Some green onions.
• Some roasted garlic (this is one place where the roasting pays off big)
• Some dark chili powder.
  
• Crunchy bacon, fried & chopped
• Maybe some fresh thyme, chopped coarsely.
  

Pour the appropriate amount into the hot frypan or griddle. Let it cook like a more normal pancake without fiddling with it until it starts to smell done; you can’t count on the usual bubbles on the top with this. Flip it over, press it flat with the spatula, and let it cook until that side is done.

I like to sprinkle some of the “additional adulterations” on it right after I’ve flipped it: whatever else I’ve added, I put a little of that on top. I also love a fried egg on top, even with the honey. Serve it as your conscience lets you.

Works well with juice or even better with hot coffee.

First Night of Camping Steak

I camp a lot. This is always the first night's meal. Serves one.

Ingredients:

12 - 18 oz sirloin steak (Yeh, I know it's big. that's the point, actually.)
some barbecue spiced pepper.
a small can of green beans. Carrots are an acceptable substitute. Spinach is not. Eww.
An onion bagel.

Implements of cookage:
Campfire with good coals and not a lot of flame.
Grille over the fire.
Tongs for grabbing stuff you drop in the fire.
Gloves to keep you from burning the hair off the back of your hand when you grab stuff from the fire.

Procedure:
Let the grill heat up while you're rubbing in a whole lot of spice into the steak. Use a can opener to open the beans, but leave the lid in place. Slice the bagel.

Plop the steak on the grille and enjoy the sizzle. Nestle the can of beans into the coals.

When the steak is cooked 2/3 of the way through, flip it over (once!) and put the bagel on the grille (sliced side down) to toast. Crack open any beverage you like as long as it comes in a long-necked brown bottle and does not include the word "Lite" on the label. Make sure the beans are beginning to boil. Sharpen your steak knife.

When the steak is done, pull it all off the grille and onto your plate.

Consume with enthusiasm. Skip the veggies if you feel like it.

Option: mix a little butter and bleu cheese (the crumbly, real stuff) together and let it melt on top of the steak for the last couple of minutes on the grille. Gorgonzola works well too. Mmm, mmm.