These little cylinders of tender, juicy pork are a staple of Chinese cooking and are wonderful on the grill, and they’re also ideally suited to planking. They have just the right amount of surface area to cook quickly without losing moisture. They go with all flavors of smoke, from cedar to mesquite. And they take to marinades and rubs extremely well. Here are some basic techniques and a little collection of ideas for how to flavor pork tenderloin, but use your imagination and experiment with your favorite rubs, marinades, and basting sauces.

Technique

Marinate and/or rub the tenderloin and have it ready to go before you start the grill. (Three small tenderloins are usually enough for 4 servings.) I like to drizzle a little olive oil or vegetable oil on them just before putting them on the grill.

Preheat the grill on medium-high for 5–10 minutes, or until the chamber temperature rises above 500°F | 260°C.

Grilling

If you’re cooking the tenderloins on a gas or charcoal grill, it couldn’t be more simple. Make sure your cooking grate is clean (use a wire brush; I prefer to scrape the grate after the grill has been preheated), When your grill is preheated, just place the meat over direct heat and cover the grill. Use a pair of tongs to turn the tenderloins every few minutes, and cook until the temperature in the thickest part is 140F. (This will give you juicy pork cooked to a medium doneness. The internal temperature will come up slightly when you let the meat rest.) Take the meat off the grill and let it rest, tented loosely in foil, for about five minutes.

Plank Cooking

If you’re cooking the tenderloins on a plank, be sure to soak the plank in cold water for at least a couple of hours or overnight. Preheat the grill as described above. Place the soaked plank on the cooking grate. Cover the grill and heat the plank for 4–5 minutes, or until it starts to throw off a bit of smoke and crackles lightly. Reduce the heat to medium and place the tenderloins on the plank (you can fit three or four on a plank, depending on the size of the tenderloins and the plank. Cook for 10 minutes, turn the meat, and cook for another 5–10 minutes, basting if you like, until the pork is springy to the touch or reaches an internal temperature of 140°F | 60°C. If you like, just before the tenderloins are ready, you can move the tenderloin from the plank onto the cooking grate and char the outside, or caramelize it if it’s coated with barbecue sauce

Finishing the Tenderloins

When they’re ready, take the tenderloins out of the grill, tent it in foil, and let it rest for a few minutes before serving it. Carve the tenderloin into 1⁄2- to 1-inch | 1 to 2.5 cm medallions and apply whatever sauce or garnish is called for.

Here are some wonderful ways to treat pork tenderloin, one of the most versatile and delicious meats:

Classic Barbecue: Coat the pork with ballpark mustard, then sprinkle it with your favorite barbecue rub. Cook it on a hickory or fruitwood plank till it’s nearly done and finish it with a light glaze of barbecue sauce. Serve more sauce on the side.

Easy Asian: Marinate the pork with soy or teryaki sauce and finish it with a coating of hoi sin sauce, plum sauce or an Asian-flavoured barbecue sauce.

Spice-Crusted: Season the pork with salt and pepper, drizzle it with oil, and coat it with minced garlic, toasted fennel and cumin seeds, and a little cinnamon. Serve it with chopped cilantro and your favorite chutney.

Balsamic: Coat the pork with balsamic reduction and, if you plan ahead, marinate it overnight. Before cooking, sprinkle on some chopped fresh rosemary and granulated garlic. Serve the pork with a sprinkle of salt and pepper, a further drizzle of the balsamic reduction and some chopped fresh mint.

Harvest Time: Season the pork with salt and pepper and coat it with a rub made with light brown sugar, powdered ginger, a sprinkle of freshly grated nutmeg, a pinch of clove, and a little cayenne pepper. Baste it with melted apple jelly and serve it with baked apples or apple slices that have been fried in butter with a sprinkle of brown sugar added at the last minute.

Southwestern: Flavor the pork with salt, pepper, chili powder, cumin, dried oregano and granulated onion and serve it with wedges of lime, some salsa and cornbread or corn tortillas.

Happy Holidays, everyone! Here are a couple of my favorite festive season recipes. Enjoy!

Bacon-Wrapped Oysters

Makes 4–6 appetizer-sized portions

This simple, old-fashioned way to grill oysters makes a great party appetizer.

1 pint | 500 mL container of large, fresh, shucked oysters
(about a dozen oysters)
1/4 lb | 125 g thinly sliced bacon, each slice cut in half
kosher salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
Barbecue sauce or Louisiana-style hot sauce
           
Fry the bacon over medium heat in a heavy skillet until it’s cooked but not quite crispy. Place the cooked bacon strips on a paper towel and set them aside.
Prepare your grill for direct high heat. Drain the oysters and pat them dry with a paper towel. Wrap half a slice of cooked bacon around each oyster, skewering it with a wooden toothpick. Place the oysters on the cooking grate and grill them for 2 or
3 minutes per side, or until the bacon crisps and the oysters are cooked through and just starting to char. Remove them from the heat, place them on a platter, season them with salt and pepper, and pass them around with a bottle of hot sauce or some barbecue sauce in a little bowl for dipping.


Leftover Turkey Quesadillas

This is a superb, easy way to continue enjoying Christmas flavours and and excuse to fire up your grill over the holidays.

Ingredients:

Large wheat flour tortillas
Leftover turkey, shredded or chopped
Cranberry sauce
Monterey jack cheese, grated (mozzarella would also do)
Gouda cheese, grated (cheddar or any other flavourful, salty cheese would work great)
Thinly sliced jalapeño chile (or some of your favorite hot sauce)
Chopped parsley (optional)
Anything else that’s leftover from Christmas dinner, chopped up (Brussels sprouts, mashed potato, stuffing)
Salt and freshly ground pepper

Place a large flour tortilla on a cutting board or cookie sheet and cover half of it with a 1/4-inch | 5 mm layer of cheese – a mix of the jack and Gouda.

Layer on the toppings, taking care to distribute them evenly. Sprinkle the toppings with salt, pepper, and a little hot sauce or some slice jalapeños to taste. Coat the toppings with another thin layer of the grated cheeses. Fold over the tortilla and it’s ready to hit the grill.

To cook, preheat your charcoal or gas grill to a medium-high heat. Place the quesadilla directly on the grill and cook it for 2 or 3 minutes, until the cheese starts to melt and the tortilla is toasted and slightly charred. Flip it with a big spatula and cook the other side for another 2 or 3 minutes. Take it off the grill, place it on a cutting board, and let it rest for a minute or two. Cut it into pizza-like slices with a big sharp knife.
 
Accompany the quesadillas with fresh salsa, guacamole, and sour cream for dipping. Quesadillas can also easily be made on a stovetop or on the propane burner on the side of your grill in a large, lightly oiled skillet over medium-high heat. You can prepare the quesadillas in advance and keep them covered and refrigerated for an hour or two before grilling (if you try to keep them overnight, however, the tortillas will get soggy).

This is the time when all the freshest ingredients are available locally. Visit your favorite farmer's market and find some ingredients to make a salsa, the perfect accompaniment to grilled meat and fish.

These recipes, and many more, are available in my cookbook, Barbecue Secrets DELUXE!, available in bookstores and as an e-book from the Apple Store.

Black Bean and Grilled Corn Salsa

This salsa is great on grilled fish, but it also stands up on its own as a dip.

1 14 oz | 398 mL can black beans, rinsed and drained
3 whole fresh cobs of corn, shucked
1 tsp | 5 mL minced fresh jalapeño pepper
2 medium tomatoes, diced
1 red bell pepper, diced
1/3 cup | 80 mL chopped fresh cilantro
1/4 cup | 60 mL red onion, diced
1/4 cup | 60 mL fresh lime juice (about 2 limes, squeezed)
1 tsp | 5 mL kosher salt
1 avocado
tortilla chips for dipping

Prepare your grill for direct high heat. Grill the corn until the kernels turn a bright yellow and there’s some nice charring. Remove the cobs from the grill and let them cool long enough so you can handle them. Cut the corn from the cobs with a sharp chef’s knife or a mandoline.

Combine all the ingredients, except the avocado and chips, in a bowl. Cover and chill the mixture for at least two hours. Dice the avocado and add it just before serving the salsa with the chips.


Chimichurri

Makes about three cups | 750 mL

This is the classic Argentine condiment. It takes various forms, some finer, like a pesto, and some, like this one, chunkier, like a salsa. Chimichurri goes well with almost anything grilled, planked, or barbecued, but I like it best on lamb. Make it at least a day before you’re going to use it to let the flavors come alive.

1 small bunch flat leaf-parsley, chopped (about 1/2 cup | 125 mL)
1 medium red onion, finely chopped
4 cloves garlic, finely minced
1/2 red bell pepper, seeded and finely diced (optional)
1 tomato, peeled, seeded and finely chopped (optional)
2 Tbsp | 25 mL fresh chopped oregano (or 1 Tbsp | 15 ml dried oregano leaves)
1 Tbsp | 15 mL paprika
2 bay leaves
1 Tbsp | 15 mL kosher salt
1 tsp | 5 mL freshly ground black pepper
2 tsp | 10 mL crushed dried red chile flakes
1/2 cup | 125 mL extra virgin olive oil
1/4 cup | 50 mL sherry vinegar
1/4 cup | 50 mL water

            Combine all the ingredients except the oil, vinegar, and water in a large bowl and toss them well to make sure the salt is spread evenly throughout. Allow the sauce to rest for 30 minutes to allow the salt to dissolve and the flavors to blend.
            Add the oil, vinegar, and water and mix the sauce well. Make sure that the chimichurri looks nice and wet, like a very thick gazpacho. If not, add equal parts oil, water, and vinegar until the mixture is covered by at least a quarter inch of liquid.
            Transfer the sauce to a non-reactive storage container. Cover it and refrigerate it to allow the flavors to blend overnight. It’s even better after two or three days in the refrigerator.

Peach and Blackberry Salsa

Makes about 3 cups | 750 mL

This salsa, invented by my wife, Kate, is something you should try only when these fruits are at their peak, which on the West Coast of Canada is in August. Paired with planked chicken, it’s a mind-blower.

4 peaches, peeled and diced, not too small
1 cup | 250 mL fresh blackberries,
washed and picked over
1/4 cup | 50 mL red onion, diced
1/2 fresh green jalapeño or other hot pepper,
seeded and minced
4 tsp | 20 mL fresh lime juice
salt and freshly ground black pepper

Combine all the ingredients in a bowl. Let the salsa stand, covered, in the fridge for about an hour.


Blackened Snapper on the Grill

Makes 4 servings

If you’ve ever tried to cook this delicious, spectacular dish indoors, you’ll know it’s a bit of a nightmare. It was invented by the great New Orleans chef, Paul Prudhomme, and was designed to be cooked in a restaurant kitchen where there is industrial-strength ventilation. The combination of butter and an extremely hot pan creates so much white smoke that you may not be able to see your fellow diners by the time the dish is ready to serve. I actually had to crawl from the kitchen into the dining room one time just so I could see where I was going. Cooking this dish takes a special technique that uses a gas grill to preheat cast iron pans to create the same effect as chef Paul’s restaurant kitchen. Don’t cook this dish if you’re worried about smoking out your neighbors!

Note: You need two 9 inch | 23 cm heavy cast iron skillets to pull off this recipe.

SAFETY WARNING: It’s extremely easy to severely burn your hand if you absent-mindedly grab the handle of the insanely hot pan when you take the fish off the grill. Please be careful!

4 8-10 oz | 250-300 g snapper fillets
¾ lb | 12 oz. butter
1 batch Cajun Rub (see recipe below)

Warm four serving plates and four small ramekins in a low oven.
            Prepare your gas grill (sorry, charcoal grills just don’t generate enough heat for this recipe) for direct high heat. Place two cast iron skillets on the cooking grate with their handles pointed away from you. Let the pans heat up in the grill for at least 10 minutes, until they are extremely hot.
            While the pans are heating, melt the butter in a sauté pan until it is just melted. Turn off the heat but leave the pan on the stovetop to keep warm.
            Dip the snapper fillets in the melted butter and sprinkle them generously on both sides with the rub mixture. Drizzle a little of the remaining butter over the rubbed fillets.
            Open the grill and quickly place the fillets in the pans. This will cause a lot of white smoke and the butter may flame up, so be careful. Cover the grill and cook the fish for just a couple of minutes. Carefully and quickly turn the fillets over with a long spatula and cook them for another minute or two, until the outside of the fish is nicely blackened.
            Put on some oven mitts, just in case you grab a pan handle by mistake. With your spatula, remove the fillets from the pans and place them on the serving dishes. Transfer the remaining butter into the warmed ramekins. Serve the snapper immediately, with the ramekins of butter for dipping. 

Cajun Rub

Makes about a half cup of rub.

I’ve featured this rub in the recipe for Blackened Snapper on the Grill (see page xxx), but it’s a great all-around grilling or blackening rub that showcases the classic flavors of Cajun cooking.

2 Tbsp | 30 mL sweet paprika
1 Tbsp | 15 mL kosher salt
1 Tbsp | 15 mL granulated garlic
1 Tbsp | 15 mL granulated onion
1 Tbsp | 15 mL cayenne pepper
1 Tbsp | 15 mL freshly ground black pepper
1 Tbsp | 15 mL white pepper
1 ½ tsp | 7.5 mL dried oregano leaves
1 ½ tsp | 7.5 mL dried thyme leaves

Mix the rub ingredients together.

With Labour Day coming up, this is a tribute to the working man, which means lots of meat, inexpensive but delicious cuts, and, for the first recipe at least, ease of cooking to give more time for getting stuff done.

Really Easy Chicken

Makes 6–8 servings

One of the biggest challenges of championship barbecue is finding a way to cook chicken so the skin doesn’t turn out rubbery. This recipe is based on a technique some barbecue competitors use to get chicken skin that melts in the judges’ mouths. The secret is the acid in the dressing, which softens the skin while the chicken is marinating.

2 chickens, cut into pieces, or 12 chicken thighs
kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
1 bottle store-bought zesty Italian salad dressing

Reserve ½ cup |125 mL of the Italian dressing. Season the chicken pieces with salt and pepper and place them in an extra large freezer bag. Add the rest of the dressing, making sure all the pieces are coated, and marinate the chicken in the refrigerator overnight.
            Prepare your grill for medium indirect cooking. For propane grills, this means preheating the grill on high, turning off the burner underneath where you’re going to place your meat, and then turning the other burner or burners to medium.
            Place the chicken pieces on the cooking grate, skin side up, leaving at least a little space between them to ensure good air circulation. Cook the chicken, basting it periodically with the reserved salad dressing, for 25–35 minutes, or until the internal temperature at the thickest part of the breast reads 160°F | 71°C. Transfer the chicken from the grill to a serving platter and tent it with foil to rest for about 5–10 minutes. Serve it with your favorite accompaniments.                       


Planked Pork Loin Roast with Whiskey Apricot Glaze

Makes 4–6 servings

In this recipe, the aromatic, spicy, mildly astringent flavor of the cedar smoke nicely complements the pork’s sweetness and richness. The trick to plank-cooking a roast this big is to get the plank smoldering on high or medium-high heat and then turn it down to medium as soon as you get the meat on. Serve slices of the pork with grill-roasted vegetables and boiled new potatoes tossed with butter and chopped fresh dill.

1 cedar cooking plank, soaked overnight or at least 1 hour
one 14 oz | 398 mL can apricot halves in light syrup
1/4 cup | 50 mL Dijon mustard
1/4 cup | 50 mL Jack Daniel’s whiskey
1/4 cup | 50 mL brown sugar
1/4 cup | 50 mL apricot jam
pinch cayenne pepper
one 3 lb | 1.5 kg pork loin roast with a 1/8-inch | 3 mm fat cap
kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
sprigs of fresh parsley and thyme for garnish

Open the can of apricots and drain the syrup into a medium-sized saucepan, reserving the fruit. Add the mustard, Jack Daniel’s, brown sugar, apricot jam, and cayenne to the syrup. Bring the mixture to a low boil over medium heat, stirring to melt the sugar and the jam. When it looks like a smooth, fairly thick sauce (which takes about 5 minutes), take it off the heat and set the pan in a bowl of ice cubes to cool.
            Lightly score the fat cap of the pork loin in a diamond pattern with a sharp knife. Season it with salt and pepper, and set the meat on a sheet of heavy-duty aluminum foil. Spoon half of the mustard-whiskey mixture over the loin and pat it all over to coat it. Wrap the foil around the meat, sealing it as best you can. Place the wrapped loin in the meat drawer of your fridge. Let it sit for a couple of hours at least, overnight if possible.
            Combine the remaining half of the sauce with the reserved apricot halves, cover it, and refrigerate it.
            Preheat the grill on medium-high for 5–10 minutes, or until the chamber temperature rises above 500°F | 260°C. Rinse the plank and place it on the cooking grate. Cover the grill and heat the plank for 4–5 minutes, or until it starts to throw off a bit of smoke and crackles lightly. Reduce the heat to medium-low.
            Place the marinated pork loin on the plank, fat side up. Cover the grill and cook the meat for 1 hour, checking periodically for flare-ups.
            At the one-hour mark, take the reserved apricots out of the sauce mixture and place them on the plank next to the roast. Baste the roast with some of the sauce and cook it for another 10–20 minutes, until the internal temperature of the pork reaches 140°F | 60°C. Take the roast off the heat and lightly tent it in foil.
            Transfer the apricot halves to a cutting board and coarsely chop them. Warm the remaining sauce on the stovetop or in the microwave and add the chopped apricots. Let the roast rest for at least 15 minutes (while it’s resting, roast some vegetables on the grill). Carve the roast into 1⁄2-inch | 1 cm slices and serve them on warmed plates with a spoonful of the apricots and sauce. Garnish the pork with sprigs of parsley and thyme.

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These recipes are from Barbecue Secrets DELUXE!, which is now available as an iBook from the iTunes Store.

It’s time for us to start weaning ourselves from the convenience of gas grilling and rekindle our relationship with charcoal.


All it takes is one whiff of smoke from some charcoal briquettes, mixed with an aromatic hint of lighter fluid. That distinctive aroma activates an area at the base of our skull that I like to call the Kingsford Olfactory Cortex. The smell of charcoal instantly transports us back to the campfires and cottage weekends of our youth: Dad’s in an apron, burgers are sizzling, hot dogs are plumping up, corn cobs are roasting, and Mom comes out the screen door with a pitcher full of cherry Kool-Aid, ice jingling and sparkling in the summer sun. I think I want to cry.

Those memories never leave us, but few new ones are being made now for our own kids. Sadly, Canadians don’t grill much over charcoal any more. According to Weber’s Grillwatch survey, only about one in 10 Canuck backyard cooks owns a charcoal grill compared to almost half of our counterparts south of the border. 

I know, it’s a lot colder up here, and running outside to push a button on a gas grill is a damn sight easier than going to the trouble and mess of ripping open a bag of charcoal, dumping it into the grill and getting it going, not to mention having to clean up the ashes left behind.

But that convenience comes at a cost. Charcoal imparts such great flavour that there’s almost no comparison between a steak seared on a gas grill and one that’s kissed by smoke. I would argue that pretty much anything tastes better when cooked on a charcoal grill, from your lowly skinless chicken breast to a roast duck. 

Even sweets are lifted to a new level when they’re cooked over charcoal. I’ll never forget an evening at the beach a few years back when, after grilling some brats in my Smoky Joe portable grill, I used the leftover coals to reheat a pear crisp. The vapours from the fire turned a great dessert into a mind-blowing revelation.

A little history

Charcoal has, of course, been around for a long time. Back in the olden days, tradesmen called colliers would stack wood in a giant cone-shaped pile and then cover it with soil or clay, with a hole in the bottom for air and one at the top to serve as a flue. They’d light a smouldering fire and, several days of careful tending later, the wood would be transformed into brittle, clean-burning dark grey charcoal to be used for cooking and heating.
The process of making charcoal, called carbonization, is simple: you heat wood slowly, with little or no oxygen to feed the fire, and instead of burning, the wood shrinks as its organic matter vaporizes. What’s left are porous chunks of charcoal, consisting mostly of carbon, that burn cleaner and hotter than wood.

Charcoal briquettes have also been around for a long time, but the Kingsford briquettes that we know and love were developed in the early 1920s by Henry Ford and one of his relatives, a fellow named E.G. Kingsford. Ford’s early autos had wooden parts and his factories produced lots of wood scrap. A factory was built to turn the scrap into charcoal briquettes. For years, American backyard cooks got their Kingsford charcoal at their local Ford dealership, and today Kingsford converts about a million tons of wood scraps a year into briquettes and owns about 80 per cent of the market.

Briquettes vs. lump charcoal: which is best?

Over the last couple of decades, the dominance of briquettes has been challenged by makers of lump charcoal, which is preferred by some cooks because it burns longer and hotter. It’s also purer. Lump charcoal is basically an organic product – pure carbonized hardwood – whereas Kingsford and other briquettes are made from charred softwoods that are mixed with mined coal, limestone, starch, sodium nitrate and borax (or sodium borate).

For some reason, health nuts don’t like the idea of food cooked over this chemical package, arguing that it contains carcinogens. But man, what tasty carcinogens they are! Those additives are what make Kingsford start easily, burn evenly, and provide its distinctive aroma and flavour. The bottom line: meat cooked with Kingsford tastes great.

My barbecue team, Rockin’ Ronnie’s Butt Shredders, has been competing for almost 20 years now, and we’ve always used good old Kingsford briquettes, with a few chunks of hardwood like hickory, mesquite and cherry wood added for extra flavour. My view is that if you want to win the hearts, minds and taste buds of the barbecue judges, you’ve got to hit that Kingsford nerve hard, and we’ve got plenty of cheap plastic trophies to show our strategy works. As for the carcinogens, last time I looked, life causes death. I like to think that most of us can handle a little borax in our lives without getting into a big panic. In fact, panic is known to cause more deaths than borax.

Despite my love of briquettes, I swing both ways when it comes to charcoal. While I’m loyal to Kingsford for cooking Southern-style barbecue, I often use pure hardwood lump charcoal when I’m grilling. It generates excellent heat for searing and charring, and if you want to add extra flavour, all you need to do is toss some wood chips or chunks on top of the hot coals just before you’re ready to grill. Close the lid of your grill and you’ve got a perfect hot, smoky chamber that will make whatever you’re grilling sing. Another advantage of lump charcoal is that it produces much less ash, which makes it great for kamado-style cookers, which quickly clog up and lose their air flow when you try to cook on them using briquettes.

What kind of charcoal cooker to buy

Speaking of the urn-shaped kamado, it’s one of the hottest pieces of cooking equipment out there right now. The classic Big Green Egg has long been the Cadillac of charcoal cookers, but in recent years many knock-offs have come onto the market, including the Primo, the Big Steel Keg and the Kamado Joe. Even the cheapest models will set you back $600, and the high-end brands can cost a lot more than that. This ceramic cooker is based on an ancient Asian design, and it’s extremely versatile, allowing you to smoke a pork shoulder at 200 degrees or sear a steak at 700F or even higher.

If you don’t want to shell out for an Egg, there are lots of extremely cheap charcoal grills on the market that are great to take to the beach or on a camping trip, but they don’t last long and they don’t work all that well. You can’t go wrong with a good old Weber kettle-style covered charcoal grill, which is a solid, versatile cooker that will set you back a couple of hundred bucks.

For picnics, camping and boating, nothing beats the Cobb, a portable charcoal grill that’s among the most versatile and convenient cooking tools I’ve ever used. Every outdoor cook should have a Cobb in his or her arsenal.

If you want to graduate to the world of Southern-style barbecue, the perfect entry-level device is Weber’s Smokey Mountain Cooker, nicknamed the Bullet. It’s a specialized device that will introduce you to a big new world of flavour, but it’s not for the dabbler.

How to start your coals

Barbecue purists don’t approve of chemical fire starters like the smelly white cubes or the kerosene-like liquid starter you get at the supermarket. Aficionados like to start their coals using a charcoal chimney, which isn’t much more than a metal cylinder with a handle on it. You put your charcoal in it, and there’s a little chamber at the bottom where you place a couple of balled-up pieces of newspaper. Light the newspaper, wait for about 15 minutes, and you’ve got a chimney full of hot coals – just enough to grill a few pork chops. You can also use it as a seed fire for a bigger quantity of charcoal that you can use for longer cooking projects and bigger cuts of meat.

My preferred method is to light up a tiger torch – a propane torch usually used by roofers to melt tar – and point its roaring flame at the coals you’ve loaded in your grill or smoker for a minute or two. That’s kind-of hardcore, however -- I do it not only for convenience but also to intimidate my opponents at barbecue contests. 

Let’s start a fire together

As a self-proclaimed barbecue evangelist, I encourage you to welcome charcoal into your life. It will free your taste buds from the humdrum world of propane and bring back a bit of old-fashioned ritual to your grilling. Here are a few of my favourite recipes for dishes that taste best when cooked over coals, from my cookbook, Barbecue Secrets DELUXE!


Spice-Crusted Pork Blade Steaks

Makes 6 servings

I love pork blade steaks because they’re inexpensive, extremely tasty, and very hard to ruin. The cumin seeds add an earthy tang and an interesting texture to these rich, chewy steaks. Serve them with your favorite summer sides (I like grilled asparagus and cherry tomatoes).

For the rub:
2 Tbsp | 25 mL powdered ancho chiles
(if you can’t find ground anchos, any chili powder will do)
1 Tbsp | 15 mL granulated garlic
1 Tbsp | 15 mL granulated onion
1 tsp | 5 mL freshly ground black pepper
1 tsp | 5 mL ground chipotles (substitute cayenne pepper if you can’t find ground chipotles)
1 tsp | 5 mL dried oregano
1 tsp | 5 mL dried parsley

For the steaks:
1 Tbsp | 15 mL cumin seeds
6 pork blade steaks (8 to 10 oz | 225 to 300 g each)
kosher salt
2 Tbsp | 25 mL Dijon mustard (regular prepared mustard will also do)
extra virgin olive oil

Combine the rub ingredients in a small bowl and set the rub aside.
            Toast the cumin seeds in a dry sauté pan over medium heat until they’re fragrant and just starting to turn light brown. Remove the cumin from the pan and set it aside.
            Generously season the blade steaks with salt. Using the back of a spoon or a basting brush, coat the steaks with a thin layer of mustard. Sprinkle the cumin seeds on both sides of the steaks and pat them in so they stick to the mustard. Sprinkle a generous coating of rub on the steaks and drizzle them with a little olive oil. (You’ll have rub left over, which is great for grilling just about anything.)
            Prepare your grill for high direct heat. Place the steaks on the cooking grate, close the grill, and immediately reduce the heat to medium. I like to throw a chunk of hickory or mesquite among the coals just before I start cooking to add an extra dimension of flavour.
            Cook the steaks for 8–10 minutes, turning them once or twice, or until they are springy to the touch. Remove the steaks from the grill, tent them with foil, and let them rest for 5 minutes. Drizzle them with a little olive oil and serve.

Seared Calamari with Fresh Tomato Basil Salsa

Makes 4 servings

The secret to great grilled squid is to use the freshest and smallest you can find, and to cook it over high heat for no more than a minute per side. Any longer and it turns rubbery. In this recipe, the tomato salsa provides a cool, tangy, herbal complement to the hot, garlicky calamari.

1 lb | 500 g cleaned squid, equal parts bodies and tentacles
1 Tbsp | 15 mL kosher salt
1/2 cup | 125 mL extra virgin olive oil
1/2 tsp | 2 mL red pepper flakes
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
2 cups | 500 mL small, ripe cherry or grape tomatoes
1 Tbsp | 15 mL fresh basil
1 Tbsp | 15 mL rice vinegar or white wine vinegar
salt and freshly ground pepper

Coat the squid in the salt, then rinse it thoroughly with cold water. Pat it dry with paper towels. Slit the bodies and score the inside surfaces with diagonal cuts. Cut each squid into bite-sized pieces. Place them in a bowl with 1/4 cup | 50mL of the olive oil, the red pepper flakes, and the garlic. Toss them to coat them and marinate them in the refrigerator for about an hour.
            Preheat your charcoal grill on high and in this case keep the lid off for maximum combustion. Using hardwood charcoal in a kettle-style grill works best. Try to time it so you put the squid on the grill when the coals are at their hottest, which is right after they’re all ignited. You can tell coals are ready when they’ve got a light coating of white ash. While the grill is heating, coarsely chop the tomatoes (halves or quarters are fine), slice the basil leaves into fine shreds, and toss them together in a bowl with the vinegar and the remainder of the olive oil. Distribute the salsa between four plates.
When the grill is hot, gently place the calamari on the cooking grate, taking care not to let the pieces slip through the cracks (you may even want to use a grill-topper with small holes designed for this kind of task). Don’t walk away! Stand at the open grill and tend the squid with a set of good tongs, turning the pieces often so they cook quickly and evenly, no more than a minute per side. Remove the squid from the grill and transfer it to the plates.
Sprinkle each serving with just a pinch of kosher salt and a light grinding of pepper. Drizzle the calamari with a little more olive oil and serve it immediately with a crisp, fruity white wine.

This article originally appeared in Calgary's City Palate magazine.

These recipes celebrate the bounty of fresh seafood from Pacific waters available in BC right now.  Visit your favorite fishmonger today and grill some over the weekend!


Grill-Seared Scallops with Sea Asparagus

There’s not much that can beat the glorious flavour and meaty texture of scallops, except scallops that are seared on a hot grill. The key to great scallops is to let them speak for themselves, so this is a very simple recipe. I’ve added sea asparagus, which is a great complement if you can find it, but otherwise you can serve them straight up.

Serves two or three as an appetizer
 
Six jumbo Alaskan Weathervane or Digby sea scallops
            ¼ lb sea asparagus (optional)
            Kosher salt
            Olive oil
            2 Tbsp. chopped fresh flat leaf Italian parsley
            fresh lemon wedges
            truffle oil (optional)
           
Preheat your grill for direct high cooking.

While your grill is preheating, bring some water to a boil in a saucepan. Add the sea asparagus and cook it for a minute or two. Remove the asparagus from the water and set it aside in a bowl.

Lightly salt the scallops, drizzle them with a little olive oil and take them out to the grill. Scrape the grill so the cooking grate is as smooth and clean as possible. Place the scallops on the grill. Cover the grill and cook them for about two minutes, turning them about every 30 seconds, until the scallops have nice char marks and are starting to feel firm to the touch.

Transfer the scallops from the grill to a plate and let them rest. While the scallops are resting, toss the sea asparagus with just a little olive oil and a squeeze of lemon.

Serve the scallops on a bed of sea asparagus and sprinkle some chopped parsley on top. A bit of juice will have come out of the sea scallops while they were resting, so be sure to drizzle that over everything. Garnish with a lemon wedge and, if you want to get fancy, finish the scallops with just a drop or two of truffle oil.


Grilled Pacific Snapper with Fresh Tomato Basil Sauce

Fresh Pacific snapper is a firm-fleshed fish that is great on the grill. In this recipe I’ve paired it with a delicious sauce made with fresh seasonal vegetables.  It goes well with some steamed rice and grilled asparagus.

Serves 4

4 6-oz. portions of boneless, skinless Pacific snapper fillets (you can substitute another firm-fleshed fish like halibut)

For the balsamic reduction
1 cup balsamic vinegar

For the sauce
2 Tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
½ cup chopped white onion
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
½ tsp. Kosher salt
½ tsp. crushed chili flakes
2 cups chopped fresh tomatoes
2 Tbsp. chopped fresh basil

For the rub
Kosher salt
Granulated onion
Dried basil
Extra virgin olive oil
           
For the garnish
            Freshly chopped parsley
            Lemon wedges
 

Pour the balsamic vinegar in a small saucepan and bring it to a boil over medium-high heat. Cook, watching carefully, until the vinegar has reduced to about 1/3 of its original volume (about 10-15 minutes). It should be a thick syrup that coats the back of a spoon. Set it aside to cool. (You’ll have some left over, which is great for drizzling on pretty much anything.)

Preheat your grill for medium direct cooking.

While the grill is warming up, make the sauce:  Heat the oil in a non-stick pan over medium heat and sauté the onions and garlic until they are translucent (about two or three minutes). Add the salt, chili flakes and chopped tomatoes and sauté the mixture for another couple of minutes, until the tomatoes are heated through. Add the chopped basil and give the sauce a stir. Adjust the seasonings to taste and set the sauce aside.

Sprinkle the snapper pieces with a light coating of salt, granulated onion and dried basil, and drizzle them with olive oil.

Scrape the cooking grate so it’s as smooth and clean as possible. Place the snapper on the cooking grate and cover the grill. Cook it for about three minutes and, with a large spatula, carefully turn the fish. Cook it for another three minutes or so, until the fish is firm to the touch. Carefully remove it from the grill and set it aside to rest for a minute or two.

Serve the fish on a bed of the sauce, surrounded by a drizzle of the balsamic reduction and topped with a sprinkle of the chopped parsley. Garnish with a wedge of lemon.

This week let’s celebrate good old mesquite, one of the most flavourful and versatile cooking woods. It grows everywhere, but I suppose it’s most associated with places like Texas, New Mexico and Arizona, where mesquite wood and charcoal have been used for ages to produce some of the best barbecue in the world. In the early 1980s a bunch of fancy New York and California chefs started to use it to fuel their grills, and the mesquite fire spread from there to become popular in restaurants across North America.

Mesquite is a dark-coloured, dense, hard wood. It’s actually a member of the legume family and produces beans that were a staple food for the aboriginal people of the American Southwest. Its smoke has a sweet, strong aroma with a bitter edge; if you’re not careful you can use too much of it. In competition I like to use a blend of mesquite, hickory and a fruitwood like apple or cherry for a nice, well-rounded flavour, but mesquite on its own works extremely well in many applications.

Mesquite charcoal is highly valued by outdoor cooks because it burns clean and hot for maximum searing power. Lump charcoal – even if it’s made from mesquite – doesn’t impart a lot of flavour, so if you use it, add a few chunks of mesquite wood on top of the coals once you’ve got them going. 

You can buy mesquite chips and chunks at most barbecue stores and in the grilling section of home improvement stores. Chunks work best when you’re using a covered charcoal grill like a Weber kettle. If you’ve got a gas grill, the easiest way to get some mesquite smoke into your food is to wrap a couple of handfuls of mesquite chips in aluminum foil sort of like a big cigar, poke some holes in it with a fork, and place the package under your cooking grate, right above the heating elements. As your grill heats up, the chips will start to smoulder and throw off lovely aromatic smoke into the cooking chamber. If you want extra smoke, soak the chips for an hour or so before using.

Here are a couple of great recipes that take full advantage of mesquite’s magical powers. Hope you like them! If you do, let me know by posting a note on the Barbecue Secrets Facebook page.

Tequila-Lime Quail

This dish is inspired by a recipe in an old cookbook called Mesquite Cookery by Courtenay Beinhorn. You can get frozen quail, six in a pack, in the frozen poultry section of bigger supermarkets. These tasty little birds make a great first course. Gnawing on their tiny drumsticks makes me feel like Shrek.

Makes six appetizers or three first-course servings

6 quail
½ cup tequila
¼ cup freshly squeezed lime juice
2 tablespoons corn oil or other neutral-flavored oil
8 crushed pequin chiles or 1 tablespoon crushed chile flakes
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon ancho chile powder (regular chile powder will do)
¼ cup chopped fresh cilantro
some more corn oil for brushing the birds
salt and freshly ground pepper
1 firm, ripe avocado
Lime wedges and cilantro leaves for garnish

Remove the backbone from the quail using a sharp knife or poultry shears. Discard the bones or save them to make stock. Once you’ve removed the backbones, place the quail, bone-side down, on a cutting board and press down on them with the heel of your hand to flatten them. You’ll feel the breastbone crack.

Combine the tequila, lime juice, 2 tablespoons of oil, chiles, salt, cumin, chile powder and cilantro in a bowl and mix them together well. Combine the marinade with the quail in a heavy duty Ziploc bag, push the air out of the bag and seal it. Put the bag in your refrigerator and marinate the quail for at least one or two hours, turning them once or twice. (You can marinate them overnight if you like.)

Get your charcoal or gas grill going at medium-high. If you’re using a gas grill, use mesquite chips wrapped in aluminum foil; if you’re cooking with charcoal, place one or two chunks of mesquite on the hot coals just before you start to cook.

Remove the quail from the marinade and pat them dry. Brush them with some oil and give them a light coating of salt and pepper. When your fire is hot, put the quail on the grill, bone side down. Cover the grill and cook the quail for four minutes. Turn it over and cook it for another four minutes, or until the skin is crispy and golden brown and the meat is cooked to a core temperature of 160F.

Remove the quail from the grill and while it’s resting, peel the avocado. Serve the quail garnished with a few cilantro leaves, a couple of slices of avocado and a lime wedge.

 
Grilled Pork Tacos

Instead of making tacos with seasoned ground meat, try it this way, with smoky slices of grilled pork tossed with enchilada sauce. Yummy!

Serves four adults or two teenagers

1 small onion
1 10-ounce can of enchilada sauce
1 fresh lime
4 8-ounce boneless pork loin chops
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 teaspoon granulated garlic
1 teaspoon granulated onion
2 tablespoons corn oil or any neutral-flavored oil
¼ cup chopped fresh cilantro
Your favorite taco condiments (salsa, guacamole, pickled jalapeño)
12 warmed corn or flour tortillas

Peel and chop the onion and sauté it in the oil over medium heat for about three minutes, stirring often, until it’s translucent. Add the enchilada sauce and the juice of half a lime. Season the sauce to taste and set it aside.

Combine the salt, pepper and granulated onion and garlic and sprinkle the mixture onto the pork chops. Drizzle the oil over the chops to coat them lightly.

Get your charcoal or gas grill going at medium-high. If you’re using a gas grill, use mesquite chips wrapped in aluminum foil; if you’re cooking with charcoal, place one or two chunks of mesquite on the hot coals just before you start to cook.

Place the chops on the grill, cover it, and cook them for about 4 minutes per side or until they’re cooked through to about 140F for medium-rare, or 160F for well done.

Remove the chops from the grill, cover them loosely in aluminum foil, and while they’re resting, heat the tortillas by placing them, one at a time, in a hot non-stick skillet, turning them once to heat them through. When the tortillas are done, thinly slice the pork chops and toss the slices in the enchilada sauce. Transfer the meat to a serving bowl and lay out the pork, tortillas and condiments on the table so everyone can make their own tacos.

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My cookbook, Barbecue Secrets DELUXE!, now available as an iBook from the iTunes Store.

These recipes feature the best of British Columbia's seafood bounty and showcase a couple of great grilling techniques.

Both recipes are from my cookbook, Barbecue Secrets DELUXE!, now available as an iBook from the iTunes Store.

Wild BC Salmon with Homemade Tartar Sauce and Tomato Salad

Makes 4 servings

Rob Clarke, Executive Chef of C Restaurant, Nu Restaurant, and Raincity Grill is the best seafood chef in Vancouver, and that’s saying something. This is his recipe, adapted for the grill. It’s a sophisticated version of a salmon grilling technique I learned many years ago that’s as easy as pie and as delicious as it gets. The concept is to slather a side of salmon with mayo, put it on a hot grill, skin side down, and cook it until the salmon is done and the mayo has sort of set, like a savory pudding, on the fish. Pair this salmon with some BC Pinot Blanc or Sauvignon Blanc.

For the tartar sauce:
1 cup | 250 mL mayonnaise
2 tsp | 10 mL dried dill
3 Tbsp | 45 mL finely chopped cornichons (gherkins)
1 Tbsp | 15 mL finely chopped stuffed green olives
1 Tbsp | 15 mL finely chopped shallots 
1 Tbsp | 15 mL finely chopped capers
1 Tbsp | 15 mL finely chopped fresh parsley
2 Tbsp | 30 mL lemon juice
1 Tbsp | 15 mL Dijon mustard 15 mL

For the salmon:
four 6 oz | 175 g  boneless wild BC salmon fillets (skin on) (Rob prefers pink salmon but coho or sockeye also work well)
sea salt

For the tomato salad:
2 Tbsp | 30 mL extra virgin olive oil
2 tsp | 10 mL rice wine vinegar
1 tsp | 5 mL Dijon mustard
1 Tbsp | 15 mL finely minced shallot
1/8 tsp | .5 mL cayenne pepper
kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
4 medium fresh heirloom tomatoes (yellow ones work nicely)

            Prepare the tartar sauce by combining the mayonnaise, dill, cornichons, olives, shallots, capers, parsley, lemon juice, and mustard until well blended. Set the mixture aside.
            Prepare the tomato salad by whisking together all the ingredients except the tomatoes. Slice the tomatoes into 1/4 inch | 6 mm rounds. Gently toss the tomato slices in the vinaigrette and divide the salad between 4 serving plates.
            Season the salmon fillets with salt and let them sit for 10 minutes.
            Prepare your grill for medium direct heat. Place the salmon fillets, skin-side-down, on the cooking grate and slather each of them with 1 Tbsp | 15 mL of the tartar sauce. Cover the grill and cook the salmon for 5–7 minutes, until the fillets reach an internal temperature of 135°F | 57°C.
            To serve the salmon, place the fillets on the plates beside the tomato salad and finish the dish with a dollop of the remaining tartar sauce.


Lingcod in Foil with Fennel and Apple Salsa

Makes 4–6 servings

The lingcod is a long, greenish blue bottom fish with a big, ugly face and a giant mouth that can take an octopus in one bite. It also has incredibly succulent, delicate, bluish white flesh that’s so tender it falls apart if you try to grill it, but is just great cooked in foil.

1 fennel bulb, stalk and fronds attached
1 navel orange
3 Tbsp | 45 mL orange-infused extra virgin olive oil (or regular if you can’t find the orange-infused kind)
1 Tbsp | 15 mL white balsamic vinegar
½ tsp | 2 mL Dijon mustard
kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
2 Granny Smith apples
1 medium yellow onion
2 oz | 60 g butter
granulated garlic
1 ½ lb | 750 g boneless ling cod fillet (halibut would also work)
1 tsp finely grated orange zest
1 oz | 30 mL Pernod liqueur
extra virgin olive oil for drizzling

            Trim the fronds from the fennel, discarding the woody stems.  Finely chop the fennel fronds and set them aside.
            Halve the orange and set one half aside. Combine the 3 Tbsp | 45 mL of olive oil, vinegar, and mustard in a bowl along with the juice of half the orange and 1 tsp | 5 mL of the chopped fennel fronds. Whisk the ingredients together and add salt and pepper to taste. Set the vinaigrette aside.
            Cut the fennel bulb in half, from top to bottom. Cut one half of the fennel bulb into very thin slices using a mandoline or a very sharp chef’s knife. Set the sliced fennel aside.
            Chop the other half of the fennel bulb into a ¼ inch | 6 mm dice and place it in the mixing bowl containing the vinaigrette.
            Peel and core the apples and chop them into a ¼ inch | 6 mm dice. Transfer them to the bowl with the vinaigrette and diced fennel and toss them together. Set the salsa aside.
            Trim and peel the onion and then cut it into the same kind of thin slices as the fennel using the mandoline. Set the sliced onion aside.
            Fold a 4 foot | 120 cm strip of wide, heavy-duty aluminium foil in half and lay it down on your counter. Coat the foil with a thin layer of the butter, leaving a 4 inch | 10 cm margin around the rectangle of foil. Lay down the sliced onion on the foil and sprinkle the onion slices with a little salt. Season both sides of the lingcod fillet with a very light sprinkle of salt, pepper, and granulated garlic. Lay it on top of the onions, and then lay the shaved fennel slices on top of the fish. Drizzle the fish with the Pernod and some olive oil. Sprinkle a teaspoon of the chopped fennel fronds and a pinch of salt over the shaved fennel. Tightly seal the foil around the ingredients.

Note: Because fennel bulbs and onions come in different sizes, it’s hard to estimate exactly how much of these ingredients you’ll have when you come to assembling the foil packet. Use your best judgement—if it looks like you have too much fennel or onion for everything to fit comfortably, feel free to change the amounts to suit the situation.
            Prepare the grill for medium direct heat. Place the foil packet, onion layer facing down, on the grill and cook for 12–15 minutes, or until the onions are soft and the fish is cooked through. Transfer the packet to a heatproof serving platter and let it rest for about 5 minutes. To serve, open up the packet at the table and divide its contents between you and your guests with a large serving spoon, making sure everyone gets some of the liquid. Top each serving with a dollop of the salsa and a wedge of the remaining half of the orange.

Zesty Lamb Kebabs

Makes 4 main course servings, and 6–8 appetizer servings

These easy, delicious kebabs make a great party appetizer or a tasty main course. The secret to this dish is to not overcook the lamb, which becomes tough and rubbery if it’s left on the grill too long. Serve it either as an appetizer or as a main course on a bed of rice.

8 long metal skewers or
12 7-inch | 18 cm bamboo skewers, soaked for at least 1 hour
 
To marinate the lamb:
1 2 lb | 1 kg leg of lamb
1/4 cup | 50 mL chopped fresh mint
1/4 cup | 50 mL chopped fresh basil
1 tsp | 5 mL dried mint
1 tsp | 5 mL dried basil
1 Tbsp | 15 mL ground coriander seed
pinch cayenne
1/2 cup | 125 mL extra virgin olive oil
1 tsp | 5 mL Dijon mustard
zest of 1 lemon, finely chopped

For the kebabs:
1 purple onion, cut into bite-sized
chunks
16 cherry tomatoes
kosher salt to taste
olive oil, for drizzling
1 lemon (the same one you zested),
cut in half for squeezing

Cut the lamb into 11/2-inch | 4 cm chunks. Combine all the marinade ingredients in a bowl and mix them thoroughly with the lamb. Place the lamb in a resealable plastic bag or a nonreactive bowl, refrigerate it, and
marinate it for at least 2 hours, or as long as overnight.
            Prepare your grill for direct medium heat. Thread the lamb chunks on the metal or bamboo skewers, alternating them with the onion chunks and cherry tomatoes. Grill the kebabs, turning them 2 or 3 times, until the lamb is medium rare (6–8 minutes), taking care not to overcook it. Remove the skewers from the grill, sprinkle them with salt, drizzle them with oil, and squeeze some lemon juice over them. Serve the kebabs immediately.

Tandoori Lamb Kebabs

Makes 4 servings

Tandoori paste is available in the Indian food section of most supermarkets, and it’s a great thing to have in your fridge. It adds intense flavor to chicken and lamb, and if you have the foresight to marinate the meat overnight, it also has a tenderizing effect. Serve these lamb kebabs with steamed basmati rice, a vegetable curry, and your favorite chutney.

eight 7-inch | 18 cm bamboo skewers, soaked for at least 1 hour

1/2 cup | 125 mL tandoori paste
1/3 cup | 75 mL yogurt
2 Tbsp | 25 mL lemon juice
3 Tbsp | 45 mL chopped fresh cilantro
one 3 lb | 1.5 kg boneless leg of lamb, cut into bite-sized chunks
1 large Spanish onion, cut into bite-sized chunks
3 oz | 75 g butter
lemon wedges and cilantro sprigs for garnish

Mix together the tandoori paste, yogurt, lemon juice, and chopped cilantro in a medium nonreactive bowl. Add the lamb chunks and coat them with the marinade. Refrigerate the lamb overnight if possible, or at least 1 hour. Thread the lamb chunks onto the skewers, alternating them with pieces of onion.

Heat the butter in a small saucepan just until it’s melted. Set it aside and keep it warm.
            Prepare your grill for direct medium heat. Place the kebabs on the cooking grate and grill them for 6–8 minutes, or until the lamb chunks are springy to the touch. Every couple of minutes, turn and baste the kebabs with butter (be sure to have your spray bottle at the ready; the butter can cause flare-ups). Remove the kebabs from the grill and serve them garnished with lemon wedges and cilantro sprigs.



Minty Potato Hobo Pack

Makes 4–6 servings

Why, oh why, do we ignore the glories of fresh mint in North American home cooking? It’s delicious, refreshing, and its aroma is like nothing else. This dish is insanely simple to make, and the combination of mint and potatoes will wow your guests.  Because this recipe calls for indirect heat, you can use the hot side of the grill to cook your steaks and grill your veggies.

6 medium Yukon Gold potatoes
2 tsp | 10 mL dried mint leaves
1 large yellow onion
¼ lb | 125 g butter
extra virgin olive oil for drizzling
1/2 cup | 120 mL tightly packed fresh mint leaves
½ a fresh lemon, the other half cut into wedges for garnish
kosher salt

Bring the butter to room temperature.
            Take 6 feet | 2 M of wide, heavy-duty aluminum foil and fold it in half. Place the foil on a counter and coat it with about ¼ of the butter, leaving about a 4 inch | 10 cm margin all the way around the rectangle.
            Peel the onion and slice it into 1/4-in | 6 mm rounds, split the rounds into rings, and spread the rings to cover the buttered area of the foil. Cut the potatoes into ½ inch slices, leaving the skins on, and layer them on top of the onions, sprinkling a little dried mint and salt on each layer. Top the potatoes with a few dabs of the butter, reserving half of it for finishing the dish.
            Gather up the foil around the edges and close up the hobo pack, making it into a loaf-like cylinder. Make sure you have a tight seal all the way around.
            Prepare your grill for medium-high indirect heat. Place the hobo pack on the grill (away from direct heat), and cook for 15–20 minutes. At this point, you can take the hobo pack off the grill and it will retain its heat for at least half an hour if you have other things to prepare.
            When you’re ready to serve the potatoes, finely chop the mint leaves and set them aside. Put the hobo pack on a serving platter and carefully open it, taking care not to get burned by the escaping steam. Sprinkle half the chopped mint leaves over the potatoes, add the rest of the butter in daubs, and gently toss the mint, onions, and potatoes together. Sprinkle some salt and the rest of the mint leaves over the potatoes, drizzle them with a little olive oil, and squeeze the lemon over top. Serve the potatoes immediately, garnished with lemon wedges.

Barbecue Secret
It’s easy to burn the bottom of a hobo pack, but it’s hard to screw up using this basic technique. Make sure to use heavy-duty foil and double it. Coat the foil with oil or butter, then put whatever ingredient will take the most direct heat, like bacon or onions, first. Then lay on the rest of your ingredients in order of vulnerability and cooking time—potatoes next, then bell pepper, and so on, with any fresh herbs on top. Finish the package with a couple of dabs of butter or a drizzle of oil, seal it tightly, and place it on medium direct heat. If the bottom layer of onions and/or bacon get charred, they’ll add to the flavor. To avoid risk of burning altogether, cook hobo packs using high indirect heat.

Eating meat is so important to my diet that, when I’m traveling on business, I pack an emergency can of Spam. There are times when, rushing to get to a meeting in my rental car, I crack open a can, shape a makeshift spoon/fork/knife out of the lid, and shovel the pink, salty, unctuous processed pork into my mouth with one hand while gripping the steering wheel with the other.

By the time half the can’s contents are down my gullet, I can feel the meat’s healing powers as it nourishes my body, sharpens my brain and calms my soul. For me, a day that starts with meat is going to be a good day.

I don’t know why meat and I get along so well. I know there’s a popular theory that says people have different dietary needs based on their blood type. Some are natural omnivores, others are wired to thrive on pure animal protein, and some, the poor sods, are genetically predisposed to eat nothing but vegetables. I’m not sure of my blood type, but I know that meat is good for me, and I’m glad, because I love it so.

I’m not alone. Most humans love meat. Our cravings for fleisch are inexorably tied to memories of past meals: the sound of a steak hitting a hot skillet; the aroma of a plump, glistening turkey as an oven door is pulled open; the dark, shiny, bubbling surface of a pot full of braised lamb shanks; the multi-sensory explosion of a smoky, fat, juicy pork shoulder, fresh from the smoker at the magic moment that it’s first pulled apart. Each new meat-eating experience conjures up and connects us with a rich stew of Proustian remembrances of meats past, each bite building on the last and adding to the richness of the current meat moment.

As someone who has seared, fried, boiled, baked and barbecued and eaten enough meat to feed several armies, I’ve developed some strong preferences for certain types of meat and cooking techniques , but it’s impossible to narrow them down to one favourite.

How can one choose between a bite of tender, succulent pork rib with its salty crust and sweet, tangy coating of sauce, and the first glistening slice of chicken breast that’s been carved from the bird, its golden skin hiding under a pool of velvety gravy?

How can anyone claim that a bright pink, bone-thick slab of pepper-crusted prime rib roast, with its quivering eye of silken fat, is better than a pan-seared duck breast, its bacon-crisp skin competing for attention with the silky smooth rare meat that accompanies every forkful?

And is it really fair to compare the dark richness of fork-tender beef short ribs that have been braised for hours in red wine and veal stock with a rack of lamb coated with sea salt and herbs and grilled for a few minutes over a charcoal fire?

No. There are so many meats, and so many ways to make them taste great, one just can’t pick a winner.

But perfect meat that’s perfectly done has some shared traits. It must be juicy, of course. There’s nothing worse than white, overcooked pork, or dry, mealy chicken breast, or grey, crumbly beef brisket. Texture is so important. Whether it’s braised for hours and served shredded, or cooked so little that it scares away the squeamish, great meat has a smooth texture that caresses the taster’s tongue. Ideally, that smoothness is contrasted with a charred, crunchy, salty crust. And then there’s the fat. Whether it’s contained in the cracklings or marbled into the meat itself, fat must be present, for without it, the meat cannot fully satisfy.

I’ve eaten so much meat that I’m kind-of jaded, and I’m always on the lookout for new trends and exotic meat-eating experiences. One of the best things that’s happened over the last few years is a resurgence of fatty meat. In the 1980s the cholesterol fascists took over the food chain, and most of the fat and flavour were bred out of our beef and pork. Today, well-marbled meat is gaining in popularity and breeds like Berkshire pork and Wagyu beef are available to home cooks. One of the best meat experiences I’ve ever had was a special cut of Wagyu beef called spinalis, or rib-eye cap. It must have had about a 50 per cent fat content; when it came off the grill, it jiggled like Jell-O. Man, oh man, was it good.

Beyond the super-exotic cuts of standard meats, there’s a growing interest among North American restaurateurs and meat aficionados in game, ranging from delicious farmed venison and bison grown here in Canada to crazy stuff like Australian farmed ostrich and wild kangaroo, which both taste like leaner, slightly more complex versions of the best beef tenderloin one could imagine. I recently got a chance to barbecue a wild camel shoulder, also from Australia. It was a bit chewier and less fatty than domesticated beef or pork, but made up for those shortfalls with a wonderful gamey flavour.

The most exotic meat I’ve ever tasted was seal, which is also one of the most contentious meats. Ill-informed European activist campaigns continue to threaten Canada’s sealing industry. There are lots of seals -- so many, in fact, that their overpopulation continues to impede the recovery of our East Coast cod stocks. They’re humanely killed, the harvest is sustainable, and I’m pleased to report that seal meat is delicious. All the fat on a seal is on the outside of the animal, so the meat itself is extremely lean – it’s so rich in iron that it’s deep purple, verging on black. Raw seal meat is the texture of the finest tuna sashimi and tastes like a cross between beef tenderloin and sea urchin roe. It’s not to everyone’s taste, but if you’re a true meat lover, it’s worth adding to your bucket list.

How to treat your meat

To make great meat, you must start with an excellent product, but ultimately what makes the difference between disappointing and delectable is you, the cook. Here are some tips.

Choose the right cut. Leaner, more tender cuts like tenderloin are best for shorter, hotter techniques like grilling or pan-frying and are most delicious when served rare to medium rare. Chewier cuts like shoulder, shank and brisket do best with long, slow cooking methods like smoking or braising, which break down the tough connective tissue and turn it into toothsome goodness.

Season it well, with good salt and fresh spices. The best use of standard iodized table salt is to mix it with hot water and gargle with it next time you have a sore throat.  Please don’t put it on meat. Instead, use Diamond Crystal brand kosher salt, French sea salt, English Maldon salt, Australian Murray River salt, or pink Himalayan salt to add flavour and texture to meat dishes. Also, always go with freshly ground pepper; it’s ten times better than the packaged, pre-ground stuff, which adds a dusty taste to meat. Feel free to use dried herbs and spices, but make sure they haven’t been sitting in your pantry for six years. 

Start out on high, then turn the heat down. This principle applies whether you’re grilling a steak or braising some veal shanks. Use high heat to quickly seal in juices and add complexity to the meat’s flavour, then turn it down to achieve maximum tenderness. In the oven, start roasts at 500F and reduce the heat to 350F after the first 10 minutes. On the grill, start out super-hot and then go with a medium setting after you’ve got char-marks on your meat. To braise the toughest cuts, season the meat and toss it around over high heat with some oil or fat till it’s nicely seared, then add liquid, cover it, and cook it for a long time over low heat.

Treat it simply. Don’t smother meat with sauce or spice it so much that you can’t taste anything but sauce and spices.

Let it rest before you eat. After any meat is off the heat, let it rest, loosely tented in foil, to give the fibres a chance to relax for a much juicier, silkier texture. For steaks and other single-serving portions, five minutes or so of resting is good. For something like a whole roast chicken or a prime rib of beef or pork loin roast, half an hour or even an hour of resting time can make a big difference.


RECIPES

The Perfect Meat Experience: Pan-Fried Steak

Although I’m known as an avid outdoor cook, when it comes to steak, it’s hard to beat a good old frying pan to give the meat a perfect crust. Save this recipe for a rainy day. I love to serve steak on a bed of fresh bitter greens like baby arugula and finish it with a squeeze of fresh lemon and a drizzle of good olive oil. Or serve it with a big salad full of fresh tomatoes and avocados.

1 2-inch-thick well-marbled rib steak or T-bone
1 clove garlic
1 tsp kosher salt
2 Tbsp coarsely ground or cracked black peppercorns
3 Tbsp butter, at room temperature
2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 4-inch sprig of rosemary
1/2 cup red wine

Preheat the oven to 425˚F. Take the steak out of the fridge and let it rest half an hour to bring it to room temperature. Peel and slice the garlic into paper-thin slices. Generously season both sides of the steak with salt and pepper. Put 2 Tbsp of the butter and the olive oil into a cold cast iron skillet. Place the skillet on the burner and turn the heat to high. Just as the butter is barely melted and starting to sizzle, lay the rosemary sprig and the garlic slices in the pan and place the seasoned steak on top.
Keeping the heat on high, cook the steak for 3–4 minutes on one side, until it has a nice brown crust, then turn it and cook it for another 2–3 minutes, just long enough to create a crust on the other side of the steak. Place the skillet in the oven and bake the steak for 10–15 minutes, or until the centre is 120°F for rare or 140˚F for medium rare.
            Remove the steak from the pan and let it rest on a plate for about 5 minutes. In the meantime, deglaze the pan with the red wine over high heat, reducing it by about half. Add the remaining 1 Tbsp of butter just at the end, swirling it into the pan sauce. Remove the charred garlic pieces and the rosemary sprig, pour the sauce over the steak, and enjoy.
            When you’re finished the steak, go chop a cord of wood.

Sexy Minty Lamb Racks for Two

Makes 2 servings

This dish delivers one of the purest meat experiences – a perfect combination of sweet, tangy and herbal flavours does exactly what’s necessary to deliver the goods. It’s great with summery salads like
couscous or grilled eggplant.  

1/2 cup fresh mint, finely chopped
1/2 cup dark brown sugar
1 Tbsp white wine vinegar
2 racks of lamb, Frenched by your butcher

Combine the mint, sugar, and vinegar, and mix them together until you have a thick, wet paste, adding a splash more of the vinegar if it seems too thick. Prepare your grill for medium direct heat. Coat the lamb racks generously with the paste and grill them for 8–12 minutes, or until the internal temperature reaches 120°F for rare or 140˚F for medium rare. Turn the lamb every couple of minutes to allow the brown sugar on both sides of the rack to gently caramelize and the flavour of the mint to intensify.

This article originally appeared in Calgary's City Palate magazine.

Rockin’ Ronnie Shewchuk is chief cook of the barbecue team Rockin’ Ronnie’s Butt Shredders and the author of several bestselling cookbooks, including Barbecue Secrets DELUXE! (Whitecap). He’s also the host of the Barbecue Secrets podcast, available for free on iTunes.  Visit www.ronshewchuk.com to find out more.