Letters, We get yout Letters.....

Slowly but surely I'm starting to get some email responses and this one in particular I thought would make for a good daily post..

Hi Hip,

do you grill with charcoal or propane? which is best?

any good tilapia or any fish recipes for bbq?

is it always best to marinate your food at least 1hr?

I Love Wine one of my favorites is a cabernet/merlot blend.

Sincerely,

Mashi in Montclair

Good Questions Mashi! Starting from the top-

I prefer Propane myself for 2 main reasons.

1)I BBQ so often that if I used charcoal I would be going through Costco sized bags on a weekly or bi-weekly basis.

2)Consistency in heat/temperature. I know exactly at which setting works best for which foods and can crank up one side to sear and the other to finish/finalize etc etc. I used to be an old school charcoal guy but with propane its so much easier to crank up the heat when needed and turn it off when you're done. Simply a convenience factor. I will be doing a future post all about my BBQ and some of the tools I use.

As for the Fish Question-Ive never done a tilapia but will put that on my list of things to do for sure which leads to the next question about marinade.

In my opinion, the longer the marinade the better the flavor. I'll generally try and do overnight if not at least 5 or 6 hours. Get the large Ziploc bags for this. Put in the marinade , Put in the meat take out the excess air-works like a charm! Don't do this for seafood though as any vinegar/citrus juice will cook the fish. When it comes to seafood an hour tops is fine and try not to use too much juice or too much vinegar. If you really want to do an overnight marinade for seafood make your own marinade using only herbs and oils and it will work like a charm. Ill be doing some features about marination in future posts.

As for the Cab/Merlot blends....I'm in a Cab/Zinfandel phase right now but I'm sure with time that will change. With the warm summer months approaching I may try sampling some Whites-and of course will post my thoughts here for all to see.

Once again great questions Mashi. I will be posting some recipes here in a week or so for "Dustin Brown Baby Backs and "Kopitar's Kalbi Korean Flank Steak."