Sunday, March 25, 2007

Sunday BBQ-Filet Mignon, Rib Eye, Chicken & Pillar Box Red































Quick writeup of Sundays BBQ. I prepared a roma tomato salad with balsamic drizzle topped with herb sprinkled slices of avocado and some slices of English Cheddar. The Main Course was a couple of filets. One was done with a Jerk Spice while the other was done with a combination of Mignonette Pepper and Montreal Steal crushed a bit with a mortar and pestle. The Veggies were done on the BBQ as well and consisted of Asparagus, Red Pepper, Maui Onion and Cauliflower...yes Cauliflower. I told the Mrs over dinner that I may very well be the first guy on the planet who voluntarily BBQ's Cauliflower. IThe veggie dish is pretty simply really, slice some assorted veggies into medium/large pieces, add some type of oil(Italian Dressing works good but in last nights case I used Sundried Tomato Infused Olive Oil) and cook until tender over medium heat. If you want to make that a main course you can add shrimp or scallops or any kind of sliced meat really. I do that occasionally and its always been a hit. The other entrees pictured above was a BBQ Spice Marinated Chicken Breast and a Peppercorn Grass Fed Ribeye. For the chicken I took some standard store bought BBQ Sauce, Chef Pauls BBQ Seasoning, Grapeseed Oil, and a clove of minced garlic. Mix all of that in a Ziploc and marinate the chicken for a couple of hours. Great Flavor and nice Golden Color. I almost cut the uncooked breast into strips and throw in with the veggies but opted not to. The Rib Eye was encrusted with a Peppercorn Mix as well as stuffed with garlic. That parts pretty easy-simply take a pairing knife and cut a slice into some of the fatty portions of the meat and insert 1/2 a clove of garlic. Truth be told I am now sure how much garlic flavor actually infuses with meat but you can never go wrong adding garlic to anything-sans maybe cinnamon rolls or Capn Crunch.

As for the Wine-That's a bottle of Australian Pillar Box Red. Its a very affordable wine as I picked up this bottle at the Local Wine Club for 9 or 10 bucks. Its been described as a Premium Everyday Drinking Wine and I think that really fits the bill well. There was nothing extraordinary about the wine but very solid across the board in all areas. The wife found it a bit dry for her liking but I found it well balanced. There's no question its not the fruitiest wine you will ever drink but once again it does have a very nice balance. From the decanter it actually smelled almost identical to Welch's Grape Juice. It paired well with the dinner though and with an alcohol content over 14 we still had 1/4 bottle left. Overall a nice value....I am not sure I will start posting wine scores here or anything like. If that's something someone wants me to do leave some feedback in the comments field or email me.

1 comment:

Upchucker said...

Yeah, there's no reason in the world to decant a bottle of 8 dollar blended red wine from Australia.