Memorial Day BBQ Revealed

Some Quick Weekend highlights for you. I actually did 3 BBQ's this weekend but only took pictures of 2 of them.

The first couple of pictures are of some chicken strips I marinated overnight in Buttermilk, Green Onions, and Spices. I did it 2 ways actually the top picture being the chicken no frills simply BBQed as is. The Second kind of blurry pic(my bad on the blur..make you own wine/blurred vision joke if you like) is the same Chicken with some rub and some sauce.






























Below are some pictures of food prepared in my brother's Texas Style Smoker. From left to right-Smoked BBQ Backs, The Middle is some Beer & Garlic marinated Tri-tip, and on the right some Sliced Rump Roast. Believe it or not the Rump Roast after 5 hours of smoking was wonderfully delicious. I could have sold people on the fact that it was prime rib and they might have believed me. And after manning the smoker from 8AM to roughly 2PM I really dropped the ball for not taking any pictures of the ribs and other cuts of meat on the grill itself. It was poetry I tell you....poetry.

Red Snapper-2 different Kinds

The local gourmet market here in Southern California had a pretty good special on wild red snapper so I figured I pick up some filets and see what I could do with it.
Snapper is a very easy fish to work with and works great on the grill w/ a fish basket. Unly takes about 5 minutes on each side over low to medium heat.

Here we have my attempt at grilled snapper with Singaporean Satay Seasoning. Its almost 1/2 Satay 1/2 Curry. You don't normally associate Curry with BBQ so I thought it would be interesting. True to form it had a nice indian style flavor that wasnt too spicy(which made the wife and son happy).















Here we did a Snapper with Northwoods Seasoning. Northwoods Seasoning is a specific blend they sell at www.Penzeys.com that works wonderful with Chicken or Fish. Its not quite cajun and not quite jerk but looks and tastes great. I highly recomend Penzeys for anyone looking to get high quality spices without breaking the bank. Ive yet to be dissapointed from any of their stuff. If anyone reading this knows a better place to get spices though Im all ears!















Not pictured was that nights wine which was a French offering called Quintessance. The Misses really liked this wine. It had a nose that was half wood and half wet hay and while a bit on the dryer side for my liking certainly had all the characteristics of a much pricier wine. Wonderful finish and very smooth almost silky texture. Why I didnt take a picture Im not sure....my bad! Also had the new Cameron Hughes Meritage offering as well. I preferred it the Quintessance as it had a bit more berry character to it but truth be told I could have went either way on those choices as they were both very good for the price. I also picked up a bottle of the Cameron Hughes White offering that I will be reviewing in the near future and hopefully a bit better then this meager offering.

Something I stumbled upon....

Maybe its because its late on Friday afternoon and all the hard hours have caught up with me but this is something I found that struck a chord with me for whatever reason. Basically it is a slide show of vintage pictures taken at Disneyland. Growing up here in Southern California and having a dear family member working at the park I used to spend quite a lot of time there. Of course its changed a lot today then what it used to be(what hasn't?) this is a wonderful pictorial and real slice of americana that hopefully you will enjoy. For the record as well-should have my latest creation posted this weekend sometime- Shrimp and Scallop Brochette wrapped with Bacon and stuffed with pineapple. Truth be told I may do a Mango/Pineapple salsa but we'll have to see. Anyhow enjoy these pics!

http://flickr.com/groups/65461987@N00/pool/show/

Robert Parker-10 Great Wines under $10

Straight from Business Week online written by the man himself. Surprise Surprise-the 2003 Borsao makes #3 on his list.




Great Wines Great Price

Grilled Mahi, Red Diamond Cab, Borsao and Shrimp

Here we have a couple of shrimp and veggie skewers and a marinated sirloin pinwheel. I wont lie...I bought the pinwheel at El Toro Meats here in Sunny Southern California. It was overpriced but I had a coupon so figured what the heck. It was very very good though. The marinade was some type of Worcester Sauce and some type of Oil I will presume. Basically they take a sirloin strip and run it through a tenderizer where they roll it up(hence the pinwheel), wrap it in bacon, and marinate it. Great flavor and great texture. I normally run for the hills on any item that needs to be run through a tenderizer but this was very very good. As for the Skewers-you just can't go wrong with your basic Olive Oil, Garlic, and Lemon Pepper mix and that exactly what I did here. For those wanting to do this at home make sure you do the shrimp as the very last thing...they cook quick so make sure you throw those on the grill right before the veggies are done.




Here we have Maha-Mahi served atop roasted Maui onions with grilled mushrooms and asparagus sided with some sun dried tomatoes. I once again went the east route here using some of the frozen Mahi fillets at Trader Joes. I've since also tried their marinated tuna and can say unequivocally the Mahi is superior. The onions I simply sliced lengthwise into large slices. They are very sweet and roast on the grill nicely. Once they get that nice opaque look to them you know they are pretty close to being done. Very flexible, you could probably drizzle any oil based dressing onto them for a nice touch. Your standard bottle of Kraft Italian will even work in a pinch but I generally stay away from that massed produced stuff. I once used Franks Red Hot Sauce actually and even that turned out to be decent. The rest of the Veggies were simply some things I had in the Fridge thrown onto the grill.



If I had it to do over again I would have certainly wrapped the asparagus in bacon...maybe even cut the shrooms in half, placed them on the asparagus, and wrapped the lot into bacon. I'll have to try that sometime this summer. As for the Wine(s), I never promised this blog was going to be high brow high digit so these are just a couple of standard wines. My next review will be a review of Australian Woop Woop that a co-worker recommended. I sampled a glass this previous weekend so hopefully will be able to give a more comprehensive review at a later date.

Pizza Night w/Alexander & Fitch

Took a rare night off from the grill and thought Id indulge in one of my other favorite that is homemade pizza and Cabernet Savignon!

I know at first glance when you see the Alexander & Fitch label you must think "Oh, Hipcheck must have found some small cool new winery that will soon attain cult status." But truth be told-this is a wine that was recommended by some schmo on one of the many varied hockey forums I lurk at occasionally and was purchased at a local Trader Joe's for a whopping $5.99 a bottle. I decanted it and let it breathe a bit and even then had "$5.99 a bottle" written all over it. It had a nose that was somewhere between turpentine and paint thinner(if there is a difference...they may be the same thing but anytime the nose can be compared to an industrial solvent you know the overall review isn't going to be glowing by any stretch). I couldn't really single out any particular fruits and with its reduced 13.2% alcohol level its was almost an exercise in futility. If only I would have been smart enough to buy a case of the Indigo Hills Cab when it was available at the local wine club for $6.19 a bottle.

To the food-The salad was romaine lettuce served with a creme sherry vinaigrette blended with sun dried tomatoes, Roma tomatoes, and sliced Haas Avocado. Very Nice! The creme sherry vinaigrette was much more delicate then your average vinegar and would have probably been been better served with some mixed baby greens but with a family budget you cant have it all.




For the pizza we couldn't decide if we wanted to do it Italian Style with Sweet Soprasata or Shrimp w/Parsley sprinkles so we went half and half. The salami portion went very well with my ever so artistic leaning soprasata searing to a nice bacony crunch working well. The shrimp may have been more flavorful had I done some type of quicky marinade but even on its own without any seasoning or marinade still had a nice delicate flavor. The heating method(slow roasted on top of pizza) actually gave it the perfect texture. Not at all too shabby considering it was made almost solely with leftovers! Let that be a lesson in budgeting frugality-pasta on monday or tuesday with the remaining sauce serving as pizza sauce later in the week. How this entry went from a serious wine and food review to Hints from Heloise is beyond me.

Cousino-Macul Antiguas Reservas, Halibut, Tuna, & much much More

What a delightfully marvelous weekend it was; I grew weary of steaks and chops and what not so decided that I needed to get more seafood into the diet and onto the grill.

Pictured here is the entire meal....



Asian Marinated Albacore Tuna adorned w/Japanese mayo and capers, roasted red and yellow peppers , bacon wrapped asparagus, and sliced pesto foccacia. Citrus Pepper Halibut served crowned with symbolic mushroom cap as well grilled summer squash.
Balsamic Tomatoes and Avocado Spears and the obligatory Cajun Chicken Breast.

The Asian Tuna was actually prepared by my beautiful wife by slicing the filet into 1/3rds and marinating in mirin, miso, soy sauce, chili sauce, and garlic. This was hands down the evening's best food. The marinade gave the fish a wonderfully subtle japanese/asian flavor with just a hint of spice from the chili sauce. Quite frankly, I was jealous and showed my disapproval by making her sleep on the couch later that evening.
















The Halibut was good though...Halibut is a great versatile fish for the grill and so easy to cook. I didn't marinade at all but simply used a dry rub of Florida Citrus Pepper in Conjunction with some freshly ground Sea Salt I crushed with a mortar and pestle. I pretty much use a mortar and pestle at all times when using herbs...its as common of staple on BBQ night as my wine decanter. You may be wondering about the Family Guy magnet. Hipcheck Jr. thought the plate needed once last final finishing touch and couldnt decide between the Kale, Radish Floret, or the Peter Griffin magnet on the fridge-Call me crazy but I thought he made the right choice.




As for the other items-really for the most part they were simply garnish. I was going to prepare a pesto/mayonnaise remoulade for the halibut but absent-mindedly forgot to pick up the basil. By the time I realized I was already on my second glass of wine....

As for the Wine-It wasn't particularly notable but by that same token was horrifically bad. Maybe I had a bit of sinus congestion but couldn't really disseminate anything on the nose much less on the palate. Maybe I was just in a crappy/indifferent mood. Did you ever notice that the more joyous the celebration the better the wine tastes? Even the cheapest bottle is palatable with the right atmosphere while generally a good wine wont particularly stand out with as unimpressive or otherwise bland evenings fair. For instance-the Marquis Philips certainly stood out as superior to the Cousino-Macul but was tasted during a family gathering and thus seemed a bit more celebratory. Maybe it's just me.

Stay Tuned-Ill be doing a New York Steak as well as Lamb Tenderloin in the next entry.