Eat a Fleet a Fajitas!

With the dog days of summer winding down, we're trying to use the grill as much as we can before Fall really sets in.  We had a craving for some steak, so we decided to make some fajitas and grilled corn.  We wanted to mimic the flavors of carne asada, so we marinated our flank steak with beer, garlic, lime juice, cumin, cayenne pepper, jalapeno, chipotle in adobo, salt and pepper.

You can do this the day before and let it sit overnight, or if you forget (like us), just get your meat in the marinade asap, and prep everything else.  Our meat ended up marinating for about 90 minutes.  For veggies, we sliced up some bell peppers and onions, and just sauteed them on the stove with salt and pepper.

We also had a few poblano peppers from our share, so we drizzled some olive oil on them, sprinkled them with salt and pepper, and threw them on the grill to roast up.  We also thew a few ears of corn on the grill for our side dish.

We knew the steak would only take a few minutes on each side to cook to a nice medium rare, so we waited until the peppers and corn were just about done to throw the meat on the grill.

We thought of preparing the corn like we did on the 4th of July, with cayenne, lime and queso fresco, but I wasn't pleased with how the cheese didn't really stick to the corn (like in the Aaron Sanchez commercial).  So we modified the preparation and made it into a salad.  Just cut the kernels off the cob, and toss with a dash of cayenne, crumbled queso fresco, chopped cilantro, and a squeeze of lime juice.  You get all of the same flavors, but it's much easier to eat, and get all of the components in one bite.

While the meat was resting, I peeled the roasted poblanos and sliced them into strips.  I also sliced up some lime wedges and chopped some cilantro.  Our tortillas were warming in the oven too.  Then just build your fajitas, and dig in!

The meat was nice and juicy, and still had great flavor even though it didn't marinate very long.  You had a nice smokiness from it being on the grill, some heat from the poblanos, but sweetness from the onions and bell peppers.  It's a pretty quick and easy summertime meal that takes you south of the border.

Beer Can Chicken

Ah the infamous beer can chicken, AKA redneck duck confit.  Legend has it that at a BBQ competition some guy was waiting for brisket to cook overnight. He grew hungry while drinking some brews, and decided to cook himself up a chicken to snack on.  In his drunken state he accidentally set the chicken on his beer, and the beer can chicken was born.  Contrary to popular belief, the reason the chicken is so moist and delicious isn't from alcohol vapors or anything like that.  Sitting upright lets all that tasty skin fat render down the breast meat making it all tender and delicious!

After patiently waiting 3 whole days for our chicken to defrost, we were FINALLY able to cook it.  And with the weather warming up, we've been using the grill a lot more lately, so we decided to try out some beer can chicken.  This isn't a quick meal, like our last few have been, but it's totally worth the wait.

Start by procuring a can of beer.  We used Oskar Blues Ten Fidy Imperial Stout, since we had it on hand, but you can use whatever you want.  Reserve about 1/4 of the can for your rub, drink about 1/4, and leave the other half in the can.  Then we chopped up some garlic, rosemary, and oregano, and added that to the can with a bit of your dry rub ingredients.

For the rub, we used that 1/4 can of beer we reserved, some grapeseed oil (or whatever oil you have on hand), paprika, cayenne, cumin, dried sage, dried thyme, salt, pepper, and some secret hobo spices (we can't tell you ALL of our secrets!).  Before mixing the wet and dry ingredients, we put some of the spice mixture into the beer can (mentioned above), and saved some to sprinkle on the bird before we put him on the grill.  Then just get your hands dirty and rub your mixture all over the chicken, making sure to get into all the nooks and crannies.

Then you'll want to carefully insert the beer can into the cavity of the chicken, and stand him upright in a foil roasting pan.  You'll want to pull his legs forward and tuck his wings forward.  This will help him balance and sit upright.  Just like roasting a chicken in the oven, filling the cavity will help keep the breast meat moist and juicy, and having the metal can inside helps cook the bird from the inside out.

The most important part of the process is to use indirect heat, cooking him low, and slow.  For our grill, we only turned on the outer burners, and placed our chicken in the middle.  The other tray you see in the picture is filled with some water to help evenly distribute the heat.  If you own a fancy grill with a built-in thermometer, you'll want it to heat up to 225-245 degrees.  If your grill doesn't have a thermometer like ours, you can just wing it! (pun intended).

While the bird was cooking, we sat back, relaxed, and patiently waited.  We were starting to get anxious so we made our side dishes.  We made some sweet potato fries, and butter braised radishes.  Both sides were extremely simple.

For the radishes, cut off the ends, and quarter them.  And you can slice up your sorrel.

Then melt some butter in a pan with some stock.  We used all the stock we had for our risotto, so we just used some water.  Once it's melted, toss in your radishes, season with salt and pepper, and just let them cook.

Once the butter sauce thickens, you can take them off the heat.  This took about 15 minutes.  Then just toss them with the sorrel.   I never would have thought about eating warm, cooked radishes, but they were surprisingly tasty.  Obviously the butter helped in the taste department, but warming them also took some of the spicy bite out of them.  They were still on the crunchy side, which I liked, and the sorrel gave it back some of the freshness that the cooking process removed.

It ended up taking about 2 hours to cook our bird.  But it was well worth the wait.  The skin came out nice and crispy, the meat and juicy and tender, and there were plenty of drippings to make a delicious pan sauce.

We poured the drippings from the pan, and whatever beer was left in the can into a little skillet, added some cream, and whipped up a tasty little gravy.

Our beer can chicken dinner wouldn't be complete without a beer to drink, so we cracked open a bottle of Taster's Choice, a collaboration brew between DC Brau (our local brewery) and Ska Brewing, from CO.  They teamed up the ska band, The Pietasters, to make a coffee doppleback brew.  It was a delicious pairing to our chicken.


Overall, the meal came out delicious, it was a hearty and rustic meal, that packed a flavorful punch.  This is a great meal for summer get togethers because it starts with cracking open a beer and the grill does all the work while you continue the drinking and merriment with your friends.

Voyage to India

That's right...2 posts in 1 day!  So grab your passport and join us as we chow down on some Indian grub!  Now, don't be intimidated by the thought of cooking Indian food.  The techniques aren't anything new, but there are probably a few spices that aren't currently in your pantry.  For the lamb biryani and the chana masala we needed quite a variety of spices, but we actually had most of them on hand already.

We found recipes online for both the lamb biryani and the chana masala, and kept pretty close to the recipes.  So let's start with the lamb.

Start with some plain yogurt, garlic, cayenne, cumin, salt & pepper.  Once mixed together, drop in your lamb and make sure they're nice and coated in the yogurt mixture.  While the lamb is getting all cozy with the yogurt and spices, you can saute some sliced onions in butter with cardamom, turmeric, cloves, and cinnamon.

This recipe wanted you to cook the rice in the sauce with the lamb, but we opted to cook the rice separately.  That way we'd have plain rice to mix with the various sauces.


Once everything was mixed, we added the lamb and yogurt to the pan, along with some water and the golden raisins.  The recipe calls for regular raisins, but I prefer golden raisins, so we used those.  If you're not cooking the rice in the pan with the lamb, you can add less water than the recipe calls for.  You just want enough to make a sauce.

This was an oversight on our part, so we had to use a bit of cornstarch to thicken the sauce, and added more spices to bring back the flavor.  It was an easy save.  When you're ready to serve, toss in your toasted cashews.  You don't want to add them too early, otherwise they'll lose a bit of their crunch.

Now, onto the chana masala.  This was another easy dish to pull together.  You start with some onion, garlic, ginger, and a hot green chili.  All I could at the store was a jalepeno, but it worked out just fine.  Once those cook down, add in your spices: coriander, cumin, cayenne, turmeric, paprika, garam masala (I had to use some curry since the grocery store was out of garam masala), and the juice from half of a lemon.

Once everything has been cooking for a few minutes, add your tomatoes and their juices.  This is when you can deglaze the pan and scrape up all the tasty bits at the bottom.  Once you've scraped up all the bits, you can add the chickpeas, water, and the juice from the rest of the lemon, and just let it simmer so all the flavors can come together, and the tomatoes can cook down.

We also had a third dish, some dal makhani, which is a dish of lentils and kidney beans.  We kind of cheated on this one, just heating it through and adding it to the plate.  But overall, it was a quick, and easy meal to put together.  We may have had to buy some additional spices, but that just adds to our arsenal.  Don't be intimidated by cooking ethnic food at home.  When you break it down, it's really just using different spices an flavor combinations, using techniques you're already familiar with.

Fat Tuesday

Though we're not partying down on Bourbon St. tonight, we're still celebrating with some good ol' jambalaya!  So throw us your beads and we'll show you our andouille! Since neither of us are southern or creole, we figured we'd consult our good friend, Emeril, for his take on the tasty dish.

Like most good soups and stews, we started with some onions and bell pepper.  We let this cook down a bit and get nice and caramelized in a little vegetable oil, salt and cayenne.

After about 15 minutes, we added the andouille sausage.  We'd made a trip to Union Market on Sunday where Red Apron Butchery has set up shop.  They have a great looking array of meats including porkstrami, and a variety of sausages, so we're definitely planning to go back and try their other offerings.

So the sausage went into the pot to cook up with the onions and peppers.  Since we had some collards from the share, we also added these to the pot to cook down, and add a little greens to the dish.

Once the sausage and collards had cooked, we added the chicken, which had been seasoned with some salt and cayenne.  It took about 10 minutes for the chicken to brown.  We had to keep stirring and scraping the brown bits from the sides and bottom of the pot too.

Then it was time to add the rice and water.  Then we just let it cook for about 30 minutes.  This gave the rice time to cook up, and for all the flavors to really get nice and complex and soaked up by the rice.  While the jambalaya cooked up, we also threw some honey hush corn bread in the oven.  You can find pictures and recap of the cornbread here.  Though this time we spiced it up a bit by adding a sprinkle of black pepper to the top.

In the end, we were left with a delicious bowl of food.  The andouille gave the jambalaya a nice smoky flavor that the rice soaked right up.   The only spice came from the cayenne and the sausage itself, so it wasn't too overpowering.  And the sweetness of the cornbread was a nice compliment to the dish.  Justin paired the meal with a Bell's Hopslam, which fit perfectly with the meal meshing nicely with the honey in the cornbread and the smokiness from the jambalaya.

We hope you had a great Mardi Gras too, and don't worry, we won't be fasting, so get ready for more delicious meals to come!