Seven Secrets of a BBQ Restaurateur and One Not-secret BBQ Sauce Recipe

If you know me, you know I'm a talker. My report cards in school without fail said, "Julie is a good student but she talks to much in class."

I still am a good student and I still talk too much. That's just who I am. So in my latest post for Char-broil, as a Char-broil All-Star, I got to dish up secrets of of running a BBQ restaurant. I wanted to go to eleven, so I could say it. You know. These go to eleven*. But they stopped me at seven. Something about the fact that most people won't read past three paragraphs.

That just makes me want to put the really good stuff at the bottom where only those listening get a chance for a prize. Hey, there's an idea.

Click here to read the entire post, and all seven secrets of a BBQ Restaurateur. One of my secrets involves cleaning smelly grease traps.. And yes, I always have to check the spelling of restaurateur.

If you simply want a BBQ Sauce Recipe that rocks and can be changed according to what is in YOUR refrigerator, right now, then...no, not that. Nothing moldy. You should really throw it out, but that other thing, yeah that bit of jam and the Thai chili sauce next to it would work.

Right. The barbecue sauce recipe. Just one click away. Right in time for the 4th of July. Barbecue sauce is one of the easiest things in the whole barbecue world to make. It cracks me up how people guard their sauce recipes with such ferocity. Totally smoke and mirrors, pun intended. It's the one thing about owning a BBQ restaurant that, once you have a sauce you like, really doesn't give you trouble. It doesn't show up late to work, it doesn't require a permit, it doesn't even clog up the grease trap. Sauce graciously accompanies your smoked meats each and every day without complaint. I really love barbecue sauce.

My next post will be a series on smoking a whole pig so come back soon!

Pssst. Down here. If you were listening, you know that by reading to the very very end of this blabbering post, you get a chance to win something. Here is the contest: In the comments below, mention what the * indicates in this post, and say something that you liked about either the "Seven Secrets" post or the "Barbecue Sauce" post on Char-broil to show me you've read one of them. That will enter you into the contest, and let me tell you, it will be a small pool of contestants so you have an excellent chance of winning. I will draw out of a hat one name of one entrant who will win (drum roll please): 1 rib rack, a tin of Smokin' Pete's BBQ Rib Rub, a signed copy of She-Smoke, a Smokin' Pete's BBQ T-shirt and one action figure or creature from my kids' toy bin. That's quite a haul. Don't tell my kids about that last bit. Contest ends on midnight, July 4th. Good luck!

Three tips for grilling fish

It's definitely fish grilling season because the salmon have started to run! I love grilling fish, but it's definitely the protein that causes the most anxiety for people. For one, it's expensive and (hopefully) wild. There is a certain pressure to perform when handling $15/lb fillet that has a limited availablity, right?

Fish is also more delicate than a big thick steak or hamburger, so people are afraid to grill it. Here are three of my top tips to success on the grill with fish.

1) Buy good, wild fish. When purchasing, make sure the eye is not cloudy, nor should the flesh feel overly tacky. Check that the bones aren't pulling away from the flesh in spots - that's an indicator that it's been sitting for awhile. Starting out with a good product means much less work in the cooking process. You don't need a ton of seasoning or sauces because the fish is good on its own.

2) Oil the fish, not the grates. That said, make sure your grill is well-seasoned and well pre-heated before starting. Give your fish a light coating of high-heat oil like canola.

3) Grill flesh side down first and let the fish tell you when to flip. Really. The fish will tell you when it's ready. Place the fish, flesh side down and leave it. When the fish gently releases from the grill it means the collogen has started to release, and the fish will release from the grilll. Too early and it will stick.

Enjoy the tips, and if you want more or have a question about grilling fish, just ask me in the comments. I answer back.

Smokin' on my Big Easy: a video post

I'm having a lot of fun with my Char-Broil electric smoker named The Big Easy, so much so that I was inspired to make a video. When it first arrived at my doorstep, I harbored doubts of The Big Easy's smokability. It was, after all, electric. But as you will witness in my goofball video, this baby brings it. I've decided she's a she. As for names, I'm thinking Bertha or Betty or She-easy. I'll take suggestions. You do all name your grills and smokers, right?

I'm writing a full post about smoking a whole picnic pork shoulder for Char-broil, but until then, check this out!

Come see Lynnae Oxley before her britches get too big

We've got a great class coming up this Sunday at Smokin' Pete's BBQ. Two of my favorite west coast barbecue people are joining me for a Backyard BBQ & Grilling Class. There still are a few spots open in the afternoon class, by the way, so if you are interested, sign up, why don't ya! It's only $100 for a fun-filled four hours of instruction, including dinner. You won't walk away hungry for food or inspiration, I promise you.

My fellow instructors are far beyond me but I'll enjoy basking in their limelight while humbly talking about rubs, meat prep, and mops. Barry "CB" Martin, aka Chef Barry is an amazing outdoor grillmaster. He's not too shabby cooking indoors either when the wife lets him in, but he's known for his outdoor chops on the barbie. He can grill and talk at the same time, for one, which is hard enough for me to do, but Barry can actually entertain you while grilling, on a TV show in a hurricane, for instance. He's that kind of guy.

Ms. Lynnae Oxley is the pitmaster of Sugar's Barbecue in OR, a competition team with plenty of ribbons and ridiculously large trophies. Seriously, the trophies barbecue comps are huge. They look like some male pre-teen with a lego fantasy designed them. I think there is some sort of formula in which the size of the trophy increases by a factor of 2.0795 to the average gut size of the competitors. But I digress...

Lynnae and I met through the writing of She-Smoke. I asked the president of the PNWBA what women BBQ'ers I should talk to for some of my She's Smokin' side bars, and he immediately said, "You have to talk to Lynnae!" So I tracked her down and did. She tells a great story of her very first Weber kettle that she bought at a garage sale for $10.

Over the years we've met, kept in touch and do the usual of "liking" things each other says on facebook. But beyond that I have a true respect for this woman and what she does. She's a pitmaster for her competition barbecue team and a caterer dedicated to quality barbecue. Her hard work has paid off because she just got filming for the upcoming season of BBQ Pitmasters! I can't wait to see her on the show.

This class might be the last time we get her, seeing as how her britches might be getting mighty big with all that TV fame. For those of you still sitting on the fence, you could say, "I knew her when..."

Coming up next: Barbecue Sauce and 7 Secrets

Two Char-broil posts of mine will be up soon. The first is an easy barbecue sauce you can customize according to your pantry and fridge. The next is 7 secrets of a Barbecue Restaurateur. Yep, I'm giving away all my secrets! Stay tuned for those two posts.

In the meantime, if you haven't signed up for our Grilling & Barbecue Class at Smokin' Pete's BBQ on June 2, do it now! It's a great class to take with a friend, or buy as an early father's day present (or a late mother's day present).You won't find any other class for four hours, three instructors, and lunch for $100. It's going to be a blast. To register click here.

Cinco de Mayo Skirt Steak Adobo

Happy Cinco de Mayo! Here's an easy, healthy recipe that is a snap on the grill.

Skirt steak became the darling of the beef world in recent years because of its affordability and full flavor. Not the most tender of cuts because it is so lean, it is important to cook it hot and fast to seal in what juices it has.

Recipe: Cinco de Mayo Skirt Steak Adobo


Adobo PasteEvery family makes their Adobo a little differently. It really can be any spice mixture and oil, sometimes vinegar, to marinate a piece of meat. This paste is made of olive oil, 1 tablespoon each cumin, coriander, and chili powder, plus 1 teaspoon each of dried ground garlic, kosher salt and turmeric.

Step-by-step

1. Generously rub paste all over skirt steak. Let sit at room temperature for 45 minutes to an hour to let paste set into the meat.

2. Pre-heat gas grill on high, or make a hot charcoal fire with three layers of charcoal.

3. Once grill is fully hot, place skirt steak in center for about five minutes, then flip for another five minutes, then flip again for 1-2 minutes on each side. I know I often say "flip only once!" but skirt steak and other really hot and fast grilled meats are the exception.

4. Pull skirt steak while it is still rare or just a shade past and let it rest a good 10 minutes to medium rare. An easy way to rest meat on a gas grill is to simply turn off the heat and rest meat on the upper rack, if you have one.

5. Slice on the diagonal and serve with Mexican Rice (recipe follows), a simple salad, tortillas and your favorite salsa.
Mexican Rice
1/2 cup olive oil
1 small or 1/2 large onion, diced
2 cups of rice
3 cups chicken stock
1 cup salsa
Additional spices if you like it hot
Parmesan cheese (optional)

Get your pot hot, add oil (hot pan, cold oil!). Once hot, saute onion until clear. Add rice and stir a few times. Add chicken stock and salsa, stir.

Turn down to simmer and put a tight fitting lid. If your lid isn't tight, you can wrap a towel around it and tie it on top. Right before you serve, sprinkle in some Parmesan.

Tip: Get rice really close to done before you grill the skirt steak so it can all come up at once for dinner.

Backyard Barbecue Class, June 2

Want to hone your barbecue skills? Come join me and two amazing teachers - Barry Martin and Lynnae Oxley - on June 2 at Smokin' Pete's BBQ. 

Chef Barry is a grilling master, long time grill spokesman, and has been on myriad cooking shows, most recently a series of spots on the Weather Channel. Lynnae is the pitmaster of Sugars Barbecue and will be on the upcoming Barbecue Pitmaster's television show.

We have two sessions, a morning and afternoon, both of which will serve a meal at the restaurant. We'll go over all the basics of hot and fast grilling and slow and low barbecue to help you wow your friends and family at your next barbecue. 

Please check out the full website with bios, class info, and the registration form. It's only $100 for a four hour class with three instructors and lunch! We wanted to make it easy for you to sign up. So sign up! If you can't come, do tell your friends in the greater Seattle area about it. We're smokin' for ya!

Shrimp on the Grill

Having come back from a trip to Jacksonville, Florida, communing with the folks at Char-broil, this week was all about catching up on sleep. I had early flights both ways and lost nearly two full nights of shut eye. I'm not someone who can go to bed early on command, nor am I disciplined enough to get my work done ahead. It's 2 am or bust for me the night before any trip.

Suffice it to say, some of the household chores didn't get done this week. I needed an easy dinner and what better inspiration than Florida! We ate so well there, but my favorite meal was grilled shrimp served with cheesy grits at a local seafood restaurant. So after playing in the park late, because it was sunny, and you have to maximize your exposure to the sun when it shows up in Seattle, I bought a mess of shrimp at one of my favorite local fish stores, Wild Salmon Seafood Market. My kids were thrilled as they love pretty much anything from the sea  - even octopus and eel - so shrimp on the grill needed no upselling.

I cleaned them, but left the shell on because my kids think peeling shrimp is fun. I then doused them with a little of Girard's Champagne dressing. Love the stuff. I am usually a make-your-own-dressing girl, but I always have a bottle of Girard's in the fridge for a quick salad or marinade.

I fired up my TRU-Infrared Char-broil grill, given to me because I blog for them, but also a grill I truly love. It's just too easy and with the infrared design, nothing falls through the grill grates. These shrimp can be grilled on a skewer, but really, it's just an extra step.

Go ahead if you like the aesthetics of a skewer, but my family eats shrimp so fast, skewers just get in the way. Three minutes or so on each side and dinner's ready.

Squid Sausage: One of many takeaways from the Char-Broil gathering

You might wonder why there is a bowl of lemons at the start of this post, when I've teased you with squid sausage in the title. The reality is that my photo of the squid sausage wasn't up to par. It's a new par, a far higher bar than my previous one in selecting what photos are worthy of posting. And this bowl of lemons is about the only photo that passes from my two-day Char-broil All-Star gathering in Jacksonville, Florida. Barely.

I do so love lemonade. And while the reality that my photography wasn't cutting it in this image heavy brave new world produced a fair amount of uncomfortable stomach acid, I know that good lemonade is a mixture of acidic lemon and lot's of sugar.

There was plenty of sugar at the Char-broil All-Star gathering this year. We meet with the Char-broil team to learn from each other, discuss the new product line, and to grow as bloggers. The sugar is we do all of the above with lots of amazing food, a good deal of colorful liquids to wash it down, and belly laughs through every meeting. I come away with inspiration and both new items in my toolbox, and sharper tools.

"Sharper" is a key word, because this year's gathering focused primarily on photography and being on camera. We all have different talents - angles from which we come to this place of food blogging. Mine is writing and being in the barbecue food business. Others are amazing photographers who are also talented home cooks, or award-winning barbecue competitors. But let's face it, the web is a noisy place -  a buzzing hive, an ocean of fish - and one of the best ways for a writer to be heard is to wave a big pretty image flag to catch the hive's attention, a visual hook to reel in the fish.

So my first takeaway this year was going to a "Photo 101" class with some of the best photographers in our group. I can't wait to put all that I've learned into some photo practice. Just the simple instruction of lowering my camera from where I was previously holding is huge, but I also got tips on setting up a mini food "studio." Nothing fancy. A few lights with a white board to diffuse reflections when taking night shots. Doh!

What about the squid sausage? We have a little cooking competition each year too. A mini "Chopped" with mystery ingredients and a time limit. This year it was naturally seafood-heavy with squid, shrimp, Grouper, sun dried tomatoes, a blood orange, collard greens and chocolate. Lemon, oil, seasonings and assorted herbs were stocked at all stations. I was lucky to be teamed with Christo of Chez What? He's the only real chef among us and won by a landslide last year.

The squid sausage, 100% Christo, should have won. It was amazing. I intend to recreate it in a blog post. Stuffed with grilled shrimp, shaved chocolate, finely chopped sun dried tomato, thyme and Italian parsley with a white wine and blood orange vinaigrette, we finished it off on the grill (a Tru-Infrared grill, of course). But the competition this year was also weighted with the name of our dish, the final photo, the team name...in other words, all the parts that go into a good blog post. And the victors, who name themselves Diva Q and The Dame, knew how to sell the whole package.

So I leave you with a two photos of the squid sausage. They were taken in almost dark, with a Droid. They are blurry. But you can see the original photo, and how through cropping and post editing, I've at least improved them.

Earth Day: 12 Ways to be a Locavore

I remember when Earth Day meant bouncing a huge earth ball around a circle of barefoot college students. Today, it's more of a sober concept because we all know that only by changing our daily habits will we be able to create the kind of change we need to sustain our planet.

Here is a post I wrote for Char-broil about 12 ways we can help planet earth as locavores. I love writing posts like this because I am reminded of how I want to be. I don't always walk the walk. Life gets pretty busy around here and sometimes convenience rules the day. But the act of writing it down helps me steer down the road I want to travel.

What about you? What does Earth Day mean to you?

How much food? Planning for a party.

By the intensified volume of the Smokin' Pete's e-mail inbox, I know that this is one of the key times when people work on their summer party plans. It's after Easter, right before spring break and Mother's Day, so there is a window, right? A little window of time to work on your family reunion, graduation party, or more casual wedding.

We sell a lot of barbecue by the pound for pick up in our restaurant and the number one question I get asked by people is how much food to order for their group. You don't all plan huge parties every day, and it can be very overwhelming, and somewhat mysterious, figuring out how much food to make or purchase.

Because of this, I recently wrote a post on Char-broil that breaks it all down. After all, it's just math. Get our your calculator and read the full post here. I promise it won't be difficult, overwhelming or mysterious.

New Meat Labels - Meathead's said it all

Yesterday, while flying through the grocery aisles with one of those monstrous car carts, the kids content with "driving" the front end of the racing striped beast I had to maneuver through hordes of shoppers, I was shocked at seeing a pork roast labeled "pork brisket."

'Oh dear,' I thought, 'someone is new at the label machine. Don't they know? If I had a dollar every time I had to explain to customers that brisket is beef, not pork...'

But that flash of a thought was interrupted by the kids arguing about who had more room, and a major traffic jam in the yogurt section. I didn't have time to alert the store of their error; I needed to get home with the groceries before everyone imploded from low blood sugar.

Later I read the announcement that pork cuts were being re-labeled to be more "consumer-friendly." Names like "Pork Rib-eye chop" and "Pork New York Chop" are coming/have come to your grocer, as well as gawd forbid, pork brisket. While I might find a way to work the Pork New York into a haiku, it all seems like a way to make pork fancier, which translates to more expensive.

Before I could muster much more hubris than that, Craig "Meathead" Goldwyn's post about the subject showed up on my blog roll stream. As usual, he's said it all on the subject on his most excellent website, Amazing Ribs. Go read his agitated post about the new meat labels, and put your two cents in here or there as you see fit.

Baaa-rbecue Lamb Repost

I'm reposting this from 2009 because Easter is upon us. Lamb posts for some reason get the most hits here at She-Smoke headquarters. I have no idea why, but I love lamb and think it is the most underrated protein in the pasture. Go forth and baaa-rbecue.

I've been on a lamb kick ever since I was interviewed about lamb for the Tri-City Herald. That's that way it is with me and lamb - I go on a baa baa binge and then stop cold turkey for long periods. So we are in a lamb phase presently. Last night I smoked a small boneless leg of lamb. I picked one with a nice fat cap covering it. Lamb is pretty lean meat, with pockets of fat inside and on top that add moisture and flavor.

Lamb begs to be smoked, in my opinion. I prepared this one simply, as I always do lamb. The meat is so flavorful, I don't like a lot of ingredients to compete with it.

Rub it first with olive oil and kosher salt. Chop 4 cloves of garlic and rub into all the folds of the lamb. Pour a cup or so of red wine over it and let sit while you make your fire. Turn it once in the wine before putting on the grill.

Make a low fire; I like to keep it right at 200 degrees. Place meat indirectly from the fire. Smoke for about 3-4 hours. I used hickory because that's what I had. Fruit woods and grapevines are my preference for lamb. This leg was small, only about 2 pounds, so it took 3 hours. Most take 4.

Baste with wine every 45 minutes to an hour when you add your already-hot coals to the fire.

Let rest at least 10 minutes before slicing. Notice the nice smoke ring on this leg. The meat was perfectly tender.

A final note: Lamb is great for kids. Often beef and pork are too hard for them to eat, but lamb chews easily. My son kids loves lamb.

Karie Engel's Cookbook Library and Guy Fieri

Who loves cookbooks, raise your hand. I do. I'd better. A few years ago someone asked me how many cookbooks I owned. I'd never even thought about it and off the cuff said, "I don't know, twenty?" She coughed and sputtered and I realized that was a really low number, especially from a restaurant owner and cookbook author. I also realized upon inspection of the many places I keep cookbooks (they don't all fit in the kitchen) that I have perhaps twenty cookbooks on sushi. And I've made sushi exactly three times. The barbecue, heritage and comfort food cookbooks have their own 4-shelf bookcase.

As you may know, we recently moved. We'd put half our possessions in storage two years ago, thinking that we'd move much earlier, and are bringing home little loads at a time, most of which are boxes and boxes of books. I've been pouring through the staggering number of cookbooks like they were old yearbooks. But there are always room for more though, right? I've recently discovered an awesome blog with a cookbook library so you can browse before you buy.

Admittedly, I discovered this blog because the blog author just featured She-Smoke early this month (thank you!). But it really is a gem of information. Check out Karie Engel's cookbook library on her blog "Celebrate Home with Karie Engels." There are plenty of other food-related posts, including recipes and local events and even some celebrity chit chat. I love to learn about other cookbooks out there, especially books that are not from famous people, like mine, and are about the content, not the hair.

Speaking of hair, we all know, poor Guy Fieri is getting it on all sides, from a scathing New York Times review of his new restaurant, to someone putting up a menu parody because someone at corporate forgot to purchase the full domain name. Having not dined at his restaurant, I will not jump on that bandwagon, especially since I know people love tearing down restaurants with little to no regard to the people who put their heart and soul into their business.

Incidentally, Guy Fieri, or rather his people, passed our joint over for his show Diners, Drive-ins and Dives years ago. It was cool to be considered, but I think we were bypassed over a technicality. Our smokers take either pellets or a fine wood chip in a long auger smoke box. The pellets are better because the smoke time per smokebox is longer, but they clog up the works faster (read: more major smoker cleanings, and if you've never done this it's like chimney sweeping with pork grease). At the time we used the finer chips, which we call sawdust. It isn't actually sawdust, it's like wood flakes rather than chips, but the person interviewing me thought that was weird and they decided not to feature us. Maybe that wasn't the only reason, but I've kicked myself more than a few times over my interview skills. This happened before I wrote She-Smoke, and have since learned about keeping it simple for media interviews. I'm still a novice, but not quite the cherubic newbie I was back then.

Right. Back to earth from the Guy Fieri tangent. As someone who is enjoying the simple pleasure of unpacking her cookbooks, I encourage you to take a moment to celebrate your home. While you are there, why not browse cookbooks on Karie Engle's blog? Or watch an episode of Diners, Drive-ins and Dives. I'm a fan of both.

Eric's Guinness Beef Stew

My husband makes his mouthwatering beef stew just about any time of year, but for St. Patrick’s Day nothing beats his Guinness Beef Stew.  Not one to impart his recipes, for he claims he has none, and that cookbook authors are all a bunch of hooey..even his wife, I dragged this out of him years ago to put in the family cookbook. I guess that means that this is a reprint. I hope you all enjoy and have a Happy St. Patty’s Day!

ERIC'S GUINNESS BEEF STEW:  Serves a whole mess of folks, or a few, for many days.

Ingredients:

5 lbs beef - stew meat or other cuts but not ground.

1 cup flour

1 tbsp. salt

1 tbsp. black pepper

1 tbsp. thyme

½ cup vegetable oil

3 onions, diced

2 cups Guinness Stout 

1 quart beef stock

2 tbsp tomato paste

3 potatoes

4 carrots

½ bunch celery

Other herbs and spices as desired such as bay leaf, sage, paprika etc.

Recipe Directions:

Cube beef.  Mix flour with salt, pepper and thyme.  Dredge beef in seasoned flour until all the meat is coated.  Heat a heavy-duty stew pot or large pan (medium-high) and add ½ cup oil once pot is heated.  Brown beef and add three diced onions.  Once onions are browned with beef, pour in the two cups of Guinness Stout.  Stir together thoroughly, getting out any flour lumps.

Add one quart of beef stock (either fresh, reconstituted or canned), and add two tablespoons tomato paste.  Bring to a simmer for at least 30 minutes.  In the meantime, dice the potatoes, carrots and celery.  Add them to the stew and simmer for at least one hour or until the potatoes are done and the beef is tender.  Season with herbs and spices as desired before serving.  For a “Scottish” version, add cooked barley before serving.

Easy Pork Tenderloin Skewers

I've been itching for a party. We moved between Thanksgiving and Christmas, and though there is no good time to move, I would gander that as one of the worst times to pack every Leggo, unmatched sock and chipped china plate from Grandma. I mean the holidays, really Julie, and I'm a caterer, which means that amidst my own mandatory celebratory functions, I have to work all of y'alls.

So that was insane but now that we are getting settled in and down to unpacking things like my Italian books from college, I want to have people over to show off the new digs. Friends have come over, but I want a full scale Fete, darnit!

That will mean lots of cooking and cleaning and organizing, so I'll need to pull out some easy recipes to balance out the work load. Here's one I posted on Char-broil last month called Easy Pork Tenderloin Skewers. They really are easy. Click the link to go to the full recipe.

My New Badge

I have a new sporty badge on my blog - the Char-Broil All-Star Blogger badge. I like it soooo much better than that vacuuming badge in third grade. I've been blogging for Char-Broil for a couple of years but this year it's much more official. For one, I'm getting paid for my work, which is really cool because I get to write about outdoor cooking, which is what I do anyway. I also will be getting some grills and products to review over this next year and share with y'all.

I just made that sound like I hadn't yet received these items, but I have. There are three large boxes, unopened, in my living room. Quite large and the children have started to notice. The other day I put a tablecloth on the large box to dress it up a bit.

So maybe I have a little fear of assembling products and owner's manuals. I do know that I'll be testing something soon for you and reporting it here at She-Smoke Central Command. I also have my own little page on their Char-Broil Live website and from time to time I get to offer you, dear readers, a discount on grills and accessories. Pretty cool, eh?

Well that's enough horn tootin' for one day. Here's a little video of baby girl tooting a horn in her first concert:

Chinese New Year: Whole Grilled Golden Trout

Abundance to you for the New Year! Cooking a whole fish for Chinese New Year symbolizes abundance. We can all use a little of that this year, right? Serving the fish with its head and tail also signifies "good beginnings and endings". I shopped at Central Market the other day and found this gorgeous golden trout. How perfect! The meat in this variety of trout is a red meat, much like salmon, and the skin color is truly golden. Kinda shimmery. Trout is one of my favorite fishes to throw on the grill, though I tend to smoke it, as seen here and here.

The entire dish took about 25 minutes from prep to platter. Not bad, eh? Here is the recipe, though it's so easy I can hardly call it that.

Ingredients
1-2 whole fish. Trout, golden or rainbow, works nicely, but any fish that is a little under a pound will do.
Kosher salt
One bunch fresh herbs. I used thyme.
Sliced citrus
High heat vegetable oil

Step 1: Preheat your gas grill. I turned on my little Char-broil Infrared Quantum grill. It's a little two burner grill that lives on my deck outside the kitchen. I really love it for grilled fish because the infrared system, while it can get super hot, is somehow gentler on the skin. The whole science of it has all be explained to me in manuals at official Char-broil meetings, but I just like how it handles a fish. With a gentle touch.

For those on the staunch "up with charcoal, down with gas" team, make a medium hot fire with an indirect space.

Step 2: Prep your fish. Leave it whole. I left the bones in and removed them once cooked. Dust the inside lightly with kosher salt. Stuff with fresh herbs and sliced citrus. I used whole stems of thyme and sliced tangerine. Sage and lemon are lovely too. Give the outside a light coating of high temperature safflower or other vegetable oil.

Step 3: Once grill is fully preheated, turn it down to medium high and place the whole fish on the grill. Close the lid. After about 4-5 minutes (I had a pretty good sized trout, so less time for smaller fish, depending on it's size, carefully lift and turn it two clicks on the clock for some nice crosshatch marks. When it's ready fish should lift fairly easily off the grill. If the skin is really stuck, it may be too soon. If the skin is falling off, it's too late. I gently lift up a part of the fish to check if it is ready.

Step 4: Carefully flip the fish over. Turn heat down to low. Grill for another 2-3 minutes until the red meat just about turns to pink, or the clear meat just about turns to white. Take off and let it rest for about 5 minutes. Serve whole, cutting portions for your family at the table for good luck and abundance in the new year.

You will need to remove the bones. My kids really enjoyed this part of the meal. I took the entire spine out in one swoop. We had a short science lesson on fish anatomy, then dug in. They loved it. Even Eric said "Good job, honey," and I don't get a lot of cooking compliments from him. It's not because he's mean. He just doesn't gush gratuitously. And he wants to make sure all this She-Smoke business doesn't go to my head. God forbid!

Happy Year of the Snake! May it be a great year for all of you.

Step

Chinese New Year Tea Smoked Chicken

Happy Chinese New Year! The Year of the Snake is upon us and I've put together two recipes for you to try. The first is a Tea Smoked Chicken recipe I did for Char-broil. The next is literally on my infrared grill as I write this. Hopefully I won't get too sidetracked with this post and burn the darn thing!

Whole chicken and whole grilled fish are both traditional dishes for Chinese New Year. Keeping them whole, to be cut at the table, represents good fortune, abundance and health. Read the Tea Smoked Chicken recipe and let me know what you think. It's really simple, which starts with "S", like snake. Check back tomorrow for the fish.

Right! The fish. I'd better get out there and take it off the grill. I'm sure it's ready.

Game Day Nosh: Pulled Pork-n-Mac Egg Rolls

I'm going through an egg roll phase. Once you realize how easy they are to make, you will too. You can put anything into these perfect little wrappers. Forget about traditional Chinese fillings for the moment. We'll get to Chinese New Year dishes next. Put anything that you would put into a tortilla, bun, or pastry. Leftovers work great, but don't stop at savory. Ricotta, chopped nuts and Nutella are cannoli with extra hail Mary's (on account of the sin).

For the Super bowl, I think sticking to stick to your ribs fare is best. Pulled pork and macaroni and cheese, which a squirt of barbecue sauce make a perfect appetizer for watching football.

Here is what you'll need:

Egg roll wrappers
About 2 lbs of mac-n-cheese
About 1 lb of pulled pork (If you barbecue regularily, you have baggies of the stuff in your freezer. If not, I suggest paying a visit to your local barbecue restaurant).
Barbecue sauce
Vegetable oil
Stock pot
Paper towels
Makes about 24 full egg rolls/48 pc


The key is to not overstuff each wrapper. Put a scoop of warm mac-n-cheese and spread out in the center of the wrap, leaving an inch at each end clear, and a little more than an inch on either side.

Put a layer of pulled pork on top of the mac. Spread a spoonful of barbecue sauce on top.

Wrap in a circle: Fold bottom flap first, then one side, then fold the top. Wet the last open side with water and tightly roll it closed. Wet outside as well to seal it. Place each roll on a plate.

Heat oil to medium high. It's important that the oil is hot enough, but not so hot as to burn the rolls too quickly before the insides are warm. Once oil is fully preheated, put one roll in the oil for a tester. If you are happy with the oil temperature, add another 4-5 to do at a time, depending on the size of your pot.
Remove and let cool on a paper towel. When cool enough to touch, cut in half on a diagonal, arrange on a platter and serve with barbecue sauce.

Hope your team wins!