Adventures of
the 100 Year old grill
Lots of time in front of the grill this winter - the cold and snow don't really slow me down much. Even with snow up to the level of the top of the grill - as long as I have shoveled a path, I can grill! One night it was so cold (-10 degrees F) that my glass of wine was steaming. Remember the number one rule of grilling - make sure you have a full glass of wine - otherwise grilling won't be successful! My wine steaming reminded me of "sea smoke". For those of you who don't see the ocean in Maine much in the winter, there is a phenomena where the temperature differential between the outside temp and the ocean is so great that the ocean actually smokes. It is a beautiful sight. But on to the grill - We have begun a great relationship with NorthSpore Mushroom. So we have been experimenting with new and unusual mushrooms in our grilling! Rachel was home for a few days so we grilled up a few King Oyster mushrooms, sliced, grilled with a soy, pure maple syrup glaze - yum! A few trumpet shrooms just in!
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It's been awhile since we've last posted, but that does mean the 100yearoldgrill has been dormant! Life does get in the way sometimes - forgive our lack of posting. Here are a few treats we've put on the grill... and don't forget to click on the workshop link for an update on the progress! We've tried a few new (and fun things) - Grilled Bartlett pears with a bit of honey, herbed halibut with grilled pumpkin, barbequed game hens with kale salad, whole sea bass, and lots more!
It's not often that the 100yearoldgrill gets fired up on a weeknight. Tonight was a treat! We made flatbreads using the beer and cornmeal recipe - then cooked them on the grill. 3-4 minutes a side on a medium fire until slightly crispy with nice grill lines. The shrimp was marinated for a few minutes in a spicy mango lime vinaigrette (which we added toward the end of the grilling time). We tossed the shrimp on the grill to get the smoky goodness of a few pieces of oak and to caramelize the marinade a bit. After cooking, we spread a layer of caramelized onions on a flatbread, added a half-dozen or so shrimp, and topped with a balsamic glaze. Add a crunchy cabbage, kale, brussels sprout, feta, salad with an orange, lime cilantro dressing and you have a quick and fun Monday treat...
Yesterday was the last day of our mini-vacation so we celebrated with a walk to the water to look for sea glass (and enjoy the ocean). We took a shortcut through the woods on the way home - amazing views from the vacant property next door! Ice Pond in the foreground, the Atlantic Ocean beyond. Thanks to the generosity of the Peaks Island community, the Land Preserve was able to acquire Ice Pond for conservation. We began with an appetizer of grilled figs on cheese - Just a hint of oil to grill and immediate goodness!. We graduated to a chipotle grilled pork tenderloin with cilantro-peanut sprinkle main dish and a crispy sweet potato/beet/bacon hash. Paired with a Napa Cabernet. Ended with a sip of Syrah Port. What a delightful way to wrap up a 4-day weekend! A few pieces of sea glass we found among the rocks on the back shore - tumbled smooth by years of waves crashing on the rocks.
Second day of our mini-vacation (at home). We spent much of the day reading, drinking wine and grilling on the 100yearoldgrill! Candy made a bit of beauty for the table - a taste of springtime on the island and cut from the yard! It is supposed to snow tomorrow so this splash of beauty is well-timed. After an hour or so of work in the garden, we fired up the grill around 4 pm for an appetizer of grilled cheese - I know it sounds like grade school! But not with this cheese! Haloumi cheese is a semi-hard cheese from Cyprus that is awesome on the grill (thanks for the suggestion Ashley!) Slice the cheese in 3/8" slabs and grill on each side for about 30 seconds on a hot grill. A pound of cheese is a nice size appetizer for 4 people. We served it with blackberries and a pre-dinner martini! After the cheese course - we whipped up a marinated feta with roasted red peppers, black olives and thyme salad for the evening meal. Fire roasted peppers made up the core of a really fun Mediterranean cold dish. Grill the whole peppers until they are totally black on the outside - basically blistered and pretty burned. Toss them in a paper bag for an hour to cool, peel off the skin, tear them in half and remove the seeds (male peppers have less seeds - look for 3 lobes on the pepper instead of 4). This dish was pretty strong and overpowered the fish a bit. Best not to put them together in the same meal. About the smoked salmon. One of the best pieces of grilled salmon I have had in a long time. We took a thick one pound filet from the fish market and added a brown sugar/cumin/paprika dry rub to the top. I stacked a hot fire on one side of the 100yearoldgrill, leaving no fire on the other side. In order to smoke the salmon, you need to have no fire directly under the fish. I put the grill cover over the fish and added some green branches I had cut earlier to add smoke. It took about 30 minutes to smoke the fish. Candy made up a green grape, lemon, garlic, parsley sauce to drizzle on afterwards. What an amazing taste sensation! Make sure the fish is not over the fire and the skin side is down - no need to flip it. When the fish was done, I tossed a bit of broccoli rabe on the grill. Lightly oiled with salt and crushed pepper of course. Topped the broccoli with a dressing of sun-dries tomatoes, balsamic vinegar and pine nuts and dinner is served.
Our first full day on vacation (at home). Candy and I (and Sia the dog) took a walk through the woods to the grocery store to pick up last-minute supplies for dinner, then sat on the porch and read for awhile - nice to not have an agenda for a few days! Ended the evening with a most enjoyable time around the grill! Created a new recipe for a pre-dinner drink. We had made some infused vodka with rhubarb from the garden and some 150 proof Twenty Two vodka last fall. So we took an ounce of the diluted infused vodka, added 1/2 oz lemon juice, an ounce of Aperol and topped with club soda - nice summer refresher! Note the timbers in the background - they will be for the new woodshed I'm building this summer. Hemlock from northern Maine. Started dinner with proscuitto-wrapped mango on the grill. This would work really well with peaches, apricots or pineapple as well. Wrap the prosciutto around the mango, brush with oil and salt and pepper. Grill for about 3 minutes turning once to get grill lines. Then drizzle with a balsamic reduction, We then went in a made some bread dough to grill. What an awesome recipe - involves beer and cornmeal! Makes a stiff flatbread that is idea for grilling. Top it with a Arugula salad with mangos, avocados and cucumbers and a fantastic dressing (think cumin, coriander, tabasco, cilantro, OJ and lime) - we enjoyed this course upstairs in the workshop with lots of candles. We did open a really nice bottle of Pinot Noir from Willamette Valley in Oregon. We learned from the wine guy (Layne) that Oregon Pinots are fashioned after France's Burgundy Region. Who knew - priced betted too. Finally the main course - Cooking a whole fish isn't hard. I learned the key from a master griller - my best friend Phil. He's been grilling on wood since he was a toddler (or earlier). We picked up a Black Sea Bass from Harbor Fish Market when we in town yesterday - most of their fish has come in off the boats in the past day or so - tends to be really fresh. I have them clean, descale and de-fin the fish but leave on the head and tail. Make 3 diagonal cuts in the sides of the fish, brush with a bit of olive oil and salt and pepper and grill for about 20 minutes over a medium hot fire, turning once. I've learned not to play with it too much as it is pretty fragile. Top with a spicy mango lime vinaigrette and we were good to go! All in all a most refreshing day!
Candy (my wife) and I have today and Monday off so we are taking a vacation! We are staying home and have committed to not do any projects around the house! The grill will be active this weekend. We spent the morning creating a menu for the various meals - then off to the butcher shop, and the fish market to find some treats. Living on the island means shopping for food is a 4 hour trip. Catch the boat over, hit the various local stores, grab the car and head over to the larger grocery store to round out what we can't get by walking, wait for the boat and head home. Here are a few pics of the ferry ride. We pass 2 lighthouses on the way and a few 1800's forts. Most of the time, the boat doesn't go the long way around, but when it does, it is a treat.
The grill was active last night. The kids joined us for a wonderful time around the grill! They live in town, but we never seem to spend enough time with them.. We started with crab cakes with a homemade sauce. Then moved to grilled cabbage, veggies and avocados. Wrapped it up with grilled chicken on a salt stone. Oh and few bottled of wine! Our kids bought us a Himalayan Salt Stone. Pulled it out to cook up the chicken. Cooking on the salt stone gives great flavor to whatever you are cooking. Make sure to warm the stone up slowly so it doesn't crack. When it was zero degrees out this winter, we warmed it up for 45+ minutes to get it to temperature. Last night, I let it warm up for about 15 minutes before I flipped it over and tossed on the chicken. You want it about 500 degrees. A good way to tell is sprinkle a few drops of water on it to see if it immediately vaporizes. If you don't have water handy, a few drops of wine from you grilling glass works great too. The entire stove gets nice and warm, so I put the veggies I just cooked off to the unused burners next to the grill to keep them nice and warm while I cooked the chicken.
This blog is about adventure. The adventure of grilling over fire, the adventure of grilling unusual foods, the adventure of doing this on an antique stove, the adventure of living on a small Maine island and the adventure of life as a couple of 50 somethings figuring out life. Welcome to the adventure!
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The 100 Year old GRillThe adventures of living on an island, grilling over fire on a repurposed kitchen stove from the 1800s and enjoying our journey here on this planet! Archives
March 2018
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