RESEP MASAKAN ORIENTAL

This past week, Michele and I spent thre e wonderful days at something called Kin gsford Univ ersity. "K U," as it's called in c harcoal-relat ed ac ademia, is an event sponsored by Kingsford Ch a rcoal in whic h food writers and bloggers are brought together to learn all about how charcoal is made, watch demos on the finer points of grilling and b arbecuing, and of course enjoy lots of great food an d wine. I'm ha ppy to report we all passed with flying colors (although a few of the other bloggers pa id some ne rds to do their home work ). We even received a diploma ! Aft er I finish this post I'm go ing to start looking into some grad school options. The master of cere monies was world champion pitmaster Chri s Lilly. Chris is vice president o f the legendary Big Bob Gibson Bar -B-Q in De c atur, Alabama, and Kingsford Charcoal spokesperson. He was really fun to listen to, and I learned quite a bit. I'v e sprinkled in a few videos of Chris below, so ...

This video recipe for Flank Steak with Cabrales Cheese, reminds me of my theory that American's fondness for blue cheese as a garnish for burgers, steak, and other foods, can be traced all the way back to the Buffalo chicken wing . Now, I've done no research, nor will I, as I find it easier to simply guess about these kind of things, but think about it - who was crumbling blue cheese on their hamburgers before the chicken wing made it socially acceptable to eat our traditional meats and poultry with this funky addition? This delicious incarnation features juicy flank steak topped with Spain's famous Cabrales blue cheese. This flank steak recipe is simple to make, and even if your grilling days are over this season, you can pan sear or use a grill pan inside to make this dish. Enjoy! Click here for ingredients and transcript

These bacon ranch chicken skewers were intended to star at your next football tailgate cookout, but since these are made with sharp, wooden sticks, they could be used to inflict the true death to smaller, slow-moving vampires at your Halloween party as well. Regardless of your party’s theme, these tasty chicken skewers are easy, interesting, and incredibly adaptable. As I sometimes do when showing a new technique, I’ve kept this recipe ultra-simple, and only used ranch dressing and hot pepper as my marinade. I was hoping that as you watched, your mind would be racing with ideas on how to make this already delicious meat-on-a-stick even more amazing. This is the kind of thing you could do a different version for every game of the season, and still not run out of ideas! The part I hope you follow exactly is how to weave the bacon over the chicken. Using this method, you really get two kind of bacon. The exposed bacon gets beautifully caramelized and crisp, while the meat next to the chic...

Some store-bought sauces and condiments make sense. Ketchup, mayo, and mustard can all be made, but in general, for your average home cook, the price and convenience of these prepared foods doesn't usually justify making them from scratch. The danger with grabbing a jar of relatively harmless Dijon is that just down that aisle you're going to pass by the "Asian" section, and be tempted by a colorful array of barbecue sauces and marinades. The names are so exotic and enticing. The picture on the label shows glistening ribs, dripping with juice. The instructions say "just pour over meat and grill" - hey, that sounds easy! And then, you look at the ingredient list. The only words you recognize are "high fructose corn syrup," and "dehydrated garlic." But, it's already in your hand, and that meat in the picture sure does look tasty, so in the cart it goes. Hopefully, when you see this video recipe for my basic Asian barbecue sauce/marinade...

You have to love the flank steak; so easy to cook, almost no trimming, relatively lean, and perfect for a party since it’s slight change in thickness from one end to the other allows for slices of medium rare and medium well off the same piece of meat. This very interesting recipe has something I always appreciate in a dish; it makes its own sauce. As you’ll see in the video recipe, we used the juice from some grilled oranges with the natural juices from the steak to create a fabulous looking, and tasting platter of beef. While this dish may appear to be inspired by Italian or Spanish influences (which it is), it’s also a take on one of my favorite Chinese dishes; spicy orange beef. I love to grill flank steak with a highly flavored rub of garlic, fennel, salt and black pepper. I wondered what would happen if I added a little orange to the marinade, and then I got the idea to caramelize some orange halves on the grill, and squeeze the juice over the meat after it was cooked and sli...

I’m sure you’ll have no problem coming up with lots of meaty ideas for tomorrow’s Labor Day cookout, but new and exciting seafood options can be a little more challenging. So, just in case you’re going to eschew the traditional four-legged fare, here are some alternative ideas to surf through. If any of these catch you hook, line and sinker, just follow the link in the caption to see the original post, and get the ingredients. Enjoy!  Grilled Tuna with Fresh Horseradish Grilled Salmon with Garlic, Ginger & Chilies Grilled Swordfish Bruschetta Fennel-Smoked Salmon

Labor Day weekend is always a bittersweet holiday. It’s supposed to honor America’s organized labor movement, but really what it mostly celebrates is the end of summer.  Pretty soon our grills will be covered by huge snow drifts, and the season’s warm breezes will be a distant memory. Well, not for me, as I live in California, but you get the point. This grilled kiwi and chili-rubbed beef short ribs recipe is specifically designed with that melancholy in mind. The prep is minimal, and the ultra short cooking time means that instead of being stuck in front of a grill, you can actually enjoy more of these last precious summer days. We tied the world record here for fewest ingredients in a marinade, with one, but thanks to the kiwi’s enzymatic magic, that’s all we need. Unlike some tropical fruit marinades, kiwi doesn’t turn the meat into mush, and provides a nice, slightly sweet and acidic base for our Ancho chili rub. I loved how this came out, and while highly-seasoned, the beefy...

My non-fat yogurt kick continues with this yogurt and paprika marinated grilled chicken. The name in the title is an homage to one of the best chicken take-out joints in San Francisco, called " Good Frickin' Chicken ." I've always loved the name, so I'm stealing it for this recipe. While this is a pretty straightforward grilled chicken recipe, the vinaigrette trick you'll see at the end was a last minute touch that worked out nicely. I really like oil and vinegar-based sauces on grilled meats. They work beautifully with the smoky, caramelized exterior. It's this part of the recipe where you can summon your inner chef and decide what oil, vinegar, and other flavorings you'll use to bath your chicken. I mention in the clip to use a fresh Spanish paprika to get the best results. The cheap, rusty-brown dust in the back of the spice shelf you use to sprinkle on the deviled eggs once a year is not going to cut it. There's really a major difference in ta...

Beef satay was the very first Thai food I ever tasted, and it was literally love at first bite. Ah, that sweet, spicy, salty, smoky, and slightly funky bite…I remember it like it was yesterday.  It helps that I ate this yesterday, but still. If you’ve never had satay before, its lightning bolt of flavor can be a bit of a shock to the system. A recipe for the subtle palate, this is not. By the way, I do know that satay was actually invented in Indonesia, but for the purposes of this blog post, we're going with that it's Thai. This will work on just about any meat, but beef is my favorite. There’s something about beef and these particular spices that just sings. Also, the magic that Asian fish sauce always adds is never more apparent than with beef, especially if that beef destined for the charcoal grill. The same goes for the lemongrass. If you look around the produce aisle at your town’s best (meaning most expensive) grocery store, you should find some lemongrass stalks. They...

I'm still in New York and unable to post any new material, so here's a rerun of one of my favorite summer chicken recipes. It's perfect for the grill, or can be baked in the oven. What follows is the original post which aired on August 4, 2008... Yogurt has been used as a marinade since it was first invented, over 4,000 years ago, in Turkey, Central Europe, or the Balkans, d epending on who y ou ask. The important thing is that any cooking technique or recipe that survives that long is probably pretty damn good. This video recipe for a simple, but super succulent, grilled lemon and yogurt chicken is just that. There is something special about what yogurt does to chicken waiting for its smoky, sizzling time over the charcoal. It imparts a tangy flavor that lifts all the other flavorings. It tenderizes slightly, without turning the meat into m ush. It grills to a caramelized dark brown without tasting burnt. And, there are not many fat-free ingredients that will have people b...

As you know I'm big on cooking fresh, local food whenever possible. But, there are times when you have to make exceptions, and these lamb chops are a great example. While browsing the local market I saw a sale on Australian lamb chops. They were perfectly trimmed, exactly the same thickness, and neatly packaged in one-pound containers. These lamb chops are basically the same cut as a beef T-bone steak, with a strip loin on one side, and a tenderloin on the other. In this chef's opinion, they are the ultimate cut for grilled lamb. I decided on a mish-mash of Mediterranean herbs a nd spices, with the secret ingredient being a small dash of cinnamon. There is something about cinnamon that really pairs perfectly with grilled lamb. I also love mint jelly on grilled lamb, but I have a reputation to worry about, so instead of the green stuff in the glass jar, I made a quick, homemade version that you will love. This was the best tasting lamb I've had in a long time, and while it w...

One thing that took some getting used to after moving to San Francisco was the summer rain. There isn't any. From June to late fall, besides the very occ asional light drizzle, it just doesn't rain…at all. We get dew, fog, wind, mist, and dark clouds, but never any of those thundering downpours that the rest of the country gets on a regular basis. Where I grew up, in western New York, whether you were planning a game of golf, or getting friends together to grill some shrimp, dodging the rain was always part of the deal. I'm sure most of you can relate - the shrimp are thawed, the potato salad is made, and it begins raining so hard the neighborhood pets start to pair up. Next time that h appens try this unbelievably easy, and fast, indoor barbecue shrimp recipe. This recipe will work with peeled shrimp, but the "ready to peel" raw shrimp called for in the recipe will allow you to really get that char-grilled look without worrying about dry shrimp. The other thing ...

When it comes to grilling lamb loin chops, I usually go one of two ways. Usually, I take an Italian approach, and marinade the meat with lemon, garlic, and herbs. Or to change things up, sometimes I’ll go with more of an Indian style, and use a yogurt-based marinade along with the associated aromatic spices like cumin, cinnamon, and coriander. I love both styles, but was having a hard time choosing which one to use this time. Eventually I gave up and decided to combine both into one uber-recipe. As the footage of me slicing through the pink, juicy meat hopefully illustrates, it worked wonderfully, and really did capture the magic of both methods. By the way, be sure you’re buying “Loin Chops” and not “Rib Chops.” Loin chops look like thick, little t-bone steaks, while the rib chops have a single eye of meat and a long bone. The Loin chops are not only meatier, but work way better on the grill. They cost about the same, so be sure to ask the butcher. Of course, some people don’t eat/li...

It's one of the saddest sights of the summer barbecue season; a picnic table platter piled high with black, burnt barbecue chicken. Actually, the chi cken isn’t burnt, that's probably juicy and delicious, it's the barbecue sauce on the skin that has incinerated. Pouring barbecue sauce on an already cooked piece of chicken, while much safer, just isn’t the same. That's chicken with barbecue sauce on it, not barbecued chicken. When it comes to barbecued chicken, everyone wants that nice thick glaze of sauce attached to the skin, and the only way to do it, is brush it on as it cooks. Therein lies the problem. Because of the sugar content, it only takes a minute for a barbecue sauce to go from brick-red to solid black. This video recipe shows my fairly simple solution to the problem. I just "mark" the chicken's vulnerable skin side, then cook it all the way through in a closed grill, brushing on the glaze as it cooks. In addition to seeing how not to burn chi...

This grilled salmon with warm bacon and corn relish is another installment in our long-running series, “Salmon Recipes for People Tired of Salmon Recipes.” No one eats as much salmon as I do, and so I’m always on the lookout for new ways to make it seem a tad more exciting. In the business, this is known as “elevating” it, and as you may already know, nothing elevates like bacon. It’s the helium of smoked meats. Combine that bacon with sweet, almost raw corn, and you have a relish worthy of its verb. I mean, if your not going to relish your relish, what's the point? I mention in the video that I like the taste and texture of white corn, but prefer the sunnier appearance of yellow corn. That trade-off is always an interesting discussion, with some saying taste always trumps looks, while others will insist that the appearance effects how the flavor is perceived, so even if slightly less sweet, the golden colored one may be enjoyed more. Like most food-related arguments, both sides ...

You’re about to see a delicious culinary compromise. I was craving some grilled Italian sausage, but had a package of chicken thighs in the fridge waiting for me to grill them. What to do? My Uncle Bill (he of the now famous homemade pasta and chicken D’Arduini video recipes) makes a great Italian sausage scented with fennel, garlic and a touch of orange zest. He makes these before Christmas, cures them in his cellar, and cooks them on Christmas Eve after Midnight Mass. They are sublime. So, that’s really what I wanted, but as I said I had chicken to work with. I decided to use the same basic flavors to marinade the chicken to see if I could impart some of the magic of those sausages I was dreaming about. Did it work? Yes and no. The chicken turned out to be very delicious. Anything grilled on a fire, after being marinated in garlic, fennel and orange is going to taste great, so on that level it was a great success. The only problem was it made me crave my Uncle’s sausage even more! By...

It was one of those San Francisco evenings when the fog comes in disguised as a light mist. Easier to feel than see, I could hear its tiny sizzle as it slowly floated down onto my quickly dying coals. The flank steak had been grilled and was resting, but my work was not over. I had fresh figs to grill before the damp evening claimed my fire. Not just any figs; deep dark purple, perfectly ripe, sweet and juicy Mission figs. A drip of olive oil moistening their soft skins, on the grill they went. As the heat from the glowing embers began to expand the soft interiors, the surface of the figs tightened and became shiny. Soon small cracks appeared, and the sound of their sweet syrup dripping into the coals told me they were done. Back inside the steak was sliced thin and scattered atop a tangle of wild arugula. The still warm figs joined the plate, as did a drizzle of balsamic vinaigrette. A grind of black pepper and pinch of sea salt were the only garnishes needed. We ate in smiling silenc...

I once heard Alton Brown say that a broiler is nothing more than an upside-down gas grill, which is certainly not how most Americans think of theirs. While most people are fine melting cheese over their nachos with it, or browning a casserole, the broiler is seldom used to cook meats. Well, the next time rain ruins your dream of a grilled chicken dinner, I hope you fire it up, and give this easy, alternative method a try.  Not only are you getting the same intense, direct heat, but you also have more control, since you can adjust how far the chicken is from the flame. I prefer the meat about 7-8 inches under the heating element, but feel free to adjust as needed. As you’ll see, I like to flip mine over every 6-7 minutes until it’s done. This should take between 30 and 40 minutes, but that can vary greatly depending on the size and temperature of you chicken, as well as your broiler’s heat. By the way, you’ll want to finish with the skin side up, so the bird gets a nice, crisp finis...