Pesto homemade #64

Today I made a perfect pesto, you have to try this....it's quite easy to make,and it taste so much better then the one you buy in the store..
All you need is a handful of fresh basil,a Tbsp pine nuts,2 gloves garlic,3Tbsp Grana Padano,some olive oil,and a blender.
Mix all very well in the blender and add a pinch of salt and pepper to taste.
It's very nice in combination with a sandwich with mozarella,tomato and slaw.Enjoy!!

Dried tomato's #63

Today had a nice day off, bad weather just rain... Damn...but on the other side,I can made some lovely things,like dried tomato's.
I used them a lot in salads and pasta's.So I started the day early at the grocery to get some fresh tomato's, thyme, laurel,garlic and rosemary.Cut it in a blender or real small.Slice the tomato's in 2 parts, put some of the ingredients on the tomato,sprinkle a little bit of olive oil on the tomato's,preheat the oven on 90 degrees, and put the tomato's for about 5 hours in the stove...after that let it cool down and put it in a jar with some olive oil.Now you have nice dried tomato's for in a salad or pasta....Enjoy!!

Challenge November 2010

Cornish Game hen,string beans,cranberry and sweet potato's.What are we gonna do with these ingredients.It was a lot easy'er then last time.The only problem now was the bad weather. It's raining the most of the time,or i'm at work.But I find a nice day for preparing the dish for this "challenge". This is how I started my day.

I stuffed the Cornish Game Hen with onion,lemon,tarragon and garlic and put the hen on the indirect side of the Weber for about 2hours.















In the meantime I made a cranberry compote.You need 180 gr fresh cranberry's,100gr granulated sugar and 100ml water.
Boil the water & sugar,until the sugar is dissolved.Add the cranberry's and stir till you've got a jelly.















Wash a few sweet potato's cut them in parts and put them in a large bowl with some pepper salt and rosemary,sprinkle some good olive oil on top of it.
































For serve beside the sweet potato's we made a tarragon mayonaise.
You need 2 small eggs (only the yellow part) 1Tbsp mustard 1Tbsp lemon juice and 100ml olive oil/sunflower(50-50) oil
First put the eggs,mustard and lemon juice in a bowl and mix very well,until it's a bit creamy,then add the oil drip by drip and keep on mixing till the oil is dissolved.

We also had a bunch of string beans with it, wrapped it in bacon and heated up on the Weber.














The result was awesome,the combination of cranberry,with "game hen" was great..
















Additional participants in this month’s Ingredient Challenge include:

Robyn Medlyn of Grillgrrrl – ENTRY HERE

Robyn Medlin is the “grill girl” behind grillgrrrl.com. Her focus is on healthy, simple and creative recipes on the grill. She encourages women to learn to grill as it a great way to create healthy, flavorful dishes without all the fuss and clean up in the kitchen. This “grill girl” holds quarterly “Women’s Grilling Clinics” as a way to encourage women to not be intimated by the grill. As a McCormick’s flavor correspondent for their “This Week in Grilling Campaign”, Robyn shares fun, tropical video recipes documenting her grilling adventures from her backyard in Sunny, Hollywood, Florida.



Paul Haight of No Excuses BBQ – ENTRY HERE

The No Excuses BBQ website was started in January of 2009 as a way to record the author’s goal of cooking outdoors at least once a week throughout the year and showing the results to the world. Somewhere along the way things got out of control…

Rob Bergstrom of In To The Flames- ENTRY HERE

Rob launched Into The Flames in the summer of 2010 as a way to share his passion for cooking, eating, and exploring food.

Bob’s Brew & Que – ENTRY HERE

Bob started Bob’s Brew and ‘Que in August of 2009 with the intent of sharing his views on food and drink. Originally focused on BBQ and Homebrew, it was inevitable that the influences of his upbringing in the San Francisco Bay Area and it’s wealth of ingredients as well as his heritage as an American of Japanese ancestry would help focus his blog, as it has his approach to food and drink.

The BBQ Grail ENTRY HERE

The BBQ Grail website was created in 2007, initially to document the author’s quest to find the perfect backyard BBQ experience. Since that time The BBQ Grail has become one of the more popular BBQ blogs on the internet and is listed on Alltop.com as one of the top BBQ blogs.

"Challenge" october 2010

The first "challenge" with the BBQ Grail.I was recommended by Thegrillgrrrl for taking part of the 4 ingredients "challenge".Wow this is fun...until I saw the ingredients...
It was a difficult one,the ingredients for this month were,broccoli,shrimp, pomegranate and focaccia.The combination is not easy to match with the pomegranate.
After a few weeks of thinking I decide to make a simple focaccia with grilled shrimps and broccoli,with a dressing of the pomegranate on top.

This is how I did it. (3 persons)
1broccoli 1onion 5 gloves garlic 1 Spanish pepper 1pomegranate 400gr shrimps salt and pepper to taste.
250gr flour for the doug 3Tbsp olive oil 2Tbsp sage.

Heat up the weber for indirect grilling.

In the meanwhile you can prepare the dough for the focaccia and put it on the hot grate indirect for about 20 minutes.When ready save it in a aluminium foil.

Cut the pepper,garlic,onion and broccoli in big parts, I like it the rough way.Do everything in a iron skillet,on the grill over medium heat,till everything is ok. grill in the last 5 minutes the shrimps,with the veggies.

Serve everything on the grilled focaccia,and put some pomegranate on top of the veggies.








































This was my first entry of the 4 ingredient "challenge"
Please check out the 4 other bloggers about their adventures.

Larry’s Blog Description:
The BBQ Grail website was created in 2007, initially to document the author’s quest to find the perfect backyard BBQ experience. Since that time The BBQ Grail has become one of the more popular BBQ blogs on the internet and is listed on Alltop.com as one of the top BBQ blogs.

ROB'S BLOG DESCRIPTION:
Rob launched Into The Flames in the summer of 2010 as a way to share his
passion for cooking, eating, and exploring food.

Blog description:No Excuses BBQ
The No Excuses BBQ website was started in January of 2009 as a way to record the author's goal of cooking outdoors at least once a week throughout the year and showing the results to the world. Somewhere along the way things got out of control...

Robyn Medlyn of Grillgrrrl – ENTRY HERE

Robyn Medlin is the “grill girl” behind grillgrrrl.com. Her focus is on healthy, simple and creative recipes on the grill. She encourages women to learn to grill as it a great way to create healthy, flavorful dishes without all the fuss and clean up in the kitchen. This “grill girl” holds quarterly “Women’s Grilling Clinics” as a way to encourage women to not be intimated by the grill. As a McCormick’s flavor correspondent for their “This Week in Grilling Campaign”, Robyn shares fun, tropical video recipes documenting her grilling adventures from her backyard in Sunny, Hollywood, Florida.

Chris of Nibble Me This – ENTRY HERE

The Nibble Me This website was created to share Chris’ misadventures in live fire cooking. ”I have no culinary training….I’m just entertaining myself with fire and food”.

Bison veggies and fries #62

I'm so exited, I was asked to be a part of the "challenge" from the BBQgrail,to represent the Netherlands.No time to think so just do it!! It is a great proposal to show the world about my grill adventures.I would like to thank the Grillgrrrl for the introduction.

Back to the grill, it was one of the last beautifull days this year so I was thinking of some summer veggies like zucchini,pepper bells, sweet onion and garlic, cut everything in pieces and do it in a large bowl with olive oil,mix well and let it stay in the fridge for an hour or so.

Heat up the Weber,bake the bison on a hot grate with only a little salt and pepper to taste.Do the veggies in a cast iron skillet and heat up.

For desert I used 4 stuffed pears with rum and brown sugar. Cut of the top of the pear and take the core out of it. Add a little bit lemon on the inside of the pear and under the cut off top,you have to replace it after stuffing.
For the filling you need soft butter 2Tbsp,2 Tbsp brown sugar,2 Tbsp hazelnut (crushed),1 Tsp cinnamon, a little lemon juice,2 Tbsp rum and a little vanilla sugar flavour. Mix it very well and stuff it into the pear, put the top back on the pear.
After you grilled the Bison and the veggies,you can set the pears in a drip pan indirect on the Weber for about 40 minutes,serve with some ice cream..Enjoy!

Whisky chicken skewers #61

This was probably the last good day of the summer,first we had to go to the cinema with a few friends of Boris.After that I had to learn Rik how to fix a leaking tyre,a typical dad's thing,and I have to think of something what to eat tonight..Let's see, I had a mango,a piece of paradano cheese,cucumber,tomato,slaw,walnuts,parma ham(prosciutto) ,and some chicken left in the freezer!! I also had a small bottle of whisky,it was a leftover for my drip thing for the pulled pork..So I used it for marinate my chicken with some soy,5species,honey and whisky,(Tobamory,a single malt 10 years old). leave it in the fridge for at least an hour,then prepare the skewers,(soak the skewers in water first).Grill direct on a hot grate,serve with the salad and a glass of red wine...Enjoy

Pulled Pork #60

I had a day off, the weather was very nice and sunny,the perfect time to make a Pulled Pork.It was the first time for me to make this kind of slow food.So I went to the butcher for a nice peace of Boston butt (1,2Kg).
Now it was time to rub it in with a basic BBQ rub, and leave it in the fridge for a few hours.After a few hours I heat up the charcoals,now this is a tricky part,you want a constant temperature of 90 degrees for 6 hours.This is how I did it.Heat up 15 Ecobrasa cubes,prepare the Weber for indirect grilling,Now you think,that's not much...right...open the top and bottom ventilation holes in de Weber, it's now around the 90 degrees.Put every 30 minutes a handful of hickory wood and every hour 3 or 4 Ecobrasa's on the old charcoals,they will lit automaticly.You also have to drip the meat every hour with some apple juice,otherwise your meat will dry out.
In the meantime I couldn't wait that long for my dinner so I made some sandwiches with sausage rolls,cheese,zucchini and pepper and a salad with mango,walnut and prosciutto.
We had a great Merlot with it.very tasty.After an empty bottle and 6 hours waiting, the Pulled pork was ready....It looks great,smells great and taste great,tonight we have some with a sandwich,coal and baked beans..Enjoy!!