Grilling for Father’s Day… some suggestions
We did our grilling for Father’s Day a few days early because of some planned travel. The results were good, so we’re passing them along. The numbers refer to the keys on the photo above.
1.The basic plan: we took some nice asparagus spears and sliced red bell pepper and marinated them briefly in olive oil flavored with herbes de Provence, salt and pepper. Asparagus and sliced peppers are great for grilling because they cook quickly and it enhances the flavor if they pick up a bit of char.
After the vegetables went into the grill basket, we used the oil to coat some fancy grass-fed strip steaks from Healthy Living Market. This wasn’t for flavor so much as so they wouldn’t stick on the grill.
2.Want to get those cross-hatched grill marks you see in steakhouses? After the meat has been on the grill a couple of minutes, test it with tongs and see if you can pick it up without sticking. Once the steak releases, rotate it just a few degrees and continue cooking on that side till you’re ready to flip. Don’t wait and try to get grill marks on the other side because the meat will be too well-cooked to respond.
Father’s Day steak came out rare-to-medium-rare as requested.
3.See the drops of brownish liquid here and there on the plate? These are steak juices and give you a clue as to how your steak will look when you cut into it. If there’s a pool of blood-red liquid the steak is still too rare and needs more grilling time. No juice at all means it’s over done. Just a little liquid will tell you it’s medium rare.
4.If you don’t have a grilling basket for your vegetables, get one, Here is one of several sold on Amazon which we recommend because it has a dark porcelain coating. Benefit: it heats faster and doesn’t look gross after it’s been used a few times as stainless steel would. Ours came from Pier One, as I recall, and it’s been used dozens of times and is good as new.
Happy Father’s Day in the Year of the Pandemic. And don’t forget to socially distance while you’re hanging around the grill!
Looks good enough to eat!
Thanks. It was and we did!
Most vegetables benefit from some char from the grill..similar to roasting in the oven…brussels, summer squashes, broccoli and cauliflower…looks good and thanks for the grill tips
We have a faction in our quarantine group that feels char on vegetables is a sign of incipient cancer for the eater. But peppers and asparagus crisp up so beautifully there are no complaints.