Tag Archives: Summer BBQ

Lamb Sliders

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Have you ever noticed that miniature food always seems to taste better? I’ve got a delicious recipe for you today using ground lamb to make sliders. The recipe is slightly adapted from Iron Chef Geoffrey Zakarain. He made them on The Kitchen a few weeks ago and I had to try them.

These little sliders pack a big flavour punch. The ground lamb is seasoned with shallots, garlic, mint, parsley, cumin and paprika.

Here are a few tips for success:

  • Use a light hand when mixing everything into the ground lamb. Form your hand into a claw and use your fingers like a rake to incorporate the seasoning ingredients into the lamb. Over-mixing leads to tough burgers. According to tasting table.com, “Mixing ground beef releases myosin, which is a protein that causes muscle contraction. It’s important for burger making, as myosin binds fat and water to the meat, leading to a more tender burger. So you want to retain as much of the protein as possible — but when you mix too much and let too much myosin escape, you can be left with chewy meat.”
  • Salt burgers just before grilling.
  • I used a 2.5 inch round cookie cutter to form my sliders. But feel free to form by hand if that’s more your style.
  • Cook lamb burgers to an internal temperature of 135°F. Insert instant read thermometer into burger from the side, not the top, and push it until it reaches the centre of the burger.
  • The pickled onions can be made and stored in your fridge up to 2 weeks ahead of time. This recipe makes more than you will need, but they are great on sandwiches and in all kinds of salads.
  • If you prefer to keep the tzatziki sauce dairy free, look for a plain vegan yogurt or sour cream that does not contain coconut as the main protein. The coconut flavour will not work for this application. I like Tofutti brand Sour Supreme

Click here to print recipe for Lamb Sliders.

Skirt Steak with Pomegranate Tomato Relish

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Skirt steak, prized for its deeply rich flavour, is one of my favourite cuts of meat to grill in the summer. I have been making a version of this recipe for years now, and it ocurred to me that I have never shared it with you. My bad. So sorry.

You all know that I love salt, but if you buy kosher meat, be aware that kosher skirt steak is super salty. Proper koshering technique requires that the salt be put on all sides of the meat. Skirt steak is a very thin cut, so it absorbs more salt than a thicker cut. My butcher friend Joel suggested that I soak the skirt steak in cold water, for about an hour in the fridge before marinating. Change the water every 20 minutes. This works really well in reducing the saltiness. Of course, if you don’t keep kosher, skip this step.

Start with a really flavourful marinade. I whisked together an assertive blend of olive oil, red wine, red wine vinegar, pomegranate molasses, honey, garlic, thyme and bay leaves. Overnight is ideal, but if you are short of time, a few hours in the fridge is fine.

While the meat is marinating, prepare the salsa. Pomegranate and tomatoes are mixed with lime zest, lots if parsley and some olive oil for a sweet-tart salsa that cuts through the richness of the beef. Let the meat rest for about 5 minutes before slicing. Make sure you slice against the grain. I filmed a video to show you the right way.

Click here to print recipe for Skirt Steak with Pomegranate Tomato Salsa.

Grilled Chicken Skewers with Ginger Coconut Sauce and Mild Annoyances

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on white 625 sq I am the grill master of our house. However, if the weather is particularly nasty, I will try to send my husband out to cook, but inevitably I will be beckoned to see if the food is done. It seems that I have the magic touch. Well, total disclosure here; I spent the summer between my first and second year of cooking school working in a restaurant as the grill chef. 

The restaurant had a huge stone barbecue on their patio. They stored the charcoal for the barbecue in 50-pound bags on the roof of a shed at the back of the patio.  I had to climb a ladder at the side of the shed and toss down the sacs of charcoal. My nickname that summer was Cinderella as my face was always covered with charcoal streaks. In addition to cooking the proteins, I also had to prepare pan sauces on the grill. That required a deft hand in moving the charcoal around to create hot and cool spots on the grill. I burned more than my fair share of pans the first few weeks, but eventually I got the hang of it. By the end of that summer I was fairly proficient in determining when a burger was done, when a strip steak was cooked to medium rare and when halibut was just cooked through to perfection.

These days I cook on a gas grill, and rely more often than not, on an instant read thermometer. They are basically idiot proof and they guarantee perfect results almost every time. This one is expensive but works very well.

This recipe for Grilled Chicken Skewers with Ginger Coconut, sauce hails from Chris Schlesinger and John Willoughby’s brilliant book, “License to Grill.” Although this book was written over 17 years ago, it still feels fresh and relevant. I have been making this recipe for many years and never tire of it. The original recipe calls for boneless skinless chicken breasts, but I recommend using boneless skinless thighs.

I must admit that I get mildly annoyed when people tell me they only use boneless skinless chicken breasts. Not quite as annoyed as when people tell me they never use salt in their cooking, but I won’t get started on that one right now. I always use boneless skinless thighs and serve it to guests who say they don’t like dark meat. They don’t even realize they are eating thighs and they always ask me how I keep my chicken so moist. Thighs are a no-brainer. They are next to impossible to overcook because of their higher fat (and therefore flavour) content.

The velvety coconut-ginger sauce enrobes the chicken and the ginger, jalapeño and lime add a seductive little flavour zing. The “shake” topping, crafted from peanuts, sesame seeds, cumin and red pepper flakes adds crunch and packs a welcome buzz of heat.mise en place 2If you are using wooden bamboo skewers, be sure to soak them for about an hour before skewering the meat, so that they do not burn. This recipe is also quite delicious when you substitute tofu for the chicken (or so I have been told by my vegetarian daughter!)

Click here to print recipe for Grilled Chicken Skewers with Coconut-Ginger Sauce.

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