The Virtual Gourmand: Column No. 2

March 17, 2005

Contributing Editor and 'CW Executive Chef' Jason Clabaugh (BigO) expands on his last column about the perfect steak and gives us five recipes for side dishes we can also prepare on the grill this summer.

Grilling Side Dishes

We had a lot of fun last column finding and preparing the perfect steak. But grilling in my house is something we do several times a week all summer. It's just too danged hot to fire up the range and besides, my wife won't let me smoke cigars in the kitchen no matter how good the food is. Out on the deck where the grill is nobody minds (or can tell if the smoker is going).

All of these recipes require a multi-zone fire. If you are using hardwood (hats off for a moment of silent respect) or briquette charcoal, this means we are going to heap our coals in the back of the grill and leave the front half empty. This gives you a hot zone in the back for searing (or in this case, onion bombs) and a cooler zone that you can manipulate for slower roasting or cooking.

If you are using gas (and we all know that even though I like Hank Hill, I think his propane sucks wind), we'll be using the burners on one half of the grill and leave the other half off. If the rest of your meal isn't ready all at the same time, you can take a piece of foil and put it over the cool part of the grill and use it to help keep some items warm until everything is ready to come off the grill. Plus, if your food is cooking unevenly, you can move it around and allow the part that isn't cooking fast enough to catch up.

You should also follow the rules about grill preparation. Start your fire and allow the fire to burn off the large bits that have stuck to the grill surface. Scrape the residue and ash off with a grill brush. Then oil the grill with a folded paper towel dipped in a bit of vegetable oil rubbed back and forth over the grill surface while grasped in a pair of tongs. Hot, clean, lubricated. That's how you want your grill.

Sweet and Savory Onion Bomb

One of my signature grill dishes is the Sweet and Savory Onion Bomb. On the surface, it doesn't seem to be all that difficult to accomplish, but it does take some effort to master it. Most people have to make them 3-4 times before they get the hang of them.

First you are going to need 4 fist-sized sweet onions. You should plan on at least 1 onion per person (the yield isn't that great and the demand for it will surprise you). The important thing to pay attention to is that all of your onions will need to be roughly the same size to standardize the cooking time. I really prefer to use Vidalia onions for this dish because of their size and shape. But, since they aren't available year-round, any large sweet onion will do just as well. My first encounter with this recipe used big Texas Sweets. You want to cut the ends off of them, peel them (but don't cut any farther into the onion than you have to do to peel it). Then you are going to want to cut down into the onion and stop ¼ inch from cutting all the way through it.

Start by cutting a cross pattern

and then bisect each quarter that the cross has made.

Bisect each of the resulting bisections until you have made 8 total cuts into the onion. By now, it should look something like an unfried "Bloomini' Onion" from Outback...or something like this:

Tear 2 squares of heavy duty aluminum foil off of a roll and stack them. Place the onion in the center of the foil and gently wrap the foil up around the bottom of the onion. This is to keep the other ingredients from spilling out.

Drizzle enough olive oil to coat the onion. Then add a tablespoon of minced garlic on top of the onion. Don't worry if some of the garlic falls off the top.

Now place about a tablespoon of crumbled blue or gorgonzola cheese on top of the garlic.

Wrap the rest of the foil up around the onion and twist it up so that it looks like a silver newly harvested onion.

These onion bombs need time on the grill to caramelize. Place them on the hottest part of the grill as soon as your coals are ready. You can rotate them occasionally, but they are going to need at least 45 minutes to cook properly. What I usually tell folks is to make them the first thing they put on the grill and make it the last thing they take off. You'll know they are done when they are soft to the touch and have lost about half their weight. Open the foil up and, using either a fork or a knife, remove the caramelly, gooey goodness from the ¼ inch of burned onion on the bottom of the foil.

These take a little practice, but I've had people who were more enthralled with this side dish than they were the entrée (right, sevenmag?)

Grilled Corn on the Cob

Another dish that is popular at my house is grilled corn on the cob. There are all sorts of arguments that we could have about the proper method of grilling corn. Many people like to soak the corn and grill them in the husks. That's an OK way of doing it, but with the husk on you don't really get the benefits of a wood fire. They steam that way and frankly you could just as easily boil them or steam them indoors with much the same results. Here's how I do it.

Take 6 ears of fresh sweet corn (whatever kind you like). Pull back but do not strip the husks off completely. Remove the silks thoroughly. Gather the husks back and tie them off with twine 2 or 3 inches from the end. This makes a handle that you can use for moving them around very easily. Using a barbecue brush, liberally coat them with olive oil and season with seasoned salt and fresh ground pepper.

Grill them over a medium-hot part of the grill parallel with the grill grate to keep them from rolling around (the husk handles should help with that as well), monitoring them constantly and making sure that they are cooked evenly without burning. Serve with plenty of butter at the table.

Grilled Asparagus

Just as simple as the corn is grilled asparagus. The idea and technique is very similar and the result is quite tasty. Snap a pound of fresh asparagus (grasp it at each end of the spear and bend it until it snaps off-the bottom part is tough and woody while the top part will be tender). Arrange it on a lipped cookie sheet and drizzle it thoroughly with olive oil and either seasoned salt and ground black pepper or another seasoning you like (Chef Paul's Vegetable Magic is a favorite, as is Tony Chacherie's Creole Seasoning.

Grill them on a medium-hot section of the grill perpendicular to the grill grates, moving them frequently to insure all the spears cook evenly until they are tender-maybe 5 minutes. If you have trouble keeping the spears from falling through the grates, you can cover the area of the grill you will be using with a piece of heavy-duty aluminum foil that has had several holes poked in it with a knife or bbq fork (you get the idea). Serve warm.

Scallops on Stilts

Scallops on Stilts is a recipe I created because my wife loves large sea scallops just about any way I have prepared them. I can usually count on finding them at a reasonable price on clearance at the seafood market (I buy a lot of meat that way, but scallops are about the only reduced seafood I will purchase this way), so there are generally 4-5 pounds of them in my upright freezer at any given time. They thaw quickly and cook quickly and don't need a lot of fuss to be succulent and delicious.

For this dish, you'll need 6-8 bamboo skewers. Take a casserole dish, place the skewers flat in it and cover them with water for 30 minutes. This allows the water to soak them so that they don't burn on the grill. It also swells them slightly so they shrink as they dry out and the food is easier to slide off when you are done.

Rinse your sea scallops (you need about a pound of them) and pat them dry with a paper towel. Inspect them and remove the abductor muscle if it remains (you will know it because it is clearly distinct from the scallop meat and pulls away easily). Now, thread them onto a pair of bamboo skewers, first inserting them onto a skewer on the left side

and then threading another skewer on the other side so that they come together at a point at the top

This makes them both more stable on the grill surface and easier to turn with your tongs. Now we're going to make a vinaigrette to marinate/baste them with. You'll need to combine in a mixing bowl with a whisk:

• 1 T. coarsely ground mustard (Creole, Stone-ground, or Dijon will do)
• 1 clove of minced garlic
• 1 T. lime juice (fresh squeezed is best...Key Lime juice is wonderful in this dish)
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1 t. honey
• roughly 3 T. Olive oil-Extra-virgin-whisked in slowly to complete the job

Arrange your skewered scallops on a lipped cookie sheet and brush them liberally with the marinade. Allow them to sit in the juices in the refrigerator for 30 minutes, making sure you flip them once so they marinate evenly.

Grill them perpendicularly on a medium hot part of the grill, monitoring them closely, rotating them to hotter and colder spots to insure that they cook evenly, and basting them with the remaining marinade. Scallops cook quickly, so use the 'rule of thumb'

to show when they are done. You should aim for between the 'medium' and 'well-done' firmness-about 5 minutes total (if that). Baste them a last time with the vinaigrette, salt and pepper them to taste and serve. This dish makes a great appetizer, but if you do make it as an appetizer, make more than one pound because people can eat a whole bunch of them.

Baba Ganooj

Another recipe that makes a great appetizer is the Middle Eastern dish called Baba Ganooj. Essentially it is a roasted eggplant dip that is eaten with warm pita bread. It is easy enough to do in the oven, but we think that the smoky flavor that grill-roasting the eggplant gives it is even better. This recipe also doubles well if you want more for later.

When your fire is ready, you want to place a whole eggplant on the cold zone of the grill, close the lid, and close all of the vents. Then, using a serving spoon (or similar instrument-use your imagination and improvise), prop the front of the lid open a quarter inch or so. This will allow the heat to roll past the eggplant and roast it. If you use a piece of metal to prop the grill open, pay heed to the fact that it is going to get hot. Check it regularly (every 10 minutes or so) and when it has gone mushy, remove it with a spatula (not tongs or a fork, as they will tear the limp eggplant up) to a cookie sheet and let it cool.

When it has sufficiently cooled, trim the caps off of the eggplant and scrape the insides out of the skin into the bowl of a food processor. To the eggplant guts, add ½ C. Tahini (a roasted sesame puree available in most grocery stores in the Kosher foods section-be sure to stir it well, as it is likely separated), 3 cloves of garlic, the juice of 2 lemons, salt and pepper to taste, and olive oil drizzled in until it reaches a pleasant, dip consistently.

Remove to a bowl and serve with pita bread. You can even toast the pita bread on the grill just before you serve it. This works even better if you make it the day before and serve it as an appetizer course.

Long live grilling season!

Contributing Editor and CW Executive Chef Jason Clabaugh (BigO) hailed from New Orleans before Hurricane Katrina devastated the city and has settled in a suburb of Atlanta. With the addition of a new baby to his family he's refocused his energies on fatherhood and a new project bringing his famous mango-habanero salsa and unique barbecue sauces into commercial production.