So last night I was doing a test cook at the local bar in preparation for my first cookout of the year on Saturday. It has been a long cold spring and I haven't been able to cook out even ONCE. It got a bit warmer a few weeks ago and promptly started raining every single day. I took a brief trip to sweaty Hong Kong earlier this week and brought the hot weather back with me. Yeah, straight from cold to sweltering, with no good weather in between. Hooray.
So the good news is that cookouts are back on the menu. I'm going to do hamburgers for the bar crowd and a rosemary leg of lamb for my friends. Last night I did an impromptu mini-cookout at the bar, just to find all the problems that were going to pop up on Saturday. Boy, did I find a lot of problems. Ran to the store to get some supplies, a dozen chicken legs and some Chinese hot dog equivalents. Also some potatoes and garlic for this site's mashed potato recipe.
I brought my electric hot plate to the bar to boil water, and good thing I did too, the stove that was there last year was gone. But the hot plate was so weak that it took 30-45 minutes just to boil a pot of water to set the garlic in to boil off the harsh taste like the recipe says. When it finally did boil (on the hottest setting the whole time), it was a weak boil, not a rolling boil. What a ripoff. Fortunately someone noticed that the gas grill had a gas burner on the side. Great! I totally didn't see it there. Problem is, the flame burns very yellow and there's nowhere to adjust it. Fumes, yuck.
At length I finally get the potatoes going and it's time to throw the food on the grill. Problem is, I forgot to bring any spices for the chicken other than salt and pepper. No problem, I had some of Meathead's Memphis Dust pre-made in tupperware. How different can it be? It's got good spices in it and the sugar will caramelize, right? Ha. I rub the chicken and set it in the gas grill with the lid closed for 40 minutes.
The hot dog things come out OK and the chicken is finally ready. I made the mashed potatoes and totally forgot to add the garlic. I found it in the pot when I was cleaning up. All that extra time cooking for nothing. The chicken was really perfectly done! I was worried the gas grill would be too hot, but it came out great. The rib rub...well, it was still sugary. It didn't really melt the sugar like I had assumed. It was like eating chicken with very mild spices and sugar on the outside. Oh well! It was still pretty good. The bar patrons were effusive with praise, but then again they were drunk because by the time I finished it was after midnight. Of course we had no plates or utensils, another problem I will rectify, so we had to use these disposable aluminum ramekin things and chopsticks to eat. The mashed potatoes were decent, but then again they had a quarter pound of butter in them, which will make just about anything taste good. I'm looking forward to the real cookout on Saturday, the leg of lamb is going to be awesome. The burgers will be just to feed the masses, but the lamb is really why I agreed to do the cookout. I'm going to use a ton of rosemary, apple wood, and use a board sauce. Yeah!
So the good news is that cookouts are back on the menu. I'm going to do hamburgers for the bar crowd and a rosemary leg of lamb for my friends. Last night I did an impromptu mini-cookout at the bar, just to find all the problems that were going to pop up on Saturday. Boy, did I find a lot of problems. Ran to the store to get some supplies, a dozen chicken legs and some Chinese hot dog equivalents. Also some potatoes and garlic for this site's mashed potato recipe.
I brought my electric hot plate to the bar to boil water, and good thing I did too, the stove that was there last year was gone. But the hot plate was so weak that it took 30-45 minutes just to boil a pot of water to set the garlic in to boil off the harsh taste like the recipe says. When it finally did boil (on the hottest setting the whole time), it was a weak boil, not a rolling boil. What a ripoff. Fortunately someone noticed that the gas grill had a gas burner on the side. Great! I totally didn't see it there. Problem is, the flame burns very yellow and there's nowhere to adjust it. Fumes, yuck.
At length I finally get the potatoes going and it's time to throw the food on the grill. Problem is, I forgot to bring any spices for the chicken other than salt and pepper. No problem, I had some of Meathead's Memphis Dust pre-made in tupperware. How different can it be? It's got good spices in it and the sugar will caramelize, right? Ha. I rub the chicken and set it in the gas grill with the lid closed for 40 minutes.
The hot dog things come out OK and the chicken is finally ready. I made the mashed potatoes and totally forgot to add the garlic. I found it in the pot when I was cleaning up. All that extra time cooking for nothing. The chicken was really perfectly done! I was worried the gas grill would be too hot, but it came out great. The rib rub...well, it was still sugary. It didn't really melt the sugar like I had assumed. It was like eating chicken with very mild spices and sugar on the outside. Oh well! It was still pretty good. The bar patrons were effusive with praise, but then again they were drunk because by the time I finished it was after midnight. Of course we had no plates or utensils, another problem I will rectify, so we had to use these disposable aluminum ramekin things and chopsticks to eat. The mashed potatoes were decent, but then again they had a quarter pound of butter in them, which will make just about anything taste good. I'm looking forward to the real cookout on Saturday, the leg of lamb is going to be awesome. The burgers will be just to feed the masses, but the lamb is really why I agreed to do the cookout. I'm going to use a ton of rosemary, apple wood, and use a board sauce. Yeah!
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