The Funky Kitchen

Last year on the May long weekend, I had never used a barbecue before. I made Bacon, Peach and Chicken Skewers, a recipe that has made recurring appearances at our dinner table. This year, though, the baker in me got to stand alongside all of the men at the barbecue. Everyone can grill meat on the barbecue, it felt pretty advanced to be up there on the deck baking where one would normally grill. I think it is fair to say that I have made some progress.

These brownies were pretty over the top, a layer of caramelized bananas covered by brownie that is studded with chocolate chips and marshmallow cannot fail. And surprisingly, it wasn’t even that difficult to do! It’s like making double baked potatoes, you take something already delicious, a brownie, and then cram it chock full of other gooey  tasty things. Even though it was cold and rainy all weekend, it was good to have a brownie to console us.

You do need a cast iron pan, though. I know that some people have quite a bit of lingering fear over cast iron: you need to season them? What’s seasoning? Don’t they rust? I got some cast iron pans for Christmas (Thanks Mister!) and am loving them. Do not be afraid of cast iron cookware. It’s a great natural nonstick surface that can withstand very high heat and it retains and distributes heat well. I really advocate having a cast iron pan in your kitchen, if not for this brownie, then for the sake of beautiful searing and frying capability.

Overloaded Barbecued Cast Iron Brownie

125 g butter

250 g chopped chocolate

3/4 Cup sugar

3 eggs

1 Cup flour

1/2 tsp salt

2 bananas

1/4 Cup butter

1/4 Cup brown sugar

1 Cup mini marshmallows (or cut up marshmallows)

1 Cup chocolate chips

• In a saucepan set over a medium heated grill, melt the first measure of butter, chocolate and sugar together.
• Remove from heat, and briskly mix in the eggs, flour and salt. This is the brownie batter.
• Set the cast iron pan over the barbecue, and melt the second measure of butter. When the butter is bubbling, slice in the rounds of the two bananas.
• Allow the bananas to begin to brown, and then add the brown sugar. Stir avidly until everything is caramelized and luscious.
• Spoon the brownie batter over the caramelized bananas, giving the pan a wiggle to distribute everything into an even layer. (USE AN OVEN MITT!)
• Sprinkle over the chocolate chips and marshmallow.
• Close the lid of the barbecue, reduce the heat to low, and allow the brownie to bake until it firms up (~30 minutes).

Wait patiently for the brownie to cool enough that it won’t burn your mouth. We attacked the pan of deliciousness with spoons, though more elegant brownie eaters may prefer their pieces scooped out of the pan.

Because I was planning on baking this brownie at the cabin, a locale where not too much baking goes on, I got all of my ingredients ready in bags. This is a great way to prepare for a recipe when you are cooking in a kitchen you are unfamiliar with, so that you don’t need to rely on fate for your ingredients or measuring tools. I measured out all of the ingredients and put them into resealable bags in the groups that they would appear together. The butter, sugar and chocolate all went together in a bag so that when the recipe started, all I needed to do was tumble out the contents into a saucepan, and so on through the rest of the recipe.

Mister’s rating of the barbecued brownie: Mister was not really feeling the banana in this recipe, he suggests caramelizing pears for the bottom layer (I concur that pears would be a good idea, but I’m a pear addict so how could I say no). Otherwise, though, he says that it is chock full of chocolaty goodness, and that it is pretty cool that it’s made on a barbecue.

Sometimes I get made fun of when I eat corn on the cob. Personally, I don’t think that I do it in a particularly weird way, I just do it methodically. I hate getting the membranes that cover the kernels stuck in my teeth, so I eat corn on the cob row by row. It makes sense, in it’s own way, to me because it grows in a row by row pattern.  Why not eat it that way? It also ensures you get at every kernel of gorgeous corn on the cob goodness.

Oh yeah… row by row nibbling is pretty slow going. There was that time a particular person I was dining with decided to time my ‘corn eating process’, and announced the time to the rest of the table, much to my embarrassment. But you know what? I really don’t mind that it takes me a while to finish my corn, even if the people sitting around the table grow impatient. I’m a slow eater, just especially slow with corn. Moreso when the corn is this good.

Grilled corn on the cob with sriracha lime butter just proved that it would be incredulous to eat it any other way than row by row, savoring it and making sure not to let any of it go to waste.

Another barbecue adventure that ended in success! Though I’ll admit that I was aided in lighting the barbecue once more, next time I’ll do it all by myself! Corn on the grill was new terrain, which came with much hemming and hawing over how to know it was ready to be husked. Maybe next time I’ll just husk it and then grill it, does anybody have any technique suggestions?

Grilled Corn with Sriracha Lime Butter

4 ears of corn

1/2 Cup butter

3/4 teaspoon Sriracha sauce (add more if you like it really spicy, this amount left a nice tingle at the back of the palate but nothing too extreme)

3/4 teaspoon lime juice

1/4 teaspoon cracked black pepper

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

Directions

• Turn on the barbecue (on your own, or with help if needed, haha), set your burners to medium-high and allow it to come to heat.
• Place your corn, inside the husks, on the grill. Allow to cook for a few minutes per side, turning when the husks start to become grill marked. I made six turns, totalling a time between 15 and 20 minutes, and the corn was pretty much cooked through before I came to the husking.
• While the corn is grilling, melt the butter.
• Mix the sriracha sauce, lime juice, pepper and salt into the melted butter.
• Remove the corn from the grill and remove the husks. This will be somewhat tricky, due to the corn being quite hot to the touch. Oven mitts saved my rushing fingers, though I suppose you could let the corn cool a little and then do the husking.
• Go back to the barbecue, and return the corn to the grill, turning when grill marks have been achieved. Brush with the melted butter periodically.
• Serve hot, with the bowl of left over butter for those who like their corn extra buttery.

The spicy tang of the butter on this corn is surprisingly tasty. I was so curious to try it, but scared it would overpower the sweetness of the corn. Instead of overpowering it, though, the sriracha lime butter was a good counterpoint, present and contrasting but still allowing the corn flavor to shine through. Give it a try, whether you are a slow and steady row by row corn consumer or a quick crunch and muncher.

Happy Canada Day!

This weekend was crazy. The Mister and I went up to his cabin with some friends and had a lot of fun in the sun. Between the guitars, the beach and a nap or two, we found some time for meals.

What does one eat at the cabin? Whatever it is that’s coming off of the three barbecues. You heard it, three barbecues.

Which is all well to do, grilling is a great way to prepare and cook food, but up until this weekend I had never used a barbecue by myself before. Sure, I’d cooked on a grill before but always under the watchful eye of some other more experienced barbecue user. I didn’t know how to turn a barbecue on (thank you Mister for being patient and directing me) and it took a little bit of trial and error to get my cooking temperatures to where I wanted them to be, but I think I’ll make a barbecue expert yet.

And these, these lovely little skewers of smoky sweet savoriness, were the fruit of my labour. The interplay between the flavors and textures is what really makes them spectacular. The sweet of the peaches versus the salt of the bacon. Juiciness versus smokiness, crunch versus soft.

Bacon, Peach and Chicken Skewers

3 peaches

3 chicken breasts, cubed to bite sized pieces

~10 slices of bacon, cut in half

1/4 tsp black pepper

barbecue sauce, for brushing

• Soak your skewers if you are using wood ones, for at least half an hour (or else they will burn, like mine did).
• Remove the pits from the peaches, and cut each peach into eight pieces.
• Take half a slice of bacon, and wrap it around a piece of chicken.
• Thread it onto the skewer, positioned so that the bacon doesn’t come loose.
• Then thread on a peach piece.
• Repeat steps 3-5 until all of your pieces are threaded onto skewers (you should get 5 or 6).
• Sprinkle with pepper.
• Put your skewers on the grill over medium-high heat, turning once during cooking, brushing the skewers with barbecue sauce after turning.
• The skewers are done when the chicken is cooked through, the bacon is crispy and the peaches are grill marked.

Serve to friends on Royal Chinet, the finest of paper plates! Ha ha ha. I hope you all had a good weekend!