Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Grilling in the Rain

Yesterday I stopped by Home Depot and picked up a sweet butane torch. I've been tossing the idea around in my mind for some time now as an option to speed up the grill-starting process. Tonight I tested it for the first time and, I must say, it was a huge improvement. In the 90's when I worked the a hardwood fired grill at a restaurant I used to start the coals with our crème brulée torch and I remembered this being much easier than lighting tiny pieces of paper and starters with a small lighter. It turns out my memories were accurate.

The only downside is that the torch I bought is so powerful that it seems to send sparks flying all over my hands, arms, and chest as I try to light the hardwood. I think I may need to purchase a falconry glove before I start the grill the next time.



Jen had made a salad with the leftover grilled corn from the other night. I added some arugula to the salad. I think the ingredients are grilled corn, arugula, grape tomato, cilantro, avocado, lime juice, cayenne, paprika, olive oil, salt, pepper, and cilantro.



I had intended to grill some pork chops for dinner but given the fact that we're trying to clean out our fridge and pantry I elected to defrost some duck breast and grill that instead. I also cut up some mango slices and grilled them as an accompaniment.



For beer I had a Scarlet Lady Ale from Stoudt's Brewery in Adamstown, Pennsylvania. It was quite good. Her repute was not as ill as you would imagine.



The caramelized sugars in the grill marks of the mango reminded me of toasted marshmallow so we decided to make s'mores for dessert. There was still a little fire left on the coals so after a mere ten minutes we were able to achieve a light brown color on the marshmallows as seen above. Also we only had the tiniest skewers imaginable so my fingers were a similar hue after the toasting escapade.

It's also worth noting that it had started to rain between dinner and smores so we did all of this under and umbrella. Luckily the real downpour didn't start until we were safely back inside. The bad news is I lost a large chunk of my life to the loudest thunderclap I have ever heard.

So if this blog ends abruptly in the next few weeks you know what's to blame.

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