Grilled Zucchini a la Josh

Awhile back my good friendmily member, Josh Carroll had mentioned his grilled zucchini method to me. Now I have my way of doing things, but that doesn't mean it's the best way of doing things. Josh's method is awesome and I thought you should all get a chance to cheggitout! 

(L to R) Me, Josh, Mike eating escargot at the Mannequin Pis
in Brussels, Belgium.

Just to give you some background, I met Josh in Abilene, TX when I was stationed at Dyess AFB. It was not an instantly harmonious friendship, based on the fact that Josh was a life group leader at a local church who was trying to reach out to me and I was a stubborn butthole filled with deep feelings of anger and scars or distrust. I disliked Josh from the start--not because of him as a person, but because I disliked anyone who tried to reach out to me at the time. But Josh never gave up. His Godly servitude and his willingness to go the extra mile pulled me out of a miry pit and helped me plant my life and my family on a solid rock foundation. I owe him quite a bit. He challenged me spiritually in ways I had never felt before. We became insanely good friends and he is like a brother to me.
When my family got orders overseas to Germany, we let our lease run out on our house and stayed with Josh and his wonderful family (Erin "The Instigator" Carroll and his daughter, Sweet Jadyn) for about a month. This month was filled with Josh and I experimenting on the grill with sauces, random meats and random recipes. As a result H.E.B. stock values rose significantly, and I learned a few things.

1. You can grill anything.
2. Wives do not appreciate ginormous grocery bills on a nightly basis.
3. It's not all about the food. It's about the people, the community and friendships you create and nurture while creating and eating good food.

Okay, enough with the sappiness, let's get back to the food. These are Josh's recipe, method and pictures (which by-the-way make me miss the good times on that back patio).

Grilled Zucchini

Recipe by Josh Carroll

The idea with this recipe is to get the zucchini crisp on the outside, with nice grill marks, so it eats like a juicy little chip.

I cut 4-5 zucchinis into thin (1/8 - 1/4 inch) round slices on a moderate bias. I've done long strips, and they cook much easier and quicker but they always get floppy, so I prefer them chip style. Then I place them into a gallon-sized freezer bag with the following ingredients:

• 1/2 a lemon's juice
• 1 tbspn or so of white wine vinegar (lately I've been using a bottle that's infused with basil)
• 1 1/2 tbspns or so of paprika
• 2 cloves of garlic, pressed
• 1 tbspn dried Italian herbs
• Salt and pepper to taste
• Just enough good olive oil to cover everything

Then I squish and shake the baggie until all the zucchini is evenly coated and let it marinate on the counter for 20-30 mins while I prep whatever main course we're having, flipping the baggie a couple times. I suppose I could marinate in a bowl, but I like the baggie because I can see all the food, it's easier to keep some of the slices from getting soaked at the bottom, there's no clean-up, and I like the way it feels to squish everything around.

When it's time to cook, I place all the slices in a single layer on a grill sheet with small grates (foil with holes poked in it would work too, so long as the juices and oil can't pool), and put it on a hot grill. It usually takes two rounds to cook it all because it takes up so much real estate. And this is where I get really anal about this: Until I can rig up a thin, secure grill basket that will hold all these tiny pieces well enough and keep them close to the fire, I have to flip each slice individually. And I do. It's involved, but when I get it right, it's totally worth it.  The idea is to let each side just start to blister before pulling, about 4 mins per side over medium-high. If you wait too long, they'll burn, but when they're just past golden, they're prefect. And you can't achieve that golden crisp texture unless both sides get grill time. 


When I'm making these just for myself, I like to toss the finished chips in a small amount of the leftover marinade and some salt, but most people think that makes them too intense, so I usually just pull them and serve them hot off the grill.

I've made this recipe with garlic powder or bacon salt instead of fresh garlic, I've used all lemon instead of vinegar, and I've used balsamic and brown sugar.  They're all good.  Some red pepper or parmesan would be good too. I'll have to try that next time. Also, I don't recommend cooking this over wood or really smokey charcoal.  In fact, I only do it on a gas grill. It soaks up excessive smoke flavor waaaaay too easily.

 

 Josh, thank you so much for sharing your recipe. I am forever indebted to you and your amazing family. Not just for the food, obviously, but for the love, mentorship, fellowship and being one heck-of-an uncle to my little turd kids.

Make Your Own Hot Sauce

It is rare that you will find someone who loves hot sauce as much as I do. I sample it. I order it from random parts of the world. I try hot sauces made from the 1st and 2nd hottest chillies in the world. I refuse to believe that there is a dish out there (besides cereal) that couldn't be made better without a dash of my favorite hot sauces.
I recently found myself wondering why I will pay 8£ for an imported bottle of hot sauce that I might be able to make myself. I researched recipes and found that it was not a test of know-how, but rather a test of patience. If you pick up a bottle of sauce at the grocery store and read the label, the ingredients are simple. Tabasco for instance: Tabasco peppers, salt, vinegar. It really is that easy! But the true test is the waiting--the aging process. Tabasco is aged for a freakin' long time. It's pungent smell is proof of that! But it is a melded flavor. It's one that took time to build. That will be the true test of this recipe.
I started with a lot of peppers. Three types to be exact. Paprika peppers (not sure the exact type. I bought them here in Germany and they call pretty much any large, red pepper a paprika pepper so if someone can tell me what it is by the picture, I'd appreciate it), Thai chilies and jalapenos. I figured I'd get some great flavor with the paprikas, some tomatoey spice with the Thai chilies and some familiar heat with the jalapenos.
 All of the recipes used were the exact same. The only thing that changed was the type and amount of peppers used so here we go!!!


Ingredients:

• 2lbs Paprika Peppers, 2lbs of Jalapeno Peppers or 1lb of Thai Chilies
• 1/8 Cup White, Distilled Vinegar
• 2tsp Kosher Salt (Don't worry, although the grains are large, there will be plenty of liquid and time to break it down. Plus it won't have that chemical taste of iodized table salt)

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees.
2. Take pepper/chili of your choice and slice it into long, thin strips. There is no wrong way to do this. Size really isn't that important. As long as the pepper is open and exposed.
3. Take 1.5ft-2ft pieces of aluminum foil and place all sliced peppers into the center of the foil. Lightly wrap/cup foil around peppers in foil but leave package open.
4. Add vinegar and salt to top of peppers. 
5. Make an air tight packet surrounding the peppers.
6. Place packet in the oven on a sheet pan for 40 minutes
7. Remove from oven and let packet cool until you can handle it safely.
8. Place peppers and all juices into a food processor. Pulse until you have a coarse puree. If you see seeds, that's fine, they won't make it through the final step.
9. Place all contents into a trusted zip-lock bag. Remove all air from the bag to prevent molding.
10. Place bag in a cool, dark place.
11. WAIT. Wait 3-4 weeks. This is the hardest part.

There are three things you are doing to bring flavor to the recipe here. The peppers contain small pores inside--you can see them if you look closely. They contain an water, oils and the fruity flavor of the pepper. 

1. You add salt to bring the water out of the pepper and into your sauce. The water makes the sauce saucy and also contains a lot of the flavor that makes hot sauce taste like hot sauce.
2. The vinegar you added will add tanginess as well as dissolve a lot of the oils the are contained within the pores of the pepper. These oils would be locked into those pores without the vinegar breaking them down and making the flavors obvious to your taste buds.
3. Waiting. If you wait the suggested 3-4 weeks, you will be handsomely rewarded with a flavor that is nothing like the original flavor of the pepper. It will resemble it, but be so much more complex. It's the 'day after theory'. You know when you make a pot of chilly and eat it and it's pretty good? Then you warm it up the next day and have another bowl and it's GREAT, that's the 'day after theory'. Sauces meld over time. This one is no exception. A lot of websites called this process fermentation, but there is very little sugar and no yeast that I know of with which to create alcohol, so I wouldn't really call it fermenting, but whatever. You know what the sauce is doing. It's aging and gettin' good.

3-4 Weeks Later

Press the puree with a spoon to get out more sauce.

1. Pull baggies of the cool, dark place and be amazed! Some extra liquid may be visible. The color may have changed slightly. A spicy smell (NOT ODOR) may be noticeable from outside the bag. If it is an odor, or it smells rotten, discard and try again. Maybe a nasty bacteria got in there and messed it up. If that bacteria survived vinegar, sodium and the harsh oils of a jalapeno, you don't want it in your body. So toss it out.
2. Gather a wire strainer and a long-term storage container. Place strainer into container and pour contents of your bag into the strainer.
3. Wait some more (it's already been 3 weeks, what's another 30 minutes going to hurt?). The juices from your puree will drip through the strainer and into your container. There is plenty more in the puree, so stir it up. As you stir, more juice will drip through.
4. Seal the container and discard the puree (unless you used Thai chilies. In that case, congratulations on making your first Thai chili paste. Place the puree in a separate container and save it for your next Asian meal. It'll be awesome!)
5. Use your new, homemade hot sauce on anything and everything! It's better than store-bought, but wait, read on. There's a down side to this.

There is a huge negative to this hot sauce. HUGE!!! This crap is expensive! Think about it: You just used 2lb of peppers. My jalapenos cost about $7.00 per pound. That's $14 for a yield of about .5-.75 ounces of hot sauce. A small bottle of Tabasco is 5.5 ounces. A large bottle of many other brands is about 7oz. You do the math, it doesn't add up.
Large hot sauce companies use millions of pounds of peppers and thousands of square feet to make and process their hot sauces.  I doubt any of you have access to those kinds of resources--I know I don't! So I don't mean to be such a downer, but for the average working family, this hot sauce is good, but it's just not practical to make all the time. There are so many websites out there that have thousands of varieties of hot sauces. There are probably even local growers in your community that use their B-grade peppers to make their own sauces. Try those out. Definitely make your own when you can, but be realistic about it and don't toss money down the drain. Ugh, what a downer I am.

3 weeks of waiting for a few ounces of greatness.

Sweet, Sweet Vinegar

When someone uses the word 'vinegar', what words come to mind? Blech? Bitter? Gross? I too thought these same things at one point or another, but since being in Germany, I have had a huge change of thought (and palate). In German cooking, the food speaks for itself. They don't put brown sugar and marshmallows in their sweet potatoes because sweet potatoes are plenty sweet on their own and have an awesome, natural flavor. But if you add a little cider vinegar to the water you are boiling them in and the flavors ignite and suddenly you have a sweet potato that blows you away. If a sweet potato by itself is like a sidewalk acoustic singer, then a sweet potato with vinegar would be a Twisted Sister concert.
I have begun to use vinegar in tons of recipes. I have yet to find a recipe that is hindered by the use of vinegar. My journey to vinegar bliss was not always a sweet ballad of "We're Not Gonna Take It." But here's how it came about.


It all started when local Chef Sascha Saxler of the Hotel Maas in Lutzerath was allowed to come on base and teach us a thing or two about German cuisine. I knew of his cooking from going to the hotel restaurant many, many times, so I was super excited at a chance to learn from him.
He began by making a German potato dish that consisted of the following:

German Potatoes

This is a home version of what Chef Saxler taught me. Russet
reds were used instead of white baking potatoes and the results
were great! It works well either way.

• 4 Tbsp Salted Butter
• 6 Baking Potatoes, 1" cubes 
• 10-15 Baby Carrots, 1/4" slices
• 3 Celery Stocks, 1/4" slices
• 1/2 of a Large White Onion, chopped into 1/4" pieces
• 4 Leaves Fresh Basil, bruised (roll them in your hands)
• 2 tsp Salt
• 1 tsp Ground Pepper
• 2 tsp Paprika
• 1 Tbsp Granulated Garlic
• 1/4 Cup White Vinegar

1. He started by placing the butter in a stock pot and letting it melt and come to a simmer.
2. He then tossed in the potatoes for about 3 minutes on high heat to let them get a head start on the rest of the veggies.
3. Then he tossed in the rest of the vegetables on medium heat and let the vegetables sweat. He used the onions as an indicator that it was time to season. 
4. Once the onions were slightly translucent, he added pepper, garlic, paprika, fresh basil and salted to taste. He asked me to taste the dish at this point. I tasted it and thought, this is pretty bland, typical German food. But said, "This is pretty good, but you know Americans like salt!" He laughed and then asked for the vinegar. 
5. He added just a 1/4 cup of white distilled vinegar and let it simmer in the bottom of the pot while he stirred the veggies. My thoughts were varied at the time, but I knew this was going to be some gross, bitter crap.
6. He panned up the potatoes and we both taste tested them. I was blown away. When I thought the dish needed salt, he added vinegar. 

The acid from the vinegar brought out the flavors of all of the vegetables. The carrots tasted more carroty, the celery popped and the potato had amazingly great flavor. The vinegar did the job of the salt but with none of the salty taste.The overall flavor of the dish was not a bitter flavor as I had expected, but an awesome starch with bright vegetables and an overall tanginess that I had never had before. It was all in the vinegar!

He explained to me that chemically, vinegar was a fermented acid that was made of many elements. At room temperature the elements gave a bitter flavor that was not pleasing to the tongue or nose by itself but had to be mixed in with salad or greens. He further explained that when heated to a boil, the compounds that made up vinegar broke apart and came back together as something completely different. The flavors went from sour to tangy and could be used to make any recipe explode with flavor. 

As a kid, my Great Grandma Faries would give us canned spinach as a side for lunch and would add a dash of raw, white vinegar. It was awful, but she made us eat it. It got me thinking...What would happen if I added cooked vinegar to spinach? I tried it and the results were just as suspected--still pretty bland. But if you use frozen or fresh spinach/collard greens/mustard greens instead of canned and add the nectar of the gods (bacon), it is a killer recipe!

Killer Greens (Spinach, Collard, Mustard or Turnip)

• 3 Cups Water, boiling
• 2 heaping Tbsp Chicken Base (not bouillon)
• 1/2 lb frozen, chopped greens
• 1/2 pack of Bacon, chopped and cooked to crispy
• 1 tsp Crushed Red Pepper Flakes
• 1/2 tsp Ground Pepper
• 1 tsp Salt
• 1 Tbsp Garlic Powder
• 1/2 Cup Cider Vinegar

1. Bring water to a boil and stir in the chicken stock.
2. Toss in everything else and bring back to a simmer for 5-7 minutes or until the vinegar turns to tangy.
3. Eat it.

These are some good greens. I prefer mustard greens, but this recipe works well with ALL greens and even brussel sprouts. I have converted several anti-greens people with this recipe and now they ask when I am going to make them again. If you don't like greens, just try it--greens are cheap!

For the last example of vinegar use, I'll refer back to one of the first recipes I posted in The ProAm Kitchen, Perfect Pot Roast. The use of balsamic vinegar with beef is one of my favorite flavors. It is definitely worth a try.

Perfect Pot Roast
Ingredients:
-One pot roast: The bigger the bone, the better. Look for decent marbling and a little fat. Not too much but enough for some great flavor.
-Granulated Garlic Powder: Enough to cover both sides of roast
-Fresh Ground Black Pepper: Enough to cover both sides of roast
-Salted Butter: Use butter. Margarine is gross. Fat is good.
-Kosher Salt: Palm full
-Balsamic Vinegar: 1/2 Cup
-Red Wine: 1 Cup: I used a dry, Italian merlot but you can use what you like.
-Handful of Red Grapes
-Handfull of Queen Olives: Pitted, with or without pimento.
-Yellow Onion: Half an onion will do. Sliced thin (hamburger style).
-Fresh Basil: 1 Sprig/3 leaves...whatever

Method:
-Preheat oven to 325-350 degrees
-Bring roast to room temperature (don't let it sit there all day, you'll get sick and blame me. But it won't be my fault, I warned you). Season with garlic powder and pepper on both sides. Set it off to the side.
-Bring a cast iron (CI) pan to a high temp on high heat. If you don't have a CI skillet, use the thickest metal pan you have. Even heating is the key.
-When the pan is hot, melt butter onto bottom of pan. When the butter starts to foam and is completely melted, carefully place roast in pan. Sear roast on both sides for about 2 minutes or until a nice brown crust appears. Black is bad but doesn't ruin the roast, just try to not let the meat get that far.
-When the roast has a brown crust on each side, pull it and set it to the side.

-There will be a significant amount of rendered fat, a little beef juice and some butter left in the hot pan. Turn the heat down to med-high and add 2Tbsp of butter. When melted, add sliced onions, grapes (crush them in your hand and toss them in). Add olives in the same manner. Let the onions brown in the butter before moving on to the next step.
-Add kosher salt, balsamic vinegar and red wine. Now you should add the fresh basil, bruised (roll it in your hands a few times) and toss them in.
-Let ingredients simmer until sauce coats the back of a spoon.

Roast and reduction in foil pack

-While sauce is simmering, tear off two 2ft strips of wide, heavy duty aluminum foil. Lay them in a cross in a glass/metal baking pan (square, rectangle--whatever the roast will fit in. The pan doesn't matter, it's just an apparatus for catching juice if it spills). Place roast in the middle of cross in pan.

-Sauce should be reduced nicely by now. Pour sauce over the top of roast until roast is covered about 1/3 to 1/2 of the way up the side of meat making sure to get all the onions, grapes, olives and everything in there. Wrap foil loosely around the roast. Try to make it air tight so juice doesn't spill out.
-Place in 325-350 degree oven and bake for about 45 minutes hour before checking. Bake until medium (don't worry if you don't like medium meat, it will continue to cook after you take it out of the oven).
-When roast is about medium (135 degrees F), you should remove it from oven and LET IT REST FOR 15-20 Minutes. It will continue to cook and redistribute the juices as well as soak up some more of the sauce you poured over it.

Cup full o' flavor...not gravy!

-When 15-20 minutes has passed, remove roast from pan and place on the cutting board. Take leftover sauce/drippings from the pan and place them in a gravy boat/liquid measuring cup or whatever pouring utensil you want, really. Do not add flour or corn starch to make this sauce a gravy. This sauce is perfect the way it is and has all the rendered fat, juices, red wine, and tangy vinegar flavors all in one sauce. If you add flour or corn starch to make a gravy, you will dull these flavors and be very disappointed.
-Slice roast ACROSS the grain of the meat into 1/4" slices and arrange, fanned, on plate. Pour some of your sauce on it and DEVOUR!

As I look back through all of my recipes, I have noticed that almost all of them have a vinegar in them. Thai Burgers have rice vinegar. The salsa recipes have white vinegar, etc. It has become such a cornerstone in my cooking, yet some home chefs don't use it for anything more than a disinfectant. Next time you make a recipe, try a little vinegar in it and see what happens. I doubt you'll be disappointed.