Showing posts with label bbq. Show all posts
Showing posts with label bbq. Show all posts

Thursday, 14 February 2019

Barbecue Tales Part 5 - Steak, shrimp & lobster

Psst.  Who wants a recipe for a pretty perfect Valentine's Day dinner at home?

Take a large plump lobster tail and a large plump filet mignon steak

Admire the beautiful colours the lobster shell turns as it cooks on the grill

Add some large plump shrimp to the barbecue, lightly seasoned with oil and garlic. 
Smather some Kerry gold butter over the lobster meat.

Plate those babies up!

Add some good company and wine.  Enjoy!

Dessert.  Take one tumbler of wine, a tin cup of vodka (yep, that's how I roll*) and one giant Reeses's heart

*Sometimes

Happy Valentine's day and much love to you all. wherever you are in the world, reading this right now.  Mwah!

Sunday, 10 February 2019

Barbecue Tales Part 3 - Chicken

Firstly, apparently I spell barbecue wrong.  Thanks for that point out reader!

Reader. I have a reader! Woohoo! *Waves to reader*
Secondly, the culinary adventures continue.  Tonight on the menu was plain old chicken which turned out to be anything but.  In fact, it turned out AWESOME! Interested? Read on my friends, read on!
Here are of some of the essential requirements for Amy's Awesome Chicken:
1. Red wine...rioja...I was never much of a rioja drinker in Ireland, preferring an (even more) full bodied grape such as Malbec, Syrah or if I was feeling wild a South African Petit Verdoh..
2. Green salsa brava hot sauce purchased from the local Mexican shop for $1.39
3. A red pepper chilli from same Mexican shop - 29c
4. Pam oil for the barbeCUE. Yeah it's cheap, and a little bit nasty, God knows what is in it but it gets the job done
5. Only the best "BBQ" sauce in the whole world.  Not too sweet and nicely tangy - dare I say it, even with undertones of HP brown sauce at times - this sauce is incredible.  Keep an eye out for you on your next supermarket visit; Stubbs Original Legendary Bar-B-Q sauce.
5. Frontera (red) salsa sauce

That's a nice little bit of heat there as you can see.  Eating and enjoying food with a sizzle in it is a skill of mine I picked up in the Navy.  Ok I think you know I wasn't in the Navy.  That's something I just like to say for fun.  Hmmm, probably sounds better when spoken.  Moving on.

It's true though.  I love hot food.  It's a taste I started developing way back when my friend was going out with a fella who owned a couple of Indian restaurants around town.  We were aged 20 and penniless and ate there a lot. Some days we used to eat the staff curry which was blow your eyeballs out hot #goodtimeswithTara&Amy
A couple of years later I visited India, and ever since then, as cliched as it sounds, the hotter the better for me.



I like to assemble all my cooking ingredients and utensils on the bar for the cooking.  Yes I have a home bar. Yes it's outdoors.  Yes I am not using it for the purpose intended.  I know, I know, old Amy who used loved nothing better than hopping behind a bar and whipping up a cocktail (crafting, I believe they say these days) or pouring a pint, is probably turning over in her grave back in Ireland.  But such is life, time moves on and ones interests change.  No doubt some day this bar will be used for entertaining, but for the moment it is a food prep area. I posted this photo to show you where the barbecue is set up in context to the bar, and I think you might agree it's pretty perfect.

Side note. If you would like to try out my recipe for my very popular at parties caiproska cocktail click here.

3 nice flat (more on that below) chicken fillets, broccoli left over from yesterday's dinner (Chinese), and tomatoes. 

I noted above that these fillets are nice and thin.  Different to the fat plump ones in Ireland.  
These are perfect for the purpose of barbecuing.

I whizzed the broccoli around in a small bit of olive oil and garlic.
When buying the barbeque, we had hummed and hawed over a couple of different models.  The fact that this one has a side burner for cooking in a pan or pot was one of the deciding reasons that we went with this one.

That's lovely strong sharp cheddar melting on the chicken! Mmmm
Doesn't the charring on the chicken look nice?

Someone was a little more sophisticated than I and  hadtheir chicken on a Hawaiian bread roll (lightly toasted on the barbecue) with some guacamole, tomatoes and bbq sauce. Along with the side of garlic broccoli.

Chicken a la Amy
Whereas I just went lunatic and dumped every since sauce known to man (or to our kitchen cupboard at least) all over my chicken.  Yes, I ate that chilli too.  Did I mention I like spicy food?

Saturday, 2 February 2019

Barbecue Tales Part 2 - Seafood

Tonight the menu was mainly FISH!

Yellow tail snapper fillets
Crab claws (exorbitantly priced it has to be said, but nice for a special occasion - the special occasion being: I am in Key West woohoo!)
Garlic dipping butter
Wild Rice
Home made Guacamole
Purple corn chips
Frontera salsa
Wine
Vodka
Beer
Good company






Barbecue Tales Part 1 - Steak

One difference (amongst, like a million differences) about my life now, compared with my life in Ireland is all the barbequing I am doing (or grilling as the Americans like to call it!).  So I thought it would be fun to document as I go, all the food we cook and eat "from the grill".

Yesterday I went to meet with my friend Lara, who was in town from Texas for a music festival.  Seeing as Lara is Texan I didn't need a second invitation to take advantage and wear my cowboy boots to our meet up. The cowboy hat was borrowed for the photo from Lara's son in law and friend :)

After enjoying an awesome catch up with Lara, and listening to some good live music in The Green Parrot I headed home for dinner.  On the menu was STEAK!!  Mmmm!

So! Because I only decided today, to start to keep a record and chronicle my barbequing feats, I am afraid I don't have photos of the full meal and sides etc.  You will just have to do with a written log of it instead!
- Steak
- Wild rice
- The Most Fab barbeque sauce ever.  It tasted like a mixture between barbeque sauce and Irish/English brown sauce.
- Guacamole and purple corn chips