Tuesday, August 09, 2005

Campfire Cooking—Part Deaux

Kosher salt baked potatoes

Our epic saga continues. It’s day six of the broken stove chronicles—but the good news is that service guy just got here as I started writing.

Even if he fixes the stove, I already have made preparations to grill burgers, Portobello mushrooms, and corn on the cob for tonight’s dinner.

I did baked potatoes on the grill again last night in a cast iron skillet, without covering them with aluminum foil. That’s right, no foil, in a skillet.

What you do is pour a thin layer of kosher salt in the bottom of the skillet, place your potatoes in the skillet, and dump the rest of the box of kosher salt on top of and around the potatoes. Cover them up entirely, with a top ¼” thick layer of salt.

Now toss your potatoes on the grill for about an hour while you cook the rest of your dinner.

Pull the skillet off of the grill and let things cool down for a minute or two, then poke around in the salt with a fork and you’ll find your potatoes clumped together, encased in a crusty shell of salt.

Break open the shell, dust off the potatoes, put them on your plate, and EAT.

Enjoy Y’all,

The Redneck Gourmet

Sunday, August 07, 2005

Grilled Snow Crab Legs

Get Ready To Be Amazed...


Sunday afternoon was fairly mild here on the island of St. Simons on the Georgia coast.

The flys and other bugs gave us a break at the pool and the weather was only moderately threatening on and off. The only ominous thing I was facing was--with the oven still out of service--dinner was to be cooked outside, AGAIN, with...

CHARCOAL.

Coincidentally, in wandering through the grocery store yesterday I was swept up into a fit of buying. They had whole pork tenderloins and snow crab clusters on sale for LESS THAN HALF PRICE.

The fridge and freezer is full as we speak.

Then tonight I wanted to eat Snow Crab clusters, but I had to do them on the grill.

So I did...

I have always had lobster and crab steamed or boiled, but never grilled. That said, I can personally testify that I will probably never boil or steam crab legs ever again.

You need to try it for yourself, and to make dinner for two on the grill, you'll need:

Eight or ten frozen snow crab clusters (or Dungeness or Alaskan King crab)

1 stick of butter
1 or 2 lemons

Now as to the preparations:

First toss your frozen crab in a large boiler and cover with water and a few splashes of lemon juice to thaw.

Change the water once to reduce the smell and improve the flavor.

Let everything soak for three or four hours if you want to.

Now fire up the grill.

Put the butter in a small boiler and melt it on the stove (or the grill if your stove is broken like mine...) Scoop off the solids that float to the top.

Now you have "drawn butter."

Remove your crab clusters from the water and let them drain on a a pile of paper towels in a pan or on a cookie sheet.

After they have drained, brush both sides of each cluster with oilve oil. Sprinkle them with a little salt and pepper or better yet, some Old Bay Seasoning.

Place the clusters on the grill for three or four minutes on each side, then pull them off the grill onto a platter with the sliced lemon wedges, get yourself a couple of plates and a roll of paper towels each, sit down at the table, and EAT.

Regards Y'all,

The Redneck Gourmet

Friday, August 05, 2005

Campfire Cooking

Well, if finally broke completely...

Our stove, that is.

It's been acting strange since New Years and has functioned intermittantly, causing us to start turning the circuit breaker off when it was not in use.

This past Wednesday morning it wouldn't turn on at all, as I found out when I tried to heat water to make Green Tea.

I opened up the control panel back in January and couldn't find anything, and when I put it back together it worked perfectly for a few weeks. We've been trying to not hassle the condo owner, but I put a note in the with rent check and I hope to hear from him this weekend (he lives in Pennsylvania.)

Meanwhile I've been doing what little cooking I've done on the grill for dinner in the evenings.

Please stay tuned for more recipes once whe get the stove fixed or replaced.

Sorry Y'all,

The Redneck Gourmet