Grill Everything

Recently I’ve been obsessed with putting everything on the grill. I’m sure one of the reasons is that the weather has been amazing the past week or so, staying mostly sunny and in the low to mid seventies. I have a small charcoal grill and a small propane grill. Mostly, I use the propane grill since its cleaner and easier. However, I appreciate charcoal for cooking something like an inch and a half thick cut rib-eye (mmm) and I really like arranging charcoal like one side of a sloping hill so I can clearly gauge and effectively utilize the varying levels of heat on the grill surface. The way I arrange charcoal would depend upon the grill I suppose.

This particular day I grilled some jerk chicken tenderloins and tomatoes on my propane grill. I served this alongside couscous cooked with toasted pine nuts and a little olive oil. Grilled tomatoes are excellent. Except for the slightly crisp, grill marked areas, they become soft but now with a beautiful concentrated, sweet tomato flavor.

I suggest grilling everything you can that sounds remotely good… it’s fun. Firstly, you have less dishes to do in the kitchen. Secondly, you get to spend some quality time outdoors. I’m usually grilling burgers outside a couple times a week regardless of the weather. I loved the tomatoes that I made with the chicken so much that a few days later I was outside concocting a grilled fruit and veggie salad.

I grilled squash, zucchini, mushroom, tomatoes, and tomatillos. The only thing I couldn’t grill was the corn since it is not in season yet but I heated some frozen corn up on the stove with butter, garlic, and onion. The mix was really good, it had good flavor from the grill and contained a variety of different kinds of flavors. If you’re not familiar with tomatillos, try them. You could fry them or boil them. You could make a great salsa or sauce with them. In my salad, they provided a great bright green color and a great bright, tart flavor. I never get tired of grilling something new.