BBQing for Beginners #2

Scientists think that our ancestors brains started to get bigger once we figured out how to start a fire and cook our meat. Cooked meat is easier to digest, so our digestive tracts got smaller and used less energy while being more efficient. This allowed us to get more energy from our food and have more energy to power our massive brains (even though it may not seem like it, humans do have enormous brains for their body size). Secondly, protein is the one of the building blocks of our body. Protein is a part of our cells and tissues, like muscles, and is used as essential cellular messengers such as hormones. So I figure, with the amount of BBQing I'm doing, I'm going to brilliant by the end of the summer!

Last night I took a page from Alton Brown's book (actually it was a video on foodnetwork.com) and made some steak and vegetables. Check out his grilling videos. He has some good tips for grilling and the basis for my adventure (triple duty marinade) in video form.

Step 1
Marinate 2 NY steaks for 1 hour in a bag with the following ingredients:
4 oz molasses
1/4 cup lime juice
1 tbsp ginger
1 tbsp seasoned rice vinegar
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp red pepper flakes.
At some point you need to accidentally tip the bag so that a while bunch of lime juice spills out and then squirt a whole bunch of lime juice back in the bag in the vain hope that you are adding back what you spilled.

Step 2
Cook the steaks for about 15 minutes on a hot grill. This will give you medium cooked steaks, so cook longer if you like 'em dunner. You're supposed to do this on a stove so that you can reserve the juices for the sauce. I tried to rig a foil pan on the grill, but it just burned the juices. It didn't ruin the meal, but if you want those juices, do this in a pan. Let the steaks rest as you go onto...

Step 3
Dump some olive oil, salt, and pepper (no, not a pinch...a dump!) onto one bunch of asparagus. Cook on a medium heat grill for about 10 minutes. If you find that the asparagus doesn't like to stay on your grill, try a cooling rack on top of the grill. This can be found at any home goods store and is usually used to cool cookies or meat.

Step 4
Boil the marinade for about 4 minutes and then whisk in 2 tbsp red wine, 1 tbsp sesame oil, and 1 tbsp vegetable oil. While this sauce is cooling, stir fry 1 jar of roasted red peppers and 1 head of cabbage in a couple of tablespoons of olive oil. Once the cabbage wilts, stir in the sauce and enjoy your meal! The cabbage dish was originally meant to be a slaw, but I turned it into something more like a sauerkraut, which is also awesome on bbqed sausages (no really...I just had it!). I was thinking that a little mayo would make this unnecessarily good. If you try it, let me know what you think.

Why let meat rest?
Meat proteins get smaller as they heat up and squeeze out some of the juice. Meat gets drier as it gets hotter. If you cut the meat while it is still super hot, all of that juice that is being squeezed out of the proteins will gush out of the meat and be lost forever. If you let it cool a little bit before cutting, some of the juices will be reabsorbed by the cooling proteins and your meat will stay moist. It should take about 10 minutes for the above steaks and you can save any liquid that leaks out during it's little nap and use it in a sauce!

For more information on meat naps go to The Virtual Webber Bullet. Thanks also to Mental Floss Magazine.

Happy grilling!
Love, Cupcake