The Knife and Fork

One man's opinion on cooking (and drinking)

Thursday, August 18, 2005

One Grill, Two Plates, No Pans

Before hitting the grill - looks almost good enough to eat as is; the action shot; the finished product (on a fresh plate).

How to avoid washing pans

I can’t remember why but the wife wasn’t coming home for dinner the other night so I was on my own. Cooking for just me is my chance to cook with and eat foods she won’t or can’t handle. Oysters, clams, mussels, kalamata olives, garlic, anchovies, chicken livers, nuts, blue cheese, anything spicy and cilantro (listed in a row they sound kind of disgusting). However I barely used any of these ingredients on this particular night but I did exercise my freedom from the stove and, more importantly, dishwashing, by cooking the entire meal on the grill. The main course, if you can call it a course, was Italian sausage made by a company called “Ray’s Own Brand”. I was stopped on the highway the other day while the flagman held us up due to road construction. While idling and waiting I glanced to my left and I noticed a little sign that had the Ray’s Own Brand logo on it stuck in front of the nearby house. Apparently that is Ray’s own house and he might even manufacture back there. I was tempted to pull over and knock on the door for a tour and some links but I had places to go. Nevertheless, I thought that was pretty neat because Ray makes some fine sausage. The vegetable course was a red bell pepper and scallions (green onions) while the starches were corn on the cob and French bread. I gave the red pepper and scallions a thin coat of olive oil while the corn received the olive oil treatment along with some chili powder. I threw it all on a hot grill, putting the corn on the fringes so it wouldn’t burn or cook too quickly while placing the pepper and sausage over more intense heat. The sausage tooked some tending so it didn’t burn and the red pepper needed turning after each quadrant fully blackened. It was fairly easy to jockey the food around to get it all to finish at the same time. I don’t even know how long everything took because I just moved things off as they started looking done. As my old co-worker Kyle would say, it’s not rocket scientry. At the end I toasted the bread on the grill over the coals, rubbing a cut clove of garlic over the craggy surface and topping it off with good olive oil. The meal tasted great and the best part was the dirty dishes were limited to a couple plates, utensils, tongs and a glass – all dishwasher items. My hands remained soft and silky and as it turns out, the only two things the wife wouldn’t have cared for were the garlic rubbed bread and the liberal use of oak wood smoke. With a few minor adjustments I think the wife would have dug it too.