FirstGrill 2012

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Summer does not officially start at RainyDayMagazine office until after FirstGrill. On June 3rd, we combined our annual FirstGrill event with a graduation celebration for one of our RainyDayInterns, who just got her walking papers from RISD the day before. (Also, it was BookClub for at least one of the staff, although everyone was welcome).

FirstGrill 2012 featured meats from Morgan Ranch and Good Land Beef. To help with the griller-uppering, we added a “new-to-us” infrared unit from TEC in addition to the three other grills. With four grills available, we could dedicate one for vegetables, one to sear meat, and a couple to finish things up slowly.

How do we grill our steaks on the infrared grill?

• Thaw and season everything the day before
• Heat the grill on high
• Sear, turn, and sear.
• Finish cooking at med-low

We like our steaks best when cooked medium rare (hot pink center). Long-handled tongs are best to gently turn the steaks. We typically turn the steaks a few times, then finish cooking the steaks “low and slow”. Using this technique, the steaks from Morgan Ranch and Good Land Beef came out amazingly juicy and delicious. The favorite was definitely the Ribeyes. They had the perfect amount of meat/fat ratio for grilling. The general consensus was the American Waygu from Morgan Ranch was tastier of the two. However, judging by how fast everything disappeared, there were quite a bit of “hmmm, let me taste that again to see” going on! Our suggestion? Order from both, fire up you grill, and judge for yourself 🙂

Our technique for cooking chicken, pork, and sausages is a little different than the steaks. While it is not exactly parboiling, the idea is similar: bring a large pot of water to boiling, turn off the heat, put in the meats, and let it sit for about 15 minutes. Pre-cooking the meats this way takes out some of the fat and lets the marinade soak in deeper for more flavor. However, the main benefit of this technique is that things which must completely cook through will cook faster on the grill. The shorter cooking tim  juicier the meat.

While we provided of the delicious grilled meats, we did ask a few guests to bring a side dish should they want to showcase their favorite recipes. Two of the crowd favorites were Claire’s  bean salad and Carolyn’s kale salad.

So here is to Sarah…congrats on graduating with Honors from RISD. And Yay… Summer is here! Grill at will 🙂