What have we been BBQing lately???? Plenty

Been so busy cooking, both indoors and out, planting and fishing that I haven't posted in a while. So let me show you a few pics of what's been happening......

Grilled Firehouse Burger. You can read about it and see the rest of the pictures here.

Chamorro Burger.

Portobello/Chamorro Burger.

I wrote a blog post on both of these burgers. Read all about them here.

Even did a smoked Yellow-Fin Tuna Burger. Here is the photo.

Grilled some chicken...

Even Eggplant, Pork Chop Steaks and Portobellos went down on the grill..

And we mustn't forget the fresh bottom fish...

So as you can see, there has been a lot going on over here at our place. Planting, cooking and fishing has consumed most of my time. It gets so tiring living this boring life. But I don't have a choice.........I live on Guam. As my good buddy Rudy the Mechanic says, "It's just like that!!!"

Until next time....

Grilling Eggplant- Guam Style

We love to BBQ our veggies on Guam. As a matter of fact we love to BBQ just about anything. But one of our favorites dishes is BBQ'd eggplant soaked in coconut milk mixed with lemon finadene'. Talk about something that makes your taste buds explode!! You just have to try it out for yourself.

But there is an art to BBQing the eggplant. You don't just build a fire and slap any old eggplant on the grill. There are a few important things to remember. So here are a few tips....

First you need to pick the right type of eggplant to BBQ/grill. Pick eggplants that are about 6-8 inches long and are nice and plump. They will need a strong stem on them also. You don't want to use the long, slender type of eggplant. The reason why is that you want a lot of "meat" and that is what a plump eggplant provides. The long, slender eggplants just don't have enough meat on them for a good bite. But if that is all that is available, then by all means use what you got. 

You want a young eggplant. The skin should be very shiny. The younger ones just taste better as in most things.

These eggplants are just about right. I would have liked them slightly younger, but they still had a sheen to them.

The strong stem is what you are going to use to turn the eggplant from side to side when you are BBQing them. The stem will also act as the "handle" for you to use when removing it from the finished dish and onto your plate. So when cooking the eggplant you definitely try to protect the stem from burning up.

Make sure that you puncture your eggplants. This allows for heat to penetrate quickly and steam to escape. It just provides for a more efficient grill.

I use a small knife but many use a fork to puncture the eggplants.

Now your fire is another item of concern. Regardless of the type of pit, protect the stems from the direct flames. So with a kettle grill, just build yourself a 2-zone fire, hot and cold. This way the eggplants will be grilled in the hot zones with the stems over the cold zone and the edge of the kettle if necessary.

And build your fire hot. This will cook the eggplants faster.

Here is a picture of the fire in a kettle grill...

2-zone fire.

Placement of eggplants on the grill with the stems protected from the direct flames.

Do not use a fork or tongs if you can. Using any typical BBQ instruments to turn the eggplants can result in the eggplant being damaged and the skin and meat being torn. You want the eggplant intact as much as possible so turn them using the stem. Of course this means that you will need to be wearing gloves to protect your hands from the heat, but that is the price you pay for having a nice looking eggplant.

You can also grill the eggplant directly on the coals with the stems off of the coals protected.

Here are a couple of eggplants being grilled directly on the coals. This is my preferred method as, in my opinion, the grilling is more complete and a whole lot faster.

When you are done grilling/BBQing your eggplants, they should look somewhat like these...

Finished eggplants with the skin blackened and the stems pretty much intact.

Of course the rest of the prep for the finished dish can be viewed here.

Here is a picture of the completed dish...

BBQ'd eggplant in coconut milk and lemon finadene'.

Of course there are many different recipes and ways to make this dish. As in anything, everyone has "their own way". But I brought out some tips just to help out.

Hope you enjoy making one of Guam's wonderful dishes.

Until next time....

Guam Salmon Salad!!!

Need a new side dish for a fish-themed BBQ. Try out Guam Salmon Salad. Talk about an abundance of flavors....

Check out the recipe on the Guam Firehouse Cook blog.

http://guamfirehousecook.blogspot.com/2012/03/guam-salmon-salad.html 

Hope you enjoy it!!!

Until next time....

BBQ'd Grouper (Gadao) and Eggplant

My wife, Lupe, wanted me to BBQ some Gadao, which is the Chamorro term for grouper. Lupe loves BBQ'd grouper. I decided to make full use of the fire so I added BBQ'd eggplant, and hot plate grilled onions and cowboy fries (potato wedges) just to round out the meal.

Enough said!! Here are the pics....

Got these pan sized grouper all laid out. I just seasoned with sea salt and a little garlic powder.

Closeup of the grouper. These are just about done. BBQ'd grouper taste fantastic. Especially with the flavor that the smoke imparts on them.

I placed the eggplants directly on the coals to BBQ them. Notice I try to keep the stems from burning by protecting them with wood or raising up off the coals. Need the stems for "handles" later on.

Here is the finished eggplant. To prepare this dish you can view the process on one of my previous posts here.

Built up the fire, placed the hot plate and caramelized the onions in butter. Seasoned with a little fresh ground black pepper.

Cut the potato into eight pieces, seasoned with sea salt and black pepper and grilled on the hot plate with the remaining butter.

Here is the finished eggplant dish in the coconut milk finadenne' (Chamorro hot dipping sauce). You can see how we utilized the natural "handles" of the eggplants.

BBQ'd grouper served and already being attacked!! Lupe is one fast gal when it comes to her BBQ'd fish. Watch your hands around her!!! 

Lupe's plate. You can see her lifting up a hot pepper. Just about every bite will include a hot pepper. Lupe can take plenty of heat. I gave her a Ghost pepper and she took it down like a popsicle. But she did say it was hot!!!

My eggplant with that coconut milk/lemon finadenne'. You can see all the hot peppers. They are a must eat with this dish.

To top off our meal, we also had the staple of Guam, white rice.

Needless to say, we thoroughly enjoyed our dinner. Finished up by 5:30 pm and went out to the garden to work it off.

Another great day on Guam!!

Until next time....

BBQ for Wednesday Night Scrabble Party

My wife Lupe has a Scrabble Party just about every Wednesday night. So I am usually voluntold to prepare something for everyone to eat. Of course Lupe does her share of the work also.

This past Wednesday, Jan. 11, I grilled fish and top sirloin steak. Lupe made her delicious spaghetti and veggie salad. She also made her tartar sauce and lemon finadenne' sauce.

Here are pictures of what we prepared for our dinner:

Fresh Guam Reef Fish.

18 pound Top Sirloin Block.

3 inch thick by 1 foot long Sirloin Steak.

Tangantangan wood used for fire. Similar in aroma and flavor to Red Oak.

Reef fish being grilled.

Sirloin steak on the grill.

Fish is cooked!!!

Small groupers are very tasty.

Snappers and trevally.

Lemon Finadenne', the Hot!!! Chamorro Sauce.

 The Calamansi Lemons use for the finadenne'.

Lupe's fresh veggie salad consisting of cucumber, wing beans (sigidiyas), eggplant, tomatoes, green onions, sprinkled with calamansi lemon juice and salted to taste.

Lupe's homemade spaghetti sauce with Italian sausage.

Spaghetti noodles with melted butter and garlic powder.

Chamorro dessert called Letiya. Letiya is a cake with a egg, sugar, cornstarch, Carnation Milk, and cinnamon frosting. Super delicious. I will place the recipe for this into the recipes section.

The other players also brought their pot luck dishes like corn and beef vegetable soup, banana bread, and ice cream.

Needless to say, everyone had plenty to eat. Oh, and the Scrabble game......it did not get over til about 12:30am.

Until next time....

Rain Stopped, So We've Got to BBQ

Guam Weather Graph courtesy of http://ns.gov.gu/index.html

It is the rainy season on Guam right now. You see, Guam only has 2 seasons, the dry season from January until June and the rainy season from July until December. Of course there is plenty of overlap and being that Guam is a tropical island, it rains every month. But the so called, Monsoon" season is upon us.

So it was with great pleasure that the weather turned for the better and gave us some sunshine. And you know what that means to me......that's right....BBQ!!!!

I jumped right on it, not paying attention to what day it was, and got the pit going. And the menu had to be one of my favorites, baby back pork ribs, and grilled veggies with a little shrimp thrown in. Spur of the moment type thing. You know how that goes. 

By special request, my daughter Naomi wanted me to sauce up the ribs. I usually just like my ribs with dry rub only but every now and then a little makeup never hurt anyone.

So here are photos of what I did and how I did it.....

Got a good lump charcoal fire going...

Baby Backs. Sometimes we have just got to show the backside of ribs.

Baby Backs with makeup!!

Grilled Shrimp

Grilled Veggies

Just off the grill and onto the dinner table.

Now some of you probably know that I usually use my Rueben's Rub seasoning and that I don't give out the recipe. And I'm still sticking to that, but it contains garlic powder, onion powder, celery salt, sea salt, Kosher salt, parsley, black pepper and MSG/Accent/Ajinamoto. But it is how much of each that is the kicker. Anyway I also spritzed everything down with my water/pineapple juice, honey and canola oil mix. I was very light on the honey. Imparts a subtle but noticeable flavor that seems to enhance the taste of the ribs. It makes those ribs "pop".

All of this was served with beans and rice.

Well, as usual, I forgot to take pictures of one thing or another and on this occasion it was of everyone eating. So unfortunately this post is lacking. I reserve the right to blame my age. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Hope you enjoyed this little impromptu BBQ.

BTW, you have probably noticed that it has been awhile since I have posted on this blog. That's because I was off island in the States. There are quite a number of blog posts that chronicled my activities over there. You can view those post at my sister blog site, Guam Firehouse Cook.

Until next time....