Random Late Summer Thoughts

We have just finished a hot August evening meal, cooked on the grill. We had grilled portabello mushrooms, fava beans with oregano and rosemary and grilled Coho Salmon.

I recently said goodbye to my faithful gas grill and purchased a charcoal grill. Over the last 10 plus years I had, with no small sense of pride, become very skilled at cooking on my Weber gas grill. I could make anything with instinctive skill and aplomb. I had no delusions about the switch to charcoal. Gas and charcoal are two very different heat sources and I knew that I was in for a period of adjustment. Indeed, I am going back to cooking school here. I have started simply, staying with direct grill method dishes, like burgers and fish. I have not ruined anything, but the instinctive knowledge I had accumulated on my gas grill must be relearned. I have always had the highest respect for charcoal grill cooks, even if they do not respect we gas grillers. I remember one well known restaurant chef who told me that a skilled grill cook is worth their weight in gold.

The first thing one recognizes after the switch to charcoal is that the flavor is indeed superior. I was able to achieve a great many tasty creations using my gas grill, however in the short time I have been cooking with charcoal I have immediately noticed a taste difference.

While I appreciate the ease of use and short leads times using a gas grill, the extra time and patience required to grill using charcoal are well worth it. This lead time can be significantly shortened if one uses a chimney starter to heat the coals. I have found that the coals are red hot within 10 – 15 minutes depending on the amount charcoal used.

And those who advocate a 3 zone fire are absolutely correct: this method allows you to manage heat much more efficiently. In a 3 zone fire, there are thick layers of very hot coals on one end, a single layer of cooler coals in the middle and no coals on the far side. If there are flare-ups, you simply move the food to the “safe” zone, with no coals, until the fire subsides. The design of Weber grills will distribute heat even to the area with no coals directly under the food.

And lest you think charcoal grill cooks could more easily switch to gas grilling, think again. There is a skill to cooking on gas that a charcoal griller would need to master. I have respect for both methods of outdoor summer cooking.

A thought not necessarily related to summer; if you have never enjoyed fresh fava beans you need to work them into your repertoire. People have been eating these lovely beans, which were once known as the poor man’s meat, for 5000 years. Favas are a bit cumbersome to prepare, as one needs remove the beans from the thick pod, then remove another layer of covering to reach the tender, rich prize inside. They have a sublime and satisfying flavor with tremendous nutritional value. If you buy frozen fava beans, you can skip the first step while still enjoying this wonderful food. You will not be disappointed.

Enjoy the remainder of the season while it is still called summer.

I like this quote…
Grilling, broiling, barbecuing – whatever you want to call it – is an art, not just a matter of building a pyre and throwing on a piece of meat as a sacrifice to the gods of the stomach.
~~ James Beard

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