Last Minute Christmas Gifts

Have you finished your Christmas shopping yet? I haven't. Actually unless a couple of clients come through, we may be celebrating Christmas in July. It's been a very tough last quarter of the year.

But, here in WhiteTrash BBQ world, I have a few last minute Christmas items to recommend. First up is a very beautiful coffee table cookbook by Food Network's own Masaharu Morimoto, called simply Morimoto: The New Art of Japanese Cooking.

I'm not a big fan of coffee table cook books, I prefer books that I can prop up and get dirty in my kitchen as I use them. But this is Masaharu Morimoto's first cookbook and it's a beauty. His recipes and story deserve the oversize treatment.

Every recipe and technique here is wonderfully illustrated. But, alas, I found it's recipes a little bit out of my price range. One of the beauties of Japanese cooking is the simplicity of it's recipes and it's reliance on top notch ingredients. That's all well and good, but I can't afford Waygu beef and many of the other ingredients he regularly calls for.

If you have deep pockets, this is definitely the cook book for you. However, Morimoto's story and approach to cooking is a fascinating read. That alone would make think about buying the book.

Up next is Street Food by Tom Kine. This book is subtitled "exploring the world's most authentic taste" and is an interesting contrast to Morimoto. This book takes us from the ultra rich luxury foods of Morimoto to the foods of the street. Hence, Street Food.

This guide to Street Food takes us around the world exploring what is available to the average person in street carts. It amazes and amuses me as I see the same ingredients as interpreted by the different cultures. It seems that anywhere in the world you can find kabobs, dough nuts, chicken and soups ready for working man's meal. All with a local spin.

I like this book a lot and have made a few of its recipes already. (Sorry no pictures) It's nicely done, beautifully photographed and just the right size for use in the kitchen or outside by the grill.

And speaking of grills, since this is a blog about BBQ after all, my last last minute Christmas gift recommendation is for the griller who has everything, Grill Charms. Yup, Grill Charms. These cute little stainless steel buttons allow the grill master to mark each piece of meat with label for degree of "doneness" (rare, medium, or well done) or degree of spice.

Also coming soon: The Signature "Charmed Life Collection". This collection will have 6 individual and unique designs such as a sailboat, a tropical vacation and other items associated with living a "Charmed Life". Personalize your food prior to cooking to distinguish spices and flavors, to avoid health or allergy issues or any other OPTION you can dream up!

A few of the subsequent collections we have in the works are The Sports Collection and The Pink Collection. (Just to name a few) The Pink Collection will be geared towards the lady grillers of the world.

They're an interesting concept but I caution you, be very careful when using these charms as they do constitute a choking hazard for small children and are hot after use. If you host parties with a lot of drinkers, I wouldn't recommend them either.

But with a little caution and care, and we all know that the best cooks exercise both in every cook, the grill charms add a very unique touch to your cook. Your guests will be impressed.

BBQ Equipment: Brush Hawg

A couple of posts ago, I mentioned that I had received a goodie box of grilling accessories from Charbroil. I've already reviewed the Hedge Hawg and now I'm moving on to the Brush Hawg.

I don't know about you, but I don't like cleaning my grill. After cooking, I usually remove the meat and let the grill sit, dirty and festering until my next cook. What usually happens is that the meat juices, sauces, sugars and spices are burnt to a crisp by the time I return to the cooker.

When I'm ready for the next cook, I light a fire in the cooker, knock the big stuff off the grill and let it heat up with the fire. Just before the meat hits the grill, I hit it with a brush cleaning off any remaining food nasties.

While this is an effective way to clean the grill, it's hard on the brushes. It's hard on the cook too, since you're cleaning a hot grill in a hot cooker. But its not so hard on the Brush Hawg. Like it's little brother the Hedge Hawg, this brush can clean. I guess that's due to the cleaning heads on both brushes having "maximum count stainless steel bristles" whatever that means.

Unlike some of the cheaper brushes on the market, this brush has a nice thick handle that stands up to elbow grease as you clean. It also has multiple blade scrappers, one of which arrived bent on my brush, and a convenient hook for hanging or to my surprise, grill lifting. A very nice feature is that the brush heads are replaceable.

The Brush Hawg retails for $ 12.99 and is available from Home Depot®, Sears®, Kmart®, GrillLovers.com®

BBQ Equipment: The Solar Grill

I stumbled across The Solar-Grill today. It's an interesting concept, using the sun's energy to cook your food. But in no way can you create BBQ or even grill on this piece of equipment. Basically you put your food into a metal tube and the heat from the sun steams the food to cook it.

From their website: With the new Solar-Grill you can barbecue fish, chicken, vegetables, juicy steaks or other tasteful meals. An all this can be achieved without: electricity, coals, connecting or fire lighting.

Just unfold aim at the sun put the meal into the barbecue cup and grilling starts immediately

The Solar-Grill has a flexible mirror, which focuses the sun beams on the barbecue cup allowing it to heat up. Your meal is cooked in the self contained barbecue cup an heated evenly from all sides, without direct irradiation by sunlight.

Because of the intelligent construction of the Solar-Grill your favorite dishes are cooked thoroughly by it self well-done, without burning. Everything keeps icy (?) and you can enjoy other activities.

Solar-Grill is ideal for camping and spare time, in the garden, on the balcony, at the swimming pool, beach or lakeside resort. Anyplace where open fire is forbidden or clouds of smoke are not welcome; no smoke no open fire no turn of meals just pleasant smell of fresh barbecued dishes. (How can it smell like barbecue when the food is steamed and there's no smoke? It will smell like steamed meat!)

Telescope features and a foldable mirror enables easy handling and space-saving storage. Because of it's extreme lightness you can easily take the Solar-Grill to your favorite place.

Back to me now. I really think this is an interesting concept and the Solar-Grill looks like a fun gadget, but why do they insist on calling it a grill? Damn, they just don't understand BBQ.

It Was A Good Weekend

Ahh, it was a good weekend. Even though NYC was drenched with 8" of rain, I got some time on Saturday to grill. Yes, I actually cooked over a live fire. Hmm, I wonder if I pissed off Mother Nature and that's why she sent the Nor'Easter on Sunday?

A while back I mentioned that I was attending the Charbroil roll-out for their new TEC grills. One of the perks of the roll-out was that Charbroil was going to send me, and anyone else who attended, a TEC grill for evaluation. I only agreed to evaluate the grill if Charbroil would accept criticism as well as praise. Their response, "Bring it on."

You may have seen reviews about this grill already at The Hampton Smoker, Men In Aprons and at The BBQ General. My grill was delivered last week. It was unpacked and assembled and christened on Saturday.

I'm doing taxes today, so I don't have time to post the full review yet. I will be giving you the nitty-gritty during the week but to sum it all up, I like this grill.

Hi-Tech Grilling?

I know I work in tech support. I know I love to grill. But has it really come down to this?

Charcoal Bob has created an on-line "Cookout Calculator." It's an interesting website that helps you detemine how long to grill meat and chicken on your various types of grills. It even allows for multiple cuts of meats and different degrees of "doneness - well, rare, medium etc."

This seems like a great little program, but kinda takes the fun out of it don't ya think?