Thursday, August 9, 2007 | by nathan

Summer Nights #2: Fire It Up

So, you’ve got your drink in hand and maybe at the end of a day you’re feeling a bit peckish. There’s plenty of daylight, still, and you’ve got some friends coming over; what do you do? You fire up the grill, of course.

Brian is the griller in our house, but you cannot grow up in Oklahoma and not know a thing or two about cooking meat over an open fire. Around our house we use mostly wood chips instead of charcoal, as it adds a richer, more robust flavor to whatever we’re cooking. To expedite the whole process of getting the fire as hot as possible as quickly as possible, Brian uses a chimney starter, which looks a little something like this:

It ensures that all the coals are equally hot and bright so that one piece of meat, sitting on the left of the grill, is not raw while another is burnt. Grilling has long been known to be the healthiest form of cooking, especially when one is talking about meat, but it’s probably also the most delicious. Shake it up; try some different things.

One of my favorite things to grill out is skewers, which can also be great fun for your guests. Get several different colored vegetables at the store; things that cut up easily and cook great. I usually get yellow, orange and red bell peppers, zucchini, and pearl onions, the kind that come in a small bag. Pearl Onions are a must, because they provide that really wonderful sweet onion flavor, but are bite-size, so you don’t have to murder your eyes and sinuses trying to cut them up.

[Skewers are fantastic also if you have vegetarian friends, as it is something you can grill out without making them feel left out. When my friend Bryon lived with me the summer after our senior year of high school, we made "veggie kebabs" almost every single night on the grill].

So you cut up your meat into 1-inch cubes, and arrange each ingredient in a bowl. Lots of color makes the dish visually appealing. Drizzle them with a little olive oil and, if you like, throw some bay leaves onto each skewer for a bit of extra taste. You might also try rubbing the meat with Emeril’s Essence Spice Mixture, which you can make at home:

2 1/2 tablespoons paprika
2 tablespoons salt
2 tablespoons garlic powder
1 tablespoon black pepper
1 tablespoon onion powder
1 tablespoon cayenne pepper
1 tablespoon dried oregano
1 tablespoon dried thyme

Double or triple the recipe as needed and keep it in a tupperware container with your spices; it keeps nicely. Rub it on any meat you grill for some extra twang that should prove very popular with your guests. Experiment with different types of meat, especially if you’re doing skewers. Chicken, lamb, and shrimp are my personal favorites, though nothing beats a nice, juicy steak or hamburger cooked on the grill. (Emeril’s mixture also folds nicely into a hamburger patty). For the health conscious among you, use ground turkey instead of beef, and rub some ears of corn with chili powder and lime juice before grilling it.  

So, now you’ve got your pitcher of gin fizz and your food. I’m going to throw in one extra drink recipe for you, in case you’re no fan of gin. This one is a for-sure crowd pleaser, but you have to make absolutely sure that you’re pacing yourself. Or, barring that, that you’re not wearing shoes when you inevitably start dancing on the dining room table. This drink is known as the Beergarita.

Girl Con Queso had a wonderful Beergarita recipe back in February, but the one we use is a bit different; Brian got it a few years ago from a professor, and it’s never let us, or any of our guests, down. Unless you count the hangover. I also submitted this one to Salon’s Cocktail Contest:

It’s very simple. You simply get a container of Minute Maid Limeade Concentrate - the frozen stuff in the tube in your grocery store’s freezer section. Empty it into a pitcher, then take the empty tube and start filling it with tequila. The recipe says to fill it all the way up with tequila, though my rule of thumb is, "Fill it until you get scared." Most people stop at about 3/4. Then, you add one 12-oz. bottle of your favorite Mexican (it has to be Mexican) beer; our poison of choice around here is Dos Equis, though Corona will work in a pinch, and Shiner Bock is acceptable but not ideal. Repeat these instructions until your pitcher is full, and stir until the frozen limeade concentrate is melted. Pour over ice or with ice into a blender for blended margaritas.

It’s a pretty stout mixture, to be sure, so pace yourself. At any rate, you now have two types of drinks in pitchers, and a whole lot of really wonderful food. I do believe we have a party, kiddos! What better way to spend a long, hot, miserable, mosquito-ridden August night than with a really great party? In honor of our wonderful party, I’ve created a new August playlist of music that I enjoy during summer cookouts.