Cooking Corn on the Grill

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Cooking corn on the grill is one of the best methods for preparing this delicious food.

There is nothing more satisfying than fresh sweet summer corn cooked on the grill. Not only is grilled corn on the cob tasty, it is also one of the most affordable side dishes on the face of this earth. It is also very easy to make.

INSTRUCTIONS:

The first step is to remove any leaves from the corn husk and the tough outer layers of the corn husks, saving a few husks to use as twine. Then peel back the remaining corn husks , being careful not to remove the corn husks completely as we will need to have the husks in tact while grilling. The corn husks act as a protective barrier to prevent the corn from being burned and they also allow the corn to steam by keeping water trapped inside. The corn husks also impart a delicious smoky flavor to the corn.

Once you have carefully pulled back the corn husks, remove the silk . The silk is that string like substance that covers the corn. Remove as much of the silk as possible.

Next we are going to soak the corn in cold water. Soaking the corn helps to keep the corn moist while grilling.

Grab yourself a large pot and fill it with water or you can fill your kitchen sink with water. Add the corn and allow it to soak in the water for 30 minutes to an hour. Once the corn has finished soaking, go ahead and shake off any excess water.

Now let’s prepare the grill.

If you are using a gas grill, preheat the grill and get those grates nice and hot. When the grates have become hot, lower your heat to medium to medium high.

If you are using a charcoal grill, light your charcoal and let them burn until your coals are medium-hot.

Prepare the Corn

Gently pull back the husks of the corn and brush with olive oil or butter.

Then, using one of the tougher corn husks that you saved, tie that around the top end of the corn. This will keep the corn sealed while grilling.

Grill It!

Place the corn on the grill and cook , turning occasionally. The cooking time for corn on the cob will be approximately 15-20 minutes.

Once the corn has finished cooking, remove from the grill. Carefully peel back the husks. Use caution, corn will be very hot. Add butter , salt and pepper, or you can try the delicious recipe below:

GRILLED MEXICAN CORN ON THE COB ( ELOTE )

INGREDIENTS:

8 Ears of Corn

1/2 Cup of Mayo

1 Cup of Grated Parmesan or Cotija Cheese

1 Tsp Chili Powder

1/2 Tsp Cumin

1/4 Tsp Salt

1/4 Tsp Black Pepper

1 to 2 Limes

In a small bowl combine the mayo and the lime juice.

In another small bowl combine cheese and the spices.

Brush the cooked corn with mayo mixture then sprinkle on the cheese and spice mixture. Serve immediately. Enjoy!

(3 votes, average: 4.33 out of 5)

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Popularity: 71% [?]

Charcoal Grilling Cooking Tips - How To Start Your Charcoal Easier With Charcoal Starters

Charcoal Grilling Cooking Tips - How To Start Your Charcoal Easier With Charcoal Starters
By Josh Dusick

If you are like me, you love outdoor cooking on a charcoal grill or barbecue. There is nothing better than sitting outside on a nice summer afternoon or evening, enjoying the warmth of your grill or fire pit, enjoying a drink and grilling up some delicious food. The flavors and aromas imparted by real wood charcoal are irreplaceable. A charcoal grill or a wood fire pit and my favorites because of the real wood fire, smoke and aromas they give off.

However, charcoal can be hard to work with, especially if you don’t have much experience with it. So should you just give up the charcoal cooking and buy a gas barbecue? Not just yet! There are some tips for getting your charcoal going quickly which can help make the prep work on your outdoor grill easier.

I am going to cover three types of charcoal starter that can be used to fire up your coal and get cooking. Read carefully, because I have tips on how to use each one better and my recommendations on the best of the bunch, their advantages and disadvantages.

Ok, so here we go!

• Lighter Fluid - Lighter fluid is the traditional way to start your charcoal. It works, but can be difficult and messy.How to use it - Start by building a pyramid-shaped pile of charcoal in your grill or barbecue. It helps to have a small indentation at the top rather than a point. Turn your bottle of lighter fluid upside down and firmly squeeze for about 3 to 5 seconds, aiming the fluid into the indentation at the top of the pile of charcoal. Close and store your lighter fluid and then light the charcoal with a match. I recommend using long fireplace matches to avoid burning your hands! The coal will immediately ignite in flames. However, flames are not the goal, you want the charcoal to get hot enough to start burning themselves, developing hot, glowing embers. This takes some time.Some tips are to give the charcoal some time and avoid wind. Wind will blow out your fire. However, you don’t want to cover your grill just yet because it needs oxygen to get ignited. Your charcoal is ready when most of the briquets have a layer of grey ash developed over most of their surface. If your charcoal stops burning before it is lit and does not seem to be progressing, you occasionally need to add more lighter fluid. Try to avoid using too much and be careful, it will flare up as soon as you spray more lighter fluid on those hot coals!Pros - Lighter fluid is available everywhere, cheap and it does work, eventually.

  Cons - Lighter fluid is much less reliable in getting your charcoal lit, often taking several tries before your coals are ready. It can take longer than the other methods. Also, you are using chemicals, like kerosene, to ignite your charcoal. While this does burn off before you add your food theoretically, I definitely don’t want chemical aromas or fumes in or near my food.

• Electric Charcoal Starter - These are basically a metal loop attached to a handle which plugs into a standard power outlet. The electrical supply creates a current in the metal loop which heats it to very high heat, similar to an electric stove burner. This heat is used to ignite your charcoal. These electric charcoal starters are generally available in home supply stores and anywhere grills and barbecue supplies are sold.How to use it - Spread a layer of charcoal briquets on your charcoal grate in your barbecue. Next, lay the metal loop of your electric charcoal starter on top of this layer of charcoal. Then cover the starter with more charcoal. Plug in the electric starter and wait. After about 8 to 12 minutes the coals around the starter have ignited sufficiently, getting a grey ash covering their surface, to get the rest of the coals around them started. Unplug your charcoal starter and remove it. You may need to wait a while longer before the rest of your charcoal has ignited and the majority of briquets have a layer of grey ash on their surface.Pros - The electric charcoal starter is an easy way to start your grill. You don’t need to deal with flames, flammable materials or matches. There are no chemicals involved and it is reusable.Cons - Obviously, you need an electrical outlet nearby your grill for this to work. If you are grilling at a park, beach or campground, this may not be practical. Occasionally these can take a bit longer to start your charcoal but are generally faster than using lighter fluid.
• Charcoal Chimney Starter - This is my personal favorite way to start my charcoal! Chimney starters can also be found in most home supply stores and anywhere grills and barbecue supplies are sold. I recommend finding the largest chimney you can find so that all your charcoal can be started in one step. I personally use the large Weber brand chimney starter which is widely available. Otherwise, after the charcoal in the chimney is dumped out, you have to add more briquets that take time to ignite off of the initial charcoal. If you have a very large grill, another option is to use two or more chimneys at the same time to get your charcoal ready.How to use it - The chimney is basically a large cylindrical metal tube with a large handle and a metal grate in the middle to hold your charcoal. The bottom edge has holes in the metal sides to light your fire. The first step is to fill the top portion of your chimney with charcoal. Fill to just below the top rim, but avoid over-filling it. Next, crumple up two or three pieces of newspaper and place them in the bottom part of the chimney from below (below the grate holding your charcoal). You don’t want so much that it is packed tightly as it needs some oxygen circulation to light easily and burn hot. Set the chimney down inside your grill on the charcoal grate. Now light the newspaper. This is best accomplished using long fireplace matches which you introduce through the holes in the bottom of the chimney. Light in multiple places to ensure all your newspaper gets ignited. If you don’t have long matches, you can lift up the chimney and use a lighter or small match to light the newspaper.Now just sit back and wait! The burning newspaper inside the chimney will ignite the lower charcoal. As this burns the flames will ignite charcoal higher and higher in the chimney. Keep an eye on it, but wait until there are small flames starting to be visible near the top of your chimney and you can see the lower levels of charcoal glowing. At this point simply tip the chimney over and pour out your burning charcoal on the the charcoal grate in your grill. They are ready to use when there is a layer of grey ash covering most of the briquets.Pros - The chimney starter is easy to use. It ignites all your charcoal quickly and does not require any chemical starters. It is reusable and lasts a long time.

  Cons - Very rarely, your charcoal will not ignite with the first try and will require the addition of one or two more pieces of wadded up newspaper. Otherwise, the only downside to the chimney fire starter is that you need a few pieces of newspaper handy to get it lit!

Well there you have it! Three options for starting your charcoal for easier, quicker outdoor grilling. These are not the only ways to start charcoal, but they are the most common and in my opinion the more reliable and easy.

For other tips on outdoor cooking on a fire pit, grill or barbecue or even cooking in your fireplace, see The Fire Pit and Grilling Guru Guide.

Have fun and enjoy your charcoal grilling!

Josh Dusick is the editor of the Fire Pit and Grilling Guru website at http://www.firepit-and-grilling-guru.com where you can get information about grills, barbecues, fire pits, indoor grills, firewood, charcoal, grill and fire pit cooking, cooking in your fireplace, grill food and wine pairing and even how to build an outdoor fire pit. Take your cooking with fire to the next level!

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Josh_Dusick
http://EzineArticles.com/?Charcoal-Grilling-Cooking-Tips—How-To-Start-Your-Charcoal-Easier-With-Charcoal-Starters&id=453438

Popularity: 15% [?]

Starting a Charcoal Fire

This podcast demonstrates an alternative method of starting a charcoal grill using a chimney starter.

Popularity: 12% [?]

Barbecue Cooking Tips - Indirect Heat Grilling For Perfectly Done Outdoor Roasts

Barbecue Cooking Tips - Indirect Heat Grilling For Perfectly Done Outdoor Roasts
By Josh Dusick

The spring and summer months are a great time to pull the old grill out of the garage, dust it off and start planning some delicious barbecue dishes.

Most of us know how to make basic grilled foods like burgers, hot dogs, steaks and sausages. These are generally cooked by the most basic form of grill cooking, direct heat cooking. Direct heat grilling means that the food is directly over your heat source (hot coals or gas burners) and cooks from this direct heat. Direct heat is perfect for smaller food items that you want to quickly sear the outside, producing that beautiful browned caramelization on the surface, while sealing in the juicy freshness of the inside. It is the ideal cooking style for steak which is nice and browned on the outside yet pink and juicy on the inside.

However, what many grilling neophytes don’t know is that direct heat is not the only way to cook on a barbecue! Another important style of cooking is indirect heat grilling. Indirect heat relies on a heat source which is not directly next to or beneath the grilling food, but is rather separated by some distance. With the lid closed on your barbecue, this gentler form of heat cooks the food by convection of ambient heat in the hot air and smoke within your grill, rather than by direct radiant heat from the coals. This is similar to the way food cooks in your oven when roasting, except without the wood smoke!

So why should you learn how to cook with indirect heat? What is it good for? Well, if you tried to grill a whole chicken with direct heat over very hot coals, the surface skin and fat would be burnt to a crispy, black char long before the interior was fully cooked. Also, by the time the middle was cooked, the flesh would be dried out. You would loose the surface flavors and juicy interior of a well roasted chicken. So the solution? You guessed it, indirect heat. Indirect heat allows your larger cuts of meat to cook slowly, developing the outer brown color more slowly while allowing the interior to cook to perfect doneness. A perfect rack of ribs requires the meat to cook slowly until the meat is tender and almost falling off the bone. A chicken should cook completely while the exterior does not char. All this and more can be accomplished with indirect heat.

So how do you do it? Lets find out!

1. For starters, you will need a couple of things to help make your indirect grilling perfect (you can do without them, but they are helpful:
   • A shallow metal pan or dish half-filled with tap water
   • A meat thermometer
   • A grill thermometer (if your grill doesn’t have one built-in)
2. Start your charcoal or gas burners as you normally would.
3. If you are using charcoal, when your charcoal is all hot and ready (when the briquets have a layer of grey ash over them), separate the coals onto the two sides of your grill. You will have two piles of coals on either side of your grill with a large empty space in the middle. Weber and other companies make indirect grilling coal holders just for this purpose which are basically metal baskets that hold charcoal on either side of your grill. However, you can do without any special equipment.If you are using a gas grill, you can use indirect heat by turning off one of your burners to have a less hot spot on your grill. Ideally, if you have three burners, you would turn off the middle one, leaving the two side ones on. If you only have two burners, turn on on and leave the other off.
4. Place the metal pan with water in it in the middle of your charcoal grate, between the two piles of charcoal (on on the turned off burner if you have a gas grill). This will catch drippings from your roasting meat and will also help keep the interior of your grill humidified so that your meat doesn’t dry out.
5. Put your grill grate on.
6. Close the lid of your grill and let the heat accumulate. Use your grill thermometer to check the temperature inside your close grill to make sure there is adequate heat. If it is not warming up, either add more coals and wait for them to start burning or turn up your burners if you have a gas grill
7. Open your grill and place your prepared food (whole chicken, ribs, roast, etc.) in the “indirect heat zone” of your grill. This is the open area, under which there are no coals or gas burners burning.
8. Close the lid and let your food roast.
9. Check back periodically and flip your meat over or rotate it occasionally. Also check that there is still adequate heat in your barbecue. Baste your meat regularly when the surface dries out to keep it moist, about every 15 minutes.If the surface of your meat looks like it is browning too fast in any one area, be sure to turn or flip it so that all sides get equal heat and exposure. If it still seems like the surface is cooking too fast, your heat may be too high or the roast is getting too much direct heat from one of the heat sources. Attempt to move the charcoal away further or move the roast to a more isolated spot on the grill.Always remember to keep the cover of your grill closed between checking on your food. You want to keep all that good heat inside to help roast your meat!
10. When your roast is looking like it may be done, begin testing for doneness. The most accurate way to do this is with a meat thermometer inserted into the thickest part of the meat (on a chicken this is the deepest part of the inner thigh meat or deep in the breast). Do not put your thermometer up against bone as this can artificially increase the temperature reading. Most thermometers have readings for doneness for beef, pork, and chicken. If yours does not, general rules to go by for chicken is 165 degrees, pork 160 - 170 degrees, beef/lamb/veal 145 for medium rare, 160 for medium and 170 for well done. If you do not have a meat thermometer, you can prick the meat deeply with a skewer or fork. If pork and chicken are done adequately, the fluid that runs out should be clear, not red or pink. If all else fails, cut a small slice into a deep part of meat to check the color.
11. When your food has reached its ideal level of interior doneness, remove from the grill and place on a large platter or plate.
12. Cover with tin foil and let your roast sit for 5 to 10 minutes at least so that the interior juices and heat redistributes.
13. Carve and serve!

A few other tips to make your indirect heat grilled foods shine!

• Marinating - Because grilling is a dry heat that can have the tendency to dry out meats that are cooked for a long time, marinating your food before cooking is a great way to both add savory flavors as well as increase the juiciness. There are many recipes for delicious marinades for poultry, pork and beef and even many bottled marinades available in supermarkets. Another option similar to marinating is brining which really seals in and concentrates flavors.
• Basting - I strongly recommend basting your meat as it cooks over indirect heat. When the surface dries out, every 15 minutes or so during the cooking time, baste it generously with a basting brush. The basting mixture can be similar to the marinating mixture or alternatively it can introduce new flavors. For example, barbecue sauce is not good to marinate with, it will just burn on the meat if it cooks too long. However, introduced later in the cooking process to baste the meat a few times before it is done creates a great, savory coating of flavor. Other great options for marinating include lemon juice, olive oil, and red wine vinegar, either together or alone. Again, there are many recipes with recommendations for basting mixtures for your slow roasted grilled foods. For safety, if you baste with your marinade, remember that your marinade came in contact with your raw meat. Therefore, avoid adding this mixture in the last 15 to 20 minutes of cooking so you don’t introduce any uncooked meat to the surface of your roast! Its best to use a fresh basting mixture if possible.

Well that’s it! A quick and complete primer to indirect grilling. I think you will find that it brings your barbecue cooking to a whole new level, making your roasts more tender and juicier.

Josh Dusick is the editor of the Fire Pit and Grilling Guru website at http://www.firepit-and-grilling-guru.com where you can get information about grills, barbecues, fire pits, indoor grills, firewood, charcoal, grill and fire pit cooking, cooking in your fireplace, grill food and wine pairing and even how to build an outdoor fire pit. There are even some delicious free grilling recipes. Take your cooking with fire to the next level!

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Josh_Dusick
http://EzineArticles.com/?Barbecue-Cooking-Tips—Indirect-Heat-Grilling-For-Perfectly-Done-Outdoor-Roasts&id=453537

Popularity: 11% [?]