Here in Seattle we take advantage of every bit of sunshine we get, and fortunately in the summer we get a lot! It’s as if Mother Nature feels bad for dumping on us throughout the long winter, so she blankets us with sunny goodness for a few months to help us “forget” what’s inevitably around the corner.

So when the sun is out, so is the barbecue. Nearly every night we grill something up – which makes for little or no cleaning in the kitchen! Last night I celebrated my first harvest of heirloom baby lettuces from my garden. There’s nothing better than tender leaves tossed with a bit of good oil (we chose Walnut), an ever-so-light spritzing of lemon juice, and sea salt and fresh cracked pepper. We “garnished” our meal with these wonderful spicy bratwursts and onions we grilled.

Ahhh, summer in Seattle. “Tis a glorious thing indeed.

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It’s as if a switch is flipped, the sun starts to set and coals start to light. Happy laughter and the toast of cold beers with friends and families as they gather on decks, patios and porches is about as good as it gets. Call it what it is, but I guarantee just about anyone will tell you they love the smell of lighter fluid wafting over from a neighbor’s yard. It must mean it’s barbecue season and that means great outdoor food!

It doesn’t matter if you are slow-cooking brisket for eight hours or simply grilling a couple burgers, who ever is at the grill is instantly moved up to top chef status. Sure anyone can light a fire and sear some meat, but there is a whole other group of people who make barbecue a science, an art and a way of life.  Entire cults are built around barbecue. Sauce followers from around the world drive hundreds of miles to compete rib to rib in barbecue competitions to see whose barbecue will prevail.

BBQ CONTEST!! We’d like to recognize those of you who take your barbecuing to a whole other level.  Simply sign up on Foodista and add your best barbecue recipe(s) and photo(s) by June 26.

On July 1st the winner will be featured on The Foodista Barbecue Wall of Flame and receive a Foodista apron and a $50 gift card to Sur la Table!

Good Luck!

Image by NachX from Flickr

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I recognize that it’s not quite summer, but when we have a bout of fine weather there are certain foods that just scream al fresco dining.  My aunt Dolores has a beautiful backyard in Portola Valley, filled with flowers and blooming trees, and throughout the warm months she hosts the most amazing barbecues. She and her family spent many summers in Tuscany, so there’s always a touch of Italy on the menu. One of her staples, and the thing I look forward to the most (in addition to her killer grilled ribs!) is a colorful tomato salad – something I could fill up on alone it’s so delicious. I hesitate to call it a Caprese salad as there are always additional ingredients that push it just beyond the usual tomato-basil-mozzarella boundaries: pine nuts, red onion, avocado or Kalamata olives…sometimes it has it all.

In addition to fresh ingredients, there are three keys to making this simple salad beyond fabulous: excellent ripe tomatoes and really good, high-quality olive oil and balsamic vinegar. How beautiful is the simplicity of a vibrant and fresh salad! This one is a mouth-pleaser for sure.

Fresh sliced tomatoes, as red as you can get them!
Lots of fresh basil, sliced into ribbons
Fresh mozzarella, sliced
Pitted and sliced Kalamata olives, or any good-quality olive
High-quality extra virgin olive oil
High-quality balsamic vinegar
Cracked black pepper

Toss, serve and sit back to enjoy the mmmmmm’s.

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Editor’s Note: We are happy to welcome Tracy Sarich as a new contributor to the Foodista blog.

Photo: Lucianvenutian

For many, family recipes are secrets – passed down father to son, mother to daughter – preserved for only the intimate few.  But there are a few family recipes so precious that they are passed only to those family members who understand – the chosen few.  I know of one such secret – held tight-fisted by my friend Michelle – who has entrusted me to be named the godmother of her children but unworthy of the secrets of the sauce.  Somehow – this makes sense to me – though I am on a perpetual quest to impress her with my barbecue sauce…. I’ve gotten close a few times.  I have never quite reached the heights of Jack’s 4th of July sauce.

Last 4th of July, I was invited to the family barbecue and given the task of bringing – THE BEANS.  The pressure was on.  I was nervous.  I knew that it would be eaten by a long line of experts, who knew.    Girl. Boy. Whoever you are.  I was about to enter a 4th of July BARBEQUE THROWDOWN.  There would be judges.  I’d know by the silence if I’d failed.  And while there would be love in the room, we’d all know they might have been good, but not necessarily GOOD.

So when my 4 year-old godson, the boy who teethed on short ribs drippin’ with sauce, took a bite and said “Good beans, Tracy”… I knew I had been to the mountaintop.  I had arrived.  Tastee!

1 pound dried small pinto beans
4 ounces bacon – diced
1 medium onion – diced
5 medium garlic cloves – minced
1 cup strong black coffee
¼ cup packed dark brown sugar
1 tablespook molasses
1 ½ tablespoon mustard (I think that prepared brown mustard works well, though any good mustard will do)
1 teaspoon brown mustard seeds
1 teaspoon ground cumin (or to taste)
1 teaspoon coriander seeds
½ teaspoon ground coriander (or to taste)
½ to 1 cup of a good – I mean it – barbecue sauce (I like Bone Suckin’ Sauce – http://www.bonesuckin.com – we think it’s the best sauce in a jar on the market)
Hot sauce to taste
8 cups chicken broth (you may use water – but I think the chicken broth adds nice richness)
Salt/Pepper to taste

1.    Soak your beans – or – if you’re like me and forget to soak the beans, boil your beans in water for 2 hours.  I like to add a chopped onion and a few crushed garlic cloves to the water.  Do not add salt at this stage.
2.    In a large pot, brown bacon.
3.    Add onions and garlic in the bacon grease until lightly brown.
4.    Add beans and the remaining ingredients.
5.    Simmer low for at least 4-5 hours – this can sit on a low simmer for quite a while and works very well in a slow cooker/crock pot.  Just be sure that you don’t burn it with a heat that is too high.

This recipe requires you to adjust several ingredients to taste.  The hot sauce, barbeque sauce, salt, pepper, and mustard are items that you should adjust after a few hours – again, taste it – play with it – and you’ll have Good Beans, too.

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Since just about everything I do somehow makes me think about food, it should come as no surprise that watching the Beijing Summer Olympics got me thinking about Chinese food. As I contemplated cooking something new, I hit on what used to be an old standard for me: Chinese BBQ Pork. During college it was a favorite lunch item, I used to get a good amount of it sliced on a big pile of rice with some steamed Chinese greens for about $3 at the student union. As much as I loved the salty-sweet pork, doused liberally with hot Sriracha sauce, I’d never actually prepared it myself. After doing some research, I found that there are a bunch of different variations, even on the name, including:

• Char Siu
• Cha Siu
• Chashao
• Chinese BBQ Pork
• Cantonese Barbecued Pork

Regardless of the name, many of the ingredients are the same. Below is a good basic recipe, but first, I thought I’d share some tips/tricks I discovered in my research and experimentation.

• This method is often traditionally called “red cooking,” due to the red tinge pork can get when roasted, which is naturally enhanced by soy sauce. Unfortunately, many recipes include red food coloring, one actually called for 1/2 a cup! I can only imagine what that would do to your insides. I say skip the food coloring, it’s nasty and adds no flavor!
• If you parboil the meat first and then dry, it helps develop a shiny glaze. In researching Chinese cooking in general, I’ve found this is a trick to getting crispy skin on roast meats, like suckling pig and Peking Duck. Many recipes suggested marinating the meat first, I like this technique better.
• Try kicking up the quantity of five spice powder and the other spices. I did this to my taste and really enjoyed the results.
• You can make the sauce in advance, even in quantities, and keep it in the fridge to put on other dishes.
• Use a meat thermometer to roast the pork. I took mine out at 145 degrees, this resulted in a much more tender and moist version than I’ve had in the past.

Here’s a good basic recipe to start with:

2 lbs pork loin

Sauce:

1/4 C sugar
2 Tbsp honey
1/4 C soy sauce
1/4 C hoisin sauce
1/2 C xao hsing rice wine
2 tsp five spice powder
2 tsp toasted sesame oil
1 Tbsp fresh ginger minced (I cut mine into ‘coins’ and put through my garlic press)
2 garlic cloves put through press or minced
1 Thai chili, chopped
3 Tbsp chopped green onion

Preparation

1. Whisk together above sauce ingredients in a pan and simmer for 5-10 minutes, being careful not to boil as this can give it a burnt taste.
2. Taste and adjust the spices, salt, and sweetness to your liking.
3. Strain liquid and set aside.
4. Heat enough water water in a pot to cover pork and bring to a boil. To kick up the flavoring, add a few extra tablespoons of soy sauce and Xao Hsing wine, plus the peels from the ginger and garlic to the water.
5. Add pork and parboil for 5 minutes. This will remove any surface blood and juices that cloud the sauce.
6. Remove pork and pat dry with a paper towel.
7. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
8. Place pork on a roasting rack and baste liberally with sauce.
9. Roast in oven, basting frequently until interior temperature registers 145 degrees, approximately 45 minutes.
10. Remove and allow roast to rest 5-10 minutes.
11. Slice thinly, drizzle with more sauce, and serve over rice with stir fried bok choy or similar greens. Can also be served cold.

If you have leftovers, consider an adventure in making Char Siu Bao aka Hum Bao.

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The sun has finally decided to show itself here in Seattle, which means the barbecue has once again been hauled out of the garage and has settled back into its usual spot on the patio. At last. What better way to wrap up a nice sunny afternoon than to throw something tasty down on the grill?

For tonight’s grilling pleasure I chose one of our favorite cuts of meat: flank steak. Flank steak (sometimes known as London broil) is cut from the belly of the cow, is long and flat, and relatively tough – but very flavorful! Since it tends to be on the chewier side most preparations call for marinating or braising in order to break it down.

Another foolproof method is to simply sear it on high heat until medium rare and slice it thinly. The results are tender, tasty and succulent pieces of steak. Here’s one of my favorite crowd-pleasing preparations:

3 cloves of garlic, crushed or finely minced
¼ cup parsley, finely chopped
Juice of half a lemon and the zest
Olive oil
Salt and black pepper to taste
Baby arugula
Parmigiano reggiano cheese
Truffle oil (optional)

Rub the garlic and salt on one side of the steak then spread the chopped parsley, creating a paste. Drizzle with olive oil, and add fresh ground black pepper and the juice of half a lemon. Grill on high for 4-6 minutes on each side, turning 90 degrees to get those nice grill marks. Let your meat rest about 10 minutes before slicing.

Thinly slice the meat against the grain and at an angle. On a platter, make a bed of fresh baby arugula and lay your slices of meat on top. Shave slices of parmigiano reggiano on top, add some lemon zest, give it a little drizzle of truffle oil and you’re good to go!

We served this al fresco along with a simple Caprese salad and rosemary roasted red potatoes.

Note: How can you tell if your steak is medium-rare? Poke the steak with either your finger or fork. If it feels squishy then it’s rare. The tip of your nose feels like a well-done steak. If you want a visual guide check out The Finger Test For Doneness from the Science of Cooking.

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