Pork pork pork
Jun. 24th, 2012 05:30 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
plonqOur original plan yesterday had been to put some wings in the smoker, but by the time we were on our way home from shopping we realized that we would not be eating until nearly nine o'clock by the time the wings finished marinading and smoking.
As a quick back-up plan we swung by Frigs and grabbed a couple of butterfly pork steaks. My plan was to throw on on the grill with a bit of Bon Vivant's root beer barbecue sauce, but once I got the steaks home and unwrapped them I decided it would be a shame to cover up the flavour with a strong sauce. I finally opted to go with a gentler touch and used a dash of Hy's Seasoning Salt (which is surprisingly similar to Lawry's Seasoned Salt, only more pretentious).
Even though the picture does not convey the wonderful sizzling sound of the meat on the grill, this angle shows it off nicely. Somewhere out there is a purist looking at this picture and being appalled over the lack of charcoal, let alone open flame. I will admit that you get better food from a charcoal grill, but this one has a lot of benefits too. It heats up quickly and evenly, cleans up quickly, and works in near-gale force winds (as I found out yesterday).
We accompanied it with some asparagus from the farmers' market. We typically brush this with olive oil before grilling it, but at my suggestion we tried using grape seed oil instead this time, and the results were better. The olive oil burns very quickly, and would often impart a bit of a burnt oil taste on the food. The grape seed oil has a much higher smoke point, and as a result the asparagus tasted better.
Actually our first test with the grape seed oil was a couple of days ago when we made chicken-stuffed pitas for dinner. I grilled some zucchini, onion and chicken for the pitas, and brushed all of them with a mixture of grape seed oil and lemon with very pleasing results.
I took many pictures of flowers, most of them with my old camera. I like both of my cameras, but my older one still tends to give better overall results. The biggest benefit of the new one is its small size and convenience.
I don't remember what these flowers are called, but I am told that they are a fairly invasive species in warmer climes. Fortunately they can't survive the obscene winters here, so we can enjoy them in the summer without fear of having them take over the land.
This is the kind of colours that digital cameras love to choke on. This was as bright as I could make the picture without blowing out any of the details (such as they are) in the petals.
Look close or you might miss it. The little critter in the middle of the frame is a hummingbird moth. He was buzzing and darting about from flower to flower. I took a couple of pictures, and was just resetting my camera to shutter priority to try and freeze him in place better when he got bored with us and flew off.
One could almost point to this picture as a self-contained tutorial on spot metering.
The bees were out in force. There were big, fat, happy-looking honey bees buzzing from flower to flower. The sight of them made me very happy.
Here is a different bee from a different angle.
If I could go back to yesterday, I would have removed my circular polariser before I started shooting. I like the effects that I get from the polariser, but for shots like this it forces me to open the aperture more than I would like. Mind you, the sharpening I did in software afterwards made the short depth of field jump out even more.
My own poppy did not produce a flower this year, so I have to enjoy poppies vicariously through the competent gardening of others.
As a quick back-up plan we swung by Frigs and grabbed a couple of butterfly pork steaks. My plan was to throw on on the grill with a bit of Bon Vivant's root beer barbecue sauce, but once I got the steaks home and unwrapped them I decided it would be a shame to cover up the flavour with a strong sauce. I finally opted to go with a gentler touch and used a dash of Hy's Seasoning Salt (which is surprisingly similar to Lawry's Seasoned Salt, only more pretentious).
Even though the picture does not convey the wonderful sizzling sound of the meat on the grill, this angle shows it off nicely. Somewhere out there is a purist looking at this picture and being appalled over the lack of charcoal, let alone open flame. I will admit that you get better food from a charcoal grill, but this one has a lot of benefits too. It heats up quickly and evenly, cleans up quickly, and works in near-gale force winds (as I found out yesterday).
We accompanied it with some asparagus from the farmers' market. We typically brush this with olive oil before grilling it, but at my suggestion we tried using grape seed oil instead this time, and the results were better. The olive oil burns very quickly, and would often impart a bit of a burnt oil taste on the food. The grape seed oil has a much higher smoke point, and as a result the asparagus tasted better.
Actually our first test with the grape seed oil was a couple of days ago when we made chicken-stuffed pitas for dinner. I grilled some zucchini, onion and chicken for the pitas, and brushed all of them with a mixture of grape seed oil and lemon with very pleasing results.
I took many pictures of flowers, most of them with my old camera. I like both of my cameras, but my older one still tends to give better overall results. The biggest benefit of the new one is its small size and convenience.
I don't remember what these flowers are called, but I am told that they are a fairly invasive species in warmer climes. Fortunately they can't survive the obscene winters here, so we can enjoy them in the summer without fear of having them take over the land.
This is the kind of colours that digital cameras love to choke on. This was as bright as I could make the picture without blowing out any of the details (such as they are) in the petals.
Look close or you might miss it. The little critter in the middle of the frame is a hummingbird moth. He was buzzing and darting about from flower to flower. I took a couple of pictures, and was just resetting my camera to shutter priority to try and freeze him in place better when he got bored with us and flew off.
One could almost point to this picture as a self-contained tutorial on spot metering.
The bees were out in force. There were big, fat, happy-looking honey bees buzzing from flower to flower. The sight of them made me very happy.
Here is a different bee from a different angle.
If I could go back to yesterday, I would have removed my circular polariser before I started shooting. I like the effects that I get from the polariser, but for shots like this it forces me to open the aperture more than I would like. Mind you, the sharpening I did in software afterwards made the short depth of field jump out even more.
My own poppy did not produce a flower this year, so I have to enjoy poppies vicariously through the competent gardening of others.
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no subject
Date: 2012-06-25 12:16 pm (UTC)(I can prowl through your back entries, I think, to find the make/model)
no subject
Date: 2012-06-25 02:38 pm (UTC)So far we are really liking this grill, though it has taken a bit of adjusting in how I cook because it works a little differently from our previous one. I'll give a short rundown of some of the pluses and minuses of this grill so far.
So far the biggest minus is the price. While it is far from the most expensive grill out there, it is still more than I had anticipated spending on a grill when we first started shopping. It is comparable to some of the better Weber grills in price.
It has lots of upsides though. It heats up very quickly, and holds its heat well. It works well in the wind too. With our old grill, I became nervous any time there was detectable air movement, but with this one I am getting to the point where I don't even bother to check the wind conditions before I fire it up because it seems to be virtually unaffected. I don't think I have seen that listed as one of its selling points, but perhaps it should be.
It gives nice, even heat with no flare-ups. The latter feature is because it's an IR grill, so you are cooking over a metal plate rather than an open flame. It has proven to be quite easy to clean, and has required surprisingly little. It has a drip tray, but he salesman made the prophetic declaration that we would probably not get much use from it. "It's a nice feature to have, but I think you'll find that this thing probably carbonizes everything before it ever gets a chance to make it to the tray."
Overall I would say that it is a very refined grill. I do miss some of the primordial "ME COOK WITH FIRE" feel of grilling over coals or open flame because this one feels more like you are cooking with science. On the other hand, the results speak for themselves. I think I am getting better food off this grill, without having one end burnt while the other is slightly undercooked because of flareups and hot spots. It feels very solid, and all of the controls operate smoothly. It has a battery-powered ignition (good riddance piezoelectric!). It is very efficient and uses surprisingly little gas to heat.
I hesitate to give it full thumbs up because I would prefer to get a full grilling season, and perhaps a winter behind it before I consider a full assessment, but my initial impressions are very positive.