I don’t get the whole Labor-Day’s-the-end-of-BBQ-season thing at all. Why is summer the only time people think you should barbeque? In the first place, summer’s already hot, so why would you want to spend any time in front of a fire? Plus it’s mosquito-y, at least at our house, which means you need to either cover up or spray on something that’s lethal to skeeters, but who-knows-what-to-us. And summer’s hardly the time when you want the kind of stick-to-your ribs meals that often come with barbeque – ribs, steak, whole pig.
In summer, the grill is a test of endurance, but from here on out it’s a pleasure. As the days get cooler and shorter, the warmth and flickering light of a fire combined with the smell of dinner is a primeval call to our DNA. Shishkabob with the last of the summer vegetables, grilled lamb chops with homemade chimichuri since the spring lambs are just now going to the butcher, oysters opened on the grill and downed with lemon and garlic butter, slow-smoked brisket, shoulder roasts, and Asian-marinated beef. Years ago at Thanksgiving we used to spit a whole lamb in the driveway on a make-shift rebar rack. We’d stand around, turning the spit and keeping warm both outside and in (the inside was helped with wine and other serious libation) and chatting.
While the smell of charred meat may be anathema to the vegetarians among us, that doesn’t mean they don’t appreciate the grill. It offers terrific and varied options: grilled pizza, which is a superb alternative to what can be greasy and gooey; grill-roasted corn with flavored butters; grilled eggplant and squash with bread slathered with goat cheese; grilled portabella burgers; grilled quesadillas; and grilled avocado corn salsa. (Anyone who hasn’t seen Steven Raichlen’s yummy and inventive stuff on Barbeque University is missing something, and the notion that any of us could, in a pinch, produce a cooked meal over a fire when the electricity goes off is empowering.).
Post-Labor Day. Or even later. THAT’s when you want to barbeque. The Visigoth’s hunt club is a bunch of outdoors-y guys, who really know how to put food on the table – it’s a time-honored skill here on the Eastern Shore. They also know about cooking and eating (oh Boy! do they know about eating!), but they don’t truly crank up the flames until hunting season. THEN they really get going. They kick it off with a barbeque sometime in early fall (dove season opened September 1 this year) then close it up with another big grilling in January, whenever the Canada goose season closes. The gathering is like a throw-back in camouflage to the stories-by-the-campfire of eons ago. The conversation while standing by the grill consists primarily of a rehash of the season. Some are cautionary tales, some are out and out lies, and some consist of the detailed observations of these amateur naturalists, which is what true hunters are. Lovers of nature, who have both appreciation and respect for it.
There is wild game – duck, goose breast marinated in garlic and herbs and red wine and flash-grilled until barely done then thin-sliced and served with good baguette — but the main edible attraction is usually a whole barbequed pig that is sprawled, poor delicious devil, out on a flatbed with plenty of vinegary sauce on the side for dipping. Retro. Primal. And comforting.
Leftover barbeque not only tastes great all week. It also lends itself to reinvention in soups and stews and sandwiches with grilled vegetables on really good bread beneath melted mozzarella cheese. As a bonus, the aroma alone catapult you back into that gathering by the fire.
The recipe below is from James McNair’s Favorites cookbook (Chronicle Books, 1999, $29.95). Korean Barbequed Beef is great right off the grill, and just as delicious cold for lunch when wrapped up in a lettuce leaf with some shredded daikon, pickled cabbage or slaw, shredded carrot, green onion, toasted sesame seed and hot sauce, all of which are eminently packable. Let your cubical-mates drool!
Korean Barbequed Beef
I pound beef ternderloin (I also use very thin-sliced top round, bottom round cut across the grain or beef sirloin tip roast. You can slice it very thin by freezing it for about 2 hours so it’s firm.).
Marinade
1 cup soy sauce
½ cup sugar
¼ cup Asian (toasted) sesame oil
¼ up finely chopped green onion, including green tiops
2 tblsp minced fresh ginger
2 tsp fresh garlic, minced
freshly ground black pepper
Using a very sharp knife, slice the meat diagonally across the grain as thinly as possible.
To make marinade, combine all marinade ingredients in a bowl and mix well, until the sugar is completely dissolved. Add beef slices and stir to coat evenly. Marinate in the refrigerator, stirring occasionally, for at least 4 hours or overnight. Return to room temperature before cooking. Grill over fairly high heat — this goes very quickly, only a minute or two for each strip. It keeps well in the frig.
https://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Marinated-Pork-Tenderloin/Detail.aspx
https://allrecipes.com/HowTo/Grilling-Pizza/Detail.aspx
https://www.bbqu.net/season2/201.html#cuban_pig
https://www.bbqu.net/season1/107.html#beer_can_duckling
https://www.bbqu.net/season3/310.html#bean_cheese
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https://www.bbqu.net/season3/308_4.html#hog_island_oysters
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