Grilled Danish medister sausage and potatoes

So what do you do when your oven breaks down? (Well, "stops working" is probably more fitting.) You grill.
Even when it's below 0 (celcius) and the wind is blowing hard. Fortunately, it was coming from the northeast, and my grill is in a little nook completely protected from winds in that direction, so that helped.
Was kind of a hard night, anyway - everyone was grumpy and tired, and things were just going too slow. So I'd found a medisterpølse - a type of Danish spiced sausage, I guess it resembles a kielbasa - in the freezer and we were set. It's one of our favorite dishes, inspired from the Gleisel Danish Weber BBQ cookbook.
Prepare your grill with coals on one half, a drip pan under the other half.
First, boil some potatoes. In the summer, you use new potatoes, but here in the dead of winter, you use whatever you can get. We had just enough - I peeled them and boiled until they were just soft, drained them and then put them in a foil drip pan along with a huge hunk of butter, some salt and pepper and a good squirt of lime. You can go crazy on this part, but I kept it simple last night.
Meanwhile, put your sausage on a big plate and try to spin it around on itself like a big whorl. Brush it with a good barbecue sauce.
Start with the sausage directly over the coals - they shouldn't be too hot - just medium, medium hot. Put the potatoes on the other side, letting the butter melt. Lid on, of course, when you're not messing around in there.
After 4-5 minutes, flip the sausage.
After another 4-5 minutes, move the sausage to the indirect side and the potatoes over the coals. Stir around. Lid on.
Get the taters nice and browned and crispy - as much as possible - but not burnt! You'll have to stir them now and then.
Take the taters off the grill and put the lid back on until the sausage is done. I gave it an extra 10 minutes or so while I was inside making the cole slaw dressing and the kids set the table.
That's it! Man, fantastic. Here's Nikolaj ready to dig in to one of his favorite meals. (Oh, and the beer I was drinking was a Grauballe Bryggeri "Indian Pale Ale".)

Salmon - smoked and cured. Yum.

I've tried salmon on the grill before. Took awhile to master Uncle John's great grilled salmon recipe - and that one involves whole fish, including skin and head and everything. But I've found one that nearly caused me to change my religion to The God of Lox - it's that good - and it's pretty easy, too. This one came from Steven Raichlen's How to Grill, which I picked up in Colorado last summer - some really great new ideas in there.
I've tried to duplicate his way of taking the step-by-step pictures - his hand is somehow always there. So here are some pics with my own disembodied hand.

Start by getting a good salmon filet. You'll need to cut the skin off the one side, and this is incredibly tricky. Raichlen has a picture of this in his book, but my hands were covered with scales and gunk and there was no way I could take a photo of myself (my hand) attempting to do that. Pick out any remaining bones with a tweezer, rinse the thing off, then put it in a dish that can just hold it. I had to cut mine into two pieces. Pour a cup of dark rum over it and let it sit for 15 minutes.

Meanwhile mix 1 cup of brown sugar and 1/2 cup of course salt and put a good bit of freshly ground pepper in there. Mix it up.
Pour off the rum from the fish, blot dry with paper towels, then put a third of the sugar-salt mixture in the bottom of the baking dish, place fish on top (missing-skin side down), then pack the rest of the sugar mix all around on top. Cover and put in the fridge for 4 hours. No more, no less.

About an hour before cooking, get a good fire going in your grill, then distribute coals on two sides of grill (indirect), placing a drip pan underneath the middle. Soak around 4 cups of alder or apple chips (I used apple, thanks to a b-day gift from Russ last year).



















Back in the kitchen, the sugar stuff draws moisture out of the fish, which looks like the picture here. Rinse off the fish, blot dry with paper towels and head out to your grill. Drain your wood chips and distribute on coals. Oil grate. Place fish in middle of grill. Close lid. Open again about 20 minutes later. Press the fish with your finger to see if it's done. It should feel firm and flake cleanly. Let it cool on a rack, then wrap in foil if you don't eat right away and put it in the fridge.

WE had this two times in the last 3-4 weeks - once just before Christmas with my band's Christmas lunch, then as an appetizer for New Year's Eve dinner at Holger and Annette's. YUM both times. We served with homemade buns and apple slices that were tossed in lemon juice. Raichlen apparently does this every weekend so his wife can have bagels and lox. Not a bad idea....



(here's Frans from band and his wife Kirsten, digging in)

Grilled Thanksgiving turkey - made easy

I saw a strange comment in some gourmet magazine article recently - how Weber grills were actually good for more than "the occasional Thanksgiving turkey". Huh? Did I miss something? I've been grilling for several years now, and while I know I'm not the first to do a turkey on there, I always thought it was more of a novelty than anything. Apparently, there's a whole bunch of people who only grill their turkeys - and not much else. Weird.

I found a roasted turkey and gravy recipe in "Fine Cooking" magazine (the only issue of that magazine I've ever seen) a few years ago. It was intended for the oven, but it works wonderfully on the grill. I wrote about this last year, but will repeat here - to remind myself how good it is. Actually, this method makes grilling a turkey even easier - no need to regulate the temperature for hours, get up at 3 a.m. to light the grill, etc etc etc. Here's what you do:

The night before: rinse the turkey, then salt it well, inside and out. Put it on a wire rack and let sit overnight in a cold place. This is a dry brining.


4 hours before: light the grill, indirect method, coals on both sides. I pretty much filled up a chimney starter with heat beads - thus, it resulted in a hot grill.
I need a big drip pan plus a smaller one to fit across the whole way under the bird.
Cut up 2 onions, 2 carrots, 2 celeries. Put half inside the cavity, the rest in your main drip pan, plus a bit of water. Tie the lets together, tuck wings back behind neck.





When coals are ready, (plus I added a chunk of alder wood), start with turkey upside down - that is, breast side down on the rack and close the lid. Vents slightly shut on bottom, all the way open on top. Give it one hour.

After an hour, turn the bird over, breast side up. You'll need some wads of paper towels to hold inside the cavities to do the flip. Add 1/2 cup of water to the drip pan, close the lid. Go away for another hour or so.

Come back and wiggle a drumstick. You can check with a thermometer inside the thigh - if it reads 170 F, it's done. Mine was done - after only 2 hours! (14.3 pounder). Let it sit an hour or so before carving. Wonderfuly tender and juicy.
(We've also started using the same farmer every year for our bird - a strange, eccentric place on the way to the train in Hornslet. But they feed their turkeys well, resulting in lots of meat and not too much fat.) The original recipe says if you want to do this in the oven, just use 400 F. Some other minor details are different, but mostly the same recipe.

By the way - I've tried this a few times with our usual bread stuffing, but it's not good this way on the grill. It gets too smoky and doesn't allow enough heat inside the cavity. So I just cook that in the oven now. I moisten it with some juice I simmer of the giblets, neck and tail plus an onion.

That's it! The gravy is also amazing and this year was the best ever. Just strain all the pan drippings into a saucepan (won't need to scrape them over a burner or anything - they pour right out), add some vermouth and cognac, plus 2-3 cups of the giblet juice, plus some fresh thyme leaves. Let it boil then simmer a bit. Then add a paste of flour and cream, whisking well. Let it boil then simmer for 10 minutes or so. Wowza.

Spicy-Hot Caribbean Pork Tenderloin

On Wednesday last week I grilled some marinated pork tenderloins at the office. Completely forgot about taking pictures. They turned out ok, but I overcooked them. (I'll blame it on the grill!). Seriously, they needed less time than I thought they would.
Per and some others asked for the recipe of the marinade. Here it is (from Paul Kirk's Championship Barbecue):

3-4 pork tenderloins (svinemørbrad)

1-2 chiles, seeded and chopped (I used a very hot habanero, home grown at my in-laws')
juice from 6 limes
4 T honey (T = Spiseske)
2 T canola oil (rapsolie)
1 T fresh thyme leaves (timian)
1 t salt (t = teske)
1/4 t ground allspice (= allehånde)
1/4 t ground nutmeg (muskatnød)

Put everything but the meat in a food processor or blender and blend until smooth. Pour over the tenderloins. Marinate at least 2 hours or overnight.
Prepare a medium fire on your grill.
Remove meat from marinade - pat dry with paper towels.
Pour remaining marinade in saucepan, boil, then simmer for 5 miutes. Cool.
Grill the meat directly over the coals. Turn and baste. Repeat until they're done, but not too dry on the inside!
Let the tenderloins rest for about 10 minutes before serving.
Serve with new potatoes, any remaining marinade, and a good salad.

That's all!

office burgs

Okay, I've now tried the office grill. After an incredibly frustrated start (emptying ashes, the thing falling apart), I just decided to do something easy and got 2 kilos of hamburger meat and some kryderboller (buns, which are not supposed to be eaten with burgers.... the ones they make specifically for burgers here in DK are awful).
Mixed some cream cheese with some chopped pickled jalapenos, got some salsa, cut up tomatoes, onions, lettuce... got some ready-made potato salad and we were cruising.
Coals were nearly ready by the time I got back from shopping. Had to make 3 rounds - 20 burgers in all. 3 leftover, but Per's son Jakob just came by to have 2.
I sprinkled a pepper blend and some salt on the patties while cooking.
Another hamburger secret: get meat that's high in fat% - these were 16+.
And toast the buns before serving.
Lesson: hamburgers can taste great on even the stupidist, cheapest grill.

Here's me (above) seen from the dock of the Death Star.

Brisket (but not quite)

A few weeks ago our local supermarket had a sale on "oksetyndsteg", so I bought one. It looked good, and resembled a brisket more or less. I knew it was not a brisket (it's actually a sirloin roast, according to ordbogen.dk), but wondered what would happen if I cooked it like one.
So I tried! First covered it with a mustard slather (yellow mustard, beer, worchestershire, one other ingrediet I can't remember), then a basic barbecue rub. Somewhat resembles this recipe, but seriously, I just kind of do it by feel... and whatever I have:
1/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/4 cup sweet paprika
3 tablespoons black pepper
4 tablespoons sea salt
2 teaspoons garlic powder
2 teaspoons onion powder
2 teaspoon celery seeds
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper.

Got the grill going at 5:30 a.m. - but I always forget how many briquettes to use for this kind of thing and had way too many as usual. I had them off to one side - instead of distributed on two sides of the grill. I've discovered it's easier to keep them going this way.
Put a chunk of alder + a chunk of mirabella plum wood on the coals.

Usually do the briskets on the grate over a drip pan, but this time kept it in the drip pan the whole time, just to see if there was a difference. I've read that it helps keep them more moist if using a Weber grill instead of a smoker.

Temp was supposed to be between 230-250 degrees F, but it was up around 400 the first hour or so.... Argh! Couldn't get it down. Had the bottom vents just barely open.

Started basting with Cola baste (Coke + beef soup (had some homemade soup in the freezer but not pure bouillon!) + ketchup + brown sugar + hot chili flakes) after the first couple hours, every time I opened the grill. The fire went out almost completely around noon, and then I started up just a few more briquettes, but - stupidly - those weren't enough -... so I started a few more. Again, those weren't enough, so then I started a whole bunch and of course it was too many. Kept the chunks of alder or apple or mirabella smoking throughout the day.
Anyway, the thing was getting real tender and smelled incredible by the time dinnertime rolled around, 6 p.m. Brought it in and let it sit for awhile before slicing.


Had it on Anette's homemade buns with slices of raw onion, baked beans and potato salad (Anette used the rest of the mustard slather in the dressing - amazing).
It definitely tasted different than brisket, but it was wonderful. Tender as hell, but.... not quite as sharp in the bite. Don't know how else to describe it. Kind of mushy, actually, in parts.
Anyway, next time: will try to find a real brisket again. Yet another cut of meat (oksespidsbryst) we have yet to really see done properly by Danish butchers!

Leftovers were great, too. The first night, I put the rest of the brisket in two sheets of foil, then poured the rest of the pan juices over it, plus some more of the basting sauce. Just heated up that whole packet real slowly in the oven a few nights later. Yum.

To Weber, or not to Weber.... (that is the question)

The other day my colleague Claus (left) announced that he was going to buy a grill for our office's terrace. Per suggested Weber's Smokey Joe - a little portable version that he says he uses all the time now... and that costs around DKK 500. No matter what you do, we told Claus, don't bother getting anything but a Weber.
Yesterday Claus posted this on our internal weblog: Jeg har købt en kopi weber grill og en ægte forvarmer +3 kg kul til et fund af en pris... (I have bought a copy Weber grill and a genuine pre-warmer (?) + 3 kg coal for a steal....)
I commented: Det er lige som at sige: Jeg har købt en kopi Porche. Du har købt en billig grill - det er helt i orden. Du skal bare ikke blande Webers gode navn inde i sagen….. :) (That's just like saying: I have bought a copy Porche. You bought a cheap grill - that's fine. Just don't mix Weber's good name into things....)

Today Søren said that I'm probably making such a big deal about this due to my insecurity of performing for the office when it's my week to cook. Could be. But hey - a copy Weber? Is there such a thing? Come on!

But seriously, any time fire and smoke hit food... the result is delicious. Even Claus' cheap grill made a fine lunch today. Once the coals were heating up (in the genuine "pre-warmer" no less), the smell started wafting into the office. When Per got the marinated chicken pieces and hot dogs/sausages going... and then got his music going on his little Nokia cellphone speaker, it was nearly too much to handle. I cracked open a can of Ceres Classic and sat here at my computer finishing some stories in pure bliss.
What about Weber? I'll still argue that it's hard for any lidded grill to beat a Weber in terms of quality and ease (and ability for long-term smoking and grilling). Per said this one was hard to control, no doubt. And this cheap little grill will probably rust away pretty quickly... but I wasn't about to go out and buy a grill for the office myself. I was frankly afraid of what it might do to my work ethic. I think it's awesome we have one now. And hey - now that it's here, I can start planning for my cooking week (week 23 - first week in June) with plenty of fire and smoke.

(Per: Periskop's grill meister du jour.)