Gourmet grilling recipes

There's something both ironic and tantalizing about the phrase gourmet grilling. At one level, grilling is the primal art of food, cooking over an open fire. Still, many savor the pure joy of biting into a perfectly prepared grilled dish from a five-star steakhouse. Truly, the art of grilling has grabbed ahold of our culinary imaginations.

The good news is that you don't have to work at a five-star steakhouse to get gourmet grilled items. You just need the right ingredients and a good recipe. Then the flame does the rest.

A note about ingredients

Before getting to the gourmet grilling recipes, the gourmet griller needs to understand something about ingredients in general. There are two reasons why gourmet steakhouses produce outstanding meals. The most important reason is that they use top-rate, prime ingredients in all their dishes -- the second is butter! This is only a half-serious comment (more on it in a minute).

The inescapable fact of cooking is that no matter how well you season and prepare a dish, if you start with bad ingredients it will never be as good as if you had prepared it with quality ingredients. Therefore, if you want to make the best gourmet meal possible, you are going to have to buy the best meat, vegetables, herbs and spices.

While it would be impossible to go into how to pick the best of every type of ingredient, you can do yourself a favor by shopping at higher-end grocery stores (or even butcher shops if you are grilling meat). Also, when you shop, shop with your eyes and avoid labels. Grocery stores have gotten very good at convincing shoppers that certain products deserve to be priced exorbitantly high -- going so far as to make up terms that sound fancy (American Wagyu, for instance, is not the same as Kobe beef) and often times using terms that sound like the USDA grading system (which has vague-sounding words like Prime, Choice, Select), but are not.

Instead of worrying about the labels on the product, use your eyes. Find meat that is the right color. If it's steak, make sure that it is well marbled. In any case, ensure that the meat doesn't have a foul odor. If you do this, you are on your way to buying the right product.

Now, to the recipes...

The perfect steak

Yields 4 steaks

If you can get a high quality steak, you don't need to do a lot to it. The following recipe is simple, but is still delicious because of its special ingredient, butter, which adds a salty richness to the meat. Of course, not every steakhouse uses butter, but they are more than happy to avoid making your meat low-fat and low-calorie in order to give you the best flavor. If you want real gourmet, you're probably going to have to do the same.

Ingredients:

• 4 (12 ounce) rib eye steaks
• Salt and pepper
• 2 ounces vegetable oil
• 1 stick butter, cut into 2 tablespoon pieces

Directions:

1. Remove the steaks from your refrigerator about 30 minutes before you are ready to cook them. This will allow them to come to room temperature and promote even cooking.
2. Immediately after taking the meat from the refrigerator, open the packaging and sprinkle both sides of the meat with salt and pepper. Then let the meat sit.
3. Get the fire ready while the meat is resting. Right before putting the steaks on the fire, rub the grill slats with oil to prevent sticking, but watch out for flare ups.
4. Place the steaks on the grill and cook them for four minutes, then rotate the steaks 90 degrees. Cook for two more minutes. Flip and do the same. The meat should be medium-rare.
5. Remove the meat and let it rest for five minutes. While it is resting, put a skillet on the fire to let it get very hot. Add the butter and let it start to melt. Do not let the pieces melt completely - you want to be able to place one piece on each steak. Place a piece of butter on each stake and pour the melted remains over the steaks right before serving.

Grilled pork spedini

Yields 4 pork chops

Ingredients:

• 4 tablespoons butter
• 1 tablespoon red pepper flakes
• 8 cloves garlic
• 4 tablespoons bread crumbs
• 4 pork chops
• Salt and pepper
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil

Directions:

1. In a skillet over medium-high heat, melt the butter. Then add the red pepper flakes and garlic and saute for 30 seconds. Add the bread crumbs and mix. Set aside.
2. Butterfly the pork chops and stuff each with 1/4 of the mixture. Fold the pork chops and secure them with butcher's twine. Sprinkle both sides of the meat with salt and pepper.
3. Get the fire going and oil the slats with vegetable oil. Grill the chops for eight minutes per side.

Mediterranean chicken

Yields 4 chicken breasts

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup ricotta cheese
• 1/4 cup feta cheese
• 8 leaves fresh oregano
• 2 sundried tomatoes, chopped
• Zest and juice of two lemons
• 4 chicken breasts
• Salt and pepper
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil

Directions:

1. Mix the ricotta, feta, oregano, tomatoes, lemon juice and lemon zest in a bowl.
2. Next, butterfly the chicken breasts and stuff each one with 1/4 of the mixture, and then fold the chicken back over. Tie the chicken with butcher's twine. Salt both sides of the chicken and let it rest.
3. Prepare your fire and oil the slats down with vegetable oil. Grill the chicken for six minutes, then rotate 90 degrees. Grill for another five minutes, then flip and repeat.

Sesame ginger salmon

Yields 4 salmon steaks

Ingredients:

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 4 tablespoons ginger, peeled and minced
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 2 tablespoons tahini
• 4 tablespoons chicken broth
• Salt and pepper
• 4 salmon steaks
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil

Directions:

1. Pour the olive oil into a skillet over medium-high heat. Once hot, saute the ginger for two minutes, then add the garlic and saute for another 30 seconds. Pour in the tahini and chicken broth. Stir and remove from the heat. Reserve half of the liquid.
2. Sprinkle salt and pepper over the salmon steaks and then dip them into the non-reserved sesame ginger sauce.
3. While the fish is marinating, prepare the fire. Once the fire is ready, oil the slats of the grill with vegetable oil. Cook the fish skin-side down for six minutes, then flip and grill for four minutes. Rotate the fish 90 degrees and cook an additional two minutes. Brush the sesame ginger sauce on the fish at least three times during cooking.

More grilling recipes

Amanda's chicken on the grill
Asian style grilled salmon
Bum Ga Nuong: Grilled chicken and vermicelli salad