VACATION DOMINATION (4 COOKS IN 7 NIGHTS)

[CharliefromLI]

VACATION DOMINATION (4 COOKS IN 7 NIGHTS)

The Extended family rented a beach house down to Rehoboth Beach DE last week.
Since Restaurants dining with a pair 3 year olds can be tricky the whole family agreed we'd grill at home a few night and dine out a few nights. The house we rent had a lousy gasser last time we were there so we decided to take matters into our own hands and decided to bring a kettle with us. Packing space was tight so picked a grill that could be left behind in an emergency: My recent $10 CL rescue and a bag of Stubbs down with us.

Rescue story here:http://weberkettleclub.com/forums/weber-kettles-accessories/restoring-a-partially-crushed-kettle/msg182232/#msg182232

This grill was already stripped of parts whose value far exceeds the price I paid for it so this grill is already house money. We ended up using that $10 grill for 4 of the 7 days we were there!
Usually my wife often helps with prep work trimming, rub, etc. and she does the sides but once the fire gets lit I usually fly solo.

My City Boy Lawyer Brother in Law is often involved but usually more on the eating side not as much on the cooking side. It works out because he never shows up empty handed and always leaves behind twice as much beer as needed for dinner. It's always a win-win for all.

He's finally looking to buy a house in the burbs and wants to start doing some of the cooking himself so for this trip he was my protégé/sous chef. I tried to teach him the magic I've learned here about indirect cooking, reverse searing and all things charcoal,

Cook 1:
We got down to Delaware, unpacked the car, and made a Beeline for a real nice local butcher by brother in law found online: www.hickmansmeats.com

They weren't cheap but this was the ideal quality local butcher shop: friendly knowledgeable staff willing to answer a ton of questions and just BS about all things meat and BBQ.
Ironically, Steaks were pricey but rib and brisket prices were very good. Sadly there was no low and slow on this trip.   We grabbed some phenomenal sausages and ground sirloin and headed home for a quick cook. My wife  was already balancing unpacking, watching the kids, and getting the rental house ready for a week, but took a few minutes to make some killer burger patties using the limited ingredients on hand in an unfamiliar kitchen.

2 Lbs of Sirloin Burgers
1 Lb of Hot Sausage

Did indirect on sausage and quick reverse sear on both
Bad news:       Really quick cook, didn't get any grilling pics of the food that night 
More bad news:    Burgers and sausage went so fast there were no plated pics either.
Good news:      Food tasted so good, didn't care about the lack of photos


Cook 2:
After the success of night 1, we doubled down and really went for it on night two:

1 Lb of Shrimp
2 large Wild Caught White Salmon fillets
Corn
Roasted Jalapeno's
2 Excellent Porterhouses

Prep:
I do porterhouse at home regularly so I was confident with those:
Salt, Pepper, EVOO : Let the meat flavor do the talking

The seafood was uncharted territory for me:
I like eating it...I LOVE catching it...but I've only cooked it a few times as handling fish is always tricky for me. I kept the training wheels on for this cook.

I gave the shrimp a toss with the same basic ingredients as the porterhouse: Salt, Pepper, EVOO, they also got a bit of lemon.

The salmon got the same treatment as the shrimp

Obviously this wasn't all fitting on a 22" kettle together so I staggered the cook:
Corn/jalapenos needed long cook
Steak needed to cook and rest
Seafood would cook fast so I held that at first

I threw the corn on the direct side, to really cook the husks  and let the porterhouses get started indirect.The wives like medium/medium well (heresy...I know), while my brother and law and I go medium rare like any red blooded American should!

I move the med rare to the sear side and let the med well go a bit longer on the indirect.
I did not bring my instant read therm (you always forget something right?) so I had to go by instinct but it worked out, my medium rare was slightly more medium but still great. The girls medium/medium well was just the way they like it, and ill leave it at that.

As the steaks were getting seared I brought the seafood out and let that get started on the indirect side.

We didn't have skewers for the shrimp so we made a tin foil boat large enough to allow them to be stirred to flip and cook evenly. It worked out fine.

I cooked the salmon on large piece of tin foil, large enough that I could fold the foil over the top to flip safely mid cook. No style points here but my goal was taste not beauty (I had the porterhouse for that  ).

I don't think I've done a cook this diverse on charcoal before, but it all came out good and got the meal on the table on schedule. This time I remembered and had my wife take a few quick pics. The presentation wasn't show quality but no one wants to spend their vacation doing dishes so we kept it simple on serving:




Cook 3:
We gave the kettle a break for a day or two but wanted to do a fun cook with the kids.
My wife asked about making pizza like I do at home. We hit up a local kitchen outlet store and grabbed a cheap stone and peel and picked up some basic ingredients.

I was very concerned about cooking pizza away from home as I used a raised grate to cook pizza at home which I didn't have here. I would have to be careful about this cook as cooking pizza evenly on a kettle is tricky as we all know.

I gave the stone the usual long preheat and once the stone was about ready we started prepping the first pie. The kids had a blast spreading the cheese and were quite proud of their work.


The pie went on and I noticed it was cooking way faster than I was anticipating. Even with me watching it The combination of a new unfamiliar stone and being closer to the charcoal cooked the pie way faster. The bottom of the pie was as BLACK as the kettle I cooked it on 

I was close to making a shame to call to domino's to order a replacement but I knew we were making two pies and thought we might get away with it. I covered the burnt pie in a ton of peperoni while I cooked the second pie. This second pie was primarily for the kids so under no circumstances could I burn this one. I repositioned stone as far from coals as possible and  cut my cooking times in half and rotated pie often. It came out fine.



I sliced them up and served then with a caution to the grown-ups that the peperoni pie may not be edible...the moment of truth of came and the first bite revealed..............it was overcooked but still tasted ok. My peperoni band aid helped and the black crust looked worse than it was. 

The kids loved theirs and they had so much fun cooking so it was a success, with a major lesson learned.

Cook 4:
As we wound down our week my in-laws came down to spend a few days at the beach with grand kids. In june, they recently ended up with a performer I found on craigslist and they have been loving cooking on charcoal all summer. Before this, my father in law's pride and joy was a 20 year old genesis that he maintains meticulously and he said he can't believe he hasn't even used a full tank of gas this year (neither have I shockingly).  They heard about some of the cooks we'd done early in the week and they wanted in on the action. I asked to do our last cook 2 night before we left so I could have a day to clean the grill up to limit the odors for the ride home. I love charcoal but didn't want my daughter's luggage to smell of it for the long ride home. By the time the coals were lit and arranged I checked and there was 8 briq's of stubbs left in the bag.

We decided to go all in and did the best of our favorites from what we did all week:

3 nice porterhouses
2 lbs of shrimp
Sweet sausage (from the butcher above)
Corn
Roasted peppers
Jalepeno's

Since I  had already cooked each of these items once already this week. I knew the system was sound and now we were cooking for perfection...and we got it. The porter houses came out just the way we wanted them. Perfect medium rare for the guys and a nice medium for the girls.
Everything else especially the sausages and shrimp again was all great as well.

I have to say this week's cooks were a huge success and I learned so much doing these cooks:
Not having my performer's gas assist and side table made me have to improvise a bit which I kind of liked.  I need to get grill lit quickly to please the fam so I used 3 weber starter cubes to light a half a chimney of Stubbs to start each cook. I know that's overkill but the cubes are cheap and it got coals lit quick. I topped off lit coals with additional unlit (if needed) and let the kettle and grates heat up while the unlit caught and was ready cook fast every night.

Since the houses are close together in that area and it was breezy by the beach. I tried to be respectful of the neighbors and moved the kettle to the middle of the driveway to keep smoke away from everyone. 


This meant I couldn't use the gasser as a work table so I used what I had nearby:

Not sure if the radio flyer is thermoset but it got the job done.

Final note: I know I am late to the party here but this was the first time I've finally used stubbs briq's. This stuff is great. One bag got me four big cooks, and I never had to empty the ash catcher until I packed up to go home.  This will be my new go to charcoal especially for my WSM.

Post Final note: We got home on saturday, sunday was the other grandparents turn to come visit my daughter, next thing you know the performer is lit and were cooking again: chicken, corn and hotdogs. I guess that makes 5 cooks in 8 days!

[Santo]

First, I'm glad that you were able to get a kettle down there with you and the family.  Even better was that it was a cheap, CL rescue.

Second, kudos to rolling charcoal half the time down there.  I appreciate the straight forward approach to the menu.  All the food looked delicious.

C.  You picked an excellent week to be in Rehoboth.  Great weather every day.

Thanks for sharing.

Sent from my SM-N900V using Tapatalk

[Winz]

Simply awesome. True spirit of a grillfella right there. Some great improvisations and good lessons along the way.   That photo with the radio flyer made me laugh!  Thanks for sharing
Winz

[1911Ron]

You have some cute looking helpers!  Excellent write up and great sounding cooks!

[Cochise]

Good work my man! Cooking on a kettle for the fams on vacation is a right of passage in my book. The pizza looked perfect BTW.

[SixZeroFour]

100% awesome Charlie! And your two little restaurant critics seem thrilled with the food!

Thanks for sharing!

[tb80]

Great cooks and write up.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[jcnaz]

That was a fantastic vacation!
Family, food and great times. Thanks for sharing!

[crowderjd]

That was an awesome write up! The porterhouse looks especially good.  Sounds like $10 well spent to me.

[CharliefromLI]

That was an awesome write up! The porterhouse looks especially good.  Sounds like $10 well spent to me.

@crowderjd I dont know you if you can find a better bang for your buck.

Now that i know a 22 can be packed for travel i'm seriously considering selling my 14" SJS and my 18" kettles and go all 22"...or larger if a 26" falls in my lap

[baconeatingzombie]

LOL you dont need to restaurant dine!!! You need to open up your own restaurant!!!!!