Using the BBQ grill day-"Mexican" Corn, Lettuce and Spatchcock Chicken

mmm-yoso!!!, the food blog is back today with Cathy blogging.  Kirk and ed (from Yuma) are researching subjects so they can blog again soon.

 Hello again.  With the crazy hot weather of late, The Mister and I have been cooking outdoors as much as we can, and keeping the inside of our home cool.  I thought I would share some easy recipes and a few techniques. 

Grilling corn in the husk is easy.  Put the whole ears on a medium heated grill. Turn the ears every five minutes, as the husk burns.  20 minutes total. 

Remove and let cool a minute and hold the 'tip' end.

Cut off the bottom/stalk.

Pul from the top and the silk comes off with the husk.

Clean, cooked corn! You can eat this as is, it's been steamed in the husk and if fresh, needs nothing added.

Or you can make Mexican corn, using cleaned corn with the above photographed ingredients: Mayonnaise or olive oil, Cotija grated cheese (it's like Parmesan- a hard cheese)(you can buy it whole and break it into small pieces) and Tajin seasoning(a chili pepper, salt, dehydrated lime juice mix). 

If you put 'cleaned' corn onto the medium heated grill, brush with a bit of olive oil first then roast it until it is lightly charred (I do this with 'older' corn) it cooks in about ten minutes.

Slather the ears of corn with mayonnaise...

You need the stickiness so you can coat liberally with the grated cheese and Tajin. This tastes like summer!

Now, back to the grill.

This is a new flavor point for me.  Grilled lettuce.  Cut a head of Romaine in half, brush with olive oil and sprinkle on salt and pepper (I have also done this with Italian seasoning and also salad dressing and both work, but I think each has almost too many spices for my palate).

Place the cut side onto a low to medium heated grill, maybe for a minute.

Turn over and place the other side on the grill(there will be some oil and salt/pepper on the grates because olive oil /salad dressing fell into the cracks; this side seems to be done very quickly).  A simple salad.

On to spatchcocking...

"Butterflying" is a cutting technique- you butterfly shrimp, whole fish and steaks- cutting part way down and laying the shrimp or piece of meat flat..if you do that same technique to fowl the technique is called 'spatchcock'. Basically, I cut down the back of the chicken and flatten it, pushing down and breaking the breastbone if necessary.  

This photo is a spatchcocked chicken that was placed onto an edged/jelly roll sheet pan and sprinkled with some seasoning and placed on the other/unheated side of our gas grill, using the grill like an oven. The chicken, and all fowl, cook faster using this cutting technique. This chicken was done in less than 30 minutes.

This 15 pound spatchcocked turkey was done in 90 minutes (at 325) this past Thanksgiving.

I hope everyone has a good weekend. You can grill stone fruit (nectarines, peaches, plums) and just about every vegetable, using direct or indirect heat.  Stay cool and eat well! 

Comments

[Carol]

I love grilled corn on the cob! Nice looking chicken, too, Cathy!

[Cathy]

I've got at least eight ears of corn growing in the yard right now, Carol; can't wait to try my own. Cooking birds this way is so easy since I figured out how to use the outdoor grill as an oven.

[ed (from yuma)]

Tina and I (mostly Tina) have grilled corn a few times recently - it's so good. It's nice to get some more tips. Your results look great. And grilled lettuce?!?!

[Cathy]

Thanks, ed. Yes, lettuce. We had so much growing in the yard and I read about grilling; it works. The Mister puts various herbs/seasoning mixes on his before grilling but I like pepper and salt.

[Tina]

Thanks for that great tip on getting the husk and silk off in one pull. I also want to try the Mexican corn, as I have some Tajin in my cupboard at the moment. My co-workers sprinkle it on fruit. I have a charcoal kettle grill, and as Ed said we've been doing some more grilling this summer.

[Cathy]

I bet you'll like the Mexican corn, Tina. I use Tajin on a lot of things in the summer-fruit, jicama, cucumbers. You might notice in the photo the Tajin bottle is larger than the mayonnaise jar; Costco- 14 ounces.