Cooking Method: Grilling
Winter Citrus Salad with Grilled Halloumi by Foodie’s Chef Laura Brennan
A bright and tasty layered salad, elegant enough for a special Valentine’s Day dinner. I layered thinly sliced oranges, cucumbers and radishes on a bed of baby watercress. I used a pre-made balsamic vinaigrette and added a few ‘quick-pickled’ shallots and toasted sliced almonds. It’s crunchy, sweet, tangy and with the addition of a bit of grilled Halloumi Cheese, a bit savory/salty.
FYI: A YouTube video can be very helpful in showing you how to trim, peel and slice the oranges.
Grilled Romaine & Vegetable Salad by Foodie’s Chef Laura Brennan
Fire up the grill! It’s Father’s Day! This is a beautiful and simple grilled salad that can be made ahead. Prep the vegetables and get out
there before the meats go on the fire—you can even prep the veggies the night before and wrap and refrigerate. The surprise here is the grilled romaine hearts—the bit of char gives a depth of flavor to the humble romaine.
Summer Harvest Salad by Foodie’s Chef Laura Brennan
A slow stroll through the Copley Square Farmers’ Market on a late summer Tuesday afternoon
provided the ingredients for this colorful & delicious salad with at-peak fruits & vegetables.
Heirloom tomatoes, never refrigerated, heavy and juicy are the perfect choice for this salad. The
two small cucumbers I peeled and sliced were so fragrant; I had forgotten about the aroma of a
very fresh cucumber. And I discovered a delicious and new-to-me ingredient pairing: peaches and
kale. Who knew they went together so well? Now in season at Foodie's!
Grilled Mexican Street Corn by Foodie’s Chef Laura Brennan
Truth-be-told I have neither seen nor eaten Mexican Street Corn in Mexico; only at a carnival
in Rhode Island! But, it’s an easy and fun dish to serve at your own backyard carnival.
Pulling the husks up and over the peeled ears of corn and tying them ‘ponytail-style’ gives
you a convenient ‘hand-holder’. Plus, it looks very cool.
Grilled Cabbage Wedges with Tahini-Yogurt Sauce by Foodie’s Chef Laura Brennan
I have been seeing recipes for grilled cabbage popping up on my favorite internet food sites and the results look delicious. So, I decided to jump right on in. I ‘grilled’ my cabbage on my stove-top using a large square ridged pan, which by-the-way nicely holds 3 grilled cheese sandwiches. The cabbage wedges can be grilled outdoors on a more traditional gas or wood grill of course. This cooking process will be quicker and your cabbage will probably become more blackened as a result. All that extra char will only add extra deliciousness.
Southwestern Grilled Cheese Sandwiches by Foodie’s Chef Laura Brennan
When it’s too hot to turn on the oven or the stove, here’s a quick and savory melted cheese sandwich that can be done outside on a grill in a pre-heated cast iron pan.
Use a delicious, firm cheddar cheese and the kernels, shaved from two (2) pre-cooked ears of corn. Choose a ‘sturdy’ bread, thick-sliced if possible, but at least ½-inch. Grate the cheese on the largest holes of a box-grater and mix with a ‘binder’…I used chipotle ranch dressing, but any creamy dressing would work, as would mayonnaise or a combo of dressing & mayo.
Additionally, thin slices of tomato and/or cooked bacon would be yummy additions.
‘A Tuna Salad’ by Foodie’s Chef Laura Brennan
There’s tuna fish salad and there’s ‘Tuna Salad’. This is a ‘Tuna Salad’.
It’s a riff on the famous French ‘Salade Niçoise’ but with a Spanish flair. I use sherry vinegar in the
vinaigrette, green olives instead of black ‘Niçoise’ olives and slivered sugar snap peas in lieu of haricot
verts (baby green beans). This is about using ingredients that appeal to you and naturally work well
together. I made this grilled fresh tuna salad without the customary bed of lettuce; it seems like more
of a proper summer entrée this way!
CHEF SILVIO’S Grilled Teriyaki-Citrus Chicken Thighs
When our sister store in Duxbury closed last fall, we inherited Silvio, a fantastic, experienced and hard-working chef. Among other tasks, he is daily charged with filling our ‘hot case’ with tasty ready-to-eat treats. This is one of his dishes.
It’s easy cooking: combining grilling with a quickly-made flavorful marinade/sauce and finishing the dish in the oven.
It’s batch-cooking, great for Memorial Day entertaining.
Tacos al Beef Barbacoa by Chef Laura Brennan
Lately I’ve been spotting random recipes for “Beef Barbacoa” and wondered if it was a Mexican barbecue technique…and it is…kind of.
“Barbacoa” may be the precursor to the word “Barbecue”; they sound similar, right? But all the “Barbacoa” recipes I’ve read have instructed the cook to both grill and continue cooking in some liquid; which is braising. Grilling the meat and onions before braising adds another layer of flavor, so I have combined both grilling and low-and-slow in-the-oven braising techniques in this recipe to create a tender, highly flavored ‘pull-apart’ meat, ready to stuff into taco shells (or burrito wraps).
Grilled Pineapple with Star Anise-Ginger-Jalapeno Syrup by Foodie’s Chef Laura Brennan
The dessert-du-jour in a Benihana restaurant in the early 70’s was vanilla ice cream with slivered crystallized ginger. (The crystallized ginger may well be an imaginary embellishment.)
I liked that there was no dessert choice; I thought that was very modern. And I thought that a simple dish of ice cream was a quiet and elegant finish to a cleaver-tossing dinner performance.
The whole experience was very fancy and exotic to my young self.
This is a quick-to-make dessert with sweet-spicy flavors. I have offered it here with purchased vanilla ice cream but making your own saffron ice cream would be spectacular! (To make: infuse vanilla ice cream base/crème anglaise custard with several threads of saffron while still warm. Strain, chill and churn according to your ice cream maker’s instructions.)
