Cooking with E!

Summer Cookout - Let’s Put it ALL Together!
Over the past couple of months I’ve been writing about the tools you need in order to pull off a great cookout: what to grill, great meat marinades, and a two-piece article on fish! Now that Memorial Day is behind us, let’s try some new things with what we’ve learned and have some fun with friends and family!
I’ll give you a great sample menu that you can use for your next summer get together! The things that will be addressed are appetizers, entrees, and side dishes. Enjoy!

Appetizers:

• Grilled flatbread with charred tomatoes, red onions, peppers, and fresh mozzarella
• Slice your tomatoes and red onions thick. Season with salt/pepper/oil. Place on grill and char those bad boys. Do the same with your peppers using the outer flesh. Once charred, cut all veggies to bite size pieces. Grill your flatbread. Place all of your veggies evenly on the entire flatbread. Season once more with salt and pepper. Peel pieces of mozzarella and place on top of veggies to your liking. Place into a 400F oven for 4-7 minutes or until cheese is melted.

• Grilled afghan nahn with southwest dip
• Following the link brings you to the recipe for both the dip and the nahn. You can substitute flatbread or pita for the nahn.

Entrees:

• Soy marinated chicken thighs
• I love chicken thighs. They pack tons of flavor and possess extreme versatility, while still being forgivable and fairly affordable. Personally, I favor boneless skinless for cooking time and health reasons. This time, season with salt, cayenne pepper, garlic powder, and sugar. Toss them with olive oil and soy sauce (equal parts) and let them sit for about an hour. When you go to grill them, make sure your fire is hot. Place them on the grill and get some nice hard grill marks. Place them on a cooler part of the grill and let them finish cooking. Cooking time approx:  

• Chimichurri Marinated Beef
• This is another flawless entrée you can serve. It is super simple and following the link will give you some history and a battle tested recipe.

Sides:

• Grilled Rapini
• Simply put a pot of salted water on the stove, bring to a boil. While waiting for that to boil, trim the thick bottoms off of the rapini. Once boiling, place rapini in water for 1 minute or until tender. Rapini looks like broccoli, but is much more tender so do not be thrown off when the rapini cooks quickly. Place the rapini in ice water to chill. Once cold, take the rapini out of the ice water and squeeze all that water out. Season with salt, pepper, and oil. Ready to grill.

• Coconut Couscous
• This is a super creamy and light dish. If you didn’t know, coconut milk isn’t a dairy product. Coconut milk is simply coconut juice. For this dish, take a small onion and mince it. Sweat that in a little bit of butter and oil. Once the onions are translucent, add your couscous. The next step is to toast the couscous. When you toast the couscous it brings out a slight nutty flavor. After toasting the couscous we are ready to add some booze. Add enough white wine to cover the bottom of the pan. I would recommend a chardonnay to keep things balanced, but any white will work. Let that liquid reduce by about 2/3. Add your coconut milk (24oz of coconut milk per 9oz of raw couscous). Take some stock and “clean” the inside of your coconut milk cans to get all that flavor in there. Let simmer on low heat for 10-15minutes or until tender. Add more stock as needed. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

E