Cooking on the Grill

This is the first use of the grill for this season.  It is nice to have it all cleaned and ready to use (making sure no one built a nest in it over the winter - thankfully no one did).  Tonight all the food was cooked on the grill except for the salad.  We like to make little foil packets to put the vegetables in to be cooked on the grill, less mess and super easy.

Here is what we had for dinner tonight:
New Potatoes
Wash potatoes thoroughly and slice to about 1/4 of an inch.  The skins can stay on these because the skin isn't thick and is thin and very edible.   Take 2 - 12 inch pieces of foil.  Lay one piece of the foil onto the counter and lay the sliced potatoes onto it, add a few slices of butter and some fresh ground pepper.  Take the second piece of foil and lay over top of the potatoes.  You will now want to seal the edges (from one piece to another) together.  Do this by folding the edges up until you have a seal.  Place the foil packet on a preheated to 400 degree Fahrenheit grill over direct heat and let cook for 5 minutes, turn over and cook for 5 more minutes.  Remove from direct heat and lay on top rack of grill to continue to cook.  *Here is a fun fact for you about potatoes: Did you know that the annual diet of an average global citizen in the first decade of the 21st century included about 73 pounds of potatoes.

Asparagus
Snap asparagus (hold a piece of asparagus in both hands and bend the asparagus, the asparagus will break at the tender spot of the asparagus).  Don't throw away the tough end (the part you don't want to eat), save those (stick them in the freezer) to make vegetable broth with.  Place the asparagus on foil just like you did with the potatoes.  Add a little bit of olive oil over asparagus.  Place the asparagus on the grill, direct heat and cook for 5 minutes and then move to warming rack.  *Fun fact - The stem thickness indicates the age of the plant, with the thicker stem coming from a much older plant.

Tenderloin Steak
Instead of using a marinade on the steak like we usually do, we instead used a Montreal steak seasoning made by McCormick.  This is the same seasoning we use in making bloody mary drinks (recipe to come at another time).  Remove steak from refrigerator, sprinkle with seasoning on each side and rub in.  Let steak stand at room temperature for about 1 hour.  Place steak onto a 500 degree Fahrenheit direct heat grill for 5 minutes, flip steak and cook for 3 minutes and then move to warming rack and turn grill off and let sit for 4 minutes.  The steak temperature will be medium rare.   We eat grass fed beef which is much more filling to eat than regular store bought beef.  We have learned over the years of eating grass fed meats that since you don't eat as much, don't cook as much, so therefore we cooked only 1 - 8 ounce steak for the two of us.

Along with the above we had a small tossed salad, which consisted of green leaf lettuce, carrots, cucumbers, green peppers and homemade french dressing.

The meal was accompanied by a 2006 Rioja (Crianza) from El Coto Winery in Spain.

This post was shared on the Healthy Home Economist Monday Mania 3/26/2012