Curried Grilled Chicken

So I stop in a store called Fresh Market and pick up a couple of things for dinner.  I decide on chicken breasts to cook on the grill.  I then decide that I want to marinate them before cooking them on the grill.  The one thing I chose to pick up for the marinade is a can of coconut milk, I know that this will be the base of the marinade but at this point I don't know what exactly I am going to do until I get home.  When I got home my husband unpacks the groceries and sees the can of coconut milk and really begins to wonder but doesn't say anything.  When I shop I sometimes pick up one item and decide the meal around that item.  This time it was coconut milk.  So here is what I did, I just made it up as I went along.

Curried Grilled Chicken
1 can of coconut milk
3 tablespoons curry powder
juice of 1 lemon
2 teaspoons dried chives
1 tablespoon dried cilantro
1 tablespoon honey (start with a little bit and work your way up to the tablespoon, taste it along the way, I didn't use quite this much but it was close)
Boneless Chicken Breasts
Place chicken breasts in a Ziploc bag and pour the marinade into bag, seal. Place in refrigerator for about 30 minutes to 1 hour.   Remove chicken from bag and place on a grill over medium high heat and cook for 25 minutes.


Grilled 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. 


Grilled Carrots
Peel carrots, slice and place in a foil package.  Add a couple of slices of butter and a tablespoon of honey.  Add carrots to grill over a medium heat and cook for 10 minutes. Remove to warming rack. 


Grilled Romaine Lettuce
Take 1 head of romaine lettuce, drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle with fresh ground pepper, sprinkle with garlic powder.  Place romaine on the grill over  medium heat for 10 minutes.  Remove from grill sprinkle with Parmesan cheese.  Serve.  On occasion we drizzle the lettuce with olive oil and balsamic vinegar. 

Steaks on the Grill

Tonight marinated grassfed beef tenderloin steaks in teriyaki sauce.  Grilled them to a perfect medium-rare.

I took fresh sliced mushrooms and cooked them in a little bit of olive oil in a hot skillet then added some red wine (same wine we will be drinking with dinner) into the pan along with some salt.  Let that cook until the wine had cooked off.  I like to add a little bit of wine to my mushrooms, they pick up the accents from the wine.

I decided I wanted a blue cheese sauce to accompany the steaks. So I took about 1/2 cup heavy cream (leftover from making creme brulee the other day), added about 1/2 cup of crumbled blue cheese and heated that on the stove, then added about 1 tablespoon of flour (this helped to thicken the sauce slightly) and then I added a little bit of worcestershire sauce (I use a brand that is Vegan and doesn't contain MSG), continue to cook on the stove until the cheese is totally melted.  Use a whisk to help blend the sauce to make it smooth.

Asparagus on the grill, drizzled with a rosemary infused olive oil and then cooked on the grill.

Grilled romaine lettuce with balsamic vinegar and olive oil drizzle, topped with a little blue cheese.

Dinner on the Grill

Tonight's dinner is salmon, asparagus, peaches, salad of romaine - all cooked on the grill.

Grilled Peaches
If you have never had a grilled peach before I highly recommend it.  It is a easy and great thing to do with fresh peaches.  To get the peaches ready for the grill, cut the peaches in half remove pit, dip the cut half into melted butter, and then dip it into sugar.  Add the peaches cut side down to the grill.  The grill needs to be warm enough but not too hot, you don't want to burn the sugar only caramelize it.


Grilled Asparagus
Bend the asparagus so that the tough section will break off, discard.  Wash the top sections, place on platter and drizzle with olive oil.  To grill the asparagus we use a flat cast iron skillet that is put on the grill heated to warm then the asparagus placed on there to cook.   Cook to the desired doneness.  


Grilled Romaine Lettuce
I have to thank Tara a new friend of mine for putting this idea in my head.  Have had it grilled but have never done it myself.    I washed a head of romaine lettuce took the few outer leaves off the head.  The head I was dealing with was a rather large one so I just cut it in half (which would be plenty for both of us).  I drizzled olive oil, added freshly ground salt and pepper and a little bit of garlic powder, do this to both sides of the lettuce.  Place on grill for about 2-3 minutes per side with the heat being at about 400-450 degrees.  Remove from grill and in my case since this was such a large piece of lettuce I cut it in half.  Placed the lettuce on each plate and added a little more olive oil, a little bit of balsamic vinegar and added a little bit of blue cheese chunks.


Grilled Coho Salmon
The salmon came from Alaska.  This salmon has such a wonderful texture and is full of vitamins.  I used a Pampered Chef Spicy Pineapple Rum Sauce.  I brushed it onto the salmon before it was grilled and then brushed a little more on as it was cooking.  The salmon was cooked on the grill at 450 degrees for 3 minutes meat side down and flipped it over skin side down, re-glazed and cooked for about 10 minutes.  


The beautiful thing about this dinner is that there is hardly any clean-up at all.  Everything pretty much goes into the dishwasher.