Bittman’s style is casual and very simple. The recipes are no-nonsense, and usually extremely easy. Another great thing about this book is that it often gives a long list of variations on a common recipe theme. For example, he includes 7 basic vinegrette recipies, then offers “Fifteen simple additions to vinagrettes”. So, in just a few pages, you have the building blocks to create countless vinegrettes of your own design. The beauty of this is that it gives you guidelines, while still allowing you to be creative, and work with ingredients you have on hand.

Anyway, this is just a long-winded introduction to Bittman’s 101 Fast Recipes for Grilling in the New York Times. True to his style, Bittman offers a bounty of recipes, most of which are no more than a short sentence or two. This is my kind of recipe. Don’t miss the Recipes for Summer Grilling with mouth watering photography and links to even more great grilling recipes.

This is gonna keep me busy for a while. Summer’s here, let’s get grillin’.

Amazing pizza dough is easier to make than you might think: Use approximately 4 parts high-gluten (bread) flour to one-part semolina flour (optional). Add 2/3rds of your flour to enough water to make a thick batter (not dough yet). Toss in a tablespoon of yeast and a dash of olive oil (optional). Let this batter rest for 20 minutes or so and gently knead in the rest of your flour until a nice dough-like consistency is reached. Form into balls and let this dough rise over a few hours, punching down once and re-forming balls if you’d like. Once the dough has doubled in size, its ready to use.

Fire up your egg at full bore (600+°F) and give your pizza/baking stone plenty of time to heat up completley. If you dont have a baking stone, get one now. This extremely hot dry stone will rapidly cook your crust to perfection. In general my pizzas are bubbling hot and fully cooked in under 10 minutes, often in 5.

From the site:

The mission of the SFA is to celebrate, preserve, promote, and nurture the traditional and developing diverse food cultures of the American South.

I spent a good deal of time enjoying the fruits of the SFA’s oral history initiative, particularly “The Southern BBQ Trail“, which consists of interviews with proprietors of many classic barbecue establishments. Many interviews are available in written or audio format, and also include photos.

I also found the method of the initiative to be very interesting. The site provides basic tools and instructions for users to record oral histories on their own and to submit them to the Alliance in the form of audio recordings, transcripts and photos.

What an interesting collection of stories; I’m sure anyone interested in the roots of barbecue and other Southern food cultures will find these oral histories of interest.

This roast tends to be heavily crusted with herbs and spices including salt, black pepper, sugar, garlic, fennel and rosemary. The fat content of the roast (often butt or shoulder) results in a very juicy and tender piece of meat, which is commonly served on bread or buns as a sandwich. It tastes good hot or cold, and they’re great because you can keep the leftover roast in the fridge and make quick-and-easy sandwiches for several days.

I’ve made many porkettas in the past, but hadn’t tried on my new Egg… until last night. I dare say it was one of the finest I’ve tasted: so moist and tender. I’m sure it won’t be long before I indulge in this regional delicacy again.

This is not a gimimick. There is something about containing the molten cheese which results in a juicer burger, with a separation of textures that can’t be beat. You get all of the crispyness of the charred exterior, while allowing both the top and bottom bun to soak up a bit of the meat juices. As for inside the burger — they don’t call it a Jucy Lucy for nuthin’!

Next time you fire up your grill for burgers, crimp two thin patties around a slice of cheese (a traditional Lucy uses processed American cheese) and prepare to be converted. Countless variations are available around the Twin Cities, and the possibilities for different adaptations are endless. My favorite is to add some diced, fresh jalapenos to the center. Give it a shot; you won’t be dissapointed!