Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Grill Roasted Potatoes and Stupid Rice Tricks

When you see condensation on the inside of an electronic device like this, it's a bad sign, isn't it?


I left one of my remote probe thermometers out on my grill table Sunday night and despite being under a canopy, on Monday gusty winds and horizontal rain managed to soak it. In addition to the condensation, you could see water pooled up in the corners. Time to throw it out, right?

Hold on a second. Try this tip first. Rice is a natural desiccant, drawing water from it's environment. I put the thermometer in a jar of rice and sealed it up for 24 hours. (Picture for example, I covered it to the top before putting the lid on.)

The result 24 hours later? Success!


This won't work every time and with every type of equipment but it's at least worth a try.

These bins of rice are also great for storing the die and parts to a meat grinder or other items susceptible to rusting in storage.

Roasted Potatoes - Partial fail / Partial win

If you had served me these roasted potatoes, I would have said that they were "good roasted potatoes" and been happy with them.


However, I was disappointed because they only tasted like "good roasted potatoes". They lacked the POW of flavor that I had anticipated considering the ingredients that went into it. I expected more.

I used baby Vidalia spring onions and fresh potatoes from a small market and a vinaigrette made with fresh orange juice, orange zest, cilantro, oregano, orange liqueur, and S & P. I mixed it all up and was expecting something exciting.

On the bright side, the cooking set up worked perfectly for cooking bone in thighs and potatoes together at the same time. The set up for a Big Green Egg was 375f with the plate setter "legs up" (indirect heat) and a preheated stoneware dish on a raised rack like this:


I was curious how the thighs would cook since they had radiant heat coming from the plate setter below and the stoneware dish above. Turns out it all cooked perfectly at 375f for one hour, finishing at the same time.


You could do the same thing using indirect heat on any other type of grill or even in an oven.

Like I said, the technique was perfect but I didn't write this up as a recipe because the extra ingredients didn't add anything to the dish. The orange flavor wasn't even strong enough to be called subtle, it was entirely absent. They were "good roasted potatoes" but that's all.