Spicy Potatoes Au Gratin on the Big Green Egg

[FTC Standard Disclosure]  I received no compensation for this post.  A few of the links are Amazon Affiliate links, but I paid full price for the products mentioned.

I'm home alone this weekend and had a craving for potatoes au gratin last night, so I whipped this together for my dinner.  Sorry that some of the pictures are dark, it came off the grill right as the sun was almost set.

 

The first problem I ran into was that I had no milk or cream for the base.  But I did have some Mexican crema, so I mixed a cup and a half of that with a half cup of chicken stock and about a tablespoon of my NMT Beef Rub v.2.  Basically, I mixed it to taste.

I brought out the mandoline, aka the "destroyer of fingers."  I sliced half of a Vidalia onion at 1/16th inch and Yukon gold potatoes to 1/8th inch.  

Skillet Mac and Cheese on a Big Green Egg

This is just a quick post because several people asked for Alexis' Skillet Mac and Cheese recipe for kamado grills, such as; Big Green Egg, Kamado Joe, or Primo.  Any good grill would really work but the ceramic kamado grills are like a coal-fired oven, gracing the creamy mac and cheese with a golden crisp crust.  

This is one dish where I absolutely don't have a problem using Velveeta. We use other cheeses too.  But for my baked mac and cheese, something about it's "processed cheesefoodishness" is just fitting. For the other cheeses, you can use whatever you like.  We find that mozzarella or Oaxaca cheese make for a great gooey cheese.  A sharp cheddar gives a bold taste of cheese.  

For baking, it is important to have a clean burning fire.  The cheese sauce will soak up off tastes from the smoldering of poorly burning coals and you don't want that....no one wants that.  You need good airflow so remember to use your Kick Ash Basket to shake off that ash from any coals you are reusing.  We've bought them for every kamado grill that we have.

Alexis' Skillet Mac and Cheese

servings:  8-10

Fire Roasted Potatoes Au Gratin

I've had a couple of people already ask about the Fire Roasted Potatoes Au Gratin from my post this week for the Beef Medallions with Cipollini Onion Red Wine Sauce.

Potatoes au gratin has been one of my favorite comfort foods as far back as I can remember.  I learned this from my mother.  It was one of those "some of this and a little of that" type of recipes, based on what she had on hand.  I haven't changed it much.  

I've done fancier versions where I make reduced and seasoned cream sauce, similar to bechamel.  But I use this "old reliable" recipe more times than not.  Yes, it uses condensed soup, but I'm okay with that, just like I'm okay with some Velveeta in my mac and cheese sauce.  

Fire Roasted Potatoes Au Gratin

Ingredients

• 6 Yukon gold potatoes, thin sliced
• 1 medium sweet onion, peeled and thin sliced
• 1 cup shredded Gouda or Fontina cheese
• 1 cup shredded Cheddar cheese blend
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 1 can reduced sodium condensed mushroom soup
• 1 tablespoon NMT Beef Rub v.2
• panko breadcrumbs for sprinkling on top 

Grilled Flank Steak with Spicy Green Beans

[FTC Standard Disclaimer]  We received no compensation for this post.  We have no affiliation with any specific brands mentioned, except Certified Angus Beef and the GrillGrates were a review sample.

Here is that Flank Steak with Spicy Green Beans recipe that I mentioned in my review of the Woo rig for a BGE Mini-Max.

Flank steak is a great cut of beef because while it is lean, it is still very flavorful.  I often use it instead of skirt steak for fajitas because I prefer the flavor and thicker portion of beef.  It has long muscle fibers running the length of the steak so it is very important to slice the steak against the grain to get the most tender bite.

• Despite the name, the green beans are only mildly spicy as is.  That's what the chili garlic sauce is on the platter - to let each person adjust the heat to their liking. 
•  To blanch the green beans, drop them in boiling water for 3-4 minutes.  Then remove them and shock them in a bowl of ice and water for a few minutes.  That will stop their cooking. Then just pat them dry with paper towels and if not using until later, put them on refrigeration.
• I make a blend for stir fry oil.  I like the flavor of sesame oil but it's way too strong for my tastes.  So I blend about 1 teaspoon of sesame oil to a half cup of a high temp cooking oil.  I used to use peanut oil for stir frying but recently switched to avocado oil.  Avocado oil has a very high smoke point (500°f compared to 450°f for peanut oil) plus it is high in Omega-9 fatty acids.
• We like to serve this with sweet jasmine rice but coconut rice or a cilantro chile rice would be good too.

Grilled Flank Steak with Spicy Green Beans

Serves: 4

Ingredients

• Flank steak

For the marinade

• 1/2 cup Yoshida's Original Gourmet Sauce
• 1/4 cup Ink Ginger Sesame Soy Sauce
• 2 tablespoons chili garlic sauce
• 1 tablespoon roasted garlic
• 1/4 cup stir fry oil

For the Spicy Green Beans

• 12 ounces green beans, blanched
• 3-4 medium sized portobello mushrooms, sliced
• 1/2 medium sweet onion, sliced into wedges
• 1/4 cup Yoshida's Original Gourmet Sauce
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• 1 teaspoon chili garlic sauce
• 1 teaspoon roasted garlic
• sesame seeds for garnish

Instructions

1. Marinade the steak.  Mix the marinade ingredients together.  Place the flank steak in a 1 gallon zip top bag, add the marinade, press out excess air, and zip the bag.  Slosh the marinade around to cover the steak and place in the fridge for 4-6 hours.  Flip once or twice during that time.  Remove from the fridge 30 minutes prior to cooking.
2. Make the Stir Fry Sauce.  Mix together the 1/4 cup of Yoshida's, 2 tablespoons soy sauce, teaspoon chili garlic sauce, and teaspoon of roasted garlic.  
3. Preheat charcoal grill to 450°f.  
4. Grill the steak.  Shake off the excess marinade and pat the steak dry with paper towels (helps form nice sear marks).  Apply a very light coat of the stir fry oil (maybe 1 teaspoon a side) on the steak.  Grill the steak about 4 minutes per side to an internal temperature of 128°f for medium rare or about 5 minutes per side to 135°f for medium.  Remove to a resting rack and immediately put the wok on the grill to preheat few minutes.
5. Stir fry the veggies.  Once the wok is hot, add about 1-2 tablespoons of the stir fry oil and add the mushrooms and onions.  Stir fry until tender, about 5 minutes.  Add in the green beans and just enough sauce to cover everything but not pool, 1-2 ounces.  Cook another 2-3 minutes until done and remove from heat.  Sprinkle with sesame seeds.
6. Slice the steak across the grain and serve with veggies, the leftover stir fry sauce, and extra chili garlic sauce on the side.

Notes/substitutions

• Yoshida's Original Gourmet Sauce - It is a sweet Asian style sauce that we get at Sam's, Publix, and a few other retail stores.  If you can't find it, you can substitute a sweet teriyaki sauce.
• Ink Ginger Sesame Soy sauce - As of this post, Ink isn't widely available yet. We got ours to test out from a very cool friend that happens to work for their insurer.  You can use another flavored soy sauce or just regular soy sauce and add some ginger and sesame oil.
• Chili garlic sauce - We use the standard Huy Fong brand and buy it at one of the grocery stores that we frequent.  I love this stuff more than Sriracha because it has a more balanced heat to flavor ratio.  You could substitute sambal oelek in the same amounts or a little less sriracha.
• Portobello mushrooms - These are the medium sized ones 1-2", not the full sized 4-5" ones.  You could also use about 5 or 6 of the smaller "baby bella" variety or go with something different altogether, such as shittake and/or oyster 'shrooms.

We didn't marinade under suction, the steak was part of a two pack so we have vacuum sealed it prior to this. Didn't want anyone thinking I had some special technique.  I do have a vacuum marinator but I'm not convinced it does anything special.

I had to season the wok because this was the first time I used it, so I did that before grilling the steak.  It's a carbon steel wok from Ceramic Grill Store.  My sister got that and the Woo rig it is on, for me for Christmas.

Grilling the flank steak on GrillGrates on the Mini-Max, a small sized kamado grill.  The marinade has sugar and will burn easily, which is another reason I pat the steak dry after marinating.  You're not wiping off the flavor, it should already be in the surface of the meat. 

Always rest your hot meats on a resting rack to avoid trapping heat between two flat surfaces. This minimizes moisture loss during resting and yields a juicier steak, according to Rouxbe Online Cooking school.  I tried it side by side after taking a class there and I've done it this way ever since that comparison.

After seasoning the wok and cooking the steak, I had burned my coals down and needed to add 2 handfuls of lump coal.  You want plenty of heat with stir-frying and an under-fueled fire just wasn't going to cut it.  This wasn't ideal but it only took a few minutes to get the heat fully going again because I still had a good base of hot coals.  I was just topping it off.

Stir frying over a fire - or as I like to call it "stir firing" is a great use for small kamado grills like the Big Green Egg Mini-Max. I bought this one from Mannix Pools down in Winter Haven.  They just expanded their grilling show room and added facilities for the frequent BBQ and grilling classes that they have.  If you're in the area, check them out for your grilling equipment, grilling supplies, and pool supplies.  BJ and his staff will take care of you.

Once you add the beans, you are just cooking them until heated through, 2-3 minutes.  Also don't use too much sauce.  You only want 2 to 3 tablespoons of the sauce.  You want just enough to coat the veggies, you don't want them swimming in the sauce.

Kamado grillers are notoriously picky about the lump charcoal that they use.  We prefer to use Parker's Charcoal which we buy at a local grocery store.  They are based in our State and use only Tennessee hardwoods.  In my experience for the past 2 years, it burns clean and consistent.  Usually it has pretty equal sized pieces without much dust, although we recently went through a couple of bags that had been treated roughly, probably at the store level.  The newer bags are back to the usual quality.

Sliced up and ready to serve.  Take some of the leftover sauce, mix in more of the chili garlic paste to get the heat level you want and add it to your plate.  I put it on everything, the beans, rice, and steak.

For other recipe ideas for flank steak, check out these flank steak recipes at Certified Angus Beef. They are one of our sponsors but this is not a compensated post.  I just like the look of these recipes, especially that Southwestern Salad with Avocado Dressing.  I'll be making that one for sure.

Charred Corn Bisque with Poblano Crema

We got our first snowy weather of the year last night and I wanted something comforting to go along with the bacon crusted salmon that I made for dinner.  I found a recipe for Corn Bisque in the McCormick and Schmick's Seafood Restaurant Cookbook adapted it to the grill and my tastes to come up with this version.

Adaptations

1. I fire roasted the corn for my bisque because it amplifies the flavor. 
2. I didn't strain the bisque a second time. That might make it questionable as to whether this is even a bisque instead of a soup or chowder. I wanted those delicious bits of charred corn in there. If you want a finer texture, strain the bisque at the end or use an immersion blender (aka motor boat) in it.
3. I increased a few of the ingredient quantities.
4. I had an extra poblano chile in the fridge so I made a charred poblano crema as a finishing touch for the bisque.

Of course, you can do this in the kitchen too.  Just roast your corn and chile under the broiler or on a gas burner.  

Charred Corn Bisque with Poblano Crema

adapted from McCormick & Schmick's
Yields: 4 cups

Ingredients

• 3 ears yellow corn, shucked and peeled
• 1 poblano chile
• 4 cups chicken stock
• 3 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
• 1 tablespoon finely diced shallot
• 1/4 pound unsalted butter (1 stick)
• 1/4 cup flour
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon tumeric
• 1/2 tablespoon NMT beef rub
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 1 cup Mexican crema 
• salt to taste

Instructions

1. Set up your grill for direct grilling and preheat to high heat.
2. Roast the corn.  Grill until slightly charred on each side, about 2 minutes per side.  Remove from the grill and allow to cool.  Use a sharp knife to slice the kernels off of the cob.  Keep both the kernels and the cob.
3. Roast, seed, and peel the poblano chile. 
4. Make the corn stock.  Put the corn cobs and stock in a medium stock pan.  Bring to a boil, reduce heat to a simmer and cook for 30 minutes.  Strain stock and discard the cobs/pulp that was strained out.
5. Melt the butter in the stock pan and saute the shallot and garlic until softened, about 3-5 minutes.
6. Whisk in the flour and keep stirring a few minutes to make a blonde roux. Then keep whisking as you slowly add in all of the strained corn stock.
7. Add the reserved corn kernels, tumeric, beef rub (or just pepper and salt) and sugar.  Then bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer uncovered for 20 minutes
8. Make the poblano crema.  Either finely mince the poblano, whisk together with the crema and a pinch of salt OR lightly process the crema, poblano, and a pinch of salt in a food processor or blender.  Keep refrigerated until ready to use.
9. Stir in the heavy cream, simmer for 5 more minutes and then remove from heat.
10. Serve and garnish with a health dollop of the poblano crema.

Substitutions

• Chile - Poblano chiles are mild, between a bell pepper and jalapeno in heat level.  You can use whatever you have or prefer.  Like it hotter? Use jalapeno or serano. Heatophobe? Go with a bell pepper.
• NMT Beef Rub - I used it because 1) I had it on hand and 2) it's salt, pepper, dried onions, garlic, and bell peppers....great general purpose seasoning.  You can just use some salt and pepper to taste instead.  Or use some season salt and black pepper.
• Mexican crema - More than half of the grocery stores in our area carry crema now but if you can't get it, you can substitute sour cream or creme fraiche.

Notes

I cooked on 3 different grills for this meal's cook (including salmon and biscuits), but could have done it on one grill.  It was cold and snowing so I had three fired up simultaneously so I could minimize the amount of time that I was freezing my butt off.  For the soup, I used my Big Green Egg Mini-Max - a small, ceramic kamado grill. But you could do this on just about any grill, your broiler, or on a gas stove top burner.

Grilling or fire roasting the corn increases the flavor in two ways.  It concentrates the natural sugars in the corn and the char adds a smoky flavor.

To remove the kernels, I hold each cob on end like this and then run my chef's knife down each side.  Be sure to stay as close to the cob as possible to get all of the good stuff off.

The poblano crema adds flavor but also makes the texture extra creamy.

We will absolutely be making this recipe again.  I might throw some shredded chicken in there to make it a meal in itself.

[FTC Standard Disclaimer]  I received no compensation for this post.  I did get the McCormick and Schmick's book for free in a giveaway from Greg at SippitySup (great food blog, btw) several years ago.

Grilled Ribeye Steaks with Chorizo and Potato Au Gratin

I ran into the local grocery store to buy a sirloin steak but I got caught by the Siren's song of these beautiful Certified Angus Beef Prime ribeyes.

Deep red color, abundant marbling, and a nice hunk of the cap muscle, I couldn't pass these up.

Quality beef doesn't need much help other than some salt, pepper, garlic, and "coal therapy". But we ordered some Obie-Cue Steakmaker accidentally when doing our last competition supply order and I decided to try it out with these gorgeous steaks. It has a boatload of flavor going on with your typical salt and pepper with strong notes of Worcestershire and lemon. 

We had near record warm temperatures in East Tennessee this past weekend which made it perfect for being out on the deck grilling.  It was too nice to be inside so I did the whole meal on the Grill Dome kamado grill, including a side of fire roasted asparagus and this kicking Chorizo and Potato Au Gratin.

Chorizo and Potato Au Gratin

Published 12/09/2015

Ingredients

• 8 ounces Mexican chorizo (raw, not cured)
• 2 tablespoons butter, unsalted
• 1/2 cup chopped onion
• 2 cloves garlic, peeled and finely chopped
• 2 tablespoons all purpose flour
• 2 cups half and half
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 2 cups shredded Colby jack cheese - divided
• 2 pounds Russet potatoes, peeled and sliced thin
• 1/2 cup French fried onions 

Instructions

1. Preheat your grill to 350°f and set up for indirect heat.  
2. In a medium sized pot, brown the chorizo (removed from casing) over medium heat, about 5 minutes.  Remove and set aside.  
3. Add the butter to the pot and saute the onion for 4 minutes.  Add the garlic and cook another 2 minutes.
4. Stir in the flour and stir continuously until a light roux is formed, about 1-2 minutes.  Slowly add the half and half in small batches (about 1/4 cup) and whisk each time until combined.  It will seize up on you at first, just keep adding and whisking until all the liquid is combined. Whisk in 1 1/2 cups of the cheese in small batches.
5. In a greased 1 1/2 quart casserole dish, layer potato slices, top with about 1/4th of the browned chorizo and a spoonful or two of the cream sauce.  Repeat for 3 more layers.  Top with one more layer of potatoes and the rest of the cream sauce. 
6. Place casserole in the grill, shut the dome, and allow to cook for 1 hour.
7. Mix the French fried onions and remaining 1/2 cup of cheese.  Top on the casserole and put back into the grill, dome closed, until the top is golden brown, about 15-20 minutes.

Yield: 6-8 servings

It was so nice out that I even did all of my food prep outside, I love nights like this.

Mexican chorizo is a highly seasoned RAW pork sausage and has to be cooked compared to Spanish or Portuguese chorizo which is cured and ready to eat.  It used to be hard to find but now major producers like Johnsonville and Jimmy Dean offer chorizo sausages.

If you can almost see through the potato slices, you sliced them right. I do them on a mandolin but you could do by hand if you have a sharp knife and the patience of Job.

I love the side burner of my Char-Broil TRU-Infrared Commercial grill, it comes in so handy.

Don't dump all of the cheese in at once or it will cool it down too quickly.  Small batches.  You could also use any cheese you like, Colby jack is just a good middle of the road cheese for just about anything.  Pepper jack would be good here or a blend of cheeses.  I'd stay away from smoked cheese because the dish will get enough smokiness from the burning lump coals.

Layer and repeat, layer and repeat, layer and repeat....you get the picture.

The beauty of using a ceramic kamado grill like the Grill Dome Infinity Series is that they hold steady temperatures incredibly well.

The indirect set up that I used this time was the Grill Dome indirect rack, a 13" pizza stone, and a Craycort cast iron grill grate. You could also use a spider and stone or a plate setter. Set your timer and prep the rest of your meal while this cooks.

Cook until golden brown.  I added bread crumbs to the topping but I didn't list them in the ingredients because they were not needed, the fried onions and cheese are the perfect topping on their own.

For timing, I did the casserole first and stuck it in the microwave (off of course) just to keep it warm while I made the rest of dinner. 

Once the casserole comes off, change the set up to direct heat.  Open up the lower vent some to raise the cooking temp to 500°f, it should only take a few minutes.

At 500°f, I ran it at 4 minutes per side to get medium rare.  Normally I temp check it but this time I just went by touch only.

I hit the asparagus with a little oil and Meat Church All Purpose Seasoning (it's become my favorite general purpose seasoning).  I grilled a lemon and squirted the juice from one half over the asparagus in the last minute.

The Chorizo and Potato Au Gratin came out just about perfect.

Everything turned out wonderfully. I went light on the beef seasoning because it tasted so powerful straight out of the jar.  Next time I'd go with a heavier hand, it was a very good beef rub. I just didn't want to over season.

And how did the steak turn out?  Perfect medium rare.

Grilling a steak on a warm night in the middle of December?  Pretty damn awesome.  

[Standard FTC Disclaimer]  I received no compensation for this post; however, Grill Dome is the official kamado sponsor and Char-Broil is a sponsor of Nibble Me This. 

High Low Beef Filet with Marsala Portobello Sauce

National Filet Mignon Day was this past week so I decided to try out Adam Perry Lang’s High-Low method on my Grill Dome.

Certified Angus Beef filet from Food City here in Knoxville.

Adam is a renowned pitmaster, a classically trained chef, restauranteur, and appears regularly on Jimmy Kimmel Live! Adam has "dabbled" in competition BBQ, winning first place pork shoulder at The American Royal (one of the BBQ “majors”). He is also an accomplished grilling cookbook author. His Serious Barbecue book is a modern classic and I think that BBQ25 is a must have for up and coming grillers.

Adam’s High-Low technique comes from his third book, Charred and Scruffed, and it is similar to the wildly popular “reverse sear” technique. But instead of doing a low temp and then a high temp, the High-Low technique relies on positioning in the grill. This method starts off cooking “high” up in the grill on a raised rack to moderate the heat intensity. Then it finishes close to the red coals, searing it off. This technique works extremely well in a kamado grill.

I followed his technique and baste recipe but used my normal rub and I made a Marsala-Portobello sauce to compliment the filet.  For the beef rub, you can use Adam's Four Seasons Blend or another beef rub, I used my NMT Beef Rub.  To make the herb brush, an APL signature technique, take a handful of fresh herb sprigs and tightly tie them around the handle of a wooden spoon with kitchen twine.

Beef Filet with Marsala Portobello Sauce

Adapted from Adam Perry Lang's High Low Filet
Published 08/15/2015

The high-low technique slowly cooks the filet before finishing it off with a high temp sear to build that delicious crust.

Ingredients

• 4 8-10 ounce Certified Angus Beef tenderloin filet
• 1 1/2 tablespoons beef rub

For the baste

• 1/2 cup olive oil
• 1/4 cup tallow
• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1/2 tablespoon soy sauce
• 1/2 tablespoon sugar
• 2 cloves garlic, finely minced
• 1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves
• 1 teaspoon dried minced onion
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 teaspoon black pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flake

For the Marsala Portobello Sauce

• 4 tablespoons butter, divided
• 16 ounces sliced baby bella or crimini mushrooms
• 1/4 cup dry Marsala wine
• 1 cup beef stock
• 1/2 teaspoon fresh herbs, finely chopped
• black pepper to taste
• salt to taste
• several sprigs of herbs for an herb brush

Instructions

1. Take your steaks off of refrigeration and let rest at room temperature. Set up your grill with a raised rack (see notes) and preheat to 450-500°F
2. Make the baste. Mix all ingredients in a small pot and bring to a slow simmer, whisking frequently for 5 minutes. Remove from heat and set aside.
3. Make the sauce. Heat a large skillet over medium high heat and melt 3 tablespoons butter. Add sliced mushrooms and saute until softened and browned, 8-10 minutes. Carefully add Marsala wine and deglaze the skillet, scraping any stuck bits with a wooden spoon. When liquid is almost all evaporated, add in the stock and herbs. Simmer until reduced by half and thickened, about 15-20 minutes. Season to taste with salt (1/4 -1/2 teaspoon) and black pepper (about 1/2 teaspoon). Stir in 1 tablespoon of butter and keep warm over very low heat.
4. Season steaks with the rub. Then with wet hands, work the rub all around the steaks to form a paste. Let set for 5 minutes.
5. Place the steaks on the raised rack and grill for 2 minutes. Flip and grill another 2 minutes. Grill the sides for 1 minute each.  Keep the grill lid shut each time.
6. Continue cooking the steaks, turning and basting them with an herb brush every minute, until the steaks reach an internal temperature of 90°F, about another 5 minutes. Remove from heat and let rest at least 5 minutes or up to 30 minutes.
7. Remove the raise grate and return the steaks to the grill. Flip and baste the steaks every minute until they reach an internal temperature of 110-115°F. This will take about 5 more minutes if doing on a regular grate or only 1-2 minutes if using a lowered grate (see notes).
8. Remove steaks and let rest for 5 full minutes. To serve, spoon some of the Marsala Portobello sauce onto the plate, top with a filet, and then spoon a slight amount more of the sauce on top.

Yield: 4 servings
Prep Time: 00 hrs. 15 mins.

Cook time: 00 hrs. 20 mins.
Total time: 35 mins.
Tags: beef, filet, grill, steak

A note on substitutions

• Baste - This is all about building layers but if you don't feel like making your own, you can buy a jarred baste.  The Shed and Stubbs both make a pretty good bottled beef baste.
• Tallow - I need to do a post on this but tallow is just rendered down beef fat that I keep on hand.  You can substitute additional butter or bacon fat.
• Herb brush - sure you can skip it and use a basting brush but again, it's building layers.

 

I am loving these disposable cutting boards.  We got a roll of them for BBQ comps but they really come in handy for outdoor cooking at home too.

Gorgeous afternoon for outdoor cooking. I used the Grill Dome as my main grill and had the Egg fired up to fire roast the potatoes.

I roasted the potatoes at 400°F for a total of 50 minutes.  Rubbed with oil and seasoned with Meat Church Season All, chopped garlic, and a few pinches of chopped herbs.

Flipped them after about 30 minutes.

You can do the mushroom sauce on the grill or on stove top.

My beef rub is black peppercorns, green peppercorns, dried garlic, dried onions, dried red and green bell pepper coarsely ground up and then oregano and salt added.  It's a bit of a pain to make since we dry the peppers ourselves but well worth the flavor for beef.  BTW, I love these flip top shaker tops you can buy for plain old mason jars now, perfect for BBQ dudes and dudettes.  I think we found ours at the grocery store or Walmart.

Rubbing the seasoning in with wet hands to make a paste is one of Adam's techniques. Normally I just lightly oil them before seasoning but this technique worked well too.

The "raised grate" or "elevated grate" set up for my Grill Dome was the double duty Indirect rack.  It served as the raised and lowered rack for this cook, I just flipped it upside down.  Here are some other options.  For a gas grill you can just use the top rack.  

There is a lot of turning, flipping, basting, and handling in this recipe - that's a trademark of Adam Perry Lang. He's the opposite of the "only flip a steak once" school of thought.   Cooking on the elevated grate like this is effectively cooking at a lower temperature like the start of a reverse sear.  

Basting with the herb brush just adds layer upon layer of flavor.

There's a lot of fat in the baste which will cause flare ups.  Don't panic, your elevated grill grate will take care of that for you.  Closing the grill lid between each step helps keep flames knocked down too.

Flipping the indirect rack grate for the second part of the cook gets the steaks right next to the super hot coals, giving you a power sear in just a minute or two. You could also use a spider rig with a 13" grate.  If you are cooking on a normal level grate, this step will take more like 5 minutes. 

This was a great meal.  Even the green beans were something special because that bacon on them was home cured and smoked by my BBQ teammate and neighbor, John.

I like this technique and plan to use it this weekend when I try to recreate a pork tenderloin dish that I had at a restaurant recently.  I like the layering of flavors and the crust that this builds up.  It doesn't replace the reverse sear, this high-low technique is just another awesome tool to have in one's grilling skill set.

Have a great weekend and fire up those smokers and grills!

[FTC Standard Disclaimer]  Grill Dome is our kamado grill sponsor and Certified Angus Beef recently provided me with an educational trip package.  I paid full price for the steaks, Meat Church Season All, APL's books, and the mason jar shaker caps. The links for the books and caps are Amazon Affiliate links.