Clams, mussels, and oysters belong to the group of shellfish known as bivalves, and they can all be grilled in the same fashion. These two-shelled creatures are easy to cook; when they open, they are done. One of the biggest challenges when cooking bivalves is making sure they are clean. Even perfectly cooked clams and mussels can be made inedible by lingering sand. Over the course of developing our recipe, we learned that careful shopping plays the most important role in minimizing your kitchen work and ensuring that your shellfish are free of grit. While steaming is the easiest way to cook clams and mussels (oysters are often eaten raw on the half shell), grilling these bivalves is an appealing option, especially for summer entertaining. It's also an incredibly simple preparation. The key to great bivalves on the grill is not to move the shellfish around too much, and to handle them carefully once they open. You want to preserve the natural juices, so when they open, transfer them with tongs to a platter, holding them steady so as not to spill any of the liquid. Add an easy sauce or flavored butter to complement the natural brininess of the shellfish.
Why have a burger with some tots on the side when you can just build a burger with tots as the bun! These mini tot sliders are first and foremost insanely cute. Believe it or not, they are actually pretty easy to make, too. But most important—they are extremely delicious. If you serve your friends these sliders when they come over for the big game, they will lose their minds!
Cochinita pibil is the pride of the Yucatan peninsula—a dish of smoky, slow-roasted pork marinated in a special blend of ingredients including cinnamon, allspice, and achiote (annatto) seed. Cochinita means “baby pig,” and the real-deal recipes use a whole suckling pig. Traditionally the whole thing is wrapped in banana leaves and then buried in a pib—a pit with a fire at the bottom. Here I use Boston butt and employ a two-stage “grill-and-swim” cooking process to make things a little more convenient and a lot juicier. Pregrilling the meat adds great flavor, while low and slow cooking in a water bath produces especially succulent meat—no pib required. Plus, you won’t have to fire up your grill on taco night, so you can focus on making Homemade Corn Tortillas or that sweet playlist you’ve been meaning to put together.
The usual go-to cut of pork for backyard barbecue is the pork shoulder, but in certain corners of South Carolina, many pitmasters swear by fresh ham. Fresh ham, cut from the hindquarters of the hog and sold unsmoked and unseasoned, is leaner than traditional barbecue cuts like shoulder. Rubbing salt over the entire surface and letting it sit overnight helped season it throughout and kept the meat moist. A double-pronged cooking approach did the trick: We smoked the meat on a grill for 2 hours before transferring it to a 300-degree oven to cook until it reached an internal temperature of 200 degrees. We then cranked the oven temperature up to 400 degrees and roasted the skin on a baking sheet until it was brown and crispy. This gave us plenty of crispy skin to mix in with the shredded ham. A vinegary mustard sauce, a hallmark of South Carolina barbecue, was just the contrast the sandwich needed. Plan ahead: The ham must be salted at least 18 hours before cooking. You’ll have about 2 1/2 cups of mustard sauce.
Charmoula is a traditional Moroccan spice blend. Charmoula sauce is great for serving atop -- or used to finish -- fish, shrimp, chicken or vegetables.
To avoid the hassle of removing the shells, we went with peeled shrimp for our grilled shrimp recipe and then crammed them onto a skewer, which prevented them from overcooking. We took the shrimp off of the grill before they were completely cooked and finished cooking them in a heated sauce waiting on the cool side of the grill; this final simmer gave our broiled shrimp recipe tons of flavor.
A Greek-style burger packed full of flavour. You’ll need to make the minted yoghurt and super-simple cucumber pickle a day ahead, but they’re worth it for this delicious lamb burger.
Piquillo peppers, descendants of Peru’s chile de arbol, require a long, hot, dry growing season, which fits Sonoma’s Dry Creek Valley to a T. Gardeners and farmers get their piquillo pepper seeds from the Chile Pepper Institute at New Mexico State University or online from Peppermania. Piquillos are not edible raw; instead, they’re smoke-roasted over wood and then packed in brine in jars or cans. If you grow piquillos, simply smoke-roast them until they’re done. Banana peppers are a good substitute for the piquillo peppers, too.
This main looks deceptively meaty on the plate, and it satisfies on the same level. Tandoori spice mixture has an intense spicy flavor that meets its match with rich, unctuous portobello mushrooms. The cool cilantro sauce offers a creamy counterpoint and is entirely sunflower-seed based.
This takeoff on a grilled Caesar salad replaces romaine with two colors of chicory lettuce—pale Belgian endive and scarlet radicchio. Both of these leaves are far more bitter than romaine, elevating the contrapuntal between vegetable, dressing, cheese, and salt.