Get Your Grill On

It will probably come as no surprise to our readers out there, but I like to fire up the old grill from time to time. After all, this site is called Get Your Grill On. One of my pet peeves, though, is flipping through a magazine or tuning into a cooking show and seeing some otherwise well intentioned culinary type using their grill like a swiss army knife. Don’t get me wrong, a charcoal grill (or even gas. There, I’ve said it.) is pretty versatile. But if you want to boil some eggs or steam some asparagus, just use your stove top, we won’t think less of you for it.

Sometimes, though, a grill is just what you need, even if the meal you intend to prepare isn’t a steak or a rack of ribs. There’s a particular stir fry recipe that we’ve really been enjoying recently. The only problem is that our gas range just doesn’t generate the kind of BTU’s you need to heat up a wok. If you’ve ever ventured into the kitchen of your favorite Chinese restaurant, you’ll know that they have a veritable blast furnace that they use to fire their woks. Even if my range could generate that kind of heat, I could spend then next week cleaning up all the grease splatters that resulted.

That’s where the grill comes in. Even your most humble charcoal grill can generate A LOT of heat. I know this for a fact because last time I decided to cook pizzas on the grill not only did I crack my pizza stone, I wound up with crust so black I had a hard time distinguishing it from the charcoal.

I was pretty sure my grill would be a suitable heat source for the wok. My only concern was getting the wok close enough to the coals. Luckily I still had an old, crusty grill top that should have long since been discarded.

A little bit of work with a pair of bolt cutters and I had decent cradle for my wok that nestled it right above a nice pile of hot charcoal.

Unfortunately, we ran out of daylight before we could get any good shots of our stir fry, but here is the recipe. If you like it hot, you’ll love this one…

Hot and Spicy Thai Stir Fry

• 1 teaspoon ground coriander
• 1/4 teaspoon white pepper
• 1 teaspoon brown sugar
• 1 1/2 tablespoon soy sauce
• 1 1/2 pounds chuck steak

Combine first four ingredients in a bowl and stir until combined. Slice chuck steak into thin strips, approximately 1/4 inch thick by 2 inches long. Marinate steak into spice mixture.

Sauce

• 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons rice vinegar
• 2 tablespoons water
• 1 tablespoon brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon Asian Chile Sauce

Combine sauce ingredients together and set aside.

• Chop 3 medium cloves of garlic and add 1 teaspoon vegetable oil and set aside.
• Halve one medium red onion and slice thin.
• Slice 3 hot peppers (I use cayenne) and add to onion and set aside.
• Roughly chop about 1-1 1/2 cups thai basil and halve one lime and set aside.

Heat wok over charcoal 5-10 minutes. Add 2 teaspoons of vegetable oil and wait until it is smoking hot. Add 1/2 of the marinated beef and cook until thoroughly browned. Remove and cook remaining beef until thoroughly browned, then remove it from the wok.

Add another 2 teaspoons of oil to wok and cook onions and peppers until soft (3-5 minutes.) Push onions and peppers up onto side of wok and add garlic/oil mixture and cook for 30 seconds. Add sauce and continue to cook for 1 more minute. Add beef back into wok and combine with sauce. Add basil and cook for another minute. Squeeze the juice of one lime and mix thoroughly. Serve with steamed rice.