Grill me
January 28, 2021 11:02 PM Subscribe
Ms Jabo and I have just bought our first propane grill after using charcoal forever.
I want to grill veggies, smoke salmon and make the most of my new grill. What are your recipes, tips and grill aspirations?
I want to grill veggies, smoke salmon and make the most of my new grill. What are your recipes, tips and grill aspirations?
I highly recommend getting some good quality metal skewers if you don’t already have them. Almost anything small and fussy can be kebabed and the metal carries the heat into the center of the food (unlike bamboo) so you can do less cooking time. If you get the skewers with wicked sharp ends, you can skewer whole shell-on shrimp and make grilled shrimp that are still succulent and juicy inside.
My parents do the propane grill thing in Texas and their favorite is probably fajitas. If you do beef, skirt steak only, don’t bother with a marinade just do a dry rub and grill fast and hot, slicing against the grain. Charred peppers and onions plus some fresh salsa, and grill the tortillas too, lime and crema. For some reason fajitas never really happened with charcoal, I think it was the setup was too long for something with so many different parts.
posted by Mizu at 2:37 AM on January 29, 2021 [2 favorites]
My parents do the propane grill thing in Texas and their favorite is probably fajitas. If you do beef, skirt steak only, don’t bother with a marinade just do a dry rub and grill fast and hot, slicing against the grain. Charred peppers and onions plus some fresh salsa, and grill the tortillas too, lime and crema. For some reason fajitas never really happened with charcoal, I think it was the setup was too long for something with so many different parts.
posted by Mizu at 2:37 AM on January 29, 2021 [2 favorites]
Grilled pizza! Preheat grill screaming hot. Prepare your pizza on a pizza peel (or sheet pan without rim, or on upside down sheet pan), using lots of cornmeal on peel/pan to prevent sticking. Transfer pizza to grill, directly on grates, close kid, turn down to low, check after five minutes. Delish!
Foil packet potatoes: whole small potatoes (or halved, quartered), toss with olive oil, salt and pepper, maybe some garlic, cook over medium-medium high heat. Pretty forgivable and can "overcook" without issue.
posted by teragram at 3:17 AM on January 29, 2021 [3 favorites]
Foil packet potatoes: whole small potatoes (or halved, quartered), toss with olive oil, salt and pepper, maybe some garlic, cook over medium-medium high heat. Pretty forgivable and can "overcook" without issue.
posted by teragram at 3:17 AM on January 29, 2021 [3 favorites]
When I’m cooking fish on my propane grill I like to soak some wood chips in water for 30 minutes then drain and wrap in foil, poke holes in the foil and put it on the grill 5-10 minutes before I start cooking the fish for that smoky flavor.
posted by outfielder at 7:36 AM on January 29, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by outfielder at 7:36 AM on January 29, 2021 [1 favorite]
get to know its hot spots and how the "burner" arrays affect the heating of the grate - with a charcoal grill you can control this yourself by piling coals or leveling them out to your desired style - you say you're interested in smoking salmon which might take some tinkering, but you'll want to figure out if/how to operate your grill with only one of the 4 burners you can leave on low on one side while you get the indirect heat to slowly cook your salmon or whatever on the other side.
posted by Exceptional_Hubris at 7:54 AM on January 29, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by Exceptional_Hubris at 7:54 AM on January 29, 2021 [1 favorite]
Stay on top of cleaning it. Really. You'll be happy you did.
I'd advise against smoking anything in it. I have just about the same grill as the one you have. It's a great tool. I experimented with all sorts of ways of adding smoke to the process, small aluminum trays with wood chips placed in various spots, adding a small amount of water to the wood chips, using loose, vented packets of foil with wood chips, etc.
It works to some extent. But the amount of mess it makes is staggering. Burning wood smoke leaves all kinds of disgusting gunk that attracts more dirt and the grease/smoke/gunk accumulation skyrockets. In a charcoal grill (the kind I always had before my first propane model) the cleanup of this stuff is much simpler and can be put off for far longer. A gas grill has more intricate parts and needs to be kept cleaner to work properly.
Bottom line: smoking food in a gas grill is just not worth it. You will get SOME small amount of smoke flavor to your food, but the mess (and resulting grease/wood fiber fires!) are not worth the effort. A gas grill needs to be kept cleaner, period.
It's a great tool and can make wonderful food. But it is NOT a charcoal grill and should be treated differently.
posted by SoberHighland at 9:00 AM on January 29, 2021 [2 favorites]
I'd advise against smoking anything in it. I have just about the same grill as the one you have. It's a great tool. I experimented with all sorts of ways of adding smoke to the process, small aluminum trays with wood chips placed in various spots, adding a small amount of water to the wood chips, using loose, vented packets of foil with wood chips, etc.
It works to some extent. But the amount of mess it makes is staggering. Burning wood smoke leaves all kinds of disgusting gunk that attracts more dirt and the grease/smoke/gunk accumulation skyrockets. In a charcoal grill (the kind I always had before my first propane model) the cleanup of this stuff is much simpler and can be put off for far longer. A gas grill has more intricate parts and needs to be kept cleaner to work properly.
Bottom line: smoking food in a gas grill is just not worth it. You will get SOME small amount of smoke flavor to your food, but the mess (and resulting grease/wood fiber fires!) are not worth the effort. A gas grill needs to be kept cleaner, period.
It's a great tool and can make wonderful food. But it is NOT a charcoal grill and should be treated differently.
posted by SoberHighland at 9:00 AM on January 29, 2021 [2 favorites]
I agree with SoberHighland about not smoking. I've only been semi-successful at it on my gas grill (essentially an older version of yours) about 20% of the time, trying various methods.
I see you're in Santa Fe (say 'hi' to my mom!). One thing that I have been very successful doing with my grill is roasting chilies. Sure, you can get someone else to do it with those big barrel roasters, but it's kind of fun to take an afternoon and roast 20 or 30 pounds of Hatches.
posted by Thorzdad at 10:07 AM on January 29, 2021 [1 favorite]
I see you're in Santa Fe (say 'hi' to my mom!). One thing that I have been very successful doing with my grill is roasting chilies. Sure, you can get someone else to do it with those big barrel roasters, but it's kind of fun to take an afternoon and roast 20 or 30 pounds of Hatches.
posted by Thorzdad at 10:07 AM on January 29, 2021 [1 favorite]
Response by poster: I just wanted to add a post-script…
Before our propane grill… we used a tiny Weber charcoal grill. We always thought charcoal was far superior to sterile propane. But it can get pretty windy here in Santa Fe (hi Thorzdad’s mom) so whenever I used the starter chimney… I was always worried about starting a wildfire. And because of the small size of our grill, the coals would die if we cooked too much.
The new grill gives us plenty of room to cook. We’ve made chicken, salmon, beyond burgers and veggies on skewers. It’s a bit more messy than our old grill in terms of clean-up but SO much better. The food tastes fantastic and the fact that we don’t have to time our cooking around whether the coals are hot yet… rocks.
Here’s what else I’ve learned so far…
• A friend told me to buy the grill assembled. I recommend assembling if you can. I got mine from a big box hardware outlet, and it can be hit and miss on the models they have sitting out front. I noticed that many assembled models were damaged, dirty or missing parts.
• Don’t forget to turn on the propane tank before grilling. And the igniter works on one burner. I tried every other burner on my first grill, and finally lit everything with a match.
• Get an extra propane tank so you won’t have a problem if your tank runs out mid-meal. Tanks here cost about $50 new or $20 for a refill (you bring in an empty and they replace it).
• When you get your grill… you may be jonesing to buy special grill brushes, veggie baskets, thermometers, long handled implements, gloves and other grill tools when you get your grill. Don’t bother. The grill is never hot enough that you will need steelworkers gloves or a 4 foot spatula. You can use a cheap spatula and a $2 nylon dish brush to clean the grill. A good thermometer is handy but don’t get a cheap digital.
• Season the metal grill. I made the mistake of scrubbing the grill in soap. Got it clean but food got majorly stuck on the next meal. You ashould avoid using metal brushes as they may leaves nasty bristles behind. I clean up the grill insides after every cook.
• Grilled veggies take a good 20 minutes. The small wooden skewers are nice but they don’t cook well and are a nightmare to handle.
• I’m still not decided whether you should put the salmon down skin side (or other) first. So far I’ve put the non-skin side down first on high heat… and both times the salmon has been delicious.
• All of the replies to this AskMe have been great. From cleaning and smoking to the recipe suggestions, thanks all.
posted by jabo at 9:45 PM on February 11, 2021
Before our propane grill… we used a tiny Weber charcoal grill. We always thought charcoal was far superior to sterile propane. But it can get pretty windy here in Santa Fe (hi Thorzdad’s mom) so whenever I used the starter chimney… I was always worried about starting a wildfire. And because of the small size of our grill, the coals would die if we cooked too much.
The new grill gives us plenty of room to cook. We’ve made chicken, salmon, beyond burgers and veggies on skewers. It’s a bit more messy than our old grill in terms of clean-up but SO much better. The food tastes fantastic and the fact that we don’t have to time our cooking around whether the coals are hot yet… rocks.
Here’s what else I’ve learned so far…
• A friend told me to buy the grill assembled. I recommend assembling if you can. I got mine from a big box hardware outlet, and it can be hit and miss on the models they have sitting out front. I noticed that many assembled models were damaged, dirty or missing parts.
• Don’t forget to turn on the propane tank before grilling. And the igniter works on one burner. I tried every other burner on my first grill, and finally lit everything with a match.
• Get an extra propane tank so you won’t have a problem if your tank runs out mid-meal. Tanks here cost about $50 new or $20 for a refill (you bring in an empty and they replace it).
• When you get your grill… you may be jonesing to buy special grill brushes, veggie baskets, thermometers, long handled implements, gloves and other grill tools when you get your grill. Don’t bother. The grill is never hot enough that you will need steelworkers gloves or a 4 foot spatula. You can use a cheap spatula and a $2 nylon dish brush to clean the grill. A good thermometer is handy but don’t get a cheap digital.
• Season the metal grill. I made the mistake of scrubbing the grill in soap. Got it clean but food got majorly stuck on the next meal. You ashould avoid using metal brushes as they may leaves nasty bristles behind. I clean up the grill insides after every cook.
• Grilled veggies take a good 20 minutes. The small wooden skewers are nice but they don’t cook well and are a nightmare to handle.
• I’m still not decided whether you should put the salmon down skin side (or other) first. So far I’ve put the non-skin side down first on high heat… and both times the salmon has been delicious.
• All of the replies to this AskMe have been great. From cleaning and smoking to the recipe suggestions, thanks all.
posted by jabo at 9:45 PM on February 11, 2021
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Off the top of my head list of favorites, no particular order:
* Grilled watermelon / feta salad
* Broccoli, cauliflower, various kinds of squash: just toss with some olive oil and spices and grill until delicious
* Eggplant and sweet peppers are great for sandwiches
* Potatoes: cut in thick slices, season and oil. Grill on low until nice and crispy on the outside
* Any kind of grilling cheese, eg. haloumi
* Grilled pineapple for deserts
* Corn on the cob for salads
* Charred tomato and hot peppers, blended togetther for quick sauces
* Cherry tomatoes & pearl onions: thread on skewer, season & coat with olive oil
posted by each day we work at 12:48 AM on January 29, 2021 [2 favorites]