Cooking Outdoors Grilling, Camp and Dutch oven Cooking!

Chicken Cordon Bleu on the Fire Pit.

Char-Broil Barbecue’s ”Sizzle on the Grill” blog site just posted my Chicken Cordon Bleu recipe. You can read about it here: Chicken Cordon Bleu on the grill! (Sorry post is no longer available) This is my version of a fancy recipe knocked down to a manageable level and cooked over a open fire. I grilled some fresh mini potatoes “Russian Banana, Colorado Rose and All Blue varieties” from Kline Organic Produce in Waterford California. They have been at our local farmers market here in Oakdale, Ca. and provide an excellent selection of fresh organic produce.

Enjoy!

Grecian Rib Eye Steak with Baked Onion and Potato.

Have you ever stopped at the meat case and just have a piece call to you? Yes, then you know what happened to me. Rib Eye Steak grilled over an open fire just screamed at me. Some where in the back of my cluttered mind I remembered a rub that sounded perfect. My Fire Pit had been idle for a few weeks so everything just clicked.

I took my 1lb Rib Eye Steak home to let rest while I got the Fire Pit going. Still trying to remember the ingredients of the rub, I scoured the spices on hand, checked the fridge and once again threw it together. Best way, right? Thought I would throw a Potato and Onion on the coals also.

Here is my dinner for the night including my “Grecian Rib Eye Steak”!

Grecian Rib Eye Steak

1 Rib Eye Steak rested at room temp.

1 – 2 tbs Feta cheese

Olive oil

Rub for 2 steaks

1 tbs Garlic powder

1 tbs Oregano

1 tbs Basil

1 tsp Pepper

1 tsp Coarse salt

Baked Potato and Onion

1 Large Potato washed and dried

1 Large Sweet Onion peeled

1 tsp Garlic salt

1 tsp Course pepper

1 tsp dried Parsley

Olive oil to coat

1 Pat of Butter each

2 sheets of foil for each Potato and Onion to wrap completely

How ever you decide to cook yours, my first and only choice for this Steak was an open fire. It just cried out for a mesquite fire. Well, old plum tree and cedar fence board to start with, then I added the mesquite I burned the fire for a couple of hours to get a good coal base started. Great excuse to stay outside! Then I added some Mesquite charcoal to the fire to enhance the flavor of the steak.

I took the Potato and cut it in half and cut a X on the top of the Onion. Rub both with Olive Oil, then sprinkle the Garlic salt, Pepper, Parsley and a pat of butter. Wrap each with 2 sheets of foil. The challenge was to get the Potato and the Onion cooked and done before the Steak was finished. I opted to throw both of them directly onto the coals. Not into the fire, on the coals!

As your fire is burning down, move some of the coals to the side and set your Potato and Onion directly on the coals. You have to keep turning them! About every 10 minutes or so. You will have some hot spots and the skins will burn here and there. Great for flavor! Cook time is about 1 hour. The onion could be little less. This is where practice takes over, you have to experiment to find out what works best for you. Some days it will be a little under done and other days, maybe a little crunchy. It’s all good when it’s cooked Outdoors!

Grecian Rib Eye Steak, probably one of my best recipes!!!

Wash and dry your steak, rub it with some Olive Oil and pat your rub all over. Let it sit for a least an hour. Grease up your grill ( I like to use Crisco for this) and then swing it over a hot bed of coals to pre-heat. Slap that steak on the grill and hold on! The smell is incredible! Sear on both side for about 2 minutes then cook to your personal preference.

Remember to let that steak sit for a few minutes before you cut into it. Un-wrap the Potato and Onion, plate them with the Grecian Rib Eye Steak, sprinkle a couple of spoonfuls of Feta cheese on them an enjoy!

Give this a try ….. I would have paid top dollar at a restaurant for this steak! I was fantastic!

Foil cooked Wild rice and Red potatoes with Green beans.

The other day I got the fire pit going and cooked some Pork chops, foil cooked Wild rice and foil cooked Red potatoes with Green beans. This was my first attempt at cooking Wild rice in a foil pouch, heck I couldn’t even find a how-to on the Internet! The Red potatoes and Green beans dish is an recipe from my Grandmother and it is a regular item at our house. So I thought I would share my foil cooked Wild rice and Red potato recipes with you.

Let me tell you that it taste every bit as good as it looked!

Red Potatoes and Green bean recipe

Ingredients:

5-6 medium red potatoes

1 pound of fresh green beans

2 strips of bacon

1 pat of butter

olive oil

1/2 tsp garlic salt

1/2 tsp pepper

1 tbsp parsley

2 large sheets of foil

Preparation

Clean and quarter red potatoes, clean and trim ends of green beans. Place two large sheets of foil together and cut bacon into pieces, place bacon, potatoes and green beans on foil. Toss together with olive oil, sprinkle garlic salt, pepper and parsley on mixture. Finally place pat of butter on top and seal foil into a cooking pouch.

Cook on medium heat, turn every 10 minutes for about 30 minutes.

Be very careful when you open this or any cooked foil pouch! You could be seriously burned.

Foil cooked Wild rice

Ingredients

1 cup wild rice

2 cups water

1 pat of butter

salt to taste

Preparation

Take two large sheets of aluminum foil and form a pouch by folding one sheet in half and sealing three sides by folding over edges twice. Pour in wild rice, water, butter and salt. Seal open end and place on the other sheet of foil and wrap it up real good.

Place on medium heat and do not turn. Cooking time is about 40 minutes and you can see the steam exit the pouch. When the pouch stops sloshing around, it’s done!