Last week, to balance out Karin’s delicious (but vegetarian) eggplant & salad feast and take advantage of the nice Austin spring, I decided to dust the pollen and leaves off the propane grill in our backyard (thanks Alyx & Chi Chi for the long-term grill loan) and cook up some fish. I’ve had this cookbook, Weber’s Big Book of Grilling, since I picked up a charcoal grill to make a Thanksgiving Turkey with my folks four or five years ago. It’s a brand-specific cookbook, which is usually a clear sign that a cookbook will be mediocre and the recipes will include things like “Roast for 30 minutes on a Weber® AR553 grill” or ” 1 1/2 Tablespoons Heinz© pickle relish”. But this book is free of that sort of pandering and a great introduction to grilling in general – it has a wide variety of recipes beyond the usual burgers, steaks, chicken kabobs, etc., tons of good information on different types of grills, indirect vs. direct cooking, etc. – hell, the book even has a foreword by Al Roker.
The recipe I chose was a Mediterranean Sea Bass recipe. Well, for us it was a Mediterranean Red Snapper recipe, since that was the closest I could get from the store. It was an exceptionally fast and easy recipe, and it was interesting to cook with a spice (lavender) I hadn’t used before. I made this Brussels sprouts dish to go along with it, which was really tasty despite my overcooking it (good Brussels sprouts recipes that are also bacon-free are few and far between and deserve a mention). All in all, a tasty weeknight meal that is easy to cook in under an hour after work, weather and propane grill/grill pan-permitting.
The J/K Cookbook Challenge 