Today, let's talk about main dishes and side dishes.

First up - orange glazed grilled chicken. This is a really tasty dish, and what we're going to talk about is the marinade.

You'll need:
2 cans Mandarin oranges in heavy syrup - do not drain! You need the syrup
1/4 cup teriyaki sauce (low sodium)
2 tbsp wasabi (prepared paste) or 2 tsp wasabi powder
1 cup orange juice
2 tbsp honey
1 tbsp hoisin sauce

Mix everything except for half a can of the oranges (just the slices, use the syrup) together in a bowl, and use your hand mixer or stick blender to blend it all together. Pour a third of the mixture into a saucepan and heat on low...simmer until reduced to a light syrup. Set this aside to cool. 

Marinate your chicken in the majority of the mix for at least 30 minutes, and then put on the grill. Once the chicken is done and you're ready to serve, lightly glaze with reduced mixture you set aside earlier, and garnish with the leftover orange pieces and a dash of orange zest!

And now for a repeat. My favorite barbecue sauce is my spicy asian barbecue sauce - and it never tastes better than on pork chops, glazed over some ribs, or basted on some burgers cooked lovingly over a hot grill outside on a clear spring or summer evening. So let's review:

Honey mustard
Teriyaki sauce
Worcestecire Sauce
Honey BBQ Sauce
Stiry Fry Sauce
Lemon Juice
Ketchup

And out of the spice cabinet:
Wasabi powder
Rice vinegar
White cooking wine (chablis)
Balsalmic vinegar
Emeril's Asian Essence
Powdered Ginger

Start off with the honey mustard, lemon juice, vinegar.  Using a hand (drink) blender, blend together. As far as amounts, well, this is where you have to pretty much guess. I'd say I used about 2tbsp mustard, 2tbsp juice, 1/4 cup vinegar. While blending, squirt in about 1tbsp ketchup, 2 tbsp bbq sauce, then 2 tsp wasabi powder (more if you like it really spicy) - or 2 tbsp prepared wasabi paste. Add 1/4 cup wine, slowly. Blend on high for about a minute to make sure everything is mixed well. Then add 2 tsp teriyaki, 1 tsp each stir fry and worc. sauces. Continue to blend, adding a couple dashes of the asian essence, balsamic vinegar, and finally about 2 tbsp ginger last.

Simmer over low heat for about 4-5 minutes, until it just starts to bubble. Taste, and slowly add teriyaki and wine until the sauce meets your taste, only really strong in flavor. You should barely be able to taste the bbq sauce, and the spices should linger on the sides of your tongue while the acid sits on the middle-back of your tongue. If the taste lingers for about 20 seconds, it's ready.

Now that our flashback is done, let's take all those ingredients, and triple the amounts, because we're having a -party-, right? So some sauce for the pork chops:

Grilling pork chops is a different animal than baking or broiling them, so if you're not experienced in grilling up some chops, pay attention. You want to get a thinner cut, and more of them. They also need to come off the grill faster than most meats, because they will cook fast. Your best bet is to actually cook them over indirect heat, so if you've got a fancy multi-burner gas grill this is where you get to play with the features.  Light up all but one burner - this is where you can cook your other food - and put your pork chops over the side not lit. They'll cook slower (and actually be more tender thanks to it), but you still need to keep an eye on them. But first, you gotta flavor them bad boys!

Get a big flat container - a broiling pan works great - and lightly coat the bottom with our asian sauce. Rinse well, and then salt either side of your pork chops, and then lay the pork chops in, lightly swishing them around to coat them. Drizzle more sauce on top of them and let them rest for about 45 minutes to an hour, turning them over after about 30 minutes. Now they're ready for the grill. When you pull them off, as with all meats, you want to give them a casual glaze as they cook, and when they come off the grill tent them before serving. You can use the same sauce you marinated them in becase pork doesn't carry the same chance of cross contamination that other meats do, and you also rinsed them off really well, didn't you? 

Next, burgers. Now, you don't want to marinate your burgers. But you do want to grind your own meat and make your patties - you get such a better flavor. Use about a 70-30 mix of sirloin and chuck, and grind in your food processor (or meat grinder if you have one). As you cook them on the grill, sear each side over the hottest side of the grill, then baste with the barbecue sauce and cook slowly over medium heat, about 4 minutes per side for medium rare.

And finally, ribs. Preferably, short ribs. Now. The best ribs get a dry rub first, you cook them by smoking them, and finishing them off with a barbecue glaze and a couple minutes over heat to caramelize the sauce.

For our rub:

2 tbsp each:
Cayenne pepper
Cumin
Ground black pepper
Kosher salt
Emeril's Asian Essence
Paprika
Oregano
Thyme
Basil
Onion powder
2 cups Brown sugar

Mix it all up in the food processor. Tada, you have a rub. Increase proportions depending on how many ribs you've got.

Lay your rib slabs out on aluminum foil, dull side up. Dust the ribs with the rub and lightly massage into them. Wrap the rips up in the foil and refridgerate for an hour and a half.

Time's up? Pull the ribs out, open the foil up carefully, and pour in part of your barbecue sauce. Not much, just enough to coat the bottom of the foil. Close the foil back up and leave 'em sit while you prepare the grill.

We're talking about smoking, so that means indirect heat and a smoke pouch. Take part of your grill grate off, and make up a foil smoke pouch up. Basically you lay out a sheet of foil, cover part of it with water soaked wood chips (mesquite, please), fold the foil up around them and seal tightly, poke holes in it with a fork or knife, and lay it on top of the heat spreader or lava rocks in your grill. Light up that side of the grill, close the lid, and once you see smoke starting to seep out, it's time to put the ribs on the OTHER side of the grill. 

Now, cooking time can be anywhere from an hour to 3 hours depending on the size of your ribs. Basically you need to start checking them after an hour, and when the meat is pulled back from the bone and you can pull the meat off the bone with a fork easily, they're done. You're probably going to need to change the smoke pouch at least once during cooking.

So, side dishes. I'll post two today and then continue later.

Grilled asparagus and corn salad.

What's that you say? Why yes. I am crazy. But trust me, it's GOOD.

First, the corn, because it takes longer to cook. Grab yourself some half-ears of corn, wash them off and get all the stringy bits loose, and then dunk them in the following mixture:

1 jar salsa (your flavor option)
2 tbsp honey
1 cup white wine (I prefer pinot grigio)
2 tsp kosher salt
All of the above mixed thoroughly

Dunk the corn to coat in this mix, wrap each piece in foil, and arrange on the grill. Now for the asparagus.

You know the trick for trimming asparagus down to the edible bits? No? Ok. Time to learn. Hold the stalk gently in your hands, the very base inch in one hand, about halfway up with the other, and bend it. There is a weak point somewhere about two thirds of the way down the stalk that will snap, usually cleanly. Toss the short part into a bowl and set the "head" into your prep area.

Once done, rinse all and lay out on a sheet of foil. Dust lightly with white sugar (and I do mean lightly!) and drizzle with melted butter or margarine. Lay this sheet down on the top rack of your grill, or side of your grill with low/no heat, for about 10 minutes. 

Once your corn and asparagus are cooked, go back to your prep area. Take the corn cobs and a sharp knife, and cut the corn off, and into a large bowl. Cut your asparagus up and toss with the corn until thoroughly mixed. Garnish with some parsley, chives, and it's ready to go!

And finally, something not grilled, but that goes great with grilled food, espcially with the spicy theme we've got going here. Wasabi mashed potatoes. And very simple. Take my Garlic Mashed Potatoes recipe ... only leave out the garlic ... and when you're mashing them up, add in 3 tbsp prepared wasabi paste. That's it. You get the flavor of the wasabi in with the butteriness of the potatoes, but without the heat. They are, in a word, delicious.  

And that's it for tonight! I'll be back in a couple days with some great drink recipes for your party, including what we call "Summer Beer" - a delightful concoction that I promise will surprise you with just how good it is!