Fire It Up - Andrew Schloss [181]
With a grill mitt on, move the corn stick pans away from the fire. Using a silicone basting brush, coat the corn stick indentations with oil. Carefully spoon the batter into the prepared pans, cover the grill, and cook until the corn sticks are puffed and browned, 10 to 12 minutes.
Remove from the grill to a cooling rack, and cool in the pans for 3 to 5 minutes. Loosen each corn stick around the edges with a small knife, and carefully lift out of the pan and transfer to a serving plate. Be careful; they’re fragile. Serve warm with the spicy orange honey and butter, if desired.
KNOW-HOW: SEASONING CAST IRON
Iron is porous, and must be sealed or seasoned before its first use. Many cast-iron pans come preseasoned. Seasoned cast iron looks shiny and black; before it’s seasoned, cast iron is dull and dark gray. To season a cast-iron pan, wash it and dry it well, coat it with a flavorless unsaturated oil like canola oil, and set it upside down in a 350°F oven for 2 hours, removing the pan every 30 minutes to coat it with more oil. Put a sheet pan or a large sheet of foil below the pan to keep dripping oil from getting on the oven floor. Turn off the oven and allow the pan to cool before removing it. Seasoned cast-iron pans can be washed in soap and water, but they should be dried immediately, and never scrubbed with anything abrasive. If they are scrubbed, the seasoning will come off, and you will have to season the pan again.
PASTRY
Grilled Cheese Straws
MAKES 12 SERVINGS ( 2 DOZEN CHEESE STRAWS)
Pastry grills beautifully. The only trick is coating it with something that will help it keep its shape until the dough sets. Without that, as soon as the dough warms, the fat in it melts and everything falls through the grill grate. In this simple recipe a sheet of pie crust dough is encrusted with cheese and cut into strips. When the crust hits the grill grate, the cheese sets up right away and then quickly browns while the pastry crisps. The resulting cheesy, crunchy pastry straws go great with cocktails.
INGREDIENTS:
1 recipe Flaky Pie Pastry
2 tablespoons milk
1 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
½ cup finely shredded Cheddar cheese
1 teaspoon paprika
Cooking spray
DIRECTIONS:
Roll the pastry to a thickness of inch. Trim to a 12-by-6-inch rectangle, and brush with the milk on both sides.
Combine the Parmesan, cayenne, Cheddar, and paprika, and press the mixture into both sides of the pastry. Cut into 24 ½-inch-wide, 6-inch-long strips and arrange in a single layer on a baking sheet. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.
Light a grill for a bilevel medium/low fire, about 375/275°F.
Brush the grill grate and coat with oil. Coat the cheese straws on both sides with cooking spray. Grill over the low heat until grill-marked and crisp, about 1½ minutes per side, moving to medium heat if necesary for crisping.
Depending on the size of your grill, you may have to cook several batches. Serve warm or room temperature.
SANDWICH
Ham and Brie Baguette Panino
MAKES 4 SERVINGS
Panino is Italian for “small bread,” and panino imbottito is a stuffed panino, or a sandwich that is typically compressed to help it hold its shape, and grilled. Panini refers to more than one panino, but it has become the worldwide term for any Italian-style sandwich made on a small crusty roll, and grilled under pressure. Panini presses are double-sided grills that compress panini sandwiches as they’re grilled, but if you’ve got a gas or charcoal grill, you can make panini that are far superior to any that come out of an electric press. You will need a brick, a flat stone, or a heavy skillet to weight the sandwich as it grills.
INGREDIENTS:
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
1 tablespoon chopped fresh tarragon leaves
1 garlic clove, minced
1 fresh baguette, 24 inches long, split lengthwise
8 ounces Brie,