With Summer and Father’s Day almost upon us, I thought I’d recommend a few grilling cookbooks that I use frequently. Any of these cookbooks would make a great gift for the Grill Master or the Father in your life, or buy them for yourself (like I did)!

Weber’s Real Grilling by Jamie Purviance
This cookbook is filled with over 200 original recipes (each with a color photo) that were inspired by grilled foods all over the world. The recipes are easy and delicious, such as Filet Mignon with Lemon-Parsley Butter, Jerk Pork Tenderloin with Glazed Sweet Potatoes, Cedar-Planked Salmon with Honey-Lime dressing, Smoky Sweet Baked Beans and many more.

Williams-Sonoma Essentials of Grilling
More than 130 recipes from around the world (each with a photo), like Carne Asada with Blackened Corn, Hickory Grill-Smoked Chicken, Cilantro Pesto Shrimp, Mixed Grill of Summer Vegetables, etc. This is a beautiful cookbook!

BBQ USA by Steven Raichlen
This cookbook has 425 recipes from all across America. There are black and white photos throughout the cookbook but none of the individual recipes. Here’s a smattering of some of the recipes: Big Easy Barbecued Turkey, Tangerine Teriyaki Chicken, Cincinnati Chili Dogs, Apple City Championship Ribs, Santa Maria Tri-Tip with All the Fixin’s, Grilled Caesar Salad, Charred Vegetable Salsa, and the list goes on and on.

Note: If you click on the title of the cookbook, the link takes you straight to Amazon.com. Pretty handy, huh!

Tags: bbq, cookbooks, Father's Day gift, Grilling, Summer

I love deviled eggs and I love curry, so it pretty much was a given that I would love the two combined. This recipe is a fun twist on a classic!

Major Grey’s chutney is a type of chutney, not a brand. If you don’t have it (or can’t find it), the eggs will still be good. The chutney just provides another layer of flavor to the egg filling.

A decorating bag makes the stuffed eggs look fancy and labor-intensive when it’s actually super quick and easy to do.  Just spoon the filling into a decorating bag with a tip (I used tip #21), squeeze filling into each egg white in a swirly pattern, and Bob’s your uncle…pretty, swirly-filled eggs. If you don’t have a decorating bag then just spoon the filling into each egg white.

Curried Stuffed Eggs
-recipe from Gourmet Magazine 

Yield: Makes 12 stuffed eggs

6 hard-cooked large eggs
1 1/2 tablespoons mayonnaise
1 1/2 tablespoons plain yogurt
1 1/4 teaspoons curry powder
1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon bottled Major Grey’s chutney, large pieces minced
1 scallion, chopped fine
1/2 teaspoon fresh lime juice
Tabasco to taste

Garnish: thinly sliced scallion green

Cut a paper-thin slice off both ends of eggs and halve eggs crosswise. Force yolks through a sieve into a bowl (or mash with a fork) and stir in remaining ingredients and salt and pepper to taste. Transfer filling to a pastry bag fitted with a large ribbon or other decorative tip and pipe into whites, mounding it. The stuffed eggs may be made 6 hours ahead and chilled, covered.

Just before serving, garnish eggs.

Tags: chutney, cumin, curry, deviled eggs, Easter, green onions, hard-boiled eggs, mayonnaise, picnic, scallions, stuffed eggs, Summer, yogurt

A friend gave me some fresh organic blueberries today. The plump berries looked so good that the first thing I did when I got home was take a picture of them. Then, as I was looking for blueberry recipes, I came across an article by Fine Cooking Magazine with some tips on choosing, prepping and storing blueberries. And did you know that July is National Blueberry Month? Yes, it’s true! Now back to figuring out what to make with these delicious berries… 

Blueberries…
-tips by Fine Cooking Magazine

what is it?
Juicy and sweet, small, round, and, well, blue, blueberries are a hallmark of summer, finding their way into pies, cobblers, muffins, poundcake, and pancakes. Blueberries are rich in pectin; with a bit of gentle cooking, they’ll thicken into a delicious compote to drizzle over ice cream. Wild blueberries are smaller in size, with a deeper, more intense flavor. They’re hard to find fresh outside of New England, but they’re widely available frozen.

kitchen math:
1 pint fresh = about 2 cups

how to choose:
You can judge some fruit with your nose, but not blueberries. Use your eyes first: Blueberries should have a lovely silvery-white bloom over the dark blue. Look for pints free of small, purplish or greenish immature berries, a sign that they were picked before their peak. Then use the heft test: Berries should be plump and heavy. The sure-fire way of judging blueberries is to taste a few, because sweetness is variable even within the same pint. Wild blueberries—much harder to find outside of the Northeast—should be tiny and almost black.

how to prep:
Pick the berries over and discard any immature berries or berries past their prime. Remove any stems and rinse the berries briefly in a colander. For most recipes, frozen blueberries should not be thawed before adding to a batter. Mix blueberries into batters gently and quickly, using as few strokes as possible to avoid crushing the fruit and turning the batter a glaring lavender.

how to store:
Before storing your berries, pick through them, discarding any squishy berries that may turn moldy and infect their healthy neighbors. Store the berries in the coldest part of the refrigerator, but not in a drawer, where it’s too humid and don’t wash them until you’re ready to use them. Fresh picked, they can last up to two weeks in an airtight container, although they can lose moisture during the second week and shrink slightly. For baking, this can work in your favor, however, because the flavor becomes concentrated. To freeze blueberries, rinse them in a colander, dry thoroughly on paper towels, and then spread them on rimmed baking sheets in a single layer until frozen solid. Once frozen, they go into plastic storage bags.

Tags: blueberries, In Season, Summer