The best unexpected food you can grill (mostly) isn’t meat

in Questioning rut? Let us take you off the familiar path – and off the meat path – with some of the most unexpected foods you can make. grill, smoke, and roast to mix up your repertoire and impress your guests. Restaurant manager Rodney Scott, owner of Five Barbecue Restaurants in Rodney Scott and author of the cookbook says Rodney Scott’s BBQ World: Everyday is a good day. “This is one of the biggest mistakes I see people make. Experience alone.”

1. Watermelon steak

Says Stephen Raichlin, PBS Cooking Presenter and author of fire projectAnd the Dukhan ProjectAnd the Barbecue! Bible Cookbook series. Cut fresh watermelon into 1-inch steaks or 4-5 inch wedges along the rind. “Apply some kind of oil until it sizzles on the outside,” says Reichlin. “Next, grill until submerged and grill marks on both sides, but still raw in the middle, 1 to 2 minutes per side.” You can brush it with mascarpone cheese and a drizzle of balsamic vinegar, he says. Or pair it with a hard, savory cheese like al fresco (which Reichlin prefers over feta for being “a little salty without being too sour”) and sprinkle it on chopped fresh cilantro and thinly sliced ​​Serrano peppers, he says, or add fresh mint and serve with arugula with a vinaigrette. Honey and lemon.

2. wheel pre

Start your grill at medium-high heat (350 to 400°C). Place a small wheel of Brie directly on the grill grates, then get ready, says Brad Wise, chef at rare community Steakhouse in San Diego, Santa Maria-style, on live red oak. “Cook and keep stirring until you see One Spill a speck of cheese – then peel it off Immediately. Pierce the top with a spoon, and “fill it with any kind of preserves or jam,” he says, “along with chopped nuts like walnuts or spiced almonds.” Top with fresh, untoasted baguette for dipping.

3. Grilled Grapefruit Cocktail

A mixologist can add a hint of smoke to your cocktail at the bar; You can smoke it entirely at home. Cut a grapefruit in half and coat the cut side with 1 to 2 tablespoons of sugar, as if you were shaking out a donut, Norden says. You don’t want to suck up all of its juices, so go easy. Place the grapefruit on the grill, sliced ​​side down, until slightly charred, as the fruit juice mixes with the sugar and caramelizes for a smoky burnt flavor. Cut a small slice from the black roasted portion to use as a garnish. Next, squeeze the juice and mix it with about 2 ounces of smoked mezcal or tequila, pour it over the ice, and top it with about 3.3 ounces of soda. (Optional: add a little beetroot juice .) Garnish with reddish grapefruit slices.

4. Bacon

Grilled bacon will give you more smoky flavor, less fat, and a happy crowd. “I’ve made bacon on the grill a few times, without a frying pan at all,” Scott says. There, it can be cooked slowly, and you don’t risk dripping the bacon fat directly onto the flame. “It’s very, very risky if you exceed direct temperature,” he says. “I’ll pick up quickly.” Cook, stirring once, until crunchy.

5. Smoked Ice Cream

“It’s weird how vanilla ice cream ends up tasting just like toasted marshmallows,” says Reichlin of smoking the ice cream. Beforehand, fill an aluminum foil drip pan with water (one to two inches high) and freeze it, he says, “so you’ll have a kind of cold base.” Then set up an indirect charcoal grill (about 400 degrees) with charcoal on one side. When you’re ready to go, unwrap a pint of ice cream by running hot water over the container and take out the ice cream cylinder. Put the ice tray on the indirect fire, then put the ice cream on top of it. Next, “charge your fire with wood chips,” says Reichlin—who will use two large handfuls of applesauce or walnut chips—and close the grill lid. Smoke for 3 to 5 minutes. “The outsides will melt a little bit, but it will get a kind of dark, membranous black smoke,” he says. If it thaws too much, refreeze it. Then serve it with grilled fruit such as peaches.

6. Whole Branzino

Grilling a whole fish may seem intimidating, but “it’s surprisingly simple and impressive enough to make anyone look like an expert,” says Joe Gurira, owner of cetarella and author Joe Knows Fish: Eliminate the Intimidation of Cooking Seafood. Branzino says it’s great for group grilling. “The white flesh is tender and firm, flaky but buttery.” One fish (about 1 pound) feeds one person, so everyone gets their own food. Buy whole, clean branzino. As he says, “With any whole fish, you never peel the skin.” “The fish will cook faster, and the meat will be drier.” Instead, wash it down with olive oil, salt, and pepper. Grease the grill with oil and make sure it is hot. Cook each 1 pound of branzino for 5 minutes on each side, he says. “The result will be tender meat and crunchy skin.” Drizzle the cooked fish with fine olive oil. Or, he says, “melt cherry tomatoes in a skillet with olive oil, and add pitted Kalamata olives and sliced ​​Judas artichokes or soaked artichoke hearts.” My heart and feet above the fish.

7. Peach on cinnamon sticks

The hardest thing about this, says Reichlin, is finding ripe peaches. Once you’ve done that, cut it into quarters and then “use a small bamboo skewer to make starter holes,” he says (stab it in the belly back on the peaches, not from head to toe). Next, push a 3-inch-long cinnamon stick through the conduit you made. Bring equal amounts of butter, brown sugar and bourbon to a boil, then heat the peaches. Grill until edges are dark brown and serve with vanilla ice cream.

8. Smoked Cauliflower

Genevieve Taylor, chef and cookbook author says: charred And the burnt. After trimming the outer stems, boil them in boiling water for 5 minutes or so. “This will help start opening up the cell walls so they can absorb smoke better,” Taylor says. Sprinkle the boiled head with olive oil and salt, then put on an indirect fire in a small container and close the lid. (You’re looking for a temperature of about 300 degrees.) Let it cook for about an hour “so it softens and absorbs all that smoke and beauty,” she says. While it’s cooking, mix in some butter, garlic, and chopped herbs like thyme, marjoram, cumin seeds, and chili flakes. Pour the mixture over the cauliflower, close the lid again, and cook for another 15 to 20 minutes until the butter is completely melted. “Very simple,” she says, “it takes very little time.”

9. Oysters

Roast raw oysters on one half of the shell. “Mix them raw, add a little chopped garlic and butter, then put them on the grill,” says Scott. “Cook until it boils slightly, then add a touch of Parmesan cheese.” Or throw whole oysters on the grill—still closed, no preparation. Place them on a piece of metal or in a cast iron skillet to protect them from direct heat, and spray them with water to get the moisture while they cook. “Then you can shut down the grill, or go wild and sit there and watch which one pops up first,” Scott says.

10. Charcoal-cooked cabbage

Rub the salt over a whole white cabbage and allow it to actually absorb, says Josiah Citrine, author of the cookbook coal, who serves this as a signature dish at his restaurant in Venice, California, of the same name. “Have your embers ready to go—the coals are as hot as possible—and bury the cabbage inside the coals,” and cover it completely. Let it cook for about an hour and 10 minutes, stirring it now and then to make sure it’s cooked evenly — but “delicately,” he says, “so you don’t tear the outer crust.” Remove it once it is black on the outside and fully cooked. (Put a skewer through it to check if it moves easily.) Cool the cabbage slightly, cut it into 4 or 6 wedges, then “sprinkle with olive oil, sea salt, chives, and a pinch of fresh black pepper.” Then serve it this way coal It does: With Greek yogurt mixed with sumac, lemon peel, and chives.

11. Grilled Caesar Salad

Impress your guests with a grilled salad, says Wise. Cut the baby romaine into halves or quarters, brush with a little oil and season with salt. (The peppers add a lot to the romaine’s nice flavor, and it’s best that the peppers don’t burn.) When the grill is hot (450 or 500°C), place the cut side down. “You want to roast the inner root of the lettuce, not the outer green part,” he says. Cook on that very high heat for 2.5 minutes or until grill marks appear,” Wise says. “Just know, the longer you cook, the thinner it will be.” Brush with Caesar dressing of your choice, and top with toast and grated Parmesan cheese.

12. Carrots cooked with zampir

Carrots are another great root vegetable that you can cook right in the coals. Just brush them gently, and “as the fire slows down as you wait for the coals to be perfect for whatever else you’re cooking,” Nordan says, “put the carrots directly on the coals.” Turn it over to make it black and burn on all sides. When it is soft enough and gives a little more, put it on indirect heat to keep warm. Scrape off the burnt part with a knife and serve.

13. Provolone Frying Pan

Provoletta, or grilled provolone cheese curd, is often grilled directly over grates as part of a traditional Argentine asado, says German Lucarelli, owner of lost fire Restaurant in Maine and author lost fire cooking book. He recommends using American Provolone in cast iron “until it flushes into the pan.” First, place the empty cast iron skillet on the grill over high heat and get it very hot. Then add a few drops of olive oil, a pinch of oregano, and chili flakes to a 1-inch-thick wheel of cheese. Put it in the skillet, and sear it until it makes the delicious crust that everyone loves—”very crunchy, crunchy on the outside and very cheesy on the inside,” Lucarelli says. It is suggested to serve it with grilled bread seasoned with olive oil and rubbed with a clove of garlic.

14. Frozen Pizza

You can grill a pizza from scratch, of course, but if time is short and people are hungry, take a frozen pizza and throw it on the grill. “I put it on a Big Green Egg and it was just like a pizza oven!” Scott says. Uses frozen pie with a rising crust. Since the plate that maintains direct heat from the bottom of the pie isn’t on the grill and all the coals are on one side, keep rotating the pizza until it’s evenly cooked.

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