Portobello Pizza / Cobb Grill / Low Carb Treat

This is a nice treat and also low carb and fairly easy to make and bake on any size cooker or kitchen oven. 

The Ingredients for my cook were as follows:

3-4 Portobello Mushrooms

Pizza Sauce

Sliced black olives

Sliced bell peppers

Sliced onions

Pepperoni

Pound of Italian sausage

Mozzarella cheese

I cooked the sausage in advance and used a mellon ball tool to clean out the gills on the bottom of the mushrooms. 

Started with the sauce

Next, I added the sausage, the olives, onions, and bell peppers

Finished up by adding the cheese and pepperoni and they were ready for the grill. 

Placed the first three treats on the Cobb which I had running at about 325-350 degrees. Took about 15-18 minutes to get done. 

Done on the grill

I did the 4 mushrooms in two cooks or bakes

Served with some fruit and a Smoked Amber Ale and I had a great meal. 

High Temp Grilling GMG Pellet Cooker

This is my attempt to modify my new Green Mountain Daniel Boone grill to sear, grill, and cook high temperature items. About all pellet cookers are setup to cook indirect which makes it a little more difficult to accomplish this task. A few of the better pellet cookers do have an insert which can be installed or setup for just this purpose. Much of the ideas and data used in this modification comes from the Pelletheads.com forum and I have refined it to suit my method of cooking. 

In my opinion, the very best steak or chop must be cooked direct at the “Tip of a Charcoal or Wood Flame” and I feel that this modification comes pretty close to what I can get out of cookers that are designed for this task. 



This is a State Fair cut ribeye which I have cut 3/4” thick out of the whole ribeye loin and will be used in a sandwich just like one would purchase at the fair. It was cooked for 4 minutes, turned 90 degrees and cooked for 4 more minutes, turned over and cooked for 4 minutes, and the turned again 90 degrees for 4 more minutes and removed from the cooker. Totally overcooked at well done but this was my first attempt and very easy to fix.

Here is my setup in my Daniel Boone GMG cooker. 



I started by laying two firebricks on each side like you see in the picture. My plan is to use a couple of Brinkmann Stainless Steel heat tents over the firebox and up as high as I can get them in the cooker. These heat tents will protect my firebox and the bottom of the grill from all the grease and juices that might come out of the meat. They will also prevent some of the flame ups and still allow some of the drips to get thru and sizzle on the tents producing some of that great grilled flavor. I want my fire to get plenty of air and as much flame as possible to hit the bottom of the heat tents and spread out under my Grill Grates. Again, the closer I can get to cooking somewhat direct at the “Tip of the Flame” is what I want. 



These are my two adjustable Brinkmann Stainless heat tents installed in the cooker. 



I put the standard grids into the cooker and then added my two Grill Grates which gives me a very high temp cooking surface of about 13-3/4” by 10-1/2 inch total. 



The setup works perfectly in my opinion and the flame or tip of the flame from the fire box is right at the cooking surface of the Grill Grates. At this raised height, the fire does spread out under the heat tents as planned and gives me an even very high heat cooking surface over the total area of the grates. If you look close, I think you can see the flames thru the holes at the grate level.

I was also hoping to be able to cook at under my cookers top temperature range of 500 degrees and still get great results as I felt that it is kinda foolish to have to run at these temps which can lead to warped parts and wasted fuel. I am happy to report that all my cooking is being done at 350 degrees set temp and I am getting great results. 



My second round of State Fair steaks were cooked 2 minutes and then turned 90 degrees and then cooked for 2 more minutes and turned again for 2 more minutes and pulled off the grill. This 8 minute total cooking time produced a medium done steak. Still a little too much time as I prefer a more rare steak. 



Next up were a couple of boneless chicken breasts and these were cooked for 2-1/2 minutes, turned 90 and cooked 2-1/2 more, then turned over and followed the same on the second side. This 10 minute total cook time produced a final internal temp of 165 degrees.



Chicken just off the cooker. 



I also cooked three 1/4 pound fat burgers. These were cooked the same total time as the steaks and were just slightly over done.





The results off my first high temp cook.



The State Fair ribeye is normally served on a bun but since we low carb, I put them on a couple pieces of toasted low carb bread. I then add some lettuce, a thin slice of onion, tomato, and a slice of pickle. 



That is one fine sandwich!

I am very pleased with this setup and just need to work on my cooking times.

Spinnin' Turkey Breasts GMG Pellet Cooker

I needed to cook four turkey breasts which weighed a total of 30-3/4 pound and decided to do them in my Ez-Que rotisserie setup on my Green Mountain Pellet Grill. The capacity is two breasts at a time so it will take a couple of cooks. 

Meat Preparation

After I had trimmed up the breasts, I made up 32 ounces of Shake’s Honey Brine and injected each breast with about 4 ounces in each side of the breast. 

Next step was to place each breast into a large 2-1/2 gallon zip-lock bag and pour a bottle of Wishbone Robusto salad dressing over each piece of meat. The 4 bags then went into the fridge overnight for my combined brine and marinade period. I did turn them over a couple of times during this overnight time period. 



On the morning of the cook, I sprinkled on a generous coat of my no-salt and no-sugar rub and mounted two of them into my 8” Ez-Que cradle for the cook.

Cooking



I loaded the grill with hickory pellets and fired it up and then brought the temp up to 175 degrees for my short smoke cycle of about one hour. I installed my rotisserie cradle into the cooker and got it spinning.

After about an hour, I upped the temperature to 325 degrees and started my mopping process. 



I made up some “Roadside Chicken” marinade / sauce and mopped the turkey breasts at each 30 minute interval until they were done at 160 degrees internal temperature. 



The breasts just before they came off the cooker.

Presentation

I unloaded the two breasts from the cradle onto a couple of plates and they sure looked good. 



We planned to use one of the breasts for ourselves and the other three will be given to a neighbor. 





I cut the meat away from the bones on our breast and sliced it for our use. 



I toasted up a couple of slices of low-carb wheat bread and smeared on some mayo on one half. I then added 3 nice slices of my turkey breast. On the other piece of bread, I added some lettuce, tomato, and some sliced red onion. I then added a couple of ABT’s and one Pig Shot to my plate.





Now that’s a serious turkey sandwich!

Another great rotisserie cook on my Green Mountain Grill.

New Green Mountain Pellet Cooker--Wangs & Thangs

This is my first cook in my new Green Mountain Daniel Boone pellet cooker. The cook started out in a big box.



First job was to put it together in our nice cold Indiana weather.



Ready for the pre-burn to burn off all the manufacturing oils and gunk. After this burn, I cooled it off, tore it all down, and brushed peanut oil and all the internal parts and fired it up again to season the cooker. After about an hour at 350 degrees, it was ready for use.



I built two raised second grids for the cooker to double it capacity and used the left side only for this cook. Nice feature with this cooker is all the available height inside the cooker at about 13 inches for items like beer butt chicken or turkey. It will also be used for a couple of my rotisserie setups. There is even room for that 5 layer jerky setup inside the cooker. Gonna be fun working with this cooker!!

Rubbed up 5 pork steaks and placed three of them on the left side of the standard grid and then added the last 2 on my raised grid. The hot wings were rubbed with my blazing hot wing no-carb wing rub and placed on the cooker. Started this cook out at about 190 degrees for about 30 minutes to get maximum smoke and then raised the temp to about 275 degrees for the balance of the cook.

Typical Indiana Winter weather with a temp of about 33 degrees and winds of  22-30 mph with gusts up to 40 mph. 



Later into the cook, I sauced the hot wings a couple times with a mix of Franks and Sriracha, some butter, more cayenne pepper and some Splenda for sweetness. 



After the hot wings came off, I added four 1/3 pound burgers, and three varieties of sausage links.  I also sauced my pork steaks at this time with my lo-carb sauce.

The results of the cook...



Burgers and dogs look good.



Blazing hot wings.



Pork steaks. 





My lunch.

Steak & Grilled Romaine Lettuce on the CB 500X

This no-carb short cook was done on the CB 500X with some of that fine Wicked Good charcoal. Nice cool morning with the temp at 31 degrees and nice sunshine. I started a chimney full of the charcoal and went inside to prep my food. 



The ribeyes are cut about 1-1/2 “ thick and weigh a little under a pound each and are choice graded.

The romaine lettuce was cut into two pieces each and then I drizzled on some olive oil, some garlic powder, some sea salt, and some fresh cracked black pepper on both sides. 



By now the charcoal was ready so I poured it into the cooker. I then started the lettuce cut side down and just gave it a short char to get a few leaves blackened up a little and then turned them over.



As soon as they are turned over, Jan added some fresh grated parmesan cheese to each clump.



Just about done on the cooker. 



Next on was the ribeyes. 



I seared the first side about 6 minutes and then turned them over. The second side took about 5 more minutes to get to my finish internal temp of 120 degrees and they came off the cooker. 



I plated the steak and my grilled romaine lettuce up with a couple of slices of tomatoes and my no- carb recipe of “Brown Butter Cauliflower Mash” which is a work in progress at the present time. 



Sure made a nice lunch...the little cooker is a joy to use.