Among my best cooking dishes (?) is grilling. I use the question mark in the dishes part, because it is not really a dish, or at least when friends come over, things get much out of control and the food is massive, the plates are useless and manners are gone! We very mage look like a group of savage eating and having fun. Grilling as a mentioned before, it is the ultimate expression of primitivity, since it combines meat, the fire and the man.
The following recipe is one of the two gold marinates I am using and is registered to me by international laws of copyrights. You can use it, repost it on the web, but you are not allowed to publish it in books, use it for restaurants or other profitable businesses.
The ingredients are simple and few, compared at list to voo-doo types of marinates.
- 2 medium/small onions
- 2 garlic cloves
- 1/3 cup Olive oil
- 1.4 cup Balsamic vinegar
- 1 tsp Sweet paprika
- 1 tsp Smoked paprika
- 1 tsp Cumin (ground)
- 1 tsp Thyme
- 1 tsp Mustard
- 1 tbsp Oregano
- 1 tbsp Peper (freshly ground)
- 1 tpsb Smoked pepper
- 1 tbsp Kosher salt
Well now that I look at that is not that short or simple list, but they are stuff you should have at home. Ok, maybe not the smoked paprika and pepper, but all the rest.
Cut the top and bottom of one of the onions and
cut it in half.
Peal the other one, and
quarter it.
Cut the quarters in half so you have eighths of the original onion.
Turning our attention to garlic. Cut the bottom and
peal of the skin with the tip of the knife. Repeat for the other clove.
So now, you have a onion in eighths, two clove of garlic, and an onion cut in half.
Using a micro plane grader to grade the onion, that you cut in half, and the garlic.
Remember all the graded onion that stuck on the back of the back of the grader.
Same goes for the garlic too.
Measure 1 tsp of paprika and add in the bowl.
Do the same with the smoked paprika…
…the cumin…
Take the smoked peppercorns to your favorite stone mortel and pestle.
Add about 1 1/2 tbsp of the whole peppercorns. The mortel is rarely washed, and the powder of the previous spices adds an extra essence.
Grind it as fine as you can.
It should yield about 1 tbsp of powder.
Use the mortel as base to grind the peppercorns (yes, you could have done that with the smoked peppercorns, but it is not easy to take out the old corns and add the smoked and repeat.)
Again estimate about 1 tbsp.
Measure 1 tsp of thyme and…
…1 tbsp of oregano.
Now go ahead and add some good quality olive oil, about 1/3 of a cup, since I never actually measure it, it might be a little more.
Add the vinegar, about 1/4 cup of it.
Mix with a whisk throughly.
Oops I forgot the salt. So add it about 1 tbsp and mix again.
Add the pieces of the onion, and mix one more time. I know peices of onion and graded onion? What ‘s the deal? Well I like the pieces of the onion. The stick to the meat and when cooked over the fire it gives out those caramelized onions.
At this point it is pretty thick so I add about 1/2 cup of water, to dilute it, and make it more suitable for coating the meat.
Once you add the water, you can go ahead and add the mustard. The mustard will react with the water, and will give a nice spicy twist. How spice? Well if it is only water and mustard, it is so spice that the produced gas was the first chemical warfare agent.
Cover and leave for at least one hour to marinate… hm.. more like blend than marinate.
For this particular batch I used it with some pork shoulder (haha.. some more like 12 lbs.).
I cut it into 2×2×2 inches pieces (roughly of course you don ‘t need to measure it) and let in the marinate for one hour. I put the on a huge spit that is connected to a motor and let over the fire for about one hour. But seriously… this is another post.
You can use the marinate on chicken, pork, but avoid beef or lamb, because it will mask completely their taste. You can cook the meat in the oven or on the stove top.
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