BBQ Junkie

No-Fuss Carne Asada

A quick suggestion for Cinco de Mayo, or Mother’s Day, if you want to have yourself a little fiesta but not too much fuss. Grill some carne asada, it’s quick, painless, and delicious. Here’s what you do to save a lot of time and energy. Find your local Latin/Mexican grocery store ( I like Vallarta) or carniceria (Mexican butcher shop) and ask for their carne asada that already been prepared (also called “carne preparada”). It’s usually skirt steak that has been marinated in a special marinade unique to each carniceria. Sometimes it’s in the glass at meat counter and other times you have to ask for it. Once you get your meat, all you have to do is grill it and you’re a star.

While you are at the market, pick up some homemade salsa (again, unique to each store) and a package of tortillas and you have an instant Cinco de Mayo/Mother’s Day celebration. You might also want to try your hand at the BBQ Junkie “pico de gallo.”

Enjoy.

BBQ tri tip.

I would like to give a quick shout-out to TR, from Ventura County, who posted this recipe in the BBQ Junkie Forum. This preparation for BBQ tri tip is easy and super delicious. All you will need is a BBQ grill (charcoal, wood or gas), a tri tip, some French’s mustard and a bit of kosher salt.
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All Barbecue Recipes

I have enjoyed going to AllRecipes.com ever since it was just CookieRecipe.com it has continually been one of my favorite cooking sites. And if you haven’t guessed it, they also do user submitted BBQ recipes. The functionality of the site is phenomenal, you can save recipes, change the serving size and create a shopping list from the ingredients. Not bad for a free and easy to use website.

All Recipes Barbeque

Big Lu’s Chipotle BBQ Sauce

Quick little barbecue sauce thats great for pork or chicken. Thanks Jill for sending this recipe back to me …I’m pretty bad at writing things down. Oh well, on to the recipe.

1 cup Ketchup
1 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup apple cidar vinegar
1 tsp mustard
1 tsp worchestshire sauce
2 Tblsp Molasses
2 Tblsp Chipotle chiles in Adobo sauce (adjust to your taste)
1/4 cup cilantro (chopped)
salt and pepper to taste

Directions: Mix everything together and use it - Delicious!

BBQ Spaghetti?

Recently on Food TV in a Bobby Flay episode entitled “Getting Sauced,” they featured a restaurant in Memphis that made BBQ spaghetti. Thank God for TiVo. Who would have thought that something that sounded so ridiculous could look so appetizing? It was an interesting episode; most notably it featured the inventor of K.C. Masterpiece BBQ Sauce. The recipe is available on Food TV’s website. If anyone is able to try it out, please let me know.

Food Network: BBQ Spaghetti

Try something different for Easter.

Spring is all about rebirth, freshness, starting over and, of course, daylight savings time… which leads to longer days and gives us additional opportunities to BBQ. If you find yourself looking for something different to prepare on the grill this holiday weekend, try the Food TV website that has a grand assortment recipes specifically tailored for the BBQ.

Food TV BBQ Recipes

Pico de gallo.

Two of our favorite things to grill in Southern California are tri-tip and carne asada. It seems as that everyone has at least one recipe for each. They can be prepared simply over mesquite coals and seasoned with as little as just some salt and pepper. With such a straightforward method of grilling that pays homage to the flavor of the beef, why spoil it with a traditional BBQ sauce. Not that a traditional BBQ sauce is bad thing, it would just be bringing too many uninvited guests to the party.

I know that some people love to put BBQ sauce on tri-tip, and some also like to marinate the meat for days on end. But, if you are looking to prepare your meat using the simplest of recipes why not keep your condiments simple as well. Try using a salsa in place of a BBQ sauce. Any homemade salsa would go great with these meats, but the one that works best in for these meats is pico de gallo. Not only is this salsa great tasting, it can be prepared almost anywhere.The recipe for pico de gallo is as follows. Enjoy.

The Ingredients:

2 large tomatoes - diced
2 medium onions - diced
2 jalapeños - stems, seeds and pith removed then minced.
2 limes - just the juice (No limes? Use 1 lemon.)
1 bunch of cilantro (also know as coriander) finely chopped or shredded by hand.
salt and pepper to taste.

Mix all ingredients together. Tadahhhh!

This recipe is very flexible, that’s what makes it great. You can substitute chiles seranos for the jalapeños (if you want it hotter, use more chiles), use any onion you want. Try adding crushed garlic.