For our inaugural Bitch and BBQ session in Phoenix last night, we prepared the following menu:
-Bacon Wrapped Beef Tenderloin Kebabs
-Grilled Corn on the Cob
-Basmati Rice with Tomatoes and Zucchini
And of course, we drank Bitch.
By the way, it was still 95F degrees outside at 7:00 pm, which means I literally sweat over the preparation of this meal. It also didn’t help that my grill was being a ‘bitch,’ and wouldn’t fire up for some reason. I knew my gas tank was low, and Carole ended up running over to Walmart to get a new tank, but even the new tank wasn’t firing up at first. But we finally got it working and what was originally going to be a 7 pm dinner turned into an 8:30 pm dinner. After that debacle things got better, helped by a few glasses of wine.
We used applewood smoked bacon from AJ’s Fine Foods, which is truly some of the best butcher bacon I’ve ever had. We also got the beef tenderloin from AJ’s. I wrapped each beef cube with 1/2 strip of bacon and put 5 on each skewer (with a few smaller pieces of leftover beef in between the bacon wrapped pieces). The kebabs were grilled over medium heat for about 17 minutes, turned once at the 10 minute mark.
The corn was left in its husk and wrapped in aluminum foil. I grilled it for 30 minutes, with rotation every 10 minutes.
To keep things easy, and to maintain my sanity after the drama with lighting the grill, I decided to just cook the rice on my kitchen stove. I soaked the basmati rice in water for 20 minutes, then brought the combination to a boil. I then covered the pot and turned the burner down to low to allow the rice to simmer for 15 minutes. After about 7 minutes, I added chopped tomatoes and zucchini to allow them to be steamed and absorbed into the flavor of the rice. When the 15 minutes was up, I turned the burner off and let the rice steam for another 10 minutes.
The always addictive smell and taste of grilled beef and bacon, the sweet juiciness of the corn, and the intoxicating aroma of the basmati rice made for a great combination. So despite the initial challenges, this was a delicious meal and a great way to kick off our summer of Bitch and BBQ.