Monday, July 18, 2011

Grilling a Steak: 10 Really Thorough Steps to Greatness!

Steaks on the Grill at Wood Ranch



One of the questions I get asked most often is, "How come when I grill a steak at home, it's not as good as at a steakhouse?"  OK, let me try to help.  One of my neighbors shared that he loves to fire up the grill and throw the steaks on at high heat, letting the flames surround the meat.  This is a very common mistake.  I'll address that and other challenges in 10 easy steps.
1.     Buy a good quality piece of beef.  Let’s use a NY strip steak as our baseline.  I wholeheartedly recommend this medium-marbled (marbling refers to the intramuscular fat in the steak) cut for being sufficiently beefy without being overwhelming.  Let’s go with four steaks that your butcher will cut about 1 ½ inches thick, weighing anywhere from 12 to 16 ounces each.  Please note that when you’re grilling a steak, the thickness is the priority.  So, if you want a smaller steak, still try to get one that is fairly thick.

You’ll also need: 
½ lb butter
½ cup olive or corn oil
4 teaspoons Kosher salt
4 teaspoons coarsely ground black pepper
1 meat thermometer, preferably digital
1 bag of natural hardwood charcoal
1 charcoal grill

2.     Take the steaks out of the fridge.  Put the steaks on a cookie sheet and cover them with plastic wrap.  Let the steaks sit for about 45 minutes or however long it takes for them to get to room temperature.
3.     As the steaks are getting to room temperature, prepare the grill.  If you’re using a gas grill, answer these philosophical questions:  Why?  Who am I?  If you’re using a charcoal grill, let’s say the ever-popular Weber Kettle, read on.  Light about 40 hardwood charcoal briquettes (Kingsford now makes a competition briquette that is all natural, meaning no petroleum products.  You can also get lump hardwood charcoal at Trader Joe’s and most hardware stores.)  Once a white ash has developed on the charcoal, place it in the grill bed and make a descending slope from one side across to the other of the grill.  Pile more glowing briquettes on the right and fewer as you move the left.  This will create a hot area and a warm area in the grill.  (If you don’t have enough charcoal, light another 20 briquettes.)  If all the steaks are going to be one level of doneness – say medium-rare – then lay an even bed of briquettes, but leave a part of the grill without any so you can move the steaks over if need be.  Let the coals sit in the grill for about 15 minutes.  Put the lid on with the vents fully open.  This will even out the burn on the coals. Now, back to prepping the steaks as the charcoal gets hot.  
4.     Your steaks are still getting to room temperature.  Here’s where you need to make a choice.  If you like butter, melt about a half-pound and skim the milk solids off to create clarified butter and let that cool. (Yes, like for lobster.)  Pour about four ounces of oil, olive or corn are what I prefer.  The oil will help conduct heat to form a char, or a crust on the outside of the steak. Measure out 4 teaspoons of Kosher salt and 4 teaspoons of coarsely ground black pepper.  If you don’t like butter, use only the oil for the next step.  I’ll assume for our purposes that you love butter.
5.     Mix the oil and clarified butter to combine well.  Once the coals are burning evenly, meaning there’s not a big flame coming off them, brush the steaks with the oil-butter mixture and let any excess drip off.  Sprinkle each steak with about 1 teaspoon of salt and 1 teaspoon of pepper, both of which should stick to the oil-butter.  You are almost ready to put the meat on the fire.
6.     Here is where it gets tricky because this step takes patience and is somewhat contrary to your instincts.  Assuming you’re going for medium-rare, you want the fire to be about 350 to 400 degrees.  If you have a meat thermometer, put the probe through a wine cork or a piece of raw potato and set the cork or potato on the grill grate.  Get a reading of the temperature.  (An instant-read digital thermometer costs about $10 - $15 bucks at Target.)  If you get between 350 and 400, put your hand, palm down, about six inches above the grill and get a sense of what that temperature feels like.  If you can hold your hand there for about four seconds, your fire is spot on.  Take the thermometer off the grate and put it aside.  You’ll want it back soon.
7.     Finally, put the steaks on the grill!  Since you’re going for medium-rare, which in steak-ese means 125 to 130 degrees Farenheit internal temperature, you can put the steaks right over the coals.  NEVER, NEVER, NEVER PRESS DOWN ON THE STEAKS.  All you will accomplish is making them lose moisture.  Now, don’t get freaked out here, but DO NOT LET ANY FLAME TOUCH THE MEAT!  You might get flare-ups because you’ve got oil on the meat and the steaks themselves contain fat that can melt and drip into the fire.  If you get a lot of flare-ups, move the steaks toward the outer edge of the grill until the flames subside, then move the steaks back.  Cook each side for about 4 minutes and flip.  Flip back after 4 minutes and cook for 4 minutes, then flip one last time and cook for about 4 minutes.   At any time after the second flip, use the meat thermometer to get a reading of the internal temperature.  By the end of the cooking, the outside of the steaks should have a fairly nice char (crust) on them and the inside should be medium-rare.
8.     But wait, you say.  I don’t think that 125 to 130 degrees is medium-rare.  I think that’s actually rare.  Fine, but don’t grill your steak any more right over the fire because you risk charring it too much.  Move the steaks over to that side of the grill without coals under the grate and cover the grill with the vents half open.  This will essentially roast the steaks for the last bit to get them to 130 or 135 degrees.  Check them with your thermometer or leave the probe in one of the steaks. 
9.     I would recommend that the first time you use this method to cook the steaks to a lower temperature because at the end of the process you must take the steaks off the grill and let them rest for about 4 to 5 minutes before you serve them.  During this time the steaks will continue to cook from their own heat. This resting lets the steaks calm down and redistribute the juices inside so that when you cut into the steak you won’t get a river of liquid streaming out.
10.“Eat your meat.  How can you have any pudding if you won’t eat your meat!” – Pink Floyd
So, enjoy your steak.  Put steak sauce on it, slab more butter on it, make a pasilla pepper hollandaise for it and risk a coronary.  (I’ll give you the recipe once you know me better.)  Of course, if all of this is just too much to contemplate – and it really isn’t, but it just requires some precision – just come on over to Wood Ranch and we’ll be happy to make a lovely steak for you.




Thursday, April 7, 2011

Wood Ranch Increases Gluten-Free Options


Wood Ranch BBQ Sauce is Now Gluten-Free

Over the years, we've noticed that more and more of our guests would ask about gluten-free options.  If you suffer from sensitivity to gluten, you know what gluten is.  If you don't know, gluten is a protein composite that appears in foods processed from wheat and related species, including barley and rye.  It gives dough its elasticity, helping it to rise and to keep its shape, usually giving the final product a chewy texture. We have always had dishes on our menu that contained no added gluten, but we were also always concerned that some transference of gluten might occur.  In reality, our experience has been that we have had no known cases of transference or of anyone in our restaurants suffering any ill-effects from unknowingly eating something with gluten.

To create a gluten-free section of our kitchen is very difficult and prohibitively expensive given our menu and volume.  That said, we have come up with ways to offer more gluten-free options.  So, Wood Ranch BBQ & Grill has increased the number of gluten-free options on its menu.

“The biggest change we made is to our barbecue sauce,” explained Wood Ranch co-founder Eric Anders. “We spent a lot of time looking at how to keep the same flavor, but eliminating gluten. I’m happy to say we’ve been able to do it.”

“That was the key,” added co-founder Ofer Shemtov. “So many of our most popular dishes include our barbecue sauce that we could not offer many gluten-free options before now. We’re very conscious of gluten now and will look for more opportunities to offer dishes without it.”

Our gluten-free options can be found below and are available on an information card in all Wood Ranch restaurants. In addition to the items below, Wood Ranch also now offers Redbridge, a gluten-free beer, by the bottle.

Gluten-Free Options at Wood Ranch

While there are items on our menu to which we do not add ingredients that contain gluten, many menu items do contain gluten. Gluten is also found on our grills. As a result, it is impossible for us to guarantee that there will not be any transfer of the gluten to recipes and food that are otherwise free of gluten.

Our BBQ sauce is now gluten-free!

The health of our guests is always among our primary concerns. While we can let you know about items to which we do not add any gluten, only you really know what is safe to eat. Below are some tips on how you can avoid added gluten while at Wood Ranch.

HOW TO AVOID GLUTEN AT WOOD RANCH

• The following salads contain no added gluten when ordered without dressing and croutons: Natalie’s, Tri Tip, House, Caesar.
• Order sandwiches without buns: Classic Burger; Buckeye Burger; Santa Fe Chicken. If you like, we’ll “lettuce-wrap” these for you!
• Order our fish simply hardwood-grilled. Do not order marinated or blackened as the fish marinade and blackening spice do contain gluten.
• Our steaks are seasoned with gluten-free granulated garlic.
• Our steamed broccoli, steamed green beans, black beans, asparagus & plain baked also have no added gluten.
• Our BBQ chicken is “slow-roasted” and finished with our BBQ sauce on the grill, where transference of gluten could occur. The same goes for the tri tip, BBQ chicken breasts and baby back ribs.

Monday, April 4, 2011

The Giant Short Rib, Thursday Night Special @ Wood Ranch

The Certified Angus Beef Short Rib, Only at Wood Ranch

Bet You Can't Eat More Than One
 
This is the Certified Angus Beef Short Rib that gave Fred Flintstone "rib envy."  We started experimenting with this short rib about nine months ago, but the cost of the item went up so much that we weren't able to offer it until the end of last year.  This is for the true BBQ aficionado.  

We experimented with different smoking woods and different levels of smoke before finally deciding on pecan.  Of course, before we put the ribs in the smoker, we put a generous amount of our own dry rub on it and allow the spices to penetrate the meat.  We then put the ribs in the smoker for about seven hours.  They become remarkably tender.

One of the challenges in offering a dish like a Giant Short Rib is explaining to the guest why there's "only" one rib.  Of course, once they see the one rib, everyone gets it.  The meat on this short rib, like on most short ribs, is extraordinarily heavily marbled.  The flavor is very beefy and rich.  The way I like to explain just how rich is to say that "rib eye and prime rib are green vegetables compared to this short rib."

If you're a true lover of BBQ, you'll really enjoy this dish.  Right now, all Wood Ranch restaurants are offering the Giant Short Rib as a Thursday night special.  Some of our locations have it on more than one day.  Dinner only.  Served with one side.  $24.95 at most locations.  I think you'll be happy.

AB