BARBECUE UNIVERSITY WITH STEVEN RAICHLEN
Episode 101—UP IN SMOKE
Smoke is the quintessence of true barbecue and such an essential part of American barbecue that Steven devotes a whole episode to the art of smoking. His recipes are done on gas and charcoal grills, as well as with smokers, to show viewers that they don’t have to go out and buy special equipment to smoke. Recipes include smoked tomato gazpacho; a money-saving, home-smoked salmon; a chopped, smoked eggplant dip (a.k.a., baba ganoosh); and smoke-roasted pears for dessert.
Episode 102—RIB FEST
Ribs are the Holy Grail of barbecue and there are as many opinions on how best to cook them as there are individual pit masters. This show celebrates the barbecued rib—from sweet and sticky Kansas City style spare ribs to spicy Memphis dry rubbed baby backs; from Jamaican jerk baby back ribs to plate-burying dinosaur ribs (beef ribs) to top loin pork ribs spit-roasted on a rotisserie.
Episode 103—MUCH AT STEAK
Steak is the ultimate test of a grill master’s mettle. In this show, Steven explains how to grill a slab of meat that’s crusty on the outside and juicy inside—in short, the perfect steak. The show begins with a primer on all the cuts of steak, including those that are best for grilling and those cuts that should never be used. Steaks featured in this show include New York strip steak with tarragon butter, Florentine steak, bacon-wrapped filet mignon, dirty steak (cooked directly on the embers), and a bible-thick rib steak served with red wine sauce.
Episode 104— ON THE STICK
Turks call it shish kebab; the French, brochette; Russians, shashlik, Indians, tandoori; and Thais, sate. Whatever the name, meat on a stick is the world’s most popular form of barbecue and rare is the culture that doesn’t enjoy some sort of kebab. Steven has his own favorites, of course, which include shrimp grilled on sugar cane, chicken sate, Turkish shish kebab, grilled asparagus and garlic, and cinnamon-grilled peaches for dessert.
Episode 105—GONE FISHING
More people are flummoxed by grilling fish than by any other type of food. With good reason: fish often sticks to the grate or falls apart when you try to turn it. Steven demonstrates five fail-proof techniques for grilling seafood: cedar-planked fillet of salmon, halibut in a basket, grilled tuna London broil, salmon steaks with mustard glaze and trout grilled in a special fish basket over charcoal.
Episode 106—THE MEATLESS GRILL
Gone are the days when barbecue meant only meat and more meat. In this show Steven comes up with recipes for a meatless barbecue that will delight vegetarians and carnivores alike: grilled quesadillas; grilled pizza with mozzarella and basil; balsamic grilled portobello mushrooms; and a novel finale: “glazed doughnuts” (as in bourbon-glazed doughnut peaches on the ‘barbie’).
Episode 107—BIRDS ON THE CAN
Beer can chicken is the most eye-popping, jaw-dropping dish on the American barbecue circuit and there’s no better way to cook a whole chicken—or any fowl—than in an upright position over an open can of beer on the grill. Steven has taken this technique to a new level with recipes that include the now classic American beer can chicken, as well as root beer game hens, beer can ducking a l’orange, and pineapple juice can quail.
Episode 108—THE WHOLE HOG
For many Americans (especially if you live in the South), “barbecue” means pork and in this show, Steven goes high on the hog. Recipes for North Carolina pulled pork shoulder with vinegar sauce, mojo-marinated pork tenderloin, smoked-brined pork porterhouse, and a spectacular whole pit roasted hog.
Episode 109 —TACKLE THE TAILGATE
Steven elevates the tailgate to the high art of grilling in this show, with recipes that are clever adaptations of old favorites. The “hot” in his hotdogs are jalapeno stuffed wieners; the prefect burger remains moist because it is stuffed with herb butter; “buffa-que” wings are spicy grilled wings that will cause a stir even in Buffalo; an improbable, whole cabbage is filled with bacon, sour cream and homemade barbecue sauce; and, scouts honor, Steven cooks up s’mores like you’ve never seen them before.
Episode 110—WHERE’S THE BEEF?
It isn’t only Americans who love to grill beef over fire. In this episode of Barbecue University, Steven takes the viewers on a world tour: recipes include an English prime rib complete with grilled Yorkshire pudding; ribs the way folks like them down in Argentina, a Nicaraguan-style churrasco (grilled beef tenderloin) with chimichurri sauce. And for the grand finale, an American favorite: a whole, smoked, fork-tender Texas brisket.
Episode 111 —THE HEALTHY GRILL
Grilling is the world’s oldest and healthiest cooking method. It is also perfect way to cook for today’s healthy lifestyle, being naturally high in flavor, low in fat, and mercifully short on preparation time. In this show Steven focuses on healthy grilling and some of the world’s best ways to achieve it – firing up everything from a tiny hibachi to a 6 burner stainless steel “super-grill.” Featured recipes include chicken yakitori, Thai beef salad, grilled tuna with Greek-style zucchini, and coconut glazed pineapple for dessert.
Episode 112—FOWL PLAY
Chicken has bedeviled grill jockeys almost from the moment man learned to make fire: the challenge is to cook the meat through without burning the skin. Steven focuses on five great ways to grill chicken: indirect grilled with garlic and lemon, the ultimate rotisserie chicken, spatchcocked chicken (where the backbone is removed so the bird grills flat like a book), Tuscan-style chicken under a brick, and a fail-proof version of an American classic: barbecued chicken.
Episode 113—SHELLFISH ON THE GRILL
When it comes to barbecuing, the subject of grilled shellfish begins and ends with shrimp. Steven shows you how to grill almost any sort of shellfish, from mussels to scallops to lobsters. Recipes include bacon-grilled shrimp, scallops on rosemary skewers, grilled lobster basted with basil butter, and garlic-grilled mussels and clams cooked on a nifty piece of equipment known as a “Great Grate.”