How To Do A Re Do Like You Do So Well. With More Barbecue~*

Its kinda turning in to a musical week~*

We decided to repaint the barbecue last weekend.  Well, I decided to.  My husband, the barbecue guy, was perfectly happy with it being beat up & rusty.  He's a purist.  He likes charcoal, wooden matches & a well used barbecue.  

I like my front porch, where the 'cue is parked this time of year, to look lovely.  And the rusty beast was not adding to my intended presentation.  

The painting bit first, then my southern man's  delicious version of a Korean barbecue {both veggie & meat variations}

The repaint couldn't be easier.  You shouldn't paint the inside of the barbecue {theoretically it would be fine to paint everything except the grate, but I wouldn't want to risk it personally}, but anything goes for the rest of it.
Give the barbecue a good scrub with a wire brush & some steel wool, pick up some High Heat Paint and a good quality oil brush, and get painting! 

After the paint is good & dry {I painted in the early morning, so it was dry by late afternoon} you can give it a little rub down with some fine grade steel wool if the brush marks bother you.  

And now for the barbecue.  I'm gonna turn it over to my husband Jeremy  for this bit...

Hi all. This was my take on a Korean style BBQ. Its a very loose interpretation but turned out well. First I roasted some garlic in the oven with sesame oil until it was very lightly roasted (as with all of this, do it to your taste, if you like it more roasted roll with it). While that was roasting I got the other sauce ingredients ready (Soy sauce, honey, rice wine vinegar, chili paste, green onion, black pepper and ground ginger) and chopped the green onion. After the garlic was done roasting I smashed it into a bit of a paste then added everything to a pot to simmer. I don't have exact measurements because that's not how I roll. Everything I do is to taste. Don't get me wrong, its not because I'm good, its because I'm lazy. Bring the sauce to a rolling boil then turn down to a simmer until it starts to thicken. It wont get very thick and it will be quite salty but you'll need it that way, trust me.

While that was simmering I got all the kebab ingredients together and started chopping. You can use basically whatever you like but I went with green onion, mushroom, zucchini, and tofu or beef. I cut them into long strips so I could use two skewers for one kebab, not exactly standard but I like the final presentation of long thin strips. It makes it look more bulky and gives you something to cut (hey, I like knives). When using two skewers be sure that the distance between the two isn't too great, and that they are straight (if they aren't parallel it can make adding some of the veg harder down the line). 

I also used a shoulder cut of steak, which wasn't optimal. Flank steak or skirt steak would be best but they didn't have that at the store when we went so I made due. It was still tasty but made for a bit of a time skewering and had more fatty deposits than the ideal (some = good, big sections = bad). Once everything is skewered take the sauce (that you've presumably allowed to cool) and pour over the kebabs. I put them in baking dishes and rotate them every 20-30 minutes to allow the sauce to get into everything. This is particularly important for the mushrooms and tofu. 

 After its all soaked in take them out to a hot grill. I put the tofu down first and flipped it after a few minutes (how long depends on the heat of the grill and how brown you like your tofu). Set it on the top rack once you've got some nice marks, the bigger slices of tofu (cut quite thick so they don't fall apart) can use the extra time in the heat will cook it through. The meat ones should go on for a bit shorter than the tofu, depending of course on how rare you like your beef. 

The cabbage was super simple. Take some of the chili paste and sesame oil from before and smear/pour over the top of a quartered head. Nappa is more traditional but I went with a regular head of cabbage, again that's what they had. Put it on the grill first and let the outer leaves char (you'll remove them later...unless you like very well done cabbage I guess). Once the outside is getting crispy you can move it up to the rack where you would put the tofu to finish baking. It will take longer to cook the cabbage through so put it on before any of the kebabs. 

Its Taby again .  Trust me on this one, it was delicious.  The mushrooms & tofu really soaked up the sauce-- beyond lovely.  And it made for a fine tofu & veggie sandwich yesterday afternoon too~*