Grilling with Paste
Gourmet Magazine has a great substitute for your spice rubs and marinades for your grilling pleasure.
While in the Caribbean, John Willoughby and Chris Schlesinger came across a local BBQ and feel in love with the intense flavors. They watched as a type of paste was placed on to the chicken. As the followed up with some research, they discovered that this was not unique to the Caribbean. That pastes were used in Central/South America, North Africa and even Asia. Although the various pastes are used usually for something besides grilling, after more investigation they discovered that not only were these pastes easy to produce and no advance planning was necessary, but the flavor they produced were more intense.
we’ve found spice pastes to be particularly well suited to grilling. To begin with, the direct high heat of the fire converts the pastes into a deep, dark, marvelously flavorful crust whose texture contrasts beautifully with the tender food inside. In this respect, they are even better than dry spice rubs, our other favorite coating for grilled food, which can burn more easily; the oil in pastes causes the spices to toast rather than dry out. (As an added advantage, this means that you don’t need to toast the spices in advance to bring out their flavor.) We also love the flavor dichotomy between the spicy crust and the unadulterated food it covers. With marinades, which do penetrate the food that sits in them, even if only slightly, this contrast is nowhere near as pronounced.
There are other reasons why spice pastes leave marinades far behind as a pre-fire flavoring. Because the dry ingredients in pastes are diluted only with a bit of oil rather than with the relatively large amount of liquid used in marinades, pastes contain a far more concentrated dose of spices, and therefore deliver more intense flavors. These goopy mixtures are also perfectly designed to stick to the surface of foods, so all the taste of the component ingredients stays on whatever you’re cooking, rather than being left behind, as with marinades.
One note is they suggest that you gobble up the food. They discovered that the intensity of flavor is not as pronouced after sitting in the refrigerator for a couple of days. So, if you do have leftovers keep that in mind.
Below is a recipe from Mexico that can be used on meat, chicken or, as in this case, pork (pictured above). They suggest for an even more intense flavor substitute the red pepper flakes for crushed chile de árbol, dried pasilla, or New Mexico chiles:
ingredients
2 1/2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons paprika (not hot)
1 1/2 tablespoons dried oregano, crumbled
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin
1 1/2 teaspoons dried hot red-pepper flakes
1 1/2 teaspoons finely grated fresh lime zest
1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
4 (1 1/2-inch-thick) bone-in loin pork chops (about 3/4 pound each)Special equipment: a 17- by 12- by 3-inch disposable aluminum roasting pan (if using charcoal); an instant-read thermometer
preparation
Prepare grill for direct-heat cooking with medium-hot charcoal.
Stir together all ingredients except pork chops in a bowl to form spice paste, then rub paste all over pork chops.
Oil grill rack, then grill chops over coals, turning over occasionally and moving around if flare-ups occur, until browned, 2 to 3 minutes total.
Move chops to area with no coals underneath, then cover with inverted roasting pan and grill, turning chops over once, until thermometer inserted horizontally into center of a chop (do not touch bone) registers 145°F, 8 to 10 minutes. Transfer to a platter and let stand 5 minutes before serving.
Cooks’ notes:
• Pork can be grilled on a gas grill. Preheat all burners on high, covered, 10 minutes. Reduce heat to moderately high and brown chops, covered, turning over occasionally, 2 to 3 minutes. Turn off 1 burner (middle one if there are 3) and put chops above shut-off burner, then grill, covered, without turning, until thermometer registers 145°F, 12 to 15 minutes.
• Pork chops, rubbed with spice paste, can marinate, covered and chilled, up to 4 hours before grilling.
• Spice paste keeps, covered and chilled, up to 1 week.Gourmet, June 2007
To read the complete article and see more recipe ideas go here.
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