Grandville's Mardis Gras

Well, folks, it's been a little over a month and the LinkedIn group I'm moderating, Gourmet BBQ, has taken an interesting shape. With over a hundred members from around the globe, I'm gaining some great perspective, not only on the world-view of barbecue, but also on restaurant owners, bbq chefs and grill masters, suppliers, accessory and spice purveyors,  smoker and grill manufacturers, competition grill master events, fuel merchants, rubs, sauces, skewers and even wines!

I had no idea that the group would grow as quickly or cover such a diverse range of topics, or that I would be able to help so many people in getting their ideas and products in front of a new and expanding audience!  I made a couple of new friends, right off the bat, in Steve Gerst from Grandville's BBQ Jams, up in Washington, and a BBQ Master, Ken Fisher, author of Date Night Doin's, in Southern California, who does a lot of cooking with Steve's sauces.  Even made a little video for Steve, 'cuz he sent me some sauce, er...jam, so I thought his brand needed to have something that jammed!  Have a look at it here:

(Ken liked it so much,  I had to promise to make him one, too, which will appear in a later post, I'm sure.)

Anyway, Steve sent me a selection of his jams, which run from the Original Spicy to Extra Spicy, with Mild, Cajun, Pineapple and Ginger, in between.  Steve bills these as the "only bbq jams on the planet", and I reckon he's about right on that point!  I promised Steve I'd use them at an upcoming event and get some reactions for him, and maybe even blog about them if he didn't mind.  Well, he didn't.

I did a big ol' Cajun style barbecue for Mardi Gras, using three of his sauces (Original, Cajun and Extra Spicy) on boneless beef ribs, a couple of different spicy sausages, and country style pork ribs, served with red beans and rice, cornbread and some creole sides, different folks brought.  Drink of the evening was a choice between a Hurricane and a Mojito.

Well, it was a cool evening, outside, while it was pretty hot, inside, with zydeco music on the stereo, fancy dress costumes, hats, masks and a ton of beads.  That meant that the pork was taking a little longer to grill than anticipated. (Yeah, maybe I was imbibing a little early that night and my timing was a little off, distributing beads, or maybe the coals were responding to the cool March evening...take your pick, the result was the same...the pork was late!)

Beef, pork and sausage, slathered and ready for the grill

So, there were about twenty-five people at the affair, which my lovely wife and I had agreed to do a little later in the evening, since we didn't want to do a big sit down dinner and figured many of the guests may have already eaten something, especially by 8:30 or so when the first round of meat came off the grill. Well, I'll tell you what!  In the extra fifteen minutes it took to cut and finish grilling and seasoning the seven pounds of boneless pork ribs, five pounds of pre-cut boneless beef and four pounds of spicy, sliced sausage, grilled and dipped in Grandville's, disappeared like it was a carcass dragged away by ravenous, wild creatures of the night, baying at the moon!  Wasn't but another twenty minutes and the pork bowl was nothin' but finger lickin's to sop cornbread with.

Thing about this Grandville's BBQ Sauce, that they call a jam, it has a mellow flavor, so it doesn't overpower whatever meat you're using.  Sugar's low, so you can baste with it or dip with it. The spice comes in as an afterthought and the pieces of fruit and vegetables, finely chopped, not quite pureed, offer a richer texture and just a little twang to your bite.  Kind of like a...jam.

Maybe it was the night.  Maybe my well-healed and well-mannered company had forgotten to eat that day. Maybe it was my oh-so-exquisite skills at the helm of the grill.  Maybe it was the jam.

Nah...couldn't have been the jam...could it?

 

An Honor And A Privilege

As you may already be able to tell, I'm a big fan of spreading the joy of barbecue, and to do that, I write a lot of articles and posts and comments, and join a lot of different barbecue groups and forums around the country, even Internationally, so that I can stay connected and communicate with as many lovers of barbecue as I can.

While doing that recently, I was asked to moderate a new subgroup of Gourmet Movement on LinkedIn, by the owner of the group, Matthias (Tesi) Baur, called Gourmet BBQ and of course, leaped at the opportunity!

My vision for the site is to create a community of cross-cultural food lovers, sharing experiences from around the world, whether that be in the form of different regional styles of barbecue within the United States, from Maine to Hawaii or Florida to Alaska; International styles from Asia Pacific to Latin America to Europe; different types of grilling, like direct and indirect, plank and smoking; recipes from around the world, whether it's Australian shrimp, Brazilian churrascaria, Mongolian beef, a Jack Daniels Competition throw-down, or appetizers and veggies; event promotion, local or International, touring chefs, blog promotion, site and article promotion, companion products, grills, accessories, spices, rubs and sauces.

To me, barbecue represents a lot more than cooking outdoors.  For those that are good at it, it brings a sense of pride, from which radiates goodness, sharing, community, honor and integrity.  I don't expect everyone to feel that way, but that's how I feel and I want others to experience that.

So, if you're on LinkedIn and you are in some way, shape or form, involved in the cooking field, food and beverage industry, wine and beer distribution, spice/rub/sauce business, accessory distribution, restaurant business, are a competition pit master or are just a back yard griller or foodie, I'd like you to join me and help me create my vision.

Go to LinkedIn Groups and search for Gourmet BBQ.  I hope to see you there.