The Meatwave

Saturday was a true Meatwave adventure Off the Meatwave Path. The amount and variety of foods that were brought surpassed any Meatwave that has come before, but hopefully not all that are still to come. We spanned spectrums of meat from duck to lamb to beef to fish to pork. Then there were the great grilled vegetables and fruits that complemented our journey through the waves of meat, and evidence of this follows just after the jump.

My original plan for Off the Meaten Path were turkey legs. Although turkey is no stranger to the Meatwave, the legs were, and I really wanted photos of everyone with a gigantic turkey leg in front of their face. That idea died shortly after I saw a small collection of ducks in my local grocery at a great price. Not only do I love duck, but it has never made it to the Meatwave, or my kitchen at all. This was a no brainer, and I bought a duck without reservation, read up on how to grill it, and then cooked it to (almost) perfection with the deep flavor of an orange glaze on top of its crispy skin, yummy.

The lamb reared its head again this week. The last Meatwave being a bit of a rain out, I was left with 1/2 of my leg of lamb. I froze it, then defrosted it for Saturday, and grilled it up Although not quite as good as when fresh, the lamb was still all eagerly eaten up. As you can see in the photo above, it also caused a bit of grease fire as the fat dripped over the tin foil wrapped sweet potatoes resting in the coals below.

Kris was the real grill master at this Meatwave. Besides making some great salsa to accompany a big ass bag of tortilla chips I bought at Costco and grilling more summer squash, she spent most of her day sitting right next to the grill. Like a true pro, she watched and cooked intently, making sure everything we ate came out perfectly grilled.

Trusty Meatwave regulars Mike and Pete were in attendance, each bringing some great sides. Mike made an excellent corn salad, that was later made even more excellent with the addition of some of Kris's salsa. Pete brought some sweet potatoes. Last year he brought some sweet potatos that we roasted a little too long directly on the hot coals, those were quickly dubbed "ashy yam turds." Although a repeat of last year would have provided more hilarity, we were more intent on eating the sweet potatoes than making fun of them. So we wrapped them in tin foil and placed them right in the coals for about 20 minutes. They were roasted to a beautifully soft and creamy interior, that was complimented with a maple cinnamon butter.

Tea is known not only for her love of spreading the Meatwave gospel, which she did again this week, but also her great meat creations. She brought with her a roll up of thin sliced pork, prosciutto, and cheese, marinated in some sort of garlic sauce. There were fantastic, I ate 3 of them and they were a total hit all around. The extra thin prosciutto cooked up crisp, which contrasted nice with the pork and creamy cheese.

Even though Suzun is our resident vegetarian, that doesn't stop her from the meat, well, that is if you consider fish meat, which she obviously doesn't. She cooked up salmon kabobs with leeks, grape tomatoes, and yellows peppers. As I've said before, one of my last big food aversions is fish, and I let that keep me from eating these, which disappeared so quick I barely even saw them. I did, however, eat some of the delicious grilled peaches she brought. I have been getting a lot of peaches from the CSA lately, and while they aren't my favorite fruit, stick them on the grill and they're a while different animal. After Suzun's peaches were gone, we finished off our own batch of CSA doughnuts, that I preferred even more to the regular ones.

Kevin was the man of the day, it being is birthday and all. He brought his own little big cookout with him that included hot dogs, corn, beer, and new Meatwaver, Jamie. Even with all the different meats going on, every one of those hot dogs were eaten, along with the beer. The corn just keeps getting better as we reach the middle of corn season. Kris grilled these up expertly with butter, salt, pepper, cayenne, and lime.

As you can see, the Meatwave was nothing less than a true feast. Our day was a real journey of eating, with one thing after another, leading us on a trail of deliciousness, as I predicted. So we've made the trek, and what's our reward at the end? That question is easy, plenty of ribs at the next Meatwave, New Pork City!

Published on Mon Aug 13, 2007 by Joshua Bousel

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