Andrew Coppolino tosses a ribeye on the BBQ for Father's Day
Andrew Coppolino | for CBC News | Posted: June 17, 2017 12:03 PM | Last Updated: June 19, 2017
Recipes to make your mouth water this Father's Day or throughout the summer
If we think of Mother's Day as an opportunity for taking mom and the family to a restaurant for a lovely brunch, Father's Day is reserved for the backyard barbecue and an afternoon of fire, meat, hot sauce and ice-cold beverages.
June 18 is a day for fathers — or their surrogates — to show off behind the grill with big, bold meaty flavours that demand domination and control of nature's most powerful element: Fire.
Below are recipes for a few simple appetizers and snacks and a more complex communally-shared paella dish that can be done on the barbecue or a wood fire for added smokiness.
There are commercially-produced smoker boxes available, but you can also MacGyver your own: buy an aluminum roasting pan, add wood chips that have been soaked in water and drained, cover with tin foil, poke the top full of holes, and place directly on the fire beneath your barbecue grills. Turn the BBQ to high and let the smoke build. Cook away!
When cooking, keep things simple by having as much preparation done ahead of time as possible so you can spend more time on the deck with friends and family. And remember: Recipes are only guidelines — improvise and adjust ingredients where you need to.
Roasted garlic and charred grilled bread
Ingredients
1 head of garlic
Olive oil
Salt and pepper
2 good baguettes (trust me: guests will want a lot of this)
Method
Clean up the loose outer skin of the garlic and brush off dirt. With a sharp knife, decapitate the top third of the garlic head but keep the individual cloves together. Drizzle with a good quality olive oil and season to your liking with salt and pepper.
1 head of garlic
Olive oil
Salt and pepper
2 good baguettes (trust me: guests will want a lot of this)
Method
Clean up the loose outer skin of the garlic and brush off dirt. With a sharp knife, decapitate the top third of the garlic head but keep the individual cloves together. Drizzle with a good quality olive oil and season to your liking with salt and pepper.
Wrap the garlic in aluminum foil and seal it tightly. Roast in the barbecue for about 30 minutes, or until soft and yielding to pressure when you squeeze it. Remove the garlic from the heat.
Lightly oil slices of baguette — the thickness is your preference. Toast on the BBQ grills until just beginning to char. Remove the bread and slather thickly with the warm garlic paste. Kiss a friend.
Simple grilled oysters
Ingredients
Oysters
Compound butter of your choice (or not at all)
Method
Oysters usually have a flatter side and a more round side. Place the round side of the oyster on a kitchen towel and – guarding the hand holding the mollusk – use an oyster shucking knife or very short and sturdy kitchen knife (or even a slot-head screwdriver) to gently but firmly pry open the oyster's hinge. Clean the oyster knife on a clean towel and gently run the knife up against the top of the shell to cut through the adductor muscle.
Oysters
Compound butter of your choice (or not at all)
Method
Oysters usually have a flatter side and a more round side. Place the round side of the oyster on a kitchen towel and – guarding the hand holding the mollusk – use an oyster shucking knife or very short and sturdy kitchen knife (or even a slot-head screwdriver) to gently but firmly pry open the oyster's hinge. Clean the oyster knife on a clean towel and gently run the knife up against the top of the shell to cut through the adductor muscle.
Gently pull back the shell being careful to retain the liquor inside. Next, run your knife underneath the oyster to slice through the second adductor. Remove any debris or shell fragments from the oyster liquor. If you like, gently flip the oyster over for a nicer presentation.
If your guests don't have the heart to eat a few oysters raw, place them in their half-shell on a hot barbecue grill, close the lid and cook about two minutes or until they are bubbling. Don't overcook them. And don't slaughter them with lemon or hot sauce, either. Enjoy them naked!
Smokey BBQ paella
Ingredients
5 to 6 saffron threads
2 tablespoons hot water
Vegetable oil
1 to 2 chorizo sausages, cut into thick coins
1 lb boneless chicken thighs cut into bite-sized pieces
1 rabbit, bite-sized pieces (optional)
1 large white onion
1 red pepper
1 orange pepper (you can use green pepper, but I don't like them)
Garlic cloves to taste, chopped
2 cups of traditional Bomba or Calasparra rice but Arborio is good, too
1 large tomato, chopped
¾ cup white wine
5 to 6 cups chicken stock
Salt and pepper
Smoked paprika
1 lb uncooked shrimp, shells on or off
½ lb mussels, beards removed
Method
Get your BBQ heated up to 375-degrees or so.
5 to 6 saffron threads
2 tablespoons hot water
Vegetable oil
1 to 2 chorizo sausages, cut into thick coins
1 lb boneless chicken thighs cut into bite-sized pieces
1 rabbit, bite-sized pieces (optional)
1 large white onion
1 red pepper
1 orange pepper (you can use green pepper, but I don't like them)
Garlic cloves to taste, chopped
2 cups of traditional Bomba or Calasparra rice but Arborio is good, too
1 large tomato, chopped
¾ cup white wine
5 to 6 cups chicken stock
Salt and pepper
Smoked paprika
1 lb uncooked shrimp, shells on or off
½ lb mussels, beards removed
Method
Get your BBQ heated up to 375-degrees or so.
Break up the saffron and add it to the hot water. Let it sit and bloom for several minutes.
In a large pan (the traditional pan is called a paellero), get the oil heated and add the chorizo and cook to just brown. Push to the side and add the chicken and cook for about 8 minutes. Remove to a plate. Add the rabbit (optional) and cook, then remove and reserve warm.
Add the onions, peppers and garlic being careful to not let the garlic burn. Cook for several minutes and then add the rice and stir together and cook for several more minutes. Add the tomatoes and cook for two minutes and then add the wine, stock and the saffron and its water. Stir to incorporate.
Return the chorizo, chicken (and optional rabbit) to the pan of rice and peppers. Season with salt and pepper and paprika. Cover and cook for 30 minutes, reducing heat to moderate.
Uncover the pan and add the shrimp and mussels evenly around the rice pushing them down into the rice. Bake uncovered for about eight to 10 minutes. Shrimp should be pink. Discard any mussels that don't open.
Set the pan of paella on the centre of the table, drizzle with olive oil and a sprinkle of paprika and encourage guests to carefully spoon out their own portions while Dad has another beer.
BBQ'ed ribeye
Ingredients
2-inch thick ribeye, Porterhouse or T-bone steak
Salt and pepper
Very hot BBQ grill
Thermometer
Method
Get your meat to room temperature at least one hour before cooking. Pat it dry with paper or kitchen towels. Season liberally with salt and pepper and massage it into the steak. I prefer more pepper that salt as this point and add more salt when serving.
2-inch thick ribeye, Porterhouse or T-bone steak
Salt and pepper
Very hot BBQ grill
Thermometer
Method
Get your meat to room temperature at least one hour before cooking. Pat it dry with paper or kitchen towels. Season liberally with salt and pepper and massage it into the steak. I prefer more pepper that salt as this point and add more salt when serving.
Turn the BBQ heat off on one side of the grill. Place the steak on the hot side and sear both sides for several minutes or until marked and golden brown. Sear the edges of the steak too. Keeping the hot side of the grill on high, move the steak to the cool side and close the BBQ lid. Continue to cook until the internal temperature of the steak reaches 120-degrees on the thermometer.
Remove the steak to a plate and cover loosely with foil wrap. Let the steak rest for at least 10 minutes so it reaches medium-rare doneness. At the table, slice the steak against the grain with a very sharp knife, season with nice chunky finishing salt and a grind of pepper or two and serve.
Happy Father's Day!
Clarifications:Happy Father's Day!
- This article has been updated to reflect the correct time to re-add the chorizo, chicken and rabbit to the paella, which is right before cooking the paella covered for 30 minutes. An earlier version of this article did not mention when to add the meat. June 19, 2017 2:18 PM