A BBQ to remember

Young Chang

Ah, the smells of summer.

A salted sea. Watermelon juice that dribbles down your chin. Dampened

grass courtesy of the hose that also drenched your brother. Melted fat

dripping onto fiery coals, the smell of a sizzling T-bone steak smoking

away.

Vaporized fat is all it is, but this is what makes barbecuing the hot

event once temperatures rocket and Memorial Day arrives, said John

Doughty, store supervisor for the Costa Mesa location of Barbeques

Galore.

“The first big barbecue of the season is usually Memorial Day, and

Father’s Day is also a big barbecue weekend, as is the Fourth of July of

course and then the season finale, Labor Day,” he said.

Everyone will be doing it -- in the yard, on the beach, in the park,

on the balcony -- so area barbie-pundits offer their insights.

Cook with the coals after they’ve completely ashed over into a light

gray, which takes about half an hour. Don’t assume the food is cooked

just because you made a big flame.

“It’s full cooking as opposed to just fire cooking,” said Nancy

Martin, kitchen manager at Bandera Restaurant in Corona del Mar. “People

like to see the flame, but that doesn’t cook the food, that just burns

the food.”

If you’re using a gas grill, which most people are these days

according to Doughty, clean it. Unclog all the chips to prevent

incomplete cooking.

“If the grill is dirty, you end up just smoking your food instead of

cooking your food,” said Tom Shields, the chef at The Bungalow in Corona

del Mar.

How do you know when the food is cooked? Take its temperature. Have a

thermometer and test the meat. Ground beef should have an internal

temperature of 155 to 160 degrees, Shields said. Steaks can vary,

depending on how you like them. Chicken should be about 160 degrees, fish

about 135 to 140.

Shields cautions about cooking ground meat.

“A steak tends to have any bacteria it has on the outside, so it’s

killed quickly with cooking,” he said. “With ground meat, the bacteria

outside is inside ‘cause you ground it and it mixes it all inside. So you

have to cook it really well to cook internally as well as externally.”

Some pre-cooking tips: use high quality meat.

“If you don’t have really good meat you might as well not bother,”

Martin insists.

Don’t leave the food out too long where it’s warm.

Keep the ingredients simple, because too many condiments can

complicate cooking, Shields said.

Season the food after it’s been well cooked.

“This is what experts recommend,” Doughty said. “That you shouldn’t

season the steak with salt first because it tends to pull the juices

out.”

Adopt a family of bell peppers -- yellow, green, red -- they’re

grill-worthy, as are squashes and zucchinis.

“Toss ‘em in a little oil, salt, pepper, and put ‘em right on a

grill,” Shields said.

Try one of his creative toppings: grill some sliced yellow onion with

a little bit of butter, salt and black pepper in a little foil tub. Cook

this for about 5 to 10 minutes -- the longer you cook it, the sweeter the

onions will get. Try the same with green onions, scallions or leeks.

“They’re great for a grilled steak or a grilled piece of chicken,” he

said.

Corn: don’t husk it. Don’t even season it. Just put it on the grill

and the corn’s natural moisture will juice it.

Whatever you’re cooking, wrap it in bacon. Doughty does this with his

filet mignon.

Stick with spatulas and tongs. Avoid poking around with forks because

holes in the food let juices escape.

And, as always, be safe. Check your equipment if it’s been sitting in

the garage for three seasons and make sure nothing’s leaking or broken.

If you’re barbecuing on the patio or balcony, don’t dump used coals in

a plastic container, especially if the bin sits next to a wooden railing

or something else flammable. Use a metal container.

“The coals will burn through the plastic container and set the balcony

on fire,” said Capt. John Blauer, from the Newport Beach Fire and Marine

Department.

In parks, remember not to throw ashes, hot coals and firewood onto the

grass.

Same rule for the beach, except it’s don’t bury your trash in the

sand. This is especially important in fire rings, or areas designated for

open fires on the beach, where shore barbecuers are encouraged to cook.

“People have great big fires at night and at the end of the day they

toss the sand on top of it to put it out and it’s like a great big oven

underneath and people will burn their feet just by stepping on a 12-hour

old fire,” Blauer said.

When it comes to grill safety, Shields recommends a good dose of

common sense.

“There are a lot of gas grills and barbecues, so it’s really just a

matter of you getting used to the one you have. Practice and have fun

with it,” he said. “And just keep a squirt bottle handy.”