Grilling up summer fun

This past Tuesday night I participated in my first ever Twitter party. Jyl from Mom It Forward asked me to participate in a Girl’s Night Out (#GNO) sponsored by Lawry’s seasonings. The topic of the evening was near and dear to my heart – grilling.

One of the things I love about living in the Carolinas is that I can fire up my Weber kettle all year round. Sure, I used to grill in the winter when I used to live in New England, but not all that often. Here in Charlotte I wear shorts pretty much all year round. If you catch me wearing pants it probably means I was at church.

In all honesty, I don’t grill out as often as I would like. While the purist in me loves charcoal it can be a pain if I don’t plan my grilling adventures well in advance. Cleaning the grill, starting coals in a chimney, cooking the food and then cleaning up is usually more than I want to handle after a long day of playing with blocks and puzzles.

If I’m going to go through all that trouble, then I want it to be something special like an all day smoke of a brisket or a pork shoulder. Still, after the Twitter party the other night I was determined to fire things up some coals and grill something.

With what appeared to be a slight reprieve from the week of rain we have been having here in Charlotte I took the opportunity to do just that.

During the night a question was posed about what ethnic flavors were our favorite to grill. For me, that question was an easy one because there are few things better than a grilled flank steak or tri tip that has been soaking up an Asian marinade.

Since it has been a while since I’ve put together a Dad in the Kitchen post, I thought I’d share my favorite marinade recipe. I’ve used this on flank steak, sirloin tips and tri tip steak with great success.

• 2-3 pounds tri tip steak
• 3/4 cup soy sauce
• 1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce
• 2 tablespoons sesame oil
• 2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
• 2 tablespoons honey
• 1 tablespoon finely grated ginger
• 2-3 finely minced garlic cloves
• Zest of one lemon

I like to combine all the ingredients in a bowl, whisk them together, pour them into a zip top bag with the meat and let them get happy for six to eight hours before cooking. Using plastic bags to marinade things is my preferred method because it makes it easier to mix everything together every few hours to ensure even distribution.

Additionally, I like to use my zester to not only extract the lemon zest, but to grate the ginger and garlic so it is practically liquified. Personally, I think it mixes better with the liquids when you whisk it and you don’t have any errant chunks of ginger or garlic floating around.

When I made this for dinner last night I served it on top of some baby spinach with a light sesame ginger dressing.