With Pete McGahey and David Gauvin
The healthy minded Chefs from the Addison Gilbert and Beverly Hospital Café have created a monthly cooking series that you can view on their website; www.beverlyhospital.com/healthyliving. We have a clip from their grilling episode where they show that it is easy to prepare a healthy [very little fat], tasty [who doesn’t like food cooked outdoors?] menu that lets all family members participate.
They make a point that grilling chicken is not difficult and chicken can be cooked on a grill without drying out. As accompaniments, they show how fruit and vegetables take on an intense flavor when they too are grilled.
One lesson is how to prepare the grill. They prefer using charcoal for grilling flavor and use a “chimney” starter to light a charcoal fire. Not only is it a quicker way to strat the fire but there is no residual taste.
Other grilling points made:
• Cook over indirect heat and not direct heat
• Cut and prepare a whole chicken to save money
• Sear your food and then quickly remove it from the flame area
• Know that different foods cook at different rates so time your cooking accordingly
• Maintain your vigilance over the grill
• Avoid the cardinal sin of cooking chicken – high heat
As a side dish, they prepare and grill pineapple in slices on the grill and make a fresh salsa. Side dishes are grilled asparagus and grilled corn. The asparagus can be seasoned with oil, salt and pepper and takes only a few minutes to cook. The corn is best soaked for an hour in its husk and then grilled for about as long as the chicken.
