Grilled Potatoes with Lavender

If you know me at all — or have read this blog for any length of time —you probably realize I'm a wee bit obsessed with purple things. Among the few purple foods, purple potatoes may be my favorite: They are so unabashedly vibrant! I haven't yet made purple potato pizza, but I'm still playing with potatoes and lavender.

This vegetarian side dish is perfect for a party. You can steam the potatoes early in the day, and then they take only about 10 minutes to finish up on the grill. The result is much like oven-roasted potatoes. This technique is especially nice on steamy hot days when you can't bear to turn on the oven.

I love this combination of lavender, lemon thyme, and red wine vinegar, but you can freely make substitutions to suit your taste — or what's in your garden.

Grilled Potatoes with Lavender

Be sure to use lavender that's free of pesticides. Feel free to substitute other herbs if you don't care for — or have access to — lavender or lemon thyme.

2 pounds small purple potatoes, or other new potatoes (I used a mix here)
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons olive, grapeseed, or safflower oil, divided
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
1/2 teaspoon mustard
salt and pepper to taste
a squeeze of fresh lemon juice
6 teaspoons fresh culinary lavender, chopped, or 3 teaspoons dried
2 teaspoons fresh lemon thyme, chopped, or 1 teaspoon dried

Steam potatoes for about 10 minutes, until just tender. (If you have a pressure cooker, this takes just 3 minutes.) You can do this earlier in the day and store the potatoes in the refrigerator until you're ready for grilling.

Cut steamed potatoes in half and toss with 2 tablespoons oil. Spread on a grilling pan and grill over medium heat for 5 minutes, then turn and grill another 5 minutes or so until crisp.

Meanwhile, make the dressing: whisk together 1/4 cup of oil, vinegar, mustard, lemon juice, salt and pepper, 4 teaspoons of lavender, and lemon thyme. When potatoes are done, remove from grill and toss with dressing. Serve warm.

Second Helping: More Than S'mores

S'mores are a thing of beauty: warm marshmallow oozing over melting chocolate, held in place -- barely -- between two crisp graham crackers. Pure sugary heaven for a kid; as a grownup, however, I enjoy one and then I'm done.

But I fell in love with s'mores all over again thanks to my friend Melissa, who blew my mind with a full smorgasbord of s'mores options. Lemon meringue pie in s'more form was a revelation. And the peanut butter, banana and chocolate s'more sent me over the moon.

I can't believe I hadn't heard of these before. If you've been similarly deprived, I'm revealing all right here -- just in time for Labor Day cookouts!

Lemon Meringue S'more

1 marshmallow
2 Lorna Doone shortbread cookies
1 spoonful lemon curd

Toast marshmallow over fire or grill. Spread lemon curd on one cookie, add toasted marshmallow, then top with second cookie.

Fluffernutter S'more

Use any of the following toppings that make you happy. All of them in one s'more made me very, very happy.

1 marshmallow
2 Nutter Butter cookies
2 slices banana
1 square Hershey chocolate bar

Toast marshmallow over fire or grill. Put banana slices on one cookie, add chocolate square, then toasted marshmallow, then top with second cookie.

Cookout Week : Shrimps Skewers with Orange and Dill

When I was little, I always liked to see wooden skewers on the grill. They looked cute and helped me eat morsels of chicken, beef or shrimps. This magic also worked with the boys here: Not that they just loved to unthread the shrimps from the skewers, but also they enjoyed the sweetness of the seasoning.

This recipe is very simple, yet it brings some different touches. Fresh herbs from the garden and orange juice (from the tree I have in the backyard) were an improvised way of seasoning while we were laying the charcoal in the grill.  Add to that some patience to wait for the perfect timing to let them become golden and delicious.

This marinade here can also be used for different types of fish: We tried it already with fresh salmon, and it was great. I suggest, again, to make sure that the shrimp choice can be healthy for you and the environment checking the Seafood Watch from Monterey Aquarium.

Grilled Shrimps in Orange and Dill Marinade

1 pound raw medium shrimps, cleaned, tail on
2 cups fresh orange juice
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, in a mister
Kosher or Coarse sea salt, to taste
Dill or other herb that might bring more "colors"to the orange juice
Ground white pepper, to taste

First of all, don't forget to soak the skewers in water some hours before prep. Wash and pat dry shrimps, and in a bowl cover them with orange juice, salt and dill for at least 30 minutes. Take them out of the marinade, thread on to skewers and reserve the juice with seasonings it to use for basting while grilling.  Coat shrimps with olive oil. Grill skewers on the top of a medium- hot grill and keep turning it up to the point that flesh is orange. Enjoy with freshly ground white pepper with some drops of lemon. 

Cookout Week: No-Fuss Grilled Pizza

I had a lot of fun in my mom's kitchen, but some of the best times were pizza nights. Birthday parties, sleepovers, and visiting friends were occasions for my mother to make pizza dough from scratch, and we'd gather around to pick and choose among a dozen toppings.

I'm trying to keep the tradition alive with my kids, but it can be chaotic. Timing the rise of the dough, prepping toppings, helping young (and always enthusiastic) kids through the process, then shuffling pizzas through the oven... And that hot oven! At 500 degrees, the kitchen becomes a sauna.

Grilling pizzas is a summer-friendly alternative, but it's even more difficult to manage with a crowd. You have to stay on top of the dough, turning it at just the right moment, and then top the pizzas while they're on the grill. The logistics confound me: I've actually set pizzas on fire, which is not how I want to impress guests. I'd rather enjoy the company than fuss over the grill.

By partially baking individual crusts and freezing, the work is done ahead of time and the pizzas are much easier to handle. Just set out toppings, remove the parbaked crusts from the freezer, and let everyone design their own pizzas. Toss the pies on the grill and, minutes later, you have delightfully crispy pizzas -- with no risk of dough flopping into the flames or sagging between the grates.

For our playdate, my favorite combination was Grilled Eggplant with roasted red peppers, cherry tomatoes, black olives, and smoked mozzarella. The kids preferred crumbled hamburger -- leftover Drive-Through Burgers from an earlier barbecue -- with sausage and plain old mozzarella.

Grilled Pizza

Parbaking the crusts makes this easy to pull together for a crowd. Set out toppings and let your guests top their own crusts, then toss the pizzas on the grill for dinner in minutes. You also can finish these in the oven.

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups white whole wheat flour
2 1/4 teaspoons yeast (one package)
1 1/2 teaspoons sea salt
1 1/4 cups lukewarm water
1 tablespoon olive oil, plus extra for baking sheet
optional: fresh or dried herbs, ground flax seed

In a food processor fitted with a metal blade, combine the flour, yeast, and salt, along with herbs or flax seed, if using. Process the dry ingredients briefly, then pour in 1 cup of lukewarm water and the olive oil. Add more water, just a tiny bit at a time (you might not use the entire amount) and continue to process until the dough forms a ball. Turn out the dough onto a floured surface and knead for a minute or so to form a ball. Set dough in a lightly oiled bowl, cover with plastic wrap or a towel, and let rise for 1 to 1 1/2 hours.

Preheat oven to 500 degrees, or higher if your oven allows. Divide dough into as many pieces as you plan to turn into pizzas. For grilling or personal pizzas, I divide the dough into six pieces, but it also makes two full-size pizzas. Shape each piece into a ball and set on a floured surface. Cover with plastic wrap or a towel and let rest for 15 to 20 minutes.

Oil a baking sheet. Take each piece of dough and press it into a circle on the baking sheet, about 8 inches across for personal pizzas. Bake 5 minutes and remove to wire racks to cool. If crusts puff up, pierce with a sharp knife and gently press out air.

Once crusts have cooled completely, stack them one on top of another, with plastic wrap separating each layer, and wrap the stack with plastic wrap and then foil. Freeze up to a month.

To finish pizza, remove frozen crust from freezer, add desired toppings, and cook over a very hot grill until cheese is melted and bottom of crust is crispy.

Cookout Week: Grilled Eggplant

We recently hosted a BBQ for a few dozen people, grilling Drive-Through Burgers, hot dogs, and eggplant. There wasn't a vegetarian in the bunch, so I was surprised that it was the eggplant that people were raving about. It's a dream to prep for a party: no salting, no marinating, and minimal seasoning. It doesn't get much simpler -- or tastier.

Grilled Eggplant

This is wonderful fresh, and the leftovers work well in just about any eggplant dish you can imagine. We've enjoyed the eggplant diced with noodles and peanut sauce.

eggplant, any type or size
olive oil
salt
freshly ground pepper
chopped fresh oregano and marjoram, or other herbs

Slice eggplant into half-inch-thick slices. Lightly brush olive oil on each side. Grill over medium-high heat for a few minutes on each side, until you see grill marks, brushing with more oil if the eggplant looks dry. Remove from heat, season with salt, pepper, and herbs, and serve.

Cookout Week: Marinated Tri-Tip

Summer's in full swing, and Fourth of July cookouts are just around the corner. To celebrate, this week we have a handful of great dishes for summer parties.

This marinated tri-tip is a favorite of mine, originally posted last spring. It's a simple preparation that brings out the best of this lean, tender, and inexpensive cut. It cooks in mere minutes on the grill, and the leftovers -- if there are any -- are fantastic.

Growing up on the East Coast, I had never heard of tri-tip. Apparently it's a West Coast thing, but is spreading in popularity in the U.S. It's also known as triangle roast, triangle tip, or bottom sirloin butt; if you don't spot it where you buy meat, ask the butcher. It's worth hunting down.

Marinated Tri-Tip

I top the grilled slices with sliced scallions from the garden. A little green decoration on top makes me think it’s healthier than it is.

2 tablespoons low-sodium soy sauce
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon water
2-3 cloves garlic, chopped
black pepper
2 pounds beef tri-tip, cut into 1/2-inch slices

Stir together the soy sauce, olive oil, water, garlic, and pepper in a bowl. Add the tri-tip slices, cover, and marinate in the refrigerator at least four hours.

Oil the grates of a medium-hot grill. Grill slices 3 to 5 minutes on each side, or until they’re done to your liking.