Bobby Flay's Grill It! Book

Bobby Flay's "Grill It!" is a nice cookbook for those of us who enjoy firing up our grills. Charcoal or gas grill? Flay accepts both and gives some hints about each. He notes at the outset that (Page vi): "Firing up the grill makes every night dinners with family or simple get-togethers with friends feel like a party or some sort of celebration." The early part of the book discusses fundamentals--direct versus indirect heat and when to use each, how to determine how hot the grill is, testing for doneness, needed gear to grill, what should be in your pantry and refrigerator. Finally, he emphasizes going to a local market/store, picking up what food seems freshest and most interesting, and going from there.

But the heart of the book is the recipes. He divides these up into types of food--vegetables, chicken, beef, seafood, etc.

At the outset, he discusses grilling veggies. I have tried one of these already--asparagus wrapped in prosciutto. Straightforward ingredients--asparagus, prosciutto, mint, parsley, garlic, etc. Grill the asparagus, after tossing it with oil and seasoning with salt and pepper. Grill until crisp-tender. Then wrap in prosciutto (8 or so stalks at a time) with the other blended ingredients. Yummy! A fine side dish for a meal. He also has guided me through how to grill broccoli.

Beef? He begins with describing how to grill steak perfectly, the base recipe, so to speak. Then, he provides variations, such as creating sauces like horseradish or balsamic-rosemary sauces. I spent my days in graduate school in Buffalo, New York, so I was especially intrigued by his "Spicy Buffalo style burger with celery-carrot slaw and blue cheese dressing." That is, he reinvents Buffalo chicken wings as a grilled burger. I haven't tried this yet, but I sure am interested in experimenting with this when I get the chance.

In the section on chicken, he begins, once more, with a base recipe, "Perfectly grilled chicken breast." After this, a series of variations on the base recipe or other recipes entirely. What about "Apple-ginger glazed chicken"? "Sweet and sour grilled chicken"?

And on it goes. Sections on grilling pork, corn, fruit, lamb, shrimp, scallops, tuna, and so on.

As I can tell from the front material, Flay has written other grilling books. I don't know if any recipes are repeated here or not. But I can say that this set of recipes looks pretty tempting. And the grilled dishes that I have tried thus far have not disappointed.