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On Monday, there was a little bit of an autumn chill in the air here on BeetEater Street. With a high of 79 degrees and a low of 65, the weather was so perfect that Mr. T just had to christen our new firepit/grill for the first time. I have a feeling that we’ll be grilling a lot of our meals for the next few months! But that’s not a bad thing.
There is nothing quite like a wood-fired food! While there’s nothing wrong with cooking on a gas or charcoal grill, the flavor from a wood-fire is just unparalleled. The smoky savory flavor just penetrates everything, and it makes your food taste so special. I also find that cooking on a firepit a more fun, social experience, because anyone with a stick or a poker can participate, and everybody’s gathered around facing each other, watching the hypnotic flames together. It’s so much more conducive to conversation than having one person stand aside and tend to the grill. I would encourage you to try my homemade grilling veggie burgers if you want to light up your own firepit grill. But even if you just pick up a six-pack, some store-bought veggie burgers and a few ears of corn, a party will magically unfold around your firepit.
For our First Inaugural Firepit Meal, we started by roasting a few ears of corn. I find that it’s very difficult to burn corn if you keep it in the husk. The flames will heat up all of the internal juices, and the corn will just steam right in the husk for many minutes. I think we had ours on for about 10 minutes, then we flipped them and cooked them for another 15. It’s probably a good idea to just keep flipping it as it cooks.
We enjoyed an adult beverage or two as those roasted steadily on the fire before we added a few thick slices of onion to the grill. In retrospect, we highly recommend NOT using aluminum foil to contain the onions on a flame like this (as pictured here). Our first batch of onions was ruined because the foil actually melted, and contaminated our food. For the next batch, we put the onions directly on the grill, and tried to keep them on a medium-heat section. These cooked for about 5 minutes on each side.
About the same time, we added our store-bought veggie burgers. These cooked about 6 minutes on each side over a medium-heat section of the grill before they were ready. As you’ll see in the picture, our first two veggie burgers got a little burned because we kept them too close to the flame. We live and we learn.
Lastly, on one of the cool edges of the grill we toasted two kaiser roll buns about 4 minutes on each side until they were toasty and warm. I’m pleased to report that there were no kaiser roll casualties due to overcooking! We toasted them perfectly on the first try, thankyouverymuch.
Finally, we assembled
-William Shakespeare
our burgers on our toasty Kaiser rolls. First, we spread a thin layer of prepared horseradish, followed by a thick layer of hummus and a little swirl of ketchup. Next, the veggie burger was stacked with grilled onions, fresh tomato slices, salt and pepper, and a few of my famous homemade fridge pickles.
I assure you, this meal was absolutely delightful. We served the burgers with the freshly roasted corn and a little sprinkle of salt. Mr. T prefers to cut his corn off of the cob, but I prefer to tear into it with my teeth like an animal.
I hope my dear BeetEater readers are able to enjoy at least one wonderful wood-fired meal with friends this season! Let me know what campfire meal is in the comments below!