Although burgers, steak and chicken are the top three grilled foods, get out of a rut and throw some new food and flavors on your grill this season.
With the help of experts who offer up the latest techniques in their new cookbooks, you can try some novel grill-fare from appetizers, off-beat main dishes and vegetables to desserts. Outdoor grill usage in this country is at an all-time high, nearly double what it was 20 years ago, according to the NPD Group, a New York-based market research firm. While the majority of households – 76 percent – have at least one outdoor grill, three out of four of these (75 percent) own a gas grill.
Batali, who likes to use a hardwood fire or gas grill, often cooks on a piastra, a large stovetop griddle, 10-by-14 inches preferred, set atop the grates. It's especially great for foods that slip through a grate.
"The advantage of a piastra is that it gives you a very hot cooking surface" – and is a great way to cook many foods – mussels, shrimp, flatbreads. If you don't have one or something similar to use, buy a Lodge pan or his Italian Kitchen piastra from Copco (at Crate & Barrel), he advises.
"Barbecuing and grilling is all a matter of temperature, how close the heat is to the food, and timing," says Judith Fertig, co-author with Karen Adler of "BBQ Bash: The Be-All, End-All Party Guide, from Barefoot to Black Tie," (The Harvard Common Press; $16.95).
To widen your grilling horizons, Fertig suggests trying stir-grilling and planking.
Use a thin hardwood plank (available in packages at kitchen or home improvement stores) or a thicker baking plank (at kitchenware stores). Soak either type 30 minutes in water. Place flat food such as boneless chicken breasts, portobello mushrooms or salmon on the plank, slather with a dijon and mayonnaise or other mixture, place on the grill, cover with the grill lid, and in about 20 to 40 minutes you have delicious aromatic planked food.
For stir-grilling, you'll need a grill wok with perforations. Grill bite-size pieces of food – chicken, shrimp, beef, salmon, vegetables, fruits, alone or together and marinated as desired – over medium high to high direct heat about 20 minutes. "It's a whole meal in one go – and you gain flavor even with gas.
"We also like to grill meat, fish, vegetables and serve with a great sauce (made indoors)," says Fertig, noting that she and Adler have written nine cookbooks together, their latest designed to get people thinking of easy ways to pull off an entire party or occasion and have fun doing it.
Freelance food writer and cookbook author Diane Morgan turned to the grill "when I was looking for a vehicle to make cooking simpler and faster on busy weeknights – and not have a lot of pots and pans to clean up." You'll find her method in her "Grill Every Day: 125 Fast-Track Recipes for Weeknights at the Grill" (Chronicle Books; $24.95), which she also uses when entertaining family and friends on weekends.
Now about 70 percent of her meals are grilled with recipes that can be prepped and ready to go in the time it takes the grill to heat.
One of her favorite go-to recipes is chicken breasts in tarragon mustard paste that she refers to as "my no-brainer weeknight grilled chicken meal.