Weber's Real Grilling: Over 200 Original Recipes

Grilling expert Purviance provides us with a grilling reference book with recipes and aids his research shows of "how we want to grill today: simple and fun!" He like so many of us wants to grill on those days when chaos and hectic pace evaporates the time and energy to do more sophisticated and involved recipes, so he has given us over 200 recipes for prep under thirty minutes with ingredinets found at most well stocked supermarkets. This differentiates itself from other grilling cookbooks such as Jamie's previous work: Weber's Big Book of Grilling (my favorite). Both are useful depending on the occasion. Certainly this one has enough for most nights or days when one wants to excellent food on plate quickly without shopping at multiple places and limited prep time. The full range of recipes is here: appetizers to main course entrees to desserts, sides, veggies, etc. Also, really excellent prep and technique advice is given here with wonderful color photos and illustrations. What I especially love about this collection are various taco offerings using halibut, and shrimp and pork and chicken as well as beef. Another for healthy minded diets is Whole Roasted Turkey Breast with Sage and Prosciutto. So juicy and tender yet flavorful and quick to prepare and serve, although little longer than thirty minute norm, but worthy every minute. Also a killer recipe is Citrus Pesto Tuna with Fennel-Tangerine Salad. This is winner whether you're rookie griller or experienced, providing necessary "daily" menu ideas! Check out the website identified in Spotlight review!

Featuring over 200 recipes each with a color photograph, Weber's Real Grilling is a gorgeous grilling cookbook that emphasizes simplicity and fun. In addition to step-by-step recipes, Weber's Real Grilling is packed with tips, tricks, and techniques from safety precautions for meat preparation (including a chart that compares USDA temperature recommendations with those of professional chefs for cooking meat rare to well-done) and basic instructions for using charcoal, lighting a gas grill, and the tools every griller should own. Recipes range from Grilled Shrimp Cocktail to Hot Tenderloin Sandwiches, Tandoori-Style Chicken Kabobs, Acorn Squash, Red Chile Rice, Pineapple Sundae with Caramel and Toasted Almond Brittle and much more. An index rounds out this highly recommended cookbook for grillers of all skill and experience levels.

I bought a new grill and thought I needed a better understanding of grilling. This book was great. I learned that many of my self taught grill techniques were a mistake. I had much better results after reading the book. The book has just enough theory to enable cooks to intelligently experiment on their own. This was a great investment. I am now cooking dishes I would never have attempted before. The book teaches about marinates. I learned needed both an acid and an oil in the marinate in addition to spices and flavors. I learned that I have not been marinating for long enough time. It does make a difference. I learned about direct and indirect heat and how to use both. One thing I dislike about many BBQ books is the over reliance on sugar to add sweetness. Real Grillings teaches about many other flavors and spices. In fact most recipes do not use sugar which makes it easier when cooking for my diabetic friends.

I've always liked cooking outside on the grill. As a kid it was my father and I outside cooking and talking. (I still remember the time that he couldn't get the charcoal to light fast enough until he got out the oxy-acetylene torch.) And as recently as last night a bunch of friends and I got together and drank and talked and cooked. Almost always I've stuck to the same simple foods, steak, hamburger, chicken, maybe a piece of fish or some shrimp. It wasn't until I got this book that I realized that I had just scratched the surface. Flipping through it yesterday I found a way to do shrimp that I had never considered. I did them that way last night. Tonight I'm going to do chicken, but I'm going to do it following his recipe for Chicken Under Bricks, I've always had a problem with the thin parts of the chicken cooking too fast. This sounds like a good approach. I don't suppose the author will mind if I put a few more spices on the chicken, something like his Mexican Chicken. It's ideas like these that make a book like this so worthwhile.

A few years ago, I was given Weber's Big Book of Grilling, and it proved to be a real eye opener into the quality of foods prepared by grilling. Many seem to think that grilling means burning food on an open fire, but this concept could not be further from the truth. The "Big Book" is a comprehensive study of the hows, whys and details of all aspects of grilling. As a result of having and using it, I am frequently asked to cook for friends and neighbors. Now Weber has issued this book, which is another exceptional exercise in fantastic food preparation. It contains over 200 recipes that are simple and clearly detailed. It contains detailed information on rubs, marinades and sauces. It has step bt step photos of difficult steps like de-boning a leg of lamb, or trussing a chicken, and it has photos on the final appearance of each of the recipied dishes. The instructions could not be easier to follow. When used in conjunction with the "Big Book", The grilling chef should be able to present a continuous stream of rich, intensely flavorful meals without a glitch. I cannot praise these two efforts enough. Whether you are an experienced cook, or are considering entering this very rewarding activity, you simply cannot go wrong with this book and its predecessor. You might as well order both at the same time, because if you get this book, you WILL get the other. Addendum: Since reviewing this fine book. I have become aware of a companion website. It is www.realgrilling.com, and it is a really neat place. Author Jamie Purviance has a series of slide shows with voice accompanyment on cooking techniques and promises to expand them, as well as to add recipes there. I have never seen this approach to supplementing a book with a website, but Jamie's site is really good, and looks to get better. It is not referenced in the book, but folks who get and enjoy the book can add to that enjoyment by going to the website. Nicely done!!