Wisconsin's Weekend Morning News
Chef Duffy O'Neil Talks Low-Cost Grilling with Big Flavor
Labor Day is the last big, grilling holiday of the summer, so we want to take it up a notch and do it right. And I can't think of anybody I'd rather talk to about it than Duffy O'Neill. He is a chef and co-owner of North Star Bistro and Grafton Alehouse, and I know Duffy, because he's part of our family, and Duffy tells us what are some of the most popular things to grill this time of year? Well, most popular I think we can always go with the burger, which it's a great staple to go, but I know people might want to kick it up a little with this last weekend. As he said, you know, it's the last of the summer. So, you know, steaks are pretty popular, but as we know, it's kind of getting a little pricey to do steaks on the grill. So, there's ways to get around that, I think. If you don't want to do the burger in the broth, there are some cups of meat that I think we can work with that are just as flavorful, but they're not as tough on the pocket book. Okay, so let's look at beef, which, of course, as you said, steak is pricey. Is there any cut of beef other than hamburgers that you would say, this is a great one, and if you do it right, you're really going to be happy with the results. I love flank steak. Most places will have it in their butcher section, flank steak. You can do it in many different ways. You can marinate it, you can dry rub it. Also, you can just eat it like sliced, or you can put it into tacos. A lot of different ways of serving it, and the nice thing is it's reasonable, and it's really simple to use. The only thing you just have to remember with flank steak is to cut it against the grain. You will see the grain running through the steak just when it's off. You let the meat rest when it's done, and you just slice it across the grain, and it's really tender and it has a lot of flavor. All right, so you mentioned dry rubs. You mentioned marinade. What do you prefer? What do you think with flank steak makes the best prop? I like to marinate flank steak, so sometimes a little garlic, balsamic vinegar, some mustard, rosemary, and a little olive oil, black pepper, and I let it marinate in that without any salt yet, and then after you get the grill hot, put it on the grill, that's when I like to season it with salt. How long do you leave it? Because you don't want to overcook that, do you? No, you don't. The grilling time, I would say it's about four to five minutes aside, so after about two and a half minutes, I like to cross-section it, so if it's laying vertical, then I like to turn it horizontal, and it kind of gives those nice cross sections, and then I flip it and do the same thing, and if your grill is a little hot, sometimes you just need to kind of take it off the heat a little bit and let it cook just a little bit longer, because I would recommend between medium-rare and medium for that cut. All right, now, pork has been pretty reasonable. What about pork chops? How hard are they to grow? You know, pork can dry out pretty quickly, so the recommendation there would be to brine them. You can use like a brown sugar brine, a cider brine, orange juice brine, and what a brine does, you had a lot of salt, water, a little sweetener, and then something else like orange juice and maybe some herbs, and what that does is that salt penetrates the meat and kind of keeps it a little more tender, even if you overcook it just a little bit. It definitely helps with the flavor a lot as well. And you know, there's been some pretty good prices on ribs that you want to barbecue as well. Any secrets on those? Ribs you got to plan ahead, I would say, because maybe the day before you want to take them out of the package and do a dry rub. A dry rub you can buy at the store, you can make one which usually has like little chili powder, paprika, garlic powder, onion, maybe a little sugar and salt. A lot of times there's some good ones at the store you can find, and you let that sit overnight and your refrigerator on the ribs. And then if you're going to grill ribs, I recommend setting up your grill one side of it with the heat and one side without the heat so you can get the char marks over the flame, kind of keep it there for a little bit, and then you put it over on the side without the flame and just let it cook until it's ready to go, basing it with your barbecue as you go. So it keeps it from getting burnt if you keep it over the flame. And what is the biggest mistake people make when they barbecue? Not have a beer in their hand. The biggest mistake I think it's overcooking the meat. You can always put it back on the grill, but you know you can't undo it. So I would caution overcooking and give yourself an outlet too when you start your grill. Keep one side for indirect cooking, which I mean is you don't have the heat over on that side. That allows you if you have flare ups, you know it's just too hot, you can slide it over, give yourself a break and just kind of let it cook without burning. W-O-D-L from North Star, Vistro, and Grafton, A.L. House, he is the chef and co-owner. Great to have you here. Thank you so much. You have a wonderful Labor Day. Thank you. You too.