BBQ Archives - Harry Eastwood Inspired French Cooking

French Style BBQed Pork Tenderloin

Pork tenderloin is one of the best crowd-pleasers for a great choice cut of meat. When you cook this BBQ style, you can be sure that this will satisfy those who are looking for tender and juicy BBQ meat. But what happens when you put a little Harry Eastwood influence with some very original French BBQ flair into the mix? You get a BBQ port tenderloin that will leave you speechless!

What Makes French BBQ Different?

The traditional herbs and spices that are more common in France all come down to a basic combination called herbs de Province. It’s a combo that uses rosemary, thyme, oregano, savory, and marjoram. On that note, you can’t forget that fennel seeds, bay leaves, tarragon, chervil, and even lavender are part of this mixture. If you love the taste of dried basil, parsley, and sage are popular ingredients to add to your herbs de Provence.

Yet, with French BBQ, these flavors might change the taste of the meat, which to say the least might start tasting too traditional and more like a country-style dish rather than what we’re looking for in BBQ. This recipe does take advantage of thyme and lemon zest to give the pork flavor a distinct lingering aftertaste. The addition of honey and soy sauce with garlic brings out the grilling punch that makes BBQ meat delicious.

Obviously, you can draw the comparison here that shows you can still have plenty of French influence without spoiling the tenderness you get from pork tenderloin. But to keep this select slab of meat from drying out on the BBQ, you’ll certainly need to take plenty of care for allowing it to marinade properly. The thicker your tenderloin cut happens to be, you must allow 1-hour per 2 pounds of meat.

So- Let’s get started!

Marinated Pork Tenderloin Recipe

This barbecue favorite is perfect for the summer with a distinctly French flavor written all over it. This recipe is ideal for up to 6 people and can be prepared in less than 1-hour depending on your meat thickness. You’ll need:

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Course Side Dish

Cuisine French

Servings 6 Peoples

Calories 250 kcal

Equipment

Microwave
Large bowl
Spoon
Plastic cling wrap
Fridge
Kitchen brush
Foil
Grill or Smoker

Ingredients

1 Pork Tenderloin (2lbs)
2 Tablespoons Olive oil
2 Tablespoons Lime juice
4 Tablespoons Soy sauce
1 Tablespoon Honey
1 Garlic clove (crushed or minced)
1 Lime (whole zest)
1 Portion of thyme (about a handful)
Salt and pepper (to taste)

Instructions

Prepping Your Marinade

This marinade is prepared beforehand and should allow your meat to properly absorb these flavors for no less than 1-hour. If you have a larger or thicker portion, let it marinade for 1-hour (for each 2lbs.) accordingly. Try to use honey that isn’t too thick, so place it into a microwave to make it thinner and easier to mix your marinade. The important part of this recipe is using a fine grater to zest your lime.
The smaller the zest pieces are, the better off your meat will absorb these delicate flavors. You don’t need to tenderize your tenderloin other than slicing it down the middle to help it lay flatter on your BBQ. For thicker cuts, you can create a flank-like cut with two slices on opposing sides of the tenderloin to create a scalloped edge that helps to make the piece wider.
Into a large bowl, add all of your marinade ingredients and mix them well with a spoon. You now add your prepared meat and then place this into the fridge. Flip your meat after each hour to ensure the marinade is coating the tenderloin on all sides. You should cover the meat with a plastic cling wrap so there is less chance the garlic and soy sauce aren’t scenting anything else in your fridge.

Grilling Your Tenderloin

This will be much better if you have a BBQ that has a closing lid so the cooking time is shorter, but always be sure to cook your tenderloin on indirect heat. This will help make the pork deliciously tender. It will take 15 to 20 minutes depending on the thickness of your pork for the tenderloin to cook. Once you lay the tenderloin slab onto the grill you also want to sear it on both sides if you like the grilled appearance.
After this, place your slab onto the indirect heat and let it cook until it’s done. If you want to add more marinade, this can be swabbed onto the surface (using a kitchen brush) on your pork for added flavor.
Beware, pork quickly becomes dry and overcooked. The sweet spot for your tenderloin is 145°F. This means you should pull the tenderloin off the grill when it hits about 140°F and wrap it in foil to let it rest on the counter while the carryover finishes it to completion (145°F). There are endless grill thermometers that will help you keep an eye on the internal temperature while its sitting inside your grill or smoker.
When it’s done, all you need to do is slice and serve.

Healthier French Style BBQ

Everyone wants to eat healthier these days but there’s always some new cooking hack that somehow bends the rules. Now grilling BBQ dishes can be packed with flavor that usually comes from sauces and fatty rendered meats, but here’s one method you’ll be happy to hear is actually healthy for you.

Finally, a French-style BBQ to cheer about

Harry Eastwood might have cornered the market on healthy French alternative cuisine and does have great meat recipes in her best-seller cookbook “Carneval”. But when it comes to cooking the best BBQ dishes that actually taste good, you might be scratching your head. We’ve found one such recipe that will change your mind about eating healthy with a grill chicken recipe that gives French BBQ a run for the money.

The real secret here is selecting your chicken that fits the bill for getting the best flavor here is to choose a free-range chicken. The tougher the bird you can find -the better. The whole secret here is that free-range organic birds are stronger and will have more muscle mass. You want a chicken that can run a marathon rather than the farm-bred birds raised in chicken mills.

French Style Healthy BBQ Chicken

Free-range chickens eat everything they can find including bugs, grass, and anything they can get a hold of. Because their meat has become so dense, the cooking time is increased which gives you a perfect excuse to slow-cook your bird on the grill. Add just the right amount of stuffing inside and you can take the toughness out of the picture right away. You also want to have a BBQ grill that is set up to smoke if you want added smoky flavor.

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Course Main Course

Cuisine French

Servings 1 Chicken

Ingredients

1 Whole free-Range Chicken (1.5 to 2lbs)

Stuffing ingredients

1 Tablespoon olive oil (yourchoice) (your choice)
200 Grams Wild mushrooms (girolles, ceps, or chanterelles) rough chop in small bits
1 lemon (freshly squeezed for the juice)
2 Tablespoon fresh parsley (finely chopped)
1 Small Amount of lemongrass (thinly diced)
2 Tablespoons Fresh tarragon (finely chopped)
2 Garlic cloves (peeled and finely minced)
2 Slices Prosciutto (finely chopped)
1 Tablespoon Crème Fraîche (half fat)
Salt and pepper (to taste)

Instructions

Prepping your stuffing
About the time you get everything ready prepared, you'll need to ready your BBQ grill for grilling. Start with a good selection of pure charcoal that will give the chicken a great flavor. Apple and cherry wood are good choices but don't forget that maple also gives a sweeter BBQ taste you might enjoy if you aren't into smoky flavors. You'll need to take a large griddle and heat it up on your grill.
Add your olive oil, and once the griddle is nice and hot, now add your mushrooms and fry them until they get golden brown. After this, you put these mushrooms aside into a large bowl along with all of the stuffing ingredients. After everything is mixed in your stuffing, add the salt and pepper last to get just the right taste. The next step is prepping your chicken.
Stretching the skin
Unlike stuffing a turkey, you're going to loosen all of the skin on your chicken so you can separate it from the meat underneath. This will take a bit of care because you don't want to get any holes in your skin. Working your fingers under any spot all over your bird is best all the way down the legs and around the breasts. The next step is tricky but you need to stuff your stuffing full of the mushroom stuffing mixture.
It doesn't need to be more than inch all around for slow cooking. Tie off the legs if they're not sitting too far from the body. You also want to tie off any loose skin with cooking twine where the neck used to be. The next step is to put your chicken into a shallow baking tray and place this into your BBQ grill. Don't worry about covering your chicken, the first 40 minutes is essential to let it sit in the liquid that collects.
Creating a basting sauce from the liquid
After you've let your chicken cook in the BBQ grill for 40minutes, you remove the chicken from the baking tray and carefully put it onto the indirect heating area of your grill. The leftover liquid is then simmered down with a touch of sugar to help it thicken up easier. This can be used as a glaze that you apply every 10 minutes to get a glaze on your chicken skin. When the internal temperature of your chicken reaches 165 degrees, it's done.
After a total of 60 to 90 minutes in the grill, the glaze will help prevent your stuffing from totally drying out and keep the meat nice and tender. When you're ready, place the chicken on a cutting board and separate the legs and meaty pieces onto waiting for serving plates. Serve with any low-calorie side dish you like. Enjoy!

Keyword chicken, healthy bbq,

Grilled French Style Sausage

This is another great twist on Harry Eastwood’s Turkey sausage recipe except we’re adding a French grilling version. This recipe calls for using Toulouse sausage made from pork. While turkey is generally healthier, this pork sausage is only 150 calories per sausage link which is still pretty tame considering the original recipe with a Turkey sausage is 440 calories per serving. Plus, the grilled liquid from the sausage itself is enough to replace certain ingredients.

Is There A French Grilling Method?

We often look at French cuisine as a highly technical art of cooking on the stovetop, but the French would highly disagree these days. They have honed their skills to the point of purity rules that include only pure wood and pure charcoal mixtures. It’s also an unknown trend that began almost 30 years ago throughout big and small French cities. Thanks to emerging cookbooks on the French method of grilling, the word is getting out quickly.

Toulouse Sausage

Sammy

We recommend that you fire up your grill using only the best charcoal and wood to give your grilled foods taste remarkable. Keep in mind that a single sausage link will feed up to 4 people if you slice the link into1-inch thick slices. You can follow this handy recipe for Toulouse sausage or buy them already made at specialty French import shops. Here's how to make your sausage grill up just right:

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Course Main Course

Cuisine French

Servings 4 people

Ingredients

1 Toulouse sausage sliced into 1-inch rounds (or moredepending on each person)
9 Cups baby spinach (organic spinach stuffed into ameasuring cup)
¼ Cup of chicken broth (low sodium variety)
1 Large Lemon (zested)
1 Large Lemon (juiced after being zested)
Salt and pepper (to taste)
1-2 Tablespoon garlic (freshly minced)- Optional

Instructions

Prepping your ingredients
Start with your outdoor grill that will serve as your cooking surface. You want to use a cast iron griddle so that any liquid that comes out of your sausage will become extra flavoring for your broth sauté. Place your griddle onto the direct heat to get the best sear on your sausage. As it starts to grill and melt away the fatty juices, you can flip each of them to get a great crust that fries them evenly and quickly.
After this, you want to move your griddle to medium heat and add your chicken stock. If you want to have more garlic flavor you can now add freshly minced garlic. Toulouse sausage already has a lot of garlic, but an extra tablespoon or two won't hurt this recipe much at all. Give this a little stir and then add your lemon zest and juice followed by your baby spinach leaves. Now cover the griddle and let this simmer for 5 minutes.
After this, you can remove the cover and let the remaining steam boil off. Move your griddle to the indirect side so the remaining steam vents away. At this point, you want to give this a taste so you can determine if you need to add extra salt or pepper. Mix the entire mixture by tossing the spinach and sausage together and serve this on a plate. This will make 4 equal servings or two very-hearty larger servings.
Serving sides
One great added side dish to this is freshly baked cornbread, which isn't typically your local French recipe either. You can slice a fresh baguette into thin slices and grill them with a bit of butter and garlic basted on top. Alternatively, you can dip these slices into the liquid left-over in your griddle and grill this directly on your BBQ to toast them up. If you want to give your bread a little smoky flavor, you can also close the lid for a minute or so.
The best wine to add to this recipe is always going to be a wide range. If you enjoy red wine you can always choose a good merlot or cabernet sauvignon. There is also chardonnay if you prefer white wine that goes well with Toulouse sausage. If you prefer very good red wines, the best choices are often from Napa Valley, while Australian white wine has been getting rave reviews recently. Of course, you can never go wrong with any red or white French wines.

Keyword french, healthy bbq,, sausage

Tasty Smoked Lamb Burger

The reluctant vegetarian Harry Eastwood may once have been an activist in her early angst days, but she made good on her quest to find solace in what makes a perfectly normal meat-eating diet worthy to embrace. In this wonderful recipe from her epic meat bible “Carneval”, Harry shows how BBQ and a bit of nostalgia for smoking food can make this lamb recipe become the feast of all seasons.

BBQ is all about smoking food?

We all know how grilling anything on the BBQ will add a certain amount of smokiness to your food. It’s a flavor that you can’t get in a conventional frying pan and will often turn ordinary burgers into a memory that people remember every time you have a grill party. To recreate this Harry Eastwood dish in a whole new way, you’ll certainly want to bookmark this page for upcoming grill parties. Here’s how we do French BBQ even better;

Smoked Lamb Burger

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Prep Time 15

Cook Time 1

Total Time 1 15

Course Main Course

Cuisine French

Servings 4 people

Ingredients

800 Grams Minced Lamb Shoulder (80/20 mix)
2 Tablespoons Chopped Fresh Mint (finely chopped)
2 Tablespoons Chopped fresh parsley (finely chopped)
2 Tablespoons Chopped fresh dill (finely chopped)
1 Tablespoon Dijon mustard (your choice)
Teaspoon Dried chili flakes
4 Sun-Dried tomatoes (finely chopped with salt and pepperadded for taste)

Garlic/Cilantro Mayonnaise Topping

8 Tablespoons Mayonnaise (your choice)
1 Tablespoon Lemon or lime juice (fresh squeezed)
2 Garlic cloves (peeled and minced)
1 Small Bundle fresh cilantro (finely chopped)
1 Pinch of smoked paprika
Salt and pepper (to taste)

For Building Your Burger

12 Slices of Halloumi cheese (thin sliced)
6 Hamburger Buns (freshly baked)
1 Bunch of baby spinach leaves
1 Red Onion (peeled and finely sliced)

Instructions

Prepping your ingredients
You'll want to start up your BBQ grill and set aside your favorite smoking wood for the lamb and Halloumi. This is subjective but most folks will recommend Olive, Apple, or Pecan wood. You can't go wrong with hickory or mesquite if you prefer smokier flavor likewise. Since the halloumi often tastes great with Oakwood, it works great with lamb burgers too. The added mint and herbs will set off the flavor of lamb additionally.
Start with mixing your minced lamb with all of your herbs, mustard, chili, seasoning, and sun-dried tomatoes. After this, you form these into six individual patties inside an emptied tuna tin with both the top-bottom ring removed. This forms the best-shaped burger form. Place these into the fridge until you're ready to grill.

Keyword french, healthy bbq,, lamb burger