Charleston Cuisine: Grill Baby Grill

The most hideous phrase of the campaign, but I sort of had to use it. 

I bought a grill yesterday. A Weber kettle grill. Black. Shiny. Gorgeous. The last one at the hardware store. I was so excited that I ran to the supermarket and bought briquets and ingredients for a grill dinner, but by the time we got the thing assembled it was so late, so dark, so foggy and cold, that I decided to cook everything on the stove grill, a feature of my range that I have never quite warmed to. Plus, it always sets off the smoke alarms.

And so it did again as I made the grilled tuna steaks with melted onions and mint sauce. A fine, unmemorable entree. See my previous comments on the outrageous expensiveness of Louis Osteen's recipes -- and let me add one further negative comment. The title of this book is Charleston Cuisine, but I'm not sure how this tuna reflects the cooking of South Carolina. In fact, as Osteen writes in his headnote: "This recipe is a variation on an old Sicilian preparation. . . "

On the side: Osteen's grilled portobellos. Delicious, delicious, delicious, and I don't love mushrooms. But, again, how is this a Charleston dish? 

And finally: fresh fennel and rice, which calls for a half cup of Pernod. As Osteen writes: "These are relatively unusual flavors for rice in the Low Country. . ."

No kidding.