Grilled Mozzarella and Prosciutto Balls

These are inspired by a recipe by South African chef Reuben Riffel (his "Buffalo Bomb" from his cookbook Braai). Yum! They're very easy to make and are a nice, salty, and creamy side. Feel free to use store bought pesto. I just made a teeny portion of pesto by chopping up some basil, garlic, almonds, and pecorino and mixing in some olive oil. You could also get smaller mozzarella balls and make these hors d'oeuvres size, too. 

Grilled Feta

I wanted to make grilled halloumi but couldn't find any, so I bought some feta and found that you can grill it as long as it's in a little tinfoil packet. This is a great appetizer or accompaniment to a light dinner of Greek salad and chicken souvlaki. You can really add in whatever you want for seasoning. I kept it pretty simple with grape tomatoes, herbs de provence, lemon, and garlic, but you could add cooked tomatoes, capers, chilies, olives... The cheese gets hot and melty and it's super tasty, and couldn't be easier.

BBQ Chicken

Yum! I tried out the New York Times style of watering down the BBQ sauce to 50/50 sauce vs water. This is supposed to make it so the flavor slowly concentrates and caramelizes without burning. It's great! I made my own BBQ sauce, but you can either make your own or just use store-bought. 

Ingredients:

8 pieces of chicken (ideally 4 thighs and 4 drumsticks)

1 cup BBQ sauce mixed with 1 cup of water

salt and pepper

Directions:

Heat up half of a charcoal grill to medium heat and leave the other half without coals. (On a gas grill, leave one burner off.) Season the chicken with salt and pepper and put over the hot part of the grill. Cook for 15 minutes, turning every 5 minutes or so, and basting continuously with the watered down BBQ sauce. After they are brown, move them to the other side of the grill and cook them there for another 15-20 minutes until cooked. (Peek inside and make sure it's no longer pink.) Finish them up over the hot coals for another couple of minutes, basting with sauce. 

Grilled Lobster

This is such a great way to do lobster. The cutting them down the middle while they're alive is a little awful/creepy/terrifying. I had Jamie do it, but I think you can ask a fishmonger to do it for you, too. The combination of the herb butter and the smoke of the grill gives the meat an excellent flavor and seems to concentrate the flavor, too. Definitely want to make this again!