Let the grillin’ begin!

I couldn’t resist doing a full-grill dinner tonight.  It’s been a while since I had the surface area I needed to do a complete meal.  As much as I’ve been lovin’ that charcoal, I know I’m gonna be lovin’ the gas even more.  What can I say?!?  I’m getting old and lazy.

Grilled pork chops with a peach and ginger marinade, grilled potatoes, grilled peaches, grilled apricots, and grilled baby broccoli. Grillin’ heaven.

There were two stand-outs in tonight’s dinner – the peaches and the marinade!  The marinade is cooked, part is chilled and used for marinating the pork chops.  The rest is boiled down to a syrupy consistency and used to finish everything off.  Yum.

The concept for the marinade came from Bon Appetit.

Peach and Ginger Marinade

  • 1/2 cup chopped onion
  • 1/4 cup sugar
  • 1 peach, chopped
  • 1 cup red wine
  • 1/2 cup soy sauce
  • 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
  • 1 tbsp chopped fresh ginger
  • 1/2 tsp cinnamon
  • 1/2 tsp black pepper

Saute onion in a bit of olive oil until wilted. Add sugar and sauté until onion is golden.

Add peach and cook until softened.

Add remaining ingredients, bring to boil, and let cook a few minutes.

Strain mixture.  Chill 1/2 cup (to marinate pork) and return remainder to clean saucepan.  Bring back to boil and reduce to half or until thickened and syrupy.

Marinate chops in chilled marinade for about an hour before grilling.

Brush thickened marinade over finished pork chops and grilled peaches and apricots.

I rarely peel anything, so the peach went skin and all into the sauce.  I also grilled the peaches with their skin.  I brushed them and the apricots with a bit of the sauce before grilling and again on the plate.  The peaches were pretty much the star of dinner.  I haven’t grilled peaches in probably a year.  I forgot just how fabulous they can be!

The potatoes were quartered, drizzled with olive oil and salt and pepper.  I used a grill basket for them with indirect heat.  The grill cover was the perfect oven.  The baby broccoli was drizzled with a bit of balsamic and lightly sprinkled with Italian seasoning.  No sense trying to add a lot of competing flavors with that marinade and sauce.

All-in-all, a great inaugural dinner.

I think we’re going to have a lot of fun this summer!

Oh – and for those keeping track.  No gain, no loss this week.  Stayed the same.  I’m bettin’ it had to do with ice cream…..