September 29, 2025 • 19 mins
It's not too late in the year for grilling! Although we're starting to tip to autumnal colors and although Mark is busy taking down our gardens, we're still firing up both the charcoal and the gas grill for great dinners after the shorter and shorter days.
Mark, the writer, has a list of great things to match the season on the grill. Bruce, the writer, will add how he believes you can turn these things wonderful on the grill.
Plus, our one-minute cooking tip about apples. And we'll tell you what's making us happy in food this week.
Here are the segments for this episode of COOKING WITH BRUCE & MARK:
[00:47] Our one-minute cooking tip: Buy apples both for the fridge and for display.
[02:22] A list of things that are great to grill in the fall (or autumn, for you UK friends). Mark has a list of things he thinks are perfect for the grill. Bruce, the chef, will tell you how to grill them perfectly.
[17:00] What’s making us happy in food this week? Hen of the woods mushrooms and sour cherry margaritas.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
bruce (00:01):
Hey, I am Bruce Weinstein and this is the podcast Cooking with
mark (00:03):
Bruce and Martin.
And I'm Mark Scrubber, andtogether with Bruce, my husband,
we have written 37 cookbooks.
And so out of that comes thispodcast about our passion for food
and cooking, as is always the case.
We've got a one minute cookingtip we're gonna invite.
Talking about fall grilling ideas.
I've got a list of things thatI've put together that I think are
great for a grill, and we're gonnalet Chef Bruce respond to them.
(00:28):
And how do these actually work on a grill?
So I've got my list of what I thinkis great for fall grilling, and then
he's going to respond with that.
And we'll tell you what's makingus happy in food this week.
So let's get started.
bruce (00:47):
Our one minute cooking tip.
Alright, this is about apples andthis is about my love of apples
that come right off a tree.
Me too.
And my disgust at how quickly apples losethat crunch and lose their perfectness
when they sit at room temperature.
True, true.
But also how beautifulapples that you pick.
Off a tree, look in a bowlin the middle of your table.
So when you go to the store or when you goto the orchard and you buy fresh apples,
(01:13):
get enough to keep some in the fridgeto stay crunchy and fresh and wonderful.
And then buy some that are just fordisplay in the middle of the table.
And when those get too soft to eat.
Make applesauce
mark (01:25):
because they will make your house incredibly amatic.
Mm-hmm.
Several God, 20 years ago, 25 yearsago, we went to belay in New York
City, uh, back when it was just firstopened and you walk through this narrow
corridor into the restaurant from theoutside street door and the narrow car
corridor was just imagine tons of littlecubby hole bookcases, and in every
(01:47):
single cubby hole there was an apple.
So when you.
Open the door.
That entire hallway just had this applesmell that was almost overwhelming.
It So set you up for the dinner.
Had it was a really wonderfulexperience and, um, they make four
beautiful aromas in your house.
Mm-hmm.
As we say.
Okay.
Before we get to our fall grilling ideasor my fall grilling ideas that Bruce
(02:09):
is gonna respond to, let me say that.
It would be great if you could.
Subscribe to this podcast.
If you can rate it, ifyou can write a review.
All those things really help out.
We, as you probably know, we areotherwise unsupported, so thanks
for doing that to help us out.
Okay.
Up next some fall grillingideas or for our UK friends,
some autumnal grilling ideas.
bruce (02:34):
I wanna ask you before we even get into this, why did you pick some of
these things and what about fall and.
By each one of these things.
mark (02:41):
Um, because I think that they have big flavors and I think some of these
things come into, uh, season in the fall,that, especially where we live up in the
north, they're seasonal to the fall andI think that they have and can involve.
Big flavors that are not the clean,vibrant flavors that you want in the
summertime when you want more, let'ssay, just to be, uh, pedantic, you want
(03:06):
more lemon zest than oregano or you,you want more olive oil than butter.
Mm-hmm.
I mean, when you're moving intothe fall, you're talking about.
Bigger flavors.
And so some of these things are fallvegetables, as you'll talk about,
and some of these things are justgiant flavors all the way around.
Cool.
Okay.
Excellent.
My first one up is cauliflower steaks,and before Bruce responds to this, let
(03:26):
me say that you can, in fact take acauliflower, you can trim it, the leaves
off of it, and then, you know, cutthe bottom off so it was flat on your
cutting board and they cut straight down,maybe about two centimeter or one inch.
Stay cut thick.
Slabs of it, and this willcreate cauliflower steaks
which are ready for the grill.
bruce (03:47):
You have to make sure when you're doing it that each steak
has a big chunk of root of stemthat holds all the pieces together.
The the pieces closer to theoutside of the circumference of the
cauliflower will kind of fall apart,and you save those for other things.
It'll be the center of it that'llmake the most beautiful stakes.
And my first thought is this doesn'tmatter whether you're doing this on
(04:08):
charcoal or gas, either will work.
If I was doing a cauliflowersteak, I don't think it'll
benefit from charcoal over gas.
And I'm a firm believer that if it willbenefit, you should go to charcoal.
So I'm going to bring that up with otherthings that you're gonna talk about.
Right?
Um, I would heavily, heavily olive oil.
It, I would consider.
Um, sprinkling or flavoring that oliveoil with an Arabic or Middle Eastern
(04:32):
spice blend, maybe a han in the oliveoil and some fresh garlic brush that
on and you don't want to overdo it.
You want the cauliflowerin terms of cooking.
You want the cauliflower to have sometooth, but to be nicely charred and have
that beautiful Middle Eastern flavor,
mark (04:46):
I think it's great to grill this with scallions,
with trim scallions together.
Mm.
I like it.
Not so much Middle Eastern.
I'm gonna correct the chef here.
I like sweet red chili sauce,sometimes called Thai chili sauce.
Sure as not a a, a glaze for thegrill, but afterwards to pour on it.
That's definitely
bruce (05:04):
a reason to the scallions 'cause that combination of the charred
grilled scallions and made for youdoing the charred grill scallions.
Make sure you lay themperpendicular to the grill grates
and not parallel to the grill.
Grates.
Go through the grates.
Okay?
So, okay, that's the first thing out.
This one that, okay.
mark (05:21):
The second thing I that I have on my list are fennel halves.
Halves.
And these are when you takea fennel bulb, not a giant.
Huge one, but a moderatesize, medium fennel bulb.
You trim off most of the outer stalks.
Mm-hmm.
And you trim the bottom a little bit.
Mm-hmm.
To get the hard woody part off, andthen you just cut it in half the way.
(05:41):
You would cut, let's say anapple straight down mm-hmm.
Through the stem in half, and nowit's ready to be put on a grill.
Mm-hmm.
In some ways.
Mm-hmm.
It sounds really good.
So what would you do with this?
bruce (05:50):
I would grill it as it is in the whole pieces, and then I would thinly
slice it after it's been grilled, uh, andtoss it with some, uh, grapefruit sections
and maybe a little avocado, and make alovely salad with the chard, fennel flavor
with some avocado and some grapefruit.
And just a drizzle of maybe somelemon infused olive oil and some
(06:14):
good, uh, crunchy flaked salt.
Yeah, he went all out.
What would you, uh, oilthis thing up for the grill?
I would actually just very lightly,I don't want to give this much oil.
Because there's gonna be oil drizzledon it afterwards as the salad, so I
might even give it a little non-stickspray or just a light brushing of
(06:34):
a flavorless oil, like a canolaoil, just so it doesn't stick.
So it does get a char, butmost of the oil's gonna come
after the cooking in this one.
So
mark (06:42):
I said that fall is all about big flavors, which it is.
It's moving into the winter.
The flavors get much, much larger.
And we're gonna move away from vegetablesfor a second and talk about what.
Something that I think is deliciouson the grill, and you may have had it
in North America if you or the UK ifyou've been to an Asian restaurant.
Mm.
And that is a salmon collar.
Alright.
And I have to explain what
bruce (07:02):
the collar is.
Yep.
So the collar is basically, if youthink about the, your collarbone
and where your collarbone is inrelationship to your head, think
about the same thing on a salmon.
When you're cleaning asalmon, you cut the head off.
There is a bone that itgoes around the whole fish.
Right behind the head.
Mm-hmm.
Before the filets begin.
Mm-hmm.
And that is the collar.
Mm-hmm.
(07:22):
And when they cut that off, there's alot of delicious meat attached to that.
Delicious.
It's fatty and it's yummy.
And it's
mark (07:29):
rich.
It's a incredibly strong flavor.
It
bruce (07:32):
is very strong and it's hard to find in most fish markets.
You, as Mark said, it's in a lot ofAsian restaurants, you might wanna go to.
Asian store.
And if you're lucky, they'll notonly have salmon collars, they
might have yellow tail collars.
There might be collars from other fish.
And how would
mark (07:46):
you grill a salmon
bruce (07:48):
collar?
Now I'm going to say, you want totake out your charcoal for this.
If you have the ability to grill oncharcoal versus gas, the smokiness of
the charcoal will add so much to this.
I would rub it with a little bit ofsesame oil, just a tiny bit of sesame
oil, and maybe even a little soy sauce.
Put it on the grill just enoughto get the flame shooting up.
(08:10):
You want the skin around it to char,you want it to be cooked through.
You don't want this still gelatinousin the middle like you would a filet.
You want this cooked tothe bones, so the meat is.
Falling off the bone in rich fatty bites.
And then if you wanna make a dippingsauce of some more soy and rice
vinegar, just like you might do forsushi, a little wasabi in there.
That would be a good way to do it.
mark (08:31):
Right.
That, I think that's it.
And I think that the importantthing here is to blacken it up
a bit again, big giant flavors.
And also by blackening it upslightly, you're gonna get rid of
a little bit of the salmon oil, soyou're gonna pull down the fishiness
slightly in the collar, but mm-hmm.
This is a.
Big flavor.
Okay, let's go back to vegetables.
So here's a fall vegetable thatI think people often don't grill
(08:53):
and that needs to be grilled.
And that is Brussels sprouts.
Brussels sprout.
I sout from Brussels.
Say brussel sprouts and it, no,there's sprouts from Brussels, Belgium.
So Brussels sprouts.
And I think what here you wannado is not get the tiny ones that
people like in salads or that arematch more, um, gently flavored.
(09:14):
You're looking here forlarge brusselsprouts.
That you can cut in half through thestem and now they're ready to grill.
Mm-hmm.
bruce (09:23):
Yeah.
I'm gonna say something that you mightnot like to hear, but if you're doing
vegetables like Brussels sprouts, whichare small, even the big ones are smallish.
Yeah.
You want to consider either avegetable basket or a fish basket
for your grill, so that way youcould put them all in one layer.
Sure.
And you could turn them all at oncerather than try and turn each one.
And the other thing about Brusselssprouts, what makes them so amazing
(09:46):
is the charred, burned, crispy edges.
But you run the risk on a veryhot grill of charring the outside
leaves before you cook it through.
So I'm actually gonna suggestyou don't have a hot grill,
but a medium grill, right?
So you don't want your grillup to 500 degrees, right?
Right.
You want your grill at like 300 degrees.
I would do charcoal again here.
(10:07):
If I was given the opportunity, Iwould toss these Brussels sprout
halves in olive oil and salt andpepper and probably not much else.
Layer them in my vegetable or fish basket.
Put them over.
Direct heat, medium.
mark (10:20):
Stop.
Stop.
Stop.
Stop.
Stop.
Stop.
The writer's gonna stop you.
Cut side down, because I don'tthink you ever turn these
bruce (10:27):
No, I'm gonna turn them.
'cause I want them to go all over.
mark (10:29):
No, I don't want 'em turned.
I just want 'em to cut side downbecause No, Jeff is turning them.
No, because then it gets too black.
Now see, we disagree.
I would just want them on one side onlybecause then they get too charged from it.
If you're gonna
bruce (10:43):
do them on one side only, then you're gonna go from even
lower heat and cover the grillso that they cook through enough.
mark (10:50):
Okay.
All right.
See th this is the kind of discussionswe always have, and I think once you
grill these, then you wanna drizzle'em with a little more olive oil.
You wanna dust them with Parmesancheese, with parmigiano riano,
maybe a little lemon zest.
Mm-hmm.
And then they're justperfect, right off the grill.
Actually.
What
bruce (11:05):
else would be good tossed with those?
If you're doing the cheese and thelemon zest is some toasted sld almonds.
mark (11:10):
Sure.
I can buy it.
Okay, so, um, let's talk about somethingthat maybe is a total splurge in this
world, but that is Bica Fiorentina.
And if you don't know what BicaFiorentina is, we're talking like a
one kilo, or it is a one kilo, 2.2
pound.
Uh, T-bone or porterhouse steak.
(11:32):
Mm-hmm.
A giant steak.
And I will tell you that Bruce and I,uh, routinely, no, not routinely, maybe
once every two months we will splita steak of Fiorentina off the grill.
And I just think it's the ultimate.
Fall grilling thing.
bruce (11:46):
I wanna start by saying what the difference is between
a t-bone and a porterhouse.
Okay.
They're both kind of from thesame cut, um, of the animal.
Um, it is a t the bone is shapedlike a t and on one side of the
bone is the strip loin, so that'slike a New York strip steak.
And the other side is the tenderloin,the part of the animal where
you have a nice big tenderloin.
(12:07):
Piece is a porterhouse.
As you go down towards the back ofthe animal and there is less and less
tenderloin, it becomes the T-bonesteaks because you can get T-bone
steaks that have only the strip on oneside and no tenderloin on the other.
Okay.
Can we come back to be it stick a fina?
Mm-hmm.
Okay.
Well, we had to clarify what you'regetting when you go to this store.
All come on.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
First time Mark and I had a mistake of youand Tina was in Florence, Italy, and it
(12:31):
was just the most amazing thing to come.
mark (12:35):
Yeah, I wanna say that we went to this restaurant
in Florence and we sp Split
bruce (12:39):
Leone.
Yeah.
Four lions.
We
mark (12:40):
split a best steak of fiorentina and um, it was great, but what really
cracked us up, okay, so we're talking 2.2
pounds steak.
Mm-hmm.
A kilo steak.
Um, and uh, it was a French couple,a young French couple, I would
guess them in their late twentiesor early thirties, and they.
Each ordered a Bica Fiorentina.
(13:02):
Mm-hmm.
And they each finished it.
Mm-hmm.
With their bottle of red wine.
She and he each ate 2.2
pounds, I guess with a bone.
It's less than that, but still a 2.2
pound.
Mm-hmm.
One kilos steak.
And they downed it witha bottle of red wine.
And we made our way through.
One of them we did between us, but we
bruce (13:21):
also ordered the contour.
All the vegetables thatcome, they ordered none.
They didn't, they ate meat and wine.
That is what they do their dinner.
So I am once again gonna break out thecharcoal for this because this is, this
is too good to just cook over over gasbecause I want the flavor of the wood.
I want a little smoke.
I might even throw a piece of woodin the charcoal fire as well to
(13:44):
give it even more wood flavor.
You want.
Eat this rare.
You want this to be at about 127 degrees.
When it comes off the grill, Iwould do it over direct high heat,
about five to six minutes aside.
And if it's not at the right temperature,then I stand it up on its flat end, so
the steak is standing up in the air,bone end, and I let it go another few
(14:07):
minutes until the temperature is 1 27.
On the bottom side, we should say.
And that is how I eat a BT stickif fiorentina, and it's always,
mark (14:14):
um, uh, rubbed with olive oil, right?
And lots of salt, right?
Olive oil and salt.
Yeah.
And uh, you can bring itoff and do things to it.
You can grate lemon zest over it.
You can put rosemary.
You can make a chimi chew.
Yeah, you can make sauces for it.
I prefer it just straight on.
And this brings up anotherquestion about fall grilling.
And this is what I wanna say.
I think fall grilling is madefor bone in cuts of meat.
(14:37):
Mm-hmm.
I think fall grilling is when youwant to move away from boneless,
skinless chicken breast Sure.
Or boneless skinless, uh, chicken thighs.
Sure.
And you wanna have bone in chicken breast.
Mm-hmm.
You wanna have bone in chicken thighs?
They taste better anyway.
Well, they do, but it's not,it gives you a bigger flavor.
Other stuff.
Faster in the summer.
It has lighter flavors.
The bone deepens the flavor dramatically.
(14:58):
It does,
bruce (14:58):
and partly is because you have to cook it longer, so the longer
cooking time gives you more mayardreaction, more caramelization of
the natural sugars and the meat.
The skins get crispier,the meat gets sweeter.
You get beautiful browning happening.
The longer cooking time means those bonesimpart flavor to the meat inside, and I
don't care whether it is a chicken thigh.
(15:20):
Or a leg of lamb bone inmeat requires charcoal.
Get yourself a charcoal grill for this.
You will.
Thank me for it.
mark (15:27):
Okay, so, um, here's a basic tip all the way around about this
fall and, uh, early winter grilling.
And that is you just wanna up the flavors.
We were talking about thiskind of with the bone, and I
think this is really important.
You wanna up the spicy flavors.
You wanna wear up the herbal flavors.
Mm-hmm.
You wanna up.
All the flavors in the summer.
(15:48):
Yes, we want lighterflavors, brighter flavors.
We want less complication.
Now, I think it's the time topull out the really crazy rubs.
Mm-hmm.
For barbecue, now is the time topull out crazy barbecue sauces.
If you like such things, do
bruce (16:03):
not be afraid of your spice rack.
Do not be afraid of thatspice rack in the store.
Pick out some blendsyou've never tried before.
Just pick out some new spices you'venever tried before because you
might actually discover some flavorsyou love, and the fall on grilling
is a perfect time to try them,
mark (16:20):
right?
Chili weather calls for bigger flavors.
Just remember that seems to be thedominant theme for us, and we hope
it's a dominant theme for you.
Thanks for being a partof this food journey.
Always say thanks for subscribing tothis podcast and radiating liking it.
All that stuff we always say to do.
Thanks for doing all of that withus and thanks for grilling in
the fall because we like it too.
(16:41):
If you want to talk about fall grilling,
bruce (16:44):
then you should go to our Facebook group cooking with Bruce and Mark and
have this discussion with us there.
Share some of the things you.
Love to grill in the fall.
Next time I grill, I will take picturesof it and show you what we are making.
We wanna know what you aremaking, so share it with everyone.
mark (17:00):
Okay.
As is traditional in this podcast,the final segment, what is making
us happy in food this week?
If you've
bruce (17:05):
listened to other episodes, you know that I went sour cherry
picking earlier this summer.
You know, I have.
Sour cherry jam fromour book called Canning.
You know, mark made a sour cherry piea few nights ago that he was as unhappy
with as I was delighted with, because helikes that canned cherry pie filling I do.
As opposed to his own homemade.
I do.
I do.
So what was left after all of thatwas a bag, a Ziploc bag full of sour
(17:29):
cherry juice from those cherries.
It's true.
So what I did last night when company cameover is I made sour cherry margaritas.
You did.
And they were.
Astounding.
I was Tequila quantro, lime juice, sourcherry juice, and a little grand Classico,
which is another orange flavored Italianliqueur, which gave it, it is this
(17:53):
flavor that bound everything together.
It wasn't too sweet.
No sir.
No, none.
The grand Classico gave it that sweetness.
Okay.
It was, I had three ofthem and I suffered for it.
Um, you
mark (18:04):
did?
I had a half of one andBruce had three of them.
Uh, so that tells you the differencebetween the US I guess what's
making me happy in food this weekis he the wood mushrooms, they
are now coming in in New England.
We've had an incredible drought.
New England and the InwoodMushrooms are pretty pathetic
this year, uh, because we've justbeen in such drought conditions.
(18:26):
We did get a ton of rain a few daysago, and there may be some now that
spring up on people's properties.
We have actually friends who askus to come and take some off their
property every year, but thisyear, uh, she hasn't had any.
She shed one and except forherself, of course, it's her
property, but there was no.
Easy picking of them, butnow we have some coming in.
We just got a bag of them allready to go and head of the wood.
(18:50):
Mushrooms are so woodsy, tasty, earthy.
I, they are going to make me happyin food this week because Bruce
hasn't yet done anything with them.
They're sitting in a bag onthe counter, but I very much
look forward to eating those.
Okay.
That's the podcast for this week.
Thanks for joining us.
Thanks for being a part of thisjourney, and we certainly appreciate
(19:12):
your connecting with us acrossall social media platforms,
bruce (19:15):
including our TikTok channel.
Please go to TikTok and checkout cooking with Bruce and Mark.
We post a lot of videos ofus cooking in our kitchen.
Mark Cooks, I cook.
Sometimes we cook together and it'sa chance for you to get to see us in
our own home environment doing what welove best, which is cooking and eating
here at Cooking at Bruce and Martin.
Hey, I am Bruce Weinstein and this is the podcast Cooking with
mark (00:03):
Bruce and Martin.
And I'm Mark Scrubber, andtogether with Bruce, my husband,
we have written 37 cookbooks.
And so out of that comes thispodcast about our passion for food
and cooking, as is always the case.
We've got a one minute cookingtip we're gonna invite.
Talking about fall grilling ideas.
I've got a list of things thatI've put together that I think are
great for a grill, and we're gonnalet Chef Bruce respond to them.
(00:28):
And how do these actually work on a grill?
So I've got my list of what I thinkis great for fall grilling, and then
he's going to respond with that.
And we'll tell you what's makingus happy in food this week.
So let's get started.
bruce (00:47):
Our one minute cooking tip.
Alright, this is about apples andthis is about my love of apples
that come right off a tree.
Me too.
And my disgust at how quickly apples losethat crunch and lose their perfectness
when they sit at room temperature.
True, true.
But also how beautifulapples that you pick.
Off a tree, look in a bowlin the middle of your table.
So when you go to the store or when you goto the orchard and you buy fresh apples,
(01:13):
get enough to keep some in the fridgeto stay crunchy and fresh and wonderful.
And then buy some that are just fordisplay in the middle of the table.
And when those get too soft to eat.
Make applesauce
mark (01:25):
because they will make your house incredibly amatic.
Mm-hmm.
Several God, 20 years ago, 25 yearsago, we went to belay in New York
City, uh, back when it was just firstopened and you walk through this narrow
corridor into the restaurant from theoutside street door and the narrow car
corridor was just imagine tons of littlecubby hole bookcases, and in every
(01:47):
single cubby hole there was an apple.
So when you.
Open the door.
That entire hallway just had this applesmell that was almost overwhelming.
It So set you up for the dinner.
Had it was a really wonderfulexperience and, um, they make four
beautiful aromas in your house.
Mm-hmm.
As we say.
Okay.
Before we get to our fall grilling ideasor my fall grilling ideas that Bruce
(02:09):
is gonna respond to, let me say that.
It would be great if you could.
Subscribe to this podcast.
If you can rate it, ifyou can write a review.
All those things really help out.
We, as you probably know, we areotherwise unsupported, so thanks
for doing that to help us out.
Okay.
Up next some fall grillingideas or for our UK friends,
some autumnal grilling ideas.
bruce (02:34):
I wanna ask you before we even get into this, why did you pick some of
these things and what about fall and.
By each one of these things.
mark (02:41):
Um, because I think that they have big flavors and I think some of these
things come into, uh, season in the fall,that, especially where we live up in the
north, they're seasonal to the fall andI think that they have and can involve.
Big flavors that are not the clean,vibrant flavors that you want in the
summertime when you want more, let'ssay, just to be, uh, pedantic, you want
(03:06):
more lemon zest than oregano or you,you want more olive oil than butter.
Mm-hmm.
I mean, when you're moving intothe fall, you're talking about.
Bigger flavors.
And so some of these things are fallvegetables, as you'll talk about,
and some of these things are justgiant flavors all the way around.
Cool.
Okay.
Excellent.
My first one up is cauliflower steaks,and before Bruce responds to this, let
(03:26):
me say that you can, in fact take acauliflower, you can trim it, the leaves
off of it, and then, you know, cutthe bottom off so it was flat on your
cutting board and they cut straight down,maybe about two centimeter or one inch.
Stay cut thick.
Slabs of it, and this willcreate cauliflower steaks
which are ready for the grill.
bruce (03:47):
You have to make sure when you're doing it that each steak
has a big chunk of root of stemthat holds all the pieces together.
The the pieces closer to theoutside of the circumference of the
cauliflower will kind of fall apart,and you save those for other things.
It'll be the center of it that'llmake the most beautiful stakes.
And my first thought is this doesn'tmatter whether you're doing this on
(04:08):
charcoal or gas, either will work.
If I was doing a cauliflowersteak, I don't think it'll
benefit from charcoal over gas.
And I'm a firm believer that if it willbenefit, you should go to charcoal.
So I'm going to bring that up with otherthings that you're gonna talk about.
Right?
Um, I would heavily, heavily olive oil.
It, I would consider.
Um, sprinkling or flavoring that oliveoil with an Arabic or Middle Eastern
(04:32):
spice blend, maybe a han in the oliveoil and some fresh garlic brush that
on and you don't want to overdo it.
You want the cauliflowerin terms of cooking.
You want the cauliflower to have sometooth, but to be nicely charred and have
that beautiful Middle Eastern flavor,
mark (04:46):
I think it's great to grill this with scallions,
with trim scallions together.
Mm.
I like it.
Not so much Middle Eastern.
I'm gonna correct the chef here.
I like sweet red chili sauce,sometimes called Thai chili sauce.
Sure as not a a, a glaze for thegrill, but afterwards to pour on it.
That's definitely
bruce (05:04):
a reason to the scallions 'cause that combination of the charred
grilled scallions and made for youdoing the charred grill scallions.
Make sure you lay themperpendicular to the grill grates
and not parallel to the grill.
Grates.
Go through the grates.
Okay?
So, okay, that's the first thing out.
This one that, okay.
mark (05:21):
The second thing I that I have on my list are fennel halves.
Halves.
And these are when you takea fennel bulb, not a giant.
Huge one, but a moderatesize, medium fennel bulb.
You trim off most of the outer stalks.
Mm-hmm.
And you trim the bottom a little bit.
Mm-hmm.
To get the hard woody part off, andthen you just cut it in half the way.
(05:41):
You would cut, let's say anapple straight down mm-hmm.
Through the stem in half, and nowit's ready to be put on a grill.
Mm-hmm.
In some ways.
Mm-hmm.
It sounds really good.
So what would you do with this?
bruce (05:50):
I would grill it as it is in the whole pieces, and then I would thinly
slice it after it's been grilled, uh, andtoss it with some, uh, grapefruit sections
and maybe a little avocado, and make alovely salad with the chard, fennel flavor
with some avocado and some grapefruit.
And just a drizzle of maybe somelemon infused olive oil and some
(06:14):
good, uh, crunchy flaked salt.
Yeah, he went all out.
What would you, uh, oilthis thing up for the grill?
I would actually just very lightly,I don't want to give this much oil.
Because there's gonna be oil drizzledon it afterwards as the salad, so I
might even give it a little non-stickspray or just a light brushing of
(06:34):
a flavorless oil, like a canolaoil, just so it doesn't stick.
So it does get a char, butmost of the oil's gonna come
after the cooking in this one.
So
mark (06:42):
I said that fall is all about big flavors, which it is.
It's moving into the winter.
The flavors get much, much larger.
And we're gonna move away from vegetablesfor a second and talk about what.
Something that I think is deliciouson the grill, and you may have had it
in North America if you or the UK ifyou've been to an Asian restaurant.
Mm.
And that is a salmon collar.
Alright.
And I have to explain what
bruce (07:02):
the collar is.
Yep.
So the collar is basically, if youthink about the, your collarbone
and where your collarbone is inrelationship to your head, think
about the same thing on a salmon.
When you're cleaning asalmon, you cut the head off.
There is a bone that itgoes around the whole fish.
Right behind the head.
Mm-hmm.
Before the filets begin.
Mm-hmm.
And that is the collar.
Mm-hmm.
(07:22):
And when they cut that off, there's alot of delicious meat attached to that.
Delicious.
It's fatty and it's yummy.
And it's
mark (07:29):
rich.
It's a incredibly strong flavor.
It
bruce (07:32):
is very strong and it's hard to find in most fish markets.
You, as Mark said, it's in a lot ofAsian restaurants, you might wanna go to.
Asian store.
And if you're lucky, they'll notonly have salmon collars, they
might have yellow tail collars.
There might be collars from other fish.
And how would
mark (07:46):
you grill a salmon
bruce (07:48):
collar?
Now I'm going to say, you want totake out your charcoal for this.
If you have the ability to grill oncharcoal versus gas, the smokiness of
the charcoal will add so much to this.
I would rub it with a little bit ofsesame oil, just a tiny bit of sesame
oil, and maybe even a little soy sauce.
Put it on the grill just enoughto get the flame shooting up.
(08:10):
You want the skin around it to char,you want it to be cooked through.
You don't want this still gelatinousin the middle like you would a filet.
You want this cooked tothe bones, so the meat is.
Falling off the bone in rich fatty bites.
And then if you wanna make a dippingsauce of some more soy and rice
vinegar, just like you might do forsushi, a little wasabi in there.
That would be a good way to do it.
mark (08:31):
Right.
That, I think that's it.
And I think that the importantthing here is to blacken it up
a bit again, big giant flavors.
And also by blackening it upslightly, you're gonna get rid of
a little bit of the salmon oil, soyou're gonna pull down the fishiness
slightly in the collar, but mm-hmm.
This is a.
Big flavor.
Okay, let's go back to vegetables.
So here's a fall vegetable thatI think people often don't grill
(08:53):
and that needs to be grilled.
And that is Brussels sprouts.
Brussels sprout.
I sout from Brussels.
Say brussel sprouts and it, no,there's sprouts from Brussels, Belgium.
So Brussels sprouts.
And I think what here you wannado is not get the tiny ones that
people like in salads or that arematch more, um, gently flavored.
(09:14):
You're looking here forlarge brusselsprouts.
That you can cut in half through thestem and now they're ready to grill.
Mm-hmm.
bruce (09:23):
Yeah.
I'm gonna say something that you mightnot like to hear, but if you're doing
vegetables like Brussels sprouts, whichare small, even the big ones are smallish.
Yeah.
You want to consider either avegetable basket or a fish basket
for your grill, so that way youcould put them all in one layer.
Sure.
And you could turn them all at oncerather than try and turn each one.
And the other thing about Brusselssprouts, what makes them so amazing
(09:46):
is the charred, burned, crispy edges.
But you run the risk on a veryhot grill of charring the outside
leaves before you cook it through.
So I'm actually gonna suggestyou don't have a hot grill,
but a medium grill, right?
So you don't want your grillup to 500 degrees, right?
Right.
You want your grill at like 300 degrees.
I would do charcoal again here.
(10:07):
If I was given the opportunity, Iwould toss these Brussels sprout
halves in olive oil and salt andpepper and probably not much else.
Layer them in my vegetable or fish basket.
Put them over.
Direct heat, medium.
mark (10:20):
Stop.
Stop.
Stop.
Stop.
Stop.
Stop.
The writer's gonna stop you.
Cut side down, because I don'tthink you ever turn these
bruce (10:27):
No, I'm gonna turn them.
'cause I want them to go all over.
mark (10:29):
No, I don't want 'em turned.
I just want 'em to cut side downbecause No, Jeff is turning them.
No, because then it gets too black.
Now see, we disagree.
I would just want them on one side onlybecause then they get too charged from it.
If you're gonna
bruce (10:43):
do them on one side only, then you're gonna go from even
lower heat and cover the grillso that they cook through enough.
mark (10:50):
Okay.
All right.
See th this is the kind of discussionswe always have, and I think once you
grill these, then you wanna drizzle'em with a little more olive oil.
You wanna dust them with Parmesancheese, with parmigiano riano,
maybe a little lemon zest.
Mm-hmm.
And then they're justperfect, right off the grill.
Actually.
What
bruce (11:05):
else would be good tossed with those?
If you're doing the cheese and thelemon zest is some toasted sld almonds.
mark (11:10):
Sure.
I can buy it.
Okay, so, um, let's talk about somethingthat maybe is a total splurge in this
world, but that is Bica Fiorentina.
And if you don't know what BicaFiorentina is, we're talking like a
one kilo, or it is a one kilo, 2.2
pound.
Uh, T-bone or porterhouse steak.
(11:32):
Mm-hmm.
A giant steak.
And I will tell you that Bruce and I,uh, routinely, no, not routinely, maybe
once every two months we will splita steak of Fiorentina off the grill.
And I just think it's the ultimate.
Fall grilling thing.
bruce (11:46):
I wanna start by saying what the difference is between
a t-bone and a porterhouse.
Okay.
They're both kind of from thesame cut, um, of the animal.
Um, it is a t the bone is shapedlike a t and on one side of the
bone is the strip loin, so that'slike a New York strip steak.
And the other side is the tenderloin,the part of the animal where
you have a nice big tenderloin.
(12:07):
Piece is a porterhouse.
As you go down towards the back ofthe animal and there is less and less
tenderloin, it becomes the T-bonesteaks because you can get T-bone
steaks that have only the strip on oneside and no tenderloin on the other.
Okay.
Can we come back to be it stick a fina?
Mm-hmm.
Okay.
Well, we had to clarify what you'regetting when you go to this store.
All come on.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
First time Mark and I had a mistake of youand Tina was in Florence, Italy, and it
(12:31):
was just the most amazing thing to come.
mark (12:35):
Yeah, I wanna say that we went to this restaurant
in Florence and we sp Split
bruce (12:39):
Leone.
Yeah.
Four lions.
We
mark (12:40):
split a best steak of fiorentina and um, it was great, but what really
cracked us up, okay, so we're talking 2.2
pounds steak.
Mm-hmm.
A kilo steak.
Um, and uh, it was a French couple,a young French couple, I would
guess them in their late twentiesor early thirties, and they.
Each ordered a Bica Fiorentina.
(13:02):
Mm-hmm.
And they each finished it.
Mm-hmm.
With their bottle of red wine.
She and he each ate 2.2
pounds, I guess with a bone.
It's less than that, but still a 2.2
pound.
Mm-hmm.
One kilos steak.
And they downed it witha bottle of red wine.
And we made our way through.
One of them we did between us, but we
bruce (13:21):
also ordered the contour.
All the vegetables thatcome, they ordered none.
They didn't, they ate meat and wine.
That is what they do their dinner.
So I am once again gonna break out thecharcoal for this because this is, this
is too good to just cook over over gasbecause I want the flavor of the wood.
I want a little smoke.
I might even throw a piece of woodin the charcoal fire as well to
(13:44):
give it even more wood flavor.
You want.
Eat this rare.
You want this to be at about 127 degrees.
When it comes off the grill, Iwould do it over direct high heat,
about five to six minutes aside.
And if it's not at the right temperature,then I stand it up on its flat end, so
the steak is standing up in the air,bone end, and I let it go another few
(14:07):
minutes until the temperature is 1 27.
On the bottom side, we should say.
And that is how I eat a BT stickif fiorentina, and it's always,
mark (14:14):
um, uh, rubbed with olive oil, right?
And lots of salt, right?
Olive oil and salt.
Yeah.
And uh, you can bring itoff and do things to it.
You can grate lemon zest over it.
You can put rosemary.
You can make a chimi chew.
Yeah, you can make sauces for it.
I prefer it just straight on.
And this brings up anotherquestion about fall grilling.
And this is what I wanna say.
I think fall grilling is madefor bone in cuts of meat.
(14:37):
Mm-hmm.
I think fall grilling is when youwant to move away from boneless,
skinless chicken breast Sure.
Or boneless skinless, uh, chicken thighs.
Sure.
And you wanna have bone in chicken breast.
Mm-hmm.
You wanna have bone in chicken thighs?
They taste better anyway.
Well, they do, but it's not,it gives you a bigger flavor.
Other stuff.
Faster in the summer.
It has lighter flavors.
The bone deepens the flavor dramatically.
(14:58):
It does,
bruce (14:58):
and partly is because you have to cook it longer, so the longer
cooking time gives you more mayardreaction, more caramelization of
the natural sugars and the meat.
The skins get crispier,the meat gets sweeter.
You get beautiful browning happening.
The longer cooking time means those bonesimpart flavor to the meat inside, and I
don't care whether it is a chicken thigh.
(15:20):
Or a leg of lamb bone inmeat requires charcoal.
Get yourself a charcoal grill for this.
You will.
Thank me for it.
mark (15:27):
Okay, so, um, here's a basic tip all the way around about this
fall and, uh, early winter grilling.
And that is you just wanna up the flavors.
We were talking about thiskind of with the bone, and I
think this is really important.
You wanna up the spicy flavors.
You wanna wear up the herbal flavors.
Mm-hmm.
You wanna up.
All the flavors in the summer.
(15:48):
Yes, we want lighterflavors, brighter flavors.
We want less complication.
Now, I think it's the time topull out the really crazy rubs.
Mm-hmm.
For barbecue, now is the time topull out crazy barbecue sauces.
If you like such things, do
bruce (16:03):
not be afraid of your spice rack.
Do not be afraid of thatspice rack in the store.
Pick out some blendsyou've never tried before.
Just pick out some new spices you'venever tried before because you
might actually discover some flavorsyou love, and the fall on grilling
is a perfect time to try them,
mark (16:20):
right?
Chili weather calls for bigger flavors.
Just remember that seems to be thedominant theme for us, and we hope
it's a dominant theme for you.
Thanks for being a partof this food journey.
Always say thanks for subscribing tothis podcast and radiating liking it.
All that stuff we always say to do.
Thanks for doing all of that withus and thanks for grilling in
the fall because we like it too.
(16:41):
If you want to talk about fall grilling,
bruce (16:44):
then you should go to our Facebook group cooking with Bruce and Mark and
have this discussion with us there.
Share some of the things you.
Love to grill in the fall.
Next time I grill, I will take picturesof it and show you what we are making.
We wanna know what you aremaking, so share it with everyone.
mark (17:00):
Okay.
As is traditional in this podcast,the final segment, what is making
us happy in food this week?
If you've
bruce (17:05):
listened to other episodes, you know that I went sour cherry
picking earlier this summer.
You know, I have.
Sour cherry jam fromour book called Canning.
You know, mark made a sour cherry piea few nights ago that he was as unhappy
with as I was delighted with, because helikes that canned cherry pie filling I do.
As opposed to his own homemade.
I do.
I do.
So what was left after all of thatwas a bag, a Ziploc bag full of sour
(17:29):
cherry juice from those cherries.
It's true.
So what I did last night when company cameover is I made sour cherry margaritas.
You did.
And they were.
Astounding.
I was Tequila quantro, lime juice, sourcherry juice, and a little grand Classico,
which is another orange flavored Italianliqueur, which gave it, it is this
(17:53):
flavor that bound everything together.
It wasn't too sweet.
No sir.
No, none.
The grand Classico gave it that sweetness.
Okay.
It was, I had three ofthem and I suffered for it.
Um, you
mark (18:04):
did?
I had a half of one andBruce had three of them.
Uh, so that tells you the differencebetween the US I guess what's
making me happy in food this weekis he the wood mushrooms, they
are now coming in in New England.
We've had an incredible drought.
New England and the InwoodMushrooms are pretty pathetic
this year, uh, because we've justbeen in such drought conditions.
(18:26):
We did get a ton of rain a few daysago, and there may be some now that
spring up on people's properties.
We have actually friends who askus to come and take some off their
property every year, but thisyear, uh, she hasn't had any.
She shed one and except forherself, of course, it's her
property, but there was no.
Easy picking of them, butnow we have some coming in.
We just got a bag of them allready to go and head of the wood.
(18:50):
Mushrooms are so woodsy, tasty, earthy.
I, they are going to make me happyin food this week because Bruce
hasn't yet done anything with them.
They're sitting in a bag onthe counter, but I very much
look forward to eating those.
Okay.
That's the podcast for this week.
Thanks for joining us.
Thanks for being a part of thisjourney, and we certainly appreciate
(19:12):
your connecting with us acrossall social media platforms,
bruce (19:15):
including our TikTok channel.
Please go to TikTok and checkout cooking with Bruce and Mark.
We post a lot of videos ofus cooking in our kitchen.
Mark Cooks, I cook.
Sometimes we cook together and it'sa chance for you to get to see us in
our own home environment doing what welove best, which is cooking and eating
here at Cooking at Bruce and Martin.
Popular Podcasts
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com