Grilled Sweet Pepper Rellanos with Goat Cheese, Charred Corn and Apricot

In the final recipe that I have for you all from the Walmart Challenge Chefs, I'm sharing Chef Chad Johnson's recipe for Grilled Sweet Pepper Rellanos with Goat Cheese, Charred Corn and Apricots!

Grilled Sweet Pepper Rellanos with Goat Cheese, Charred Corn and Apricots

by Chef Chad Johnson

Ingredients:

12 mini sweet peppers

1 ear sweet corn, shucked

8 ounces Chevre, or other soft goat cheese

1/2 cup dried apricots, diced

2 tbsp basil, chopped

Directions:

Preheat the grill using Kingsford charcoal, until briquets are consistently ashed over.

Grill peppers over a medium fire until lightly charred on all sides. Place peppers in a bowl and wrap with plastic wrap, allowing to cool to room temperature.

Char corn on the grill over high heat until moderately charred. Remove and cool and remove corn kernels from the cob.

Mix the goat cheese, charred corn, apricots and basil. Season with sale and pepper.

Cut a slit in the side of each pepper and gently scrap out the seeds. Fill each pepper with the goat cheese mixture until full. 

Return stuffed peppers to the grill and cook over medium heat until the goat cheese is warm and soft.

Enjoy!!

Walmart Choice Steak Challenge

A couple of weeks ago I was invited to the Walmart Choice Steak Challenge presented by Kingsford Charcoal and Coca-Cola. Tampa has been selected as one of eight markets to be selected for this challenge taking place in Walmart parking lots nation-wide. At the Tampa event, our very own Chefs Chad Johnson from Bern's Steak House and Eric Lackey from Flamestone Grill competed to determine who has the best steak-grilling skills in town. Walmart shoppers judged the Walmart Choice Premium Rib Eyes prepared by the chefs.

Before the event started, both chefs were happy to share some tips and busted some myths of grilling:

Tips:
1. Drink beer while grilling. Seriously, this was their #1 tip and personally, I find it to be a good one!
2. Don't puncture the steak.
3. Create both a hot zone and a cool zone on your grill. To create the hot zone, position the coals 6 inches below the top of the grill. The hot zone is great to finish off your steak once it has been cooked almost to the way you want. The cool zone would be an area where the coals are 10-12 inches below the top of the grill and is great to have when a steak seems to be cooking too fast. A chimney is recommended so the coals burn evenly.
4. For a simple marinade, just leave your steak in olive oil for 15 minutes before grilling. The olive oil really allows the steak's natural flavors to shine through.

Busted Myths:
Myth #1: Start cooking your steak at room temperature.
Busted: Actually, it's much preferred to start grilling your steak right after you take it out of the fridge.

Myth #2: Poke the steak for the marinade.
Busted: It's better to not puncture the steak as punctured steak on the grill will allow the natural juices to seep out.

Myth #3: Only flip steak once so you cook once on the front and once on the back.
Busted: The chefs recommend you flip your steak multiple times. In fact, a minimum of 4 flips is great.

After chatting with the chefs, the event was underway!

Chef Eric Lackey with the Kingsford representatives

Chef Chad Johnson prepping his steaks

Chef Chad Johnson grilling

Chef Eric Lackey taking a photo-posing break from grilling

Steaks from Chef Chad Johnson (Bern's)

Steaks from Chef Eric Lackey (Flamestone)

And the winner is...

Chef Eric Lackey from Flamestone!!

Chef Eric will now move on to compete in New York, along with seven other chef finalists, on May 22nd! Good luck to him! We will definitely be visiting Chef Eric at Flamestone when he gets back from New York.

Prior to the event, the chefs cooked up some delicious grilling recipes that Kingsford graciously shared. All photos and recipes are courtesy of Kingsford. I'll be sharing one recipe now and 2 more at a later date.

Coca-Cola Balsamic Marinated Bermuda Onion

by Chef Eric Lackey

Ingredients:

2 jumbo red Bermuda onions

1 12-ounce can Coca-Cola

2-3 cups hot water

1 cup balsamic vinegar

Directions:

1. Leave ends on onion (can trim) and cut in half. Peel away paper-like skin. Place in food storage container.

2. Mix Coca-Cola and vinegar. Pour soda-vinegar mixture into food storage container with onion. Add as much hot water as needed to submerge onions. Marinate overnight in fridge.

3. Preheat the grill using Kingsford charcoal, until briquets are consistently ashed over.

4. Remove onion with marinade from fridge and grill onion for 20 minutes on medium heat, turning occasionally. Before removing from grill, find hot spot to char onion and caramelize natural sugars for a few minutes to finish. 

Also, thanks to Kingsford, I have some koozies and hats to give away! Leave a comment below if you want a koozie or hat and I will give them away until I've run out.

Zucchini! Loves it!

Zucchini is my favorite vegetable. I like to make a chicken/rice/zucchini dish. I've made Sausage Stuffed Zucchini Boats. I frequently saute zucchini as a side dish. Being that zucchini's prime season is May through August (FYI- it's still available year-round), I have been seeing tons of zucchini recipes popping up on food websites lately. So, in celebration of the zucchini squash that I love, I'm going to share zucchini recipes that I've picked up around the web.

Sweet Zucchini Pancakes via Tasty Kitchen

Zucchini Fritters via Smitten Kitchen

Chicken Rollatini Stuffed with Zucchini & Mozzarella via Gina's Skinny Recipes

Easy Cheesy Zucchini Bake via Kalyn's Kitchen

Gazpacho with Zucchini via Eat at Home

Chocolate Zucchini Cake via Zoe Bakes

Ideas for baking with zucchini via Baking Bites

Also, Eat at Home had two posts (here and here) that highlights recipes with zucchini.

Be sure to check these recipes out from some of the best food bloggers I follow!

Sausage Stuffed Zucchini Boats

A couple of months ago, when Mike (the boyfriend) and I would have normally spent our Friday night with friends or at the movies, we stayed in to watch the Tampa Bay Lightning vs. Pittsburgh Penguins in the NHL Playoffs. Because it's crucial to never miss a Lightning playoff game, I decided to stay in and cook a meal that I had been itching to try: Sausage Stuffed Zucchini Boats from Kitchen Belleicious, who has some pretty fantastic recipes!

Sausage Stuffed Zucchini Boats

(adapted and re-posted, with permission, from Jessica at Kitchen Belleicious)

Ingredients:

3 medium size zucchini

1 red bell pepper, chopped

1 green bell pepper, chopped

1/2 onion, chopped

1 pound of Italian sausage

1/2 cup mozzarella cheese

1 tsp salt and pepper each

2 eggs

1/2 cup bread crumbs

1 tsp Emeril's Creole (Bayou Blast) seasoning

1 tsp garlic powder

Directions:

Cut zucchini in half lengthwise. Using a small spoon, carefully scoop out flesh and seeds, leaving a 1/4-inch-thick shell around the edges. Discard seeds and set aside the flesh. Take the flesh and chop into small pieces for the stuffing. 

Cook the sausage until no longer pink. Drain and set aside. 

Saute the onions and peppers in the same cooking pan until nice and tender, approximately 6-8 minutes. Add the chopped flesh of the zucchini along with the seasonings and 1/4 cup of mozzarella cheese.

In a large bowl, combine the sausage and veggie mixture with the breadcrumbs and eggs. Mix together with your hands until thoroughly combined. Place zucchini boats in a single layer in a greased baking dish and divide the stuffing equally among the boats, making sure to mound the stuffing. Sprinkle with the remaining cheese and bake 35-40 minutes at 375* until stuffing looks nice and browned.

***

And that's all, folks! The original recipe has some extra ingredients, which I'm sure would only enhance the wonderful flavor of the filling, but being that I didn't have these ingredients on-hand, I opted out and just worked with what I had! Also, she used Slap Your Mama seasoning, but I couldn't find it at my local grocery store. Instead, I decided that Emeril's Cajun seasoning would be close enough!

Please go check out Kitchen Belleicious- you will not regret it! And special thanks to Jessica for the permission to re-print! 

*Warning: you might experience continual thoughts of this dish, making you salivate and wake up at 2am for a quick snack. Also, your significant other might not be able to stop singing your praises. In addition, you might just fight with said significant other over the last zucchini and if you aren't mature, you'll rock-paper-scissors for the win.