I thought that the splendor and majesty of the Olympic Games Opening Ceremony would be a great excuse to break out the inflatable backyard movie screen and to invite a few friends over for a party. To kick it up a notch, I decided to keep to a Brazilian theme for the dinner, so as to get everyone in the mood. This post is intended to share some of the lessons I learned.
FOOD:
After soliciting inputs from my friends at Kamadoguru.com and Reddit I settled on a dinner of:
Preparing the meat, sprinkling with Hawaiian Sea Salt
Picanha (Top Sirloin Cap Steak), Papillote Vegetables, and Spiced Rice.
Picanha, a Brazilian delicacy, is the top cut of the sirloin with the fat cap still on it, seasoned with sea salt and roasted over an open fire. After searching the entire island, I was unable to find this cut available for sale. Costco did have the top sirloin steaks but with caps off. Mike, the rotisserie master from DadCooksDinner.com , recommends wrapping the meat in bacon if you can’t find the right cut of meat. I preheated the Kamado up to 400 degrees on the dome thermometer and set up the [easyazon_link identifier=”B01CCHXXHA” locale=”US” nw=”y” tag=”backyardmov05-20″]Joetisserie[/easyazon_link]. I wrapped the meat in thick cut bacon from Costco, sprinkled with Hawaiian Sea Salt, skewered so that each steak formed a “C’ and started cooking.
Meat is ready for the grill
I was shooting for an internal temp of 125 degrees, but sometime after getting a reading of 105 degrees, I got distracted with guests and ended up pulling the meat at 135. The meat was dry, but it had great flavor and wasn’t overly tough. Since this cut is so lean, I think keeping it moist will always be a challenge and the fat cap would help baste it, the bacon can’t quite keep up. I would definitely makes this dish again, ideally with the right cut, but would pay closer attention to the internal temps.
Tip: Make sure you don’t put your thermometer too close to the spit, this can throw off your reading. It can be difficult to find the right spot on the rotisserie.
The Papillote Vegetables (papillote means in pouch) were a recipe I found fromBraziltoyou.com and consists of sliced potatoes, carrots, peppers, and onions, with olive oil, dried oregano, and white wine wrapped up in a foil pouch and cooked on the grill until the potatoes are tender. The
The meat on the grill
vegetables were okay, I found them to be a bit bland and a little over done, I was hoping the white wine would impart more flavor. I have used this technique for just potatoes and also to do Maui onions, with the mixed vegetables it was a little over done.
I got my Spiced Rice Recipe from AtasteofBrazil.org. The Brazilian Spiced Rice is made by sautéing garlic and onion, then heating up the uncooked (dried) rice in the oil with the garlic and onions for several minutes. The traditional way is to then add boiling water to the pan to cook the rice. I decided to add the oil, onions, garlic, and dried rice to my[easyazon_link identifier=”B00FLYWNYQ” locale=”US” nw=”y” tag=”backyardmov05-20″]instant pot pressure cooker[/easyazon_link] to ensure the rice was perfectly cooked. The rice had a nice subtle flavor that everyone
I pulled the meat too late
enjoyed, I would have preferred a bolder flavor and expected such from the garlic and onions, but would make this again.
Lesson Learned, top sirloin is a lean cut of meat so you have to ensure not to overcook it.
ENTERTAINMENT:
Hoping to follow my own advice from post about showing live events in your Backyard Theater, my plan was to stream the ceremony from the NBC Sports app on my [easyazon_link identifier=”B00GDQ0RMG” locale=”US” nw=”y” tag=”backyardmov05-20″]Amazon Fire Stick[/easyazon_link]. Shortly before the party I discovered it wouldn’t be available. I thought I would stream it from NBC.com, but because the ceremony was being broadcast by my local NBC affiliate, they blacked out the streaming option. This left me to figure out an alternative means of showing it. In a bout of quick thinking, I had started recording the event on our DVR when the event was broadcasted on the local NBC affiliate. The weekend prior I had ordered a 100’ HDMI cable from Amazon so I could run it from the cable box on my outdoor TV out to my projector, but it didn’t arrive in time (again the curse of living in Hawaii). Fortunately, I was able to get our cable box from a spare bedroom, run some spare coaxial cable that extended the reach from the wall and then stretch an HDMI cable to capacity to reach the projector. It was a less than ideal setup, too many wires stretched out causing tripping hazards, but in a pinch it worked, the broadcast looked great and the event was able to go on as planned.
Lesson learned, you have to double check streaming services multiple times to ensure you aren’t going to be a victim of event blackouts. Also, a little extra coaxial cable it always a good thing to have on hand.
FINAL THOUGHTS:
The meal was good and we got to see the event as planned, but there were some hiccups in the execution and I was sweating it, right up until the point that guests arrived. That being said, the event wasn’t really about the food or the Olympics, it was about gathering with friends and family and that went off without a hitch. Hopefully, you can learn from my experience and save yourself a little stress at your next event.
If you have any suggestions or questions please leave them in the comments below.
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