Fire Up the Grill

Seems everyone has a secret barbecue sauce or marinade guaranteed to keep those finger-lickin’ summertime crowds happy and sated, but share and share alike they say, so here I am telling all about my master mojo.

For the general population, mojo ain’t something Austin Powers lost and then found with Viagra. South Floridians know it’s a savory liquid gold that elevates meat and poultry on the grill, and mine – if I do say so myself – without fail triggers that Pavlovian reflex, the salvation of salivation. We’re talking nearly 30 years of testing out in the field here!

Not that I don’t think it’s OK to grill meat with a profuse coating of kosher salt and fresh-cracked black pepper alone. One night long ago, my friend Jorge Parra had me over for dinner and created a superb Argentinian-style grill just by drenching the beef in those two simple ingredients. Placing the room-temperature protein over super-hot coals cooked off the excess seasoning and created a crispy seared char that blew my mind. But with the price of beef lately, I want a little extra flavor to savor.

Which brings us back to my Miami mojo. Like a culture for sourdough or yogurt, I keep a mason jar of this manna from heaven that’s refreshed every time I make use of the mojo. A little bit of the new mix goes into the old jar, which has been kept chilled even through hurricane power outages – priorities, people! – and a little bit from the “mother culture” goes into the new batch. Like the tradition of a classic Chinese master brine sauce, I have 25+ years of mojo history saved.

Mojos can be used for all kinds of meats, fish and even veggies, but this time I’m talking about pairing it with skirt

steak. Back in the day, I’d marinate 40-50 pounds of steak stock in the fridge overnight for my legendary annual crawfish barbecue. This way the mojo would really seep into the protein and Gil Novick, my friend and the man who managed the grilling station for more than 25 years, just had to pull out the meat to get it to room temperature before super-searing those ultimately medium-rare babies for char and crispness. I often nearly fainted and then loudly complained whenever someone asked for well done. Better off eating your leather Birkenstock, I say.

Nowadays I prefer to marinate in the fridge for about 3-4 hours and employ one of the most important requirements, the massage. If you don’t flip and lightly pummel those zipper-locked plastic bags filled with meat and marinade, you may end up with fleshy virgin patches – and that is a big no-no. You must massage your meat!

For the life of all my classic barbecue fetes, the Hot Dog Thursdays, Wienie Wednesdays and the oft-mentioned Cajun Crawfish Barbecue, I have always used my master mojo. Hoisin sauce and honey add that special something extra to the mojo that gives a great “caramelization” to the sear. As chef Gordon Ramsay screamed at someone during my time on “MasterChef” Season 9, “You f---in’ dodo! Caramelization is about burning sugars, not searing proteins … caramelization applies to sugars!!”

I always knew this and it’s the reason why I add a sugary component to the salty brine of a marinade. I also use Lea

& Perrins Worcestershire Sauce because a famous New York City steakhouse rubs its meat with it before throwing the steaks on the fire. Unknown

in NYC circles, La Lechonera is familiar to those of us living in Miami – we can always turn to that longtime brand for a favorite criollo marinade. So when you mix the whole batch up for the soaking, remember both the salty-savory and sweet-sugary components to make your final result a total crowd-pleaser. I hope you’ll soon be smellin’ what I ‘m tellin’ and keeping your own master mojo in your refrigerators for the next 25 years.

CHEF SID’S MASTER MOJO SKIRT STEAKS

Prep time: Getting this mixed into a bowl doesn’t take a brain trust, just a few minutes. I also prefer to “marinate” for about 3-4 hours so that I don’t end up with “sauerbraten” tartness to the meat. Just a little penetration is enough.

INGREDIENTS

·     1 23-ounce bottle La Lechonera Mojo Criollo

·     8 ounces honey

·     6 ounces Lea & Perrins Worcestershire Sauce

·     4 ounces hoisin sauce (Hokan is a good, thick brand)

·     5-6 garlic cloves, finely chopped of garlic

·     1 tablespoon onion powder

·     Crushed red pepper flakes, optional

·     3-4 pounds skirt steak, cut into 6″ to 8″ pieces

PREPARATION

·      In large steel bowl, mix all ingredients except meat – including a sprinkling of crushed red pepper flakes, if desired – and whisk until very well blended.

·      Place several pieces of steak into a gallon-sized resealable plastic bag and cover with marinade; squeeze as much air as possible out of the bag before sealing. Repeat process until all the meat has found a home in its marinade-filled sack.

·      Place bags in refrigerator 3-4 hours, taking out meat packs every hour to massage steak before placing back in fridge turned over to the opposite side. That’s a lotta massaging, but needed for good penetration of your mojo.

·      Grill up your prized marinated and massaged steak only after you’ve removed it from the refrigerator and allowed it to reach room temperature. Never grill chilled meat, it’s just not proper.

·      Once grilled, let meat rest at least the same amount of time it took to grill, which should be about 6-8 minutes. Otherwise you’ll lose all those delicious juices when you slice it up. Let your meat rest before attacking it!

Remember last month’s mango chutney column? Well, I make a very Carolina-style tangy dipping barbecue sauce by combining 2 cups chutney, 1/4 cup yellow mustard, 1/2 cup ketchup and 1/2 cup honey. Just place all those ingredients in a mason jar and use a hand-held immersion blender to whip it up. It’s especially delicious on chicken wings.

Sid Hoeltzell is an award-winning Miami-based commercial food and beverage photographer and former “MasterChef” contestant. He has completed more than 450 commissioned works for Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines, teaches food photography seminars and is a preferred fine art photographer for Christie’s, Sotheby’s and private collections.