STEVEN RAICHLEN'S PROJECT FIRE Season 2


201 "GRILLING WITH WOOD"
It’s the world’s most ancient grilling method, and to my mind, it remains the best. It’s practiced on six continents by traditionalists and cutting-edge chefs alike. Propane offers convenience and charcoal burns hot, but the ultimate fuel for grilling is wood. Wood smoke contains more than a thousand flavor-producing compounds: it’s the one fuel that delivers both heat and taste. From wood-grilled bruschetta with fire-blistered tomatoes to swordfish with raisin chimichurri and magisterial sear and slide beef tomahawks, today’s show brings you the primal campfire pleasure of grilling over a wood fire.
WOOD-GRILLED BLISTERED TOMATO AND RICOTTA BRUSCHETTA
SWORDFISH STEAKS WITH GOLDEN RAISIN CHIMICHURRI
SEAR AND SLIDE BEEF TOMAHAWK STEAKS WITH BEARNAISE BUTTER

202 "BRISKET 24 / 7"
Brisket is simultaneously the easiest and hardest meat to barbecue. Easy, because it requires only three ingredients: salt, pepper, and wood smoke. Hard, because, unless you master the fire, airflow, temperature, the stall, the wrap, and the rest, you wind up with a mouthful of misery. Today’s show is all about brisket, complete with fail-proof methods for smoking it right every time. From not so traditional Texas barbecue and a distinctive bacon-smoked brisket flat to an electrifying Vietnamese brisket salad. You’ll even learn how to make breakfast-worthy Tex-Mex brisket tacos.

EAST-WEST PACKER BRISKET
BACON BRISKET FLAT
REAL DEAL HOLYFIELD (BRISKET BREAKFAST TACOS)
CRISPY BRISKET VIETNAMESE SALAD

203 "GULF COAST GRILL"
Steinhatchee, Florida, population 1500, perches on the north shore of the historic Steinhatchee River where it joins the Gulf of Mexico. What better place to tape a show than the spirited seafood-rich Gulf Coast? From Louisiana, with its blackened redfish—today grilled “on the half shell” (you’ll see why on the show). To the Florida shrimp boil, here, deconstructed and flame-charred on the grill. And, yes, there will be oysters and clams—invigorated by the sweet scent of wood smoke. Today, we’re exploring the grilling of one of the most colorful coastal regions in North America.

SMOKE-ROASTED FLORIDA OYSTERS AND CLAMS
JIM’S REDFISH ON THE HALF SHELL
GRILL-TOP SHRIMP BOIL

204 "GREEN MEETS GRILL" (OUR MEATLESS SHOW)
Forget about red meat and black and blue steak. Today, we’re grilling green. Grilling green with vegetables we love to cook over live fire, like asparagus, corn, and mushrooms. Green with foods that are less likely candidates for grilling. This show celebrates meatless grilling in all its verdant glory. From a new egg salad—really—LAVISHED with grilled fresh hearts of palm. To a squash, black bean, and queso fresco pizza you grill directly over the fire—no pizza stone required. And what better way to grill cheese than with portobello mushrooms and grilled bread, served in a swirl of blazing cognac?

A NEW “EGG SALAD”
(GRILLED ASPARAGUS, CORN, AND PALM HEARTS WITH FRIED EGG AND
SOUR ORANGE VINAIGRETTE)
SQUASH, BLACK BEAN, AND QUESO FRESCO CHEESE PIZZA
COGNAC FLAMBEED GRILLED CHEESE WITH GRILLED BREAD

205 "SECRET STEAKS"
T-bones? On it. Porterhouse? Got you covered. And, yes, we can handle a rib-eye. But how about upping your grill game with steaks you may not be familiar with, such as secreto or spinalis dorsi? The first is a secret and hyper-flavorful steak cut from a hog’s belly. The second features the most delectable part of a rib roast reborn as a steak, and you’re about to learn how to grill it with bourbon and a Catalan grilled vegetable sauce called romesco. I’ll ALSO show you how to grill a brisket steak fragrant with sizzling shallot sage butter. Today on Project Fire: secret steaks!

SECRETO (SPANISH PORK STEAK WITH IBERIAN SEASONINGS) AND ROMESCO SAUCE
DRUNKEN SPINALIS (RIBEYE CAP STEAK)
BRISKET STEAKS WITH SHALLOT SAGE BUTTER

206 "PRIMAL GRILL" (OUR EXTREME GRILLING SHOW)
Today’s show takes you back. Way back. To a time when our ancestors did their grilling in the fireplace. Or on fire-heated stones around the campfire and directly on the embers. I call it PRIMAL grilling, and it’s about to make you a barbecue rock star. We’re talking ember-grilled bread and ember-roasted vegetable salad. Chicken grilled in midair hanging over a smoky wood fire. And amaretti-stuffed pears grilled on primordial slabs of salt. Get ready to rock your grill with primal grilling techniques as old as humankind itself.

EMBER FLATBREAD WITH EMBER-ROASTED VEGETABLE SALAD (ESCALIVADA)
HANGING CHICKENS WITH SALSA VERDE
SALT SLAB-GRILLED PEARS WITH AMARETTI

207 "TEX MEETS MEX" (OUR SOUTH-OF-THE-BORDER SHOW)
I’m always fascinated by the food cultures that arise on national borders. Consider that fusion of Texas barbecue and Mexican spice we call Tex-Mex. In today’s show, we explore how American barbecue techniques can enhance three classic Mexican dishes: snapper en pipian, in a grilled vegetable and pumpkin seed sauce; pork shoulder pibil, smoke-roasted in banana leaves in the style of the Yucatan, and a Project Fire first: a dessert quesadilla lavished with bananas and dulce de leche. Today on Project Fire, Tex meets Mex on the grill.

WHOLE GRILLED SNAPPER IN PIPIAN SAUCE
COCHINITA PIBIL (PORK SHOULDER IN BANANA LEAVES)
DESSERT QUESADILLAS (BANANA, QUESO FRESCO AND DULCE DE LECHE)

208 "THE BEST BBQ YOU’VE NEVER HEARD OF"
You don’t need a degree in smokeology to name the big three of barbecue: Kansas City ribs, Carolina pulled pork, and Texas smoked brisket. But what about some of the lesser-known styles of regional American barbecue? Like Cornell chicken, created by a Cornell University poultry scientist and today served in upstate New York and just about nowhere else on the planet. Or a specialty of the city where I grew up—Baltimore pit beef—crusty on the outside, rare inside, with plenty of horseradish to pump up the heat. Or the sweet, smoky barbecued salmon enjoyed in Anchorage, Alaska. Today on Project Fire: the best barbecue you’ve never heard of.

SPATCHCOCKED CORNELL CHICKEN
BARBECUED SALMON WITH BROWN SUGAR AND BUTTER SAUCE
BALTIMORE PIT BEEF

209 "FLORIDA TAILGATE PARTY"
You don’t need to be a diehard Gators fan to get pumped up at a tailgate party. For sports lovers of all persuasions, a good barbecue makes the perfect prelude to the game. In this show, we explore how my home state, Florida, re-imagines three tailgate classics. Get ready for pork shooters stuffed with shrimp, cheese and Andouille sausage. Miami wings blasted with fire water. And luscious, smoky hamburgers like you’ve never experienced. (The secret? Lace them with CHOPPED barbecued brisket.) It’s game on at Project Fire.

PORK “SHOOTERS”
MIAMI WINGS
BRISKET BURGERS

210 "SHOULDER ON" (A SHOW ABOUT BEEF, PORK, AND LAMB SHOULDER)
The pork shoulder, aka Boston butt (named for the wooden barrels they were once shipped in), gives us Carolina pulled pork. The majestic beef shoulder (yes, there is such a cut) becomes a Texas barbecued beef clod. As for lamb shoulder, Moroccans cook it in a fire-heated, underground clay oven to make their legendary mechoui. This show explores the richest, meatiest, most flavorful cut you find in the meat department: the shoulder. Today, on Project Fire we shoulder on.

3-2-1 PORK SHOULDER
MOROCCAN LAMB SHOULDER WITH BERBER SPICES, SPICY TOMATO SAUCE,
AND GRILLED PEPPERS
SPIT-ROASTED BEEF SHOULDER CLOD

211 "CHINO-LATINO" (EAST MEETS WEST)
Long before there was modern fusion cuisine, people cooked Chino-Latino. It originated with Chinese laborers who immigrated to Cuba and Trinidad and elsewhere in the Caribbean to work the plantations. They developed a unique mashup of Asian and West Indian cooking—the subject of today’s show on Chino-Latino grilling. Get ready for tangerine teriyaki chicken, butter rum grilled plantains, smoky baby back ribs with guava barbecue sauce, and Korean brisket tacos. And here’s the shocker: the brisket grills from start to finish in less than three minutes.

TANGERINE CHICKEN TERIYAKI WITH GRILLED PLANTAINS
BABY BACK RIBS WITH GUAVA BARBECUE SAUCE
BRISKET IN A HURRY—BRISKET TACOS WITH CHILI JAM AND WASABI SOY DIPPING SAUCE

212 "MIAMI SPICE"
Miami may be the southernmost metropolis in the United States, but often my hometown feels like living in a foreign country. English is not the predominant language here, and our food culture is firmly anchored in Latin America and the West Indies. Our Miami Spice menu begins with a Project Fire first: the grilled mojito cocktail. Next comes Florida lobster grilled with rum butter baste and mango salsa, then plate-burying island spice beef plate ribs. Our grand finale? Turkey adobo with garlicky mojo de ajo. Today on Project Fire, we’re grilling with Miami Spice.

GRILLED LIME MOJITOS
GRILLED FLORIDA LOBSTER WITH RUM BUTTER BASTE AND MANGO SALSA
BAJAN BEEF PLATE RIBS
TURKEY ADOBO WITH MOJO DE AJO

213 "RAICHLEN RULES STEAK"
[Raichlen’s discussion on the many debated approaches to steak he has demonstrated over the years.]

It’s every carnivore’s dream and every griller’s triumph. Through the ages, it’s been the ultimate symbol of luxury and largesse. It offers an irrefutable argument for simplicity. But if you crave embellishment, it’s the perfect foil for all the rubs, marinades, butters, and sauces you can throw at it. It’s easy to grill, but you can spend a lifetime perfecting the fine points. Steak! And now this epic meat is about to receive the Raichlen treatment in a show that looks back on how steak has evolved through three iconic TV series: Primal Grill, Project Smoke, and Project Fire.