I learned about Pickapeppa sauce from the old Hippo restaurant on Van Ness in San Francisco. And I picked up the idea for the thyme in the spice blend from the movie “The Best Years of Our Lives”.
The cooking time will, of course, vary depending on your preferences as well as the heat of the BBQ. Take care, however, not to overcook the beef. The cook time below (8 minutes total on the grill) leads to roughly medium (or perhaps a bit more) cooked. If you like it more rare, remove a minute, perhaps two, from the total cooking time.
Boregs are from Armenia. All are made by wrapping phyllo (or pastry) dough around a filling.
The filling in this recipe is a combination of cheeses and herbs. Some recipes use filings that contain meat, typically lamb.
I also came up with a lemon-honey glaze that resembles a glaze from the old, and now long gone, Max and Son restaurant in Daly City, California - a rather unique place that was half New York deli and half Chinese.
I often adorn these with some bittersweet or semisweet chocolate that I’ve melted in a double boiler with some corn syrup, and then, before the chocolate hardens, I push some mint leaves onto the still-liquid chocolate.
A true bagel can be hard to find — they are not to be found in most supermarkets. Many restaurant “bagels” are simply round bread — boring. And real bagels are boiled — that is not something that is up for debate.
This recipe can be easily be modified to make plain (water), sesame, garlic, or other flavored bagels: just change-out the onion. Note, however, that after being boiled the bagels are not sticky and onions, seeds, or what-have-you will tend to slide off.
They have a robust flavor - not at all your wimpy, just lie-there-on-the-plate, kind of tomatoes. I’ve found these to go well with lamb, beef, and strong fish (like salmon.)
I have found momotaro tomatoes to be by far the best variety for this. The momotaro is a solid tomato that has good flavor, can be carved into thick "steaks", and stands up to marinating and grilling. I usually use the largest ones I can find.
I find that one tomato "steak" per person is about right.
Recently I’ve been adding a layer of shredded parmasean cheese so that it melts to form a cap when grilling.
When I do this I don’t flip the tomotoes when they are on the BBQ.