Food for Thought

It's grilling season! A top chef's expert tips on how to make the best backyard steak

Del Frisco’s Double Eagle Steak House’s chef Steve Haug cooks seven days a week for work.

So when he’s at home, he lets the kids do most of the work.

“My kids are 10, 12 and 14,” he says. “And their favorite things to eat are grilled steaks with corn on the cob and mashed potatoes.”

Backyard grillin’ is a family affair, a right of passage, a tradition and way of connecting food with family and friends.

Haug fires up the grill (he has two, a gas grill for quick meals and an old school charcoal grill that he adds a little hickory to for a nice smoky flavor) and then supervises the kids as the food cooks.

Backyard grillin’ is a family affair, a right of passage, a tradition and way of connecting food with family and friends.

Who doesn’t have childhood memories of watching their dad fire up the grill and slap on big, thick steaks and maybe shove some foil wrapped potatoes and corn on the cob into the coals? Mom is pouring sweet ice tea from a pitcher and the kids are sitting around in shorts and sneakers, drooling as they watch dad, in some silly apron, being the man, with fire and big knives and tongs.

These are the childhood summer memories of the South.

And now is the perfect time of year to recreate those memories with your own family.

Haug has a few tips to make the experience a delicious memory.

First, select a good cut of meat. Haug likes a big rib-eye, but, “you have to be really, really careful because of the fat content, it can really flare up, I keep a squirt bottle handy to keep the flames down.”

“Don’t be flip happy. You want to get the grill really hot before you put them on. Then wait about four to five minutes to get a good blister on the presentation side before you flip.”

Personally, I always like a filet mignon, maybe wrapped in bacon for extra flavor.

Oh, and do take your steaks out of the fridge 30 minutes before you put them on the grill. Season them well, as they will lose some of the seasoning when you flip them.

And now a word about flipping.

“Don’t be flip happy,” Haung says. “You want to get the grill really hot before you put them on. Then wait about four to five minutes to get a good blister on the presentation side before you flip. Then about another two to three minutes on the other side. That’s it.”

And don’t forget to let the meat rest for five to seven minutes so the juices don’t run out when you cut into it.

I know, I know, it’s hard to wait when those gorgeous steaks are calling your name, fresh off the flame, but pour a drink and get your sides ready and you’ll be fine.

So what plates well with a backyard steak? Crispy Brussels sprouts with onions and bacon, garlic mashed potatoes or baked taters with all the fixings and, of course, corn on the cob.

“We love to throw corn on the cob on the grill,” Haug says of his family feasts. “It just takes 15 to 20 minutes.”

No muss, no fuss and you’ve got a grilled dinner. Here is Haug’s recipe for some delicious corn. Enjoy.

Grilled Corn on the Cob with Chipotle Lime Butter
 Serves four
For the Butter:
 ½ pound salted butter, room temperature
 2 chipotle peppers in adobo sauce, chopped fine
 ¼ cup sriracha sauce
 1 tablespoon cilantro, chopped fine 
1 tablespoon fresh garlic, chopped fine
1 tablespoon fresh limejuice
 1 teaspoon salt
 ¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper
 ¼ teaspoon smoked paprika 
¼ teaspoon granulated sugar

Peel off the first layer of the corn’s husk, leaving a few for protection. Soak the corn cobs in cold water for 20 minutes. While corn is soaking, mix everything in a small mixer for the butter until well blended. Fire up your grill to achieve a temperature around 375 degrees. After the corn has soaked, remove it and gently pull the husk away keeping it attached at the bottom. Pull off as much silk as possible. Brush the cobs with the chipotle lime butter, recover with husk and set aside.

Place the corn on the grill, rotating the corn to keep it from getting too charred on one side. After two to three minutes put the corn off to the side of the grill, away from the direct heat. Cover and cook for 10 minutes. When the husk becomes slightly charred and pulls away from the tip the corn is done. Remove the corn from the grill. Let cool slightly, pull back the husk and serve.

Perfection: Del Frisco's Wagyu "Longbone" 32-ounce ribeye

Photo by © Christopher Gabello

Perfection: Del Frisco's Wagyu "Longbone" 32-ounce ribeye

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eat real food

Houston DJ-turned-TikTok star cooks up a cult following one recipe at a time

Courtesy of Uncle Dibbz

Uncle Dibbz, a.k.a. A.H. Bowden, has built a devoted following for his viral recipes.

For the past month, Uncle Dibbz has been, shall we say, going ham on social media with the myriad videos of alternative Thanksgiving dishes. He’s dropped how-to clips for such recipes as Cajun-roasted turkey, honey-baked ham/hens, oven-bag turkey, and six-piece fried turkey (to go). Basically, if you don’t want to cook a bland ol’ Butterball this Turkey Day, Dibbz has you covered.

Who is Dibbz, you say? Well, he’s a North Jersey-born, Georgia-bred, Houston-based chef who’s been building quite the foodie rep online. Several videos across his TikTok, Instagram and YouTube pages, from his Cajun-boiled fried chicken (2 million on IG) to his “Propose to Me Pasta” (12.3 million on TikTok), has amassed millions of views. But Dibbz (government name: A.H. Bowden) wasn’t always a culinary content creator. He used to spin music back in Atlanta as DJ DiBiase, named after retired wrestler Ted “The Million Dollar Man” DiBiase. “DiBiase is a mouthful to say, so people just always call me ‘D’ or ‘Dibbz’ for short,” says Bowden, 37, during a Zoom interview.

@uncledibbz PROPOSE To Me PASTA 💍 🍝 Trust your Uncle! This SEAFOOD Pasta will seal the deal 👌🏽 Get my recipe below ⬇️ or on uncledibbz.com [@uncledibbz Link in Bio] 🌐 **Ingredients:** - 8 ounces spaghetti - 1 lb mixed seafood (shrimp, scallops, crab meat, etc.) - 2 tablespoons olive oil - Fresh chopped basil - 2 cloves garlic, minced - 1/2 cup white wine - 1/4 cup heavy cream - 2 tablespoons unsalted butter - Salt and pepper to taste - Uncle Dibbz Delta Dust [link in bio] - Fresh parsley, chopped (for garnish) - Grated Parmesan cheese (for garnish) **Instructions:** 1. Cook the spaghetti pasta according to the package instructions until al dente. Drain and set aside. 2. In a large skillet, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add the minced garlic, chopped basil and sauté for about 1 minute until fragrant. 3. Add the mixed seafood to the skillet. Season with Uncle Dibbz Delta Dust to taste and cook for 2-3 minutes until cooked through. Remove the seafood from the skillet and set aside. 4. Pour in the white wine to the skillet and let it simmer for 2 minutes, allowing the alcohol to cook off. 5. Stir in the heavy cream, butter, Uncle Dibbz Delta Dust seasoning, salt, and pepper. Cook for another 2-3 minutes until the sauce thickens slightly. 6. Add the cooked spaghetti and cooked mixed seafood to the skillet. Toss everything together until well coated with the sauce. 7. Remove from heat and garnish with fresh parsley and grated Parmesan cheese. 8. Serve hot and enjoy the flavorful Seafood Spaghetti. That's good Shawty! #UncleDibbz #ThatsGoodShawty #Pasta #marryme #proposal #bride #wife #husband #relationshipgoals #datenight #easyrecipe #seafood #cajun #cooking #fyp #foryou #viral #houston ♬ original sound - Uncle Dibbz 🍴

He was making a nice living as a DJ, even serving as rapper Big K.R.I.T.’s touring DJ for a while. But when the pandemic hit, the gigs obviously dried up.

“I was living in Miami at the time,” he says. “And, you know, when you have a lot of time on your hands to think – but also need to figure out a way to, you know, sustain an income and everything like that – the ideas start coming,”

Like most DJs at that time, he was doing live mixes on Instagram. But his days throwing cookout parties in Atlanta inspired him to start doing his cooking videos, where he used his very own seasoning. Of course, he had a lemon pepper blend, which he used in a lemon pepper hot wings video that currently has over a half-million views on TikTok.

“I'm about to go live to DJ later that night, and my phone was just going off with orders,” he recalls. “So I'm like, where are these orders coming from? And it's not from my friends. I'm seeing the cities and the states. I don't know these people.”

Thanks to his videos, which usually end with him saying his signature line “That’s good shawty!” (that’s also the name of his cookbook he released last year), Dibbz went into the seasoning business full time. He eventually hired another person to help send out the piles of orders he was receiving.

He even got an order from former Dallas Cowboy Emmitt Smith, one of his favorite athletes. “I remember doing a book report on him when I was in fourth grade,” he boasts.

Although Dibbz has a flair for making meals that border on decadent, he’s an ardent practitioner of cooking with natural ingredients, especially in his seasoning. He has several low-sodium seasoning, including Bebe’s Salt Free – named after his mother, who had open-heart surgery a few weeks before the pandemic started.

“I don't think a lot of people understand the amount of toxins and chemicals that go into a lot of these seasonings,” he says. “You're starting to see it in the news now. A lot of the foods with certain dyes are being taken off the shelves and things like that.’

Soon, Dibbz moved himself and his new business to Houston, a favorite place to perform as well as a town whose hip-hop got him into music. He cites local chopped-and-screwed gods DJ Screw, Michael 5000 Watts, and OG Ron C as his holy trinity of influences. To give props to the music of his new home, he created a hot sauce – called HXT Sauce – whose uncharacteristically large bottle resembles Promethazine cough syrup (aka the key ingredient in lean, the preferred purple cocktail for the city’s rap community).

“It's not necessarily about promoting that usage,” he says. “But, at the same time, it’s just a homage to one of the factors and influences of screwed-and-chopped music.”

Dibbz still indulges in spinning records from time to time. The Waxaholics’ DJ Big Reeks has gotten him to break out the vinyl a few times during his Thursday-night sets at Alley Kat Bar & Lounge in Midtown. But creating new recipes, dropping delicious content and proving you can eat and live in a hearty, healthy fashion still remains his full-time mission.

“I’m not just talking about eating cauliflower rice all day and every day, but just eat real food,” he says. “We're eating fake food. That's the bottom line. We're eating fake food and my whole purpose is to inspire people to eat real food and that starts with real ingredients, real herbs, you know – real natural seasonings.”

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