The Savory Dish Bobby Flay Makes On The 4th Of July
What do you typically cook for the Fourth of July? Most people seem to purchase hot dogs and hamburgers, which makes sense if you want to feed a crowd without busting your budget. Fancier folks, or those with smaller guest lists, may run to grilled steaks, but even these might be too mundane for a celebrated TV chef. Bobby Flay, of course, has a different tradition — he likes to make pork chops for his July Fourth festivities.
Pork chops may not top the list of most-grilled foods, since if people are going to barbecue pig parts, they may be more likely to go for ribs. Flay, however, likes how non-fatty loin chops can absorb a lot of flavor when cooked this way. He may use a different recipe for his grilled chops from one year to another, but one recent version involved topping them with a balsamic-honey reduction and serving them with homemade cherry tomato relish and arugula. Flay favors pairing his pork chops with Italian rosé. His menu may be a bit less traditional than that of most Independence Day celebrations, but then, it's only right that a celebration of freedom should involve eating or drinking whatever you like best.
Some of Flay's recipes would work with a more standard July Fourth barbecue
Even if Bobby Flay doesn't go for a typical July Fourth cookout, his fans can easily incorporate some of his recipes into a menu of burgers and franks. His corn on the cob seasoned with barbecue butter would work well, as would the grilled corn salad with lime, red chile, and cotija cheese that seems to be Flay's take on esquites. His baked bean recipes include one made with pinto beans, barbecue sauce, and burnt ends and another with black beans, honey, and rum. Flay also has a plethora of potato salad recipes, including a southwestern-style one spiked with chipotles, cilantro, and lime juice; a grilled red potato salad dressed with a bacon-blue cheese vinaigrette; and a German potato salad flavored with bacon and mustard. He even has a recipe for homemade potato chips served with a warm blue cheese dip.
Venturing beyond the realm of barbecue sides, a few more Flay recipes could be repurposed for a Fourth of July celebration. One is a dessert pizza topped with mascarpone cheese, blackberries, and raspberries. Flay includes sliced plums, as well, but these could be dispensed with to better adhere to a red, white, and blue color scheme. The strawberry-champagne cocktails that Flay calls La Fraise could also be a thematically appropriate meal ender. Even better would be two batches, one made with blueberries, since serving both red and blue drinks would make for a fun and festive Fourth of July cookout.