Fire. It was the very first form of cooking, and holds a peculiar fascination to this day. Whereis the man that can resist the allure of a naked flame, dancing before him with the promise of heat and transformation? Men are drawn to a barbecue like the proverbial moth to a flame, irresistibly attracted by the light and movement.
But if the fascination is there, too often the imagination is not. Most barbecues seem to end up a sad litany of leathery steaks, dry burgers, burnt sausages and dubious chicken. Given that we've had the entire history of human civilisation to perfect the techniques, is this really the best we can do?
Perhaps the reality instead is that we've simply forgotten, seduced away from the flame by clean, invisible electricity and the buzz of the microwave.
So, time to reclaim the fire and cook something new. But what?
Here are a few surprising suggestions you really ought to try.
Instant Hot Smoked
This is quite different from your traditional (cold-smoked) Scottish salmon. Here,the fish is actually cooked in the smoke, rather than cured, and turns a lovely pinky-red inside.
There are two ways of hot-smoking fish, either with a kettle-type barbecue or Cobb outdoor cooker, or with a lidded wok on a gas burner. Cobb first:
Ingredients
- One side of Scottish salmon, skin on, left whole or cut into fillets
- Salt for brining
- Wood chips, soaked in water, sawdust, or sugar and tea leaf mix
- Marinade - maple syrup, or honey and apple juice
Method
First, make sure there are no pin-bones left in the fish.
Once deboned, place the fish in a glass dish, and cover with salt to brine it. This removes some of the moisture.
After an hour, remove from the salt,wash off any excess, pat dry with paper towels and place in your marinade for upto four hours. This will intensify the finished flavour.
To hot-smoke a fish, use a Cobb or kettle-type barbecue. Light a few pieces of charcoal and wait until they go white, then cover with well-soaked wood chips to produce smoke. Place fish on a large piece of double thickness tin foil on the grill, close the lid and cook covered for around 30 minutes or until cooked through (fish will be firm and take on a rich colour).
Gas Alternative
Brine and marinate your fish as above, but smoke it in a wok using sawdust or a mixture of sugar and tea leaves. Line the base of your wok with tinfoil, put in a layer of your smoking mixture, and start it over a high flame.
Once smoking, put your fish on a layer of foil on a rack over the smoking mix, turn down the gas and cover with a lid. This should also take about 30 minutes.
Serve with warm crusty bread and a well-dressed rocket and mango salad.
Salads
Barbecues are too good to be used for meat alone. Try these veggies.
Sweetcorn was made for grilling - either grill with the outer husk on and let the inside steam, or strip off the husk, dip the cob in strongly salted water then grill over a flame. The sweetcorn will be charred and sweet and delicious in minutes. Serve with salt, pepper and lots of butter.
Peppers roast beautifully over a flame. Turn until the skin is blistered and blackened, then put into a plastic bag for a few minutes to steam.
The peppers' skin will then rub off easily, leaving you with intense, sweetly smoky roast peppers that are excellent served warm with good mozzarella.
Courgettes and aubergines - sliced thickly, drizzled with olive oil and bar-marked on your grill to add to your roast peppers, or cubed and marinated with olive oil and crushed garlic, then threaded onto rosemary twigs and grilled slowly over a low flame. Mushrooms do well the same way, but cook more quickly.
Onions - cut off the top, season generously and add a large nob of butter before wrapping in tin foil and roasting around a joint of meat.
Or cut into bite-size chunks, skewer and grilled with oil and chilli.
Marinated Butterfield Leg of Lamb/Sprinkbok
Barbecues can be about much more than just chops and kebabs, particularly if you have a kettle-type or a Cobb. It is perfectly possible to cook a whole rib of beef over a slow flame for six or eight hours and have a delicious, meltingly tender joint to carve, with the bonus of a lovely smoky flavour to add interest. Or you could try a whole leg of lamb, on the bone, studded with garlic and anchovies and roasted over a fire scented with rosemary twigs. Here, leaving it on the bone is to your advantage, because the bone will help carry heat into the heart of the joint, but you do need to cook it long and slow, and check the core temperature with a meat thermometer.
For something that only takes half a day to do instead, try this!
One leg or forequarter of lamb (or springbok, or venison if available), about three to four kilos. Marinade: date honey, balsamic vinegar, olive oil, crushed garlic
Method
Bone out the leg or forequarter (or get your butcher to do it for you) so have a large, flat ‘butterfly' shape, not too thick (this will help it cook evenly). Blend all the marinade ingredients, place in a bag or non-reactive dish with the lamb, and leave for as long as you can - two to four hours is OK, overnight is great. Season generously with salt and pepper. Roast, covered on a very slow Cobb or kettle barbecue for up to four hours until cooked through and very tender.
Puddings and Desserts
Who says you can't do sweet things on a grill? Fruit caramelised over a flame is one of the secret highlights of barbecued food, and an enduring favourite. Who hasn't burnt their tongue on a toasted marshmallow, but still gone back for more? Try these:
Fruit and Marshmallow Kebabs
- Firm, chunky fruit - pineapple, mango, strawberries, etc
- Marshmallows
- Garam massala spices
- Date honey
- Freshly squeezed orange juice
- Cut fruit into bite-sized chunks, combine marinade ingredients, mix everything together and leave covered in a cool place for an hour or two to let the flavours marry.
- Thread fruit and marshmallows onto soaked bamboo skewers
- Grill over a medium to hot barbecue, and serve with spray-on cream.
Chocolate stuffed bananas
- Firm (barely ripe) bananas
- Good quality dark chocolate
Cut a small slit in the top surface of each banana, insert two or three squares of good quality dark chocolate, then wrap each banana in tinfoil. Bake on a medium grill for 20 minutes until the banana is hot and the chocolate melted. Best eaten with plenty of spray-can cream!
