Strange Times

To balance recent posts that have been about the health side of food, this is about pleasure.

As the weather at the end of February - February - has been so warm and sunny, and given the Dear Leader (may her critics shrivel like salted slugs) and I are both freelances, and Sternest Critic is marking time to his departure to Gozo, we actually had a barbecue on the 26th. A barbecue in Preston in February. Donald Trump doesn't believe in climate change, but I do. 

Given we are avoiding processed meats there were no sausages or burgers, but that was no loss as we enjoyed turkey steaks and langoustines for all, plus lamb chops (for SC and me) and fillets of sea bass (for the Dear Leader). All of that balanced with a green salad, a tomato salad, griddled mushrooms, and both asparagus and (our own freshly picked) fine leeks baked over the coals in foil. 

We cooked and ate slowly, so the meal lasted a good two hours. We talked, we watched the birds feeding in the garden, and we relaxed. Not a single spoonful of raw cacao powder passed our lips, though a glass or two of Beaujolais did. It was life enhancing. 

Barbecuing well is not easily done. We went a year or so back to eat with some friends somehow new to the idea who, no exaggeration, lit the coals/firelighter, and put the food straight on. It was fireplace smoky and with a hint of plastic. On the way home we discussed forming a survivor group. SC got our fire going more than an hour before we thought of putting anything over the ashy-grey fuel. Timing is not easy either, though lamb is forgiving, so a skewer to test turkey doneness came in handy. I wouldn't bother with chicken joints. The fish you can just tell by looking and a bit of a poke with a knife-tip, the langoustines by the charring of the shells and the smell.

I feel we need a BBQ challenge. It's long been my ambition to do a whole (gutted and skinned of course) lamb over a fire pit, but DL forbids it. So this summer I aim to do beef short rib in the piece, with some strong flavours in the marinade to make it even more special. Prepare then for a wet summer wash out. 

BBQ Beyond the Meat - or Around It

BBQs are about meat, there is no getting away from it - at least not in this household. But they don't have to be - shouldn't be - solely carnivorous affairs.

With the glorious summer thus far (surely high time that the word drought was heard?) we have wheeled out the charcoal grill half a dozen times or so and taken advantage of the sunshine. One thing that has worked superbly has been using roasting joints - stuff we had in the freezer - butterflied out and roasted in a retaining rack. Given that they were Henry Rowntree's 'best roasting' Aberdeen Angus joints we expected them to be good, and found them superb. Not surprising given they were probably sirloin in one case and rump in the other, effectively making 4cm-thick steaks, cut into slices charred on the outside and bleu in the centre.

What makes it much more of a meal for me are the accompaniments. Salad of course gets nowhere near the heat, but other vegetables do. A skewer with baby courgettes impaled lengthwise cooked in 10 minutes. Another of mushrooms rolled in a little oil did likewise. Sweetcorn cobs achieve caramelised perfection on a grill, but need watching closely as the window between underdone and burned is narrow.

Best effort on that front was new spuds, however. Salted, oiled, rolled in several layers of foil then dropped directly onto the charcoal they did in about 25 minutes, turned occasionially to keep the cooking even. I do whole heads of garlic in similar fashion, only needing a few minutes before they are as squeezy as toothpaste.

The recent weather has provided us with an early glut of fennel bulbs, another veggie that works well in foil on the rack, and is very forgiving in that even if left for 10 minutes more than done-ness requires they still taste great, and their water content keeps them moist.

Not so the aubergine. A cheapo one foil-wrapped and cooked like the spuds, but far far too long, was a disaster. What emerged from the aluminium looked like something from a CSI episode about fire deaths. Back to grilling slices on the steel rack.