W e’ve got the barbecue out this weekend and it’s time to start grilling. There really is nothing quite like the flavour and feeling of food cooked over fire, especially when you apply some high-quality ingredients.
There are a few key points when it comes to grilling food; the first involves sticking. As a rule of thumb, sticking occurs when there is too little heat applied to both the grill and the food. To avoid sticking, make sure a barbecue is preheated until the grill is almost red. If the food is already sticking, leave it alone to let the heat to release it from the grill’s grip.
The second is the notion of direct and indirect heat. Direct heat is important to colour and char your food and it often involves the lower grill, where the flames actually touch the ingredients, Indirect heat is where you move the ingredients to a higher level, where the residual heat from the barbecue cooks the food through at a lower and more consistent temperature. It’s the same as charring a steak on the pan and finishing it in the heat of an oven to cook it through.
While gas is the most common and fuss-free source of heat, true barbecue flavour is found in charcoal and wood, if you can get it. Master these techniques and you’ll master the art of flame cookery.
The first dish this weekend saves any drama if you’re not a confident cook. The chicken is split in half and cooked on the bone to retain moisture. A spice blend is rubbed all over the skin to add seasoning, while also helping to keep the skin crisp. The chicken is then cooked in a preheated oven to make sure it is fully cooked through to the bone. The last five minutes see it transferred to a roaring-hot barbecue to add the blackened edges and distinctive smoke-and-embers flavour. Again, its time in the oven will ensure its cooked through to the bone – this is definitely the safest method if you are cooking for a crowd.
The other element of this dish is one of my favourites. Chimichurri is a South American condiment made using green herbs (oregano), garlic, chilli, olive oil and acid. Here, we’ve completed reinvented it and just kept the name for ease of understanding. Padrón peppers, chilli, garlic and spring onions are blackened over the flames before being covered and left to soften in their residual steam. These then get blended with coriander, mint, capers, olive oil and lemon to form a loose dressing. It becomes a purée with the addition of avocado to blend everything together. Unconventional, yet surprisingly simple and jam-packed with flavour
The second recipe is a more conventional beef taco. The key to cooking steak on the grill is to preseason with oil and salt and to cook over a high temperature the whole way through. As the oil and beef fat melt, they drip on to the coals below, igniting and creating smoke. By cooking hard and fast, we can create the blackened exterior synonymous with flavour without needing to set aside half a day for dinner.
Add simple salsa roja and some corn tacos and you’ll soon realise why, while barbecues aren’t fancy, they produce fabulous food.