Garden Chef

Braai, more video

Who would have thought that there were quite so many people prepared to put time and energy into making the definitive braai video?

Braai - how not to

Having solicited friends for some original content I was sent this masterpiece. Clearly a mistake asking for help in the first place...

Rump Espetada

Perhaps not a purists rendition, but tried my hand at a Portuguese espetada last weekend.

Large chunks of rump steak interspersed with flat mushrooms and peppers threaded on to long flat skewers. What really fuelled my enthusiasm for the dish was the thought of hanging the skewers inside the smoker, but without the water pan, making sure the heat gets way up. Of course if you don't have a tall smoker like bbq within which to hang these beauties they could just go straight on the braai.

For these I used:

• 1 Kg inch thick rump steak cut into roughly inch by inch cubes
• Two or three green and red peppers
• 8 flat mushrooms
• Olive oil
• An excessive amount of chopped garlic (almost a whole bulb)
• 250g butter

Marinaded the steak chunks in most of the garlic and some olive oil over night. Threaded the skewers as the coals were burning down. Hung them within the smoker using the fish hooks, closed the lid. Put the left over garlic in a small bowl with the butter, melted down to a consistency thin enough to dab on to the skewers with a food brush while they cooked. The coals need to be at their hottest so that vegetables and steak get a little of that seared around the edges look. Took about 15 mins all in, perhaps closer to 8-10 if you did this directly over the coals laid flat on the bbq.

This will probably serve six if you have people around and they have something to go with it,  or four blokes with just beer.

Quick chicken breast with chilli, honey and rosemary glaze

After a week of rain, much like Wimbledon, the sun has come out and its time to get out on centre court.

Saturday, desperately tired after a long week so just a quick one, but what a winner. You will need:

• 4 Chicken breasts, bone in and skin on.
• Black pepper, two or three teaspoons ground
• Paprika
• Salt (the kind you can grind)
• A few tablespoons of Honey
• One red chlli
• A handfull of fresh rosemary
• Olive oil

Preparation:

Prepare the bbq for indirect cooking, while the coals are getting themselves ready there's more than enough time to do all the prep below. 

Set aside 3-4 tablespoons of honey and a helathy glug of olive oil in a small mixing bowl. Finely chop the chilli and rosemary, adding to the honey/oil mix.

Grind the salt and pepper in a mortar and pestle, mix in a few shakes of the Paprika. Slash the chicken breasts diagonally across the skin and rub the pepper, salt and paprika mix into the cuts and over the skin.

Once the coals are ready pop the chicken on to the bbq, close the lid and leave for approx 7-10 mins depending on the size of the chicken breasts. Lift the lid and paint some of the honey glaze on to the chicken, lid down again and repeat after a few minutes, perhaps about 5. The chicken skin should start to darken and even blacken slightly as the honey catches. I'd usually keep a close eye on things at this stage to make sure the breasts dont burn.

Served this with a green salad and some excellent Springfield 'Life From Stone' Sauv. Blanc.

Rain delay, previous highlights: Fillet

In lieu of current bbq activity, I thought it best to raise the spirits with the memories of a proper SA braai from earlier in the year. First off a fillet or two for the extended family - here's one in close up:

Most would say that fillet is not as tasy as other beef steak cuts, but when seared whole with an olive oil, mustard and black pepper baste, served rare, the discovery of fire makes a whole lot more sense. 

Grilled and roasted Pork Loin

Two weeks of rain, every minute of every day. At least that what it's felt like. Saturday didn't look like it would provide enough time for a fully fledged three hour outside cooking experience, so I opted for a recipe that involves finishing the main dish off in the oven. Of course, thats a cop out for which I will no doubt have to do penance, particularly since the weather did hold, and it could all have been finished off outside without a drop of rain falling.

By the by, we have Jamie Oliver to thank for this recipe. Its an Italian recipe known as maiale alla griglia e arrosto. (you can either read the rest here or flick over to Jamie's Italy where I got this..)

You will need:

• A couple of heaped tablespoons of fennel seeds
• 2 or 3 red chillies
• 1x2kg/4 1/2lb pork loin
• Olive oil
• Sea Salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 10 Tablespoons good quality red win vinegar
• a bunch of fresh rosemary

In brief, score the fatty side of the pork in a criss cross fashion. Smash/grind up the fennel seed, chillies and a good bit of salt and black pepper. Rub the pork with Olive oil and then rub in the ground mixture of spices into the fatty side of the pork.

Having got the bbq going about half hour before, make sure the coals are hot. Charcoal probably best for this, unless your gas bbq can get really hot.

Whack the pork on skin side down and watch the fun begin! As you can see below the fat really generates some heat so be careful to turn quickly to avoid incinerating the joint.

Once both sides have had the benefit of the bbq for about 10-15 minutes, enough to have acquired an authentic bbq look, transfer the joint to the tray it was originally marinaded in.

Put it in the oven at about 200C/400F for about an hour. After the first 30 mins add the vinegar and rosemary leaves, making sure all the meat is basted with the combination. Put back in the oven for another 20 mins and then take out to rest for the last 10 mins. It looked like this when done:

   

In keeping with the Italian theme of the evening we began with Prosecco. The bottle or two we shared around between the guests cost less than a fiver, as did the wine we served with the main course. Both excellent dinner party value.

The main was served with:

Followed by:

Which perhaps we should have served first. It was fuller than the Pinotage Cinsault, in fact quite a bit more going on. I need to get some more.

Oh, and I almost forgot to mention, there was roast veg and salad for the vegetarians...

Smoked shoulder of pork & one small chicken

Sometimes you just dont get to taking a photo or even registering the recipe until its all done. So a photo of a chicken carcass, and a third of a mid size shoulder joint of pork really only tells the end of the story. Hopefully, it looks like a happy ending..

This is what went into the mix (approximately):

Smoked shoulder of pork

• One shoulder joint of pork
• Steven Raichlen's 'Java' barbecue rub
• Head of garlic

Smoked Chicken

• One mid size free range chicken
• Rub, as above

Process

• Make sure the fat of the pork is scored all the way around
• Make a number (how much garlic do you like?) of deep slits in the pork and stuff them with slivers of garlic
• Pat the chicken and pork dry and apply the rub liberally to both
• Get the smoker going. I used Weber 'heat beads' this time as they seem to burn hotter and longer than the ordinary variety.
• Once the coals are ready to go, put the pork on the bottom grid, the chicken above (assuming you're using a ProQ smoker in a two stacker configuration, although this will work with any variety of vertical water smoker you may have).
• Sprinkle a good handful of Jack Daniels smoking chips over the coals
• Put the stackers together, pop the lid on, and sit back for the afternoon
• Add another handful of chips through the bottom door after about 45 mins/1hour of smoking time

I took the chicken off after 3 hours at a consistent 125C which was just about enough. The temperature gauge Ian gave me as part of my smoker starter pack is really useful here as it takes out all of the uncertainty around when its done or not. The thickest part of the chicken breast should be 75C.

Pork came off after 5 1/4 hours. This was by far my most successful smoked pork dish, beating my first attempt at the ribs (which were also good, but not stellar). Succulent, not overly smoked, but perfectly cooked through. Even the girls who normally eschew anything as 'fatty' as this particular pork cut (where is the flavour supposed to come from without it??) were able to get through a few slices.

Success!

Kids stuff: Lamb chops & Marshmallows

Hadn't done this for years myself, but the kids grabbed some marshmallows and made good use of the fading coals of a quick post-work lamb chop bbq:

 

Used this for rub:

But the fun stuff was really the kids fighting over the few hot spots left to toast the marshmallows once we were done with the lamb:

Left me drinking yet another glass of Glen Carlou's 2004 Syrah, and reflecting that the bbq doesn't just have to be about the meat...

Demo: Rolled & Stuffed Chicken Breasts, Sirloin Skewers

Recently I attended a master smoking class given by bro' Ian. Well, actually it was a demo for suppliers of his ProQ smokers. And look at this, I think we had four on the go at one stage - collective noun for smokers? A 'smog' of smokers? No, thats not right..

You can do a lot of food on this many smokers, and we did! Everything from chicken to big pork joints, and fantastic ribs - but more about those in later posts.

Ian had prepared a couple of items that were a bit out of the ordinary:

Rolled and stuffed chicken breast

The demo catered for many, bit for a family bbq I'd probably recommend two fillets per adult (always more than less, you can always eat leftovers, but you cant just decide to not be hungry if there's too little).

You'll also need:

• two or three red and green peppers
• goats cheese/brie (we chose brie)
• string to tie the rolled and stuffed fillets
• bbq rub (some paprika, mixed herbs, salt and pepper) or buy a rub of your choosing. I've tended to use Steven Raichlen's (of BBQ Bible fame) rubs.

Place the fillet between two sheets of cling film and fatten out a bit with a roller or other blunt instrument. Cut the peppers into small pieces, and slice the cheese into thin pieces. Take the fillets and lay them out, now spread some of the pepper pieces and cheese over about half the exposed fillet, maybe slightly more, but make they're not so full that they cant be rolled and tied up.

When done and on the bbq they should look like this:

They were simply superb.

Whilst most smoking tends to take quite a while, these weren't done for much more than 45 minutes or so.

For those of you who think that chicken is a vegetable, we also smoked some sirloin fillet, flattened, rolled and stuffed in exactly the same way, except we used goats cheese instead of the brie. These were good too, but the chicken won the day.

Last but not least have a look at this skewer:

This was sirloin steak, cut into strips, vacuum marinanded overnight, and threaded onto skewers that were hung within the smoker. We hung four or five skewers in one smoker - each skewer easily enough for two. Interesting bits - the skewer is flat, not round, so the meat doesnt spin around the skewer once its threaded on. As its hanging in the smoker, tie a piece of string at the bottom of the skewer to make sure the sirloin doesn't slide off.

Soon as I have been able to replicate this for myself I'll post the details of the recipe for the marinade, just thought I'd share the great idea of all this meat hanging inside the smoker.

Smokin'

Recently acquired a new toy! Or rather given to me by my brother Ian.. In an attempt to convert me to the joys of smoking he sent me one of the smokers he designed. It looks a bit like a weber, but  with the stackers in place it really comes into its own. Other than producing great tasting food, I thought it was kind of cool that it looks a bit like a small rocket.

The smoker is made up of a few separate sections: Coals in the base, a largish basin, usually filled with water when cooking, is suspended directly above the coals in the first stacking section. A grill rests above the water pan in the first stacker section. Another grill rests in the second stacker section, providing a huge amount of cooking space. Its possible I'm told to do pretty much anything and for my first gambit decided to do two chickens and a pork belly!

The beauty of the smoker is that once the coals are ready, pretty similar to usual grilling with a weber or bbq, filling the water pan, putting the chickens on the bottom grill, the pork belly on the top, closing the lid and adding smoking chips of your choice , just close the lid and leave it alone for three to four hours. No turning , basting or watching.

Actually I'm told that there's a lot more to it, but for first time around just though I'd keep it simple. 3.5 hours later it was all done. 4 hours later half a pork belly  and one chicken had disappeared.  And I'm going to have to do this again, the kids are begging for more chicken.. Beginners luck I think.