How to... prepare a barbeque

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Wed, 29 Sep 2010
Food & Wine | News Features | BBQ
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Scroll through slideshow for instructions. Photos by Jane Dawber. One of the most important tips for successful barbecuing is to clean the grill or plate thoroughly and season it each time you use it. There is nothing worse than black particles from previous barbecues stuck to your freshly cooked food. First heat your barbecue. For a grill use a wire brush. Brush the hot bars vigorously to remove stuck-on bits. For a barbecue plate, use a paint scraper. Bunch up a clean rag, dip it in cooking oil and rub lightly over the hot, cleaned grill or plate. It will smoke, and help prevent the food sticking. Repeat the cleaning between each item you cook. Before starting to cook, on one side of the barbecue Chef Pfyl places a tray for the raw, marinated meat and sprinkles it with salt, and on the other side he has a rack over a tray to drain and rest the cooked meat. Touch your index finger to your thumb lightly and feel the pad at the base of your thumb. It will be soft and this is how a piece of meat cooked medium rare will feel. Holding the middle finger and thumb will make the pad feel slightly harder, like a steak cooked medium. Ring finger and thumb is like medium-well done, and pinky finger and thumb will feel hard like a well-done steak. Keep checking by pressing the meat as it cooks. To rest meat, remove from heat and stand in a warm place for at least five minutes for a steak. A large piece of meat like a roast may take 20 minutes or more. Using tongs, lift the meat out of the marinade, wiping it slightly on the side of the dish to remove some of the marinade. Place on a tray and sprinkle lightly with salt. Using tongs, lay the marinated meat on the hot grill away from you to prevent splashes. To get neat criss-cross char stripes, place the meat at a 2 o'clock angle. After a minute or so, lift a corner of the meat with tongs and have a peep underneath to see how the char stripes are doing. However, don't move it too soon. Let the protein harden and caramelise first or the meat will stick. Lift the meat and put it back on the same side at 10 o'clock. This nicely criss-crossed side will be the presentation side. When nicely marked but not burnt, turn the meat over and place on the medium-heat side of the barbecue to cook through more slowly. If you wish to finish the meat in the oven to make room on the barbecue, heat a pan, add a little oil, and place the meat in the hot oil. Put it in a hot oven (180degC) for 10-15 minutes, depending on thickness until done to your liking. Slice and serve the rested meat.
 

Daniel Pfyl, hospitality management lecturer at Otago Polytechnic, shares some professional techniques to make your cooking easier. In this series Chef Pfyl shows us how to prepare and use a barbecue, using marinated beef steak and pork fillets.

If you would like to request a particular technique we haven't already shown, please let us know. Write to Trick of the trade, Editorial Features, Otago Daily Times, PO Box 181, Dunedin or email odt.features@odt.co.nz with trick of the trade in the subject line.

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