One of the best ways to make summer feel endless is to keep cooking summery meals. With daylight saving coming to an end in about a month, why not make the most of it with a barbecue.
Prepare a few delicious salads that savour the flush of late-season harvests, light up the barbecue, and invite over some friends!
Cooking over the coals of a fire delivers the most wonderful flavour to your food. It’s the way humans have been cooking for thousands of years and still offers an almost primal sense of satisfaction.
If you’re new to cooking with fire, here are our top tips to ensure safety and success. There are two fuels we like to use - wood and charcoal. If you are using wood, make sure you don’t use anything poisonous, such as oleander, bay, or any treated timber. Any fruit wood, nut wood, or grape prunings are fabulous. Most importantly, your wood needs to be dry. We like to start with something light and soft that burns easily.
Once the fire is burning well, you can start to feed it hardwood, which will burn hotter and for a longer period of time. If you don’t have hardwood, you just need to feed your fire more frequently. The best way to keep your fire going is to make sure the flame has a way to draw air - oxygen is critical. If you build a fire in a deep hole, it won’t be able to breathe.
Never cook directly over the flame, only over the coals. Ideally, we will build quite a big fire on one side, let it burn down, and then shuffle the coals across to where we want to cook. If you’re cooking something for a long time, make sure you keep your main fire burning so you can keep pushing fresh embers over.
If you’re cooking with charcoal, start a fire first, then add a small amount of charcoal and let it ignite. Add more charcoal (you need quite a lot) and let that ignite too. Once the charcoal is alight and covered in a white layer of ash, it is ready to cook on.
To check if your fire is hot enough to cook on, hold your hand about 12cm over the flame - you shouldn’t be able to keep it there longer than a second or two if it’s hot, and about five seconds if it’s medium. Be careful not to light your fire in a windy spot and follow local guidelines to ensure you practice fire safety.
Ted, our resident fire-maker and chicken griller, has the best recipe for Barbecue Chicken, which we are thrilled to share with you all. Brining the bird ensures it stays super juicy and moist.
We’re also sharing an easy recipe for Bhutta Masala - Indian spiced corn to transport you to the beaches of Goa. Here, dotted along the coast you’ll find vendors grilling corn over coals and dousing them in lime and incredible aromatic spices. It’s such a simple idea and it tastes (and smells) so good!
Ted’s barbecue chicken
Ready in 1hr, plus brining
Serves 4 to 6
DF GF RSF
Ingredients
1 large free-range chicken (1.5kg)
Big bunch of rosemary, for grilling
Lemon and rosemary brine
½ cup non-iodised salt
4 cloves garlic, crushed with the back of a knife
Rind of 1 lemon, cut with a vegetable peeler
Juice of 1 lemon
4 large sprigs rosemary
3 bay leaves
1 Tbsp black peppercorns
To serve
Large handful of rocket/arugula or lettuce leaves
1 lemon, cut into cheeks
Method
To make the brine, place all ingredients in a large non-corrosive bowl or pot with 2 cups boiling water and stir until the salt has dissolved. Mix in 4 cups of cold water. Allow the brine to cool fully; you can place brine in the fridge to speed this process up.
Prepare the chicken. Using sharp kitchen scissors, cut down the backbone. Turn the chicken over, and, using the heel of your hand, press down on the backbone to flatten the chicken and open it up like a butterfly. Place in the cooled brine and refrigerate for 4 to 5 hours, turning halfway through if not fully submerged. Remove and pat dry with paper towels.
Prepare your fire according to the instructions above. Alternatively, heat a barbecue to medium heat.
Arrange the chicken on a bed of rosemary and grill over medium heat, turning every 10 or so minutes, until crispy and golden all over (about 45–60 minutes depending on size). It is ready if the juices run clear when a skewer is inserted into the thickest part of the thigh. Allow the cooked chicken to rest for 10–15 minutes before carving up and serving on a bed of rocket or lettuce leaves, garnished with lemon cheeks.
Note:
Brine is a saltwater mixture infused with aromatics such as herbs, spices, and lemon. Brining is osmosis in action, which Rose still remembers from her year 9 science class - “osmosis is the process by which water is transported from a high concentration to a low concentration through a semi-permeable membrane”.
When you brine meat, the brine (low concentration) moves into the cells of the meat (high concentration), making it juicy and moist. Brining is a great way to cook tender, moist meat without fail. If you don’t have room in your fridge (which we often don’t), you can brine the bird in a ziploc bag left inside a chilly bin packed with ice.
Bhutta masala
Ready in20min
Serves4
DF GF RSF V VE
Ingredients
1½ tsp flaky sea salt
1 tsp cayenne pepper
½ tsp ground cumin
4 cobs sweetcorn, husks removed
1 lime, halved
Method
Preheat a barbecue or grill pan.
Combine the salt, cayenne pepper and cumin on a flat plate.
Grill the corn on a barbecue or hot pan until charred on all sides (10-15 minutes).
Rub the lime halves in the spice mix, and then rub the spice-covered lime half on to the corncobs, squeezing extra lime juice into the kernels as you rub the spices in. Serve immediately.
Note:
Traditionally, this dish uses chaat masala, which has a fantastic tanginess thanks to amchoor (dried mango powder). Chaat masala can be hard to find, but if you have it, use a teaspoon of that too.
