Summer has arrived and so too has the smell of barbecue wafting through the streets. If you're one of the many people who feels too intimidated to pick up the tongs and get grilling, look no further.
Chef and owner of Green Saffron, Arun Kapil is on hand to share his tips for perfect barbecuing, no matter what your experience.
As well as being a delicious way to cook, barbecuing is also a more cost-efficient method, ideal for those of us looking to save a little on our energy bills.
Here are Arun's top 13 tips for barbecuing:
1. Getting most of the work out of the way before you get the coals lit, is the way to go. Once your prep is done – salads, relishes, pickles, marinades and the like are all safely stowed in the coolness of your fridge a day or so ahead – it's so much easier to concentrate on the cooking or maybe to nip out for last minute forgotten items!
2. I mostly marinate meat, fish and shellfish in advance. Don’t be tempted to use just oil, it’ll only cause the hot, glowing coals to flare up, burning the fish and won’t actually do much for the flavour. I find it handy to remember the acronym, "SAF": salt, acid, flavour. A marinade should always have salt, vinegars or citrus juices with spices and herbs to really have any kind of a flavour impact.
3. Poultry and white meat, jointed chicken, chicken breast or half-crown, spatchcocked baby chicken, quail, lamb chops are all brilliant on the BBQ. Don't forget rabbit which is seriously delicious. For these, I use a marinade of yoghurt or buttermilk, selected spice or spices of green cardamoms, nutmeg, coriander, cumin, turmeric, handfuls of fragrant fresh herbs and often whole lemons, limes or grapefruits boiled until soft, then blitzed and combined in the marinade for extra tangy punch. Make sure poultry and sausages are always properly cooked. I often part-cook in the oven and then finish them on the grill of my BBQ.
4. Brining is increasingly popular and being used by more and more home cooks. You need a non-reactive bowl (S/Steel or plastic), sea salt at between 5-10% of the brine along with herbs, spices and water to the correct quantity. Just bring it all to boil then chill. Once cold, add your chosen meat, this really helps to keep things moist and succulent, especially with meats that have little or no marbling.
As a rule of thumb, white meats are best brined overnight or for about 12 hours, red meats are best after about 36 to 48 hours. Once brined, you can then finish off the process by marinating in yoghurt.
5. Another brilliant method is based on traditional tandoor cooking. Simply make a tenderising marinade: 75g blitzed fresh pineapple pulp, 1 tsp green cardamom powder, 1 tbsp ground white pepper, 1 tsp sea salt and 60g grapeseed oil. Marinade chicken thigh pieces for half an hour, shake dry then apply a spiced, yoghurt-based marinade. Freeze skewered meats for 10 to 15 minutes before popping onto a hot BBQ, this will help to keep the sauce on the meat.
6. Dry rubs are perfect for fatty cuts or whole fish. Cook using indirect heat, use direct higher heat only for hamburgers and prime steaks. Wet marinades are ideal for pork and beef ribs, chicken ’pops' (chicken drumsticks), chicken wings, pork steaks, and fish like salmon or cod steaks.
7. Oil, garlic, chilli flakes and all the peppers – black, white, Szechuan, long, cubeb, smoked paprika, cayenne – are perfect for scallops, squid and shellfish. Simply split prawns and langoustines down the back, keeping the shell and head on. The hard shell protects the soft sweet flesh when grilling and ensures a juicy, crunchy delight! Just remember, when it comes to shellfish and fish, they mostly need only minimal marinating and always buy the freshest available.
8. I sometimes splash out and buy a whole salmon, prepped, scales removed by the fishmonger, slice it from the head-end into 4cm thick steaks across the bone, leaving the tail as a joint in itself (about 20cm long including the tail fin). Though a little costly, crabs or lobsters when plentiful in the summer are slightly less expensive and are brilliant when partially cooked on an open grill to give them a smoky edge. Finish them off with a curry mix in a large frying pan with lots of butter and a generous squeeze of lemon juice.
9. If you can, buy a hinged fish grill, a ‘grill fish basket’. These are great for smaller fatty fish, whole or filleted sardines - perfect for whole fish such as mackerel, plaice, sea bream, bass. Pastes of tangy tamarind, lemongrass, ginger, garlic, tomato purée and fresh curry leaves or green herbs are brilliant with these types of fish, slathered outside and in.
10. Vegetables are often overlooked when it comes to the BBQ, but are so good when charred and slightly wilted. Halved baby gems, courgettes, broccoli spears, sliced cauliflower ‘cutlets’ are all excellent. Peas in the pod or sugar snap peas make a great little canapé-type affair to go with drinks. Simply pop on the grill, char, wilt slightly, pile high on a plate, squeeze of lemon juice, sprinkle of chilli flakes and sea salt, lovely!
11. Sweet treats on the BBQ for me revolve around fruits and various accompaniments. A simple spice mix that's great for pineapple wedges, blistered peaches, nectarines and cherries is 1 tsp black pepper, ¼ tsp cumin, 3 green cardamom pods, seeds only, 3 cloves and 1 tsp dried rose petals if you can get hold of food grade ones all freshly ground, then add a ½ grated nutmeg. Mix 3 tblsp of light muscavado sugar with the zest of 1 lime and a small handful of finely chopped mint leaves in a pestle and mortar. Set aside. Grill the fruits, when nearly fully cooked, collapsing, blistered and blackened sprinkle with some of the zesty sugar and cook until the sugar bubbles up, remove from the grill and immediately sprinkle with some spice blend. Serve with Greek yoghurt or crème fraiche or sweetened soft goats' cheese.
12. For a refreshing, indulgent treat, pop some Charente or Cantaloupe melon and cucumber slices on the grill, cook to char, then paint with a saffron honey mix – a small pinch of saffron stigma macerated in 2 tbsp warmed orange juice, then mixed through a jar of runny honey. Serve with a ball of vanilla ice-cream and a little more of the honey.
13. And finally, don't hurry your BBQ cooking. Your food takes time to cook. Make sure your charcoal is grey not bright red and furious before beginning to cook. "A good grill chef doesn't burn or cremate everything in sight", I was once told. "The char on your food should allow your ingredients to shine and gain an even greater deliciousness."
For more barbecue safety tips, visit the Safe Food guide here.
