Ciara's Country Flavours: barbecue with a difference

I keep saying the following phrase: “I want to barbecue on a Tuesday.” I am determined to move on from my current barbecue persona which is waiting for the sun to shine on a beautiful Saturday afternoon and instead be the type of person that fires up the barbecue on a cloudy evening, just because, well it’s Tuesday.

More and more people are adapting that persona as barbecues become an extension of the kitchen, an enjoyable outdoor cooking experience, and some of the gadgets available these days make it even more exciting. One of the items that caught my eye at a recent barbecue event was the Weber iGrill Bluetooth thermometer (€69). Let’s be honest, while many of us are confident putting a few burgers on the grill, there is more trepidation with a full meat joint, such as a whole chicken.

This new device is a meat thermometer that sits into the joint and – get this – is connected to an app which notifies you on your smart device once the food has reached the perfect temperature to serve. Summer Sunday roasts are set to get far more interesting.

Debating between gas and charcoal? It is of course, the ultimate barbecue debate. However, you can now get metal smoker boxes (€29.99) which sit over your gas bars. Add a handful of soaked aromatic chips and as the meat juices drip down, the chips will smoulder and infuse your food, elevating your dish with hints of hickory, apple, whiskey or beech wood.

The other gadget we’re loving is the Weber pizza stone (€59). Put the pizza stone onto your grill, close the lid and heat up your barbecue. Pop a homemade pizza on top of the stone when it has reached the desired temperature. A few minutes later, you’ll have a crisp base that will challenge any brick oven in Naples.

All these gadgets prove that barbecuing can be much more than a few charcoaled sausages. Simon Rimmer has put together some simple but innovative recipes that will see your barbecue skills step up a notch.

Cider Pulled Pork

Heat the barbecue, you’ll be using an indirect method of cooking for this recipe (see above). Get a butterflied shoulder of pork (2kg), preferably with the bone still in. Slice three onions, put them in the bottom of a foil tray and then add 250ml of cider and 200ml of cider vinegar. Mix 1tbsp of wholegrain mustard, 1 tsp chilli flakes, 1 tbsp of jalapeño peppers and a large handful of coriander. Season with salt and freshly ground pepper. Mix into a paste and rub that all over the pork shoulder. Sit on top of the onions and liquid. Cover with foil and put the lid down. Cook for three hours, remove the foil and cook for another hour. Shred the pork back into the juices and mix to get a fantastic pulled pork dish that can be served in buns.

Stuffed Seabass with Thai Spices

This stuffed seabass recipe is brimming with flavour. One ingredient you can use is banana leaves, which you can find in oriental or speciality food stores, in the freezer department. Unfortunately, peeling a few bananas and using the skins isn’t going to work. If you can’t find banana leaves, don’t worry, you can just wrap it in foil. The banana leaves do give a nice flavour but using the foil will still result in a very flavoursome meal.

Get one whole seabass and cut down the side to open it up. Finely slice one onion, carrot, leek and celeriac and mix together well. Add 2 tbsp fish sauce, 1 tbsp red Thai curry paste, juice of one lime, 1 red chilli, and a handful of coriander and mint. It will be like a dense coleslaw. Absolutely pack it into the seabass and sprinkle plenty of salt and pepper on the outside, wrap it in the banana leaves or foil. This time you are putting it on the hottest part of the barbecue, five minutes on one side, five minutes on the other. Then when you open up the foil, the smell will be amazing with those Thai spices oozing though.

When you cook fish on the bone, it’s going to have much more flavour so don’t be afraid. You can wrap seabass fillets in the spices but you will get much more flavour with the whole fish.

Tandoori Cauliflower

This recipe is all about marinating and roasting a whole cauliflower. So get your whole cauliflower and marinade with 150g yoghurt, juice of one lime, a handful of coriander and ½ tsp of cumin and chilli flakes. Mix together with salt and pepper. Let the cauliflower sit in it for about an hour. Then set your barbecue up so you have indirect heat. Place the cauliflower in the middle where there is no flame. Roast it gently for about 40 minutes and you’ll end up with a flavour that is like a tandoori cauliflower – absolutely fantastic and it makes for a really nice vegetarian dish. So if you have vegetarians coming to your barbecue, it looks like you have really thought about their dietary needs or it also works as a delicious side. Serve it whole or cut it into wedges. It’s beautiful with a mango salsa or a fresh green salad.

Getting the heat right

Indirect v direct

Indirect cooking is essentially roasting on your barbecue. Food is not placed directly over the heat, instead with the lid down the heat will circulate around your food inside the barbecue, just like a convection oven. This way of cooking is ideal for foods that take longer than 30 minutes eg larger cuts like whole joints of meat and beer chicken recipes. For steaks, burgers, sausages and other foods that take less than 20 minutes to cook or that need a nice sear, use direct heat.

How do you achieve it on a barbecue?

The indirect method means that the heat is placed either to one side or both sides of the food. Cooking takes place adjacent to the heat source. Direct cooking means food is cooked directly over a charcoal or the gas heat source. Indirect cooking will ensure delicate meats aren’t scorched or undercooked.