Who
doesn't love a barbecue in the Summer? In fact to me, Summer is all
about barbecues and nothing beats the smell of barbecued food rising
up and enticing us by wafting gently from garden to garden and grill
to grill. At the same time though a lot of us need a bit of help when
it comes to the gold old barbecue and this primitive form of cooking.
Let's be honest I'm sure at one point or other we have all been to a
BBQ where the burgers are a little too charred (ok black!) and the
chicken a little too pink! Thankfully for me my husband is what I can
only call “King of the Grill” (and he has the apron to prove
it!). He has been barbecuing since he was 16 so has gotten pretty
darn good at it over the years. Needless to say whenever anything
needs barbecued he is the one who jumps to it. I do the 'inside
cooking', he does anything involving 'outside cooking'. Now that
being said I have cooked a few things on the BBQ over the years,
especially when he is working away from home so he has taught me
pretty well but admittedly I could do with a little more confidence,
especially when it comes to cooking poultry so I was really excited
to put Fired Up: No Nonsense Barbecuing to the test and see
how my skills would match hubby's! But in order to really put the
book through the ringers I wanted hubby to try out some of the
recipes as well and see what his opinion was.
Over
20 recipes were bookmarked, taken from every chapter the book had to
offer which includes 'Bird'; 'Beast'; 'Fish' and 'Sides'
(unfortunately no desserts chapter). In the end we tried 6 recipes.
Tested
Recipes:
Chilli
Chicken BLT
Beer-Can
Roasted Chicken
Sweet
Chilli Sauce
Herb-Marinated
Potato Salad
Chinatown
Pork
Chilli
Bacon Fried Rice
The
first recipe to be put to the test was the Chilli Chicken BLT.
Being such huge lovers of chilli and BLT's it seemed like a match
made in heaven. The chicken was really easy to prepare and as long as
you have a mini processor (or something similar) the marinade took no
time. The recipe said to remove the seeds from the chillies but since
they were quite large ones I left them in, however despite that there
was unfortunately still no chilli kick but the finished BLT was
really delicious and we would definitely make it again.
Next
up and for a perfect Saturday night meal on a hot sunny day, we made
the Beer-Can Roasted Chicken. I've seen a lot of recipes for
this but have never had it so it was time to put it to the test.
Scott found the instructions a little vague in that it just says to
preheat the BBQ to hot but doesn't give any specific temperatures so
we decided in the end to keep it in the 350-400F area which worked
perfectly. It took exactly 1 hour to cook, was ridiculously easy to
prepare and required just a couple of quick checks during the cooking
time. What resulted was by far the most amazing, moist roast chicken
I have EVER had! It was honestly unbelievable. The recipe did suggest
2 chickens (1.5kg each) for 4 people which in my opinion is far too
much so we did 1 and it was perfect, although so good there were no
left-overs which is a good sign to me!!
The
recipe for the Beer-Can Roasted Chicken suggests serving it with the
Sweet Chilli Sauce so I took the suggestion and made the Sweet
Chilli Sauce for recipe number 3. I have to admit at one point I
was quite hesitant as all I could smell was vinegar cooking however
it was worth it! I did have to deviate from the recipe a little as it
suggests using a mortar and pestle to pound the chillies and other
ingredients, however I just wasn't getting it smashed enough so did
resort to my mini food processor to finish it off. Secondly the
recipe says to simmer for 10-15 minutes until syrupy but I did it for
close to 1 hour. Quite a difference in time but again it was worth it
because it was so good and was perfect with the chicken. My only
advice (other than the vinegar stinging your nose!) is that it does
make a lot and the recipe says it will only keep for a few days in
the fridge so I might be tempted to half the recipe next time. That
being said we liked it so much the next day we just quickly barbecued
some pork chops and had those with the sauce for a really good and
simple meal.
Next
up and to serve with the Chicken I made the Herb-Marinated Potato
Salad. I love potato salads and I do enjoy the mayo based ones
however my waistline not so much so I liked the idea of this one
which is dressed using a vinaigrette instead. Again the recipe was
really easy and straightforward and the end result was delicious. Yet
another success!
So
with 4 recipes tried, tested and loved it was onto number 5 which was
the Chinatown Pork – one of Scott's all time favourite
things, but a recipe we haven't really made at home! The list of
ingredients was short and all things I keep in my pantry so that was
a bonus. I did find the instructions a little strange and would have
preferred to just cook it directly on the BBQ (out of laziness!) but
I followed as instructed and put the marinaded pork onto a cooking
rack which in turn sat on a roasting tin half-filled with water.
Again the temperature was vague as it just said to heat to medium but
we worked it out. The final result was good – the taste was lovely,
however it took longer than the suggested 20 minutes and didn't get
the lovely char marks as it said it would (which we had guessed would
happen due to the way it was cooked), so for the last minutes hubby
just put it directly on the grill to try and get it a little more
caramelised. The end result was very tasty
though and I would make it again, perhaps just cooking it a little
differently.
To
accompany the Chinatown Pork (and because we had friends round) I
made the Chilli Bacon Fried Rice although I deviated from this
recipe as we don't have a hot plate (griddle) for the BBQ to cook
directly on that so I had to opt for a large frying pan. The list of
ingredients included 4 cups of cooked rice which I found to be a bit
of a pain and wish that he had listed what the measurement was before
cooking, but after a bit of research I worked it out. The rest of the
dish was very easy to prepare and had a nice taste to it with a good
kick. It definitely worked well with the Chinatown Pork and I'm
pretty sure I would make it again.
Out of
the 6 recipes tested my favourite was
definitely the Beer-can Roasted Chicken which I've made a couple of
times and we've also had the Herb-Marinated Potato Salad a few times
so those are both winners for me. Especially when accompanied by the
Sweet Chilli Sauce. I did however enjoy everything I tried and apart
from some ambiguous temperature terms the recipes were easy enough to
follow.
For
future cooking I've also bookmarked the following recipes to try....
Honey
Hoi Sin Chicken Wings
Chilli
Caramel Chicken
Lemongrass
And Lime Leaf Chicken
Chimichurri
Chook
Sweet
Chilli and Ginger Chicken
Penang
Beef Satay
Sheftalia
Berber
Lamb
Fajita
Rump Steak with Mashed Avocado
Tandoori
Rack of Lamb
Merguez
Sausages
Laksa
Prawn Skewers
Piri
Piri Prawns
Hotplate
Fish Cakes
Tom
Yum Lime Leaf and Coriander Prawns
Barbecued
Snapper with a Rye Romesco Sauce
Newspaper-Wrapped
Salmon with Fresh Herbs, Lemon and Chilli
Mediterranean
Salad
Smoky
Tomato Relish
Specialty
Ingredients?
For
the recipes I tried I would have to say no – everything was very
straightforward and ingredients you could get from your local
supermarket, butcher or fishmonger. If you want to follow all of the
recipes strictly then you do need a hotplate/griddle pan for your BBQ
but I did without for the time being, although am considering it as a
potential present for hubby!!
Learn
anything new?
The
beer-can chicken was definitely a fantastic discovery which I have
wanted to try for a while and am glad we finally did. I'm not sure
any other chicken will match up but it's always good to have a
challenge! Since the recipes are so straightforward I think a novice
barbecuer would be comfortable with them, however there is definitely
an issue with the vague cooking temperatures suggested and that was
our biggest frustration with the book.
As
previously mentioned my husband is the “King of the Grill” in our
household and to be honest it's a title I'm more than happy for him
to have. That being said I did enjoy cooking from a book aimed
specifically for the BBQ and it definitely gave us lots of great new
ideas and shows that you can cook anything and pretty much everything
on a barbecue as long as you have the right equipment. The book has a
very laid back Ozzie approach to food and cooking which I love as it
makes the idea of barbecuing relaxed and not something to be scared
of. One of my other favourite things about
the book was the aesthetics of the book. The first page you open is
made to look like a crumpled up piece of tin (aluminum) foil which I
loved and that theme continued with the title pages and the font
looking like foil. A small detail perhaps but one I just happened to
really like as it definitely contributed to the fact it was a book on
barbecuing! Another thing that I loved with this book (and have had
issues with this with other books) is the fact that all of the side
dishes list what they go well with, so for example the Sweet Chilli
Sauce was recommended to go with the Chicken and the Chilli Bacon
Fried Rice with the Pork (as well as lots of other dishes). I did
cook all of the side dishes inside on the oven but if you have a hot
plate you have unlimited options and could easily cook everything on
the grill.
Although
the temperature guides aren't very accurate or specific the actual
recipes were all very straightforward and easy and really tasted
great so for that reason you can't go wrong with this book.
Fired Up by Ross Dobson gets the Vanilla Clouds and Lemon Drops stamp of
approval.
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