'Tis the season.......... to Barbecue!

Walter

I will admit I barbecue all year round. It’s my favourite way of cooking, but towards Christmas and through the summer, I go wild. Even a humble Coles sausage tastes better cooked outside on a grill.

I wonder what others are doing and preparing for the big days ahead.

PREP:

I always give the Barbecue a good clean, more than normally through the year, always checking the gas, the burners, giving the drip tray a good clean and a new absorber.  I usually end up with a new Barbecue apron, and I’m annually on the lookout for some new useful utensil. This time I bought a new “smart” meat thermometer.

I oil the rotisserie parts even though I’ve checked it all year, it gets a good once over.

STOCKING UP:

Yep, there’s a freezer full of meats and fish (mostly salmon), and the spice rack and seasonings get looked at and replenished.

I’ve fallen in love with smoked salt, and I’ve bought extra.

RECIPES:

I’m always on the lookout for recipes and ideas. Happy to share them.

So I'll start out

I don't normally put quantities in this recipe, this was enough for 2 of us:

Pork Loin Chops with Mushroom, Capsicum and Tomato sauce

4 Pork Loin Chops.

1 Sweet capsicum 

100g Button mushrooms – not sliced

1 Tomato

Juice from 1 large lemon

4 Tablespoons Sour cream

1 tablespoon Olive oil

2 teaspoons of your favourite hot sauce or smoked paprika if you are afraid of the heat

Smoked salt.

Preparation and cooking:

Lightly season the pork chops with smoked salt on each side, and put them to one

side.

Slice the capsicum, quarter the tomatoes

Put the capsicum, and the tomatoes in a bowl.

Put the olive oil, lemon juice and hot sauce in the bowl, enough to coat everything, the mushrooms should take on the colour of the coating.

Let it marinate for 20 minutes or so, or while you are heating up the barbecue

Prepare the Barbecue.  High heat.

Once hot pour the mushroom and tomato mix onto the barbecue plate ( I have a flat and ribbed plate on one side).  Stand back, because if you have used hot sauce, and lemon juice, it’s going to hit you, LOL.

Stir continuously, for a couple of minutes.

Put the pork chops on the grill.  Here’s the fun bit – make sure you are watching the cops and the mushroom mix.

Turn the pork chops once and lower the heat it it’s too hot.

While you are cooking the second side of the chops, remove the mushroom mix from the plate and put them back in the bowl you marinated them in (yes), the tomato and capsicum should have wilted enough to be soft, and the mushrooms should be softened enough.  Now stir in the sour cream, and set to one side.

Once the pork chops have cooked enough (I think I did 8 minutes per side), plate them.

Pour over the mushroom, capsicum and tomato sauce and serve.

In our case, I had some spare room on the grill plate and cooked some “oven fry wedges”

Tomorrow: Chicken Shawarma Rotisserie

Walter

I'm a big fan of the rotisserie on the barbecue, and this is one of my favourite recipes.

Chicken Shawarma Rotisserie This fed 6 people, with leftovers the following day.

1.5 Kg of boneless chicken thighs, skin removed (should be about 12 pieces)

1 teaspoon cardamom pods

1 teaspoon fennel seeds

1 teaspoon cumin

1 teaspoon mustard seeds

2 cloves of garlic, crushed

5- 6 tablespoons natural yoghurt 

salt

pepper

1/4 cup olive oil

2 large tomatoes

2 large Spanish onions

1 lemon

Red and green capsicums

Preparation and Cooking:

You really do need a covered barbecue, with a rotisserie (powered preferably) but you could get by without the lid, you just have to make sure it's hot.  I prefer to do it on coals, but this worked with gas.  You have to make sure you remove the grill and barbecue plates, because you are going to indirect cook  this if you have a cover, so in my case, I had the two outside burners on.

In a blender or a mortar and pestle, crush and combine the cardamom pods,fennel,cumin and mustard seeds, and cracked pepper if you want.  Get a nice smell going. Add salt to taste.

In a large glass or ceramic bowl, put in the crushed and mixed spices. Add the yoghurt and stir thoroughly

Add the olive oil, and stir again.

Take the chicken thighs, cut off excess fat,if any, and drop the thigh meat into the mixture.  Using your hands, massage and cover the meat well. Messy, but the smell is amazing.

Cover with cling wrap and marinate in the refrigerator OVERNIGHT

Next day:

Halve the lemon, the tomatoes, and slice the capsicums, removing seeds, quarter the onions.

Light the outside burners on the barbecue for indirect cooking, and let it heat up.

Get a friend to help with this, because I found it difficult to do by myself.

Start with 1/2 lemon and skewer it to one end of the rotisserie skewer

Next place 1/2  of a tomato and get it tight against the lemon.

Skewer the chicken thighs, making sure they won't slip as the rotisserie turns, and intersperse them at regular intervals with the onion, capsicum. Make sure you reserve half a lemon and half a tomato for the other end of the skewer. Make sure it's balanced, because you won't have time on the burners to adjust it.

The picture shows how mine looked before cooking.

Put the skewer on the rotisserie

Put an aluminium pan/drip tray under the skewer to capture any juices, and put any leftover ingredients in, I put in mushrooms,extra capsicum and tomato.

Cook on high for about 25 minutes covered.  Then lower the heat. 

Check regularly, until the chicken is cooked. In my case that was 1 1/2 hours on medium heat (keeping the barbecue at around 300 C) after the 25 minutes on high.

When cooked, you can carve it off, or slice it off, I sliced it into a tray. 

Serve it with flat bread so people can make their own Gyros/kebabs with shredded lettuce sliced tomato, extra yoghurt etc.

The next day we ate leftovers on steamed rice. Delicious.