Planning a Barbecue?

Barbecues are awesome. Nothing quite touches the heartstrings (of a man at least) like hunks of meat on an open fire. It's a primal thing, I think. Unfortunately, red meat is pretty expensive here and although I have great recipes for beef and lamb, this is going to focus on the bbq underdogs, fish, chicken and pork.

To have a better idea of the awesome barbecues I have with my friends, click here

I HATE going to barbecues and finding frozen sotong balls, fish sticks and chicken franks on the grill. It's as if we don't have anything better readily available at the markets for a decent barbecue. Personally, I also don't like to barbecue chicken wings because the edges always burn before the inside is properly cooked. My favourite items include stingray, salmon fillets, chicken legs and pork collar. Sausages are also excellent barbecue items that need to be poached in hot water before being set on the grill. This prevents the skin from splitting and also takes out the excess salt.

Strong marinades work best for barbecues because the smokiness imbued by the charcoal fire is intense so weak flavours will be drowned out. So bring out the ginger, garlic, sambal and all the other strong aromatics you can think of.

White meat and fish is cheaper than red meat but it's still expensive, so load up your guests with a tasty starch. Potatoes are evergreen favourites and go great with barbecued food mashed or roasted in an oven. Serve up vegetables too like bell peppers and corn. When barbecued, these vegetables become really sweet and tasty and most people will not say no when these are served up.

To cook, you need a fire and the best way to build one is to light up 2 or 3 firestarters and pile up a lot of charcoal over them. Fan it up and once half the coals are white, level out the pile, put on your grill and keep fanning for a good 5 minutes. Once the fire is hot enough that you can't leave your hand over it for 5 seconds without pulling away, you're good. Keep cooking while the heat is at this optimum level.

Here's a simple recipe to end this off.

Garlic & Kaffir Lime Marinade

The photo here shows oven roasted chicken but I originally came up with this killer recipe for a barbecue. The marinade also works really well with salmon.

For enough to marinate 10 legs, blend together:

• 5 cloves garlic
• 1 tsp dried rosemary
• 5 daun limau purut (kaffir lime leaves)
  
• 1 chilli padi
• 1tsp sugar
  
• 1 tbsp light soy
• 1 tbsp fish sauce
• 2 tbsp vegetable oil
• salt and pepper
  

After that, mix this with 50g of softened butter and marinate your choice of meat in it for at least an hour before grilling.

Poached Salmon with Vegetable Mash

Weekends are for cooking! Bon Appetit!

Ingredients (serves 2)

Poaching Liquid
- 1 teaspoon of oil
- quarter teaspoon of garlic
- a chilli padi, de-seeded
- half a carrot
- a stick of celery
- half a white onion
- 2 inches of leek
- 100ml of water or stock

Salmon
- 2 100g fillets washed and patted dry
- chopped dill weed

Asparagus
- 1 packet of thai asparagus with stalks trimmed to equal lengths

Vegetable Mash
- cooked vegetables from poaching liquid
- 1 large potato
- 20g of butter
- 20ml of whipping cream
- salt and pepper

Hollandaise Sauce
- 1 egg yolk
- 50g butter, clarified
- juice of slightly less than half a lemon
- salt and pepper

Method

Poaching Liquid
- rough cut all the vegetables to small bite sized pieces
- sweat vegetables in oil, add water/stock and simmer for 10min
- drain and reserve both liquid and cooked vegetables

Vegetable Mash
- boil potato, leaving skin on
- quarter the potato and throw into food processor with cooked vegetables, butter and cream
- pulse to desired consistency and add salt and pepper to taste

Asparagus
- blanch half the packet for 1 min in poaching liquid
- soak in cold water to stop cooking

Hollandaise (i used leftover sauce from poached eggs, you can easily buy it)
- whisk egg over a pot of gently simmering water till it forms ribbons and resists the motion of your hand
- add lemon juice
- drizzle in a bit of clarified butter slowly and incorporate fully before adding more(do this slowly or the sauce will split)
- continue until all the butter is used up and you have a thick sauce
- add salt and pepper to taste

Salmon
- bring poaching liquid to a vigorous simmer
- place salmon in liquid and baste with spoon for about 6 to 7 min
(5 min for an uncooked center)

Plating
how you plate it is up to you really, just don't put the hollandaise on the poached fish because the water on the fish will make it run.

don't forget to sprinkle dill on the salmon for colour.

for dessert i whipped up...


...maple cheesecakes.