Author: Cath

Five-a-day barbecue

For a carnivore, a barbeque can easily become too meaty: a sausage, a lamb chop, a chicken drumstick, oh and one of those minute steaks too – it all adds up. Ketchup does not count as one of the five-a-day. Here are my recommendations for vegetable dishes to cook on the barbecue to break up the monotony of sausages.weber-bbq-on-beach

Asparagus
New season asparagus brushed with olive oil and quickly grilled over the barbeque is perfect. At its best from late May through to June. Season with salt and pepper.

Banana chillis stuffed with halloumi

Corn on the cob
For this old favourite, the fresher the corn the better. As soon as corn is picked it begins to deteriorate, the texture goes chalky and the sweetness starts to go. If the cobs are in their husks, wet the husks so they don’t catch fire. If the cob does not have the protective husk, brush the kernels lightly with oil and cook, turning frequently. Serve the cobs with butter that has been mixed with finely chopped red chillli, chopped parsley and sea salt.

Peppers and anchovies
Halve red and yellow peppers, brush the skin lightly with olive oil and fill each half with a couple of roughly chopped anchovies, a few capers, black pepper and some oil out of the anchovy jar. Grill over the barbeque until the peppers soften and start to char. Serve with torn basil leaves.

Tangy tomato relish to go with vegetable kebabs and/or red meat

Sweetcorn relish

Vegetable kebabs

Sardines stuffed with chermoula

Sardines are good value compared to other fish and their oil content makes them perfect for a spicy sauce and will help keep the flesh moist on the barbeque. Stopping fish from sticking on the grill can be a problem, but a light coating of oil on the skin and a fish holder will see you right. I make the Moroccan chermoula at home and take it camping with me in an airtight jar, where it will keep for a week.
fish-barbecue

Chermoula

Ingredients
1 tsp paprika
A pinch of chilli flakes or cayenne pepper
1 tsp cumin seeds, ground
4-6 tbs olive oil
2 garlic cloves, crushed
80g (large bunch of) coriander, chopped
Juice of 2 lemons
Salt to taste

Method
Crush the garlic, chilli flakes and salt together in a pestle and mortar, then add that mix to the other chermoula ingredients. Taste, spice it up if you want a stronger sauce but remember you only using a teaspoon or two for each fish. As with any marinade you need to leave it for at least half an hour, preferably longer for the flavours to soak in.

To prepare your sardines and couscous

Ingredients
1 or 2 sardines per person, if you are serving other meat or fish
Olive oil for brushing
Couscous
2 tbs herbs such as mint, parsley and/or coriander chopped
1-2 tbs olive oil
Juice of ½ lemon
Salt and pepper

Equipment
Barbeque or campfire
Fish holder
Teaspoon

Method
Gut and rinse the sardines and put a teaspoon or two of the chermoula in the cavity of each fish. Rub the skin lightly with olive oil and leave for at least twenty minutes, longer if possible. Over medium heat on the barbeque or campfire place your sardines, turning once, very carefully. A fish holder is useful as it stops you losing your fish to the sticky bars of the grill. You can see the flesh turn from translucent to opaque when they are cooked. Serve hot with couscous.

To go with your fish, serve instant couscous which is ideal for outdoor living, following the instructions on the packet. Once the couscous is rehydrated add the olive oil, lemon juice, herbs, salt and pepper, stir well with a fork to separate the grains.

Banana chillis stuffed with halloumi

Serves 4

This recipe requires the larger pale, green, mild chillis common in Middle Eastern supermarkets, but I have known my local supermarket to stock them too. When you choose the chillis, bear in mind you will be stuffing them so get the fattest ones. They go well with tomato salad, pittas and lamb kebabs. You won’t need salt as the halloumi is a very salty cheese. Be careful with the chillis, they can easily split as you prepare them.

Ingredients
4 banana chillis
100-150g (or ½ packet) of halloumi, cut into thin lengths
Olive oil for brushing

Equipment
2 metal or bamboo skewers, not thick ones as they tend to split the peppers
Sharp knife
Chopping board

Method
Roll the chillis between your fingers, this will loosen the seeds inside. Chop the top off each and shake out the seeds, poke out the white bits with a skewer or knife, don’t break the skin though. Put a couple of pieces of cheese into each chilli, you want to be generous, but be aware the cheese will melt and fall out of the top if it is overstuffed. Brush or rub them with a light coating of oil. Now comes the skewering. The skewers will be passing horizontally through a line of vertical chillis. Pass one skewer through the top of each chilli. Pass a second skewer through the bottom of each chilli. Barbeque over a medium heat, turning once or twice using the skewers as handles. They are ready when the cheese is melting and the skin of the peppers blistering.

Vegetable kebabs

Serves 4
These kebabs need as much love and attention as sausages and will take a similar time to cook, so don’t leave them until the last minute, nor put them on when the barbecue is at full heat.

Ingredients
1 aubergine, cubed into 2cm pieces (chop these first and salt them as below)
2 courgettes, cubed into 2cm pieces (chop these first and salt them as below)
1 onion, cubed into 2cm pieces
2 red peppers, cubed into 2cm pieces
2 sprigs rosemary, roughly chopped
Olive oil
Salt and pepper

Equipment
Barbeque/campfire
Sharp knife
Chopping board
Sieve
Mixing bowl
Skewers
Kitchen towel or clean t-towel

Method
Put the courgette and aubergine in a sieve and cover with salt, about two tablespoons worth. Leave for 15 minutes, while you prepare the other vegetables and rosemary. Rinse the aubergine and courgette under running water and pat dry with kitchen towel or tea towel. Put into the bowl with all the other vegetables and rosemary, olive oil and pepper. Mix thoroughly rubbing the rosemary into the vegetables. Thread onto the skewers, making sure each kebab has a bit of everything, probably 8 to 10 pieces per skewer. Grill over a medium heat until the vegetables start to colour and soften.

Sweetcorn relish

This relish really goes well with barbequed chicken or home-made burgers. If you don’t like chilli or you intend feeding the relish to children, omit the chilli. Start cooking this as soon as you can on the barbeque so that you can eat it with your meat. The relish will save in a jar until the next day, in fact it might be nicer.

Ingredients
1 corn on the cob
1 red pepper
¼ red onion, finely chopped
¼ to ½ red chilli, deseeded and finely chopped (optional)
1 handful of fresh coriander, chopped
1 bulb of garlic, soaking wet
Juice of ½ lime
Pinch of sugar
Salt
Vegetable oil

Equipment
Barbeque or campfire
Chopping board
Sharp knife
Bowl
Spoon
Tinfoil

Method
If the corn is still in its husk, then wet it so that it does not burn. If the cob does not have the protective husk, then lightly brush the kernels with oil. Roast the corn, garlic and red pepper on top of the grill. Turn the pepper and corn to cook them all over. Remove the pepper when the skin has blistered and blackened. The kernels of the corn should be softening, and the the garlic needs to be soft so that its flavour is sweet rather than strong. Skin the pepper once it is cool enough to handle, squeeze the garlic out of its skin, cut the kernels off the cob. Mix it all together in the bowl, season with salt and sugar and leave for a little while before serving on the side.

Veggie curry Wednesday

Wednesday is veggie curry night at home, as we cut down on the amount of meat in our diet. I’ve transferred this family ritual to camp. The Wednesday aspect is entirely optional but the day – being so middling, so unexceptional – requires a sense of occasion to lift it.cath-cooking-outside-tent

Prepare garlic and ginger paste at home to reduce chopping chores, and this paste can be used in other cuisines too. If you grind your own spices then do this at home or just take a good quality ready-made garam masala.

I like a variety of dishes for my Wednesday dinners: a pulse dish, a cheese dish and a vegetable-based dish. Whether you serve rice and bread really depends on how much space you have on your stove: shop-bought chapatis thrown on a barbecue grill for ten seconds a side will do.

– Garlic and ginger paste
– Chana masala
– Saag halloumi
– Tomato and onion salad
– Spicy minted peas

Salsa romesco

Prepare this at home before the trip and spoon it into a jar to save you having to pestle and mortar until you are blue in the face outside the tent. If you store this red sauce in a sterilized jar, it can keep for ages. Salsa romesco is mildly spicy and tangy and so great with meat and fish that has been simply cooked over a barbeque or campfire. This should make two small jars worth.
The romesco chilli is traditionally used in Spain, but ancho chillis are more likely obtained in the UK. Failing that, use dried kashmiri chillis with some smoked paprika to add barbecued sweetness. For a milder fruitier sauce, use just the one chilli. You can always add spice, but you can never take it away.

I made this for a barbeque in my back garden in London. It went perfectly with seafood kebabs and Andalusian lamb (marinaded in red wine vinegar and juniper). I recently made this in a pestle and mortar, but you can throw all the ingredients in a blender, just don’t over blend as you want a sauce with some texture to it.

How to sterilize a jar

Clean jars and new lids in hot soapy water. Put the jars in a pre-heated medium oven for ten minutes. Use as soon as they are cool enough to fill.

Ingredients

3 red peppers, roasted, deseeded and skinned, roughly chopped
2 cloves of garlic, roughly chopped
3 tomatoes, score the skin in a cross all the way around and roast for a few minutes
80g hazelnuts, roasted in a medium oven for 5-8 minutes until brown, then rub until the skin comes away
2 dried ancho chillis, if not available then 2 dried kashmiri chillies plus a pinch of smoked paprika
2 tbs red wine vinegar
75ml olive oil
Salt to taste
Sugar to taste

Crush the hazelnuts in a pestle and mortar until crumb-like, then add the garlic and ancho chillis (or the kashmiri chillis and paprika), salt, and crush some more. Add tomatoes and peppers, red wine vinegar and a pinch of sugar: you may need to decant to a larger bowl unless you are using a massive mortar. Add the oil in a fine drizzle, stirring each bit in well, otherwise you may end up with a greasy sauce, rather than a velvety one. Taste, season.

Beach Barbeque

Math recently acquired a portable barbeque, the Weber Charcoal Go-Anywhere Grill. It has a pleasingly vintage shape, and is solidly constructed. We spent an afternoon at Homebase checking out the other portable barbecues, all of which felt rather neurotic and liable to fall apart in a complete collapse of nerve. The Weber has a vented lid which traps a convective circulating heat, much better for cooking larger boned joints.

Birling Gap
Birling Gap

We took the Weber out for a test run to Birling Gap, a pebbled beach tucked in amongst the Seven Sisters chalk cliffs. A steep tower of stairs leads down from the eroding cliff edge to the beach itself. It was late afternoon and the surf was lively. High tide was at six o’clock.

Math began cooking. The grill does not have separate settings, you cannot raise or lower it in relation to the heat. Once his pyramid of coals were lit, he arranged the heat into thirds, with two hot patches either side of an empty middle section. Having a section of the grill that is not over any coals works on a lidded barbecue because the circulating heat will be sufficient for slow cooking.

“Don’t make the mistake of presuming that we know what we are doing,” he warned

Some chefs prefer arranging the coals in a gradually declined slope from left to right, but the portable barbecues lack the depth necessary for this arrangement. The trick is to create the variety of temperatures required to cook a variety of meats – in this case, boned chicken thighs, venison kebabs and sausages, all with a light coating of oil so that they would not stick to the grill.

The tide battled its way up the beach, making for an anxious moment in which we wondered if we would have to strike camp and break for the stairs. Another family arrived with their barbecue, took a doubtful look at the churning rising waters, but were reassured by the sight of us blithely cooking. Math went over to speak to them;

“Don’t make the mistake of presuming that we know what we are doing,” he warned. They set up as far the encroaching waves as was possible on the narrow strip of beach, and started cooking. Fortune favours the brave.

Here are my barbecue recipes

Orange and carrot salad

This goes really well with spicy kebabs, tucked up beside a small pile of warm pitta breads.

Ingredients
200g carrots, peeled and grated
Juice of half an orange
1 tbs white wine vinegar or juice of half a lemon
Salt and pepper
Pinch of cinnamon
5 dried dates, stoned and chopped
1 tsp honey
1 tbs olive oil

Equipment
Grater (slice the carrots very finely if not available)
Chopping board
Sharp knife
Bowl
Spoons

Method
Mix all ingredients in a bowl and leave to rest for ten to twenty minutes to let the flavours mingle. Serve.

Tangy squashy tomato relish

This relish virtually makes itself and is a vibrant alternative to ketchup.

Ingredients
8 tasty tomatoes, cut in half horizontally
2 cloves garlic, peeled
1 red chilli, sliced in half lengthways or 1 tsp of paprika
1 tbs red wine or red wine vinegar
1 tbs olive oil
Salt

Equipment
Barbeque/campfire
Tin foil
Bowl
Sharp knife

Method
Once you have the barbeque going, wrap all the tomatoes, garlic, chilli and vinegar or wine in a double layer of tin foil and place on the grill.
After ten to twenty minutes of cooking, carefully tip the contents of the foil into a bowl -watch the steam doesn’t burn you as you open your parcel. Bash the garlic and if you want extra spice then scrape out the flesh of the chilli with a sharp knife. Mix all ingredients together, add the oil, season and taste. Serve with your burgers instead of ketchup.