Now that the summer has waned and the horrible hot and sticky weather has abated it is time to get back outside for the healthier pastimes.
As the pool slides down the temperature range from hot bath to cold shower, we can use our gardens for the real reason we have them. BBQ!
Yes, it is the beginning of the barbecue season and time to get the grill cleaned up and check the gas bottles or, if you are a traditionalist, get the charcoal in.
Get on the blower with your mates and synchronise calendars so that if it’s ours on Friday it’s Jenny’s next Saturday and Ishmael’s the following week. Dig out your favourite marinade recipes and get the refreshments ordered.
We shall be having our first one quite soon, we have some buddies visiting in the next few weeks so that’s all the excuse we need.
Apart from the obligatory sausages and chicken legs, I like to grill a full beef fillet which I marinade for a full day in my top-secret mixture of herbs and spices.
A full fillet is not as expensive as you might think, for sure if you buy the Australian or New Zealand ones then they can be a bit pricey, but South African or Brazilian are just as good and cheaper. However, for years, we have used Indian buffalo tenderloin which is less than half the price and it is a lovely bit of meat.
By the time you have marinaded it in spices and grilled it carefully it is as tasty and tender as any of its more expensive cousins.
Charcoal or gas is a personal choice and, in the past, I have used both.
At the moment we have a gas grill which is much more convenient and even lends itself to us cooking on it when it’s just the two of us.
Using charcoal is a much more involved process and lends itself to cooking for a group as you need to set it up first and give it some time to get to prime cooking temperature.
When we lived on Floating City in Amwaj Islands, and frequently hosted BBQs, we used a charcoal grill.
One added benefit of using charcoal is that when the cooking is finished and members of the party are all sitting around chinwagging, I would take a frozen chicken out the freezer and wrap it in two layers of tinfoil and put it on the grill and close the lid, leave it cooking all night as the charcoal cools down. In the morning you have a perfectly cooked juicy chicken, perfect for lunch.
BBQ season is more or less with us now until about May next year when the hot and sticky stuff returns but then that coincides with the pool getting back to blobbing temperature and so ready for the pool parties. You know, it’s tough in the Gulf.
jackie@jbeedie.com
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