Any other barbeque aficionados out there?

Johnno

Johnno

The Living Force
One good thing about eating well is using the barbeque with fresh meat and vegetables. I'm lucky where I live as I can pretty well use it all year round. I'm a big fan of the slow food movement and sourcing fresh food from the local area makes the food taste nicer for some reason. So therefore, I have sourced a local beef farmer who has started a small shop a couple of towns from here and the local food co-op which has a lot of local vegetables. As a side note, I'm reading Gurdjieff's Beelzebub's Tales and he describes the woefulness of the American diet and preservation, saying some of the substances required by three brained beings are lost in the preservation process.

Anyway back to the barbeque. I use "the barbie" (as we say downunder) for breakfasts, and lunches on the weekend and even Christmas roasts! All my guests here get a barbeque and a nice sitdown outside amongst the eucalyptus trees on my deck, it makes for a nice afternoon. Last guest had some BBQ skewers with chicken onion and canned pineapple (my bad), all of us (including his daughter) stood around the kitchen skewering meat and veges on bamboo sticks. The daughter was adamant on getting "her" sticks once cooked. :)

I have two sorts a flat based LPG (propane) unit with a hood which can fry and also roast. I also have a slow roasting charcoal unit which uses those briquettes. The briquette version doesn't get used that much but the 4 burner gets a lot of use, picked it up at a garage sale in a sad but usable condition. Tidied it up and bought a hood for it. The old thing has served me well.

One thing that is going against me is I LOVE sauces which always seem to include sugar, tomatoes and chilli. Still working on that one. :rolleyes:
 
I love BBQing and also tend to use it year-round, even though it can get to -20C here in winter. Lately I've been cooking local meat, like bison steaks or lamb burgers (which are fantastic on a blini sandwich!). It cooks really quickly and the clean up is virtually non-existent, no dirty pans or stove. I even have taken to cooking bacon on the grill at times if I'm in a hurry. It cooks in about 4 minutes with no splatter. I also have a wok for the grill for veggies and skewers as well. I have a large propane grill with an option for rotisserie, which I have to admit I've never used, 3 burners and a side burner that's like a stove top.
 
Johnno said:
One thing that is going against me is I LOVE sauces which always seem to include sugar, tomatoes and chilli. Still working on that one. :rolleyes:
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I really like to barbeque as well but no longer have the space available to do it. :(

I just worked on a sauce last week but it needs some tweaking as it isn't thick enough. I used pomegranate juice as the base and added a few cranberries in an attempt to thicken it. I may add more the next time. I also put in a spice blend that included salt, pepper, garlic powder, granulated onion, savory, mustard, white pepper and thyme. I also added some xylitol but ran out and added some blue agave out of desperation. It actually came out pretty good and works nicely as a marinade.
 
I forgot to add, the cat loves a barbeque too as he gets quite a few cooled down scraps. If ever I have to round him up for a trip to the vet and can't find him, I take the cover off, rattle around the barbie and wait for him to magically appear.

I time him sometimes, 15 seconds seems the norm. :lol:
 
When is your next barbie? I can contribute chicken or beef satays. The peanut sauce does not include any forms of sugar and is handmade too. Hope you are not allergic to peanuts! :P
 
I just read that some sort of enzyme in kiwi breaks down meat especially well. Here is a link to a recipe, maybe you could create some sort of marinade around this?
_http://norecipes.com/blog/2009/07/29/carne-asada-recipe/
 
I love barbeques. In the summer time, we use to make them almost every weekend. Here,it is very usual to roast lamb ribs but also vegetables and other meats.
 
As an Argentinean, I love BBQ. We use a sauce made of vinegar, water, salt, oil, garlic and spices (chimichurri) that's healthier than the tradicional bbq sauce.
In Argentina we take a lot of time to grill the meat slowly, with ember only, no flames. The result is a smoked, tender meat.
 
skycsil said:
As an Argentinean, I love BBQ. We use a sauce made of vinegar, water, salt, oil, garlic and spices (chimichurri) that's healthier than the tradicional bbq sauce.
In Argentina we take a lot of time to grill the meat slowly, with ember only, no flames. The result is a smoked, tender meat.
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Oh, you are lucky! Argentinian beef is the best!
 
What is always enjoyed about the BBQ is surely the aromas of the food, the diversity of so many recipes that people bring, and share. As well as the gathering of people with a common goal. The out doors, on a sunny day, people playing, having fun, celebrating the coming together in such busy times, to share a moment of a global family tradition. :D
 
Even if like barbeque this is to point out that it may be dangerous for your health. It is not a secret that if it is done with ember (in spanish “brasas”) increase the risk of cancer about 13% (if I remember correctly, a scientific study). One image of ember (“brasas”):
_http://t1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSAB-neuA98y7tggmw27Aki7mBVb6_UVwhFLmxa5zs5B7jLVuNl

I've been told that there is a way to cook it without this health risk. The food must not be on top of the fire/ember. Must be “near the fire”, around it, so it can take the irradiated heat. The smoke that eventually can hit the food, is cleaned as long as the food sweats. The sweat process push the dirt out and finally falls to the floor with the liquid. The best way is to do it on low temperature and for many many hours (¿about 6 hours?).

Even if you're using a gas BBQ, with no ember, take into consideration that the outter parts, burned and black coloured, is of no use to guts. When something burns till it turns black, it is like eating ember itself. On the guts causes a nasty mass killing of cells (as I've been told). Nonetheless it makes sense to me.

One good chef in Barcelona taught to a friend that the best way to make the meat is very very fast to burn “just a little bit” the outer parts. This effectively kills the bacteria (pathogens). There is a 20 minutes delay until they can attach again to the meat. So the product is effectively 'clean of bacteria' (which are not present in the inner parts). Another advantage is that the inner parts must be red, near raw meat. So the body can better process the proteins. Another interesting fact is that the enzymes that comes with the meat, helps a lot to the body to process it. But most of them are killed during the cooking process. A key aspect to avoid this is get meat with fats. The fat/lipids on the meat helps protecting the enzymes when cooking. So it can save them and the body detects them when the person chew the meat.

I'm writting this in a hurry, I did not check if there is a topic about “how to cook meat” and BBQ.
May be this intel is of some use to you.

Yours, Jordi
 
We love to barbecue... and our critter has the capability to smoke. Our favorite is a fresh ham or pork roast smoked for many hours... slowly...
 
We can BBQ year round here, although it's been so cold outside lately that I haven't wanted to try. I like it because cooking odors stay outside and cleanup is easy. We have a small covered gas BBQ (Weber) that works well for two people and is portable if we need to take it with us.
 
Psyche said:
Oh, you are lucky! Argentinian beef is the best!
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Indeed! Been living in Europe for 4 years, and almost didn't touch meat there, it seemed tasteless to me, not to mention the price. Once returned to my country I would eat beef on a daily basis for months.
 
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