The bbq photo & recipe thread

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5678

6,146 posts

226 months

Tuesday 25th May 2010
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No pictures I'm afraid (I need to remember to take more!) but last nights dinner was great.

Organic Lamb & Mint sausages
Organic Chicken and onion kebabs smothered with a garlic, ginger and corriander dressing. (all finely chopped and mixed up with a few tbsp of extra virgin olive oil)
Green Couscous (spring onions & corriander)
Squeeze of lime!

Half the bbq was setup with coals and two blocks of hickory I had left over from yesterday. Chicken was quickly seared over the hot coals and then moved over to the other side to finish indirectly and pick up some of the smoke. I'm no bbq expert but this seemed to work well as the chicken was cooked through but still wonderfully moist and tender. The onion had picked up lots of the smoked flavour too. It also seemed to firm up the dressing preventing it from being left on the bbq grill.

Mobile Chicane

20,736 posts

211 months

Tuesday 25th May 2010
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Carne asada made with onglet steak (as it should be):



Too busy snarfing it to take any more pics:



I hadn't eaten this before (and therefore had no idea what it was meant to be like) but it was pronounced good by my fellow taster. smile

escargot

Original Poster:

17,110 posts

216 months

Wednesday 26th May 2010
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Looks great MC thumbup

Did you barbie the wraps too? That in itself makes all the difference for me.

Did a quick barbie of burgers and skewers last night. Nice.

smack

9,727 posts

190 months

Wednesday 26th May 2010
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escargot said:
Looks great MC thumbup

Did you barbie the wraps too? That in itself makes all the difference for me.
Yeah, we did. Though a few of the wraps were over done and a bit crispy!

escargot

Original Poster:

17,110 posts

216 months

Wednesday 26th May 2010
quotequote all
smack said:
escargot said:
Looks great MC thumbup

Did you barbie the wraps too? That in itself makes all the difference for me.
Yeah, we did. Though a few of the wraps were over done and a bit crispy!
That happens to me too. 1 second they're fine, the next, fubar'ed.

markreilly

795 posts

171 months

Wednesday 26th May 2010
quotequote all
escargot said:
smack said:
escargot said:
Looks great MC thumbup

Did you barbie the wraps too? That in itself makes all the difference for me.
Yeah, we did. Though a few of the wraps were over done and a bit crispy!
That happens to me too. 1 second they're fine, the next, fubar'ed.
How about wetting them first ?

HereBeMonsters

14,180 posts

181 months

Wednesday 26th May 2010
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As we're doing pictures of barbeques, here's some of me and a mate restoring mine. It was originally build in Nigeria when I lived there, by some local welders, for a friend of mine. He took it with him to Eritrea, where it was modified with a proper hinge mechanism. Then in Kenya it got a custom build stand with wheels.
When he sadly died, it was shipped back to me and sat in my mate's shed for two years, waiting for me to move out of the flat into a place with a garden. Sadly, the bottom had rusted completely away, so we had to get some more panels to be able to use it.
We ended up using oil drum lids, as these are plentiful around Southampton docks, if you know where to look, and are easier to carry and work with than a whole drum.


Getting busy with the angle grinder.


With an abscence of welding skills and indeed welding equipment, the panels were riveted or bolted on.




Couple of coats of rust-proof primer, then satin black hammerite.


Need to make/find a better grille for it, as the custom made item was lost in transit. Was also thinking about some sort of height adjustment, if anyone has any ideas?

smack

9,727 posts

190 months

Wednesday 26th May 2010
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HereBeMonsters said:
Was also thinking about some sort of height adjustment, if anyone has any ideas?
Yeah, friends in the US have a frame above the BBQ, that raises the grill plate. I'll try and find some photos of theirs.

HereBeMonsters

14,180 posts

181 months

Wednesday 26th May 2010
quotequote all
smack said:
HereBeMonsters said:
Was also thinking about some sort of height adjustment, if anyone has any ideas?
Yeah, friends in the US have a frame above the BBQ, that raises the grill plate. I'll try and find some photos of theirs.
I was really looking for ideas as to how to lower a grille into it, tbh. Obviously it would have to be a smaller one due to the shape, but at the moment I'm raising the coals up on bricks and a fine grille to be closer to the food.

Mobile Chicane

20,736 posts

211 months

Wednesday 26th May 2010
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I'd cut the last bar off each end of the grille, leaving two 'spikes'. Cut two corresponding holes in the rear of the drum, and two slots in the front.

(Or something like that.)

HereBeMonsters

14,180 posts

181 months

Wednesday 26th May 2010
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Mobile Chicane said:
I'd cut the last bar off each end of the grille, leaving two 'spikes'. Cut two corresponding holes in the rear of the drum, and two slots in the front.

(Or something like that.)
That's what I was thinking of for the charcoal grille. It doesn't provide the height adjustment for the food though.

prand

5,910 posts

195 months

Wednesday 26th May 2010
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Finally got round to posting up pics of my weekend's cooking on my Weber. Apologies for the length!

Prep started on Friday night making a rub and applying it to two packs of babyback ribs and a 1.5kg piece of pork shoulder for smoking on the Saturday. The rub consisted of (rough amounts) brown sugar (6 tbspns), salt (1 tbspn), cumin powder (1 tbspn), paprika (1 tbspn) garlic powder (1 tspn) and cayenne/ground plack pepper (1/2 tspn each).

Here is the little lump of pork shoulder (1.5kg to feed 4-6). I trimmed the thicker skin off the top to leave a layer of soft fat to baste the meat. This was to mostly disappear during cooking.



I also used the rub on some boned chicken thighs to grill for the Friday night. They were delicious. I find chicken thighs so much value, juicy and tasty. I'd not done a rub for grilled food before and I'm suddenly sold, it seemed to be much more effective than liquids used in a quick marinade which seem to burn and run off easily. Next to get the rub treatment were the two packs of babyback ribs. As these were from Tescos, they were trimmed neatly but still had a good amount of meat.



Then the meat was wrapped in bags and put in the fridge for the night. I'd also got a pot of hickory chips soaking. See you at 1.00pm tomorrow!



So cooking time. 1pm Saturday. I set up the Weber to have coals on one side, drip tray on the other, and wood chips in a pierced foil bag to sit on the coals. You might notice the Prand Patented Rib Rack - formed with pliers from some thick wire I found in the shed, which was used to save space on the grill. This turned out to be a winning innovation!



I think at this point the meat looks too wet, I'd not used any more rub to apply after overnighting in the bag, which I think prevented a really good crust forming, but not too much disaster really, just a lesson for next time. Once the temp hit 125C the smoke from the wood chip bag I had placed on top of the coals started to come out of the vent, and the meat went in under the lid for the first hour.



I allowed the temp to range between 125-150C, using the bottom vent to regulate temperature, starting with the bottom vent open a small amount (increased as temps dropped) and the top left mostly wide open. After 1 hour it started to drop, so I added a handful of more briquettes and spritzed the meat (a mix of apple juice, red wine vinegar and the last of the rub).



I repeated this three times over 3 hours, then I wrapped up the meat and ribs in double foil with a slosh of the spritz in each packet, and put back on the bbq. I chucked more coals on to take the temp up to about 175C - this is hotter than should be, but I was getting worried that I'd run out of time for our guests were arriving at 6.30 and would be hungry. I figured in foil and with the spritz they would not burn, but still return a good texture, and I wasn't wrong. They were in foil under the lid for about 2 hours.



I then removed the meat from the foil and found the ribs had cooked to a delicate tendernerss, and were literally coming apart. I carefully removed them and basted them in a bbq sauce I made from finely chopped onion, tomato puree, some tescos bbq sauce (cheat I know, but I was using what I could find in the cupboard...), brown sugar, vinegar, Lea & Perrins sauce, and a slug or two of Jack Daniels. This I cooked through on the hob to a nice sticky sauce, which I also painted onto the pork.

I then put these back under the lid, for a final 30-45 mins or so at about 150-175C, basting a couple of times.



So now it was nearly 7pm and ready to eat, the meat was literally falling apart, and we all confirmed from bits sneaked off the grill the meat was sweet, smoky and tasty - and most of all - ready to be eaten! Finally I grilled up some chipolatas to make it a triple pork bbq.

This following pic shows some of the ribs and about half the meat which shredded down really easily and went into buns. The ribs went down a storm, it was comical seeing a pile of bones build up quickly as they were all scoffed down in minutes!

Pleasingly our friends were wowed by the spread on offer, and my usual critic Mrs P was very complimentary, which is a real surprise as she usually is somewhat cynical about my crazy culinary schemes!



Next time I'd like to start earlier and take it a bit slower at lower temps, as I pushed it on a bit too much at the end to get things cooked, so perhaps less heat when in the foil, and make a better barky crust for the meat by pasting more rub on before cooking. Even so, not a bad attempt this time round. I've got myself a meat thermometer for next time so I can monitor the internal temps of large joints better and get the cooking times more precise.

And finally here's a more detailed pic of the Prand Patented Rib Rack which I will be using again, perhaps with some modifications to clip it to the bars of the grill better, and also make a 3 or 4 rib rack, but for its first outing, worked a treat. I also need to get some more practice in for mid July when I'll be cooking for about 20, so I'm going to need to try some larger joints in the coming weeks to make sure I've got the hang of this smoking lark, which so far is defintely worth the effort!



Edited by prand on Thursday 27th May 10:31

Mobile Chicane

20,736 posts

211 months

Wednesday 26th May 2010
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prand said:
Finally got round to posting up pics of my weekend's cooking on my Weber. Apologies for the length!

Erm... I think you lost most (male) PHers at 'that' pic.

5678

6,146 posts

226 months

Thursday 27th May 2010
quotequote all
Mobile Chicane said:
prand said:
Finally got round to posting up pics of my weekend's cooking on my Weber. Apologies for the length!

Erm... I think you lost most (male) PHers at 'that' pic.
hehe Just read through prand's post with my wife sat next to me... the serving wench and the "rack" on show was the first thing she noticed!

prand

5,910 posts

195 months

Thursday 27th May 2010
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Hm perhaps not so suitable for a food forum, have edited.

smack

9,727 posts

190 months

Thursday 27th May 2010
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prand said:
Hm perhaps not so suitable for a food forum, have edited.
I didn't see any problem! And it documented the food preperation process very well. smile

Crusoe

4,068 posts

230 months

Thursday 27th May 2010
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leave for 30min to burn down then spicy lamb kebabs yum

smack

9,727 posts

190 months

Thursday 27th May 2010
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HereBeMonsters said:
smack said:
HereBeMonsters said:
Was also thinking about some sort of height adjustment, if anyone has any ideas?
Yeah, friends in the US have a frame above the BBQ, that raises the grill plate. I'll try and find some photos of theirs.
I was really looking for ideas as to how to lower a grille into it, tbh. Obviously it would have to be a smaller one due to the shape, but at the moment I'm raising the coals up on bricks and a fine grille to be closer to the food.
This is the setup my Yank mates have, which would require you to modify you BBQ to use. They cook on big lumps of Red Oak:

The handle raise/lowers the grill, via metal cables attached to each end of the grill.


And in action cooking Tri Tip.

HereBeMonsters

14,180 posts

181 months

Thursday 27th May 2010
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Cheers, I thought it might be something like that from your description. With an open flame that's a good idea, I guess, but the charcoal needs something a bit closer.

So far what we've come up with is sticking some bolts through at different heights, longer ones higher up to take a smaller grille for lowering down. But it still requires moving the grille manually.

simonator

13 posts

166 months

Sunday 30th May 2010
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I went to a restaurant called Gaucho in Puerto Banus and ordered a mixed grill - this is what came to the table - a charcoal bbq!