Tag Archives: Barbeque

Grilled Peaches and White Ice Tea

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I was rustling through the pantry recently, looking for things that needed to be used up. Stuff which has made it’s way to the back of the pantry and been forgotten. I came across a packet of Peach and White Tea flavoured jelly, which I don’t recall buying but sounded pretty interesting. It also reminded me of a recipe by one of my barbecue heroes, Adam Perry Lang who does a version of grilled peaches using peach jelly. It’s very simple but it tastes amazing. The caramelized flesh of grilled peaches taste wonderful on their own, with this recipe you are simply adding another layer on top of that, rather than changing it.

Mix together a packet of Peach and White Tea jelly crystals, 3/4 cup of sugar, a teaspoon of salt and half a teaspoon of cayenne and spread out on a plate. Cut half a dozen donut peaches in two. dip the cut sides in Cavaldos and then place them cut side down on the sugar mixture for 5 minutes or so. Place your peaches cut side up over medium/hot charcoals for about 3 minutes, then flip placing sugared cut side down over the coals. Jockey the peaches about so they don’t burn, plate up and serve with some refreshing sweetened white ice tea with some mint and lemon.

Australia Day Special! Paperbark Smoked Lillipilly Pork Loin

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We all know that Sam Kekovich is doing his best to get us to eat lamb on Australia Day. Great, I love lamb. But this means that at the moment, everybody is wheeling out their best leg roast or lamb rack recipes. Matt Moran, bless him, went out on the lamb offensive! Last weekends SMH had three, THREE Matt Moran lamb recipes! Adding my own lamb and mint sauce recipe would be kind of redundant. But just to give you something to think about.

PLEASE DON’T KILL ME!

Instead, I’ve turned my focus to the tastes and flavours of Australia. In particular the Lillipilly which, here in Sydney are now in season. The lillypilly (Syzigium paniculatum) is a small pear shaped berry that is bright red when ripe. They have a wonderful tart flesh that almost tastes like cranberries. Saltbush flakes were added to the spice mix to change things up and of course the wonderful smoke from paperbark smouldering on top of hot Gidgee charcoal. Smoke is a seasoning and to me, paperbark smoke tastes like I imagine Australia to taste like. If you’re going to use paperbark to smoke with, please note that a little goes a long way!

There are some amazing flavours that come from this country that we sadly do not use enough of or know enough about. Mark Olive is no stranger to foodies and is doing some amazing things with Australia’s indigenous produce. If you want to find out more information or where you can get hold of some yourself check out his website Black Olive. Forget the lamb chops, go for the tastes of the real Australia this Australia Day!

Get started by lighting your charcoals and bring your barbeque to 120C.

Inject the pork loin with a brine made from one cup of apple juice, a tablespoon each of brown sugar and salt.

Rub the pork loin with a spice mix made from two tablespoons of paprika, one tablespoon of saltbush flakes, mustard powder and raw sugar, half a teaspoon of ground cumin, ground sage, ground pepper, garlic salt and cayenne

Place the pork loin on the indirect side of your barbeque and close the lid and make the glaze which is a 170gm jar of lillypilly jam, about ten finely chopped lillypillies, a tablespoon of lemon juice and two tablespoons of chopped parsley.

When the pork loin has reached a temperature of 55C, liberally apply half the glaze mixture, put the lid back down and allow the pork to come to 60C. Remove from the barbeque and let rest for 15 minutes. Place the remaing glaze on a cutting board and dredge the slices of pork loin through it as you cut.

Char Grilled Corn with Mexican Spicy Butter and Lime

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There’s a great blog I read called Eat Drink Daily that has a bunch of excellent recipes and some beautiful photos. A couple of weeks ago Irena posted a recipe for BBQ Corn with Mexican Spicy Butter and Lime, which of course, is right in my wheelhouse. I love the flavours she’s used and have used her recipe as the basis for my own grilled corn. Rather than using coriander only as a garnish I wanted to get that fresh, crisp taste right into the corn so blended half a bunch in with the melted butter, paprika, chili, cumin, garlic, sugar, lime juice, salt and pepper. I agree with Irena when she describes it as being a ‘festive mix of sweet, salty, spicy and sour’. Don’t discard the coriander stems as they will come in handy later.  Also, I add the butter right at the end as I don’t want any of the delicate flavours to burn on the hot coals.

I like to grill the corn in it’s husks. Leaving the husks intact protects those sweet, tasty kernals from drying out while the corn cooks and also as the husks char and burn they impart a mild yet wonderful smokey flavour to the corn. First they must be peeled back to remove the silk and then have the cobs soak in cold water for 10 mins. This allows the husks to moisten and prevents them from catching fire when you put them over the charcoals. When on the grill it takes about 5 minutes of turning and jockeying the cobs until they’re cooked. The husks are then pulled back and the corn is giving a small amount of char which gives the corn a wonderful ‘popcorn’ taste. It’ll only take a few minutes of continual turning if your coals are hot enough.

I removed the corn from the grill and grabbed the coriander stems and bruised them up a bit. I use the stems to brush on the melted butter mixture as it adds that extra element of flavour that you’re not going to get using a silicone brush. The spicy butter is a real winner! The paprika and cumin bring a warmth in flavour, the zesty lime and coriander bring a freshness and of course the chili, brown sugar and corn kernels bring the heat and sweet. Add all that to come slightly smokey, charred sweetcorn and this is a dish I will be making again and again. Thanks Irena!

Angus Beef Fillet with Cafe de Paris Butter

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I was reading the paper over the weekend and noticed that there was a write up on a couple of Al Brown recipes. Al Brown is one of the owners/creators of Logan Brown in Wellington, NZ. He recently released a barbecue cookbook called ‘Stoked’ that SMH named as one of the 10 best cookbooks of last year. The book has over 100 recipes with two of them being in last weekends paper. Cafe de Paris Butter melting over a piece of grilled beef is an absolute classic. I have never made Cafe de Paris Butter before so thought it was high time I gave it a go.

I went out and purchased a full 2.5kg Angus beef fillet which, with a small amount of butchering to get rid of silverskin, I cut into roughly a 1.2kg piece. I’ll be honest, I didn’t follow Al’s recipe for cooking the beef exactly. The recipe calls to brown the exterior of the beef fillet and then to put it in the oven/indirect barbecue at 180C. I don’t like this method. I’ll explain why in my next post but I promise, you get a much better result putting the fillet in the barbecue on a low heat to begin, then searing it over charcoals as hot as you can get them right at the end. After letting the beef rest I then cut into steaks and seared the cut sides to maximise the Maillard reaction. Like most recipes, this one also advises you to cook by time rather than correctly advising you to invest in a meat thermometer. My greatest annoyance with any cookbook.

The Cafe de Paris butter recipe I did make as written, and I am so glad I did! I nearly left out anchovies as I am not a big fan. But in hindsight it would have been a mistake to do so, they add a lot in saltiness and texture. Despite what seems a huge ingredient list, it’s actually very simple to make. And the taste of it melting down a piece of grilled beef fillet is sensational! It’s rich and deep and with the herbs, it is fresh as well. No wonder this has been re-created so many times. I also grilled up some large portobello mushrooms which really take on a great smokey flavour from the charcoal.

The second recipe was the Grilled Carrot Salad with Coriander and Corn. What a great salad! The carrots which are just starting to soften have taken on a caramelized taste while the sweetness of the fresh corn and the fresh, clean taste of the coriander make this a near perfect salad. It is then kicked on just a little bit further when you add a drizzle of dressing made from olive oil, lime juice, toasted, ground cumin seeds and some dijon mustard.

If you’re going to serve steak at your next barbecue, give this recipe a go. Not only does it look and taste spectacular, but because you’re cooking one whole piece of meat there is a lot less fiddling around which means a lot less hassle for you.