Kansas City isn’t the only place in the US that knows how to grill. As well as being one of the ‘fattest’ cities in the world, Houston, Texas is famous for its grilled delights (for those of us who are not carb conscious, of course). A fairly constant warm and humid climate is conducive for year-round grilling, but the official BBQ season really kicked off a couple of weekends ago in Houston when the US celebrated Memorial Weekend.
Experts estimate that eight in ten US households own a grill or smoker - Houston is famous for its Brisket and Spare Ribs and of course there’s the infamous Texan Smoker BBQ. So, while we in Australia claim to be experts in the backyard BBQ domain, perhaps we still have much to learn!
One group that could teach us is the Greater Houston BBQ Society. They describe themselves as ‘a not-for-profit group of people interested in Backyard Barbequing and having FUN’ that teach ‘the uninitiated what “REAL Q” is’ and how to do it. They hold a series of events, free to their members and sometimes even to the public. The society has recently held its first quarterly Backyard Meeting and Cookoff in Katy, Texas. So, if you ever find yourself in Texas, why not soak up some of the American BBQ culture by visiting the Greater Houston BBQ Society or even just indulging at one of the many BBQ restaurants in the Houston area?
We are all familiar with the incredibly dull array of chops and snags available at the regular BBQ, but these weird and wonderful BBQ recipes could just be the thing you need to spice up your next BBQ!
1. Coca-Cola Steaks
Amanda Diggins has taken a leaf out of the American’s book and used a favourite soft drink as a sweetener for this dish!
Ingredients:
6 Scotch Fillet steaks
1 can Coke
1 medium onion, finely chopped
3 cloves garlic, crushed
1 cup tomato sauce
1/4 cup brown vinegar
1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce
Salt and pepper
Method:
Combine all ingredients in shallow dish. Cover and refrigerate for 1 hour. Barbecue steaks until done to your liking. Boil marinade in a saucepan until thickened slightly and serve with steaks.
2. Vegemite Rissoles
Leisa Conley has taken your everyday breakfast spread and turned it into a winning dinner dish that all the family can enjoy.
Ingredients:
750g minced meat
1 onion finely chopped
½ capsicum finely chopped
2 eggs
1 tablespoon vegemite
Salt & pepper
Method:
Mix together and shape into rissoles, roll in plain flour
Cook on BBQ as long as you like - the vegemite makes them go dark anyway, serve on bread with tommy sauce.
The kids can’t get enough of them!
3. Char-Grilled Bugs
This recipe from Sarah Evans gives new meaning to getting back to nature!
Grill Morton Bay bugs in their shells, split in half. As they warm place a knob of garlic herb butter on top and watch it soak in. They melt in your mouth.
4. Satay Prawn Pizza
Ever thought of cooking a pizza on your BBQ? Well now thanks to Elizabeth Davey’s recipe, you can…
Elizabeth Davey
Ingredients:
1/2 bottle satay marinade
Thai sweet chilli sauce
1 medium brown onion, sliced
Can of diced capsicum
100g snow peas, sliced thinly
500g small uncooked prawns, shelled
1/2 cup roasted cashews
2 tbsp fresh coriander leaves, chopped
1 cup pizza cheese
Small store-bought pizza bases
Method:
Mix marinade with desired amount of sweet chilli sauce. Spread pre-cooked pizza base with satay marinade, top with onion, capsicum, snow peas, prawns, cashews, coriander and cheese. Cook in a covered BBQ, using indirect heat for about 10 minutes or until cheese has melted.
Enjoy!!
5. Barbecued Bacon Wrapped Prawns
Effie Bakkalis’ recipe puts a gourmet twist on the traditional pig wrapped in blanket party favour recipe.
Ingredients:
2 tablespoons butter
1/2 cup chopped onion
3/4 cup ketchup
1/4 cup water
2 1/2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
3 tablespoons brown sugar
1 tablespoon white vinegar
1 tablespoon tomato paste
1/2 teaspoon dry mustard
Dash of cayenne pepper
24 large/jumbo prawns, shelled and deveined
12 bacon slices, cut in halves \
Method:
Melt the butter in a medium saucepan. Add the onion and saute until soft and transparent. Stir in the ketchup, water, Worcestershire sauce, brown sugar, vinegar, tomato paste, dry mustard and pepper. Stirring continuously, simmer uncovered for 15 minutes. Remove from heat. Immediately stir the prawns into the sauce, covering them completely. Let them stand for 15 minutes. Heat the grill and grease the rack. Remove the prawns from the sauce. Wrap each prawn in a piece of bacon and secure with a wooden pick, or thread 4 bacon-wrapped prawns onto a skewer. Place on the greased rack, on high heat, and cook for 3 to 4 minutes. Then turn them and cook the remaining side until the bacon is crisp. Reheat the sauce and serve separately as a dipping sauce.
This recipe makes 6 main-dish servings or 12 appetiser servings.
6. Grilled Pineapple with cracked salt
This recipe from grill master, John Ryan, is surprisingly delectable with the salt bringing out the sweetness in the pineapple!
Take one ripe pineapple, skin and cut out the eyes. Either core and cut the pineapple into rings or slice the pineapple from the core; marinade in a good Rutherglen Muscat for 4 hours. Heat the grill to hot and place the pineapple slices on, watching carefully as they will char very quickly. Turn once and ensure you get good grill lines. Remove from the grill and crack rock salt liberally over. Serve with good quality vanilla ice cream if desired.
7. Barbecued Leg of Lamb with Lavender and Baked Garlic
Deidre Steain’s recipe provides an interesting combination of flavours. Don’t be frightened to leave it in the marinade for a little longer!
Ingredients:·
1 leg of lamb (roughly 1.75kg and butterflied)
1 large onion, finely chopped
3 tbsp of fresh lavender flowers (retain the stems)
2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 tbsp cider vinegar
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 tsp demerara sugar
Salt and black pepper
Baked garlic
2-3 bulbs garlic
Olive oil to sprinkle
Sprigs of fresh thyme
Method:
Flatten the lamb by pressing on it and place in a large dish
Sprinkle over the onion and the lavender flowers
Mix together the balsamic vinegar, cider vinegar, olive oil, lemon juice and sugar. Season with the salt and pepper and pour over the lamb
Leave to marinate for 1 hour, turning frequently to ensure an even coating
Dampen the leftover lavender stalks and scatter over a cool area of the BBQ
Remove the lamb from the marinade and place on a medium-hot BBQ and cook for 30-35 minutes, turning occasionally, basting with the reserved marinade. Allow to rest
To prepare the garlic, shake over some olive oil, add a couple of sprigs of fresh thyme and then wrap loosely in some tin foil. Leave over the warm part of the barbecue for 30 minutes or until soft.
Slice rested lamb and serve with garlic and salad of your choice
8. Grilled Pork Chops with Apricots
The following recipe, according to Juliette Elfick, is a bit different, healthy, simple and scrumptious.
The idea of bbq’ ing fruit is one which makes our barbies so much more interesting for everybody, but particularly vegetarians. See Nigella Lawson’s Forever Summer for her bbq’d pineapple dessert (we chuck amaretto over the top too at mine). Take a few pork chops and 2 apricots, halved and pitted, per chop and bbq. Be sure each chop has a small layer of fat on it. BBQ the apricots cut side up drizzle with a little honey until they are quite mushy - soft enough that you can see their inner fibres - and maybe a little caramelised (you may need to coat them in honey for this).
The cooked apricots should be eaten as a kind of relish with the chops. Ideal accompaniments to this dish are bbq’d sweet potato (in thin discs) and asparagus.
A total barbie meal!
9. Beer Can BBQ Chook (need a Weber TM)
According to Angela Clark, this recipe can even be used with duck! The beer infuses a fantastic flavour into the chicken, a keeps the meat tender and moist.
Ingredients:
1 tsp mustard
1 tsp granulated onion
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp garlic
1/2 tsp ground coriander
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1 whole free range or organic chicken
2 tsp olive oil
1 can large beer – the Germans make the big cans, like DAB
Cherry wood chips (optional)
Method:
In a small bowl combine the rub ingredients.
Lightly spray or brush all over with the oil, and season inside and out with the rub.
Open the beer can and pour off half of the beer. Set the half-full can on a flat surface and slide the chicken over the top so the can fits inside the cavity. Transfer the bird to the grill, keeping the can upright. Carefully balance the bird on its two legs and the can. Roast for 1¼ to 1½ hours.
Carefully remove the chicken and the can from the BBQ, being careful not to spill the beer – it will be hot. Let the chicken rest for about 10 minutes before lifting it from the can. Discard the beer. Cut the chicken into serving pieces.
Eat!
To make it even better, try soaking some cherry wood chips in the remaining beer for a few hours beforehand and place them in the WeberTM with the roasting chook for an extra smoky flavour.
(Julian Wu’s Beer Can Chicken Pictured)
10. Stoned Bugger Bird
Of course this recipe is not quite as strange or illegal as it sounds! Dave Cresswell provides an entertaining recipe with a combination of interesting flavours.
This here is a recipe that I believe embodies all the ingredients of a true Ozzie BBQ and tastes damn good to boot.
It includes:
Beer ( But of course-Woof!)
Stone’s Green Ginger Wine ( One of the most over rated under achievers out there- a must on many a twisted cooking adventure) and especially a sadistic sense of humour
This recipe also gives a fusionary friendly nod to our northern neighbours and beckons all to have a hearty finger-pointing chuckle around the pit o flames.
Ingredients:
1 Whole Chook
1 Beer in can
2 Cups of Hickory or Apple wood, soaked for one hour + in water and/or beer
Sesame Oil
The Rub (To make about 1 cup):
¼ cup firmly packed brown sugar
¼ cup sweet paprika
3 tbls black pepper
4 tbls coarse salt
2 tsp garlic powder
2 tsp celery seeds/salt
1-2 tsp cayenne pepper (Love it spicy)
1 tbls Chinese 5 spice powder
The Beer Can Mix:
3 tbls Beer ( a good Bitter doesn’t go astray)
2 tbls Stone’s Green Ginger Wine
2 tbls Soy Sauce
1 tbls Red Wine Vinegar
1 tbls Honey
Method:
First punch a few holes (with a church key can opener, ice pick etc) in the top of your standard empty (a good excuse to start early) can of tasty brew. Then put into the can the ingredients of the Beer Can Mix. Set aside for later.
Make the rub by adding all the ingredients together in a bowl and stir to mix (will keep for ages in a good air tight container)
Now grab remove all the fatty bits from inside the body and the neck of the chook. Rinse inside and out with cold running water and blot dry, again inside and out, with paper towels.
Then take your sesame oil and drizzle it all over the outside and inside of the chook, enough to give it a nicely glazed surface.
Now sprinkle your rub all over the chook, as well as the inside, enough to give it a well-crusted coating. You can add a pinch or two of the rub to your beer can mix as well if you like.
Now here comes the fun part. You might want to get the kids’ outa the room for this. Take your nicely lubed up chook and slowly violate him with a good buggering of the beer can so the can fits tightly into the body cavity. Grab the legs and pull them forward so the bird forms a bit of a sodomized tripod. It is best to tuck the wings to the back of the chook as well.
Set up the grill for indirect grilling (coals on side of grill-drip pan beneath chook) and place chook in centre of the grill above the drip pan.
Spread the pre-soaked wood chips onto the readied Heat Beads® BBQ Briquettes and cover with the dome of the BBQ. The temp should be around 180c-200c when at constant. Cook the bird for approximately 45min-1 1/2 hours depending how big your chook, until it is nicely crispy brown on the outside. Check on it occasionally during cooking and if you notice it getting a bit over cooked (usually on top,) just slap a piece of aluminium foil over the hot spot. When done, let the chook rest for 5 minutes then carve it up.
Accompanied nicely with a decent multitude of stubbies that friends enjoy!
This week’s blog concludes our series on the art of char grilling. Hopefully with your newfound skills you are now able to create a BBQ feast to impress your friends and family alike!
The third part of our art of char grilling series is all about the perfect ingredients to a triumphant BBQ.
The recipe for a successful BBQ is as follows:
Ingredients
Suitable BBQ accessories such as long-handled tongs, a fork, a spatula, a sharp knife, a basting brush, serving platters, a grill brush, good quality protective gloves for handling live coals, and Heat Beads® drip trays.
To help you light your BBQ, 1 part of each - a Heat Beads® BBQ Quickstart Chimney, long matches, and Heat Beads® Firelighters.
To learn how to light your BBQ using these three simple ingredients, click here.
1 part of wood chips
Due to the neutral flavour of Heat Beads® BBQ Briquettes, professionals and enthusiasts alike usually use wood chips to provide their BBQ food with a distinct smokey flavour. Woodchips are available from Barbeques Galore and should be soaked in hot water for 15-20 minutes before being placed on top of your Heat Beads® BBQ Briquettes, once they are fully ashed over and ready to cook.
1 part of drinks for the guests and chefs alike
Perhaps a cold beer or glass of wine to aid the chef, or as the cool weather closes in, perhaps even a steaming hot cup of soup!
1 part of guests ready to taste test your BBQ sensations (the lucky people!)
And finally, one 7kg bag of Heat Beads® BBQ Briquettes, of course!
These are all the ingredients required for a successful BBQ, which will hopefully add to your BBQ skills acquired over this series. Stay tuned for our last part of this series, which is our top 10 weird and wonderful BBQ recipes.
There will be thousands of BBQ’s fired up across the country this weekend. What could be better after an early start at the dawn service or watching the Anzac Parade on TV?
Our Anzac Day weekend kicked off a day early, with a feast of succulent BBQ delights cooked on an innovative little unit we discovered recently. Called the Little Wombat, this compact portable char grill - which also doubles as a cosy fire pit - worked a treat. It also stood the test of time! As with any product we mention, we need to know how it performs. So to make sure it could pass the Heat Beads® quality test we fired it up with Heat Beads® BBQ Briquettes at 8AM this morning, and have kept it stocked all day. It is now 4PM, we’ve gone through four bags of Heat Beads® BBQ Briquettes (just to make sure Little Wombat could go the distance), the food was cooked to perfection, the briquettes are still glowing, and the whole adventure seemed rather effortless with fantastic, succulent shaslicks as our reward!
In its most compact form, the Little Wombat is only 51cmW x 22.5cmH x 36cmD, making it perfect for those 4W’ding weekends with the boys, a ‘grey nomad’ six month wander across the outback, or a family BBQ in the hills or park. Just pack your Heat Beads® inside the unit, throw the Little Wombat in the boot and take off for the great outdoors – or perhaps just to your friend’s inner city courtyard?! Doubling as an outdoor heater Little Wombat appears to be another great way to enjoy Heat Beads® BBQ Briquettes all year round!
Hope you can pick up a bag of Heat Beads® BBQ Briquettes today on your way home and enjoy the Anzac Day weekend surrounded by family and friends.
Find out more about the Little Wombat by clicking here
Have you ever dreamed of having your char-grilling skills perfected by lessons with a master so that you may be King or Queen at your next big BBQ? If you are going to be in the US in June this year, you may very well get that chance.
The US has long been considered one of the leaders in live coal cooking and American BBQ grill master, Steve Raichlen, runs BBQ cooking classes each year at his BBQ University. These are no ordinary cooking classes. Held for the 8th consecutive year by the master himself, Steven Raichlen, this year the location is the spectacular Broadmoor Resort in Colorado Springs, in the heart of the Rockies.
As well as a new location, there is a brand new curriculum in 2008 that features recipes from Steven’s new American public television show, The Primal Grill. A brand new collection of grills will get your taste buds going, including a competition-size Texas-style smoker, a state of the art wood-burning grill, and the new line of Weber Summit grills with sear burners.
The classes run from June 1 to 4 and June 4-7, 2008 and are described by Steven as a ‘three-day extravaganza of smoke, fire, and food’ and his teaching style means that everyone gets to have a go on the grill.
So If you’re going to be in the States in June this year, why not sign up for the BBQ class of a lifetime? You can access Steven’s website here for more information.
If that’s got you feeling inspired, there are many more sausage recipes for you to try here.
For bacon lovers:
Two guys with a dream to make everything taste like bacon have created… Bacon Salt. It’s even zero calorie, vegetarian and kosher certified.
The makers recommend adding it to burgers, steaks, chops, fish, vegetables, corn on the cob, fries, potatoes, eggs, sandwiches and… popcorn!
To try it for yourself, you can buy it online - and the good news is that they do ship to Australia!
For camping enthusiasts:
If you love sleeping under the stars and have given your kids the camping bug, this ingenious Trampoline Tent is for you.
Clip it on to the trampoline and voila! - an instant hideaway for the kids.
And next time you’re planning on pitching your tent further than your backyard, don’t forget to check out our guide to camp oven cooking with Heat Beads® briquettes first. You can also find delicious camp oven cooking recipes by searching the Sizzle blog with the keywords ‘camp oven’.
We stumbled upon this BBQ quiz on The BBQ Guy’s blog. Test your knowledge of American regional BBQ traditions. (They take their BBQ-ing very seriously in America, as you can see from this previous post.)
So, where is brisket king? How do they like their ribs in Austin, Texas? In which region is ‘white’ BBQ sauce a staple?
You might just learn something new, and pick up some interesting ideas while you’re at it!
One of our office Head Beads® briquettes fans recently spent a weekend camping in the Grampians with friends.
But there were no canned baked beans in sight for these intrepid travelers! Instead, they whipped up a delicious Lamb and Red Wine Casserole in a camp oven powered by Head Beads® briquettes - and videoed the process to share with Sizzle readers.
If you’ve got your own fun video of Heat Beads® briquettes in action, we’d love to see it! Upload to YouTube, tag as Heat Beads® BBQ briquettes, and post a link to it in the Comments section.
Here’s the recipe for those of you who wish to try this out over the holidays!
Lamb and Red Wine Casserole
Ingredients:
Lamb
Onions
Carrots
Potatoes
Red wine
Water
Butter
Self-raising flour
Salt
Method:
1) Light Heat Beads® briquettes 20 minutes before cooking
2) Brown onions and lamb
3) Add carrot, water and red wine and simmer for 10-15 minutes
4) Add potatoes and simmer for further 10-15 minutes
5) Ensure vegetables are cooked, then add damper to top of casserole and allow to cook for approx 10 minutes or until golden brown
For useful guidelines on camp oven temperatures using Heat Beads® briquettes click here to visit Derek Bullock’s site.
We’re sure these artists had BBQ-ing on the brain when they cooked up these hits!
Set the scene for your BBQ and have guests primed to appreciate your gourmet delights.
We think they’ll get you, as the cook, fired up as well! There’s tunes to complement every step of BBQ fun, from getting the barbie started and letting it heat up, to grilling and finally serving.
