When barbecue season beckons, when the days are long and filled with sunshine, there’s nothing better than rounding up your friends and family before you fire up the grill and prepare an alfresco feast that will cause noses to twitch across the neighbourhood.
We’re bang into barbecue season, which often seems to be a curiously male-dominated affair when even men who never lift a whisk in the kitchen become grill masters in the garden, ready to combine witty repartee, control over a flaming grill and the consumption of copious cans of beer simultaneously on a Sunday afternoon.
Cooking outside on coals – or even gas – can be a tricky business, particularly if you try and be too clever. The key is to be prepared and keep it simple – no one will be impressed if they have to wait hours for food that they then have to smother in a rainstorm of proprietary-made sauces and ketchups in order to choke down.
As you source the biggest, beefiest burgers, the most succulent sausages (possibly with the addition of something random, like wasabi, XO powder or seaweed), the de rigueur squeaky halloumi for your vegetarian guests or perhaps the most perfect prawns, remember that what people actually want is simple hot dogs, burgers, beers and brilliant sauces.
I genuinely believe it’s about what you can add to ‘spice up your life’ that will big up your barbecue soirée, so this month’s recipes are all about the bits on the side. Homemade accompaniments to make in advance, store in the fridge and which will transform simple dishes.
These recipes are some of my old favourites. I’m not going to give you a burger recipe - go to DJ Barnard at Shropham, Archers on Plumstead Road, Underwoods at Paddock Farm Shop, Spurgeons in Brooke…or whoever your favourite butcher is. Someone you can trust, who knows you and will always deliver brilliant burgers.
Here are a few favourites that will help your barbecue party really heat up, although bizarrely, the trick of stuffing bananas with Rolos, wrapping in foil and throwing on the coals remains one of our most successful dishes. You see? People really are dead easy to impress.
MORE RECIPES FROM RICHARD HUGHES
Recipe: Chicken with Pearl Barley, Chorizo and Tomatoes
Summer dessert recipes: fruit tart, cheesecake and trifle
Fish recipes: sole, smoked haddock and wing of skate
Chilli Cherry Tomato Ketchup
This recipe was from Hughes Cooking! my first book published in 2003. It remains one of the most requested recipes we have, and is brilliant with cheese on toast, roasted fish, in a sandwich, or with beautiful lamb burgers
250g assorted cherry tomatoes (125g halved, the remainder left whole)
1 dessertspoon olive oil
1 red pepper
1 small diced onion
1 small fresh red chilli
2 garlic cloves
1 dessertspoon sugar
125g tinned plum tomatoes
2 dessertspoons wine vinegar
Method:
1. Finely chop the onion and the garlic.
2. Heat gently in the olive oil to soften.
3. Add the chopped chilli.
4. Seed and dice the red pepper, add to the saucepan.
5. Cut half the tomatoes into half, leaving the remainder whole, add to the saucepan.
6. Add the plum tomatoes.
7. Add the sugar and the vinegar. Bring to the boil and then simmer gently for approximately 45 minutes.
Boston Baked Beans
Hot or cold these are a real outdoor favourite. Sometimes we add crispy bacon lardons and sausages and call the them Cowboy Beans. So, light the campfire, channel your inner Woody Guthrie and sing for your supper!
400g cooked mixed beans (can be tinned)
200g chopped tomatoes
Two rashers of thickly-cut smoked bacon
1 medium onion
1 dessertspoon black treacle
2 cloves garlic
1 dessertspoon white wine vinegar
1 dessertspoon honey
½ teaspoon English mustard powder
Few sprigs of flat-leaf parsley
Method:
1. Finely chop the garlic.
2. Dice the onion and mix with the garlic.
3. Chop the bacon into bite-sized chunks
4. Fry the bacon in a dry pan until crispy.
5. Add the onion and the garlic.
6. Add the black treacle and the mustard.
7. Stir in the beans.
8. Add the vinegar and the honey.
9. Add the chopped tomatoes.
10. Cook the mixture until reduced – around 20 minutes – then chop the flat leaf parsley and stir this through.
Bacon Jam
I can vividly remember seeing this on a UK menu for the first time - it was a revelation! Bacon jam! Who’d have thought it?
500g smoked bacon lardons
1 large white onion, finely sliced
2 garlic cloves, crushed
85g light brown sugar
2 tbsp cider vinegar
1 tbsp bourbon whiskey
2 tbsp maple syrup
100ml freshly-brewed strong black coffee
1. Fry the bacon in a large non-stick pan for 5-10 mins minutes until golden and crisp. Remove with a slotted spoon and transfer to a plate, leaving the fat in the pan.
2. Turn the heat to low and cook the onion in the bacon fat for 15 to 20 minutes until soft and starting to brown. Stir in the garlic, sugar, cider vinegar, bourbon, maple syrup, coffee and the bacon.
3. Cook slowly for 25 to 30 minutes, stirring occasionally until thick and syrupy. Turn off the heat, leave to cool for a few minutes, then carefully tip everything into a food processor. Pulse briefly to chop into small pieces, then leave the mixture to cool before packing it into two sterilised jars.
4. Will keep for up to one month in the fridge.
Sicilian Caponata
(serves 4/6 as a main, but more as a side dish)
A classic Mediterranean side dish (or a summer main course), fresh, light and summery. A ratatouille recipe with the addition of tart capers, sweet raisins and nutty pine kernels.
2 aubergines, cut into dice about 2cm square
2 red peppers, cut into large dice
1 large onion, peeled and cut into a large dice
2 celery stalks, washed and cut into chunks
4 tbsp olive oil
400g tin of chopped tomatoes
1 tsp tomato purée
3 tablespoons red wine vinegar
1 tsp caster sugar
2 tbsp raisins
1 tbsp capers
1 tbsp pine kernels, lightly toasted in a hot pan
Salt and pepper, a pinch of each
Method
1. Heat the olive oil in a large pan, add the onion and celery and sauté over a medium heat until they take on a golden colour, about 8 to 10 minutes.
2. Reduce the heat to low and add the aubergine and the peppers and cook until both begin to soften, again about 10 minutes.
3. Stir in the tomato purée, cook for two or three minutes more and then add the tinned tomatoes, the red wine vinegar and the sugar and stir well. Cook over a gentle heat for a further 10 minutes, stirring regularly.
4. Finally add the capers, the raisins and the salt and pepper, cook for a couple of minutes and then stir in the pine nuts. Take off the heat and leave until the caponata is warm rather than hot. Serve.
Richard Hughes is chef director of The Assembly House Norwich. assemblyhousenorwich.co.uk
