Fired Up 90 Modern Barbecue Recipes – Melissa Thompson (1)

The constituent parts are tasty enough but it’s how it all comes together on the plate that makes the difference. The nutty brown butter pools into the yogurt and brings everything together. It goes brilliantly with roast chicken, or with a quinoa salad and other roasted vegetables to make a meat-free feast. 1 cauliflower with leaves 2 tbsp olive oil 2 tsp thyme leaves 1 tsp Aleppo pepper flakes 1 tsp smoked paprika 1 tsp ground cinnamon 2 tsp ground cumin 1 tsp fine sea salt 1½oz walnuts 7oz (generous ¾ cup) Greek yogurt small handful of parsley, chopped zest and juice of ½ lemon 3½oz salted butter ½oz Crispy Shallots, optional Carefully remove the cauliflower leaves.

Discard the thickest outer ones and keep the rest. Carefully trim off the florets. Trim the end of the core and discard, and peel and cut the core into chunks. Put into a bowl with the florets and leaves and drizzle with the oil, rubbing it all over to fully coat the cauliflower. Mix all the herbs and spices together with the salt and sprinkle over the cauliflower and leaves.

Set aside. Light the grill with the coals set up for 50:50 cooking (here). Once the coals are ready, place the florets and the chunks of core on the grill directly over the coals and cook for 10 minutes, turning after a couple of minutes to get a bit of color all over. Push to the indirect-heat side and close the lid of the grill. Cook for 20 minutes until the cauliflower is tender when pierced with the tip of a sharp knife.

When the florets and chunks of core are almost ready, add the leaves on the grill directly over the coals to crisp up, turning them regularly so they don’t catch and burn. Move the leaves away from the direct heat as they become ready. Put the walnuts into a small flameproof frying pan and place on the grill over indirect heat. Toast for 10–15 minutes until golden, then remove from the grill and chop. Combine the yogurt, parsley, lemon zest and juice and a pinch of salt in a bowl and stir well.

Spoon into the middle of a large platter, then lay the grilled leaves around the edge of the plate. Top with the cauliflower florets and chunks of core. Put the butter into a flameproof saucepan, place it on the grill and cook until it starts to foam. When the bubbles die down, cook for another minute or so, until the butter smells nutty. When you swirl the pan, you will be able to see that the butter is dark golden and the milk solids have turned dark brown.

Be careful to not let the butter burn. Pour the brown butter over the cauliflower and leaves. Sprinkle with the walnuts and the crispy shallots (if using). Serve immediately.

“So, what got you into barbecue?” is the question I’m asked most. I write and cook for a living and often it’s about barbecue. Because the UK isn’t generally blessed with what you’d call “cookout weather”—and perhaps because I’m a woman—people’s curiosity gets piqued when we chat about grills. I’ve now spent a lot of time thinking about the answer, and I think it’s down to three things.

Firstly, I didn’t like the way cookouts played out when I was growing up. On arrival at someone’s house, the women would head one way to look after the salads and children, while the men would filter into the garden to stand around the grill, one hand in their pocket and the other nursing a beer, as they stood mesmerized by the fire. Secondly, cooking outdoors is good for the soul.

I choose it because I live where I do, not in spite of it. As I write this it’s February, which is technically the worst month of the year. It’s cold, often wet and invariably miserable. But, when I’m standing in front of a crackling grill, getting ready to cook something delicious, and I take a minute to look at the sky and breathe in the fresh, if damp, air, everything feels more hopeful.

Finally, everything tastes better cooked over fire. Be it a beautiful bone- in short loin steak, an onion roasted in its skin until it reaches peak charred sweetness, or a cabbage crisped up as it’s lashed with spiced butter, grilling food makes everything the best version of itself. Despite this, for a long time, the UK had a weird relationship with barbecuing. It was reserved for special occasions and, even then, the food would often be lacklustre.

Burgers, chicken mostly cooked in the oven indoors and then finished on the grill, and sausages that felt like you were taking a gamble with your life because that well-burnished exterior would often give way to an inside that was dangerously undercooked.

This is a short excerpt from the opening of “” by Unknown, quoted for review and introduction purposes. All rights belong to the copyright holders.

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• Title: –
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• Pages: 282
• Language: English (en)

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