(ZA & AW) Saturday night mixed kebab (No booze required!)

We decided we wanted to cook our own version of doner kebab this evening but add a special element of turkish marinaded chicken kebabs and serve the whole lot in a toasted pitta with the traditional "manky" salad, sriracha chilli sauce and garlic yoghurt sauce. 

First we blended lamb mince with an onion, 2tsp each of coriander and cumin, and 1tsp salt until smooth. We then formed the meat into a fat sausage shape then loaded it onto our specially-made kebab skewer. We wrapped it tightly in cling film and left it to chill in the fridge for a few hours. Egg set-up direct at 350degF, the lamb went in to start cooking. 

After around 20 minutes, we placed chicken kebabs on around the edges of the grill. The chicken had been marinaded in a new recipe we were trying today for Turkish chicken kebabs. To make the marinade, we blitzed together an onion, 2 cloves garlic, 4 tsp natural yoghurt, salt, 1 tbsp tomato puree and 1 tbsp lemon juice until smooth. We coated the chicken pieces in the marinade and left in the fridge until we were ready to load our flexible wire kebab skewers.  

We cooked the lamb to an internal temperature of 130degF, until the chicken was cooked through and had a good, crispy char on the outside. We carved the kebab meat into thin slices and served with lemon wedges, pitta and salad (finely shredded iceberg lettuce, finely slice onion and tomato wedges) It tasted amazing and we didn't even have to be drunk to enjoy it! 

(ZA) Gear update: I do love a bargain!

For sometime now, we have been on the lookout for a small, cast iron casserole dish to use as a "dutch oven" in the minimax BGE. Le Crueset do a beautiful range of cast iron cookware that we really like in a cerise colour and they do an 18cm casserole that would have been ideal if it weren't for the price tag! We are only going to be using this once in a while so we were loath to fork out over £100 for a little pot we would get minimal use from. After a bit of research, I found this little cast iron pot, made by a different company, for £35 that fits the egg a treat both with or without lid...it's even the right colour! It seems decent quality so we shall see if it does the job!

(ZA) Saturday Super Salmon

We decided to cook ourselves a piece of fish as a "trial run" for Adie Webster's official EGGspert demo at the start of September. This will be the fish course of a four course taster menu we will be preparing for those who are looking at investing in a Big Green Egg. I reckon the dishes we've come up with will show off egging at it's best. We're hoping to inspire these would-be eggers with some magical smoked food!

I left this side of salmon out of the fridge for ten minutes to come up to room temperature before placing it on a cedar plank that had soaked for a few hours in cold water. It would need to be soaked for at least 30 minutes but I had the extra time so why not?

I gave the fish a light coating of olive oil and placed it on the wet plank with a few thin slices of lemon on top then transferred it to the egg which needed to be 350degF Direct. The plank sits directly on the cast iron grate. 

This piece of salmon took about 25 minutes to cook to perfection but we checked it after 12 minutes at the same time as placing a couple of lemon halves on the grill. I would recommend that you check the fish every 3 or 4 minutes (after this initial period) to see if it is cooked through as it is easy to over-cook it. 

Served on it's plank in the centre of the table, the fish makes an impressive centrepiece. We squeezed the grilled lemons over the fish. Grilling the lemons caramelises the sugars in the fruit and gives them a sweet/tart flavour, a little less acidic that fresh lemons, which really elevated this dish to something really stunning. Grilled lemons go really well with pork belly too! 

We served our fish with steamed new potatoes and peppery watercress dressed with a honey & wholegrain mustard vinaigrette. (50ml red wine vinegar, 1tbsp wholegrain mustard, 2tbsp runny honey, salt, pepper and 150ml extra virgin olive oil. blitz until blended. If it is too acidic, add a little more honey to taste) The fish was cooked to perfection and had taken on a little smoke flavour from the plank but only enhancing the natural salmon flavour without obliterating it. A really light and delicious summery dish.

(ZA) Upper crust Squire's breakfast muffins

Today's brunch is something with a bit of class. A Squire's breakfast ensemble inside a toasted muffin with a topping of salty, ripe Stilton. Just right for an old bean with a BGE and a taste for the finer things in life!

"Squire's breakfast" is a small fillet steak wrapped around a black pudding stuffing and a couple of rashers of streaky bacon around the whole thing, secured with butcher's twine. 

We cooked these direct at around 350degF for around 10 minutes until they reached an internal temperature of 140degF so that the fillet steak was medium-rare. The bacon takes no time at all to cook and the black pudding is cooked in production so it only has to be warmed through. This allowed us to cook to the steak without having to worry about raw stuffing.

We toasted standard English muffins on the hot grill for serving...

and served the meat in the muffin with a little Stilton crumbled over the top. Rich black pudding, crispy bacon, strong tasty Stilton and soft-as-butter, silky fillet steak was sublime and delicious but even better once we lowered the tone with a squirt of tomato ketchup!

(ZA) "Who needs Dominoes?" rainy day pizza.

New pizza toppings today! It has been miserably rainy for most of the day but we've never been ones to let a bit of British weather spoil our fun so, during a lull in the downpour, we lit the egg, put in the pizza stone and ramped her up to 400degF ready to pop our pizzas in for a few minutes to cook.

I used my bread machine to make a basic olive oil pizza dough. It only takes 50 minutes and is infinitely better than the packet pizza dough mix or ready-made bases so well worth the effort. I shaped the dough on non-stick oven liners, then left to rise again for 15 minutes before I covered them generously with passata,  grated mozzarella and the toppings of choice. 

The pizza pictured above is our slow-cooked short-rib beef with chopped fresh tomatoes and onions that had been caramelised in a little butter until soft and sweet. A topping off with a sprinkle of more grated mozzarella and on the BGE indirect, with the pizza stone sitting on top of a rib holder to get the food right to the hottest part of the dome. Around 9 minutes and we check to make sure the base is cooked.

The home-made dough made a light, airy pizza base and the base was crisp and delicious.

The pizza below is topped with deli smoked pork sausage, ham, roasted peppers, onions and chestnut mushrooms. 

(ZA) Zingy red onion and orange relish

A few years ago, we went to a food fair  where they served Big Green Egg pulled pork with this amazing fresh onion and orange relish. It's taken quite some time to reverse-engineer the recipe but we finally did it and it goes beautifully with belly pork as well as in a bun with pulled pork.

Take two large red onions and slice finely. Place the onion in a bowl and cover with boiling water. Allow to steep for one minute and then drain. Add the juice of five limes (one cup of lime juice), the juice of two oranges and 1tsp malden salt. At this point you could add a very finely chopped fresh red chilli. Mix thoroughly and place in a lidded container in the fridge overnight. The juice will turn pink and the onion will be slightly pickled but still crunchy. 

(ZA) Everybody loves a belly rub!

We asked our tame Butcher for a pork belly, off the bone and skin removed and then marinated it in a mixture of two rubs overnight. Rub one was a piquant, hot, house rub of garlic powder, onion powder, white & brown sugars, chipotle powder, hot chilli powder, english mustard powder and black pepper. Rub two was a sweeter, fruitier rub of cinnamon, allspice, ginger, cloves, chipotle powder, brown sugar and sea salt.

We smoked the pork over applewood chunks for 5 hours at 210degF, indirect and checked to see if it had started to render out the fat. After 6 hours, the pork was cooked and caramelised with the fat having crisped up on the outside and softened on the inside. If necessary, with a larger piece, it could go another hour before being at this stage.

We then placed the pork in a container that was very slightly bigger than the joint (but only slightly) place greaseproof on top and another dish weighted down with cans from the cupboard to press the pork down while in the chiller. Chill for a few hours. Once chilled slice into portions.

When you are ready to serve, take the pork slices and grill them, direct, at 400degF for 3-4 minutes each side until crisp, caramelised and warmed through. 

We served ours with bacon, maple and blue-cheese slaw (see previous blog entry), stuffed goats cheese portobello mushrooms and a red onion & orange relish (see next blog entry). We also put a few lemon halves on the grill for a few minutes which gives the resulting "squeeze" a delicious caramel sweetness!