BBQ Fish and Chips with Char Tartare Sauce
Serves: 4
BBQ setup: Direct grilling for the fish, BBQ roasting for the chips
Fuel source: Lumpwood, briquettes, or wood burnt down to embers
Cook time: 45 minutes (ideally boil the potatoes earlier in the day)
How do you do fish and chips on the BBQ without running the risk of a trip to A&E? The answer is here and involves direct grilling the fish to get that super-crispy skin, and par-boiling then BBQ roasting your chips. Combine that with the char tartare sauce and you have an amazing fish supper that tastes just like a chippy tea.
Ingredients
1.5–2kg (3lb 5oz–4lb 8oz) Maris
Piper or King Edward potatoes
Char tartare sauce (see page 214)
150g (⅔ cup) beef dripping
4 skin-on cod fillets, each
150–200g (5½–7oz)
Rapeseed (canola) oil, for rubbing into the fish
Salt and ground black pepper
Malt vinegar, to serve pepper
Grilled lemon, to serve
Method
Prep the chips. Cut the potatoes into fat, chunky chip shapes.
Wash off the starch, then drop the potatoes into a pan of heavily salted cold water. Slowly bring to the boil and simmer until you can just poke a knife through them.
Drain, then lay the potatoes on a rack over a baking tray so air can get all around them. This helps dry them out. Make the char tartare sauce. Follow the instructions on page 214. Cook the chips. Set your BBQ up for BBQ roasting at around 200°C/400°F. Place a large roasting tin on the grill and add the beef dripping. Close the lid to get it ripping hot. Add the potatoes and roast for 25–30 minutes, turning regularly, until golden brown and crispy.
Cook the fish. Pat the fish dry, especially the skin. Rub the fillets with oil. Heavily season the skin side with salt and pepper, going lighter on the flesh side.
Oil the grill grates really well. Once the grill hits the 2-second hand rule (see page 32), place the fish skin-side down and leave it alone.
Crispy skin only happens if you let it sit. About 70 percent of the cooking time should be skin-side down. After 4–5 minutes, the edges should start to firm up. If the skin still sticks when you try to flip it, give it another minute.
Gently flip and cook the flesh side for another 2–3 minutes. Serve with the chips, vinegar and the char tartare sauce. Garnish with a wedge of grilled lemon.
JERK CHICKEN
Serves: 2–4
BBQ setup: 2-zone direct grilling or smoking
Fuel source: Lumpwood, briquettes, or wood burnt down to embers
Wood flavour: Pimento wood if you can get it, cherry if you can’t
Cook time: 1 hour, plus overnight marinating
We love Caribbean food. It was never readily available in our home town of Hereford but whenever we were in cities like Bristol or London, we always used to make a beeline for anywhere serving proper jerk chicken, curry goat or salt fish and ackee. We were over the moon when the street food pop-up Jerk Bay started in Hereford. Lamin and the team at Jerk Bay are total legends, banging out incredibly tasty and authentic Jamaican street food, so we had to get some tips off them for our Jerk recipe.
Ingredients
1 whole chicken, quartered
For the jerk marinade
3 spring onions (scallions), roughly chopped
8 garlic cloves, peeled
1 thumb-sized piece of fresh ginger, peeled (bear in mind I have unusually big thumbs from years of Mario Kart abuse), roughly chopped
2 tbsp thyme leaves
2 tbsp ground allspice
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 red onion, quartered
At least 2 Scotch bonnet chillies (but add as many as you want)
2 tbsp smoked salt
1 tbsp brown sugar
2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1 tbsp cracked black pepper
380ml (1½ cups) soy sauce
240ml (1 cup) orange juice
Juice of 2 limes
60ml (¼ cup) olive (non-virgin) or rapeseed (canola) oil
Method
Blitz all the marinade ingredients in a food processor.
Grab a ziplock bag, place the chicken pieces inside and pour in three-quarters of the marinade. Keep the remaining separate from the raw meat and save it for later as a dipping sauce.
Rub the marinade all over the chicken. Lift the skin where you can and massage the marinade between the skin and the meat. Leave to marinate in the fridge for a minimum of 24 hours.
To cook the chicken you can either cook it indirect, away from the direct heat, turning regularly and letting the gentle heat of the coals slowly cook the chicken, or you can smoke it over pimento or cherry wood. If smoking, get your smoker running between 120 and 150°C/250 and 300°F.
Whichever method you use, remove the breast when it has been reading above 65°C/149°F for 10 minutes; bear in mind that carryover cooking should take a piece of chicken removed at 65°C potentially all the way up to the late 60s°C/150°F once removed off the grill. The thigh and leg can be taken all the way to the high 80s/192°F or early 90s/195°F and will still be juicy.
Serve with the reserved marinade as a dipping sauce.
Rack of Lamb with Shrewsbury Sauce
Serves: 2–4
BBQ setup: 2-zone direct grilling
Fuel source: Lumpwood, briquettes, or wood burnt down to embers
Cook time: 40 minutes, plus optional overnight dry brining
A rack of lamb is the most dainty of centrepieces for a roast, and when you take the time to really render the fat out you end up with a slice of meat that combines beautifully tender meat and deliciously rich fat.
Shrewsbury sauce is a traditional sauce for lamb and Shrewsbury holds a special place in our hearts as it was the location of our second restaurant. We love the town, the people and the sense of humour. We can even look past the Hereford and Shrewsbury football rivalry to celebrate the good people of Salop and their local sauce.
Ingredients
1 rack of French-trimmed lamb
Salt and ground black pepper or SPG (salt, pepper, garlic granules; see page 33)
For the Shrewsbury sauce
1 tbsp butter
1 tbsp plain (all-purpose) flour
250ml (1 cup) chicken stock
250ml (1 cup) beef stock
60ml (¼ cup) red wine
1 tbsp dark soy sauce
1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1 tsp Dijon mustard
1 tsp redcurrant jelly
Method
Prep the lamb the day before by seasoning it all over with salt and pepper or SPG.
Set your BBQ up for indirect grilling. You want to render out as much fat as possible from the lamb, so place the lamb skin-side down over a low heat, using the 8-second hand rule (see page 32). Leave it there to cook slowly, checking regularly to make sure the fat does not caramelize too quickly or start to burn.
While the lamb is rendering, make the sauce. Melt the butter with the flour in a pan over a low heat and stir until a roux forms. Slowly add the chicken and beef stocks, stirring continuously until the sauce is smooth.
Increase the heat and add the wine. Let it bubble so the alcohol cooks off, then after a few minutes add the soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce, mustard and redcurrant jelly. Check the seasoning and keep the sauce warm.
Once you are happy you have rendered enough of the lamb fat cap, it is time to sear the meat side. Move the lamb to the hot zone, where you can only hold your hand for 2 seconds, and sear the meat, being careful to protect the fat cap from burning.
When the lamb hits around 58°C/136°F, take it off the heat and let it rest for 5–10 minutes.
Slice into chops and serve with the Shrewsbury sauce.
VEG PLATTER
Serves: 2, or more as an accompaniment
BBQ setup: 2-zone direct grilling
Fuel source: Lumpwood, briquettes, or wood burnt down to embers
Cook time: Under 30 minutes
Ingredients
1 large tomato
160–200g (5½–7oz) fire-roasted carrots
150–200g (5½–7oz) courgette (zucchini)
150–200g (5½–7oz) aubergine (eggplant)
100–150g (3½–5½oz) tenderstem broccoli
75–100g (2½–3½oz) fine green beans
60–100g (2¼–3½oz) spring onions (scallions)
Red pepper dip
Lemon pepper mayo
To season the veg
SPG (salt, pepper, garlic granules;)
Thyme leaves
Rapeseed (canola) or olive (non-virgin) oil (or you can use smoked or garlic oil)
Lemon juice
Method
This works great on its own, or you could chuck it in the middle of a table alongside some meat or fish; it’s also easy to scale up.
Tomato first. Get your tomato on before anything else. Cut it in half, season with SPG, the thyme leaves and oil. Put it high up on the BBQ so it gets a slow roast over direct heat, turning it over halfway through so it gets some good colour on both sides.
Cook the courgette and aubergine. Slice your courgette and aubergine about 1cm (½ inch) thick, toss in oil, SPG and a squeeze of lemon juice. Get them over direct heat, close enough to the coals that you can’t hold your hand there for longer than 2 seconds without shouting an expletive. The goal is to get a good char and cook them past the rubbery stage, especially the aubergine. Once ready, move them somewhere on the BBQ to keep warm.
Cook the rest of your veg. Toss the broccoli, beans and spring onions in oil, SPG and lemon juice. Get the veg on the grill! The broccoli will take the longest. You’re looking for everything to have a nice bit of char on the outside and to be beautifully tender; as soon as you can get a fork through the veg easily, it’s done.