National Geographic Traveller (UK) - Food
RECIPE JOURNAL Four barbecue dishes
FROM JERK BURGERS AND CHARRED PRAWNS TO BURNT AUBERGINES AND GRILLED STRAWBERRIES, HERE ARE FOUR WAYS TO BRING YOUR SUMMER BARBECUES TO LIFE. WORDS: CHRISTIE DIETZ
We humans have been cooking on an open fire for around two million years. Although it remains the most primal way of preparing our food, we’ve also, in our various different ways, got it down to a rather fine art. Barbecuing, a broad term that covers techniques including smoking, grilling and roasting, is embraced by many different cultures, with plentiful regional variation. The ingredients can be plain, spice-rubbed or marinated and cooked over wood embers or charcoal, on tabletop grills or below ground in a pit.
At South African braais, slabs of meat and spicy, fatty, spiral-shaped sausages are cooked over hot coals. Visit a Brazilian churrascaria, meanwhile, and anything from chicken hearts to whole racks of ribs will be wheeled directly to your table from a charcoal grill. In Germany, outdoor barbecues are loaded with sausages and paprika-spiced pork steaks all summer long; in Japan, bite-size pieces of beef and offal are cooked on tablemounted grills. Then there’s the American South, where barbecuing refers to a ‘low and slow’ cooking technique using indirect heat or hot smoke — and from Texas beef brisket to Kentucky mutton, it’s less a style of cooking and more a way of life.
The following barbecue recipes offer a global spread of flavours from countries with very different culinary cultures, but a shared passion for fire and smoke. Whichever route you take, however, the key to a successful barbecue lies in its preparation: make sure you have everything to hand before you start, your tools are clean and you have time to pay attention to your food and the flames. Really, though, the most important thing is to relax and enjoy yourself — whether you’re on your own or with family and friends, barbecuing is all about good food and having fun.