The weather is getting better and we have enjoying wafts of barbecue scents coming over walls and fences. It’s contagious and gets you in the mood to get the fire going in your own garden or patio. Putting up the BBQ, turning on the gas or throwing in some coals and grilling away is just the beginning. There are new tips, tricks and techniques, not to mention the accessory options. Let us walk you through some inspirational new ways to use your bbq and barbecueing in Jersey.
The Barbecue
Let’s start with the most important part, the barbecue itself. Do you go for coal or gas? It’s a personal preference and often comes down to old-school vs. convenience. Char-Broil has developed a barbecue system that gives you both with their Gas2Coal barbecues. This combination grill easily converts from gas to charcoal in only three steps in less than 60 seconds. Or enjoy cooking on gas and coals at the same time with the Char-broil 4 burner. The added bonus is that Char-Broil is economically priced and great for grillers of any level. For our full range of BBQs see our online shop
Pizza to Pudding
Pizza from the barbecue? It’s not as crazy as it sounds. The Weber Pizza Stone is crafted with cordierite stone, which gets extremely hot quickly to create light and crispy, thin pizza crusts. The stone and the barbecue act the way an authentic Italian stone pizza-oven would, combining stone and coals. We have tried it ourselves and it’s an absolute must-have for the real pizza fan.
Don’t limit your mind to just pizza though, you can bake bread, focaccias, cakes and cookies in here, the possibilities are limitless. With unique flavours and aromas, barbecued desserts present a range of new flavours. Melted chocolate, rich with smokey tones, makes a beautiful sauce for strawberries or a topping for a delicious cake.
Outdoor Kitchen
When out in the garden and enjoying drinks whilst tending to the barbecue, you don’t really feel like going into the kitchen to use the stove for anything. There are various great tools for turning your BBQ into an outdoor kitchen. Cooking on the barbecue using a salt stone will help the smokey flavours reach your ingredients. The salt stone will give your salmon or beef a beautiful crispy salt layer and with the proper care is reusable for the next barbecue.
The Weber GBS (Gourmet BBQ System) provides you with options to switch out many different tools on your barbecue. The previously mentioned pizza stone, the griddle, the wok and poultry roast are just some of the tool usable on the GBS. Elevating the dishes you love and tried in the kitchen to a new level by cooking them over the fire of your barbecue.
Smokin’
Creating new flavours doesn’t stop with the tools. Flavour imbued wood chips are the new thing.
Weber graced us with a full range of wood chips for everything from beef to fish, each with its own tones and smokiness level. The chips are simply labeled Beef, Pork, Fish or Chicken so there is no confusion on which wood chips to go for. A popular pick for a lad’s night BBQ are the Jack Daniel’s Whiskey wood chips which gives the meat a slight warm whiskey flavour. Combine it with a homemade Jack Daniel’s BBQ glazing sauce. Flavoured wood chips are perfect for smoking any cut of meat.
Rotisserie or Roast
We all have grilled chicken drumsticks or wings on the BBQ. But have you ever tried a whole chicken? Come Christmas we always advise to save space in your oven by using your BBQ to roast the turkey, but this works for chicken any other time of the year as well, like the weekly Sunday roast.
There are various accessories to help with this, from the Poultry Roaster which the chicken sits on (bum first) or get that deli butchers feel with the rotating Rotisserie Skewers.
The outside air which gets into the barbecue and circulates inside will help keep that chicken or turkey mega juicy. But if you are unsure about the right temperature and time for roasting any piece of meat on the barbecue, the next tool will be a great help.
Smart Grilling
Barbecuing doesn’t come easy for everyone and can actually be a stressful affair. Weber realized people would like to have more control over the process and developed a range of digital tools which interact with your phone through their special app.
The iGrill or Connect smart hub will send notifications through the app to let you know what the temperature is, if you need to flip your meat and when it is ready to serve.
The tool will also help with what the barbecue was designed for, to use the lid. Keep it closed for maximum smokey flavours and let the Smart Connect Hub tell you when your meat is done. With separate prongs on the device that stick into the meat you can program it to cook different steaks at different levels at the same time, rare, medium, well-done. Never an undercooked piece of meat again.
Hungry? Try these recipes!
We have selected a few new and fun recipes or you to test these new methods yourself.
Pulled Jackfruit
200g young jackfruit
2 tbs chilli oil
1 clove of garlic
1⁄2 tsp chilli flakes
Salt & pepper
Some oil for the wok
BBQ sauce
01.Marinate the jackfruit (drained, if you use canned jackfruit) with chilli oil, garlic, chilli flakes as well as salt and pepper. Leave the mixture for about 1 hour.
02.Prepare the grill for direct heat, approx. 200° C. Place the GBS griddle in the cooking grate and let it preheat for 10 mins. Add some oil to the wok.
03.Add the marinated jackfruit to the hot wok. Let it simmer for about 20 min. Stir occasionally. Keep the lid closed in between stirs.
04.Once cooked, use a fork to make sure all of the jackfruit is well shredded. Use BBQ sauce, as desired, for extra stickiness. Serve on focaccia or on its own.
Focaccia
800g Italian flour
250g durum flour
30g fresh yeast
20g sugar
Sea salt
600ml water
2 sprigs of fresh thyme
2 sprigs of fresh rosemary
Olive oil
01.Combine the water, salt and yeast in a bowl. Add the durum flour and mix until the dough has a soft consistency.
02.Add the Italian flour and mix for another couple of minutes (the dough should be pretty wet).
03.Remove the cup from the poultry roaster and line the poultry roaster with baking parchment. Distribute the dough on the bottom of the poultry roaster, stretching it firmly to fit the shape and press sprigs of fresh rosemary and thyme down into the dough, making deep indentations with your fingers across the whole dough, so it’s completely textured.
04.Cover the dough and let it rise for 1 hour.
At the Barbecue:
01.Prepare the grill for indirect high heat.
02.Drizzle olive oil over the bread, sprinkle with sea salt and bake for approx. 25 min. until golden and crispy.
