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Which BBQ book to buy this summer
Barbecue, as you may have observed, has become big business not only in terms of increasingly flashy bits of kit but a whole raft of books telling you how to up your grilling game. I got blogger and instagrammer Dan Vaux-Nobes, aka Essex Eating, to take a look at three of the titles that have been released his summer. Here's his verdict on which to choose.
"I used to barbecue meat for a living. For seven years I managed a small but incredibly busy BBQ joint in Bristol and in that time I smoked more pulled pork, beef brisket, ribs and chicken thighs than I care to remember. I was personally responsible for an apocalyptic, yet ultimately delicious swathe of carnage, death and butchery inflicted on the global farm animal community.
Although, on the plus side; this also means I am well qualified to review three newly released BBQ recipe books for the summer! Yay!
Seared by Genevieve Taylor
First up, Genevieve Taylor’s latest book ‘Seared’ – ‘The ultimate guide to barbecuing meat’ provides exactly what it promises on the cover, so vegetarians can deservedly f*ck right off. I’m obviously joking here, so please don’t start throwing veg of the heavier variety at me in the street, I’m thinking squashes, baking potatoes etc. LIke you possess the physical strength to lob them at me anyway, with your undernourished, protein-less bodies.
Despite being broken down into just three broad sections, an introduction, ‘Beast’ and ‘Bird’ this is a very comprehensive, surprisingly hefty book, packed with some really interesting and mucho delicious sounding recipes, Achiote Chicken with Lime Crema or Pork Belly Burnt Ends with Tequila and Maple Syrup anyone?
The more traditional stuff gets a look-in too, pulled-pork, beef brisket, Buffalo hot-wings etc. There’s also an explanation on how to make your own Texas Hot Link sausages, which caught me eye.
The introduction is a seriously informative guide to cooking with fire, providing guidance on everything you need to consider if you really want to get the most out of your barbecuing experience - meat provenance and structure, types of BBQ, useful equipment, fuel types, brines and rubs. It’s all covered. Some of the recipes contain some fairly technical BBQ’ing skills, but they’re well written with solid explanations of the techniques involved.
If you’ve got a half-decent BBQ and want to learn how to really use It, kicking it up substantially from blackened burgers and carbonised sausages (and I can’t stress this enough, you’re not even remotely vegetarian) then this is a book you definitely want to own.
Seared is published by Quadrille at £20
Outside by Gill Meller
Gill Meller’s latest book ‘Outside: Recipes for a Wilder way of Eating’ takes an entirely more freestyle approach to cooking over fire. No BBQ? Absolutely not a problem, Gill doesn’t really mind – cook it over whatever you can lay your hands on, fire-pit, campfire or perhaps the smouldering remains of your garden shed that you’ve inadvertently burnt to the ground whilst attempting to wing-it. Gill is not fussy.
The book itself is full of beautiful, aspirational pics of gorgeous food with just the right level of char in idyllic outdoor settings, all smouldering logs and wild-flowers. It really draws you in and the latent pyro-maniac in me is incredibly attracted to the notion of getting out ‘there’ gathering some wood, throwing a grate over the embers and just cooking like our ancestors might have done. Although I doubt very much they ever ate as well as this.
The recipes are gorgeous, the sort of grub you always wished you were eating whilst camping, Venison Loin with Pears, Bacon and Sage or how about a bowl of Trout, Potato and Dill Soup cooked over the glowing embers? Yes please.
There’s a fair old selection of meat based recipes, but vegetarians and pescatarians are also looked after, as well as people who don’t want to cook over fire at all – there’s a whole section of rather lovely looking salads and picnic food.
One of the interesting things about the recipes being so ‘freestyle’ and easy-going with regards to the cooking method, is that any half-competent cook can easily adapt the recipes to cook at home. I had a crack at the Crispy Pork with Thyme, Garlic and Fennel Seeds using my oven grill and it was absolutely superb, obviously it would have tasted better cooked over wood embers whilst out in the wild, but to be fair, everything does!
This is a lovely book for those just wanting to cook something really nice over whatever fire source you can lay your hands on, whilst camping or at the beach or just at the end of the garden. Just keep the fire away from the shed.
Outside is published by Quadrille at £30
Live Fire by Helen Graves
Finally, a look at ‘Live Fire’ by Helen Graves. I’ve known Helen for quite a few years, and she’s an absolutely superb natural cook. In fact, I can honestly say, over the past decade I’ve probably spent more time drooling over pictures of her food than anyone else’s. Everything she cooks looks and sounds brilliant. No pressure then.
I’m glad to say her book lives up to her formidable reputation. The recipes are stunning, slightly less technical with regards to BBQ technique than Genevieve’s book above, but they’re a hell of a lot of fun. Helen lives in London, and obviously takes a lot of inspiration for her recipes from the melting-pot of African, Asian and Middle-Eastern cooking you find in the city. Lots of spice, herbs and bold flavours.
As you’d expect, there’s a lot of meat recipes but vegetarians and pescatarians get a solid look-in, in fact I tried a couple of the recipes out and I can hand-on-heart say the Charred Tomatoes with Cool Yoghurt, Pomegranate Molasses and Herbs (recipe here) combined with a plate of Lamb Chops with Charred Chilli Sauce, all mopped up with a heap of Easy Flatbreads is quite possibly one of the best dinners I’ve ever cooked. Word of warning – it was stunningly spicy, Helen likes a bit of chilli but bloody hell it was good, I just couldn’t leave it alone despite the scorching hot nature of it.
A real selling point with ‘Live Fire’ is that nearly all of the recipes include alternative instructions on how to cook the food and achieve similar results without a BBQ.
I can’t recommend ‘Live Fire’ enough, as I said Helen is an incredibly talented cook and a whole collection of her superb recipes in print is something to get stuck-into and really appreciate.
Live Fire is published by Hardie Grant at £26
You can follow Dan @essexeating on instagram.
When to pair red wine with fish
Few people now throw up their hands in horror at the idea of matching red wine with fish. But how many realise just how often you can pair the two?
Here are six occasions when I think you can:
When the fish is ‘meaty’
If that doesn’t sound a contradiction in terms! Tuna is an obvious example but swordfish, monkfish and, occasionally, salmon fall into that category. That doesn’t mean they should only be drunk with a red (think of salade Niçoise, for example, which is more enjoyable with a rosé) simply that reds - usually light ones like Pinot Noir and Loire Cabernet Franc - generally work.
When it’s seared, grilled or barbecued
Just like any other food, searing, grilling or barbecuing fish creates an intensity of flavour that cries out for a red, especially if the fish is prepared with a spicy marinade or baste. Even oily fish like mackerel and sardines can work with a light, chilled red if they’re treated this way.
When it’s roasted
Similar thinking. The classic example is roast monkfish, especially if wrapped in pancetta and served with a red wine sauce (see below) when it differs very little from a meat roast. You could even drink red with a whole roast turbot or brill (though I generally prefer white). Accompaniments such as lentils or mushrooms will enhance a red wine match.
When it’s served with meat
Surf’n’turf! Once meat is involved one inclines towards a red, certainly if that meat is steak. Spanish-style dishes that combine chorizo and fish like hake are a natural for reds (like crianza Riojas) too.
When it’s served in a Mediterranean-style fish soup or stew
A recent discovery - that a classic French Provençal soup with its punchy accompaniment of rouille (a mayonnaise-type sauce made with garlic, chilli and saffron) is great with a gutsy red (I tried it with a minor Madiran but any traditional southern or south-western red that wasn’t too fruit driven would work). It’s the slightly bitter saffron note that these soups and stews like bouillabaisse contain that seems to be the key. A sauce that had similar ingredients would work too as would this dish of braised squid above.
When it’s served with a red wine sauce
You might not think that you could serve a really powerful red wine sauce with fish but with a full-flavoured fish such as halibut or turbot it works. And the natural pairing is a substantial, but not overwhelmingly alcoholic or tannic red. Like a fleshy Merlot.
Photo © Belokoni Dmitri at shutterstock.com
Introducing Eat This, Drink That
Many of you will have already discovered my new subscription newsletter Eat This, Drink That and might be wondering where the idea came from and how it fits in with Matching Food & Wine.
As you no doubt know Matching Food & Wine is free to read but as I hope you’re also aware a lot of work goes into it and it costs money to run in terms of web hosting, design, marketing and the small but brilliant behind the scenes team who keep it on the road. (Thankyou David, Monica, Helen and Chantal!)
Many of you have generously made a donation towards its running costs over the years but that only just covers the costs let alone creating enough income to develop and improve the site - or pay its author a living wage 😉 Newsletters, in particular, had become really expensive because of the significant size of our subscriber base.
Then I heard about Substack which is a platform designed to give readers the opportunity to fund writers whose work they enjoy and it really appealed to me. It also gave me the opportunity to write more than I currently do about food which is where I started my career in journalism and for my readers to get the benefit of the 30 plus years I’ve spent writing about food and drink.
So I decided to do one myself and Eat This, Drink That was born.
The basic offering is a weekly newsletter called The Friday 5 which goes out, as the name suggests, on a Friday and includes five different types of recommendation which change from week to week.
Most weeks there will be something to cook, a bottle and some ingredient or ready-made product you can buy but it will also include cookbooks, the odd cocktail, restaurants and hotels I’ve been grabbed by - in short, the kind of places and things on which I’d be prepared to spend my own money and encourage my friends to spend theirs.
There are other monthly posts including:
- Raise your Game (how to cook, eat and drink better. Here’s one on perfecting your gin and tonic for example and another on how to cook perfect fluffy rice.
- The ETDT recipe edit, (sifting through the hundreds of recipes out there so you don’t have to. I did one for Easter here and there's one coming shortly on recipes you might want to make for the Jubilee weekend,
- So you think you don’t like …a feature on food dislikes and how to overcome them. So far I've tackled mushrooms and chardonnay.
There will also be the occasional feature as the mood takes me such as this one on what to eat if you lose your sense of taste (from first-hand experience of having Covid recently).
Meanwhile Matching Food & Wine will continue to focus on its main aim of being the most comprehensive food and wine pairing site out there - at least I like to think so! And there will still be a monthly newsletter updating you on what’s recently been published on the site. And all for free but you can support it by subscribing to Eat This Drink That.
By the way there's a 25% discount on an annual membership until the end of May 2022, bringing it down to £27 a year or just £2.25 a month, less than the cost of a flat white . . . Or sign up to a monthly subscription at £4 a month - still only £1 a week!
If you’d like to get a clearer idea of what you'd be signing up for you can see some of the free posts I published in April here. (You may have to scroll down to find them!)
Hope you’ll come on board!
How Greeks celebrate Easter: the feasting after the fast
No-one who hasn’t experienced a Greek Easter can imagine the scale of the feasting. Wine writer Ted Lelekas tells all about "the most lavish and important meal of the year".
Ted writes: "It may come as a surprise to some, but in Greece, Easter is much more important than Christmas, when it comes to food and drink. This is mostly because the period running up to Easter and up to Easter Sunday itself is full of local and religious traditions and customs, which, invariably, stem from or lead to food.
The main reason why Easter Sunday lunch is so greatly anticipated and celebrated is that it comes as the culmination of a long – and not always easy – period of fasting that can last 7 or 40 days. This is a very old tradition of the Greek Orthodox church that aims to lead people to share the burden of the trials of Christ that lead to his crucifixion, and to cleanse their bodies and souls in time for his resurrection.
Modern Greek society is, of course, far more secular, even agnostic, than in the past. However, the majority of people are still happy to follow the culinary customs of Easter as they are dictated by religious tradition, while many even choose to fast regardless of religious beliefs, seeing it as a good way to de-tox before the Easter feast!
Easter fasting means mainly excluding meat and dairy products from one’s everyday diet for the 40 days of Lent, leading to Easter. During the last 7 days, the Holy Week, the regime becomes even more strict, as it also excludes fish, seafood and even olive oil.
Everything starts to return back to normal after midnight on Holy Saturday, when the church bells toll joyfully and Christ’s resurrection is announced in each neighbourhood, amidst chants and fireworks. A few hours later, on Easter Sunday, the whole family , as well as friends, neighbours, sometimes even strangers who have nowhere to go, gather around the table to enjoy what is possibly the most lavish and important meal of the year.
As one would expect, culinary customs at Easter vary amongst various regions in Greece. Understandably, in the islands or in certain seaside areas, fish and seafood play a key role at the Easter table. In general, however, Easter fare in Greece revolves around meat, and mainly lamb so I will concentrate on Easter eating and drinking as it’s done in most of the mainland.
At midnight on Holy Saturday, once Christ’s resurrection has been officially declared, the cook of the household (traditionally the mother) will rush home from church first, to start the preparations for the Resurrection dinner. This is not exactly a full and heavy meal, but it is very cleverly conceived, in order to line the family members’ stomachs, a few hours before the huge carnivorous feast that is the Easter lunch.
The resurrection table will feature lettuce salad, feta cheese and hard-boiled eggs whose shells are painted red, symbolizing the blood that Christ spilled as he sacrificed himself for humanity. People around the table will choose their own egg, that they will crack against the egg of the person sitting next to them, in order to symbolize the release of life. The person whose egg survives the night intact is the lucky one of the night, and will keep it to use in the same way the following day.
The centerpiece on the Resurrection table is the traditional soup, “Magiritsa”. This is a hot, hearty soup that contains chopped pieces of lamb’s liver, intestines and sweetbreads, scented with essential Mediterranean herbs and greens like endives, spring onion and dill, on a base of egg and lemon juice. The delicious Magiritsa will deliver a first, “gentle shock” to the system of the person who just finished fasting, and will prepare them for Easter lunch which will follow in a few hours.
There can be two main wine pairing suggestions for Resurrection dinner: a cool white wine made from the Moschofilero grape (PDO Mantinia, in the Peloponnese), with crisp acidity that will cut through the soup’s richness and delicate green – even floral – aromas to match the fresh herbs in the soup and the salad; alternatively a fresh, ideally unoaked, red from the Agiorgitiko grape (PDO Nemea, in the Peloponnese), with a fruity character and young yet velvety tannins, to match the first red meat to make an appearance at the table for quite a few days.
The “star of the show” at the Easter Sunday table is one of the most traditional dishes in Greek cuisine: “ovelias”, a whole lamb, slow-roasted on a spit, over an open coal fire. A great deal of effort goes in its preparation, to ensure that it is properly seasoned and fixed onto the spit, as well as in the actual roasting.
On the morning of Easter Sunday, the person tasked with manning the spit-roast station wakes up very early to start the fire and prepare the lamb. Even though the fire can be in the form of a hole in the ground or through a sophisticated barbecue grill with an electrically-powered spit, roasting will take several hours, to ensure that the main dish will be ready at lunchtime for everyone to enjoy.
Roasters have an enviable set of privileges. They get to nibble on all kinds of special treats (“mezedes”) such as cheese, traditional bits of charcuterie, pieces of hard-boiled Easter red eggs seasoned with olive oil, and various dips with bread, while at various points in time they will be enjoying pieces of lamb skin cracklings and other pieces of the roast lamb, pretending to check its state of readiness!
Throughout that time, they will be downing endless glasses of ouzo (traditional Greek anise-flavoured distillate), diluted with cold water over ice, chilled tsipouro (the Greek version of grappa), or cold retsina (traditional Greek white wine flavoured with pine tree resin).
Alongside the lamb, delicacies which will also be spit-roasted over the coal fire include “kontosouvli”, pieces of pork tenderloin, and “kokoretsi”, a salami-shaped delicacy made of the lamb’s liver and wrapped with its intestines.
Other dishes which will eventually make their way to the Easter table include feta cheese, various salads, red Easter eggs, dips such as “tzatziki” (yoghurt with garlic, shredded cucumber and herbs) and “tirokafteri” (spicy white cheese spread), spicy sausages, roast potatoes and a traditional baked cheese pie, made of feta cheese wrapped in filo pastry.
Desserts will include fresh seasonal fruit, and “galaktomboureko” (traditional dessert made of sweet custard-like cream wrapped in filo pastry and covered in syrup).
The wines drunk at the table will range from fresh, fruity rosés, to match with the fresh seasonal flavours, served chilled to go with the traditionally warm weather enjoyed at Easter time, to full-bodied reds based on Xinomavro, a grape native to Northern Greece (PDO Naoussa or Amyntaion), characterized by aromas of dark fruit, sundried tomato and black olive, producing tannic wines that can hold their ground when served with the lamb and all the other carnivorous delights.
A good modern-style Retsina is also a usual suspect at the Easter table, as it has the magic ability to match the wide range of flavours on offer. Desserts will be served with popular sweet wines such as the Muscat-based “stickies” from the islands of Samos or Limnos (both PDO) or the famous Vinsanto, based on the while grape of Assyrtiko (PDO Santorini).
Easter lunch in Greece is a veritable feast, eagerly anticipated by everyone for months. Coming as the climax of a period of fasting and religious devoutness (for some), it is a happy occasion that brings the whole family, relatives, friends, neighbours, even strangers around the same table, to celebrate and rejoice.
As a matter of fact, tradition dictates that no one rushes to leave the table; even after the food is finished, everyone will still be there chatting and making the most of the opportunity to enjoy each other’s company. Anyone who has the option to spend Easter in Greece, is strongly encouraged to do so. They’re in for a culinary treat they will never forget!
Ted Lelekas is an Athens-based wine writer and educator with his own blog (in Greek) www.telegourmet.org. He asked that payment for this piece should be given to the charity Kids Company.
This article is dedicated to the memory of Albert Arouh, esteemed Greek restaurant critic and author, who passed away on Saturday 12 April 2014.
This article was first published in April 2015. Top image of traditional Greek bread by rawf8 at shutterstock.com
20 Christmas wine pairings to learn by heart
One of the most popular posts I’ve ever written on this site was one called 20 food and wine pairings to learn by heart - an easy reference guide to commit to memory.
Here’s a special Christmas version to help you through the next few days along with links to longer posts on the site which will give you more options
1. Smoked salmon + champagne or sauvignon blanc
Champagne is the more festive pairing but Sauvignon is the better match IMO.
2. Oysters + Chablis
A French tradition so a French wine. Muscadet and Picpoul de Pinet, both from oyster producing areas are also good options.
3. Duck (or chicken) liver parfait + pinot gris
I've chosen this in preference to foie gras as I don't personally eat it but like foie gras it can also take a wine with a touch of sweetness. You could even go for Sauternes or a similar sweet Bordeaux.
4. Seafood cocktail + Riesling
An off-dry riesling from, say, Washington State or New Zealand
5. Roast turkey + Rhone reds such as Chateauneuf du Pape
There are many other options but it's hard to beat this one.
6. Christmas ham + bright fruity reds such as shiraz or Beaujolais
The sweeter the glaze, the riper and fruitier the wine you need
7. Goose + Barolo or Chianti
Whites like spätlese riesling work too but most people would expect a red
8. Duck + Pinot Noir
Always works
9. Roast beef + Cabernet Sauvignon, red Bordeaux
Or, to tell the truth, almost any medium to full-bodied red you enjoy
10. Roast pork + Côtes du Rhône
Or, if you prefer a white and it's served with apple sauce , German or Alsace riesling
11. Baked salmon + white burgundy
Salmon and chardonnay is always a winner
12. Christmas pudding + muscat
Such as Muscat de Beaumes-de-Venise or (a bargain this) Moscatel de Valencia
13. Christmas cake + tawny port
Sweet oloroso sherry is good too
14. Mince pies + cream or oloroso sherry or sweet madeira
Or port if that's what you happen to have open.
15. Chocolate Yule log + black muscat
Or any other sweet red wine
16. Stollen + auslese or other sweet riesling
But do check out the other options which are great too!
17. Panettone + prosecco
Cook's treat!
18. Trifle + Moscato d'Asti
Depending on the trifle and how boozy it is! Check my full post for more options.
19. Stilton + vintage port
THE Christmas pairing. Other types of port like Late Bottled Vintage (LBV) and 10 y.o. tawny are good too
20. Vacherin Mont d’Or + vintage champagne
Not the classic pairing of the region but a great way to end a meal!
You may also find the original 20 food and wine pairings to learn by heart useful.
Is there any other pairing you regard as classic or wouldn't miss over the Christmas period?
Image copyright jasoncoxphotography at fotolia.com
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