Tahini BBQ lamb chops with fresh plums and spiced plum sauce

Barbecue no longer automatically means burgers and ribs as Sarit Packer and Itamar Srulovich of Honey & Co's recent book Chasing Smoke amply demonstrates. This is a gorgeous way of grilling and serving lamb chops

"If you can, buy nicely trimmed lamb racks without too much of a fat cap, so that you don’t need to worry about rendering fat off them before dividing into individual chops" they advise. "Be forewarned, though: there will be a fair amount of smoke while cooking these, so they are best grilled outside. We use tahini in a few different versions of BBQ sauce, as the sesame paste lends itself so well to roasted meats, adding a rich nutty note. Here we include anchovies for a savoury touch and pomegranate molasses for sweetness.

The accompanying plum sauce is like a chutney or Chinese plum sauce, with its sweet, sour and spicy flavours. It partners perfectly with these rich BBQ chops, and also works amazingly with a simple roast chicken or duck. The BBQ and plum sauces can either be made shortly before grilling the chops, or up to a couple of days in advance.

A feast for 4–6

2 racks of lamb, divided into 12–14 single chops
100 g / 31⁄2 oz baby red chard (or lamb’s lettuce
4 plums, halved and stones removed)

For the tahini BBQ sauce

150 g / 5 1⁄4 oz tahini paste
1 clove of garlic, peeled and minced

2 salted anchovies, chopped

1 tsp pul biber or Aleppo chilli flakes
2 tbsp pomegranate molasses

100 ml / 3 1⁄2 fl oz water, plus more if needed
1 tsp flaky sea salt

For the spiced plum sauce

Use a stick blender or a small food processor to blitz the BBQ sauce ingredients to a smooth, thick paste. You may need to add a little more water to reach the desired custard- like consistency, depending on the variety of tahini. You can use the BBQ sauce straight away or keep it in the fridge for a day or two until needed.

Put the plum wedges, sugar, garlic, spices, bay leaf and pomegranate molasses in a small frying pan, place over a high heat and bring to the boil. Cook for 5 minutes until the plums soften and start falling apart, then remove from the heat and stir in the salt and vinegar. You can use this straight away, or cool and store in the fridge for a few days.

When you are ready to cook, brush half of the BBQ sauce over the chops, coating both sides. You will need the rest of the BBQ sauce to brush on the chops as they grill. Place the chops one by one on the rack above a hot BBQ. Grill for 2 minutes, then turn them over and brush with some more sauce. Grill for another 2 minutes before turning them back over and basting again. Repeat the grill-turn-baste process until the chops have cooked for a total of 6 minutes on each side. Remove to a serving platter with the baby chard spread over it.

Pop the plum halves on the BBQ, cut-side down. Grill for a minute or so just to warm a little, then add to the platter with the chops. Serve with the plum sauce on the side.

To cook without a BBQ

Use a lightly oiled, preheated griddle pan on your stove and cook just as you would on the fire. But have your extractor fan on full blast, as it will get very smoky!

What to drink: A robust modern red with a touch of sweetness. A Spanish garnacha would fit the bill. FB

From Chasing Smoke: Cooking over Fire around the Levant. Sarit Packer and Itamar Srulovich published by Pavilion at £26. Photograph ©Patricia Niven.

Spiced, Grilled and Swaddled Chicken Thighs with the Works

A great recipe from US food writer Molly Baz's brilliant new cookbook Cook This Book which is full of clever hacks to help you become, as they describe it on the cover, 'a smarter, faster, more creative cook'

Molly writes: I’ve always dreamt of somehow jerry-rigging a shawarma spit setup in my home kitchen. I mean, how amazing would it be to bring the intoxicating scent of spit-roasted meat (if you're a New Yorker, you know – nothing is more delicious than the smells that waft off a shawarma cart) into your home kitchen and to shave off in real time for your guests when you entertain?! Sadly, in a Brooklyn apartment kitchen, that is far from realistic. So when the craving hits, I take things outdoors and make a version of these spiced and griddled chicken thighs, swaddle them in warmed pittas with piles of herbs and pickled onions, and forget, for a second, just how far I am from realising that dream.

Serves 4

PRODUCE

2 medium red onions

5 garlic cloves

2 lemons

1 bunch mint or corianader

DAIRY

420g plain whole-milk yogurt

MEAT

1kg boneless, skinless chicken thighs (about 6 small thighs)

PANTRY

250ml distilled white vinegar

100g sugar

Coarse sea salt

1 tablespoon vegetable oil, plus more for the grill

1 tablespoon sweet smoked paprika

1 tablespoon ground cumin

¾ teaspoon ground cinnamon

½ teaspoon cayenne pepper

4 pittas

1. Pickle the red onions:

• Slice 2 red onions crosswise into 2mm-thick rings.
• In a small saucepan, heat 250ml white vinegar, 375ml water, 100g sugar and 1 tablespoon salt over medium heat, stirrinq often to dissolve. Once the vinegar mixture comes to a simmer, remove from the heat and immediately add the onions. Let cool to room temperature. The onions can be made up to several days in advance; they only get better with time.

2. Make the garlic yogurt:

• Finely grate 1 garlic clove into a small bowl and stir in 245g plain yogurt. Season with salt and set aside for serving.

3. Marinate the chicken:

• Finely grate 4 garlic cloves into a large bowl.
• Stir in 175g plain yogurt, the juice of 1 lemon, 1 tablespoon vegetable oil, 2½ teaspoons salt, 1 tablespoon smoked paprika, 1 tablespoon cumin, ¾ teaspoon cinnamon and ½ teaspoon cayenne pepper and whisk well to combine.
• Add 1kg boneless, skinless chicken thighs to the marinade and turn to coat. Let sit at room temperature for at least 30 minutes white you prepare a barbecue for medium heat (or heat a cast-iron griddle pan over medium heat. If you're going to marinate them longer (which you totes should; they only improve with time), cover and keep chilled in the refrigerator for up to 6 hours and pull them out 30 minutes before cooking.

4. Back to grilling that chicken:

• Once the barbecue is preheated to medium (you should be able to hold your hand over the grate for about 5 seconds before it gets too hot) lightly oil the grill.
• Remove the chicken from the marinade with tongs, letting any excess drip back into the bowl, and transfer it to the grill. Cook, undisturbed, until it's nicely charred underneath and naturally releases from the grates, 5 to 6 minutes. Pay attention to the hot spots of your barbecue or griddle pan, and move the thighs around accordingly to ensure even browning. Flip the thighs and cook until just cooked through, 4 to 7 minutes longer, (An instant-read thermometer should register 75°C in the thickest part of the thigh.) This will vary depending on how large your chicken thighs are, so keep an eye on temperature more than timing in this case! Let the chicken thighs rest on a plate while you grill the pittas.

5. Warm the pittas and serve:

• Warm the pittas on the grill while the chicken rests, about 1 minute per side.
• Cut a lemon into 4 wedges and pick the leaves from 1 bunch of mint.
• Slice the chicken against the grain into 1cm-thick strips and serve on a big platter alongside the pittas, pickled onions, garlic yogurt, lemon wedges and mint for a build-your-own kinda sitch.

What to drink: You can see there are craft beers - possibly alcohol-free - in the pic and that seems a good way to go. Otherwise I'd go for a juicy gamay or other light red. Or a rosé.

Extracted from Cook this Book by Molly Baz published by Robinson at £26. Photograph ©Taylor Peden and Jan Munk.

Watermelon, halloumi, lime-pickled red onions

There have been a lot of great veggie cookbooks this summer but one of the most useful is Genevieve Taylor's Charred which finally empowers vegetarians to enjoy barbecues as much as meat eaters. That said this isn't the recipe in the book that makes the most extensive use of the grill but it's such a sublime combination of ingredients it's really summer on a plate.

Gen writes: OK, I’ll admit that no actual vegetables were grilled in the making of this salad but I hope you agree it is worthy of inclusion. And, after all, grilled halloumi with almost anything is very much worth eating. You cangrill watermelon (useful to know if your melon is a little underripe), but I do prefer its texture when eaten raw.

Serves 6–8

1 small red onion, very thinly sliced

zest and juice of 2 limes

2 tsp caster sugar

1kg (2lb 3oz) watermelon, about ½ medium-sized one

4 tbsp olive oil

3 x 250g (9oz) blocks of halloumi, cut into 1cm (½ inch) thick slices

a small bunch of coriander (cilantro), leaves roughly chopped

a small bunch of mint, leaves roughly chopped

50g (½ cup) pistachios, toasted and roughly chopped

Put the onion into a small bowl with the lime zest and juice and the sugar, stirring until the sugar has dissolved. Set aside for about 30 minutes while you prepare the rest of the salad.

Cut the watermelon into 1cm (½ inch) thick wedges, trimming off the rind as you go. Spread over a large platter.

Fire up your barbecue ready for direct grilling, or heat up a griddle pan on the hob.

Drizzle a little of the oil over the halloumi (save the rest for the salad), then place directly over the heat on the grill bars. Cook for 2–3 minutes, until seared, then turn over with a fish slice and cook the other side. Once the halloumi is cooked, cut each slice in half on the diagonal and scatter over the watermelon.

Sprinkle over the coriander, mint and pickled onion slices, drizzling over the lime juice from the bowl too. Scatter thechopped pistachios over the salad Finish with a generous drizzle of olive oil and a grind of salt and pepper and serve immediately,while the halloumi is still warm.

What to drink: Any crisp fresh white would be great with this from an albarino to a sauvignon blanc.

Extracted from Charred by Genevieve Taylor, published by Quadrille at £16.99. Photograph © Jason Ingram.

Duckstrami

Last weekend our cooking group cooked up an American barbecue of which this brilliant recipe from the Hang Fire Cookbook was the standout dish so I really wanted to share it with you.

As Sam and Shauna say you can serve it cold but we had it hot and it was utterly delicious so I wouldn't hesitate to double the quantity.

NOTE - just to reiterate you need to start it two days in advance

Duckstrami

SERVES 2–4

Cooking methods: Curing, Indirect Grilling/Smoking

Wood: Apple, Pear, Cherry

What’s not to like about duck pastrami? This is a great recipe that we’ve been making for the past couple of years and it really isn’t as complex as you might think. You can eat it cold, shave it over salad served with a nice punchy blackberry reduction, have it as part of a charcuterie board, or make the most awesome duck Reuben. As with all cured meats, this is gonna take patience, you’re looking at starting the recipe two days in advance.

4 good-quality duck breasts (about 250g each)

For the Cure

100g fine sea salt

2 tsp cracked black pepper

2 tsp soft dark brown sugar

1 tbsp garlic powder

8 juniper berries, ground

3 bay leaves, ground

1 tsp mixed spice

2 tsp ground coriander

For the Rub

4 tbsp coarsely ground black pepper

2 tbsp coarsely ground coriander seeds

1 tbsp garlic granules

½ tsp mixed spice

First make the cure. In a small bowl, thoroughly combine the cure ingredients. Coat the duck breasts entirely with cure and place in a large ziplock bag. Place in the coldest part of the refrigerator and cure for 48 hours, flipping the bag twice a day.

Place the duck breasts in a large container and fill with water. Allow to soak for 1 hour. Drain and pat them dry with kitchen towel.

Next, combine the ingredients for the rub in a small bowl.Coat the duck breasts entirely with the rub.

Fire up your smoker or grill to 110°C/225°F. Add chunks of cherry wood (or other fruit wood). When the wood is ignited and starts to smoke, put in the duck breasts, skin side down. Smoke for 1 hour, or until an instant-read thermometer reads 74°C/165°F when inserted into the centre of the breasts. (We cooked this on a gas barbecue for a shorter time (see below) and it was still delicious)

Remove from the smoker/barbecue and allow to rest for 10 minutes.

We prefer to wrap the duck breasts in cling film for at least 24 hours before we eat them, giving the flavours a chance to settle. If you want to reheat the duckstrami, we find that steaming it using a bamboo steamer is best. This warms the pastrami gently without direct heat which could cause it to dry out. Any meat you’re not using can be frozen for up to 3 months, or will keep for up to 1 week in the fridge. It’s a really versatile meat, and not as gamey as regular duck.

What to drink: This is unlikely to be the only dish you're serving - we had an array of other dishes including salads, pickles and ketchups so look to a full-flavoured red to cope with them all. Given the rub I'd favour a good cru Beaujolais like a Morgon rather than the usual pinot noir but a bright fruity syrah or syrah/grenache/mourvedre (GSM) blend would work well too. Or a amber ale.

From The Hang Fire Cookbook: Recipes and Adventures in American BBQ by Samantha Evans & Shauna Guinn (Quadrille, £20) Photography © Paul Winch-Furness