This article from the column ‘A Curious Cook’ was taken from our archives. It first appeared in the July 1991 issue of The Bermudian. It appears here as it did originally.
Just about anybody can heat up a hot dog, burn a burger, char’ the chicken, sizzle a steak, or massacre some marshmallows – but it takes a little imagination to be a Houdini at the hibatchi. Not that it is really magical; more just remembering that anything that can be pan fried, roasted, broiled, even steamed, can be done on the grill. Now there is nothing wrong with the conventional mainstays of grilling. Sometimes nothing satisfies like a crispy-skinned hot dog slathered with hot mustard and bright green relish, or a steak with a carbonised aromatic crust full of the promise of what lies within. BUT, sometimes breaking away from the ordinary, the expected, the tried and true, can put that missing something in your barbecue side manner.
Part of the limited barbecue menu syndrome may come from the fact that the process seems to have become (maybe always was a ‘guy thing’). My mother was a great cook, but when it came time to barbecue, my father stepped in. Here was a man, who occasionally cooked a weird kind of Sunday breakfast, suddenly claiming unheralded culinary skills as soon as the coals were set ablaze. For some reason, perfectly competent women with years of expertise give up the spatula when it comes time to barbecue. The range of the menu, not surprisingly, pretty much conforms to the true range of cook’s experience – narrow.
It may just go all the way back to the time of the cave dwellers when fire was believed to be a gift from the heavens.
The accidental discovery of cooking by fire undeniably helped brook the chasm between mankind’s essentially animal existence and a more fully human one (although I have been to a few barbecues where the difference didn’t seem quite so recognizable.) Over the intervening centuries the kinds of food man ate, and the relative importance he gave to what he ate, has certainly paralleled the peaks and valleys of civilization.
It was the discovering Spanish who gave the cook-out its name. It seems that the Carib Indians, whom they encountered in the New World, had been smoke-drying meats on lattices of green wood, over long burning fires of bone and hide, for some time. They called the process boucan. The Conquistadors translated it as barbacoa, from which it wasn’t too great an etymological leap to the contemporary term – Barbecue.
In more recent times cooking ‘out’ has been encumbered by an ever expanding list of essential tools and gadgets of dubious value: odd shaped wire baskets, tongs, spatula and basting brushes with incredibly long handles, mitts and aprons often emblazoned with embarrassing epithets, grills of various sizes and complexity, endless fluids and devices with which to start the fire, a proliferation of bottled marinades and sauces, shelves full of books of recipes and helpful hints, and the inevitable arguments over the relative madness of cooking methods.
Through it all, however, it happily remains essentially unchanged. What has endured, from that day to this, is the enjoyment of foods cooked over an open fire – the first, and to my mind, still the best method of all.
Since, even under the most rustic circumstances, I enjoy something that ‘goes with’ what I am eating, and since sauces seem grossly inappropriate, I thought – relishes. These recipes will change your mind about grilling possibilities. They do take a little more planning and a little do-ahead preparation but the results are well worth it. I have included a main dish in each of the usual categories: fish, meat and poultry, in the hopes of satisfying the range of tastes, and I’ve thrown in a savoury potato salad for fine measure. By all means don’t stop here, remember: a little imagination goes a long way.
So now is the time, when the heat begins to leave the days after the stars are out, and the crickets and tree frogs are in full voice, to give up on cooking indoors and commit yourself to the barbecue. Set up the furniture and arrange the garden as if every night were a celebration. For what better way to strike a festive note, to elicit a creery response, like the conspirator of hay piness, by announcing – “let’s barbecue!”
B-B-Q SALMON with Bermuda Ginger relish
6 tbs soy sauce
3/4 cup unfiltered apple cider
2 tbs sweet butter
2 cloves of garlic, minced
6 lbs of fresh salmon filet (skin on) or 8 steaks 1″ thick
Parsley and lemon slices for garnish
Oil for brushing the grill rack
Combine the soy and cider and bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer and add the butter and garlic. Allow to cook down for about 20 minutes, until somewhat thickened. Cool.
Pat dry the fish filet, lay skin side down and brush liberally with the marinade and let stand 20 minutes.
Brush again.
When the coals are hot brush the rack with a little oil and place the salmon skin side down on the grill.
Make a ‘tent’ out of some heavy duty aluminium foil and allow to ‘bake’ about twenty minutes (until it has lost its translucency at the thickest part).
You may accomplish this recipe indoors by placing the fish as above on a well oiled broiler rack and putting under the broiler (about 6 inches from the heat) for 12 – 15 minutes.
Garnish with parsley sprigs and lemon slices and serve with Bermuda Ginger Relish.
Serves eight.
BERMUDA GINGER RELISH
2 tbs fresh ginger, minced or grated
6 plum tomatoes (red/ yellow if available) peeled, seeded and diced.
2 shallots, minced
1 large clove garlic, minced
1/4 cup Outerbridge’s Vinegar Peppers
1/4 cup dry sherry
1/4 cup good olive oil
2 tbs fresh basil, chopped
1 tbs soy sauce (or to taste)
2 tbs fresh lime juice
dash of Outerbridge’s Sherry Peppers (to taste)
Combine all ingredients. Store in a non-reactive container. Also great with grilled oysters, clams and seafood.
CATHAY STEAKS with Mango Relish
8 10-ounce rib-eye steaks
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 tbs ginger, minced the zest of an orange
2/3 cup hoisin sauce
1/3 cup plum sauce
1/4 cup sesame oil
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup honey
1 tbs Chinese chili sauce
Oil to brush the grilling rack
Combine all of the above ingredients and rub down the steaks with them.
Let marinate one hour or longer.
When the coals are good and hot, brush the rack with oil and grill the steaks about 5 minutes on each side (for medium rare).
Serve with Mango Relish on the side.
MANGO RELISH
1/2 cup minced scallion
2 tbs cilantro, minced
2 tbs ginger, minced
1/3 cup lime juice
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 tsp Chinese chili sauce
2 dead ripe mangoes (or 4 ripe peaches, or a large ripe papaya)
Peel the mango, slice the flesh from the pit and chop finely. (If you use peaches, blanch in boiling water, skin, pit and chop. For the papaya simply peel, cut in half, scoop away the seeds and chop.)
Combine all of the ingredients together adding the fruit at the end. Stir well, cover and refrigerate. Can be made the day before.
Yield: about 2 cups.
CHICKEN BREAST RED LIGHT-GREEN LIGHT
16 boneless breasts of chicken
1/4 lb (one stick) unsalted butter
juice of six limes
2-3 tbs tequila
about 12 medium leaves of fresh basil, minced
Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
Melt the butter and add the lime juice, tequila, basil and seasonings. Sit the chicken in this marinade for at least an hour.
Oil the grill and cook the breasts (about five minutes per side) brushing occasionally with the marinade.
Serve with the Tomato Relish and Avocado & Basil Relish.
Serves eight.
AVOCADO & BASIL RELISH
2 cups packed fresh basil leaves
1/3 cup almonds, briefly toasted
1 large garlic clove
the juice of one medium lemon
1 large avocado, ripe but not soft, peeled, pitted
Crazy Jane’s seasoned salt (or salt and pepper)
Rinse the basil leaves under cold water and pat dry. Combine in a good processor the basil, toasted and cooled almonds, garlic and lemon juice.
Pulse until the almonds are finely ground.
Cut the avocado in large diced pieces and blend into the processed mixture. Season with Crazy Jane’s to taste.
Yield: 1 1/2 cups depending on your avocado size.
TOMATO RELISH
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 brown sugar
3 cups cider vinegar
2 tbs ginger root, minced
1 tsp coriander, slightly crushed with the bottom of a sauce pan
1 small hot red pepper, seeded and minced
1 cup of raisins
pinch of allspice
3 Ibs plum tomatoes (preferably red and yellow) blanched, peeled, seeded and chopped
3 medium onions, chopped
In a saucepan large enough for all of the ingredients, combine the sugars, vinegar, ginger, coriander, allspice, and the red pepper and bring to a boil.
Lower the heat and cook, stirring until the sugar has completely dissolved.
Now add the tomatoes, onions and raisins, lower the heat and simmer for 1 hour until thickened. Cool and transfer to jars.
Will keep in the refrigerator at least three weeks.
Yield: 3 1/2 cups.
NEW POTATO POTATO SALAD
2 lb new potatoes, well scrubbed, skin on
1 1/2 cups more or less of good salami, polish keilbassa (garlic sausage), or chourico (cooked, if not a cooked product), chopped
2 tbs (at least) fresh chives, minced
2 – 3 hard cooked eggs, chopped
6 tbs mayonnaise
2 tbs sour cream
1 tsp (or more to taste) Dijon Mustard
salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste
Cook the potatoes in salted boiling water until just fork tender.
Drain (cut the larger ones in pieces) and allow to cool completely. Toss with the salami and eggs.
Blend together the mayonnaise, sour cream, mustard and most of the chives.
Dress the potato mixture. Season with salt and pepper.
Sprinkle with the reserved chives.
