Sunshine and barbecue, finished with spiced cherries and pineapple

Posted by petra08 on May 18, 2014 · 23 Comments 

Give me a weekend with half decent weather, no rain and I am happy with even smaller doses of sunshine and I can’t stop thinking about barbecue. This weekend lovely weather and plenty of sunshine was promised and well, do I need to say more?! We loaded up on charcoal, I still haven’t gotten around to buying a gas barbecue. Barbecue is so much about preparation and I did some the night before. Food cooks quite quickly once you get going.

I got  a bit carried away and managed to stock the freezer as well as cooking different meats and vegetables. Once home I had a look in the herb garden and picked lemon thyme, rosemary and bayleaves for the marinades. They would sit over night and add flavor to the meat. It sounds like a lot to do but as it is done over 2 days it doesn’t take that long. if you don’t have time to prepare the night before just leave them in the marinade for as long as you can.

 

Lemon thyme marinated chicken 

preparation time 5 minutes 

cooking time -10 minutes on the barbecue 

serves 4

Ingredients

• 4 boned chicken thighs
• 1/2 tsp turmeric
• 1/2 tsp paprika powder
• 3 sprigs of lemon thyme
• 2 tbsp rapeseed oil, or any vegetable oil
• salt & pepper

Rinse the chicken and pat them dry,. Remove any excess visible fat and trim the thighs. Mix the ingredients in a small bowl, place the thighs and the spice mix in a plastic bag, shake until the chicken is coated, seal and place in the fridge.

 

Pork belly barbecue slices

preparation time 5 minutes

cooking time 20-30 minutes on the barbecue

serves 4

Ingredients

•  6 thick slices of pork belly, I cooked them without the skin
• 2 sprigs of lemon thyme
• 1 red chilli
• 2 cloves of garlic
• shredded fresh ginger
• 1 bayleaf
• 1 tsp seasalt
• 2 tbsp rapeseed oil

Rinse the meat and pat it dry. Shred the bayleaf, chop the garlic and shred the ginger fine and slice the chilli.

 

 

Mix with the oil, place it all in a plastic bag and shake until the pork is covered. Seal the bag and place in the fridge to marinate.

 

Rosemary and garlic lamb

preparation time 5 minutes

cooking time 5-10 minutes on the barbecue depending on how pink you want the lamb

serves 2

Ingredients

• 2 lamb chops
• 2 sprigs of rosemary
• 2 garlic cloves
• 2 tbsp rapeseed oil
• pepper

Rinse and pat dry the lamb. Remove the rosemary leaves from the stem and give them a rough chop. Peel and chop the garlic and shred the bayleaf by hand.

 

 

Add the oil and mix it with the meat, again in a plastic bag, shake, seal and set aside.

 

With the marinades done All they had to do now was to sit and get some flavor over night. I got a bit carried away with the veg as well and decided to do a starter.

 

Blue cheese and pink peppercorn stuffed mushrooms 

preparation time 5 minutes 

cooking time 10 minutes on the barbecue 

serves 2 

Ingredients

• 2 chestnut mushrooms
• 50 gram or 1.7 oz blue cheese, I used Blue Costello
• 1 small tsp pink peppercorns
• 1 tsp fig vinegar

Brush the mushrooms and remove the stems. Chop the stems fine and mix them with the blue cheese, the peppercorns and the fig vinegar. I didn’t use big portobello mushrooms but these were quite large. Stuff the mushrooms. I created small tin foil “trays” to cook them on so the liquid wouldn’t trickle down on the charcoal.

 

 

 

I took a ground up chipotle chile pepper and mixed with some seasalt and oil and brushed the vegetables. I pre cooked the sweetcorn and steamed the broccoli, salad onion and asparagus before patting them dry and brushing them with the oil mix. I added a few slices of courgette/zucchini and some cucumber, seeds removed.

 

 

I placed some baby potatoes on some tinfoil and added 1 tbsp rapseed oil, closed the tinfoil but not completely and placed it on the barbecue straight away. They will taste even better if there are some wood chips for smoking on the fire.

 

 

 

I couldn’t resist a punnet of cherries at the market the first ones I have seen this year. I am sadly very allergic to them raw so I am always looking for ways to cook them. I had a small pineapple for dessert and thought it would be nice with the cherries, an experiment but how can you go wrong with two such lovely ingredients? I only bought one punnet, had I bought more it would have taken longer to prepare as I removed the stones before cooking.

 

 

Spiced cherries 

preparation time 10 minutes 

cooking time 15 minutes 

serves 2

Ingredients

• 1 punnet of cherries
• 2 tbsp molasses
• 1 cinnamon quill
• 1/2 tsp of cayenne pepper

Place all the ingredients in a pan and bring to simmer. You won’t need any additional fluid as the cherries are moist in themselves but if you feel you need to add a tbsp to start with.

 

 

Let it simmer for 15 minutes or until it starts to thicken, the juice will get a syrupy consistency. Pour in to a hot sterilized jar, or a bowl if you think you will eat it all and set aside to cool until you are ready to eat them. If you place them in a bowl add some cling film on top to stop a skin forming

 

The barbecue was, no surprise full, especially as we couldn’t resist a few sausages as well, they were very small but added to the sheer volume of food!

 

 

 

I really liked the mushrooms, the pink peppercorns added bursts of flavor and they were a perfect little starter to eat whilst the smells of the barbecue got the appetite going.

 

 

The potatoes cooked for 30 minutes before I added the pork belly. These would take the longest and after that I added the chicken and sausage with 20 minutes to go and the rest with 10 minutes to go. It was so much I realized I had barbecued 2 whole plates of food. I felt we didn’t need any condiments or sauce to go with the food but maybe next time.

 

 

 

I made a side salad with veg and feta cheese. 

 

I added the pineapple to the grill before we started to eat and placed the lid on and let it cook. We opened and bottle of white Rioja and enjoyed the food. Despite having put some meat in the freezer I had cooked too much meat but it does taste lovely cold as a snack as well. We finished all the vegetables except the potatoes.

 

The pineapple was nicely charred, caramelized and juicy from the cooking, I added the cherries and it was a lovely combination. The spice from the cayenne pepper in the cherries, the warm cinnamon and the ever so slightly tart cherries worked with the sweet pineapple.

 

 

 

The sunshine made me want to barbecue and after a busy week I decided to bring it all to the lovely Angie’s always fun filled and delicious Fiesta Friday! This week Angie has brought in Elaine and Stacey to co host. Elaine has brought some incredible looking flatbread, have a look here and Stacey brought Chez Stacey Tuna Poke bites that looks so good I shall park myself next to them at the party and perhaps have that “just one more” bite, have a look here! As always, if you have cooked something, bring it to the best foodie party around! 🙂

 

 

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Filed under Allotment/Veg, Asparagus, Blue cheese, Broccoli, Chicken, Chilli, Cucumber, Dessert, Feta cheese, Garlic, Herbs, Lamb, Main course, Mushroom, Pepper, Pineapple, Pork, Potatoes, Recipe, Rioja, Saussage, Spring onion, Starter, Sweet corn, Tomatoes, Uncategorized, White, Wine · Tagged with Barbecue, barbecue vegetables, cherries, lamb chops, marinade, Pork Belly, spiced cherries