T
here is one phrase I utter to my boyfriend more than any other.
No, not ‘I love you, Snuggle Pie’, but, ‘Can you pass the blanket please?’. Usually this routine gets a couple of month’s respite around June or July, just to keep the romance alive, but right now the weather forecast is really challenging the pizzazz in our relationship.
Ou est le Summer? I can only hope that by the time you read this we’ll be in the midst of a blistering heat wave and I will seem embarrassingly out of touch, but an article I read this week pronounced that we might be in for another ten years of this shit. Tough how they know that when they can’t accurately tell me whether tomorrow is going to be Jacket Weather is anyone’s guess.
With this positivity in mind it’s a great job us Brits are brilliant at ignoring the terrible hand we’ve been dealt and just getting the fuck on with it. And for me that means I’m going to put on my pac-a-mac, go outside and cook something with fire. To hell with it if I end up dying by lightning strike to BBQ tongs. We’ve all gotta go somehow.
Te question with a BBQ is, what to make? Or, more importantly, what to bring if you’ve been asked to attend someone else’s. All too often it ends up like your high school prom, with three sobbinggirls in the same dress; you’ve got seven packets of bread rolls but nobody
34 /July 2013/
outlineonline.co.uk
remembered the ketchup. My advice would be to try one of the following:
Ingredients for a cocktail. Alcohol will never be turned away, and by 10pm everyone is too full to face another beer.
Pudding Nobody thinks of pudding for a BBQ, but it’s a meal like any other, so why not round it off with something sweet?
A main event, which isn’t sausages or burgers. Someone else will always bring them and the freezer will be full for months. Instead, think whole mackerel, spiced kebabs, a rack of ribs...
Over the last couple of years there has been an emerging trend for the gut-busting, artery-clogging delights of the Deep South, and I’m all on board. If you want a lesson in BBQ, you go to the Texans, who seem to follow the rule that if it sits still long enough it gets thrown in a smoking locker or smothered in finger-licking marinade. Last year I discovered this little American Dream of a recipe, and whilst it takes a little while to construct, and contains a diabetes inducing amount of sugar, I’d say it’s worth the effort to get invited back (in 2023 when Summer starts).
Last year I discovered this little American Dream of a recipe, and whilst it takes a little while to construct, and contains a diabetes inducing amount of sugar, I’d say it’s worth the effort to get invited back (in 2023 when Summer starts).Morgan Pickard
DR Pepper BBQ ribs
INGREDIENTSServes approx 4.
1.5kg pork ribs 1 tsp salt 2 litres of Dr Pepper 2 star anise 2 cinnamon sticks (or a small handful of cassia, which is a lot cheaper) 150g soft brown sugar 4 tbsp honey or maple syrup 100g ketchup 3 tbsp brown sauce 2 tbsp tomato puree 2tbsp Dijon mustard 2 tbsp Worcestershire Sauce
METHOD Line two baking trays with tin foil, chuck in your ribs, and pour over 1.5litres of the Dr Pepper (split between the two). Distribute the star anise, salt and cinnamon equally. Cover with foil and roast for 1.5-2 hours at gas mark 4, until cooked through. Once done, discard the liquid.
For your sauce, put all the remaining ingredients in a pan and simmer until it has reduced to a glossy, honey like consistency. If you find it doesn't thicken as much as you'd like, then mix a teaspoon of cornflour with some water until it's a runny paste, and add to the sauce as required.
Now either dip your ribs in the sauce or paint it on with a pastry brush. If you're continuing in the oven then place the ribs on a roasting rack, over a baking tray, and up the temperature to gas mark 5. Check and turn every ten minutes, basting with more sauce, until they are as saucy and coloured as you want them. If you're doing them on the BBQ then they won’t take as long, but try and get a couple of coatings on and turn at least once.
Morgan writes her own, hilarious blog on the internet. You can visit it and do a laugh wee wee at
sodnigella.blogspot.co.uk
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