The Men and Women behind UK BBQ – Natalie Clifton – I.O. Shen Knives

1.    What got you into BBQ’ng?
My Dad! He was a racing driver and I spent my childhood in the pits and paddocks of race tracks around the UK. BBQ was how we ate every single meal. Mostly quick and easy food for the driver and the engineers. I learnt at a young age the art of cooking bacon over coals and feeding people – and that made me incredibly happy!  This then morphed to experimental cooking over fire – which eventually lead to my ultimate passion for cooking over flame and embracing cuisines from the world with our F1 Cooks.

2.    How many BBQ’s do you have at home and what is your favourite method of cooking?
Josh and I have over 10 BBQ’s including Weber grills, Savage fire cage, Big Joe 3, Baby Joe, Hellrazr & Roccbox.  I love them all for different reasons.

3.    What is your favourite piece of BBQ equipment? This can be a BBQ or an accessory and we want to know why.
I think it would have to be the rotisserie attachment to the Big Joe 3 and the Savage Cage. Simply because any piece of meat is transformed when it’s spun. It makes everything so tender and I love the knarly crispy crust or skin which inevitably comes with this type of cooking. Plus – if your BBQ is set correctly with deflection plates etc, it’s almost a set and forget!

4.    What was the best BBQ food you have ever eaten?
WOW!! Tough question!! I think that any BBQ food can be elevated when you’re in good company and the weather is nice. For me it’s the atmosphere just as much as the food.

5.    Tell us about your worst BBQ disaster?
I tried my hand at squid…the photos looked fantastic but it was an epic fail!!  I definitely need to work on that one!

6.    Name a dish you have never cooked but would love to try?
There are 2…..Baked Alaska. I’ve actually never had it in my 49 years on this planet but the thought of baking icecream blows my mind!!  2nd is chocolate gravy. This comes from the film chocolat, when Juilette Bonoche serves a banquet with roast chicken as the centerpiece and served with chocolate gravy.

These 2 are now on my hit list to make in 2023!

7.    Who is the person you would most like to cook with?
I cook with my favorite person in the world every day….Josh and I make almost every meal a date night.  Some nights it takes HOURS to make something which should take 2. But when the music is at high volume and there are no time pressures, cooking is the journey…not the destination.

8.    What is your favourite song to cook to?
Anything I can dance to!

9.    Best toppings for a BBQ burger?
Cheese, cheese and more cheese!  Beer can burgers stuffed with Montaray Jack, cheddar and blue are my absolute faves.

10.   What’s your favourite non-BBQ food?
Mediterranean and Persian side dishes….. Hummus, tzatziki and anything tapas.

11.   What is your favourite dish from your book?
Shawarma by Sabrina Ghayour.  In fact – anything from Sabrina has my vote.

Link to Social Media

Instagram  @ioshenknives     Facebook   ioshen      Twitter @IOShenknives

Genevieve Taylor – The Men and Women behind UK BBQ

One of the UK’s leading live fire and BBQ experts, Genevieve Taylor is the author of eleven cookery books including the bestselling SEARED: The ultimate guide to barbecuing meat,  CHARRED, a complete guide to vegetarian BBQ, Foolproof BBQ, The Ultimate Wood-fired Oven Cook book, How to Eat Outside and Master Chef Street Food of the World. A proud omnivore, Genevieve is on a mission to prove that great BBQ isn’t just about Man vs. Meat.

Genevieve runs the Bristol Fire School – a cookery school dedicated to all things FIRE – @Bristol_Fire_School

When she’s not cooking over an open fire, Genevieve can usually be found outside walking her dogs in the woods, growing a few good things to eat on her allotment and listening to rather a lot of music. She is also a very part time ceramicist with a little studio/office/girl cave at the top of her Bristol garden.

  1. What got you into BBQ’ng?

When my children were small, I quickly realised how boring it is feeding them three times a day, both the kids and I were happier outside and I have been cooking outside ever since. My mum was a single mum and when I was young, I used to help her and have been cooking since I was small.

  1. How many BBQ’s do you have at home and what is your favourite method of cooking?

3 Weber Kettles, 4 KJ’s an Ox Grill, a Drumbeque, 3 Fire Pits, a Weber smoke fire, 2 Ox Grill Trompos, a built in stone bbq, a Gozeny Dome and some portable ones (a Go-anywhere, a Smoky Joe and a Thuros). But I run Bristol Fire School from the house.  I am a big fan of Weber kettles and have written all my books on those as if the recipe works on there it will work on bbq’s that most people have. They can Smoke or Grill.

  1. What is your favourite piece of BBQ equipment? This can be a BBQ or an accessory and we want to know why.

My favourite bit of equipment is my Thermapen I wouldn’t cook meat without it. It makes sure your meat is perfectly cooked and juicy.

  1. What was the best BBQ food you have ever eaten?

For me food is a time and a place, it’s a memory, I recently spent 20hrs cooking BBQ (Brisket) for my husband’s birthday and then we had people round. That was one of the best days. Apart from that the best BBQ I have had is in Texas.

  1. Tell us about your worst BBQ disaster?

I had nine people at a Kamado Joe Fireschool and was cooking Yorkshire Puddings. I forgot about them and when I remembered they were completely black and looked like charcoal. I like to push myself and multi task but it doesn’t always work

  1. Name a dish you have never cooked but would love to try?

I would love to dig a hole, build a pit and cook a whole pig

  1. Who is the person you would most like to cook with?

With regards to a chef/Author it would have to be Ottolenghi as I love the layering of flavours. I do have to say though that I love cooking with people who have visited the Bristol Fire School and have cooked using my books. It brings a connection and reality to it.

  1. What is your favourite song to cook to?

I don’t have a favourite song as I am a huge fan of music and what I will listen to depends on my mood. If its cold and wet I listen to Reggie, if I am tired its electronic and I love finding new music.

  1. Best toppings for a BBQ burger?

It has to be a classic Bacon and Cheese burger with hot sauce

  1. What’s your favourite non-BBQ food?

No such thing in our house anything can be cooked on the BBQ, I have even cooked Pavlova and I regularly bake on the BBQ.

  1. What is your favourite dish from your book?

Now that’s a hard one, I like them all although some get cooked more than others.

There is a sweetcorn salad from the Wood Fired Oven Cookbook that regularly makes an appearance, as does the carrot salad in charred. I believe that a bbq should be like a meal indoors and not have just five types of meat. In my most recent book, Seared there is a lovely sesame and ginger chicken

Web Site – https://www.genevievetaylor.co.uk/

Fire School – https://www.genevievetaylor.co.uk/bristol-fire-school

Books – 
Amazon Books

The Men and Women behind UK BBQ – Sam Evans and Shauna Guinn

Barbecue is a serious business. And for anyone who thought barbecue was about big, bearded blokes toiling over hot coals, think again: the Hang Fire girls are the real experts.

In 2012 Sam and Shauna ditched their jobs and embarked on a 6-month road trip around the best barbecue joints in the southern United States. From Texas to Tallahassee, they learned the insider secrets of what makes barbecue great, were captivated by the thrill of smoke and fire, and back home in Cardiff they set out their meat manifesto in the form of Hang Fire Smokehouse.

Following the restaurant Sam and Shauna are regulars on TV in such programmes as Sam and Shauna’s Big Cook.

Hang Fire’s approach is simple: get the best ingredients, cook them low ‘n’ slow, and tuck in.

  1. What got you into BBQ’ng?
    As keen cooks, we’ve always been backyard BBQ’ers, albeit fairweather ones and mainly cooked out in the Summer. But really it’s our love of Americana, bluegrass and food from the deep south (and Dolly Parton!) that inspired us to be able to potentially do this for a living and so we headed to States for 6 months in 2013 to learn all about the culture of BBQ. We were also inspired by Neil Rankin, Tom Adams and Jamie Berger. They had the Pitt Cue food truck on the Southbank in 2011-2012 and their BBQ (and picklebacks) were mind-blowing. They had a huge part in inspiring the creative culinary aspect to Hang Fire.
  1. How many BBQ’s do you have at home and what is your favourite method of cooking?
    We’ve tended to build our own BBQ’s as you may have seen from our BBCTV show Sam & Shauna’s Big Cookout. But right now, there may be half a dozen or so different styles and types of BBQs lurking about in the garden! The more unusual ones are the wee Flat Dog from Pro Q (always in the boot of our car with a bag of charcoal ready for a guerrilla BBQ) and we also love our Ascua Parilla from Blackbox. Huge fans of beautiful, and considered, engineering in BBQs.
  1. What is your favourite piece of BBQ equipment? This can be a BBQ or an accessory and we want to know why.
    Surely it has to be a really good pair of ‘Texas maracas’ aka BBQ tongs. So called because you always have to click them thrice when you pick them up! We’re also a bit late to the party, but our minds have been blown away by the ingenuity of the Meater. Why didn’t we have a dozen of these when we had our restaurant?!
  1. What was the best BBQ food you have ever eaten?
    Asides from what Pitt Cue were doing back when, it was probably everything we ate at Franklin BBQ in Austin. On our travels in the States, we ate at something like 70-80 BBQ joints; from streetfood to restaurants. We kissed (ate?) a lot of frogs in in order to find the Prince of BBQ, Aaron Franklin. It really was transcendent. Incredibly delicate smoke flavour, the most tender meats and the seasoning sat back to let the quality of the meat sing out.
  1. Tell us about your worst BBQ disaster?
    This is an easy one to remember as it was so painful. Just when we started Hang Fire, I was training my chefs on slow and low. We filled a smoker with around £250 of thick-cut St Louis ribs for a very low temp overnight smoke so they could be finished in the morning for lunch time service. We had a grease fire in the smoker overnight and we came in to every single rib looking like a petrified fossil. Black, burned and you could crush them to dust with a light squeeze. We all learned a lot about keeping your smoker cooking chambers CLEAN!
  1. Name a dish you have never cooked but would love to try?
    Without wanting to sound churlish, there probably isn’t a dish we’ve had the desire to cook and haven’t yet (Sam can be very impulsive and suddenly show up with a bunch of ingredients and say ‘we’re cooking this today!’). However, there are definitely people we’d like to cook with and places we’d like to cook in.
  1. Who is the person you would most like to cook with?
    We had the privilege to meet Miss Tootsie of Snows BBQ while we were in the States but would love a chance to cook with her. In fact we would love to cook with any of our great BBQ heroines like Desiree Robinson, Melissa Cookston, Amy Mills, Leanne Whippen and Danielle Bennett.
  1. What is your favourite song to cook to?
    Not sure there is one song this pair of musos could choose. But a good bluegrass, country playlist isn’t very far away when we’re lighting the coals. Something up beat with a story and music with history always inspires us when we cook.
  1. Best toppings for a BBQ burger?
    For us an Oklahoma style pattie with American cheese and crispy (streaky) bacon will always be our go to. Oooh, can we add some of Dublin’s Pitt Bros bacon jam too?
  1. What’s your favourite non-BBQ food?
    We cook A LOT of Asian food at home. North to southern Indian, Thai, all sorts of Chinese food, tons of Indian food. We eat a lot of vegetarian and seafood too.
  1. What is your favourite dish from your book?
    C’mon, it’s like asking a mother to pick her favourite child! They’re all amazing to us as they all come with a story of how we learned it and when we tried it and the people we met. It really does chronicle our time in the States through food and hopefully a road map for anyone wanting to make the same pilgrimage.

Link to book

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Hang-Fire-Cookbook-Adventures in America

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sam & Shauna of Hang Fire®

www.samandshauna.com

 

Watch Season 3 of Sam & Shauna’s Big Cook Out on BBC IPlayer
CLICK HERE

Watch Sam and Shauna’s TEDx Talk on Pop Ups
CLICK HERE

Watch Sam & Shauna cook in Gower Salt Marshes
CLICK HERE

Twitter – @hangfirebbq  @samandshauna

Instagram – @hangfirebbq   @samandshaunaofficial

FB – @TheHangFire 

The Men and Women behind UK BBQ – DJ BBQ AKA Christian Stevenson

DJ BBQ (aka Christian Stevenson) is a live fire chef and a leading name in the world of BBQ. After a successful broadcasting career fronting shows for MTV, Channel 4 and Channel 5 (including award-winning Rad), he harnessed his passion for cooking over fire and now has his own YouTube channel with more than 175K subscribers (he’s also a regular big-hitter on Jamie Oliver’s FoodTube). DJ BBQ stars in and hosts festivals including Meatopia, The Big Feastival, Camp Bestival, Grilltopia and The Big Grill. He is a chef on Food.com, and has contributed to This Morning, FHM, Independent, Daily Mail and the Chris Evans Breakfast Show among many others. He has a BBQ spice rub range with US brand Spiceology, and his brand affiliations include Hellmann’s, Renault, B&Q and Kid Rock’s American Bad Ass Grill.

  1. What got you into BBQ’ng?
    I come from the Mid-West in America, my dad and grandfather cooked BBQ. IOWA is cattle and corn country and we had steamed corn nearly every night. BBQ was traditionally cheaper cuts of meat, my mum and dad divorced when I was in year 2 and I shuttled back and forth between them. Basically, my dad was a solo dad raising 2 kids, so he asked me to help with the cooking. He cooked outside and my mum cooked inside. I also got taught some great dishes by my grandparents such as Meatloaf and Tomato Pie
  1. How many BBQ’s do you have at home and what is your favourite method of cooking?
    I only have 3 grills at home 2 Weber 57cm Kettles and a Pit Barrel Kamado. I have 3 smokers in storage that I use for festivals. My favourite bbq to cook on is Weber as that’s where I started, I used a 47cm Kettle for a long time before I upgraded. Kamados are too expensive for many and can take a while to come up to temp.
  1. What is your favourite piece of BBQ equipment? This can be a BBQ or an accessory and we want to know why.
    I use my Weber Tongs for most things they are just very versatile.
  1. What was the best BBQ food you have ever eaten?
    The BBQ food that surprised me the most was at a cattle herding station barn in Brazil where the gauchos had their coffee and food. I was travelling with Giles Coren and Monica Galetti and we had lamb skewered on big swords with pools of fat dripping onto the hot coals. It was easily the best lamb ribs I have had.
  1. Tell us about your worst BBQ disaster?
    When I first started cooking, I was cooking Pulled Pork on a langman 36 and I kept checking the food. As they say “If your looking its not cooking” It took a while!
  1. Name a dish you have never cooked but would love to try?
    I would love to try Marilyn Muskrat. When I was snowboarding in Ecuador in the 1990’s they ate guinea pig. I was always curious.
  1. Who is the person you would most like to cook with?
    When at home I love cooking with my sons. I want to pass down to them an enthusiasm for BBQ in the same way my dad and grandfather did to me. When I am cooking at Festivals I love cooking with T-Bone Chops, Sam Jones and Dave Jennings. It’s such a blast!
  1. What is your favourite song to cook to?
    I haven’t got one favourite song. If cooking with T-Bone Chops its always Rock, if at festivals its Funk and Soul or Hip Hop, when at home I like Indie or Alternative and I love my mix tapes
  1. Best toppings for a BBQ burger?
    For myself my favourite topping is caramelised onion and mushroom. My go to cook for others is an Oklahoma burger.
  1. What’s your favourite non-BBQ food?
    Everything is BBQ Food, LOL. No if I am out to eat, I like a curry or South East Asian Food
  2. What is your favourite dish from the new book?
    Maple Bacon Lardy Cake, my friends 2 year old couldn’t get enough of it, or my Aunts Goulash Recipe

The Book is available here :- DJ BBQ’s Backyard Baking

 

 

 

 

 

 


DJ BBQ Books
– Amazon Books

Japanese Style BBQ King Scallops

An easy seafood recipe from @SMOKE_SHACK_NI
Check them out on Instagram  –

https://www.instagram.com/smoke_shack_ni/

Japanese Style BBQ King Scallops

  • Yield2 Servings

Ingredients

  • 10 large king scallops, cleaned
  • 1 tb sp oyster sauce
  • 1 tb sp light soy sauce
  • 1 tb sp yuzu kosho paste (available at most asian supermarkets)

Method

1

 Marinate the scallops with the oyster sauce, soy & yuzu paste for 1-2 hours.

2

Light up bbq and heat until reading approx. 250°C

3

Skewer the scallops ensuring the flat surface can contact the grill bars..

4

 BBQ for approx. 3 minutes each side until cooked and nicely coloured.

Tandoori Coronation Chicken Pizza

Here’s a pizza recipe kindly donated by Kelly Bramill. Perfect for the Queens Platinum Jubilee

Tandoori Coronation Chicken Pizza

  • Yield4 Pizzas

Ingredients

For the Pizza Dough (Makes enough for 6 pizzas, but surplus can be frozen)

  • 600ml Cold Water
  • 1g fresh yeast (Supermarkets with a bakery will give you this for free if you ask)
  • 1kg ‘00’ Flour
  • 25g Fine Sea Salt

For the Coronation Sauce (Makes enough for at least 4 pizzas)

  • 4 tbsp Mayonnaise
  • 4 tbsp Greek Yoghurt
  • 2 tbsp Smooth Mango Chutney
  • 1 tbsp Angus & Oink Tandoori seasoning (or your favourite curry powder)
  • 1 tsp Lemon Juice
  • Salt and pepper to taste

For the Chicken

  • 1 large or 2 small boneless, skinless chicken thighs per pizza (but grill up extra for fridge raiding)
  • Angus & Oink Tandoori seasoning (or your favourite curry paste/seasoning)
  • A little vegetable oil

Method

For The Pizza Dough

1

Into a large bowl add the water and, while rubbing it between your fingers, dissolve the yeast thoroughly in the water.

2

Add half the flour to the bowl and begin to combine. Add the rest of the flour and the salt and mix until you have a rough dough. Place the dough on a clean surface and knead well for about 10 minutes.

3

Leave the dough to rest, covered with a bowl or a clean towel, for about 10 minutes.

4

Now divide the dough into 6 equal balls. There are lots of videos out there on how to do this, but just aim for nice smooth balls of dough, using your work surface to help you, pinching the bottom of each ball to tighten the surface of the dough. This is the point where you can freeze any dough you won’t be using straight away.

5

Space out the dough balls you intend to use on a tray, giving them each a little space as they’re going to spread out. Cover them and leave at room temperature for at least 5 or 6 hours.

For the Coronation Sauce (Makes enough for at least 4 pizzas)

6

Add all the ingredients to a bowl, combine thoroughly and refrigerate until needed.

For the Chicken

7

Marinade the chicken thighs in the seasoning/paste, using a little oil if using a dry seasoning or rub.

8

BBQ, or cook however you like, until the chicken reaches an internal temperature of 75°C.

Assembly

9

Your dough balls should be lovely and relaxed and doubled in size. If using a domestic oven, preheat to 250 degrees centigrade, using a pizza stone if you have one. If not, a flat pizza pan or baking tray will work just fine. If using a specific pizza oven, refer to the manufacturer’s instructions.

10

Sprinkle a generous amount of flour or fine semolina onto a clean work surface. Gently scoop up a piece of dough and place it on your floured surface. Sprinkle a little flour on top and dust your fingers too. Now begin, with flattened fingers, to shape your dough by gently pressing and stretching from the centre of the dough ball outwards. Again there are lots of videos covering this technique, but it really doesn’t have to be perfect. Making homemade pizza should be fun!

11

Once your dough resembles a pizza base, sprinkle on the mozzarella, cooked chicken and drizzle on a few sprinkles of the garlic butter oil. Gently slide the pizza onto your peel or baking tray and transfer to the oven.

12

Bake your pizza in the oven for 7 – 10 minutes until golden and crispy, or if using a specific pizza oven, as per the manufacturer’s instructions for that oven.

13

Remove from the oven, sprinkle with a little coriander, brush the crust with the garlic butter oil and drizzle on a couple of tablespoons of the coronation sauce.

.

Other Toppings

A handful of low moisture mozzarella per pizza. Smoked mozzarella is fabulous here

1 tsp Angus & Oink Garlic Butter seasoning, mixed with 1 tbsp olive oil (optional)

A small bunch of fresh coriander, leaves picked

Lamb Chops with Charred Chilli Sauce

Here’s a recipe kindly provided by Helen Graves from her book
LIVE FIRE: Seasonal Barbecue Recipes and Stories of Live Fire Traditions Old and New

We eat a lot of lamb chops in this house; in fact, they’re
probably our number-one speedy dinner option, with a big salad
on the side. If there’s no time to marinate them, then we rub
them with loads of big flavours – crackling spices and lip-jolting
acidity – then cook them hot and fast until their fat drips and
frizzles. There’s a lot of fun to be had in nibbling around the
bones. I love the drama of taking a big plate of chops and a stack
of napkins to the table and watching the carnage unfold.

Serves: 2 as a main dish,
4 with other dishes

Lamb Chops with Charred Chilli Sauce

  • Prep Time1 hr 10 min
  • Cook Time10 min
  • Total Time1 hr 20 min
  • Yield2 Servings

Ingredients

  • 8 lamb chops

Charred Chilli Sauce

  • 5 red chillies
  • 2 teaspoons cumin seeds
  • 2 teaspoons coriander seeds
  • 1 teaspoon caraway seeds
  • 1 garlic clove, peeled
  • 6 tablespoons olive oil
  • 4 tablespoons red wine
  • vinegar
  • 1 tablespoon lemon juice
  • large handful of coriander
  • (cilantro) stalks and leaves
  • small handful of mint leaves
  • sea salt

Method

1

I like to use half of this sauce to marinate the lamb chops,
so tend to char the chillies indoors (as I’m probably not going to
light the barbecue just to char some chillies). There are several
ways to do this – either in a dry pan over a high heat, under a hot
grill or directly over a gas flame. Char them until blackened,
then put into a bowl and cover for a minute. Remove and slip
off the skins (it’s up to you whether or not you keep the seeds).

2

Lightly toast the cumin, coriander and caraway seeds in a dry
pan over medium-low heat until fragrant, giving the pan a shake
every now and then to ensure they don’t burn.

3

Place the charred chillies in a blender with the toasted
spices and all the other ingredients except the lamb chops,
plus a generous pinch of salt, and blend until you have
a smooth-ish sauce.

4

Use half the sauce to marinate the lamb chops for at least
1 hour (leave them for a few hours in the fridge, covered,
if you can).

5

When you’re ready to eat, prepare a barbecue for indirect
cooking over medium heat.

6

Grill the lamb chops over direct heat, moving them a little
offset to cook if they start to burn. The cooking time will depend
on the thickness of the chops, but a few minutes on each side for
small chops should do it.

7

Serve with the remaining sauce.

8

To Cook Indoors: Cook the marinated chops under a hot grill
for about 5 minutes on each side.

LIVE FIRE: Seasonal Barbecue Recipes and Stories of Live Fire Traditions Old and New by Helen Graves (Hardie Grant, £26) Photography: Rob Billington
Helen’s book can be bought through any reputable bookstore including –
Amazon

Hive.co.uk

Waterstones

Giant Smoked Scotch Eggs

We’ve dug into the archives for this recipe from Kelly Bramill. Originally posted on her Dreaming of the Good Life blog back in 2017.

Regular, breaded Scotch eggs have been one of our family favourites since I was a child, with my mum always making her own for us to take on picnics.  When my BBQ obsession began however, I realised that people were smoking them….and it made perfect sense!  Credit here goes to James Lowe of JL Butchers for the inspiration.  He’s a master of the smoked Scotch egg, and I think it was his that I first saw on one of the BBQ and smoking forums, and I was blown away.

The thing I love about them, and this recipe in particular, is that they’re pretty much a meal in themselves.  With the addition of bacon and black pudding, they’re an all day breakfast wrapped up in a big, smokey, spherical package.  Grilled tomatoes and pit beans make great accompaniments, as does My Ultimate Mac ‘n’ Cheese.  Or why not go all sophisticated and pair it with a green salad and a nice glass of wine!

I first added black pudding to them back in September 2015, which seemed like the perfect addition (I’m sure it had been done before, so I don’t take credit).  Mixing it, either crumbled or cubed, through the sausage meat or adding an individual layer around the egg works equally as well, but choose a really good quality pudding.  The same goes for the sausage meat you use.  I originally opted for our favourite cumberland sausage, simply squeezed from the skins, but now we have a new favourite in Angus & Oink’s amazing Kielbasa sausage, and so that’s what I’ll be using in this recipe.

Large, fresh, free range hens eggs and a good quality dry cured streaky bacon are the only other ingredients you need, along with your favourite rub and BBQ sauce.  I’m not a fan of a runny yolk (I know, heathen!), so I don’t try and achieve that with these.  But I’ve added the method for if you prefer them that way.

As always, tweak my recipe to suit your own taste.  They can also be made up the day before if needs be.  It gives you less prep to do on the day you’ll be smoking them.

Giant Smoked Scotch Eggs

  • Prep Time30 min
  • Cook Time1 hr
  • Total Time1 hr 30 min
  • Yield4 Servings
  • Cuisine
    • British
  • Course
  • Cooking Method
    • Direct / Indirect

Ingredients

  • 4 large, free range eggs
  • 8 – 10 of your favourite sausages (I used A&O’s Kielbasa)
  • 4 thick slices of your favourite black pudding (I used my butcher’s own)
  • 16 slices of dry cured, smoked bacon
  • A few tbsp of your favourite rub
  • A few tbsp of your favourite BBQ sauce for glazing
  • Some cling film for shaping your sausage meat

Method

1

Prepare your eggs.  If you want a hard boiled egg, pop them in simmering water for 10 minutes, remove and place in a bowl of iced water to chill completely before peeling.  If you’d like a runny yolk repeat as above but reduce the time to about 6 minutes.  Take care when peeling, as the eggs will be delicate, and you don’t want to lose that yolk!

2

I used 2 large sausages per egg as the kielbasa I use are huge, but depending on the size of yours you may need a bit more.  It works out at roughly 220 – 250g of sausage meat per egg.  Using a sheet of cling film, press the sausage meat into a disc big enough to comfortably surround your egg.  You don’t want to be doing too much moulding and shaping when it comes to the softer eggs, so be generous.

3

Crumble/smoosh/cube a slice of black pudding and cover the surface of the sausage meat.  As I said earlier, you can also combine it with the sausage meat if you’d like, its entirely up to you.

4

Next, pop your egg onto the centre of the disc you’ve just made and bring up the corners of the cling film to completely cover the egg.  Gently twisting the cling film at the top also helps to seal all the edges, but be careful not to apply too much pressure.  Remove the cling and gently give it a final shaping.  Repeat this for the rest of your eggs and then give them a generous dusting with your rub.

5

Now lay out your bacon as shown in the image below, place your egg in the middle and bring up the ends to wrap it.

6

Set up your BBQ or smoker for indirect heat at about 280˚f.  I also like to have the option of giving the scotch eggs a quick flash of direct heat once they’re cooked to crisp up the bacon.  Add a couple of chunks of your favourite smoking wood (I went for a chunk of cherry from Smokewood Shack) and cook the eggs for approximately 50 minutes or until the sausage meat reaches a temperature of 70˚c/160˚f.  Check with an instant read thermometer and give them a little longer if necessary.

7

I like to paint them with my favourite BBQ sauce for the last 10 minutes.

8

Serve with your favourite sides!

Recipe from Kelly Bramill

Rusty BBQ Company Black Angus Coffee Rub

I was sent a sample of this rub before it was launched, although charcoal sounds like a strange ingredient in a rub,
there are a few about.

This one was different, as soon as you opened the packet you would smell the garlic and herbs and a smokiness from the Ancho Chilli.
A finger dip test confirmed that there was a little hint of heat and some sweetness along with the perfect amount of salt

I decided to try it on a T-bone steak I had in the freezer and cook it over silver birch wood on the Ozpig.

The inclusion of charcoal and coffee created a great crust on the steak. This is definately a next level charcoal rub that I can recommend.

If you haven’t tried any of the Rusty BBQ Co rubs, check them out, they are different to the Generic American BBQ Rubs

Ben’s Spiced Lamb Kebab Wraps

Another recipe from one of the ‘BBQ Kids’ upcoming grill masters and this ones an inspiration to us all.

Ben’s only 6 and has impaired function in his left arm  so sometimes needs a bit of help, but he’s super determined and always tries to do everything himself!
Ben was very excited to try out this new recipe and share it with you! 🙂

Ben’s Spiced Lamb Kebab Wraps

  • Prep Time15 min
  • Cook Time15 min
  • Total Time30 min
  • YieldAround 7 Kebabs

Ingredients

  • About 1kg Lamb, trimmed and cubed (we used a half leg of lamb)
  • 2 Bell Peppers cut into similar sized cubes (we used one red and one yellow)
  • 500g Greek yoghurt
  • 2tsp Garam Masala
  • 2tsp Ground Cumin
  • 2 Lemons
  • 1 Red Onion
  • 2 Limes
  • 1tsp Sugar
  • Fresh Mint
  • Flat Breads (we used Aldi’s naan wraps, they were delicious!)
  • Sliced cucumber and mixed salad leaves to serve

Method

1

We started off by making a marinade for the lamb by mixing half the yoghurt with the spices and the juice of 1 lemon, along with a bit of salt and pepper. Then my dad trimmed and cut up the lamb into bite-sized cubes, and I mixed it up in the marinade – getting my hands dirty is the best part! Once it was all mixed, we covered it up and put it in the fridge for a few hours to marinate.

2

Next, we made some pickled pink onions – Dad finely sliced the red onion into a little bowl, then we squeezed the juice from 2 limes over the onion and added the sugar and a good pinch of salt. We put that aside but kept mixing it every now and then to make sure all the onions had their share of pickling – that was my job.

3

Then we made a delicious minty yoghurt drizzling sauce by mixing the remaining yoghurt with some finely chopped mint, the juice of 1 lemon and some more salt and pepper. We put that in the fridge next to the lamb (Dad says lamb and mint are best buddies, so I knew they were happy!) and then we just had to wait for the marinade to do its work.

4

After what seemed like forever (we waited about 5 hours but it felt like 500!) we finally got the lamb out of the fridge and threaded it onto some skewers, alternating with the bell pepper pieces – remember to soak the skewers first if you’re using wooden ones so they don’t burn!

5

Dad made sure the bbq was nice and hot (he grew up in South Africa though, so he calls it a ‘braai’) and I helped him put all the kebabs onto the grill – he lets me borrow his special gloves when we bbq so i don’t burn myself. We turned the kebabs every few minutes until they were nicely browned and cooked through, then we took them off and quickly put the flat breads on the grill for a few minutes, just to warm them through.

6

Finally it was time to eat! I put a few baby salad leaves onto my flat bread first (baby spinach is my favourite), then some cucumber, and then the delicious lamb and bell pepper from the kebab – Mum had to help me get it off the skewer because Dad was already too busy eating his! Lastly I drizzled some of the minty yoghurt sauce over it all – no onions for me as I don’t like them but Mum and Dad say they’re the best part – and then I tucked in!

It was super messy and super yummy – I hope everyone gives this recipe a try and enjoys it as much as we did!

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