Name: McMuffin
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 20 min
Total time: 30 min
Yield: 4
Ingredients: Spray Oil for the Plancha; 4 Muffins; 8 Pork Sausages; 8 rashers Streaky Bacon; 4 Eggs; 4 slices of processed cheese (I know that’s sacrilege but it is the best type for these); (You can add other things such as hashbrowns or grilled tomato )

02/07/201803/02/2022

McMuffin

Prep Time10 min
Cook Time20 min
Total Time30 min
Yield4 Servings

Course
- Breakfast
Cooking Method
- Direct on Plancha or Griddle

Ingredients

Spray Oil for the Plancha
4 Muffins
8 Pork Sausages
8 rashers Streaky Bacon
4 Eggs
4 slices of processed cheese (I know that’s sacrilege but it is the best type for these)
(You can add other things such as hashbrowns or grilled tomato )

Method

Take the skin of the sausages and make four patties each containing two sausages. Squirt some oil on the plancha or griddle pan and put the patties on to cook. Add the bacon after about 10 mins.

You can do one of two things with the eggs you can cook them in a silicone ring, just like they do at McDonalds or you can scramble them.

Once you are happy that the sausages are cooked, toast the muffins and add the cheese to the top of the sausage patties and melt.

Pile up your sausage patties, bacon, egg and if desired a big splodge of ketchup

Recipe by Mark Cole :Twitter @Coleybbq, Instagram coleybbq

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02/07/201803/02/2022

Mushroom and Chestnut Bourguignon

Prep Time30 min
Cook Time1 hr 20 min
Total Time1 hr 50 min
Yield6 Servings

Course
- Main Course
Cooking Method
- Indirect/Direct in Griddle Pan

Ingredients

A little oil for browning
450g small chestnut mushrooms or button mushrooms, left whole
175 g cooked chestnuts, sliced in half
300g Chantonnay carrots (or regular carrots chopped into large chunks)
24 small shallots, peeled and left whole
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1/2 tsp caraway seeds
300 ml hot vegetable stock
1 tsp Marmite (or Vegemite).
1/2 tsp brown miso paste
400ml red burgundy wine (you can substitute another red wine)
2 heaped tbsp tomato purée
4 tbsp brandy
2-3 tsp unrefined sugar
4 heaped tsp cornflour mixed to a slurry with a few drops of water
A bunch of thyme tied with string
Salt and pepper to taste

Method

Clean the mushrooms and place in a bowl. Pour over the wine and leave to stand overnight or for a few hours, giving them a stir once or twice (marinating the mushrooms is optional).

Set up your BBQ to have direct and indirect zones. Prepare your carrots and pop them in a bowl. Add a tiny bit of oil, salt and pepper and massage the carrots to coat. Place on a baking tray and roast indirectly in the BBQ using some fruit wood chips or chunks for smoke for 20-25 minutes until cooked and set aside.

Using the Weber GBS Dutch Oven or a heatproof saucepan suitable for the BBQ, brown the shallots over a high heat (direct zone) using a little oil. You’re just looking for colour on them here, you don’t need to cook them through. Remove them from the pan and set aside.

Remove the mushrooms from the wine (reserve the wine for later), pat them dry with kitchen paper and then add to the hot pan. Fry off the mushrooms for a few minutes and while this is happening dissolve the marmite and miso paste in the hot stock.

Add the shallots to the mushrooms along with the garlic and caraway seeds and fry gently for another minute. Now add the chestnuts, stock, brandy, thyme and 200ml of the wine marinade. Bring to the boil and then move to the indirect side of the BBQ, close the lid and simmer until the shallots are tender. You can cover the pan or leave it uncovered if you want to infuse more smoke into the casserole.

Add more of the wine and a little water if you think it needs it, but remember that the wine will need to cook out, so check this early on.

Add the carrots to the pan and taste for seasoning, adding a good grinding of black pepper and salt if needed. Stir in the cornflour slurry and simmer until the sauce has thickened.

Serve with greens and creamy mashed potatoes.

Recipe by Kelly Bramill of Chickpeas and Charcoal

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02/07/201803/02/2022

Meater Wireless Thermometer – Review by Paul Niland

When Matt from Meater approached UK BBQ week and asked if anyone would like to try the product I wanted to give it a go.

With the rotisserie, consistency in the setup; the fuel and the weather conditions are all factors that can make or break your Sunday roast or your game changing Turkey during the holidays. When you first start using the rotisserie you tend to increase your cook times or affect the temperature by lifting the lid of your BBQ. What I really needed was a probe with no wires! In comes the Meater “The First Wireless Smart Meat Thermometer”

So how did I get on with it? Overall I liked the product. I have been watching it for a while with anticipation that it would be great for the rotisserie and it was. I found the temperature accuracy to be good, sometimes the same as my Thermapen or 1-2 degrees different. The app was very clear and simple to use and consistent between Apple and Android devices. I found the setup simple (maybe because I work in technology) and using the combination of Bluetooth, WIFI and the Meater Cloud Feature, I found syncing devices worked very well. I did see a few tweets about range so for my setup I used an old IPAD approx. 2m away from the BBQ. My shack is more than 10m from my house, so I knew it would be outside of the Bluetooth range and may have problems if I tried without it. In the future, the mini block should certainly act as the bridge.

Setting up the cooks was very good and simple, though the presets were aimed towards the US market based on USDA guidelines. There were a great deal of support videos on their youtube channel that helped you get started with examples of how to use the product. Being from the UK, I did find these quite Americanised. Also as a BBQ fanatic, I tend to avoid using the oven at all costs so some of these videos did not appeal to me.

Monitoring the cook was very good, I tried a combination of Apple and Android devices and found them to be consistent. Randomly the connection would drop, I could not explain this though it was not frequent enough to affect my cook.

The bit that let me down was the battery, I cooked a whole chicken with some serious smoke and after washing the probe it did not charge too well. You have to give it a serious scrub between cooks to get enough contact for it to charge. There is a little LED battery indicator though I think this was just for the batteries in the block and not relevant to the probe. Also the app does not currently give an indication of how much life is left so if you like your low and slow it can be quite worrying. This in fact did happen to me and I was surprised after a quick 30 min charge I could not resume where I left off.

There has been some concerns in the UK BBQ community regarding the range, and temperature accuracy. I did not see these problems during my cooks though knowing the people who had these problems I believe them to be genuine and I have discussed these with the Meater team.

Overall, would I buy the probe? The short answer is yes. Is it the finished product for the general BBQ market? I will let the community decide as Its possible there are some factors that may affect your experience of using the product. Will there be some improvements? Certainly, speaking with Matt at length about the team, their vision and their approach to improvement, I see this being very good in the future as more people start using it for BBQ and provide their feedback.

If you would like to know more, you can find more information about the probe from the official website https://meater.com

What’s Good

What could be improved

Estimated cook time feature – A game changer
Temperature accuracy is good
Meater Cloud option for syncing devices and viewing temps on the move works well
Support for Apple/Android devices
Presentation of the app looks great and is simple to use.
Combination of Bluetooth and WIFI setup is simple to do.
Setting up the cook, naming them and changing temps during was easy to do
Customising your preferred settings such as C/F was easy to do.
The email, asking for your feedback after each cook is very innovative and great service.

Need for an intermediate device for this to be great for BBQ. – This should be the small block.
Connections to the device can drop intermittently.
If smoke is not scrubbed of the end it does not change too well.
The LED Charge light not relevant to the probe, so your not sure if it is charged well enough
With no battery life indicator in the app, long cooks are also a bit worrying.
When the battery runs out it does not preserve progress especially when the cook was on the cloud.
App use quite a lot of battery
Although I really like it, the estimated cook time takes a while to show. So you cant really leave a short cook.
Alerts can be annoying and re-appear after acknowledging them.
Temperate presets are US based
Product support videos are US based

02/07/201803/02/2022

Beef Stroganoff

Prep Time10 min
Cook Time30 min
Total Time40 min
Yield4 Servings

Course
- Main Course
Cooking Method
- Direct in Griddle Pan

Ingredients

675g/1½ lb beef fillet, preferably cut from the tail end (It can be made with Sirloin which will make the dish cheaper
65g/2½oz unsalted butter
1½ tbsp paprika (hot Hungarian, if you like a little subtle heat)
1 large onion, very thinly sliced
350g/12oz button mushrooms, thinly sliced
3 tbsp sunflower oil
300ml/10fl oz soured cream
2 tsp lemon juice
small handful of parsley leaves, finely chopped
salt
freshly ground black pepper

Method

Cut the steak into 1cm strips

Melt the butter in the griddle, add the paprika and onion and cook slowly until onion is soft but not browned.

Add the mushrooms and fry gently for three minutes, transfer to a plate and keep warm.

Using the same pan heat the sunflower oil until very hot

Add the fillet and fry quickly seasoning and turning as you do for around a minute. You do not want to overcook the steak. Transfer to a plate.

Return the onion/mushroom mixture to the pan add the sour cream and bring to the boil, simmer for a minute until thickened

Return the steak to the pan and heat gently for one minute. The beef should not be cooked any further.

Stir in the lemon juice and parsley

Serve with buttered noodles or rice

Recipe by Christine Dale of Chillin n’ Grillin

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02/07/201803/02/2022

Butter Chicken

Prep Time20 min
Cook Time30 min
Total Time50 min
Yield6 Servings

Cuisine
- Indian
Course
- Main Course
Cooking Method
- Direct and Dutch Oven

Ingredients

For the marinade

1tsp ground cumin
1tsp coriander
½ tsp ground black pepper
1tsp fenugreek leaves
1tsp ground turmeric
1tsp paprika
1tsp chilli powder
1tsp flaked sea salt
2tsp garlic and ginger paste
1tsp tomato puree
4 tbsp natural yoghurt
6 chicken breasts

For the Butter Sauce

125 gms ghee (or 100gms butter and 2tbsp oil)
2 onions chopped
3tsbp garlic and ginger paste
1tsp ground turmeric
4 ripe tomatoes
3tbsp tomato puree
1 tbsp caster sugar
1tsp flaked sea salt
100ml double cream
Handful fresh coriander

Method

Combine all the dry ingredients for the marinade to form a spice mix, take three table spoons of the spice mix and add to the yoghurt tomato puree and garlic and ginger paste Reserve the rest of the spice mix for the sauce.

Cut each chicken breast into 6 and add to marinade. Put in fridge over night or at least 4 hours.

To make the butter sauce, heat the ghee and add onions, and garlic and ginger paste, cook gently until the onions are softened, we do this in a dutch oven on the bbq but it can be done on the cooker, increase the heat and stir in the rest of the spice mix you prepared for the marinade and the turmeric. Cook for 3 mins stirring regularly.

Stir in the tomatoes, tomato puree, sugar and salt and cook for 5 mins stirring constantly until the tomatoes have softened. Add 200mls of cold water and bring to a gentle simmer.

Preheat your bbq, put the chicken on the skewers and grill until they are ready, internal temp of 165f or 74c and ideally they should have a light char.

Blitz your sauce with a stick blender and add the cream simmer for a couple more minutes. Take you chicken and slide it off the skewer in to the sauce.

Serve sprinkled with chopped coriander and serve with rice and naan breads

Recipe from Chillin n' Grillin

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02/07/201803/02/2022

Looftlighter – Review by @ArtustBBQ

Without doubt one of the best BBQ gadgets I have ever added to my collection is the Looftlighter. Admittedly it’s an odd name but it’s one that will stick with you until you also own one. I was lucky enough to pick mine up at a festival around 4 years ago now and it’s still going strong to this day.

So what is a Looftlighter? Imagine a hairdryer that has been to the gym twice a day for it’s whole life. It’s essentially a very strong heating element with fan behind it in a handheld unit that wouldn’t look out of place as a weapon in a Sci-Fi movie. So if you have ever struggled with getting your BBQ lit quickly when you are under a little pressure then this could be the tool for you. I know the #UKBBQ week team have some articles on reasons against using quick lighting charcoal and especially avoiding using any kind of lighter fluid, and the Looflighter will banish those items to the bin forever.

Plug the Looftlighter in, touch the metal gauze on the end against your fuel of choice which can be charcoal, briquettes or even wood and push down the button. The heating element heats up within seconds and that heat is blown by the fan directly onto your chosen fuel. In under 60 seconds the fuel will be starting to smoulder at which point you can pull back the Looftlighter around 10cm and let the fan blow the flames until your barbecue is lit and ready to go. It really is that simple.

Briquettes will take a little longer to catch light so my top tip is add some charcoal in with them so it catches easier. Used in combination with a chimney starter you can really get the fuel for your BBQ raging hot in just a few minutes which makes it a seriously handy piece of kit. Being able to get cooking in under 10 minutes really takes out any excuses about how long setting up a BBQ takes. Just another tool to help you get outside and cooking more because your life has been made a lot easier.

The Looftlighter does have it’s limitations. It runs from the mains electricity so you need to have a plug socket available or at least be able to run an extension lead out to your BBQ or where you light your chimney starter. I have also seen some units suffering some melting on the metal guard around the heating element, but simply making sure the unit is only in direct contact with the fuel until it starts to smoulder will eliminate this.

The Looftlighter is on sale via various outlets in the UK and has an RRP or around £69.99, however the unit has been seen on sale via Amazon as low as £30.00. The cheapest we can see currently is around £48.00 which is still a good price for such a hand piece of kit. I know I will always have one in my BBQ tool kit.

02/07/201803/02/2022

‘Style Your Own’ Bean Burger

Prep Time15 min
Cook Time10 min
Total Time25 min
Yield4 Servings

Cooking Method
- Direct on Plancha or Griddle

Ingredients

Foundation Ingredients

1 tin of chickpeas, drained.
1 tin of any other bean you fancy (kidney, black, mixed, cannelini, borlotti etc), drained & rinsed.
3 tbsp plain flour.
Salt and pepper to taste.

Style Your Own

Choose one from each category…
A handful of any soft herb (coriander, parsley, basil, tarragon, chives, mint, sage, oregano, fresh thyme – leaves only if stalks are woody)
A tbsp of paste or puree (tomato, roasted garlic, sun dried tomato, thai curry, chipotle, harissa, tahini, red or green pesto, achiote, or even ripe avocado)
2 tsp dried herbs, spices, rub or any other flavouring you fancy that compliment the flavours of whichever herbs and spice paste you’ve chosen.
A bit of heat (optional) in the form of dried chilli flakes. Less if using powder.
Citrus. Lemon or lime work really well with a lot of herb and spice combinations. Zest and juice of 1 of your chosen fruit works well.

Method

Put all the ingredients in a food processor and blitz to combine. It’s nice to keep a bit of texture, so pulse until you get the desired consistency, you want the mix to form easily into a ball. Check seasoning – the raw mix is perfectly safe to taste.

Shape the mix into 4 large patties, using wet hands helps, and lay on a baking tray lined with parchment paper. Pop the patties in the fridge to firm up for an hour or so. You can freeze the patties at this point for cooking at a later date or make ahead the day before.

Fry the patties on a medium to high heat in a little oil until golden on each side without moving them too much until a light crust has formed. Move them to a lower temperature or indirect area and finish cooking – around 10 minutes.

Serve on a toasted bun with your favourite accompaniments.

Here are a few examples of flavour combinations to add to your foundation mix.

• Fresh basil, sun dried tomato paste, 2 tsp of garlic granules (or fresh is good here), lemon zest and juice.
• Fresh coriander, chipotle paste, 2 tsp jerk seasoning, chilli flakes, lime zest and juice.
• Fresh mint, harissa paste, 2 tsp finely chopped preserved lemon.
• Fresh thyme, roasted garlic puree, 2 tsp cajun seasoning, lime zest and juice.
• Fresh chives, your favourite BBQ sauce/marinade, 2 tsp smoked paprika/BBQ rub, clementine zest and juice.
• Fresh tarragon, wholegrain mustard, 2 tsp garlic granules, lemon zest and juice.
• Fresh parsley, pesto, 2 tsp vegan parmesan, lemon zest and juice.

Recipe kindly supplied by Kelly at Chickpeas & Charcoal

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02/07/201803/02/2022

Two for One Breakfast (Part 1)

Prep Time1 hr
Cook Time30 min
Total Time1 hr 30 min
Yield3 Servings

Course
- Breakfast
Cooking Method
- InDirect/Plancha

Ingredients

3 Large Jacket Potatoes
6 Pork Sausages (3 for Part 1)
6 rashers Streaky Bacon
3 Eggs
1 Onion sliced

Method

Bake the potatoes the night before and allow to cool.

Once cool, cut off the top and bottom and scoop out most of the potato, leaving 0.5/1cm inside. Reserve the potato for Two for One Breakfast (Part 2)

Take the skin off the sausages. At this stage you can flavour up the sausage meat if desired. I used a little bit of salt and pepper and some hot sauce. Mix together and split the mixture in to six, reserving 3 for part two. Use the sausage meat to plug the bottom half of each of the potatoes. Wrap two slices of bacon around each potato. You may need to pin them with a cocktail stick.

Stand the potatoes on the plancha or in a cast iron pan for approximately 20 minutes.

Once the sausage is cooked drop an egg in to the top of each and start frying your onion. The egg will take approximately 10 minutes, but cook it to your desired outcome. Sprinkle the onions over the top and you are good to go

Recipe by Tim Donald t: Tim@silverbackgrill insta: tim.donald1

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02/07/201803/02/2022

Two for One Breakfast (Part 2)

Prep Time10 min
Cook Time20 min
Total Time30 min
Yield3 Servings

Course
- Breakfast
Cooking Method
- InDirect/Plancha

Ingredients

Potato reserved from Part 1
Sausages reserved from Part 1
1 Eggs
1 Onion diced
3 Rolls

Method

Form the remaining sausage in to 3 patties. Cook on the plancha for about 10 minutes a side or until internal temp reaches 70c.

Mash the potato and mix with the onion and egg. Form the potato in to 3 patties and put on the plancha with the sausage patties, these will probably take about 10 minutes a side. You might want to put a pat of butter under each to help with the browning.

Toast the buns cut side down on the plancha for a minute or two and assemble. If you are like me you will liberally lash with hot sauce. As with most breakfast dishes you can stack this with whatever you want!

Recipe by Tim Donald t: Tim@silverbackgrill insta: tim.donald1