The best time to have a barbecue is right now. May and June always bring our nicest and driest weather, and starting the barbie early lengthens the feeling of summertime.
Working out some recipes this week has persuaded me that the way to get the best out of a barbecue is to master a few classic dishes and sauces which will be failsafe and irresistible. Barbecues that consist of chops and sausages can be rather predictable, and whackingly-flavoured bottled marinades frequently work against the gentle aroma of smoke which we want to taste from the food.
Barbecued foods work best with the simplest and most potent flavours. Think of the barbecues you have enjoyed on your European holidays and you will see what I mean: it is the memory of some burning fennel aromatising grilled fish; or rosemary branches used to spear kebabs of offal; or of a sweet basil butter poured over some grilled shellfish, which are the evocative memories, precisely because they are the simplest.
Straightforward flavours also work best with wine. If you have a high-protein barbie, then you need beer to work against the fatty flavours.
But using garlic and olive oil and herbs means that even the most slender, noble wine will be shown at its best.
The first two recipes here are for two of the great classics of the grill. Tuscan Chicken is, for my money, just about the best way to eat chicken. Bistecce alla Fiorentina is the classic Italian way to grill a thick piece of T-bone steak and, again, there is no better way to cook meat. Our Basil Butter couldn't be simpler, and nor can there be a better sauce for grilled fish and shellfish: one taste of this, and you will live on it all summer.
With this trio in your repertoire, you will be spending the next four months on the deck or the patio. We will come back to barbecue basics next week, when we will look at equipment and other essentials.
Tuscan Chicken
1 chicken
2 cloves garlic
Juice of 1 lemon
Sprig of rosemary, finely chopped
Finely crumbled bay leaf
3 tablespoons olive oil
Sea salt
Freshly ground black pepper
To make the marinade: crush the cloves of garlic with a sprinkling of salt to a fine paste - this is perhaps most easily done with a mortar and pestle. Now, add in the crumbled dried bay leaf and the finely chopped rosemary with a few grindings of black pepper. Pour in the lemon juice and stir to amalgamate, then pour in the three tablespoons of olive oil - use extra virgin olive oil as it will have a stronger flavour - and now whisk everything together.
You have a number of options with the chicken. The standard technique is to portion the chicken into a number of pieces: two breasts; two drumsticks; two thighs; two wings and shoulder pieces. But if it's a small bird, you can simply flatten it: lay the bird breast-side-down and take out the backbone with a pair of heavy kitchen shears. Now, turn the bird breast-side up and press it down very heavily with your hand (more delicate souls, not to mention Kathy Bates fans, can use a mallet to do this). This technique will break the breastbone, the collar bone, the rib cage and the wishbone, and what you will be left with is basically a chicken parcel which will cook evenly in one piece and which suits the barbecue perfectly.
Now, place either the chicken pieces or the flattened chicken in a deep bowl and pour over the marinade, making sure to rub it in all the crevices using your fingers. Leave it for as long as you can: two hours is a minimum, overnight is of course much better.
When the coals are covered with a grey ash, put the chicken on the grill. Dark meat portions will need about 20 minutes; white meat will need about 10 minutes. If you cook a flattened bird, it will need about 20 minutes for each side. It is done when the juices from the thigh run clear when the chicken is pierced. I baste the chicken with the marinade as it cooks: if you don't wish to do this, then brush the chicken with olive oil as it cooks.
Bistecce alla Fiorentina
The key to this great beef grill is the thickness of the meat. Your butcher will have to cut you a T-bone steak which is at least oneand-a-half inches thick - any thinner and the dish simply doesn't work. There should be a good layer of fat around the edge, and a tail at the bottom of the steak which you will fasten to the steak with cocktail sticks.
T-bone steak, minimum 11/2 inches thick
Freshly crushed black pepper
Sea salt
Extra virgin olive oil
Lemons, cut into wedges
2-3 cocktail sticks
Soak the cocktail sticks in water for about 10 minutes then use them to fix the tail of the meat to the fillet.
To get the maximum flavour from your peppercorns, place them in a cloth and then crush them with the base of a saucepan, as this releases the maximum aroma. However, freshly ground pepper from a pepper mill is fine. Rub the crushed peppercorns into both sides of the T-bone, spreading them as evenly as possible. Half a teaspoon of peppercorns should be sufficient.
When the fire is ready, grease the grill with a piece of beef fat, then cook the T-bone on a fairly high heat - a Fiorentina is always cooked rare.
When you turn the meat, sprinkle the cooked side with a pinch of sea salt. When the steak is just cooked, brush it generously on both sides with olive oil. Take it off the fire and let it rest for at least five minutes before carving it into slices. Serve the beef slices with wedges of lemon.
Basil Butter
This is heavenly with shellfish, especially clams which are cooked on the grill until they pop open, and which then have a shower of golden green butter poured all over them. The mixture of the clam juices and the basil butter is thrilling.
50 grammes (2 oz) butter
15 grammes (half oz) basil
Melt the butter slowly in a heavy saucepan. Strip the leaves off the basil stalks and shred them very finely with a stainless steel knife. Stir the basil into the butter, and serve straight away.