As soon as anyone in the UK says’Ooh you know what? I fancy a barbecue?’ you know the weather is about to go drastically and rapidly downhill. The DIY superstores will be looking sadly at the massive mountain of charcoal they hopefully, and ill advisedly, bought earlier in the year while counting the cost of hundreds of unsold BBQ accessories.
But a BBQ is really for anytime. I’ve had memorable BBQs in deep snow and only last weekend I grilled under a jury-rigged shelter of three golfing umbrellas, rain dripping cheerfully down my neck whilst mocked by everyone inside looking out. So Weber’s book, Barbecue Anytime strikes a chord with me, especially as I am the proud owner of a classic Weber kettle barbecue now ten years old and still going strong.
Gas is good, but nothing beats charcoal when you have the time to get it well settled down to a good hot white ash. And real BBQ is about lid down and slow, slow cooking, which is where the Weber excels.
That said of course all these recipes will work without a Weber, and on gas too if you have no time to light a fire. There are 190 recipes packed tightly into this book with easy evening meals and full on family meals to spend a long lunchtime with.
Chapters divide from vital store cupboard essentials and tools to always have, to Grilling Basics, Under 30 Minutes, Friends for Dinner, The Adventurous Barbecuer and finally to my favourite, Barbecuing Off Season, which for us in the UK means pretty much every day of the year. In short if you can cook it with the lid on, you can cook it in any weather.
The recipes are American slanted, which is to be expected but then Americans do know their BBQ, just look at the size of them. That’s a lot of meat. Lots of rib recipes, pork and slow cooked chickens but also recipes for fish and seafood in general and, lordy lordy, some vegetable and even sweet pie recipes too. There is also a pizza recipe, and not just in order to upsell the Weber Pizza Stone (very good by the way) as you can do it with careful use of indirect heat and baking parchment.
All in all a very handy book and great value too. If you don’t have a kettle BBQ then do consider one. They do a lot more than a simple grill and Webers are very good indeed. As I say mine is ten years old and so worth the premium price I paid, todays are even better with some new ideas that enhance the basic model while leaving it looking unchanged. You can even get a wok attachment as well the pizza stone.
Come rain or shine, there’s always time for a barbecue. Try out these all weather recipes.
Prefer gas? Then the Grillstream has to be the best buy out there.
{ISBN:0600624137}