Smoke Signals

As my neighbours would attest, I like to barbecue, and I thought I would take that a step further and build a few pages on the site, giving recipes and ideas. I'll add recipes and photos as we go through the rest of the summer. First off the grill are Sea Bream. Future recipes will appear on either the 'Fish' or the 'Meat' sections. A list of recipes will be found at the bottom of this page.	So why did I call the barbecue section ‘Smoke Signals’? In 1989 the family were living in California on a 15 month company assignment and before coming home to the UK we took a 2 week touring holiday. On the way south to Death Valley we stopped for the night in a small town called Lone Pine and asked at the motel desk where we should go for a barbecue meal. He directed us to a ‘hole-in-the-wall’ called Smoke Signals. The entry off the street was straight into the cooking area, hotter than hell. There were a number of slow burning wood ovens cooking beef ribs and chicken, in a traditional slow cook way, up to 10 hours in the ovens. You can imagine the heat. We passed through the cooking area to a ‘back lot’ where there were scrub top wooden trestle tables and benches. A couple of large ‘fridges held cold beer etc and you served yourself from them on an honour system. Food came on paper plates and drink was from the bottle, or paper cups if you were proud. It was the best barbecue food our family had anywhere, and the memory of that unprepossessing place has well and truly stuck
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Recipe list.
Many people have gas barbecues, but I have always preferred traditional charcoal, it means more messing about and cleaning of the grill but that's all part of the 'man thing', and you get to drink a cold beer while you're doing it. For me there is one grill that is better than all the others and that is the Webber 'kettle' grill in the photo below.
Many grills on the market look OK in the shop but are not up to the job, they are made from very thin metal which will rust quickly, and an amazing number have no air vents in the bottom. The air vents are essential for getting an airflow through the coals, and with the Webber the openings can be varied allowing you to control the heat of the grill. There are also variable openings in the removable lid of the grill for the same reason. The Webber is very solid with a layer in the lid which allows heat to be reflected back into the grill. More on this later.


Had 2 weeks in Umbria where we had rented a place on the hillside above a little village called Paciano. Magic. The BBQ did get used a fair bit as well.

For cooking items that require a very hot grill, and only a few minutes on the heat, such as steaks, sausages etc then the direct heat method is the way to go. The charcoal is spread across the grid that holds it and the meat goes directly above the hot coals on another grid (the large on in bottom right of the photo above). This is pretty much what happens with a gas grill. The big plus with the Webber is the use of indirect heat. With this method the charcoal is in two piles at the sides of the grill, held by special fixers and there is no heat directly under the meat. There are a couple of advantages with this; it means that the juices and fat from the meat does not go onto the charcoal (and that is what causes all the smoke you often see) it is collected in a foil dish under the meat, and it allows for longer slow cooking instead of 'cremating' the meat. Using this method whole joints, chickens and turkeys etc can be cooked. A couple of weeks ago I did a rolled, boned leg of lamb (2.5 Kg) complete with 'crackling', took 1hr 30 minutes. You could not do that properly with the hot coals directly under the meat. Really there is not much that cannot be done on a barbecue, and it does not take much longer than cooking with an oven if you are organized.
The next essential is the charcoal. Most supermarkets sell lump-wood charcoal, but again there is better stuff available if you want to pay for it. Henry Street Nursery sells bags of Pang Valley charcoal (couple of bags in photo above) which is better than anything in the supermarkets. It is from local woodland which is properly managed, and the wood is turned to charcoal in the traditional way. This means the charcoal is in good lumps, and it is incredibly easy to light, you will get it going just with paper, or you might want to use barbecue lighting gel or firelighters. If you do, make sure all the paraffin in these has burnt off before putting food on the grill or it will taste of the firelighters.

Sea Bream Fish such as Bream are best cooked on direct heat, but not red hot coals, ideally they should be still hot but grey. To get as close as possible to this I close the bottom vents when the grill is hot, and put the lid on with the lid vents partly open. The fish should be cleaned and scored two or three times on each side. Lemon slices in the belly of the fish work well, and the fish should be brushed with oil and seasoning. The oil helps to prevent the fish from sticking to the grill, for myself I also use a fish holder as in the photo to make it easier to turn the fish without having them break apart. Cooking time for two decent sized Bream was 14 minutes, and this would be about the same for Bass or Snapper. If you have them, cast iron plates are good for serving up barbecue food, heat them in the oven and they then keep the food warm outside. Don’t forget the cold white wine!

	Sardines grilling at a beachside restaurant on the eastern side of Crete.
Recipe listing.
Sea Bream: take a look above.	Rib Eye roast
Mackerel	Butterfly a leg of lamb
Sea Bass filets with rocket pesto	Pork tenderloin wrapped in pancetta
	Rolled, boned Leg of Lamb
	Spatchcoked poussins
	Lamb shank
	Skirt or flank (as the Americans call it).