Tag Archives: bbq

A real barbeque…

Weber family
Weber family, complete with pig

In Denmark, in addition to banning marmite (!!!), they seem to be pretty passionate about barbecuing – at least as far as Amanda’s family is a benchmark.

However, there – as in here – the hugely convenient gas barbeque is looked on as something of a second class citizen. An important part of the BBQ-ing game, to be sure, but definitely not the preference if time and weather allows.

And so when they want to ‘grill’ proper, they get out the charcoal Weber – the kettle BBQ’s so popular there (and here) practically synonymous with excellence in barbecuing. And after three years with a gas Weber, I finally bit the bullet and got a proper kettle one.

It gets trialled soon, weather permitting. My little Weber family is growing.

BBQ tech and recipes – beercan chicken, snørbrød, rotisserie and roasts

snørbrød med rodpolseOne of the many lovely things about visiting Amanda’s family in Denmark is that there are so many ‘grillmasters’ – BBQ wizards who know everything about BBQ’ing and have the technology to prove it.

They use barbecues there in ways we don’t remotely seem to consider here. Amanda’s cousin Thomas was gifted a plug-in rotisserie for his Weber BBQ, to allow him to do juicy, juicy roasts. He also spoke of his Weber beercan chicken device – to achieve the same impact that Christopher Walken does in this video – only using a BBQ.

Jokke and Onkle spoke of the benefits of indirect heat and did a number of full-on roasts – beef and lamb – on the BBQ. On the one night we BBQ-ed for them, Onkel was actually surprised that we wanted to put meat directly onto the grill!

Jokke and Annie’s other mastery came in the form of snørbrød – BBQ’d bread, Viking style. Bread dough is mixed, left to rise, and then pulled around a trimmed down stick. Hold over barbecue and rotate until the bread cooks through – and pull of stick to reveal perfect receptacle for jam, sausage, ketchup – whatever you like! Amazing, and particularly wonderful with the Danish rodpolse – best hot dogs ever.

All yummy.

In a not unrelated conversation with NCT friend Darren, we mused as to whether there might be a market in BBQ flavoured scent. Everyone would assume you had always just been barbecuing and that would give you a rugged, manly aura, I’ve no doubt, in a not unappealing way. Amanda wasn’t that impressed at the idea, though, so I might not be a consumer of it myself…

I sense a long summer of barbecuing ahead!

Weekend of awesome

Done so many wonderful things this weekend with wonderful people at the 10th annual coast party Damian hosts. A few brief highlights (in no particular order):

Spent time talking, singing, dancing and hanging out with some of the loveliest people in the world (the whole wide world)
Drove a Porsche
Ran 12 miles
Tried ‘rock’ fish (Huss, a white fish)
Threw actual rocks at other rocks
Contributed to the construction of a giant sand village (chief Architect: Nicky. Chief Engineer: Pob)
Got bowled out in one ball in a game of beach cricket, sulked
Swum in indoor and outdoor pools
BBQ-ed
DJ-ed for 3 hours
Danced for 3-4 hours
Told many embarrassing story about ‘Banana Oops’ Damian
Got styled as Bowie (check out my current FB profile pic)
Acted out all the moves to ‘I’m on a boat’
Ate fresh apples off a tree
Lost a sprint race
Won a push-up challenge
Failed to ignite a grass-filled moat/trench defence at midnight on Saturday
Learned how to play an exceedingly complex board game designed to halt the rise of Cthulu (Arkham Horror, I think)
Was impressed by Serena’s mad poetry skills.
Failed to play any poker due to an inadvertently early bedtime
Failed to go to bed till morning due to an advertently late bedtime
Referenced FoTC at every possible occasion
Tried to take some good pictures with my recently acquired Nikon D-80 (need to work out depth of field).
Discovered I actually like marmite. Never thought I did.

Amazing weekend. Massive props to all involved. Big up yourselves.

A bad time to go quiet

My blog traffic spiked up in the last few weeks and then… I fell silent. Parents are visiting, job is busy and life has generally been unforgiving. Promise more will follow, erm, in late April, after I get back from the holiday we have planned for Tunisia.

Very exciting!

Hope y’all are well.

Also, my BBQ turned up yesterday. It is a Weber Q220, which I understand are the Mac Daddies of affordable gas BBQs, and I can’t wait to get grilling.