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The question: What’s your secret for turning out a gourmet barbecue meal for a crowd?
The expert: Havelock North restaurateur Raymond van Rijk runs gourmet barbecue classes throughout New Zealand. He has 25 years’ experience in the food and hospitality industry.
The answer:
My advice is to take it easy, be prepared and don’t try to cook everything at once. I’d suggest taking a couple of hours and presenting a series of courses.
I’d start a gourmet barbecue with focaccia made in a cast-iron dish. Use indirect heat with the outside burners on and the hood down. There’s nothing nicer than the smell of bread baking when guests arrive.
When you’ve taken the bread out, tip a bit of leftover wine into the dish, add chopped leeks, celery, carrot, onion and garlic. Add some mussels and put the hood down while they cook. The bread will still be warm when you serve it with the mussels and vegetables. It will take the edge off everybody’s hunger.
Then grill a side of salmon with whatever flavouring you like. It won’t take long. While it’s cooking, prepare plates with ciabatta bread and salad to serve with the salmon. Then you can put your rib-eye or racks of lamb on to cook.
Do you cook dessert on the barbecue? Yes, that’s when you can really start showing off. Grilled peaches are fantastic. Halve the peaches and fill them with a mixture of crème fraiche, pistachio nuts, amaretto and brown sugar. Cook them under the hood for about 20 minutes.
What’s the most common mistake? You get guys who know only one kind of heat – that’s high. They throw on patties, steak, fish and burgers all at once. Before you know it, your food is either overcooked, undercooked or cremated. To barbecue well, you do need a basic knowledge of food. The problem is a lot of New Zealand men don’t know how to cook – they’ve been spoiled by their mothers or wives – but when it comes to barbecuing they think they know everything. That’s when it goes wrong.
How do men respond to your courses? I get guys who come who can’t even boil water. Some of them discover they’re quite interested in food and end up cooking regularly, not just barbecuing. There are four neighbours who did one of my courses who get together every two months and cook unbelievable four-course meals. Their wives just sit back and have a glass of wine.
Best piece of equipment? A good pair of long-handled tongs. I hate meat forks. The only thing you can do with them is poke meat – and then all the juices run out. If you are given a barbecue set with a meat fork in it, throw the fork away!
Visit bbqgourmet.co.nz
Photographs: Annelise Hough
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