Grilled carrot and halloumi
This robust yet refreshing dish is inspired by chef Sophie Wright, who cooked something very similar on my Three Good Things TV show. Grilled carrot is a revelation, and the orangey dressing brings the dish together beautifully. Serves four.
250g carrots
Extra-virgin olive oil
Juice and finely grated zest of ½medium orange
Sea salt and freshly ground blackpepper
Cider vinegar
4 handfuls salad leaves (eg lettuce, rocket, flat-leaf parsley)
250g halloumi, cut into wide 0.5cm-thick slices
Peel the carrots and cut lengthways into 5mm-thick slices. Put them in a bowl, add two tablespoons of oil, the orange zest and juice, and some salt and pepper, and toss gently.
When the barbecue is ready, lay the carrots on the grill and cook for five minutes, turning once or twice, until marked with grill lines and reasonably tender, but still with a bit of crunch. Transfer to a bowl. Add a few drops of vinegar and any juices from the bowl, and toss gently.
Arrange the leaves on a serving platter or four individual plates, lay the carrots on top and trickle with any juices from the bowl.
Toss the halloumi with a trickle of oil and grill for a couple of minutes on each side, until soft and nicely marked. Lay the cheese on top of the salad, add another squeeze of orange juice, a trickle of oil and atwist more pepper, and serve.
Lamb and apricot kebabs with spiced yoghurt
I love the combination of spicy, savoury barbecued meat and sweet-tart fruit. If you find some ripe fresh apricots, they'll be delicious here; otherwise, dried apricots work very well – in fact, I almost prefer them. The fruit chars slightly on the grill, which enhances its dark, toffeeish flavours. You don't have to toast and grind your own spice mix, but the dish will be even more knockout if you do. If you don't have time, use a teaspoon each of ground cumin, coriander and paprika for the marinade, plus a good pinch each of black pepper and cayenne pepper; for the yoghurt, take a pinch of each. If using wooden skewers rather than metal ones, soak them in cold water for 30minutes before using, otherwise they'll just burn on the barbecue. Serves four.
600g boned leg of lamb
1 small red onion (or 2 shallots), peeled and finely chopped
1 clove garlic, peeled and crushed
3 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil, plusalittle extra to serve
150g plain wholemilk yoghurt
8 fresh apricots (or 16 small ones), or 32 unsulphured dried apricots
8 skewers
1 handful fresh mint leaves, chopped
A squeeze of lemon juice
Sea salt and freshly ground blackpepper
For the spice mix
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp coriander seeds
1 tsp fennel seeds
1 tsp caraway seeds (optional)
10-12 black peppercorns
1 tsp sweet smoked paprika
Pinch of cayenne pepper
Cut the lamb into large cubes. If you're making your own spice mix, start by toasting the spices. Heat adry frying pan over a medium heat, add the cumin, coriander and fennel seeds, and the caraway, if using, as well as the peppercorns. Toast until fragrant – about a minute. Transfer to a mortar, leave to cool, then use a pestle to pound to a fine powder. Combine with the paprika and cayenne, and stir to blend.
Put a tablespoon of the spice mix in a bowl with the lamb, onion and garlic. Add the olive oil, mix with your hands, then cover and leave to marinate in the fridge for two to three hours.
Meanwhile, stir a teaspoon of the spice mix into the yoghurt, season with salt and pepper, and refrigerate until needed. (Save any remaining spice mix for another dish.)
If you are using fresh apricots, quarter them (or halve if you have very small fruit) and remove the stones; if you're using dried apricots, cover them in boiling water, soak for 30 minutes and drain.
Thread both the lamb and the apricots on to the skewers and seasongenerously.
When your barbecue is good and hot, cook the kebabs for four to six minutes on each side (go for the shorter cooking time if you like your lamb pink), so that both the meat and apricots are nicely charred. Remove from the heat, leave to rest in a warm place for five minutes, then scatter with the chopped mint, squeeze over a little lemon juice and finish with a trickle of oil. Serve at once with the spiced yoghurt and fresh flatbreads or warmed pittas.
Spicy, yoghurt-marinated chicken
This tandoori-esque chicken is moist, moreish and delicious. Serves four to eight.
1 free-range chicken, jointed into 8 pieces (or use 8 pre-prepared chicken pieces, skin on and on the bone)
Juice of 1 lemon
Garam masala, to finish
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
For the marinade
100g plain, wholemilk yoghurt
1 clove garlic, crushed or finely grated
2 teaspoons medium-hot curry powder
Slash the chicken pieces deeply in a few places with a sharp knife and put in a large dish. Add the lemon juice and rub it all over the chicken.
Thoroughly combine the yoghurt, garlic and curry powder. Add this to the chicken, and rub it all over the meat. Cover and refrigerate for at least a few hours, preferably overnight.
The chicken is best cooked when the barbecue is medium-hot and not too fierce. Shake the excess marinade off the chicken and place it on the grill. Cook for 20-30 minutes, turning regularly, until the chicken is cooked through. Leave to rest for five minutes in a warm place. Sprinkle generously with salt and pepper, add a light dusting of garam masala and serve.
Barbecued bass or bream over bay
If you don't have access to decent quantities of fresh bay, this also works really well with branches of rosemary. In either case, the garlicky dressing finishes off the smoky, herby fish beautifully. Serves four.
4 small or 2 large line-caught sea bass or bream, gutted and descaled
Olive or rapeseed oil
Sea salt and freshly ground blackpepper
Half a dozen small branches of bay (ie with a dozen leaves or so on each)
Lemon juice
For the warm dressing
4 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
2 cloves garlic, peeled and finely chopped
Finely grated zest of ½ lemon, plus a squeeze of its juice
1 tbsp finely chopped parsley
1 tbsp baby capers, rinsed (optional)
Rinse the fish under cold running water, patdry, massage all over with a few drops ofthe oil and season generously both inside and out.
When the barbecue is hot and you're ready to cook, put the grill over the coals to heat up for a few minutes. Lay a thin bed ofbay leaves on the grill, place the fishon top, trickle over a little moreoil and add a squeeze or two oflemon juice.
The bay will crackle and pop over the heat of the fire, and release lots of perfumed smoke. It's quite normal to see shooting flames at thispoint, too, but don't be alarmed: this is all good and sends the flavour deep into the fish. Turn the fish afterabout five minutes, or when the underside looks blistered and lightly charred. Cook on the other side for a few minutes more, until the flesh is opaque all the way through. (You can also cook the fishin one of those nifty barbecue baskets, which makes turning themmuch easier. However, because these hold the fish slightly farther away from the grill, they'll takea little longer to cook.)
While the fish is cooking, put theoil for the dressing in a small panwith the chopped garlic. Put this on a spare corner of the barbecue grill and heat gently for afew minutes: you want the garlic barely to sizzle, and it shouldn't colour. Take the pan off the heat andadd the lemon zest, a squeeze ofjuice, the parsley and a little salt and pepper, to make a warm, fragrant dressing. If you add afew capers, too, you'll have a very simple and delicious salsa verde.
Serve the bay-scented fish as soon as it is done, trickled generously with the dressing. Plain boiled newpotatoes and agreen salad are all you need, or try the following char-grilled veg.
Char-grilled potatoes, courgettes and spring onions
There's no reason not to give your veg the barbecue treatment, too. This makes for a lovely, smoky bowlful. Serves four as a side dish.
300g new or salad potatoes, cleaned and halved lengthways
About 100g whole spring onions or baby green onions, trimmed
About 200g courgettes (ie, 1 medium-large specimen), topped, tailed andcut lengthways into 5mm-thickslices
2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
Sea salt and freshly ground blackpepper
Lemon juice
Chopped parsley, mint or basil, tofinish (optional)
Put the potatoes in a large pan, cover with salted water and bring toa boil. Simmer for five to eight minutes, or until almost tender, scoop out with a slotted spoon, allowing excess water to drain away, and transfer to a large bowl.
Unless they are very young and thin, slice the spring onionslengthways.
Brush or lightly massage the potatoes, courgettes and onions with about half the olive oil, then season generously.
When the barbecue is hot, lay theveg carefully on the grill. Put thepotatoes on first, because they will take longer to cook, and the onions last. Cook for five to 10 minutes, turning from time to time, until all the veg are tender and patched with brown.
As the vegetables are cooked, transfer them to a large, warmed serving bowl or dish. When all the veg are cooked, trickle over the rest of the oil, squeeze over a little lemon juice and add a touch more salt and pepper, and they're ready toserve. A scattering of chopped parsley, mint or basil will only addto its appeal.
Barbecued peach melba
Pop some parcels of buttery, vanilla-scented peaches and raspberries onthe grill when you sit down to your main course, and by the time you've finished it, you'll have this delicious pud all ready to go. Servesfour.
250g raspberries
30g caster sugar
1 vanilla pod
4 ripe peaches or nectarines, halved, stones removed
25g butter
Vanilla ice-cream (or crèmefraiche, double cream or plain yoghurt), toserve
Put the raspberries in a bowl with the sugar. Split open the vanilla pod,scrape out the seeds with the tip of a small, sharp knife and add tothe bowl. Using your hands or afork, mash together the raspberries, sugar and vanilla seeds into a rough, jammy mix, then leave to macerate for 20-30 minutes.
Take four sheets of decent tin foil (ie, not too thin and tearable). Put two peach halves, cut side up, on topof each sheet. Put a nut of butterin the hollow of each peach. Cut the scraped-out vanilla pod intoeight pieces, place a piece in each peach half, then spoon the macerated raspberries and all their juices over the top.
Bring up the foil around the fruit and crimp the edges to create asecure but baggy parcel. Put the foil parcels on the grill above a medium-hot barbecue (not too fierce) and cook for 25-30 minutes, until the juices are bubbling and the peaches very tender. Transfer the parcels to bowls. You can lift the fruit out of the foil into the bowls, for a more elegant serving, but it's easier just to open up the foil and dig in. Either way, give the fruit afew minutes to cool slightly (the peaches will be very hot), then addagenerous scoop of vanilla ice-cream (or crème fraîche, cream or yoghurt) and serve at once.
Fiona Beckett's drink recommendations
Grilled carrot and halloumi There's already cider vinegar in this dish, so why not go the whole hog and drink cider with it? I'd go for a medium-dry one with a gentle sparkle, such as Burrow Hill Somerset Cider (£2.10 for 500ml ciderbrandy.co.uk, £2.20 The Bristol Cider Shop; 6% abv).
Lamb and apricot kebabs Although you could serve a spicy white, such as viognier, or a strong, fruity rosé with these, psychologically, lamb suggests a generous, full-bodied red such as the appealingly soft, fruity Terra d'Alter (£6.50 The Wine Society, £7.95 Lea & Sandeman; 14%abv), from Portugal's Alentejo region. Or try Bliss, a delicious saison-style beer made with roastedapricots by the Somerset-based Wild Beer Co (£3.49 Corks ofCotham, Bristol, £3.32 westcountryales.co.uk; 6% abv).
Barbecued sea bass over bay Any crisp, dry white ought to do nicely, especially an Italian white, which isalways a safe bet with these kinds of flavours. Try the food-friendly Falabella Bianco Tenuta Ulisse Terre di Chieti 2012 (currently on offer at £7.99, Majestic; 12.5% abv).
