Resident Chef Peter Gorton is an award winning Master Chef of Great Britain and has been cooking since the age of 16. Peter now runs his own restaurant, Gorton’s in Tavistock.
Using Charcoal
1. Start your fire and wait until most of the charcoal is covered in grey ash before starting to cook.
2. Before placing the grill on the barbecue, brush the grill bars over with cooking oil to lubricate them.
3. Adjust the level of the grill so the food is about 3-4 inches above the fire bed. Cooking at this level for a minute or so will sear the surface of the meat locking in all the valuable juices. Then raise the grill to cook the meat a through.
Gas Barbecue
As a general rule a low heat will be ok to cook fish, vegetables and fruit and a medium heat to cook beef, pork, lamb and poultry.
To Cook Beef
1. Steaks 2.5cm/1 inch should be cooked over hot coals for about five minutes if you prefer it rare. Eight minutes for medium rare and five minutes for rare.
2. Burgers 2cm/3 or 4 inch thick should be cooked over hot coals for 6-8 minutes.
To Cook Lamb
1. Lamb steaks should be cooked over medium hot coals for 10-15 minutes. If they are thicker than 2cm/3 or 4 inch, increase the cooking time.
2. Chops 2.5cm/1 inch thick are best cooked over medium hot coals for 15 minutes.
Cooking Kebabs
1. Oil metal skewers prior to threading on chunks of meat and fish, soak bamboo skewers in water before using to reduce the chances of burning during cooking.
2. Trim excess fat from meat to help reduce potential flare-ups.
3. Try not to ‘log jam’ the skewer with food, particularly meat, leave small gaps so that the heat can get through to all surfaces.
Vegetables in Foil
Use extra thick aluminium foil for wrapping the vegetables, two to three average portions can be wrapped in a piece of foil roughly 30cm (12 inches) square.
For more information about Peter visit www.petergortonmasterchef.co.uk or to find out more about Gorton’s restaurant see www.gortons-tavistock.co.uk