Barbecue Season

LOL. "Now that BBQ weather's here" is something I often read. Ermmm... if it isn't actually tipping down with rain, I'm barbecueing.

Getting the thing started is simple with scrunched up newspaper / a few sheets torn out of the phone book - useful since telephone directories can't otherwise be recycled - topped with dry twigs and a few pieces of lumpwood charcoal:

When the flames are leaping, cover in more charcoal, or just wood.

Wood takes longer to develop the required ember base for cooking, but the results are well worth it - beechwood is my favourite for flavour. Choose similarly sized pieces so that they all reach the ember stage at the same time.

Once I've finished cooking and the embers are dying down, I then close all the vents and throw on some fresh beech twigs, followed by a piece of trout or salmon. Whack on the lid for 20 minutes until it's cooked through, and the resulting hot 'smoked' fish will be succulent, flavoursome and enough to convert even the most ardent fish hater.

Beech leaves

These can be used as salad leaves when very young and tender, though I think they're rather bitter to eat on their own. I'd use them to bulk up a rocket salad, or liven up otherwise dull greens.

I've picked a load to make into noyau - an old French liqueur recipe from Roger Phillips' book Wild Food:

Beech Leaf Noyau

Ingredients:

Young beech leaves
1 bottle gin
225g white sugar
1 glass brandy

Method:

Collect young beech leaves and strip them off their twigs. Half-fill a 2-litre preserving jar with the leaves and pour on the gin. Seal the container and steep the leaves for 3 weeks, before straining them off. Boil the sugar in 300ml of water and add this to the gin with a large glass of brandy. Bottle.

I haven't tried this before, but have been itching to give it a go from the moment I first heard about it. Although I do hope it tastes better than it sounds, else I've wasted a bottle of gin. (Which would be criminal.)