No longer the domain of Saturday afternoon barbecues, cooking over wood and coals – intentionally charring and burning – has become quite a trend. Bearded men in waxed aprons fill every Nordic restaurant worth its salt and the technique has been celebrated at restaurants such as the wonderful Kitty Fisher’s and Black Axe Mangal. Though the grill masters of London’s Turkish ocakbasi restaurants will tell you it’s nothing new.
You’d be forgiven for assuming that this cavemanesque cooking is all about meat, but in fact vegetables sit centre stage at most of these kitchens. At home, we’ve overlooked how much a bit of char and smoke can compliment a beloved vegetable or boost a neutral cheese, such as halloumi or feta. An aubergine is an obvious pairing with a bit of smoke – babaganoush is a friendly blend of vegetables and smoke, as is a halved aubergine grilled and basted in white miso on every turn. Onions too, work well grilled slowly and tossed through plump pearl barley grains. Even halved little gems are transformed when quickly charred and simply dressed in oil, vinegar and chopped herbs.
This charring is, of course, possible on a griddle pan or even a good heavy‑based frying pan, but its natural habitat is on the barbecue. The resolution to cook outside to me seems most welcome on a weeknight, when taking the kitchen outside brings a holiday feeling to an otherwise normal Tuesday or Wednesday. These have been the char-edged suppers we’ve cooked quickly this summer.
Harissa and lime halloumi with flatbreads
Halloumi is a real crowd-pleaser when it comes to barbecues. I have never understood the blanket fascination, but I do like its texture when its cooked just right, charred and crisped a little on the outside and perfectly melting inside, if you hit this sweet spot, gone is the offputting rubbery squeakiness. It does need some help on the flavour front; a quick marinade will boost your squeaky cheese out of its simple milky profile. It pairs well with a hit of hot chilli and a little bit of sweetness.
Here, it has a quick dip in a harissa, lime and rose marinade, which is backed up by a grilled relish that combines smoke from charred red onions, some piquancy from a good drizzle of pomegranate molasses, sweetness from red peppers and a salty olive kick. It’s also great in flatbreads, burgers and toasted sandwiches. The cooling yoghurt dampens down the chilli as well as providing a pleasing temperature contrast between the fridge-cold yoghurt and the grill-hot halloumi.
If you like, you could stir a few crushed dried rose petals into your harissa to make it rosy. By all means, use jarred roasted red peppers to speed things up.
Serves 6
2 x 250g pack of halloumi, cut into 2cm slices
Juice and zest of 1 lime
1 tbsp rose harissa
A handful of dried crushed rose petals (optional)
For the relish
2 red onions, peeled and finely sliced
2 red peppers
A handful of pitted green olives
2 tbsp pomegranate molasses
Salt and black pepper, to taste
For the harissa yoghurt
6 tbsp Greek yoghurt
1 tsp harissa
2 tbsp tahini
Juice of 1 lime
Salt and black pepper
1 tbsp sumac
To serve
4 flatbreads or wraps (see my recipe here)
2 tbsp sesame seeds, toasted
A few handfuls of salad leaves
1 Combine the halloumi, lime zest, 1 tbsp harissa and, if you like, a few crushed petals. Mix by hand to coat the halloumi. Set aside.
2 Light your barbecue (or heat up your griddle pan). Let the flames die down a little, then cook the onions, turning occasionally, for 10 minutes, or until soft and sweet. Char the peppers alongside until black all over, then put them into a bowl and cover with a tea towel while they cool.
3 Meanwhile, ripple the yoghurt with harissa, tahini and lime, season, then sprinkle with sumac and refrigerate.
4 Peel the skins from the peppers and deseed them. Chop with the onions and green olives. Add 1 tbsp pomegranate molasses and mix well, taste and add seasoning, if needed.
5 Stoke the barbecue. You want it to be medium hot – no big flames. Cook the halloumi for 2-3 minutes on each side, or until just-charred and a little blistered, and softly melting inside.
6 Meanwhile, warm the flatbreads on the other side of the barbecue for a minute or so on each side.
7 Pile the halloumi on to the flatbreads, top with spoonfuls of the onion relish, the harissa yoghurt, sesame seeds and a few salad leaves.
Charred courgettes with mozzarella and lovage (main picture)
Courgettes can be grilled when finely sliced or in brave chunks. Wafer thin they grill in seconds and make a fine salad, but here I go for bigger pieces, cooked until the outside chars and the inside steams to a buttery softness. Sit them next to some cooling mozzarella and you’ve got all the contrasts, the hot and cold, neutral and punchy, calm and bitter.
The lovage oil is the crowning glory and simpler than you might think, though a good pesto would work too.
I cooked this on a hot and heavy day last summer at a supper club and it’s now a meal I regularly dream of: the sweetness of the charred courgettes paired with the cool, calm and creamy burrata and the verdant hit from the lovage is pure summer. It was the brainchild of the brilliant Robbin Holmgren, the head chef at Fifteen London. I am sure his version is much fancier, but this is how I do it at home. Any leftover lovage oil can be kept in a jar in the fridge for a few weeks. If lovage is hard to get hold of, a mixture of parsley and celery leaves will work, as would most other soft herbs.
Serves 4
A small bunch of lovage (or a mixture of parsley and celery leaves)
4 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
Sea salt and black pepper
6 courgettes (I use a mixture of yellow and green)
2 balls of mozzarella or burrata
1 First, make the lovage oil. Fill a bowl with boiling water. Plunge the lovage into it, scoop out immediately and immerse in a bowl of cold water to cool. Then pat dry with kitchen paper. This keeps the lovage green.
2 Put the lovage in a food processor or blender, add the extra-virgin olive oil and a small pinch of salt, then blend until really smooth. Sieve the oil to get rid of any big bits of herb, then transfer to a jar and set aside.
3 Next, heat your barbecue (or griddle pan) until it’s smoking hot. While it heats up, cut your courgettes – bigger ones into rounds and smaller ones into long slices. Once the griddle is hot, char your courgettes on both sides until nicely charred and softened a little in the middle.
4 Serve the charred courgettes on a platter next to the burrata torn open, finished with a good pinch of sea salt and a grinding of black pepper, and a good drizzle of the lovage oil.
Anna’s tips for barbecuing vegetables
- Cook on charcoal or wood if you can as it will impart that smoky flavour that gas barbecues won’t.
- Use lumpwood charcoal. It’s more expensive but will hold heat longer so you will use less. Avoid firelighters if you can.
- Wait for the right moment to cook. This may sound basic but wait for the flames to properly die down. You want the coals white hot, grey and glowing which give the most even heat.
- Control the heat just as you would if you were using a gas hob. If things are too hot then take your food off and let the coals cool down.
- If you are cooking more than one thing it might be useful to have two temperatures on your barbecue. To do this, once the coals are hot pile most of them to one side which will be hot for grilling, and a few on the other side for warming bread and gentler cooking.
- Don’t oil your vegetables before they hit the grill. Instead, dress them carefully after grilling, while they are still warm in good olive oil, citrus or vinegar.
- Anna Jones is a chef, writer and author of A Modern Way to Eat and A Modern Way to Cook (Fourth Estate); annajones.co.uk; @we_are_food
