Hi,
As those who read my posts will know, I spend almost every week away from home and, therefore, eating away from home. That's why, on weekends, I love to be able to eat at home with my family, homemade food prepared by myself. At the same time, eating with my family is mentally healthier than eating alone, as I do most of the time when I am away from home for work.
This weekend, on the occasion of the visit of some relatives from Madrid to my house, yesterday we improvised a barbecue in which I was the chef. My whole family asks me to prepare a barbecue for them at these kinds of family gatherings because I'm very good at cooking with charcoal embers.
Preliminary preparations
Since we were notified late in the afternoon that they were coming to visit us, I opted to order pork ribs, chicken, pork chops, chorizo, black pudding and chicken skewers from my aunt who works in a supermarket.So on Saturday morning I had all the meat in my fridge.
On the other hand, I tend to be proactive and always have a sack of holm oak charcoal in my storeroom. I always choose this type of charcoal because it gives off a lot of heat and generates very little smoke.This way the meat has a barbecue flavour but without the annoying taste of smoke.
Another important point for my barbecues is the preparation of a sauce based on natural tomatoes from my tomato plants, garlic, oil, vinegar, salt and water.
This sauce is ideal for seasoning meats when they are just finishing cooking. So there is no need to season purchased meats before cooking them on the barbecue. Except for chicken, which should be left for a few hours with plenty of garlic.
A correct cooking order
Because of the wide variety of meats I had to choose from, a good cooking order is an important point so that almost all the food is ready at the same time and just in time for lunch.
For this reason, my mother and I started by removing the pieces of garlic from the chicken and then drizzling it with extra virgin olive oil.
Next, I put the chicken in to cook it little by little. My recommendation is that the chicken should not be too large to get a good sense of the inside of the meat.
At the moment, when the chicken starts to brown on the area exposed to the coals, it was time to place the different strips of pork ribs on the barbecue. The pork strips take less time to cook than the chicken.
At the same time, in order to give it a touch of flavour, it was also time to add some salt flakes to the chicken and a little lemon juice.
Next, as the coals were very hot, I decided to raise the meat a little to prevent it from burning and as you can see the ribs were taking on a spectacular colour, so I browned them on both sides and added a pinch of salt to each of the strips and removed them to a cooler area of the barbecue.
I then added several of the chorizo sausages and they slowly cooked.
At the same time, I spread my natural tomato sauce on each of the ribs. I let them cook for an additional 4 minutes. It is important not to leave the meat on the fire with the sauce for too long, as this sauce, containing oil, could burn and leave a worse taste to the meat.
As the ribs were cooked, it was time to put the pork chops, the chicken skewers and the rest of the chorizo and black pudding on the barbecue.
These meats have much shorter cooking times than the ribs and chicken and in a matter of minutes they were cooked.
And then it was time to bring the food home and plate it on different platters and accompany it with lettuce and tomatoes from our garden.
Desserts
However, this was not all. My mother prepared a delicious cheese flan.
One of my aunts brought some chocolate cakes.
And of course, another of my aunts prepared a dessert with puff pastry and brown sugar baked in the oven which was delicious.
Siesta
With all this food, and the satisfaction of having prepared a barbecue to the taste of my family, me and my cousin sat down on a sofa and did not sleep for a while. But not for long, because we had to burn off the calories we had eaten.
Best regards.
Link to WEEK:176 organized by @galenkp