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Barbecue: put this on your grill and smoke it
Patrick Keller
Lakeside Leader
Barbeque weather has arrived!
Despite a few whiffs of barbeque wafting across a winter night, most Slave Lake grillers were stuck indoors cursing their frying pans and crying over canned soup.
In February, pale-faced customers were seen combing the aisles of Canadian Tire. Like zombies, they groped at the latest stainless steel grills and stared in childlike wonder at chromed utensils.
By March, reports of grill-starved, barbeque sauce-chugging maniacs began to reach authorities.
For those desperate individuals, there would be no respite - until May.
Now, at last, the shackles of winter are cast off! All over northern Alberta, propane tanks are filled, grills scraped. Donning aprons, people raise their spatulas in victory and begin the thawing of steaks.
Barefoot in the pork
In America, barbeque is king.
A whole folk lore has developed around the culinary enterprise, which gained popularity on plantations as an easy meal prepared for slaves.
Yet, says journalist Jonathan Daniels, “Barbecue is the dish which binds together the taste of both the people of the big house and the poorest occupants of the back end of the broken-down barn.”
Following the emancipation, restaurants or “pit shacks” sprung up alongside rural highways all over the south, providing travelers of all races with real, home cooked barbeque.
Natural born grillers
So entwined is the culture of barbeque with the south, that entire books have been written on the subject. We include this beautiful passage from author John Egerton’s “Southern Food”:
“Accents and attitudes and life-styles may change, but fondness for Southern food persists; for many people it lingers in the mind and on the tongue as vividly as the tantalizing aroma of barbecue on the pit hangs in the air and penetrates to the core of thought and remembrance.”
The south may live and breathe barbeque, but the grill is an equal opportunity enjoyer. The diplomatic barbeque knows neither geographic boundary, nor political border either.
Even here in northern Alberta, far outside of the ‘barbeque belt’, artisans of the craft can hardly wait for summer.
Northern devotees of the grill have been known to fire up the charcoals in the black of night during a snow storm. Did someone say charcoal?
In this day of $2000 propane grills, the lowly briquette, invented by automobile tycoon Henry Ford, still maintains a foothold among barbeque purists.
License to grill
The simplicity of barbeque surely is one of its greatest strengths.
The Hibachi (Japanese for heated grill) took America by storm in the 1960’s, ushering in a new era of portable and convenient grilling. The tiny cast iron box became a permanent fixture in many family campervans, stowed away in case of a barbeque emergency.
But in this day of giant Sport Utility Vehicles, the tiny Hibachi might be lost forever in the vast storage compartment of a Hummer.
Clearly, what is called for is a stainless steel, six foot grilling behemoth trailered on 17” chrome rims.
With 160,000 BTU’s of meat-searing heat delivered courtesy of the twin, onboard, 100 pound propane tanks, there’s enough raw grilling power to satisfy the entire road crew of The Doobie Brothers.
Able to grill an entire hog, or 500 burgers in one pass, this modern flame broiling workhorse has all the muscle you need to get the job done with style and force.
In North America, enjoying excessive portions of decadent food cooked outdoors during a summer get-together is practically a birthright. In northern Alberta, the same goes double. After six months of serious winter, it’s time to break out the Zippo cubes.
Smokin’ Locals
There’s no shortage of barbeque lovers right here in Slave Lake and a few pros too.
The Leader hooked up with chef and local caterer Doug Bolan to get the sweet and low- down on all things grilled.
Mr. Bolan has barbequed for thousands at large events, and just a few in his backyard; over time he’s developed some serious barbeque mojo.
On the subject of chicken and ribs, says Bolan, cook first in the oven. “If you pre-cook them, you just get the good part of the barbeque. People make the mistake of cooking the meat too fast on the grill, and that can ruin it. True barbequing requires long slow cooking, but most people don’t have the time for that. They end up charring it, so it’s best to pre-cook these.”
Steak and chops, Bolan inferred, require a different approach. “If you sear them hot and fast from the get-go, it will trap the juice inside.”
A bit of a purist, Bolan likes charcoal cooking and very little seasoning salt. On his home grill - a costly pellet barbeque - a bit of butter and herbs go a long way.
The slow-burning pellets impart smoke and ensure a proper heat, so that most of the juices end up back in the food. His favorites? He says that grilled ham steaks surprise him every time. Salmon with the skin on, facing the grill is one of the best.
“It is done when it ‘chevrons’ or flakes evenly across the whole fillet.”
Vegetables make good fodder for the grill too, he says. “It’s easy to burn them, but they can be great. If you like darkness on veggies, grill them hot but not for long for a bit of black. Or, put them in foil, with butter.”
By the way, Bolan is one of those midnight, snowstorm grillers mentioned earlier.
“I don’t care if it’s -30 out. I love it. Barbeque is big at our home.”
A grill-conceived idea
Bolan’s Best: Walleye Wraps
Take two fillets of walleye and cut into thumb sized pieces.
Cut strips of bacon about three inches long and wrap around fish pieces.
Hold together with toothpicks *Chef’s note: “To avoid plasticy taste, do not use frilly toothpicks.”
Barbeque on hot grill for about ten minutes. Serve with cocktail sauce while waiting for steaks.
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