A little barbecue lunch today. Nothing fancy, just a traditional burger with all the trimmings, buckets of white Bordeaux and a long float in the pool. Sounds lovely. But there are a few things here some of you need to heed.
First the cooker. None of your prefabricated metal monstrosities; this is made from baked clay and cannot be wheeled around the garden. It takes at least an hour to warm the oven to its operating temperature and it cooks slowly and gently.
Next the fuel...
This is home made wood charcoal from oak felled from our own trees. No gay "briquettes" from your English supermarkets. Days to render to produce the perfect heat and that delicate flavour instilled into the meat. If gas is the flatulence of satan, then those briquette things are surely his turds.
Lighter fluid home made from our own produce. A mix of olive oil from our trees last year, mixed with my neighbour's "special distillation" from his own vines.
Next, the most important thing of all...
To control and correctly mix the charcoal during prepartion, a compressor blade from a Royal Navy Sea Harrier. The first time it's ever done anything useful in its life!
Bon appetit!