BBQ/Churrasco

Now, BBQ is a big topic! Once you get over the Anglo-Saxon obsession with cooking cheap and nasty bangers and burgers on what is possibly the best cooking method – grilling over lump-wood charcoal. The three letter word starts to become more useful. In Portugal, churrasco or grelhados ao carvão is often synonym with extremely fresh food, simply seasoned and cooked to perfection.The terminology is itself ambiguous and the words “assar” and “grelhar” are used interchangeably depending on the ingredients (e.g. sardinhas assadas, peixe grelhado)! Let’s keep it ambiguous!

Tips
Keep the flame under control – make a small hole on the lid of a small plastic bottle to use as direct water jet to blow out flames. A little water directly on the charcoal controls the flame and avoids water on the food.

“the Western man makes a big fire and sits far away, the African man makes a small fire and sits close by” (thanks for the wisdom quote Stephen).
Use little charcoal at a time and keep the grid low. This avoids fatty foods generating mad flames. Sardines, for example are grilled on a grid right on the charcoal.

Essentials
Abanador (straw fan)
Lumpwood charcoal (no brickets, no gas)

Sardines grilling on charcoal