Tag Archives: BBQ

How to BBQ Mackerel – Quick And Easy! (NO foil!)

Mackerel is a beautiful fish to BBQ because it is naturally so oily and hardy over a bed of charcoal.

At just over a £1 a fish, you really can’t get better value?

I kept things simple, took the head and tails off (the more adventurous amongst you will no doubt prefer to keep these on!) and cut a few slits into the fish before I threw together a very basic marinade using:

  • 2-3 tablepspoon of Olive oil
  • A small amount of melted butter
  • 1/2 a tablespoon of Sea Salt
  • 2 cloves of fnely chopped garlic
  • a little lemon juice

Whisk all the ingredients above together and rub it into the slits on the fish (oooo errr matron!) and into the belly cavity.  Then all you have to do is pop the fish directly onto the grill (don’t use foil for this fish, it’s hardcore and won’t break up!) for about 5-6 minutes each side, making sure the meat turns opaque.

Add a little lemon juice before service to give it a little kick and serve it with salad and crusty bread!

BBQ Pork Tenderloin – Take 2

I love cooking a Pork Tenderloin on a BBQ; at £5 a pop, they’re fantastic value for money and are very versatile with regards to adding sauces and spices!

I blogged some time ago about cooking a sage and onion rubbed pork tenderloin; this time I opted to use some more of the Kansas City Cattlemens Classic BBQ sauce and it worked a treat.

One word of advice though, make sure you slit the loin a few times to let the marinade  soak into the meat and allow the flames to cook it thoroughly.  Tenderloins have a tendency of retaining a lot of juice which can make you underestimate the cooking time that is involved.

Pork Tenderloin

Pork tenderloin from Bank Holiday Monday’s BBQ.

This is my latest flamed grilled creation and I took a lot of inspiration from Mr Fred Marco (Kansas City BBQ supremo) with regards to the tenderloin.  Fred served one at his place with a beautiful tangerine glaze and I have to say I’ve been dying to give it a whirl since; although I fancied giving it a bit of an English twist and that’s precisely what i did.  I couldn’t get over how inexpensive this cut of meat was.  I shall definitely be buying it again because it’s amazing value for money (considering you’re lucky if you can get a poxy pair of chops for that price now; this is quite literally all meat).

Basically I purchased a Pork Tenderloin from Sainsbury’s (£3.99 I kid you not!) and washed it down as I always do with a little water, then put two caps of olive oil into a pyrex dish and rolled the tenderloin around to get a nice even coating of oil on it.  Afterwards I took some of the sage and onion from the stuffing mix (I didn’t have any fresh her to use but don’t worry, that’s next) and rubbed that all over the surface.  Lastly, I just rubbed a little rock salt over the meat along with some fresh cracked black pepper, skewered the mother and away we go!!!!.

I wasn’t sure how the meat was going to cook, so I decided to whack it on the grill itself, just turning regularly.  It soon started to brown off and the fat dripping down created some lovely searing flames to seal it.   I eventually cut some slits into the meat itself to get a little even heat into the whole thing, I was worried by doing so that it’d dry the meat out but I was pleasantly surprised.  Inside everything was really cooked through well and I hadn’t gotten that really horrible dry pork texture.  Eurrgh.

I honestly haven’t a scooby (Scooby Doo = clue) how long I had it on the grill for, purely as I dangling on various meats, but when you get the following texture and no pink on the inside (not good) then it’s ready to go.  As you can see in the pic I eventually used the skewers to almost spit finish it at the back so that I had extra space on the grill as wel.  I could not believe how tender and succulent this meat was, even with the slightly crispy outside.  I just want to cook another one, it was a lot of fun to throw on I have to say!

GALLERY – Click for a larger image