Cooking up a great Kiwi barbie
Call it a ‘barbie’, barbeque, barbecue or BBQ - the act of cooking outside is an essential slice of the New Zealand culture and culinary experience.
Barbecue meals epitomise the easy New Zealand lifestyle where long summer days promote convivial gatherings and casual outdoor living.
The great Kiwi barbie most often happens at home in the backyard, but keeping the heat out of the kitchen appeals so much in summer that even student flats and chic city apartments are usually equipped with the vital accessory.
No fuss entertaining
Cooking and eating outside is no-fuss entertaining so many New Zealanders do the bulk of their summer socialising over the barbecue, and an invitation to a casual Kiwi barbecue often extends to bring "something to throw on the barbie".
Away from home, portable gas barbecues have extended the traditional Kiwi picnic to hot, alfresco treats cooked up at any time of the day on boats, beaches and in other open spaces.
Some households - having invested as much money in their barbecue as their indoor cooking appliances - choose to cook outside year round, raising barbecue food to another level of cuisine.
Award-winning New Zealand chefs - Al Brown and Steve Logan - have inspired a whole new generation of outdoor cooks with their Hunger for the Wild television food series.
Bangers and sauce
Traditionally the Kiwi barbie centred around bangers (sausages) and burgers, served with Kiwi favourite Watties tomato sauce and bread. But, while those ingredients remain staples - especially for younger fry - contemporary menus have become much more sophisticated.
Summer is salad season. By adding grilled meat or seafood plus a pot of new potatoes and sauces you have a standard Kiwi barbie - fresh, healthy and tasty for feeding the hoards.
However, with super appliances that can roast, boil and stir fry, almost any meal goes on the barbecue making a modern barbie harder to define.
Kiwi barbies are just as likely to serve up gourmet sausages, seafood kebabs, char-grilled vegetables, slow roasted boned leg of lamb and other fine treats as the ever favoured lamb chops, steak and salad.
A cold beer is the traditional liquid accommpaniment to a Kiwi barbie, but New Zealand wines - particularly lightly chilled Marlborough sauvignon blanc, or an Otago pinot noir - are just as likely to be on the menu.
Beach BBQ
For anyone who doesn’t have a barbecue, most New Zealand parks and beaches provide public barbecues available on a first-come-first-served or pre-booked basis.
There's no greater delight for seafood lovers than catching or gathering fresh seafood - crayfish, oysters, scallops, fish - and taking it straight from the ocean to the barbie. New Zealand paua (abalone) is a popular choice on the seaside barbie.
Christmas BBQ
For many New Zealand households, Christmas dinner is a festive Kiwi barbie - better fitted to the Antipodean season, more relaxed and easier for feeding large gatherings of family and friends.
Modern hooded barbecues mean traditional favourites can now be cooked and eaten outdoors so an outdoor New Zealand Christmas dinner could still include turkey or lamb roasted on the barbecue, served with fresh summer salads, home-grown, new potatoes and pavlova with strawberries and kiwifruit for dessert.
The Kiwi barbecue is so entrenched with Christmas and summer that New Zealand troops serving in Afghanistan on a UN mission braved freezing temperatures to cook a traditional barbecue on Christmas Day 2009.
And NZ Red Cross aid workers also spending Christmas 2009 overseas received a festive parcel based on the traditional Kiwi barbecue - including tiki-shaped salad servers, tomato sauce, potato chips, kiwi lollies and a Kiwiana tea towel.
Kiwibbq.com
Enjoying a typical Kiwi barbecue is something tourists can best experience with friends and contacts, but more tourism operators, hotels and lodges are including the experience.
The social aspect of the Kiwi barbecue has prompted a group of enterprising New Zealanders to develop an online business aimed at bringing together people over a sausage on the barbie.
Launched in November 2009, kiwibbq.com was the brainchild of a group of Kiwis who share a love of sausages and meeting new people. The website brings people together for regular social events in picturesque locations.
Barbecue tricks
It’s often the male members of the household who preside over cooking the Kiwi barbecue.
‘Bill’, a local village butcher from Raumati beach near Wellington, offers would-be-barbecue-chefs handy tips that include having a beer in hand and gathering chairs around so friends and family can share the cooking experience.
His other tips to achieve the perfect Kiwi barbie include:
- preheat the BBQ well before attempting to cook
- check heat by counting how long you can hold your hand just over the grill: 10+ seconds for low heat, 6 - 8 seconds for medium heat, 2 - 4 seconds for high heat
- meat should be at room temperature before cooking
- trim extra fat from meat to cut down on flare-ups, and avoid sugary sauces
- pre-cook chicken before finishing on the BBQ
- turn steak once, but sausages need constant rotation.
More information:
New Zealand's culinary culture
New Zealand chef: Al Brown
These topics may also be of interest to you
|
