BBQ time (1)

[stavros]

It's been a bright, sunny Sunday, but with the noon shade temperature hovering just below freezing, still not quite the moment for rummaging the garage for last year's charcoal!

A little pre-season planning won't go amiss, though, so look through your store cupboards and make sure you've got the following:
Big bags of charcoal (try magasin vert, or Cooperl, Lamballe)
Coarse sea salt, fine table salt
Monsodium Glutamate (MSG)
Cooking oil, walnut oil, sesame oil
Soy sauce
Hoi Sin sauce
Char Sui red roast pork seasoning powder
Tins of tomato pulp
Tomato purée
Harissa
Ground spices: Coriander, Nutmeg, Cumin, Cinnamon
Ground Cayenne and Paprika.
Black pepper in a grinder
And of course, closer to the day you light up, make sure you've got onions, shallots, garlic, etc.

We might as well get stuck in while we're here, so take a sugar-dredger (Ali, that's like a very big pepper pot but with slightly bigger holes on top!)

Put in the following
4 soupspoons table salt
2 soupspoons MSG
1 Teaspoon cumin
2 teaspoons coriander
1 teaspoon cinnamon
50 gram packet of red Char Sui powder
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon cayenne (careful!)
teaspoon, or two, paprika

This powder, well mixed, gives an oriental flavour to grilled meats, but particularly chicken or pork spare ribs. You can also mix some with oil (I like sesame seed oil) and a squeeze of lemon to rub into chicken quarters and leave covered in the fridge overnight to marinate.

(Yesterday we lunched on pork spare ribs done on a rack in the oven. The only way you'd know it wasn't BBQ was... no burnt bits!)

[Ali]

LOL @ dredger - thought that was something found in the North Sea !! Cheeky mare you

Love the recipe and stuff and want to do this, but.........

What is Monsodium Glutamate (MSG)

Where does one buy it from

What does it 'do'

Is there any benefit from it

How long does it keep

What else can it be used in

[ianh]

Ali, you don't need to know what MSG is - all you need to know is that it is not something you should ever put in your food. Google it. <.......................................................>

<edited by Admin - PM Admin if reason req'd>

[stavros]

If you buy North American produced MSG, it will usually be the result of extracting the specific amino acid from maple sap. (or in france, look for 'erable') There has been some controversy about it, but often the detractors have their own agenda to promote.
One alternative as a taste enhancer, is to use extra salt, and a bit of sugar. Then ask your cardiologist about the beneficial effects...
So don't eat eggs, they've all got listeria (or Edwina Curry hysteria...)
No red meat
No chicken (dioxins)
etc, ad nauseam.
I'll just tell you what I use, and I never poisoned a client, ever.
Then you make your own minds up.

[Ali]

Am still interested in questions raised in my post above tho, have no idea about what MSG is at all.

[Sandy]

Ali, it's 'MonoSodium Glutomate' and the flavouring commonly used in Chinese food. I noticed on a visit to a chinese buffet recently in Hinckley that it all tasted the same really - of MSG!!

[stavros]

Up to a point, Spanielle, but only if used to excess. Anyone who has used Knorr Aromat, or Maggi 'Fond de Veau Lié', or even chicken or beef stock cubes, is using MSG as a flavour enhancer.
Just google 'Monsodium Glutamate' and read the Wikepedia entry. You will also see lots of other entries, many with an obvious axe to grind. (To be taken with a pinch of salt )

[blu]

Didn't even know that you could buy MSG just always assumed that it was part and parcel of manufactured food.

Like the idea of the sugar dredger.

What could you substitute the Char sui with?

[stavros]

Char sui powder is not an easy trick to duplicate. Don't you ever visit Rennes? If not, say so and we'll try to organise something on the resistance underground smuggling ring...

[blu]

Dont go to big city.LOL
went to the railway station, and walked around the old area with colombage houses once.