Meller - The River Cottage Outdoor Cooking handbook

BLOOMSBURY PUBLISHING

Bloomsbury Publishing Plc

50 Bedford Square, London, WC1B 3DP, UK

This electronic edition published in 2019 by Bloomsbury Publishing Plc

BLOOMSBURY, BLOOMSBURY PUBLISHING and the Diana logo are trademarks of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc

First published in Great Britain 2019

Text Gill Meller, 2019

Foreword Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, 2019

Photographs Gavin Kingcome, 2019

except for the Neil White

Illustrations Toby Atkins, 2019

Gill Meller and Gavin Kingcome have asserted their right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as author and photographer, respectively, of this work

All rights reserved
You may not copy, distribute, transmit, reproduce or otherwise make available this publication (or any part of it) in any form, or by any means (including without limitation electronic, digital, optical, mechanical, photocopying, printing, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of the publisher. Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.

While every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of the information contained in this book, in no circumstances can the publisher or the author accept any legal responsibility or liability for any loss or damage (including damage to property and/or personal injury) arising from any error in or omission from the information contained in this book, or from the failure of the reader to properly and accurately follow any instructions contained in the book. The recipes supplied in the book are for personal use only. No recipe may be used for commercial purposes without the express permission of the author

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN: 978-1-4088-7348-9 (HB)
ISBN: 978-1-4088-9658-7 (eBook)

Project Editor: Janet Illsley

Designer: Will Webb

Photographer: Gavin Kingcome

Indexer: Hilary Bird

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For my fire Alice

Contents

Open- fire cookery has always been integral to the River Cottage way of doing things. Its been integral to my way of doing things for even longer. From foil-wrapped baked spuds or bonfire night chipolatas on sticks (pre-cooked by Mum for safety, I suspect), to my first driftwood-fired, self-caught mackerel, the crackle of a campfire has been, for me, a sign that food is about to gain an extra dimension of deliciousness.

I think its indisputable that the touch of scorching, blistering heat and the kiss of smoke that you get from an open fire can do extraordinarily good things to food. Its true for fish, fowl, flesh and increasingly for me these days for vegetables and even fruit too. There is something elemental about open-fire cookery; its so simple. The cooking method itself supplies the flavour and the seasoning you really dont need to mess about too much with complicated condiments or multiple side dishes. And, of course, most food cooked out in the fresh air is eaten out in the fresh air too, which just adds to the pleasure. Its a way of cooking that fits perfectly with the ingredients I want to eat fresh, seasonal, unpretentious.

This natural sympathy between menu and method is something that Gill Meller clearly understood instinctively when I first met him, almost 20 years ago. He joined me at the first River Cottage HQ, outside Bridport, as a very young but very talented chef and it wasnt long before we were experimenting gleefully not just with what we cooked but how we cooked it. In this book, Gill describes the first two wood-fired ovens that we built and how we learned to get amazing food out of them. I have many other happy memories relating to our open-fire forays: fire-roasting an entire deer for a wedding, lining up 20 chickens on a single spit, cooking over countless beach barbecues and even getting a curious, rotating cage made for us by a local blacksmith. We used the cage for roasting vegetables over open flames, turning it on a handle like a tombola drum, and tumbling and toasting the veg inside. The results, in all cases, were absolutely delicious.

In open-fire cookery, as in many other things, Gill and I became partners in crime, egging each other on to try new things. We discovered it was possible to turn almost any non-flammable container, from a washing-machine drum to an old galvanised feed trough, into a very serviceable barbecue. Several such barbecues, we found, could be hauled on board a small fishing boat, which made us particularly happy. The joy of watching the sun go down on the water while you grill fish so fresh that its barely stopped moving is hard to describe.

Gill and I also learned that there arent many things you cant cook on an open fire if you turn your mind to it. Oysters and mussels? No problem. Lettuce and spring onions? Absolute doddle. Bread? Fantastic. Roots and brassicas? Why ever not? You can bring the alchemy of fresh air, smoke and glowing embers to bear on almost anything you fancy you just need a modicum of imagination and enough space to fire up a pile of sticks.

This spirit of enterprise is one of the things I love about outdoor cooking coupled with the sheer fun of it. Youve got to relax in order to enjoy it. Cooking outdoors is often a little rough around the edges, but the lack of finesse is liberating. You can forget about exact timings, precise temperature control and perfect presentation. Though it must be said that watching the food is important. I once baked a shepherds pie in a Dutch oven over a campfire for a bunch of allotment holders, confident that half an hour would do it. But after just 15 minutes, I discovered that my pie was already burnt on the top and bottom. Fortunately, it was the edible kind of burnt that can be forgiven with a good supply of cold beer.

Nine times out of ten, the reason for this kind of over-charring is that the cook has simply wandered off. Open-fire cooking does not demand a great deal of skill or technique, but it does ask for your attention. However, in my book, that is just one more thing in its favour. Its a very mindful kind of process.

As a nation, I think we have developed a rather debilitating nervousness around the idea of outdoor food. Many cooks only ever cook indoors. Others who do light up the barbie stick very closely to their burgers-and-bangers comfort zone. If thats the case for you, you may be missing a trick. There is a whole world of flavour to be discovered when you start throwing new things onto the grill, or into a wood-fired oven. And there are all sorts of ways to circumvent any anxieties you might have. An accurate probe thermometer will help you ensure that your meat is cooked through. Nifty kit such as grilling baskets make it easy to turn food without sticking. And this book will arm you with all you need to know about fire-building, heat management and, of course, the best kind of open-fire recipes.

At the end of the day, come rain or shine, beach or back garden, Im pretty sure Gill would always rather cook outdoors than in. And that means these recipes come from a place of real passion and enjoyment. It also means they are well tested and fully approved by the many fortunate friends, colleagues and family members who get to try them. The dishes youll find here are original, sometimes surprising, but often beautifully simple. As with all Gills food, they are rooted in time and place, seasonality and the moment, designed to bring the very best out of good ingredients, never to disguise or complicate them.