BBQ Chicken Wings in Sweet and Sour Sauce on a BBQ Plank

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Chicken Wings in Sweet and Sour BBQ Sauce on a BBQ Plank

 

Cooking on wood is great for making your food moist and tender but another great reason is that the wood puts a natural barrier between your food and the grill so it is really hard to burn your food or for food to fall through the gaps or for flare ups.

 

As one of our customer's said " cooking on wood makes a BBQ God out of any man'  (or woman!), simply because it makes BBQing so easy and you don't burn your food.

 

Chicken Wings are a great example of this, they can so easily get burned on a BBQ, the skin gets stuck to the grill, the sauce gets all over the grill (not fun to clean) and so on.  So, please enjoy our no hassle and great tasting Chicken Wing recipe .

 

Any of the woods can be used for this recipe, but my favourite is Beech as it adds a sweet beechy flavour. Just be careful of the Cedar BBQ Plank as the strong spicy sweet flavour is not to everyone's taste.

 

 

Ingredients
1 kilo chicken wings 1 cup The Roasting Plank Sweet and Sour Sauce     serves 4

1. Place your chicken wings in a large bowl and toss them with The Roasting Plank Sweet and Sour Sauce. Leave to marinate for a couple of hours or overnight in the fridge if you want.

 

2. Preheat your BBQ to a medium heat and put your chicken wings, evenly spaced, onto your pre-soaked BBQ Plank and put onto the grill. BBQ for about 20-25 minutes or until they are fully cooked.

 

Enjoy you moist, tender and sweet and sour Chicken Wings but don't forget the paper towels....they will be sticky.

 

Click here for The Roasting Plank Sweet and Sour Sauce.     

For more information about cooking on wood, please see our website: www.theroastingplankcompany.co.uk                                                

Each BBQ is different and have different cooking times and temperatures, check your manufacturer's instructions for cooking guidelines.

BBQ Stuffed Mushrooms Steamed on BBQ Plank

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Stuffed Mushrooms Steamed on a BBQ Plank

Cooking mushrooms steamed on wood is simply, in my opinion, the best way to eat mushrooms. They absorb the moisture from the wood incredible well, as well as the different flavours of the wood, to make them very moist, tender and tasty but not mushy or slimy.

Even cooking mushrooms simply ( BBQ or in the oven) with a drizzle of olive oil and some salt and pepper, you can enjoy the amazing flavour and texture of mushrooms. I am really looking forward to trying lots of different mushrooms, with their differing flavours and textures, on wood. I'll keep you posted.

Any of the woods can be used for cooking mushrooms such as Oak, Beech and Cherry but, as always, take care with the Cedar because it is very sweet and spicy and the flavour can be too over powering for some. Just a matter of taste.

Ingredients

2 large plate mushrooms, stems removed 3 finely chopped spring onions 1/2 medium sized onion, finely chopped 1 clove of garlic, finely chopped 1 tsp chopped rosemary 1 tsp chopped parsley 1 slice of white or brown bread, crumbed 1 tbsp Parmesan cheese 1 tbsp mayonnaise 1 tbsp grated strong cheddar cheese 1 tbsp cream cheese salt and freshly ground black pepper   optional   2 oz prawns, peeled and deveined and chop into small pieces or 1 smoky bacon rasher, cooked and chopped     serves 2

 

1. Heat some oil in a frying pan and gently fry the onion, spring onion and garlic until soft.

2. In a bowl mix your fried onion mixture with the bread crumbs, cheeses, mayonnaise, herbs and salt and pepper.

3. Divide your mixture up between the two mushrooms and gently fill them up with the mixture. Place your Stuffed Mushrooms onto your BBQ Plank and sprinkle with some parsley.

4. Preheat your BBQ to a medium heat and place your pre-soaked BBQ Plank with the mushrooms onto the BBQ Grill, close the lid and BBQ for 12-15 minutes until the mushrooms are soft and the top begins to brown.

 

 

This is the vegetarian version but you can add the chopped prawns or chopped smoky bacon to the mixture for the meat eaters.

If you want some more information about Cooking on Wood and our other products, please take a look at our website www.theroastingplankcompany.co.uk                                                                                       

Each BBQ is different and have different cooking times and temperatures, check your manufacturer's instructions for cooking guidelines.

Wild Oak BBQ Planked Steak in Wales

There aren't many foodie gadgets that you can easily take on holiday with you that won't break on the trip or be too cumbersome to pack but that is why I love my BBQ Planks. I have just been for my holidays in Wales with my family, we went camping in two fantastic campsites. The first was right next to the sea and we managed to get quite a lot of surfing done and then we went into the Brecon Beacons for a quieter, more rustic holiday and we found just that.

We put up our tent right in front of some woods and just five metres away was a beautiful Welsh river full of boulders and waterfalls. A perfect spot for getting away from it all and making lots of fire and having fantastic BBQs. We managed to find a Farmer's Shop (not easy as it sounds in the Brecon Beacons) and bought some steaks and we finally got our chance to use our Oak BBQ Planks.

The secret of cooking with wood is soaking the wood in water (mixed with beer, cider, herbs etc - whatever your taste) and our first question in the morning was how to soak our BBQ Planks, we could either collect some water in bottles and soak the plank in a plastic bag all day but we didn't fancy that. So the next idea was to put the planks in the river under a large enough stone so it wouldn't wash away and hope they would still be there when we get back with the food. 'What's dinner without a bit of risk' said my ten-year-old - so that is what we did.

I'm not sure I would put my BBQ Planks into just any river but this was a fast flowing river straight from the Welsh Mountains and water doesn't get much better or cleaner than that. We had fun finding a heavy enough stone to keep the plank in place but not so heavy that we couldn't actually move it and then crossed our fingers that they would still be there when we got back from our day's events.

We really shouldn't have worried and when we got back they were fine. Next step is to build a charcoal BBQ (kids are great at finding sticks for kindling)and prepare the rump steak with pasta. I won't talk about the pasta recipe (it was more functional than culinary)but here is how to cook:

An Oak BBQ Planked Steak

You really don't need to mess around with a steak when you cook on an Oak BBQ Plank because when it cooks the steak is steamed and smoked at the same time but it also gets an infusion of the oak flavour. It is simply the best way to cook a steak because the meat becomes incredible tender and moist and will melt in the mouth. So season your steak with some salt and pepper and put onto your soaked Oak BBQ Plank and put onto your BBQ grill and cook to taste.

You can use your BBQ Plank more than ten times if you don't have too much flame on your charcoal BBQ and longer if you have gas. If you look at the picture you can see the plank is slowly turning to charcoal (this was its fifteenth time)and when it is more charcoal than wood then just crumble it onto your BBQ or fire.

When I have my stall at Food Festivals or Country Fairs selling my Roasting Planks, BBQ Planks and Wood Paper, I always do a demonstration on my little portable BBQ of an Oak BBQ Planked Steak. The reaction is incredible, nearly everyone who tastes it buys a plank because they simply can't believe how moist and tender it is. A real winner so I challenge anyone to try it and find a better way to cook a steak.

Take a look at my website if you want to learn more: www.theroastingplankcompany.co.uk

The Art of Planking

I have three different wood cooking products in my kitchen : Roasting Planks, BBQ Planks and Wood Paper and I practice The Art of Planking ! I know that sounds a bit naff but it all about back-to-nature cooking and, what I love the most, about experimenting with the different combinations of wood and food.

That is what The Art of Planking is all about, you don't need intricate instructions of a recipe or be infinitely precise about measurements because it is all about experimenting and choice.

You choose what food you want to cook (meat, fish, seafood, vegetables and fruit), choose between oven or BBQ, choose the wood you want to cook with ( oak, cedar, beech, cherry), decide on the liquid you want to soak your plank or wood paper in ( water, beer, wine, cider, even whisky) and finally how to prepare your food ( marinate or not?). All this to create your own unique wood smoky recipes.

The secret of cooking with wood is the soaking. When wood is soaked it goes back to its fresh cut state and if meat, fish, seafood, vegetables or fruit is cooked on wood then the food is infused with the smoky taste of that wood. The food is gently steamed and is therefore always moist and tender. A great way to cook !

I have tried oak, cedar, beech and cherry wood in Roasting Planks, BBQ Planks and Wood Paper and tried different liquids to soak them and there is still a lot more experimenting to do. The cooking fun is endless.

Oak gives a heavier smoky flavour and is great for red meat, cedar is sweet and spicy and is perfect for fish and seafood, Beech has a subtle sweet flavour great for poultry and Cherry has a subtler sweet fruity flavour for all foods.

I have a lot of recipe ideas on my website, I have included one here, but would love to hear from other wood foodies who have tried cooking on wood to hear their smoky recipe ideas.

Wood Paper King Prawns

All seafood is fantastic on a Roasting Plank, BBQ Plank or Wood Paper because the food is gently steamed and the seafood stays amazingly moist and tender as well as infused with a wood smoky taste. My simple, but great, marinade for King Prawns is 3tbs olive oil, sliced dill and coriander, juice from half a lemon and finely chopped chilli. Let the King Prawns marinade for more than 1 hour, roll up in Wood Paper or cook on your BBQ Plank or Roasting Plank in the oven. Which wood would you choose ?

(Please see website for cooking instructions on the Roasting Planks, BBQ Planks and Wood Paper)

I have chestnut, olive, pear, apple and olive Wood Paper to try as well as an ash BBQ Plank. I'll be blogging soon about the results.