June 22, 2012
Devon-based Marcus Bawdon loves nothing more than cooking outdoors. He’s built his own smoker and wood-fired oven and will be sharing his recipes and techniques to get the most out of your barbecue.
In between rain showers this so called “summer”, sometimes you want to cook something nice and quick, but you can still enjoy an alfresco treat, these flatbreads are quick to knock up, and even quicker to cook, are lovely and crisp, and totally moreish drizzled with a fragrant oil.
I felt it was high time for me to have a wonderful vegetarian feast, as it is important to get balance in your cooking, and vegetables perform wonderfully when grilled over hot coals. The heat concentrates the flavour, and the smoke adds some special magic.
Barbecue Rosemary and Garlic Flatbreads with a vegetarian feast
A couple of hours before you plan to eat. Mix the following ingredients in a large bowl.
Plain white flour 250g
White bread flour 250g
Fine sea salt 1 ½ tsp
Instant dried yeast 1 tsp
Olive oil 1 tbsp
Tepid water 325ml
I also like to add a ladle full of sourdough starter to add a bit more depth of flavour to the flatbreads.
Knead the dough for 10 minutes until smooth, and still slightly sticky. Flour a large mixing bowl, pop the dough in and cover with a tea towel and place somewhere warm to rise for a couple of hours.
Fire up your barbecue, with some red hot lumpwood charcoal spread evenly over half of the barbecue, and prepare a wooden chopping board with some flour spread over, and a floured rolling pin. Roll out a flatbread from a handful of dough, rolled out as thin as you can
Place a saucepan with 100ml extra virgin olive oil, a couple of cloves of finely chopped garlic and a few sprigs of rosemary on the barbecue to warm, but not brown, and remove from the heat. Place the flatbread dough straight onto the bars on the grill, until it starts to bubble on top, usually a couple of minutes, flip over and cook for a minute or two more, the top of the bubbles should be just charred. Remove from the grill and drizzle with the oil.
Keep cooking the flatbreads, but start some lovely seasonal vegetables cooking around the edge of the barbecue, I went for some shallots pulled from the veg patch, and some peppers. I brushed these with olive oil and placed around the edge of the BBQ while the flatbreads were cooking, until lightly charred and sweet.
I served this feast with some homemade hummus, some feta drizzled with olive oil, and some salad leaves from the garden.
We made it just in time and dashed in as the next shower came pouring down.
For more ideas on cooking both outdoors and in, visit my blog CountryWoodSmoke. Or follow me on Twitter @devonwoodsmoke
