Christmas Turkey cooked on a rotisserie bbq

How to cook your Christmas turkey on a rotisserie bbq

I've lost count of the number of times that people have said that they don't like turkey, because it's dry.  It needn't be dry if you cook it differently.  Rotisserie cooking retains all those lovely juices that enhance the taste of the meat.

It is also very simple to cook.  Just take a look at our video:

And we can still get products to customers for Christmas Eve if they order this weekend.

 

Here's a picture from 2012.

Spit Roasted Pork

Who says that you can't achieve perfect pork crackling - every time

WHAT ABOUT THIS ........

I cooked a pork belly joint on one of our XL2's and someone pointed out to me that every time I cook pork, I always get perfect crackling - and why couldn't they do it?  Well first, buy yourself a rotigrill! 
Then follow our recipe for roast pork:  http://www.rotigrill.com/roast-pork-0
To see a full report on how I cooked a pork belly joint:
http://www.rotigrill.com/blog/spit-roasted-pork 

Rotigrill Supports Charities

Rotigrill supports various charities by supplying outdoor cooking equipment for fund raising events. 

We also help with the cooking itself when required, but on most occasions we work with "Taistertainment", our catering associates.  This Saturday we are supplying equipment for the Mayor of High Wycombe's charity event at the "Hellfire Caves" in West Wycombe.  I should mention at this point that we will be cooking local game, mainly partridge and pheasant, supplied by George Davies, a local  farmer and game dealer.

In the past we have also supported Arts4Everyone and during the new year we hope to lend our support to the "Sue Ryder" charity.

We do this as our equipment (when not in commercial use) can either sit in store and do nothing or be used for good causes.  We would encourage other organisations in a similar situation to do the same.  Apart from feeling very pleased with ourselves (natural human emotion), any revenue contribution to charities is well received, as they have had a tough time during the recent economic downturn.

On a personal note, I play in a band called "Red & Grey", who perform for charity.  We mainly support Cancer Research UK, but if anyone has a charity fund raining event and needs a live band, please let me know.  (40 mile radius of High Wycombe)

New Rotisserie BBQ Recipes On Our Web Site

BBQ recipes for your rotisserie.

As winter approaches, a lot of people will be thinking of wrapping up the bbq.  Why deprive yourself of all those lovely flavours, just because the temperature has dropped a few degrees.

We have just posted some new bbq recipes on our website. They are free to download, so please take a look.

There's a bbq chicken recipe that is so simple to cook (lemon chicken) and delivers an amazing taste. Pork is becoming more popular, mainly due to people's love of crackling.  And when you experience crackling from roast pork cooked on a rotisserie, you won't want it any other way in future.

We are also, always on the lookout for new recipes, so if you have any ideas, please let us know.  We will be happy to give you a mention on the site.

How To Cook On A Rotisserie BBQ

Many people ask me how to get the best cooking results from their rotisserie bbq.

The first thing to mention is that on our web site there is a page dedicated to helping you with rotisserie cooking. http://www.rotigrill.com/how-to-rotisserie

The same basic principles apply to rotisserie cooking as to cooking in your oven, regarding cooking time. It's also similar in that you "blast" your roasts for 15 minutes to seal the meat.  Apart from these two aspects of cooking, your rotisserie will need a slightly different approach.

Temperature control is vital.  Cooking over charcoal gives best results and is more authentic than gas.  Also, with charcoal rotisseries you can see your food cooking.  It's what I call the "theatre of cooking".  If your food is underneath a hood, you see nothing.  Admittedly with a gas bbq, you can adjust the temperature by turning a knob and checking the thermometer.  With charcoal bbq's, getting the right amount of heat is a combination of the right amount of charcoal, plus the cooking height above the coals.

Charcoal bbq's create a heat "envelope" within which your meat sits during cooking, so it is not subject to direct heat. As a general rule, if lots of fat is dripping onto your coals, causing flares, your meat is too close to the coals.  If little or no fat drips out you are too far away, but if some fat is dripping out and not causing any flares, you are about right.

For crackling you need to lower your cooking height for the last 5 to 10 minutes.  Unfortunately, gas (covered) rotisseries tend not to produce such good crackling.

Anyway, do look at our web site and call me if you need any help or advice with your rotisserie cooking.

Cooking Cheaper Cuts Of Meat On A Rotisserie BBQ

You Don't Have To Cook The Most Expensive Cuts Of Meat To Get The Best Taste.

The secret with meat is to get the right balance of meat and fat.  Fillet steak, pork loin and lean lamb cutlets will cost you a lot of money, but do not deliver on flavour.

With pork and lamb, it is the cheaper cuts that taste the best; pork belly and lamb shoulder.  Beef is slightly different as it is the rib cuts that deliver the best taste, but they are not the cheapest.  So lets have a look at pork and lamb. Both joints should be boned.

Belly pork needs to be marinated in brine overnight.  This increases the water content and seals in the flavour. The brine mix I use is 65gm salt + 22gm demerara sugar per litre of water.  The amount of brine needed, depends on the size of your container.  The only rule here is that it needs to be large enough for the pork to be completely covered.

I prefer to score the skin of my pork, but some people do not score at all.  I find that when you're cooking on a rotisserie, that scoring helps to distribute the fat more effectively.  Take the pork out of the brine and pat dry. Rub a small amount of salt into the skin.  Now roll the joint and tie it with cooking twine (available on Amazon).  Cook on your rotisserie for about 2 to 2 and a half hours over coals at medium height.  For gas rotisseries, cook at about 150c.

Lamb shoulder is so tasty.  Stab the meat quite deeply all over and press large slithers of garlic deep into the flesh.  Place some rosemary sprigs down the middle of the shoulder.  Now roll up the joint and tie with your cooking twine.  Cook exactly as per the pork belly.  Don't rush these joints as they have some work to do for themselves by distributing those lovely fats that will produce the flavour.  By cooking slowly, you will retain the correct amount of fat (the rest will boil or drip away).

Once you have finished cooking, rest the meat for about 20 minutes ( the cooking process will continue).

Enjoy!

(Colin George is a Director of Rotigrill Limited)

http://www.rotigrill.com

 

Winter Care For Your BBQ

How To Care For Your BBQ In Winter

For those people who do not bbq in the winter, you need to think about how you are going to store your bbq.

The best solution is always going to be to store in a dry shed or garage.  However, a lot of people have to leave their bbq's outside.

WD40 (WD stands for water dispersal) is great.  Just give your barbecue a light spray of WD40 (all over).  This will repel moisture during wet periods.  Next spring, just wipe the WD40 off with a soft cloth and hey presto!  You're ready for next year.

Even if you store your Barbie inside, it's always worth a light spray for protection.

For our rotisserie bbq's, don't leave motors out in the elements.  Always keep them dry. For things like spit roasts and kebab skewers, try wrapping them in an old towel.

www.rotigrill/com 

Cold Weather BBQ

Get The Taste Of A Rotisserie

Everyone says that bbq's are for fair weather. I totally disagree!!

Why deny yourself the opportunity of creating delicious food, just 'cause it's got a bit colder.

If you use a caravan and it gets windy, you put up a wind break.
If you go out in the cold, you put on extra clothing.
If it rains, you put up an umbrella.

So, why do BBQ's not deserve the same treatment.

Put up a shelter/gazebo
Put up a wind break
Add some extra charcoal

BUT, don't be put off.  How great is to have your roasts cooked on a rotisserie in winter?
How great is it to cook Caribbean food on the bbq when it's cold?

Any problems, call me on 01494 511368
Visit our website: www.rotigrill.com

It's All About Taste

There is so much comment about food these days.  What you should eat and what you shouldn't eat, so I'm going to fly a flag for taste. We BBQ food on our rotisserie every week, no matter what the weather. Rotisserie cooking always delivers intense flavours, it's just it's nature, but what we've found is that some of the cheaper cuts of meat and fish, can produce some outstanding food.

 

Most of the horrible fat disappears during cooking and what you are left with is delicious food.  The tick to not piling on the pounds is portion control.

Enjoy your food, but be content with less of it.  Don't always "fill your face".  If there are leftovers, save them and enjoy them a second time.

Try lamb shoulder, shoulder of pork or brisket.  Cook them slowly to tenderize them.  There are so many offers for fish. Bream and bass are extensively farmed, as is trout.  All these fish can be poached in white wine. Place them in some foil and pour the wine over, add a few slices of lemon and then loosely wrap the foil into an envelope with the seal at the top.  Put them on your grill on a low heat.

Cook for no more than twenty minutes and the flesh will just fall off the bone.  It's healthy and tastes brilliant. 

Take a look at our web site for some brilliant recipes.
www.rotigrill.com

Rebellion Brewery Shows Off Rotigrill's Products

Rebellion Brewery Tour featured A Rotigrill Hog Roast & Lamb Roast

Tuesday 2nd September

Rotigrill were invited to support Rebellion Brewery by supplying our Hog Roaster and Lamb Roaster and cooking their superb meat that was supplied by David Nichols.

Between 400 and 500 people attended and enjoyed a tour of the brewing facilities, plus the opportunity to sample and buy Rebellion products.

Rebellion staff put on a very professional catering operation, with home made burgers, specially made seeded rolls (which included Rebellion beer as an ingredient), chicken and sausages.  The main event however was the Rotigrill Hog Roast and Lamb Roast, which together with Colin George's special stuffing, sold out very quickly.

Two local companies working together, helping each other and benefiting each other.

Here's to the next one!

Sauces Can Make A Difference

We recently met up with a company called Man Meat Fire, who make BBQ sauces.  We've been approached by similar companies in the past, but when we tried their products last weekend, we were knocked out by them.  We used the Piri Piri sauce on chicken, Chimichurri  sauce (fiery Caribbean) and Hot Ginger sauce on prawns.



We put them on kebab BBQ skewers and cooked them on our Rotigrill Compact rotisserie bbq, which is an ideal portable charcoal bbq, for anyone who has a motorhome or caravan, or for people who just want to put their bbq in the boot of their car for outdoor picnics or the beach.

The tastes and flavour were so good, but not too powerful that they masked the flavour of the chicken and prawns.  All we did was place our meat and prawns in separate bowls and then covered them with the sauce and then marinated them in the fridge for 30 minutes.


Cooking took just 12 minutes for the chicken and 7 minutes for the prawns.  Cooking them on a rotisserie meant that everything was thouroughly and evenly cooked.

 

Accompanied by a mixed salad, it was a delicious bbq lunch that made the sunny weather even more attractive!
www. manmeatfire.com

New Hog Roaster Launched

We have just added a new product to our Hog Roaster range

.
This new model comes with a cradle type stand and the option of a carving tray, which enables eye-level carving.
Made of all stainless steels, the cradle model uses design features from our original, tripod stand model, which have all been tried and tested by our many satisfied customers.

The Big Food Debate Goes On - What's Healthy and What Isn't?

We produce BBQ equipment; more specifically, rotisserie BBQ's.  Time and again, customers call me to ask how to cook all sorts of things and I am really glad to help them.  However, recently, someone called and it really stumped me.  She asked about calorie content, fat content and all manner of things about how healthy it was to eat food cooked on a BBQ. I had to admit that I didn't have answers to her questions and suggested that she should search Google for a nutrition site.

This got me thinking and luckily I bumped into a personal fitness trainer at a networking event, who during conversation said that he advises and presents not only on training, but also nutrition.  Right! I repeated the questions from my customer and here's the gist of what he said.  Unless food is packed with chemicals to either preserve them or enhance their flavour, it is all good. He suggested that "A little bit of what you fancy won't harm you".  It is where people self indulge in both foods and quantities that they know aren't good for them that problems occur.  He maintains that it is the person and not the food that is the issue.  We all have choices and the vast amount of regulations that exist means that by and large we can make informed decisions as to what we eat. 

His next topics were portions and balance.  Control the portion sizes and balance food intake with the right combinations that we need.  We all know what they are; not too much meat, red meat on occasions, vegetables and fruit, fish and pulses.

On the main subject of bbq food, he reckons that provided the food isn't smothered with sauces, bbq food can be very healthy as there is no added fat.  Again, use fresh produce and not fatty burgers and sausages.  We roast a lot of our food on the rotisserie and apart from fantastic taste, most natural fat either drips off or burns away.

Another nutrition adviser I spoke to said simply: "Cut out the C.R.A.P." (Caffeine, Refined sugar, Additives and Preservatives), then eat a natural, balanced diet.

All this makes absolute sense, so my message to my customer when she next calls is to read this blog.
Then try some of the delicious recipes from our website: http://www.rotigrill.com/recipes

Time To BBQ

Time to BBQ

 
Now that the weather seems to be improving, people will be bringing out their bbq's. We specialise in rotisserie bbq's, which offer all sorts of cooking options for outdoor events. On our web site, we have all the equipment that you'll need, plus a "How To" page and some great bbq recipes. 

We cater for those who want something small, to put in the car or caravan, multi roast bbq's for the home and garden, plus specialist machines for a Lamb Roast or Hog Roast.

Everything is great value and built to last.

http://www.rotigrill.com

Lamb Roaster Launched

Our lamb roaster has just been launched at a charity event at the Arts4Everyone centre in High Wycombe. We cooked an 18kg lamb (please like here for the recipe) for a ‘Blues Kitchen’ event and cooked other meats on our ‘XL2’. Our catering partner, ‘Tastertainment’ served the meat and prepared some super meals.

The lamb roaster is a scaled down version of our HogRoaster. We cooked the lamb for around 5 hours and the texture and flavours were fantastic. The unit itself is strong, light and portable. It is made entirely from stainless steel.