Cooking outdoors, with fresh air and tongs and very hot charcoal, iscertainly away of making food taste great. If asked to choose, however, between a barbecue and a hot stove, heavy ridged grill pan and good indoor ventilation, I'd be in no doubt: for year-round, low-maintenance fun, it will always be theindoor cooking optionfor me.
So keen am I on chargrilling certain vegetables that there's a joke in the Ottolenghi deli kitchens that our chefs cannot recognise broccoli unless it's stripy. Whether I'm serving them simply with some fried slices of garlic and red chilli, ordressing them up, I want those green florets chargrilled. They look great and, crucially, the char-grilling imparts a depth of smoky flavour and caramelises the vegetables' natural sugar.
To get the best results, the char-grill must be very hot – it will take about five minutes of gradual heating to reach the right temperature – and the cooking time relatively short: just two or three minutes, turning a few times. To help the cooking along, blanch the florets in salty water for two minutes first, then refresh under cold running water (to stop them cooking further) and pat dry. Toss lightly in olive oil and some salt – and never grill with more than a little bit of oil, otherwise you'll have heavy clouds of smoke to deal with.
Cauliflower florets, asparagus spears, even brussels sprouts will all benefit from similar pre-chargrilling assistance. Other vegetables need a bit of help once they've got their stripes. Wedges of butternut squash, sweet potato or beetroot, for example, and thick slices of aubergine all need the heat of the oven to help them cook through. Width is the key factor here: anything around or under 5mm thick will be fine with the griddle alone.
Some vegetables or fruit don't need blanching or roasting, though. As a general rule of thumb, things that taste great raw – thin slices of fennel or courgette, for example, gem lettuce chunks, wedges of stone fruit, slices of pineapple – need only a light coating in olive oil, some seasoning and a minute or so on the chargrill.
Grilled beetroot and lemon salad
If you'd like this with grilled cheese as well, use halloumi instead of feta (brush it with oil first) – but only if you're serving the salad at once, because grilled halloumi tends to go rubbery if left to sit. Serves four.
7 medium beetroots, trimmed and well scrubbed, but skin left on
4 tbsp olive oil
Coarse sea salt and black pepper
1-2 lemons (depending on how much you like the bitterness of lemon skin), halved lengthways and pips removed, then cut widthways into 5mm slices
½ small red onion, finely sliced
1 tsp cumin seeds, toasted and roughly crushed
50g rocket
100g feta, cut into 5mm slices
1½ tbsp lemon juice
Heat the oven to 200C/390F/gas mark 6. Put the beetroot in a small baking tray, pour over a tablespoon of oil and sprinkle with a teaspoon and a half of salt. Toss to coat, then roast for 55-65 minutes, until cooked through. Remove and set aside.
Bring a small saucepan of water toa boil, add the lemon slices and blanch for three minutes, to soften. Drain and set aside.
Put a ridged griddle pan on a high heat and ventilate the kitchen. Once the pan is very hot, addthe beetroot and grill for four minutes, turning a few times until they're starting to blacken all over, then remove from the grill. Add the lemon to the griddle pan and cook for just 30 seconds, turning once, remove from the heat and set aside.
Once the beetroot is cool enough to handle, cut it into 1.5cm wedges and place in a large bowl with the grilled lemon, onion, cumin and remaining oil. Mix, then add the rocket, feta, lemon juice and a generous grind of pepper. Give everything a final gentle stir and serve at once.
Barbecued curried prawns with grilled limes
Serves four.
20 large raw tiger prawns, peeled, deveined, heads and tails left intact
2 limes, halved, to serve
For the marinade
100ml sunflower oil
1 medium banana shallot, peeled and finely chopped
1 large garlic clove, peeled and crushed
3cm piece fresh ginger, peeled and finely chopped
1 red chilli, deseeded and finelychopped
2 tsp medium curry powder
1 tsp tomato paste
2 tsp coriander seeds, toasted and finely crushed
2 tsp fennel seeds, toasted and finely crushed
1 tsp nigella seeds
Finely grated zest of 1 lime
Salt
Put the first six ingredients for the marinade in a small saucepan and cook on a medium heat for five minutes, stirring from time to time. Add the tomato paste, turn down the heat to medium-low and cook for 10 minutes, until the onion is completely soft. Add the coriander, fennel and nigella seeds, the lime zest and half a teaspoon of salt, cook for five minutes more, stirring often, then remove from the heat and set aside to cool. Make sure you don't cook the spices too much, because they will be going on the grill later.
Insert a kebab stick just above the tail of a prawn and push it through the body towards its head: the aim isto keep the prawn dead straight. Repeat with the rest of the prawns, place on a flat tray, pour over the marinade and leave in the fridge fortwo hours.
Heat the oven to 180C/350F/gas mark 4. Put a large ridged griddle pan on a high heat and ventilate the kitchen well. Lift the prawns out of their marinade and scrape off as much as possible; reserve the marinade. Lay the prawns on the grill and cook for two minutes, turning halfway through so they get charred on both sides.
Transfer to a baking tray, pour over the marinade and bake for four minutes, until the prawns are cooked through. (Alternatively, if your prawns are smaller and you can finish cooking them on the grill without burning, heat up the marinade in small saucepan until it almost simmers and pour over the cooked prawns.)
Keep the griddle on the heat when the prawns are in the oven and put in the lime halves flesh side down. Grill for two minutes and serve alongside the prawns.
Marinated chicken thighs with fenugreek and ginger
These tend to create a lot of smoke, so you may choose to save the recipe for your next barbecue. If you do cook them indoors, you'll need agood extractor, but if they still produce too much smoke, just finish them off in the oven. Dried fenugreek leaves can be found online or in any Indian food store. If you prefer your chicken leaner and easier to eat, replace the thighs with skinless breasts, diced and skewered, in which case it should take less than half the time to cook. Serves six.
300ml double cream
Salt
2 garlic cloves, crushed
5cm piece fresh ginger, peeled and finely chopped
1½ tsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground turmeric
2½ tbsp dried fenugreek leaves (or½ tsp ground fenugreek)
½ tsp ground cardamom
1½ tsp ground cumin
2 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp chilli flakes
2 tbsp lime juice
2 tsp lime zest
12 chicken thighs, skin on, bone in
Pour the cream into a deep bowl with a teaspoon of salt and everything else other than the chicken. Blitz with a hand-held blender until the cream starts to thicken; be careful not to over-mix or it will split. Pour over the chicken, and use your hands to coat it all over, cover and leave in the fridge to marinate for at least six hours, and ideally overnight.
Heat the oven to 200C/390F/gas mark 6. Put a ridged griddle pan on ahigh heat and ventilate your kitchen. Lift the chicken out of its marinade, scraping off as much cream as you can. Add a quarter-teaspoon of salt to the marinade and set aside.
When the pan is hot, add the chicken skin side down and grill for two minutes, turning halfway through so it chars on both sides. Transfer to a high-sided 24cm x 34cm baking tray, then spoon over the marinade and roast for 25 minutes, until the meat is cooked through and browned. Leave to rest for a few minutes before serving.
Yotam Ottolenghi is chef/patron of Ottolenghi and Nopi in London.
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