Along with the summer season should
come bold, vibrant flavors from the
indoor kitchen and outdoor grill.
Need some help with your barbecue techniques
or interesting recipes to get motivated?
Here are some great cookbooks to
rely on.
It takes balls to
call your book Serious
Barbecue (Hyperion,
$35), as though every
barbecue book that
came before was
mere fiery foreplay.
But dig into Adam
Perry Lang’s barbecue
bible, and you’ll
discover that he really
is serious about barbecue. So serious, in
fact, that Mario Batali calls him “my hero
and go-to brother for meat and fire.” Jamie
Oliver says, “Adam is the most inspiring
barbecue chef in the world.” That’s high
praise from some heavy hitters.
In Serious Barbecue, Lang promises to
teach readers how to “smoke, char, baste,
and brush your way to great outdoor cooking.”
He delivers on that promise in spades.
The first section of Serious Barbecue alone
is worth the price of the book. It’s an in-depth
introduction to barbecue basics:
tools and cooking vessels, temperature
control and maintenance, types of charcoal
and wood and how to use them, brining
and seasoning prior to cooking and much
more, including the “Twelve Myths about
Barbecue.” For example, meat that’s falling
off the bone is not a good thing. The recipes
in Serious Barbecue tend to be complex and
multi-staged. But hey, you can’t argue with
the results. Family members at a recent
barbecue where I cooked Lang’s glazed
pork loin with apricot glaze and garlic were
bowled over by it. And his “butter-bombed”
Porterhouse will make your head spin.
If you’re really
serious about barbecue,
along with
Adam Perry Lang’s
book, you’ll also want
Soaked, Slathered
and Seasoned: A
Complete Guide to
Flavoring Food for the
Grill (Wiley, $19.95)
by Elizabeth Karmel. Marinades, brines,
sauces, glazes, mops, salsas, relishes,
rubs, jellies, vinaigrettes, spice blends,
compound butters, tapenades, pestos and
dipping sauces—they’re all here, along
with what to do with them on the grill.
The only problem might be keeping your
lips off the goodies before they’re cooked;
it’s hard not to want to guzzle Karmel’s
Cabernet and fresh rosemary mop before
it even makes it onto the meat!
OK, so maybe
summer cooking
to you doesn’t
always involve
firing up the outdoor
grill or dealing
with rubs,
brines and marinades.
Sometimes
you just want
a scrumptious
sammy. Tom
Colicchio can
help. Founder of New York City’s famed
Gramercy Tavern
The name Alex
Skaria doesn’t
sound very Asian.
But the Bangkokbased
author of The
Asian Barbecue Book
(Tuttle, $29.95) has a
firm grasp on Asian
flavors and they
come screaming
through with virtually
every recipe in
his fine cookbook.
As with most barbecue
books, The Asian
Barbecue Book includes a hefty introduction
to barbecue tools and techniques, as well as
a useful guide to essential Asian ingredients
and indispensible chapters on Asian spice
pastes, glazes, sauces, dips, sambals, butters,
chutneys, marinades, rubs and stuffings.
From satays and tandoori to Asian-spiced
burgers, in Skaria’s book, bright
flavors just jump off the page. Especially
provocative is his Thai version of beer-can
barbecue chicken, in which a hollowed-out
coconut filled with coconut water serves to
support, steam and flavor the chicken.