Marinades consist of oils, herbs and flavourings in which you soak the meat or vegetables, rendering them delicious once served on the platter.
The secret to your perfectly barbecued meat lies in the marinades used while cooking. A good marinade can do wonders by keeping the meat flavourful and moist.
Choosing the right marinade for the right kind of meat is imperative for barbecuing it to perfection. Whatever cut you're planning to barbecue, here are few tips from Chef Rishi, Manager Culinary of Barbeque Nation Hospitality Ltd, to add some magic to the dish.
Olive oil, lemon juice, garlic, salt and pepper form the base of most of the marinades, and so long as you've got those ingredients at your kitchen shelf, you need not worry at all.
Grilled chicken tastes the best when marinated overnight and one super ingredient for it is yoghurt. Yoghurt consists of microbes and lactic acid which easily helps in breaking down the meat, especially for kebab recipes, making them soft and edible for consumption. A very Indian marinade that we use for chicken is ginger-garlic which adds flavour to the meat and tenderises it.
If you are planning to barbecue some lamb, keep in mind the ingredients like red wine, oregano, honey mustard, fresh rosemary and garlic, which can create a variety of magical marinades for the perfectly barbecued lamb, depending on the cravings of your taste buds.
Speaking about Barbecue, we cannot afford to miss out on prawns for seafood lovers. There are plenty of marinades that blend perfectly with prawns, whether barbecuing or sauteing. Some of the most desirable ingredients for prepping up marinades for succulent prawns, are lemon, garlic, parsley, smoked paprika, butter and white wine, of course depending on the kind of flavour you would love to savour.
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Lastly, apart from fish and meat, fruits can be a total delight when barbecued properly. Fruit barbecue can be delicious, when appropriate fruits are chosen for the same. Tropical fruits like pineapple, papaya and mangoes are some of the top choices. Although bananas are soft and tender, peeled bananas can barbecue well when sliced into small pieces. Fruit barbecue can again be either spicy or sweet.
For a spicy marinade, we can always use cider vinegar, olive oil, garlic, paprika powder, brown sugar and dry mustard and for sweet barbecue, we can consider honey, brown sugar, nutmeg, palm sugar, coconut cream and vanilla yoghurt.
To sum up, pulling off a perfect barbecue platter is not a big deal, so long as you have the right ingredients in place to create that magical marinade for fish, meat or fruits.