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WHERE THERE'S SMOKE...
FOR the Australian Barbecue Academy, and for me, this has been a remarkable year. And, improbably, it gets better, and smokier, by the minute. While next year, 2012, looks likely to be even more exciting with clouds of hickory smoke on the breeze.
My long-awaited book – HEAT & SMOKE: mastering the dark art of real barbecue – is finally on sale, either in good book shops, barbecue shops, specialist food outlets, on-line at heatandsmoke.com or right here, by clicking the Buy Now button below.
Creating the book has been fun. And satisfying. And, frankly, delicious. The process used was unorthodox: I prepared the dishes on one or other of the eight barbecues I have in my back yard; food photographer Dean Cambray, a photographic genius who happens to enjoy food almost as much as I do, shot it; and then we ate it. Neither of us is quite as thin as perhaps we once were. But it was all in a good cause.
The book explores my simple barbecue philosophy, and provides easy access to the dishes which make modern barbecue special. I believe that we can all become grillmasters with a little of the right guidance. It is not brain surgery. Or rocket science. Or even brain science or rocket surgery. But it is terrific fun, and adds up to a basic life skill worth mastering.
The book is modestly priced - $24.95 in the shops, a touch more if you are having it sent to you. We are able to keep the price low because we have self-published. And because we wanted to. We have put everything we know about barbecue into this book, and now we want everyone to be able to share it. Simple as that.
Saturday December 3 marked the end of the 2011 barbecue masterclasses which I continue to conduct at my Hawthorn home. But it all kicks off again on January 14 with the first of the 2012 classes.
Which is sold out, incidentally. As, indeed, are the classes set for February 11, February 25, March 3 and March 10. There are three places available for March 24, and room in the April classes. But the classes, as usual, are filling fast.
As many of you know, they are limited to six participants, and run from 2pm sharp to around 7pm. There is always plenty of fine food and exquisite wines – the incomparable Strathbogie wines from Ladies Who Shoot Their Lunch return as A.B.A. sponsors – and everything participants could possibly need is provided. Including, I trust, inspiration...
You can book by calling or emailing me (see contacts details below), and then confirming your booking with the payment of either a $50 deposit, or the full amount of $400, with the balance payable on the day of the class.
Also, we have A•B•A Gift Certificates with a face value of $400. Give one of these to your partner, a relative, a mate or even a neighbour, and YOU could be the ultimate beneficiary!
The dishes cooked vary with the seasons. But a typical summer class covers dishes drawn from such offerings as grilled fresh asparagus, roasted corn, marinated and grilled portobello mushrooms, oysters kilpatrick on the grill, cedar-planked fresh salmon, lamb cutlets with mint pesto, the perfect steak, beer butt chicken, butterflied leg of lamb, meltingly tender pork ribs, slow-cooked brisket of beef, Mars Bar stuffed apples and much, much more.
The A•B•A promise: sign up, and your backyards will never taste the same again, and you will learn things about the dark art of barbecue that will change the way you think about heat, smoke and cooking and eating out of doors.
And who knows? Before you reach the end of your Masterclass, you may be thinking seriously about signing up for another.
