King’s Cross Barbecue

flaming coals

The end of August normally marks the last days of an English summer, celebrated annually with a Bank Holiday. This year the Sunday coincided with a friend’s birthday so five of us got together for a barbecue.

adobo skewers

I previously posted a slow cooked pork shoulder adobo back in May – here I cut a 5lb shoulder into chunks and marinated it for 48 hours in the Adobo – do this in the fridge and agitate or stir twice a day to see that all the pork gets attention.

Carne de Cerdo en Adobo recipe:

1 boned pork shoulder (butt) about 5lbs (cubed)
3 Ancho chillis
3 Chipotle chillis
6 cloves garlic (chopped)
1 medium onion (chopped)
12 black peppercorns
4 cloves
1/2 teaspoon cumin seeds
1/4 teaspoon thyme leaves
1 heaped teaspoon sea salt
1 heaped teaspoon dried oregano
2 bay leaves
1 1/2 cups cider (or other fruit) vinegar
1/4 cup of chilli soaking water
the juice of half a lime

Follow my instructions in the previous post, for warming and soaking the chillis before making the adobo in a blender. The recipe makes 4 portions of marinade, which can be frozen individually for future use. In the UK pork shoulder comes with the skin on – this should be removed before marination. I saved my skin to make crackling in the oven (the next day), though now I wish I’d cooked it on the barbecue when I had the chance.

pork adobo

Soak the skewers for 30 minutes in water before use – this stops them burning. Cook the pork until nicely browned – squeeze lime juice onto it just before removing from the fire. I believe the adobo skewers tasted even better than the original slow cooked shoulder. The pork had a fabulous smokey apple, chilli, lime flavour.

potato patch

Spider dug up some new potatoes,

potato salad

which I boiled lightly and mixed with mayonnaise. There were no chives, so I added a couple of teaspoons of capers instead.

rump steak

We enjoyed some beautifully tender rump steak from Theobalds,

merguez sausages

followed by spicy merguez, chicken drumsticks

leek and herb sausages

and leek with herb sausages.

I noticed large quantities of beer being drunk, though I stuck to my bottle of Carta Roja Gran Reserva and a celebratory glass of brandy. A good time was had by all!