今日は、やっとやっと、ここに引っ越してきて初めてバーベキューをしました。引っ越してきてもう２年半以上になります。当時すぐにバーベキューを買う予定だったのですがまもなくロックダウンになってしまい、配達が家の前まででお庭まで運んでいただけず、大きな木の箱（クレート）に入れたまま、家の前に置いて行かれても困ってしまうので買えずにいました。お庭まで運んでくれるまで待っていたのですがいまだに配達は家の目の前まで、いつまでも待っていられない、ということでやっと購入。到着してから組み立てるまで数週間（結構組み立てが大変だったみたいです）、その後、中のグリルなどのシーズニングをするまでまた数週間。夏が終わってしまうよ、ということで、やっと夫が重い腰を上げてシーズニングをしてくれたので（確かに面倒）、今日、初バーベキューとなりました。香港で何度か、そして、イギリスに旅行で来てコテージを借りたときに何度か炭のバーベキューをしたことはあるのですが、もう何年も前のことですし、ガスのバーベキューは初めてです。
Finally, we had the first BBQ at this house. It’s been more than 2 and a half years since we moved here and we were going to buy a BBQ soon after that, but then lockdown happened. We found out that they would bring it in pieces in a crate and drop it off in front of our front door rather than bringing it in the back garden and we didn’t think we could manage that so we thought we would wait until they would bring it in the garden. However, that never happened and we decided that we couldn’t wait any longer and eventually purchased it – and my husband managed to take everything into the garden with difficulty. Then it took him quite a few weeks before he assembled it, apparently it was quite a lot of work. Then it took him quite a few weeks again before he did the seasoning of the grill. I have to say I also find such a task quite a pain and tend to put it off so I cannot blame him. Anyway, eventually he did everything he needed to do and we were able to do the BBQ today. We did do BBQ in Hong Kong now and again and have done at a few cottages that we rented for a holiday when we were visiting England but the last time we did any BBQ is probably 10 years ago and they were charcoal BBQ, this is our first time to use a gas one.
しばらく前にお友達にサンデー・ローストに呼んでいただいたときに次回は家でバーベキューということになっているので、一度は練習しないと、ということで、やっと練習が出来ました。
A little while a go, we were invited to a Sunday Roast with our friends and when we left we said we would invite them back to a BBQ next time – so we had to have a practice.
夏の間はバーベキューをされるご家庭が多いので、普通のバーベキューだとつまらないかもと思い、焼き鳥や串焼きなど日本っぽいものをすることに。２人だけならこんなにたくさんは作らないのですが、一通り練習しておかないと不安なのでいろいろと焼きました。
This time of year many people have BBQ at home in England so I thought it might be a little boring to do a normal BBQ so we decided to do a Japanese one – yakitori & kushiyaki. We wouldn’t have made this many kinds if it were only for us normally but we wanted to try everything to make sure they would be OK.
とりあえず、の、枝豆。これは冷凍を茹でてお塩をしただけ。
Edamame first – just boiled and salted frozen ones.
シンガポールの南蛮亭でよくいただいていたミニトマトのベーコン巻き（南蛮亭では豚バラでしたが）とオクラのベーコン巻き。
Mini tomato wrapped with bacon and okra wrapped with bacon – both are what we used to love in Nanbantei in Singapore, although there they used sliced pork belly rather than bacon.
豚ミンチのつくね、日本のソーセージ、とうもろこし。
Mince pork balls (I flattened them so they cook quicker), Japanese style sausages, sweet corn.
おねぎがなかったので玉ねぎを使った、ねぎま風の焼き鳥。
A typical yakitori, which is chicken thigh and leek (we didn’t have any so I used onion) and some sweet and salty sauce.
そら豆も焼いてみました。
Broad beans.
閉めに、焼きおにぎり。塩昆布入りのおにぎり。
Grilled onigiri with konbu.
デザートにバナナを皮ごと焼いて、バニラアイスとラムレーズンと。バナナは焼き過ぎたので、次回はもう少し短時間で。
For dessert, we grilled a banana and had it with vanilla ice cream & rum raisin. We cooked the banana a little too long and it was mushy, we should cook shorter.
豚ミンチのつくねが味は良かったのですが、パサパサで残念でした。ガッパオ用に買った脂がほとんど入っていない豚ミンチの残りを使ったので、マヨネーズを入れてはみたのですが効果なく、ぱさぱさでした。栽培している紫蘇巻いていただくと、お味は美味しかったです。つくね以外はどれも美味しく焼けたと思います。
The only thing that wasn’t very good was mince pork balls. They tasted good (specially when we wrapped one in shiso leaves) but it was too dry because I used very lean mince pork as I bought it for the stir-fried mince pork with basil. I added mayonnaise hoping it’ll act as fat but it didn’t seem to have made any difference, it was still really dry. Other than those, everything else was good.