Beer & BBQ Festival stars share their tips for cooking meat on the bone
ADELAIDE’S grill masters will be joined by stars from interstate and overseas for this weekend’s Beer & BBQ Festival. Three of the best tell Gordon Knight and Simon Wilkinson what they are planning and explain the timeless appeal of meat cooked on the bone.
ADELAIDE’S grill masters will be joined by comrades from interstate and overseas for this weekend’s Beer & BBQ Festival. Three of the best tell Gordon Knight and Simon Wilkinson what they are planning for the event and explain the timeless appeal of meat cooked on the bone.
MATTY MATHESON
Everything about Matty Matheson is big. Bigger than big. He’s got 433,000 Instagram fans, he’s famous for his behemoth-like burgers, gargantuan gumbos and fatty porchetta that’s “so good you might actually die”.
He has more tatts than a shipload of sailors and he’s eaten his way around the globe in hit culinary-culture tour Dead Set on Life and new show It’s Suppertime.
So it comes as a surprise to learn that while Viceland’s gangster of the grill is in Adelaide for the three-day weekend festival he won’t be downing any SA craft beer.
“I don’t drink, man,” the Toronto-based chef says wistfully. In fact, he hasn’t touched alcohol for five years. And if anyone has a reason not to crack open a can it’s Matty. A lifestyle of whisky and cocaine, pills and pilsners in his teens and 20s saw him suffer a heart attack just before he reached his third decade.
Today, behind the tough exterior is a cooler, calmer more considered culinarian.
He’s in Adelaide for the world-class food and to catch up with friends he’s made at last year’s Beer & BBQ – including food ambassador Duncan Welgemoed– from Adelaide’s famed Africola. “Duncan’s a wild man – I think we have a lot in common,” Matty says.
“Last year was my first time participating in Beer & BBQ and I was really blown away. Everyone’s food was so good – I was really impressed. Australian chefs are out of this world, and the food here, the produce – it’s just amazing.”
On his first day in Australia, Matty also sat down to lunch with Shannon Martinez of cult Melbourne vegan restaurant Smith & Daughters.
“Shannon is such a great cook and I think what she’s doing is amazing. She’s become a good friend,” Matty says.
“She makes absolutely delicious vegetables. It’s just about using that barbecue technique – live fire. She really makes vegetables interesting.”
But as you’d expect, Matty is sticking with red meat – and he’s treating Adelaide to a signature bad-ass barbecue dish. “I’m doing smoked prime rib sandwiches, you guys call them scotch fillet,” he says.
And after meditating on ribs for a moment, wild-man Matty comes out of the cage.
“With ribs it’s that primal thing,” he says. “You’ve got the meat, you’ve got the bone, they’re unctuous, they’re extremely flavourful.
Ribs are AMAZING!
“And they’re so rich. I like French food and deep-braised beef ribs have the same kind of thing going on. You do a slow smoke on them and you get that sticky, glutinous kind of meal. They just break apart.”
And you’ve got to ditch the plate and the cutlery, he says.
“For barbecue ribs it’s got to be fingers – 100 per cent. Fork and knife is bit weird.”
While Matty’s ribs recipe for Adelaide is being kept under wraps, he’s keen to bang home that getting ribs right doesn’t need to be difficult.
“Take pork ribs. If you just rub ribs with yellow mustard, salt and pepper, put them into your oven and roast them nice and slowly they’ll come out perfect every time. And you can put any kind of barbecue sauce you want with it.
“Roast them really slowly at 150C for about three hours and you’re going to get an amazing pork rib.”
And what equipment
does the heavyweight of barbecuing use? “I have a big, Argentinian-style Grillworks … a Big Green Egg (grill and smoker) and a Traeger smoker. The three big boys!”
But Matty says he’s looking forward to putting the tongs and fork down so he can explore Adelaide on his second visit. “Adelaide’s like a giant park; it’s such a beautiful green city,” he says. “It’s just beautiful in the Adelaide Hills. Last time I was there we went to a winery that does natural wines. It had a pizza oven and we were cooking pizzas there. Adelaide is a beautiful, beautiful place. If anyone wants to pay for me to do my show in Adelaide Hills, I’m there!”
MORGAN McGLONE
Chicken? You want to know about chicken? Then Morgan McGlone is your man. The New Zealand-born third-generation chef reckons he goes through up to four tonnes of chook a week in his Belles Hot Chicken shops and food truck in Sydney and Melbourne.
Morgan’s career as a classically trained chef ended abruptly when, working in Nashville, he became besotted with southern-style fried chicken and saw its potential for feeding hungry Australians.
He opened the first Belles in Melbourne in 2014 and the rest is history.
Inevitably, perhaps, he struck up a bromance with Duncan Welgemoed, which resulted in a pop-up dinner at Africola and a first appearance at Beer & BBQ in 2016.
“They have all these really amazing beers and all the music so it’s a party at night,” he remembers. People have a lot of fun and cut loose a little bit, but not too much.
“Duncan’s a really good ringleader. He makes you feel like a superstar.”
For this year’s festival, Morgan will be frying up a new recipe for chicken wings, shaken with a Mexican-inspired spice mix and served with a corn, zucchini and mint succotash.
The chef can see why people get obsessed with fried wings. “They have all these hidden nooks and crannies,” he says. “You have the tip — that can be nice. You have the middle bone which holds in juiciness and soft meat. And there’s the drumette, which is like a mini drumstick. You have three adventures there. And anything cooked on the bone is always amazing.”
Morgan, who has recently opened a 350-seat bistro grill in Melbourne, reckons it’s possible to have a decent crack at frying wings at home, using a simplified version of the
Belles technique.
The first step is to brine the wings for four hours in a mix of one cup of salt to four litres of water. “This helps create steam when you are frying the wings and gives them juiciness,” he says. “Open up the wing and it will be piping hot with moisture locked in.”
To fry, use a large pot or a cheap home deep fryer. The oil must be heated to 178C and, without an industrial-size fryer, the wings will take about nine minutes to cook.
Otherwise, we might have to wait for Belles to open here.
“I think Adelaide is ready for it … I just have to find the right space,” Morgan says.
ALANA BRABIN
Alana Brabin has been clocking up some serious kilometres, towing her gleaming, newly painted trailer decked out with two monster grills over to Sydney’s Beer & BBQ Fest and back again.
The grills, when completed with a spit and stainless steel hood, make up the fire-powered mobile kitchen she uses for her growing catering business If You’re Game.
Alana, who was previously a chef at Lyndoch Hill in the Barossa, says discovering the secrets of the asador grill from an Argentinian mentor changed her career path.
“I decided I wanted to work off-site rather than in a kitchen in a hotel,” she says. “I absolutely love cooking on fire. There is something instinctual about it. It can be freezing cold and you are still having an amazing time because you are out near the fire and the smells.
There are so many things I can do with the grill.
“I can go from doing a whole wild boar to something delicate like octopus or squid, or opening oysters in the fire.”
For this year’s festival, Alana will put that versatility to the test by turning out three very different offerings in partnership with Analiese Gregory (Franklin, Tasmania).
A smoked venison ragu made from leg, shoulder and neck meat will be served with handmade gnocchi.
“I recommend it to go with a big stout,” Alana says.
They will also be making a salad from “huge” Barossa ducks, which are smoked then cooked in the rendered fat, confit style, as well as cajun-spiced snapper wings grilled over hot charcoal.
“They will be brilliant with a nice beer,” Alana says.
What she won’t be touching, at least for a while, are beef short ribs, after cooking “over a tonne of them” for last year’s festival, plus another 5000 portions for Tasting Australia.
“Personally I can’t stand the smell of them any more. I’m done. There is more to me than a beef rib.”
She does, however, understand the appeal. “I think it’s the bone,” she says. “It’s soft meat, easy to eat and has a lot of flavour. Anything on a bone is phenomenal. People love it.”
For beef ribs she recommends cooking in a Weber-style kettle barbecue, or in a low, slow oven, with either a dry rub or barbecue sauce.
For pork ribs, brine first to keep them moist, then put on a low, slow grill.
Beer & BBQ Festival, Dairy Pavilion, Adelaide Showground, Friday to Sunday, beerbbqfest.com.au
Matty’s grilled short ribs
SERVES / 4 PREP / 1 DAY PLUS cook / 2 HOURS
FOR THE BEEF SHORT RIBS:
Brine (see below)
2 (15 cm) beef short ribs
2 cups red wine
½ cup soy sauce
½ cup maple syrup
1 cup ketchup
½ cup yellow mustard
1 onion, chopped
1 carrot, peeled and chopped
1 stalk celery, chopped
3 cloves garlic, peeled
2 tbsp ground cumin
2 tbsp ground cardamom
2 tbsp ground coriander
2 tbsp smoked paprika
2 bay leaves
1 bunch parsley
1 bunch thyme
½ cup white vinegar
FOR THE PORK BELLY:
4 cloves garlic, peeled
1 knob ginger, peeled
½ bunch coriander
4 spring onions
2 cans Coca-Cola
1 cup soy sauce
900g skin-on pork belly
8 dried shiitake mushrooms
FOR THE PARSNIP PUREE:
4 parsnips, peeled and cut
into 2.5cm cubes
Heavy cream
¼ cup maple syrup
55g unsalted butter
FOR THE GRILLED ONIONS:
12 green onions
Juice of ½ lemon
1 tbsp olive oil
SHORT RIBS:
Brine the ribs (see below) for at least 24 hours. Preheat the oven to 150C. Place the short ribs in a Dutch oven and add
4 cups water and the wine, soy sauce, maple syrup, ketchup, mustard, onion, carrot, celery, garlic, spices and herbs. Bring to a boil and cover; roast in the oven 2½ to 3 hours.
2Remove the short ribs from the Dutch oven when the meat is tender but before it’s falling off the bone. Place the braising sauce in a blender and blend, adding the vinegar. Pass the sauce through a fine sieve. Put the short ribs in a container, cover with sauce, and refrigerate for 24 hours.
3In a medium pan set over medium heat, warm the short ribs in the sauce. Remove the short ribs from the sauce and grill lightly and slowly while basting with the sauce. We are just looking to add a nice glaze, so about 2 minutes per side and keep it moving.
PARSNIP: Place the parsnips in a pot and add just enough cream to cover; bring to a boil, then simmer until the parsnips are fork-tender, 15 minutes. Transfer the parsnips to a blender; add the maple syrup and butter and blend until smooth. If desired, strain through a fine conical seive.
ONIONS: Grill green onions until wilted and mix with the lemon juice and olive oil.
TO PLATE: Slice the pork belly and the short ribs; serve with a bowl of parsnip puree and
green onions.
BRINE: To make a 10 per cent salt brine, pour warm water into a small pan. Add 100g salt and bring to a boil over high heat. Cover and remove from the heat and let sit for 10 minutes. Put the ice in a bowl or a large measuring cup. Pour the brine over the ice and stir until dissolved. Allow brine to cool to room temperature.
From Matty Matheson:
A Cookbook by Matty Matheson, published by Abrams Books, 2018.
FOR THE COCA COLA PORK BELLY
FOR THE PORK BELLY:
4 cloves garlic, peeled
1 knob ginger, peeled
½ bunch cilantro
4 green onions
2 (475ml) cans Coca-Cola
1 cup (240 ml) soy sauce
2 pounds (910g) skin-on pork belly
8 dried shiitake mushrooms
FOR THE PARSNIP PUREE:
4 parsnips, peeled and cut into 1-inch (2.5 cm) cubes
Heavy cream
¼ cup (60 ml) maple syrup
¼ cup (½ stick/55g) unsalted butter
FOR THE GRILLED ONIONS:
12 green onions
Juice of ½ lemon
1 tablespoon olive oil
Make the pork belly: In a blender, place the garlic, ginger, cilantro, and green onions and blend to a pulp. Transfer to a large bowl and pour in the Coca-Cola, soy sauce, and 2 cups (480 ml) water. Place the pork belly in the marinade and refrigerate 24 hours.
Remove the pork belly from the marinade and get your grill really hot. Blacken the outside of the pork belly all the way around, about 5 minutes a side. The sugar from the marinade should make this pretty easy. Return the pork belly to the marinade, which will now turn into the braising liquid. Add the mushrooms.
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C). Place the pork belly and liquid on a baking dish with aluminum foil. Cover with more foil and braise in the oven 2½ hours.
The pork belly is done when you can stick a wooden skewer through it with just a little resistance. Remove the aluminum foil cover and let cool to room temperature. Remove the pork belly and place in another bowl; strain the braising liquid over it and discard the solids. Wrap the bowl with plastic wrap and place in the fridge 24 hours.
