Charred & Scruffed by Adam Perry Lang

Author:Adam Perry Lang
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Artisan
Published: 2014-06-12T04:00:00+00:00

Part III

Co-Stars

A shared meal strengthens family bonds, cements friendships, repairs enmities, establishes sacred communion. Fire, food, family, friendship: they all go together. Just like Thanksgiving and Academy Award night, barbecue meals are meant for a group of family or friends to gather and bond.

But few books or menus seriously consider the question “Isn’t the company you provide for the meat, fish, or fowl on the plate equally important to the success of the meal?” Instead, most people spend hours getting the main course ready, then pile on the baked beans, potato salad, coleslaw, etc. at the last minute and leave it at that. The side dishes are usually an afterthought, but I suggest we get rid of the term “side dish” and talk about “co-stars.” A first-rate barbecue dinner requires that equal care and skill be given to everything that is served with the meat.

Think about what’s normally on your plate at a typical barbecue. How do you approach it? Let’s say that you have some pulled pork, some coleslaw, and some baked beans. Nobody starts by eating all the meat and, when that is done, eating all the beans and then polishing off the coleslaw. You push some meat onto your fork, then a few sweet and hearty beans and some crunchy, creamy coleslaw, and you taste all three at once. Contrasting tastes and textures make that forkful interesting.

You may recognize some of these co-stars as new approaches to old favorites, while others are my own inventions. One thing you will not find here is the dutiful “serve with” suggestion after each recipe. To my way of thinking, a plate with barbecue on it requires three items: you pick them. Just like my family did, way back when, at the Jade King Chinese restaurant in Roslyn, Long Island, take one from Group A (meat, fish, or fowl) and two from Group B (the co-stars). How you put together your ensemble depends on what you are in the mood for. Satisfying spontaneous desire is a much better route than satisfying the instructions in a one-combination-fits-all cookbook suggestion.

It goes without saying that these recipes don’t exhaust all the co-star variations you can serve at a barbecue, but the principles behind each group can lead to endless variations. As chefs do, let the best items in the markets work on your imagination, and then start chopping and slicing.

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