Barbecue is an ode to foods made by grilling or smoking. It features 280 recipes from 80 different countries, all collected by American Pitmaster Hugh Magnum. It is a thick beautiful book, the kind that would look beautiful on a shelf. However, for me that’s where it would stay. Despite enjoying the journey around the world through dishes, I wasn’t excited to make many dishes and found the directions vague and requiring lots of guess work.

Barbecue by by American Pitmaster Hugh Magnum

Dietary Notes

Despite the name – barbecue, this isn’t a meat only cookbook. There are also a nice smattering of vegetarian, vegan and pescatarian recipes.

Best For

Anyone who loves barbecued food – smoked and grilled – and wants to explore recipes from around the world.

Cooking Level

Intermediate – advanced – and this is largely due to the fact that the directions are not very detailed or clear so they do require some figuring out.

I’m sharing the recipe for Japanese Beef Skewers. They’re meant to be cooked in the Korean “yakiniku style” – non-marinated, bite sized pieces of meat grilled on small clay grills. His recipe used a standard grill. I of course cooked it on a braai – because is there any other way to barbeque?

Despite my hesitation of the cookbook these skewers were out of the world and that dipping sauce brought everything together. I’ve shared the recipe as per the cookbook – but here is how I made them, threaded onto metal skewers, braai’d and dipped into that sauce.

Print Recipe

Japanese Beef Skewers from Barbecue

These non-marinated, bite sized pieces of meat are threaded on skewers and grilled. Dip them into a flavourful Yakiniku sauce for a delicious meal

Course: Mains

Dietary: Dairy Free, Nut Free

Make This for: Dinner, Lunch

Servings: 4

Ingredients

Beef

450 g beef tenderloin thinly sliced
1 tbsp canola oil
salt and pepper

Yakiniku Sauce

1 clove garlic minced
2 tbsp sugar
4 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp mirin
2 tsp sesame oil
1 tbsp sesame seeds toasted

Instructions

Yakiniku Sauce
In a small saucepan, whisk together all the ingredients except the sesame seeds.
Bring it to a boil over a high heat, then reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer for 3 minutes.
Set the sauce aside to cool, then strain it. Stir in the sesame seeds.

Beef

Preheat the grill to a medium-high heat.
Brush the beef with oil and season with salt and pepper. Place it on the grill and cook for 3-4 minutes, turning once. Transfer the beef to a serving dish.
Serve hot with a small bowl of the yakiniku sauce.

Barbecue is published by Phaidon and distributed by Jonathan Ball Publishers. It is available here.