Summer is the perfect time of year to organise al fresco lunches and dinners, enabling you to make the most of your terrace or garden. Barbecuing, in particular, is a popular cooking method since it enables you to prepare unmistakably mouth-watering recipes whilst having fun and fully savouring the summer climate.
What could be better than a barbecue under the stars with friends? Grilled meat and fish, kebabs, bruschetta and roasted vegetables are all delights that whet the appetite at the very thought and eating in good company makes every course even more special: let's take a look at a few simple combinations for truly appetising dishes.
Barbecue recipes
Barbecuing is a cooking method that lends itself to the preparation of countless recipes, yet it’s meat dishes that spring to mind when we hear the word ‘grill’. The secret to succulent fillets and steaks lies in their marinade, which to effectively work, must be oily, spicy and lightly acidic.
An example of a simple and versatile marinade that works well with all types of meat can be made using extra-virgin olive oil, aromatic herbs (i.e. rosemary, sage, bay, thyme and oregano), a clove of garlic and wine to taste. Allow beef to marinate for approximately 4 hours, or 2 hours for chicken and pork, before placing these delicacies on the grill to ensure that the meat is perfectly tender and succulent. It's important to avoid adding salt to the marinade or - as a rule - before cooking: sodium would dehydrate the dish and risk making the meat tough and stringy.
Fish lovers can instead enjoy divine grilled sea food, ensuring that the fish and crustaceans selected are of the utmost freshness. Even those who don’t eat meat or fish can still enjoy great food since barbecues also allow for the preparation of many vegetarian-friendly recipes, including spun-curd tomino and grilled scamorza cheese (perfect for vegetarians) and tofu kebabs or barbecued seitan (perfect for vegans).
The main courses can be accompanied by an inviting roast vegetable-based side dish, with aubergines, courgettes and peppers. Nonetheless, come the end of the dinner, there remains a problem to be solved: the need to thoroughly clean the barbecue and all the crockery that has been used. Barbecue cooking in fact often entails the formation of crusts on the grill as well as the sedimentation of oily and greasy residue on cutlery and plates. Let's take a look at the best practices to get your crockery looking spick and span and maintain an-ever efficient and ready-to-use grill.
Grill maintenance
It is fundamental to clean the barbecue after every use, by carefully removing burnt residue and cleaning the grill.
To thoroughly remove crusts, we recommend using a brush or steel scrubber to rub down all the surfaces. You will then be able to remove any greasy residue and clean the grill with a damp sponge. Immediately afterwards, hold the grill over an open flame or dry it thoroughly to avoid the formation of rust on any wet metal.
Repeat this operation each time the grill is used to make sure all your barbecues run smoothly and avoid any flavour alterations resulting from improper maintenance.
Cleaning of utensils and crockery
Even kitchen tongs, carving forks and palette knives need to be treated with respect to ensure that they last over time.
If your barbecue was held far from home, we recommend wrapping the utensils in newspaper during transport and soaking them in hot water and washing up liquid as soon as possible. The same treatment can be applied to any crockery used to soften any crusts.
If you’ve used large numbers of plates and crockery, being able to count on an especially spacious dishwasher will enable you to speed up the washing and drying process for plates and cutlery.
Candy Evo Space dishwashers, for example, offer maximum performance in terms of washing and loading capacity since they are able to accommodate up to 16 place settings, always guaranteeing sparking plates, even with the most stubborn of residues.
Some models are even fitted with Perfect Rapid Zone, a patented system that utilises two supplementary rotating arms positioned on the base of the dishwater, which have been designed to remove even the most stubborn of dirt owing to the power of the water jet that they generate. Moreover, we have created the Candy Maxi Plates range that allows for the smart management of the internal spaces, by accommodating up to 190 items of crockery in a single load and providing space for trays and large serving plates. Thanks to its 8 slots for large plates and 3 modular baskets, it is possible to best organise the internal distribution of crockery by placing long cutlery and small containers in the first basket; glasses, mugs and regular size plates in the second, while large plates, bulky pans and pots all fit comfortably into the lower basket.
