Outdoor cooking is a huge trend. In the garden, on the terrace, even on the smallest balcony, people bake, roast and grill like never before. Together with friends, but without stress, and with a lot of fun. When cooking outdoors, the focus is on being together. This brings more lifestyle and more enjoyment into everyday life. And a whole holiday feeling on top of it all.
As soon as the temperatures are permitting it, we are moving our lives more and more outdoors. But nature doesn’t just invite us to do sports or simply relax. From now on, we’ll be cooking and enjoying outside! Today’s outdoor kitchen is fully equipped with oven, grill, work surfaces, storage space, and so on and is in no way inferior to the indoor original. Specialists like the North Rhine-Westphalian family business Freiluftmanufaktur create individual high-end places to relax and enjoy. Of course, you can also create your own individual open-air place of pleasure with just a few, often multifunctional pieces of equipment. The summer menu includes crispy pizza, juicy T-bone steaks, grilled vegetables… The outdoor kitchen can do it all. And for dessert we offer ice-cold delights.
A Slice of Heaven
The happy feeling of spending precious time with family and friends around a cosy fire and with culinary specialities is becoming more popular than ever. In this context, everything increasingly focuses on pizza, the ideal sharing food for a group of friends. Everyone loves these crispy dough flatbreads, which can be prepared in an infinite number of variations. While the Neapolitan pizza has a very thin, crispy base, the base of the American pizza, on the other hand, is thick and airy, and the Chicago-style deep dish pizza is more like a baked casserole. Food writer Ed Livine has summed up the essence of pizza. The title of his Ultimate Pizza Guide is: “Pizza: A Slice of Heaven”.
Already around 800 BC, the Etruscans are said to have topped flatbreads made of flour, water and salt with various ingredients and baked them on stone over an open fire. The birthplace of the “modern pizza”, however, is to be found in 17th and 18th century Naples. Originally a poor man’s food, pizza soon began its global conquest.
By the way, the first pizza in Germany was prepared 85 years ago on the exhibition grounds of Messe Frankfurt, on the occasion of the 7th International Culinary Exhibition Frankfurt am Main (Ika). The Italian cooking team prepared, among other things, a topped and gratinated brioche dough called “Pizza Napolitana”.
Homemade Pizza
The shooting star among outdoor kitchen appliances is definitely the pizza oven. As with pizza itself, there is a suitable appliance for every demand and taste. DeliVita’s ovens are classically heated up to 550 degrees with charcoal, so the pizza is ready in 60 to 90 seconds. Other models are fired with wood pellets or gas. With a little practice and – very important – the right flour or dough, you can create authentic pizzas just like your favourite Italian.
An attractive alternative to the pizza oven is the electric pizza maker, which brings a typical Italian flair also to the smallest city balcony. And even without special equipment, you can surprise your guests with a homemade pizza. All you need is a large coated frying pan with a lid and the pan pizza is ready in about 6 to 8 minutes.
Assistants for pizza bakers
The art of the pizzaioli of Naples was recognised by UNESCO in 2017 as a cultural heritage of humanity. That’s why we take the skilful pizza makers as inspiration and equip the home pizzeria with the appropriate equipment. The sourdough starter set from Kilner is ideal for making the dough. The base becomes particularly crispy on the perforated pizza tray from Zenker. A two-in-one product is the pizza cutter from Küchenprofi, which can be used to cut the pizza and then lift the pieces safely onto the plates thanks to its triangular serving surface. For this purpose, the pizza plates from Saturnia are available with different, typically Italian decorations and pizza motifs.
Let’s barbecue
The barbecue is a communicative event where the focus is on cooking and enjoying together. The most important utensil is, of course, the fireplace, meaning the grill. The selection ranges from the classic wood charcoal barbecue to the modern barbecue gas station. More and more popular are Kamado grills like the Kamal Kamado from Barbecook. A Kamado – literally translated “oven” – is a ceramic grill with Japanese roots that is fired with charcoal. In it you can grill, cook, smoke, stew… Thanks to the ceramic bowl with lid, the temperature is maintained for a long time, so there is nothing to stop you from enjoying the party. Barbecue fun of a special kind is promised by the charcoal barbecue barrel from Tramontina. It is an eye-catcher at every garden party – it is not just a place for barbecuing, it is a place for standing together, talking and laughing.
Excellent electric
On the terrace or on the small balcony of the city flat, electric barbecues perform really well. They are quickly ready for use and easy to operate. Thanks to their low odour and smoke emission, they are even suitable for indoor use – in bad weather and even in winter.
The tabletop grill with a grilling surface made of original Schott Ceran® glass from Rommelsbacher is both – elegant and unusual. The versatile compact grill from Gastroback can also be used as a large barbecue grill when opened up. With six pre-installed grilling programmes and an integrated grill thermometer, steaks and the like can be prepared to perfection. With the electric grill from Morsø, the name tells the story. “Balcone” was designed so it can hang on the railing or stand on a table.
A culinary trip around the world
There are great differences in grilling preferences around the world. While in the USA, the country of origin of barbecue, it is mainly steaks, burgers or spare ribs that go on the grill or in the smoker. In Germany, meat and sausages, fish and vegetables as well as cheese are placed on the grill. Besides sausages, Australians are particularly fond of seafood. Prawns, mussels and the like are a must on every “barbie”. Barbie? That’s how they popularly nickname a barbecue down under. The Brazilian version, churrasco, originated with the gauchos in the pampas. Various types of meat are grilled on skewers. The steak cutlery from Tramontina brings a piece of real gaucho culture to the table, while the steak and table knife from Friedr. Dick is also recommended for salad meals.
Essentials for barbecue experts
All kinds of practical tools are available for perfect barbecue results. The burger press from FMprofessional with integrated gram scale ensures that the patties are the desired size, while Triangle has an extra-large burger pallet in its range. The digital thermometer from Oxo measures the core temperature of the grilled food quickly and precisely. The cedar grill boards from Gefu give fish, meat and vegetables an unmistakable smoky aroma. And if you want to thank someone for inviting you to a garden party with a matching barbecue gift, the three-piece BBQ-Set from Philippi is definitely the right choice.
Gelati! Gelati!
What is still missing for outdoor happiness? Gelati! Gelati! The calling of the Italian ice-cream sellers brings back memories of sun, beach and sea. Whether milk ice cream, fruit ice cream or sorbet, frozen yoghurt or parfait – the choice of cool delicacies is huge. Granita, a frozen dessert with a sorbet-like consistency from Sicily, is becoming increasingly popular.
For the chilled garden party, the ice cream should of course be homemade, because only then you know what’s really in it. So vegan or lactose-free varieties are no problem either. The ice cream maker attachment for the Smeg food processor is very useful for preparing ice cream at home. And with the ice cream maker from Unold, a wide variety of specialities are guaranteed to succeed. In just 30 minutes, the snow-white gem conjures up your favourite refreshing treat from pre-cooled ingredients.
How about a strawberry balsamic ice cream, for example?
Ingredients (for 1 l capacity):
225 g cleaned strawberries
30 g brown sugar
1 package vanilla sugar
75 ml milk
125 ml cream
45 g strawberry jam
1 tsp light balsamic cream
Preparation
- Finely purée the washed strawberries.
- Whisk the sugar, egg yolks and vanilla sugar over a bain-marie until frothy.
- Then mix the milk and cream, heat and stir into the egg cream until the mixture is creamy.Allow the mixture to cool, stirring constantly.
- Mix the strawberry puree with the strawberry jam and the balsamic cream and mix into the egg and cream mixture.
- Then pour the mixture into the ice cream maker and freeze for approx. 40 to 60 minutes.
Tip
Serve this ice cream as an appetiser on a bed of chicory salad, for example. To do this, you can increase the amount of balsamic cream from teaspoon to tablespoon.
Title: Morsø
