Valentine's Suppers for the Outdoor Chef - Or is a barbecued heart a step too far?

It's still too early to put this winter to bed.

Not quite time for our thoughts to turn to that first Jersey Royal, morel mushroom or praise be the ultimate harbinger of spring, asparagus spear. It’s still cold and dark and you are more likely to be tending a casserole puttering gently on the aga than you are grilling a steak over fierce charcoal heat. And yet to cook outside all year round, even in the depths of a Devon winter is a life-enhancing joy. Rarely a day goes by here at High Grange when we don’t fire up a barbecue, fire pit or grill, and the heady mix of sea fog and birch smoke is at once a soothing balm and a promise of delicious things to come.

It goes without saying that we cook Christmas lunch outside here, in fact we even run courses on how to do it, but that wonderful meal should not be an aberration or stand alone effort when there are so many more opportunities. When we think about ‘cooking outside’ instead of ‘barbecuing’ then possibility abounds.

Breakfast is a splendid place to start. A heavy pan, a few bricks and some wood is all you need to enjoy a quick al fresco breakfast. Streaky bacon, perhaps a round or 2 of black pudding and a fat sausage. An egg fried in sizzling bacon fat to crisp-bottomed perfection and eaten outside in the biting cold will taste exponentially better than anything you will eat in your kitchen. Hearty braises, rich with wine or stock are just better cooked over fire in an old cast iron pot. Spend a day digging a hole and laying in it a fire and some rocks. When the stones are hot and the fire died down, a haunch of venison and a selection of winter root veg when covered with a hessian sack and earth will bake exactly how they would have done in prehistoric times, only the occasional wisp of smoke betraying it’s location. That’s a good day. The sense of expectation and fear as the day progresses, the final reveal to gasps of amazement from friends and family.

And it’s not just processed pig and hunks of meat that favour fire and flame - in this most romantic of months, Valentine’s Day looms large and tell me now, what could be sexier than cooking together outside? Something delicate from our gorgeous coastline perhaps - a sea bass fillet - skin crisped on a plancha grill or scallops cooked on the shell with garlic, chilli and lime. This to me speaks more of love and the celebration of relationships than an over-priced set menu and a room full of resentful, silent couples.

The second feast that we ever organised - in February 2020 was an ‘Anti-Valentines’ - a communal table to avoid the awkward silence, half price for singletons and not a red rose in sight. I wanted to make the main course grilled heart but my clever wife thought that might be a step too far. Maybe this year? An ox heart, marinated then sliced like a rump steak and cooked directly on charcoal embers. Perhaps with a salsa verde or horseradish dressing.

To my mind that sounds like a romantic treat but maybe, just maybe my darling wife is right, cooking a heart for Valentines Night might just be bad karma…..