MENU dorset issue 25 MENU25.dorset pdf issue 25.final | Page 45

DJ BBQ cooks up a
smoky, rock ‘n’ roll
storm every year at
Camp Bestival.
DIRTY LOADED LOBSTER ROLLS
No one celebrates the glory of the grill quite like Camp Bestival Feast
Collective host DJ BBQ, as this seafood showstopper proves
{
}
Every year, some of the finest international street food chefs and artisan producers
come to the beautiful Lulworth Castle site in Dorset as part of Camp Bestival and
Bestival’s Feast Collective. For five years, this collection of culinary cool has been
elevatin g festival food from a hurried stomach filler to heights of deliciousness that
you remember long after the headline sets have faded.
Your host for this temporary autonomous zone of tastiness is none other than
“spandex-clad charcoal savant”, DJ BBQ. He fuels the whole area with fire, smoke
and classic tunes. A world-renowned grillmaster, as well as watching him and his team cooking live and getting to sample the
results at both festivals, you can now get DJ BBQ’s (aka Christian Stevenson) collected wisdom in his new book, Fire Food.
It’s an unashamedly rock and roll take on barbecuing that makes you long for clear skies and a big bag of charcoal, as this
recipe shows…
“Lobster rules. Lobster is the Ferrari of seafood. It’s the holy grail. It’s what everyone wants to eat. So give the people what
they want! It’s always a special day when there’s lobster on the grill.”
Ingredients Method
Serves 4
BBQ set-up
Dirty technique
100g (3½oz) salted butter
2 garlic cloves, sliced
1 chilli, sliced
1 tbsp fresh thyme leaves
2 whole raw lobsters (about 600g/1lb 5oz each),
humanely killed, halved lengthways
Juice of ½ lemon
Special equipment
4 burger buns (I prefer brioche as this is quite a
decadent meal)
4 tbsp mayonnaise
½ a bunch of chives, snipped
1. Get a nice bed of coals cooking. Once they’ve hit core temperature and
have started to ash up, then you are good to go.
2. While this is happening, melt your butter in a small saucepan and add the
garlic, chilli and thyme leaves (you can do this in the kitchen or on the grill).
Once the butter starts bubbling, take it off the heat. Set it aside.
3. Now let’s cook these things. Blow the ash off the coals, then lay the lobster
halves flesh side down on the coals for 1–2 minutes depending on the size
of your lobster. Once you have a nice char, gently turn them over and brush
with the flavoured butter. Oh my gosh, I want to eat this right now. Cook for
another couple of minutes shell side down, brushing every 30 seconds. The
meat will pull away from the shell when it’s cooked and it’s time to take ’em off.
4. Leave them to rest for a couple of minutes on a metal tray and pop your
butter back on the grill to keep warm.
5. Gently remove the flesh from the tails and claws. Brush again with the
butter. Finish with the lemon juice.
6. Toast your buns. Spread a dollop of mayo on the base of the toasted bun.
Pile the lobster meat high and sprinkle on the chives.
By the way, you just won the game of life with this cookout. I’m off to the
fishmonger to buy some more lobster.
{
{
Fire Food
Extracted from Fire Food: The Ultimate BBQ
Cookbook by DJ BBQ (Quadrille, £15) Photogra-
phy © David Loftus
www.menu-dorset.co.uk
45