Festive Fireside Cooking: Exploring Outdoor Kitchens and Savory Holiday Recipes

Today's episode of the Meet and Greet BBQ podcast is brought to you by AOS Outdoor Kitchens. They are the South's leading outdoor kitchen design and installation specialists.

So even from the Meet and Greet BBQ podcast. Today we've got a special episode when myself and Dan are down at AOS Kitchens with Jody and we've got Marco from Delevita. So throughout this episode we're just going to be doing some cooking, which you'll see on the AOS Kitchen YouTube channel. You'll see things going on across our socials and also we're going to be just having a chat as and when we go through this episode. And please enjoy and we'll see you again soon.

So, yeah, it's nice for us because we didn't really have a chance to round up and finish off season five and say thank you for listening to everything we put together, did we O?

No, season five I think we're probably the most proud of, in that it was our longest running season, best part of 20 episodes. Again had some fantastic guests, as always, really really interesting conversations and really funny conversations, and we got some absolute great bloopers, especially from Nat at Northern Grillers. So, yeah, it was really really fun. But also just to thank you to the listeners, we actually had our highest rate or highest downloads in a week and in a month, everything for season five. So we just wanted to say thank you everyone for listening. Yeah, anything else.

On that point. What I'd love people out there to do, if you want to hear some of those bloopers, is put posts up on Instagram or you've a message and tag Nat in from Northern Grillers saying please, please, please, let the boys edit up and release the brooper reel, because there's some gorgeous stuff on there. So, so funny. I was crying with laughter just trying to edit the thing, and that's without saying how much Nat was crying with laughter when we were actually doing the recording itself. So we'd never put anything out without permission. So if you would like to see some of that, give her a cheeky tag, get us in and maybe, maybe we might be able to put some beautifully funny stuff out there on YouTube and as little podcast records as well. Also, it'd be great to hear from you about anything different that you'd like to hear from us. For series six, we're going to have to have a bit of a pause because, sadly, my podcast recording area is taken up by my son, who's now 11 months old, so it was difficult for us to record, but in the process of moving. So give us some ideas of what we should be putting together for the next series, because the longer run up we have, the more items we can put together for you Something a bit more bespoke and different, right.

Yes, absolutely. So by the time this comes out, we've already had a few months break. Again, we've already had a couple of people kind of asking us when the next season is. And don't worry, we're trying to work on it. Dan's got obviously got to move house, but yeah, we want to come back bigger than ever. We want some. You know, we want to get some guests that we've not spoken to before. Perhaps some revisits to people that haven't seen where they've gone from the first time that we've spoken to them, because we're nearly three years into this podcast, so it would be good to catch up with some old faces as well.

And also a huge thank you to Jodie from AOS Outdoor Kitchens supporting us as we put in these podcasts together, being a partner with us, sponsoring the episodes for a number of series now, and also he allows us to come down here and record things actually down at do you want to call it head office? What would you call it? Their warehouse? It's great to be doing different cooks here and also the chance to actually speak to people in person. As you've probably seen on YouTube, most of the bits we're doing is over well, the internet right, so it's good to get out and about. But big thank you to Jodie as well and everything he's done to support us over the years. So we're down at AOS Outdoor Kitchens at the moment with Marco, who's doing some cooking on the Delavita. So he's going to be doing three courses. So first off, he's churring up some peppers with some capers on the actual coals themselves, to be a fantastic starter. He's going to follow that up with some salmon that actually is going to be smoking in the oven by closing the door and getting all those beautiful flavours up through the salmon. And then, finally, he's doing these beautiful Christmas bites. So three breadcrumbs, a bit of cranberry and just joyful. So I can't wait to see how these come out. Also, we did some cooking ourselves this morning, didn't we? Oh, what did we do?

Yeah, so we decided to start the day off with some breakfast breakfast cook. So we fired up the commando and cooked sausage, patties, eggs, we did a frittata and yeah, it was a really good start to the day. So, again, you'll see some information and some pictures all up on our socials, but, yeah, a nice start to the day to get a breakfast cook going. And we're kind of getting into the Christmasy spirit here with, as Dan said, the smoked salmon, the Christmas brie bites and a really nice starter which is different to perhaps what we would normally have around Christmas. So, yeah, we'll talk to Marco as he starts cooking and yeah, so, marco, obviously we've just sort of said that you're going to be cooking a few bits on the delicatessen with us today. So you start with the peppers, right, george? Just kind of give us a bit more about what's happening right now.

Cool. So basically what we're doing, we're cooking the peppers in the straight on the embers of the fire, which is really cool, and I've been doing it more and more recently to cook stuff on, instead of the casserole dish, straight on the embers, and it's actually it's quite addictive. You know, the more you do, the more you enjoy doing it. You know there's something primitive about it, which is really and anyway. So we're doing the pepper. Then it's really simple. We just did like a little, you know, mash mash up of parsley capers, garlic, olive oil, sea salt and pepper and chilies. In Italian you call it trito and you know, like I don't know, you call this in English. How do you call that? How would you call it? Finally chopped, finally chopped anyway in Italian.

He has an extra yeah, it sounds more sexy than.

Italian, and then we just slice. We have to clean the pepper when we take them out, because they're all charred. We clean them and then we slice them and then it goes, all you know, all together on our plate and it's a fantastic starter.

So for everyone that's listening to this, I can't tell you how incredible the pepper smells on the embers, because you're kind of getting a charred but also a sweet smell. So really really looking forward to kind of how this turns out, and so it's obviously crispy on the outside.

That's gonna go. You're not going to use that bit. That's gonna be cleaned with our. Now we let like go cold, and then we're gonna clean the black bear with our hands and you're just gonna be pepper underneath, yeah, so the char is going and it's, but it cooks in minutes like that, straight on the coals. Yeah, yeah, and then we just put it all together and it's delicious.

Perfect so. Marco is just taking the peppers out of the oven and again, just a lovely char on the outside.

And then we just slice and we're ready to eat them. Look how beautiful it is. All the color, you know, is the Italian flag all the way. So cooking great.

And I notice you went for red pepper and yellow pepper. Is that because they're sweeter than a green pepper and it works better?

No, I just choose them. Actually, I choose them for the color, but I think on this recipe you can use pretty much any. You know, patron peppers, this is the one we want to use for the sweetness, but you know, it doesn't matter the color. Really, I'm just gonna go and clean the char. Yeah, you see, it comes away. Look so easy. Yeah, like that. You just clean it. It literally comes out like that look, come on, see, see they pull, take the, the seeds on the inside away, set aside, do the same with the other one, take the cleaner, they cool huh, comes away all easy. You have to let the cool down a little bit, you know, because otherwise what is fine? Anyway, off you go. This goes in a bit. How cool is that you know yeah it's like cooking secret.

So now, and just out of interest.

Obviously, you've chosen to use capers, parsley and then olive oil yeah, olive oil, as as as if it was raining on it. So it's raining olive oil on our, on this dish, okay, okay, don't be shy. Put loads of olive oil, good quality olive oil always so well, it's just interested.

And if you can't get a whole, a parsley, or perhaps you prefer a rapeseed oil, that type of thing, would you, could you use other?

yeah, yeah, this is a recipe you can freestyle come on, you can do anything yeah, okay, you know, this is the traditional kind of Mediterranean style. Okay, this is, you know, olive oil and capers is, you know, and parsley is as Mediterranean as you get. But but you can freestyle. Yeah, you know, by any means, you know, and and perhaps even doing is beautiful. To do like a with a nobazine takes a little bit longer, but you know, and then you screw the inside is like a babaganush, you know, but but yeah, so so you can use any freestyle.

So the carnivore in me is saying there's no meat. So if you had to pair so or put some meat with this, yeah, what would you go for? Perhaps some nice cute?

parma ham or no, this is even you know, this is a nice is grills, vegetable, basically what we've got. Yeah, so any steak it goes out, it goes well with anything. Okay, even, you know, okay, peppers is a little bit heavy, but no, no, but even with some fish, you know, you can pair it's very nice with. This is a starter. You can eat with anything. This, um, I think, just thinking about perhaps even a little bit of pancetta yeah, grilled pancetta on it would go well, but but this one is a, you know you can pair it with anything. Perfect, shall we go and slice? huh, oh, it looks absolutely amazing um, that's really good, of course, gorgeous making a mess of them himself yeah, so, so the cake is as well.

Yeah, what do you think, jody, truly like you, can taste the chilli in it. It's definitely got a kick to it. I can see by your eyes yeah that reminds us to Dan, what's your thoughts?

beautiful very very versatile.

I can imagine lots of different things you could pair that with as well. If you did want it as a starter, it would be a great side dish and be fantastic with something like steak absolutely beautiful.

That is the first cook done. We're now kind of setting up for the next cook, which is going to be a smoked salmon. So yeah, stay tuned and we'll talk about the next cook.

So, jodie, thanks for having us here and doing all the cooking. How did that first cook go with Marco?

The one that we had just now. It was amazing. So he cooked some peppers, char, grilled on the embers of the oven. Then he put capers in there, garlic, parsley, chilies, which I found out, but yeah, it was just. It was really really good, really spicy, tangy, flavoursome. Yeah, I'll definitely be trying that next time I have a barbecue.

Great, and we also did some breakfast cooks as well before Marco came along. Did you want to talk about those and any tips or tricks that you learned from us there, because I know you were quite interested, particularly in the frittata we put together?

Yeah, so yeah, I'd never seen a frittata before. So, as you know, we just kind of winged it, didn't we? We rocked up this morning and thought, right, we're going to make some breakfast. So we went down to well, you went over to Liddles, didn't we? We bought all the eggs, bacon, sausages, and actually Jess, who works here is, can't eat gluten, so we did, or you guys made it so that it was gluten-free. So you had gluten-free sausages, bacon muffins which she didn't have avocado, and then, for frittata, eggs, and we cooked it all on the commado, the monolith commado oven. So we had a baking pan, baking tray that you did the frittata in, fried up some onions on there, scrambled eggs with cheese in it, and then potatoes you put in there and then separately grilled. Oh, so you took all of the meat. I mean, you took all of the sausage meat out of the skins, didn't you? And made burgers like patties out of them.

Yeah, so I got the fun job of trying to take 10 sausages out of casings and trying to make up some patties. But again, we've kind of already mentioned it it's a good way to start the day. Cooking breakfast over fire certainly gets you going, I think. Obviously today it would be really good because we've now been working with you and you've been very much part of the podcast for the last couple of years now. We were down here a year ago and we did some videos, but I think you were. Aos has kind of you've moved on over the last year as well, haven't you? You've got lots of new brands that you're working with, so it'd be good to kind of hear about what's kind of been happening and what's going to happen for the future.

So I guess, like the whole outdoor industry as a whole, has just got bigger and bigger, and obviously outdoor kitchens are a big part of that. So lots of people have since lockdown, spending their money on their garden, spending more time in their gardens, garden rooms, new patios, landscaping and really going to town. So the garden is now a proper extension of the home. It is another room that people want to spend lots of time in and, yeah, so outdoor kitchens are a big part of that. So in the last year we've now taken on like suns pergolas, so you know, like the aluminium louvered pergolas which just enable you to sit outside all year round. They've got sides that can come down. You can put heaters in there, loads of different sizes, so you can have dining areas and your kitchen area, chill out areas, hot tubs, all sorts. So those have become really, really popular. We've recently just taken on Traeger as well. So that's really exciting for us, because I've always been a fan of the Traegers, the pellet grills, but they've never made one that was able to be built into a kitchen. They're always on trolleys. So they came out with the new Timberline series, which are made for outdoor kitchens. So even though they are still on a trolley and actually Traeger have designed it so that you would almost like roll it in. It would stay on the trolley and Traeger would roll it in. We've got some here now and we've just completely taken it apart and we figured out a way now to build it in properly, which is like that's really cool for us. We love doing stuff like that. So it was myself and Vitesse downstairs pulling it apart, taking the trolley out, and then we've built a new display downstairs which is currently off being sprayed now and we'll be getting that back soon We've got some really thick polished concrete work tops that are going to be going in there and the Traeger is going to be sat in set on top of the worktop. So when you look at the front of the kitchen, all you're going to see is like cedar batting along the top and the Traeger is going to be sat inside. So we're really excited about that. As far as I'm aware, I don't think that's been done anywhere so far in the world and I'm actually I've just done a quote and a design for a customer. He will be the first person. I think he's really keen to go ahead with it. He will be the first person to have one in an actual kitchen built in, so I'm excited to see that when it comes.

And it's sort of continuing to talk about Traeger and I know there's some other brands that you'll probably come on to in a second but since you've been doing this and you know, over the last 12, 18 months, are your customers more interested in that kind of pellet, pellet grill, the kind of the I suppose the convenience of Traeger's, because they are super convenient, super easy to use, even for the for the most basic beginner? Are you starting to see that there is a bit of update?

I've generally found. So our customers are generally home owners. They're not. But I mean, don't get me wrong, there are. We have customers who are barbecued nuts and they love it and they know about Traeger. Some of them have had Traegers already, but mainly our customers don't know about them. So they'll come in here and they won't know what a trait, they won't know what a pellet grill, and once I explain it to them, you know they're like that's amazing. So obviously you have people that love playing with fire, so the Kamado oven, something like that, is brilliant for them. But people who don't have much time, they like the convenience, they love the app and the technology. Yeah, traeger is going to be really, really good for them. But because it's brand new for us, you know we haven't put any in any of our kitchens yet, so it'll be interesting to see how the customers react to it.

I got a question that I don't think we covered last time we spoke. You design so many different kitchens. You have access to so many different kind of products that you can put in. If you were designing a kitchen for yourself, what would you want in there? How would you like it to look? And let's say that it's in a dream garden, right, so you don't have to think specifically about your current area what would you put in it?

Yeah, you, swan, it's so tough. I like different aspects of all different ones. So, in terms of cooking, I've always been charcoal, so I would have 100%. I'd have a monolith in there, but I'd have the Lechef like the bigger one. I think I would have a Traeger there as well, even though they do the same thing. I'd just like that. I'd like to be able to just chuck it on, disappear all day and be able to mess around with it on my phone on the app. I would have a pizza oven, definitely, and I would. I was always obsessed I would have wood-fired early, but now, actually, having used the gas pizza ovens, I would probably get a dual fuel one. Yeah, that would probably do me. For the appliances, I would probably. I love the burn out. Kitchens are amazing. I do really, really like them, but they're a definite unique style. They're very modern, they're very contemporary, so that definitely wouldn't work for my house, for example, I think I would probably have something build out of red brick. I like that, I like the red brick, I like the black, the dark granite worked up. I like that combination. I saw there was. It was the. Is it the Chelsea Flower Show, and I saw a reel or a video of a kitchen garden that someone had done up there and it was all like reclaimed bricks and it had a glass canopy over it planting everywhere some herbs and things on shelves and it just, and that was right up my street. It's sort of fairy lights, festoon lights and things like that. I can't remember the name of the guy, but it was absolutely incredible. So something like you know where you walk through your garden, walk through like an archway, you know like a Trenes archway, so you can't see it from the house. You walk through and then you're in a completely different zone of like your kitchen, and that's like my sort of dream, I think.

The other thing I've seen more recently, I'd say probably over the last year is what I'd call most hidden kitchens, where there's like a door that people would have across and you wouldn't even realize it was an outdoor kitchen until they'd do the reveal, as it were. What's your views on that? Because for me, I would love an outdoor kitchen that you can constantly see all the time and almost feels like a focal point, but some of those with this like kind of sliding door or bit that comes up. Have you worked on many of them and what your views on them?

Oh, I see. So, something that you can sort of shut down for the winter. Yeah, it's a different kind of kitchen, isn't it? So that has its advantages that you know you can cook on it when you want to and then shut it down, keep some weather out, and that's that. If, like you say, if you want it to be part of the house and the garden, then you don't want that, then you can just put a shelter or something over it. Yeah, I mean, we always on one. I think we did one up in London actually, and it worked really well, because the shelter it was about three meters long but it wasn't very deep. It was only about a meter deep and when you shut the you know, the doors, the bifolds we used it just completely blanks it off. But it was a tiny little part. So obviously, like real estate garden in London's, you know, hard to come by. So this took up quite a small part of the garden, but it was still sheltered so they could still use it all year round without taking up a lot of space with a pergola or something like that, you know. So, yeah, they're good. They work for some people but not for others.

Great. Thank you very much, jodie. Always good to catch up, and again, even in this episode, we're going to still bring you some more of the cooks that we're going to be doing today, so no doubt we'll catch up again.

Yeah, yeah, definitely Absolutely.

If you've been looking or thinking about an outdoor kitchen, then look no further than AOSC Outdoor Kitchens.

They are the South's leading outdoor kitchen design and installation specialists.

Their extensive showroom is based just outside Bournemouth, on the Dorset-Hamshire border and, as well as numerous in-store displays, also features a live outdoor kitchen where they cook every week on commado grills, pizza ovens, and all filmed and shown on YouTube.

They offer a wealth of knowledge on how to transform your patio into the most incredible outdoor dining area, with styles and options to suit every budget, and you can guarantee they will be able to create something perfectly suited to you and your home.

They stock and supply everything that you're going to need for outdoor cooking, including barbecues, commado ovens, pizza ovens, outdoor fridges and every accessory that you would need to become the ultimate outdoor chef.

So if you want to make yourself the envy of your friends and neighbours, get in touch with them today to arrange a consultation and take the first step in transforming your backyard into the most incredible entertainment space Visit aoskitchenscouk. So, marco, you've talked about kind of the ease of this recipe and I suppose it really shows the versatility of the Delevitah.

Yeah, yeah, of course. Okay, look, people cooked clay oven. You know who's clay oven? Cooked food with clay oven for many centuries. Okay, it's not invention. The technology, in fact, inside of the oven is ancient. Okay, what we did with modern I? We use modern material on the outside and made you know a modern product for you know the modern family, but the truth is the oven inside it's an ancient technology which hasn't improved because it works and people cook to delicious recipe all the time, so it's not just for pizza you can cook anything.

And what was your inspiration for this? Because what is it? Five ingredients total.

For this recipe. I mean, yeah, so the inspiration for this recipe. So it's basically I always love fish, I was born by the sea and fish is, you know, my favorite thing to cook and to eat, and, and you know, I love to cook this recipe.

So in total, how long would this take for people?

Oh, this recipe. Okay is everything. So? So everything I cook and everything you cook with the Delevitah is not a perfect science. It's a bit of a kind of feeling smell this recipe? I would say about 20 minutes in the oven, let me, as we speak. I'm just gonna turn. Yeah, nice yeah like that.

So people who have first cook in this salmon dish what should they be looking for is the kind of the clues and signs that it's ready to come out Now look, salmon is quite quick.

You know it's not gonna be depending. How big is your salmon, depending on a lot of things. But the color obviously will give you. You know it's the high. You know the high. Also when you know like just little incision in the in the center. You know the clean incision, see if it's still raw, or you know you have to keep cooking it, but but with the heat of the oven in about 15 minutes I guarantee you, you know now, depending how big this is the salmon you'll be cooked. Let's say, yeah, we use in 500 grams. Okay, so we have two slices 250. 50 minutes is more than enough.

I suppose it's a great fish alternative for the festive season as well. Just part of the reason why we're showcasing it today absolutely, absolutely this is a great, great recipe to do, you know, in the festive.

You know, festive times salmon is is one of the favorite, I think, in the UK and and yeah so so great dish for Christmas to celebrate.

Maybe it's something we should get Owen to try, just to see if he will finally actually like fish for a change oh yeah, I agree too as well, and then we'll see, is it?

there is soy sauce and you know there is some flavor there. So you, the fish is not. I think we might, we might in my likes, you know, hopefully can't wait to see it finish.

Thank you so, jodie, this is obviously a dish that Marco is creating here, but salmon is that typically something that you would have at Christmas?

no, I don't think I've ever had salmon at Christmas, like we're always turkey beef, something that maybe pork sometimes as well. Sorry to interrupt this, you don't have a Christmas this.

You are on the day before Christmas. They like fish. See Italy yeah, eat the world, also in Italy, because it's religious tradition. But even if you're not religious, let's say yeah on the on the. You know Christmas Eve is tradition to eat fish yeah, yeah, the world. Yeah, and this is won't be Christmas.

They would be Christmas Eve, right and with the types of flavors that you're using. Obviously, soy sauce, honey, lemon again. Is that typical of the time time of year? Would you traditionally have that?

is smells of Christmas in here.

If you're a taste is as yeah, yeah, yeah, it's a really Christmas recipe, this one mom, it's well documented that I don't particularly like fish, but the look and the smell of this salmon, it would be crazy not to give it a try, right?

so here we go then let's give this man that doesn't like fish it's nice and flaky, which is what you want yeah.

I think because of the soy and honey kind of takes that fishiness away from it.

Yeah, it's good. Yeah, yeah, I enjoyed it.

Yeah, you know the night more than I thought I would, but would I have it?

yeah, I don't know, I don't think I could eat a whole Philip, but as a yeah, yeah, please, marco don't take that personally.

Would you sort of squeeze some of the lemon on top, or does that kind of add to the flavor a?

huge lemon, too much, too much. But people would yeah, not me.

Yeah, but yeah something else you can do in this recipe is, then is boring gorgeous.

I love cut the stickiness as well.

The honey gives it but, yeah, I'm not huge lover of squeezing lemon, because lemon is amazing, even on meat. Yeah, people in Italy usually I'm not huge fan of that, but this certainly you would do on this recipe, not only after, but even while you cook in. So you would squeeze those wedges in, yeah, and then put them inside where I just put them. You know the kind of flavor, yeah yeah, so that was amazing.

That was really really good. So again, a really quick, a really simple recipe you could do this midweek when you get home from work, again in the television wood fire oven.

So thank you very much so that's the second cook done and honestly, you can't take my word for it that salmon was really good. I'm just not the best judge, but I would definitely give that a go yourself. Just before you quickly start this last recipe, you've just mentioned, offair, that this is something you haven't cooked before. So what are we doing for the final recipe?

So the final recipe is pastry. We're going to do little cakes, you know, christmas kind of festive, yeah, little cake, kind of cakes in the muffin tin we're going to do. Then inside we're going to put cranberry sauce and then we're going to top it up with pistachio to give a little bit of crunch to it. All being well, it's going to be delicious.

I'm sure it will.

I've never done it, I'm confident. I think we can do it. And the challenge here we're going to do in the clay oven, so it's not really we can regulate the heat, but I know locally, I know what I'm doing with oven. We should be fine.

So on that point with the oven, I suppose if you're cooking pastry and things normally, you'd want to keep the temperature quite consistent and fairly low. So how do you plan to kind of battle that with? An oven that typically you would cook in three, four hundred degrees.

Yeah, that's the challenge. But the thing is like you know, like I was explaining, we're going to make delicious recipe for many centuries in clay ovens and the technology inside has stayed the same. So we're just using that and we're going to use our smell, the feelings. You know we're going to keep turning the tin and you know hopefully we'll get good results. It's not a perfect science. The oven okay, but we can. You know we can have about two hundred degrees Celsius in there.

And would you then almost you were saying about turning the tin and kind of keeping it moving and that look and smell would you also then kind of almost bring the tin towards the edge of the door so that you're further away from the heat?

If you need to, you can have a half way out, half of a half way out, and then you know, turn, put the other half in. You know you can do those little tricks. This is how you use the oven, yeah perfect.

Well, again, really looking forward to these festive bites. Who doesn't love cheese, pistachio and cranberry sauce? So, marco, just whilst you're putting the pastry together, would you recommend, just as a time saver, to buy pre-made pastry, or really would you want to be making the pastry yourself?

You can make it yourself, but I mean you can buying pre-made is very nice quality and it's easier Especially in the festive time people are so busy. It's just as good pre-made. So I would buy pre-made.

So that's it for another episode of the Meet and Greet Barbecue Podcast. This was a special. We're down at AOS Kitchens with Marco from Delavita, jodie from AOS, me and Dan. We've just had a great day cooking a few Christmas recipes and breakfast and just really having fun spending time together, and that's really what barbecue is all about. As we mentioned earlier in the podcast, we don't know when we're going to be back with season six. We're waiting on Dan to move, but we'll try and get back as soon as possible and, as ever, we'd love to hear from you. Please tell us what you want us to talk about for the next season. Check us out on all of our socials at Meet and Greet Barbecue Podcast. Make sure that you head over to AOS Kitchens YouTube channel, where you can see some of the cooks that are featured on this episode of the podcast, and also check out Delavita and their great range of ovens. And until next time, keep on grilling. Today's episode is brought to you by AOS Kitchens, the South's leading outdoor kitchen designer and installation specialists.