You may have of heard about the Mediterranean Diet right? How it promotes longer life and has been shown to ward off diabetes and well as cancer. Well this approach to eating for good health, stems from the island of Crete in Greece and especially to the style of peasant food that has evolved in that region.
The essence of such a diet also contains grilled meats and this is where charcoal barbecuing becomes part of a successful diet. Even though smaller portions of beef, lamb, pork and chicken are enjoyed, at least a couple of times a week, the fact that these are grilled meats gives reason to why Greeks are known for their own style of BBQ and healthy living.
The most popular style of Greek BBQ that most Australians are familiar with is the Souvlaki or Gyros- basically rotisserie roasted meats which traditionally was cooked over an open charcoal flame, now more commonly seen in fast food takeaways. On the Greek island of Cyprus they have taken this BBQ concept and adapted it into a horizontal style rotisserie with multiple spits and skewers in one cooker. This systems allows you to enjoy a range of cut meats but excludes whole large animal roasting like Lamb or Pork.
Using such a BBQ is relatively easy as you simply use chunks of meat be it either prior marinated or straight on and basted. The three long spits at the top are driven by one motor through a gear system, where the tips of the large spits are put through a square hole on the motor driven end. These longer spits turn high above the charcoal tray and best for larger size cuts of meat which take longer to roast. The portions of meat for the longer spits are on average as big as your fist, but also ideal to mount whole chickens using prongs to hold them in place. You can roast all three long spits at the same time but its recommended to rotate them from the top and bottom levels for even cooking of all the roasting spits.
The eleven short skewers just above the charcoal tray below is the other system of roasting and requires smaller cuts of meats. They are again driven by one motor and the thin square shaped skewers poke through a gear system that turns all at the same time. Being closer to the charcoal and using smaller cuts, the cooking process is much faster on the lower level.
When you buy your BBQ, all the components are flat packed in the box. It seems at first a daunting task but basically the hardest part is attaching the legs.
First thing to do is to screw in the caster wheels which is a great idea to make your BBQ movable on level ground – be it if you see rain coming and need to move to simply storing in the shed for the next weekend of BBQ.
The wing nuts also make it easy to skewer in the legs to the main body of the BBQ and useful wooden handles screw in in the ends which means your hands are well away from hot metal if you needed to move the BBQ during a slow cook.
Final parts like the rotisserie turners simply slot in and easy to remove if you needed to quickly store.
You get 2 motors with this BBQ – One larger 240V motor for the bigger skewer rods and a smaller battery operated motor for the shorter skewers that sit across at the lower level. Both motors slot into a mount that hangs the motor on the gear system. The bigger motor will turn up to 8KG of balanced weight and the smaller D-Cell Battery motor will drive 2-3KG of the smaller skewers.
The Souvla also includes a useful stainless steel grill so in actual fact you can use this BBQ in three ways.
The only recommendation from the importer in Australia is to add some sand in the base of the BBQ to act as a heat buffer when using charcoal. This is to prevent the metal from buckling if you have a fair bit of charcoal inside the tray.
This BBQ is now available at BBQAroma for $500 inc GST. The BBQ body, skewers and grill are all made in Stainless Steel which gives this product more durability and extended use life. More information, please contact BBQAroma Australia.
http://www.bbqaroma.com.au
http://www.bbqaroma.com