Burgers at Asado

 

How many ways are there to offer up meat patties in a bun. If Bristol is anything to go by, hundreds.  You have your build your own places like the ever fabulous, Burger Joint. American style, such as 3 Brothers' Burgers and then you have the unchanging set creations such as Chomp. Months of developing the perfect tasting burger without having to add anything extra. Asado, Spanish for barbecue, falls into the latter category and puts a slight South American spin on our favourite fast food. A small menu of carefully crafted burgers and a few sides to go with them. You might think that Bristol is over-run with burger and pizza places but the number of decent burger joints I return to again and again I can count on one hand.  

Asado opened last month with great flourish as a heap of bloggers descended on the restaurant for a preview night. Situated on Colston St just down from the Colston Yard pub. Asado cooks it’s beef patties and chicken wings on a wood fired grill so you get the chargrilled flavour on the meat. Championing Bristol from the off, with Minirig speakers providing the sound in the restaurant, and Ruby and White’s providing the organic meat, you know you’ll be in good hands. 

 

The menu has two beef options, one fried chicken and a veggie.  The signature Asado burger tops organic beef with West Country cheddar, pickled red onion, chimichurri sauce, ketchup and confit garlic mayonnaise Likewise with the other beef option, El Don, you will find cheddar, pancetta and bbq onions to go with the garlic mayo and salad. It’s a burger Jim, but not quite as we know it. Tweaking what we expect from the traditional burger and twisting it a touch.  It’s making small changes such as these that take a burger from delicious to sublime. 

The only controversy is that Asado prides itself on cooking the burgers pink and juicy which does tend to divide people. It’s not exactly a problem as you can ask for your burger to be cooked a bit more. I am more in-between when it comes to burgers, I like the texture of a more cooked burger but the juiciness of a pink one. So for me a rosy blush is ideal rather than rare, and as it was pointed out unless you are following the rules pink burgers can make you poorly. Asado have some astringent policies in place regarding this and have been found a safe venue in which to chow down on a pink burger without worry.

 

What impresses me most with Asado is the attention to detail. Making their own habanero hot sauce and mayonnaise for the table just for your fries, which with the rosemary were excellent.  Even the oak smoked chicken wings had their own spicy yet creamy coriander sauce drizzled over the top. This sauce has quite a kick and it’s glorious, many places are too afraid to give any real heat to sauces, not Asado however. 

It takes some serious cajones to open another burger place in Bristol but I can guarantee you that it will elbow it’s way to the top of your list with all the charm of Ferris Bueller, you’ll want to bunk off work just to hang with these burgers. I was privileged to be amongst the group of bloggers, but I also returned as a paying customer just under two weeks after the preview evening.  It was the perfect birthday lunch treat for Rich, he almost couldn’t believe the flavour that came out of a burger.  It immediately shot straight into our top 3 burgers in Bristol.  Look out for limited edition specials, a small number being made each day, the current one is flying out the door. A beef burger made with bone marrow and topped with crispy shoestring onions and cheese. I am salivating just thinking about it, it is next on my burger hit list. 

Asado are open every day for lunch and dinner bar Monday. They are a very welcome addition to the restaurant scene of Bristol and I am looking forward to my next visit. To find out more about Asado, visit their website.

A Sunday at Gas & Co

In this blog Rich covers our recent trip (yesterday), to Gas & Co.

And God created BBQ food. And it was good; delicious even. And then somewhen around 2011, in the UK, and probably aided by Man Vs Food and other Food Network shows, everyone started to go BBQ and pulled pork crazy, reaching a new high in 2013 when seemingly every restaurant and every bar started doing pulled pork on their menu – with massively varying degrees of success. When Grillstock eventually opened their first restaurant in Bristol last year, it was met with very enthusiastic reception, offering choice meats cooked in an authentic tender, juicy and succulent manner, that for the most part most people were happy to overlook the canteen style seating, lack of being able to book, and the perhaps too high price (because the burnt ends are delicious).

Grillstock Lockjaw Burger

Jumping on the same American Diner/BBQ/pig-out food phenomenon bandwagon, Gas & Co opened their new restaurant in the old Henry Africas bar on Whiteladies Road, arguably to near equally great expectation. It would be wise then, from this point in our tale to lower those expectations.

Significantly.

We had a good start to our dining experience, being greeted at the door by a friendly waiter who asked where we’d like to sit, showed us to the table and then promptly fetched a menu. Perusing our choices, we fairly quickly decided what we’d have to eat and drink, and then waited.

Whilst waiting we were able to take in the surroundings. The first thing you’ll notice is that although labeled an ‘American Diner’, it is in a distinctly half-arsed way. Diner signs, red and white patterns and the occasional Americana picture indicate what Gas & Co is aiming for, but mostly it still feels like a bar that serves some food. Adding to the bar feel is the fact that it’s quite hard to actually discern who’s a member of staff – our waiter had an apron on, but everyone else working there seemed to be dressed in jeans and casual shirt. Additionally although we counted five different staff (maybe there were more, we couldn’t tell), only about two of them seemed to be in the ‘restaurant’ at any one time. Whilst we were waiting to give our orders, one was behind the bar having a chat with his mates, and the other was counting out a box of napkins; all this while the place was easily more than half full, and new diners were walking in.

After fifteen minutes our waiter re-appeared and we gave our orders. I was disappointed that root beer wasn’t available (not that I’m a huge fan, but Dominion Vanilla Root Beer served in most diner-y places now is a new favourite beverage) so went for a pint of Pepsi, and Abby chose an Oreo milkshake. For food, we went for half a rack of baby back ribs, a bacon and cheese burger, and some quesadillas with pulled pork and cheese - classic comfort food basically.

 

oreo milkshake

Drinks arrived after a five minute wait, and it wasn’t a great start. My pint of Pepsi was two-thirds ice, and the mixture was clearly off, tasting too much of the carbonated soda. Again, what you expect from a bar. Not a restaurant. The milkshake was an interesting hit-and-miss though; thick and with plenty of Oreo pieces and taste on the upside, a weak blending that meant all the ice cream was sat at the bottom in a sludgey pile, and a strange quite unpleasant hard-to-kill greasy film after-taste on the down side.

Food arrived fifteen minutes later and it looked good, and plentiful. The quesadillas were tasty too, but with plenty of extra filling that wasn’t exactly as advertised - each of them seemed to be equal parts pork, barbecue sauce and red onion, with a smattering of cheese as an after-thought. The pork and BBQ had a good taste to it though, and the quesadillas themselves were nicely cooked.

 

pulled pork quesadillas

The ribs came with a good amount of sides and trimmings, but mostly they just disappointed. The salad was dry, with plenty of brown edges (bringing to mind the supermarket bags of salad I occasionally bought as a student), and the coleslaw again seemed to comprise mostly of onions. The house beans were also oddly named given that we saw very few actual beans in there, and bizarrely what looked and tasted like chickpeas. The chips though were good. Although it was felt that these were probably shop bought home fries, they were soft and fluffy on the inside, had the right amount of crispiness on the outside, and they were also nicely seasoned. Awkwardly they were easily the best part of the meal.

ribs

Ribs, especially baby back, should always be sticky, juicy and tender, with the meat just falling off the bones. Mine managed to be none of these, being tough and chewy, and instead of possessing a sticky exterior, being burnt and crispy (which you could pull off separately) . If it weren’t for the nicely spicy BBQ sauce on top of the ribs, they would pretty much have been a write-off.

 

cheap buns

Bacon and cheddar burger

Sweet Potato Fries

Abby’s burger at first looked like the winning selection, despite the obviously supermarket bought bun. The bacon was thick and perfectly cooked, and the cheese was plentiful, but the burger – the main event – just let everything down. At first look nicely cooked, it was actually dry, overly chewy and lacked any real flavour or seasoning.

 

a close up to see how bad they were

Looking at the half finished meal in front of us, we were hardly in the mood for a mediocre dessert, so looked to settle the bill and then leave. Sadly getting attention of any of the staff proved impossible, so we got our coats, left too much money on the table (ie. the amount to cover the bill) and walked out.

So, where does that leave us with Gas & Co? Staffing and service definitely needs working on – we had a good waiter, but for the most part the staff were elsewhere or otherwise distracted. Aside from that, the effect really is one of everything done on the cheap. An onion coleslaw, a bean dish noticeably low on beans, a spongey burger bun that tasted packet fresh, dry and distinctly not-fresh salad, a badly-mixed heavily iced Pepsi, a cheap tasting oily milkshake, dry burnt (or re-cooked?) ribs, food wise there isn’t really a lot to recommend the place. Most of the food overwhelmingly comes across as having been bought from a supermarket and often didn't feel freshly cooked.

You don't want to give a new place a kicking when they're still in start-up mode, but there was so much wrong with it when we went, that there is little-to-nothing to recommend it (chips are nice, and the bacon was good - that's it). And anything that can be ordered there is better everywhere else AND cheaper too. If it's to survive, no easy task given the prime and expensive Whiteladies Road location, it needs a major re-think and overhaul.  Gas & Co. don't seem to have a website yet but may I direct you to our Grillstock review from last year instead?

Barbecued Delights by Hickory Pig

Tuesday, much like every day so far this year, was a rainy one. I know us English people really seem to enjoy talking about the weather but most of the time it's out of sheer frustration or the safest form of small talk there is, you know where you are with weather talk when meeting someone new.  I digress. Rich and  I arrived rather sodden at the Three Tuns where Hickory Pig is currently residing and offering barbecued delights to the masses, and ordered some drinks which we waited for our friends Jayne and Si to arrive.

Looking longingly at the unlit fireplace the evening menus started to be distributed and our friends joined us with their drinks in hand. The menu was small but despite that I wanted to eat pretty much all of it. I decided to go for the Dirty Burger, I think it was the maple glazed bacon that drew me in, and some fries to share with Rich. He chose the BBQ Pulled Pork which came with chipotle aioli and some home made coleslaw, plus an order of the Hot Wings which came with a traditional celery and blue cheese dip. 

Hot wings with blue cheese dip

The Dirty Burger

Barbecue Pulled Pork Bun

For around the £7 mark the portions are generous my burger was pretty difficult to get my mouth around and was haemorrhaging liquid fast, no one could look graceful eating this burger.  It was a tasty burger I found the patty could have done with a little more seasoning, but the stars of the show were the maple glazed bacon and the barbecue mayonnaise, sweet yet tangy.  Rich lucked out in my opinion the pulled pork in his bun was the best I have ever tasted, really juicy and full of flavour, the red cabbage coleslaw was great with it as was the chipotle aioli I was a little bit jealous if truth be told.

The blue cheese dip that went with the wings was fantastic I would love to have a go a making this myself to go on top of burgers it was so tangy and creamy, it definitely cooled down the heat in the wings.  My other favourite part of the meal was the fries, we all agreed that skin on chips are definitely tastier and these were the don of all chips, crunchy, flavoursome, in a word, perfect. Jayne was swayed to order the chili cheese fries, which if I am lucky enough to return I will definitely share some to go alongside a pulled pork bap for a true glutton's paradise.

Chili Cheese Fries

fries from heaven

So you've seen that Hickory Pig pull out all the stops when it comes to making tasty barbecue food the pulled pork alone is phenomenal but they then top it off with all these tasty extra goodies. If you haven't already experienced Hickory Pig check them out at the Three Tuns either on a lunch time or in the evening  on most days, you won't be disappointed, I am already looking forward to my next hit. To find out more about Hickory Pig visit their Facebook page or give them a follow on Twitter.

A Hot Saturday Feasting at Grillstock Smokehouse

Last Friday night some of our Jolates class, best pilates class in town by the way, decided after a hard workout we would go sample the barbecue offerings of the newly opened Grillstock Smokehouse on the Triangle,  residing next door to Mbargo. Alas this was not to be, as you cannot book space at Grillstock, everyone in Bristol had decided this was the place to have dinner that night. After heading over at 7.30 and waiting for about 20 minutes in a large queue we carried on with another drink at the Brass Pig and then tried Grillstock a final time at 9pm only to find that it was still busy and everything bar pulled pork and burgers had sold out. Slightly deflated I suggested we take a trip to nearby YoYo burger for a mini meat fix. This is not a blog on YoYo, although I highly recommend their burgers they do a great number of burger combos and they are my second favourite burger in Bristol after The Burger Joint.

The next day Rich decided he could wait no longer to sample the barbecued delights of Grillstock so early lunch time we decided, on the off chance, to try and see there was space for us. With fingers and toes crossed we left the confines of our flat and out into the heat of the midday sun, well you know what they say about mad dogs and Englishmen. We were in luck, Grillstock was actually relatively quiet so with our excitement levels at maximum we took a couple of stools at the long wooden bench. We did toy with the idea of getting a burger but felt it was a bit of a cop out and for our first visit wanted the full meat experience so we could taste all the flavours without bread getting in the way, although after seeing the burgers upclose across the table I may be tempted to go for one next time.

I decided to go for the half rack of babyback ribs which comes with fries, coleslaw, corn bread and small side sample of sausage chunks plus a side portion of burnt ends for Rich and I to share. Yes you can order meat as a side dish, even their beans come with meat in them. Rich went for the Smokehouse Special, three barbecue meats of your choice plus the sides listed above, minus the sausage sample. Rich chose a half rack of ribs, brisket and pulled pork, which obviously meant that I got to try more meats too.

Grillstock sauces

waiting for meat....

I think what I like particularly about Grillstock is that it does almost transport you to a roadside cafe in America. The music they were playing was Texas Blues, Rich's favourite Blues subgenre, artists such as Stevie Ray Vaughan, T-Bone Walker, and Johnny Copeland that sort of grimy sweaty blues with sharp cutting bluesy guitar licks, it's all about the little touches that made it feel right. The right music can evoke strong feelings about a place and this was bang on, whilst we were waiting for our barbecue we got right in the moment with the music.

my half rack of ribs with burnt ends

Rich's Smokehouse Special

burnt ends

inside the rib rack

Ribs are my secret love in barbecue food, I always used to beg mum to add these to our standard barbecue items of chicken, sausages and burgers. I don't what it is about them, I think it's that you have to work for your reward when you eat them, and because sometimes I like a challenge. Either way these were the best ribs I have ever tasted. Fully meaty, sticky and sweet I could eat these any day of the week. The burnt ends were also really awesome, smoky, also with a small kick, I couldn't eat a whole pot myself as they were incredibly rich which is just as well that we shared ours. Even the fries were great they were crunchy and well seasoned, quite often fries can be forgotten about in favour of the meat  but these were really delicious. The coleslaw alone deserves a mention, not too bogged down with mayonnaise and a nice tang from the mustard it worked well with cutting through the rich meatiness.

Rich's meat mountain was pretty epic, although admittedly not the most epic choice on the menu, there is a Man vs Food style challenge called the Grand Champion where for your efforts you could win a t-shirt and a bottle of Grillstock sauce if you manage to polish it all off yourself. Not something I could do but I know there are plenty of meat fanatics out there that are more than up to the challenge. The pulled pork was juicy and beautifully cooked, we have managed to make this on a few occasions at home and it is definitely a favourite. The only slight let down was the brisket, a meat that can be dry due to the cut, the flavour was nice but was a little dry for me but I did enjoy the pink smoke ring round the edge it was extremely tasty.

So basically if you like good quality barbecue food head to Grillstock, although by the looks of the queues most people already are there. The only thing they need to watch are their stock levels as when Rich went in again on Tuesday evening this week they had run out of a lot of the drinks, but this is something that I imagine will come with time. This is a very popular venue so head there at unpopular times to ensure a seat at the meatiest table in town. Check out their website for details on the Grillstock festival, all their wares and the opportunity to sign up for meaty updates.

Rich and I are off on holiday on Sunday to Valencia for a week I shall do a mini photo post before I go though hopefully and then when I am back I can report on all things Spanish and Tapas related.

Barbecue Weekend Bonanza with the Social Smokers

The final countdown to Grillstock has begun so Joe from the Bristol barbecue team Social Smokers UK gives us the low down on his barbecue extravaganza weekend.

The sun is shining, the weather is rejoice, make you want to drink beer smoke some meat… well something like that.

Yes the weekend of the 25^th May will go down in history as the British summer of 2012.  I can’t see us having another weekend like that, it was seriously hot.  And we, the Social Smokers, were in our element.  Matt, Jon and I spent the whole weekend in the garden, cooking. 

This weekend we were practising for the chicken and beef brisket rounds of the King Of The Grill competition at Grillstock.

Saturday

First up, a sweet BBQ chicken with a citrus kick! We applied a rub of smoked paprika, salt, lemon zest, garlic granules and black pepper.  The oils in the lemon zest really lift this rub.  With the rub applied they were placed in a tray and put in the smoker at around 350F for an hour and a half. 

Barbecue Chicken

When crispy and almost done they were dunked in a lemon and mustard BBQ sauce.  The dunking sauce was made with; 

Onion, 

Garlic, 

Olive Oil, 

Ketchup, 

Sprite, (yes you read that correctly

Lemon Juice, 

Light brown sugar and Wholegrain Mustard.  

The chicken was placed back in the smoker for another 30 minutes, this time straight on the grill grates.  The results were very good.  The meat was juicy and the flavour was sweet and fruity.  The skin could have been crispier but that will come with practice.

Barbecue Chicken Mid Barbecue

Barbecued Chicken Ready to Serve

We had a few drumsticks left over so we decided to make the notorious ‘Death Legs’.  A super-hot Chilli chicken using some of the world’s hottest chillies.  They did not disappoint, the Trinidad scorpion Moruga chilli gave an instant heat whilst the 7 pot chilli had an intense long burn.

Prepped 'Death Legs'

'Death Legs' Ready to Serve (if you dare try them)

Sunday

Roast beef is a traditional Sunday staple in Britain.  We however decided to cook our beef Texan style. Beef brisket is a tough cut that requires a lot of cooking.  We smoked the beef at around 220f for 8 hours.  The rub was a basic BBQ rub of onion and garlic powder, paprika, cumin and oregano, sugar, salt and pepper.  We smoked it with oak chucks that were soaked in water to stop them from burning too quickly and basted it every hour for the first 4 hours. 

Brisket with Texan Style Rub

The mop sauce was made using sugar, vinegar, chilli flakes and dark beer or ale.  After 4 hours the Brisket was wrapped foil and cooked for a further 4 hours. We served the brisket with rolls, coleslaw and BBQ beans. 

Cooked Brisket Complete with Smoke Ring

Carved Brisket

For me brisket is the number one BBQ food.  If you have a kettle barbecue I urge you to try cooking it.  Buy an unrolled brisket with a good amount of fat on the top as this will baste the meat during the cooking process.  Use a decent coal, bricket or lumpwood, not a cheap coal as it will have chemical binders in it which will ruin the flavour of the meat and all your hard work.  I found this out recently when I cooked a lamb shoulder using a budget charcoal from B&Q.  Everything tasted of petrol.  Barbecue Fail!

You can buy a good coal and a wide selection of wood for smoking at hotsmoked.co.uk.

Thanks for the update Joe it looks amazing. Want to follow the progress of this Bristol barbecue team check out their facebook page 

Chorizo Baked in Wine

After a mini discussion on Twitter with various foodies I reveal the recipe I made for my chorizo baked in wine tapas dish. This will be a relatively short post being that the recipe is, although not a long one, a very delicious one!

You can use either chorizo ring or whole mini chorizos, this time round I used both as they take on the flavour in different ways. So if you de-skin and chop the chorizo ring into chunks no smaller than 2cm, I find that smaller pieces tend to dry out in the baking process otherwise. You will also need a ceramic or Pyrex baking dish rather than a metal one.

After chopping the chorizo add between half to three quarters of a bottle of Spanish red, enough to almost cover the chorizo. I then add 2-3 cloves of garlic chopped into strips and scatter around the dish. Add a couple of shakes of paprika and thyme and you are good to go. It should look a bit like this:

Chorizo Baked in Wine

Bake it for about 40-50mins on 180-190 with fan or you can go lower for longer if you fancy, for a more intense flavour, I have baked it for up to 2 hours before. When it comes out it should have dropped about half the liquid level and the chorizo should be much darker, see the photo below the chorizo dish, right.

The Final Product (surrounded by other tapas dishes and empty plates)

Admittedly this isn't the best final photo, We all dug in quite enthusiastically before I got a chance to take a picture. Your guests will not be disappointed serve with crusty bread to mop up all the meaty wine juices and you will be in tapas heaven. Let me know how you get on with this recipe if you give it a go. Later in the week we shall have a report from Joe from the Social Smokers barbecue team giving us an update of his very meaty weekend. Plus the upcoming report of my lunch visit at Hotel du Vin with Bristol Bites.