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Ensaladang Talong (Grilled Eggplant Salad)

Ensaladang Talong (Grilled Eggplant Salad)

Long Asian aubergines char directly over a gas flame or hot grill until blackened all over and totally soft inside (poke through to test, no resistance). Cool for 10 minutes; peel away the charred skin (it slips off if cooked enough). Tear the flesh into 5 cm strips. Dress with diced tomato, thin-sliced red onion, fish sauce, white-cane vinegar and calamansi juice. Rest for 5 minutes to let the eggplant absorb the dressing. Serve room temperature.

Sides 27 minutes Serves4
Fire-Roasted Jerk Shrimp

Fire-Roasted Jerk Shrimp

A fast, fragrant, hands-on dish: medium shrimp roasted hard in a beer-and-butter pool, with the jerk flavours (Scotch bonnet, allspice, thyme, garlic, scallion) bloomed into the fat at 260°C. The shrimp themselves are quick-cooked and sweet; the real treasure is what's at the bottom of the dish, a spiced, foaming butter that gets sopped up with hot toasted Cuban bread or baguette. Allspice (called pimento across the Caribbean) is the herbal warmth, Scotch bonnet brings the fruity-fierce heat, and beer adds a yeasty undertone that lifts the butter. Smell hits the kitchen the moment the dish leaves the oven and is genuinely the best part of dinner. Absurdly easy, everything goes cold into one dish, into the oven, 5 minutes, done. The dish is adapted from the Bahama Breeze restaurant chain, where it's a long-running menu staple, but the core technique (shrimp roasted in spiced butter, dipped with bread) is shared across the Bahamas as a casual party-snack format.

Bahamian 20 minutes Serves2
Gai Yang

Gai Yang

Gai yang ("grilled chicken") is one of the cornerstones of Isaan cooking, the cuisine of north-eastern Thailand that has spread across the whole country and into Thai restaurants worldwide. The defining flavour is coriander root, an ingredient barely used in Western cooking but central to Thai marinades. Pounded in a granite mortar with garlic, white peppercorns and a pinch of salt, it forms an aromatic paste that's then mixed with fish sauce, oyster sauce and a touch of sugar. The chicken is butterflied (spatchcocked) so it lies flat on the grill, marinated for at least 4 hours, then cooked slowly over moderate charcoal. The proper Isaan technique is patient: 30 minutes or more, turning often, sometimes pressed flat between two bamboo splints, so the skin slowly crisps and the meat takes on smoke without burning. The flavour is savoury-funky from fish sauce, peppery-warm from white pepper, deeply garlic-and-herb from the paste, with no chilli in the marinade itself; heat comes from the dipping sauce. Difficulty is low for the home cook: a good mortar or a small food processor makes the paste in 2 minutes, butterflying a chicken is a single cut down the backbone, and any covered grill or kettle does the cooking. Eaten by hand with balls of sticky rice and dipped into nam jim jaew, the toasted-rice-and-tamarind dipping sauce.

Thai 5 hours Serves4
Green Curry BBQ Aubergine

Green Curry BBQ Aubergine

This is a BBQ side built on the flavour profile of Thai green curry rather than a Thai curry itself. The marinade is essentially a small batch of green curry sauce reduced down until thick and clinging, then cooled and rubbed into wedges of aubergine that sit in it overnight. By morning the cut surfaces have drunk in coconut, paste, fish sauce, palm sugar, lime leaf and basil; by the time they hit the grill, the flesh has half-pickled and the surface is coated in a paste that caramelises beautifully over hot coals. The grill does the rest. Direct high heat blackens the marinade into sticky-black patches while the inside steams under its own glaze and softens to spoon-tender. Difficulty is low. The only patience involved is overnight in the fridge. Serve as a centrepiece on a BBQ platter alongside grilled meats, or as a vegetarian main with sticky rice, a wedge of lime and a scatter of Thai basil. It is rich, smoky, gently sweet, salty and herbaceous all at once, with the unmistakable green-curry note running through every bite.

Sides 37 minutes Serves4
Tandoori King Prawn

Tandoori King Prawn

Tandoori King Prawns are elegant, restaurant-quality appetizers or mains. The prawns undergo two rapid marinades: first, an oil-based bath with garlic, ginger, and turmeric to season quickly; second, a creamy, spiced marinade with yoghurt, cream cheese, and fresh herbs for silky texture and depth. The double approach respects the delicate nature of prawns while ensuring flavor on all sides. The brief cooking (5-8 minutes) preserves succulence. Serve with lemon and herbs. This is luxurious seafood preparation made simple.

Sides 43 minutes Serves4