Fusing BBQ with Italian and a toot of the Brit

Winter can last a long time in the UK, and there are days when I've come home from work and simply ache to be sitting at my home in Malta, with the BBQ going, my feet dipped in the pool, enjoying the company of my family as we sip at a glass of wine. However, in reality it will be raining or too cold to have a BBQ, and I don't have a pool in England, so those daydreams cannot truly be brought to fruition.

I do have my own coping mechanisms however - I'll call my mum up on Skype so that I can see all those things that I'm missing, and I'll whip up my quick, healthy and tasty alternative to a Maltese BBQ: polenta, marinated and grilled pork chops and creamed spinach. Not too difficult to explain, but I'll give you the recipe here anyway.

Grilled Mediterranean Pork with Creamed Spinach & Italian Polenta

Marinade:

Garlic (crushed)

BBQ sauce

Soya Sauce

Olive Oil

Herbs (I use dried, mixed herbs containing salt, pepper, thyme, basil but feel free to be creative)

Creamed Spinach:

Fresh spinach

Garlic (crushed)

Dash of lemon juice

Single Cream

Dash of olive oilu

Salt and Pepper for seasoning

Additional:

Asda pre-cooked polenta, chopped into thick slices

Pork chops/loin/steaks (whatever you have handy)

Method

Mix the marinade ingredients together and coat the pork in them. Cover and place in the fridge for as long as possible. I try to do this in the morning to have it fully flavoursome by the time I've returned from work.

The rest is all timing. Prepare a saucepan for the spinach, get the griddle pan super hot and a frying pan with a dash of oil ready for the polenta.

Polenta, seasoned and crisping up

Put the steaks on the griddle and the polenta in the pan around the same time. Don't move the steaks around too much as they will lose heat. The polenta needs to be on a medium heat, and season as you go with plenty of pepper and a toot of salt.

The trifecta

I like to see that blackness coating the pork - perfect flavour

After you've turned the steaks and polenta once, start on the creamed spinach. Heat a dash of oil in the saucepan then throw in the garlic. Don't let the garlic burn as it will go bitter, so you want to follow up with a bag of spinach pretty quickly. Mix this around slowly, to allow the spinach to get the heat of the pan and begin to wilt. Then add a bit of lemon juice and final small amounts of single cream until you get the consistency you're happy with. Then BOOM! you're done.

Creamed Spinach

The final product...

From all angles