It’s been an inspiring week watching @TeamGB having a fantastic #Rio2016 with wonderful Wednesday & super Sunday, currently second in the medal table. It’s amazing  to hear the back stories and the enormous effort, sacrifice & teamwork that goes into training for The Olympics. The weather has been fabulous in London – warm & sunny – perfect BBQ weather. Brazil is the World’s largest producer of orange juice so I wanted to create a tasty BBQ kebab recipe that combines sweet & hot flavours reflecting the carnival spirit of Rio & Brazil.

Ingredients

Ingredients for an Olympic recipe!

•  4 thick cut Sirloin or Rump beef steaks( 1 kg  or 35 oz), fat trimmed & cut into 2.5 cm (1 inch) cubes
• 1 orange, rind & juice
• 1 large medium (hot) red chilli, seeds removed & finely chopped
• 1-2 teaspoons harissa paste ( depending how hot you like it)
• 2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
• 1 teaspoon of smoked paprika ( I used hot, but sweet is fine too)
• 1 teaspoon of ground cumin
• 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• freshly ground sea salt & pepper
• wooden skewers

Beef marinating ready for a siesta

Method

• Combine all the ingredients in a bowl, mix to ensure all the beef cubes are coated
• Cover with cling film (saran wrap) and leave in the fridge to marinate for 2-4 hours
• Soak the wooden skewers for 30 minutes in cold water to prevent them burning on the BBQ
• Thread the meat with 4-5 cubes per skewer, don’t overcrowd or they won’t cook evenly
• Season with sea salt & black pepper
• BBQ for a few minutes turning regularly to get a little char
  

  Ready to samba… & BBQ

I  made some BBQ sweetcorn served with  some butter with chopped red chilli & lime rind; red onion & mixed peppers (bell) skewers drizzled with extra virgin olive oil & dried oregano & Simon’s Mediterranean chicken kebabs (check archives for recipe).

We had a great BBQ in London getting into the Rio Carnival spirit & ready to samba with my BBQ beef kebabs.