Kitchen & Food

#4 · BBQ / campfire skewer

Thread cherry tomatoes, chunks of halloumi, or mini sausages onto a chopstick and grill over a flame. Proper rustic cooking.

Metal skewers rust in the drawer, thin bamboo skewers snap when you turn them, and neither is ever where you left it. Chopsticks handle chunks of pepper, halloumi, prawns or chicken perfectly well, and they are noticeably sturdier than the packet skewers sold for the purpose.

How to do it

1. Soak the chopsticks in cold water for at least twenty minutes, and longer if you have it. This is not optional over direct heat.
2. Use plain, unlacquered wood only. Painted and varnished chopsticks are not meant to be heated.
3. Thread bite-sized pieces on, leaving a few centimetres clear at the blunt end to hold, and don't pack them tight - food needs air between the pieces to cook evenly.
4. Grill over medium heat rather than a roaring fire, turning every couple of minutes.
5. If the exposed ends start to blacken, wrap them in a scrap of foil.

Why it works

Soaking loads the outer few millimetres of bamboo with water, which has to boil off before the wood itself can reach ignition temperature. Over a medium grill that buys you comfortably longer than the food needs. Bamboo also runs in long straight fibres along its length, which is why a chopstick resists snapping in a way a thin round skewer does not.

Tips & warnings

• Two chopsticks side by side - a ladder skewer - stops prawns and halloumi from spinning uselessly when you try to turn them. This is the single best trick here.
• Chopsticks with a squared or faceted cross-section grip food better than perfectly round ones.
• Don't reuse them. They will be charred, and charred wood tastes of char.