A meat-free barbecue feast: charred leeks with pecorino sauce and pickled oyster mushrooms, grilled hispi cabbage with a classic French sauce, and barbecued chestnut mushrooms with habanero, lemon and rocket pesto

When it comes to barbecuing, subtlety is often overlooked amid the sizzle of sausages and the char of burgers, but it takes only a light extra touch to elevate your alfresco meal into something really special. I love fire cooking, because that lick of flame turns even simple ingredients into something greater than the sum of their parts. You can take something as ordinary as a leek, say, and transform it over hot coals into a dish that is unrecognisably delicious. Of course, it also helps that you’re then covering that leek in a rich pecorino sauce, but I’m telling you, without those flames, it just wouldn’t be the same. Today’s recipes, which are all taken from our restaurant menu at the Parakeet, show there’s magic to be had in the seeming chaos of smoke-infused vegetable cooking. For those who can’t resist the allure of traditional barbecue fare, they’re all also designed to pair with sausages (wild boar, ideally), thick-cut pork chops or flame-grilled fish.

This barbecue-style dish uses a tangy Trinidadian favourite, tamarind, in the marinade to add sweetness to the meat – cook in the oven or over coals, depending on the forecast

Barbecued meat isn’t exclusive to any ethnic group in the Caribbean. The term “barbecue”, however, originates with the (now dwindling) Amerindian people and is derived from the Taino word for the raised wooden structure used, among other things, to cure meat, barbecoa. A common misconception is that jerk chicken is popular throughout the Caribbean, when it is in fact only a chart-topper in Jamaica. From Cuba down to Guyana, you’ll find iterations of “BBQ chicken”, though, and this one uses that tangy Trinidadian favourite, tamarind.

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Chopped salad offers a festival of textures and flavours all in the one mouthful

Not so long ago, I fell down a hole on the internet and landed on a page on Mob’s website entitled A Brief Investigation into Chopped Salads. This sentence, in particular, caught my attention: “According to Jeff Gordinier, food & drink writer for Esquire, ‘chopping intensifies the pleasure of a salad’ Perhaps it was just food clickbait, I thought – but perhaps it was also true? I tested out the theory (see today’s recipe) and can confirm first-hand that there is great pleasure to be had in both chopping ingredients to sling with abandon into a bowl, and in munching on a festival of textures and flavours all in the one mouthful.

Kick back, crack open the rosé and enjoy a vibrant, nutty Georgian vegetable paté and grilled lime prawns with courgettes

Whether it’s gorgeous or glacial, I’m determined to eat outside this bank holiday weekend. Fresh air I will find and alfresco I will call it! I’m not even talking a full decamp to the nearest common or heath – picnic planning still feels a bit too wishful; I’m thinking more outside the confines of the kitchen, so garden table, front doorstep, balcony: whatever we have, we should take, I think. Even an open window would count, with a chair perched beside it, plate on knees, searching for the sun.