Less of a torch, more of an Olympic bucket

Sometimes the quality of the cooking is less important than the time and place. 


Our efforts in the ticket lottery and the early morning card frenzy had yielded nothing for the opening ceremony so we'd decided to go for a weekend away at the start of the Olympics.


Which is how we found ourselves on a boat moored on an island in Malthouse Broad with the opening ceremony just a couple of hours away. 
Luckily we'd packed a humble bucket barbecue just in case. So with a beautiful sunset in the  making it was time for an impromptu barbecue followed by the opening ceremony on the flat screen TV on the boat (talk about all mod cons).

They are easy to start - just a couple of sheets of newspaper under the bottom plate and it acts like a giant starter unit.

Soon you'll have the coals you need and with a bit of prodding you should be able to arrange them so that you have a cool area to one side. You will need it. The thing about a bucket barbecue is that it's not really the most subtle of appliances. The steep sides direct the heat, so what you end up with is very very hot.



To be honest the food we cooked was hardly amazing: supermarket sausages and a butterflied pork joint with piri piri sauce, accompanied by corn on the cob (marinated in their plastic bag). 


Not bad, but not really in the same league as other things we've done.


But the surroundings and the moment were really memorable - the calm of the water and a truly beautiful sunset. And oddly, a really great place to watch the start of the Games. So with the sun going down, microwave popcorn on the table, we watched Danny Boyle's remarkable vision.