[Steven] Travel the world's barbecue trail and you'll find grilled meat on every continent.

Today we focus on some of the amazing grilled vegetable dishes on "Planet Barbecue."

First, a tantalizing tandoori cauliflower with mint chutney from India.

Wow, that is really good.

Next, a smokey squash gratin from the French West Indies.

This is stuffed squash on steroids.

And not to neglect our carnivorous friends, San Antonio Master Chef Johnny Hernandez shows us how to prepare barbacoa de borrego, traditional Mexican pit-roasted lamb.

Oh, man.

Johnny, you have outdone yourself.

I have never tasted anything like this.

From the Riverwalk in San Antonio, I'm Steven Raichlen.

Welcome to Planet Barbecue.

[opening theme music] [announcer] Steven Raichlen's "Planet Barbecue" is made possible by... [narrator 1] This is the Big Green Egg, where fire and flavor come together.

You can roast, bake, and sear with the versatility of a grill, oven, and barbecue smoker combined.

Locate a dealer at BigGreenEgg.com.

[narrator 2] Fire Magic, combining style with the versatility to sear, smoke, rotisserie cook, and charcoal grill.

Crafted in America for over 80 years.

[music] Shun Cutlery handcrafted in Japan.

[narrator 3] Father's Cooker, multi-fuel, multifunction.

[narrator 3] Argentine Beef proudly supports "Planet Barbecue."

[narrator 4] Truly wireless temperature starts with Maverick.

[announcer] And by the following: [Steven] Let astronomers study Mars, Venus, or Jupiter.

My favorite orb in the solar system is Planet Barbecue.

I'm fascinated by the bold flavors of rubs and marinades that are constant on the world's barbecue trail.

I'm thrilled by the sheer ingenuity exhibited by grill masters across the planet for harnessing the power of smoke and fire to deliver flavors that explode in your mouth.

Whether vegetarian dishes from India and the West Indies or a magisterial barbacoa de borrego from Mexico, "Planet Barbecue" is the place you want to be.

4,600 years ago, give or take a century, a potter in Rajasthan, India threw a large urn-shaped clay oven for baking flatbreads.

Thus was born the barbecue pit we know today as the tandoor.

Which brings me to a meatless barbecue showstopper, a whole head of cauliflower slathered with yogurt and Indian spices and roasted over charcoal to smokey perfection.

Start with a whole cauliflower.

Blanch it in rapidly boiling salted water for three minutes.

Drain, rinse with cold water, and blot dry.

Then pierce the cauliflower all over with a sharp implement, like a carving fork.

These holes will help foster the absorption of the marinade.

Next, make the tandoori marinade.

Start with rough chopped ginger and garlic.

Then add one teaspoon of salt... ...one teaspoon of freshly ground black pepper... ...one tablespoon of sweet paprika, which will add color and sweetness... ...one teaspoon of cayenne pepper for heat... ...a teaspoon of ground coriander, the fragrance seeds of the cilantro plant, a half teaspoon of ground cumin, a half teaspoon of ground cardamom... ...then the freshly grated zest of a lemon for brightness.

So, we have a lot going on in this marinade.

Now, cut the lemon in half and add the juice of the lemon to the marinade, catching the seeds between your fingers.

Place the lid on the processor and process until the garlic and ginger are finely pureed.

Next, add a cup and a half of whole milk yogurt.

And finally, one ingredient you may not be familiar with, chickpea flour.

It helps form a crust on the outside of the tandoori cauliflower.

Now place the lid on the processor and puree these flavorings into a thick paste.

Finally, add one quarter cup of vegetable oil.

This will help keep the tandoori cauliflower moist.

Spread your tandoori marinade over the cauliflower on all sides.

Marinate your cauliflower for at least six hours, preferably overnight.

Here is a tandoori cauliflower I marinated overnight.

To cook the cauliflower, I'm using the American version of a tandoor, a ceramic kamado-style cooker.

I set it up for indirect grilling, placing a heat diffuser between the fire and the cook chamber.

Place the cauliflower in the center of the grate.

Then close the lid.

Adjust the vents to obtain a temperature of about 600 degrees.

Tandoori cooking is always done at a high heat.

You want the top vent open, the bottom vent open wide.

Cooking time will be somewhere between 30 to 40 minutes, maybe a little longer, depending on the size of your cauliflower.

Meanwhile, let me show you how to make the mint chutney.

It starts with fresh mint and fresh cilantro.

Place them in the blender, along with a minced clove of fresh garlic.

Diced white onion.

Seeded, diced jalapeno chili.

A bit of sugar for sweetness.

A generous pinch of salt.

A generous pinch of pepper.

Next, add a freshly grated lemon zest for brightness.

And freshly squeezed lemon juice for acidity.

A few tablespoons of water.

And oil for a silky finish.

Turn on the blender and turn the ingredients for the chutney to a smooth puree.

And take a taste.

Mm.

Tart, bright, garlicky, and so refreshing with the mint.

Back to the grill.

Start basting the cauliflower with melted butter after 20 minutes.

You can see it's taking on a nice color already.

And continue grilling the cauliflower, basting every 10 to 15 minutes.

It's been 50 minutes.

The tandoori cauliflower should be ready.

It sure looks ready.

Nice browning on the top.

To check it for doneness, insert a slender skewer.

If it pierces the cauliflower easily, it's ready.

So, we'll just baste it one final time with melted butter, just to lay on an extra coat of richness.

Cut your cauliflower crosswise into steaks.

Now transfer your sliced cauliflower to a platter.

And there you have it, folks, tandoori cauliflower with cilantro mint chutney.

Let's see how we did.

First, without the chutney.

Mm.

Wow.

That is really good.

Nice crust on the outside, thanks to that chickpea flour, fragrance from the cumin and cardamom, nice heat from the cayenne.

Now, let's try it with the chutney.

And the chutney provides a cooling mint counterpoint to the spices in the tandoori mix.

Tandoori cauliflower, it's vegetarian barbecue, and you won't miss the meat.

Vegetable gratins turn up throughout the French West Indies, where they're made with everything from chayotes to calabazas.

This one comes from the stylish islands of St. Barts.

Think smokey squash, melty cheese, buttery, crisp breadcrumbs, and the intoxicating scent of wood smoke.

Equally compelling as a side dish and as a meatless main course.

To intensify the flavor of the squash, roast it on a salt slab.

Set up your grill for indirect grilling, heat to medium high.

Then place the salt slabs on the grill grate.

And preheat them as well.

For a smoke flavor, load the smoker box with wood chips you've previously soaked in cold water for 30 minutes.

That slows the rate of combustion.

Then place the lid on the smoker box.

Close the grill lid.

While you're at the grill, prepare habanero butter.

Place two habanero chilies or scotch bonnet chilies in the butter.

Gently simmer for a couple of minutes.

Notice I did not cut the chilies.

This will give you the perfume flavor of the habanero or scotch bonnet without the heat.

Next, the squash.

I'm using butternut squash.

Cut it in half lengthwise.

Then using a spoon, scrape out the seeds and flesh.

There are your squash halves.

Now, brush the cut sides of your squash with the habanero butter.

And place the squash cut side down on the salt slabs.

The beauty of roasting the squash on a salt slab, the salt gently flavors the squash and the slab keeps the squash from drying out.

Cooking time, 40 to 60 minutes, just until the squash feels soft when you squeeze the sides.

It's been 40 minutes and the squash is soft, so it's ready to come off.

Let the squash cool.

Once the squash are cool enough to handle, scrape the flesh into a mixing bowl.

And when you scrape the flesh out, leave about a quarter of an inch of squash in the shell for support.

Now, take a couple of knives and dice the squash in the mixing bowl.

Next, add heavy cream... ...freshly grated nutmeg, for sweetness... ...then chopped flat leaf parsley.

Stir the mixture together.

Stir in freshly grated Parmigiano Reggiano cheese.

Finally, a little salt and freshly ground black pepper.

And I'll just check for seasoning.

Mm.

Right on the money.

Now, stuff the squash mixture back into the butternut squash shells.

The last step is to sprinkle the stuffed squash with toasted breadcrumbs, or panko.

This will give you a crisp crust.

And spoon a little more of the habanero butter on top.

Return the stuffed squash to the salt slabs.

Close the lid.

Continue grilling the squash until the filling is bubbling and golden brown, another 15 to 20 minutes.

It's been another 20 minutes.

Check out the squash.

Sizzling and browned on top.

So, I'll take them off.

And finally, one for me.

Let's take a taste.

Mm.

Audibly crisp crust, crunchy breadcrumbs, melty cheese, the cream, sweet squash, and the gentle heat from that habanero butter.

This is stuffed squash on steroids.

Our final dish involves a plant of a different sort, a desert dweller.

I speak of agave cactus, and it's an indispensable component of a specialty served by San Antonio chef Johnny Hernandez at his Casa Hernán restaurant on the weekends.

I give you barbacoa de borrego, cactus wrapped pit-roasted lamb.

Johnny, I have been looking forward to this segment for months now.

You are going to prepare a dish that is much beloved in Mexico, that's absolutely iconic here in San Antonio, and that uses a live fire cooking method that is as ancient as humanity itself.

What is barbacoa de borrego?

We love eating barbacoa.

Beef head is the traditional protein.

Barbacoa borrego, more of an elegant preparation, and that's what we're preparing for you today.

So borrego literally means mutton, right?

Mutton.

And barbacoa is the style of cooking in a pit.

Yes, barbacoa could be any kind of protein, but it has to do with outdoor cooking, in-ground, live fire.

We've had this beautiful stone-lined hole that we prepared.

It's off the ground.

We have a winch system, but this is our oven.

[Steven] So Johnny, what's our first step here?

All right.

So, we have hot coals in here.

We're going to get this basket loaded with wood.

We're going to continue to feed it throughout the night.

We have live oak.

We have some mesquite.

So, this winch, step back a little bit, I'm going to lower it.

I'm going to put this here in the center.

[Steven] All right.

[Johnny] And then this will start lifting it.

[Steven] You want a hand?

[Johnny] Yeah.

[Steven] This is sort of a flaming piñata.

[Johnny] For the two legs of lamb, we need at least six to seven-hour burn.

So it looks like I'm going to be sleeping here tonight.

[Johnny] Let me worry about the fire.

[Steven] Okay.

What's the next step, Johnny?

[Johnny] All right.

Let's get our pencas cooking.

This is going to be what we wrap our barbacoa de borrego, right?

So, this is a penca of an agave plant.

Agave cactus would be used to make tequila or mescal.

[Johnny] So, we will roast these nice and tender.

You'll begin to smell a sweet aroma from the actual cooked sap of these plants.

This will protect it in that high heat pit that we're dropping our borrego in.

While this is cooking on that first side, let's get the consommé going.

Okay.

Over those six or seven hours that it'll be down in the pozo, all those drippings will make this beautiful, aromatic rich, consommé.

Beautiful.

So, we start with dried garbanzo beans.

[Johnny] Mhmm.

[Steven] Quartered tomatoes.

[Johnny] A couple onions.

[Steven] Okay, quartered onions.

[Johnny] Some garlic cloves.

Epazote.

Okay.

So epazote, this is basically, it's a weed, kind of like a cross between mint and oregano.

And black peppercorns.

[Johnny] Some bay leaves, and some chipotle peppers for a little more smokiness, a little bit of spice.

And then some fresh cilantro and parsley.

[Steven] Wow, this is going to be enormously flavorful even before we add the lamb.

[Johnny] All right, so our pencas are ready.

Look, they're roasted and pliable.

[Steven] Pliable, yep.

[Johnny] See all the sap just excreting out of these?

[Steven] For the lamb, now, these are whole legs of lamb.

[Johnny] We can salt the bottom of those.

[Steven] Okay.

Each one weighs about how much?

[Johnny] They're about seven and a half, eight pounds apiece.

So, this will go, rest right onto our consommé.

[Steven] Fantastic.

Shall we?

[Johnny] Yeah.

Sitting right over the pot and we're ready to lower.

[Steven] Johnny, the architecture of this dish is just incredible.

I mean, look at this.

You've got legs of lamb wrapped in the agave cactus leaves.

You have a pot of consommé.

[Johnny] Mhmm.

[Steven] A cage on a winch that looks like a medieval torture device.

A stone-lined pit with a raging mesquite and oak fire at the bottom.

I know.

We're going to haul this whole thing, lower it into the ground.

This is the sum of human ingenuity.

Oh, it's a beautiful thing.

We're going to put a little support here for our oven lid.

[Steven] This corrugated metal.

[Johnny] Corrugated metal.

[Steven] Which you see all over Mexico.

[Johnny] Some petates.

Just kind of give it a little bit of a seal.

[Steven] These are woven mats.

Yeah, woven mats, you know.

If you're in Mexico, a lot of times they still use a lot of earth.

Uh-huh.

They would pile dirt on here just to seal it.

How long is the barbacoa going to cook?

We want to give this about 12 hours, so it cooks all the way through and it comes together beautifully.

So that will take us to about 9:00 tomorrow morning.

All right.

I'll see you for breakfast.

This has really been spectacular.

[Johnny] Look at that.

That looks absolutely spectacular.

[Johnny] Look at that.

[Steven] Wow.

[Johnny] Oh, it's Christmas.

[Steven] Totally amazing.

[Johnny] We have our consommé here.

[Steven] Okay.

Oh.

Look how clear and beautiful that broth is.

[Johnny] This would be very typical barbacoa that you would enjoy either in the broth-- [Steven] Mhmm.

[Johnny] And in Mexico, you can't help but make tacos with, also, right?

We add a little broth.

Isn't that beautiful?

It is beautiful.

[Johnny] Mhmm.

We have a little bit of onion and cilantro and pico de gallo and radishes.

We have to bring our tortillas, which actually are very traditional to serve with this, and you have our-- Look at these, folks.

These are homemade stone ground corn.

Mm.

[Johnny] Mm.

[Steven] This is absolutely divine.

It is spectacular.

There's a smokey flavor, but it's not the heavy smoke of barbecue.

It's a light smoke and the cactus leaves have added a sort of herbaceous, smokey flavor, and it's a second smoke.

I got to try the broth.

[Johnny] Yeah, yeah.

[Steven] Mm.

Oh, man.

Johnny, you have outdone yourself.

I have never tasted anything like this.

[Johnny] Oh, you're very kind.

[Steven] And all it takes is a giant pit in your backyard, an industrial strength winch, a metal basket.

That's all it takes.

That's all it takes.

And worth it.

Worth every bite.

Worth every bite.

Johnny, thank you so much for inviting us into your restaurant, sharing this incredible preparation.

Steven, it's wonderful to have you here in Casa Hernán.

So provecho, let's eat.

Okay, let's eat.

So that's our show, spanning the globe from India to the Caribbean to Mexico.

Many more culinary adventures await on "Planet Barbecue."

See you next time.

[announcer] For recipes, books, and more live fire cooking, visit StevenRaichlen.com.

You can also follow Steven Raichlen on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok.

Steven Raichlen's "Planet Barbecue" was made possible by... [narrator 1] This is the Big Green Egg, where fire and flavor come together.

You can roast, bake, and sear with the versatility of a grill, oven, and barbecue smoker combined.

Locate a dealer at BigGreenEgg.com.

[narrator 2] Fire Magic, combining style with the versatility to sear, smoke, rotisserie cook, and charcoal grill.

Crafted in America for over 80 years.

[music] Shun Cutlery handcrafted in Japan.

[narrator 3] Father's Cooker, multi-fuel, multifunction.

[narrator 3] Argentine Beef proudly supports "Planet Barbecue."

[narrator 4] Truly wireless temperature starts with Maverick.

[announcer] And by the following: I was about to do it and then you're like, "stop."

[Matt] No, no, no, I wanted you to do it.

[Johnny] No, action.

No.

Stop.

[Steven] In Saint Barts-- In Saint Barts stuff-- In Saint Barts stuffed squash is-- In Saint Barts-- Start basting the tandoori cauli-- Tandoori.

This mint chutney will make a great-- Sorry, one more time.

One teaspoon.

Ooh.

To cook the flour-- To cook the califlower.

Califlower.