BBQ83/17 – Hellfire Halo Breakfast:
Over the last couple of months I have spotted a lot of posts by Arteflame showing a cast iron grill they have which looks pretty cool. The interesting thing for me was that they sell an insert for Weber grills:
They don’t have a European distributor on their website and they didn’t respond to my messages on Twitter or Instagram so I was a bit stuck!
A couple of weeks a go a friend of mine messaged me about a similar insert available from a UK based company called the “Hellfire Halo” that was going to be available soon. Made from cast iron with a flat side and a ridged side and a central sear grate it looked like just what I was after. I placed an order, £75 delivered.
When it arrived it was really heavy, felt well made and was easy to put together and in the grill. I oiled it up to season it and left it to heat up on the charcoal remains of a previous cook.
The next day it was time to cook on it and I thought a full fried breakfast would be a good test!
I set the grill up with a full lit chimney of lumpwood but I placed a charcoal basket at the top of the grill and poured the lit charcoal around it to try and have a cooler zone on the cast iron where I could leave cooked food to keep warm and not keep cooking quite as quickly.
I put the sausages on first as they were going to take the longest to cook, it didn’t take long until they were sizzling away and I slowly started adding everything else. All parts of the Halo were hot and from the way the food was cooking it appeared all parts (bar the deliberate cool zone) were equally as hot as each other. The sear grate was incredibly hot, I put the sausages on it briefly but it was too hot so I stuck a cast iron pan on there to increase the cook space and reduce the heat slightly.
I wasn’t sure I was going to get everything on the grill as it usually takes at least 3 frying pans in the kitchen but I got everything on. The grill was really easy to cook on, simple to move stuff around and I found it easier than using frying pans.
The black pudding was from fruit pig, it’s a great product – made from natural blood rather than dried blood powder. It’s my favourite black pudding, better even than Stornoway! They have a deal on at the moment which is good value, I slice it up, vac pac it and freeze it.
The bacon was my own: cured then cold smoked with Whisky Oak – my bacon guide is here. Not much bacon left in the freezer!
As items were almost cooked I moved them up to the cooler end to keep warm but stop them keep cooking.
Plated up, cracking start to the weekend!
I was impressed with the Hellfire Halo on it’s first run out. It’s a solid bit of kit and looks very well made. It was incredibly easy to cook breakfast on it, the end result was a good plate of food and the kitchen wasn’t destroyed either!
Looking forward to trying this to sear some steaks with the vortex underneath. That will be the next test!
A few folk have asked me where to buy the Hellfire Halo – You can get it here