When we were on holiday in Burwash, East Sussex, way back in 1993, it was our June 12 anniversary, and we were looking for fine dining to celebrate.  We had Auntie Freya with us to watch the kiddos, so we had high hopes, and we had scouted out what appeared to be the only restaurant in town that wasn’t one of the three pubs. Sadly, when we went to make a reservation, it was closed, night off, bank holiday or whatever.

Not to be deterred we turned to the usually reliable English pub for a back-up. The high street in Burwash isn’t very long, and was then anchored by a pub at either end and one in the middle. The one in the middle seemed busy so we went there.  It had “Mixed Grill” on the menu.

If you have never had a mixed grill in the Uk, you have missed out on something special and will probably outlive those of us who have had one. As the name implies, it consists of several grilled items, typically a lamb chops, pork chop, or both, an inexpensive beef steak with a fried egg on it, a sausage, a grilled tomato, and served with chips (fries) and baked beans (’cause you can never have too many carbs, amirite?). It was my anniversary, so I went for it. I was not sorry.

If your  Dad is a vegetarian, I respect that (more or less) and this is not for him. But I was with my brother and his two sons last week, and my oldest nephew had just announced he is starting a new generation in that branch of the family. None of our dietary prudent wives were in attendance, so I thought mixed grill. I served in with the New York Times recipe for Southern Macaroni and Cheese, which is a meal in itself.

The idea is that everybody gets one of everything on his plate. I substituted Portuguese linguicia and chorizo for the Cumberland sausage. I substituted the beef for chicken, you know, for health. Just kidding. Enjoy. Happy Fathers’ Day! Serves four Floyds boys.

Ingredients

4 center cut loin pork chops

4 loin lamb chops

4 bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs.

4 sausage links (see above)

2 tomatoes, halved

Recipe

Fire up your charcoal or gas grill. Rub the chicken with your favorite dry rub (mine is salt, pepper, chili powder, brown sugar, paprika, onion and garlic salt.) Put the chicken on first. Let it get some grill marks and then put it on the non-hot side of the grill.  The thighs will take up to 30 minutes, so hold back the other items for awhile. The lamb chops come next, as they are forgiving if cooked closer to medium ( I just salt and pepper them.) The pork chops come next and need attention so they don’t dry out. I put a little barbecue sauce on them toward the end. The sausage I used was pre-cooked, so I just needed to get some grill marks and heat them up. Serve one of every thing on each plate. We drank Malbec and Tempranillo with it but a cold beer would be what they would drink in Burwash!