Green Fuel, Galway
Come on baby, light my fire
Green Fuel Ireland ought to put a big poster outside the utilitarian industrial block which houses their premises, on Galway’s Tuam Road, a few miles north of the city.
With flickering flames at the bottom of the billboard, it should declaim to one and all: “Come on baby, light my fire!’
Suggesting this immodest self-exposure is entirely self-interested, because it took us two attempts to actually find the Green Fuel Warehouse. We now call in every time we’re in Galway.
John Griffin has been operating out of the Tuam Road since 2015 and we’re kind of surprised Green Fuel isn’t better known. From a modest entrance, the warehouse opens up into a Pandora’s box of fascination for the fire lover.
John Griffin is passionate about wood, so the wood menu often changes. Coming soon, for instance, is Camel Thorn - known for its hardness and density. Most recently, we filled the car with Sakelbos, an invasive South African species that is cropped to keep it under control.
We’ve never enjoyed a hotter BBQ than with the Sakelbos, well that is until we tried one of the hardwood briquettes they sell (often to pizzerias), which blaze to a dynamic intensity.
All the wood sold at Green Fuel is food grade. There are no dodgy chemicals. Their customers are generally restaurants, and pizzerias, and they deliver to much of the country (not unfortunately to West Cork, which neccesitates our in-person visits).
“The lower the moisture, the higher the heat” is their boast and our favourites – which suit our domestic set up – are the Sekelbos, because of its slender size and shape, and we also are mad for the Olive kindling, sold in traditional hemp sacks. These twiglets fit into our small pizza oven, and burn intensely, getting you to the all important 500ºC.
The benefit of calling in to Green Fuel, however, is that you get to talk wood with people who are crazy about wood, and therefore you are likely to wind up trying something you might not have used before. John sells both by the pallet and by the bag, and value is keen and Green Fuel is also a great spot to buy Premium Lumpwood Charcoal, including Binchotan.
Green Fuel Ireland – free shipping to much of the country, or open for collection.
Extract:
… a change of fuel: from charcoal, that was dirtier and invasive, to different woods that were more natural and aromatic. From there sprang the idea that it was key to have total control over the wood coals: that the hearth should be managed by using a separate oven, so that live coals would be on hand at all times to be taken from the oven to the grill, thus roasting each item with just the right amount of embers. It worked. In 1997 the first wood oven in Etxebarri’s kitchen was finished.… The perfume of the wood coals has thus become a symbol of the spark of the cuisine at Etxebarri.
The story of the oven that fires Basque flame-grill restaurant, Etxebarri By Juan Pablo Cardenal & Jon Sarabia (Grub Street)
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