Super Secret BBQ!! For Apt or Condo Dwellers with a Balcony.

(DOESNT WORK IF YOU HAVE AN ELECTRIC STOVE)

Okay guys,  many of you live in apartments, condos, etc where you can't have bbqs (gas or coal) outside on your balcony... even though you have gas stoves (isn't there something weird about that?).

Anyway here's how you can get around this limitation.  well, i'm not advocating you do this, but I'm just putting this out here as an informational little tid bit.

To do this you will need:

A  large deep frying pan like:

2 disposable tin oven trays (i find 9 by 9 trays work pretty well):

Some sort of metal grate (make sure the grate is slightly larger than the tray but smaller than the large pan). a toaster oven tray works pretty well:

and Charcoal.

So here are the steps:

1. Put one disposable aluminum tray inside the other (so you have a two layered tray)
2. Put charcoal in the tray so that it is nicely covering the tray.  You want one layer of charcoal, but you want it packed pretty tightly.
3. Once you have it arranged, put the tray with the charcoal into you large pan.  the walls of the pan should act as a sort of heat protection.
4. Next, OPEN YOUR WINDOWS!!!! and turn on your gas range. Chances are the range top look slike:
   
   If it does, great! take the charcoal piece by piece, and balance them on the metal pot, pan support stand things.  you know those thick wire looking things you put your pan on that are betwen the pan and the fire from your stove... I like to use chopsticks for this task, because you can keep a safe distance from the fire while being able to fine tune the positioning of each piece of charcoal on the grate/pan support thingies with impunity.  If you're a moron and can't use chopsticks, then use metal tongs. Give them a minute or two and flip them over (the charcoal).  Once each piece is slightly ignited, place  it back in the disposable aluminum oven tray.  you can do about four pieces of charcoal at a time and it will take about 10 minutes total to ignite all your coals.  The best part about doing this is that there is no smoke produced.
5. Once you are done with this step, you should have an aluminum tray with hot coals on it.  you will be able to feel the heat!  Well, because this whole set up is actually placed in a large pan, it is easy to move around and fairly safe.
6. Next take your pan outside on to your balcony and place it on whatever table or stool or whatever you have out there.
7. Next, take the metal grate/oven tray and put it on the charcoal filled aluminum tray
8. You are now ready to bbq!  fan the coals as needed and partially cover the pan in aluminum foil to keep in some heat and add a smokey flavor if you want!

So far, we have done souvlaki, tomatoes, bread, octopus, etc this way. works great!  It doesn't create a huge amount of smoke.  It is in a pan, so it looks to you neighbors like you just have some awesome smelling thing in a pan outside and are cooking in a pan...

Happy BBQing!  The Super Secret WAY!!!