BBQ favourites

[tenohfive]

Planning on having a BBQ at the weekend (regardless of how the weather works out) and I'm after a few ideas for something easy but different. Aside from the usual suspects I'm planning on doing chicken thighs marinated in a tandoori paste type thing, and chicken orange and sesame sticky chicken.

Any other ideas for food thats easy to prepare and cook, but is a bit different from the usual burnt sausages and beef burgers? Only caveat is that I don't have a working oven right now so any preparations involving pre-cooking are off if they can't be done on the hob/george foreman.

[SJobson]

Sainsbury's have some very nice lamb steaks in, £6 for a tray of about 5 or 6.

[loltolhurst]

freash local asparagus

had venison the other day that was luuurvely

[Don]

Unusual is to do dessert on the BBQ.

Fresh Pineapple cut into 2cm chunks. Fresh peach slices. Skewer 'em. Onto BBQ. As they start to soften lift the skewer and, not over the BBQ, dust with icing sugar. Back on BBQ to caramelise the sugar.

Bit of ice cream. Nice.

Alternative meat: Pork tenderloin. Trim, cube marinate in soy and onto skewers with mushrooms and onion, or peppers and lemon or whatever you prefer. Onto BBQ. Mmm.

[Don]

Butterfly leg of lamb. Moroccan spices (ground cumin, ground coriander, ground ginger, garlic salt) maybe some chilli. Run in well. Do the thing whole. Slice to serve.

[TEKNOPUG]

You can cook anything on a half-decent charcoal burner.

Shoulder of lamb

Whole duck

Steaks

Pork joints etc etc etc

Chicken thighs are particularly good if you triple-dip them in a sticky marinade.

Marinade - place on grill - pop them back in the marinade - return to grill - pop them back in the marinade - return to the grill to finish.

[dougc]

I always trail this one out but its dead easy and looks good.

Half lamb leg.

Cut out bone and open out the joint

Make mix of oil, salt, pepper, garlic, rosemary - anything you like really!

Put in a sandwich bag with lamb and leave overnight in the fridge to marinate.

Put on BBQ for 20-30 mins.

It'll all be different thickness so some will be well cooked and some rare. This should please all comers.

Slice it all up and leave on a board with some half pitta breads, tzatziki and sliced up iceberg lettuce for people to make their own little lamb kebabs.

[UncleRic]

A simple potato salad? Always goes down well with our BBQs and can be made with one eye shut the day before.

Chopped new potatoes (halved or quartered depending on size), boil and cool. Mix in lashings of mayo, some ground black pepper and several chopped spring onions.

Mmmmmmm...

[tenohfive]

Some of those sound fantastic. I'm planning on doing a couple of sets of small skewers as appetisers and there was one mentioned with pork cubes - I'll definately be trying that.

Does anyone have any suggestions for some sort of prawn skewers as an appetiser? I've seen a recipe for prawns wrapped in bacon, but that just sounds a little heavy. Anyone know of an alternative.

[dougc]

Prawns - from raw or simply charring already cooked ones?

[Don]

dougc said:

Prawns - from raw or simply charring already cooked ones?

From raw. And SHELL ON for more flavour.

I've been known to eat them whole, shell and all. Crunchy.

[Nolar Dog]

Whole Seabass coated in rocksalt.

Serve with noodles and assorted leaves.
Very Thai/Vietnamese and delicious.

[TEKNOPUG]

Just cook the prawns as they are then make a seperate sweet chilli and/or simple garlic butter to accompany them with.

What sort of crowd are you entertaining? If it's just guys then they'll probably be happy standing around a big lump of meat for a couple of hours, exchanging tips, drink beer and feeling manly

If it's gonna be girls/kids also then you'll want some quick things like prawns, kebabs, chicken etc.

You can do veggies too: carrots, onions, tomatoes, aubergine, sweet potato etc. Cut them up and then put them on a big sheet of tin foil, drizzled with olive oil and herbs. Wrap it up tightly (you can make a handle if you are clever) and plonk on the grill. It will steam away happily.

[tenohfive]

dougc said:

Prawns - from raw or simply charring already cooked ones?

However its easiest to cook. If its just a case of adding a marinade/sauce, charring pre-cooked ones is probably the way ahead.

[TEKNOPUG]

tenohfive said:

dougc said:

Prawns - from raw or simply charring already cooked ones?

However its easiest to cook. If its just a case of adding a marinade/sauce, charring pre-cooked ones is probably the way ahead.

Easier to turn if you put them on a flat skewer - if on a round skewer they tent to just spin round when you try and turn them

[tenohfive]

TEKNOPUG said:

Just cook the prawns as they are then make a seperate sweet chilli and/or simple garlic butter to accompany them with.

What sort of crowd are you entertaining? If it's just guys then they'll probably be happy standing around a big lump of meat for a couple of hours, exchanging tips, drink beer and feeling manly

If it's gonna be girls/kids also then you'll want some quick things like prawns, kebabs, chicken etc.

Its only going to be a few friends - couples, no kids. And yes, my idea of a good barbie is meat sandwiched between two other types of meat. With a beer sauce. But I have to humour the ladies too.

[dougc]

In that case I'd go for raw, with shells on to keep all the juice in and don't do anything overly elaborate. As long as they are good quality, on their own or with a little dipping sauce should be fine...

eta - the prawns that is - forgot to quote!!

Edited by dougc on Friday 14th May 16:08

[bazking69]

UncleRic said:

A simple potato salad? Always goes down well with our BBQs and can be made with one eye shut the day before.

Chopped new potatoes (halved or quartered depending on size), boil and cool. Mix in lashings of mayo, some ground black pepper and several chopped spring onions.

Mmmmmmm...

As UncleRic says, don't overlook the sides and accompaniments. Far too many people do.

A nice potato salad is essential. Cheap, easy and filling. Can be done simply as above or with some gherkins for zing.

A nice salad. An absolute must for me. Everyone loves some ruffage with their BBQ food, even if it is a spoonful.

Homemade coleslaw salad. Done well it'll go down a storm. Even a good quality shop one is a must to have on hand.

And don't forget the picky bits while people mingle to keep baying hungry people from crowding you while you are trying to cook.

My current favourite is Chinese Curry Chicken. Marinate thighs in a mixture of chinese curry paste (from a Chinese food shop, it's the stuff you buy in the chippy btw) onions, garlic, pepper and chillis for as long as possible. 24 hours is my prefered option. Precook in oven. Remove chicken from sauce and BBQ until the skin is crispy and slightly burnt. Serve with the sauce to spoon back over the chicken. Superb!!

[tenohfive]

bazking69 said:

UncleRic said:

A simple potato salad? Always goes down well with our BBQs and can be made with one eye shut the day before.

Chopped new potatoes (halved or quartered depending on size), boil and cool. Mix in lashings of mayo, some ground black pepper and several chopped spring onions.

Mmmmmmm...

As UncleRic says, don't overlook the sides and accompaniments. Far too many people do.

A nice potato salad is essential. Cheap, easy and filling. Can be done simply as above or with some gherkins for zing.

A nice salad. An absolute must for me. Everyone loves some ruffage with their BBQ food, even if it is a spoonful.

Homemade coleslaw salad. Done well it'll go down a storm. Even a good quality shop one is a must to have on hand.

And don't forget the picky bits while people mingle to keep baying hungry people from crowding you while you are trying to cook.

My current favourite is Chinese Curry Chicken. Marinate thighs in a mixture of chinese curry paste (from a Chinese food shop, it's the stuff you buy in the chippy btw) onions, garlic, pepper and chillis for as long as possible. 24 hours is my prefered option. Precook in oven. Remove chicken from sauce and BBQ until the skin is crispy and slightly burnt. Serve with the sauce to spoon back over the chicken. Superb!!

My OH is dealing with the sides - salad etc is nice enough but falls loosely under the category of rabbit food.

I love the sound of the Chinese Curry Chicken...but I don't have an oven to pre-cook in. I'll remember it for when I do have one sorted though.

[prand]

I bought a bag of frozen squid from tescos the other day for about £2.50.

The tentacles are tucked in the body so I removed them, threaded body & tentacles onto skewers and marinaded in some sweet chilli sauce. They grilled on the BBQ for about 5 mins and were lovely!