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.

[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.

[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.

[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.

[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.

[tenohfive]

Some fantastic ideas there, pity I went shopping prior to seeing a few of them. That Moroccan lamb sounds like something I'll just cook in its own right one day.

The BBQ I've got isn't massive and its a while since I've done a barbie, so I grabbed loads of meat and I was thinking of doing about 4 'courses'...almost meze style:

1. Salad, various breads, home made potato salad and coleslaw...not a course really, more sides. But something for while the foods cooking.
2. Prawn skewers with sweet chilli dip, chicken skewers with onions and peppers, pork skewers likewise (or maybe mixed pork and chicken skewers?)
3. Lamb steaks seasoned with a bit of rosemary
4. Sticky orange and sesame chicken thighs, tandoori chicken drumsticks (currently marinating in the fridge)
5. Various lamb/veal burgers, various sausages

I was thinking that for the chicken skewers I'd coat them in a coriander and lemon paste prior to putting them on the heat. And I was thinking a honey glaze with some ground (or fresh) chilli for the pork skewers. I've got some fresh chilli's, garlic and lime which I was thinking of doing something with for the sausages...pierce the skin and stuff some sort of concoction in there maybe? Any suggestions would be welcome.

Getting hungry just thinking about it...

Any thoughts?

Edited by tenohfive on Friday 14th May 19:29

[tenohfive]

Mobile Chicane said:

I'd suggest a disposable barbecue for the prawns and maybe the lamb lest the main barbecue run out of oomph before the chicken and sausage/burger courses are cooked.

Perhaps you could add some slices of pineapple to drizzle in honey with a squeeze of passionfruit over, wrap in foil and cook over the embers. Marshmallows on sticks even?

Sounds like a good call. I'm not a marshmellow fan, but haven't tried them BBQ'd before. The pineapple/passionfruit idea is definately a go-er though.

[tenohfive]

Plotloss said:

Skirt steak, whole, marinaded in lime amd chilli overnight.

Sliced very very thinly and then threaded onto skewers.

Lush.

I did find myself walking around Sainsburys with a trolley full of chicken, lamb and pork and wondering how I could fit some dead cow into the line up. Found myself settling for burgers as everything I saw and wanted (some lovely looking steaks etc) would have taken too long to cook.

I've never tried beef kebabs though, I'll definately give that one a go next time.

[tenohfive]

escargot said:

Actually, I reckon good quality burgers and sausages smoked using the indirect method are a thing of beauty. Never underestimate the power of doing basic stuff, extremely well.

I've never tried that before - am quite happy to give that a go with the sausages. I've never smoke cooked anything, though the BBQ has some sort of adjustable vent for doing this. How do you do it?

[tenohfive]

escargot said:

tenohfive said:

escargot said:

Actually, I reckon good quality burgers and sausages smoked using the indirect method are a thing of beauty. Never underestimate the power of doing basic stuff, extremely well.

I've never tried that before - am quite happy to give that a go with the sausages. I've never smoke cooked anything, though the BBQ has some sort of adjustable vent for doing this. How do you do it?

Really simple.

You need to buy some wood chips (weber do a big bag of hickory chips for about £6 - it'll last you ages).

Put a couple of handfuls in a bowl of water and soak for atleast half an hour (this stops them burning so quickly and therefore they smoke more)

Make a little bowl out of tinfoil roughly 6 inches in diameter and put the drained wood chips in this

Whack the bowl and chips directly on the coal and wait for the smoke to appear.

When smoking, put the food on the grill (on the other side to the coal) and put the lid on with the vent open a little.

Honestly, it's epic.

How long does it take? The sausages will be the last thing on.

Edited by tenohfive on Saturday 15th May 14:33

[tenohfive]

ruggles said:

Tip for the home made Coleslaw.

Use both Mayonaise and Salad cream mixed in. Try it, works a treat.

OH tried it with mayo and mustard. I'm not keen one coleslaw, but it was good.
And the potato salad she did had spring onions and mint in - that was lovely.

On the meat front, my personal favourite was the pork kebabs - diced up, covered in a glaze of honey, olive oil and ground dry chilli then popped on skewers with red onion and peppers. It was lovely, and I'm going to do some for dinner tomorrow (bought faaaar too much meat.)

The tandoori chicken IMO was just too sweet - it was the same recipe I use when slow cooking it (which comes out lovely) but on the BBQ it was just too much, even for someone with a sweet tooth. I might try it again but add something to take some of the sweetness out of it - maybe turmeric or cumin.