Sunday Night is Barbie Night

The last few weeks have seen us firing up the barbie for Sunday dinner.  Hubby is quite happy to be served sausages and Chicken with Chorizo and Mozzarella but for me variety is the spice of life, so I try to make one new recipe every week.  Due to ill health my cooking adventures suffered a little bit of a set back last week so I attempted to make up for it with last weeks barbie, trying a couple of new recipes.  I am pleased to say they were very successful and will become regular features of our future barbecues!

Mozzarella and Basil Bread

150g butter , really soft
2 x 125g balls mozzarella , cut into little dice
2 garlic cloves , crushed
A small handful basil , chopped
2 baguettes
 
Mix the butter, mozzarella, garlic and basil and season well. Cut diagonal slices into, but not all the way through, the bread. Put a bit of cheesy butter in each slit, double wrap in foil and BBQ until the bread is golden and crisp and cheese melted.
 

 
You could also do this in a 220C/fan 200C/gas 7 oven for 25 minutes if you have no space on the BBQ.
 
Serves 8
Good Food Mag Website
 
Next time I think I'll add all the ingredients to the bowl of a food processor and blitz for a few seconds.  The lumpy bumpy nature of the chopped mozzarella made it difficult to spread, and this meant the foil stuck to the melted mozzarella, making unwrapping it a bit tricky!
 
Smokey Sweet Potato Wedges
 

 
4 large sweet potatoes , skin on, cut into long wedges
olive oil
2-3 tsp salt flakes
3 tsp smoked paprika
 
Heat the oven to 200C/fan 180C/gas 6. Toss the wedges in olive oil and arrange on a baking tray. Cook for 30 minutes until tender.
 
Mix the salt and paprika and sprinkle over to serve.
 
Serves 6
Good Food Mag Website
 
Sweetcorn with Smoked Paprika Butter
 

 
6 sweetcorn cobs
175g butter , softened
1 heaped tsp smoked paprika
lemon wedges, to serve
 
Pull any thick outer leaves off the corn cobs, fold back the rest of the leaves and pull out the silky threads. Mix together the butter and smoked paprika and smear onto the sweetcorn. Sprinkle with sea salt, fold the leaves back over and wrap well in foil. Barbecue for about 20 minutes until tender. Open it carefully so you don't spill any buttery juices. Serve with lemon wedges.
 

 
Serves 6
Good Food Mag Website
 
* Try to get your sweetcorn with the leaves still attached, otherwise use an extra sheet of foil when barbecuing.  (I couldn't find any sweetcorn with the leaves on last weekend, this week all I've spotted in the shops is sweetcorn still in their husks!)
 

I've reproduced the recipes here in their original quantities, for just the two of us though we cut down on the amounts (least we end up like the sides of houses)!

No barbie is complete without ...

... 3 of my no-fail-prepare-ahead-BBQ-must-haves!

Being an Aussie I guess there is a certain affinity between myself and my beloved barbie.  When I visited the Webber stand at the Taste of Edinburgh early last month, they laughed when they found out I use my Webber even when there is snow on the ground!  Can't understand why, food cooked on the barbie tastes great no matter what the weather does ... and I guess living in the UK for the last 9 years has changed my perception of 'the perfect weather for a barbecue' too!

With 'summer' drawing to a close there is no better time to share some of our favourite BBQ 'condiments'.

BBQ Sauce
1 tbsp olive oil
1 onion, finely chopped
400g can chopped tomatoes
3 garlic cloves, finely chopped
85g/3 oz brown sugar
3 tbsp malt vingar
2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1 tbsp tomato puree


Heat oil in a saucepan and add the onion. Cook over a gentle heat 4-5 mins, until softened. Add remaining ingredients, season and mix. Bring to the boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 20-30 mins until thickened. For a smooth sauce simply whiz the mixture in a food processor or with a hand blender for a few seconds.


Makes 450ml


Once you've got the basic sauce it can be used to spice up anything from ribs to burgers and beans;
Spicy Spare Ribs
Put 12 pork spare ribs in a large plastic bag and tip in one quarter of the BBQ sauce. Seal the bag and shake to coat the ribs in the sauce. Leave in the fridge overnight, then allow to come to room temp before BBQ’ing the next day.
Tangy Turkey Burgers
Add a chopped onion and a few tbsp of BBQ sauce to 450g turkey mince and shape into 4 large or 8 small burgers. Cook on the BBQ or under the grill, then serve in buns with sliced tomatoes and salad leaves.
Spiced up Beans
Stir a few tbsp of the BBQ sauce into your baked beans and serve with sausages and a fluffy jacket potato.


* Sauce keeps in fridge for 2 weeks

If you only make one of these recipes please let it be this one.  Even non Jack drinkers fall in love with it!


Bourbon-Basting Sauce
1 small onion, chopped
Oil for frying
200ml bourbon whiskey (Jack Daniel’s or Wild Turkey)
100g dark soft brown sugar
100ml tomato ketchup
2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
2 tsp Dijon mustard
16 pork spare ribs, about 2kg (although we use this sauce on everything but ribs!  Try chicken or even large field mushrooms, but our preferred way is on sausages)

Cook the onion in 2 tbsp oil in a large pan until very soft, about 10 mins. Add the remaining ingredients (except the pork) and bring to the boil. Simmer for 5 mins, until the alcohol has evaporated. Put in a food processor and whiz until smooth. Set aside half the sauce.

Bourbon Basted Bangers

Season the ribs. BBQ over medium-hot coals for 10 mins each side. If the ribs have a reasonable amount of fat, push the coals to the side of the BBQ as the dripping fat will cause flaming. The ribs may take longer to cook if you do this as the heat is indirect. Brush the ribs with some of the sauce then turn and BBQ for 5 mins, repeat about 3-4 times until the ribs are tender and cooked through, with a sticky coating. Serve with the reserved sauce.

Serves 4
Olive, June 07

BBQ’d Corn with Coriander and Chilli Butter
120g unsalted butter, softened

2 small red chillies, seeds removed, finely chopped

2 garlic cloves, crushed

2 tbsp chopped coriander

4 corn cobs

Olive oil, to brush

Mix together the butter, chilli, garlic and coriander.  Cook corn in boiling salted water, until just tender.  Cool slightly, then cut cobs into pieces.  Brush with oil and BBQ until lightly charred.  Heat butter mixture in a pan on the side of the BBQ until melted.  Place corn on a platter, pour over butter and serve.

Serves 4

Delicious, Oct 11

My last piece of advice, what ever you do, don't forget the Hot Chilli Sauce and plenty of ice cold drinks.

Chicken and Sweetcorn Soup

This blog little blog of mine started life due to my baking adventures, a place to inspire me, encourage me and show me how much I have developed. It also started life as a single place for me to keep all my recipes to hand, no more scraps of paper or magazine clippings or the copious amount of notebooks that are scattered throughout our home and drive my Husband bonkers. I enjoy the baking part more than I enjoy the 'gown-up' or 'have to eat to survive' type of cooking. I like my food, no secret there, so I try new recipes for dinner time each week but if I could survive on cake and ice cream and brownies alone then I would eat them morning, noon and night ... and I'd be a size 8 model with it!

To cut to the chase, I've been hording my 'dinner time' recipes (those would be the boring grown up, eating to survive type recipes I mentioned before!) in favour of posting the fun stuff and now I have a backlog! I guess I'm asking for your perseverance over the next few posts ;0)

Chicken and Sweetcorn Soup

1 egg white

1 tsp sesame oil

1.2 litres (2 pints) chicken stock

275g canned or frozen sweetcorn

1 tbsp soy sauce

2 tsp fresh root ginger, grated

1 tsp cornflour, mixed with 2 tsp water

225g cooked chicken, shredded

4 spring onions, chopped - optional

Freshly ground black pepper

Beat the egg white and sesame oil together and leave to one side.

Add the stock, soy sauce and ginger in a medium sized saucepan and bring to the boil. Add the sweetcorn and simmer for 5 mins. Add the cornflour paste.

Lower to a simmer and add the chicken.

Slowly pour the egg white and sesame oil mixture, stirring constantly.

Sprinkle the spring onions over the top if using.

Serves 4

Adapted from WW Deeply Delicious

Hubby and I enjoy this soup quite often. Its one of our favourites as it doesn't take long to whip up and the ingredients are generally always to hand.