How very cool is this, a very nice man from a production company who work for the BBC got in touch today and asked what my top BBQ tips and tricks would be.

Crikey, to be put on the spot or what!?

BBQ Drinks Ahoy

Having now had chance to get over my brush with stardom I have took a bit of time out to draw up a list of my Top 10 BBQ (Barbecue) Tips and Tricks. So here we go;

1. Use a kettle style BBQ – they not only cook your chosen slab of meat more quickly, but they also deliver a better smoked flavour option when you use flavoured wood chips.

2. Use baskets to cook your food in, so you can turn them more easily and move on and off the heat hotspots more easily.

3. Always try and use your local farm shop or butcher for your meat – the supermarkets get enough of our money and the local butchers are much nicer cuts.

4. Chillax when cooking – BBQ’s are supposed to take an age to do properly and there is nothing wrong with taking your time.

5. Never use firelighters or chemicals to get your BBQ going – they make the food taste funny and can result in the loss of eyebrows

6. Use flavoured wood chips to make the food taste nicer and the smoke smell better

7. Get yourself a mini preparation table to sit alongside your BBQ where you can slice meat to make sure it is cooked

8. Always butterfly your chicken breasts – they cook alot quicker and remain moist and tender

9. Try new things, meat that would normally cause a diplomatic incident can be well disguised using a BBQ – for example, BBC Radio Gloucestershire want us to try squirrel (not sure if I am ready for that though)

10. Have a cold drink alongside you at all times!

Popularity: unranked [?]

Clim Tim's Birthday

The weekend just gone was Clim Tim’s Birthday (45) and he decided that given the nice weather we should begin Season 10 early and get BBQ’ing. Never one to miss a chance to BBQ we saddled up and headed on over for an away fixture.

The earliest we have ever done BBQ’ing before was April for Cairo’s birthday so to get our charcoal out this early was a real plus.

Given the early start and fluctuating temperature it was decided to take this old school BBQ style and so a nice plain and simple Sausage and Beef Burger was the choice of the day.

Clim Claire gave the ASDA Home Grocery Delivery a go given that their meat is supposed to have the best quality of all the supermarkets and so it was a good place to start.

We went for the recommended pork and apple speciality sausages from ASDA which cost just £2.28 for 6! Bargain ahoy….

Apologies but I cannot remember the name of burgers!

Cairo and I took along a few bottles of vino given there was going to be a big attendance as the extended Clim Tim’s family were coming. We went to our favourite wine place, Majestic Wines and brought along a South African White Wine called Boschendal Sauvignon Blanc which we first discovered at a friend’s wedding and is very nice indeed, and also a Majestic Rioja Crianza 2005 Berberana which I did not try but every said was great.

Back to grilling; given I had not used a BBQ forover a year and the last one was using a kettle BBQ rather than the open BBQ the Clims use I was a bit nervous but all came good. By the way, if you are deciding which BBQ to go for, go Kettle BBQ everytime, much more variety and quicker cooking times!

With a bit of careful rotation everything was cooked within 25 mins and everyone started making their own burgers using the ingredients Clim Claire had prepared.

All in all, a nice relaxed way to start BBQ Season 10. Game 1 was a success and so I am really looking forward to getting our kettle BBQ up and running and trying out some new BBQ recipes!

Wine for Game 1′s BBQ came from Majestic Wine

The BBQ recipe Sausages and BBQ recipe Burgers both came from The ASDA.

Popularity: 2% [?]

Rainbow Trout

Friday  night, start of the weekend… Gentlemen, start your griddles please!

Here we go then… Game four of Season 9 and we followed yesterday’s Seabass with 2 filleted Trout. Yum!

Did not do much different to the Seabass Recipe last night, just stuffed the trout full of citrus fruit, whacked it into the fish basket and put it on te grill.

20 mins later we chowed on down and had some salad with it. Weather permitting we will be BBQ’ing some more on Sunday as well.

Accompanying drinks were; Bierre D’Or and Montana Sauvignon Blanc.

If you are BBQ’ing this weekend, have fun!

Popularity: 100% [?]

We tried a new Barbecue drink at our last grilling session. Sounds really simple but tasted flipping great. Fizzy white wine with strawberry juice and strawberries.

The one down side is how we found the new drink. As I remember it a small food fight developed into strawberries being lobbed about and one ended up in Granny BS’s fizzy wine. Her being a fine wine aficionado she could not put such a tainted drink upon her delicate pallet and it was duly despatched to me to be hovered up.

I tried to fish the strawberry out but only succeeded in squeezing the juice into the wine and plopping he fruit back in the glass. I gave up and took a sip… it was really nice.

I passed it round the Barbecue attendees and everyone agreed it was the way forward. Two seconds later we all had one. Sitting there drinking fizzy strawberry wine whilst the red wine smoking BBQ woodchips gently wafted under my nose was BBQ Heaven and another reason why I Love My BBQ!

This has now developed into a regular BBQ drink. Here is how we did it again, squeeze some fresh strawberries into some fizzy wine and then plop the strawberry into the glass. Next step, drink and repeat the process until you cannot walk properly.

Popularity: 13% [?]

BBQ Drinks

One of the best parts of our Barbecue Wizardry is the drinking! BBQ’s present the perfect opportunity to test beers, wines and other alcoholic beverages that you would normally steer clear of. Ok, so maybe not Baileys, never any cause for that stuff.

Over the years we have tried pretty much every drink you can think of. Long before Magners came along we were pouring cider over ice and plopping bits of this and that into white wine to add to the flavour.

Probably the most consistently good drink has to be Pimms and Lemonade. We usually get through a good few jugs of this with most summer barbecues and it is a wonderful summer drink.

We usually mix ours one quarter Pimms to three quarters Lemonade. We add a bucket load of ice and them some mint, strawberries, slices of orange, lemon and apple. I think traditionally you are supposed to add mint, cucumber, tomato and that is it, we like the mix of other fruits though.

Give it a whirl, well worth a blast.

Popularity: 11% [?]