We have been making Garlic Bread on our BBQ now for years but I only realised this weekend that we don’t have our recipe on here, so here goes.

This Barbecue Recipe is for four people.

Ingredients:

1 x Baguette (ready baked)
3 x cloves of garlic (2 if you have a meeting the next day)
Handful of parsley, finely chopped
175g of butter (marge does not work so well with this recipe)
1 x deseeded, finely chopped red chilli (optional, for an extra kick)
Tin foil to wrap the baguette

Step by step recipe guide to making Garlic Bread on the BBQ:

1. Soften the bread (15secs in microwave should do the trick)
2. Add all the other ingredients to the butter and mix together well
3. Slice your baguette taking care not to cut all the way through
4. Use a butter knife to smear the butter between the slices, really go to town and use all the butter
5. Wrap the baguette in tin foil
6. Place onto a medium to hot grill and leave for 15 minutes - make sure the bread is hot throughout and the butter has melted
7. Tuck in!

This is a simple barbecue recipe we have been looking forward to trying out on the BBQ all winter. It has just the right amount of tang to become a real BBQ Recipe classic.

As ever, we start with the ingredients and then go through the step by step guide. Our ingredients are catering for 4 people.

1.25kg of boneless leg of Lamb

For the Marinate:
2 x 400g canned tomatoes
1 x onion, chopped
2 x cloves of garlic, finely sliced
2 tbsp paprika
2 tbsp Worcester sauce
1/2 tsp of Tabasco sauce
1 x stick of celery
4 tbsp brown sugar

Step By Step Guide to Making Sweet Tomato BBQ Lamb

1. Place all of your ingredients into a saucepan (apart from the Lamb), stir and bring to the boil
2. Leave to simmer on a low heat for 45 minutes
3. Leave to cool
4. Either in a blender, or by pressing with the back of a serving spoon, blend the sauce
5. Pour over the Lamb and leave to marinate ideally overnight, or for at least 1hr

Cook over a medium to hot grill for approx 1hr & 45mins to 2hrs.

Tuck in and enjoy…

NOTE: for recipes that need a longer cooking time like this you will need to top up your coals half way through to make sure they are keeping the meat at the right cooking temperature.

To make this more simple, you will need a Kettle Charcoal Starter. You can light your bag of charcoal in one of these about 10-15 mins before you need the charcoal and then just pour the hot and ready coal onto your BBQ.

The one thing that puts people off BBQ’ing so much is the thought “How do I clean and prepare my BBQ properly” and the reality is that this need not be hard work.

Let me take you though our own process here at iLoveMyBBQ.com.

At the end of every BBQ season we clean our Kettle Barbecue out, wrap and place the baskets that we use into the shed and then cover up the BBQ for the winter.

Come the spring when we are getting ready for our first BBQ (as we are having one tomorrow), I simply fire it up the day before, bang the grills together to get rid of any debris, and then once hot, unwrap all the cooking baskets and place them on the hot grill.

The temperature that the Barbecue reaches means that all the germs and dirt will largely be burnt off and hey presto you are ready to go.

We have never sat there and scrubbed our BBQ clean after using it, we simply bang the cooking baskets together to get rid of any dirt and then place them onto a really hot grill to get rid of any germs. This method has served us well for over 10 years and touch wood, not one instance of a dodgy tummy so far (famous last words!).

Happy Grilling People…

Why not share your own BBQ cleaning hints and tips comments below…

We have had some cracking BBQ recipe and BBQ tips and tricks sent in over the none BBQ season so I thought it would be a great idea to share them with everyone…

Thanks to everyone who sent in their suggestions:

S Whittington suggested this for a great BBQ Burger Recipe:
When making homemade burgers after you have added all the ingredients before making them into patties mix it all up with lots of tomato Sauce to hold them together,the taste is awesome!

Toniq suggested this for a great BBQ Pork Chops Recipe:
Be adventureous! Don’t forget to experiment! We often do Pork chops cubed with aubergine, courgette, pepper chuks, onions on soaked skewers, we alternate between, honey, mustard with cheese marinade to sweet chilli marinade!!! We accompany with some stuffed chiili pork rice peppers which are finished off on the barbie!

Natalie suggested the following Sweet potato BBQ Recipe idea:
Put some sweet potatoes wrapped in foil in the coals while you are cooking your meat - they go really well with ribs, steak and gammon and only take about 20 to 30 minutes.

Mr Crump suggested the following BBQ Cooking Tip for a great BBQ smell:
If you tie a bunch of herbs such as rosemary, sage, mint, on the outside of your BBQ as it warms up it gives off a lovely aroma.

Joolsy suggested a great Pork BBQ Recipe Tip:
Rub your pork with some garlic infused oil beforehand [ed - short and too the point!]

Bella had this brilliant Pork and Apple Stuffing Kebabs BBQ Recipe
The best way to have pork is to make pork and apple stuffing kebabs, just marinate the pork in 1/2pint of cider with 2tablespoons of honey for at least a hour {over night is better for flavour}make stuffing as per the pkt and leave to cool.
When ready for the bbq slice 4 apples and 4onions both cut into quarters {cut out core} and then roll stuffing in to balls, then arrange on a skewer {if using wooden ones the soak in water a hour before hand to stop it burning}.
Arrange pork apple stuffing and onion on the skewer{you can also add mushrooms or peppers} and then bbq for 15/20 mins turning often.
Theses are yummy yummy

Sarah suggested this nice sounding BBQ Pork Recipe idea:
I love marinating pork overnight in apple juice before bbq-ing - makes it sooo tender!

Ami had this tip for cooking BBQ Ribs
Never ever boil ribs first. Everyone always tells you that and effectively you’re making a broth, taking out all the flavour from the ribs!!
What you really want to do is sort of roast the meat. BBQ is a low heat method of roasting, and by dry roasting will concentrate the great flavors of the meat. Grill them slowly and lowly!

Kelly had this veggie BBQ Recipe idea:
I marinate Quorn with lemon, tandoori paste and yogurt and the BBQ and bbq a roti or Chapati, I do the same for my husband with chicken, it’s really tasty and much healthier than a takeaway.

We have had hundreds and hundreds of tips like these so please keep them coming and we will do another batch of BBQ recipe tips, tricks, recipes and BBQ advice shortly.

What are your thoughts? Why not post a comment below?

Well, how was your winter? We had a manic one, what with the new addition to the family but hey, the new BBQ 2010 Season is nearly upon us and I am sure you are just as excited as we are.

This year we are planning to really take the site to new heights, largely because of the unprecedented success of last year. During the peak BBQ months of July, Aug and Sept we got over 1 million people coming to the site looking for the latest BBQ Tips, BBQ Tools, BBQ Recipes and basically, some BBQ fun.

We have spent much of the close season finding new and exciting BBQ recipes and BBQ gadgets and even found some really funky new meat providers who do a wide range of exotic meats…. but more of that to come.

This year we want to hear more about what you are getting up to with your BBQ’s, what BBQ recipes are your favourites and what BBQ tools are your favourites.

There are a few ways you can get in touch, hello@iLoveMyBBQ.com or http://twitter.com/ilovemybbq (@iLoveMyBBQ)

So come on, let us know what you want to see and how we can make the site (that has become the UK’s largest Independent BBQ site - meaning we can say what we want and are not tied to promoting any company!) even better.

Now this may a bit basic for some of you more experience BBQ grillers but I found a really funky basic cookery course that I wanted to give a little plug to.

One of the things that has really helped me get to grips with some of the more tricky BBQ recipes is the fact that I did a basica catering course and trained for several months under a really awesome grill chef.

When thinking about how this site can help people I thought it would be a good idea to try and find some funky basic cooking courses, not necessarily about BBQ’ing, but some of the general things you should know about food prep and recipes etc.

My favourite, and the UK’s best gift experience site, IntoTheBlue.co.uk has a load of cooking courses worth trying out but the Cooking for Fun Course in Suffolk looks a real bargain and a great laugh.

Here is the write up from the site:

These Cooking for Fun courses take place in a renowned cookery school in Hadleigh, near the Essex border of Suffolk and you’ll be learning from the owner and chef, Mark David.

Mark David has exceptionally wide experience, including hotel and outside catering and corporate events. He spent three years as an Egon Ronay inspector and a further year as restaurant manager at Robert Carrier’s acclaimed Hintlesham Hall hotel. He now runs his own cookery school and is a regular author and broadcaster on all matters culinary. His light-hearted, unpretentious approach has earned the description of being a cross between Tommy Cooper and Geoff Capes - but of course with much greater cooking skills than both those two characters combined!

At just £149.00 it represents a reallygood day.

Well, what a year it has been, not only in terms of awareness of this blog and its phenomenal and unexpected growth but also personally for Cairo and I.

2009 was a massive year for us personally that included getting married in early 09 (about time!) and also having our first child, Mini-Barr towards the end of the year - hopefully this explains why iLoveMyBBQ.com went so quiet towards the end of the year!

In terms of this site 2009 was huge. During the peak BBQ months we struggled to cope with the amount of traffic, questions from BBQ fans and companies getting in touch to ask us to review their products. The site featured in several national newspapers and magazines (website of the day in The Times being a notable highlight) and we were asked to give our opinion on various new BBQ gadgets by a few TV and news shows! Wow…

The two things that really made us both really sit up and take notice were; one, the fact we were asked about potentially selling the site on two seperate occasions and two, when we ran a competition towards the end of the last BBQ season we had hundreds and hundreds of entries - more than we could have ever imagined!  This tells us we must be doing something right.

So, here we are in early 2010 (very early!) and we are planning new ideas and recipes and BBQ related gadget stories for the site. As ever, if you have any ideas or suggestions, please let us know.

Thanks for everyone’s support in 2009 and we look forward to an action packed 2010 of BBQ’ing.

Andy & Jilly (AKA Cairo)

Ok BBQ Fans, time to put away the Brolly, dust off the BBQ and get ready to start your grills as the lying weather people reckon this weekend could be a hot one.

What a horrid few weeks it has been, weather wise, we have had no BBQ’s at all and it has been killing me.

As an extra incentive to get your BBQ’s going the lovely people at the worlds best makers of BBQ equipment and sauces, Weber, have been in touch to give us a competition for you guys.

To celebrate the launch of Weber’s new range of BBQ sauces we’re giving away a BBQ-Tastic prize! Weber is offering one lucky reader the perfect BBQ kit, which includes a Weber Smokey Joe Gold BBQ, an essential BBQ tools kit as well as the entire range of Weber’s NEW BBQ sauces.

Here is what you need to do to Enter:

To be in for the chance of winning this superb Weber BBQ prize, just email your funniest BBQ related picture to hello@iLoveMyBBQ.com - closing date will be midnight on Monday 20th August 2009. You can enter as often as you like, but they have to be your pics and we reserve the right to use your pictures on the blog. This aint like Blue Peter and we won’t accept posted photo’s, and we won’t send them back if you do post any (probably cos the dog will eat them before we actually get to see them).

The Weber sauces are a great range for BBQ fans and with three NEW Weber BBQ Sauces in the range - there’s something for everyone, whatever your taste! Firstly, Weber ORIGINAL BBQ Sauce – an authentic BBQ sauce with a light, zesty flavour, it works perfectly as a marinade. Secondly, Weber HOT ‘N’ SPICY BBQ Sauce – not for the faint hearted, this hot sauce has depth to its flavour and is guaranteed to spice up any BBQ dish! And last but not least, the new Weber BBQ Relish – a hearty tomato based relish, the perfect accompaniment to a homemade burger! So after spending hours cooking on the fire, there’ll be no risk of spoiling your culinary genius with inferior condiments!

Weber BBQ sauces are available from Waitrose, Tesco and Asda supermarkets.

A quick note from the writers/owners of iLoveMyBBQ.com to thank the team at Weber for providing the prizes!

For full T&C’s email hello@iLoveMyBBQ.com

One of the best things about the BBQ season is that it kind of runs parallel to the Welsh Lamb Season, i.e. April through to October. We at iLoveMyBBQ.com are big fans of Welsh Lamb and would recommend that you go for this over any other kind of Lamb.

The lovely folks over at Welsh Lamb have been kind enough to send us a Step By Step Recipe Guide to Welsh Lamb Koftas, again, a big hit with the iLoveMyBBQ.com team. There is no better way to show off your BBQ skills than with this eastern themed dish of Wlesh Lamb Koftas. It is an easy but impressive dish that goes perfectly with a cool glass of beer and some warm pita bread and dip.

What you will need for 4 Large Welsh Lamb Koftas Recipe:

500g minced Welsh Lamb

1 large red chilli, finely chopped

2 large handfuls fresh mint and fresh coriander roughly chopped

1 small red onion finely chopped

Freshly milled sea salt and black pepper

1 egg

4 Skewers

Step by Step Guide to making Welsh Lamb Koftas BBQ Recipe

Welsh Lamb

Step One - Compabine all the ingredients in the bowl and season well

Step Two - Divide into 4 balls and squeeze each ball into a skewer to form a sausage shape

Step Three - Cover and rest in the fridge for 30 mins

Step Four - Fire up the BBQ and get it ready

Step Five - Cook for about 15 mins, turning every few minutes

Step Six - Tuck In!!!!

Have you tried the Welsh Lamb Kofta BBQ Recipe… if so, why not post a comment below or send your pics to hello@ilovemybbq.com

We were lucky enough to be sent a selection of Encona BBQ Sauces recently and also a few BBQ recipe ideas that we could try out and the first we went for was the BBQ Encona Hot and Fruit Chicken Kebab Skewer Recipe.

Ingredients needed for this BBQ Recipe Idea that serves 4:

For the Kebab -

6 chicken thighs, meat cut into 2.5cm pieces

2 red peppers cut into chunks

1 large sweet potato, peeled and boiled for 5 minutes cooled and cut into 2.5cm pieces

8 wooden skewers, soaked in water for 10 mins

5 tbsp Encona West Indian Papaya Hot Pepper Sauce

1 tbsp honey

1 tbsp coriander, chopped

For the fruity salsa -

Encona Sauces

1 mango, cut into small pieces

1 papaya, cut into small pieces

1/2 tbsp Encona West Indian Papaya Hot Pepper Sauce

1 tsp chopped fresh coriander

1/4 cucumber, peeled and finely chopped (not the core)

Step by Step Guide to Making the BBQ Encona Hot and Fruity Chicken Skewers

Step One - pre-heat the BBQ

Step Two - thread the chicken onto the wooden skewers alternatively with the sweet potato and the red peppers and place the kebabs on a tray or plate

Step Three - Mix the Encona West Indian Papaya Hot Pepper Sauce with the honey and coriander and brush all over the kebabs

Step Four - Cook on the barbecue for around 15 minutes, turning every so often and brushing with any remaining marinade

Step Five - Mix all the salsa ingredients into a small bowl and then serve with the kebabs

Encona has a range of 11 sauces including, West Indian Original Pepper Sauce, Indian Swet Mango Chilli Sauce, West Indian Smooth Papaya How Pepper Sauce, Thai Sweet Chilli Sauce, Louisiana Cajun Hot Sauce, Barbados Creole Pepper Sauce, Jamaican Jerk BBQ Sauce, Thai Chilli and Giner Sauce, Thai Chilli and Garlic Sauce, Texan Chilli BBQ Sauce and American Chilli Kethcup (loads!).

Encona Sauces are available from all good supermarkets and prices start at 99p and go up to £1.89, depending on the sauce you choose.

Have you tried Encona sauces, if so, why not post your thoughts below in the comments box?