BBQ Cocktail

Southern Comfort (the people behind last years yummy Southern Comfort, Lemonade and Lime) have done it again and unveiled a range of sunshine inspired BBQ cocktails. We rate these as 5 out 5, brilliant BBQ Summer Drinks and cannot recommend them enough!

Great Summer Drink

The back story; Southern Comfort teamed up with top cocktail mixologist Giles Looker to create a range of summer drinks with a twist of New Orleans inspiration.

We found these to be perfect for a spot of afternoon BBQ drinking and what is more, cocktails are always a great way to impress friends!

The first one we tried is the Louisiana Jam and here is the recipe and ingredients:

Louisiana Jam

• 35ml Southern Comfort
• 20ml lemon juice
• 20ml apple juice
• 2 teaspoons of apricot jam
• 8 mint leaves

METHOD / MIXING THEM UP

1. Place mint leaves into a clean, empty jam jar and gently muddle
2. Place remaining ingredients into the jam jar
3. Half fill with crushed ice, put the jam jar lid on and shake vigorously
4. Remove the lid and top up with crushed ice
5. Garnish with a lemon wedge and a sprig of mint

The second one is Mississippi Mule:

Mississippi Mule

• 35ml Southern Comfort
• Juice of 4 Lime Wedges
• Ginger Beer
• 3 dashes of Angostura Bitters

METHOD / MIXING THEM UP

1. Fill glass with ice
2. Pour in Southern Comfort
3. Squeeze the lime wedges into the glass and discard
4. Add the Angosura Bitter
5. Top with ginger beer
Garnish with Lime Wedges

And finally, the Bayou Fruit Cup:

Bayou Fruit Cup

• 30ml Southern Comfort
• 15ml Martini Rosso
• Ginger Beer
• 2 Lemon Wedges
• Seasonal Berries/fruit

METHOD / MIXING THEM UP

1. Fill glass with ice
2. Pour in Southern Comfort
3. Squeeze and drop the lemon wedges into the glass
4. Add the Martini Rosso
5. Add the berries/fruit
6. Top with Ginger Ale
7. Finish with some garnish

For more information visit www.southerncomfort.co.uk

Herb Crusted Lamb BBQ Recipe

Lamb is a big favourite of ours, we usually get a leg, rolled, with the bone removed from our local butcher in Huntley. Incidentally, his butchers shop has been around since the 1600’s, amazing! We roll it out, add the herb crust and then pop it in a big rack for cooking on the BBQ.

Here is the step by step guide to making Herb Crusted BBQ Lamb for 4 people

Ingredients:

1.8kg Boneless, Leg of Lamb
Pot of breadcrumbs or if making own, 6/7 slices of bread
1 good handful of Coriander - chopped
7 or 8 sprigs of chives - chopped
2 sprigs of rosemary - chopped
1 x tsp cayenne pepper
2 x Onions - finely chopped
2 Glugs of Dry White Wine

Step By Step Recipe guide to Herb Crusted BBQ Lamb
1. Make your breadcrumbs or pour your pot of breadcrumbs into a large glass mixing bowl
2. Add all the herbs and onions and mix
3. Pour in your wine and mix again
4. Unroll your lamb and place it into a roasting tin
5. Press the breadcrumb mix hard into the lamb
6. Turn the lamb over and repeat
7. Leave to stand (optional)
8. Place in the BBQ Basket, or if not using one, on the grill, on a medium heat
9. Turn every 15 mins and cook for about 1hr and 10mins, or until it is cooked to your liking
10. Tuck in!

BBQ Basket

Did you try this recipe? Let us know how you got on using the comments section below or send a picture of your own BBQ to hello@iLoveMyBBQ.com

Levi Roots BBQ Recipe

Levi Roots, the maker of the Reggae Reggae Sauce that took the fire out of the Dragon’s Den mouths has only gone and given iLoveMyBBQ.com a few of his favourite BBQ recipes.

Mr Roots currently has a new Ketchup out called, Levi Roots’ Brand New Reggae Reggae Tomato Ketchup. We recently had chance to try it and it is funkin awesome! It is a unique style of Caribbean ketchup mixed with some of those fiery hot Scotch Bonnet Chilli’s along with herbs and allspice.

The Reggae Reggae tomato ketchup is available from all good supermarkets.

Anywho, putting our love for the new Ketchup to one side for a minute, here are the recipes Levi Roots sent over:

BBQ Glazed Chicken with Reggae Reggae Tomato Ketchup
Serves 4
You will need:
2 Skinless Chicken Breasts
4 large Crusty Rolls
¼ Iceberg Lettuce - Shredded
2 tbsp Mayonnaise
1 squeezy bottle Levi Roots’ Reggae Reggae Tomato Ketchup
• Add 2 tbsp Reggae Reggae Tomato Ketchup sauce to the mayonnaise, mix well and refrigerate
• Add the rest of the sauce to a mixing bowl/ dish and add the chicken. Cover and refrigerate for 1 hour
• After 1 hour shake off the excess sauce and place the chicken on a greased barbecue, turning and basting throughout
• Once chicken is cooked thoroughly, approx 25 minutes, place on a board to rest
• Meanwhile slice the crusty rolls and top with the shredded lettuce and a dollop of the spicy mayonnaise
• Slice or tear the cooked chicken and place a generous portion on top of the lettuce & mayonnaise, replace the top and enjoy with a portion of French Fries
Tip: Take care to remove excess sauce before adding the chicken to the grill or it will burn but remember to baste throughout to ensure a moist sticky chicken breast.

Sabrage Champagne Sword

For those of you looking for a nifty BBQ trick, here is a special just for you. How to open a bottle of champagne or fizzy wine using a sword, or if you don’t have  a sword handy,  a kitchen knife! This is called Sabrage: The art of opening a bottle of champagne with a sword - it dates back to cavalry times!

A few safety tips first… Keep an eye on where the cork goes! You don’t want your pet, kid or elderly relative finding it and cutting themselves on the broken glass. Also, don’t try and hold the wine from the spout, it is sharp! And finally, only do this if you are a sensible adult… no really, this ain’t for kids to try on their own.

So let’s get started, for this you will need a bottle of champagne or fizzy wine (don’t worry, none gets wasted!), a willing volunteer and either a sword (not many people have these lying around any more) or a sturdy kitchen knife.

You will need to find the seam on the bottle of wine, as shown in the picture below.

Seam on Champagne

You need to then go outside, address your audience and carry out the following…

Slide the knife up the seam towards the cork to give you a guide on where you need to be aiming for. When you are confident that you have it sussed, give it a mighty slide up the seam towards the cork and strike the cork this time… hey presto, the top goes flying and you are a BBQ Party trick hero!

Here is a video of our friend Sophie trying it at a recent BBQ.

Bon-Fire BBQ

With National BBQ Week rapidly approaching I have been scouring the interweb looking for new Barbecue related products that are available online and came across what I firmly believe is the funkiest product of 2009.

The Bon-Fire (see above picture) not only looks funking groovy but is actually really practical as well. You can take the Bon-Fire BBQ with you anywhere and cook a variety of meals on it (not just grilling meat and veg) such as Paella and it even has the capability to make coffee on!

At the moment I can only find it available to buy online at Amazon, but this is fantastic news because they are an ultra safe and secure online retailer and it would be my preferred choice of online retailer anyway.

You basically buy the various parts of the Bon-Fire that you need. The essential bit is the Bon-Fire 175cm Tri-Pod Stand, which costs just £72.45.

Tripod for Bon-Fire BBQ

Next you need your Bon-Fire-BBQ-Black-Enamel-Pan that costs £42.00 and you pop your coals in. The Bon-Fire 60cm Grill Grid then sits on top and costs £28.50, and finally you need your Bon-Fire 60cm Chains at just £6.99, to fix it all together.

To add a bit more funyness, why not add the Bon-Fire Danish Cookware Enamel Coffee or Tea Pot that costs only £30.00 or the Bon-Fire 6lt Stew Pot (other sizes available) that costs £40.50.

The Bon-Fire range has been developed and designed by Danish Chef, Rene Stage. All of the equipment is easy to clean and transport as well as being wing and weather proof.

All in all, I love this range and would recommend it to anyone wanting to spruce up their BBQ style.

To see the entire range of Bon-Fire equipment available via Amazon, click here.

For more information about stockists call 01948 844871.

Anthony Worrall Thompson

Apologies to everyone who has heard this before but a friend of mine recently told me about this supposed fact (i reckon it is an urban legend, but who cares, it is funny).

Apparently when Anthony Worrall Thompson had a range of Pork BBQ sausages there was a mistake with the packaging design and underneath his pictures was written “Prick with a fork”… apparently it was the cooking instructions, but he is rumoured to have taken great offence.

Very funny indeed!

I have been trying to find a copy of the image using a search for Anthony Worral Thompson but found nothing… can anyone suggest anything?

The most common, and in my mind the best, meat that is cut into a butterfly is chicken.

For those who have never heard the term “butterfly” in relation to meat or BBQ recipes, it is when you slice the meat in half but still leave it joined in the centre so that when you fold it out and lay the meat flat it looks like a, you guessed it, Butterfly.

The reason people butterfly the various cuts of meat is because it makes the cooking process easier and ensures no one gets the dreaded BBQ bug. It also helps with the marinade process and make sure your marinade recipe works its way through the entire piece of meat.

When you first try to butterfly a piece of meat it can be a little tricky and even a bit daunting so I thought it would be handy to give you a step by step guide, supported with a little video.

The first thing to do is to find the sharpest knife you can. If you have a sharpener, use it on your chosen knife before you start.

Step one, lay your chicken breast down on the chopping board, if you are right handed, place the chicken breast so the straighter edge of the chicken breast is furthest away from the knife in your right hand.

Step two, place your left hand flat on the top of the chicken breast and hold it firmly.

Step three, take the knife and slice diagonally from the right to the left, pulling down as you go. Don’t worry if you don’t make it right to the left hand edge of the breast, just try and get half way through at least.

Step four, if you have not made it to the left hand side, open the flap of meat you have created and then use the knife to continue slicing, ideally in one fluid movement, until you can fold the meat out into two halves (remembering not to slice it entirely into two pieces) and it looks like a butterfly.

Hey presto you are done and you can now pop the chicken breast, or any other form of meat for that matter, into the marinade recipe you have created.

Below is a video that hopefully shows you how it should work.

How to Butterfly a Chicken Breast