This lovely weather means that we are currently enjoying our 3rd BBQ in as many days and we have one planned for every day over this Easter period.

Sometimes it is good to step away from the experimenting with various BBQ recipes and just go for a nice and simple BBQ dish. So last night we went for the ever brilliant BBQ recipe of “Grilled Sirloin Steaks”.

You see, nothing exciting, not even steakmarinaded in coca cola, just wacked in a basket and grilled for a few mins either side.

The secret to great BBQ steaks when cooking in a basket is to place them with fat side facing out of the basket. This way, once the meat itslef is cooked, you can place the basket on the side (see the picture) and then crisp up the fat.

A simple BBQ recipe but man, it tastes good. Hope you enjoy it… tonight we are going even more back to basics with a basket for of bangers and burgers. Pics to follow!

Have a great Easter BBQ fans and don’t forget to take pics of your own BBQ’s and send them in.

 

Popularity: 15% [?]

The BBQ weather has officially started. Gone are the days of hunting round a damp garden on Easter Sunday for chocolate eggs. Well, actually, you can still do the egg hunting bit, makes it more fun. This Easter something very weird and wonderful has come to our attention at I Love My BBQ.

Thanks to DivaQ (find them on Twitter @DivaQBBQ) the ultimate recipe of madness for the BBQ has come to light. Read on if you’re a bacon and eggs kinda guy (or gal).

“Bacon and eggs? On the BBQ? That’s madness!” one may cry. However, stick with it because we are not talking about your average morning fry up. As you know, we here at I Love My BBQ like both a challenge and the more ‘out there’ recipes.

Once the egg hunting has finished on Sunday morning around midday you may be thinking “Sod the traditional Sunday roast, there’s a BBQ to be had here” (due to the incredible April weather we have been having). If however, you are fresh out of burgers and sausages simply take some of your crème eggs you so lovingly hunted down, take a pack of bacon and start wrapping the eggs (much like pigs in blankets only these are… eggs in blankets!) in said bacon.

Then whack ‘em on a tray and pop it on the barbie. Once partially cooked, dispose of the tray and grill directly on your trusty BBQ. For full information and handy pictures check out the DivaQ blog http://bit.ly/f8EXu7 Thank you guys for an inspiring and downright mental idea. We’re sure to be trying it this weekend.

Popularity: 17% [?]

Sometimes you have a BBQ that is for more than just a few family members. For example we regularly cater for 7+ people and this can bring a few logistical headaches that over the year we have found ways of dealing with.

So, here are our Top 5 Sneaky BBQ Tips and Tricks

1. Bag Everything up to Save Space in Your Fridge

One of the biggest problems with big BBQ’s is fitting everything in the fridge. One of the easiest ways around this is to bag all your prepped BBQ foods up using a food bag. This can include your salads, meat marinading, potato salad etc.

You can then just pop them in their serving dishes when the time comes. Saves the hassle of balancing bowls on bowls in your fridge.

2. Get a job lot of the Weber Silver Drips Trays

These trays are a god send! You can use them for their intended use of collecting the juices from your BBQ’d meat (prevent the coals catching alight again) or you can use them as a serving tray, or even have them on your grill to store cooked foods and keep it all hot. (Amazon £9.00)

3. BBQ Kettle/BBQ Chimney Starter

These are great for those longer BBQ Recipes that need the coals to be topped up. Just place your new charcoal in one of these, light it and then 20 mins later you can pour the coals onto your BBQ. (Amazon £18.00)

4. Oven Glove/BBQ Mitt

Brilliant for quickly moving grills about or when you need to move coals about using a poker or alike. They allow you to get a bit closer to the BBQ… But watch out for the Chuck Norris Shave, i.e. when you get to close to the BBQ and you can feel your weekend stubble burning (Amazon £9.75)

5. Buy Bags of Ice!

You will be amazed at how quickly you go through so much ice at a larger BBQ! Supermarkets sell bags of ice for just £1.00 nowadays and it takes away a common headache!

Popularity: 5% [?]

Many people worry, well… not worry as such, it is just BBQ’ing… Many people get Tandoori Chicken and Chicken Tikka mixed up. Rather than get into a debate whereby I will be wrong and get a load of emails let me just start by explaining how I see the difference. It is in two parts, BBQ Chicken Tikka can be quite dry and spicy whereas BBQ Chicken Tandoori is moist, nice and not as spicy.

Traditionalists will point out that Tandoori is also a type of oven but hey, lets just stick to what we know.

Anyway, back to the BBQ Recipe for Tandoori Chicken.

Ingredients needed for BBQ Chicken Tandoori (to serve 5/6)

5 or 6 Chicken Breasts

200ml natural yogurt

Handful of chopped coriander to serve

2tsp garam masala

1 lemon, grate the rind and squeeze the juice

1/2tsp ground cumin

1.5inch ginger, grated

1/2tsp cayenne pepper

2tsp tomato puree

3 cloves garlic, crushed

Step by Step Guide to Making BBQ Tandoori Chicken

1. Get all of the ingrdients (apart from Chicken and Coriander) in a food processor and blend until smooth or place in mixing bowl and mix well. If blended, pour ingredients into mixing bowl

2. Cut your chicken breasts into chunks (3 per breast)

3. Mix the chicken breasts with the marinade and leave to marinade for at least 2 hours and preferably overnight

4. Once marinaded place each chink onto individual skewers

5. Cook normally on a medium to high BBQ for 5 or so mins (or until cooked) turning occasionally

6. Serve with a yogurt dip and coriander (natural yogurt, chopped cucumber, lemon, chopped de-seeded chilli, all mixed together)

Popularity: 6% [?]

One of the quickest and best BBQ side dishes and sauces that we have created is the Satay sauce. Traditionally served with chicken dishes we have made it work with everything from BBQ Pork Recipes right through to BBQ fish and shelfish recipes like prawns and tuna.

Whilst being a great side dish we have often smothered the BBQ Satay Recipe over diced pork fillet and then placed them on skewers for brilliant tasting kebabs.

Another brilliant BBQ Recipe from us to you

Ingredients for creating BBQ Satay Marinade (serves 6)

200ml of coconut milk

3 crushed garlic cloves

3 tsp of dark soy sauce

2tsp dark (fine) sugar

10 tbsp of crunchy peanut butter

Step by Step Guide to Making BBQ Satay Sauce

1. Place saucepan over low heat

2. Pour in the coconut milk

3. Add the peanut butter and everything else and mix well

4. Once smooth either place into a side dish ready to serve with your BBQ or smear over diced pork fillets and grill on a medium heat BBQ for around 15mins, turning occasionally. Remember to keep some of the BBQ Satay Sauce for serving

5. Serve the kebabs with some of the saved Satay Sauce

Popularity: 5% [?]

Side dishes are a really simple way to add something extra to your BBQ. One of our favourites is the Tzatziki (tsatziki). Most people buy these ready made from the supermarket but there is really no need as it is very simple to make.

So here you go, a step by step guide to making your own brilliant BBQ Side Dish, Tzatziki…

Tzatziki is best served with Lamb BBQ dishes…

Ingredients to Serve 4-6

1 Cucumber, peeled and roughly chopped into small-ish chunks

300ml Natural Greek Yoghurt, stirred well to make smooth

Pinch of salt

Pinch of pepper

7 Spring Onions finely chopped

3 cloves of garlic, crushed

Handful of mint leaves, chopped up

Step by Step Guide to Making Tzatziki BBQ Side Dish

1. Place all of the ingredients into a bowl and mix together well

2. Place in serving dish, cover, refridgerate

3. Done, it really is that simple!

Popularity: 1% [?]

We love Chinese flavoured BBQ Ribs. It all started with some pre-prepared Ribs from the local butcher that we loved so much he gave us his recipe (Butchers in Huntley, Deepest Darkest Gloucestershire – They don’t have a website or I would give them some link love).

So, we want to share the recipe and a step by step guide.

Ingredients For 4-6 people…

1.5kg of pork ribs, can be in chunks or seperated (go wild)

2cm piece of ginger, grated

6tbsp soy sauce (darker variety)

3 cloves of garlic, crushed

3tsp Chinese 5 spice powder

4tbsp brown sugar

Good glug of oil (not olive, go for sunflower)

Step By Step Guide

1. Mix all of the ingredients together in a bowl (apart from the meat)

2. Place the ribs in a food bag, or in a ceramic/glass dish

3. Pour the marinade over and coat the meat

4. Ideally leave over night to marinade or if you are pressed for time, a few hours should do it

5. Remove from marinade dish and place on medium to hot BBQ (we use baskets to cook ribs, makes the turning easier)

6. Keep turning until cooked (probably about 30 mins on medium heat BBQ) and spoon on surplus marinade as you go

7. Eat

Popularity: 4% [?]

So here we are again, the start of the BBQ season… well, it could be a few weeks early but judging by the sudden spike in traffic and BBQ recipe related questions coming in, some of you are already firing up your grills. Kudos!

Just a quick post to say “hi” as this is a family site, not a big corporate and as such I am keen to say thanks to everyone who has got in touch over the winter months with BBQ Recipe questions.

I will be trying out some of the recipe ideas sent in over the coming weeks and months.

What did we learn from the 2010 BBQ Season? Well, none of us were very keen on the venison BBQ Recipe that we grilled. The meat flavour was too strong and no amount of marinade was going to save it. I think everyone was in agreement that we won’t be trying that again.

We also discovered a great Chinese Chicken BBQ Recipe marinade that we will be detailing and trying again this year.

Probably the biggest continued BBQ success were the pizza’s. As our and our friends families grow it was important that we found kiddie friendly BBQ recipes and all the family can make the toppings for the BBQ Pizza’s.

What can you expect from iLoveMyBBQ.com this year?

Our neighbours had their first animals on their smallholding last year and have kindly given us a whole pig which has been butchered and I quite fancy cooking some of the belly pork on the BBQ. Should be a fun BBQ recipe.

We have also got to know a South African and they give the Australians a run for their money when it comes to grilling all forms of animal so I am excited to see what new meats we can try.

I am personally hoping that we can try some crocodile this year. We ordered some last year but the shop was a bit unreliable and the goods did not appear. Nightmare.

Anyway, enough from me. Remember though, if you have a fun BBQ Recipe idea or question, or want to share a tip or bonza piece of equipment, just get in touch,

Andy

Popularity: unranked [?]

The lovely people from Young’s brewery have been kind enough to share a great BBQ recipe with us that incorporates one of their range of Bitters.

The recipe is BBQ Spatchcocked Poussin and it not only tastes great but is also brilliantly easy to make. For those not familiar with how to spatchcock a chicken or poussin, we have done a handy spatchcock guide here.

To read more about Young’s range of bitters and where you can find your local supplier, visit their funky website.

Moving on, here is the recipe for BBQ Spatchcocked Poussin Recipe

Ingredients:
Serves 4

4 poussin (buy ready spatchcocked if preferred)

Marinade:
1 bottle Young’s Bitter
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp Dijon mustard
3 tbsp clear honey
1 tsp paprika
4 cloves garlic, crushed
2 tbsp finely chopped fresh ginger
2 star anise, crushed
½ tsp freshly ground black pepper

Sauce:
3 tbsp tomato ketchup
1 tsp soft brown sugar
1 tsp cornflour

To Prepare

place a poussin breast side down, on a board for raw meat use. Using poultry shears or strong kitchen scissors, cut along each side of the backbone and remove it. Either snip the wishbone with the shears, or push down on the wishbone to snap it. Snip of any excess bits of skin, the wing tips and any other ragged bits.

To keep them in shape insert wooden or short metal skewers through the bird, diagonally in a criss-cross shape. Place in a large glass or china dish.

For the marinade, pour the Young’s beer into a large jug, once it has settled, add the rest of the ingredients and whisk together. Pour half of the marinade over the poussin reserving the rest for the sauce. Cover and marinate in the refrigerator for at least 4 hours or overnight.

Bring the poussin out of the fridge 1 hour before cooking. Pour the marinade into a pan, boil rapidly until reduced to about 100ml, this will be used to baste the poussin while cooking.

To finish the sauce, strain the reserved marinade into a clean pan, add the tomato ketchup and sugar, bring to the boil. Blend the cornflour with a little water, stir into the sauce and simmer to thicken.

Prepare the barbecue, lightly oil the rack and place the poussin bone side down first. Grill for 5 minutes, turning every 3-4 minutes and brushing with the baste. Time to cook through will depend on size of the birds and intensity of the heat from the barbecue, should be approximately 15-20 minutes. Test by inserting the point of a small knife. Transfer to a serving platter.

Reheat the sauce before serving.

Have you tried this recipe? If so, why not share your thoughts below?

Popularity: unranked [?]

Anyone who BBQ’s will know the importance of the “dips and chips” at the start. Weak people go for crudités (a range of chopped veg for dipping in sauces) but real BBQ’ers have to go for some serious crisps and nothing does the job better than Kettle Chips.

For us Kettle Chips are the Number One BBQ Crisp brand and we cannot recommend them enough… but enough of our love!

There is exciting news on the Kettle Chips front as they have enhanced a number of their existing flavours; Sweet Chilli, Sour Cream & Onion and Smoky Barbecue and also announced the launch of Sweet Red Pepper Salsa flavour that hit the shelves in mid April.

To help mark the launch of the new flavour of Kettle Chips the company has also come up a with a few cracking recipes for BBQ dips and we have been lucky enough to been sent them.

The first is Tomato and Red Pepper Dip

Ingredients:
1 Red Pepper
2 Plum Tomatoes
1 Small Red Onion
1 Red Chilli
Small Bunch of Chives
Pinch of Salt & Milled Black Pepper

How to make the Tomato & Red Pepper Dip

Rough cut the red onion and place in blender. De-seed the red chilli, rough cut and place in blender. Blend together till fine.

De-seed the red peppers, rough cut and add to blender. Quarter the plum tomatoes and add to blender. Blend altogether keeping the peppers and tomatoes fairly chunky.

Place into a small bowl, season with salt and milled black pepper, place in refrigerator.

When ready to serve snip a quantity of the chives into the mix, blend together.

Place in serving dish , snip a few pieces of chive on top, serve with a bowl of Sweet Red Pepper Salsa Kettle Chips.

Sour Cream and Sweet Chilli Dip:

Ingredients:
375g Jar of Pepperdew Sweet Peppers
2 Plum Tomatoes
2 Red Chillies
200g Sour Cream
200g Creme Fraiche
Salt & Milled Black Pepper

How to Make the Sour Cream and Chilli Dip:
De-seed the red chillies, rough cut. Quarter the plum tomatoes.

Drain the Pepperdew Sweet Peppers. Place the peppers, chillies and tomato in a blender and blend till fine. Place in a bowl, add the sour cream and crème fraiche and fold in together.

Season with salt and milled black pepper. Place in refrigerator.

Serve with a bowl of Sweet Red Pepper Salsa Kettle Chips.

For more information visit www.kettlechips.co.uk

Popularity: unranked [?]