My neighbours a couple of houses away are obsessed with barbecues. On every half-decent summer night (and I mean HALF-decent, mostly not warm enough for you or me to sit outside, or far too windy to light up) the smell of lighter fluid smoke followed by something more appetising wafts from their direction stronger and stronger. I must say I envy their stamina because for me a barbecue is a whole enterprise and I find it more time- and work-consuming than cooking in the kitchen. Being somewhat obsessive (I can hear my near and dear chortling at the ‘somewhat’ while reading this), I like to organise it well both in terms of labour and nutrition instead of slapping supermarket sausages on the grill with only ketchup on the side.
You have to have good sides, salads preferably, to balance the fat dripping from the sausages and chicken wings (yum!). So for instance this cabbage salad does the trick fantastically well. For something different, try the leek slaw with your burgers, you’ll be impressed, I promise.
You need good bread – what’s better and easier than pita? It can even serve as a housing for burgers or bulgogi cooked on the barbecue. And if you want something flashier, try the seeded brown dinner rolls.
Fish on a barbecue? And why not - but I don’t quite trust delicate fish to the open flame so I’d suggest wrapping it in foil. The salmon with blue cheese parcel recipe is for oven but it will work beautifully on a barbie. Now if you insist on whacking the whole fish onto the grill in a manly fashion, here’s grilled trout with oriental flavours.
At the end of the BBQ session when everyone is stuffed but craves a dessert, put a few figs with blue cheese over the calmed down embers. Happy grilling!