BBQ at our place Saturday 4th Feb 06

Last night we had a couple of friends over for a bbq. It was a beautiful Melbourne day & quite a mild night so we were able to sit outside in my courtyard which is nice & protected from the wind. I love being able to eat outside, surrounded by my garden which I have put a lot of work into, nice seeing all of the flowers in bloom & smelling their fresh scents. Us girls did wrap up in some blankets by about 11 though as it was getting quite chilly by then.

Onto the food, to start with we had some bruschette. I followed Jamie Oliver’s advice & after toasting the sour dough on the grill I first rubbed it with a clove of garlic, then drizzled olive oil & sprinkled a bit of salt. I then topped with a mixture of chopped tomatoes (deseeded), Spanish onion, basil, olive oil, white wine vinegar & salt & pepper. The garlic rubbed on gave quite an intense flavour which I loved & everyone commented on (positively too!).

For the barbie I did a few different things. I always find that I do way too much food as I’m never happy to settle for 1 meat or even 2 so this time I tried to keep the amount of each dish quite small. In the end every morsel was eaten even if some of it was by Mojo my adorable cat, so for the first time ever I judged pretty well, no leftovers for the next 3 days!

The grill consisted of some good old Coles snags so there was something plain for Jasmine who is only 3, some Spanish chorizo sausages for a bit of spice, some chicken thighs which I marinated in a mustard sauce from a bbq 6 pack of condiments I rec’d for xmas, & some lovely lamb kebabs I made up. The chicken was great & very tender, I used to do all my chicken with breast fillets until someone put me onto thighs, much more tender & they don’t have the same tendency to dry out that fillets do. And the lamb was just gorgeous & so easy to make, will make these again for sure. Congratulations & a big thanks to Michael for doing the bbq-ing too!

I served this with some bread for the snags, a salad of mixed lettuce, cherry tomatoes, cucumber, boccocini & an avocado dressing, tomato sauce for the boys, & some relish for the girls. What is it about boys & barbies that means that even though normally their tastes are quite open for a bbq they insist on the basics, oh well we all have our ways I guess. Dessert was the frozen meringue from the previous post

Made up the kebabs from a recipe in the ‘Women’s Weekly great bbq food’ book . I find this book pretty good for basic bbq ideas.

Lamb kebabs with baba ghanoush

1kg minced lamb
¼ cup coarsely chopped fresh flat leaf parsley
2 tablespoons coarsely chopped fresh coriander
1 egg yolk
2 teaspoons ground cumin
1 teaspoon garam masala
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 cloves garlic, crushed
200g prepared baba ghanoush

Combine mince, herbs & spices, egg yolk & garlic in a large bowl

Roll tablespoons of mixture into oval shapes, shape 2 pieces of mince mixture onto each skewer

Cook kebabs on heated oiled bbq until browned all over & cooked as desired

Serve with baba ghanoush

** If using bamboo skewers , soak for at least 1 hour in water before using to avoid scorching