BBQ Guide for Novices - Top Tips Needed

[Earlybird]

OK ladies, educate me! It's summer, and I love to eat food cooked outside, but have never done it myself. I'm thinking of buying a little BBQ grill, but think I could do with a bit of guidance first.

What are good types of grills? Are disposable ones any good? Do you use charcoal? How do I get the coals to catch? When do I know they're ready to start cooking on? What meats/fish are good to grill? What about vegetables? Do I need to coat them (or the grill) in anything? Any good marinade tips? How do I know when they're done cooking? Do I need to get a pair of tongs? Is there anything that needs to be done to maintain a grill? Cleaning tips? Anything else?

Let's make this the definitive Mumsnet guide to outside summer cooking!

My favourite topic, I'm South African and everything is BBQed if the sun is out! We make a whole event out of it, inviting guests around, crack open the wine and then light the fire. The drinking, chatting and socialising is all part of the afternoon’s fun. The instant BBQ’s are self lighting (ie put a match on the top and they light but take the cardboard off the outside!!) Good for quick lunches, ready in 10-15 mins to cook on and last long enough to do a small meal. I recommend Briquettes (compacted bricks, they burn for longer and retain heat) on a normal BBQ. Pile them up in a small pyramid and put about 6 firelighters (the white things soaked in special fuel) into the pile. Light the firelighters and sit back for about 30 mins to let it get going. (fan it with a tray or newspaper if it doesn’t take, the smoke dies down after a few mins) A fire is ready to cook on after the flames die down or you get cremated food. You can spread the coals a bit but not too much or you lose heat. You should see grey coals and you can hold your hand above the coals (5-10 cm) for the count of 5 without burning. Get some tongs so you don’t burn yourself. I don’t believe in hamburger patties or sausages (I think its sacrilege!!)

Chicken is good but can burn before cooked through. Blend up (with a Braun hand blender or like) olive oil, balsamic vinegar, fresh herbs a bit of tomato sauce (really just about anything) and pour it over and leave overnight on preferably thighs and breast meat with skin on. Pre cook in the microwave on a 70% for 10 mins before and then put them onto the fire. The marinade will burn so don’t pour this over the fire. Make sure they don’t get engulfed in flames and they should need about 20 mins (chicken takes longer) The easy stuff: Lamb chops are great, you can put rosemary and Aromat onto them and just put them on, they are good after about 10 mins (when you can’t see any red meat anymore and some of the fat starts to go crispy) the great thing about Lamb chops is they taste great over or under done. Steak (rump with a bit of fat on it) should go on afterwards, turn it twice and I find its better a bit more rare than well done.

If you get stuck, invite a South African to join you and let them show you how to do it!

Veg: I put potatoes in foil and put them into the coals for great jacket potatoes, you can put some butter, garlic and parsley with them. Red onions also taste great done this way. Otherwise kebab skewers with chunks of green/red/yellow pepper, mushroom, onion and a chunk of chicken or lamb can be grilled on the fire.

I forgot the cleaning: Make sure you either leave the barbeque grill coals to die out overnight in a safe place where it won’t get tripped over or pour a jug of cold water over it. (watch out for steam!) Don’t think that no flame means no heat! You can still get a serious burn from the coals many hours later. Clean the metal grill on the top just before cooking with a wire brush or if you want to cheat, light the fire and let the flames burn off the residue, get half an onion and use that to scrape the grill.

Disposable bbqs make the food taste bad and are so bloody joyless.
The real thing-always.
Make a little pyre-paper,wood bits then charcoal.
Yes,no flames whatsoever,only glowing coals.

Apologies to SM but wouldn't faff precooking stuff.What is the bloody point?

Kebabs are always good.
Basic marinade of oil,lemon or lime juice,garlic,chilli.

Add mustard,soy sauce,honey,herbs,spices depending on meet.

Tongs are essential.

Do't try and cook too many diff. things. Two kinds of meaty things are plenty.

Stay away from commercial burgers and sausages.
Nowt but ears and arseholes.

If you have marinade left and want to serve it with the meat,boil it up for 2-3mins, then put it on.
Kills all raw meat bugs.

moondog re: pre-cooking, the point is preventing food poisoning and/or incineration of eg chicken

Never had a prob. with either Bundle.

Disagree with moony on disposable BBQ's. Always handy to have if there are any veggetarian diners. Fish is good - whole fish like mackerel or trout - you need \link{http://www.lakelandlimited.co.uk/product.aspx/summer/barbecues!7216\a basket something like this one}
Also, salmon steaks marinaded are good. So are prawns, veggie kebabs. Try whole cloves of garlic (unpeeled) on kebabs - heaven!

My Korean BIL bbqs mussels.
They taste amazing

gingerbear got a similar one of those in morrisons at weekend for £2.99

(did asparagus in it)

Whole sardines (easiest to do in one of those racks that gb linked to) with a bit of lime mmmm

Great advice from saffymum!!!

(Do you want to come to a BBQ at mine? )

exactly Bundle. Lakeland basket expensive, Divertimenti even more so (£15!)

Saffymum - thanks for the crash course. My mouth is watering! Maybe you should do a special Mumsnet demonstration!

Anyone know if ears of corn are good grilled, or is it better to boil on the cob?

COTC perfect for BBQ

Hi Saffymum - from one "sowf efrican" to another !

Another great old thing we used to do in SA for BBQ dessert -
take a banana and peel back just one strip of the skin -
with a teaspoon, hollow out a little groove in the banana and then fill with little blocks of chocolate (and/or marshmallow)
fold the banana skin back into place and wrap the whole thing in tinfoil

• push them into the dying coals of post BBQ fire and leave until banana is mushy and chocolate is all squishy and melted -

the kids will love to get involved with this -

I imagine there were lots of bbqs yesterday evening. It was the perfect weather for it here in the southeast.