Barbecue - ideas please

[gemmieporklegs]

we are having a barbie at the weekend for dh and my joint birthday celebration.

We have had smaller barbecues (ie. 10 people or thereabouts) but we appear to be expecting 35 on saturday. Obviously i will need a ton of burgers/sausages but i'm also looking for ideas of other things I could prepare either in the oven, or salady things i could make in advance to get more food out quicker.

I would be grateful for any ideas

make some pasta salads which are cost effective and you can make in advance.

cook pasta
stir in large jar of whatever pasta sauce
chop a block of feta in stir in
fresh basil leaves
green and black olives

cook rice
stir in roasted veg
stir in pesto

chop cucumber, onion and mint
stir in natural yoghurt

easy and cheaty

also if you have loads left you can eat for days afterwards.

oh and a tin on chickpeas in the yoghurt one!

I am sorted for rice salad (my aunt is famous for hers and will provide on the day)

Good ideas for pasta salad thanks

Do some big trays of roasted mini potatoes (just cut them up smaller than usual) with whole cloves of garlic and chopped onions.

Lots of nice crusty bread/baguettes and pitta bread

Bowls of olives, cherry tomatoes, humous, taramasalata, tzatziki

A cheese board

You could do something more interesting than burgers and sausages, like chicken peices, chicken wings, spare ribs, chops, skewers etc if you want to (but burgers and sausages fine too )

Nice greek salad would be good

THings like carrot, cucumber, pepper crudietes

Anything nibbly, in fact, that people can start eating while the meat id cooking to fill themselves up with.

Warm potato salad is always a good one. I make two:

• one with spring onions, chives and a lemon, wholegrain mustard, garlic and olive oil dressing
• one with capers, dill, red onion and an English mustard and mayo dressing.

You can do both baked potatoes and baked sweet potaotes in the oven.

I often make a couscous salad with toms, spring onions, peppers, parsley, basil and lemon juice & zest and tabasco.

I also make a yummy butter bean salad with red onion, feta, wilted spinach, parsley, capers, toms and olive oil.

I often do sweet corn on bbq as well but you could just as easily do it in over. Wrap corn in foil and dot with butter and chilli.

some tabouleh would be nice

I like couscous salad too, with chunks of roasted butternut squash, cherry tomatoes, chickpeas, red pepper, raisins and a nice dressing with a pinch of cinnamon and some honey

mmmmm sunshinemummy, love your butterbean salad!

your potato salads sound yum sunshine!

i thought of doing corn cobettes. i'm also going to try baked banas with chocolate buttons stuffed in them.

I have a few veggies coming so am glad of a few veggie ideas.

The meateys will be having some sort of marinaded chicken - probably nandos and BBQ. As a meat refuser myself I'm not really au fait with meat products. i usually just buy whatever big packs they have in the supermarket. How do I do ribs, do I need to coat them with anything?

Baked pineapple with chilli and lime juice is also yummy. Really good with coconut ice cream if you can get it.

Oh and the butter bean salad goes really well with lamb. I like to make a rub from anchovy, garlic and rosermary for lamb.

Also it's really easy to make your own bbg sauce - tom ketchup, soy, honey, Worcester auce.

Also make veggie kebabs with mushroom, pepper, onion and toms. I like to sprinkle some paprika and olive oil over these.

ok. Now I'm trying to construct my shopping list. How much food do I need? I have 35 confirmed guests (9 are children, 3 are veggie)

lots!

What are you cooking?

The more different things you have the less of each you need. If we're doing a bbq for 2 adults + 1 child we'd have about 1kg of ribs (more is better), asaparagus/courgette/sweetcorn, potato salad, and 500g sausage.

Re cooking ribs - What kind of bbq do you have? Is it gas or coal? Ideally ribs should be cooked (smoked) over indirect heat (not over the coals) for 30-45 minutes with soaked woodchips added to the coals to provide extra smoke. TBH, you can just stick the ribs in bbq sauce 24 hours before cooking (bbq fiends may prefer a rub, not sure myself). Please get good meat; spare ribs are fattier than baby back and are therefore tastier.

You can also do beer can chicken (whole chicken), which will cook in about 35 minutes

Ok. I am doing some marinaded chicken strips, some seasoned, some nandos Hot

I am doing (nice) burgers, sausages, some cheatey ready prepared king prawn kebabs.

I will investigate the ribs when i go shopping this aft.

i am doing veggie burgers and veggie hotdogs.

I will also be preparing corn cobettes and baked potatoes in the oven.

i am putting out some dips and bits, some pitta bread, sunshinemummy's warm potato salads, a big dish of homemade coleslaw and some rice salad.

I have a big coal BBQ. It has an adjustable grill over the coals annd also an adjustable grill shelf above. Luckily we kept our old smaller BBQ when we upgraded, so i can cook the veggie stuff seperately.

About how much meat per person, do you think?

You should also make a chilli and a curry and have it on the hob for people to help themselves to. Maybe with tortilla chips , soured cream and naan breads?

One of the things that is always super popular ime is baked new potatoes - just get a bag (or bags) of the smallish ones,tip on a baking tray, drizzle with a tiny amount of oil, sprinkle generously with salt, and bake on high for 45 minutes.

Absolutely gorgeous with a bit of garlic mayo or just about anything

I often do a chili for a big party - I will do one if I have time, thanks

I would skip the burgers, it's hard to get nice ones from the supermarket. Sausages are more versatile, you can put them in a hot dog or have them unadorned.

What are chicken strips? Chicken on the bone is generally cheaper. I like thighs personally, high fat content. If you want boneless meat, I would avoid breast, it's too dry. You could try making satay, this is made from chicken thigh meat, marinated over night, and threaded onto bamboo skewers before cooking.

Corn will benefit from being bbqed, if you can. Here's a recipe for Indonesian-style jagung bakar:

2 ounces butter
3 garlic cloves, mashed
2 tablespoons Indonesian chili sauce
1 tbsp tomato ketchup
1 tsp salt
1 tsp stock powder

soften butter, mix the ingredients and slather over the corn, then grill.

(note, Indonesian chili sauce looks like ketchup, but is made from chili, it's different from the Thai sweet chili sauce (not so sweet). You could just use the ketchup and some Tabasco)

You could possibly reckon on three portions of meat per person? So 1/2 a rack of ribs, a sausage and a piece of chicken. Or some variation on that. But if you have enough other stuff I guess two would be ok.

I have tabasco, some guy the marinade sounds delish.

I have bought enough meat for 100 portions IYSWIM, so enough for 3-4 per person. I bought Tesco Finest burgers (half price this week). they look fine to me but i won't be eating them anyway!

I have bought copious chicken legs and will do some spicy. some bbq and some plain. i also bought an x large disposable BBQ to give me more cooking options, hopefully the corn could go in to finish off on the barbie

Yum your potato salads sound great!

I make one with creme fraiche, dill and gerkins and spring onions.

Also a sticky one with honey, grainy mustard, slices of sausages (pan fried to give lovely caramelised edges) and warm potatoes so the honey melts.

Get most of mine from www.britishpotatoes.co.uk/potato-salads-2/

Did a salad with roasted strips of courgettte and aubergine, lots of oil, fresh basil and toasted pine nuts - looks amazing served on a big flat platter!