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You are here: Home / PLAN / How to BBQ: barbecue tips

How to BBQ: barbecue tips

08/10/2018 By Gaby

How to BBQ: barbecue tips

How much do we love cooking on a barbecue? Taking your cooking outdoors is a great warm weather option: for ease of cleaning, to not having your house smell of that amazing marinade you made. Here Jen gives us her top tips on how to BBQ like a king.

Preparing your bbq

First of all, make sure your bbq is clean (see tips below) before you start. Once clean, heat the plate or bars and then put some oil on a rag or paper towel and generously rub the plate/bars with oil. If you have too much oil directly on the meat, it causes the oil to run into the fire, often causing the flame to flare up which smokes the meat and discolours it – which you don’t want. By rubbing the oil onto the plate or bars the meat doesn’t stick and you shouldn’t have any excess.

FYI: the meat will tend to stick to the BBQ if the plate is not hot enough.

Preparing the meat

Take any meat out of the refrigerator about one hour before you plan on cooking it. This is especially important when cooking steaks to medium-rare or less, as you don’t want the core temperature of the meat to still be at fridge temperature when cooking it quickly.

Season the meat with salt before you barbecue.

TIP: when cooking for large groups, sear the meat on both sides to get grill marks and then finish cooking the meat in the oven. Set your temperature to 160ºC/300ºF/Gas mark 2–3. 

Master some marinades

Marinades are a great way to bring some flavour and a tasty alternative to plain steak or sausages in your barbecue repertoire. Some great PlanBuyCook app marinades include: Easy Asian marinade which is good with pork or chicken, Indian chicken marinade, Mango chicken, Chicken yakitori, BBQ lamb with couscous, Greek pork skewers, Chicken skewers, Beef satay: heaps of great options. Remember to double any of these recipes and freeze half for a later time as they are fantastic for a quick meal. Remember to take the frozen marinated meat out of the freezer the day before to defrost in your refrigerator.

Marinades tend to burn faster than steak and sausages, so make sure you turn them quickly. Once they are sealed, turn down the temperature of your bbq to cook them through without burning them. Another option is to transfer them to the oven for finishing if you are nervous about burning or not cooking them well enough.

TIP: marinate meat when you come home from shopping and freeze if not using in the next few days. The meat marinates while freezing and again while defrosting, eliminating the 4–6 hour preparation time from most marinade recipes. 

Chargrilling vegetables

Use your bbq to chargrill vegetables such as eggplant, corn, capsicum, zucchini, mushrooms, cauliflower, broccoli and asparagus. Toss the vegetables in oil and salt before you barbecue and leave them for about 10 minutes before you start cooking them. Use the bars to get grill marks on the vegetables for a great look. See our blog on how to chargrill vegetables for more information.

Other great things to BBQ

Get more use out of your barbecue by cooking hamburgers, bacon, kofta, felafel, fish, haloumi cheese, tin sardines: the list is endless. It is a great way to keep your kitchen clean and take some of the smells outdoors.

Cleaning the bbq

It doesn’t matter whether you clean your bbq after you’ve finished cooking or before you start using it the next time, it is all personal preference. But clean it you must! To clean your barbecue, heat the bbq and use a good wire brush for the bars and a metal scraper for the plate to scrape off excess food scraps, marinade or residue. Once clean, pour on some water and allow it to evaporate. Turn the bbq and the gas off, then use a rag or paper towel to mop up any remaining residue, and rub generously with oil to stop it rusting between uses.

The PlanBuyCook meal planning app is available for iPhone and iPad here. It includes 130 great recipes that you can scale to match your household size, or easily double recipes for freezing.

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Double all freezable meals and freeze half for a fast meal a few weeks down the track.

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Chocolate Fudge

Prep: 5 mins
Cook: 60 mins
Makes: 16 small hearts
Ingredients:
125ml of sour cream
30ml of frangelico or brandy
300g of dark chocolate
4 eggs
50g of caster sugar
cocoa for dusting

Method:
Preheat the oven to 120ºC.
Whisk the eggs and sugar together in a heat-prof bowl over a saucepan of simmering water until the sugar dissolves.
Add the chopped chocolate, sour cream and frangelico or brandy, and mix until chocolate has melted.
Pour mixture into a 20cm x 20cm square cake tin lined with baking paper.
Place in oven and cook for 45 minutes. It should be a little wobbly in the centre when ready as it will continue to cook in its own heat.
Remove from oven and leave to cool completely.
Once cooled to room temperature, place in the freezer to make it easier to cut.
Using a cookie cutter (heart shaped if it is your heart’s desire) cut out the fudge.
Dust with cocoa and place on a serving plate or in a gift box.
Serve to all loved ones on Valentine’s Day or any day.
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RUSSIAN SALAD
Prep: 15 mins
Cook: 30 mins
Serves: 4

Ingredients:
400g / 2 large potatoes, peeled and cut into 3cm/1″ dice
4 carrots, peeled and cut into 3cm/1″ dice
4 eggs
1 cup of frozen peas, defrosted
100g of gherkins, sliced or diced
2 tbsp of natural/plain yoghurt
2 tbsp of mayonnaise
4 sprigs of flat leaf parsley, washed and picked
½ cup of frozen edamame beans (soybeans), peeled and defrosted
salt
white pepper

Method:
Place the potatoes and carrots in saucepans, bring to the boil and cook until tender. Drain and set aside to cool.
Bring another saucepan to the boil, and place the eggs gently in and cook for 8 minutes. Drain and refresh under old water and peel while still warm. Chop or slice the eggs.
Combine the yoghurt and mayonnaise and set aside.
Once the potatoes and carrots have cooled completely, combine them in a bowl with the eggs, peas, gherkins, parsley and edamame. Stir through the mayonnaise mixture, adjust seasoning and serve.

TIP:
This salad is a meal in itself. Just add some leafy greens to go with it.
  • Not all muffins need to be sweet. If you are looking for a great lunchbox filler that also ticks the vegetable box, how about trying these out? A perfect alternative to always offering sweet treats for after school snacks. Another great savoury muffin combination is potato, rosemary, caramelised onions and feta. Recipe below.
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SAVOURY MUFFINS
Prep: 10 mins
Cook: 1 hour
Makes: 18 muffins
Ingredients
1 sweet potato, diced (or any leftover roast vegetables:, including zucchini, pumpkin, carrots etc.)
½ onion or 1 eschalot, finely diced
olive oil spray
2 cups of self-raising flour
2 pinches of salt (iodised)
2 eggs
1 cup of milk
30ml of olive oil
100g feta, crumbled
½ cup of baby spinach
Method
Preheat the oven to 180˚C fan forced.
Line an oven tray with baking paper. Mix together the vegetables and the onion or eschalot and pile on the baking tray. Spray vegetables with olive oil.
Bake vegetables for 35–40 minutes.
Line muffin trays with paper cases (patty pans).
In the meantime, place the flour and salt in a large bowl. Make a well in the centre and then add the eggs, milk and oil and fold through lightly.
Add the roasted vegetables, feta and baby spinach to the flour mix and combine gently.
Spoon mixture into the paper cases.
Cook for 15–20 minutes until springy to touch.
Leave to cool before serving or freezing.
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APPLE SLICE
Prep: 10 mins
Cook: 45 mins
Makes: about 25–30 squares

Ingredients:
3 eggs
1 cup of caster sugar
90g of unsalted butter, melted
4 apples (use whichever variety you have in the fruit bowl)
1 tsp of vanilla essence
1 tbsp of caster sugar (additional)
1½ cups of self raising flour
icing sugar mixture for dusting

Method:
Preheat the oven to 180ºC (160ºC fan forced).
Grease or line an 18 x 28 cm baking tin or equivalent.
Mix the eggs, sugar and melted butter together in a bowl.
Grate the apples (leaving the skin on) and add vanilla and extra caster sugar to the apples and set aside.
Add the flour into the egg mix and stir with a fork to make a runny batter.
Pour two thirds of the batter into the baking tin to cover the base.
Spread apple mix evenly over the batter in the baking tin, then top with remaining batter. Don’t worry if it doesn’t entirely cover the apple mixture, it spreads when cooking.
Place tray in the oven and bake for 35–40 minutes.
Remove from the oven, allow to cool then sprinkle with icing sugar mixture.
Cut into smaller squares and freeze any leftovers for lunchboxes.

TIP:
If using Granny Smith apples or particularly juicy apples, you may want to squeeze the grated apple mix before spreading over the batter. There will appear to be too much grated apple, but use it all as it cooks down. Remember you don’t need much batter of the top as it does spread.
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2 x 170g cans passionfruit pulp in syrup
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1. Combine the entire contents of the cans of passionfruit pulp with the coconut water and mix well. Strain through a sieve to remove the seeds (but push through any pulp).
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