PHEW! PHEW! BARBECUE

In mid April we had our first Barbecue of the year. A simple feast of Sardines, Salmon, and home made butchers Toulouse sausage. Se served them with SPANISH POTATOES

While preparing this Barbecue we reminisced about the first one we ever did. It was more than 35 years ago and we had bought a cast iron table Barbecue approx. 30 cm x 60 cm On it we cooked 3 trout with herbs and 9 lamb cutlets marinated in lemon juice, honey and rosemary. For a small table top Barbecue it was pretty adventurous, but, very tasty.

We had several Barbecues over the intervening years but somehow, perhaps, because of the flimsy nature of the Barbecues we used, it was never a favoured option of cooking. Plus the irrational English weather.

During our several visits to Australia we had some amazing meals cooked by Sheila’s nephews on their Barbecues s – fabulous steaks (thank you Russell and joints of lamb (thank you Simon)

To Australians Barbecuing is an art – but then they have the weather for it!

It wasn’t until we purchased a Weber ?…. that we again became interested in this form of cooking – it helps having the good weather here in France

Like many people we have had failures with some of the food cooked but generally it’s been good and a couple of recipes have become firm favourites. Particularly the HOT SMOKED SAMON

Sheila is not a fan of fresh salmon and I agree that sometimes it can taste pretty oily, but using this method she loves it!

Another enjoyed recipes is BEER CAN CHICKEN   Another recommendation from Simon. The chicken is always moist – even if it looks a little unsavoury with a can of beer stuck up it’s rear end!

The delights the Barbecue meal is the wonderful salads you can serve with the main.

A couple of years ago we discovered  PEACH AND TOMATO   a favourite of ours and several guests.

One year we did win a Barbecue – a 6 burner, gas stainless steel Weber monster! Worth about £3000 but the cost of shipping it our here from the UK was prohibitive – plus it was far too big for us. So we sold it!!!

A recommendation we can thoroughly pass on, if using a charcoal Barbecue, is a chimney for starting the fire. It’s foolproof, almost, taking the stress out will or won’t it light etc.

We are fans of charcoal or wood as fuel – and some of the best food we have eaten is friends simply lighting kindling (here it can be dried cuttings from the vines) and cooking a great steak over the high embers.

So let’s here for the sunny weather and the smell of Barbecue smoke wafting in the breeze …