Hints and tips

• Using herbs,,Herbs can be an important part of any cooking and, used the correct way can bring your barbecue cooking to life. Many recipes will call for dried herbs but where possible it is usually preferable to use fresh. We have a fairly comprehensive herb garden to use in our recipes (image above). Here are some of the more common herbs and their uses: Curly parsley Flat parsley Used mainly as a garnish but also good with chicken, potatoes and in stews and soups. Sage A peppery herb used with meat and in stuffings. Can be fried in butter to go...
• Double skewering,,Often a problem with using skewers is that the food often rotates when you are trying to turn them. The ideal solution is to use flat skewers. Flat bamboo skewers are available but they are very difficult to track down at a reasonable cost. A good alternative is to use two pre-soaked skewers and push them through the food parallel to each other about 1 cm apart (see below).
• Foil guard,,When using bamboo or wooden skewers the skewers should always be pre-soaked in water before use to help prevent burning but due to the time required to cook sometimes they will still burn. A simple solution is to fold over a long piece of foil to create a heat shield to prvent the skewers burning. Simply line one edge of the grill with the guard and place the kebabs so that the meat is over the heat and the skewers over the guard.
• Foil smoking parcel,,Many barbecues come with a smoking box or smoking attachment but, if yours doesnt have one – don’t despair. You can easliy buy a smoker box especially for the job or a simple foil pouch can be made to hold the wood and give that distinctive smoked flavour. First soak the woodchips in water for at least 30 minutes. Follow the manufacturers guidelines if neccessary. Do not use pine as it contains resins which can taint the food. Take a large piece of aluminium foil and fold in half. Drain the woodchips and place on the foil. Next, fold over...
• Crushed garlic,,  Finely chop the garlic clove(s). Pour over a small amount of salt. Using the point of a knife, crush the garlic, continually gathering up the garlic paste into a fresh pile until the desired consistency is achieved. The finished garlic paste.
• Herbs,,Herbs can be an important part of any cooking and, used the correct way can bring your barbecue cooking to life. Many recipes will call for dried herbs but where possible it is usually preferable to use fresh. We have a fairly comprehensive herb garden to use in our recipes (image above). In this garden you can find: Curly parsley Flat parsley Used mainly as a garnish but also good with chicken, potatoes and in stews and soups. Sage A peppery herb used with meat and in stuffings. Can be fried in butter to go with pasta. Also useful as...
• Mini oven,,Foil ovenThis is a simple device if you need to get heat to the top of food that you can’t or don’t want to turn. For instance, melting the cheese on a burger or warming up a stack of food.Take a piece of aluminium foil about four times larger than the area you want to cover, double it over and then fold down the edges. Crimp the corners to give it some strength and then place it over the food you want to cook, to capture and deflect some of the heat from the barbecue. Aubergine and Pepper Chutney A...