As I’ve mentioned before, I am currently not in possession of a barbecue (or a barbaliboo for that matter). GF however has a fabulous, shiny beast of a thing in her backyard that gives me massive bbq envy.
Tonight Kid and I are sleeping over and we’re taking over the kitchen to make dinner because that’s what helpful house guests do (and so we don’t have to wash up). This means vegetarian is on the menu (we’re not eating a vegetarian obviously although I reckon you could fit one on this cooker) and I’ve committed us to doing everything on the barbie.
Dessert too.
And we have guests coming.
Neither of us know how to smile for the camera
We’ve started with a pile of vegetables – sweet potato, broccoli, asparagus, capsicum, corn and some tiny desiree potatoes I found at the grocer.
The spuds go on whole because they are small. The sweet potatoes and corn are sliced and smothered in olive oil and a little sea salt and then cooked over a moderate heat on the grill side of the barbeque. When they’re past half way I put them up on the resting rack to finish.
Next the softer vegetables. Broccoli is sliced and peppered with sesame seeds and gets olive oiled along with the asparagus and capsicum. A high temperature is good here, we want them to cook quickly and leave them crisp.
All the vegetables come off around the same time. Simple, fresh and yummy with that smoky, charry flavour you can only get with a barbeque.
For something a bit different we put edamame beans on a hot flat plate with a little lemon, butter and salt. Just about 1 minute and they’re ready. Edamame are young soy beans normally served in the pod after a light boiling and salting.
They are popular in Japanese and Korean cuisines and you can buy them from Asian grocery stores in the freezer department.
The little green peas inside are sweet and salty.
Be careful though, you can’t just eat a few.
Salad too, it’s not a barbie without salad. Just tomato, lettuce and cucumber for us. Washed by Kid, chopped by me, arranged by Kid.
There should have been beetroot. There just should have been.
Oh and Falafel. With Haloumi. These are a hit.
Ingredients
1 tin chick peas (we were pushed for time here)
1 block ( about 200gm) of haloumi – grated
1/2 bunch parsley
1/2 bunch coriander
1 egg
HOW
Wash, pick and chop the herbs. Smoosh the chick peas really well with a fork, then mix everything together really well. It’s good to get your (or Kids) hands in here and really squish it together. Then make it into patties to cook on the flat plate.
Brown them well on both sides over a moderate heat.
And then hotcakes. On the bbq. With grilled banana, chocolate sauce and fresh blueberries. These are pancakes made with a waffle batter (hence the name polly waffles). The waffle batter stands up to the heat of the bbq a little better than pancake batter.
Hotcakes (polly waffles) Ingredients.
350gm self raising flour
1/2 cup sugar – I used raw, white is fine
3 eggs – separated
2 cups pouring cream
1/2 teaspoon vanilla essence
80gm melted butter
pinch of salt
HOW
Blend the egg yolks and sugar well then add the cream and essence. Flour, butter and salt next and blend well. Whip the egg whites until stiff and fold through the batter. Allow to stand for at least 30 mins before using.
I started these on the flat plate and moved them to the grill to get them crispy and a little charry. If you’re cooking meat or anything really saucy that’s going to dirty up your barbeque then I suggest you do these first and re heat them later.
I also barbecued some banana in butter and made a simple chocolate sauce with cream, chocolate drinking powder and a little melted chocolate. All in a saucepan on the edge of the barbeque whilst I got the hotcakes cooking.
What Kid Did.
Kid had a very preparation sort of day today. I did all of the cooking on the bbq because I am the dad and even if it’s not my bbq, stay the hell away from my bbq, you know?!
GF has a great big bench where we could spread ourselves out. Kid did the usual herb washing and picking then all the smooshing for the falafel. We agreed it’s good fun to smoosh stuff with your hands. I showed kid how to make them round and even by starting with a ball of the mixture in your hand then working it on a bench top with just the tips of your fingers, turning them gently.
There was also the blending together of and measuring of the hotcake batter, arranging salad and helping to keep tidy.
Alfonso and She-ra (the dogs) also needed constant playing with and once our friends little Miss R and her mum arrived, that was the end of Kid’s cooking day.
A girl’s gotta have fun, right kids?
Happy barbalibooing 😉 !
Cook And Kid 