Barbecue

I'm quite lucky to have a garden in London but I can't say I use it that often. This summer I could use the weather as an excuse but it's not as if I spent a lot of time lying around in the garden last year. So a few weeks ago I invited lots of my friends around to have a barbecue. I'd done this the year before and asked people to bring their own burgers and stuff. This year, influenced by the amazing barbecue Alex did for Beth's birthday in Bath, I decided to prepare the barbecued food myself while Lisa supplied the cupcakes (or buns as we call them in Norfolk). It seemed like a good plan although sporting events and tofu searching got in the way of food preparation on Saturday afternoon meaning I was up until 1 on Sunday morning making marinades. Still it was worth it.

Souvlaki (Makes 6-8 kebabs)

1kg diced lamb shoulder or leg
4 garlic cloves, crushed
Zest and juice of 2 lemons
1 tbsp fresh oregano
2 tsp dried oregano
3 tbsp olive oil
salt and pepper

1) Put the lamb in a bowl and mix it with the rest of the ingredients apart from the salt.
2) Soak wooden skewers in hot water to sterilise them. Then thread the meat on the skewers, season with salt and cook over the barbecue (or you can do them under the grill) for nine minutes, turning regularly to prevent them from burning. I have served these in pitta bread with moutabal but I was having a burger later on in the afternoon and too much bread can spoil a barbecue for me!

Beefburgers With Mushroom and Pesto

1.6kg chuck steak or, if you can't be bothered making your own, 8 Sainsbury's Taste The Difference burgers
8 Portabella mushrooms
50g basil
1 tbsp pine nuts
1 garlic clove
6 tbsp olive oil
25g parmesan, grated

1) Making the burgers. I've done this before. All you need to do is trim any gristly bits from the meat, take 200g per person, roll it into a ball and then flatten it into a burger shape. All good but, to be honest, Sainsbury's Taste The Difference burgers are just as good and it will be cheaper to buy eight of these.
2) Once you've got the burgers ready, you need to make the pesto. For this you just need to put everything apart from the parmesan in a blender. Then when you have a smooth sauce, stir in the parmesan.
3) Now for the mushrooms. Take out the stalks, brush with olive oil and season with salt and pepper. If you have a big enough barbecue (I don't) you can put the mushroomd on about five minutes before you start cooking the burgers. If not, just put them under the grill.
4) Now for the burgers. Season both sides with salt and pepper and put them on the barbecue. Turn after four minutes and season again. They should be ready in another four minutes.
5) So put the burger in a roll, top with one mushroom and barely a teaspoonful of pesto.

Chicken/Tofu Tikka Kebabs

500g tofu, cut into chunky cubes. OR 4 chicken breasts, cut into bite-sized pieces
4 garlic cloves, crushed
1/4 tsp turmeric powder
1/4 tsp chilli powder
1 tsp garam masala
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground coriander
Pinch of salt
Juice of one lemon
6 tbsp plain yoghurt

1) Another easy one. Make sure you sterilise your skewers in hot water for 30 minutes. Then mix all the ingredients in a large bowl, add the chicken or tofu and get it all covered with the marinade. Leave in the fridge over night.
2) Thread onto skewers and put on the barbecue. You need to turn the tofu or chicken regularly to prevent the yoghurt from burning. The tofu is done when it has browned and has gone a bit crusty on the edges. For the chicken, the juices should run clear and it shouldn't be pink in the middle. This should take about 10-15 minutes.

Jerk Haloumi (serves four)
500g Haloumi, cut into thick slices
3 tbsp groundnut oil
3 tbsp Walkerswood Jerk seasoning
Wholemeal pitta bread
3 tbsp mayonnaise
Juice of 1 lemon
1 carrot, cut in half lengthways and finely sliced
1 celery stick, finely sliced
1 red onion, cut in half and finely sliced
Handful of flatleaf parsley
1) Cut the Haloumi into thick slices. They need to be big enough to ensure that they don't fall through the bars of the barbecue grill. Then mix the olive oil with the jerk seasoning and gently mix the haloumi slices with the marinade with your hands. Set aside for a couple of hours.
2) Now make some coleslaw by mixing the mayonnaise with the lemon juice, carrot, celery, onion and parsley.
3) To barbecue the haloumi you just need to get it on when it's really hot. All it needs to do is brown on either side but you don't want it to blacken. Then just serve about three slices per person in a pitta with some coleslaw.


Potato Salad
450g sweet potato, peeled and cut into large-ish chunks
450g waxy potatoes (I used Vivaldi), halved
2 hard-boiled eggs, chopped
125ml mayonnaise
1 tbsp white wine vinegar
3 tsp Dijon mustard
2 garlic cloves, crushed
1 red onion, finley chopped
100g kidney beans
salt and pepper
handful chopped parsley
1 green chilli, sliced

1) Boil the potatoes for 20 minutes until tender. Meanwhile boil the sweet potatoes for 15 minutes.
2) Chop the hard-boiled eggs and put in a bowl with together the rest of the ingredients before stirring in the potatoes. Mix around gently with your hands, making sure not the break up the potatoes.

Lisa's Vegan Cupcakes

1 cup (220ml) soymilk
1 3/4 cups (260g) plain flour
1 tsp vinegar
2 tbsp cornflour
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup (110g) non-hydrogenated margarine
1/4 tsp baking soda
3/4 cup (150g) caster sugar
1/4 tsp salt
2 1/2 tsp vanilla extract



For the mint icing
1/2 cup (110g) non-hydrogenated margarine
3 cups (350g) icing sugar
2 tbsp soy milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
mint extract and green food colouring to taste

1) Pre-heat then to 180c and line a muffin tray with 12 muffin cases
2) Combine the soy milk with vinegar and whisk. Set aside
3) In a large bowl, beat the margarine and sugar until light and fluffy, then add the vanilla extract.
4) In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, cornflour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
5) Beat the soy milk mixture into the butter and sugar mixture and then fold in the dry ingredients.
6) Divide the mixture between the muffin cases and bake for 20 minutes.
7) While the cakes are cooking, make your frosting. Combine the margarine, icing sugar and soy milk. Beat until nice and fluffy. Add vanilla, mint and food colouring and mix thoroughly.
8) Take the cakes out of the oven, leave to cool and spread frosting generously over the top of each one.


Nigel Slater's Chocolate Brownies

300g caster sugar
250g butter
250g dark chocolate
3 eggs and one egg yolk, beaten
60g plain flour
60g cocoa powder
1/2 tsp baking powder

1) Pre-heat the oven to 180c and grease and line the bottom of a small roasting tin with baking paper.
2) Break 200g of the chocolate into a heatproof bowl and melt it over a pan of simmering water. Chop the rest of the chocolate finely. Set aside.
3) In a seperate bowl or a food mixer, beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
4) Beat the eggs in a small jug and sift together the flour, cocoa and baking powder into another bowl.
5) Now you can put the mix together. Beat the eggs into the butter and sugar mixture a little at a time. Then mix in the melted and chopped chocolate before gently folding in the flour mixture.
6) Spoon it all into the tin, smooth the surface and bake for 35 minutes. When it comes out of the oven it will have risen but it will look as though it hasn't cooked. Don't worry about this. When you leave it to cool for at least an hour it will sink a bit and you can then cut it into squares.

It was a feast! The tofu tikka and chicken tikka was okay but I prefer these grilled with a masala sauce. However the lamb kebabs were much better on the barbecue than under the grill and although they were very meaty you could still taste a slight zing from the lemons. Most successful, however, were the burgers. With the mushroom on top they were very juicy and the pesto was really fresh. I didn't actually eat any of the jerk haloumi but I have made it before in the frying pan (perhaps better?) and it does have quite a kick. As for the deserts, Lisa's cakes were a revelation! I couldn't believe how light they were. Company wasn't bad either! A great afternoon.