BBQ ideas

I know there are some people who insist on lighting their BBQ and then almost immediately throw on a pack of burgers or sausages and watch them cremate in the intense heat and flames of just lit charcoal, but that’s not how we do it here at FOTB HQ. I know usually I would say to you let the charcoal calm down and wait until it is pretty much uniformly grey before you start cooking, but what if we could use that insane light up heat? Well he's a couple of BBQ ideas... Well of course you can and not only that, I used it to make my BBQ last right through until the next day. You see I was having a little impromptu BBQ but had also bought a few things for a Lebanese lunch the next day. I lit the BBQ and as I watched those flames dancing through the grill one thing sprung into my mind…baba ganoush!

A quick as a flash I throw on a couple of aubergines (eggplant) onto the grill and kept turning them making sure they didn’t blacken too quickly, but the skin of the aubergine is a tough thing and can take a lot of punishment. A few pops and sizzles through the skin later and the aubergine skins were black and crisp and the vegetable itself was starting to collapse…perfect. There is simply nothing like that sweet smoky flavour of fire grilled aubergine, especially in the aforementioned classic baba ganoush. I set the aubergine to one side to cool then put them in the fridge overnight ready for the next day’s lunch. The aubergine didn’t suffer their fiery fate alone, they were joined by a couple of Romero peppers which I was going to stuff and cook for the BBQ, but decided they would be much better fire roasted and served with tomorrows meze. I have to say the sweetness you achieve by aggressively grilling at the hot time of the BBQ is simply not possible in a conventional oven. Also you don’t get that wonderful smokiness which the charcoal imparts. So next time you light up your BBQ why not plan ahead and give this a try! Remember to tell me how you got on with this tip in the comments below. Michael Robinson