Summer BBQ

When people think of Australia a few things come to mind straight away. Our beautiful sandy beaches, the long hot summers, the cuddly looking bear that’s not quite cuddly (nor a bear), and the kangaroo. These images of our landscape often combine with an image of the inhabitant as a laid back bloke knocking back on a couple of tinnies, striking ‘no worries’ at every proposition that comes his way. But as the face of Australia changes these classic images are also changing. The new archetype of the Aussie man is as likely to be stepping out of his Volkswagen to sip on a pinot as he is to get out of his V8 ute and down a schooner. The modern Australian ‘Sheila’ is just as at home running a business as she is running a household.

One Australian tradition, long deep rooted in the ‘Australiana’ culture is the BBQ. But, alike the rest of our traditions, as ‘Dermy’ would put it; it has undergone “a wooseification!”. These days, Paul Hogan doesn’t ‘throw another shrimp on the barbie’. He gently grills a lime and chili marinated tuna steak in his outdoor kitchen. I must admit though that I too am a lot like the modern Mr. Hogan. With all due respect to the grass roots BBQ, as it is hard to beat a trip to the hardware store on a Sunday for a snag in bread, the modern BBQ just offers so much more versatility. SO, with Australia Day just around the corner, why not try my slightly ‘wooseified’, good old fashioned Aussie BBQ.

The menu is Tandoori Chicken, Madras Lamb Cutlets, Tomato Salad, and Tabbouleh and will be enough for six people. If you want to prepare your special potato salad or a rice salad, both of these dishes will work well here.

Tandoori Chicken

Ingredients
1kg Chicken thigh fillet
1 jar Tandoori paste
3 cloves garlic (optional)
Thumb sized knob of ginger (optional)
Coriander for garnish

This will need to be prepared a day in advance so as the chicken takes on all the flavours. Combine tandoori paste, ginger and garlic in food processor. When fully incorporated marinated chicken thigh fillets with entire mixture and leave in your refrigerator for 24 hours. Grill on a gentle heat on your BBQ for about 20 minutes, turning at least 4 or 5 times. If you are worried about the chicken being fully cooked you can pre cook it in you oven at home. Cook the chicken for about 20 minutes at 185º, then it will only need to be charred and heated on the barbie.

Madras Lamb cutlets
These are a great wayto enjoy the flavour of a lamb madras curry whilst still maintaining the beautiful texture of pink lamb. You will need;

Ingredients
12 Lamb Cutlets (More if you so choose)
1 Jar of Madras Curry Paste

Simply marinate the lamb cutlets in the madras paste and refrigerator for at least 24 hours before cooking. Cook the lamb on a relatively high heat on the barbie for about 5 minutes on each side. This will mean they are perfectly medium. If you like your meat cooked more simply cook it for longer. Remember that the paste may burn so you will need to turn them a few more times for well done. If you want to use other cuts of lamb such as loin or fore quarter chops, these will work well also.

Tomato Salad
Summer is the best time of year for tomato’s. They are so good at the moment that the less you do to them the better. This Tomato Salad is very simple and full of the flavour of summer.

Ingredients
6 large vine ripened tomato’s
1 Onion
A few pinches of Sea Salt
Top quality extra virgin olive oil

This is so simple. Slice the tomato’s to a thickness of about ½ cm by lying them on the side then start at the bottom and work your way to the top. Slice the onion into rings as thin as you can. Then just layer the tomato’s on a plate with a few onion rings and sprinkle with sea salt. Just before you are ready to eat drizzle the salad with some extra virgin olive oil.

Tabbouleh
Tabbouleh is a traditional Lebanese salad that is perfect at this time of year as the herbs in it are at their best in summer.

Ingredients
1 large bunch parsley
1 large bunch of mint
½ cup of burghul (cracked wheat)
1 Spanish onion
Juice of 2 lemons
5 tablespoons of olive oil

Wash, dry and finely chop the herbs. Place the dry burghul in a small bowl then pour enough in just enough boiling water to cover. Leave the burghul for 15 minutes. Remove the seeds from the tomato by quartering them then cutting out the seedy part, leaving only the flesh and skin. Dice into fine cubes. Finely dice the Spanish onion. Combine all ingredients in a bowl. This is now ready to serve.

For the table you will need some natural yoghurt and lemon wedges to garnish. To drink, beer is my preference but for a more sensitive touch, try a Crawford River ‘young vines’ Riesling. Enjoy.