The Pigeon Cottage Kitchen BBQ Edit!

If your BBQ is under cover (or in your actual house if you’re like our South African friends!), you can grill all year round. Most of us, however, reserve it just for the summer. We have a gas BBQ (with a retrofittable rotisserie) which is quick and easy, especially if we’re just cooking for ourselves, and a charcoal BBQ which is slightly more faff to get going but it does deliver the best flavour. Friends of ours also use the Big Green Egg/Komodo Joe style ceramic BBQs; the ability to cook large joints of pork with crispy crackling or whole chickens in them is great but, full disclosure, I still just use my oven for those dishes!

If I’ve learnt anything about the mistakes Brits make from my Aussie or South African friends (who are the masters of the grill), it’s that you must wait until the charcoal or grill is hot enough before cooking and never, ever squirt lighter fuel on it unless you enjoy eating food that tastes of garage forecourt.

Safety is very important when it comes to grilling: remember to use long tongs and marinade brushes so you don’t burn yourself whilst you’re turning your food on the grill, buy yourself a pair of welding gloves to manhandle hot grill trays etc. (Screwfix sell them very cheaply), keep children well away from hot grills both during and after cooking and don’t place it too close to your house or wooden outbuildings like sheds and garages. Lastly, if you must use a disposable BBQ (I live in a thatched cottage near a big forest so I hate them!!!) please make sure you use and dispose of it responsibly and don’t bury them on the beach (it can cause serious burns to people walking over the sand), start a fire or leave them as litter.

Sermon over, I hope you enjoy my BBQ tips and recipes this summer and I’ll keep adding to this page when I add new recipes.

Classic meat on the BBQ recipes

We cook sausages, chops, steak and burgers on the grill all the time. The trick is to oil the meat not the grill so that it doesn’t stick and you get a lovely char. Steak, in my humble opinion, is only worth cooking to medium rare and must be rested for as long as it takes to cook before serving; about 5 to 10 minutes. I don’t make my own burgers as our butcher makes wonderful ones to buy. If you’re using frozen burgers just remember to defrost them properly so they aren’t charred on the outside and raw and cold on the inside. I only ever buy sausages from a reputable butcher because I like to know what’s in them is quality meat!

Of all the meats, you need to be most careful cooking chicken on the grill. Many a post-barbie bout of food poisoning can trace its origin back to an underdone piece of chicken. I usually cook drumsticks and skin-on thigh pieces in the oven first and then just finish them on the grill. If you’re cooking for a lot of people it helps anyway so you can serve more food at the same time.

These are favourites we cook over and over again. The marinated butterflied leg of lamb is a total crowd-pleaser if you have friends and family round.

Cooking fish on the grill

You might be surprised to know that I haven’t published any BBQ fish dishes on the website. That’s not because we don’t eat it regularly, it’s just because it’s so easy I hardly think it warrants a recipe! Whole fish like mackerel, sardines and sea bass are fantastic on the BBQ, as are steaks of salmon, swordfish or tuna and whole large prawns and octopus. The important thing is to buy a metal cage to cook them in or you’ll lose most of the fish into the grill when you try to turn it.
Only cook the fish for a few minutes each side to get the char on the skin because it doesn’t take long and you’ll dry it out otherwise.
If you’re cooking whole fish, you can stuff the cavity with bay leaves and slices of lemon, ginger or lemongrass to add some extra flavour. You can also wrap them in parcels of tin foil and cook the parcels on the back or sides of the grill where it’s a little cooler.

Cooking veg on the BBQ

It always seems like such a waste to only heat up the grill to cook meat so we always cook veg on it too. It’s better economics but also it just tastes fantastic. My favourites are chunks of courgette, aubergine, flat mushrooms, whole leeks, large tomato halves, corn on the cob and cauliflower steaks. I just make sure they are lightly coated with a light rapeseed or olive oil before grilling. A family favourite is spears of asparagus or fat spring onions coiled with thin strips of pancetta as a starter. Yoghurt based sauces or salsas to spoon over the veg just make them a bit extra-special.

Check these side dish recipes out…

There are any number of great summer salad and slaw dishes on the Recipe Index page to choose from to make your BBQ special and I like to serve something like a Turkish rice pilaf or paprika roast new potatoes for the carb element with red relish or tzatziki on the side.

BBQ party desserts

When it comes to desserts at a family and friends BBQ, I like something make-ahead because it’s too exhausting otherwise. You can’t go wrong with strawberries and ice cream, or a chocolate pavlova but my go-to showstopper this summer is this fabulous burnt Basque cheesecake.

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