Barbecue 2 - Putting my blog where my mouth is!

Many apologies to everyone out there muttering "he's gone walkabout again"! Especial apologies to Welsh Dog, the Legal Eagle (and Beau), the Erdington Lurker, and most of all, to Amalee.

In case you haven't read her comment below, Amalee was facing going "to a barbeque party where the food will be kinda ok and the drinks a bit ropey". She was looking to me for inspiration, and I let her down...

I have been mad busy; happy and healthy, but busy.

There will be more of what I have been up to later, but, with no more ado, to the food.

The hot weather of the last few days has indeed found me re-acquiring the title I earned some years ago from a neighbour - The Man Who Cooks In the Garden. ***

Last Autumn we bought a lovely gas fired barbie. (Not having to wait 45 minutes to get to cooking heat makes a huge difference.)

A few of our recent dishes...

Pork Spare Ribs, Chinese Style

Chicken Kebabs (a working afternoon in my Mum's garden)

I have developed an all-purpose basic marinade that I can put together in two minutes flat. I shall demonstrate with this handy boned shoulder of lamb I have adjacent to the keyboard...


Get your friendly butcher to bone a shoulder of lamb for you. If you don't have a friendly butcher, find a butcher and smile. It may work. A whole shoulder of lamb will do kebabs for six people easily. I froze half the shoulder for later.

Ingredients for the marinade : two or three tablespoons plain yoghourt, the same of curry paste (Pataks are good), two crushed cloves of garlic, some lemon juice, and some fresh mint.
Dice your lamb into cubes a bit bigger than an inch square.

Chop mint and put in a large bowl with the paste, yoghourt and crushed garlic.

Add meat and marinate for a couple of hours, stirring when you remember to.

Finally skewer up, with onion, peppers courgettes or mushrooms to taste...



The finished kebabs, with red cabbage coleslaw and tomato and basil couscous.

I do hope I have made you all hungry again, even if it is late.

FOOTNOTE *** My wife's nocturnal slug hunting by torchlight led her to be called The Woman Who Gardens At Night. Very sultry and mysterious!

More Soon....

It's Barbie Time!

Like most men, I normally hate shopping. Like the SAS, it’s in and out as quickly as possible for me! (Note to Wife – Don’t you dare…)
There is one exception however. Food shopping.

To get the best from real food shopping, as opposed to Supermarket Shopping (which is best done using the SAS tactics above), one has to approach the task with love, and a healthy sense of curiosity.

Considerable amounts of video tape, ink, and hot air have been expended recently by foodies and chefs alike promoting seasonal eating. It has become one of the mantras of the switched-on, footprint-reducing kitchen trendy.

I am afraid the Phantom will never be totally at ease with the “no more than 30 food miles” brigade. I would love to buy nothing but locally produced food. But take my shopping yesterday as an example… I bought pita breads from Cyprus, Baked Yigantes beans from Greece (Palirria, by far the best brand) and parsley and coriander from Cyprus too.

It’s hot, it’s sunny. I made my own Hummus (with Italian chickpeas) and an aubergine puree with eggplants from Turkey. My chicken (for kebabs) was from Ireland. And guess what? It all tasted devine. And that is what counts for me. I don’t live on the Mediterranean, but when it’s hot and sunny, Greek and Turkish cuisine does the job for me. All I ask is that my ingredients are fresh and tasty, and I will check out three or four grocers for the best….

If I was to make a salad out of this weeks veg box, I would be eating spring cabbage and beetroot, with carrots and broccoli on the side. Good for a stir fry, but I want to be outside in weather like this…