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Happiness

Not Quite Summer BBQ

May 1, 2014 · By Monica Shaw

It takes three people to make mayonnaise. One to whisk, one to pour, one to dance.

“I’m very happy to have entire day revolve around BBQ.” A great statement from my friend AJ, who joined me with Keith and Donovan last Saturday for a day of foodie adventure in the Cotswolds. Our mission: to stock up on supplies for an all-American(ish) BBQ while also taken in some of the Cotswolds foodie scene. The outing took us to Talking Wines, where we literally did talk wines with the very friendly folk who helped us navigate our way through the complex flavours of two particularly excellent Australian wines. The exercise also made it easy to decide what to bring home with us.

Aussie Wines

After wine tasting, we refuelled on healthy vegan salad snacks at The Organic Farm Shop cafe prior to perusing their shop. The guys walked away with a most interesting basket of food: grass-fed, farm-raised, zero-food-miles meeeat to put on the BBQ; raw cacao nibs; and a bottle of Organic Stroud Budding (my favourite beer at the moment). My basket was much greener.

#goatsofinstagram

I was feeling anxious to get the BBQ underway but am glad we bothered to make a stop at New Wave Fish Shop for a big slab of salmon. After one final stop to Waitrose for the extraneous supplies (and cheese), we were finally on our way home where the BBQ commenced.

The BBQ itself was a seriously remarkable success. Same wavelengths were achieved. Planets were aligned. Meat was grilled. Bread was baked. It was a mutual ebb and flow of cooking, music playing, drinking, eating and playing.

Our vague menu plan: BBQ sauce, sweet potato fries, meat, fish, grilled veg, cornbread, mayo, grilled pineapple, cheese board. (Hurray for people who’d rather have cheese over sweet desserts!)

So I thought I’d report on our laundry list of successes for the evening, in no particular order…

If for some reason you’re all out of corn meal, but you happen to have masa harina, then YES you can make cornbread with masa harina, and it’s actually pretty awesome.

Weekend learning point: for lack of cornmeal, masa harina makes stellar cornbread! (Props to @keithhologram for this one.)

This Smoky Barbecue Sauce recipe from Simply Recipes was stellar (after we added a bit of soy sauce and garlic).

The secret to crispy salmon skin is to leave it on the BBQ and BE PATIENT – don’t touch it until it’s almost cooked, then take it off the heat and finish it in the oven.

Salmon - crispy skin success!

BBQ’d mushrooms are the bomb. Especially with the aforementioned Smoky Barbecue Sauce.

Glorious mushrooms

Homemade mayonnaise is the best.

Making mayo

Sriracha sauce is good on everything, particularly sweet potatoes when combined with homemade mayonnaise.

Sriracha   mayo   sweet potato fries = awesome

Crispy sweet potato fries are hard to achieve. (Any suggestions?)

Star Trek: The Voyage Home, is a great film to unwind to after a long night of cooking and feasting.

Leftovers make a great breakfast spread. Just add eggs!

Breakfast pimped out with BBQ leftovers.

Or just add toast, more mayo and Sriracha – that’s how Donovan rolls. Behold his sweet potato fry tartine:

Hugely impressed with @dollaveet's mayo, Sriracha, mushroom, sweet potato "tartine".

Thank you, Team Mayo! Looking forward to our next BBQ adventure – tandoori style!

Team Mayo

About Monica Shaw

Veg lover, dog owner, hill walker, wild camper, avocado addict, nerd. I write about how to be awesome through a "smarter fitter" approach to eating, drinking, living and working.
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  1. kellie@foodtoglow says

    May 3, 2014 at 8:31 am

    That all looks SO delicious!! It sounds like a brilliant day with fabulous foodie friend. And YES to cheese board over dessert. Every time. Great ideas to steal for the coming hopefully warmer weeks (I dare not write months)

    Reply
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