Barbecue is something really close to our hearts. During our student days in Perth, we would always have barbecues, sometimes really late in the evenings. I could still remember a road trip back from Darwin vividly, stopping halfway to buy meats at the supermarket and marinating them, ready for the barbie when we reach home. Those were the crazy student days.
At home in Singapore, this is one of our favourite activities. We bought a pre-loved Weber for $500 and it is by far our best investment. We have done vegetarian barbecues with my parents, hosted countless poolside barbecue parties and even brought it to church for grilling meats for Men’s blessing day.
This time back in city, we had the joy of having a barbie with friends and family on our last day in Perth. The key is really fresh ingredients. Typically, it is good to cater about 250g of meat per person to ensure we don’t overeat.
I love having vegetables on the grill. Asparagus, fresh corn cobs, broccolini, portobello mushrooms, sweet potatoes, cherry tomatoes on a skewer, brussels sprouts on a skewer are all great on the grill. Skewering these vegetables make it easy to flip them and ensure we don’t lose them rolling around the grill. Bamboo sticks are great for this. Most of the time we would have the sweet potato wrapped in aluminium foil and put onto the grill. I think slicing them into 2 cm thick and skewering them creates a new way of eating them.
Recommended grill ingredients:
- Tasmanian salmon fillets or Barramundi fillets marinated with lemon slices and dill
- Whole fish (especially snappers, barramundi)
- Grass-fed steaks seasoned generously with black pepper and salt when grilling
- Pork cutlets
- Fresh sausages
- Chicken breast marinated with rosemary, parsley and chopped olives
- Chicken wings marinated teriyaki style with soy sauce, mirin, sake and a little sugar
- Vegetables like asparagus, mushrooms tossed in fresh rosemary, olive oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper
- Skewers of cherry tomatoes tossed in olive oil, basil a drizzle of honey and mint
- Skewers of Brussels sprouts marinated in balsamic vinegar, olive oil, salt and pepper
- Skewers of sweet potato marinated with olive oil, salt and pepper
- Cauliflower steaks or on skewers tossed in olive oil, salt and black pepper
- Corn on the cob pre-boiled in salted water for 5 minutes and tossed with olive oil before grilling
- Miso grilled eggplant slices (slice the eggplant thinly across its length, spread a thin layer of miso paste onto the eggplant)
Tips:
- Being a little more firm, rosemary sprigs can be used to drizzle olive oil onto the meats and vegetables during grilling to give the meats a little whipping.
- Cut a whole clove of garlic into half and rub onto the surface of the meats during grilling.
Marinating salmon with dill, lemon and freshly cracked black peper, salt and a drizzle of olive oil
Fresh asparagus and broocolini
On the grill
Pork cutlets and grass fed rib eye steaks
Field mushrooms and portobello are great on the grill too, providing a meaty vegan alternative
My current fav vegetable that used to be second fiddle to broccoli. But today it has rise up to the occasion. Yums!