Our First Barbeque!

As I may have mentioned previously, barbeques here are so not the disposable cardboard boxes with charcoal in that us English are accustomed to. That fortnight each year where the weather suits, we all go dashing to get our 2-pack disposable barbeque, empty Tesco of every single type of barbeque meat they had on the shelf and then actually buy some of that charcoal that has been sat outside the petrol stations for years, only to get home and … it’s spittiiiing!!
Here however, the barbeque is not a cheap, disposable, charcoal burning affair – it is a sophisticated machine of status. It matters how many burners you have, how big your gas bottle is, if you have an add-on wok burner at the side, or a hot plate to keep things warm, a rotating kebab skewer, a cupboard underneath for utensils, a hood to cover the food etc. etc. Most people here hardly use their oven grill, why bother when you have a spaceship docked outside to char-grill your meats with, cook potatoes, fry the vegetables and even cook eggs?!
We purchased a reasonable spec of barbeque and have parked the gleaming silver beast outside on our patio. However, our problem was that we didn’t really have much of a clue what to do and when to cook things and since these are the focus point of any social get together here, we decided to have a sneaky practice run one evening. Andy took up the man’s role of chief barbeque controller, whilst I, the lowly Sheila, prepared the salads in the kitchen. It actually went really well, although we did, in our excitement, cook enough food for 6 people.