Category Archives: barbecue

No-sugar, no-artificial-anything tomato sauce

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Want something to squirt on your hamburger or steak, but don’t want all the nasty extras that come in commercial tomato sauces? Me too. So I made my own.

75g chopped onion
1 tsp crushed garlic
¼ cup chopped basil leaves
A small red chilli (about 7g), finely chopped
½ tsp fennel seeds
½ tsp ground cumin
1 tbs chopped fresh oregano leaves (or 1 tsp dried)
1 tbs olive oil
300g ripe tomatoes
1 tbs red wine vinegar
Salt to taste

Cut a small cross in the base of each tomato, place them in a heatproof bowl and pour boiling water over. Leave them to sit while you prepare your other ingredients, then drain them and the skins will be easy to peel off.* Chop the flesh roughly.

Heat a non stick pan over medium heat and add the olive oil. Cook onion and garlic, stirring frequently until the onion is transparent. Add the chilli and the spices and stir for a minute or so. Add the chopped tomatoes and red wine vinegar and stir well. Bring to the boil then reduce heat and simmer, covered, for about 20 minutes or until you have a sauce-like consistency. Remove the lid and simmer for a few minutes to evaporate more liquid if you need to. Add salt to taste.

You can leave this chunky, but after it cooled a bit, I threw mine into the blender and processed it to a finer texture. It’s still pretty chunky, as you can see from the photo. Kind of “rustic”, if you will.

Mine made 200ml, and I use a tablespoon per serve, so this quantity gives me 10 serves. I would have made more, but I only had a few tomatoes on hand…anyway, 10 serves will last me a while; I rarely use tomato sauce but it’s always a good accompaniment to a BBQ-ed hamburger or steak.

*You can omit this step if you like, but you’ll end up with stringy bits of tomato skins in your finished sauce.

Spiced Salmon

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This is part of a recipe from Charmaine Solomon’s wonderful Thai Cookbook …..it’s supposed to be served with a tamarind sauce, but the fish alone is easy, fast and tasty!

Serves 1

200g atlantic salmon steak or cutlet
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
A generous pinch of salt
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper

Mix the spices together and rub into the fish (not the skin side). Cook on a barbecue or griddle plate till done.

Vietnamese Prawn Cakes

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I found this recipe in the January issue of Better Homes & Gardens. I’ve made a few minor changes….


Makes 2 pretty generous serves

500g peeled green prawns
1 bunch of coriander with roots
1 tbs lime juice
1 tbs fish sauce
1 tbs grated palm sugar
1 small red chilli, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, crushed

Cut off the roots and 4cm of the stalks of the coriander. Wash thoroughly under running water and pat dry with paper towel. Reserve the leaves to use in the salad. Chop roots and stems roughly. Put prawns in a food processor and pulse until finely chopped. Add chopped coriander, lime juice, fish sauce, sugar, chilli and garlic. Process until prawns are finely chopped and all ingredients are well combined. Transfer to a large bowl. Divide mixture into 8 portions. With wet hands, shape into patties.

Line a steamer with a layer of baling paper (poke some holes in it to let the steam through) and place 3-4 prawn cakes in a single layer on the paper. Steam for 8-10 minutes or until firm and cooked through. Transfer to a plate and cook remaining prawn cakes. Heat a chargrill or barbecue plate and cook prawn cakes for about a minute on each side until browned. Serve with dipping sauce and salad.

Dipping sauce

Juice of 2 limes
2 tbs fish sauce
1 tbs grated palm sugar
1 small red chilli, finely chopped

Mix all ingredients together and serve in small bowls.

The salad was supposed to be a green papaya salad….I couldn’t get a papaya at short notice, so had to improvise. I think this is a better recipe anyway:


Asian-style mango salad

1 medium carrot, peeled
½ a Lebanese cucumber
½ a yellow capsicum
2-3 spring onions, finely sliced on the diagonal
About a cup of mixed salad leaves
A cup of coriander leaves, loosely packed
1 medium-sized mango

Fish sauce and lime juice to taste for the dressing.

Slice carrot, cucumber and capsicum into long very thin strips, place in a bowl with spring onions, salad leaves and coriander leaves. Dice the mango flesh and add to the bowl, pour combined fish sauce and lime juice over and toss well.

This might sound a bit fiddly, but it was really very easy to make. You could make the salad ahead and refrigerate it (minus the dressing), same with the dipping sauce. The prawn cakes can also be made ahead, steamed and then placed in the fridge till you’re ready to barbecue them.

Tandoori chicken

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This is easy-peasy, and great for a barbecue.


1kg of chicken pieces, skin removed (pieces with bones work best)
3 tbs natural yoghurt
2 tbs bought tandoori paste
A squeeze of lemon juice

Mix the yoghurt, tandoori paste and lemon juice together in a large glass or ceramic bowl, add chicken pieces and toss to coat with the mixture. Cover and refrigerate for several hours or overnight. Cook on a rack over a baking dish in a hot oven (or on a hooded or Weber barbecue) for about 45 minutes or until cooked.

Serve with steamed Basmati rice and accompaniments. Here are a few ideas:

Pappadums are great – you can cook them in a toaster instead of frying them. Just watch them carefully, they go from raw to burnt very quickly!

Bought chutneys and pickles add extra flavour. I love Patak’s range, especially the sweet mango chutney. Bike Boy loves the hot lime pickle.

Make some raita from natural yoghurt, diced cucumber, garlic and a little chilli powder. Add some chopped fresh herbs if you like.

Garlic spinach (pictured) – I got this one from the first CSIRO diet book. Just saute some sliced onion and crushed garlic in a little oil till onion is soft, then reduce the heat to low and add a HUGE amount of spinach, putting a lid on the pot, and stirring occasionally till spinach is wilted.

Tomato salad (pictured) – dice a whole tomato, about half a cucumber and a little onion. Throw it in a bowl with a tablespoon of chopped coriander, a squeeze of lemon or lime juice and some salt and pepper.
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**You can substitute fish or lamb for the chicken