Last updated 09:13, Saturday, 03 May 2008

The first bank holiday of spring... longer evenings .... warmer days (hopefully)... time for the first barbecue of the year!

If you can’t face rummaging through the dead spiders and mouldy wellies in the garage/shed to find your barbecue, splash out on a disposable one.

They come in all sizes and light within seconds (even for me), which is always handy bearing in mind our weather. They also leave less mess than the reusable version.

One of the best tips I have had for a barbie is to pre-cook (or part-cook) the food first, then warm it through for a couple of minutes over the coals. This way, there’s no danger of food poisoning, you don’t have to stand in a cloud of smoke and people get to eat before it’s bedtime.

It’s possible to cook all sorts of fancy stuff on a barbie – even cakes – but the best thing is to keep it simple and use ingredients such as lean steaks, thin sausages, sardines, fish fillets (or fish fingers), prawns and flat mushrooms.

Pre-coating the meat, or fish, in a sauce is traditional, but much easier is to smear in oil or butter, then sprinkle with herbs or spices.

Here’s some ideas for sauces spreads and salsas to go with a barbie or even a picnic.

Tapenade

A gutsy spread that can be made with black or green olives (unpitted have the best taste), it’s great smeared on crusty bread to go with tomatoes and steaks and it can be mixed with some cooked rice to stuff a tomato or a pepper.

Veggies can omit the anchovies.

Ingredients

1 garlic clove, crushed

Juice of one lemon

A handful of chopped and rinsed capers

6 anchovy fillets, chopped

250g/9oz olives, pitted

Olive oil

Method

Chop all the ingredients together and mix with oil into a smooth or coarse mix, depending on your taste. It should not be sloppy (unless you want to add it to some pasta), so go easy on the oil and only use four or five tablespoons.

Anchoiade

Anchovies are a surprisingly good partner for lamb, but also go well with steak.

This should be a smooth, sauce-like dip, it’s lovely in a salad with warm boiled spuds and boiled eggs.

Ingredients

60g tinned anchovy fillets, roughly chopped

Three or four garlic cloves, roughly chopped

Two shallots, roughly chopped, or half an onion

1tbsp red wine vinegar

Handful of parsley, finely chopped

150ml extra virgin olive oil

Method

Blend, mash or pound everything into a smooth sauce, add the oil until it the mix is the consistency of double cream. That’s it.

Tomato and avocado salsa

Unlike the other two, this should be chunky and dry. It could be served as a side dish, or as a filling in pitta bread.

Use double the quantity of tomatoes to avocado and swap chilli flakes and some Tabasco sauce for the herbs if you like spicy food.

Ingredients

A ripe avocado

Two large tomatoes or six average-sized ones (without seeds)

Half a red onion

A red pepper

Juice of half a lemon

A mashed clove of garlic

2tbsp of olive oil

A handful of basil, coriander and parsley leaves.

Method

Chop everything but the herbs to roughly the size of a 1p coin. Chop the herbs roughly, add everything together and mix with the lemon juice and oil.