No. 10: The Mega Blog!

What happens when you get eight managers together for a BBQ, each cooking a recipe from the Heart Foundation cookbook, and each willing to contribute to a blog about it? You get a fabulous meal, lots of laughs, and a MEGA blog!

The management team from the Heart Foundation's Victorian Division each brought in their little eskies to work last week, and at 12 noon on the dot we strode down to Batman Park on the Yarra River and cooked up a storm. Left to right in the photo are Roanna, Kellie-Ann, Carl, Kathy, Suzanne, and David. Here's what the team had to say about our group barbie...

David:

The challenge was made and accepted – select a meal from the HF BBQ cookbook and be prepared to cook it on Thursday 28 January ... at high noon. Not being a virtuoso of the kitchen it took me a little while to open the cook book and select something. Checking with the other chefs to make sure I had an appropriate selection I was told we might have too much and why not make a salad instead. A salad … men don’t make salads (or is that "eat quiche"). Anyway, I was charged with making the Turkish Salad. Having the shopping list at the ready, it was off to get the ingredients. Top of the list was 500g of tomatoes. Easy, or so I thought. There are many varieties and sizes of tomatoes; which to buy? After looking panicked in the tomato aisle I finally made my selection and moved onto to the other ingredients. A quick phone call home to find out what harissa was and if we had any. Fortunately (for me) this is an optional item and so I chose not to include it. Did not having it make the salad miss a taste sensation? … I’ll never know.

The preparation of the salad began with the fine chopping of the parsley and mint leaves then adding the seeded and sliced Lebanese cucumber. At this stage the salad bowl doesn’t look to have much in it and only the tomatoes to go. I begin to think I should have more ingredients to add volume to the salad. Nevertheless I continue on and follow the instructions. Cutting the tomatoes, adding them into the bowl and then tossing the ingredients ….. all of a sudden a salad appeared. Adding the final touches, chilli flakes, red wine vinegar and pomegranate juice (the recipe uses pomegranate molasses, but I couldn’t get it) the salad was complete. It was too easy, surely there was more to do, I should be taking something else to the BBQ. Will I progress to something else in the BBQ Cookbook; most definitely.

Siobhan:

I rather liked the look of the pork fillet and nectarine salad recipe (page 109). The prospect was daunting because, as media manager in Kathy’s executive team, I’m much more comfortable "cooking-up" public profile opportunities than meals, especially ones that will be consumed by my esteemed colleagues!

An unexpected early set-back through difficulties finding three of the ingredients – watercress, shallots and nectarine jam – was quickly overcome. It did take a visit to three separate stores, but I found shallots in the second store, then utilised the recipe alternative of apricot jam to sweeten. I never did find watercress, however, despite it being in season virtually year-round. Luckily, Oakleaf Lettuce (chosen because it has similar vitamins to watercress), proved an excellent substitute.

From that point onwards, I am happy to report that the recipe was extremely easy to prepare. I didn’t fire-up the barbecue but found a desktop griller did the job equally well, including the grill marks important for the visual appeal of the recipe. Peppercorns proved an excellent season for the pork fillet (heart smart pork fillet, of course), and the combination of jam and shallots gave an interesting bittersweet aspect to the dish. Most importantly, this is an extremely tasty dish, and I’m delighted to report that it was well received by all.

I will definitely be preparing this meal again in future!

Kellie-Ann:

When Kathy suggested a barbie by the Yarra as a ‘management team bonding’ experience I jumped at the chance to be involved, however there was a catch- I, together with my esteemed colleagues needed to cook a dish from the Heart Foundation BBQ Cook Book to attain entry. Hmmm…….. BBQs had never been my strong point as in our household my husband Mike was definitely the King of the Barbie Mate whereas I preferred to fuss about in the kitchen. So what could I cook that didn’t expose my ineptness in this area of gastronomy? I decided that desserts may be a good option not only for their simplicity but also because I had never considered cooking ‘sweets’ on the BBQ before and I was keen to give it a go.

I decided to try 2 desserts: Caramelised pineapple with pistachio nuts and sorbet (p 142 ) and BBQ fruit parcels (140). Apart from a bit of chopping, dicing, slicing and de-stoning of the various fruits involved in these recipes the preparation was very simple ( although I did experience some frustration trying to de-stone the cherries without a whiz bang gadget to assist me) . The caramelised pineapple dessert took no time to prepare – just peel and slice the pineapple, lightly coat both sides of each slice with brown sugar, pop on the barbie for about 10 minutes, stack the pineapple slices on top of one another, sprinkle with the chopped unsalted pistachio nuts and a dollop of sorbet on the side and viola! Very nice and the lemon sorbet complemented it well.

The fruit parcels, although they required a little more preparation, were just as easy. I cubed the mango and rockmelon, quartered the peach and halved the cherries then added some blanched almonds and drizzled some honey over the fruit mixture. Simple. Finally, spooned the fruit combo into the prepared foil squares, added some lemon zest and sealed the parcels before cooking on the BBQ for about 10 minutes. The mix of honey and natural juices of the fruit plus the tangyness (is there such a word??) of the lemon zest and the sprigs of basil that were added to the parcels on serving created a lovely combination of flavours. Absolutely delicious plus healthy! Plenty of positive ‘yums’ from my fellow team mates, most of whom were keen to try this very easy dessert at their next barbie bash.

Suzanne:

Token vego here – back for another installment. As mentioned by my colleagues, we had a great BBQ lunch down on the banks of the Yarra. This is team bonding Heart Foundation style and also a great excuse to cook more food from our BBQ and Grill Cookbook.

I was in charge of the Bruschetta with cannellini beans and rocket topping (pg. 26). This was another fantastic and very easy recipe.

I could not find just plain rocket at my local supermarket so instead used a rocket and baby spinach mix – which I think turned out well. I made sure I washed it very well and drained it as per the instructions. I didn’t quite know how vigorous I needed to be in the ‘squeezing out’ of the excess water so was left with two little green clumps which I had to prise apart. My advice it to squeeze enough to make sure it doesn’t drip then stop!! I used quite mild chilli in the rocket topping as we have some people who don’t like it too hot. Next time I would use a little more garlic in the topping and add some cracked pepper.

The cannellini bean mixture was extremely easy to make. After draining the beans, just pop all of the ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth. I would add the juice of ½ a lemon then add a little more at a time until you get the consistency you are looking for. I found the juice of one lemon to be a bit much and made the mixture a too moist. I also added a little garlic to the bean mix along with some cracked pepper. When I make it again I will add a bit of chilli too to ramp up the zing factor.

For the bread I simply used a breadstick that I cut on the diagonal to get bigger slices. I sprayed each piece with some spray olive oil to crisp up and get some good colour. Assembling the bruschetta was simply a matter of spreading a little bean mix on each pieces of bread then top with a little of the rocket mix. These tasted delicious. I loved the contrast between the crispy bread and the soft cannellini bean mixture and the tang of the rocket mixture. I will definitely make this one again.

As for the other dishes cooked on the day, a personal favorite was the Barbequed vegetable pitas (complete with my home grown eggplants) and the Turkish chopped salad. Although not strictly vegetarian, I did enjoy sampling the Salmon Caesar salad.

We had a lovely family barbequing next to us at one point who kept looking longingly at our food. It was with great pride that we told them this was all healthy food. Trust me – we never miss an opportunity to spread our healthy eating message!

Carl:

I can’t say that I’m known for my cooking, in fact I share many a male's shyness when it comes to the kitchen and would surely perish should I ever find myself marooned on a distant desert island. However, fire up the BBQ, and like many a male, my inherent caveman and hunter gather tendencies rise to the surface and I promptly char any potential dinner to a crisp! So it was with a little trepidation that I signed up to cook in front of my Heart Foundation colleagues. Was it therefore mere chance that I skilfully chose a dish that would require minimal preparation and limited skill in cooking? Lemon Chicken dish on Page 74 with steamed squash vegetables.

The night before the "My BBQ Rules" showdown, I ventured off hunter gathering to an unfamiliar and strange land - a mystical place called a supermarket! Here I found the fresh ingredients of chicken chilli flakes, lemon and oregano. Back in the sanctuary of my secure dwelling, I slowly diced and combined the collected ingredients to marinate the chicken overnight, so all that was required was to cook the chicken the next day.

At the BBQ site the aroma as I opened my container of chicken was very inviting. In my head I was thinking – Hey! Did I this and it only took about 5 mins to prepare! True man cooking! I slapped the chicken onto the BBQ hot plate which turned out to be the biggest challenge as it was a slow heat. Never the less the chicken cooked delightfully and my colleagues were pleasantly surprised at the lemon freshness of the dish – or perhaps they were simply surprised that my cooking didn’t cause sickness! Either way I was pleased with the outcome. I enjoyed the experience so much; the following night I fired up the flame grilled BBQ at home and cooked the dish once more. Clearly I was better for the earlier experience and more comfortable on the home fire, for the flavours were enhanced as the flame grill gently brought out the warm chilli flakes to complement the lightness of lemon.

It was a great fun cooking with my colleagues, it was even more fun sampling their excellent cooking that came out of the HF BBQ cookbook. I have a bit of a sweet tooth and was particularly impressed with the BBQ desserts on offer – a treat I intend to cook and serve at the next family caveman BBQ.

Roanna:

My contribution to the blog arose from Kathy’s fantastic idea for the Divisional Management Team (DMT) to get together in the new year over a BBQ, and continue her little project of trying out recipes from the Heart Foundation’s BBQ Cookbook.

I found it quite difficult to choose from among the remaining recipes that Kathy hasn’t tried out – she had tried out over three quarters of the recipes!! Therefore there were only a few recipes to choose from, and I wanted a simple yet tasty recipe to make an impression with the DMT members. I now realised I shouldn’t have worried because all the recipes have been carefully selected to please!

I took the challenge to cook a lamb recipe, Lamb Cutlets with Green Bean and Tomatoes (Page 98) as I have never cooked it before. I’ve tasted so many well-prepared lamb dishes that combined a variety of spices to enhance the lamb’s strong flavours, and when I noticed that this recipe require no marination – just bung the lamb onto the BBQ with just a dash of cracked pepper – I was a little anxious about how it would turn out. As it turned out, barbecuing with minimal marination actually allows the natural flavours of the lamb to be brought out, and served with the mint-flavoured Green Bean and Tomatoes (prepared the night before), the flavours blended beautifully and complimented each other. I got thumbs up all round from the DMT members!!

It has been an eye-opening experience as I found I can now cook a delicious lamb recipe, quick and simple. I’ve since tried it out again with my family, and I can’t wait to try out other recipes with family and friends. What is even more amazing for me is that there is no salt required in any of the recipes.

I enjoyed the lovely dishes contributed by the other DMT members, prepared from the same cookbook, and I highly recommend everyone to grab a copy! I can’t wait to try out more recipes.

Michelle:

I cooked the Salmon Caesar Salad and it was awesome! It’s one of those dishes that looks great in the recipe book, but also looked great when I put it together (so often I find that a dish looks fantastic in the food styled photo, and my end result looks nowhere near as good!). I made a couple of changes to the recipe; call me crazy but I couldn’t find buttermilk at the supermarket no matter how hard I looked, and how many times I walked in circles (it was probably under my nose the whole time!) so I substituted low fat light sour cream. I also didn’t have plain wholemeal bread at home, so used the Helga’s light rye with pumpkin, sunflower and poppy seeds which was in the freezer … it made yummy croutons, and I was really generous with the garlic rub on both sides. As for the corn, I used low salt tinned corn kernels because I just didn’t have time to start from scratch with a fresh ear of corn.

I was really pleased with the results, and obviously so were the rest of the team because the dish disappeared pretty quickly! I have a couple of friends coming around for a barby on the weekend, and I plan to serve this as my main course; the only change I’ll make will be to add a little more lemon juice and cracked pepper to the dressing, as it was a little sweet for my taste. And after our team barby and the sensational dishes that everyone put together, I think I’ll probably do the Bruschetta with cannellini bean and rocket topping for nibbles to start with, and I’ll definitely finish off with the BBQ fruit parcels because they were fabulous. Trouble is, everything else was also so yummy, I’ll probably do my normal thing and put a couple of other dishes together as well (the Pork Fillet and Nectarine Salad is high on the list) … and end up with enough leftovers to feed a small African nation. All I can say is it’s a genetic thing, passed down from my mum, and her mum, and her mum … !

The thing that really impressed me about our whole event was how delicious every dish was. I’ve since bought a copy of the BBQ Cook Book for myself at home and started experimenting, and will also buy a few more to give as gifts. A friend of mine recently had his second heart attack and a subsequent 5-way heart bypass, and has been grumbling about the "rabbit food" his partner keeps feeding him. He’s first on my list to receive a copy of the book, because no-one could describe the food we ate as boring or tasteless, but it was all heart healthy. I can just hear him now … "who knew you could eat healthy and actually have something that tastes good at the same time?"!

Happy bbq-ing everyone … I hope you have the same great results that we had!

Kathy:

Phew! After reading all that I think I'd better keep my contribution to the blog as modest as my contribution to the BBQ! Which was... the vegetable pitas with goat's cheese and pesto mayo (page 22). I went vego to give some moral support to Suzanne, who's usually a lone voice in the wilderness. On this occasion she deserved extra support as she actually co-ordinated the menu for us - many thanks to the Hostess with the Mostest! Suzanne also brought along some little eggplants from her garden to add to my dish - they grilled up really well and absolutely "made" the dish. The mix of pesto and low fat mayo is a great idea and makes a fairly simple offering really tasty.

We all had great fun and a truly delicious lunch - we had heaps of leftovers, some of which we gave to the envious family cooking nearby, and the rest of which we brought back to the office and shared with the troops, who used terms such as "amazing" to describe our culinary feats. Thanks everyone, let's do it all again - soon!