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You are here: Home / Waiter, there's something in my... / Waiter, there’s something in my… meatless barbecue!

Waiter, there’s something in my… meatless barbecue!

by Jeanne Horak on August 11, 2007 15 Comments in Waiter, there's something in my...

WTSIM-meatless-barbecue

Hallelujah – summer seems to have arrived!  Long sunny afternoons, blue skies with fluffy clouds:  now this is more like it.  Everything seems better in summer.  There’s a spring in my step, I smile at strangers and I have more energy – just a pity we all know it can’t last 😉

But while it’s here, we make the most of it.  I got home last Friday to find Nick waiting at  the door.  “What do you think we should have for dinner?” were the first words out of his mouth as I stepped across the threshold.  And before waiting for an answer, he nodded towards the lamb chops defrosting on the counter and said “I thought maybe we could braai…”.  Clearly, it was more of an announcement than a question! and I have to say, there are few things that feel more indulgent and put me in a more expansive mood than the two of us sitting in our little garden chatting and sipping wine while Nick lazily keeps an eye on and turns the sizzling meat on the Weber.  Bliss.

But I digress – I’m not only here to share our little braai a deux.  I am actually here to announce the theme of this month’s Waiter, There’s Something in My… event, which I am proud to be hosting again.  And in fact, you can put all thoughts of sizzling lamb chops out of your head. As I’ve said before, a braai is the mainstay of many a South African social gathering, but what about those of us who don’t eat meat?  Often a braai is more like starvation rations for non-meat eaters as people seldon think beyond their steak, chops and sausage on the flames and leave the vegetarians to pick at the salads.  But when you start looking, there are a wealth of other options beyond meat.  Vegetables and fruit can be cooked both on the grid and in the coals, and if you have a gas grill you can cook an even greater variety of non-meat treats.  But I realise that for many people this total abandoning of the flesh may be just a tad too challenging, so I will widen the “no meat” rule to include seafood of any description, as long as you cook it outdoors on some sort of barbecue.  It doesn’t have to be a main course – you can still have your lamb chops, provided you tell us about the vegetable kebabs you had them with, or the grilled nectarines you had later. Get the picture?

So… what are the rules?

1. Write up your non-meat barbecue recipe (vegetables, fruit, fish – just no meat!) and please link back to this announcement in your post.

2.  E-mail me.  Please make sure that Waiter there’s something in my features in the subject line.

3. In the e-mail please include:

  • the URL of your entry
  • your blog’s name
  • the name of the dish
  • your approximate location

4.  The deadline for entries is Monday 27 August and I hope to have the roundup posted by the end of that week.

Come on babies, light those fires!

**STOP PRESS!**  It has come to my attention that some of you who want to take part in WTSIM don’t have access to barbecue facilities in your current accommodation (a violation of your basic human rights, if you ask me, but there you go!).  So, I’ve decided to amend the rules slightly.  If you own a griddle pan, feel free to prepare your vegetarian/pescatarian treats on that in lieu of a BBQ grill – and peeps, I wanna see those grill marks!  In fact, you can also do things wrapped in aluminium foil in the oven (no different to cooking, say, a potato in foil in the coals).  Does that make things a little easier? Off you go then – go forth and BBQ!

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  1. Mieliepap says

    August 11, 2007 at 10:15 pm

    How exciting ! To be sure, if you say: non-meat barbecue recipe (… fish – just no meat!), do you include/exclude poultry ?

    Reply
  2. Jeanne says

    August 12, 2007 at 12:34 am

    Hi Mieliepap
    Nope, poultry of any description is definitely EXCLUDED. Only if it lives in water or grows on a plant do I want to see it in your entry 😉 Kan nie wag om te sien wat jy maak nie!

    Reply
  3. Kit says

    August 12, 2007 at 7:55 pm

    I can do this one! Having married into a South African family I’m now fully trained in braai cuisine, though my husband of course is the braai master and I would never presume to match his levels of expertise with the tongs!

    Reply
  4. johanna says

    August 12, 2007 at 8:44 pm

    brillian, brilliant, brilliant… my daughter hardly eats any meat and I have a few vegetarian friends, so I always need to include a non-meat laternative! In fact, I’ve already prepared something this summer, just need to find a way to get the picture over here before the deadline… or we’ll have to braai on a disposable in front of the Vienna opera next week 😉

    Reply
  5. Boots in the Oven says

    August 12, 2007 at 8:52 pm

    Oh, poot! We don’t have a grill, and I don’t think out landlord would take kindly to us building a fire in front of the house… we might have to skip this one, unless we can prevail on a friend.
    Great idea, though! Husbear was a vegetarian for a long time and was always coming up with fun things to throw on the grill.

    Reply
  6. Jennifer Stewart says

    August 12, 2007 at 9:08 pm

    Like Boots, I don’t own/have access to a grill either. Best I can do is a grilling pan, alas.

    Reply
  7. Anne says

    August 13, 2007 at 7:26 am

    Oh, nice! I have a recipe for grilled cured salmon that I’ve been meaning to try, maybe I’ll actually get around to it now 🙂

    Reply
  8. Patricia Scarpin says

    August 13, 2007 at 9:18 pm

    Love, love, love the theme!

    Reply
  9. Jeanne says

    August 14, 2007 at 11:45 am

    Hi Kit,
    Oooh yes, we can’t take the tongs away from red-blooded South African men! That would be tantamount to cutting Samson’s hair 😉 Can’t wait to see what you come up with.
    Hi Johanna,
    LOL – the mental image of us huddled round a dispodable BBQ in a Vienna park (maybe in the Schoenbrunn grounds?!) is just too much. Looking forward to seeing what you make – and seeing as I will also only be returnign to London on the 27th, I’m sure I can cut you some slack on the submission date…
    Hi Boots,
    Well… you’re in luck! In view of a couple of people who have told me they don’t have access to an outdoor grill, I have decided to include food with griddle marks. So if you have a griddle pan and can show me something vegetarian/pescatarian with griddle marks, I’ll accept that too. Tempted??
    Hi Jen,
    See above. I await your entry with anticipation 😉
    Hi Anne,
    Oooh, that sounds wonderful! Look forward to reading all about it 🙂
    Hi Patricia,
    We aim to please…!

    Reply
  10. african vanielje says

    August 15, 2007 at 1:51 am

    Hi Jeanne, this is great, there is nothing I won’t braai. Will definitely join this event but how do I add the link to my post?

    Reply
  11. ejm says

    August 15, 2007 at 2:03 pm

    in re: “you can also do things wrapped in aluminium foil in the oven”
    Say what?!?? Oh, my, there is no need to wrap things in foil! (And how does one get grill marks that way? Paint?) I always think that foil pretty much defeats the purpose of using the barbecue. The smoke cannot penetrate through the foil. One might as well just steam the food on top of the stove in a covered pot.
    -Elizabeth
    P.S. How disorganized am I?! Just last night we cooked vegetables and buns on the barbecue as well as hamburgers. A couple of nights previous to that, we barbecued corn and foccaccia. Did I take photos? No. That would have been paying attention…

    Reply
  12. Jeanne says

    August 15, 2007 at 2:58 pm

    African Vanielje,
    Great to have you joining in! The link that you need to add to your post is https://www.cooksister.com/2007/08/waiter-theres-s.html
    Elizabeth,
    Au contraire, my dear!! Not to give the game away, but I did a stuffed butternut squash on the BBQ on Sunday and there is no way it would have survived its long stay in amongst the glowing goals without a protective layer of foil. And it had a very distinctive taste of woodsmoke (but that could have been from the holes poked in the tinfoil by the kebab skewers!). I agree that wrapping things in tinfoil parcels and cooking them on the grill is probably not an optimal use of a BBQ, but some things I like to cook take more time and need to be cooked in the coals rather than on the grill. I don’t think many people are going to be keen to eat a blackened potato/onion/squash that’s been lying in the coals for half an hour without being wrapped in tinfoil! Re. the griddle marks – that comment related to the pan – not to the cooking-in-the-coals method 🙂
    The bottom line is that I want to encourage participation, rather than be too finnicky and scare people off who are perhaps not so confident barbecuing meat-free meals.
    And re. your recent photo-less BBQ exploits: if all else fails, we happily aceept entries without pictures. You’ll just have to make your descriptions ultra-vivid 😉

    Reply
  13. Andrew says

    August 18, 2007 at 6:38 pm

    Glad you have expanded the remit slightly – was about to cry off this one; and we couldnt have that now!

    Reply
  14. ilingc says

    August 23, 2007 at 9:49 am

    umm.. the resident mum-in-law-to-be (not anytime soon) will think me mad for firing up the barbe in winter and so will her son! I’m glad you gave the thumbs up to ovens and/or griddle pan. Now that I can get away with. 🙂

    Reply
  15. Mansi says

    August 28, 2007 at 1:30 am

    Hi Jeanne,
    Just got to this in the nick of time, and sent in an entry 2 mins ago:) hope you like it, and the others!! can’t wait to get all fantastic bbq ideas in this round-up:)
    -Mansi

    Reply
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Jeanne Horak is a freelance food and travel writer; recipe developer and photographer. South African by birth and Londoner by choice, Jeanne has been writing about food and travel on Cooksister since 2004. She is a popular speaker on food photography and writing has also contributed articles, recipes and photos to a number of online and print publications. Jeanne has also worked with a number of destination marketers to promote their city or region. Please get in touch to work with her Read More…

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