Waiter, there’s something in my… 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!