Parsley, Lemon, Caper & Garlic Seabass

Here's a gem of a recipe for a marinade that transforms a beautiful piece of fish into a tangy flavoursome dinner. This recipe is great as the ingredients for the marinade are very healthy, but also very tasty.

The weather for us here in the South of Ireland isn't quite there for us yet this summer in terms of BBQ time, but when the sun does start to emerge, this is a wonderful recipe for all BBQ fish dishes.

Ingredients

• 2 lemons
• 2 tbsp of flat leaf parsley
• 2 tsp of capers
• 3 tbsp of olive oil
• 1 clove of garlic
• 2 seabass, gutted and scaled
• Salt and pepper

To serve

• Extra chopped flat leaf parsley
• lemon wedges

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees.
2. In a mini blender, add the juice of a lemon, the flat leaf parsley, capers, oil, and garlic. Season with salt and pepper and pulse for a few seconds.
3. Cut 3 incisions in  each fillet on the fish. Cut the 2nd lemon into thin slices and place each lemon slice into the  the cut incisions on the fish, and divide the remaining slices into the cavity of the fish.
4. Rub the parsley marinade into both the outside and the inside cavity of the fish. 
5. All to marinade for 10 minutes. 
6. Bake the fish on a baking tray for 15 minutes or until the fish is cooked through.
7. Serve with a scattering of chopped herbs and lemon wedges.

Thai BBQ Prawns

This is a quick and easy recipe for Thai BBQ prawns. All you need is some metal skewers and sunshine, and then you're ready to throw some shrimp on the barbie!!!

Although sunshine is preferred, it is rarely guaranteed, so this recipe is just as good cooked on a griddle pan.

Makes 2 skewers

Ingredients

• 8 Crevettes (prawns, uncooked, unshelled)
• 2 metal skewers
• Thai marinade

Marinade

• 1 inch piece of ginger, peeled and finely diced
• 1 garlic clove, peeled and finely diced
• 1/2 a red chilli, finely diced
• 1 stick of lemongrass, peeled and finely diced
• 3 tbsp of diced fresh coriander
• Zest and juice of 1 lime
• 1 tbsp of oil

Method

1. Mix all the marinade ingredients together.
2. Add the prawns to the marinade and leave for 3 minutes.
3. Place 4 prawns on each metal skewer (starting with the 'neck' and push the skewer out again at the 'tail')
4. Either place the skewers on a hot BBQ or Griddle pan and cook for 2 minutes and turn them and cook for a further minute.

Deshelling prawns can be quite messy so be prepared to get your fingers messy, though after you can lick them clean!!! Have a small bowl of lemon water and napkins handy to de-prawn.

Harissa Spiked BBQ Chicken Kebabs

We have got to make the most out of this glorious summer heatwave we have at the moment, as going by previous summers lately, it could be short lived! So we'll be dining alfresco and having dinner from the bbq grill for as long as we possibly can.
Its not a weekend, so we are trying to keep the dinners low fat where possible. These spicy and smoky harissa spiked chicken kebabs are so tasty, you don't even realise that they are really low fat and very healthy!
I'm pairing the kebabs with a simple green salad and some couscous salad for the hubbie.

Ingredients

• 2 chicken breasts, cut into strips
• 2 tbsp of harissa paste
• 1 lemon, zest and juice
• 1/2 garlic clove
• 1 tsp of orange marmalade
• Pepper

To Serve (optional extras)

• Greek yogurt
• Salad
• Flat breads

Method

1. In a bowl add the chicken and the remaining ingredients. 
2. Mix well and leave to marinade for an hour or so.
3. Fire up the BBQ or preheat a grill to medium
4. Thread a metal/wooden skewer with the chicken and grill, until cooked, turning often.

BBQ Whole Chicken

With the unexpected hot March weather, we jumped at the opportunity to whip out the BBQ for a lazy Sunday evening. BBQs for our family always is an insane meat fest with steaks, sausages, burgers and ribs. Nothing wrong with that at all, in fact some would say the 'meat sweats' are an obligatory part of the BBQ ritual. I wanted to do something a little different for this BBQ, something less intense than steaks and burgers. So I decided to cook chicken, not just chicken wings, or drumsticks, but a whole chicken!!! Its way more economically friendly to buy a whole chicken that to buy prepacked chicken pieces. It's also tastier to cook a chicken whole. 

The Prep
I never jointed a chicken before, I just rested on my laurels and it kinda paid off. What I did is I got a good pair of sharp kitchen scissors,and thats all I used. I prepared my marinades, Paprika & Honey and Garlicy Lemon, & Thyme (recipes below). These are my two favourite marinades for a roast chicken and they will work perfectly for BBQ Chicken.







Once the marinades were prepped, I set about flattening out my chicken so he can rest comfortably on the BBQ grill. What I did was I placed the chicken in front of me, breast side up and with the scissors I cut down the centre of the two breasts. Once I had cut the whole length of the chicken, I turned the chicken over and leaned down on it with my own weight (the poor chicken !!) and snapped some bones to get him nice and flat.
One little trick I did with the chicken before I cut him down the middle is I gently slide my fingers under the skin, to separate the skin from the meat. This, for some reason, really crisps up the skin.

I seasoned the chicken well with salt and pepper, skin side and under side. I then massaged the chicken with the marinades, coating every inch of the chicken. Be care with the paprika marinade, that stains EVERYTHING!!! Leave the chickens to marinade for 1-2 hours and they are good to go!

The Marinades


Paprika & Honey

• 2 tbsp of smoked paprika
• Leaves from 2 sprigs of thyme
• 3 tbsp of runny honey
• Juice of 1 lemon
• 3 tbsp of olive oil
• 1 grated garlic clove

Garlicy Lemon & Thyme

• 2 grated garlic cloves
• Zest of 2 lemons
• Juice of 2 lemons
• leaves from 5 sprigs of thyme
• 1 tbsp of olive oil

The Method

1. Mix the marinade ingredients together in two separate jugs
2. Prepare the chicken (as above) and place plates.
3. Rub the marinades into the chickens and allow to rest for 1-2 hours
4. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees
5. Place the chickens on foil trays, skin side up and roast in the oven for 35 minutes.
6. Get the BBQ nice and hot.
7. Remove the chicken from the oven and place on the BBQ grill skin side up.
8. Cook on the BBQ for 10-15 minutes.
9. Remove from the BBQ tray onto the serving tray, cover with tin foil and rest for min. 15 minutes.
10. Serve to the table whole.