All you need is a number of potatoes all much the same size so they will cook evenly.  Allow at least one potato per person.

1. Scrub the potatoes to remove any dirt, but leave the skin on.  Cut or tear the foil into squares  large enough to wrap each potato individually
2. Coat the inside of the foil with cooking oil and place each potato in the centre of the foil and roll up the foil around the potato.  You can season with herbs, salt and pepper before wrapping them up if you want to
3. Seal the edges by folding the excess foil over the potato
4. Place the potatoes on the barbecue grill and turn regularly until cooked.  Depending on the size of the potatoes, these can take from 15 – 30 minutes to cook.
5. Test with a metal skewer or thin bladed knife to check if the potatoes are cooked.  Alternatively, gently squeeze the potatoes – they will be soft when cooked
6. To serve, open the top of the foil and cut a cross in the top of the potato.  Squeeze the potato  to open it up and spoon a dollop of yoghurt, cream or butter into the fluffy cooked potato.
7. Garnish with parsley, basil leaves or sprinkle with paprika

If you put the prepared vegetable pieces on a platter, everyone can make up their own kebabs.

Great for the children as they get to choose which vegetebles they want to eat.

Ingredients

Take a selection of any of the following vegetables:

Cubed eggplant, zucchini
Button mushrooms
Cherry tomatoes or quartered larger tomatoes
Pieces of potato,  kumara (Sweet potato) – partially pre-cooked
Capsicum – any colour, red, green, yellow etc

Method

If you are using wooden or bamboo kebab sticks, soak them in cold water for 15 minutes before you load them with vegetables.  (The sticks won’t burn on the barbecue if they’re wet).

If you’re using metal kebab sticks, make sure you have a thick  dry cloth to handle them when the vegetables are cooked to save getting burnt fingers

Thread 3-5 pieces of different vegetables on each stick.  Vary the colours so you don’t have all the green ones and all the red ones together.

Coat lightly with cooking oil and pace on the barbecue grill.  Turn regularly and coat with more oil if they start to look a bit dry.  Eggplant especially needs plenty of oil.

Vegetable kebabs can take 15-20 minutes to cook.

The main thing is to get the heat going under the grill plate so it doesn’t burn everything in sight but neither does it take hours to cook and test everyone’s patience.

You will need to follow the instructions that come with your barbecue and practise till you work out what works best on your barbecue.

So what to cook on your barbecue?

Barbecued meats

Some people say that it’s not a barbeque without sausages – and tomato sauce.  Basic barbecue sausages are sold precooked by butchers and supermarkets.  These are probably a good starting point as you only need to heat them through and you can be assured  that no-one will end up eating raw sausage meat.

Once you have had some practice you can experiment with the wide range of sausages on the market if you want to try different flavours.

Meat patties are good on the barbecue and can be sandwiched in a hamburger bun with sliced raw tomatoes, lettuce leaves and other salad ingredients.

Steak is another staple barbecue meat. You can often buy steaks that have been marinaded to tenderise them.

Or you can use pieces of rump steak or porterhouse steak. Either of these will be tender enough and won’t need much cooking.

Lamb chops work well too.

Chicken is very tasty when cooked on the barbecue but you do need to be especially careful to make sure its well cooked to avoid any risk of food poisoning.  Its worth doing a quick pre-cook of chicken pieces in the microwave or on a frying pan on the stovetop.

Clearly it’s important to time your cooking well.  Raw sausages and chicken need longer cooking so put them on first.  You can cook them through and keep them warm while you cook the meat patties, steaks or chops.

A barbecue can be made with just sausages or steaks or you can use several different meats.  Don’t be tempted to cook more than 2-3 different types of meat.