Autumn BBQ

The historic B&B's garden:  surpassed by bbqs in the wilderness

If you are ever inclined to a self-drive holiday in Victoria, Australia, I'd highly recommend that you station your self in Bright for the week. Besides being a convenient location to many of the state's attractions, there's a historic Pioneer Mine Manager's House that's now run as a B&B. You get your own personal suite, replete with your private lounge and ensuite - all tastefully decorated to reflect the building's existence in the 1800s.

What I absolutely adore about the place is the provision of a picnic basket filled with all the cutlery and crockery required for a bbq lunch - wine glasses included! So the only pleasurable task we need do is drive off into the wilderness and select an outdoor bbq pit stop in some romantic secluded corner with the best views of the lush green landscape. And the aromatic heat from the running bbq pit, coupled with a glass or two of Victoria's best wines, fuels an inner glow as we're gently caressed by autumn's clime - making the bbq an excellent choice for a leisurely outdoor picnic lunch.  

To pack variety into the week's bbq lunches, select a different scenic spot each time and keep the Australian way of not marinating their meat for just a day or two. Then you have free rein to season, as you like, the particular cut of meat you fancy. And be adventurous with your marinate: spice it up with ingredients that you use for a dish that you normally pan-fry, deep-fry, stew, bake or roast!

To marinate the beef steak, I'd gamely borrowed the fusion-styled sauce for stir-frying beef bee hoon. And out of that hot-plate comes a succulent flavour of east meets west dripping from a slightly but beautifully charred serving of red meat. This culinary experience can be repeated with barbecuing lamb cutlets lovingly smeared with potent herbs and spices that go into roasting a rack of lamb.

Now, there are countless recipes for cooking farmed birds. So steal them to add favour before barbecuing the white meat. Pinch the spicy ingredients from the well-loved Jewish fried chicken thighs - a street food as popular to that community as mango salad is to the Thais. Or sneak the Chinese recipe for crispy duck into preparing quail for the grill and you've taken the first steps to creating your signature cooking style.

And the trick to barbecuing shelled prawns so that they char slightly quickly is to marinate them for some time in freshly squeezed lemon juice; as the fruit's acid will start cooking the prawns, turning them slightly pink. To ensure that the juice contrasts nicely with the other seasonings, it's vital that you pick a recipe that already incorporates lime or lemon juice into the dish. Then the perfectly grilled prawns will harmoniously complement the crisp fresh autumn air too, playing delightfully on all your senses.