Caravan Cook: Foiled feasts

I adore barbecues at any time of the year - delicious, yummy, sumptuous food and good times - 'cause sitting around the barbecue with your family and friends is all part of the pleasure, sharing great food as well as thoughts and plans for future travels. So please, let's not spoil this idyllic feast with anything as tedious as a huge washing-up.

This is why all of the following recipes are cooked in foil parcels. It is a healthy way of barbecueing with all of the flavours of the food enclosed in a foil parcel, and at the end of the meal, cleaning up consists of crunching up the alfoil and popping it into a bin.

Injecting a dark note into this feast of flavour is difficult, but here I go: if you are going to use a public barbecue or even a barbecue in a caravan park, you might notice that it has not been left in the cleanest condition. Sad but true. This is less likely to happen at caravan parks, but unless the owner of the park maintains a constant vigil at the barbecue area with a bucket of hot soapy water (impossible: they have too much to do already), the barbecue grills or plates are sometimes left looking distinctly used.

This is where foil cookery comes into its own. Simply scrub the plate (or grill) with some paper towel to remove most of the left-behind mess, toss the paper towel into the bin and you are good to go with your alfoil parcels of food. Even better, you will be leaving a cleaner barbecue behind you.

SPICY BURGER
These burgers are absolutely delicious with a chilli-con-carne-style pocket of flavour sandwiched in the middle of the meat. As with all the recipes this month, they are cooked in alfoil. The following quantities will serve four.

Divide the mince into eight portions and make a thin meat patty with each portion. Place four of the patties in the centres of double thickness alfoil. The alfoils need to be large enough to enclose each completed hamburger.

In a small bowl combine the onion, kidney beans, chilli, tomato and cumin. Spoon this mixture evenly over the top of the four meat patties that you have placed on the alfoils. Cover with the remaining four meat patties so that you have a sandwich effect. Seal the parcels tightly with the foil, ensuring that you can open the foil parcel from the top.

Cook the foil parcels on a barbecue grill for about 15 minutes on one side. Turn the foil parcels over and cook for about 15 minutes on the other side. At the completion of the cooking time, carefully open the foil parcels and top each of the hamburgers with a quarter of the cheese. Leave the hamburgers on the barbecue grill until the cheese begins to melt and then enjoy.

FOILED POTATOES
I have good old spuds in this recipe but you can also use foil parcels of butternut pumpkin (skin left on) sprinkled with a little nutmeg, or sweet potatoes (peeled) sprinkled with perhaps a little cumin or chilli. Beetroot is great cooked this way and doesn't need to be peeled. Perhaps the beetroot can be served with a little sour cream after cooking. The same technique used in cooking the potatoes is used for the pumpkin, sweet potato and beetroot.

Preheat your barbecue grill.

Carefully using a sharp knife, make a series of deep cuts almost all of the way through the potato. Now tear off six pieces of foil that will be large enough to enclose each potato. Place a potato on a square of foil, brush with a generous amount of the olive oil and then sprinkle with some grated garlic. Repeat with the remaining potatoes and then enclose completely in the foil. Cook over hot coals or on a barbecue grill for an hour, turning occasionally.

To serve, carefully open the potato parcels and push the sides to open up the slices.

BANANA PARCELS
What is a feast without dessert? Actually you don't have to use foil in this recipe because the bananas can grill in their own skins but enclosing them in foil makes them a lot easier to handle. Serves four.

Preheat your barbecue.

Combine the butter, rum, orange juice and sugar in a small bowl until well blended. Place each of the bananas into a small boat of foil and cook over the barbecue, turning frequently until the skins have blackened. This should take about five minutes.

Remove the foil boats with the bananas from the heat. Cut through the skins of the bananas and slightly into the flesh. Top the bananas with a generous portion of the butter/rum mixture and serve. Has anyone seen the ice cream?