BBQ Tips: How to host the perfect BBQ from Giftlab.co.uk

Here in the UK the sun pops out from behind a cloud for five minutes and everyone's changing into their shorts and t-shirts (while the Prof just takes all his clothes off so he's naked under his lab coat – it isn't a pretty sight). It's no surprise then, that after a week of constant sunshine, BBQ season has officially begun.
As you know, here at giftlab.co.uk we like to make ourselves useful so with the first whiffs of a BBQ (We smelt the first one on Mother's Day... can anyone beat that? Comment below if you can and you might win a prize!) we were already leafing through cook books, searching the web, and trying out our own styles of cooking so that we could give you our Top Ten Tips on how to host the perfect BBQ and a range of recipes guaranteed to win over your guests. So, without further ado here's how you can impress all your friends and family with your outdoor cooking skills:

Cooking:

1. Marinate the meat overnight and remember to baste it during the last 5-10 minutes of grilling.
2. Season the grill with olive oil and rosemary before you start cooking – it adds a little extra that will leave everyone saying “mmmm... how did you get that flavour?”
3. When using wooden skewers always soak well in water before use – obviously we would advise doing away with the wooden skewers and cooking everything on our BBQ sword. http://www.giftlab.co.uk/product_details_34_18_bbq-sword---as-featured-on-the-gadget-show.html
4. If you want the meat to cook through quickly, bring it to room temperature before you place it on the grill. Not only does it speed up the cooking time but it will also drain the fat better.
5. For a little extra flavour add a powdered spice to your meat (make some without though – remember, not everyone likes spicy food)
6. Light the BBQ well in advance (follow manufacturer’s instructions) before you plan to start cooking – make sure you use enough charcoal, and wait until it is glowing red (with a powdery grey surface) before you start cooking.
7. Cooking in a windy area could prolong the cooking time so make sure you pick a sheltered spot before you light the BBQ (obviously don't light the BBQ and then decide to move it – this is dangerous.)
8. Always keep a bucket of water by you in case of an emergency.
9. If your BBQ is a spontaneous one and it's getting dark, make sure you have enough light to see what you're doing. You don't want to end up with burnt sausages and you certainly don't want to start a fire.
10. Don't be lazy – a clean grill not only cooks better but it won't leave a disgusting taste on the food.

Food tips:

For the veggies (and veggies who eat fish!):

• Monkfish barbecues really well - it is just meaty enough to hold together well. Why not try Monkfish kebabs on rosemary skewers with ciabatta and pancetta – a giftlab favourite!
• Salmon and tuna also go really well on the BBQ, but otherwise you would probably need to look at a whole fish (possibly in foil!) like sea bass or trout if you want to cook fish on your BBQ.
• Try par boiling baby new potatoes then making a bag out of some tin foil add olive oil, seasoning and some fresh rosemary and pop them on the BBQ. You can use the same technique for most veggies but if you are cooking asparagus like that try to make sure to keep them flat so they all cook evenly. With Butternut squash you will need to quarter it and scoop out the seeds then wrap in foil.
• Timing these veggies is really quite difficult; as it will depend on the size of the veg and the temperature of the barbecue but normally they'll take about the same time as they would in an oven.
• Buy a corn on the cob and barbecue it with the husks on. Then when it is about done use some oven gloves and pull the husks off - you will probably need a pair of scissors to make sure you have them completely off otherwise they will catch light. Another giftlab favourite.

For the carnivores:

• To make a good pork chop try this recipe: crush some garlic cloves, mix with some grated stem ginger, some ground cumin, ground coriander seeds and chilli powder. Then add just enough sesame oil and dark soy to make it all sticky and gooey. Brush this onto the chops and throw them on the BBQ. Then use the BBQ Sword to hold them over the BBQ with the fat down so it crisps up nicely like instant crackling!
• To cook the perfect chicken take it off the bone and lie it on a chopping board, cover it with cling film and bash it with a meat mallet or rolling pin until it's half a cm thick all over. (It's important it's the same thickness so it cooks at the same speed throughout). Crush a garlic clove and mix with a teaspoon of paprika, a teaspoon of grainy mustard and a teaspoon of honey. Smother this mix over both sides of the chicken - but not so much that it drips - and chuck it straight on the barbie. With the chicken so thin it will cook quickly and safely. You can make a sauce using the remainder of the paprika/mustard mixture - just heat it gently in a pan with either some plain Greek yoghurt or some double cream. Yummy.
• Steak is one of the best cuts of meat to barbecue. Just score it on one side with some ground black pepper and brushed with olive oil to stop it sticking. It is quite difficult to go wrong with cooking a steak on the BBQ but a common mistake is to turn it too often. Ideally you should only turn the steak once. 
• For burgers mix the spices (salt, pepper etc) and add them into the patties making sure they're around ¾ inch thick. Make sure you use ground beef that has at least 20% fat as you need that for the juices. Make an indentation in the centre of the burger to eliminate the “plumping” in the middle then throw them on the BBQ.

A nice side salad:

• Bean salad: Get some cans of mixed beans from the supermarket, rinse them thoroughly and add some canned sweetcorn, chopped spring onions and red peppers along with a jar of salsa. This will go beautifully with the barbecued meats.
• Pasta Salad : Use coloured shapes mixed with peppers, apple, celery, grapes and a low-fat dressing of yogurt, curry powder and mango chutney.
• New Potatoes tossed with fresh mint and chives or jacket potatoes with a cottage cheese topping.

Sauces & Dips:

• Natural yogurt, 45ml(3tbsp), Curry paste, 15ml(1tbsp), Lemon juice, 5ml(1tsp)
• Pineapple, crushed, 432g can Chilli sauce, 30ml(2tbsp) Garlic cloves, 2 crushed
• Wine, 150ml red or white Fresh Herbs, chopped, 30ml(2tbsp) Olive oil, 15ml(1tbsp) Garlic cloves, 2, crushed

Finally - Safety:

• Don't leave the BBQ unattended.
• Ensure that the ‘chef’ wears an apron and washes hands before cooking and in between putting food on and taking it off the BBQ.
• Keep all raw and cooked food separate and keep it “wrapped and refrigerated”.
• Keep meat refrigerated for as long as possible before cooking – and put the oven on to keep them warm after cooking.
• Use separate BBQ utensils when handling raw and cooked food.
• Check sausages and burgers are cooked through, (juices should run clear). Steaks being ‘solid’ meat rather than minced or chopped are quite safe eaten when cooked to rare or medium.
• Make sure frozen meat is thoroughly thawed (unless otherwise stated) before cooking and do not refreeze once thawed.

Tips on How To Use Your Holga Camera from giftlab.co.uk and Elliot Muir
words by Elliot Muir

Whenever art or culture gets too sophisticated and tidy, you’ll usually find some creative insurgent unpicking it all, urgently trying to find something random and rootsy underneath. The Holga camera is the latest incarnationof lo-fi chic, and is currently ripping up the red carpet of mainstream digital photography. Holga is unashamedly the worst camera ever made. All the flaws that grown-up camera manufacturers have spent decades trying to eradicate are joyriding around her insides. Technically she is classed as a toy camera, but don’t be fooled – in the right hands she’s a serious creative tool with the potential to make your brain glow rainbows.

Part of Holga’s great charm is that her users require hardly any photographic experience to start making quirky images. By far the best approach is to shoot first and ask questions later, but here are a few tips to help start you off.

WHERE TO BUY:

Buy your Holga online at www.giftlab.co.uk or www.lomography.comBe very careful on ebay, most of them come from Hong Kong and include a Free Gift!! but you may have to wait2 Months!! for delivery. If you can’t wait, then try the Photographers Gallery in Covent Garden, but be preparedto pay more. You shouldn’t ever pay more than around £40 or £50 for a brand new Holga.

FILM:

Generally, most pros will agree that pound for pound, film yields more vibe than digital. Holga has been built to work with high grade 120mm film, which is fairly near the top of tree in terms of image quality and resolution. You usually get what you pay for – cheap grade consumer film is a false economy. To find out more, have a good look at www.lomography.com/filmshop – then check out www.ebay.com or www.7dayshop.com for the bestprices.

SHOOTING:

• Always make sure that the little switch on the bottom is set to N – this is the Normal setting. B stands for Bulb and you only use this at night for long exposures. Return it to N after making long exposures or you’ll blur and overexpose all your shots.
• Holga needs a lot of light. You’ll probably find that you have to use flash for most shots that aren’t in bright
sunlight.
• Be careful with the back of the camera, it has a tendency to fall off and wipe your film. Opening the back of the camera very slightly with film inside will give you ‘light leaks’ – magical peachy stains of retro analogue authenticity. They’re great.
• Pimp up your Holga. Go to www.squarefrog.co.uk and www.holgamods.com for detailed advice on modificationsand experimental techniques.

PROCESSING:

Most Holga people get their films processed by mail order. One popular place is www.spectrumimaging.co.uk but also try www.spectrumphotolabs.co.uk – they’re a bit more expensive but the quality of their work is faultlessand they still do proper B&W processing. On the high street, Snappy Snaps and Jessops are good, but pricey.

SHARING:

Show your pics on Flickr and you’ll soon get an idea of what works and what doesn’t. Flickr group forums are thebest place to find answers to any technical difficulties you may have. Check out –

www.flickr.com/groups/86881528@N00/
www.flickr.com/groups/dontforgettotakethelenscapoff
www.flickr.com/groups/holgachic
www.flickr.com/groups/holgaweekly

SUCCESS

Holga is rapidly gaining acceptance as a legitimate tool for both editorial and fine art photographic work, so there are some pretty exciting new opportunities opening up. Just remember not to take it too seriously; Holga works best when you leave space for chaos.

Elliot Muir is a graphic designer, writer and photographer – you can see more of his work at www.flickr.com/photos/elliotmuir

For the full press release and photos go to http://www.giftlab.co.uk/blog/?p=73


Greens (Eco Products) beat the retail Blues

Despite all this talk of the downturn in the retail market there is an emerging trend for environmentally responsible products, www.giftlab.co.uk has seen an upsurge in sales and interest in green goods.
Jim Cox, the MD of The Giftlab says “ We have seen a significant rise in sales in our green products this year, customers are choosing to spend what cash they have in a more educated way, it seems environmental concerns are paramount to consumer's gift buying decisions”
Giftlab currently have two products that have an eco-edge and are about to launch a third, with the search for more definitely under way.Mybag is a fold up eco-friendly shopper that comes in a range of bright colours, the handle becomes the case which packs up to the size of a mobile and tucks nicely into a hand bag, it retails for £5.95 and is the perfect add-on sale. The Beanpod is a re-usable, recyclable, gift with a purpose, plus, being made in the UK, it leaves a minimal carbon footprint.  For countless legions of closet gardeners without a garden, Beanpod provides the opportunity to grow a herb garden from scratch, on the kitchen window. There are 3 different herbs available, basil, chives and parsley and it retails for £6.95. And then there's Plantochi,  a small, living plant which grows in soil, in a small plastic capsule. Plantochis are cactuses and succulents. Grown in Korea, these plants are of the very highest quality. Looked after properly, Plantochis can last a lifetime. After 6 to 12 months, when your Plantochi outgrows its capsule, just plant your little green friend in a pot. Retail £6.95.


The Best, Affordable Gifts Online Now Available In The One Place! www.giftlab.co.uk

The Giftlab, opened for business in May 2008 and since then has seen an unprecedented amount of interest in it's product range. The Giftlab prides itself on it's unique offering, as well as affordability. Most products on www.giftlab.co.uk are under £20 meaning customers don't have to look elsewhere.The Giftlab also offers great service and has many happy customers. Jim Cox MD of The Giftlab says "When people buy on the internet they have to be more than 100% happy to commit to the purchase, and that's why at Giftlab we offer a 100% satisfaction guarantee or your money back" With new products launching all the time and a commitment to unique, affordable gifts and great service the future is looking bright for www.giftlab.co.uk