Roll on my Early Summer

I'm writing this in blazing sunshine in mid April, sitting in a park in Beckenham, on the fringes of the South London.  So forgive me for me wanting Summer to begin right now.

Summer days, albeit a very warm April, will be with us soon and my mind and taste buds are looking forward to the abundant fresh produce and the bright colours that Summer always brings to our meals, life and gathering of friends.  After all, what better way to enjoy the good weather than to entertain friends or to organise an impromptu banquet at a local park or beach?

I've turned to my diaries and notebooks for inspiration, what were my partner and I doing for the last few Summers, what get-togethers did we arrange, what food did I cook, what made Summer?

Some of the spices and herbs, the smells and tastes, evoke memory and I can't help smiling, sunshine, good food and great company, can do this. 

Bright tomatoes and oregano came immediately to mind and then lemon zest merges with orange and then this morphs to more exotic combinations and flavours.  Yellow courgettes with caraway, especially those only a few inches long, if that, stuffed with cheeses or a fish medley and baked in an oven ready to be served with a luscious green salad and griddled ripe tomatoes, halved and sprinkled with ground pepper, perhaps some seared orange segments served with toasted almonds.

Already the smells are coming through with colour and I turn back to green salad and think of coriander, both seeds and herb and think of thick Greek yogurt gorged with them, with fillets of monkfish or chicken marinating overnight in the fridge only to be cooked over a charcoal embers the following evening, surrounded by friends with glassed of wine and beer.  To the side I see feta salad, perhaps Greek, perhaps just with melon or cucumber and fresh bread served with tapenade.

I have other dreams of Summer, some from 1976 and 1977.  The Summers of the great drought that made the summer holidays just that bit more fun and the Silver Jubilee year just a little like being on a film set.  The Brotherhood of Man won for the UK in 1976 with "Save all your kisses for me" and in 1977, Marie Myriam who represented France, won with her song "L'oiseau et L'Enfant".

I remember people smiling a whole lot more, especially when I think of the Winters we had all in a row, I remember one of them being so bad Dad had to dig our way out of the house (it was mid-Wales and I think it was the 77-78 one.  I can remember one of them without electricity, thank our parents for being a coal and wood household, we certainly weren't cold.  Friends in town had to stay with relatives because they lived in houses with only electricity.  The plus side to this, for us kids anyway, was not being able to get to school. snow fights and teasing your little sister about snow monsters and frost giants. 

But my dreams of Summer prevail and they always borrow facets from other places, namely other places where I've seen happy faces and experienced warm sun really.  Our holidays in Thassos, my visits to Malta and most recently our visit to see Susan and her family in Australia.

Although my body (heat and sun-stroke) isn't too keen, I am happier on a Summer day.  I have to go and sit in the shade on a regular basis, and I have learnt that even if I am in the shade but temperature is over 35 degrees, I need to go indoors, no mater well I feel, and drink plenty of liquid.  But it doesn't stop me watching others enjoy the heat and it gives me respite to go into the kitchen and prepare something light and tasty for others to enjoy.

With all this said, I want Summer to happen sooner, so if the weather doesn't hold out, at least we have the food and the smiles to look forward to.

Over the next few weeks, I will be endeavouring to bring forward Summer and the enjoyment it brings.

Bear with me, I may miss a few times, but hopefully the spirit of Summer will be felt along the way.

Welcome to my Early Summer

Post Eurovision recipe - number three

Bloody Mary Tomatoes

Makes 24-30

Easy and very alcoholic

Take 24-30 small vine tomatoes (I know, technically all tomatoes are…)

For the filling

• two dessert spoons of tomato puree
• a 200 gram can of drained chopped tomatoes (or another 10-15 skinned small vine tomatoes chopped and drained)
• a dessert spoon of tabasco
• two dessert spoons of premium vodka
• two dessert spoons of dry sherry
• a level teaspoon of celery salt

Combine and leave aside for at least 2 hours

Cut the top off each of the tomatoes, extract the seeds and excess pulp.  Fill each one carefully with the above mixture.

Dress with chopped parsley.

Great with vodka Martini's … HIC!

Post Eurovision recipe - number two

Tarragon Parcels

I love this recipe because so many different combinations can be used.  I originally used the filling recipe to go with pasta and then altered it to use for pastries when a vegetarian friend came round for supper unexpectedly one day.  I had already made a chicken pie so there was left over pastry in the fridge. 

Sometime afterwards we were having a Summer party and I wanted something other than the regular snacks, dips, chicken pieces and tarts, so I had the idea to make these in large batches. 

Once you've done it once, it's very easy to scale up for large amounts of people.

Try this with pork and sage and use the white part of leeks for the vegetable.  The stock should be made of half vegetable stock and dry cider.

Alternatively, try with salt cod and using smoked paprika  and thyme and using sweet red and orange peppers as the vegetable.  To the stock add three crushed cardamom pods.

For the pure veggies amongst you, use chestnut mushrooms or, if in season, puff balls and use the same ingredients (bar the meat of course) as the recipe below.

***

• 50 grams of fresh tarragon
• 200 grams of chicken breasts
• 150 grams of asparagus or artichoke hearts
• 100 grams of single cream
• Plain flour
• Olive oil
• 1oz of salted butter
• Pepper
• 1 medium sized onion
• Two pints of vegetable stock
• Pre-bought short crust pastry (500 grams)
• A large egg, beaten and a pastry brush.

***
First poach the chicken in the vegetable stock and allow to cool in the stock.

To make the cream sauce, first melt the butter in the olive oil, add finely chopped onion and ground black pepper on a medium heat until the onion has softened.  Then add two heaped teaspoons of plain sifted flour and combine thoroughly until the mixture becomes "sticky".

Add approximately a third of the remaining vegetable stock and keep stirring until the mixture has started to thicken.  Turn the heat down to low and add the single cream a little at time whilst continually stirring and maintaining the thickness of the sauce.   Then remove from the heat.

Cut the asparagus into 3 cm lengths, including an additional top 3 cm of stalk if early in the season and/or artichoke hearts into slices of approximately the same dimensions.  Blanch in salted water that has been brought to a rolling boil for about 3 minutes.  Drain, and allow to cool

Chop the chicken, the cooled vegetables and tarragon and mix into the sauce mixture well.  Set aside to steep and marinade.

Creating the parcels:

Roll out the pastry on a floured surface to a 2-3 mm thickness.  Using a tea plate as a template, cut out a number of circles of pastry.  Bring together the remaining pastry and re-roll out for further rounds.

With a buttered baking tray ready, take your first round of pastry and add a desert spoon of the chicken mixture to its centre.  Depending on the size of the round you may get a little more filing onto it whilst still leaving one and a half cm around the edge.  Using the a little of the beaten egg mixture on the edges for "glue" and taking bringing the folding furthest edge over towards you and pressing into a half moon.  Crimp the edges between thumb and forefinger and place on baking tray.  This should make up to eight good sized parcels. 

Use either the remaining egg or rub olive oil over the top of each pocket before placing in 200c pre-heated oven for 30-35 minutes, or until golden brown.

Once cooked leave on the side to cool.  Freezes well.  Defrost completely and then reheat gradually on a baking sheet with paper underneath in a medium oven (160/170c).

Post Eurovision recipe - number one

After a busy Eurovision weekend, I'm catching up with recipes that people have been asking about.

The turkey papettes are a take on a French left-overs in which rolls of cooked meat are given a filling and then recooked in a gravy or sauce.

These particular "rolls" are dry and make really good party food.  The rolls once cooked and cooled are cut on the diagonal and served with cocktail sticks and a Dijon mayonnaise.

Turkey Papettes

The turkey papettes are easy.  The filling is for about 700 grams of turkey meat (which have been cut into steaks and beaten thinly).

• One large onion
• 150 grams of pork liver pate
• Three or four generous pinches of dried herbs (an equal mix of tarragon, thyme and sage) and a good pinch of salt.
• A good glug of olive oil and a generous knob of butter.

Slowly melt the filling ingredients over a slow heat for about 20-30 minute and allow to cool.  The onions will have needed to soften and pate amalgamate into a rough paste.

Take approximately two dozen thin asparagus spears (or slice thick ones lengthwise) and cut to approximately 8-10 cms in length.

Spread a two generous teaspoons of the pate filling onto the thinned turkey steaks and arrange two to three spears down the centre.  Roll the meat and pin together shut with cocktail sticks or tie with string.

Once all the rolls have been done, rub olive oil over the top and place in a pre-heated oven (@200c) for between 30-40 minutes - or until the rolls are bronzed.

Take out and cool and once they have rested for 30 minutes or so, slice on diagonal to serve. 

An alternative that I've used is a neck lamb joint - sliced along its length and opened up butterfly fashion.  Beat to very long, thin (about a cm or less).  The filling is along the same lines as the one below, but using a layer of cooked spinach instead of the asparagus and using three times the amount of herbs - albeit a fresh mix including tarragon, thyme and flat leaf parsley.  I roll this length wise - quite tricky - and tie it with string - putting this in a medium oven 165-175c - covered for the first 30 minutes of cooking and then a further 30 minutes without.  The final 30 minutes I put a mix chopped sweet peppers and courgettes around the meat.

For a light supper (with no carbs) this would serve two easily.