You return from the stores with cherries, their skins tight and vivid, the shade of Beaujolais. Green-shouldered tomatoes, fat red peppers, and a bunch of basil, its leaves as massive as bay. A heavy wedge of watermelon possibly, a groovy cucumber, and spiky bunches of the warm rocket. Summer buying is frustrating. Peaches or nectarines? Peas in the pod or huge beans? Should we buy radishes and artichokes? We need food for the grill, something to marinade, but something of substance. (Seafood for a potato-crowned pie, chicken for the barbeque.) From now until overdue autumn, there is almost an excessive amount to pick out. We ought to make the most of it.
Watermelon, salted ricotta, and pumpkin seeds
A halved watermelon becomes a fixture in the fridge until early autumn. Its ruby flesh is chilled, waiting to become a part of a salad or reduced thick and brought out on a plate of crushed ice to finish a garden lunch. A watermelon laughs loudest when it’s far matched with chili as it’s so frequently in Mexico, but also when inside the organization of salty cheeses with feta or ricotta Salata.
In the deepest summertime, I soak iceberg lettuce, bunches of thick-stemmed watercress, and white-nippled radishes for 20 minutes in a bowl of ice and water to crisp and refresh. The watermelon wishes a terrific hour inside the refrigerator before slicing. The marriage of ice-bloodless melon, salty cheese, and chili is mind-blowing. Tweak the number of chili flakes to suit your very own flavor. My batch is fiercely warm, so I proceed with a warning, a pinch at a time.
watercress one bunch
purple chicory leaves 100g
Radishes 200g
coriander seeds 2 tsp
olive oil 4 tbsp
pumpkin seeds 45g
fennel seeds 1 tsp
chili flakes, a pinch
watermelon 1kg
mint ten leaves
salted ricotta 50g
Wash the watercress, discard any hard stems or much less than best leaves, and submerge in a large bowl of ice and water. Separate the chicory leaves, halve the radishes, then upload both to the bowl. Leave them for 20 minutes to crisp and curl. Use a pestle, mortar, or spice mill to grind the coriander seeds into a coarse powder. Warm the olive oil in a shallow pan, then add the coriander, pumpkin, and fennel seeds, shifting them around for a minute or two till they are heated and fragrant. Add the chili flakes, continue cooking for a minute, then eliminate the pain from the warmth and set it apart.
Peel the watermelon, reduce it into thick slices, and then into huge chunks into a bowl, removing the seeds as you cross. Finely chop the mint leaves, upload to the melon, then fall apart or coarsely grate the ricotta over them. Drain the watercress, chicory, and radish and upload them to the bowl. Tip the seeds, spices, and oil over the watermelon, tumble everything collectively gently, and then switch to a serving dish and convey it to the desk.
Grilled hen with saffron and yogurt
I use lots of spice-speckled yogurt marinade with fowl I plan to grill. It should be said that it depends on sticking to the grill bars, and the smoke that ensues sets off the fire alarm, so I have taken to browning the marinated chook underneath an overhead grill within the oven. The meat shouldn’t be too near the heat, lest the pores and skin brown before the flesh is cooked. I pass the oven rack closer to the warmth towards the give-up of cooking to encourage a crisp skin. I assume a bit charring here, and there may be to be undoubtedly advocated.
Serves three
saffron a pinch
Hot water 80ml
chilies three small, hot, diverse shades
garlic three cloves
natural yogurt 200ml
fowl thighs 6
rocket 150g
cucumbers two small
parsley is a beneficiant handful
olive oil 2 tbsp
white wine vinegar 1 tbsp
Grind the saffron to a powder, tip it into a small bowl, pour the recent water over, and go away for 10 minutes. Finely chop the chilies and position them into a huge blending bowl. Peel the garlic, finely chop, and add to the chilies, then stir inside the yogurt and the saffron liquid and set aside. Place a chook thigh pores and skin aspect on a slicing board, then reduce the bone with a sharp knife. Open each boned thigh flat, skin aspect down, then bat out with a heavyweight, including a rolling pin or cutlet bat, until the meat is ½cm thick. Submerge the meat in the yogurt marinade and set aside for a terrific hour.
Put the rocket leaves right into a big bowl of ice and water and leave for 15 minutes. Peel the cucumber, then cut it into large diagonal chunks. Pick the parsley leaves from the stalks, add them to the cucumber, drain and shake the rocket dry, and toss with the cucumber, olive oil, and white wine vinegar. (No salt or pepper is wanted here.) Heat an overhead (oven) grill. Line a grill pan or oven tray with foil, lay the portions of hen on its skin-aspect down, and cook dinner, an amazing 15-20cm from the warmth supply, for eight minutes, then flip over and prepare dinner on the other side. Check the flesh is cooked right through and regulate the proximity of the oven shelf to the heat as vital. The fowl ought to be nicely browned, cooked through its pores, and skin patchily gold and dark brown. Serve the chook warm with the cucumber salad.
Hake and prawn pie with a potato crust
Prawn shells make a mild, however flavorsome inventory. Stuff the same old aromatics in with them – bay, peppercorns, parsley stalks – however, now not carrots, that could introduce too much sweetness. I used hake, which changed into snow-white, reasonably priced and sustainable, but haddock or cod is appropriate, specifically if the fillets are thick. I choose a filling that is ordinarily fish, but the recipe lends itself to a few improvisations. You could cut down on the fish and add a couple of handfuls of gently cooked and skinned large beans or a massive leek sliced and softened in butter.
Serves 4
uncooked prawns 500g massive
bay leaves three
black peppercorn 10
water 600ml
Floury potatoes, which include Maris piper 850g
olive oil five tbsp
hake 700g
spring onions three
butter 50g
plain flour 50g
double cream 100ml
Set the oven at 200C/fuel mark 6. Peel the prawns, setting the shells right into a medium-sized saucepan and returning the prawns to the refrigerator. Add the bay, peppercorns, and water to the pan and bring to a boil. Lower the heat, in part cover with a lid, then leave to simmer for a half-hour before disposing of the heat.
Peel the potatoes, then coarsely grate them. Warm the olive oil in a shallow pan over a slight warmth, add the potatoes, and allow them to sizzle until pale gold. Transfer them from the pan to a chunk of kitchen paper using a draining spoon or fish slice.
Strain the inventory and discard the prawn shells and aromatics. Skin the hake and reduce into thick portions about 4cm in duration. Roughly chop the spring onions. Melt the butter in a medium-sized saucepan, add the flour, and cook over a slight warmth, stirring continuously till you have a smooth paste. Pour within the prawn inventory, starting with a timber spoon, until you have an easy sauce. As it bubbles, go inside the cream and a few grinds of salt and pepper. Add the hake, pushing the fish under the surface. Leave them for three or four minutes, then add the prawns and the chopped spring onions. Transfer the filling to a pie dish and scatter the fried potato over the floor, leaving some gaps here and there. Bake for half an hour until the sauce is effervescent via the crust.
Tomato and roast pepper bruschetta
A scarlet slice with which to begin dinner, a mild lawn lunch, or a weekend breakfast, there is nearly no degree on a summer’s day, while this tomato toast isn’t suitable. The roast greens, sweet-sour and smoky, will keep in the refrigerator for an afternoon or two. A beneficial sauce is tossing bucatini or possibly gnocchi, which you have fried in olive oil until crisp.
