Cucumber & Mint Butter Sandwiches

The BBC Proms season starts next month so it’s putting me in mind of picnics in Hyde Park before the concerts start. Last year we heard a lot of Tchaikovsky, this year it will be Beethoven.  I’m planning picnics that are quintessentially English and came across this recipe for cucumber sandwiches. This version comes from Crabtree & Evelyn.

1 small cucumber

32 small fresh mint leaves

125g softened, unsalted butter

1tsp grated orange zest

8 thin slices white bread, crusts removed

8 thin slices brown bread, crusts removed

I have to admit I don’t associate Crabtree & Evelyn with food but came across a wonderful second hand cookbook by them from 1989/

The bread needs to be firm and good quality, or the sandwiches will just fall apart.

Peel the cucumber, halve it lengthways and then cut cross ways, as thinly as possible into half-moon shapes. My addition to the recipe is letting them rest on kitchen paper, while you do everything else, to soak up a little of the water.

Chop the mint leaves and put them in a small bowl with the butter and orange zest. Mash it all together until soft and well combined.

Spread each slice of white bread with the butter – C&E reckon about 1 ½ tsp each and layer the cucumber on it. Top with the wholemeal bread.

Cut into quarters or squares with a sharp serrated knife. Garnish if you must.

I haven’t made these yet but plan to. The boy will need persuading that these will only be part of a much more substantial picnic.

Santini Tomato & Courgette Ribbon Salad

This is one of the boy’s favourite summer salads, probably as it is quite substantial and filling. It's a lovely side dish.

4 long thin courgettes

225g Santini tomatoes

1 tbsp lemon juice

2 tbsp. extra virgin olive oil

½ a mild red chilli

1 clove garlic

10 mint leaves

Flaky sea salt & ground pepper

If you can’t find Santini tomatoes (yellow baby plum tomatoes), any baby plum or even cherry tomatoes will work. We are growing a variety called Russian Purple so I'm looking forward to substituting those later in the year. Small courgettes are more tender and work best but all I could find was one big fat one, but it worked just as well really.

Use a vegetable peeler to make thin ribbons of the courgette. We do have a mandolin but the boy isn’t allowed anywhere near it. Halve the tomatoes lengthways so you get nice long ovals.

I use about an inch and a half of chilli – a big fat red one. Deseed if you have cut into the area where the seeds are, and remove any membrane. The boy is chilli sensitive but this should add background depth rather than heat.  Chop it as finely as you can for the same reason.

Chop the garlic and mint leaves. Add to the bowl along with the oil and lemon juice and toss together. The courgettes look nice flecked with red and green. Season well. I always let the boy do this.

Leave for half an hour so everything gets to know each other, but best not left too much longer than that. The boy had the great idea of using some rustic bread to mop up the oily, garlicky, minty dressing once we'd finished the salad.

Mrs Beeton's Toast Sandwich

I’m including this partly as the boy is the sandwich monster and partly because I can’t imagine anything so meagre.

One thin slice cold toast

2 thin slices buttered bread

Salt and pepper

We have a first edition of Mrs Beeton’s “Household Management” with numbered paragraphs. This appears on #1877. It’s described as good for invalids. The boy is not convinced that the salt and pepper will not make this any less meagre. I’m not convinced it offers much in the way of nutrition for invalids.

The boy offers this alternative. Apart from the bread, which came from the farmers market, everything came from a discount supermarket, so it was very cheap

Three slices good country bread, thick sliced. First slice goes down on the chopping board. A couple of slices of German peppered salami. A couple of slices of Gouda. Second slice goes on. Lettuce, sliced tomato and sliced Yorkshire or Wiltshire ham. Mayonnaise. Done!

Turkish Pickles

I am constantly buying Turkish pickles and the boy suggested we have a go at our own version. I’m listing the vegetables we used but anything goes really. It made 3 big jars

Small white cabbage

2 carrots

6 baby cucumbers (Gherkin size)

1 red pepper

2 stalks celery

2 Dolmas style pepper

1 mild red chillies

2 cloves garlic

White wine vinegar

Much chopping to start with but keep everything quite chunky. The cabbage needs to be wedges, not individual leaves. The Dolmas peppers are very pale green  and the cucumbers no bigger than a finger. The chillies and garlic are really just to flavour the vinegar.

The fun part – and the only part the boy wants to help with- is layering all the veg in the jars. I think these should be a colourful joy to look at.

Almost cover the vegetables with white wine vinegar and then top up with water to dilute it slightly. I add a little rock salt though this isn’t traditional. I’ve also seen versions with a higher water to vinegar ratio so have a go at what suits you. The boy and I like sharpness in a pickle so we’ve gone for 80% vinegar, 20% water.

Leave for 2 weeks. Enjoy with fatty lamb chops and rice. Or anything.

English Salad Dressing

I’m pretty pleased to have found this recipe – a British version of French dressing. The boy gets a salad with most meals so it’s nice to rotate the dressing as well as the salad ingredients.

Rapeseed oil

Grated horseradish

English mustard

White wine vinegar

The boy and I like our salad dressing sharp so we have it almost one to one, with perhaps a tablespoon more oil than vinegar. Rapeseed oil is wonderful stuff – much richer than olive oil. My suggestion is:

12tbsp rapeseed oil

9 tbsp white wine vinegar

1tsp mustard

1tsp horseradish.

And of course salt and pepper. The horseradish needs to be fresh – not the creamed stuff that comes in jars. We grow ours in the garden and preserve it in vinegar through the winter.

The boy has made what he calls an English salad to have with it: little gem lettuce, ripe tomatoes and radishes. It’s the sort of salad you would have had in the 50s but the spicy dressing livens it up no end. Personally I can't wait to have it with avocado, mozzarella and tomato.

Szechuan Cauliflower

This was one of my Mum’s favourite Chinese dishes – we only ever found it at the Pagoda restaurant in Nairobi. It has taken me 20 years to track down the recipe.

The Sauce

2tbsp oil

1tbsp ginger paste

1 green chilli, chopped

I stick celery finely chopped

2tbsp chilli sauce

2tbsp soy sauce

1tbsp vinegar

2tbsp tomato puree

2tbsp corn flour

1/2tbsp sugar

½ cup water

Cauliflower

A medium cauliflower cut into 20 pieces

1/3 cup plain flour

½ tsp salt

¼ tsp pepper

½ cup water

2 cups oil

The Pagoda served this cauliflower whole, though I’m so grateful for this recipe that I’m following it religiously.

I have the Yellow River  Concerto on the CD player to get the mood right. Start with the sauce. Slake the corn flour in the water. Heat the oil in a wok and fry off the ginger paste. Add the chilli and celery and fry for a minute.

Once soft, add the vinegar, sugar and tomato puree. The sauce should be a vivid orange.

Set it aside, as you will thicken it later.

Make a batter from the corn flour, salt and water. Mix until smooth. The boy finds a whisk and bowl thrust into his hands for this job.

Heat the oil to medium hot. Coat the oil in the batter and deep fry for 4 minutes. Turn them occasionally with a slotted spoon until golden brown.

Finish the sauce – add corn flour until thick and syrupy. Add water if it goes too far.

Plate up the cauliflower and pour on the sauce. Give it more than it looks like it needs as the rice or noodles you serve it with will mop plenty up.

Jalapenorita

This recipe was tweeted by Tabasco, so it is shamelessly stolen. I love Margaritas and Dirty Martinis so I have been really keen to try this.

½ a lime

Coarse sea salt

400ml gold tequila

100ml Grand Marnier

1tsp Green Tabasco

Dampen the rim of a glass with a piece of lime and dip it into a saucer of salt a few times until the rim is nice and crusty. We have some Martini glasses that my brother persuaded me to buy from Ikea ages ago. They turned out to be a good investment.

Squeeze the lime into a cocktail shaker. It needs to be nice ripe juicy one which can be a challenge.

I have a couple of cocktail shakers but my favourite is etched with the Martini logo which I think is from the 70s. Pour in everything else and add some ice and strain into the glass, being careful to preserve the salty rim. We have had to hunt the ingredients down. Our tequila is silver, so that needed replacing, and we don’t have Grand Marnier, though we do have Cointreau which will do just as well. Hardest to track down was the green Tabasco, though Waitrose do stock it. The boy loves it for dipping chips in. We stock up when we find it. I feel I want to try a really good tequila but Jose Cuervo is all I can find.I can't bring myself to buy the brand that has a plastic sombrero as a bottle top.

It’s cocktail hour. We have a Josephine Baker CD on but are mostly ignoring it. Dipping tortilla chips into some very hot tomato salsa. I think the tartness of tomato goes with this; the boy just likes salty snacks.

Penne with Tomato & Balsamic

This isn’t a quick supper though it is easy. It does depend on good Balsamic vinegar and decent tinned tomatoes.

350g dried penne pasta

400g tinned tomatoes

4tbsp Balsamic vinegar

2 cloves garlic, sliced

180g salted butter, cut into small pieces

100g grated parmesan

 Extra virgin olive oil

3tbsp Basil leaves

Understandably the boy is not at all convinced by this. Telling him it comes with salad and garlic bread helps.

Make the sauce first. Warm the oil and cook the garlic. Drain the tomatoes – if they are really good, not much water will come out. Add them to the pan and crush them with a fork. Simmer slowly for 20 minutes. You’re looking for a thick sauce.  Add the Basil leaves.

Let he boy have a taste. He thinks it needs a good bit of salt and pepper.

Cook the penne until al-dente. Drain and put it back in the same pan. Lower the heat and add the butter. Stir it through on a low heat and add the vinegar .This must be really good stuff unless you enjoy sour pasta.

Add half the parmesan and stir through.

Pour in the sauce. Stir again and sprinkle the rest of the parmesan on top.

Serve with garlic bread and a salad of lettuce, radishes, tomatoes and Kalamata olives.

Luckily the boy rarely complains about carbs.

Tabasco Salt

I'm rather excited about this simple recipe. The boy is less enthusiastic until I mention frying up a big batch of chips to sprinkle it on.

100g flaky Maldon sea salt
A few hefty shakes of Tabasco

That's it. Just pour the salt in the bowl and shake on the Tabasco. It's just the regular red kind. The boy likes to dip chips (French Fries) in the green kind but this will give them a similar kick.

Heat the oven to low - 100 degrees. Stir the salt and Tabasco well and spread on a baking sheet. I'm putting down some greaseproof paper first. Dry it in the oven for 30 minutes.

Let it cool and store in a screwtop jar, for chips, roasted vegetables, anything.

Visiting Avery Island, where they make Tabasco is on my bucket list. I couldn't do without it.

Supreme Burgers

This is a lovely burger suggestion from Nigel Slater. It's easy to make your own burgers though best to make them at least an hour or two in advance so they can firm up in the fridge. 

400g minced (ground) beef
1 pickled gherkin
a sprinkle of sesame seeds
a little ketchup
Salt & pepper
Hot French mustard

We don't get measurements here but I'm thinking two teaspoons each of sesame seeds, ketchup and mustard. I thought most French mustard was quite mild. The stuff we have certainly is, so I need to look into this. I am using some chipotle ketchup that I made last year but the regular stuff will still be good. The gherkin needs to be medium chopped. If they are small, use two. Add salt & pepper. Mix well - i.e. get your hands in and give it a good squidge.

Shape into burgers and chill down. Fry them in light olive oil. The better quality your beef, the better these will be. The cheap stuff will just spit water at you. Serve in ciabatta rolls. I think a dollop of chilli infused mayo on top would work nicely.

The boy wants to try these barbecued. Me too.