Beat the heat with a delicious menu of dishes that are easy to prepare when friends are around.
Lunch in the sun. A long, fun meal with friends and family or a more intimate affair for just two. Either way is a great way to spend a wonderful summer afternoon. For a feast I choose dishes that are not particularly time sensitive. This time, a plate of roasted tomatoes with za'atar and dark red Aleppo pepper, atop a soft mound of creamy chickpeas in a fruit and tahini-scented dressing.
There would be something to start, just a light, seasoned plate of melting white cheese, maybe - mozzarella or burrata - delighted with pickles (I used cherries this time) and little sweet and sour gherkins. Cherries can be jarred with cheese - they have a delightful relationship with milky chervil - or maybe tossed into a salad with cucumber and lamb's lettuce. Their juice is a useful addition to any salad dressing.
For a more intimate summer lunch, I'll stand at the kitchen table and chop lemongrass and garlic, spring onions and tender, green spring cabbage, then sauté them in a very hot pan with fat, wild Toss with prawns. Drizzled with soy and fish sauce, this is a special dish that always tastes better when cooked just for two. Prawns, fat and sweet, are a rare treat.
Dessert would be yogurt cake, soft as a sponge but with a nod to cheesecake. There will also be berries, spooned over the cooked with honey. Gooseberries are finally here and will be celebrated with any form of dairy (first fool, crumble and then cream, then as a compote with yogurt).
If there's just a couple of us I'll still make the cake - it makes for a fun weekend breakfast.
Spring cabbage, prawns and lime (pictured above)
Sometimes, summer lunch is a small event but special nonetheless. If it's an intimate lunch I'm happy to make something for just the two of us to share - a stir-fry, perhaps, (something I'd never consider for a large group) which Cooking can be done while you chat, the kitchen doors are wide. open to sunlight.
Serves 2.
Spring cabbage 200 grams
Ginger 60 grams
Garlic 2 cloves
Lemongrass 2 large stalks
Chillies 2 small, hot
Spring onions 2
Peanut or vegetable oil 3 tbsp
Prawns 400g large, raw
Juice of 1 large lime
Nam Pla (Thai Fish Sauce) 2 tbsp
Sugar (palm sugar or caster) 1 tsp
Soy sauce 1 tbsp
Leaves a large handful of coriander.
Thai basil leaves a handful.
Start preparing. It's best to have everything on hand, as once you start cooking, it all happens very quickly. Wash the cabbage leaves and cut them into pieces about the width of the pappardelle.
Peel the ginger and grind it finely. Peel and finely chop the garlic. Remove the outer leaves from the lemongrass, then finely chop the inner leaves. Finely chop the chillies, remove the seeds if desired. (They will add a little extra heat if left in.) Finely chop the spring onions.
Heat the oil in a wok or wide, shallow pan. Add the ginger, garlic, lemongrass, chillies and spring onions and fry for a few minutes until the garlic starts to colour. Be careful not to let it burn. Keep the heat high and introduce the prawns. As soon as they become opaque and colored add a little lime juice, molasses and sugar. When everything is hot, add the chopped cabbage, turning the leaves over when they start to blacken and wilt.
As soon as everything becomes light and fluffy, add soy sauce, coriander and Thai basil leaves.
