Categories
Mains Recipes

Light My Fire

It’s the season of outdoor cooking, so why not crack open a beer or soft drink and get some skewers roasting on the barbecue?

Mine shown in the photo are made from 5 marinaded chicken breasts cut into chunks, one red pepper and one courgette sliced. The marinade ingredients were a crushed clove of garlic, a finely sliced chilli, some chopped root ginger, a handful of fresh coriander leaves, juice of a lemon, a grind of seasalt, a twist of black pepper, a dollop of olive oil and a squidge of tomato puree to give it some colour. I left the marinading meat in the fridge for about 18 hours in a tight lidded casserole dish. Be warned that an impatient lifting of the lid will release an incredible aroma that will have you salivating and invoke an instant craving for hot food!

I threaded the meat and veg on to 8 wooden skewers about an hour before cooking. The skewers had been soaked in water for about an hour to stop the exposed ends from burning up in the heat. Use a basting brush to coat the slices of veg with the residue of the marinade so that they cook nicely rather than burn.

About 15 – 20 mins on the barbecue should do it, turning the skewers every so often so they cook evenly all over. Serve up with salads plus aforementioned soft drink or beer.

After exploring a few options for a track to add to the ADK Playlist with this post, I’ve settled on this classic from the Doors. To any fans of the Prodigy who may be following, all I’ll say is it was a close-run thing, and I guarantee there will be at least one more bbq-related post for you before the summer is out!

Categories
Blog Recipes Starters

Yellow

Today’s starter is a lemon hummus, based on a recipe by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall. I added a little less lemon juice than the recipe, and added fresh coriander to the usual base of blitzed chickpeas, tahini and olive oil. Topped off with a sprinkle of ground cumin, and served up with breadsticks and crudites, accompanied by a glass of prosecco. Mmm!

Pitched into this yellow earthenware bowl, I think I enjoyed the bright summer sunshine colour of the dish almost as much as the fresh taste. Kept reminding me of this great track from Coldplay, now the latest addition to the ADK Playlist.

Categories
Blog Desserts

Seven Days in Sunny July

With this week’s great weather set to continue, I am looking forward to cooking for friends coming over this weekend. I plan to get much of the preparation done in advance, so we can make the most of the time together al fresco, relaxing and catching up over cold drinks and lunch. Home-made ice cream makes an ideal dessert for this, as it can be made earlier in the week and left to sit in the freezer till it’s required.

This is particularly true this time of year. We are lucky to have some great soft fruit producers locally (which also helps to keep the food miles down). My photo shows the batch of strawberries I’ve bought to make into ice cream. As I write this, they are chopped, mashed and soaking in sugar and lemon juice in the fridge, waiting to be combined with whipped double cream and churned for a half hour in the ice cream maker. All being well, there should be another post in a few days showing some scoops of the finished product!

Meanwhile, here’s a favourite track of mine by Jamiroquai, that seems to capture that summertime feeling.

Categories
Blog Mains

Soup-ermassive

Today’s crop from the local community farm had soup written all over it – turnip, swede, carrots, potatoes and a handful of flatleaf parsley. I added onion and celery, and defrosted 1 litre of chicken stock from a previous Sunday roast. Throw in around 100g of pea and barley soup mix and simmer for 40 mins. Plunge in the handheld blender for a few blitzes to give it just the right consistency. Served with a loaf of sourdough for dipping, and eaten (again) al fresco.

This harvest of fresh, natural ingredients made enough for two hearty servings, with about 3 – 4 left over. Soup-ermassive! Earlier in the day I had been lying in the warm sun listening to Muse’s Black Holes and Revelations album on my headphones, so it seems apt to add this latest track to the ADK Playlist. Take it away, Muse.

Categories
Blog Mains

Both Ends Burning

Well, that’s a good description of how it’s felt this last few days in the UK heatwave. After lots of no-cook meals and salads recently, the temperature in the kitchen finally subsided sufficiently, so that we could contemplate turning the cooker back on again.

It had to be something quick, however, so as not to undo the good work of the increasingly refreshing afternoon breeze coming across the back garden. Cue the classic midweek standby – the omelette. This one had a Spanish feel to it, using up some leftover Jersey new potatoes (from the potato salads), half a sweet red pepper and a few chopped black olives. I mixed in the rest of a dish of ricotta with the eggs, chopped fresh spring onions from the garden and some grated cheddar. Served up with seasonal freshly picked steamed green veg on the side – on this occasion french beans, mange tout and broad beans.

Eaten al fresco to stay cool. And speaking of staying cool, let’s add some Roxy Music to the ADK Playlist:



Categories
Blog

More Posts About Music and Food

Well, I’ve been pleasantly surprised over the last couple of days to see the first few likes appearing on the posts here on my new blog/website. Surprised in particular as, er, I hadn’t realised it was public yet, while still under development. Never mind, I’m learning as I go, so please accept that things are still something of a work in progress! There are still aspects to be refined so all feedback is welcome, please.

I’ve been toying with the name – another close contender has been ‘More Posts about Music and Food’, being a pretty apt description of how it’s shaping up. It’s following the style of Talking Heads’ great second album, ‘More Songs About Buildings and Food’, and the song by which the Undertones paid tribute, below. What do people think?

Categories
Blog

Shout!

Ahhh! Really disappointed today to hear that the Tears for Fears concert I was due to attend tomorrow at Warwick Castle has been cancelled, as poor Curt is unwell. And the picnic was all planned, built around a spinach and ricotta quiche! Totally understand however – health and wellbeing always comes first and no doubt the band will play again in the future. Apparently it is a serious rib injury. Ouch – that must make it hurt to sing. Hope you are well again soon Curt, and fully able to shout, shout, let it all out. I feel a song coming on…