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summer dishes

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Re: summer dishes

Postby karadekoolaid » Fri Aug 04, 2017 11:41 pm

[quote="Renée"]Venetian sweet sour sauce sounds interesting, KK! How do you make that?[/quote

Slice the whole lettuce in half. Paint with olive oil and grill on the BBQ until you get those lovely char lines. You might want to thread a bamboo skewer through the lettuce to keep it together. Meanwhile, make a sauce with:
3 tbsps olive oil
2 large cloves garlic, minced
3 tbsps pine nuts (or grape nuts, if you can`t afford them :gonzo )
3 tbsps currants or raisins
1/2 cup (125 ml) balsamic vinegar
1/3 cup (65 ml) honey
2 - 3 squares of dark chocolate ( preferably Venezuelan, of course!)
S & P
1 tbsp butter
Heat the olive oil and gently fry the garlic - 2 to 3 minutes. Now add the pine nuts and currants. 2 minutes more. Add all the rest of the ingredients and bring to a boil. Turn down, simmer gently until the chocolate is completely melted.
serve the lettuce with the sauce drizzled on top, or as a side.
( Recipe taken from Steve Raichlen " How To Grill" (2001)

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Re: summer dishes

Postby strictlysalsaclare » Sun Aug 06, 2017 3:18 pm

jeral wrote:If the lettuce is tough, what about pretending it's vine leaves, so stuffed and rolled like canneloni, snuggled in a gratin dish and baked, either plain with OO drizzle to serve with sweet chilli sauce, or smothered pre-bake with sauce of choice, e.g. tom or tasty (enhanced) cheese sauce as suits the stuffing.

Normally, it's better to parboil vine leaves I find but probably not needed for your lettuce if baked for 30-35 mins to cook or the filling, maybe less time if filling already cooked.


thanks for the idea jeral, but I may have exaggerated the texture a bit - the lettuce is edible raw, and they are not as tough as radicchio or raw cabbage. I don't think our lettuce will survive if I went down the stuffed vine leaves route :lol: !

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Re: summer dishes

Postby Renée » Mon Aug 07, 2017 10:04 pm

Thanks very much, Clive. It certainly does sound good, but I'm off down south tomorrow for two weeks, so it will have to wait until I get back. Hmmm ... I can just about afford a small amount of pine nuts! :lol:

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Re: summer dishes

Postby Stokey Sue » Mon Aug 07, 2017 11:27 pm

I got some pine nuts from Lidl at a fairly decent price recently, and they do small packages which are usually enough

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Re: summer dishes

Postby Renée » Mon Aug 07, 2017 11:49 pm

Thanks, Sue. I have an Aldi here, but there is a Lidl near to where Colin lives and we'll probably go there on Wednesday.

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Re: summer dishes

Postby jeral » Tue Aug 08, 2017 1:00 am

Have a lovely two weeks Renée :)

Hopefully lovely weather too with the sun putting on its hat and coming out to play. (At least summer dishes could then replace the stew and dumplings as the best bet recently.)

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Re: summer dishes

Postby strictlysalsaclare » Wed Aug 09, 2017 10:11 pm

Tonight, because of the weather we had the delightful evening meal of hot vegetable soup followed by chocolate and pear sponge pudding with hot custard. :shock:

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Re: summer dishes

Postby Gillthepainter » Thu Aug 10, 2017 8:56 am

Renee, enjoy yourselves.

Soup here too, Stricters.
Cauliflower.

Tonight I'll make salmon fishcakes (not breaded) - with a cream of herb thin sauce, and broccoli.

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Re: summer dishes

Postby strictlysalsaclare » Wed Aug 16, 2017 8:47 am

Morning all!

I made the following recipe for our evening meal last night and it was wonderful, a thrifty yet real treat. Quite possibly the best way of eating both fishcakes and Nicoise salad during the summer months. I also used some of our home-grown lettuce, tomatoes and runner beans in it. I must admit I did add some dried Italian herb mix to the fishcakes just after I mashed the spuds to let the flavour develop a bit more. As I used the waxy Marfona spuds I also needed to add some mayonnaise to help the mixture stick together. Some lemon juice, worcester sauce or chives would also work well.

https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/113 ... oise-salad

EDIT: it's well worth using a tasty lettuce such as lollo rosso for this salad, iceberg, round or lambs varieties won't work for this one.
Last edited by strictlysalsaclare on Thu Aug 17, 2017 8:24 am, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: summer dishes

Postby Gillthepainter » Wed Aug 16, 2017 9:00 am

That's a jolly good looking salad, Clare.

And great you're using the home grown products.
My kitchen basil is getting regularly decimated by the end of the week, but it springs back, & still has leaves for yet another dish.

I've got a tricky ingredient for tonight.
Cooked prawns, OH came back with them. We had prawn pasta 2 days ago.
Bearing in mind his dislikes, it's hard to think of a dish. I'll hit my books and come up with something.

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Re: summer dishes

Postby strictlysalsaclare » Wed Aug 16, 2017 10:11 am

Hi Gill

I knew you would like the sound of that recipe I posted earlier!

Anyway, back to your prawn conundrum, if you are stuck for ideas in your books, would any of the recipes in the following links appeal to Tony?

https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/search/reci ... oked+prawn
https://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/ing ... mp-recipes

I find that if I want to try a recipe that uses raw prawns when I only have cooked ones, I add them right at the end of cooking, with about 1 minute of less to go or even off the heat if they are small enough. They don't go rubbery then.

Good Luck, and I hope you find something suitable!

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Re: summer dishes

Postby Gillthepainter » Thu Aug 17, 2017 11:10 am

Thanks for those lovely links, Stricters.
He's wanting prawn pasta. Linguine.

Easy cooking for me. Although I'd have prawn curry me.

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Re: summer dishes

Postby strictlysalsaclare » Sun Aug 20, 2017 4:42 pm

As the weather had improved, we've had some lovely summery dishes over the last few days. Friday night was a paprika and flour dusted fried haddock sub type sandwich with a substantial salad where almost all the veg came from the garden. As well as lettuce and tomatoes, where were cold peas and runner beans with hot roasted courgette, carrots and potatoes. I also added some cubes of Caerphilly cheese. The peas were the only non-homegrown produce.

Saturday lunch was what I can only describe as a Mediterranean Myriad salad, with lettuce, cucumber, tomato, Med Bread croutons and roasted aubergine, courgette, onions and yellow pepper. I also added some Parmesan, chorizo salami and chargrilled style chicken roll.

Saturday dinner was corned beef, tattie and pickle pie with boiled spuds, carrots and runner beans. Pud was pears poached mulled style using red grape juice instead of wine

Today's lunch was a toasted sandwich of HM tomato sauce, courgette, parmesan and Italian herb omelette (cut into strips) with some fried mushrooms in between. I used some of Asda's Mediterranean bloomer type loaf. It was a heavenly recipe that I tweaked from Sophie Grigson's Sunshine Food book and definitely one to make again. It was basically sunshine in a sarnie!

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Re: summer dishes

Postby Gillthepainter » Sun Aug 20, 2017 5:25 pm

oooo, I quite fancy a chicken stuffed roll, now.
Poached probly, as I do like chicken poached.

You've been cooking up a storm!

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Re: summer dishes

Postby strictlysalsaclare » Sun Aug 20, 2017 5:49 pm

Hi Gill

erm, I have a confession to make, the chicken was the pre-packed reformed sliced chicken for sandwiches, not the posh kind :lol:

EDIT: now we have had the remainder of our corned beef etc. pie, I've come to the conclusion that it tastes much better if you make it the day before you want to eat it. It's always nicer cold anyway. If anyone's interested, I used Asda's version of Branston pickle.

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Re: summer dishes

Postby Alexandria » Mon Aug 21, 2017 11:26 pm

Off top of think tank:

Spanish Gazpacho
Courgette Hummus
Lebanese Chick pea Hummus
Caprese Salad
French Gaspacho ( has courgette minced )
Risotto with broccoli
Risotto with Prawns
Brodetto ( a fish and shellfish stew )
Sashimi ( dine out )
Tapas ( at local bar - open air terrace )
Barcelona, soulful & spirited, filled with fine art, amazing architecture, profoundly steeped in culture & history, and it engages all your senses, and food fancies.

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Re: summer dishes

Postby Pampy » Mon Aug 21, 2017 11:41 pm

Hi Alexandria, and welcome. I've just noticed that your location is Barcelona - hope you haven't been too much affected by the dreadful events of last week - although I suppose how could you not be? My heart goes out to you all over there. xx

(Apologies for hijacking the thread.)

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Re: summer dishes

Postby Alexandria » Tue Aug 22, 2017 11:49 am

Pampy wrote:Hi Alexandria, and welcome. I've just noticed that your location is Barcelona - hope you haven't been too much affected by the dreadful events of last week - although I suppose how could you not be? My heart goes out to you all over there. xx

(Apologies for hijacking the thread.)




Pampy,

Thank you for your welcome.

I am a Tour Operator, and this is our busy season, and we were in the Basque Country during this barbarian horrorific terrorist attack .. My husband, twin married sons, 2 grandsons and our families are all in Cadaques on the northern Costa Brava.

Thank you very much for your empathy and condolences.

Have a lovely day.
On a coffee break, getting ready to leave for Carcassonne, France with a tour group from Canada.
Barcelona, soulful & spirited, filled with fine art, amazing architecture, profoundly steeped in culture & history, and it engages all your senses, and food fancies.

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Re: summer dishes

Postby Gillthepainter » Wed Aug 23, 2017 7:44 am

Good morning, Alexandria.

We are just back from Tossa de Mar - go there for a week every year so my husband can train in the brave seas.
Dropped on a lot of swimming events when we arrived.
Catalunya is our favourite homely part of Spain, & we've toured a lot.

Love your tapas comment. Eat out.
And of course, that's what one does over there.

Thanks for the suggestions too. They're great.

Enjoy your tourist trip. Tourists can be jolly good fun to be around.

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Re: summer dishes

Postby Alexandria » Wed Aug 23, 2017 11:56 am

Gillthepainter wrote:Not wanting too much tonight, is a mantra for our meal decisions when it's hot.

So yesterday it was parma, melon, fresh mint salad.
And jolly filling it was too.

Image


I've also cleaned the bbq.
Bit of a disaster, as I dribbled dirty dark ashy water whilst tripping through the house with a bowl. Right onto our newly upholstered chaise longue ....... nooooooo.
Frantically got the handwash out (I'd been doing holiday handwash at the weekend), and dabbed it, dabbed it, dabbed it some more with water and fresh soft cloths.

Miraculously it's come up without a single mark, you wouldn't even know. Googling, I've seen you should use hand wash soap on upholstery stains - I'll go with that.

So, the bbq is ready.


@ Gilthepainter,

That is some lovely art of plating.

Quite exquisite !

Magic1
What you all thinking about making for the summer time? Waitrose seems to have some jolly good recipes.
Barcelona, soulful & spirited, filled with fine art, amazing architecture, profoundly steeped in culture & history, and it engages all your senses, and food fancies.

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