Summer Fruit Salad with Sweet Geranium Leaves
Maybe a picnic by the beach or in a wildflower meadow on the old tartan rug — what a lovely image that conjures up.
The reality this year would probably be sodden food and a miserable picnic, even for hardy adventurers like me who like to picnic throughout the seasons.
Well nothing for it but to look on the bright side and you never know, perhaps the sun will be scorching the stones as you read this.
Even if it is drizzling you can light the barbecue in the garage doorway, hang up a bit of bunting, open some fizz and just have fun.
Here are some of my favourite summer recipes for the barbie: a butterflied leg of lamb or a boned out shoulder (it’s cheaper) doesn’t take more than 45 minutes to cook and will feed 12-15 people with lots of salads and a few tasty relishes. You can embellish it with generous quantities of gutsy fresh herbs like thyme or rosemary, or anoint it with a spice mix and a generous drizzle of extra Virgin olive oil.
Lamb chops — ask for chump chops (they are meatier) — chicken thighs (they are tastier), steaks (flank is both cheaper and tastier by far) and sausages all cook in minutes and can be tarted up with flavoured butters, mustards and a few complimentary sauces.
A good big gratin of potato is a brilliant idea for a barbecue; I particularly love a gratin of potato with some Ballyhoura mushrooms or this version with rosemary.
They both go brilliantly with grilled food and can be made the day before and reheated until the top is bubbly and golden.
Make a great big bowl of green salad and look out for those beautiful misshapen, multi-coloured heirloom tomatoes. Make sure they are really ripe and then make a beautiful tomato and cucumber salad with lots of fresh mint or basil.
And for pudding — try summer fruit salad with sweet geranium leaves. It’s the perfect time of the year to make this when all the berries are ripe and blackcurrants and red currants just burst deliciously in your mouth. This recipe was in my first Simply Delicious book when I had brown hair and red glasses. It’s just as delicious as ever and one of our very favourite summer puds. Light and fruity, it will slip down perfectly after you’ve over indulged.
Sweet geranium (Pelargonium Graveolens) and many other varieties of scented geraniums are every present on our windowsills here at Ballymaloe. We use the delicious lemon scented leaves in all sorts of ways. Occasionally we use the pretty purple flowers also to enliven and add magic to otherwise simple dishes. The crystallized leaves, all frosty and crinkly, are wonderful with fresh cream cheese and fat juicy blackberries.
I discovered this recipe which has now become a perennial favourite quite by accident a few summers ago as I raced to make a pudding in a hurry with the ingredients I had at that moment.
Serves 2-4
1 oz (30g) Raspberries
1oz (30g) Loganberries
1 oz (30g) Red currants
1 oz (30g) Black currants
1 oz (30g) small Strawberries
1 oz (30g) Blueberries
1 oz (30g) Fraises du bois or wild strawberries
Syrup
14 oz (400g) sugar
16 fl oz (450ml) water
6-8 large sweet geranium leaves
Put all the freshly picked berries into a white china or glass bowl. Put the sugar, water and sweet geranium leaves into a stainless steel saucepan and bring slowly to the boil, stirring until the sugar dissolves. Boil for just 2 minutes. Cool for 4-5 minutes, then pour the hot syrup over the fruit and allow to macerate for several hours. Remove the geranium leaves. Serve chilled, with softly-whipped cream or vanilla ice-cream or alone. Garnish with a few fresh sweet geranium leaves.
Summer Berry Jelly with Sweet Geranium Leaves
Sometimes when we have a berry salad left over, particularly if there is more juice than fruit, we make it into a jelly. Use 1 teaspoon of gelatine to each 150ml/ (¼) pint of liquid. Pour into glasses or white china bowls, serve with softly whipped cream and decorate with geranium leaves.
Serves 4
About 300ml (10fl oz) each of single cream and milk
2 sprigs rosemary and a couple crushed bay leaves
900g (2lb) potatoes, peeled and fairly thinly sliced
3 cloves of garlic, crushed
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
20cm (8in) square gratin dish
Preheat the oven to 200C/400F/Gas Mark 6
Put the milk and cream into a heavy saucepan, add the scrunched bay leaves, finely chopped rosemary and season with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Bring to the shivery stage on a medium heat, turn off the heat and allow to infuse.
Meanwhile, peel and slice the potatoes into 3mm (1/8 inch) thick slices approximately. Rinse the potato well to remove some starch, add to the herby-infused liquid with the crushed garlic. Bring to the boil on top of the stove (to take the rawness away).
Then pour into a buttered gratin dish, cover with parchment paper.
Bake in the preheated oven for 45-60 minutes. Uncover and brown before serving in a hot oven or under the grill.
Kids love to make these and people of every age seem to enjoy them.
Bananas
Thin streaky rashers
Peel the bananas and cut into chunks about 2 – 2½ inches (5cm — 6.5cm) long (depending on the width of the rasher).
Wrap each piece in bacon and secure with a ‘soaked’ cocktail stick, toss the bananas in fresh lemon juice if prepared ahead. Cook on a grid on the hinged barbecue 4 — 6 inches (10cm — 15cm) from the hot coals for 6-10 minutes, depending on the size, serve immediately.
We make this amazing recipe at the cookery school. This will feed 10 people easily, if they are having no other meat or fish. But with a selection of accompaniments it would probably feed 25. You can, of course, halve the recipe. Leg or shoulder or pork works well for this too.
1 leg of lamb, about 3kg (6¾ lb) in weight, butterflied
Or a shoulder of lamb boned
Marinade:
2 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp black peppercorns
1 tsp cardamom seeds
½ tsp chilli powder
2 tbsp harissa
1 tsp salt
5 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp balsamic or white wine vinegar
3 garlic cloves, grated or crushed
Cucumber and Radish Raita (see recipe)
Heat a pan. Add the cumin seeds, and cook for a few seconds, then add the peppercorns and cardamom seeds. Remove from the heat and crush coarsely. Mix with all the other marinade ingredients. Place the lamb in a large shallow dish or in a clear plastic bag. Pour the marinade over and rub into the meat. Leave for 24 hours if possible, rubbing the marinade into the meat every so often.
Drain the lamb from the marinade and place quite far (20cm (8in)) from the coals. It will take about 55–60 minutes to cook. Baste with the marinade a few times while it’s cooking. Rest the meat for 10 minutes, then carve. You can also roast this, in all its marinade, in an oven preheated to 200C/400F/gas 6. It will take about 1–1½ hours. Baste it with the marinade regularly. Again, rest the meat before carving.
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