Here’s a couple recipes I’ve been enjoying over my fourth Summer in London. No strict rules.
1. grilled gem lettuce with dijon mustard lemon sauce
ingredients: gem lettuce, around a tablespoon of dijon mustard, a sliced lemon, salt and butter.
1. cut your gem lettuce into fourths length-wise
2. heat up a pan and melt some butter on it.
3. add the gem lettuce with its flat faces onto the buttered pan and let it grill.
4. flip onto the other flat side so the other face also grills evenly.
5. plate the lettuce and sprinkle with salt, and then drizzle the mustard sauce to your liking.
2. roast chickpea and honey glazed carrots over yoghurt sauce
ingredients: tub of greek yoghurt, a lemon, olive oil, a garlic clove, honey, chickpeas, carrots, salt, paprika, pepper, dill.
2. pat your chickpeas dry and coat them in a mix of olive oil, paprika, salt and pepper. place this in an oven safe pan or tray.
3. cut some carrots in fourths lenth-wise and place in the pan or tray. drizzle some honey over them and then slide into the oven.
4. while the chickpeas and carrots roast, create the yoghurt sauce:
a. mix roughly one cup of greek
yhogurt, a minced garlic clove or
two, salt, pepper, and the juice of
an entire lemon in a bowl and then
make a bed with this mix on a
plate.
5. after around 25-30 minutes, take out the chickpeas and the carrots and place them over the yhogurt sauce.
6. garnish with some dill or herbs of your preference, a sprinkle of olive oil and some pepper.
3. tomato and strawberry salad
ingredients: vine tomatoes, strawberries, shallots, fennel, olive oil, mint, chilli flakes, salt and pepper.
2. cut some vine tomatoes into bite-size pieces and do the same with some strawberries.
3. plate the tomatoes and strawberries and then coat them in the shallots along with the oil they cooked in.
4. add some mint leaves into the mix and then top with a splash of olive oil, generous chilli flakes, fennel leaves, some salt and pepper.
4. spinach and heirloom tomato filo pastry
ingredients: spinach, heavy cream, grated grana padano, heirloom tomatoes, basil, filo pastry sheets, butter, salt and pepper.
2. slice some heirloom tomatoes into thin slices and put aside.
3. in a sauce pan, begin by wilting some spinach and basil leaves in olive oil.
4. slowly pour heavy cream into the saucepan and mix as you go so the spinach and basil incorporate with the cream. Add some salt and pepper for flavour, and then also start folding in grated grana padano into the mix.
5. arrange the filo pastry sheets on an oven safe pan so it holds like a pie crust (stack minimum 4 sheets).
6. fill the base with the creamed spinach and sprinkle some cheese over the mix.
7. cover the spinach base with the heirloom tomato and drizzle some olive oil over them generously. Add some salt and pepper and slide into the oven.
8. after around 30-40 minutes (or until the filo pastry turns nice and golden) take the pastry out and cut like a pizza.
5. mascarpone, orange and burnt sage linguine - Meike Peters recipe
ingredients: linguine pasta, sage, butter, an egg yolk, mascarpone cheese, orange (juice and zest), salt and pepper.
2. in a bowl, whisk the mascarpone with the egg yolk and the juice from an orange until fully incorporated.
3. once the linguine is cooked through, add the warm pasta into the bowl with the mascarpone sauce.
4. in a new pan, bring some butter to melt and fry some sage leaves in it until they‘re crispy.
5. plate the linguine with its sauce and top with the sage leaves, salt, pepper and some orange zest.
To end, in honour of Medieval Summer I will leave you all this recipe for Medieval Gingerbread by James L. Matterer: