Summer Lunch in the garden

We've just got back from a week in the South of France to find it is hotter in Reading. My in-laws have a house in the Cevennes so we go there most summers but went a bit earlier this year to help celebrate my father-in-law's 70th birthday. We did the catering for 40 people ourselves so spent quite a lot of the holiday chopping and mixing but it was worth it.

Although you can still find good local fruit and veg in France particularly in the markets they do seem to have succumbed to the same supermarket culture as us. The nearest town has a Carrefour - France's rival to Tesco - with different brands but essentially the same array of cheap meat products and out of season produce we've grown used to in the UK.

Anyway to get to my lunch in an English garden - we had spaghetti frittata using spinach from the veg bag. I've written about this before but didn't have a photo so this is a good opportunity to show you what it looks like. Simon made it and said I should warn people that it shouldn't have as much spaghetti as this - he guessed how much he needed and then decided he might as well finish off the packet! We had most of it hot on Friday night this is what was left over for Saturday lunch time.

Award winning Berkshire Pasties

Since hearing about Cornish Pasties being awarded Protected Geographical Indication (PGI) status I've wanted to have a go at making my own. I got the recipe for the pastry from the Cornish Pasty Association website although I used butter instead of 'cake margarine'. After leaving the pastry to rest for three hours as recommended  it was pliable and easy to work with, and robust -  the pasties survived being wrapped in tin foil and transported to the radio studio in my rucksack.

Instead of the Cornish version of beef, potato, swede and onion I used pork, leek and potato. I was aiming for a Berkshire Pasty but when I thought about it I realised that apart from being made in Berkshire they only Royal County ingredient was the flour (Dove's Farm). I don't think I'll be getting PGI status but they were good so here is the recipe for the filling.

450 gms diced pork From Dews Meadow Farm  (Reading Farmers Market) Oxfordshire

450 gms potato  Tolhurst Organic Produce veg bag - Oxfordshire

200 gms leek (2 med leeks) Tolhurst Organic Produce veg bag - Oxfordshire

Salt & pepper to taste

Teaspoon Dijon mustard mixed into the meat

butter 

Chop the pork, leek and potato finely, I used the food processor for the meat so was almost mince,  then add to rolled out circles of pastry. Layer the vegetables and meat adding plenty of seasoning. Put a knob of butter on top. Then bring the pastry around and crimp together. Cook at 210/Gas mark 6 approx 50 min-1 hour (Fan oven 165 for  45 minutes)

 

This amount made five BIG pasties and they were good hot and cold.

I should just explain about the award. See the Difference were running a competition last week to highlight their project to feed school children in Malawi. You had a chance to win some boxes of cereal if you sent them a photo of your lunch. I sent a photo of my pasty and won a prize!

Parrot Pie

Parrot as in parsnip and carrot - my carnivorous son was disappointed to discover it didn't contain any exotic birds. I got the recipe from the veg box recipes website. It is basically mashed carrots and parsnips in a cheese sauce in a pie. I'd normally make my own pastry but my in-laws have gone to France for a couple of months and we inherited the contents of their freezer including some frozen shortcrust pastry so I used that.

The pie was good, quite sweet as you'd expect. It went well with onion gravy made with the water the carrots and parsnip were boiled in and mashed potatoes.  I have to confess though it is not the most photogenic dish I've made!