Heritage tomato salad and marinated mackerel in my own red wine vinegar
The story so far in my little series of ‘Summerhouse dinners’: I’ve done three with people who came together, last week the people didn’t know each other but left like best friends. We’ve had sweltering weather, bad weather and back again. I’ve tried to perfect my hover ratio: that is, how long I chat and hang about or…do they want to be left alone? It’s trickier that balance with a small amount of guests.
I don’t quite know what to do with myself up at the big house while they are eating. Last week I just put dessert, cheese and coffee in the shed and skived off to watch Eurovision in my bedroom. Wake me up before you go go!
Zucchini and mint frittata
Cherry clafoutis
Brushed with creme de griottes, a cherry liqueur
Salmon ceviche, guacamole, mango and spring onion salsa, tomatillo salsa, salsa asado
Making the quenelles for ricotta gnocci
Giving them a little shake in flour
You boil them gently until they float and then fry in sage butter
Ricotta gnocci with zucchini tagliatelli tossed in sage butter
Making the meringues for the ‘iles flottantes’
Anonymous
June 5, 2010 at 6:44 amThat all looks so delicious. Are the recipes going in your book?
bakelady59
June 5, 2010 at 7:26 amThe whole menu looks so summery and delicious. I love the colours of the heritage Tomatoes and the freshness of the mackerel. I haven't made clafoutis for ages, so must give that a try again soon.
Gourmet Chick
June 5, 2010 at 8:11 amThose ricotta gnocchi look fantastic – you must be enjoying the chance to try out some more labour intensive recipes that perhaps would not work so well at the full underground restaurant
James
June 5, 2010 at 8:48 amYou've made some magic moments there.
theundergroundrestaurant
June 5, 2010 at 10:24 amfingers: yes some of them will be going in the book
Bakelady: I love those old fashioned French desserts
Gourmet: the ricotta gnocci are very difficult to do for large numbers of people. I've changed the original Zuni recipe to make it more practical and stable to handle and they work well now.
But yes, it's been a return to my roots, practising recipes, which will hopefully give dividends when I do large dinners again.
James: thank you. I'm writing up the Patrick O'Brian dinner we did right now, happy memories!
Scarlett the Heavenly Healer
June 5, 2010 at 11:22 amOooh… that gnocci looks SO delicious I can almost taste it….
🙂
The Curious Cat
June 5, 2010 at 8:33 pmYour food just seems to get better and better! Love those tomatoes and the bread just sounds divine! Recipe?! 🙂 xxx
Lizzie
June 6, 2010 at 1:06 pmThey all look delicious; particularly the salmon ceviche.
Helen
June 6, 2010 at 6:16 pmWhat beautiful summer food. All so pretty, too. That bread looks so wonderfully gooey.
Catalan Cooking
June 6, 2010 at 9:28 pmAll looks stunningly good.
theundergroundrestaurant
June 6, 2010 at 9:35 pmThank you kind peops!
Maybe I shouldn't bother with moany writing and just do pix in future!
The Shed
June 7, 2010 at 12:02 pmOh my word, the clafoutis looks perfect.
Plum Kitchen
June 7, 2010 at 10:08 pmThe pics are beautiful, and I always feel inspired to cook even more vege after reading your posts (kinda over Pork at the moment),but sorry, the highlight for me is always the moany writing….:)
theundergroundrestaurant
June 7, 2010 at 10:46 pmPhew! 🙂
vincent
June 8, 2010 at 8:47 pmHello,
We bumped into your blog and we really liked it – great recipes YUM YUM.
We would like to add it to the Petitchef.com.
We would be delighted if you could add your blog to Petitchef so that our users can, as us,
enjoy your recipes.
Petitchef is a french based Cooking recipes Portal. Several hundred Blogs are already members
and benefit from their exposure on Petitchef.com.
To add your site to the Petitchef family you can use http://en.petitchef.com/?obj=front&action=site_ajout_form or just go to Petitchef.com and click on "Add your site"
Best regards,
Vincent
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Katie
June 8, 2010 at 9:40 pmoooh that bread looks incredible – any chance of sharing the recipe???
gastrogeek
June 12, 2010 at 11:14 amthis is making me far too hungry! I adore the idea of rose vinegar, what a clever idea.
theundergroundrestaurant
June 13, 2010 at 8:47 amGastrogeek: I got that idea from Ben Greeno who worked at Noma for a long time. He's going to start his own supperclub soon which will be one to watch!
theundergroundrestaurant
June 13, 2010 at 8:48 amKatie it'll be in the book!