How to Make an Easy Sudden Lunch for Sudden Friends

A few times recently people have popped round to see us and stayed for lunch (as suggested by me) and I have put on a spontaneous collection of items that I’ve found in the fridge and pantry, some good bread, an offer of wine et voila! 

This is ideal for summer entertaining when you don’t fancy all the faff of cooking and being away from the party but, on the other hand, a few bags of crisps seems a bit stingy.  There is a middle road, however; I call it the Sociable Feast.

Simply put this is an assortment of complementary bits and pieces, some of which can be prepared ahead if you have time, bunged on the table so that everyone, including you, can snack and nibble whilst enjoying the scintillating conversation, flirting, gossip and what not.

Firstly, here’s a recipe for a perfect sociable feast followed by lots of food ideas.

Eating Al Fresco

~   Place the table in a flat and attractive space in the garden or on the terrace. This could be in the sun or the shade, according to taste.
~   Arrange the chairs around the table.
~   Look at the wine bottles and sort into two basic colours.  Chill the white wines, open some of the red bottles so that the wine can breathe (it is, of course, always possible to open more later).
~   Place your choice of plates, glasses, knives, forks etc. on the table.
~   If you have plumped for flowers scatter them randomly yet attractively on the table top or put into low vases and place at intervals.
~   Assemble your friends and place one on each chair.
~   Put some bottles of wine on the table.
~   Place the food on the table.
~   Invite friends to partake.

Alternatively, a picnic works well too although takes a little more planning (picnic ideas here) and even eating indoors can be great if you have good food and good company.

The Food ...

Cheese is the perfect foundation for a sociable feast. I always have mature Cheddar, Gran Padano, Herb & Garlic Boursin and a blue cheese such as St. Agur, Castello or Cambozola in the fridge.  Recently my guests were lucky enough to find me with some Vintage Gouda too!  

If you are planning ahead a mixture of cheeses; hard, creamy, pungent, salty etc. is good but just one great cheese can work well too .

Here are some cheese friendly sides …

Fruit & Nuts

Grapes, of course.  If you have got time to plan ahead you might like to try Sautéed Grapes.

A perfectly ripe pear is a humdinger with blue cheese and so are these Sugared Walnuts (be sure to add a good dose of black pepper). 

Nice fresh plump figs go well with most cheeses.

Meats

I like to add some chorizo (I always have chorizo for these 21 good reasons), prosciutto or pâté to the platter. Here’s a lovely cheese friendly idea if you do have time think ahead …

Chorizo in Red Wine

200g spicy chorizo sliced about this thick [  ]
½ tbsp olive oil

1 small red onion – finely chopped

a little garlic – finely diced

200ml red wine

1 tbsp honey

~   Fry the chorizo slices in the olive oil for a couple of minutes on each side then set aside.
~   Cook the onion and garlic in the residual oil till tender.
~   Add the wine, bring to a boil, return the chorizo to the pan, turn down the heat and simmer for 5 minutes.
~   Set the chorizo aside again!
~   Add the honey to the pan and boil till you have a syrup.
~   Turn off the heat and return the chorizo again.

Nicest served warm.

Roasted Garlic

This goes beautifully with goats’ cheese and blue cheese but with others too.  Serve the halves whole (so to speak!) and quests can squeeze them straight onto the good bread you are serving. See here for how to make delicious roasted garlic and lots of ideas for using it. 

Black Garlic

Lovely stuff which goes very well in a cold collation such as this! 

Salad

If you have the makings a green salad is a good addition to your feast or maybe some coleslaw. 

Sweet little tomatoes are also good either whole or sliced, tossed with finely chopped red onion, seasoned and drizzled with extra virgin olive oil and a little balsamic or sherry vinegar.

Speaking of tomatoes ... 

Roasted Tomatoes

These are great with soft cheese, try them hot over mozzarella,   …

~   Preheat oven to 200°C/400°F/180ºC fan/gas 6
~   Halve cherry tomatoes, or keep whole if tiny, and toss with a little olive oil, salt and pepper.
~   Spread on a baking sheet and roast for about 10 minutes till soft and collapsing.

Here are Six Sexy Salads that would be suitable if you have a little time.

Condiments

You could also add mustard, pickles, chutney (especially caramelised red onion chutney), salad dressing if you are serving salad (obviously!) and truffle honey which goes very well with blue cheese and strong Cheddar. 

I would recommend serving good bread – not the pappy kind but something rustic, crusty and chewy, good butter, olive oil for drizzling and maybe some crackers.

Of course, other things you may have in your fridge will work too, for instance hummus, cold chicken, ham, melon (particularly good with prosciutto and ham) and, of course, leftovers!

Speaking of leftovers ...

Great preview here

Fresh, Wild, Roasted, Smoked or Black Garlic ~ delicious ways to use all of them!

Today is another one of those strange “national days” – this time the nation is the USA and the food item is garlic so, even though I am  Brit, I thought I’d write appropriately.

As one would expect I often cook with garlic, although not for my real man of course! This wonderful stuff, however, not only adds an important nuance to so many dishes, it is also a fantastic flavour (or, in fact several different fantastic flavours) in its own right which deserve to be showcased in our cooking.

Garlic Bonus!

Garlic is considered to be a strong vampire repellent so, depending where you live, this could be useful.

The 5 forms of garlic I shall be writing about today and referred to in the title of this post are – fresh, roasted, smoked, wild and black. They are all wonderful but in different ways so here are some ideas, tips and links to help you make the most of them. 

Firstly, in most cases, all these garlics are interchangeable; they all work well in ...

~   Mayonnaise – homemade or bought in.
~   Salad dressings –vinaigrette recipe here and replace the fresh garlic with other forms of garlic depending what you are serving it with. These vinaigrettes also make good marinades and dipping sauces.

~   Mashed potato – with the possible exception of black garlic which is bit too sweet, I think.

~   Add to hummus and similar bean dips – basic hummus recipe and suggestions here.
~   Risotto – see here for Black Garlic Risotto recipe.
~   Pesto
~   Garlic butters and, thereafter, various forms of garlic bread, all gorgeous!
~   Rich, creamy and very easy Alfredo Sauce to use on pasta and other things too.
~   Soup – lots of recipes in my Soup Recipe Cookbook plus all the info you need to create your own recipes.
~   Garlic oils (IMPORTANT – either use immediately or freeze as they can cause botulism otherwise) – and hence croutons, drizzles on soup, dipping oils etc.

So I'm starting with wild garlic as the season is upon us and it’s time to get gathering!

Wild Garlic

Here’s a strange and irritating thing – for 14 years my sister and I ran a restaurant in Cornwall and for 14 springs we drove past, frequently, a large and rampant patch of wild garlic, remarked on the fragrance and never, ever thought of picking and using the stuff!

I have written a lot about this already – my most useful wild garlic post, I think, is this one with instructions and lots of ideas here. 

Fresh Garlic

There are, of course a myriad (and then some) things to do with fresh garlic, here are a few very simple ideas ...

~   If you have a lot of garlic freeze some separated into cloves or, even better, purée peeled garlic with twice its volume of oil and then freeze. The wonder of this is that once frozen it is still soft enough to scrape off a little when needed. Do not store garlic in oil in the fridge for any longer that a few days or you might get botulism, best to freeze it asap.
~   Put peeled garlic cloves into a bottle of Vodka (I'm afraid you will probably have to drink a little Vodka fist to make room) and keep it in the freezer. Use the resulting Garlic Vodka in sauces, Bloody Marys or peculiar Martinis.
~   Slice peeled garlic cloves very, very thinly and uniformly, separate the slices and fry in a couple of centimetres of hot oil (160ºC/325°F) to light golden. This should take about 5 minutes, adjust the heat if they are going too fast. Drain well, cool well and then store for up to a week (and probably  lot longer!) in an airtight container. These are a traditional garnish in Thailand but are good sprinkled on all sorts of dishes.

Roasted Garlic

Roasting garlic makes it soft, buttery, sweet, mellow and also makes the house smell gorgeous. In fact it’s one of those smells, like baking bread or good coffee that tends to beguile people. Read here for how to roast garlic and make a nice smell together with lots of ideas for using the lovely stuff.

  

Smoked Garlic

I have actually smoked garlic myself and it’s not difficult if you are into smoking but it is easier still to buy it from your nearest interesting food shop.

Use smoked garlic wherever you would use un-smoked garlic but it is particularly good with potatoes, cheddar and strong beefy dishes.

Black Garlic

This is the best food “discovery” I have made in ... years and years! It is wonderful stuff and I never expected a whole new ingredient at my age!

It is somewhat difficult to get hold of, for a while Tesco stocked it but usually I have it delivered from Amazon. Recently I learned that Sainsbury’s stock it but I don’t know if it is every store. I urge you, however, to get yourself some even if it’s not an easy thing to do, I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.

I have written a lot about this too, see ...

~  Black Garlic
~  How to Use Black Garlic
~  "The latest 'it' ingredient in chefs' kitchens"

Enjoy!

Omelette - the Perfect Dish for Miscellaneous Leftovers

~  Menu  ~

Trash Omelette

Bit of Red

Sparkling Pear and Ginger Fizz

When I lived in the British Virgin Islands I sometimes used to have breakfast at De Loose Mongoose which is on the beach just a few watery yards from our boat. 

I don’t know if they still do but they used to serve a Trash Omelette, cunningly making it out of whatever they had leftover from the night before.  

Omelettes ~ a Perfect Way to Use Up Leftovers

I thought of De Loose Mongoose today when I was looked in the fridge and found …

½ red onion

4 thin slices chorizo

1½ cold cooked new potatoes

a smallish piece of red pepper

1 broccoli floret

little broken off corner of Davidstow Cheddar

… that all pretty well needed using up.  So this is what I did:

Why not Pin for Later?

~   Thinly sliced the onion and cooked it till sweet and tender. 

~   Coarsely chopped the chorizo and fried it in a little oil till crispy then set it aside.

~   Diced the cold potatoes in the chorizoey oil in the pan till crisp.  As there wasn’t enough oil I added some from my jar of recently roasted garlic.

~   I added the red pepper, coarsely chopped, and the broccoli broken into tiny florets. 

~   When the veggies were just turning tender I stirred in the cooked onion and the crisp chorizo.

~   I whisked together 2 eggs with salt and pepper and a few drips of hot sauce, poured it over the potato mix and cooked for a few minutes till almost set.

~   When almost cooked I sprinkled the top with the bit of cheese, grated, and slid the omelette under a hot grill just to melt it and set the runny bits of egg.

Halfway through this last stage I had a too late inspiration – I wish I had sprinkled a handful of panko crumbs on top for crunch, but I didn’t.  Maybe next time. 

The other day we had Pear and Ginger Crumble for pudding: I gently cooked the pears in syrup from the Stem Ginger jar which tasted good but produced Far Too Much Juice.  I kept back about 60ml and drank it today topped up with fizzy water.  I’ve done this before with juice leftover from cooking rhubarb and no doubt I will do it again – makes a pleasant change in the drinks department.

"Live Well for Less" with an "Affordable Budget" and Cauliflower!

~  Menu  ~

Sautéed Cauliflower, Roasted Garlic and Blue Cheese on Toast

Glass of Secret Red

Marzipan Cookies

I see that the Government is trying to convince people that they can eat well on an affordable budget and that Sainsbury’s are running a campaign entitled “Live Well for Less” an entirely admirable sentiment and something that is very close to my heart.

Much of this blog has been concerned with the delicious, creative AND economical use of leftovers – perhaps you've noticed!  I wish Sainsbury and the Government the best of luck in their endeavours.

My lunch today is, in fact, a humble example of using leftovers creatively. 

When preparing the vegetables for last night’s dinner I couldn’t be bothered put the last few florets of cauli back into the fridge so cooked the lot.  I was thinking “cauliflower cheese” at the time but today was a bit more creative.

I sautéed the cooked cauliflower with a teaspoonful of  roasted garlic and then stir in my new favourite blue cheese – Saint Agur. 

With a generous dose of freshly ground black pepper and a couple of slices of toast the meal ended up having a lot going for it being crunchy, creamy and nubbly, spicy and salty, hot and satisfying.  Also fairly good for me I think – fresh veggies, wholegrain toast, just a little cholesterol and a healthy swig of red wine.  Well done me.  Again!   

More ideas for  Leftover Cauliflower

~   Add raw or just cooked florets to salad or use as crudités with a dip.

~   Toss in hot cheese sauce (cheese sauce recipe here - you'll have to scroll down a bit), sprinkle with more cheese and breadcrumbs and bake till hot, bubbling, crisp and golden. 

~   Toss hot just tender florets in vinaigrette (lots of vinaigrette recipes here) and chill till needed.  Maybe wait till warmer weather for that one!

~   Reheat in a little cream with a grating of nutmeg.

~   Coat in batter or breadcrumbs and deep fry - here are 9 delicious coating for fried foods.

More Ideas for Leftovers in General!

Ladies and gentlemen my Pinterest Board ...

Leftover Food ~ Delicious Ideas

How to Roast Garlic – plus 25 delicious things to do with it!

~  Menu  ~

Roasted Garlic and Crumbled Blue Cheese on Toast

Red Wine

A few cherries

A week of so ago I bought a gorgeous fresh bulb of garlic with the intention of topping up my roasted garlic stock. 

There’s lovely, as the Cornish say.

For a few days I couldn’t bring myself to do anything with it except admire it but today as I had the oven on anyway (trying to keep warm!) I  decided to get on with it.  I’ve always loved the smell of garlic roasting and in my cheffing days a whiff of it would often attract in extra customers.

See the end of the post for 25 delicious ways to use roasted garlic.

How to Roast Garlic

~   Cut heads of garlic in half through their equators and stand cut sides up in a shall ovenproof dish.

~   Drizzle quite generously with olive oil, being sure to anoint the cut surfaces well, and season with salt and pepper. 

~ Cover tightly with foil and do in a medium oven till completely tender which takes about an hour or so depending on your idea of “medium oven”. I did mine in a fan oven at 160˚, it is ready when lightly golden and buttery soft.
~ Cool till you are able to handle it and then squeeze the soft garlic cloves into a clean jar adding any oil remaining in the dish too.
~ Pour in extra olive oil till to cover the garlic completely and utterly, put on the lid and store in the fridge for 4 or 5 days.

Two Ways to Freeze Roasted Garlic

1.   Freeze whole roasted garlic cloves by spreading on a baking tray, freezing then storing in a sealed plastic bag in the freezer.
2.   Mash the roasted garlic and divide between the sections in an ice cube tray. Once frozen pop out the cubes and also store  in a sealed plastic bag in the freezer.

25 Delicious Ways to Use Roasted Garlic

Roasted garlic and/or its oil can be used to enhance so many dishes …  

~   mix into mashed potato

~   make a roasted garlic vinaigrette (here’s how to make vinaigrette plus lots of suggestions including roasted garlic)

~   Roasted Garlic & Parmesan Soup 

~   purée into tomato ketchup for a delicious change

~   brush or smear over pizza base before adding the topping

~   roasted garlic Pangrattato (posh word for crispy breadcrumbs - really useful) 

~   add to pasta sauces – for instance stir some in to lovely Alfredo Sauce 

~   rub roasted garlic under the skin of chicken before roasting.

~   Roasted Garlic Scones!   

~   make roasted garlic hummus or other bean dip (hummus and bean dip recipes and ideas here)

~   eat with blue or goats cheese with which it has an affinity

~   Roasted Garlic & Parmesan Polenta 

~   make roasted garlic butter (see here for how to make flavoured butters and how to use them) and then make …

~   roasted garlic bread

~   mix with mayonnaise – roasted garlic mayo is gorgeous!  See here for 38 ways to flavour mayonnaise. 

~   mix into the meat when making burgers 

~   Butternut Squash & Roasted Garlic Soup 

~   mix with sour cream to fill baked potatoes or as a dip

~   add to pesto

~   stir into gravy  and pan sauces (which, incidentally, are very easy!) 

Why not pin this image and try roasted garlic - it's gorgeous!