Teenage barbecue

The teen decided to have a primary school reunion this weekend, a barbecue. Lesson learnt by me: don't even bother with salads or vegetables, even half French teenagers, brought up on a diet of good food, are only interested in Doritos, Coca Cola, 7up, marshmallows and meat. Except for my kid who had all the previous plus veggie sausages. The bread on a stick went down well though. I tried the recipe 'Damper bread' from the camping section of Alice Hart's new book from the New Voices in Food series published by Quadrille.
However for broader minded adults, it is possible to have delicious meatless barbecues: halloumi should be a store cupboard staple for unexpected vegetarians; home-made veggie burgers, made of beans and cheese, are so much better than ready-made, fold into home-made pitta breads with tendrils of salad and home-made ketchup. I've threaded tiny parboiled new potatoes on skewers, sprinkled them with rosemary salt, and baked them slowly over the coals. Add sticks of rosemary and bunches of sage to your barbecue for instant incense! If you eat fish, I like to wrap an entire one in a wet newspaper. When the newspaper is dry, it's cooked. Perfect for wild camping.
As for salads, vegetables and anything remotely healthy... who are these perfect mothers that manage to make their kids eat this stuff?

Bread on a stick: they were interested by this....

 I've known these kids since they were three years old.

 I made bread coiled around manchego al romero, a Spanish cheese with rosemary

 Vegetable kebabs: halloumi, red pepper, courgettes, basil leaves, marinated in oil and balsamic: untouched.

 Toasting marshmallows for starters! The teen diet.

 Radishes, butter, salt: only I ate them.

 They didn't touch the mozzarella and heritage tomato salad.

 Plenty of beer, alcopops and soft drinks in the outdoor 'fire' bath. (Built by my squatter ex boyfriend, you fill with water, light a fire underneath, enjoy a hot bath under the stars)

 Salad: why did I bother?

Fans of Cornishware: competition!

 My dresser

People who follow this blog and who have visited The Underground Restaurant will perhaps have noticed that I have a bit of a ceramic fetish... I've been collecting blue and white china for a decade now, mostly from French brocantes and vide-greniers (sounds way cooler than 'jumble sale' doesn't it?) and British charity shops (they don't seem to have charity shops in France except for Emaus). I suppose that whereas I once used to spend my money on shoes and hairdressing, I now spend every spare penny on my kitchen!
Designs were often from the classic blue and white' willow' range, I also branched into the green and pink versions. All the china and glassware is mismatched at The Underground Restaurant, being vintage, but it is shouting at the same volume. 
Another of my favourite designs is the classic Cornishware. I once watched a documentary on how they make those classic bands in blue and white stripes, which is not just a case of painting them on, but a complicated process involving craftsmen cutting the bands freehand on a lathe. Famously the blue and white bands are reminiscent of the blue sky and white crested waves of Cornwall. 

 Vintage Cornishware rolling pin

There is something very cheering about Cornishware, it has a vintage appeal that designers such as Cath Kidston have tried to emulate. It's now a collectors item, some pieces are worth a great deal, depending on the condition. This blog talks about how Cornishware was the "smart, yet thrifty" alternative to bringing out the best china. One day I hope to have a whole shelf of Cornishware jars! Here is the official Cornish blue collectors site.
T.G. Green who made the Cornishware from the 1920s went into administration in 2007, but have started up again with a whole new range. Apart from the classic blue and white, you can also get a variety of shades: moss green, yellow, mauve, pink, pillar box red, reminiscent of seaside bunting. I'm using my mugs now but these are also a collectors item for the future!

T.G.Green have offered readers of The English Can Cook a 'Cornishwear' blue and white striped apron and matching oven gloves (pictured above). All you have to do is comment below suggesting a recipe using a typically Cornish ingredient. 

'Ahoy' pop-up restaurant on a boat

Emily O'Hare

Oh lucky me! On one of the hottest nights of the year I get to enjoy on a one day only pop-up restaurant on a boat!

A beautiful Thames-side walk from Hammersmith to Chiswick, gazing at cream-painted seaside style houses with bowed picture windows overlooking the tides, with jasmine and honeysuckle in full bloom, led me to the boat 'Cecilia'. On the upper deck sat 40 guests, chairs sliding gently towards the dock. An inspired cocktail of orange bitters and Cava in my hand, I picked at marinated olives and prawns.

I've always wanted to live on a boat and the owner/chef Charlie allowed me to spy inside the surprisingly spacious interior. The bathroom was particularly luxurious and the spa-sized bathtub doubled up as a champagne cooler.

Upstairs some last minute guests turned the layout into a squeeze for the waitress, we all pitched in and moved our table. For many it was their first experience of a supperclub: "After this any normal restaurant will seem boring" exclaimed one older gentleman.

This dinner was the second sitting of the day, Charlie, her co-chef Eliza and team had already done lunch for 35, and local riverside restaurant Pissaros (surely a great bet for lunches with a view and it looked reasonably priced) had lent them tablecloths for dinner.

Charlie did prep the courses in another kitchen, she is a full time caterer. Emily O'Hare, sommelier at The River Café, gave warm humorous chats between courses on the wine matches she'd chosen. The 'Bera Cannelli 'Moscato d'Asti' 2009 was a revelation, light, mildly alcoholic at 6°, tasting of elderflowers, the perfect pudding choice for this balmy summer's eve. There still aren't enough women in wine: Emily runs a facebook group 'Women, know your wines and help me prove a point!'. My friend and head waitress for The Underground Restaurant, Alissia Durbridge, talked to me of a Bordeaux 'en primeur' tasting for 800 people, and only 10 of them were women, mostly wives.

As a long cheeseboard was handed down the table, we watched a red moon rise over the trees, a partial eclipse.

The menu

Crab, avocado, cucumber and watercress salad with dill & Maldon salt flatbread. Fresh and light starter.

Rare roasted beef fillet with thyme and rosemary infused jus; beetroot dauphinoise, seasonal vegetables, rocket and a piquant horseradish creme fraiche sauce. I had a pastry wrapped artichoke bottom.

Elderflower jelly with redcurrants, lemon syllabub, almond feather biscuits (crunchy and delicious) with raspberries and vanilla cream. Dark Chocolate mousse cake.

Cheeses

 Waiting for the money... £45 a head, 4 courses with cocktail and matched wines

Midsummer night's dream dinner

Home made Elderflower champagne in swing top bottles

Marigold bread, with sunflower seeds, marigold petals and sesame seeds

Elderflowers from my garden (pic by @SiennaMarla)

Bottling ginger beer (pic by @siennamarla)

Beautifully fresh courgette flowers, fried tempura style with goat's cheese

morel custards

Served in boxes

Stuffed tulips, an adaptation from a recipe from Cuisinier Gascon one of my favourite cookbooks

Stuffed with broad beans, peas, tapioca, feta and rose vinegar

Stuffed tulips with pea coulis and wild mushrooms

Peas

Sticks: salsify

Salsify nests

So hard to get good pictures when you are trying to get out meals for 31 guests: vine leaf wrapped salmon with salsify nest.

Proofing poppy seed dough

I found rolling out the dough with a chapatti rolling pin made it thinner

I love the marbled paper look of this dough

The delicate bowls

Saffron salad bowls with pissenlit, rocket, winter purslane, summer purslane, broad bean flowers, pea flowers

Rhubarb syrup

Flowers for the ice bowl

Violets from my garden

Making violet icecream in my Kitchenaid icecream mixer

Flavours: Fraises des bois and creme fraiche, violet icecream, mint icecream

in a rose ice bowl with crystallised rose and violet petals

Fraises des bois soaking in kirsch

The Menu

Hibiscus flower cocktail

Marigold bread dusted with sesame seeds

Courgette flowers stuffed with goat's cheese, in tempura batter, drizzled with Kilburn honey

Elderflower fritters

Morel custards with enoki mushroom, micro herbs and vanilla salt

Stuffed tulip with pea coulis

Saffron and poppy seed salad bowls with a selection of wild leaves and edible flowers (broad bean, pea) with lemon mustard vinaigrette

Vine leaf wrapped salmon 

Vine leaf wrapped halloumi (v)

Salsify nests with red currants

Cheese board: leaf wrapped cheeses: Cornish nettle wrapped Yarg, Childerwickbury goat's cheese wrapped in wild garlic leaves, Manchego in romero, Oak leaf wrapped goat's cheese, with fig confit (simmered for three days on the Aga in red wine) and oat cakes, St. John's sourdough bread

Dandelion wine 

Trio of glaces: fresh garden mint, wild strawberry and creme fraiche, violet icecream served in a rose ice bowl with crystallised rose petals and home made crystallised violets.

Borage tea, Rosebud tea or Douwe Egberts vintage blend coffee

Home made ginger beer and elderflower champagne

I would recommend making your own elderflower champagne and ginger beer. It's very easy and remarkably fizzy within a day or so. Mint icecream was also a revelation, those clean flavours come alive, it couldn't be further away from yer classic mint choc chip, especially when served in an ice rose bowl which I last did in May 2009. It's a spectacular way to serve icecream.