Summer Eating

With the first harvest from the garden today comes some inspiration for a new blog post! OK, so it was only one strawberry (delicious I hasten to add), but it’s a start! Things are growing nicely – I already have some green tomatoes on the go, the courgettes are about to flower and the peppers and aubergines are in flower keeping the bees busy.

I love eating in the summer out here, the barabecue is on every night and we just eat a glut of salads and vegetables with whatever meat or fish tickles our fancy on the barbie. I’ve experimented with a few marinades in the past and just recently have come up with this really simple, tasty and healthy one that goes particularly well with chicken and mediterranean vegetables: 4 tbsp balsamic vingegar, 1 tbsp olive oil, 1 tbsp honey, 1/2 tbsp mustard, 1 tsp dried oregano and a few rasps of black pepper. I cut everything (usually chicken, courgette, onion, red pepper, garlic cloves and mushrooms) into similarly sized chunks, put them in a bowl with the marinade for at least half an hour and then skewer them to cook on the barbecue. The quantity of marinade is enough for 2 chicken breasts plus veg.

Sardines are also a barbecue favourite – they make the house smell in winter so we make up for lost sardine time by barbecuing lots of them in the summer. We place the sardines on a contraption I made out of two wire racks and a couple of old skewers to stop them sticking to the barbecue and falling to pieces – sprinkled with hot paprika and a squeeze of lemon juice at the last minute.

Rabbit, duck, beef, prawns, monkfish, tuna steak – I’m looking forward to the months ahead! The June issue of Delicious Food Magazine is mostly about barbecuing – worth getting if you want some great new ideas, there are also some recipes on the website – the Grilled Squid with Cumin recipe sounds like a must, as does the swordfish with chermoula. Any of you got any barbecue favourites? Let me know so I can give them a go.