SUMMER
Imagine what can be eaten inside pastry. I like half moons of shortcrust or flaky pastry that can be held in the hand; wrapped around fresh cheeses and herbs, then baked. Use cheese that does not ruin when it cools after melting; feta is good and also goat’s milk chèvre. Flower Marie, a good new British cheese, sets to a tender cake after cooking if you use it when unripe. Add chopped cooked new potatoes for substantial patties and flavour with herbs — chives, dill and basil are always good.
I have been rediscovering rice salad with cucumber and dill, dressed with olive oil and lemon. It’s not boring at all, just gentle and easy to digest — so no burps during those arias. Use a fragrant rice, basmati or Thai, not dull American long grain.
Take crisp whole leaves of romaine or cos lettuce, which act as wrapping for the essential picnic charcuterie and cheeses.
And a little bottle of the best single-estate virgin olive oil for dipping is better than a messy jar of vinaigrette. Tabasco, incidentally, ingeniously bottle their sauce in tiny 3.7ml replicas of their large bottles.
For pudding, small meringues are good with all red berries, but build flavours into them: a few raspberries can be stirred into the foam before cook ing; or try a mixture of ground pecans and dates for a meringue with a fruitcake character. Lemon or orange cakes made with either polenta or ground almonds keep soggy but need no messy icing or cream.
A picnic can be the perfect romantic date, but keep it dead simple. Nearby water is good for that born free, gypsy touch; the bottle of wine hanging by a string from a tree, cooling in a stream. Give the object of your desires air-dried saucisson or ruinously expensive Iberico jamon. Pick dead-nettle leaves for greens (wash in stream). But don’t forget the picnic knife-cumcorkscrew. Try eating saucisson without a knife and you’ll look like a terrier that just ate the neighbours’ cat, not to mention spending the rest of the night flossing your teeth.
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