Something Simple .. Please!
May 2021 - The weather has been nothing but cold, rainy & dreary, it used not to bother me so much when I was younger, but now with such a long year of lockdown under our belts I really feel the need for a bit of sun!
So weather not permitting the next best thing is Cooking Simple Summer food…’on the hob’. Under normal circumstances I would cook outside either on the barbeque or on my little gas stove.. Bottle of wine on the table with the music playing in the background… However inside cooking it is!
Pan fired potatoes in the shape of chips, cooked in a puddle of rapeseed oil sprinkled with garlic salt… When it is summer food it does not matter if the edges of the potato catch, nothing has to be so perfect - It is not for a photo shoot, after all!
A simple salad of what you have, I like the lightness of pea shoots & delicate leaf salad, however my husband likes a bit of crunch in his salad so I mix it in with thinly sliced cos lettuce or a similar crunchy lettuce, I add to the crunch some thinly sliced carrot, which naturally curls into rose shapes on top of the salad.. It is vibrant & alludes sunshine.
With the salad I like to serve it with a simple French Dressing made with equal measures of Olive Oil & Cider vinegar, mixed with a teaspoon or two, depending on your taste of Dijon mustard, grainy in this case. Add a really good dollop of honey, salt & pepper mixed to taste - the consistency being wonderfully shinny & gloopy…
Once cooked keep the potato’s warm, heat a pan with a couple of tablespoons of oil as the oil gets hot drop in a tablespoon full of butter in the pan, which will sizzle, what a moment or two for the butter to become nutty - then add the tuna stakes which have been already sprinkled with Cayenne pepper & seasoned with salt & pepper. Cook the tuna either side for about 1 - 2 minutes depending on how well you like your tuna steak. Remove the tuna to warmed plates, heat the remaining oil & butter & toss in some chopped parsley which you then drizzle over the tuna steaks… Yummy…
One other thing I like to do is mix olive oil, mustard, garlic, salt & pepper to flavour a bowl of mayonnaise to also go with the beautiful Simple Summer Dinner - Enjoy …. I believe that the weather is looking up so you & I can now do this recipe outside! XX
P.S Garlic bread is also a good addition!
