Hey Pesto!: Down in the Jungle, eating Bread and Jam!

Sub-title: Well, actually not eating Bread and Jam but a cool lunch with cool friends! But the jungle part is accurate (see photo towards the end)

After the Greek elections on June 17^th that the world watched with bated breath, I, and probably most people in

Greece

(Greeks and foreigners alike) wondered ‘what next?’

What next? How about lunch? So I invited the ladies from one of my Book Clubs for lunch in the garden/jungle before they all disappeared for the summer, (Just by the way, the years of ‘where are you going for the summer?’ meaning the whole Summer, not just two weeks on the Costa Brava, are long gone, but family homes on islands or in villages still exist and what else are you going to do with children on three months’ holiday?)

And they all accepted which was great. But what wasn’t great is that a heat wave got stuck on Greece, and, more specifically, on my house, or so it seemed and I was cooking in 40C as the aircon was out of order, of course!

I wanted it to be cool, fresh and easy to serve so I decided on the following:

Mezes (hors d’oeuvres) of bowls of taramasalata, houmous and melitzanasalata (egg plant dip) with home made toasts.

Salmon poached in a fennel flavoured court bouillon, with a quinoa salad featuring lots of parsley (my take on Tabbouleh), lots of basil, chopped red and green peppers, cucumbers, tiny tomatoes, celery and fennel. With a Pesto mayonnaise, strips of pickled cucumber and capers from the garden.

Poached salmon, cucumber and capersw

Quinoa salad, parsley, basil, cucumber, fennel, celery tomatoes

Roasted, stuffed red peppers and roasted tomatoes – again with lots of basil.

And finally, because I had made mayonnaise I had also made meringues (see previous Post) which I served with a good dollop of vanilla flavoured whipped cream and baked and caramelised peaches, apricots and plums.

All fairly simple, but some rather lengthy in preparation.

Melitzanasalata:

Whilst roasting the red peppers and tomatoes, I put the egg plant into the oven to cook. When softened and finally cooled, scoop out the inside and combine with a little spring onion, lots of parsley, salt, lemon juice, olive oil, a little mayonnaise and give it a quick pulse whizz in the processor – just enough to combine but not to purée – needs texture.

Houmous:

I prefer to use dried chick peas that I soak overnight in water with a teaspoon of bicarb. Next day, rinse and then boil in fresh water without salt, until softened. Strain, reserving some of the liquid for thinning the final purée.
Put chick peas into the trusty processor, salt to taste, a little crushed garlic, whizz, add tahini (lots), olive oil and lemon juice and thin with some of the reserved cooking liquid if too thick and whizz away until you get a smooth-ish cream.
If I don’t have time to use dried chick peas, cooked and canned chick peas that are always lurking somewhere in the store cupboard, are fine as long as you rinse them thoroughly removing the canning liquid and proceed as above – for thinning use water.

Roasted Red Peppers:

Delia Smith’s recipe (from her summer recipe book) is the very best, stuffed with tomatoes, anchovies and basil.

Roasted Tomatoes:

I think Delia has a recipe for these too which is bound to be perfect as are all her reliable recipes, but I just remove the skins, cut in half horizontally, douse with olive oil and sprinkle with basil.

Whilst roasting away all the above, make the toasts:

I use French baguettes that I slice into ½ cms rounds, lay out on sheet pans, drizzle olive oil all over the bread and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Put the timer on for 10 minutes and watch them, they need to be golden and some could be a little more so just for flavour!

Again, whilst roasting away, prepare the fruit, peel the peaches, stone them and the apricots and plums having cut in half horizontally; place them in a pretty terracotta baking dish in which they can be served, sprinkle liberally with caster sugar and lemon juice; if you like the idea you can add some white wine. Bake until beautifully caramelised and soft.

We are a very noisy (lively!) group – twelve girls who have been friends for a long time – one I was a school with and reconnected out of the blue here in Greece (one of her sons and mine, totally coincidentally, were given the same name and baptised by the same godfather!). I had not judged the sun’s orbit very well, in spite of inviting them for 2pm but fortunately one of my friends arrived with an enormous umbrella that covered the whole lunching area.

I served very cold white wine, home made lemonade and an assortment of iced teas, jasmine, white and my personal favourite black flavoured with hibiscus flowers that gives a good impersonation of red wine!

It was Lovely and a good start to the summer. We shall regroup, God willing, in September with tales of holidays, all the books read and adventures experienced – or maybe just the chance to relax before we take on whatever the politicians have in store for us!

Wishing you sunshine, crystal clear seas and huge Basil Plants, whatever the weather!