last gasp picnic

I learnt my picnic technique from my mother, who could prepare a hamper with a whole salmon and all the trimmings to feed 10, throw together a sandwich or knock up a fire on a beach and cook sausages. It helps to have the right gear, but the main ingredient necessary is being up for it.

Yesterday the local festival, here in the cultural centre of the world, Cricklewood, had scheduled an outdoor showing of Some Like It Hot in a park on the dark side (Barnet). Hurray for the Cricklewood Silk Road Festival. Outdoor viewing said picnic to me. So I started getting the picnic kit together, and decided on the menu: chicken and salad wraps with cider to wash them down.

The chicken was marinaded for a few hours and then thrown on the griddle. It cooked beautifully, but left me wishing that I'd spared my clean hob and grilled it instead, letting the oven take the flack. I finally cooked some of the lovely looking split peas I have had for a while, to make a herby salad, and the mayo in the jar was going to get a makeover with paprika and friends. Add some rocket and a wrap, and napkins would be needed to catch the drips and wipe the mouth while it was being devoured.

What else do you need for a picnic? Leaving aside the hordes of helpers to carry the full dining table, crockery and chandelier, I prefer not to do disposable. This the gear I go for:

• a drying up cloth (tea towel to some) with cutlery rolled into it: sharpish knife, spreading knife and spoons
• duralex glasses or other almost unbreakable glasses, in another cloth, to prevent cracking
• picnic blanket, such as bedspread or a couple of sheets. 
• cold bag or box with ice, camping cold pack or my preferred version, a not quit full plastic bottle of water - if it's full it cracks btw. And maybe some ice to throw into a drink as well.
• food
• drink
• something warm to wear in case the weather changes

So this is a cookery blog, let us consider the food prep. 

Chicken with basil and parsley marinade

Ingredients:

• Chicken pieces - I cut up a whole chicken following this video , but cutting it into eight pieces

Marinade

• 1 clove garlic
• small bunch of basil
• small bunch of parsley
• juice of 1 lemon
• olive oil
• glug of cider
• pepper and salt

1. blitz the garlic, basil, parsley and lemon juice together, or chop the dry ingredients finely and then add the liquid and seasoning
2. mix with the chicken pieces and leave for a few hours - to speed things up you can slash the pieces to help the marinade penetrate
3. to cook grill or griddle all the pieces until both sides are well browned, about 5m a side

Maionnaise with additions - I like to add paprika, garlic, lots of pepper, lemon and olive oil to bottled mayo, to give it a kick. This salad is refreshing and not too heavy, the peas should be firm but not at all hard, and they keep a lovely green colour. The herbs and lemon lift the flavour.

split pea salad

• small bowl of split peas
• handful of each: mint, parsley, coriander
• 1 clove garlic
• two tomatoes
• half an onion
• pepper
• salt
• lemon juice
• olive oil

1. cook the split peas in boiling water, it takes about 20 minutes
2. deseed the tomatoes and dice the flesh
3. finely chop all the herbs, onion and garlic
4. drain the cooked peas - they should still be firm - and mix in the herb mixture, and leave to cool
5. add chopped tomatoes, then pepper, salt, lemon juice and olive oil to taste

For the wrap, I start with a smear of the spiced up mayo, add rocket, pea salad and bits of chicken, and then I roll the lot up, carefully folding one end. Don't think it won't drip, because it will.

salad dressing - a lift on a winter's day

I had salad as usual yesterday, green leaves with the family dressing. Absolutely great on a grey day. The garlic is good for you and at the moment I seem to love anything that is that vibrant spring green, and lettuce hits the spot.

Try it.

salad dressing recipe

salad dressing

There is only one salad dressing. Well, there may be other dressings, but this is THE ONE to remember. It's the Long Family salad dressing. It's more than Elizabeth David could manage, to write this down. Her likely source book, by the marvellous Jean-Noel Escudier, doesn't list it.

What's it good for then? Well it's good for everything. It's great with any green salad. Other favourites of mine are sliced tomatoes, any lightly cooked veg, and pain bagnat.

So, everyone should have a pestle and mortar. Wooden. Hardwood is best. However, research tells me that they don't. So I'm giving two methods to make the dressing. Oh, and Jamie Oliver sells a strange thing with a ball in it - you could use that too, just make sure you mix the first batch of the ingredients before adding the olive oil. It does make a difference.

1 clove garlic (peeled)
salt (preferably maldon) hearty pinch
pepper several good grindings
1 tbsp red wine vinegar

3 to 4 tbsp best olive oil

with pestle and mortar
pound the garlic, pepper and salt together to make a fine puree, don't stint, really mash it up
add the vinegar
mix to a uniform paste
add olive oil and mix well

without pestle and mortar

finely chop the garlic (as small as you can, crushing it with the side of a knife first will release the delicious juices,and help get the skin off)


mix chopped garlic, pepper and salt together

add the vinegar
mix well
add olive oil and stir
use to dress your salad, shortly before eating it

If you don't like the smell of garlic on your fingers there are some gizmos to help reduce contact with the garlic, but don't buy ready peeled garlic - the fresher the better. Still garlic is good for you, whether cooked or raw, but in the battle with cholesterol raw is best. 

tips

you can make a larger batch and keep it in the fridge for around a week - remember, the longer it keeps, the stronger the garlic flavour, so you might want to use slightly less garlic

you can use this as a marinade, but then halve the quantity of oil

My friend Alex makes the dressing with balsamic, which is nice but sweeter. Kitty has taken to this, and waits until everyone has eaten their fill, then adds balsamic to my dressing and eats straight from the bowl, which is slightly embarassing.

I like to dress green salad just before serving it. If you put the dressing on and let the leaves sit they don't look the same.

don't
Use dressing as a suntan oil, as an old flatmate used to, well it was lemon and olive oil, she explained that you can't have too many freckles. I have no idea how her skin has fared because we've lost touch.