July 24th, 2012
Finally the monsoons abated and the sun came out. Forgive the dramatics, but it’s half way through summer and it’s rained nearly every day! Having been shopping for summer food, I set light to some lump wood charcoal and called Audrey.
I always line the barbecue with aluminium foil, this stops the heat escaping from the base and reflects it upwards. It really does make it hotter.
I bought 6 Cumberland style sausages from the butcher – these have been my favourite barbecue sausages for some time, they taste good cooked on charcoal and are huge (about 8 inches long). What you see on the barbecue above is a butcher’s half dozen – 7 sausages… We ate them with Encona West Indian Hot Pepper Sauce.
I made up an egg and potato salad with about a pound of new potatoes (from Perry Court Farm) and 2 chopped free range eggs (also from the farmers’ market). I mixed up the mayonnaise from scratch in a food processor, but you could whisk it by hand.
Mayonaise recipe:
1 piece of garlic
a pinch of salt
2 free range egg yolks
1 teaspoon of grain mustard (Moutarde de Meaux)
1 teaspoon of sherry vinegar
200 ml extra virgin olive oil
the juice of 1 lemon
a pinch of ground black pepper
Put the garlic, salt and egg yolks into a food processor. Once they start to thicken, add the mustard and vinegar, then drizzle the oil slowly in through the top. Don’t over process this or it will become very thick. Squeeze in the lemon and the black pepper at the end – this only needs a brief whizz to mix it through. Combine with the chopped egg and previously cooked and cooled potatoes – chill for a an hour or two before serving. You will find that real mayonnaise tastes very different to the kind you buy in shops – do add more lemon, vinegar or seasoning to suit your taste.
Next on the barbecue came vegetable skewers of courgette, mushroom, onion and red pepper drizzled with olive oil. I did mean to include some delicious Perry Court cherry tomatoes, but forgot. Soak wooden skewers in water for a few hours before barbecuing – this stops them burning.
Just as it was getting dark, we flash barbecued some delicious rump steak (also from Theobalds).
During the evening, the food was washed down with Tempranillo Rosado (Spanish rosé wine) and on our retreat to the kitchen we drank a bottle of Audrey’s home made Elderflower Champagne.
I´d heard of a butcher´s dozen, but not of a butcher´s half dozen…marvellous! So glad you are finally enjoying some summer weather and I particularly like the sound of Audrey´s Elderflower Champagne 🙂
I hope the weather stays for your month in England. I’m sure the extra sausage was a mistake, but there are 7 on the barbecue and I only asked for 6! Audrey’s Elderflower Champagne was very good and I’ll be encouraging her to make more 😉
The Champagne needs lots of research and development . It was very dry . But very exciting . It was so easy to make . It always makes me laugh when I make things for myself…. maybe we shouldn’t tell everyone how easy it is to fend for one’s self. But then again… maybe we should !
You can tell everyone, but a lot of people are too lazy to do much more than order a pizza delivery!
mmm! How exactly does One order a pizza delivery ?
No idea 😉
Looks like a terrific spread! Perfect summer fare prepared expertly.
Thanks Ruthie – we’ve waited long enough for some nice weather 😉
A great way to celebrate the arrival of summer! The sausages look wonderful and I agree with you about home-made mayonnaise – it’s nothing like shop-bought at all and your mustardy one must have gone really well with the sausages.
Thanks, it was all perfect, even without the tomatoes 😉
Glad to hear there was a break in the weather! Hmmm, sherry vinegar…must think about incorporating that the next time…finally seeing some little round green bits where the flowers used to be on my tomato plants….can’t wait!
Me too! I use sherry vinegar a lot in cold food or as a final ingredient in hot – the subtlety gets lost too quickly if you put it in a cooked food at the beginning. Good luck with the tomatoes 😉
Now, this is the way to welcome Summer — even if it’s a bit of a late arriver. Everything from the items selected to the method of cooking says it Summertime and I would have enjoyed all of it. I hope Summer’s coming to your side of the pond will mean a little more rain for us over here. We need plenty but one mustn’t be greedy with the weather gods.
Thanks John – I hope you get the rain you need 😉
Perfect bbq. Mine never work out quite as well as that, but I’m giving it a go this week.
Good luck Roger 😉
We are perhaps the only Americans without a grill. This is making me rethink that!
No! Well even the very cheap ones work reasonably well and will easily last a season or two 😉
This sounds like a great way to enjoy a day without rain. I love egg potato salad…that’s what I grew up eating at home with my parents. With your homemade mayonnaise, your recipe has to be great.
Thanks Karen 😉
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