June Cookery Book Club - Summers finally here

[Pantah630]

Summer is upon us at least for a few days so get your BBQs out and start planning your outdoor menus, with Nigellas Summer and Delia's Summer Collection or any other Summery recipes you can find. I think I may have a Bill Granger lurking on my bookshelf.

I used Pernod and it works well. I don't think it's essential as there's a lot of aniseed flavour from the fennel and fennel seeds - you could substitute white wine quite happily.

Great will save me buying a bottle

pantah I used pernod too. That chicken is one of my favourites from jerusalem.

I just looked at the beetroot salad in forever summer. Darn it needed raw beetroot. I cooked a bunch in the slow cooker in the weekend for my quick lunch salads. Would be lovely to try something new with them. I guess it'd just be with my lemon honey dressing again then.

HeadDreamer are you sure?
I'm sure I looked in Nigella's Summer after someone recommended the beetroot salad and it called for cooked beetroot, saying vacuum packed would be fine... will check my book again later.

I did the rice paper rolls today. Very nice - fresh and light :)
What I would recommend to others, however, is not to mix all the filling together but rather to assemble as you go. I found it hard to mix anything into the vermicelli. So next time I would just add the soy and vinegar to the vermicelli to flavour/moisten, lay them on the pancake, then top with herbs, cucumber and spring onion, then roll.

Yep!
The Italian Beetroot Salad as recommended by GinGinGin (welcome! by the way, and great name :)) uses cooked beetroot :)

Thanks Huevos - likewise

Aha. The first beetroot salad in the chapter is raw beetroot, dill and mustard seeds. I didn't get to the Italian one. I still have the beetroot so will definitely have a look.

Has anyone made the pineapple cooler in delia's summer. I now have a pot of it fermenting in the living room. It caught my eye when flipping through the book because it's simply pineapple rind and water! We love pineapple and it would be really nice to be able to make a drink out of the discarded skin.

I have everything to make the Italian beetroot salad /happydance

Will be using basil instead of mint though. I have a huge pot of it so I have been subbing basil for every herb.

Never done it Head (should I be abbreviating to Head or Dreamer? ), but definitely remember a thread on it somewhere on here... Not sure the OP ever came back, but it wasn't sounding too good iirc, bubbling ominously in the corner!

Ok it's not in either book but I made gorgeous pasta with asparagus and mint pesto tonight. V recommended and seasonal:).

I am going to try those rice paper rolls tomorrow, Huevos..

huevos head dreamer is the lead/chief of a team of dreamers See www.hooli.xyz

But I dont mind either way. And I will report what the cooler tastes like after 3-4 days. I guess worst case is I have a pot of mouldy pineapple water?

Tonight, I lifted the lid of my pineapple cooler. The pineapple looked moldy but didn't smell too bad. I removed the pineapple and the liquid looked ok. But I couldn't get the image of moldy pineapple off my head. And I'm too scared I'll get food poisoning. That would really not be fun with a baby and a preschooler to look after. So off the drain it went.

I can't believe Delia didn't say whether it's ok to drink if the pineapples go very moldy? She's usually very precise isn't it?

I don't think I'd have drunk it either!

Do we need a July thread for canapés and cocktails then? No cocktails for me as I've been unwell but I can do some mocktails

Canapés and cocktails sound good to me!

Made the rice paper rolls btw- v good

Done!
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