The Ultimate Picnic

[NeopolitanDreams]

What is on your ultimate (but practical) picnic menu?

If you have any great picnic tips, I’d love to hear them. We have a nice basket, great flasks/bottles, and a good blanket.

For me, the best picnic is all cold stuff and most of it bought! Loads of stuff from the deli counter and French stick.

My shopping list would be:
bread
salted butter
houmous
olives
Mini stuffed peppers
brie, Camembert or cambazola
sundried tomatoes and mozzarella
artichoke hearts
veggie versions of pastrami etc
crisps
veggie scotch eggs
plus anything else that looked exciting.

I love to cook but a picnic is not the time!

If I was wanting to cook, I’d do individual sized things for ease of distribution. Savoury muffins, scones, quiches and small versions/ready cut up crispy Greek style pie from bbc good food work well.
Thomasina miers has a surprisingly very nice broad bean and feta pasta salad which is great cold and quite picnic appropriate. I make it with little stars!
amp.theguardian.com/food/2021/jun/21/thomasina-miers-recipe-for-kritharaki-broad-beans-and-tomato-with-baked-feta

Roast chicken drumsticks
Smoked salmon, cream cheese and watercress sandwiches
Cheese
Bread
Tomatoes, cucumber and olives
Fruit cake or gingerbread
Wine, fruit juice and water

And no picnic is complete without hard boiled eggs with celery salt for dipping!

Do you mean posh picnic for show where you’re not carrying it far, or practical but delicious picnic when on a day out?

Practical picnic - can’t beat pre-made sandwiches, decent crisps, some kind of delicious cake, tub of soft fruit. Done. Buy an ice cream later.

Posh picnic - never ever a pre-made sarnie but plenty of crusty French bread, deli meats, cold roast chicken and cheeses, prepared salads (potato, beetroot, Mediterranean roast veg & cous cous, pasta/rice, green), ripe tomatoes, quiche or tart, dips like hummus (fancy varieties of), and so on. Something homemade that’s faffy but fancy like proper Scotch eggs or Spanakopita or a Tarte Tatin.

Both stand and fall on decent drinks to wash it down with.

Basically my enjoyment of picnics is directly in proportion to practicality/time spent making. If the picnic is the entire point of the day, go big. If it’s an adjunct, ruthlessly practical, quick to prep, won’t be a pain to clean up later (worst part!)

You need food that transports well, nothing that will suffer from being bashed about.

I don’t do sandwiches as everyone has different preferences (DH wants butter, I like mayo, DC won’t tolerate salad etc) so instead good fresh bread, preferably a focaccia type bread that doesn’t need butter.

I get deli meats or cold roast chicken and maybe some sausage rolls, mini pork pies or other treats from the M&S deli selection.

I like salads but most don’t transport well. Something like a Greek salad works, or maybe something based on grains. But to be safe and have something the DC will eat I usually take cherry tomatoes and crudités with dips.

Then a packet of posh crisps to share, some fruit (usually grapes or strawberries), a cake or biscuits and something nice to drink (homemade lemonade is popular).

Another vote for the French stick! Then cheese, chutney and pickles. Often do cold Cajun chicken skewers, crudités, a dip, crisps. Fruit kebabs or just strawberries and grapes, usually something baked, cookies or blondes go down well and freeze bottles of water to act as ice packs.

This Shirley Hughes illustration always seems like a fantastic old-fashioned picnic, although I have my doubts about the wisdom of taking an iced chocolate cake. One hot day Lucy and Tom and their Mum and Dad thought they would go to the seaside. Lucy is helping to pack up the picnic. There are sandwiches and hard-boiled eggs, apples, biscuits and a bottle of orange squash. There is also a lovely chocolate cake.

Baguette
Butter
Charcuterie
Cheese
Strawberries

Ah, my Mastermind specialist subject. ::cracks knuckles::

The basic menu is thus:
• Baguettes
• Fancy French butter
• Posh plain salted crisps
• Potato salad made with red wine vinegar dressing rather than mayo, liberal use of dill
• A whole roast chicken, cooled
• Homemade aioli
• Strawberries
• Chocolate cake
• Pink champagne

Can be supplemented with:
• Cheeseboard for those that like cheese (I don’t)
• Honey & mustard-roast cocktail sausages
• Mini samosas
• Jar of cornichons

For a big posh picnic I'd have some nice bread, focaccia with sun dried tomatoes and rosemary, cold chicken, thin ish slices of stand pie, Brie, grapes, strawberries, wine and juice, mini scones and malt loaf.

For a family day out (hiking say) cold samosas, falafels, pitta bread fingers, cucumber and carrot sticks, crisps, mango chutney for a dip flapjack, cold infused tea and a thermos of hot choc.

Mine is quite similar to others

• French stick
• Real salted butter
• Cold chicken, I often pick up a rotisserie chicken from the supermarket, it's always nicer than home cooked
• Smoked salmon and cream cheese
• Homemade coronation chicken
• Some tuna mayo for the kids

Pack all these things separately with some picnic plates/cutlery and make fresh sandwiches on the picnic, much nicer than pre-made sandwiches being lugged round all day and going soggy

To go with it:

• Pickled onions, we like the little silverskin ones
• Crudites with a fancy dip or selection of dips
• Big bag of posh crisps
• Fruit salad (watermelon, kiwi, orange, grapes and strawberries are most popular here)
• Cocktail sausages/scotch eggs/mini pork pies/cold quiche
• Something sweet, cookies/banana bread/brownies/flapjacks. Homemade if I've had time, shop bought if I haven't
• A nice bottle of cloudy lemonade to drink, fruit shoots for the kids. (Or wine for dh and I depending on location/event)

Proper French stick, not a supermarket baguette, or good ciabatta. Wodge of good semi-soft moderately stinky cheese, saucisson sec, proper butter, cornichons, figs - really ripe. Ice-cold rose.

Must be quiche. You cannot have too much.

If u can a chair or two for those that really can't cope with blanket seating.
Ribena in plastic cups
Choc strawberries
Pizza slice using puff pastry
Coleslaw
Pasta salad
Open cobs.
If going into night time warm jackets with a little stove to cook beans.best feeling ever to have a huddle of you and jackets with cheesy beans talking the night away.
Solar lights for when it gets dark.
Quiche
Baguettes with butter.
A Tupperware of Eton mess
Home made sausage rolls.
Fairy cakes
Chocolate tiffin

I really think you can't beat cold pizza for a picnic. I just love it. Essentially a sandwich without the faff of bread falling apart / soggy fillings etc. Easy to transport. Quite often the night before a big walk in Wales or somewhere, my partner and I will order a pizza to be delivered, slam it in the fridge, pack it up in the morning and eat it on the flanks of a mountain somewhere. Simple pleasures.

I’m sorry I haven’t responded sooner! I love these ideas. We usually do a French stick style affair but this summer, I’m looking to cook a lot more.

Some lovely ideas so far but I’m borrowing your list for this weekend x