SO here you are, on the holliers at last, in the rented house, and what you want is something delicious to accompany that flagon of chilling wine in the fridge.
And something simple, because's the kitchen is unexplored territory. And fast, because you don't want to miss out on the sunshine. Oh, and you also want it to be the kind of cooking that is zingy with summertime tastes.
You don't want a lot, do you?
Well, here are some ideas for those who are chilling out, in rented houses all around the coast. We have tried to find food that is easy to buy, easy to prepare and which can be made in the most basic kitchen.
So let us begin with a simple pasta. This choice of this recipe by Alice Waters was inspired not just by its deliciousness, but also by a recent dish of tagliatelle with broad beans and lemon cooked by Simon Connor, of Adele's, in Schull.
Mr Connor's dish was simplicity itself tagliatelle, beans, lemon juice and zest, and oil, some flat leaf parsley, heaven and demonstrated the beautiful alliance of pasta and beans. Fresh beans are obviously best, but frozen broad beans are good, and will do the trick. The saffron is optional. The recipe hails from Chez Panisse Pasta, Pizza And Calzone, and keep your eyes peeled for a forthcoming edition of this book, to be published by Pavilion towards the end of September.
. Fettuccine, Broad Beans, Saffon and Creme Fraiche
1/2 lb broad beans
1 tablespoon virgin olive oil
1 clove garlic, chopped salt and pepper a few fresh basil leaves
3/4 cup creme Traiche saffron fettuccine for 2
fresh chives
Shell, blanch and skin the broad beans. Cook them gently in olive oil with the chopped garlic for 2 to 3 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Add some basil leaves cut in ribbons, the creme fraiche, and a small pinch of saffron. Cook another few minutes, then cook the fettuccine and add to the beans. Season the noodles with salt and pepper and toss with the beans. Serve garnished with a sprinkling of chives.
HEADING off to the beach and don't want to spend a second indoors and away from the sunshine, never mind do any cooking? OK, then, marinate the chicken this morning and forget about it for the rest of the day. On the way home, buy yourself one of those disposable barbies which petrol stations sell during the summer months, and spend the few minutes it takes to make this classic barbecue dish of Tuscan Chicken.
If you want to be both smart and idle, look out for some of the good prepared marinades made by small Irish companies such as West Cork Herbs of Skibbereen, amongst others. This beauty of a dish is from Marlena Spieler's The Classic Barbecue And Grill Cook book, published by Dorling Kindersley, the sort of tome you should shove in your bag before you head off on holiday. Do note that the asparagus can be omitted your asparagus is large, pre boil it.
Ms Spieler suggests to serve the chicken with an aibli or garlic mayonnaise.
Again, be smart, and don't overlook the good bottles and tubs of mayo which will make your life easy. If you have a bucket of good rose wine with you, now is the time to crack it open.
. Tuscan Chicken
1 chicken, jointed into 8 pieces
1 yellow, 1 red pepper, cored deseeded and cut into wedges
4 small courgettes, sliced length ways
500g (1lb) asparagus, ends trimmed handful black olives, to garnish
. Tuscan Marinade
10 garlic cloves, finely chopped juice of 3 lemons
2-3 tablespoons chopped fresh rosemary salt and black pepper
90ml (3 fl oz) olive oil
To make the marinade, combine the garlic, lemon juice, rosemary, a good pinch of salt, some black pepper and the olive oil in a small bowl and blend well.
Place the chicken pieces in a large shallow dish. Pour two thirds of the marinade over the chicken, reserving the remainder to baste the vegetables. Cover the chicken and refrigerate for at least two hours (overnight, or even for two, nights is ideal).
Light the barbecue or preheat the gas barbecue.
When the coals are medium hot, arrange the chicken on the grill, adding dark meat first and breast meat last. Move the pieces' around so that they cook evenly. If the barbecue has a lid, cover and cook the chicken pieces over indirect heat.
When the chicken is almost done (approximately 8-10 minutes for white meat and 20 minutes for dark meat, or until the juices run clear when the flesh is pierced with a skewer), toss the peppers, courgettes and asparagus in half the remaining marinade.
Place the vegetables on the grill and cook for about two minutes on each side, basting them with the rest of the marinade.
To serve, pile the vegetables around the chicken pieces. Garnish with black olives and serve.
EGGS are the perfect medium for gifting us with high class fast holiday food, so let's explore another use for those broad beans from the pasta recipes, and give ourselves a couple of options with that pot of basil, and a bag of good olives. These next two recipes come from an enigmatic, cultish little book by Nathalie Hambro, called Particular Delights recently republished by Ebury Press.
We begin with a frittata, the Italian omelette, Ms Hambro advises us to serve with the Multicoloured Salad. Her other advice regarding the salad, which she likens to "a still life painting of the Fauvist school" is to serve the delightful concoction "to artistically inclined friends". I reckon she means you.
. Broad Bean And Feta Frittata
350g (12oz) raw fresh broad beans or cooked frozen ones
100g (4oz) feta cheese, crumbled
25g (1oz) Parmesan, freshly grated
4 sun dried tomatoes, packed in oil, drained and shredded
50g (2oz) best black olives, stoned and chopped
6-8 fresh basil leaves, torn into pieces
5 free range eggs, lightly beaten sea salt crystals
25g (1oz) butter
Preheat the oven to 180C (350F), Gas 4. In a bowl toss together the broad beans, feta, Parmesan, sun dried tomatoes, olives and basil. Stir in the eggs, and season to your taste, taking into account the saltiness of the two cheeses and the olives.
Melt the butter in a 25 cm (10inch) flan tin or dish that can be used over a direct heat and in the oven. Add the frittata mixture and cook at the lowest possible heat, undisturbed, for five minutes. Transfer to the oven and bake for 10 minutes. Remove and leave to cool.
Serve straight from an earthenware flan dish, or unmolded on to a large flat plate if made in a tin.
Note you can replace the broad beans with peas.
. Multicoloured Salad
2 large beef tomatoes
4 yellow tomatoes
1 buffalo mozzarella
10-12 fresh basil leaves
2-3 chive flowers about 15 black Italian olives, stoned
Maldon sea salt crystals freshly ground pepper
5 tablespoons fruity olive oil
Blanch the beef tomatoes in boiling water for one minute and peel. Slice across, not down, to show the beauty of the pattern inside. Slice the yellow tomatoes, but do not peel them because under the bright skin the flesh is pallid. Cut the mozzarella into fairly thin slices. Pull the basil leaves from their stalks.
Now take a large, flat dish of a bright colour, preferably green or blue.
Arrange alternate, slightly overlapping slices of tomatoes and cheese on the dish. Tuck whole basil leaves here and there. Scatter petals of the chive flowers all over. Stud with the black olives. Season generously with salt and pepper. Lastly, dribble over the olive oil, making sure to coat all the salad.
PUDDING'S have to be as simple as we can manage fruits soaked in wine, some good ice cream such as those made by Tom and Anne Collins of Cork the chocolate and mint is just deadly but if we want to cook something, let's keep it simple So, here we go.
"Of all summer fruit, cherries are my own favourite," writes Margaret Costa in her Four Seasons Cookery Book (Grub Street). Here is her beautifully simple clafoutis.
. Clafoutis Limousin
675g (11/2 lbs) black cherries
3 eggs
3 tablespoons (45 ml) plain flour salt
3 tablespoons (45 ml) caster sugar a good 3/4 pint (425 ml) milk
2-3 tablespoons (30-45 ml) butter
Wash, dry and stalk the cherries. Beat the eggs lightly together, blend in the flour and a pinch of salt, and then add the sugar. Gradually pour over the warm milk, stirring well. Put the cherries into a wide, shallow, well buttered fireproof dish and pour the batter over them. Dot with the butter and bake in a hot oven, Mark 7, 42ST, 220C, for 25 to 30 minutes.
Sprinkly thickly with more sugar before serving and, if you like, with a little kirch or rum. This can be eaten hot or cold, but is correctly served lukewarm.