The perfect menu for your first summer meal outdoors — Ravinder Bhogal recipes

On a recent Sunday afternoon, bright rays flew in through the kitchen window, ushering us outside. We walked out with trepidation, lunch in hand. What if it rains? But there wasn’t a cloud to be seen. The garden seemed to have shed its modesty and was displaying a brazen sort of beauty. The season’s flowers had muscled through the soil and come into their own, every blade of grass stood upright harvesting the sunlight, and there were little shafts of light caught beneath the blossoming apple tree. Nothing felt more important than eating lunch, barefoot, in the garden.

Every meal tastes far better when it is seasoned with sunshine — a peach will somehow taste peachier, peas bright and vivid, a tomato grassy and robust. The garden offers us a portal into another world — one where time stretches, where there is playful dappled light on linen tablecloths, where glasses are always full of something crisp and chilled. Eating outdoors, even in a modest space, offers an unexpected tranquillity. It’s an escape from the clamour of our noisy lives, a place to slow down and to dissolve for a few hours in iridescent greenery.

There is no better time than right now to dust down the garden furniture and invite some friends over for lunch. Much of this menu can be prepared well in advance so that you can loll about the garden with a glass of Pimm’s or a rum punch in hand. Garden lunches are healing. They will give you back to the world refreshed and renewed.

Burrata with peaches, fennel and lemon balm oil

Serves 6

For the lemon balm oil

1. For the lemon balm oil, blanch lemon balm in boiling water for a few seconds and then refresh in iced water, drain well and dry. Blend in a food processor with the oil and then strain through a metal strainer and discard solids.

2. To make the salad, toss the fennel with the vinegar. Arrange on a platter with the burrata and peaches then season well with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper. Scatter over almonds, mint leaves and reserved fennel fronds then drizzle the lemon balm oil over and serve.

Salmon confit with preserved lemon mayonnaise and spicy shoestring fries

Serves 4

For the curing salt

For the preserved lemon mayonnaise

For the shoestring fries

1. Make the curing salt for the salmon; toast the whole spices in a dry frying pan for a minute or two until fragrant, stirring frequently so they don’t burn, then use a pestle and mortar or spice grinder to blend with the salt to a coarse powder. The salt can be stored in an airtight jar for up to a year. Mix the lemon zest with two heaped tablespoons of the curing salt, then dust over the salmon and refrigerate for an hour to lightly cure. This will inject it with flavour but also draw out some of the liquid and firm up the salmon so it doesn’t fall apart when you confit it.

2. In the meantime, preheat the oven to 180C. Place the courgettes and lemon slices in a roasting dish, season with sea salt and pepper, then roast for 25-30 minutes, until slightly charred.

3. Turn down the oven temperature to 150C. Rinse the salmon well and dry thoroughly with kitchen paper. Place the salmon in the roasting pan with the courgettes and pour over the olive oil making sure it is submerged. Cook for 25-30 minutes until the salmon is opaque around the edges. Carefully lift out along with the courgettes and drain on kitchen paper.

4. To make the preserved lemon mayonnaise, put the egg yolk, garlic, salt and lemon juice in a food processor and whizz. Then, with the motor still running, start pouring in the oils, one at a time, in a thin steady stream until you have a thick, emulsified mayo. Fold in the preserved lemon and saffron water, taste and add more seasoning, lemon juice or preserved lemon if needed. Refrigerate.

5. To make the spicy garlic shoestring fries, peel the potatoes and cut them into 2mm-thick slices using a mandolin. Cut into fine matchsticks. Rinse for two to three minutes under cold running water to remove the excess starch, then pat dry on kitchen paper.

6. Heat the oil in a deep-fat fryer or large wok to 180C. Working in batches, fry the potatoes in the oil until crisp, about five to six minutes. Using a slotted spoon, transfer the fries to a kitchen paper-lined platter.

7. While the fries are cooking, heat a tablespoon of oil in a frying pan and fry the garlic until it is golden-brown and then add the pul biber and lemon zest. Fry briefly and then drain on kitchen paper. Place in a large bowl. Season the fries with salt. Transfer the fries to the bowl of fried garlic and toss to coat evenly. Serve alongside the salmon and preserved lemon mayonnaise.

Nectarines and raspberries with vin santo zabaglione

Serves 4

For the vin santo-poached nectarines

For the zabaglione

1. For vin santo-poached nectarines, place the vin santo, lemon rind, sugar and vanilla bean (with its seeds) in a saucepan and bring to the boil.

2. Score the skin of the nectarines with a sharp knife and then add them to the vin santo, reduce heat to medium and simmer until nectarines are tender and a knife pierces the fruit easily (10 minutes or so, depending on the ripeness of the fruit).

3. Peel the nectarines once cool enough to handle, cut in half and remove the stone. Set aside in the poaching liquid.

4. Bring a pan of water to a gentle simmer. In a heatproof bowl, whisk together the egg yolks, vin santo, sugar and vanilla seeds then set the bowl above the simmering water and whisk for about eight to 10 minutes until the mixture has doubled in volume. Make sure the bottom of the bowl doesn’t touch the water. The mixture should drop like a ribbon from your whisk.

5. Slice the nectarines into wedges and place in bowls along with some poaching liquid. Scatter with raspberries and spoon the zabaglione on top, then garnish with edible flowers and serve.

Ravinder Bhogal is chef-patron of Jikoni. Follow Ravinder on Instagram @cookinboots and Twitter @cookinboots

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