Month: July 2013

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Poached Courgettes with Parsley

Each evening in Italy we started our meal with a bowl of salad.  I loved that the selection of vegetables were simply but beautifully prepared and tasted so fresh.   My favourite dish was the courgettes.  They tasted so very courgette-y!   Knew I’d be preparing them in the same way once I returned home.  And with a garden exploding with courgettes, that’s exactly what I’ve been doing.  Almost every day, in fact.

With a dish this very simple, it’s important that the courgettes are very fresh and aren’t too large.  Also, if you have a special bottle of olive oil, this is good time to use it.

Poached Courgettes with Parsley

(serves 4 as a side)

3 smalll-ish courgettes (not baby ones but not big fat ones either)

Salt

Extra virgin olive oil (the best you have)

Parsley

  • Add the whole courgettes to a pan of cold well salted water.  Bring to the boil and simmer for 2 minutes.  Drain the courgettes and run under cold water so they don’t cook any more.
  • Slice the courgettes lengthways then into 0.5cm pieces so they are little semi-circles.
  • Toss with a good glug of olive oil and gently toss with the parsley.
  • Keeps well in the fridge for a couple of days.
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A BBQ of Lamb Koftas & Fattoush

After 10 days in Italy we returned home to Scotland to blue skies, balmy breezes and a garden which had exploded with flowers and berries and green, green, green.    Temperatures have been consistently above 20 oC  and we’ve had a BBQ every other night.  Marco and I walk in a field of wild flowers first thing in the morning then in the cool woods in the early evening.  After many years of wet, windy and grey summers, we are finally getting a summery summer.  Well done, July.  Well done!

The best BBQ meal we’ve had so far was lamb koftas, grilled aubergine and a colourful, tart Lebanese salad, fattoush.  The fattoush recipe is below.  Not 100% happy with the kofta recipe so I’ll wait until I’ve tried that again before I post it.  It won’t be long though.  Looking forward to having this meal again soon!

Fattoush

(serves 4)

1 large cucumber

3 pitta breads

 6 medium perfectly ripe tomatoes

2 handfuls of parsley, chopped finely

1 handful of mint, chopped finely

6 radishes

3 spring onions

For the dressing:

3 tablespoons olive oil

Juice of 1/2 a lemon

1 heaped tspn sumac

  • Cut the cucumber into 2 cm chunks and place in a colander.  Sprinkle salt over the cucumber and leave.  After 30 mins, shake the cucumber to remove moisture and pat dry (no need to be thorough) with a clean teatowel.
  • Meanwhile, peel and deseed the tomatoes then chop roughly.
  • Toast the pitta under a hot grill until crisp and leave to cool.
  • Slice the radishes finely and chop the spring onion.
  • Mix the dressing together by putting the ingredients in a clean jar then shake vigorously.
  • Break the toasted pitta into bite sized chunks and toss with all the vegetables.  Drizzle with the dressing (you may not need all of it) and toss gently.
  • Serve immediately so the pitta retains some of its crispness.