Picnic Success: Spicy Cucumber, Carrot and Cashew ...

I am still recovering from last Saturday when my husband and I went on our first ever road trip since passing his driving test. We got some supplies the night before, namely an extra large cooler box. Perfect for keeping our picnic cool and also providing a great storage place for any treats we happened to pick up along the way. It is cherry season after all!

I woke up early and set about making the Spicy Cucumber and Cashew Salad. I had planned on making it the night before but got carried away watching several episodes of Burn Notice (Bruce Campbell is my hero!). Fortunately it is a very simple dish to make. The most labour intensive part is chopping and mixing.

We did make some adjustments to the original dish that chef Bill Granger showed on Saturday Morning Kitchen. He made a marinade for some chicken thighs and used half for the chicken and the rest as a base for a spicy salad dressing. As we just wanted the salad we followed his recipe for the salad dressing but added a few extra bits to compensate for the lack of marinade.

To view Bill Granger’s fantastic original recipe courtesy of the BBC Food website please click here.

This is how we made our version of this tasty salad.

Luna Raye’s version of a Spicy Cucumber, Carrot and Cashew Nut Salad with Vermicelli Noodles.

Ingredients

3 tbsp fish sauce

2 garlic cloves, peeled and finely chopped

2 large red chillies, finely chopped

2 tsp of fresh ginger, minced

4 tbsp sugar

4-5 tbsp of fresh lime juice

250g of vermicelli rice noodles

1 large cucumber halved and thinly sliced

1 medium sized carrot halved and cut into thin strips

4 spring onions, sliced finely

Small handful of fresh mint leaves (we used apple mint from our garden)

3-4 tbsp unsalted cashews, crushed.

Directions

Put fish sauce in large bowl with lime juice and sugar.

Stir until all the sugar has dissolved.

Add the chopped garlic cloves, chillies and minced ginger to a pestle and mortar and crush and blend until you get a nice paste (it won’t be a smooth paste but everything should be blended up well).

Add this mixture (it should smell fantastic!) to the liquid in the bowl and give a gentle stir.

Cut the cucumber, carrot and spring onions into thin strips and set aside.

Cook the vermicelli noodles by putting them in a heat proof bowl and adding enough boiled water to cover them. I gave them a quick stir as I did this just to make sure they didn’t clump together.

I also snapped the noodles in half before cooking them – to make them a bit more manageable in the salad.

Leave the noodles to cook for 4 – 5 minutes. Once they have softened drain and rinse them in cold water.

Once cooled, add the drained noodles to a large bowl and gradually start to mix in the liquid (fish sauce, lime juice and dissolved sugar) and the finely chopped vegetables.

Toward the end add the finely chopped fresh mint and continue to mix until well combined.

Just before serving add the crushed cashew nuts.

Enjoy!

NOTE: I also wanted to mention a really helpful tip that Bill Granger shared as he was preparing his dish. Limes can be difficult to squeeze, and even rolling them on the countertop before hand sometimes doesn’t help. He suggested cutting the lime in half and then taking the very end of the lime off. This leaves you with a rather large ‘slice’ of lime which is much easier to squeeze. I tried it and it worked a charm!

We had a fantastic day out and really enjoyed our picnic. The salad made a refreshing change and in the current heat wave we have been experiencing it was just what we needed.
In our eagerness to tuck into the salad we forgot to put the cashew nuts on. Luckily we brought the bag with us but we hadn’t crushed them. My husband not having the patience to wait dumped a handful of cashews onto each plate. It still tasted great but I think in future we will crush them, if we can remember that is!

As we continued with our driving adventure (Ok we got lost!) we passed a sign saying cherries for sale. We turned down a lovely country lane and found a mother and daughter selling the most beautiful cherries out of their back yard, which led into their orchard. We got a pound of cherries and ate them all on the way home. It was a successful day and a very successful picnic. We did make it home eventually and it was no thanks to the sat nav!

Spicy Cucumber, Carrot and Cashew Nut Salad with Vermicelli Noodles

Underneath a Willow Tree, The Perfect Picnic Spot.

Perfect Picnic Food But We Forgot the Cashew Nuts!

Scones: A Sweet Sunday Treat....

I woke up this morning with a craving for scones and an urge to bake. The sun was streaming in the windows and the birds were singing loudly, it just seemed like the perfect morning to get in the kitchen and chuck some flour about the place. My husband has a love/ hate relationship with my baking. While he always appreciates the final product, it’s my somewhat haphazard approach (mainly my wild handling of flour) that offends his delicate Virgo sensibilities and his need for a completely spotless kitchen.

When I mentioned scones I could hear the slight tremble of fear in his voice. To be honest it’s been so hot here that I almost didn’t feel energetic enough to make anything and I certainly didn’t want to clean flour off the kitchen counter, walls and floor (I really am a messy cook!).

Fortunately I found a very simple scone recipe that is minimum fuss (and mess). It is courtesy of the BBC Food website and you can find it here.

One big problem I had was that I only had plain flour in my cupboard and the recipe calls for self-raising. I wanted the scones so much that I decided to chance it – I just added a generous teaspoon of baking powder (plus a dash of wishful thinking). I was also feeling creative so I decided to add some cinnamon and raisins to the mixture as well.

These scones are great as they don’t take long to bake at all – approximately 12–15 minutes. So by the time was husband wandered sleepily out of the bedroom the scones were made and on the wire rack cooling and the tea was steeping in the pot. There wasn’t even flour on the kitchen floor, which is saying something.

O.K so they didn’t rise very much but they were very light and moist. The cinnamon came through nicely and combined well with the raspberry jam I served on the side. The raisins added some nice texture as well as additional sweetness. They went down very well with a pot of Clipper Everyday Tea and a morning episode of Burn Notice.

In case you can’t access the link, here is the recipe I used for the scones. It’s from the very helpful BBC Food website

Scones

Preparation time: less than 30 minutes

Cooking time: 10 to 30 minutes

Makes 8-12 scones

Scones are the easiest English teatime treat. There’s scope to customise these sweet ones with dried fruit or cinnamon.

Ingredients

• 225g/8oz self raising flour

• pinch of salt

• 55g/2oz butter

• 25g/1oz caster sugar

• 150ml/5fl oz milk

Preparation method

1. Heat the oven to 220C/425F/Gas 7. Lightly grease a baking sheet.

2. Mix together the flour and salt and rub in the butter.

3. Stir in the sugar and then the milk to get a soft dough.

4. Turn on to a floured work surface and knead very lightly. Pat out to a round 2cm/¾in thick. Use a 5cm/2in cutter to stamp out rounds and place on a baking sheet. Lightly knead together the rest of the dough and stamp out more scones to use it all up.

5. Brush the tops of the scones with a little milk. Bake for 12-15 minutes until well risen and golden.

6. Cool on a wire rack and serve with butter and good jam and maybe some clotted cream.

Cinnamon and Raisin Scones on the Cooling Rack.

Scones A Sunday Treat