Three simple dishes for summer.

Including “that” ice cream

Three simple dishes

Honeycomb ice cream

My grandchildren’s favourite ice cream, this is as easy to make as it is delicious to eat.I only wish I had a finished picture but, gentle reader, they ate it all. Every last lick!

2 tablespoons golden syrup

5 tablespoons white sugar

1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

Begin with the honeycomb:

Place the sugar and syrup in a saucepan and cook over a low heat until the sugar melts. Now boil rapidly until the caramel is a mid gold in colour. Remove from the heat and sift over the bicarbonate of soda. Stir the frothy mixture the pour onto a greased baking sheet.

Allow to cool the break into smallish chunks.

Nor for the ice cream

450 ml double cream

1 tin condensed milk

Whip the cream until floppy than beat in the condensed milk and vodka. Continue beating until the mixture is quite stiff. Fold in the pieces of honeycomb plus any crumbs then scrape into a pretty freezer proof bowl and freeze for about 8 hours or overnight. This ice cream does not need stirring as it freezes. Use within 10 days.

Nectarines roasted with feta and chickpeas

Roasted feta with stone fruit

You can use any stone fruit for this, I happened to have ripe, white nectarines as I can’t resist buying too many at the market. Chick peas add heft and the tomatoes and clementine in the picture were a last minute addition, again the consequence of my marketing excess.

Drizzle some extra virgin olive oil in the bottom of an ovenproof dish and scatter over the drained contents of a tin of chickpeas.

Place the feta in the dish and arrange the sliced fruit around in a single layer I used 3 large nectarines but again this is meant to be an intuitive dish, made with both what you like and what you have to hand. Season with dish with salt, ground pepper, chilli flakes and fresh herbs. I used oregano from the garden but thyme or rosemary would do perfectly well. Add another generous slick of oil and roast in a hot oven for 25-30 mins. Eat at room temperature.

Lemon and courgette pasta

Frying finely sliced lemons until they are soft and caramelise at the edges give a wonderful sweet/sour flavour to many dishes, perfect with chicken, pork and most obviously fish.

On their own though they make an excellent stir in pasta sauce when fried with courgettes and garlic.

Lemon and courgette “sauce” for pasta

1 lemon sliced fine

3 large cloves garlic peeled and sliced

2-3 medium sized firm courgettes sliced

3+ tablespoons Extra Virgin olive oil

salt, pepper and chilli flakes to season

Pasta cooked in plenty of boiling, salted water until al-dente

Fry the sliced lemon in olive oil adding the sliced garlic and cooking until they becomes caramelised. Now add the sliced courgettes and cook until they soften and start to brown. Season well with salt, pepper and chilli flakes and stir into al-dente pasta adding a small cup of retained pasta water to create an emulsion Serve at once with Parmesan and an extra slick of oil

As you can see these recipes are sketchy , more a commentary on each dish than a rigid formula Delicious ingredients are hard to mess up so relax, enjoy, it’s summer