Food 13: Lunch outside

and outdoor kitchens. Yes. It is time.

Image: Summerill & Bishop

Nice as it would be to be on a terrace by an Italian lake (I assume the above photo is taken by an Italian lakeside), for me very few things beat being in your own outside space on a hot summer’s day, bare-footed, wearing what you like, sun shining, birds chirping, flowers flowering, dogs pottering about contentedly, and cooking exactly what you feel like eating.

There are a few things that help make this situation optimal, and for me they involve cobbling together some sort of outdoor cooking area. In an ideal world you’d have a barbecue, plus a space next to it for a worktop-height table or shelf for food preparation. On this table or shelf, you might have a portable induction hob, a kettle, your crockery, and an extension reel nearby to plug things into. It can be really basic. Here’s mine one August at breakfast time. The top is granite offcuts and the shelves are scaffolding boards. The unit itself is a reclaimed industrial thing, repainted in weatherproof red oxide.

Yes, the milk should have been in the fridge

That portable hob is genius (it also comes in very handy indoors at Christmas when you’re trying to coordinate the veg) - mine is this one and it also comes as a single.

Image credit: IKEA

If space is tight, this IKEA unit would do nicely, or you could put two side-by-side. Or use a zinc-topped unit or two. Or a stainless steel catering prep table. IKEA in general has all sorts of clever outdoor kitchen possibilities, without insane outdoor kitchen price tags (I saw one the other day that was deeply charmless and cost £30,000). If you want an actual outdoor kitchen that looks like a kitchen and takes up very little space, have a look at Elfin kitchens, here.

Right, food. If I’m barbecuing anything at all, this book is my bible. Before I found Helen Graves (here she is on Instagram and TikTok) and while I was still trying to learn how to barbecue properly, I watched dozens of how-to videos by made by gruff men with enormous beards. They were obsessed with meat, to the point of seeming almost turned on by it, and clearly just really liked setting fire to stuff.

I find the idea that barbecuing is men’s work very annoying - if the men don’t otherwise cook, it’s how you end up eating sausages that are burned on the outside and creepily pink within. By contrast, Helen Graves will kindly and patiently explain everything you want to know, give you recipes for vegetables, fish, seafood and delicious sides as well as for meat, and is a very likeable, witty and reassuring presence. The recipes are fantastic and do-able even if you’re a total novice.

A page from Helen Graves’s Live Fire

I also have her new book, out next week, which is just perfect if you do a lot of outside entertaining. It is very helpfully split into recipes for when you decide to ask people to lunch in two hours’ time because it’s sunny and you’re in a good mood, and recipes for when you’re planning a bit further ahead.

The other barbecue books I like are any by Genevieve Taylor (Charred is amazing if you want only vegetarian recipes) and Chasing Smoke by Sarit Packer and Itamar Srulovich.

Also, as I’m sure you know, the quality of the charcoal you use has everything to do with the taste of your food. Avoid garage forecourt options if at all possible unless you want your dinner to taste of lighter fuel. You want natural charcoal with nothing else in it - no chemicals or accelerants. I like Whittle & Flame, from here.

Away from the barbecue, here are a few of my favourite things to make for an outdoor lunch, aside from enormous salads. I’m sure you’ll know by now that The Department of Salad is where you go for all your salad recipe needs, whatever the occasion, season, salad heft level or mood. Here’s what else I like to make:

• as ever, any kind of trusty no-cooking assemblage from the deli + crusty bread. A dish of crunchy radishes on the side is never a bad idea.

• My assemblies often involve a separate platter of burrata, sometimes with tomato and basil, sometimes with anchovies, sometimes with grilled vegetables, sometimes with shaved strips of perky raw courgette and lemon zest, sometimes with figs, always with olive oil. Tons more suggestions here and here. I like the idea of it with grilled peaches and Parma ham.

• Speaking of which, never underestimate the retro deliciousness of Parma ham and Cavaillon (round, orange flesh, very scented) melon. No-cook lunch in 2 minutes.

• Ajo blanco, which is chilled almond soup and so lovely on a hot day. I use Felicity Cloake’s recipe (she is currently cycling her way from San Francisco to New York - you can keep up with her here).

• Skye McAlpine’s second book, A Table For Friends, is full of really low-effort, really delicious summery recipes, one of which is for Poulet Anglais - a charmingly old-fashioned recipe, as she says in the book, but none the worse for that. It’s cold poached chicken in a cooling, soothing yogurt and tarragon sauce and is exactly the thing to make (in advance, oh joy) on the sort of the day when it’s too hot to eat. ‘God, it’s boiling,’ people say. ‘I’m not sure I’m hungry,’ before having seconds.

• When the tomatoes are really good and really ripe, I make kachumber pretty much every day. That’s late summer - if you can’t wait, Isle of Wight tomatoes (SO GOOD) are now in season.

• Other outstanding tomato recipe: Ed Smith’s tomato tonnato, more usually made with veal. The tonnato sauce here is just the absolute best and amazing with the tomatoes - it’s a last meal contender.

• I also make labneh all the time. Get some Greek yogurt (full fat), scoop it out into a clean muslin or J-cloth, add bit bit of salt and tie the muslin or J-cloth into a knot, so the yogurt forms a ball. Put it in a sieve or colander and perch this atop a bowl. Leave in the fridge overnight - longer if you want it very firm (at which point you can roll it into balls and roll the balls in spices/herbs). I like it still creamy, as a dip. When you want to eat it, scatter it with dukkah, za’atar, toasted cumin seeds, chopped herbs, chilli flakes or whatever else you like the idea of. Cheat’s labneh for instant dips: mix 150g cream cheese with 500g Greek yogurt, scatter toppings (which really can be anything you like), eat with flatbreads or pita.

• Smacked cucumbers are my favourite way of eating cucumbers. The act of smacking them enables them to absorb the dressing really well and they become extremely moreish, which is not a thing I would otherwise say about a cucumber.

• Fruit for pudding (also from Skye McAlpine, strawberries macerated in lemon juice and sugar - particularly good if the strawberries are slightly under-ripe). If the barbecue is on but not too hot, I roast peaches in a tray with butter and sugar in the hollow, which turns into a sort of toffee sauce as the edges of the peach char and caramelise, and have vanilla ice cream on the side. I learned this from the brilliant Jane Lovett (I’ve seen her new book. We are all going to die of joy when it comes out this winter).

Finally, another book for your radar - it’s published next month and it’s fantastic. I don’t know how Rukmini just keeps pulling all these absolute bangers out of the bag, but she does. I was sent it about a week ago and am steadily working my way through it - there’s not a duff recipe in there. It might be my favourite one of hers yet.

I’m off to Chipping Campden literary festival to talk about my most recent novel - have a lovely rest of the bank holiday weekend if you’re in the UK. Also, if you liked this post, do please very kindly hit the ❤️ heart button - it helps with visibility.

These fortnightly food posts are free to read; for everything else you’ll need a paid subscription. Thank you for stopping by and have an excellent Sunday!