#pinics

It's National Picnic Week from 18th - 24th June 2012.  Great British Chefs' blogger Rosana McPhee didn't let the recent wet weather stop her from having an indoor picnic and put on a delicious spread.  She kindly shares her recipes for  vegetable cake, mini hot dogs, coarse aubergine pate & Japanese cucumber pickle. 

Blog post  & Photography by Rosana McPhee 

Here are three of my mother’s recipe and one from my good friend Angel. These dishes work well either as picnic or packed lunch to have at work. Savoury cake, mini hot dogs, coarse aubergine pate and tsukemono (Japanese pickle)

Savoury cake

12 portions

Dough:

12 tbsp white flour

3  medium organic eggs

400ml of milk

150 ml  sunflower oil

50 ml of olive oil

1 tbsp  baking powder

3 tbsp grated Parmesan

Filling:

Cherry tomatoes cut in halves

1 pack of feta cheese cut in cubes

Oregano

Green olives

Method:

1) Pre-heat the oven at 180C & prepare your rectangular or square baking tin, grease with margarine and dust with flour

2) First prepare the filling, wash and cut the cherry tomatoes in half and cut the  feta cheese into 1cm cubes and half the green olives.  Set the filling aside.

3) Now prepare the dough: Mix all ingredients in a blender.

4) Put half of the mixture in the already prepared baking tin.

5) Add the filling cheese, olives and oregano and put the rest of the dough on top.  Decorate the top with the cherry tomatoes.

  Mini Hot Dogs

For around 40 mini hot dogs

For the Pastry:

1 cup of cornflour

1 cup of white flour

1 cup of wholemeal flour

3 tsp of baking powder

1 tsp of salt

4 tbsp of melted butter

3 medium organic eggs

1 cup of cold milk

Hot Dog Filling:

Chorizo sausage or good quality frankfurters, you can spread mustard when rolling the pastry onto the frankfurters

Method:

1) Mix all flours, baking powder, salt, melted butter and eggs  until you achieve a crumbly consistency .

2) Add the cold milk slowly to get a pastry consistency

3) Roll in the pastry into a roughly rectangular shape

4) Cut the pastry into small squares : Fold  the pastry. Lay one strip of pastry at a time on a flat surface place the cooked chorizo or frankfurters and fold it firmly.

5) Place on a greased baking tray

6) Brush with beaten eggs yolk

7) Bake for 20 mins or until golden

Serve with mustard and tomato sauce

  Aubergine coarse pate

Ingredients:

1 medium size roasted aubergine without skin and diced

80gr of roasted cherry tomatoes

1 white onion diced

100gr of diced spring onion

1 clove of garlic – I used smoked garlic

Parsley

Method:

1)   Fry the diced onions, garlic for 5 mins.

2)   Add the rest of the ingredients

Store in 300ml jar, depending the size of the aubergine.

  Tsukemono

Japanese pickle, recipe given to me by Angel, my Japanese/Brazilian friend, passed on from her mother. Delicious with rice, salads or by itself.

1 thinly sliced cucumber

Marinade

1 tbsp of wasabi paste

1 cup of beer

1 tbsp sugar

1 tbsp salt

1 tbsp of rice or white wine vinegar

Method 

Marinade the thinly sliced cucumber in the above ingredients for a minimum of couple of hours. This makes enough to store in a 500ml jar (depending on the size of the cucumber) It will keep for about 15 days in the fridge.

Blog post  & Photography by Rosana McPhee