You don't want to spend too much time in the kitchen if the weather is nice outside and that's why speedy cooking is best in the summer. I didn't choose these recipes purely because they are fast, though - this isn't wham-bam cookery. I chose them because the ingredients that are great at this time of year happen not to need much cooking - asparagus, girolles and broad beans really just need to be shown the pan. Of course, you don't have to cook quickly - you can take all day about if you like. Sitting in the garden podding beans makes an evening fly by.
A gardener's salad
This is a wonderful main course salad. You can add poached or grilled meat or fish if you want, although the duck egg is just fine. If you are lucky enough to get very fresh broad beans or peas you can throw them into this dish uncooked. Don't make the salad too far in advance of your mealtime. Cooked vegetable salads are amazing when they have just cooled to room temperature. They are grim when they have come out of the fridge, and taste like you bought them from a rubbish sandwich shop.
Serves 2
For the salad:
400g new potatoes (Jersey royals are good)
200g carrots, as young as possible (baby bunched carrots are best)
1 kg fresh broad beans or peas in shells
3 medium duck eggs (hens' eggs, or a clutch of quail or gull eggs would also work if you prefer them)
Heart of one head of celery
1 bunch radishes, with their greens if possible
2 or 3 little gem lettuce (use one head of cos if these elude you)
For the dressing:
3 tbs mild-tasting vegetable oil (I use cold pressed rapeseed)
2 tbs Dijon mustard
1 tbs red or white wine vinegar
Small bunch chives
2 sprigs tarragon
Small fistful flat leaf parsley
Salt and fresh ground black pepper
This meal requires a small flotilla of boiling pans and a burst of labour, and then it is really an assembly job. A very satisfying one at that, as all the colours come together.
Scrub but don't peel the new potatoes and carrots. Shell the beans or peas. Pop the potatoes into a pan of cold, salted water and cook them until just tender. You'll have to check them but most new potatoes take between 8 and 15 minutes, depending on their size. As soon as they are done, remove them from the heat and allow them to start cooling, naturally. Don't plunge them into any ice baths or what have you.
Bring two more pans of salty water to the boil. In one, blanch the carrots for five minutes or so until they are tender but still holding up well. As soon as they are ready, remove them with a slotted spoon and use the same pan to blanch the broad beans or peas. You can cool the beans or peas in a bowl of cold water and, if you like, you can shuck the broad beans out of their inner membrane, which reveals their bright green 'kernels'. Set the potatoes, beans or peas and carrots aside.
In the other pan, boil the duck eggs for 7 minutes, and then plunge them into cold water before cracking them and shelling them. This is easiest if you do it as soon as you have cooked the eggs, as the skin under the shell tightens as it cools (which is when you can spend a small eternity picking off microscopic bits of shell). Set the eggs aside. That's the cooking bit over with.
Remove all the stalks of celery from its heart (near the base) then slice this firm, sweet core as if it were an onion. Wash the radishes, keeping their leaves intact if you can (they taste a bit like rocket and make a good salad ingredient). Peel the little gems of any outer leaves (save these for another salad) and quarter the hearts along the length.
Halve the cooled potatoes, or, if you prefer, just break them up by hand. Any crumbly bits will help emulsify the dressing when you toss the salad; so don't despair if any potatoes 'fall' a bit.
Finally, make the dressing by combining the oil, mustard, vinegar and chopped herbs. Season to your liking. If the dressing seems thick, loosen it with a little more oil.
Finally, dress all the vegetables and salad leaves and crown the salad in its serving dish, with the eggs halved down their length.
Tagliatelle, girolles and spring onions
Try and find outsize Grelot onions from southern France. They are delicious and slightly more robust than the diddy little bunches of spring onions that supermarkets sell. If you can't find girolles, the wild mushrooms of summer, you could use the oyster or field varieties.
Serves 2
50g girolles or similar mushrooms
2 large or 4 small spring onions
1 clove garlic
50g dry cured streaky bacon (or pancetta)
A handful of flat leaf parsley
2 tbs olive oil for cooking
1 lemon
300g fettuccine (aka tagliatelle) pasta
Pick and clean the girolles gently. Don't wash them, as they will go soggy. Your best friend for cleaning any wild mushroom is a small paint or pastry brush. Trim and slice the onions, separating the white bulb ends from the green tops. Chop the garlic and dice the bacon as finely as possible then chop the parsley finely.
Pop on the pan for your pasta. While the water comes to the boil, heat the oil in a wide-bottomed frying pan. Add the bacon and fry it gently for one or two minutes. Add the white part of the onions and fry them for three or four minutes or until tender but don't let them brown. At this point put the pasta into the boiling water.
Add the girolles to the frying pan, let them wilt and take the pan off the heat. Squeeze the juice from half the lemon over everything in the pan. Check the sauce for seasoning (you might want to add some salt and some fresh ground black pepper).
As soon as the pasta is done to your liking, drain it briefly and return it to the cooking pot. Upend the mushroom mix over it, plus the onion tops and parsley. Fold it all through the pasta quickly. Season the finished article once more, adding more lemon juice if you wish, and serve straight away.
Griddled quails with lentils, thyme and garlic
A meal for people who like to eat with their fingers. And a great barbecue-type dish for people who hate barbecuing (me). Ask the butcher to spatchcock the quails for you, unless you are confident about removing the backbones.
Serves 2
2 red onions
2 tomatoes
3 or 4 sprigs of young thyme (you could use marjoram or oregano instead)
2 cloves garlic
A fistful of flat leaf parsley
4 tbs olive oil for cooking.
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 tbs posh vinegar (I use a cabernet sauvignon vinegar from Spain. A sherry or balsamic vinegar would also be fine)
1 x 400g tin or vac pac of cooked puy type lentils
4 small or 2 jumbo quails
3 tbs thick, Greek-type yoghurt
Dice the red onions finely. Deseed and chop the tomatoes roughly. Squeeze the leaves of thyme from their stalks and chop them with the garlic and parsley.
Heat two tablespoons of the oil in a pan big enough for the lentils. Add half the pile of chopped red onions and a pinch of salt, and fry gently for a minute or so. Add the vinegar and continue to fry for a few moments more, until the onion softens. Its colour will deepen after the vinegar. Don't let it brown. Add the tomatoes, garlic, the chopped herbs and the lentils. Simmer for about 15 minutes: while this happens you can cook the quails.
Heat another two tablespoons of the oil in a wide-bottomed frying pan. Season the quails generously on both sides with salt and pepper and fry them for four minutes on either side. This should cook them through. To get as much of them on the cooking surface as possible, weigh them down by placing a sheet of tinfoil, then another, smaller pan on top of them. Once they are cooked let them rest for at least five minutes before serving.
To serve, season the lentils to your liking and divide between two serving plates. Park the quails on top of them. For a garnish, fold the other half of chopped red onion into the yoghurt, season this with a little black pepper and serve it either on, or next to, the main dish.
Penne with asparagus carbonara
This has got to be my favourite summer pasta. As with the traditional bacon and egg carbonara, the sauce literally happens by itself. The heat of the pasta just sets the egg yolks slightly. You really need fresh, quality eggs and the best asparagus you can get your mitts on. Don't even think about using ready-grated parmesan; it will let the side down horribly. If asparagus is over for the year, substitute it with very fresh (or frozen) peas.
Serves 2
250g (probably about 8 spears) asparagus
2 egg yolks
50g parmesan
2 tbs butter
150g penne rigate pasta
Salt and fresh ground black pepper
Wash, trim and slice the asparagus spears into sections that match the size of the pasta. Beat the egg yolks. Grate the parmesan.
Put a pan of water on to boil. Heat one tablespoon of the butter in a wide bottomed pan and add the asparagus. Season it with a pinch of salt and stir it a couple of times. Cover if you like and let it cook gently while you pop the pasta into the boiling water You can take the asparagus as far as you like, leaving it crunchy or softening it up. But don't let it brown. When the pasta is done to your liking, drain it briefly and return it to the pot, off the heat.
Stir in the second tablespoon of butter and, immediately after that, the egg yolks, the seasoning and the asparagus. Stir quickly until you have a glossy emulsion around the pasta and asparagus. Don't be tempted to return the pan to the heat, as it will scramble the eggs.
Fold in the parmesan and test the seasoning. Serve immediately.
Squid and Greek salad
Not as odd as it sounds. The squid simply replaces the feta cheese. You can enjoy the fish straight from the grill, on top of the salad, or let it cool down and toss it through the other ingredients.
Serves 2
4 or 5 small squid or a couple of larger ones (small are better for griddle pans)
3 tomatoes
1 red onion, sliced as thinly as possible
1 small cucumber
1 tbs capers
100g kalamata olives, pitted
½ tsp dried oregano
1 tbs red wine vinegar
3 tbs extra virgin olive oil
Leaves from a bunch of mint
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Ask the fishmonger to clean and gut the squid, but keep the tentacles. To prepare the squid, split the cleaned tube or body and lay it flat on a chopping board, inside up. Working gently with a sharp knife, make small crisscross indentations in the flesh, being careful not to cut through the fish. If the tubes are small, leave them whole. If large, cut them into two or three sections across the width. Dress the squid in a tablespoon of olive oil, plus a pinch of salt and pepper. Set them aside while you make the salad.
Deseed the tomatoes by cutting them open from top (stalk end) to bottom, placing them on a chopping board and scooping out the seeds with a spoon. Then cut each half into four.
Deseed the cucumber by cutting it in four lengthways and running a paring knife along the seed cavity, then dice it roughly, like the tomatoes. Combine the tomatoes, onion and cucumber with the capers, olives, dried oregano, vinegar and oil. Finally add the mint leaves.
Heat a non-stick frying or ridged griddle pan until it is smoking hot and literally sear the squid for about 30 seconds on each side. Park the cooked squid on top of the salad and serve immediately or allow it to cool and then toss it through the salad.
Plaice and 'Gentleman's Relish'
Plaice, left whole and not turned into those airy fairy battered fillets for frying, is a robustly flavoured, rich-textured fish. This meal is fast to cook but don't eat it in a hurry. Best dawdled over as you pick the plate clean and mop everything up with good bread.
You could buy Gentleman's Relish (aka Patum Peperium) if you don't fancy making it. This is not a dish for the butter-wary.
Serves 2
For the relish:
250g unsalted butter
6 anchovy fillets
1 small shallot
1 small bunch chives
1 small bunch curly parsley
1 tbs lemon juice
½ tsp grated lemon zest
2 or 3 shakes Tabasco sauce
Salt and fresh ground black pepper
For the fish:
2 serving-size (500g-ish) plaice. Ask the fishmonger to remove any roe and to trim off any fins
Salt and pepper
125 ml (a small glass) dry white wine
Parchment paper
Set the oven to 250°C/gas 9. Soften the butter until it is scoopable. Reserve 50g (a tablespoon). Now make the 'relish'. Pop the rest of the butter into a good sized mixing bowl. Chop the anchovies to a near paste and throw them in. Chop the shallot, chives and parsley, and add them, too, along with the lemon juice and zest, and Tabasco. Now fold in the butter and whip it with a wooden spoon or spatula, until you have a good even mix. Check the seasoning. You might want salt, pepper or even a little more Tabasco. You can roll the 'relish' into a sausage shape if you like, and chill it, so that you can cut discs from it later...but for now, with quick cooking in mind, just set it aside.
Season the fish generously all over with salt and line a decent-sized roasting tray with the baking parchment. Spread the reserved butter over the parchment. Lay the fish on top of this and upend the wine onto it. Bake, uncovered for 8-10 minutes before checking to see if it is ready. Plaice is cooked through when the meat is easily nudged from the bone with the back end of a fork. Do this test just behind the head (the thickest part of the fish). Remove from the oven and anoint each fish with a good spoonful or disc of the relish. Allow it to rest in a warm place for three or four minutes before serving.
· Tom Norrington-Davies is chef proprietor of Great Queen Street, 32 Great Queen Street, London WC2. The restaurant is now open on Sundays for lunch.
