It’s a very special feeling, eating outside. And as sure as the sky is blue, us Brits will be out in force making the most of every ray of sunshine and every kiss of the summer breeze as often as we can this year. After all – we deserve it after a long, cold and wet winter!
Want to try something different? Let us inspire you...
How to host a pizza party
Are you one of those lucky people who invested in a pizza oven during lockdown? Bravo! They’re a super useful investment piece for the garden. Did you know you can use them to make bread, slow roast meats, and even to create fabulous desserts?
If you haven’t taken the leap yet, there’s so much choice right now in this space, with pizza ovens available from budget (under £100) to mid-range (Ooni) all the way up to the super-duper Italian beasts which will cook multiple pizzas at a time.
Set the scene: Create a relaxed Italian vibe in the garden. Throw a simple cloth over a trellis table, drape fairy lights around the fence, decant a few bottles of red wine into carafes, and gather the wherewithal for a few spritzes.
Perfect pizza dough: Start two days before eating. Per four people mix 100g strong white bread flour with a pinch of dried yeast, a pinch of caster sugar, and enough room temperature water to make a paste the texture of thick double cream. Cover and leave in a warm place overnight. The next day measure out 500g strong white bread flour, and add to this the premix with 1 teaspoon fine sea salt, 7g dried yeast and 300ml warm water. Mix with a knife, leave for 30 minutes to rest, then knead on a lightly floured surface until smooth. Turn into a large, oiled tub with a lid and pop in the fridge overnight. Remove from the fridge two to three hours before cooking.
It’s all in the sauce: You don’t need to spend hours making pizza sauce. For eight pizzas blitz two tins of tomatoes with Mediterranean vegetables (available in most supermarkets) with a handful of basil, a couple of cloves of garlic, a drizzle of good olive oil and seasoning to taste.
Flavour forward: Have fun with your toppings. If you’re going OG (with a Margarita) choose the best San Marzano tomatoes and buffalo Mozzarella. But if you want to be different, how about trying the Cinderella (roasted pumpkin or squash, blue cheese, roasted onions and pumpkin seeds), The Whole Hog (sausage, bacon, bacon jam and crushed Frazzle crisps), or the Honolulu (ham, smoked cheese and spicy pineapple salsa)?
Pizza-making tips
1. Create a rolling and prepping area right next to the pizza oven with everything you need.
2. If you’re cooking for a crowd of more than six, part-bake your pizza bases at 220C in your usual oven for eight to 10 minutes, layering them between greaseproof paper as you go. Then top and bake in the pizza oven when it’s ready. This gives you more time to enjoy the party ... without flour all over your clothes!
3. Don’t top fresh pizza dough until it’s on the (lightly dusted with flour or semolina) peel – they’re easier to handle this way.
4. Use a laser thermometer to check the temperature of the pizza oven. Don’t attempt to cook your dough until it’s up to 250-260C.
5. Use the initial heat, while you’re firing up the kindling, to char halved citrus fruits for cocktails, or to roast a little tray of vegetables for bruschetta, or kebab skewers to serve while everyone waits for the main event.
6. For dessert, roast a tray of strawberries in the dying heat of the pizza oven. Toss with a generous splash of limoncello, cool, and stir into crushed amaretti biscuits and whipped cream.
How to host a seafood boil
This is pure, unadulterated pleasure. Big, bold, messy, interactive food that everyone can get stuck into. Flavours that smack you about the chops.
You’ll need a medium to large, low fire pit, and a very large stock pot.
Set the scene: Fun is the order of the day. This is not the time to get out your finest crockery! In fact, we highly recommend investing in some good quality, recyclable, compostable or sustainable tableware for a seafood boil. Lay a table with a paper cloth and run foil all the way along the middle, allowing an extra piece at each setting.
Pop piles of napkins, finger bowls and maybe even bibs between guests. And don’t forget the garnishes – bottles of hot sauce in varying strengths, pinch pots of salt, dishes of melted garlic butter, wedges of lemon, baskets of crusty bread. Fill buckets with ice and plenty of beer!
How to cook it: For six to eight people add 5-6kg seafood to a large pot. Cover with water, add seafood boil seasoning (see below), 1kg halved large new potatoes, 2 halved large onions, 1 halved lemon, 2 halved heads of garlic, 150g butter and a generous shake (up to half a bottle depending on how spicy you like it) of hot sauce. Bring to the boil, cover, and boil for 15 minutes.
Remove the cover and add some fresh cobs of corn, a few cooking chorizo sausages, and any shellfish you like (prawns, mussels, clams). Boil for another few minutes until the shells of the seafood open.
Take off the heat and let it sit for up to 20 minutes before straining and dishing up onto everyone’s foil ‘plates’. Keep the boiling liquor in bowls for dunking.
Seafood boil seasoning: Combine 3 tablespoons each garlic powder and onion powder, 2 tablespoons each dried oregano, thyme and sea salt, 1 tablespoon each ground black pepper, paprika and Old Bay Seasoning.
Cook the best BBQ ever
Fed up of the same old sausages and burgers? If you’ve got a kettle style barbecue, did you know you can use it to cook authentic paella?
Buy a cast iron paella pan and start the cooking off indoors. When the rice is half cooked, place the pan on top of a prepared barbecue. Pop the final toppings (usually shellfish) over the rice and cover tightly with foil. Take five minutes off the suggested cooking time. This will give your paella an authentic smokiness and the desired ‘crispy bottom’ or socarrat that makes this dish so delicious.
Al fresco snack ideas
Outdoor entertaining doesn’t have to be over-the-top. Sometimes a casual platter of canapes, beautifully presented, with a few bottles of great wine will do the trick.
- Top thin slices of toasted baguette with blue cheese, roasted red grapes, and snippets of fried rosemary.
- Griddle chunks of watermelon and serve on skewers with feta pieces marinated in oregano, olive oil, crushed garlic and black pepper.
- Spanish gildas are having a moment. And they couldn’t be easier. Simply load cocktail sticks with a few green olives, a guindilla pepper and a cured anchovy.
- Make Italian style spiedini by wrapping fried chunks of bread with Prosciutto ham, alternating on a skewer with grilled pieces of pork and salted, fried sage leaves.
- Whip up a batch of rillettes by roughly mixing 400g smoked mackerel and 100g cream cheese in a food processor with the zest of a lemon, a clove of crushed garlic, and plenty of fresh snipped chives. Serve with crudites and over toasted bread.
Retro picnic ideas
Everything retro is ‘in’! You heard us right. Nostalgia in food is everywhere at the moment, and we’re here for it. If trifles, wibbly pastel-shaded blancmanges, and cakes piped ostentatiously with outrageous amounts of buttercream are your thing, you really are in for a treat this summer.
Forget crustless sarnies and salads embellished with unpronounceable ingredients. Now’s the time to raid your parents’ or grandparents’ cookery book collection of yore, to dabble in an edible slice of the past.
Here are just a few ‘hero’ dishes to get you started.
Sandwiches: There has to be cheese and pickle (the darker the better), of course. And don’t forget your roast beef and mustard, egg and cress, ham salad, or cucumber filled beauties either. Preferably on a mixture of white or brown sandwich loaf.
The cheese ball: What was a picnic in the 70s without a cheese ball, we ask you? To make one, mix cream cheese (one or two packs) with loads of grated cheese and a few twists of black pepper. Cover either by dusting with ground paprika, crumbled cracker crumbs, finely chopped fresh herbs, or crushed walnuts. Transport on a small cake board in a tub, nestled next to the ice packs. And remember to grab plenty of crackers and bread for serving.
Layered dip: Anyone who partied in America in the 70s will remember layered dips. They’re awesome picnic fodder as they can be made in the Tupperware they’re being served in. Just layer up seasoned refried beans, guacamole, sour cream, grated cheese, chopped tomatoes, chopped olives and chopped white onion. Delicious for dunking tortilla chips.
Prawn cocktail pots: The epitome of retro, surely? And easy to assemble at your picnic. Take with a pot or cup per person, a box of washed Iceberg lettuce leaves, enough cooked, peeled prawns for everyone, and a cocktail sauce made by mixing the juice of half a lemon, a generous splash of Worcestershire sauce, a drop or two of hot sauce, a few pinches of smoked paprika, 5 tablespoons of ketchup, 5 tablespoons of mayonnaise, a touch of salt, and cracked black pepper to taste. Once at your location, shred the lettuce into the pots, and top with the prawns and sauce. Done.
Coronation chicken potato salad: Mixed together, these two picnic champions become a force to be reckoned with. Simply stir cooked shredded chicken and curried mayonnaise with boiled new potatoes. Finely chopped spring onions will bring freshness. And a swirl of mango chutney at the end livens the whole thing up.
Quiche: You can’t have a nostalgic picnic without a slice of quiche, can you? Lorraine style (with bacon, herbs, cheese and caramelised onions) is universally loved. But also try flaked smoked salmon with dill, feta with mint and peas, or good old broccoli and Cheddar.
Pudding time: Impress with your baking skills by making a Battenburg cake, Victoria sponge, mini trifles, or pineapple upside down cake. Or take a trip down memory lane by conjuring individual pots of simple strawberry blancmange. Whisk a packet of strawberry jelly with 140ml boiling water to dissolve, then add 420ml of whole milk. Pour into individual plastic pots of glasses and chill in the fridge overnight to set. Take clotted cream or cans of whippy cream and plenty of strawberries with you to serve.
