| Summer Picnic Recipes |
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 These Chicken legs are delicious hot as part of a barbeque or cold to take on a picnic. 10 – 12 Chicken legs Juice of 5 limes 1 large red chilli, deseeded and finely chopped 2 inch piece of fresh ginger, peeled and finely chopped 4 spring onions, finely sliced 2 large cloves of garlic 3 tablespoons honey Put all the ingredients except the chicken into a bowl and mix well. Then put the meat and marinade in a Ziploc bag or bowl and every few hours turn it and massage the marinade into the meat. Pre-heat your oven to 180ºC. Spread out the chicken legs and marinade on a roasting tin, cover with tinfoil and roast for 20 minutes, remove tinfoil and continue roasting for a further 20 minutes.
Most children love sausages, as do adults, however I am quite concerned about the ingredients used in commercial sausages. Apart from the obviously high fat content they usually contain high volumes of salt, these home-made ones taste delicious and only take a few minutes to prepare.
Makes 16 – Serves 8 1lb pork mince 2-4 teaspoons mixed fresh herbs 1 large clove of garlic 1 egg 2 ½ oz soft white breadcrumbs Salt and pepper A little oil for frying Place all the ingredients above, except the oil, into a large bowl and mix really well with your hands or a wooden spoon. Divide the mixture into 16 pieces and roll into a sausage shape Heat some oil in your frying pan and cook until golden on all sides.  I always make stock syrup at this time of year and keep it in the fridge, whenever we have friends over or we’re going on a picnic I make a big jug of lemonade with sparkling water, perfect for lazy summer days.
Syrup (makes 28fl oz) 450g/1lb sugar 550ml/1 pint water Dissolve the sugar in water and boil together for 2 minutes, store in a covered jar in the fridge until required. It will keep for a couple of months. 3 Lemons, juiced 1 Orange, juiced 125ml/4fl oz syrup 1 ½ litre sparkling water Squeeze the juice from the fruit and mix with the syrup and water to taste, serve with lots of ice and garnish with fresh mint My previous cookie recipe was abandoned last summer when I went to my friends wedding in New York and his 14 year old niece gave me this one. It’s infinitely better, like the real sticky cookies you get in the States. I usually have a roll of the dough in the fridge and just cook it as I need it. McCambridge's on Shop Street have little packs of good quality chocolate chips, ideal for this recipe.
Makes 12 cookies
215g/7 ½ oz butter, softened 225g/8oz light brown sugar 2 eggs 1 tsp of vanilla extract 310g/11oz plain flour, sieved ¼ teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda A pinch of salt A good handful of chocolate chips (available at McCambridge’s) Using an electric hand whisk, beat the butter, and brown sugar together until combined - about 2 minutes. Add the eggs and vanilla essence to the butter and sugar and whisk until well mixed. Sieve the salt and bicarbonate of soda into the flour, add to the mixture and whisk again until you have a stiff dough. Then stir through the chocolate chips. Roll the dough into a sausage shape, wrap in cling film and rest in the fridge for an hour. Preheat the oven to 170ºC. When the dough is chilled, slice the sausage into cookies and place on a baking tray. Bake in the oven for 15 minutes or until golden, cool on a wire rack. |
