The perfect menu for a long weekend lunch with friends

The perfect menu for a long weekend lunch with friends

Serves 4

Entree: Gwyneth Paltrow's Snack Board with Smoked Trout Salad and Beets Vinaigrette

Snack plate with smoked trout salad

FOR THE BEETS VINAIGRETTE:

  • 4 medium beets, diced into bite-size pieces
  • 1 small shallot, minced
  • 4 tablespoons red wine vinegar
  • 4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
  • kosher salt

FOR THE TROUT SALAD:

  • 8 ounces smoked trout
  • ½ cup soy-free vegenaise
  • 2 tablespoon capers
  • 2 heaping tablespoon minced fresh herbs (any combination of chives, tarragon, parsley, or dill would be great)
  • 1 small shallot, minced
  • zest and juice of 1 lemon
  • kosher salt and freshly cracked black pepper

SERVE WITH:

  • olives
  • endive
  • grain-free crackers
  • celery
  • nuts

 

Method

  1. First make the beets vinaigrette. Combine all the ingredients in a small mixing bowl. Taste and adjust seasoning accordingly.
  2. Make the trout salad. Combine all ingredients in a small mixing bowl and season to taste with salt and freshly cracked black pepper.
  3. Assemble the snack plate. Put out a little ramekin each for the beet vinaigrette, trout salad, and olives. Then fill out the rest of the plate with endive, grain-free crackers, celery, and nuts.

Main: Jamie Oliver's One Tray Chicken with Roasted Grapes.

Tray bake chicken with grapes

Ingredients

  • Olive oil
  • 1 x 1.5 kg whole free-range chicken
  • 4 onions
  • 4 carrots
  • 2 cloves of garlic
  • ½ a bunch of fresh rosemary
  • 1 heaped tablespoon plain flour
  • 300 ml white wine
  • 200 ml organic chicken stock
  • 600 g potatoes
  • 2 handfuls of red and green grapes
  • a few sprigs of fresh flat-leaf parsley

Method

  1. Preheat the oven to 190ºC/375ºF/gas 5.
  2. Joint the chicken into 8 pieces. Heat a lug of oil in a large saucepan over a medium heat. Season the chicken, add it to the pan in batches, and fry until golden all over. Set aside on a plate.
  3. Peel and cut the onions into wedges, chop the carrots, then peel and finely chop the garlic.
  4. Add the veg to the pan and gently sauté for about 15 minutes over a medium-low heat, or until soft and sticky but not coloured.
  5. Return the chicken to the pan. Pick, finely chop and add the rosemary, then stir in the flour. Turn up the heat to medium-high and leave to colour for a few minutes
  6. Pour in the wine and bring to the boil, then lower the heat and let it reduce by half.
  7. Roughly chop and add the potatoes, pour in the stock, and bring it back to the boil.
  8. Transfer everything to a roasting tin and cook in the oven for 30 minutes, or until the potatoes are tender and the chicken is falling off the bone.
  9. Place the grapes in a small roasting dish, drizzle with a little oil and cook these in the oven for the last 20 minutes, or until caramelised.
  10. Stir the grapes into the chicken, finely chop and scatter over the parsley leaves, and serve.

Dessert: Peach Galette with Brown Sugar Crust.

Ingredients

  • 50g salted butter softened
  • 50g light brown soft sugar
  • 1medium egg
  • 100g ground almonds
  • 5-6  peaches or nectarines
  • ½ lemon, juiced
  • 1 tbsp cornflour
  • 1 tsp vanilla bean paste or extract
  • 3 tbsp icing sugar
  • 2 tbsp peach jam
  • Thick double cream or vanilla ice cream, to serve

For the pastry

  • 250g plain flour, plus more to dust
  • 200g cold butter, diced
  • 65g light brown soft sugar
  • 2 eggs, 1 yolk only (freeze the white for another recipe), 1 whole egg beaten to glaze
  • 2 tbsp demerara sugar, for sprinkling



Method

  1. To make the pastry, put the flour, butter and sugar in the bowl of your food processor and pulse until it looks like breadcrumbs. Add the egg yolk and 1 tbsp cold water, then pulse again until it forms a ball. Wrap and chill for 30 mins.
  2. For the frangipane, beat the butter and sugar together until pale and fluffy, add the egg, whisk again, then fold in the ground almonds to make a paste. Cut the peaches into thin slices, then toss in a bowl with the lemon juice, cornflour, vanilla and icing sugar. Mix gently until the fruit is coated and the cornflour dissolved. Heat the oven to 200C/180C fan/gas 6 and heat a large baking sheet on the middle shelf.
  3. Roll the pastry out in between two pieces of baking parchment to a large disc about 5mm thick and 35cm in diameter. Remove the top layer of parchment, draw a 30cm circle onto it, cut it out, and use as a template to cut out a disc of pastry, or roughly trim the pastry into a circle by eye for a more rustic look.
  4. Smooth the frangipane over the middle of the pastry with a spatula, leaving a 5cm border around the edge. Arrange the peach slices over the top in a pattern, either in a circle or little fans of fruit.
  5. Fold in the edges of the pastry to slightly overlap the fruit. Brush with the beaten egg and sprinkle over the demerara, then transfer to the hot baking sheet using the parchment.
  6. Bake for 30-35 mins until the pastry is golden and the fruit looks soft. Leave to cool to room temperature. Heat the jam in the microwave for a few seconds, or in a small pan until warm and runny, then use to glaze the fruit. Serve with thick cream or ice cream.
Back to blog

Related reading

Our collection of articles and edits are designed to offer a one stop shop to help you get straight to what is latest and greatest and on topic. We aim to write stories that offer new and interesting points of view and for people to read what interests them and leave what doesn’t. 

Read more