Summer Tea Time

As I’ve mentioned before on this blog, I grew up with my mum, dad, sister and two brothers in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Every summer, we travelled home to County Monaghan and spent the summer with our grannies and extended family.

One thing we always longed for was our Nanny B’s home-grown potatoes. And her home-grown rhubarb, which she made into tarts. And her gravy that she made slowly over her aga in the front room. Basically, we really looked forward to eating at Nanny B’s. (FYI, Nanny McElwain was less about tarts and more about what a bad ass independent lady she was, driving around everywhere in her little Ford Fiesta until a golden old age.)

My sister and I especially loved Tea Time at Nanny’s. This was an informal supper served in the evening, and consisted of a platter of cold meats, an array salads and some home-made brown bread.

My sister Niamh lives in San Francisco now but was home recently for a visit. I thought I’d treat her to an old fashioned summer Irish Tea to welcome her home.

So we had:

Burren Smokehouse (ah-mazing) Organic Smoked Salmon

Beetroots with Lemon and Thyme Cottage Cheese

Potato Salad with a Honey and Mustard Creme Fraiche Dressing

Home-made Brown Bread

We had it with some sparkling Elderflower and some Muscavado Heaven for dessert.

I’m pretty sure Niamh loved it. Have a look after the jump for how it all came together.

It’s Keogh’s National Spud Day today (wahey!) so I figured you might like a light and easy potato salad recipe to put a few of your lovely spuds to good use.

What you need for a subtle Potato Salad for 3 to 4

About 750g of new potatoes, or whatever potatoes you have cut into bite-sized chunks

2 heaped tablespoons of creme fraiche

1 tablespoon of wholegrain mustard

1 tablespoon of runny honey

2 spring onion, finely sliced

1 tablespoon of freshly chopped dill (or mint would work really nicely here too)

Salt and Pepper

Boil your potatoes in salted water until tender, about 12 to 15 minutes. Once cooked, drain and leave to cool in a large mixing bowl.

Now make the dressing by mixing together the creme fraiche, mustard and honey.

Once the potatoes are good and cool, mix in the creme fraiche dressing. Add a good bit of salt and pepper to taste, and finally mix in the spring onion and dill, leaving aside a few of each to sprinkle over the top when serving. This salad tastes better after a few hours in the fridge so you can make it ahead!

What you need for Jamie Oliver’s Amazin’ Beets for 3 to 4

This is a brilliant recipe I picked up from Jamie Oliver’s 30 Minute Meals. It transforms vac-packed beets and boring ol’ cottage cheese to a delightful treat.

1 x 250g pack of cooked vac-packed beetroots (I got lovely ones in M&S but by all means roast your own beetroots as they’re really lovely this time of year)

Balsamic Vinegar

Olive Oil

A small handful of basil, finely chopped

1 x 250g tub of cottage cheese

A few sprigs of fresh thyme

1 lemon

Put the beets on a chopping board and slice or cut into random chunks. Transfer them to a serving platter and add 2 glugs of good quality balsamic vinegar (about 3 tablespoons or so). Drizzle with some good olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Now add almost all of the chopped basil.

Now open the cottage cheese tub. Drizzle a bit more of the nice olive oil directly into the tub. Add the picked leaves from the thyme sprigs and add a pinch of salt and pepper. Now finely grate the zest of 1/2 of the lemon over the cheese.

Now you can spoon dollops of the cottage cheese over the beets. Give it one last sprinkle of salt and pepper, one last drizzle of olive oil and scatter with the remaining basil.

Seriously. This will change how you feel about cottage cheese!