7 Tips for a Better Picnic

Marnie Hanel, Andrea Slonecker and Jen Stevenson are the authors of “The Picnic: Recipes and Inspiration From Basket to Blanket,” and members of the Portland Picnic Society in Oregon, which meets about once a month to dine together outdoors. Here are a few of their tips for a less hectic, more delicious outing:

PACK YOUR OWN seasoning kit of herbs, lemons, salt, pepper and olive oil. This way you can taste and adjust food on the site, and refresh any dishes that need to be perked up.

DON’T BRING DISHES that could be damaged by a bumpy car ride or walk. You can always finish up — fill deviled eggs, dress delicate salad greens, cut fruit and sandwiches — at the picnic site.

IF THERE IS NO TIME to cook, you can put together a fine picnic with sandwiches, fancy groceries or prepared foods, and still make it an occasion by using colorful unbreakable plates and silverware.

REMIND EVERYONE to bring water. It’s a heavy but necessary item, and no one person should be responsible for bringing all of it.

DROP A PIN in a map app on your phone and text your location to guests.

DON’T FORGET trash bags, a wine opener, a washable blanket, a sharp knife, a cutting board and serving utensils.

TAPE A THERMOMETER inside your cooler, and return dishes there between servings to keep them fresh and cool, and prevent spoilage.

How to make courgette and sorrel soup

We’ve been loving or loathing sorrel in England for hundreds of years. Before citrus was readily available it was a handy way to add an acidic flavour to foods.

That acidity – thanks to the oxalic acid in sorrel – isn’t to everyone’s taste. But used judiciously, it’s a boon in the kitchen.

It’s also simple to grow and since it’s a perennial, it conveniently pops up year after year. Here at home, we like sorrel in soups or cream sauces or paired with fatty fish like salmon.

But you’ll find sorrel in Nigerian cooking where it’s used in teas, stews and salads. It’s also popular in Russia and the Ukraine.

Food writer Olia Hercules has several sorrel recipes in her book Mamushka (Mitchell Beazley) including a sorrel broth and moreish Moldovan breads with cheese and sorrel.

Sorrel pops up in Eastern European cooking, Indian, Vietnamese and Greek.

The bright green, arrow shaped leaves can be eaten raw in salads or cooked but be warned that heat turns it a rather unappetising brown colour.

For this soup, I add the sorrel in at the last minute and can depend on hefty amounts of courgette to keep the soup lovely and green. And you don’t need a huge amount of sorrel either to get that punchy, sour, fresh taste. Best yet, this soup is perfect hot or cold – a definite benefit in the hot summer weather.

Courgette and sorrel soup

Serves 4

1 medium yellow onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
2 Tbsp olive oil
3 medium courgettes, approximately 600-700g total weight
​500ml chicken or vegetable stock
50g sorrel
Salt an pepper
Heavy cream
Micro sorrel leaves or minced chives to garnish

Heat the olive oil in a medium sized pan. Add the onion, stir and cover with a lid. Sweat the onions until they’re soft but not brown. Add the garlic and cook for a further minute or two. While they’re cooking, top and tail the courgettes and slice into discs. Add the courgette slices and stir to coat with the oil and onions. Add the stock, cover and cook over medium high heat until the courgettes are just cooked through.

While the soup is cooking, remove the leaves from the sorrel, discarding the stem. When the courgettes are ready, remove the soup from the heat and stir in the sorrel leaves. Using a blender or stick blender, puree the soup. Taste and add salt and pepper as needed.

Serve in soup bowls and garnish with a healthy drizzle of cream and garnish with the micro sorrel leaves or minced chives. The soup can be served warm or cold.

How to cook Swedish-style baked leeks and beef rydberg on an open fire

Before the arrival of the electric cooker, fire, wood and iron were the holy trinity of the Swedish kitchen. I grew up in Järpen, a small village in the north of Sweden. My parents would take us to the mountains, and we’d cook over a fire pit. As a young chef, though, I became passionate about Italian olive oil, French braised chicken and molecular gastronomy – serving dishes, in my first restaurant, such as “asparagus clouds”. I could hardly have got any further away from the rustic slow cooking of the Jämtland forests.

And then I spent the summer of 2011 with my family in a cabin on the island of Ingarö in the Stockholm archipelago. My wife Katarina had just had our first child, our son Vinston. I wandered around on the island and pondered, like a gloomy character from a Bergman film staring at the trees, and remembered the open-fire cooking of my childhood. I chopped down some of the birches I had stared at and made a fire pit. For the whole summer, it was our family kitchen – it never went out. Most of the time we grilled in the usual way, on a grate, but one day I didn’t have enough patience and just whacked a cast-iron pan straight into the flames. The fire sizzled and sparked around the pan; the force of the heat knocked me back; and the flavours of the food … what depth! The image of an analogue fine-dining restaurant developed in my mind, a place where everything was cooked over fire, like in the old days.

Back home in Stockholm, I devoured 18th-century cookbooks, researching how Swedish food was prepared before the advent of electricity. Despite what the trends might have you believe, Nordic cuisine can be summarised by a few techniques and tricks that are easy to get the hang of. Anyone can make their own pickles, anyone can handle a cast-iron pan: it works in everyday life – both inside and outdoors – because that is where it belongs. Here are a few recipes that, I hope, will show you how.

Ember-baked leeks
If you can get really young, slim, fresh leeks, this recipe will be even better. Soaking the leeks in cold water will help them to cook without burning, but don’t worry if the outer layer burns, as it will be peeled off.

Serves 4
2 leeks or 4 large spring onions 
85g butter, at room temperature

For the seasoning
1 tsp pink peppercorns
3 tbsp sea salt

1. Light the fire, using enough wood to create a bed of embers.

2. To make the seasoning, roast the peppercorns in a dry pan for about 5 minutes, stirring constantly. Set aside to cool, then combine the salt and peppercorns in a mortar and grind together. Store in an airtight container.

3. Keep the roots on the leeks. Clean them in cold running water, then transfer to a bowl, cover with cold water and leave for 20 minutes.

4. Dry the leeks with paper towels. Put the leeks in the embers and cook for about 6-8 minutes, turning once or twice, until tender all the way through.

5. Remove from the fire and peel off the burnt layers. Serve with butter and the rosé pepper salt.

Beef rydberg (main picture)

A luxurious variation of pytt-i-panna, a classic Swedish dish made from leftover meat, pan-fried with onions and potatoes. This, made from tender beef and served with a mustard cream sauce, is believed to have originated at the (now closed) Hotel Rydberg in Stockholm in the 19th century.

Serves 4
4 tbsp sour cream 
2 tsp dijon mustard
1 tbsp wholegrain mustard 
900g waxy potatoes 
900g beef fillet (tenderloin or sirloin)
2 onions, chopped
200g butter
5 tbsp vegetable oil
Salt and black pepper
1 bunch of parsley, chopped
4 egg yolks

1. Combine the sour cream and both mustards in a bowl. Cover and chill until ready to serve.

2. Cut the potatoes into 2.5cm cubes. Rinse in cold water two or three times, then leave to dry on paper towels.

3. Cut the beef into 2.5cm cubes and allow to come to room temperature. Put the onions and 6 tbsp of the butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Fry for 30 minutes, or until caramelised.

4. Heat 4 tbsp of oil in a large cast iron pan. Add the potato cubes and fry to lightly colour all over. Add 4 tbsp of butter, then keep cooking until the potatoes are golden and soft in the middle. Remove from the pan and season with salt.

5. Add 1 tbsp of oil to the pan and return to a high heat. Sear the meat one side for about 2 minutes. Add the remaining butter and cook until medium–rare. Remove from the pan and leave to rest for 3 minutes.

6. Put the meat and potatoes back in the pan, add the onions and heat through. Season with salt and pepper. Sprinkle with parsley and serve with raw egg yolks and the mustard cream.

How to Cook Perfect Sweet Potatoes

Learn the basics for how to bake, roast and pressure cook sweet potatoes, plus some fun sweet potato recipes!

There are so many reasons to love sweet potatoes! Not only are the plain ol’ delicious, they’re a versatile ingredient with lots of health benefits. They’re a good source of vitamins B6, C,and D and give you a good amount of plant-based iron. Sweet potatoes are also good sources of magnesium and potassium, and they can help control blood sugar spikes. Is there anything this tasty, orange veggie can’t do?

CHOOSING YOUR SWEET POTATO COOKING METHOD

Like with any food, different cooking methods for sweet potatoes yield different results.

A whole, baked sweet potato gives you a crispy outside and a tender inside. That’s perfect for loading up with your favorite toppings, baked potato-style. You can also chop baked sweet potato into salads to give them some sweetness and crispiness.

Roasting is my favorite way to make sweet potatoes. A little bit of oil and salt plus high heat in the oven brings out their natural sweetness. Roasted sweet potato has a robust flavor with plenty of umami. Serve hot as a side dish or cold on top of your favorite salads.

Pressure cooking is the fastest way to cook a sweet potato. The result is tender chunks of sweet potato, perfect for topping salads, stirring into soups or mashing.

Below, I’ve got instructions for these three simple cooking methods. Below that, you’ll find some sweet potato recipe inspiration!

Cook like the Broncos: How to make turkey meatballs

Want to eat like the Broncos? Follow this recipe, and you'll be eating the same food they eat in the UCHealth Training Center cafeteria.

When the players are at UCHealth Training Center, the Broncos’ chefs make sure they’re eating right. Whether they’re in the midst of the regular season or in offseason training, there’s no replacement for a good diet that prepares the team for success. Here’s your chance to eat like the Broncos and cook a meal that the team may be served on any given day.

Turkey Meatballs — four servings

Ingredients

2 lbs ground turkey
2 eggs, large, beaten
1.25 cup panko breadcrumbs
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 yellow onion, medium diced finely
1/3 cup fresh Italian parsley, chopped
1.5 tsp dried basil
1.5 tsp dried oregano
1.5 tsp granulated garlic
1 tsp kosher salt
½ tsp black pepper
½ tsp red chili flakes
¾ cup grated Romano or Parmesan
¾ cup Ricotta, smooth
Dash of Worcestershire
Rigatoni or spaghetti pasta
Good quality tomato sauce
Grated Parmesan and parsley for garnish

Method

1. Heat Sauté pan on medium-high heat with a little olive oil and add yellow onions

2. Cook onions until they softened, and start to caramelize for 7-9 minutes, stirring occasionally

3. Add minced garlic and cook for another 3-4 minutes

4. Season with a pinch of salt and pepper and remove from heat and transfer to plate

5. Combine all other ingredients with onions and garlic in mixing bowl and fully incorporate until everything is mixed. Don’t over mix.

6. Scoop 2” or desired sized meatballs and roll with wet hands to seal.

7. Bake meatballs at 375 Farenheit on a lined baking pan until internal temp is 165F, start with 15 minutes.

8. Add cooked meatballs to your tomato sauce and serve with your choice of pasta

9. Garnish with parsley and grated Parmesan.

How the Full English Breakfast became a national institution

A hangover cure, fuel for hard labour, and an indulgence on the weekend – the full English breakfast is so ingrained in British culture it’s hard to imagine life without it.

But there was, of course, a time before it was the nation’s go-to comfort food.

A plate piled with sausage, egg, bacon, beans, black pudding, hash browns, fried tomatoes and mushrooms is associated with builders in greasy spoon cafes and up-market brunch spots. However, that image is only a very recent one, food historian Professor Rebecca Earle of Warwick University told The Independent.

In the 17th century, the items which make up the traditional fry-up were only eaten by the upper and upper-middle classes, such as bankers. In wealthy Victorian houses, enormous buffet-style breakfasts would also include kedgeree, pork or lamb chops, friend mushrooms, and bread.

As meat was expensive, the rest of the population would eat bread and butter for breakfast, with cheap jam containing little fruit.

“Working men could not afford to eat in a restaurant in general in the Victorian era, and in the early 20th century bacon and eggs might be eaten as a special weekend dish, and even then not necessarily by everyone in the family," said Professor Earle.

The dish appeared in Isabella Beeton's Book of Household Management in 1861, but it was not until around 100 years later that the ingredients were cheap enough to make the meal available to the masses.

“The greasy spoon is itself a post-war development. A fry-up requires cheap food, which arrived in the 1950s. Tinned beans, for instance, were a costly import before WWII.”

But nowadays, Professor Earle argues, tourists are more likely to eat the full English than Brits, as research shows only 5 per cent of the population eats a fry up for breakfast.

In the future, Professor Earle predicts a far healthier trend: “Because of our current fascination with porridge perhaps we will renew our appreciation for the filling, sustainable and tasty grain puddings and pottages that have fuelled working people all over the world for millennia."

Thanksgiving 2016: Classic recipes for the American holiday

Our friends on the other side of the pond are celebrating Thanksgiving on Thursday, and with Christmas just weeks away these recipes will give the perfect trial run for the festive feast.

Roast chicken with crème fraîche, new potatoes and watercress 

Serves 6

My love of roast chicken is well documented. It’s such a clever, versatile and crowd-pleasing thing. Moist, sweet, salty and delicious, there are few things that deliver as much joy. This is a one-pot wonder. Into the oven it goes, leaving you free to do all those early evening chores: help with the homework, bath the children, clean up the play room, sort out the dog etc, before dinner and that vat of wine.

1 large chicken, about 1.5kg 
200g crème fraîche 
½ lemon 
4 tsp vegetable oil 
500g new potatoes 
100g watercress 
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Heat the oven to 200C. Season the inside of the chicken with salt and pepper, then spoon the crème fraîche into the cavity. Plug the end of the chicken with the lemon half. Rub the chicken with some of the oil, season well and then place in a roasting tin, breast up.

Roll the potatoes in the remaining oil and then scatter around the chicken. Place the chicken in the oven and roast for 1 hour 10 minutes without opening the oven door. Leave it. Pick the largest stems off the watercress and put the lot into a large bowl filled with cold water. Push the watercress under the water and place the bowl in the fridge. The clean watercress will float to the top while all the dirt will sink to the bottom.

Take the chicken out of the oven. Pour the crème fraîche out of the chicken over the potatoes in the tin, then turn the chicken upside down onto a board and leave it to sit for 10 minutes so that all the juices flow back into the breast. It will be done. Meanwhile, place the tin over a medium heat and bring to the boil, stirring the potatoes around the tin so all the lovely sticky bits come off the sides of the tin and make the sauce. Take it off the heat.

Lift the watercress out of the bowl and shake off the excess water. Put the chicken and potatoes onto a large platter, scatter over the watercress and pour yourself a congratulatory vat of wine.

Tip: Mix in root vegetables like turnips and parsnips. Add a spoonful of mustard for a bit of spice in the crème fraîche.

Berry and mascarpone tarts 

These simple little tarts are just a joy. Buttery, sweet, soft and comforting – what more could you want? The key to their success is the combination of sharp yet sweet fruit and a whipped cream filling, and not being too precious about how they look. The pastry can be a bit wonky but the soft fruit is so pretty it doesn’t matter.

Makes 12

For the pastry

500g plain flour, plus extra for dusting 
Pinch of salt 
250g softened butter, cubed 
150g icing sugar, sifted 
4 egg yolks 
50ml water 

For the filling

300g mascarpone 
120ml double cream 
50g caster sugar 
1 vanilla pod, slit lengthways and seeds scraped out 
2 small punnets of berries (raspberries and blackberries – or whatever is in season), washed 
1 tin of cherries in syrup, drained (200g)
You will need one 12-hole jam tart tin and a fluted cutter

Heat the oven to 200C. Sift the flour and salt onto a worktop. Make a well in the centre, add the butter and icing sugar and gently work them together with your fingertips. Add the egg yolks and gradually draw in the flour, adding drops of the water as you go, until a dough forms. Shape the dough into a ball, wrap in cling film and chill in the fridge for at least 20 minutes.

On a lightly floured worktop, roll out the pastry and use a fluted cutter to cut out circles large enough to line the cups of the 12-hole jam tart tin (the cutter should be just a bit bigger than the size of a hole – normally about 6cm). Bake in the oven for 10–12 minutes – they’ll puff up in the centre. Take the tin out of the oven and push the centre down with a piece of baking paper, then put them back in the oven and bake for a further 5 minutes to cook the pastry completely. Turn the pastry cases out of their tins onto a wire rack and leave to cool.

Once the cooling process is complete, fill and top the tarts. Beat the mascarpone with the cream, sugar and vanilla seeds until fluffy. Spoon some of the filling into each tart and top with berries and cherries.

Ian Cumming’s Merry Berry Steam Pudding

150ml Belvoir Blackcurrant & Blueberry Cordial
150g cranberries (fresh or frozen but if frozen defrost first)
120g honey
120g unsalted butter
120g light brown sugar
Generous pinch of salt
2 large eggs
120g self-raising flour
1 tsp mixed spice
75g blueberries
1 tbsp milk

Put the cranberries and cordial in a fairly large saucepan and gently bring to the boil. Simmer for a few minutes until the cranberries have softened and quite a bit of the liquid has boiled away. Add the honey and mix it in. Butter a 1.2 litre pudding basin. Pour the berry and honey mixture into the basin. Beat the butter, sugar and salt until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating thoroughly between each one. Sieve in the flour and the mixed spice and gently fold it in. Carefully fold in the milk and then finally the blueberries. Pour this on top of the berry mixture in the basin.

Fill a large pan with enough water to come half way up the side of the pudding bowl. Bring to the boil. Meanwhile, take a large piece of baking parchment, put a pleat in it and put it over the pudding. Then take a piece of tin foil, put a pleat in that and put that over the parchment. Tie some string around the rim and then use some extra string to make a handle in order to lift the pudding into the pan of boiling water.

Boil for 2 hours, occasionally checking that there is sufficient water in the pan. Use the string handle to remove the pudding from the pan. Snip off the string and remove the foil and parchment. Place a plate on top and carefully invert it all. Serve immediately with custard, cream or ice cream.