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Posts Tagged ‘Summer’

BBQ Ribs for the Summer

Monday, August 8th, 2011

The QuoteSearcher team love a barbeque! So far, the weather in August is proving mostly positive for a BBQ summer in Britain (although we should be keeping our umbrellas at hand). We do love our burgers and sausages, but if you need ideas for a finger licking good BBQ ribs recipe then read on.

Ingredients

For the ingredients, you’ll need 12 pork spare ribs. To make the sauce, you’ll also need salt and freshly ground black pepper, 2 tablespoons of olive oil, 1 finely chopped onion, 1 tablespoon of ground cumin, 3 finely chopped garlic cloves, 2 x 400g cans of chopped tomatoes, 2oz/50g of light muscovado sugar, 1 tablespoon of tomato puree, 4 tablespoons of malt vinegar, 2 tablespoons of Chinese five spice powder and 3 tablespoons of Worcester sauce.

Method

To make your homemade sauce, heat the oil in a saucepan and add your chopped onion. Fry for around 3-4 minutes until the onion has softened, then stir in the rest of your ingredients. Mix the ingredients in well and bring to the boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for about 30 minutes, stirring occasionally until the sauce has thickened.

Next, depending on the thickness of the meat, place the ribs on the barbeque for about 10-15 minutes. Brush the homemade sauce onto the ribs liberally every few minutes until they have a sticky, thick coating, and then serve!

The sauce is easy to make and the ribs are simple to cook so you won’t be needing restaurant insurance. We love BBQs as it’s an excuse to enjoy the sunshine and the great outdoors, with a few drinks! Let us know if you have any delicious BBQ recipe ideas to share with us.

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Enjoy a Refreshing Watermelon Recipe this Summer

Friday, July 29th, 2011

Watermelon is perfect for the summer. It makes a nice refreshing snack whether you are relaxing in the garden or sunbathing on the beach.

Another couple of ideas of what you could do with watermelon include making a watermelon granita (which is similar to sorbet) or a delicious juice. The recipes are simple to follow so you don’t need to be a top chef with restaurant insurance to make these! Interested? Read on.

Watermelon Granita

A nice way to use your ripe summer fruit, is to make a watermelon granita. A granita is similar to sorbet. Instead of churning it in an ice cream maker, it’s chilled in the freezer and every so often mixed with a fork to make crunchy, sticky, crystal-like granules.

To make a watermelon granita, you’ll need a watermelon with its white pith and seeds removed, 1 punnet of ripe strawberries, 1 tbsp rose water, 1 tsp sea salt, 1 cup (240ml) water and 1 cup (225g) caster sugar.

First, chop the watermelon into small pieces, removing the seeds as you go along and chop up the strawberries. Place both the fruits into a blender with the salt and puree until smooth.

Over a medium heat, heat the sugar and water in a saucepan and bring to the boil. Then turn down and cook for 3 minutes before removing from the heat and allowing to cool down completely.

Stir the fruit juice along with the rose water once the sugar syrup has cooled. Pour into a roasting tray and place in the freezer.

After chilling for half an hour, drag a fork through the ice, working outside in (the outside will begin to freeze before the centre of the dish). You’ll need to continue to do this every half-hour until you have a set ice that is crystalline and has a rough texture. Serve in a chilled glass.

This recipe makes around 8 portions, enough to enjoy the summer with a few of your friends!

Watermelon juice

Watermelon juice is one of those drinks which we’ve experienced when on holiday, but not usually in the UK. It’s such a refreshing drink that’s easy to make.

The ingredients you’ll need include 1 watermelon, the juice of 1 lime, 1 cup (240ml) water and 1 cup (225g) sugar.

Cut open the watermelon in half and scoop out the flesh, removing the seeds as you go along.

Heat the sugar and water in a small saucepan over a medium to low heat. Then stir until the sugar has dissolved. Remove the pan from the heat and allow it to cool at room temperature.

While it’s cooling, put the watermelon in a blender until it’s smooth and strain through a sieve into a bowl.

Add the lime juice to the syrup and stir thoroughly. This recipe makes 3 pints of juice and should be served with ice. It’s makes a well chilled drink for a nice summer’s day or evening.

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Visit some fun food festivals this summer

Friday, June 10th, 2011

It’s summertime, a great time to get out and take advantage of the good weather whilst it lasts! One way to enjoy the summer sun is to get out to a food festival and there are loads happening all around the UK this year. If you are still looking for something to do in June, Quotesearcher has scoured the internet to find a few interesting events happening this month.

The BBC Good Foods Show Summer at the NEC Birmingham (15th–19th) is a great example of a food festival, as the event will provide you with entertainment from top chefs such as James Martin and MasterChef Champions Gregg Wallace and John Torode. The show will also feature the very best fresh summer food and drink, as well as the TV Chefs cooking up dishes to inspire all food lovers. This is a great event for the whole family, as kids go free over the weekend.

Another good food festival is the Cheltenham Food and Drink Festival at Montpellier Gardens in Cheltenham (17th -19th), which is a fabulous 3 day food and wine festival, showcasing fine food from around England. Visitors will be able to meet the producers at this unique festival and discover tantalising wines from around the world. This event is great for foodie explorers looking to tickle their taste buds and learn more about food and drink.

A big food festival event is one that Regent’s Park will be hosting, which is the Taste of London Event that is happening between the 16th-19th June. This event is said to be the world’s greatest restaurant festival with world class chefs, restaurants, drinks and produce being present at the event, as well as representatives from all areas of the food industry, including wholesalers, restaurant insurance providers and business investors. If you are in the capital this summer, treat yourself to an indulgent foodie day out.

Another event in London is the brand new Farmers & Fine Foods market in Portobello Road, which will be launched on the 18th. This wonderful festival will include food from more than 30 stalls, as well as wine tasting and face painting. Farmer’s and Fine Food Market offer a wide range of quality and organic food produce to reflect today’s Londoner diverse palate. Sounds good to us!

Food festivals are a great place to go out if you are looking for food inspiration, love food and drink or just want a fun day out for the whole family! It’s a place where communities can get together and suppliers can showcase their latest food creations. The best bit is that visitors can sample and taste all the different foods and drinks!

Let’s hope that the good weather will hold out this month so foodies and families can enjoy the festivals. Which ones will you be attending?

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Pop down to a pop-up restaurant

Friday, May 27th, 2011

Like the majority of other Britons, it’s the time of year where the Quotesearcher team rejoice that the British summer is upon us. We flock to the parks or head to the seaside on the weekends to take full advantage of the sunshine.

As well as the long days that we have, another thing that’s great about the fine weather is that we can enjoy eating our lunches outside or have a nice alfresco dinner.

This summer, keep an eye out for the burst of pop-up restaurants that will be dotted all over the country. Pop-up restaurants are temporary outdoor restaurants that are based in various locations.

Sara Chambers, who runs her Squisito pizza pop-up restaurant in Warwickshire relies on the weather being good. She says, “We have a massive chimney for the pizza oven which wouldn’t work in the rain as we cook outside”.

Chambers makes sausages and teaches cookery from her Warwickshire home. She describes her Italian food business as being in the middle of nowhere, but if we ever found ourselves around her area we would definitely take a visit to her pop-up pizza restaurant as her passata, homemade sausages and crisp pizza topped with mozzarella as well as her homemade desserts including ice-cream made with eggs from her rare-breed chicken, all sounds divine.

Pop-up restaurants have also been a choice for established and high profile chefs who will be relocating their restaurants this summer once they have sorted out their restaurant insurance quotes. If you fancy visiting an urban beach, Dishoom Bombay Cafe will be occupying the South Bank until the 4th October.

If you are heading to any festivals this summer, keep a look out for Mark Jankel of First and Jun Tanaka of Pearl Restaurant who will be taking their Street Kitchen to various locations.

Alternatively, if you prefer something more glamourous, visit Somerset House as Tom Aiken will have a pop-up restaurant with river views, posh barbeque food and cocktails up until the 25th September. Dreamy!

We are definitely going to take advantage of having the pop-up restaurants while they are around, as it sounds like a great alternative to just having sandwiches in the park. Have you visited your perfect pop-up restaurant this summer?

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