3 Top Chefs' Nostalgic Summer Dining Recipes
We usually like to keep things simple and light when it comes to summertime cooking - tossed salads, grilled fish, fresh fruit - but on occasion something special is required. Hood asked three of Scotland’s top female chefs to share recipes that, for them, evoke childhood memories of those glorious warmer months.
Giovanna’s Tuna Puttanesca
The Italians capture summer by the sea in one word ‘salsedine’. It defines the fragrance of the salty air, the ripples of ocean life, beating new life into worn-out city dwellers. Giovanna Eusebi of Eusebi Deli in Glasgow shares with us her Summer Tuna Puttanesca recipe.
‘As a child, my Italian summers were spent with my grandparents, Maria and Armando. Their village is a 20-minute bus ride to the “Spiaggia Libera” – the public beach. Armed with our umbrella, straw mats and 1000 Lira, my cousins and I would board the bus. Back at 1pm sharp for lunch, this recipe conjures vivid memories of the house filled with the smell of simmering tomatoes.’
Ingredients (serves 2)
1/3 potato, sliced
Salt and pepper
2 x 200g tuna steaks
10 cherry tomatoes, halved
1 medium red pepper, sliced
1/2 red onion, sliced
2 anchovy pieces
Pinch of chilli flakes
Parsley, finely diced
20g capers
40g Gaeta olives, pitted
20g of basil, sliced (plus few smaller leaves kept whole for garnish)
1/3 fennel, shaved
Olive oil
Method
Deep fry the potato slices until golden brown, season and set aside.
In a hot pan, sear the tuna with plenty of seasoning, set to one side.
Using the same pan, sauté the cherry tomatoes, pepper, red onion, and anchovy until softened, add the chilli, parsley, capers, olives and basil.
Place the puttanesca mix in the centre of the plate, slice the tuna steaks into 4 and place over the warm puttanesca mix.
Garnish with the shaved fennel, crispy potatoes and basil leaves, finish with a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil.
Roberta’s Dressed Crab
Award-winning chef Roberta Hall McCarron, who has recently opened her third eaterie Ardfern, spent her childhood summers exploring the Scottish coastline on the family boat, Eleanore, after which she named her second restaurant. It was during these carefree days that her love for Scottish seafood began – here she shares a light, summertime dish of dressed crab.
‘This recipe is a great example of taking great Scottish produce and doing it justice – perfect for sitting outside on a sunny day with a nice cool glass of wine.’
Ingerdients (Serves 4)
300g picked white crab meat
80g smoked almonds (chopped small)
½ cucumber halved and sliced thin
1 lime cut open and scooped out
1 teaspoon Korean chilli powder
For the cucumber dressing
2 Granny Smith apples
½ cucumber
40ml white balsamic vinegar
Pinch of salt
Core the apples and cut into small pieces.
Chop the cucumber into small chunks and blend both until smooth, add in the vinegar and salt.
Strain through a piece of muslin or cloth.
For the curry oil
2 cups of sunflower oil
½ cup of thinly sliced Granny Smith apple
1/3 sliced white onion
½ stalk lemongrass, thinly sliced
2 tbsp madras curry powder
1 kaffir lime leaf
Heat 1 cup of sunflower oil in a medium saucepan over a low heat.
Add the apple, onion and lemongrass, sweat until translucent – approx 5 mins.
Add the curry powder to the vegetables and cook out for approx 2-3 mins.
Add the remaining oil and the kaffir lime leaf, heat the oil to 70ºC.
Remove from heat, cover and steep for 20 minutes, strain through a coffee filter.
For the curry mayo
2 egg yolks
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
2 teaspoon lime juice
300ml curry oil
Seasoning, to taste
40ml yoghurt
Whisk together the egg yolks, mustard and lime juice. Slowly start adding the curry oil, whisking constantly to emulsify.
Finish by adding fine salt and fold the yoghurt through the mayo.
For the rice crackers
105g sushi rice
450ml water
5g salt
1lt sunflower oil
Boil the rice in the water until slightly overcooked, whisking occasionally to break down the grains.
Place in a blender and blend until smooth.
Divide the mix into two and spread flat on to a piece of parchment (or greaseproof) paper on a tray.
Place in an oven at 70ºC, for approx 5 hours until the rice mix has dried and you can snap it into smaller pieces. If it’s bending it needs longer to dry out.
Pour sunflower oil into a medium pot and heat on the stove to 210ºC.
Once it has reached temperature, carefully using tongs place the dried rice crackers into the oil one at a time, they will double in size and puff up.
To finish
Place the crab meat in a bowl and add 2 heaped tablespoons of curry mayo and mix well, using the finest part of a grater, grate the lime zest into the crab, mix it in and have a quick taste to check the seasoning, it might need a little pinch of salt.
Divide the crab mix into 4 and spoon into a 14cm diameter bowl, spread evenly over the base of the bowl.
Dress the cucumber slices with the cucumber and apple dressing and place flat over the crab.
Sprinkle the chopped almonds on top, next sprinkle a small amount of the Korean chilli flakes, lastly spoon the lime evenly over everything.
Serve the puffed rice crackers alongside.
Ruth’s Pan-fried Hake
Ruth Robinson is chef patron of The Dory seafood bistro in Pittenweem: ‘I grew up at a time when summers were spent playing with the neighbourhood gang of friends in back gardens and the local woods. Lots of bike riding and hide and seek. From the age of 12, I spent all of my summers at a riding stable in Strathblane at the foot of the Campsie Hills, mucking out, cleaning ponies and tack - working hard, getting along with people and learning how to work under harsh conditions.
“Sitting on a dustbin in a leather-scented tack room eating Cheddar cheese sandwiches dunked in tomato soup was my childhood food heaven. Our family spent holidays in the UK and mostly in Scotland: memorable ones are the Black Isle, Arran, Solway coast, Orkney and a tour of what is now called the Northwest 500.
“A popular summer dish in our restaurant is pan-fried hake in a mussel and saffron sauce with rosemary potato wedges and freshly picked rainbow chard. All Scottish produce and the vegetables come from a local market garden. It is a tasty combination of flavours that works well with flaky hake and is a great lunch or dinner option.”
Ingredients (Serves 4)
2 large Maris Piper potatoes (skin on)
1 lemon (peel and wedges)
Salt and pepper
Extra-virgin olive oil
Rosemary sprigs
500g hake fillet (skin on)
Sprinkling of Icing sugar
Bunch of rainbow chard (or kale)
Knob of butter
For the sauce
2 banana shallots (sliced)
½ tsp saffron threads
Olive oil
350ml crisp dry white wine
500g fresh mussels (de-bearded and cleaned)
1 butternut squash (peeled and cubed)
250ml water
2 orange peppers
Salt and pepper
Cayenne pepper
100ml double cream
Method
Set oven at 200ºC or gas mark 6.
Simmer shallots and saffron in 2 tbsp of oil for a few minutes and then add the white wine. Bring to a medium-high heat and add the mussels. Cover and steam for 4 minutes.
Remove the mussels and shells and set aside to cool.
Put the butternut squash into the mussel juice and add the water. Cook until the squash is tender (about 6-10 minutes). Meanwhile, juice the bell pepper or if you don’t have a juicer, blitz it up in a blender. Reduce the bell pepper juice until it is almost syrupy and add it to the mussel and squash liquid. Purée the cooking liquid and pass through a sieve. Add 1 teaspoon of white wine vinegar, salt and pepper to taste and a 1/4 teaspoon of cayenne pepper.
Pass through a sieve.
Cut potatoes into wedges. Combine lemon peel, salt, pepper and extra virgin olive oil and coat the wedges generously. Squeeze the lemon wedges over the potatoes and place the rosemary sprigs and potatoes into a roasting tin. Roast for 15 minutes at 200ºC.
Cut the hake into 125g portions and season the skin with salt, pepper and a tiny bit of icing sugar. Pan fry the hake skin side down on parchment paper to caramelise it and then remove from the pan. Turn skin-side up and put into the oven for the last 3 minutes of cooking time for the potatoes.
Wilt the chard in boiling water and then add a knob of butter and season.
Re-heat the mussel sauce and add 100ml of double cream. Add a few mussel shells with meat into the sauce and simmer for a couple of minutes.
Place the chard and potatoes into the bottom of a bowl or plate. Place the hake on top of the vegetables and then pour the sauce around the hake and vegetables and place the remaining mussels onto the sauce. Make sure you pop a mussel into any empty shells. Serve immediately.
The perfect accompaniments
Light summer food deserves the finest libations to accompany and who better to ask for her recommendations to these delicious dishes than sommelier and owner of the exquisite Killiecrankie House, Matilda Tsappis.
‘My childhood summers were a tale of two halves, the first part would be spent in St Andrews where I grew up, inhaling ice creams from Jannetta's on blustery days along West Sands beach. Then, we would travel to my Japanese grandmother’s place in Shikoku in rural Japan, where we would eat fresh sushi and a wonderful shaved ice and syrup dessert called “kakigori” on humid August evenings.’
For Giovanna’s Summer Tuna Puttanesca, a fresh but food-friendly rosé would pair well. The light tannins from the skin contact will balance the strong flavours from the capers, anchovies and garlic in the puttanesca. Here, we would pour the fantastic Provencal Rosé by Clos Cibonne, made using the lesser-known Tibouren grape. Or perhaps the moreish Rosé Champagne by Louis Brochet that has a fantastic red cherry note, alongside lovely biscuity aromas.
The curry flavours in Roberta’s dressed crab take me straight to an off-dry Riesling from the Mosel region in Germany. The hint of sweetness on the palate balances with the curry spices, and the bright acidity cuts through the richness of the curry mayo. At Killiecrankie House we would reach for a Kabinett or Spatlese from the well-established wineries of Thanisch or Joh. Jos. Prüm.
Finally, for Ruth’s pan-fried hake in a mussel and saffron sauce, I would want something with a saline tang to it to marry up with the mussel sauce and stand up to the saffron. A great option would be an Assyrtiko from Santorini, for example the “Pyritis: by Artemis Karamolegos, or a refreshing Albariño that has undergone a bit of lees ageing, like those from Pazo de Señorans.’